e e e e yeah just look at this and make sure it looks okay you're going to kill me what's the matter the zoom is I mean Zoom how do I get main screen got 20 minutes that's right and this is why I don't want Pati Erica uhhuh SL I need this thing is on ow if you look on settings how is it showing up I don't know why it's not showing up then look video it was on before is camera look down audio that's neat and I saw that when I was back there I didn't see okay good I'm telling you shees to hire somebody I I don't do this that's why she's doing it one I want call no for the weather oh and I only got yeah I went took a oh oh yeah always right was it what heavy duty course so six hours a day two weeks W what was it for uh weather thing and storms and hurries tornado stuff wow did you learn a lot at least well I got the acclimated with the toys that they gave me and now they just sent me an email but they're uh deleting all those little gadgets and what getting new ones yeah so you have to go through this again thater goes in the system this technology that's what's going to techology changes it does it looks like it's packed outside but it's not no it's not a parking space anywhere really Gravity Blu oh okay there you go that'll do it doing something they got here with bunch of bags okay a stand ection thing just helped a friend um who got a parking ticket from noran had never been there oh goodness so she I told her to go to the police department I don't know what to do with it they go to the judge they told you to go to the holding room which I guess was another phone number then they go to the judge and then they go at two hours everybody's saying and they're telling the judge the story and that story so at the end they go I guess the one Frost goes I guess we're all done I'm like help no no no we're still here and they were claiming they were trying to contact her and not so anyway this is the funny point so at the time she's sitting next to me I had a lot of time left I was looking on my laptop I looked up her ticket MH and it told you what kind of car it was yeah it wasn't even her car it was the driver's Li oh goodness the LI the tag number was correct but the car model was completely wrong so they probably wrote down the wrong oh gosh that woman so this is what the judge saids to us she goes it's not even my car he goes how do you know that well I looked at the ticket online how did you do that my girlfriend showed me and it's it's it's not even the right car so he goes all right it's dismissed you don't have to worry a that's good that's good two hours and then mind you we're hearing all these stories and everything when are you gonna pay everybody was paying on Friday it reminded me of wimpy give me a hambur be hurger today and I'll pay you on Wednesday that's cute um yeah I saw I I I didn't have because I came back I I worked till noon because I so I saw before but I had need to do that yeah just I mean just kind of a technicality let me first in the morning probably executive session there clear those out all I got to do is just send the email up just so they know it's kind of like procedural really don't need to but like we're just stay consistent so I'll set it up and then yeah just it's the right thing cons five minutes simple instance to speak particip whether in person or virt e that's she name and then Austin Austin Ron I do yeah yeah kind of blew it a whole things to it is your hair better in rainy days or sometimes sometimes yeah awesome hey do how you doing wait Austin yes okay I'll get it straight eventually how you doing I tried gentlemen hi Terry hi Captain think I know your first name Jes James does your mom call you James sometime she oh she doesm are how are you I'll let you know too say Facebook you read this okay yeah so everybody got agenda there were few I had did you change the minutes I did not because I didn't get I heard from one person so oh okay I didn't how that I really didn't know if I was supposed to so I guess we should all respond yeah we just respond like to do that publicly but it's all good okay good evening that's yeah yeah that's what it is yes I was just getting like like people he looks like an but you're with r remember what if three of us refuse we right yeah yeah and I can charge respons sometimes is perfect I'm sorry sorry s hav't seeing you in a while my hair is wet running late is is that the way it's moving I don't oh never that's thank you all right indivisible with liberty and jce for I wish to announce that the 48 hour notice is required under the open public meetings Act was emailed to the Asbury par press the coastar and the new coar I'm December the 7th of 2023 that a copy has been placed on the bulletin board in the burough office and that a copy has been filed with with the burrow clerk as a courtesy to the public this meeting may be attended via Zoom if for any reason the zoom por of this meeting fails or is disconnected the inperson meeting will cons you and action can and will be taken Mr Noble here Mr gzi here miss Mahoney here Mr Weber here mayor Fox here uh good evening evening everybody uh we are going into the executive session in a minute but um before that again try to make my commercial announcement that all although we should welcome disagreement because it helps us think through things differently our voice should be a constructive one we all want to bride our Bradley Beach and ask you to join us in this journey and I ask everyone to gauge their tone during going forward we're all neighbors um Mr Mayor I'd like to add to that comment if I may sure okay first of all I'd like to thank everybody for being here I like to hear from you and I thank you for tuning in too it's important the governing body values your comments your questions your compliments and yes even your criticisms because that's our job we serve you you are our boss you are our most valuable asset and as the mayor States each meeting voices should be constructive and should we should all gauge our tone as we are all neighbors but that needs to work both ways at our last meeting one of our governing body members muttered aloud directed at a resident sit down that behavior is unacceptable and I would like to recommend this person practice once they preach thank you thank you okay we'll now go into executive session resolution 22473 retire and executive session to discuss Personnel investigation and litigation matters make a motion to Executive session second Mr Noble yes Mr gbos yes Miss Mahoney yes Mr Weber yes mayor Fox yes Austin I don't know sir it's radar that's you might get told now still that that's if they're stud d know I on and change little nobody um I mean I don't know when SP my day I don't get actually left new I think Sheely yeah it was was yeah yeah is fantas you got oh here you go computer computer pun need I know I'm say yeah a think like actually but not lack of sharing me saying everybody I right yeah I love these things yeah I'm not yeah now I Chang they to many think love where oh you were saying that that know we find like a develop you spe down should you do for that heart no the shower for is yeah they got drill C and work yeah f keep from know and I have a you that's still there it's back spe I don't yeah right yeah g say well that's I that yeah we what I didn't know walk that's you yeah up you my down yeah talk years years years they were sending other still we don't even have we okay I yeah one for still sat for spe is for I got time EX yeah you than back d l that's okay par that's everybody thinks for for now really yeah than be long yeah make minut for ch I there and I first made got yeah to for f good for for yeah f for very po my yeah I think his my I every fire for yeah was do did she I h want you be man saw that you oh that's nice thank you much better here okay apologies for um the duration took a little longer than we thought uh the next item on the agenda is Workshop sales SCH considerations Mr Shish is in the spirit of efficiency and trying to keep the meeting on time I'm going to shorten my Preamble and say I've been before this governing body on many occasions talking about sewer infrastructure because um uh my fellow resident Rick and I co-authored a report that went to the council uh to the Strategic plan Committee in December of 2019 there a lot of recommendations number of which have been implemented the final recommendation was that in our in our six month um investigation of sewer infrastructure where we had many many meetings and interviews with CLS with the water company with the Neptune sewage Authority it was apparent to us that there are reasons for the governing body in in the interest of finding the most cost effective way to provide sewer services to continue to do an evaluation of the various options to that end I'm very pleased this evening to introduce Scott King with Dakota's Law Firm Scott has had substantial amount of experience in New Jersey with municipalities and Sewer infrastructure so with that as a brief introduction hi sorry about that I'm gonna try to be only a little bit longer than Jim was you got a agenda this evening and I know Jim wants to to watch Miami I was asked to give a very high level General review of your options when it comes to uh management of your sewer system Wastewater system so I'm going to go over the four General options that you have two of which I'm going to uh pretty much discount for my purposes this evening from the get-go and just focus on on the other two one of those options obviously is where to maintain your status quo keep everything the way it is you're familiar with what what's going on um that may or may not be something that's viable for you that's not something that I can really address at this time so I'm really not going to focus much on that the other three options um to do a public private contract uh to have a an entity manage your system um or you can do a municipal sale or long-term lease of your system or you can participate in What's called the water infrastructure protection act also known as whippa it's another system that I don't believe really applies to your uh your Wastewater system and and that's another one that in the future if you'd like I can always address it to to a further extent um but I'd like to focus really on your public private Contracting option or your long-term uh lease or sale option um the public private Contracting um is governed by specific for specific Statute in state the New Jersey wastewater treatment public private Contracting event um it is all of these the two that I'm going to discuss are um very strictly uh regulated and they are time consuming um both of these the private contractor where the sale long-term lease could take up to a year and a half uh to to to go through from start to finish for different reasons public private Contracting act um is easier to get into but the timec consuming portion of that is that once you have your proposed contract available it has to be presented to the uh Department of Environmental Protection the Department of Community Affairs um local Finance board and State uh BPU each one of them has to review it and approve it and that can take a long time some of the things to think about on a public private contract is that system is still yours um so it's yours for any uh Capital Improvements those are at your expense and what you end up doing is you pay uh private contractor to in essence manage your ourselves depending on the the reason that you're you're looking to change the system that you have now change the status quo might not be simply for management um which is where you could get into the um long shur release or sales system but things to think about on the the public private Contracting aspect of it are that again it can take a year to a year and a half to complete um you are still in charge of the R structure for your system uh Capital Improvements again are your obligation what you can do is uh put into a service agreement as part of your private contractor um annual work items which typically don't exceed $115,000 and they typically would just roll that into their fees um to be charged as part of the service that you're paying for on a regular basis um if you have a staff system that you'd like to maintain that can be rolled over into into a contract with a private contractor and then there's a transition period that you'll have to undergo whether you go through a private contractor or you decide to to do a sale and that is for the staffing of this of the service and as well as the Billing System there's a period of time that you have to work with the contractor to determine uh that the decision's going to flose seamlessly and easily long-term leases or sales in essence you're you're selling your system you're no longer responsible for the maintenance of the system but you're also no longer uh in charge of the rate structure you're going to sell the system um it's another long-term process could take a year to a year and a half uh again you're no longer responsible for the management of the system for Capital Improvements but the clip site is you're no longer in charge of the rates that are being being paid by the uh your base Staffing as with the the lease of the system can be rolled into uh the contract with the purchaser as in the transition period and the billing period similar to a uh a long-term similar to a contract with a third party contractor there's a period of time that you'll have to word with the purchaser to make sure that transition goes smoothly and that the billing changes goly as well on the sale of a system what do you do with proceeds proceeds by Statute after to go first pay off any debt associated with your existing system once that's paid off they have to go to the payment of any other debt any other Municipal debt and if there's any funding left over after that um it's to go to the general fund for whatever wh the the one that I said I wasn't going to get into very much is is a very strictly Rel regulated system applies if you can comply with one of five conditions and um you don't have to worry about the population but it only applies to a municipalities with a population of 270,000 people or less and that in a nutshell is really the uh the options that you have so to keep it as Qui being short as I could up your agenda and if anyone has any questions I'd be happy to uh try and come question there yeah thank you very much just for joining us tonight taking time out of your I'm sure very busy days um the reason this has come up and Mr shus has been great along with uh his colleague and fellow resident uh Rick Bartel as he mentioned he started this question a long time ago for Bradley Beach and you wouldn't necessarily know our specifics but but one of the reasons I think at least I and I think others have at least wanted to understand the pros and cons um one of the things we keep saying and I want to say for the Public's benefit as well nobody that I know of is sitting here thinking we want to sell our system all I'm thinking is I'd like to understand the pros and cons you know what are the risks what are the rewards and when I think of what we've got today um I know we've got you know very old 100 year old terracotta infrastructure we're talking about can we put in you know kind of I don't know liners and things like that to preserve the L the you know the usefulness of the sewers for some period of time um we're also looking at potentially if we if we need to actually replace sewer lines borrowing substantial amounts of money for a relatively small municipality um so the at least one of the questions is what are the tradeoffs in the event of a of a sale what are the trade-offs in terms of that loss of control right now we can set our rates but once we borrow a ton of money if we do we would Jack our rates dramatically higher soorry how does that so I guess help us if you would just think through high level what are the what are potential pros and cons for an or municipality like ours with a very old infrastructure yeah Pros obviously are you're not going to have to pay for upgrading that infrastructure what happens is that the the buyer would come in and believe it or not the worse your system is the more valuable it is to a purchaser so if you have a perfect system with no flaws you're not going to get as much money on a purchase as work from A system that um is is in bad shape and the reason for that is that the the buyer is guaranteed under the statute a guaranteed rate of return and that rate of return is going to be based on all of the other customers that that buyer has throughout the state of New Jersey so that's that's a major Pro for a a system that's that's at the end of its useful life or close to it the biggest negative is that you lose control you lose control over the rate system now what you can do is as part of your your bidding process and the contract that you enter into with a uh prer is you can lock in certain rates for a period of time now it's rates aren't going to go through the roof because regardless of who operates system rates are governed by the state statute and imported Public Utilities so they're not going to allow someone to come in and say okay well we want to increase our rates by 5% that that's not going to happen and what you can do you typically lock in now one that we just finished has a 0% increase for the first two years after the closing and then I believe it's uh two three and 4% after that you can negotiate those numbers when you're negotiating the contract and you you specify what you're looking offering what the biders actually come in and make their bids so those are the two biggest ones you you you lose control of the system but you're you're also gaining the repairs cost for infrastructure that you other have to pay yourself and uh and can you give us a sense of the world after after a sale and and and I guess what elements would we as a municipality negotiate typically so what I'm thinking is there a purchase price do do we receive X dollar and two you you started to talk about um the rates there's some there's some leveling of the rates for some period of time can you negotiate that yes like you you definitely get cash uh and what your your next step when you get to the point where you're beyond just thinking about it next step you're going to have to do is put together a team to actually evaluate your system and what it would be worth that team is typically an engineer Financial Consultant uh and an attorney could be your burrow engineer if you if you have a Financial Consultant or a financial advisor that currently works with the municipality you can use that one or you can enter into a contract with another uh you really want a financial advisor that's familiar with this type of process and not just a general financial advisor um so if you have one that you work with now for your for your bonding processes U that that financial adviser might not be comfortable doing something like this in which case you'd have to enter into a contract with the financial adviser that is familiar with this type of transaction and that group would then come with it come back to you with numbers and based on those numbers you'll come a determination on well does it make sense to keep the status quo or are we getting some numbers here that make no sense not to to to take we can't pass up everything that's in the contract that goes out um on your RFB would be negotiable so you know you're going to know what the system is worth you're going to know what kind of responses you get from whoever bids on the program and you're going to be able to negotiate before it even goes out that far as said what kind of term locks are going to be looking for what kinds of public properties are going to be included in those term locks and then all that's when we go should we go through a process like that you know requesting bits doing some with a team doing evaluations of the pros and cons for us ultimately who makes the decision is is this something that goes to a public referendum or how does that work a a sale has to go through a public referendum which is part of the reason that it takes as long as it does and it it's it's one of the bookends of of the timing because in order for it to be on a referendum for example for this year has to go to the county three months in advance to be approved and that's you're getting on a really tight uh time frame to do that um so it might make more sense to determine what it is you want to do start it off slowly and then plan on having you go through a referendum be squeezing a lot of work in short period time to get and all the more I presume there's a very formal process to go through that referend so my last question just based on your personal experience or you know what you've learned from being in the industry um can you just describe to us what what might be an example of a successful sale that you've heard of and what might be an example of you don't have to name names but just the scenario of what might have been viewed as by residents as not a successful sale something that could go well I can really only speak for the transactions that we've handled in my office and uh I'm not aware at this point of any this goes back to maybe 2015 2016 I'm not aware of any where we've got any negative feedback after transactions the planning is where it's it's most important and when you get through that planning you know what you want to do you'll just go through the process but the most important part is the the begin planning on which option do I want to take and what are the values to the this Val I know that was my last question but one more are there are there typically two or three main biders out there or could there be 20 or 30 utilities that would bid on something like this cler than okay a handful players St that's it for me questions thank you very much very Jim thank you too okay we go to the next item uh approval of minutes uh make a motion approve March 13 2024 councel meeting minutes a discussion on that one yeah yeah uh Mr Mayor I know there's a very lengthy statement that you've added to the minut I think um I'll speak for myself I don't think it should be included in the minutes if it wasn't part of the actual holding of the of the meeting so I would I would suggest we at least discuss striking your comments any other thoughts I feel like we asked this at the time um Greg do you remember just being asked I do so what I don't remember the answer and can they be in the minutes if they weren't actually spoken in our meeting you uh have previously allowed people to email in statements and included them in the minutes to the clerk it's been the practice here I obviously can't make you vote anything into the minutes they're your minutes as a body um but it has been press practice where written statements have been given to the clerk and they've been included in the minutes the clerk is they're in there because that's what the clerk's been told to do for a number of years so like you know there's no hard and fast rule you guys approve the minutes they're at your pleasure they're your minutes uh you're voting as to whether they're an accurate reflection of what was said or wanted to be included at the meeting and it's been done in the past whether you want to do it right now is up to you I mean there has be other ways for the mayor to communicate is thoughts right you know to put them in the minutes I'd be more comfortable if you just post it on a website or something okay so you want to make a motion to pull that out yes that's motion okay I'll make a motion to remove the mayor's comments from the minut statement you did not read yeah I know what you're talking I know exactly what you're talking about okay do I have a second second Mr Noble yes and if you would like to read them I would welcome them in the minutes but at this point I I will say Okay I I don't have it in front of me otherwise okay I would I I that option if you'd like to read it that's fine with me I'd like you know I feel it's different way would you like me to read your statement no it could take it would take 10 minutes and it's it's the public I'll put it on the website I just don't want to take up a lot of and most of what is in there most of what is in there has been already stated okay that's your call okay okay um okay so I got my second Mr Noble wait what was the you're saying I'm GNA strike it out of the Mr gzi yes Miss Mahoney yes Mr Weber yes mayor Fox uh no thank you uh March 13 2024 executive session minut make a motion to approve those second Mr Noble yes uh Mr goosi yes Miss Mahoney yeah Mr Weber yes mayor thought abstained I missed last 15 minutes okay uh next item is public comments pertaining to 327 agenda items only five minute sorry do we have to make a motion to approve the minutes yeah okay so one more motion actually approve minutes um do I have a first in a second second mayor you're first oh sorry to approve the the actual minutes okay um your second second yes uh Mr Noble yes Mr gubitosi yes M Mahoney yes Mr Weber yes mayor Fox yes thank you public comments uh agenda anybody have any public comments on the agenda yes th J Coan 64 Avenue um I'd like to comment on uh resolution number 20247 the way that reads um is is very disturbing to me because I've never seen a resolution that basically threatens the council that's going to vote up uh you included a statute 52 27 bb- 52 which says a local officer or member of local government body who after the date fixed for compliance fails or refuses to obey an order of the director of local government services under the provision of this article shall be guilty of a Mis meter upon conviction may be fined not more than $11,000 or in prison for not more than one year or both in addition to the flure of office I've never seen that in a resolution but what I'd like to share with you Mr Canon and the council is this is the model resolution that is presented by the DCA which does not use this harsh language essentially threatening the council to vote Yes on this oneit this makes no sense to me and I find it to be a horrible technique now I think the mayor should really focus on uh statute 52 27 bb-51 which says the officer of a municipality or County who is charged with duties pertaining to fiscal Administration shall keep the count in order uh in other respects perform his duties in accordance with the regulations by this board and officer who willfully violates this section shall be guilty of the misdemeanor and the $1,000 fine and imprisonment and loss of office that's the one that you should really focus on because this audit is so late and I can't wait to read it I'm looking forward to it but this is it was due September September 30 and now it's March 27th and we're getting I'm sorry September 30th 2023 now I would hope that you Council folks since you haven't seen the budget yet would not approve any budget until you have the 2023 audit which should be due by June 30th so I I appreciate the opportunity to make those statements thank you thank you anybody else yes I name she one Delworth Avenue I noticed that our uh acting Barrow uh administrator has left I don't understand why I'm hoping somebody's going to be able to answer my questions accurately regarding the bills list the manual checks and wires the New Jersey Department of Labor and workfor development that bill was for $ 23,9 6761 could someone please explain the expense I can't but I will get out with what it is well who can we will get back to you well I noticed that I didn't like you said you would get back to me when the last time I asked questions and I still haven't great permission now how do I know I'm going to get these answers get the answers okay well M DeMarco was here would I be able to get the answers do you have any other questions Mr yes I have plenty why don't you ask but I answer my question can I can I ask you a question great is it possible that this Workforce devel is that like unemployment we pay I okay okay $1,000 that the bill was paid folks um US Bank operations center it's uh what is this bill for it's $ 13849 again nobody knows uh page three nobody here notes nobody here notes well who's paying our bills nobody here knows you're in the building 247 you have you're here all the time with mer DeMarco are acting ba and you're playing ignorant you don't know about these bills no I don't I I really question your integrity own honesty I question your question Mr because number one I'm not here 247 okay may I I made a mistake I will admit the fact that maybe I exaggerated by the time that you've been you spend in here but you spent you are very much aware of what's going on in this burrow that's your responsibility right who signs the checks the CFO and myself okay so therefore you are you have knowledge of the checks so you're not totally ignorant of what's going on with the bills okay what what's your next question really okay uh broadcast music uh events B why are we LIC licensing music that's $435 no answer page five Clark pton Patton and hindes fair housing is this a turn for Fair Housing Council Center that's $4,734 folks Mr Bernstein you and he was the UFC UFCW 152 employment Council that bill was for $2,745 is this the union negotiations yeah I'm sure you're sure or it is yes or no I'm sure it is that's is it a yes or a no I'm sure it is yes okay thank you uh is there a cumul um is there a cumulative amount we've already SP this the accumulative amount that we've already no it's not there's no contract no it's not okay Oprah issues Oprah canil Mr Bernstein was paid $4,260 why are we continuing pay Mr Bernstein when he keeps losing in court and we are losing and we are losing to our own residence that's $4,260 Mr bernston got Helman consultant uh ordinance and I think um that is for bazio Center and that is for I think mold remediation that's on page 10 of the bill list for any of you who have it again another bill for mold is this is this additional or is this something that's been ongoing I'd like to know how much the whole repair work and the whole cost of that building cost us the taxpayers can we please get that number one more Beach fun repairs Building Maintenance $43 for the shower repairs when and Earth are with residents of this town going to get decent showers on our beach these are postor War II showers they're nothing but metal pipes sticking out of the ground they been they've been that way since I've been a little girl on the beach at my grandfather restaurant on Fourth and Ocean Avenue that water fountain on Fourth Avenue has been there since my grandfather had the concession on that rest thank you Mr one more no you're over well you used a lot of my time I haven't I'm sorry and GL to see that you got paid this month uh folks next please Nancy m o condomini um I also challenge things on this bill is for many of which m s because I cannot pronounce her name properly um brought up and it's more the underscore of we finally found out actually who's signing our checks tonight that's a step forward I've been asking this for I don't know how long but how do I know that those checks signed are actually for the bills we approved how is it there's here we're supposed to approve manual checks and wrers well they already went as did the payroll dates there here for approving things that you've already paid um there's a term for that but not lady lik so I will not say it but then more importantly and I've asked this before who does the bank Rex I certainly hope it's not any of the two people that have just been you've just been told sign the checks and who matches the checks to the bills in other words where's on not funny it's on page 20 we've got another bill from Pine Point B to be free from who from High Point I'm sorry I'm sorry I say it every week supposed to be free why do we still pay it we used to have an employee that was called the CFO that did our payroll and now we're spending thousands of which the December bill is we had over $8,000 over the prim point doesn't make sense and we're calling part of our payload now contacts and part office does not make sense we're always told or not always I've learned recently that a good line here for things is we're not in possession of those records you know I've been told it I know someone else has been told it which is mindboggling as it is a federal offense to not keep records but you know it's ready to use no why do we care but yet we're paying file Bank thousands of dollars really and one of those bills is from October and let's talk about Mr Bernstein who I was told that that firm was not our Oprah attorney but we all know I was told the wrong information but I am still waiting for an answer from that firm so why should we pay for that bill that open thing I you do not Steward our monies properly and it's an emergency I am beyond frightened Beyond disgusted and as I've been saying lately I don't know what I can do to write the ship we're not welcome we're belittle we're not answered but the men are usually answered and it's disgusting and embarrassing and this is I mean I'm on film here forever because people don't do their jobs and because there's no accounting and at some point for those of you that are taking advantage of we the taxpayers I promise you it will come back and haunt you thank you if I can just add that we've been using bile Bank as long as I've been up here and you can imagine a lot of paper gets generated and instead of storing it in the hallway right down there which we didn't like we used this file B right I did ask where it is but it's but to me that's us so we are in possession of whatever file bank has they have our records so to constantly say to some of us who are asking things we are not in possession that is quite frightening to me okay and may I say regarding the workforce thing that is normally a quarterly payment on payroll taxes $23,000 is quite an alarming payment because I do believe a couple of weeks ago I said why are we paying this it's not the end of a quarter so um again really scary that somebody signs off and doesn't know what money is for thank you I think we can agree the F back an extension of us greenl Jan 414 M Avenue um I'd like to address the 319 Lorraine property last fall there was a workshop where consensus was reached to have the burrow go ahead and sell the parcel with four deeded conforming subdivided locks there was consideration to put the onus on the buyer to demolish the structure with the caveat that elements deemed historically significant and worthy of resale be pulled for the borrow I recall a lengthy presentation by an Antiques representative who deals in resale of artifacts and the suggestion that there is a market for some of the elements contained within the church structure later in the fall and out of the blue a proposal by the mayor was made to include an affordable housing plot on this site with Habitat for Humanity as a Target investor as I recall there was a great deal of concern expressed about this and it seemingly went nowhere concerned that this asset has dragged out I have publicly asked in three recent Council meetings about the Lorraine property and told each time by the mayor and ba that the borrow is working with an engineer to prepare in RFP no other details so tonight we have a resolution not an RFP my question is this resolution the context for an RFP do the bids come in with no RFP resolution 2024 82 challenges my understanding it makes no mention of the historically significant assets and their preservation further I'm stumped at a decision to go forward with affordable housing on this property for a couple of reasons number one it does not align with the single family housing stock within the neighborhood and number two it assumes a shortfall on the sale for option A which requires one quarter of the overall plot to be designated at the low market rate and further how does this square with the lack of affordable housing requirement for developers on properties such as 301 Main the auto tech site and the multi-unit rental building west of burrow Hall why does the burrow take the financial hit with no responsibility seemingly on developers now to the resolution it says the land use Board of the burrow retains Authority in the areas of subdivision review and approval site plan review and approval and the issuance of variances the property is located in an R1 single family zone now the land board the land use board members are appointed by the mayor and it is noticeable that residents with different viewpoints never seem to get appointed to the board the resolution goes on to say the invitation to bid shall require each bidder to submit one bid under each option A with restrictions and option b free of restrictions both options A and B have the same minimum bid price of 2 milon 7181 so my questions what is the incentive for a developer to bid above the minimum for option a which assumes a lower profit margin on an affordable housing lot and two why two variable options what is the thinking behind structuring it this way I'll go on and then I'm going to share this my questions regarding option A has it been determined who will own and manage the affordable housing lot is it Habitat for Humanity number two will variances be required for the two unit building remember it's in a in an R1 single family Zone in option A and put in place by the borrow and land use board and number three I do not recall an affordable dwelling 2unit structure in CME Associates subdivision document can you share this with the public the resolution goes on to say the municipality may elect or reject either or both options and the highest bid for each such acceptance or rejection shall be made no later than at the reg the second regular meeting of the governing body following the sale and if the governing body shall not so accept such highest bid or reject all bids said bids shall be deemed to have been rejected my questions so who determines the winning bid the municipality or the governing body and if not approved by the governing body how does the sale proceed are their second and third choices I know I asked a lot of questions here so I've made copies to distribute to all of you so you can answer in an email um please respond to all of the questions okay thank you I have seven of course I have Cop Avenue I I'm just going to keep this short and sweet uh please vote no on passing the bills list that is um just there is no accountability there is this is blatant disregard for financial responsibility and we have to start saying no we have no idea where our money is going what is being paid and what is not being paid and the fact that our acting VA is once again not here to answer questions there is no reason for the council to approve this it is time to start saying now this mayor mayor Fox and um you are bankrupting our town it's time to stop stop the madness thank you thank you yes Beth Kepler 504 Central Avenue here in Bradley Beach um I also ask this Council to vote no on the bills list I think that it's inexcusable I mean I don't know what other job in in the private sector that people would be able to be newly hired such such as the acting um borrow administrator Mr Marco where there would be so many absences and she's you know first it was the eye thing then there was a death then there was the flue and I don't know how many I mean think I'm missing one or two other um instances and she was here tonight we still have not had an answer from the May to where she went she was just here and then she vanished and conveniently when it came time to start answering questions about our money and um I also would like to go on the record preemptively um now months in advance because I can see the handwriting on the wall that we are being set up again for a repeat of last year where all of a sudden you know I I remember several meetings going back to the beginning of this year about how the promises were made about the council would be given and there's three steps I understand to approving and implementing a budget and that you're supposed to be given proper documents in a timely manner so that you can ask questions and manage our money um properly and I can see that we're being set up again or the council is being set up again so all of a sudden at the 11th Hour be like hurry up we got pass this we got to prove it we got to prove it because if we don't there's going to be all these like penalties and I don't really care anymore because whatever penalties could possibly be coming down the pipe for us couldn't be any worse than giving this creature standing in front of me a blank check to to just write I I have to say as much as I I really support the council I am very disappointed about what happened a few meetings ago in regard to the 11.5 blank check that million dollar that was given to them given to to uh the criminal Network that's at play in our in our burrow and I don't any more of of my money embezzled and mismanaged and therefore I ask this Council in advance I don't care what the penalties are I don't care what the ramifications are there's no budget I would rather see just the lights kept on and us doing the bare minimum to just get us through till November so that we can just survive the rest of the few months because clearly there's no conscience here he's not going to step down he's not going to do the right thing he knows nobody wants him here he knows he's he's impotent and he can't do anything so really we just have to you know muddle through and Limp through and all these dumpster fires are being set I submit because what the gentleman who presented um on the sewer situation made a very important point about referendums in this coming November for the election and in order for us to change our government and to make sure sure that we don't wind up in the same situation again with the next mayor is we need to figure out in advance and start really working and focusing on what kind of government that we are going to switch to so that we don't have to deal with another strong mayor who thinks that he can like like steamroll over this community and unaccounted just spend our money willy-nilly and behind the scenes with no answers by enacting ba and I also would like to see this uh Kim Humphrey whatever the QR whatever she is needs to go we need to like start like we're being diverted our attention is being diverted and all of these situations are intentionally being created in order to divert our attention from the really important things and right now we just need to manage to get through to November and I don't really believe that the the not only should the budget not be passed in the future unless this council is given adequate time but this bill list tonight should be voted no regardless of what the consequences are because it shouldn't be and if and if anybody wants to know why it's being voted no it's because the people that are supposed to be here and we it's not like there's not advanced notice and we don't know that the people that are required to be here don't know that there's going to be questions and I suggest that it's potentially that she can't do her job and she can't answer the questions and she can't she she's afraid or the mayor is afraid you really shouldn't talk about Municipal Employees in the context of performance that's really well that's my my that's my personal opinion I'm paying her salary and I have a my op and it's kind of Rich of you to do that to sit here and bang your gble about like how people should talk because you don't talk to people the right way you refer to your residents as minions and and and a lot other derogatory terms you're the one who's out of so it's kind of ironic that you're going to stand here and lecture us about how we should be talking thank you Yes actually Fourth Avenue uh just mayor and I don't think you do this intentionally uh but you do interrupt women speaking a lot and by the way that's not that's not specific to you there's been studies that men do that to women pretty regularly in in corporate life in particular so I would just say I would just ask respectfully uh to be aware of that uh and don't interrupt or try to shut down what some people are saying thank you thank you mayor where is the you know I'm not sure so she just got up and left the meeting I'm not sure what happened maybe she at I don't know yes reference to ordinance 20 24-1 uh this ordinance was before the uh Landers board and uh there was a recommendation made I noticed that uh on the agenda and I read the uh 20 24-1 there's been no change to it whatsoever you know like we said we requested that uh you look into this ordinance that you're proposing and tighten it up there's a lot of loopholes in here uh for one uh you have uh I'm I'm sorry Mr Shu but I I think um I'm sorry for interrupting me but um I think we got a memo from the L use board the other day saying it was good to go so I'm missing something so maybe you can Enlighten well it shouldn't have been good to go in fact I made that motion to uh what it should state that uh yes it is consistent with the master plan but uh there are loopholes in in here that the mayor and Council should look into and tighten as a can I ask a question isn't this something that the state is requiring it's not like it's not like the change recommendation it's a recommendation and the DCA has uh whatam call it modified that recommendation and that was another thing that was brought up for you guys to look at I mean uh here's one right here provide opportunity nonresidential use to supply Eves to their customers and employees so now what you're saying is uh we're going to put the charging stations in a parking lot let's say uh Darcy's let's say him well he's going to put it for his employees the parking lot is for customers you just say customers and employees yeah okay so if Darcy got torn to the ground and a big apartment building got built there that's what this is talking about then there's a requirement to put electric vehicle charging stations there and what you just read said yeah in addition to I guess people that live there you have to be available to the staff that work there and opportunity for nonresidential okay so if you're disputing that sounds like your beef is with the state of New Jersey not no because you could modify it you don't have to put go word for word read it carefully it does say you could modify it's a recommendation these are recommendations I read this and I didn't read this memo that you're talking about or the mayor's talking about so I don't you know I are you suggesting that we that we table this uh would say so Mr sh yeah for the record speaking for myself I know nothing about the feedback that you're describing so it was not shared at least with me I don't know if anyone else on the council we see what happens is we get our memo from and unfortunately we were both still that day so we weren't there um still um the memo we got from the um Secretary of the land's board I thought I read it I read it quickly but I read it and said um we we were it was approved and ready to go it's I mean it didn't say exactly like that but I did go through it yeah I'm looking at the resolution from the land use for there's there's no recomendations or anything in here it says that it was all voted says you voted yes yes it's consistent it's consistent with the master plan but yeah but I know you guys usually put a list if you have suggestions in but it's not I'm just telling you it's not in here well last time we did and again there was nothing done on the last one so you know why why go through a list when uh everybody's going to just ignore it so was your request that we table this and get a list of what these exceptions are there's no read modific I'm sorry modification EXA because in here it says that me as a homeowner I could put in charging stations I could charge people for it now I have a gas station electric vehicle gas station on my property but it says I think it would be helpful if we could get your list of recommendations rather than rather than debate them one by one yeah you know let I've never charged anybody you could you can I think I could with or without okay I'm happy to let's let's table it so we can get yeah when we get there so 14 evening where we were Council people were ill as heck yeah yeah unfortunately thank you thank for y yes evening duy2 rley uh ACC to resolution 20248 um why are we putting at other expenses 1,569 hundred that I I can't even read the number why is it other why is it listed like what more it's so in general terms it's typically when you start the year you start the number is between 25 and 26% that you allocate to operate the government if you go beyond three months which we're about to go beyond three months you take it up to 40% so our CFO put that um resolution together to do that okay and then it says salary and wages and we haven't uh settled the contract yet that's going to be substantial it's going to be substantial and how did you figure out it's only be dis amount 600 600,000 this is only a temporary I know but it it it's something that's a temporary budget right where's the other magical money going to come from if it's more than our annual budget takes all that into account all right all right the other thing I'd like to say is on the bills list page four Thank you very much for sending plan to the I appreciate that what I'm I didn't he I'm sorry you're not aware that okay she went to a training session how to secure car seats and make other people feel more comfortable and putting in correctly because this town's 28% seniors and I'm guessing that 10% of us B it and we have no idea on how to put a car seat in so thank you for to but I'd appreciate it if you put it on your website something like SE safety make another link I looked it wasn't thank you very much um I'd like to know also on 2024 d82 I think that's it what is no deed restriction inail make me educate I don't understand option b like could you build a size side scraper 20 um 20 un place no parking uh studio apartments what does that mean it's no de on option on the bid packet she's looking res yeah but it's on B P it's what it said when you read through put down the resolution there was like the option b it kind of said no de no restrictions like what does that mean what are the pros and cons to that are there Frozen counts I'm sure there are I don't know what they the mayor and the ba and a team put this together so the C also option A I didn't really understand why the price differ should be different with both options in my opinion because you be giving somebody a free will why charge for million free what you given them the option to do anything they want there well no any anything that's done has to be has to conform to your to your Zone it doesn't I just you know like to know okay all right and the other thing I wanted to say is on page eight Eric Burns's breaking it in every b list he has Bill for negotiations maybe we should fire him and get another negotiator so we can get a contract resolution and those people can be made hold and what is the difference between General local pay for him and you and the um the local 152 pay what is the difference between those two salaries I'd like to know are they both for a or no there's general labor questions that come up that have to be answered there's General any to do with employees to do with um anything to do with so it's not for negotiation right that's cor okay all right thank you very much for your time I appreciate it thanks okay if there's oh there's one on the board on the champion for load and a half right I'd like to make a comment on resolution 2024 d82 I think in light of the fact that I'm assuming that the council has not been filled in fully on on this particular resolution and we certainly have a lot of questions about it we don't understand it it seems to be some very we wording in this opens up all sorts of cancer worms things that were discussed at length are not mentioned things that were discussed in were areas of concern such as ortable housing are suddenly appearing again I urge the council to table this resolution at the very least that's all I have to say thank you yes Dr Tom 610 in the Avenue um so she um Linda just had had a question about the deed restriction I was pretty sure that the one meeting I think it might have been in October that it was a surprise that everyone actually agreed on the deed restriction can you give me an example what a deed restriction would be like what does that mean like what do you like does that mean you can can't do certain things what does that mean so before you like to discuss it I'd like you to know that um a d restriction is something you build into a contract or or a sale it says you can or can't do something um like for example what would that mean for example you it's a single family of its own right the R1 so doesn't that mean you can only build the single well you're in R1 Zone but you can still go to the land use port oh so you so that's what it is that's what you want to so the de restriction would limit so say if you town houses or something like that that would you could a de restri well you're in an R1 Zone the start that's not possible you'd have to come back to the with a with a request now didn't you I'm more than positive didn't you agree to put the de restriction in there blanketed yes which e restriction you're talking about preliminary so church so when you all discussed de restriction specific what deed restriction I don't know that's what I'm asking but you did all AG subdivision we talking about subdividing it into four yeah conforming and then you agreed that you would put a deed restriction so that certain things would not be made or something like that but one the POs you all agreed on it so I don't understand why the Restriction is even an option to not have it why was that put in there well I think it's it's in there to have four Lots but it's already in there but isn't isn't one option deed restriction the other option is no deed restriction we'll talk more about this I know because there's a lot to cover but I know you guys have to talk about it yeah and I don't you know what I mean so I'd like to talk about it now so before you get to it I have some understanding of what you're going to be talking about so just understand why because it just feels like this is I know it's not rush but I mean r obviously you didn't do anything with rfps those kind of fell through so I feel like they bit it's a b it's not an RFP I know but you told us you were working on rfps for like two months and that obviously didn't happen but SC for like two months so nowall I'm sorry I said it feels to me it feels stalled so it's my opin so it feels stalled so I was just wondering like why why that wording why aren't we doing is there a is it gonna be like an auction like are we going to be able to auction it or is it that's what I don't understand because it says it's like a 2.7 is that for all four Lots or subdividing each individual one for 2.7 each one 2.7 all four so you can it's all or none you can only you have to buy all four or none is there any way that we can change that that's terrible I think each lot should be sold individually that would make more sense I mean that's just real estate 101 is you know get the most money by selling individually you're only going to big name developers instead of someone like me I might want to buy you know but I can't buy all four of them but I might be able to buy one of them and I feel that's reaching outside of the town and not inside so if there's any way we can change that wording so I I don't know who did that wording it does not read like Ray Cannon is all I'm saying I have no he did not write that right did you write that I think so did not have great K writing on there he has very distinct writing style read his and that was not I was informed that it was a team and I was not part of the team I wish I was because I love land Newsport and I love land use and real estate it's very interesting to me I was informed it was Larry and the acting ba so no lawyer wrote that no not that I was informed of is that normal usually right but I mean it looks like people were Char and so like I just being in average joeo here I think that the ordinances are usually written by through a legal review and who reviewed it what leg I reviewed it oh you reviewed it you didn't write it okay um do we have somebody on board please thank forly uh two quick things Mr Fox I don't know what it says about your relationship with the in ba that she walked out of here without even these are questions about question well I'm speaking you don't have a question about you Jen you com stepping on my five minutes I'm not stepping on your I'll be out of here in two minutes okay I'll be out of here you have a question on the agenda I do have a question okay ask your question can you comment or speculate on why yeah I can VA walked out of here even bother telling you why she left I cannot so it must have been some Emer okay next question uh you seem to suggest earlier uh Mr Fox that a member of the public should not comment on the job performance of a public official can you site the law or regulation that prohibits that sort of thing from happening uh no I can't cite the law but I know that it is a Mr K can you comment on the perspective of well let me put this another way let me put this another way Mr fo well let me let's let me try to answer the question okay speaking about Mr Kon can a member of the public make a comment on what they see as the job performance of a public official yeah yes okay there doesn't seem to be any dat that no right so but another way Mr Fox if I once again say that I think you're a terrible mayor and you should Des do I face arrest ticketing summons and some legal action be taken against me any other questions on the agenda can can I be arrested or ticketed or for what for commenting on the mayor's do I okay thank you thank you yes new 184 um I know we're not there yet but obviously there's once again a whole you know mess with the wording of the church so um my one question to all of you and I will ask you individually is if you were to vote on it today or to get it rewarded that it was just simply would be sent out as a bid to replace four single family homes would you at least say yes if it just only dictated four single familys I would obain that was easier like just probably I I think I I would ask us not to respond that and I'll tell you why we received some we rece we received some new information in our executive session that would probably give us some pause so we have to relook at some elements as it relates to uh COA and for housing and we don't have we'll have an answer to that pretty quickly but we don't have the answer ton so in regards now that you bring up COA why has it been done in the past that we have not asked or dictated that 301 M give their shared allotment of portable housing or why John Naes and his Auto Tech property is not required to have affordable they are so that's going to be rectified rectified I'm not sure so how many how many how many units are currently rented out of 301 M talking about 301 Main sorry 301 Main in exactly no I know he Auto I'm saying 301 Main so 30's going on Dar the largest apartment building why why do they not have a portable why were they not given affordable housing requirements we didn't have our ordinance place when they have per Bild is there anything that can be done retroactively to require anything of that nature we're assessing that right now okay okay all right well then I'll wait for you guys to share that information but until then until we have it absolutely worded perfectly so that there is no loophole please vote no and I also agree with everybody else please don't vote through any more bills until we know what we're signing because it's apparent that our mayor doesn't even know what he's signing thank you I can't see you oh I'm sorry in fact four and a half Bley Avenue um I'm going to start out with a request with an with one request followed by apology and then another request and the first request is to please vote no on 2024 d82 my apology is not having been present at the October meeting where apparently everyone was in agreement that that property should be sold I was not there but dur due to personal circumstances I have not been paying a whole lot of attention to agendas and that's my fault um at the same token I think the majority of the Town doesn't even know how to find an agenda or really understand how town government works and some of are frankly afraid to show up and speak so my next request would be to consider for this governing body to consider the fact that the town in general and the vast majority of its citizens have never answered more than one question with respect to 319 Lorraine Avenue the only question they have ever answered and they answered it on a survey and a referendum was do you want to spend $10 million for a fullscale remodel for a full service Community Center that answer was a no no one has ever asked the people of this town do you want to knock the entire building down or would you rather preserve a smaller footprint knock down the gym have Town Offices there build parking there with sensitive Landscaping make it acceptable to the neighborhood no one has ever facilitated some kind of real examination by the actual people of the town of what the inside of that building looks like although there are people who have been in and out several times so um and I've heard things around town like couldn't we do something simpler I really don't want to see it come down I've heard other people say I would rather see on that property a new community center I've heard people say I would like to see a park on that property now when I saw this resolution and I saw that that was what was going up or possibly going up I um I thought you know are the neighbors even remotely aware of what's going to happen there so my request of this governing body is to build in some kind of structured process to have a more nuanced and concrete idea of what the majority of people in this town and what the people in the area want and to see that they're also well informed before before something happens that then is irreversible and I would like in that process for there to be some consideration of the fact that we now own a very very um valuable piece of property and we also have right there another thing on it in the actual historical part of that building inspiring public space which is not something that is ubiquitous in Bradley Beach so um so there I I think that I will I will end my comments there and thank you oh I do have a question also um when you talk about deed restriction can they be overcome by the zoning board by way of variance or are they something that sticks more than our ordinances sure yeah the exod volan de constriction contct between the the gr gr T Only The Grand Tour can remove so the way I understand it then is if we absolutely have deed restrictions we can determine exactly what's built a priori and it will stand but if we don't have deed restrictions then the Builder Builders whoever it is can go before the coding board and basically all bets are off generally that's that's an accurate description I would mention that because the burs of the grants or a future governing body could lift the deed restrictions well could lift them you say so the so a grantor is someone who conveys property to a grantee yes it's a contract right convey this property you Evy the deed called legal procedures the grantor conveys title to the grantee with a deed restriction it's a contract between those two entities the grantor can then can reverse that okay you follow me so it's not a permanent once you put it on there it's not absolutely permanent can never be removed the grants are removed so it would have to be the entire Council that have to new Council potentially new mayor potentially correct okay so we'd have to be super careful about who we vote in yeah than you should always do yeah you're over your time thank you thank um want to get the board yeah okay we have her Kenny hi can you hear me hello can you hear me yes I'm unmuted okay a couple questions um first has to go to process Improvement um I know the mayor has changed the agenda for meetings this year um Kenny are you asking questions about the agenda yes I am I'm talking about the agenda mayor Fox what what exactly okay I'm going to tell you right now is there any way we can have an ordinance that executive meetings are at the end of the meeting instead of beginning of the meeting okay we've now had two executive meetings in the front of the meeting where you were abruptly left at the end of the last meeting with no explanation and now we just found out the ba left at the beginning of the meeting with no explanation so yes can we move the executive sessions to the end of the meeting and make an ordinance to make sure it happens is that have to is that okay mayor with the agenda no it's not because we have situations where we need to do it before the meeting generally we do it at the end of the meeting this was because we had um a couple of legal people in from far away who had to drive in for our meeting and we accommodate that okay so you don't accommodate the residents I get it okay my second question here then has to do with the audit from 2022 when will the town be able to review that and see it that's my first question second question um who actually developed and actually signed the audit uh tomorrow if we sign off on this affidavit tonight it's available and it's signed off U by uh myself uh with the auditor and the burough administrator okay what burough administrator acting bur administrator oh well she wasn't here when 2022 happened so was the was the xcf nether neither was the CFO yeah I know and well that's my next question was the ex CFO involved in the 2022 a uh yes from an input and review perspective with the audit but he didn't sign it no we didn't ask him to well the new C the new CFO didn't sign it correct right because he was not here nor was not involved in in the audit in the context of he's he's taken that audit data from the audit and he's interfaced but he has not been intimately involved in it so we have no Financial CPA any Financial accredited person who signed that audit the audit do okay so that auditor will be on the hook if there's any issues with the audit right huh so okay great that's the reputation normally you have a CFO who's also involved correct or no I mean I don't understand how the current acting ba would sign it when she has absolutely zero clue what happened two years ago I just want to make sure someone's accountable that's all I'm asking because that's a real issue here okay my final comment is regarding the church with no Deeds um I'm really thankful that we've actually had the public who voted in a council because I'm sorry mayor Fox and I'm sorry anyone else who's there with the land use board but I would not trust you or the land use board to make a decision with an open-ended deal so I really hope that the council tonight gets this understands it and at 2:30 when this meeting ends we'll be able to actually get more discussion on it that's the end of my questions thank you who else we have they are I don't know it yes can you hear me yes can I just have your name and address y DAV rowski 30 304 3 I have a question on the bills list page 21 uh Ruckers State uh State University Municipal budget process is that a class that somebody attended sure that it is Page what page page 21 Ruckers Municipal budget process looks like it was a class for uh some kind of budget class training that would be a yes that's a that's a class that so I don't know who took it but yes who attended I'm sorry who attended that I don't know who attended it but yes that would be a class an employee would have attended would that be the ba the acting ba possible so we're paying for her to go to class now I have no idea who does who would have that answer you can get you answer okay so she gets a salary and now we're paying for her to get her her accreditations or her certificates okay is she required to attend the meetings or or she could just uh not attend as many as she wants Council meetings Council meetings that's not it's not on the agenda and it's just you know do you have any other agenda questions say thank you somebody back there yeah yes I'm sorry I missed you good evening I'd like to Circle back to the discussion on name and address can you hear me now yeah just name and address your name and your address I'd like to Circle back to the you need to state your name and address sorry my name is Gail a and and I'm at Forum to Greenley thank you I'd like to Circle back to the discussion about the church Tate um this is public property it's owned by the taxpayers of the buau and um to that end I'd like to speak to the concept of preserving the public property for future Generations since our government and our residents should be considered Trustees of public property public space it's not just for today's generation but it's for the future generations of dry Beach once public land is gone it is highly unlikely in this bir that there will be many if any um opportunities for public land to be available to us and um I I think that we don't know are for the future we can't even anticipate what they would be but I think that we have a huge responsibility as guardians of public space as trustees that's not just the government officials but it's all the taxpayers to consider that and I would love to talk to any more about this concept but I have had experience in other communities where they had sold a viable School building 15 years ago for $100,000 and now they have spent Millions to expand their existing place that's one idea another another I'm in the education world so that done I know another uh area that mothball their building mothball they let it the use for Girl Scouts and community events and stuff like that and seven years later they opened it up again as a school yeah people in education are very concerned about being Trustees of the future and I would like to see that that be considered in Deer discussions thank you thank you okay we'll move to the next agenda item which is uh ordinance introductions we have one ordinance introduction 20243 and ordinance amending chapter 350 Property Maintenance and housing standards of The Bu of advis General ordinance establish standards for the storage of salt and other solid DIC materials in ordance with mjde requirements I'll make a motion to um introduce this um we have any discussion on we just yeah quick quick question Mr Canon this this really is um just standard language again mirroring the state thank you second Mr Noble yes Mr koszi yes Miss Mahoney yes Mr Weber yes may yes okay moving to adoptions um we have ordinance 2024 D1 uh I'll make a motion yeah make a motion it's okay to table this uh but require he's gone Mr shop to um provide us and well I can talk to L I can talk to Mr Mayor about providing us any modifications that we may have not heard of yeah so I'll make a motion to table second Mr Noble yes uh Mr gubitosi yes Miss Mahoney yes Mr yes mayor yes 20242 it's an ordinance amending chapter 396 storm water management on the bur's revised General ordinance to adopt new regulations consistent with amendments to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protections storm water management rules uh this is an adoption so we'll ask for any public comments on this make motion to open hearing oh I'm sorry make a motion to open the hearing um a second open hearing Mr yes Mr gubitosi yes M Mahoney yes Mr Weber yes mayor Fox yes any questions on the ordinance okay I'll make a motion to close the public uh comment public hearing and make additionally make a motion to approve ordinance 20242 second Mr Noble yes Mr gboi yes M Mahoney yes Mr Weber yes mayor Fox yes um Point order did we do it properly for the for the one before you're tbling it so that's okay second okay okay um consent I'm Excuse me consent agenda resolutions there are five the bill list for March 27 2024 uh 202 2475 approval of the congregation aath aam I sorry thank you Bradley Beach to conduct their Jewish sabbath service at 5th Avenue G on Friday June 14th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm approval New Jersey short cl to conduct at 5K run up ler run for Saturday a April 6 2024 from 8 to 1 approval of te Foundation to conduct their annual remembrance walk for Sunday May May 5th 2024 from 700 a.m. to 1: p.m. award a bid for miniat golf concession license make a motion to Yes um yeah yeah I'd like to have a little discussion on this because um well I would like to vote the bill list out separately um but also there's an issue that that actually our clerk brought to my attention and uh I think it's a significant issue for the burough to address and that is the deposits Erica um in our agenda planning meeting I asked you about the $2,500 deposit for these events yes and and I don't know if our residents know this but I'll lead by saying I did not know this um we do require $2,500 deposits very definitely uh Erica explained to me that it is not a a deposit that we refund the balance unused it's a deposit that is non-refundable we keep it uh I I doubted that I actually said oh Erica that can't be and she assured me it was I actually went to the ordinances and guess what Erica you are right but most people I think I know for a fact because I was talking to Paula Gavin about this for bbca and and Paula was of the assumption that it was a it was a deposit that we held and we you know then we would if we needed $500 to cover DPW expense they would write us a check for500 keep the deposit ongoing for their events so we're about to vote on these consent items and I think two of them requireed the is that correct er uh no only one of them that was that's the ti Foundation okay so one of them yes but but a little I I think I can't speak for the rest of the council but I'm thinking that we might want to amend our ordinance to make to to not necessarily build people 2500 so we are addressing that yeah so do you want to hear how that's being worked right now or no I'm sorry okay yes um so um we do have so the example you use is good example so if we get a $2500 deposit is $500 does that mean we net $2,000 well that's not the intent of the ordinance um we're trying to work through transactionally the best way to do this the legal way to do it it's probably going to be that you give $2,500 we separately build you the $500 and after we receive the 500500 we return the 2500 we're trying to work through that the mechanics of that right now okay good so we're doing that independently because I I thought we had to do that so I'm glad to hear you're ahead of that but for purposes of approving this at least this one event you know right now the ordinance says they don't get that money back either one do they know that or two yes they do know that and they also require service that are probably going to get it's a mega okay say as long as it's a mega evand and it'll go above that and I know we can build them Beyond I just thought if there was a refund issue I wanted to highlight but otherwise I do have a question on the bill list we don't we don't well I want to make a statement and then have a question I appreciate the residents who stood up here tonight and said vote no on the bill list um and I understand for frustrations you have I probably share a lot of the same frustrations I I do not intend to vote no on the bill list tonight because I still feel uh an obligation to at least 95% if not more of the items on the bill list that we probably should be paying so until I get some sort of better understanding of which items I can isolate and vote no on you know it's unlikely that you're going to hear me at least vote no on the entire Bill list um that said I do have a very relatively minor question but on um there's a web International billing as I I wondering if it's like a monthly maintenance feed but it's on page 28 it's $333 33 and it's a it's a small amount except that if it's monthly it you know it would annualize out to $4,000 um but I my sense I guess I want to confirm that and then I want to make a statement that my sense is we are atically overpaying for our website but we don't know you don't know don't all right so um so I'm not gonna I'm I'm not even goingon to vote no on that one payment because it certainly wouldn't be fair to the vendor but I do want to highlight to the rest of the world that I have a potential concern that we're overpaying for this service okay now that concludes my comments so we could continue with the vote I guess okay so make a motion here uh appr the consent agenda okay Mr Noble oh you okay he just moved the consent agenda and I seconded it and I forgot that Al wanted the bill list voted on separately but I think I don't think that's necessary yeah I don't I don't think unless someone else wants it I'm not gonna I'm not gonna line item anything on the bill list okay yes Mr gboi yes M mAh yes Mr Weber yes mayor fo yes okay individual resolutions approved to uh apply for Grant from New Jersey Department of Community Affairs approximately $100,000 for improvements of Bradley Beach Recreation Center previously tabled uh 22824 was tabled because we've just got some more time to uh to find the uh proposal uh make a motion to approve 202454 second Mr Noble yes Mr gboi um I have a question for the mayor mayor if you know this I don't know I know that there's been back and forth conversation um and an email I recently received all related to uh the potential for a dog park in that space where the greenhouse is and I know there are people pros and cons I don't want to debate the U the merits of it I just I'm curious would this grant would any of it be available to that purpose should should the council want to consider that there or do you know this grant would be it's really Geographic it's it's for the recreation area so um anything's possible there's some people recommending some other things it's a matter of getting the Grant and then making the determination could we at least remove the greenhouse May perh remove it just get rid of the greenhouse as long as yeah that could be part of this grant as well yeah I mean that would whatever we decide to do with the grant m i mean that could be retrofitting it could be removing it it could be doing any number of things we have to come up with the designs yeah there was a very specific comment I read uh that it was related to uh drainage for the field so just I didn't know if we could use it for potentially other things as well no there's some specifics that we've already identified that are have to do one of them is a dra okay all right thank you uh so somebody somebody already seconded right yeah yes I think we're up to CH the voting I think yeah okay so you seconded it Mr Noble yes again Mr G yes for the first time Mom yes hopes that we could maybe get a dog park Mr we maybe we should deed restrict the property yes mayor Fox yes good idea 202 2479 governing body certification 2022 audit and group after dat uh discussion please uh yeah okay I've asked for discussion because this is one of those times where you want to break out your iPods or whatever people have nowadays so I'm going to read something because uh I wanted for it to be included in our public record in our minutes and we are going to Simply vote this Council right now is going to Simply vote um on whether or not we read the comments basically in the audit report um I did read the comments and and it's a devastatingly bad audit report so rather than just vote the way I'm going to vote um I'd like to I'd like to use this as my opportunity to let the let our you know residents know um some of the challenges that that incedible Financial incompetency by our Administration our 2022 financial data was so poorly maintained that overarching audit finding 22 2022 d001 stated and I'm going to read this uh verbatim internal control procedures were not in place for preventing or detecting and correcting misstatements of account balances reported in the general lure on a current and timely basis General ledgers that are not completely inaccurately maintained present a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement in financial statement balances will not be prevented or detected and corrected on a timely basis this is one of the worst types of audit assessments that can be received think about the wording a material misstatement is reasonably possible that just should not be the case and it goes on to say and it will not be prevented or detected and corrected there were 16 comments in all that we all have to review and and attest and certify that we read eight of those comments half of them were repeats from last year half of those corrective action comments were left unaddressed for over a year a quick summary of the remaining comments includes trust accounts were not properly established with the state of New Jersey employment contracts must be reviewed the those were both from prior year as well and carried forward monthly receipts and dispersements must be recorded in the general ledger I mean think about that how do must be recorded in the general ledger and reconciled to the bank account statement suggesting that we're not doing that at least not consistently proper authorization uh authorizations were not obtained for overe expenditures of Appropriations in the current fund and the Beach utility operating fund Bank reconciliations someone asked this question earlier who's doing the bank reconciliations bank reconciliations were not completed and accurately reconciled to the general ledger a burrow officer certification was not consistently made on goods and services received Bradley Beach is not in compliance with the state statute that requires a responsible individual to authoriz and supervise the activities of the payroll service provider to make matters worse as of the year end 2022 the auditor was unable to balance our cash on hand to the general ledger our actual cash was roughly $75,000 less than what our books reflected said another way the auditor couldn't account for $75,000 and when you have access to the report this is referred to as miscellaneous reimbursements in exhibit a-4 even more discouraging and this is you know a very serious concern of personally even more discouraging the order confirmed that in 2022 the burrow did not pay ourselves back $1 million that we borrowed from our Surplus um I did ask Mr Coan to pass out this exhibit because I'm going to make some quick references to it but uh I went back 12 I went back 14 years but 12 audit reports back to 2010 and um I'll just roughly talk talk everyone through this but um every year as a matter of course the burrow borrows from our Surplus always with the intent to reimburse our Surplus in the summer of last year so I'm talking June 2023 our mayor our business administrator and our CFO informed the council that $700,000 of this million dooll borrowing had been paid back to the burrow so the council was told that in in the prior year 2022 700,000 of the million had been paid back and I was upset about that and I think other council members might have been as well but because we all thought we dipped into our Surplus $300,000 how could the administration be so unaware of our 22 financial statements financial statement results 6 months after the 22 books should have been closed and what I mean by that is they told us 6 months after the close of the Year 700,000 have been paid back now we're finding out 22,000 was paid back not 700,000 we did not pay back $1 million please note that the council relied upon these misstated amounts when negotiating with the mayor on the 2023 budget I personally pushed very hard to find out what was the amount that we had reimbursed replenished our Surplus because I felt that was at least the rule of thumb a guidelin something I could use to estimate what the subsequent year 2023 might be so we because what happens is every year we make that decision to borrow again well we borrowed again in 20123 $1.1 million and if I had known at that point that in the year just past we had paid back none of it I might have looked at that borrowing I would have looked at that borrowing very differently so for those in attend us tonight I did prepare this ex I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it but but anyone who has it in hand and for folks joining I'm going to ask joining by Zoom I'm G to ask our uh clerk to to include this in our minutes but I went back to 2010 went to every single audit report and pulled out exactly how much we borrowed each year and exactly how much we replenished and in most years out of 12 years that we looked at um three of them we did not get the full 100% replenished in aggregate on average we replenished 134% so even the three bad years were more than offset by the good years um as said we on average replenished 134% uh the the worst bad year we had we replenished 77% that was the worst of three bad years 77% three qus of the money we borrowed we repaid this year we borrowed $988,000 we replenished 2% so I cannot tell people because I see sit here and I I know I'm you know this financial geek and most people your eyes roll back in your head when I start talking about anticipated Surplus but um this was extremely disheartening it should be for all of us what a a state of chaos and disarray our financial department was through the year 2022 that our auditor tells us we can't even reconcile bank accounts and that we we didn't even know that we could not replenish a million dollars of our Surplus I don't know when the administration found out but I found out about a week ago when this audit report was made available to so I will finish my comments on the audit I will vote Yes that I read those comments um but I just want to make sure the rest of the residents understand my concerns thank you thank you thank you so uh make a motion to approve 202 2479 Mr Noble yes Mr gubitosi yes Miss Mahoney yes Mr Weber yes mayor Fox yes 2024 80 authorizing amendments to the temporary budget uh make a motion to approve 20248 second Mr Noble no com okay yes Mr gubitosi yes Miss Mahoney yes Mr Weber yes mayor Fox yes 2481 approval of a shared service agreement with Neptune Su make a motion to approve 20 20 2024 81 yeah um second M no yes Mr gbos yes Miss Mahoney yes Mr Weber yes may yes Point 2482 I'll make a motion to table this uh in that um we can't go through some of the detail but we received um some information in our executive session we us or have have take a re so I'll make a motion to table second this Noel yes Mr gu before I vote just want to make a couple of unscripted comments but for everybody's benefit I came here tonight with zero intention of voting yes on this even before we had our executive session um this resolution was prepared in a vacuum without any input requested or received from the council um it it I sat here and I read an earlier prepared statement where I gave very specifically four criteria that I would need to vote Yes on the ultimate disposition of this property and it included deed restrictions and it included that the burrow would not do uh a demolition ourselves we would make sure that was part of the the purchasers uh obligation needless to say when this bid package came to the council um it was honestly it was just all over the place it was back to beir share housing there's no way I was going to sit here and vote to dedicate one lot which more or less could be worth a half a million could be worth a million I don't know I feel there I felt there would be other opportunities to pursue satisfying our obligation for fair share housing in the in the session we had executive session tonight I think we've discovered that there probably are other opportunities so this was premature I think it was Ill illc conceived uh and for all of you who stood up here tonight and said please vote no I wanted to tell you then that I that I had no intention of voting no for the same reasons that you shared with us tonight so thank you and I'll vote Yes for tling Miss Mahoney yes Mr Weber I will also go off script and up stain uh before I vote um i' just like to say that councilman gubitosi I think your comments are just a little bit off on this uh number one um this package went out on March 12th at 448 uh the memo in the package cited your four specific require requirements uh that they were addressed March 12th today's March 27th I did get feedback from one council person uh council president um denoble last Wednesday and I've been attempting to answer her question so um we develop a bid package and we expect feedback and inut you didn't open it through March 20th you hadn't even opened the email so I I take a little bit of exception to the fact that you say that you weren't um notified on this um it was eight days went by that you didn't even open the email so um let's not misinform people and say we just came today with on on March 27th the pack said approv it this went out on March 12th and the reason it went out on March 12th was as we asked please review Etc we gave it to the um burrow attorney the burough attorney last Friday said this meets all the legal R I don't want to get into a long and drawn out argument because I think between now and next week we're going to be able to work through a couple of the issues on here but um I will vote uh yes on the table thank you Mr Mayor I'd like to make a comment back in fact um as you accuse me of misinforming people and that my comments um were inappropriately uh shared I have a prepared statement that I was not going to read until now but on March 12th I received an email from our business administrator and it stated there are four councilman gubitosi requirements as I understand them one the governing body should approve a subdivision plan and have it processed before the lanus board prior to say that is accurate two the governing body should approve the requirements in detail to pre-qualify potential developers that is also accurate three not in favor of the burrow this is a summary not in favor of the burrow managing the demolition of the buildings I was absolutely adamant about that and four a public auction opposed to a RFP process I wanted a public auction not an RFP process so Mr Mayor you're right my comments were addressed by the business administrator then the the business administrator said in in her note I have been able to satisfy these requests to varying degrees and then she said the email continues I am unsure how to address the first second and third requirements so when you when you say these things to the public please know what you're talking I know what I'm talking about Council yeah I do and the point is that you li to these people please don't say that that's that's very inappropriate you just said my comments were addressed how is that honest how is that accurate what I'm telling you is on March 12th you had every opportunity to come forward and say let's work through number one two three four this is why there were reasons why those things had this the noble told me I didn't have to open it for those open are you are you represented by council president Den Noble hoping she applies for her law degree next because she's very good my point is she told me what was in the email I'm like this is unbelievable it is relevant relevant is that you put together a packet with a team that nobody knows that exists you you say we have to have affordable housing I already solve that we don't have to have it I don't think we've solved anything yet okay well I I made a very good suggestion but would have loved to been part of this team that created this packet I have land use experience we've all been on the land use board over the planning board at one point or another the opening bid amount is ridiculous it has to be reassessed because it's way too low the two options there should be one option the artifacts what's going on with them we don't know there's just so many questions that weren't answered I I I sent many emails and I CC everybody so they were in the loop even if they did or did not read it but I printed it out and shared it with councilman guos so that's another way to read it without opening and it's it's amazing to me that you know that would be on the 20th right it's again relevant but I did a lot of research before I I'm not saying that you I don't know you're asking me I looked at the packet I was not included it took me five months to get the packet so it took me a week to really digest it and come up with a lot of questions that I had and which I still have and we're tbling this because this package was just unacceptable again I wasn't included in this President we T we're tabling it because we have some information that we have to distill who brought that to your attention Council and I believe the fair share housing person was given and I think I should also be in that committee as well yeah thank you okay thank you uh there's no announcements so uh mayor and Council reports we'll start with councilman wether thing I have a very very big announcement everybody you know that really huge lottery ticket that was sold it wasn't me I know you were hoping that it was me but it wasn't it could solve a lot of problems um Sol a lot of problems um I'm going to read fire first aid report first aid report um for the operational period ending on March 27th 2024 that's today uh Squad responded to seven day calls three Night Calls for a total of 10 calls seven were for medical three were for fire the squad conducted one drill for the safety and education membership there were no out of town Mutual Aid requests and Squad requested no Mutual Aid assistance um in that period uh fire department we're going to do those reports monthly by the way but I'm sure that they would both both departments would like everyone to know that they're still looking for volunteers for fireing first date uh they provide free training qualified individuals uh anyone wishing to volunteer for either the fire department or the first aid applications can be found on the website um and there's cooperation between these two departments that allows us to keep answering the Citizens need for medical care and fire prote protection at no cost for 47 365 so in the fire department um I was not here last week for the the Fletcher Lake commission meeting so I do not have a report I'm sure Jane is going to tell you more about a tree planting for shade tree committee um we are gonna have a tree planting on May 4th and uh we're goingon to need volunteers just like we do this twice a year every year so anybody wants to volunteer plant trees in the planting strip see me email me call me um and you're saying we'll probably plant maybe a couple dozen trees and probably could use a couple dozen volunteers it's usually 9: to about noon or whenever we are done uh I would like to comment that the fire speaking of the fire department the fish fry was great uh it was great to see a lot of our police officers there that was great um had a good time and I hope everybody that was able to attend had a good time and now I'm going to go back to the first aid for one thing I think it was the last meeting we approve uh a point toss I think it's on 4th of July week weekend whatever um people should recognize that that hasn't happened in a long time um in a long time I'll leave it at that so save your change give it to the the first a spot in coin toss I know the schools raising money they want your lose change too uh and if you have money that doesn't jiggle and it folds and you want to give them that they like that too so uh save up for 4th of July support the first dat and uh that's my report thanks very much thank you just a quick um note oh U the fish fry I won the 5050 I gave it back DJ he wanted me to but it was great it was a good time uh okay um the L board me met on March 21st um three applications came before the Landers board the first uh was for 302 Parkplace Avenue to extend a driveway add a second story on and an existing structure construct a garage and an outdoor shower and that was approved six to3 with four variances uh 900 Ocean Avenue saw a use variance for a bed and breakfast to change into a single family home uh due to a fire and replace the Lost garage apartment with the driveway the application was pushed to May 16th meeting for more testimony uh finally 27 and a half Pacific Avenue applied to enclose an area under an existing garage the changes required two Bol variances at a use variance the application was carried into May 16th meeting for more testimony the next time they will meets is April 18th at 6:30 um I just have a couple of other comments um we received the two 2022 audit and in this meeting we're just being we were asked to certify that we received the audit and we read the comments and recommendations with that said and I didn't check with the council me goosi before I wrote wrote my comments so if I'm a little repetitive not only did the audit find 15 internal control and compliance matters 16 depending on how you count them but eight of those issues were from 2021 shockingly the suffer onto the 2024 budget I optimistically and perhaps naively joined this council with the goal of getting the budget process started early and running smoothly I wanted transparency accountability and clear reporting this is what I was good at in my past life on Wall Street the municipal budgets are a different beast in some ways deadlines are an immutable Tas March 27th only 6: PM as I wrote this and we still have no preliminary Budget on top of that when I first sat down with this Administration in October we talked we had talked about delivering clear quarter quarterly numbers for each burrow fund showing actual costs and percentage budget excuse I am hope hopeful that I can see the 2023 actual versus budget at the end of March as for the budget itself I have no idea it's not for lack of trying on the part of this Council now seeing the inter ations of communications requests and answers my sympathy extends to my fellow council members like the audit this is not progress and do the people of Bradley beach again suck those are my comments thank you councilman buosi start with as Le on to our Police Department I'll start with our police report uh detective Lieutenant brownie gave me a very report for this council meeting that he said thankfully we have not had any anything significant to report in regard to crime or arrest since the last council meeting so thank you great news great news um I also did have a chance to to meet with Captain Arnold and we discussed some um Capital Improvement needs for the police department uh as you're all aware soon we should be working on the budget and I wanted to get a head start with the captain just to make sure I understood um the police Department's needs and and maybe priorities um regarding the 2024 budget itself uh I believe did did it get sent out Mr Mayor like 6:15 today uh it's got sent out this evening yeah yeah somebody somebody did tell me I haven't seen it but I'm told it's in my inbox so that that's Obviously good news we originally thought we'd get it January 31st then we passed a resolution to delivered on February 27th here we are March 27th and we now have a draft of the preliminary budget um the reason I say that is because it's it's taken at least a month I mean I could say two but January 3rd versus pretty aggressive but it's taken we're a month later than we should be in receiving this budget and my concern is that we are now and I think Miss Miss Kepler actually mentioned this earlier you know the way this works and it has worked exactly this way um it's wait around wait around wait around till we finally get the budget and then it's like all hands on deck get this approved get this adopted immediately um and it's just not going to work that way this year I I we've tried repeatedly to work collaboratively if we can work collaboratively this year great but speaking only for myself I am not approving any budget until I am very comfortable that it is as accurate as I can determine it to now realizing that even the numbers I was working with last year were not very reliable um I'm the leaz the San Lake commission and the San Lake commission members reached out to Mayor Fox just a few days ago to express concerns about the the critical status of The Flume on the East End of silin lake and they noted that The Flume was broken and that uh water was rapidly draining from Sil Lake endangering the fish and foul life and causing an odor mayor Fox responded very quickly that the work is proceeding this week and commission members have relayed to me that they're they're very happy to have got such a quick response from the mayor um I've got to make a quick comment about uh local 152 um we talked about this a little while back a number of our Union uh members joined us at a council meeting and expressed concerns um I had a longer statement to read I'm not going to read it but I will say it's been 15 months I don't understand why so little progress has been made um the council has requested repeatedly for us keep in mind we ultimately have to uh approve any contract that's negotiated we've requested repeatedly to have a voice at the table any one of us just have a voice at this table because we get feedback from our own employees that our negotiating team is quote unquote not being reasonable I don't know if that's true I'm not accusing our negotiating team of any wrongdoing or poor negotiating but I just don't know if it's true and if they're saying that why not allow one other council member to join these negotiations um so you know folks said at the last meeting somebody referenced some of the invoices uh the bill list invoices for negotiations by our attorneys um somebody said at one of the last meetings that we're coming close and may even exceed uh paying legal fil legal bills that are greater than what we would that we would negotiate as a a merit increase for our uh our employees I mean I I think I don't know this but I I think the total salaries for this group might be around $1.5 million a 3% incre increase would be $445,000 a 4% increase you know you guys do the math but if that's the kind of magnitude we're talking about of a merit pay increase it seems silly to me that we're paying our lawyers 40,000 and more and Counting so I just had to say it makes no sense to me that the council is not allowed to participate to some degree just to give another perspective here I'm I'm just openly asking the mayor to share with the council the Union's most recent proposal to allow us to sit in executive session because we haven't seen it to allow us to sit in executive session with the labor attorney with the business administrator with the resident volunteer who's negotiating and and explain to us where we stand uh and then finally uh I'll just make a Financial appeal to everyone we're we're still trying to raise money for our fallen heroes uh at the moment we are wul short relative to our goal with Memorial Day rapidly approaching and again our fallen heroes I'm referencing uh the the the the people whose lives were lost in combat uh in the armed services uh who were from Bradley Beach we have 19 that are already recognized on monuments around town one more that we will be adding this year so again if anyone has some spare change lying around the house and you can make a donation to the fallen heroes it's Mr shamin has set up a collaboration with the burrow Council via the uh Bradley Beach historical society and we can make contributions there thank you very much council president thank you I'll try to be breef since it's so late so uh we didn't have a shade tree meeting but on a side note the Bradley Beach six R Class took a tour of the trees on their campus with member Noel Weinberg and myself Janes and Noble and we identify the trees there which included White Oak red maple Red Oak tulip Eastern White Pine River Birch and red bud and we also talked about how the trees provide oxygen they improve air quality they conserve water preserving soil and support Wildlife including our local boxes next we have tourism they had a meeting on March 18th good news tourist director Amy Hall secured $2,000 sponsorship from the mammoth County tourism division the Shamrock hunt was a huge success the commission discussed that they're going to approve one day event next year to better promote visitors to Main Street also mark your calendars April 21st is the fourth annual Earth Day Festival and green Fair that'll be held in Riley foundation for locating the gr that's a huge amount of money that help you saving us taxpayers and we we really appreciate that Bravo to everybody great great work um on another finan to not the Bradley Beach Board of Ed presented their 2024 2025 tenative budget for which there'll be a public hearing on May 7th after losing over $50,000 in state aid their budget reflected an increase of $59 for the average home assisted at $1 million another job well done by our Board of Ed let's not forget that in the 2023 budget 2024 budget year we saw a decrease in our school tax taxes oh and more good news they celebrated the winter teams and the coaches and the girls basketb basketball team is the 2023 mammit County Athletic League National division Champions with a record of 12 and uh his daughter Nora was on the team as well the boys well they didn't do was so good but they had a lot of fun and the coach was wonderful and all I I congratulate all the uh athletes and and their uh teamwork very important thank you that completes my report thank you uh I just have a couple things to cover first um I want to clarify something that I mentioned the last meeting on the uh funding Grant Community Project funding grants um so I announced that we got an award uh and we certainly thanked um congressman palone and Senator Booker uh I mentioned that um we had two applications one for silven Lake and one for Main Street I kind of combined that sentence and I should have separated the sentence the applications were for S Lake and Main Street the award just went to Main Street silen Lake did not receive an award I clarified that with the silen lake team and they were disappointed but that's the way the uh Grant crumbled this time uh hopefully better better luck next time on that one as I said um a lot of improvements that we can assess and kind of get lined up relative to Main Street um the grant is is $1,400,000 uh it clearly isn't enough to revamp the whole of Main Street but we can get a good start on it uh we want to start looking at some Define design and implementation uh we want to get a a small team together to start looking at the prior plans and and see where we go from there um I know that um we've had an initial me and initially met with CME on this and they're they're just going to get kind of an idea set of ideas U for us um as it relates to the boardwalk preservation grant that 4 um3 million that we'd have to match 200,000 it's about 4.6 um the CM has already started um looking at design phase um specking out some environmental requirements um some survey requirements some conceptual requirements uh made de contact and um they're not sure whether we've got to engage the Army Corp yet but um or if but I think we do um so we're the point is on this on this 6 million worth of uh grants for our community we're we're beginning to move on those so we can move forward uh we've already received um requests from Congressman Pon Booker's office for next year already uh so we're going to begin to work on that too it might be a good way to complement what we already have hopefully we can do that but we'll see how that goes um I you probably some people have seen this uh on social media I guess yesterday maybe the day before uh on mayor's Wellness um I think I mentioned the last meeting we received that healthy town to watch in 2022 uh in 2023 we were we actually um went up a level and happy to report that uh we achieved a healthy Town designation uh there's 17 towns that achieved this um we thought we were kind of a year away from that but we um we exceeded our expectation uh I'm really grateful for the recognition of the team that's worked so hard in this area I also want to congratulate um some other Shore or M County towns uh bayhead Wildwood Crest Asbury Park who's a repeat and Freehold um received um healthy Town designation and ston harbor Brigantine Atlantic City Red Bank and brick received either a town to watch or up and coming so uh I think we've quickly kind of moved up that curve and we're going to continue to work on programs that make our community uh healthier going forward um that's all I have for now um just I just ask you to for uh of brevity I won't go into the library and Recreation U but just check the website for the upcoming events with that I'll close my comments and move to public comments yes Beth keper 504 Central Avenue here in town um I would like to speak and address um a superior court decision that was handed down yesterday afternoon in regard to um Chief weda and um the judge allowed Chief WEA to get away with his actions with no ramifications to him due to Mayor Fox the acting business administrator DeMarco and labor attorney Burnstein all who criminally conspired to hide the report from the council the court system and the mammoth County prosecutor's office have both failed we the people in this process first the prosecutor's office decided not to press Criminal charges against Chief waa which they had the authority and the discretion to do and then the judge who failed to protect the interests of the residents of um the burrow yesterday decided to protect the um the rights and the interests of Chief weda the council should urgently provide yesterday's decision to the attorney general as further proof supporting the need for immediate and impaneling of a grand jury seeking criminal indictments for collusion against the aforementioned in indviduals who conspired to protect Chief waa from appropriate disciplinary action the residents and the burrow of Bradley Beach have been damaged by um these individual actions Fox DeMarco and Bernstein and that in this matter specifically and other additional situations um collectively and separately and each of these individual should be held accountable by way of um some kind of a lawsuit or indictment and consideration by the burrow to sue these individuals personally being that there I did receive thank you for your response to my oer request um in regard to I asked for a copy of the individual Fidelity performance insurity bond a liability POS uh policy held personally by mayor Larry Fox since January 5th of 20121 um as is required and um I was informed that there are no resp responsive records for um this part of my request and I did receive your oath of office so therefore that means that you are personally liable for damages now because of the fact that the council is not able to take appropriate disciplinary action um due to the withholding and the hiding of the report because you know mayor Fox is saying that the council which we have an ordinance and usually ordinances when they're broken which are considered laws people are arrested um I'm not sure why our police are not acting on I mean if I were to break an ordinance I'd be arrested so um mayor Fox subverted our ordinance and he did not provide the report to the council which we have an ordinance that says he was supposed to however he was trying to justify that he didn't provide it to you because he was still working with the prosecutor's office but somehow acting uh burrow administrator DeMarco and um labor attorney Bernstein they somehow were special and they were able to have access to that information and as a result of the fact that the council was not able to act as would have been their right to take disciplinary action such as the moting there would have been now there will not be um a a public Municipal trial for the actions of Chief weda and disciplin action which could have included demotion or some kind of financial renumeration for his actions will not be allowed to take place now which is considered damages against us we the people because now he will be able to move forward with his um retirement and going before the pension board without any kind of penalty or demotion like he would not if now he'll be retiring as a chief as opposed to maybe he could have been demoted down to patrolman and retired at a patrolman salary so there is a financial not just a um moral and ethical issue in hand here and that the mayor would hide that and then misrepresent circumstances under which in the timing and how he received the report and the actions that he took to keep it from the council which is there's an existing ordinance um Chief Arnold were Captain Arnold could you please express um what your position is about the fact that um mayor Fox withheld in violation of our ordinance the report that he was supposed to have provided that he was in receipt of on January 19th and shows not to could you express what your feelings as Chief would be and how you will be handling that thank you those comments thank you keep that in mind that Captain will not John 107 Second Avenue uh I have been working back and forth with lining the driveways or the street or parking parking towards the beach which is you know on the first house and I have a two-car garage with a one car apron cut very challenging for homeowners and for beach goers I didn't believe after 20 years there was going to be any resolution to it except when I see the first block from Main Street on Second Avenue and the first block on Third Avenue all lined with parking and delineated driveways also North Avenue is completely lined with first block parking and driveways all the way down to Main Street driveway delineations I was working I thought with mayor Fox and I thought that he said he was thinking that it was going to happen but he would also like the parking eliminate delineate but I haven't heard anything and you know I I first called the road department because I thought well they're the ones that do the yellow lines they're probably the ones that line the driveways they can't make that decision no and they said they can't and then they said no the police department makes it so I called the police department and I think I talked to a sergeant um Sullivan no Arnold maybe he's Captain Captain okay well captain and he said to me well if I do it for you I have to do it for everybody but as I say I think that ship sail because you did it for somebody and that's all I have to say I've been you know a homeowner here for 30 years the home that I built is 20 years old and I've been going through this for 20 years this is the latest picture of somebody in my driveway who the police they give a ticket to but they won't they won't take him out they won't tell him and then held in my house from 6 o'clock in the morning until almost 2 o'clock in the afternoon until somebody decides to move and then they curse me up and down that you know they I should get an e ticket every e day of my life because they got a ticket and they're in my driveway and I can't pull out and that's cool thank you may you have your number of your home again yes 107 okay thank you yeah it's the first house towards the D thank you yes Nancy Meadow ocean par Condominiums I want to um first of all do my little Public Service Announcement which is that um our next meeting is April 10th your next meeting is April 10th that also is the second Wednesday of an even month which is plastic film pick up day so um since that has not been changed I would like to encourage everyone to put out the plastic film um I want to reiterate what I learned this evening because it got a little confusing with names and people being thrown around that the mayor stated that he and the CFO are who signs the checks so quite honestly that really doesn't concern this DeMarco um because it is those two people responsibility um and we're I don't know why we can't know who does what job um but I'll just put it right out here yes we are spending $300 a month for that disgusting useless website and it would be better if our employees did the job properly and I don't know how it is again I actually got on a mailing list for the mayor newsletter do any of you think I want to receive that who put me on it that's the last thing I want to see in my inbox and then it went on and on about our food pantry and our volunteers they are not ours they are their own business and every you're going to do that for them and I say this to you all the time been do it for every other business in this municipality how dare you be that biased and especially with our money I still don't know the difference between commission and department but I do know when I click on things like borrow Hall I don't know where to look for something on the list because there's no order maybe it's the teacher me you do things alphabetically I don't know but again it is an employee who does this so do not stand there and sit there and tell us we canot talk about the incompetence of the employees unless it is you who tell them do not be organized do not be accurate take Liberties it's one or the other and we since we're paying for it I think it is extraordinarily unjust I also failed to say regarding the whole electric charging station thing which I really did want a while ago until it got blown out of proportion land of rosess and blocking people's paring spaces in front of their house this new law thing is not needed right away we don't have to comply right away technology will make Leaps and Bounds in the next 10 years on all of that that whole thing doesn't just need to be tabled it needs to be put away for another eight years I also don't understand why are we are spending money on a TPA and then yet this bid package on the church thing was done by the B acting ba and the mayor it just is mind boggly on every level how we continue to waste money how people who don't know enough involve themselves in things they shouldn't be involved in have people who don't know the direction we want to go into we don't want that grandiose plan for for Main Street that's not what we want how many years are we going to have it presented pay for a second presentation presentation no thank you it's not what we want and to have the same people be consulted is sure changing the other residents in the town and that's it is I'm going to go and to get my recyle thank you I still have time my thing didn't go off said you were done I I never said I'm done gave that impression well maybe it's your interpretation so definitely is and your arrogance and your offense and the comments you make to the public you need to be the one to monitor yourself and your comments and state the facts yeah I was point of you while you're getting up i' just like to say that our Municipal Employees work hard every day and do a good job and it's unfortunate for people sometimes yes I'm sorry I didn't I didn't hear everything comment and the question given our ordered issues that we're starting to hear about now I don't understand how we approv the bill list without someone here to answer questions should we here's my question should we have a process in place to ensure questions are answered prior to approval you're putting the council and yourself in a very difficult spot right now by approving me these bills and again when they're audit and I know things are sometimes a little different but it's all money and all kind of comes together so I asked the question again should we have a poli a processing police to ensure questions are answered prior to yeah I I took your comment down and I'll certainly talk this this thank you thank you yes re Maguire 610 BR the a um okay this audit information has been spinning I'm going to remind everyone that I came up here last year discussing the replenishment of the anticipated Surplus for 2022 during the budget season last year and I harped on the 300,000 because in 2022 we only passed the budget because of a $300,000 amount that the council didn't want approved it got eliminated in 2022 the budget passed okay when we came into 2023 mayor you don't have to look at me like you're going to stab me okay no I'm just trying to understand well okay so we came into 2023 and I kept mentioning this 300,000 because I found it to be very much of a coincidence that the budget got approved without this 300,000 had been in payroll and so we REM it got removed because it was too much of a raise and it's the only way the budget was going to get approved in 2022 when we came into 2023 we found out that we were we had only replenished 700,000 into the anticipated surplus of the million we used so I sat here and said wow what a coincidence that we didn't pass 300,000 in the 2022 budget budget but now we see that we didn't replenish 300,000 okay and I harped on this and Mr farach and miss and Larry Fox treated me like I was an imbecile every time I was up here talking about that so here we are now with the proof from an audit that they lied by omiss by not even correcting the fact that 700,000 wasn't paid back and only $22,000 was paid back so I also recall sitting up here standing up here when we were told we were going to have an 11% Municipal tax increase but that was an error it was more like 13.2 and I remember standing up here and saying how can that be did our Council were they given false numbers to vote on during the 2023 re budget I said those words up here again looked at like I was some imbecile well guess what you guys were given false numbers last year and when this budget comes in front of you I don't care if we can't pay anyone I don't care if not one penny gets paid until this mayor steps down we cannot give him the responsibility of doing anything with our money again again if you all introduce this budget just introduce it you are part of this criminality you are part of these lies you are part of wasting our tax dollars with no idea of where it went and I want to also remind everybody that in 2022 when we used a million dollars and didn't replenish it guess what else we use that we have no records on we got $217,000 of covid money that year too that we have no records on where that was spent this is a federal issue we don't just need State investigations in here we need Federal in investigations in here now we cannot he will bankrupt us before we can we can we can manage our own money we can manage our own money here we will do it he needs to step down because he cannot manage a penny we have what was it that um councilman goosi said about the audit we have no Bank reconciliations we don't balance Bank bank accounts we don't balance bank account how many bank accounts do we have how many four four do you know how many do we have 20 or do we have like five I think it's like 20 something okay and we don't reconcile bank accounts guys and we have over 20 bank accounts trust accounts dipped in and out to that is against the law to not have those records thank you can you please resign we can't give you another Penny thank you Thomas J Coan 612 Third Avenue um mayor you said we have a healthy Town designation is that what you said we do but it's not a financial healthy Town designation um I did want to say that Mr Canon I mean I think everyone should call the DCA tomorrow and and use this uh New Jersey statute 52 colon 27 bb-51 which calls into question the officer of the municipality who shall keep accounts and res and perform the duties in accordance with the rec recommendations of the DCA this report should go to the DCA and that person should forfeit their office um that's what the statute says again if you needed 52 colon 27 BB 51 um I feel bad for Mr Ross uh I've been requesting uh Street striping on Main Street for 10 years so I'm hoping that Mr Ros can get his striping but that the 1.4 million dollar that's set aside for Main Street can be used for striping uh ladder crosswalks where there's no signalized intersections um and I mean it just has to be done it it's Sil uh but also I wanted to clarify I got approval from this Council to purchase two benches for my building at 401 Main Street and um I'm working with the bbca and the council to determine what that's going to be so now that we got this grant I'm not one to spend money twice so I don't want to have to spend money on these benches and then have the benches not match whatever's going on on Main Street so is there anyone who can give me some direction on that because I want to drop a couple Grand and find out I got to change them out maybe we could use benches that you choose AS stand bench on Bradley Beach doesn't use anything that I choose we could choose to do that we have a committee Council M I'm just so happy Beach Education Foundation was willing to take in the refugee that I am because I wasn't accept it on any other thank you but thank you very much the Tre yes she I don't know exactly how I want to present this so please be patient with me I found it absolutely amazing that everybody congratulated the fact that the school got a new system and it was done by a group of people who did it out of the goodness of their heart and for the sole purpose of the benefit of the school I did not hear the mayor say thank you I don't understand your I don't understand it how you find it so difficult to thank human beings with No Agenda who work very very hard to make our town better and you don't have the courtesy to acknowledge them and say thank you I find that very disturbing and I'm going to give you my bill list so questions so maybe I will get these answered and please M Marco gets a C thank you yes real quick I just wanted to add my voice to the gentleman who requested striping um just give me your name and address I am sorry Lauren edbert 404 and a half brenley aano um I don't know now if the budget will allow for it but I would love to see striping throughout the town and certainly on Brinley Avenue on my street um there are people that take their half out of the middle on on you know in order to preserve a parking space for somebody and it really cuts down on the amount of cling that we have on the road so and also I think you know that I'm not sure how happy people were about the striping that was done on on North was it yeah and um and and they are asking you know why here and not other places and I was thinking yeah why there not on my street you know so please consider the possibility of striking um throughout the town thank you yes Lind w312 rley I'd like to thank um councilman toi for providing us with this information it must have taken a long time to do this does the audit compare what we budgeted for something and what we actually spent on something I I don't understand how the audit works I mean it's it's a it's a a 200 Page document it's really really thick and it's it's got budget is another word an hour vernacular is appropriation so what what we think we're going to spend is appropriation and it it what we spent and what we spent is expenses and it gives us both so it's in there so does it tell us where we went over I mean obviously spend too much money way too much money so which areas do we have to concentrate on minimizing the expended expend it's it's yeah it's it's basically in there but it's it's very complex and it's we've had I've had it for about a week and I haven't even details but it'll take a little while for me and I presume oh I'm not asking you to no but I'm saying through it I just want to know if that information is available to us because for you to get a budget maybe your budget can't be as you know large as it is for certain departments and we have to really our belts because this is really unacceptable thank you very much thank you yes the Avenue um I ever Chang the form for the us to fill out for the Mercantile license I appreciate it thank you so much for changing it it's much easier to read that says that you have a professional license you don't have to pay for it so thank you whoever did that um I also had a concern that the mayor is not concerned um seems that only councilman I mean I'm sure everyone is but mayor Fox is more concerned about the mayor's wellness camp and our Zoom meetings that five people attend when you're spending our money and you can't reconcile you're not concerned about that you don't tell us like everyone hey I'm so this is here I'm going to act as the people of Bradley Beach I'm very sorry that the audit came back this way we're going to do our best to um reconcile make it better uh we want to make Bradley Beach a great town I'm sorry the audit happened this way but we're going to do better we're going to make that money spend and show you how we spend it that's awesome right wouldn't have been so great to hear that and I would have felt good we all would have felt good but obviously you have no concern you made more of a diet tribe about the mayor's Wellness campaign than the audit which I I can't believe you did that um and the last thing was I know there was a thank not a thank you giv and um I I understand why there was no thank you giv I mean I courtesy would be you buy someone a drink they say thanks have a great night I purchased the mayor's drinks and uh I got no thank you so please don't anyone expect it thank you for a I'm sorry anymore from this point till November there will be no thank yous I'm sorries just don't expect them they're not going to happen um it's just not the way he operates and thank you that should I'm not done did I okay I'm sorry I thought you were done no you do this all the time I get L you Su you have no timing whatsoever you just assume I get it's late I mean the ba knows it's late she left very early is there any way that we can make her stay here this stinks I wanted to ask her hey did you take a class at Ruckers University that I had no idea about was that someone else Erica didn't take it who took that class I'd love to know that that she taking a class to try to do her job that's like me going to an anatomy class while I'm already a doctor doesn't work that way you kind of have to take that beforehand so that's really scary so thanks thank you uh there's one on the board I cannot read the name Mr castano Mr cast can hi can you hear me I can hear you okay great thanks um I'm very I'm very I'm sorry 60 604 Bradley Boulevard I'm really intrigued about this budget can somebody uh inform me how many line items is this budget how big is it what's the size how many checks how many POS do we have how many checks do we write here any does anybody have any data about the volume I I know there used to be an Excel spreadsheet with 800 uh account line items but I have no idea how many checks we write okay so I'll just throw this out there um in companies when they can't figure out what to do they Outsource it because they realize they don't have the resources they don't have the talent they don't have the continuity between people as they turn over and you know what they basically do is they say we're going to pay somebody to do this we obviously don't have procedures we don't know what commitments we make we can't keep track of our our expenses and it's probably going to take a lot of resources to do and and a lot of people because we it doesn't seem like we have the basic people infrastructure in place to do it otherwise we would be doing a lot better on all the things I heard tonight so I would just say rather than looking at Outsourcing you know the water pipes we should look be looking at Outsourcing somebody that take care of our budget pay it as a bill every year and uh and and solve the problem that way thank you for listening thank you okay I'll make a motion to uh adjourn fav uh hey whatever e just gave you did she give you more this