##VIDEO ID:NYOxfCU97v4## sure [Music] hav [Music] I told is irrelevant thank you very much no [Music] hor myself little welcome everyone like to call this meting to order Allegiance FL of the United States of America and to the rep for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and jce I wish to announce that 48 hour notice is required under the open public meetings Act was emailed to the app Park Press the coastar and the new coaster on December the 19th of 2024 that a copy has been placed on the bulleon board in the burough office that a copy has been filed with the municipal clerk as a courtesy to the public this meeting may be attended via Zoom if for any reason the zoom portion of this meeting fails or is disconnected the inperson meeting will continue and action can and will be taken Mr Noble here M M green here Mr nki here Mr Weber here mayor Ki here he you got it okay um we have completed roll call moving to item number five on the agenda uh we want to have some fairly brief workshops just to keep4 B first oh I'm sorry yes U 4 a right 4 a 4 a yes we want to introduce a resolution for filling the vacancy on on our Council that we where we swore in uh Mr noi U on January 1st and this is just a resolution yes this is a resolution confirming that so I'd like to make a motion to uh approve resolution 202536 second Mr Noble yes M greenl yes Mr noi Mr Weber yes mayor gzi yes now we'd like to begin a couple of quick workshops um just have the council discuss a couple items on our agenda tonight to make sure we're keeping the uh the residents up to speed the first one is Charter study commission budget and attorney RFP uh and maybe does anyone care to start with some comments as to what we're doing okay I'll start um very specifically most people are aware there's a charter study commission that's uh members were elected this past November uh and they are reviewing our former government as to whether or not it makes sense to continue uh fogner act fall municipality or consider alternatives they will conduct rigorous study over the next six months or so five six months and um and they have already they already met they've already elected officers and they have already made a resolution requesting uh funding from the from the bur which is very standard operating procedure so what we'll be voting on a little later tonight is um is how we will make those budgeted funds available to the Charter study commission um and U it's largely a question I'll just give a high level overview the charter study commission has identified up to $50,000 that they may need for funding uh very roughly split 35,000 for all their initial analysis and all their work they're going to be I see a few members of the commission here not everybody um they will be uh interviewing other talents they'll be interviewing other employees they have to hire an attorney to give them a lot of legal guidance through this process um and so my understanding is the town of Red Bank went to a similar process budgeted roughly 50,000 for everything roughly 35,000 of that 50 should be um I'll say pre-decision and then to the extent of decision is made to move forward with a recommended change the extra 15,000 would be then then used for communications and an additional work that the charter study commission might undertake so what we have uh codified tonight for for vote is um just confirming basically that what I just said that there will be 50,000 total appropriated 35,000 uh initially expended and then the other 15,000 available if needed uh and what um what those what that funding would be available for which is pretty much everything I mean uh largely hiring the attorney hiring a secretary some miscellaneous activity you know um technology what whatever the the the commission needs will be covered by that ultimately up to $50,000 so any other any other questions or comments can I yeah I'm going to make a motion now to open it up to the public for discussion I'm trying to be as as okay have to okay we will now open it up to the public I'm ref Kaplan 409 bringley Avenue I'm also the the chair of the charter stud commission so just a couple of details on Mr Mayor what you just laid out let's say of the 35,000 roughly 25,000 goes to legal as we know where cost money roughly 5,000 for secretary and 5,000 for other administrative costs along the way we're actually hoping we can get it for less than that but I'm not going to ask for less than that so uh that's a good starting point and uh we are eager to get going thank you very much other questions or comments from the public three um well rley Avenue I did notice that you have a resolution for us to hire a um legal councel do we need a resolution to hire a secretary also or no no thank you that's all I need to thank you other comments Toth Avenue has that speaker always been in front of the mayor's chair always the ow I can't see him should we get out booster I think I think yeah it used to be a little I am just ious what does the Secretary do that's outside of what the members of the commission do take notes for one thing prepare minutes things like that I mean perhaps other members of the commission can answer I I can actually answer that because I went to the first meeting it basically so the members can actually listen without having to take notes you have someone else there that's taking the notes and the minutes okay so this way they don't have to multi task if I can add to that we already have an applicant who has excellent experience in credentials she is also Adept at managing Zoom calls so that takes a huge logistical headache off our plate as well thank you me sh SP 4th Avenue is it possible that we can move this over there this Podium because it's such an it's an obstacle we can certainly look into that I'm sorry I didn't mean to digress from the meeting but after what you said if we can't see and I'm so sure I can't see you motion form a commission to stud I whoa I set the room up fine I'll move it back to there next meeting okay I I we'll take it think about it I apologize you're right John it used to be I'm sorry it actually is a lot better though can people on Zoom still see it perhaps someone will comment on out apologize no problem any other comments in the anyone on zo no okay so if uh if there no further comments we'll go on to our second Workshop which um is titled financial consultants but U for those of you who looked ahead on the agenda we are going to be voting on hiring two different financial consultants U and just again very quick discussion on that one uh Mr Frederick iow is actually being hired on fairly limited scope services to uh help the council the governing body understand uh a bit of a look back in Tower financials so not anywhere near as in- depth as an audit but he's got a very lengthy resume of helping uh distressed municipalities bankrupt municipalities municip fraud and other issues that that they've addressed and he's often come in and you know help them solve some of their challenges so we identified him uh through recommendations and for relatively limited engagement he's going to give us fairly thorough overview is what I'm told um to just again look back historically at where we've been as a as a bur financially the the second gentleman is named John Bennett uh Bennett Barrett Barrett thank you um and Mr Barrett will actually be coming in to serve as our interm CFO most of you may not realize but at this moment in time until we have a vote tonight uh we don't have a CFO operating at all so uh it is important to get someone in place a lot of it's very tactical uh flipping our admin system closing out 24s admin flipping it so it opens for 25 and uh you know a lot of other activity helping EST some temporary budgets helping us continue the process of establishing a budget for 2025 um so um those are basically the two resolutions we're going to address tonight any other comments from the council I have a question for you Mr Mayor um when do you expect the search for a permanency of to be good uh great question in part it's already begun because we are right now The Bu is having conversations with two different municipalities about the possibility of having a Shar service Arrangement um I've been in contact with both and but we don't have any official opportunities to engage yet we're still discussing and beyond that um when this CFO should we appoint him tonight when he joins us he's already said he would he would help us in terms of some of the advertising and some of the requirements um but we will be posting ads barely soon thank you I would like to make comment that we've been through this before looking for CFO and we kind of went into this knowing there's really slim pickings out there it's a it's a tough job there's not a ton of people that know what they're doing and I mean the ones that know what they're doing they're employed and uh I think it's to your credit Mr Mayor it's amazing that we found these two people that can do this on an interim basis and is seemly qualified and in the case of Mr even now he was like I do what I got to do and I'm done and I get out justs really perfect for our situation so um to you for finding these folks so far so good can can we open it to the public any questions or comments anyone online okay we will close out the workshop and move on to item number six presentations and bids there are none item number seven would be approval of the minutes is there a motion motion to approve second Mr Noble yes M uh green yes Mr Nicki yes Mr Weber yes mayor gzi yes at this point we're at item number eight on the agenda public comments and questions pertaining to this today's agenda are there comments or questions you all with us still we we answered a lot of questions beforeand so that's I'm I'm on [Music] F okay we will move on to uh item number nine which is ordinance introductions and there are actually um four ordinance introductions that we uh amendments that we have tonight for introduction um I I'll give a quick overview since I contributed to operating these I I would describe this all quickly to you all as clean up items in our ORD none of these are of any real significance but as a as a over and by the way the public will have opportunity to comment at adoption um if you know if you care to but ordinance 20251 um basically this has been a bone of contention for some of our residents for quite some time we the is as they currently read say we have two meetings a month all year long uh we we rarely if ever scheduled well usually we never schedule more than one meeting in November December I think past December we had three meetings but but normally it's one in in November and one in December so we've actually changed and that a lot of that ties to the time of the year uh other activities that that the Bros uh you know wrestling with and and for the most part we can get all of our work done in those two meetings this particular amendment is is changing the language to say um we will have two meetings a month January through October one meeting a month in November and December with the option to add meetings of course so that's basically what this says so um any discussion okay I'll make a motion that we introduce ordinance 20251 second uh Mr Noble yes Mr greenl yes Mr Nicki yes Mr Weber yes mayor G yes ordinance 2025 D2 again a very um cleanup oriented uh edit being proposed um what we moved this year we moved our our meetings from from Wednesday back to Tuesday as most of you may recall we used to always have Council meetings on Tuesday that 24 hour difference we are taking 24 hours out of the current ordinances timelines so that all of our other internal deadlines remain the same but we're saying now it's all those internal deadlines have to be met 24 hours sooner than they used to be because we have one less day and that's really all this is doing any discussion right I'll propose that we uh that we roduce ordinance 20252 is there a second second Mr Noble yes M green black yes Mr nii yes Mr Weber yes mayor gub yes ordinance 20253 is an ordinance of amending chapter 78 Personnel policies and this is again a cleanup type of edit we we noticed as we were bringing aboard our our business administrator who is a temporary employee that across all of our different uh ordinance uh paragraphs Within Chapter 78 um temporary employees for some reason are noted to not be eligible for vacation however regular full-time employees are across all benefits interestingly temporary employees are only not noted in this one uh one particular area under vacation time off set another way uh we're providing all benefits as we've done with past intern Bas but the ordinance says that there is an exception on p on a vacation only and we just wanted to align that all the benefits would be available to a regular full-time employee which is the language throughout chapter 78 so again it's more of an edit than it is any kind of significant change in and philosophy any discussion just to clarify then that an interim is a regular employee because the fulltime regular full-time and that's the language Us in every other medical and sick Le and all the other benefit areas regular full time so we change this area vacation to also represent regular fulltime okay I'll make a motion that we introduce ordinance 2025 D3 second Mr Noble yes M greenl yes Mr nowiki yes Mr Weber yes mayor gubo yes ordinance 2025 D4 the final of the cleanups uh someone pointed out to us that there's this very unusual provision in um chapter 78 um that says our Municipal attorney Mr Ken primarily um is eligible for a defined contribution retirement plan and we have no idea how they how they got in the ordinance Mr Canon has not enrolled in a Define contribution retirement plan and his numerous years working with us uh and it's just something that has been out there and nobody's noticed it but we are striking that completely from the or that's probably Mr K come very but U any discussion on I'm sleting this up that's great we are trying so uh I'll make a motion to introduce 2025 D4 tonight second Mr Noble yes M green BL yes Mr wikii yes Mr Weber yes mayor G toi yes item 10 on the agenda under Communications we have uh noticed that the 2025 governing body liaison assignments have been completed um I I don't plan to read these to everyone but but there are a number of changes I'm giving up my post on the Sil Lake commission among other things and why am I doing that because as mayor I kind of am the Le on to all of these organizations uh even though you will now have you know official Point people and the other thing worth noting is that um we've added a couple of employee departments we've always had police we've always had fire in first a uh volunteer employees um but we've added a couple others OEM uh what was it Beach thank my community development in Beach um and the goal of that is to make sure that our employees have very thorough access these liaison should act as conduits to the council uh they are not going to be there to direct employees in any manner shape or form but we want to make sure that employees feel that they have the support they need to get their messages and their requests to the council they can obviously always to me but um but we thought it would be valuable to have more connectivity between council members and our employees so um that is communication number one and communication number two is uh we have a a memo regarding the special Council meetings that were held in December on December 23rd and December 30th um we did not have a quorum for those meetings so our cler did diligently take minutes we cannot approve those minutes because we were not there but those of us who were on the council in 24 but we are uh this is a memo that they those minutes will be put in file for posterity to extend anyone needs to access those at any time next agenda item is resolutions and um we would start with the consent agenda and before we do that I want to just ask if anyone wanted to vote any of these out separately ask questions on it I ask questions now okay yeah okay so just on the bills list I um I had a couple of questions but very minor um just at the very beginning of the bills list um there's a CME Associates it's only $338 but it's relative to ordinance 2021 d23 and it has to do with um the bond ordinance so we're going all the way back to 2021 and this is still avilable work so that was a question that I had we have a we have a a business administrator who was four days on the job as in l but matter any of these something that you might have background on yet uh I I don't um the only thing I I do know for sure as she mentioned is that this is um against the bond ordinance um from a while ago um but I don't have um to tell you exactly what they did for 338 uh I will tell you that Allison does have the invoices for that so I can get you that answer tomorrow I mean it says acquisition of property 21120 I'm thinking it's related to 319 R but I could be WR are we looking at the same thing you said c Associates it's for $338 I ripped up the I'm sorry is it for $338 yeah it's for it's the first a c charge for survey phase Services yeah I I I don't I don't know exactly what they did um but I can I'm guessing it's the church property based on the date and relation as an acquisition property on bond ordinance the other question I had is there a difference between tourism trust and reserve for tourism or is it the same thing because the other trusts are simply listed as a trust so um and this is for the public as well if you have your bill list on the back it's sort of a little cheat sheet uh that gives you what the codes are so if you see where it says fund and under that says 4-01 4-05 what the the councilman is talking about is X-15 which is trust F so if you look at any of the ones that are um going to be charged to the uh to uh tourism it would fall under that so how it gets written in the description um which one are you looking at just it's on the first page um and it's it's again it's it's a $900 charge it's um Patricia lacy little X little little by little little by little sorry um on the first page it's the band I mean I guess my question is is is there are there two accounts is one a reserve account and one a trust account or is it we really talking the the tourism trust oh my goodness you're looking at the original Bill list to hand out you're looking at the alphabetical one and by the way the easier and that I did posted on the website because it was given to me later this afternoon and I apologize to you guys I didn't get that to you it's out there though Saturday concert series Patricia Tracy but anywhere that you anywhere you see um the tourism it's listed as reserved for tourism I just want to confirm that there's one trust account yes you're right and and if you look under the charge account see where it says X-15 yeah that means you're the back that means it's a trust fund what I'm going to ask accounting to do is to break out those trust funds because there's a recreation trust fund there's a shade tree commission trust fund there's the tourism trust fund so they're going to break that out as well it maybe like X15 x16 X17 but yeah it's not a it's U basically what they're doing is they're putting they're putting the money away now for the for the concerts but the question but there's my question is is there is is it just um semantics is it is it a one account for for T One account One account it's trust account but it's there isn't a reserve and a trust correct one okay any other questions or comments about the consent agend all right I'll make a motion that we introduce up the consent agenda which includes items 20 25-37 Bill list 20 25-38 professional service appointment of Clifford Ganon Esquire of starky Kelly as the burrow public defender for a period of one year effective January 1 2025 through December 31st 2025 and item 202- 39 approving a consent letter with crown castle as agent for stc5 LLC successor to Sprint Spectrum LP for it suet Le AT&T Mobility to make certain modifications to the Cellular Communications equipment on a portion of the burough properties at 725 Main Street also included 20 25-40 land use board appointments and 20 25-41 environmental commission appointments you have a second second Mr Noble yes Mr GRE yes Mr Nicki yes Mr Weber yes mayori yes individual resolutions uh follow and um like to begin with uh item 2025 42 authorizing Award of proposal for professional Engineering Services with CME Associates for Main Street improvements phase one discussion sure we have a lot of information actually so thank you for providing the information to those of us who were not on Council Paul and I um just to get an idea of uh uh what came out of the the um the Main Street committee because we haven't seen that information and it was actually um really uh educational to see what was determined uh for this grant uh and the priorities potentially um of you know considering the cost overall um for the project um so I appreciate all of that information is very helpful um and I guess my concern initially was you know authorizing this um this is now committing us to the project and um and but this these are all the initial um engineering and um assessment fees of what needs to be done for Main Street right and um and it's my understanding also that in the final design phase which is part of this that there will be an opportunity um for Council and public input that is correct and and in fact um that was one of the modifications sty made to their original proposal was one to make sure that the council had the opportunity first and foremost to give direction and U Mr nowick and I actually joined s me for a quick meeting the other day where uh Mr nowiki councilman the wikii suggested that we um create perhaps some sort of a an opportunity for the public to join a session in which we could further discuss the plans for moving for Main Street so the uh the issue tonight is to approve this uh particular engineering assignment which is Phase One of of a much larger project roughly 200,000 was out of what's likely to be a $2 million roughly project for which we have 1.4 million of U of A Grant award so more to come for the public but yes this is to begin the process yes Mr Mayor I would just say that um I did review the plans proposal um Main Street is extremely important asset to the community and I think we need to have the proper U communication and public information early in the design phase so that we're not seeing something that's already done and we spent the money so we really want to get on public engaged early on in the process get the input get the feedback uh before we do final design so during the conceptual and preliminary design before they advance so that way you don't have to redo things that are already going to be done so really process I'm going to take an intimate Ro it would be like awn h meeting suggesting we were thinking it would be yes okay that's great that really nice Mr Mar if I can add um even though we've discussed this a couple times uh Ben mat engineer who's been here a couple times for those discussions he offered to be here tonight and probably because you all met and decided on this more public process you were just talking about we decided he doesn't need to be here for that say I was with the environmental commission last night and they're actually looking for just you spoke about some opportunity they have ideas on either you know biking bike Lanes walkability bump outs just to see what it's going to be like so um I'm sure they'll be encouraged people something like that's in the work I think also the tree commission needs to be there as well because what are we doing with the trees on Main Street and that's really an important part of the whole environmental consideration I'll let them know that's great thank you can I make one more comment please um and going forward leave is it CME that's going to go forward with potential uh further grants for the cost of the uh so we the Main Street committee they did apply for another another Grant and I think we find out about that in February I just do not Ben would know for sure I just don't know who it is that we applied for if it's the same entity or another entity but um hopefully we can get because the grant doesn't cover everything quite frankly want to do but if we get this other one it'll be it'll be really close it's also worth noting that between approvals we made last year for other steaming projects as well as this project that we're discussing tonight for Main Street um we are we are able to do competitive bidding for phases Beyond phase one all of these projects have been approved Andor tonight's is at least going to be voted on to be approved for phase one only so any of these other projects we have the ability as a council as a Gover bu to uh consider doing rpce to get competitive bids we may very well look at a few of those and others we may think it's fine to progress with C but we'll discuss that you know in in due time any other comments so with that I will make a motion to U approve resolution 2025 42 authorizing W of proposal for professional Engineering Services for CME Associates for Main Street improvements phase one is there a second second Mr Noble yes M greenl yes Mr nowicki yes Mr Weber yes mayor guzi yes individual resolution 22543 authorizing the advertisement of a request for proposal for Professional Services for a charter study commission attorney any discussion the workshop was all okay if no further discussion I will make a motion to to approve resolution 2025 43 second okay Mr Noble yes Mr Green yes Mr Nicki yes Mr Weber yes mayor gbos yes resolution 2025 44 authorizing the budget of the Bradley Beach Charter study commission and directing the Burrow's administrator and CFO to appropriate St in 2025 rather Beach Municipal budget which again is what we discussed earlier in the workshop any discussion I have a question um so there was a breakdown on this resolution of uh the cost for various Services um I don't know if the you know I'm assuming that everyone has had a chance to see this uh is this threshold um a requirement to follow if they find that the Council Services exceeded the 20 22,500 can they exceed that as long as they stay within the 35,000 yeah these are estimates and the goal is really to authorize tonight via this resolution expenditures up to 35,000 but we are appropriating 50,000 the thought being should the uh ter set commission need to go exceed that we'll have the the budget for that Mr Mayor what would the process be the chairman who's here today so that there is a a budgetary issue that comes back to who and how is that handle that would come back to us governing body and you know we have the authority to to approve the important part we're all talking about expenditures we have the ability to approve expenditures at any point in time however over the next couple of months we'll be setting a budget so we have to budget the full 50,000 now whether we spend it or not if we don't SP it uh obviously that that provides a bit of a cushion in our in our budget at year end Surplus determination so while we doing in this resolution budgeting for 50,000 uh authorizing expenditure of 35 the charter study commission will work with that budget but if they run short they'll come back to us and ask for an extended question so with that said I'll make a motion to approve resolution where am 2025 d44 authorizing the budget of the Bradley Beach Charter study commission Mr Noble yes Mr Green yes Mr nki yes Mr Weber yes mayor yes um resolution 2025 45 awarding a non-fair and open Professional Services contractor Frederick C iau cmfo to perform Financial consulting services at a cost not to exceed $5,000 this as we discussed in our um uh Workshop is the gentleman who's going to do the look back at Financial history and what challenges we might have faced and help us better understand them uh and and this resolution is authorizing him to proceed at $125 an hour uh but not to exceed $5,000 any questions or discussion I'll make a motion to introduce Point 25-45 second Mr Noble yes M bring yes Mr nii yes Mr Weber yes mayor Bui yes and resolution 2025 46 awarding a non-fair and open Professional Services contract to PM Consultants LLC and appointing PM Consultants LLC as temporary Chief Financial Officer of the buau at a not to exceed $125,000 U what's important to note there is that is an annual cost not to exceed uh and we will be build on time and materials largely $185 an hour for the principal and $125 $135 for his assistant um and if he if we identify a fulltime or I should say I'm sorry a permanent CFO replacement um we will this agreement at that point in time is there any questions or discussion no but there's a type the last where as the date 2025 is missing I fixed it the corrected one is on the website and then I'm glad another actually could thank councilwoman green for that one and then I just fixed it but so with that said I will uh make a motion that we um approve resolution 2025 d46 awarding a non fair and open Professional Services contract to PM Consultants second uh Mr Noble yes Mr spring yes Mr Nicki yes Mr Weber yes mayor guozi yes resolution 2025 47 flet commission reimbursement for 2024 Council would you like to discuss this I would like to but I will just say people that have been like the same people all the time so you heard me say this at the last two meetings how um CL you know each Lake commission they get basically a stien from the buau uh and fler Lake never got theirs for uh 2024 and then they put out they laid out some funds to do the geese uh removal and U they just had a really hard time getting paid at the end of the year so glad we're taking care of this by resolution so thank you everybody a question um so it's my understanding now that the vendor wants to get paid up front instead of in rear so is that I may Mr Mayor yes the vendor does want that this is for 2024 um we've already spoken to that vender and he's not going anywhere he understands uh and my expectation if I can be so bold is that on the next bill list in two weeks we'll have an item for this and we will pay the vendor think of so that will be for Fletcher and for S no he doesn't okay it's two different it so his fee is it's $5,000 but because each Lake commission is by Municipal it's $2,500 for each so Fletcher lake is getting $5,000 but 25's from us 2500 from um Neptune and same thing for Silver Lake except so right so there'll be two payments for this oh yeah well I can't speak to the Lake you're probably right imagine we're going to continue those services on both ultimately we'll have to address that when Lake comes to us the lake is either beating up John John's no nobody's beating up anybody they're just asking for what uh they don't want to lose this guy because there's many many lakes he's in demand and other towns want him and he's like if I know in January that you know your town wants me I'll come to your town but after a certain point January he's going to go take another Town's business so we'll get it done and uh I appreciate it all I do see the chairperson of Sil Lake in the O uh mity is there do you know off hand if s lake is moving down the same path to hire that same gentleman for the boost control definitely okay in our bud so and so you the cing commission will come to the council and make a similar request paper of services so again to be clear this 2025 47 is for Fletcher Lake commission's reimbursement for the same Goose control expert any other discussion okay I'll make a motion to U approve resolution 2025 -46 second Mr Noble yes M greenl yes Mr nowiki yes Mr Weber yes mayor GUI yes item 12 on the agenda announcements there are none item 13A is our first ever administra report by Mr Dory uh thank you stand here uh good evening everybody uh first I want to thank uh mayor vosi for uh the confidence and beinging the business administrator here on an acting basis for next 86 days I think it is uh and also the council uh I appreciate the the opportunity um I just want to address you all uh tell you uh you know we've been here a week now and what we've accomplished so far and what we're looking to accomplish in the future so uh little background on me you may know I'm a politician in recovery the mayor of belar uh and um you know the mayor and I have been talking for a while now uh about Bradley Beach and some of the challenges here um I can tell you that I see my role as one where I report to the mayor I answer to the council but I ultimately serve the residents of bread so I here to serve you uh if you see on each of your chairs you'll have my name my email uh and my cell phone number so the other thing that comes with this job is it is not a 9-to-5 job um so if you have an issue on the weekends give me a call you have an issue at night well it's not too late at night uh you know give me a call shoot me a text uh I will try to respond back as soon as possible um I also want to try to make things a little bit easier uh for the residents to understand what we're doing as your government so I want to increase significantly our transparency and also provide you with the tools uh so that you can better understand how your money is being spent because ultimately it's your tax dollars that we're spending on your behalf so you should know you have the right to know how that money is being spent so if you notice on the bill list I mentioned on the back there's that little uh those little codes to make it easier to figure out you know where items are are being put against other items in the budget if you look at the back of that you'll also see where things are summed up on a monthly basis uh what I'd like to get to and this is uh councilwoman uh greenblatt's idea is to put where we are year-to date against the budget so are we on budget are we ahead a budget uh are we behind uh and so that the public has that that opportunity to understand again how your tax dollars being uh the last few days I've really taken up just meeting with the employees here meeting with the chief of police um soon uh we're going to beet with his uh members as well uh had a great meeting with the mayor and the entire Department of Public Works uh led by a great director uh and you know my role here also is to give them the tools they need to do their job because ultimately their job is to serve the public as well so I'm sort of the middleman in this role um finding out what they need then I go back to the mayor and the council I request it uh if they approve it then I'm able to get the DPW or the police department the tools they need and then internally um you know whether it's working with the clerk or other uh the court administration or other folks in Bur Hall here um I I view my role is to empower them and again help them with the roles and responsibilities they have on behalf of serving the residents of GRA Beach so uh again I appreciate the opportunity uh look forward to working with you all uh and uh and hopefully this is a relatively shorter meeting uh than most and uh again if you have any issues any concerns don't feel like you have to wait until a council meeting to bring them up um give me a call or shoot me an name any questions that you all may have for me you're brave I never said I was smart I don't think anybody in this room would attack you either is just refreshing yet we all have Smiles on our face you're seeing it's a breath of fresh air yeah thank you for that you're actually here and in the future I'll have more concrete things to talk about and and one of the things that mayor has tked me with which I completely agree with a th% is finally settling this contract uh with Department of Public Works and white and hopefully I'd like to have that in front of the mayor and counsel for their consideration at the next council meeting on the 21st uh we have a meeting this week end of this week with the representatives of the of the Union um and I think that'll help go a long way towards again just us providing the tools necessary for the employees to better serve the residents and to continue to serve the residents in a great way here Brad future thank you Matt than you all right the next item on the agenda is Mayor and Council reports I'm going to start to my far right with Cel weather I feel thank you Mr Mayor um I have a few a few different things to talk about someone to start with the first dat uh folks they sent me two reports one for this operational period and one for the entire year so I figured I re one about the entire year which would include this operational period I guess minus a few days but um for the period ending December 31st 2024 the squad responded to 266 day calls and 205 Night Calls for a total of 471 calls 310 were for medical 139 for fire calls 18 motor vehicle accidents for water rescues the squad provided medical OverWatch for 21 Bradley Beach events totaling 500 Personnel hours uh and we held 10 drills for the education safety of our members totaling 119 Personnel hours we responded to 10 requests to provide for Aid to our mutual Aid Partners while only only asking for aid from them for different times so that is for the uh for the year last year so thank you to the first a always out there for us um we mentioned a little bit before Fletch commission uh is was scheduled to have a meeting on Thursday now I'm not 100% sure what's going to happen um they're really happy with what we just did tonight that was really um their focus and they're really eager to get that the geese control contractor back in place it looks like that is in motion uh the environmental commission met last night I'm going to be the the aison again to the environmental commission and they met last night they are once again going for sustainable Jersey uh certifications so in the ideal world that is a townwide effort and there's different aspects of the town that they can pull into that and get you know points for doing good environmental things so I may be calling on DPW or even police or whomever and um just to get them all together so they can uh get across the finish line for sustainable Jersey and get certified in in that sense um I want to talk about the transition well the transition the transition there wasn't really much of a people need to know there wasn't much of a transition and I want to say I think the folks here up here down there they're doing a heck of a job and they had really no transition from the form of administration um I will leave it at that I want to tell you in way ways that I think your government is already working better at the last meeting there was a set of cards sitting here for a council woman greenblat I'm assuming for Paul as well I had to wait 5 years till I got okay I'm not upset or jealous I just think I'm just so happy it's work be great I got before this meeting I got a list of all the different phone extensions every there's new people we don't always know every single person that works here on like Chang over years and um I got that you know before this meeting or a day ago it's working better already it's fantastic I see the smiles first of all I'm like why are you all here I don't even understand why you're here but it's great that you're here I think just stop coming because you'll see it's working really well um obviously had snow DPW thank you you did the right thing you salted I didn't I don't you need to plow right but I feel like you got the right amount of salt maybe the right amount of a little bit of plowing so thank you and um it's brutal out there right now so uh oh and on the environmental commission I forgot to mentioned they are looking for one more member so if anybody's so interested in coming to this room one night a week you can come an extra night and turn the envirment commission that is my report Mr thank you councilman Council so I don't have any reports yet because we just uh resolved um all of the council Leons um I'm very pleased to say that I will be a liaison for the Arts Council so the Arts Council is a bit dormant at the moment with the passing of the the uh Julia Rand and I will be reaching out to the council and hopefully it'll become uh enlivened and a more robust Arts Council in the community um I will be working the finance committee with the mayor and I'm very happy to be a part of that and I will be uh John we will be passing the torch to me for Fletcher Lake uh and I guess we'll see if there's a meeting on Thursday but I look forward to getting involved in Fletcher Lake I live near silen Lake and I've been very involved in what's been happening at Sven Lake uh so now I'll have a bit of a different perspective so I'm looking forward to working collaboratively with Neptune um and the the commission members and I'll also be a leaz on for recreation so we have a lot going on in Bradley and I'm sure I'll have a lot to say about that thank you thank you council president and open thank you mayor withy so the shade tree is meeting tomorrow night so no report for them the Bradley Board of Ed had a meeting on December 17th at that meeting they honored and awarded the fall Sports athletes as well as the high honor role students I took pictures and they were placed in the newsletter in December and also the superintendent Dr heidleberg sent a message along with congratulating Mrs Laurel degnan she's the teacher of the year and Mrs Ana angelone the education service provider of the year he said their dedication to our students and their craft inspires us all we fortunate to have such remarkable professional professionals at Bradley Beach Elementary in addition he'd like to extend his sincere gratitude to to the board of ed their dedicated staff and the Bradley Beach Community for your continued partnership and support together we are creating opportunities for our students to succeed and Thrive and behalf on everyone at Bradley Beach Elementary we'd like to wish you all a happy healthy New Year tourism report the tourism commission is thrilled to announce that tickets for the first annual jazz festival are going fast please visit the tourism page and on the burough website for more information and to reserve your free seats the festival will be held at the historic Bradley Beach Elementary School theater on February 7th and 8th and it will feature local artist marel haalo and Kom Regional Teresa she is the violin Diva and the James Moody Scholars and nationally known names Nat aderly Jr and Ward Harper and jelly posi she said she recommends getting your tickets now the tourism commission is organizing a blood drive to be held at the rec center on January 21st from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. there is a critical need in our area for blood and platelet donors all donors will receive a $5 coffee card and pl owners will receive a $10 shop right card so please V visit the burough homepage for more information and to register and on a side note for anyone feeling the winter there are only 138 days until Memorial Day I just wanted to add like John said I I just want to give kudos to Matt Doty and mayor goosi I know you've been in the office for four days and Erica too I know you put a lot of work into these past 4 days and I want to thank you uh in addition I wanted to say thanks to Matt and Allison they had me come in the office today and they actually walked me through the bills list so I know how to read the bills list really nicely it was my second time ever in the office here and um I also want to thank Michelle Willie she gave me a phone extension 1015 I am somebody thank you Michelle and that completes my report thank you I'm sorry councilman the wiki or John call me Mr easy so I just want to comment on that um I just want to first of all thank the community of R Beach because such a warm welcome um with my appointment and um the challenge is as the bar has been set and I'm up for it and I'm going to give everything I have to do this um I'm going to be the liaison for the police fire first a and hold up and as well as Sil Lake and land juice so I'm pretty excited about that as I mentioned about the Main Street improvements I also see my value um to the community to be able to really engage on all these infrastructure projects and be um aason for that to help educate and inform and hear the concerns and make sure we're doing the right projects at the right time fiscally responsibly so that's really important we pull that out together and so that's my commitment uh what I want to do here in make a difference so again thank you for your warm welcome I'm also be meeting with all the uh administrative staff um and and my um the DPW and the police department um I'm off to a little bit of a slow star um but I'm going to catch up over the next week or two make sure I visit everybody so thank you thank you sir welcome yes definitely um I'd like to make a few comments and then we'll open it up to the public uh first um thank councilman Weber for giving the administration some credit but we cannot take credit this is purely our employees jumping well ahead and telling me that they had already set up phone numbers and already set up business cards uh Michelle Wy has has basically taken charge got his phones and laptops uh of course our clerk Erica has saved the day a couple times already and we've had two meetings in basically a week so you've done y uh Erica so thank you as well but um but it's it's been great in in again our mine and Matt's first four days here the uh the Embrace we've received from employees has been great thank you to the police and vpw and everyone it's really been a wonderful um welcoming to us as as we're kind of getting our our feet grounded a little bit um I want to mention that very significant undertaking that is underway uh I'll say a legal undertaking and that is that we are trying to get the burrow aligned quickly with uh fair share housing obligations um the same folks we worked with last year uh Jen beam is our burough planner and Ron cucharo is our attorney um they are right now trying to figure out the finalize I should say the calculations of Our obligation heading into 2025 round four so more to come on that I hope to have a resolution in place we do uh on our January 21st meeting um we are also uh this is this was something that was a little bit of a surprise and I'll admit I've been on Council for five years and was not aware of this but uh quickly become aware that some of our ordinances uh related to fee levels that we charge whether they be fees for you know parking violations and perhaps speeding and motor vehicle violations and so forth uh but also uh permitting fees for code and construction and so forth are apparently and I'm seeing evidence of this willfully lower than the market you you look at other municipalities and our employees have brought this to my attention so once again kud us our employees um so we will be moving very quickly to bring our fees up to speed uh to be a little more current with the marketplace and obviously that will uh help to uh defray the impact and the burden on our taxpayers because right now to the extent we have a code office that costs X to to administer and we have the ability to generate more revenue and we can recover more of their cost obviously it's less burden on the taxpayer so another Kudo to our employees and we can move on that very quickly and finally uh my well no I do want to talk about my committees as well but a very important issue that I want sure is we thanks to uh phenomenal work by Paula Gavin who as most of you know is the head of the bbca Paula has volunteered to work with me as mayor to help us Bradley Beach revisit a strategic plan that she initially instituted back in 2019 uh the prior Administration uh ultimately dispensed with that that process we're going to reinstitute it and uh the current format of that strategic plan includes eight t forces that we that we're going to establish will be communicating this in a week's time or so a week to 10 days let's say and and across those eight task forces we should have we're going to request uh volunteers of 8 to 10 per task force somewhere between 60 and 80 volunteers people we can take from the public that has have great ideas great experience great perceptions on what we can do to further improve Bradley across really key topics and categories like the be and Main Street and so forth so when when word comes out as will in the next week or so anyone who's interested in volunteering please let us know uh we'll make sure we have it as automated as possible for you to click buttons on the website to let us know if you're interested and then we'll formulate these test forces and begin the process of re-engaging the public finally I I as mayor now have some new responsibilities one the finance committee previously only included the mayor we have the to include another council person and as councilwoman um greenblat identified I've asked her to join me on the finance committee so we'll have two Council people two heads are better than one as we move forward into this budget season um I've also taken over responsibility to Liaison to the library Board of Trustees in fact more than leison I found out when I show up to the first meeting I'm on the board and I had to vote so I was a little behind people that but I am a member of the library Board of Trustees they met yesterday um they seem to be a very engaged very great um group of folks and my biggest question to them was what what can we do to fix the doors because we have these beautiful brass stores and the group's been working on it for a while I I see M Davidson in the audience I know as friends of Li that's been a big issue of yours you've also uh volunteered to serve as my alternate on the board so I want to that um but this group has a lot of passion for the library uh and they to the extent they could use a little guidance in terms of securing funding for these stores I've been listed Mr uh mamp our Historical Society uh chair who is U extremely knowledgeable in this area and he is now working on a number of uh requests I made of him to to provide us all with some guidance um I hope folks don't chuckle too much at this one but I I will be I I may not be the figure of Health but I am going to be continuing the mayor's Wellness Campaign Committee so um I will be meeting with that committee a lot of dedicated uh residents again who are very passionate about that I had people reaching out to me long before I was sworn in saying are you going to continue this and and the short answer to all of you is absolutely yes I think it's another great way to engage the community and and uh gain recognition Statewide for our efforts in that in that area so um final comment uh some of you may have heard this if you haven't heard yet you may hear about it earlier tonight uh we had uh a resolution where we just named the uh members of The L use board going forward the reason uh that was more significant than any of you I realized this because the L board uh historically was not constituted legally uh by law by State Statute and by uh FAL ordinance the terms on Millen board need to be staggered so especially in class 4 the majority of the members there are alternates in in different classes but class 4 in particular fouryear terms but they have to be staggered and they were not staggered um when I went to the labor attorneys to ask for guidance they said we really have to reconstitute the board and assign staggered terms we just completed that process I interviewed a number of the people uh I interviewed anyone who wanted to talk to me about remaining on the board and and three or four four individuals have remained um five have not and those five have been replaced by other individuals that I interviewed so that was a significant change one we didn't anticipate but I think we are in great shape of the board I want to I want to thank the people who were on board that did not return I'm really excited about the group coming forward and some of the new faces that will join some of the existing so I I think we're in really good shape going forward with land sport as well that concludes my comments and now let's open it up to public comment five minutes on any topic you have M Mullen 3024 Avenue um thank you for all your comments the niess of the meeting tonight um but I wanted to just say a few words um I guess as we open up the new year and a lot of us sitting in the back here are thinking do we need to keep coming do we need to be the check and balance for our hopefully working government now but so I might be stating the obvious but as what's going to be really important is transparency on all of our costs I'm sure you know this um we need to always be kept informed on what will signic significantly impact the budget things like lawsuits that might be a carryover from the last Administration um I'm hoping that 319 learing will bring money into the burrow but if there are costs that will impact the budget we need to know so when the taxes do go up because I'm sure they are going up because I'm an understanding person but a lot of people that live in this town don't understand why taxes go up but when they do go up people should not be shocked and they really do need to understand so not just at these meetings as far as the transparency goes but I'm hoping that the newsletter will continue and there will be information about not just the positives the marriage Wellness campaigns but also you know things that are driving costs in this town the transparency that people need to be aware of um and also the website if that could be a part of it maybe the newsletter just gets posted onto the website with those highlights um all of you were voted in and I said in the November meeting you can't be expected to be the Panacea um where you're going to lower taxes but we hope that you'll be able to um have them become more stable in the years to come um even after your terms expire that you've done some good work so that we have a foundation uh to better work from versus what you're stepping into right now which I know are some extraordinary costs are down the road so I just wanted to say that thank you very much an bar Condominiums thanks for saying my name properly um the way I look at things and I'm going to go over my five minutes and I don't care um you took your vows on the first you're still on your honey I'm biting my tongue I'm watching and I'm listening because there's just so much is green black I'm so glad you're here I understand from the website your term expired on 12324 but I do look forward to listening to you for more than 5 minutes as it's always thoughtful Mr NY I don't know you thank you for stepping up sitting in Mr Big sher's place maybe by the end of this all we'll be on a first name basis Mr dy I don't know maybe for five years I've asked for a chart of accounts your cheat sheet on the bill list is very much appreciated um that being said I think I'm on my sixth mayor and I've lost count but I think over apas I normally ask you to sharpen your pencils to cut costs I can show you how to do it I can show you what positions to eliminate but tonight I'm here ask you to spend some money I am requesting and I choose these words really carefully because quite honestly they're out of character an independent armed security guard to be out in bestest of while we have these meetings I've been thinking about this for several years and the last year made it really clear to me um how vulnerable we are in this room and um with all of the things DPW contract which is you know priority this and that I think the biggest priority is to keep all of us safe and um that's the only solution I have to suggest when the metal detector went in here I've never seen it on I don't even know if it works I don't know if it ever worked um but it's necessary and I would hate to see you say well she told you so because we know we've had a lot of she told you so um and anything you can do to address that concern to implement it to find the money for it we find money for things I will not tell you what we find money for not going to go there we're on a honeymoon but I cannot imagine that you cannot find again independ an armed licensed person to protect us about we're here and that being said have I really not use my whole five minutes I could go on and on have I have two minutes more let's see we got to take care of DPW um please give them more than three years because we're already into the three years um I know that's got to be a priority for all of you guys and gals um and the rest of it I will give my two minutes to somebody else if I could which I wish I could do I really you know that's something else as well as which doesn't cost us money other than the ordinances you you need to say who's here who has been paid or volunteered currently or past via Zoom or in this room because I know Mr Canon's not here but yet there's a sign that says Mr Canon's here and you know for one thing it's bad matters for another thing I think it's professional and we go through this all the time and that's how people speak or don't speak so how many years have I asked for that that goes back to angle set and we all know that I Mr Weber can repeat and repeat and repeat until I get what I want and how many times do I have to say it I continually say it and eventually it comes around but again thank you all of you for doing this enjoy the honeymoon it doesn't last forever but I think it at least goes to February 1st at least that's that's a nice long honeymoon 30 how many of you had a 30-day honeymoon I mean you know huh right so think about that I cut you that break thank you Mr M can I address one thing no oh and Matt dy I will not text you at 4 o'cl in the morning or call you but I will do that in public works so don't be like I I don't take that phone number light M Miss meow just so you know the metal detectors are here for the court there's a requirement to make this a place for court that happen so it's turned on then and that's the only time it's turned on we're not allowed I that I don't know but um I find out I don't like the opposite personally speaking for myself of making everybody like empty all their pockets and all the stuff uh to come to a I don't like to be shot you know I go through this every today I had a a shooter drill I go through it every week and you know it's going to happen are there any other okay thank you uh lint ducky 312 Brin Le first I'd like to thank the police department for coming to my house today I was extremely upset that my line coming into the house for the electrical was like flash and booming and shaking my kitchen the fire department came the jcpnl came I don't know what happened but other people in town are having power in and out and shortages so I know it's not your problem but what do we all have to do call JCP Ando and complain continuously or what what's the suggestion because there's something wrong you're saying cross the B well yeah I had the problem and Tracy had the the problem in her house they don't live near me John Mr Weber know something about this do you know what happened I believe it was related to the snow and the ice that made it Spar well no one never told you but still other people had it so is it on all our lines or is there anything just extreme weather circumstances like this with the ice okay all right so this is another thing that I have a question about nothing to do with anything everything's running smoothly except I was reading this morning because apparently now on the website a lot of things just are popping up and when you're looking at projects under 319 Lorraine if you go to the MEP systems conditioned assessment report it doesn't say anything about um the parsonage does a parsonage have an oil tank I think it doesn't basement but I probably shouldn't have said that no I know the know the church has one in the basement no no I think the house has one in the basement well make sure we find that out before any demolition is done I'm I know you're going to do your due diligence but there was nothing in the in the report at all except that it said that the church had one a 400 gallon one in the basement there was an analysis done in I guess the year we acquired the church that that confirmed ground underground tanks well a lot of times oil tanks are underneath driveways back in the day there was rebar in the driveway and those metal detectors can't read they can't find it they can't find it underneath rebar so we just have to make sure please because we have other problems with that whole thing going on and uh we'd like to see it take its course thank you very much thank you m Tracy Davids and forth U I'm just helping out the PTA um somebody one of the officers asked me if I would just say that they are trying to raise money for a bus to send the band to perform at the New Jersey Devil's game so they're going to raise money by duct taping the principal to a wool I we should have thought of this last year right here um so anyway um they're looking for donations of so if anybody's so kind and they would like to um maybe donate some duct tape I'm going to do what my husband loves which is I'm going to say you can drop it off on my porch um I'll put a basket and you can just drop the the um duct tape because they need a lot of duct tape Dr um heidleberg is a very big man and they're going to need a lot of duct tape and you can also if you want to look on the PTA website it'll also be on the community Pages you can also donate so that each of the kids can get pieces of duct tape you pledge pieces of duct tape and they can tape him to the wall so hopefully they'll get a lot of duct tape and he'll stick to the wall so thank you that's great question Thomas J Coan 6123 Avenue I want to appreciate all of you this is an amazing meing feels wonderful it's a a big change um I did uh want to comment on the charter study commission um we I was nominated as the treasurer and the f from Red Bank said you don't really need a Treasurer and and I felt we really did because um I look forward to working with Mr D and giving the report at our meetings and sharing it with you as to how much we've spent of this $35,000 because I believe the public needs to know the cost of it and how the money is being nurtured so um that I hope that'll be the process for us we'll share that information um and then also I did want to comment on the subdivision for the church that was done uh it was very awkward because the applicant was the burrow of Bradley Beach well the applicant asked for two waivers uh those waivers were a waiver from showing the houses within 200 feet on the plan and a waiver from submitting a grading call while any other resident doing a subdivision in the burrow would be obligated to submit those things um as I said at the meeting this was an opportunity for a great plan to be prepared for a property that's over 100 years old and also it's one of the largest Lots in the town at at 1 half acre so you could regrade 1 half acre which has topographical changes from Madison to lra which should be addressed right up front and that that document could be reviewed by the applicants and the people who live nearby who had all had concerns about the drainage so um I would request that um the burrow the applicant resubmit that application to the land use board in 2025 and submit the houses within 200 fet to show the impacts and to supply a Gren plan that can be reviewed by the residents who live around there and and they'll know they have the protections they were told oh you got to keep an eye on it well it's not their job to keep an eye on it it's the board's job job to do the review as as part of the meeting as part of the checklist so waivers were granted and when you say a waiver it's really a variance you're asking for a variance and there needs to be a reason submitted as to why that variance is requested I don't think there's any reason why the burrow couldn't afford to do the proper grading plan that any other individual would be required to do Under the checklist and again I have no objections to the subvision the layout or any of that I just feel like the residents that live around there should have had those protections to begin with so I would appreciate it if the council would resubmit and just do it the right way thank you very much mayor and counsel thank you yes uh Rick Bal R hello Rick B are you there Rick are you there [Music] we'll have to move on okay any other comments yeah I just have one thing Mr Mayor I just want everybody to know that the board ofed they in their new board tonight so I don't know if there's going to be conflict now we're back Tuesday I don't really know maybe Jane knows there anyway but the board of Med folks they got sworn in tonight so just so we see him around congratulate then they got uh sworn in and basically that's like where half of your tax money goes so keep an eye on that too one last they're doing a great job I'll Kudos one last call to Mr bartal Rick are you there no okay it said no uh we have completed public comment and questions uh there is no executive session for item 16 on the agenda so I make a motion to the agend [Music] I