##VIDEO ID:rhRezHQPn4g## did you see James yet inter is yes it's unbelievable um yeah she's she's not let me drive I've driven it one time um but she's real happy with aound no she hasn't she that you know we're going on a trip so defitely do are she needs wit good stuff to tell okay I remember I oh your [Music] she's and she doesn't she was it maybe like a res dog or something for I mean they're going to hurt they're not no they're not so that's a problem [Music] [Music] Hey Joe hi Jane hey Erica how's it going good good I'm one year older today oh happy birthday thank you so much hello je I'm doing [Music] just oh I am [Music] to so much [Music] hey Nancy y hey man I'm doing good I wanted to that's okay thank you for the message today it was so sweet you didn't get to PJ no it's the best I got I got to look at it got absolutely I got more years I [Music] how about you not not like there's always those people over the [Music] [Music] I can't yeah the same one has know I know a lot of question [Music] ask think [Music] hello all right [Music] oh off ready ready do I start okay everyone please Rise by please IED to flag the United States of America liy and justice for allice I wish to announce that the 48 hour notice is required under the open public meetings act this email to the Asbury Park Press the co-star and the new coar on December the 7th of 2023 that a copy has been placed on the bulletin board in the burrow office and 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 dis connected the inperson meeting will continue and action can and will be taken providing that there is an inperson quarum MR Noble here Mr guos here M Mahoney here Mr Weber here mayor Fox here okay thank you all for coming tonight uh I'm I'm remote but uh hopefully U Move real smoothly um can you hear me okay yes um meeting of the year um as I have said in past and we'll continue to say I emphasize that we should welcome disagreement in these meetings and that's the way things get worked through and different perspectives are shown um we want a brigh Bradley Beach everybody in this room wants a brighter Bradley Beach I'd ask everyone to gauge their tone going forward we're all neighbors uh Civility and decency should be an underpinning of these meetings um so with that I'll move to workshops we have none today uh our next Workshop will be on the uh September 11th meeting and I believe we're going to have the beach covered which will be good because we'll have most of the statistics in for the year if not all and um uh they should look very good uh there are no presentations and bsit this time so I'll move to the approval of the minutes I'll make a motion to approve the July 24th 2024 Council business meeting second Mr Noble yes Mr GUI yes M Mahoney yes Mr Weber yes mayor Fox yes uh secondly I'd like to make a motion to approve the July 24 2024 executive session meeting m second a second for that Mr Noble yes Mr gzi yes M Mahoney yes Mr Weber yes mayor Fox yes okay um I wanted to see if at this time if we I wanted a motion if we could move 2024 86 up in the agenda for a vote um and out of the individual resolution section of the agenda um I hadn't had a chance to really talk to the council about that I don't know if they have a problem with it or it like believe it where it is but I'd like to make a motion at least to uh move that up Mr Mayor I believe we have to open it to the public right now for comments on the agenda before we do that I was making a motion to move it up council president second the I I don't know but I mean like are we voting Larry you want to move it up before public comments yeah do do that second okay um I'll I'll second that okay Mr Noble no Mr I'm fine with moving it up but it has to be after public comment M Mahone no Mr Weber no mayor fo yes okay uh to public comments uh and questions pertaining to the 828 agenda sh Char off for 14 month Avenue um this is with regard to 2024 86 the introduction of the 2024 Municipal um budget I'm just wondering if in the past month between the last meeting in July and this meeting been any um meaningful uh collaboration between uh the council and the uh the team that's working on the budget including the CFO the mayor the ba that's a question Mr Mayor I to you yeah I believe there's been um one or two emails primarily I think from Council woman um I'm not sure if there was or not um not I think just from Council money I was just trying to recall if I had any other correspondence with uh Council MOS or Council what I know that I had with council president the councilwoman Mahoney has had a couple of emails back so there have been questions and answers to the questions that uh help to bring the introduction forward I guess I'm asking the mayor and the council isn't your question have we had conversation with the CFO with the c with the team the team is the CFO the mayor and the no so not one council person answer is no I think council could explain what her correspondence was but I don't think it was a substitute I um I asked a few questions um um I received a few answers that um were somewhat ambiguous to me um I did ask why we couldn't speak to the CFO I was told that was the way I phrased my questions in appropriate um basically though I just asked why we couldn't speak to somebody who we hired who had uh particular acument uh I was told that was inappropriate um I had a few detailed questions on the numbers that had changed recently because the numbers have changed for the current the beach to the Sewer fund um and um I Reed them answers and I'll have the statement this you but no the Mage haven't gotten any farther and Jane you as well what I try to do I don't want to be redundant and I I read the emails we are cced on it so again I just let the other I'm asking the same questions that they are and I received no answers the same as in Council woman I just say so no there's no on my end no progress okay well I asked the question because I'm asking not just for my own self personally but I'm asking for all of the residents and taxpayers of Bradley Beach who are concerned about this budget so thank you thank you thank you Miss Meadow [Music] n Meadow Ocean Park Condominiums I'm here as a resident not part of a faction um the bill list um was quite lazy because it's kind of like a double Bill list so I'm not going to go through every page cuz quite honestly I lost attention on A8 there were a few things that caught my eye some were a lot of money some were small but again I thought the goal was to cut back um so we spent $195 repairing a refrigerator in the G azi Center um that seemed like an awful lot of money for me and I can't imagine who uses it in August because the senior Club doesn't meet in August so it would be nice to know how long my that's being spent we seem to be spend that's for Meals on Wheels okay are they actually part of us I mean shouldn't they pay for their own refrigerator well I don't want to waste my five minutes um we seem to be spending a lot for the lifeguards including breaking a door on Cliff Avenue we're still giving Bagel talk our business at $137 per week of carbs and banner business that's not Northtown which would also bring me to get to we got this CME bill which includes the 1 hour and 15 minutes that they actually participated in meeting in June but not the other three and some OD hours that they just sat here employment council with Bernstein we thought nothing going here with local 152 it's quite offensive to $2,200 um and the ethics course is that for all of the employees I can't imagine if it was just $50 so think it's great that people would take a course in ethics we can always Le from that um but it would be nice to know what department um we are paying $550 for parking be meters per month I remember we used to collect our own quarters and we over to the bank that's a lot of money that's being given away per month um who is kitri law firm and we PID legal fees for the theater Land board attorney land use board so are they in interior work or they need L use board for they have attorney attorney the inside change the view okay thank you for that clarification in $177,000 I can't imagine much more so summer is it not New Jersey natural gas $900 I can give you I'm sorry just trying to go quicker and then we have my favorite Prime Point remainder July $1,600 and for August $3,300 that's the payroll service so I don't understand how we could have a remainder because quite honestly every pay company I've ever dealt with automatically debits your account you you can't do business with them or not so this is supposed to be free and now we have two bills partial one is $600 I find this all peculiar not normal suspect I'd like to know who we sent to ruos to learn about accounting that's really frightening to me equally frightening I don't see any payroll taxes being paid taxes to the IRS is paid at the end of is paid on the 15th of every month and $977 in office supplies but it doesn't say what department so we have data entry problems don't everything on Edmond it's only as good as the person doing the entry and really scary is when I drove by the rec center on a Friday morning it saw an inflable house right after reading about the one that killed people cuz it went win so we're paying $1,768 for that which in my personal opinion opens us to a lot of liability because we cannot forget Le and I don't understanding this is all what it comes back to this list and other issues is the lack of standards in this town and if we have standards then we don't he but I don't see anyone protecting this town it is very very frightening so while you all pass this bill list because I know you will I think the questions need to be asked on all of these items especially in my opinion the payroll issues which um how many times do I have to say we don't take action thank you thank you is the ba here to answer any questions that we have she's not here uh Thomas J Coan 612 Third Avenue um I I do want to compliment the Council on 202468 the silen lake Restoration Team support giving them support I attended the meeting here for silen lake with from abon Spring Lake and Bradley Beach to share ideas it was a very motivational meeting as a full house so I'm so happy that this is now gone to resolution and uh I uh as for resolution 4-86 which was attempted to be put on the agenda without public comment I'd like to say I would vote no um we still don't have a corrective action plan from 2022 audit which was our ryth so I don't know why mayor Fox and his administrative team are not being fined for not supplying that we don't have the 2023 annual financial statement which was due March 30th I don't understand why mayor Fox and his team is not being fined for that we don't have the 2023 audit which was due July 1st I don't understand why mayor Fox and his team are not being fed for that but I understand that you council members are being fine $25 a day don't make it about the money make it about us because what you're doing is standing up for us and we appreciate this as taxpayers you're exposing a flaw in the state of New Jersey system I've sent letters to the DCA I've sent complaints I've sent them to the auditor I'm sorry I've sent them to the AG's office I've sent them to the comp you know what you get you get nothing there are no police you're the police that we' appreciate if you voted no on this budget thank you yeah just a correction Mr col the 2023 AFS was filed um by CFO uh when was it filed sir uh earlier this week oh it's not on the website so how would we know has it been delivered to the council uh I don't know I don't you don't know if it's been delivered to the council the ba is not here to answer any questions none of us received it none thank you thank you but but vote on the budget tonight because it's okay he he said it's okay thank you sir Mr thank you any other questions yes Mr Titus J Titus 605 n Avenue my uh question in regards to the budget is for mayor Fox um mayor Fox um why is it that you will not allow the council to have access to the CFO can you please just inform the residents once and for all why you will not allow them to talk to the CFO uh it's not a function of me not allowing the CFO to uh have access to the council the CFO has opted not to to um meet privately want meet in an open form what do you mean by an open form in front of f a hearing the budget hearing or a budget introduction no no no no there are so many unanswered questions and the fact of the matter is that our budget well our audit from 2022 has about a million dollars missing and also Co Federal Co dollars are missing and also Mr Mayor this is under your watch and also there is a they put in there that there is I believe it's what is it materials misstatement that has something to do with fraud I believe I don't know what the exact verbage is for that so when you put all this stuff together and you think that the CFO just filed our 2023 AF statement this week which nobody knows about you ref um Mr Gars um first of all is paid by the buau he's an employee of the Barrow now you tout your J&J experience all the time you've gone through budget processing right you work with I think you I think you T J experience more than I well I I think I I think I answered your question no you didn't and I still have a question and you can't you can't stop me from uh talking so here's the thing any anybody who is I'm going to get that time if you keep talking over me please okay so in the corporate in the corporate um world doing a budget process the um a head of the department meets with their business analyst their business analyst and the business head they sit down they discuss they hammer out their debits their credits their payroll everything operating costs then you go and you sit with your controller from then you go and you answer more questions controller will have questions you will have questions when that is all ironed out right then you go in front of the CFO so there's a process before something gets approved and I believe you know you've gone through this many times so why is it that you Mr Mayor and Mr Gs then are interfering with duly elected officials that are here to um to um represent the people in regards to a budget and our financial mismanagement who in their right mind would sign off of something that doesn't reconcile would any of us sign off on our taxes that were not correct would you sign off when you're a J&J would you sign off in a budget that wasn't correct no you wouldn't so why are you punishing the residents of Bradley Beach you are in essence punishing us because you are angry because you are not getting your way so sir you know on January 1st 2021 you stood up here at the reorganization meeting you put your hand on a Bible that was held by your wife and you took an oath of office to be of service to Bradley Beach this is not service this is playing political games and a vendetta we need you to step up to the plate for the next couple of months that you were here and do your job this is not right and the fact of the matter is our council is being fine guess what the residents here will have a gofund me and we'll be happy to help but this nonsense has got to stop and you say in in the beginning of a meeting everyone gaug your tone and we all have to work together and collaborate in this maybe you have to start practicing What You Preach because and sir I know you're ignoring me and not even looking at me um once again I'm not ignoring you I'm taking notes okay so when will you have Mr Gs talk to the council so that you can be in the business of providing service to the residents and let's get this budget done because this budget affects everything we have local 152 that's still not done we have so many different things that have to go through this budget our taxes our property taxes so you have to do your job that is what we are asking you to to do are you going to do it can we have a meeting can the council have a meeting I hope thank you I hope someone picks this up let's hold him accountable thank you me through to Avenue um when was the council going to know about the filing of the 2023 s I'm saying the initials right today's Wednesday you said it was filed on Monday I I believe it was filed on late Monday I think night Monday there Monday when when I mean when would they be notified after I'll uh I'll ask the CFO to forward that I've been out of town I'm sorry maybe the ba who hasn't been meeting I think all summer I might be exaggerating so I apologize for that but the meetings I've been to the ba is not here I think the public would like to know if it's a personal reason a professional reason maybe she can't work the extended hours which is a requirement of the VA we're all here tonight and if she can't manage those hours totally understandable but she can't be a ba and not show up for these meetings when she's also serving the public ba is not required to be a meeting the clerk and the municipal Char are okay I've lived in Bradley Beach for a short time compared to many of these people here but for the nine years that I've been here the B have been at every meeting so I guess you're setting a new president with your leniency anyway I know you're trying to introduce the budget tonight's meeting this is redundant our last meeting was on July 24th so whatever I say here could be redundant but this whole process has become non-existent really however so at the June 26 meeting you said it was the first time you were hearing about a $222,000 budget Gap from the reporting tabs that Council received and had questioned months ago months before that you were asked at the last council meeting why the council was never provided with an answer as to why such a large discrepancy it's now been well over month have you been able to provide the council with the answer to their question and if not how can a budget be voted on given this discrepancy this is the 222,000 yeah I believe I believe that was answered um and the primary reason was uh there was a subsidiary uh document that's been used out of um our Ledger system um that that uh doesn't aggregate the line or correct line it's in state form the state forms are correct the budget is correct um so I believe that was explained in an email some time ago do do the people's Council know this were they provided with this explanation yeah it was sent yeah we sent to the council i' ask I did not see that anyone see it it was sent it was sent to council woman Mone and I I assume I don't know if you other people copyed or not I was sent to her she's ask a question you explained two3 or one3 of the of the discrepancy saying that Edmond counts the numbers twice and you said there was a problem with the Ed with the Edmond system mayor you didn't explain the way it Aggregates correct the way it Aggregates correct you did not explain what accounted for the rest of the difference and that's why the last I I I believe we s the big the big Varian I think we explained about 154,000 of it said to go into the other detail would be to have to go into every line item not every line but every line item control total uh and it just wasn't productive because we knew what the answer to the question was that's why it wasn't AG it doesn't aggregate U correctly so as I said the line items are correct the state forms are correct and that's what I keep saying is every time and then the numbers change and you've given us less and less information each time because now we've been moved down to two PDFs the only time the only time the numbers have changed is when the CFO if if there are adjustments going forward if interest rates change if Bond rates change um he was a we were able to collect uh more interest income I don't need to interrupt run out of time $1,000 and so I'm not sure who's mayor Fox I hate to I I hear you and I'm I'm saying that I I wanted to interrupt you only because I don't want to run out of my time and a lot of what you're saying is not making sense to the public or to M councilwoman Mom I need I need that 30 seconds back I don't need the answer to my next question I just need to pose it finish your statement I cannot add time well I asked him to silence himself he okay yes so also at our last meeting Council woman Mahoney had pointed out that the budget was based on appropriated expenses and not based on actual spend from the previous year has the methodology for preparing the budget been revised to meeting basic standards of creating a budget I'm sorry I don't understand that question obviously sorry you guys any other questions yes hold on hi Mary Backstrom 218 4th Avenue um and mayor I want my full time I'm not saying I need it I might yeld some of it but I'd ask you not to talk over me or eat into my time in any material way at almost every council meeting you have made the point that you are a strong mayor under the faul act and that is uh what we have here so that effectively means you're the CEO of Bradley Beach and you have a senior committee including the people in front of me on Council the ba the CFO you know the head of public etc etc so it defies reality to say that Ricky our CFO won't show up and talk to council members and at so they can ask simple questions that is in your control that is absolutely in your control and it's it's insult to us that you keep saying that nobody believes you let me just make that clear secondly I do have concerns about the ba I have no I don't issues with her personally she hasn't been here since May and I don't know what's going on it's not my business is she on an official leave of absence um why isn't she here there's no one to answer basic questions again this is not a well functioning uh you know body under the strong Mayer format so you know me every time anybody asks questions you either talk over them including the council by the way you won't even answer their questions and finally I'd like to ask since nobody seen the budget how much our tax is going to be going up this year based on the budget that no one see the mayor's roughly communicating half% yes you can absolutely yeah 3 3.39% uh is the current calculation it really hasn't changed in probably the last month or so it changed it started at at [Music] 3.59% it went to 3.74% and it's now at 3.39% what I just stated to the prior Resident was that we were able to enjoy some interest income on the bonds we had acquired U last year and we use some of that money to drop into the budget others just uh be a little bit more conservative but you you L it so the the number is 3.39% and now having said that that's the m Levy the total total tax um Bill we still have not received all the numbers from the county uh Mr so it could change we have control over I'm taking my time back but thank you for that I guess I would would have asked the council do they think that number forget it 3.7 3.9 do you think it's accurate but I'm not even sure you can answer that question because you haven't seen the budget yet and my fear is BR residents of Bradley Beach it doesn't matter who's going to be mayor uh next January are going to be in for a nasty surprise like we were last year where our taxes went up double digits and I and again these are concerns that not just the council have not just the faction have but the entire residents of Bradley Beach this Cuts close to home double digit increases last year this year you say it's under 4% if you know that that's not great in my point of view but I could live with it but I don't know if it's actually going to be 44% and no one else can answer it except possibly for The elusive Ricky who is a CFO thank you yeah yeah just another Point um the council has about a 60-page document and and in addition to that uh it's probably about a six or seven page summary document that the CFO put together but the State forms I believe it's about 60 Pages um has um the detail of the tax levy the utilities both uh store and Beach and um the council's had that since I want to say the April time frame again it's changed a couple of times but the percent's been from 359 to 374 to 339 so it's not been like swinging by a lot of percents or anything like that there's no question question for the residents the council has a copy of the budget so the mayor's correct the problem has been and we've said this for four months we don't understand it and the questions we've asked we don't feel have been responded to appropriately there have been responses a lot of them are embarrassingly simple and and not accurate uh the one I quoted before I'm going to give it again just because it's one of the most embarrassing responses I've ever heard and it cannot have been from Mr Gs had to have been from someone else in the mayor's team I have it in writing um why are how do we justify moving revenue from our meters in the beach to the current Fund in this 2024 budget and the answer given and this is an example of what we see on a lot of answers the answer was we can discuss this in 2025 that was the answer answer so when the mayor tells the world that he's answered our questions he's responded but please do not believe we are comfortable with this budget we've seen the budget we've analyzed the budget but we can't get answers to our questions mire McGuire extend ad um I would like to urge the council to vote down the introduction of the budget um after what we saw again here tonight I mean this is pretty regular um we could pretty much run a meeting on our own here since we have no ba who's ever here to do her job um interestingly the 2025 comment about getting information discussing in 2025 now knowing the mayor's not running for re-election is pretty hilarious so that speaks for itself um I would like to ask mayor Fox um did Mr farbach do the budget sorry no Mr farach was on the team but he did not do the budget it was combination of uh I think the core I think we let PE told people this the core group was the CFO the bur administrator myself and Mr far back uh and and the assistant CFO um provided a lot of the analytics um who's the assistant CFO Alison G oh okay um when was that announced at a council meeting she she's been in that role for come out on two years okay news to me um so if Mr Gs has not answered the questions about the budget and only submitted the AFS for 2023 just this past Monday how was a budget even compiled without those financials the the balances that Mr Gs had used for the budget were numbers that he had the complete what was submitted uh earlier this week was the complete AFS but the balances he needed to do the 2024 budget were correct and the um the uh fund balances that he had provided back in I want to say it was April 10th uh right around there uh were unchanged I I asked him that question um I emailed him that question and said they were unchanged so okay so how were they correct if there was a $222,000 discrepancy there is $222,000 discrepancy maybe not now but there was no no there wasn't I'm sorry when Miss Mullen was just up here you mentioned that there were discrepancies so now you're saying something differently what no what I said was that there's a subsidary to have an edms that doesn't aggregate totals correctly the line items in Edmonds are correct the line items EDS are what are reflected in the state form and that hasn't changed Okay so we still using Edmonds why are we still using Edmonds if it's Edmond's fault everyone Edmond's the primary that's a secondary use of evidence primary use of evidence it's the financial ledure system and U houses our balance sheet um this doesn't seem to be in New Jersey state news that everyone's budget is not aggregating correctly in Edmond I would imagine that that would be State News if that was a huge problem in everyone's budget most towns have a budget passed already had an AFS filed on time not this past Monday had an audit already filed on time don't have material misstatements in their prior audit don't have over $2 million unrecorded or overspent don't commingle funds with their Beach we have an issue here mayor Fox and you can could keep filling in the time with your answers that mean nothing please vote down the introduction to the budget thank you we have one more comment okay cind 284 um since this team says it's news that we have an assistant CFO that even all of you don't know about um what is her normal daily position does anybody know she's primarily yeah she's primarily the payroll she started out in payroll but she's uh also moved into accounts payable and basically I'm not sure when her title they shied her title but she's been taken on more and more responsibility over the last two years so we have a data entry clerk that is now an assistant CFO more or less no no that that's not that's that's a misstatement I'm sorry okay okay um yes I believe Nancy brought it up um and this is a question perhaps for you um Erica do I need to Oprah you to find out exactly who that accounting course was paid for okay you I I hand that okay um because the fact that there is a Rucker's intro to accounting class like she said is frightening and we all have a good chance of who we may or may not think is taking that course um who knows maybe course good class is happening now never know um that's sinful but since we do have an assistant CFO and since the um arrogant CFO does not want to meet with our council is there any reason why the council cannot sit with the assistant CFO to get all of their answers fully vetted and answered the way they would like to Mr Mayor yeah that's not appropriate and in what and in what Essence would you want to Define that that is not appropriate for what reason I'll just leave it it's not appropriate thank you well the one thing I can say Larry is thank you for not running you wouldn't have won anyway your Minions that you are putting up for Slaughter I feel for them because they will only have the wrath of what you have left them and that's unfortunate CU nobody deserves what you have left the fact that honestly alosi is even wanting to run to help fix this abysmal town is more than extraordinary and I hope that every voter here puts everything that they have aside we are a nonpartisan town that you do the right thing and that you demand the next mayor at the business Acumen the Le acum to run this town successfully and for those that may still be Holden to you you you can be quiet I'm not talking to you Jesus this town deserves more Mr Weber M Mone Mr gzi Mr Noble we applaud you we thank you we know it is an endless endless job that you are doing we ask that you stay the course we ask that you continue to not pass the budget and yes we will all gladly create a GoFundMe to cover your cost of being build every day since interestingly enough Larry Fox is not being build on it so please hold to your guns please hold to your morals and your values and please continue to stand up and we will stand behind you thank you [Applause] any other questions comments any hands on Zoom yeah okay thank you mayor thank you uh okay again like the I think Council M she was okay with mwing that motion up 202 486 I I'll second your earlier motion uh Mr Noble no Mr gzi yes M Mone yes Mr the G I'll vote Yes as well mayor Fox yes thank you okay I want make a motion to uh I'm sorry to discussion discussion sorry discussion first please I'm sorry Council you broke up go ahead continue with your motion sir sorry yeah want to make a we were just looking to discuss this before you make a motion but if you'd like to make a motion first that we find and we'll discuss it after make a motion yeah make a motion uh 20246 ruction 2024 Municipal budget by title only um somebody wants to comment yes Council would you like to begin yes I absolutely don't mind beginning I uh it's more question of knowing where to start um so just I'd like to say a couple quick things in response to the the comments we we've heard tonight I understand and I appreciate a lot of people's frustration um clearly you can only imagine how frustrating uh this process been for the council um but I would just ask everyone going forward to focus your frustration on the mayor whether it be other employees who might be you know unfortunately within his realm of uh of accusations you know I would encourage you all to not not focus on anyone other than the mayor the mayor's responsible uh good or bad the mayor's responsible um and I was surprised I'm gonna I do have a couple prepared pardon me Mr goosi um M Mr Fox mayor Fox have you left the the meeting I don't see you okay I your picture was gone could you stay on camera please it's okay honestly got to be on camera okay it's fine it's fine he has to be on camera I'm sorry uh we don't no not just contined if I was on the telephone I wouldn't be on camera you're supposed to be just council president like I'm sorry I just want to make sure you yeah I'm I'm here okay making sure I thought we lost you so number one to the extent you have frustrations please target them where they belong um we've talked so many months about the definition of the sanity and I I feel for everyone in this audience I feel for anyone watching on Zoom the definition of the sanity continues until tonight we I am we are all going to be discussing changes as we move forward but even listening to your concerns tonight I I feel for I feel for our residents um and hopefully we the council have a plan to move forward uh to just make the situation better um as you're aware we are being fined the council is being fined by the DCA I was actually surprised to hear Mr Mayor maybe you can confirm this that is the four council members seated here that are being fined $25 a day but is it true that you are not being fined sir yeah that's correct I voted uh favorably for the introduction uh each time it's um the failure to adopt failure to introduce with a vote is the basis of the B okay so you voted for your own budget and therefore you that gave you cover I get it okay uh really I I'm trying to be very polite here sir I'm measuring my words as you ask us to do at the beginning of every meeting the can you yeah well when you tell people when you people tell people to Target me councilman that's not really you are the mayor of the burough sir I'm telling them bring their concerns directly to you and not to the employees around you I'm just using your word I'm just using your word did not use the word Target that is fine U my my second question is can you provide us the AFS that that magically has been filed I'm thrilled to hear it's been I happen to look at the website before coming to the meeting it's not posted on the website nor was it delivered to the council but let me remind everyone last year's AFS when it was filed was outrageously incorrect citing that we had $7 million of cash in our bank accounts when in fact we had 4 million telling us that we had replenished 700,000 of surplus when in fact we replenished virtually nothing so don't everyone yell Hallelujah all at once because we filed an AFS the AFS is a relatively meaningless financial statement as demonstrated by the AFS we filed the burrow filed in for 2022 my question Mr Mayor is when do we expect the 2023 audit report an audit would be a much more formal documentation of 2023 is results do you have a timing for the 2023 audit report I I know that Mr Garts and Mr alwa started the process um I can get you that date I don't have that date in front of me but Mr ol was pretty confident that he could get it done once he had the AFS in a matter of weeks okay uh when did you get this assurance from Mr Al Mr Gs uh weet oh yes W today Wednesday Tuesday yesterday okay because M and and he's confident he can get you the information in a couple of weeks did he tell you why it's taking Mr Ola this long to get us to be to get working on the audit or to have the audit ready for a delivery what is he waiting for one of things he he need the okay does he need the financial statements to conduct an audit does he need our financial statements I'm not understanding your question councel is is Mr alawa our auditor currently working on our audit it is the very end of August we eight months into the new year how far long is Mr Oliva in conducting our audit for 2023 as I said he was waiting on the AFS and and Mr Gs had also sent him some um sample bank reconciliation U documents I know that you mentioned that last week the the Mr Mayor the AFS is a is a financial report I've already we've already proven that a very lacking in credibility report at times but an auditor comes in and evaluates our financial records evaluates invoices evaluates uh Bank reconciliations as you mentioned an audit usually starts February or March how far long is our audit is it 50% is it almost complete I mean he's not just waiting for an AFS is he waiting for anything else I'm not aware that he's waiting for anything else at this time okay and the reason I asked I wanted to see if your understanding was different than my own because I wrote to and on August 202nd how many days ago six days ago Mr Ola confirmed that our CFO informed him that he's in the process of finalizing the 2023 general ledger and compiling the Burrow's financial statements for audit he said he does not that is the that is that I think what he meant by that was he was finalizing the AFS I think he's very this is a professional who said and I quote that the auditor is sorry the CFO is in the process of finalizing the the 2023 general ledger and it's compiling the burough financial statements for audit he has not begun the audit and what he told me in his email was he hopes to have a completed early to mid October and you just said moments ago he can he can deliver it within a few weeks of getting data which you tell us is already complete I I can do that complete that's the data you said he needs and and by your own words he should have an audit report within two weeks but he tells me it's early to mid October well that's what process uh well then I will give Mr Al a PO and say what's changed from the fact that you said you could do it within a couple weeks once you got the full of saats he told me this six days ago Mr Mayor so I my point is not to be disruptive which I'm often accused of it's just that I'm trying to highlight the way we the council are often talked in circles we don't get straight answers and this is just another example of us not getting straight answers uh okay okay I do have a a formal statement I apologize in advance it's a little lengthy but I want to make sure it is part of the public record and uh it will be uh added to our minutes I am this is my state I am very disappointed to report that the commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs Miss jacn Suarez has decided to impose a $25 per day fine on members of this Council who are working diligently to represent our residents I don't know well at the time I wrote this i w I still don't know if the daily fine includes weekend days or not but the amount of this fine through today will be either it it it it it does it includes weekend days okay so it's not $725 the fine through today is $11,000 per council person on July 18th I wrote a letter to miss Suarez detailing the following one horrible financial management by mayor Fox's Administration over the past two years contributing to this council's distrust of the current budget process this financial mismanagement resulted in the historically large loss of $1.6 million in our Surplus over 2 years this is a surplus that was built up over 30 years we built it up to a point $2.8 million and in two years we've cut it by more than half also a historically High 2023 tax rate increase which is still inadequate to cover the administration spending so we have to dip into our Surplus as well it also resulted in a 2022 audit report that was delivered in 2024 that documented the Burrow's financial mismanagement and lack of financial controls um it included a a a grossly in error filing of our annual financial statement for 2022 with the DCA in which we reported the 7 million in cash when in fact we only had 4 million actually on hand at the end of 22 I also included an email I I referenced in my letter an email from our new CFO new CFO to Mayor Fox and the new CFO documented his findings this year in 2023 that the Financial records for 2023 have been problematic quote unquote and he noted many concerns that he is still attempting to correct in the 2023 data 2023 data ladies and gentlemen and now we know that the bur's auditor has not yet been able to begin the 2023 audit because our 2023 financials are still being finalized as of six days ago I also in my letter I made great effort to explain the Absurd lack of cooperation by mayor Fox since March of this year including refusal to allow the council to speak with the CFO or to speak with our department documentation of statements made by the mayor's Administration not just the mayor suggesting that we could not access the CFO for fear that he would be harassed by all four council members each one of us was actually named in an email somebody's buttering out there I'm not I'm not sure who it is but I also noted documentation of examples of nonsensical answers provided to the council when the mayor's team responded to our questions on August 23rd I put a it was a five-page long letter loaded with factual content loaded with references to specific email correspondence and so forth on August 23rd just last week Mr Warr sent each council member except the mayor a personalized letter informing us of the implementation of the fine retroactive to July 19th she dismissed my letter of July 18th stating that my letter quote unquote attempts to justify the council's failure to approve an introduced budget by stating that despite the chief Municipal Finance officers making a budget presentation to Council on April 10th and the council having been provided various financial information unfortunately Miss Suarez is clearly implying that she's decided to accept the mayor's explanations over those of this Council without making any effort to fact check the two opposing perspectives Miss Suarez actually acknowledges the concerns that I raised about our unreliable financial data and yet she decides that the council must blindly approve this budget for introduction she acknowled that my letter also cites and this is a quote it also cites the Burrow's uh calendar year 2022 audit comments I did cite them and she read my citation and prior failure to maintain adequate Financial records she acknowledges that and she says it is the division's understanding that the current cmfo has been working diligently to Institute proper internal controls and bring the brother's Financial records into order order she's acknowledging that I told her our financial structure is chaos we are being given a budget Based on data that has been created out of this chaos and yet despite all that uh she she is forcing duly elected officials to blindly rely upon these same Financial records in order to approve a budget for the public I respect the role of the DC a and I respect that it must be very difficult to evaluate each challenge that comes before them I'm sure that M Suarez is a very talented commissioner however in this one instance she is simply wrong it is wrong to implement sanctions against the very Council people who are working long hours to honor our sworn Oaths to represent and protect the public to the very best of our abilities and what's more ironic I'm told and now I have confirmed that mayor Fox who needs Council approval and yet refuses to cooperate with any of the council's requests is not subject to this daily fine ladies and gentlemen this is a prime example of bureaucratic failure in the state of New Jersey now with regard to the vote well um with with regard to the vote to introduce the mayor's 2024 proposed budget tonight I remind the public that the mayor has promised to make our CFO available to answer the council's questions but only at budget adoption budget adoption is in 30 days and depending on the vote of the council tonight should we vote to introduce the budget we will have an opportunity 30 days from now to ask the if not sooner to ask the CFO all of the questions in front of the public that we've been asking and and hopefully get responses I've said this from the beginning I don't know if the budget is good or bad I don't know if it's right or wrong because I'm not getting answers so the CFO May answer our questions 30 days from now and if he does it may be as simple as thank you for those answers finally why did we wait four months on the other hand he there may be questions that the CFO won't even know the answers to and he'll need to do research follow up and then we'll all have to wait longer or we may have waited 30 days and then we may have to vote no at the adoption so the the chaos and the and the insanity continues but I I for one am prepared I'll TI my hand a little to to push this forward despite the police from a few of our residents tonight to not vote for implementation I'm prepared to vote for implementation only to move us off the mark it doesn't hurt that my financial penalties would stop tonight but I think that is a a a terrible Injustice perpetrated by the commissioner of the DCA I don't think she looked at the facts uh I don't think there's any any way appropriate to be finding the council all that said it it's just one more reason to move us all including the mayor Off the Mark so we'll have an opportunity to question the CFO finally in public and get our answers thank you that's my comment long as it was thank you councel any other Council comment I have a council comment um so the last time we met I did say if you've always if you always do what you've always done you'll always get what you always stop and so just like councilman goosi said we seem to be in that state right now we're doing the same thing we're turning our Wheels we keep asking questions and we're getting nowhere but we were promised that we would get a chance to speak to the CFO and ask him our questions once we introduce the budget and as councilman goosi said perhaps adopting this budget is the only way to get from where we are to where we need to be that does not mean that we have to accept this budget in the end it just means this might be our only way to get a chance to speak with the employee that we hired the numbers for our budget continue to change the current fund has gone from according to what mayor fox says last year last week was only adjusted by $24 not over 70k which it was on 4 194 the current fund was at 11 m733 on SE 23 the number for the current fund was at 11,445 $557 that's a difference of over $70,000 we are now relegated to using two PDFs as our backup information one of them is 82 pages long yesterday I asked for the three different state PF forms to be sent to me and well over 24 hours later I have received no response all I wanted was an email with three documents I requested this of the mayor the ba Mr fendo and our CFO and no one responded to send me those three documents I wanted to give another example of the kind of answers to questions that we received when we were doing our preliminary questions m this was one of the questions that was asked by councilman gitos so for instance there is an employee Whose line item had gone up 45% and Mr go GB councilman gubitosi said you know had questioned this and said why is this going up over 45% and what is the name of the employee and whoever is doing the budget back and gave the name and they and councilman goosi said thank you for the name of employee X but why is it an increase of 45% because he only got half the answer did this person get promoted did this person contract to work for longer hours is this a 12-month budget versus a 10-month budget eg a 20% increase and then there was another response from the uh Administration he has been made part time and this is his estimated total cost for the year councilman gubitosi this does not appear to be an answer the question regards an increase the answer describes a decrease the answer from the administration the $4,500 reflects an actual expense expense in 2023 we had so many questions that were back and forth back and forth where we never really got answers where we got half answers and then councilman gubitosi went back four or five times but this is indicative you know we'll answer it in 2025 here's half an answer there was an increase but you know it represents a decrease I don't know on Friday August 23rd the DCA imposed a fine on this Council of $25 a day for the failure to introduce the budget for the burrow of Bradley Beach in the letter I received sadly to my misspelled name and wondering if this gets me off the hook but I doubt it it stated the burough Council has an obligation to act on the municipal budget with the information available to it and in that one statement there's the catch with the information available to it unfortunately there are no guidelines provided as to what are good useful and ordinary information for a council that a council should receive the making decisions and amendments to annual budgets instead a council is Hostage to the administration and the information the administration chooses to provide or withhold when numbers become moving targets questions go unanswered or answers are evasive I wonder to what lengths a counil should go to to protect the public they serve in this case it's to the length of incurring a fine of almost $1,000 or exactly thank you that's up today tomorrow it'll be even more council members are asked to rely on their Professionals for their guidance however they are elected or appointed for their own Acumen prudence and interest in serving the public when council members are denied access to the very professionals they themselves have hired it's no wonder things can be such become such a cluster mess whatever I am shocked by the dca's decision knowing that this Council has found getting answers and numbers for this budget akin to nailing Jello to a wall that our access to our professionals has been limited to weak answers from a volunteer that we have not received one email with answers or explanations not one from the CFO we hired I would suggest the DCA Endeavor to set guidelines um set by those towns for paradigms of success and put in placed a set of required documents for review for councils in order to make informed decisions on the bud perhaps maybe penalties for administrations who cannot prove they have started the budget process early and to not who do not in introduce the budget on time as I stated previously the information we have received has dwindled from spreadsheets we can manipulate to do simple math with to just two PDF documents and one is 82 82 Pages have you ever attempted to analyze an 82-page Financial document done in a PDF and all along the numbers have changed if the DCA would like to find this very conscientious Council for doing its best in the name of transparency then so be it I would suggest the DCA needs to change its guidelines on what's expected from an Administration made up of professionals paid to give us answers before it imposes findes regarding what is expected from the people who volunteer to serve people thank you councilman any other comments I was wondering if we can have a workshop if we do introduce the budget between now and the inter the adoption no now this this is comments on the introduction of the budget it's it's not if you want to make comments on the introduction of budget that's great but I have a motion that's been that's up to question it's part of the discussion Mr Mayor you said we can have discussion I'm discussing it are we I know we know we talked about having contact with the CFO in between and I did not a response did you get a response Council no Weber okay you have to understand when I first became a council woman I went to newly elected and they said to me the the most time you're going to spend is on the budget it starts in November you're going to meet with department heads and it's going to be the biggest job that you have I don't think we started this process until March and I was not included in any of these discussions and this has not been inclusive this is not the teamwork we' had some new developments and I do think next year looks brighter already but this is not the way things should be run it's very very disappointing anyone else have any comments or questions I'd like to comment I think a workshop would be great J thank you for commenting thank you okay the motion is up for the introduction of the 2024 budget been second Erica could you take the roll call Noble without a workshop or any kind contact with the CFO I just can not say yes to this I'm sorry and the answer is no Mr I so much want to say no but then I just keep getting stuck in my infinite Loop that this never ends until we're all dragged off in handcuffs so I'm going to vote Yes and I'm going to be very prepared to have a very lengthy discussion in front of every resident that wants to participate uh approximately 30 days from this introduction should we introduce yes M Mone um I think uh introducing the budget is the only way we get this over the goal line and um I have to tell you that so much time goes into writing these emails and putting this analysis together every week it's painful to look back at all the emails and try to put all the documents together especially when you ask for documents and you don't get them um it will be so much hard work to put together all the questions that we're gonna have for the CFO but I look forward to putting in that work and it's a good thing I'm not employed so I plenty of time to do it so I vote Yes Mr Weber yeah you've heard this uh said a lot of here that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over over and over and um some of us decided that that applies to us too so we are never going to get a different result unless we're doing something different but please take note we are the ones deciding to do something different to move the ball forward uh to get to the point where we can ask those questions of the CFO uh I think there's a really great chance that we could after that meeting we still vote no on this budget if the questions are not answered to our satisfaction so uh that's not the case but I think it's a very real possibility uh I want to thank my Council colleagues for just Illuminating all of the things that we've gone through with this budget just tonight and almost every other meeting of course so I appreciate you putting in the time on that um I am going to vote Yes on this but again it's because we're going to get to that place where we can ask our questions and I appreciate everybody's input but uh we're the ones making the change here and I hope that's noted mayor Fox uh yes okay um the rest of this uh agenda we have no ordinances no Communications we have um a consent uh consent agenda of three items um I'll read them 2024 164 the bill list 2024 165 approval special New Jersey to conduct flat k r for Saturday November 16 2024 from 10302 pass 2024 165 approval gra improve pant to conduct an on premises 5050 Ral for Thursday October 17th from 6:00 to 9: p.m. 2024 167 approval of the off premise license uh uh for 20 oh I'm sorry uh yeah I'm sorry 20241 167 approval of off premise license raffle license for St Teresa of C Paris uh make a motion to approve the consent agenda Mr I'd like to have Bill list voted out separately that yeah so I'll make the motion to approve the consent agenda absent 2024 164 second Mr Noble yes Mr yes M Mone yes Mr Weber yes mayor Fox yes 2024 164 the bill list for August 28 a motion to approve the have some questions on the bill Mr May um so I don't know who I'm going to be asking them but ask anyway so on the cover page I mean maybe this is the case every single time but uh it really just jumped out of me where it says payroll the difference between the July 31st payroll and August 15th payroll is the difference is like $65,000 and you know summer hasn't exactly ended I can't I can't really see what the difference is between you July you know week and a half ago or whatever but um so any any info on why they would be $65,000 would be that different no but I guess I would say councilman had you asked that question as we've asked you to prior to the meeting we would have gotten that for you we get it for you after the yeah um I hear what you're saying Mr Mayor and respectfully uh I doubt it because you know that isn't always the case um and you know admonishing me for my question doesn't for the timing of my question doesn't change the fact that it's my job to ask questions and I'm asking a question if I could have done it to I would have and you're not going to speak over me if I could have asked it before yes you are if I could have asked it before I would have okay so I have more questions so get ready to ad again and again on this so on page two the honor me tree plaqu it's not a big deal it's not a lot of money but the note it says that it's it's miscellaneous why isn't that say it's for the shade tree commission any idea why we charge that miscellaneous and not the no okay uh I don't know what page this is one one is on but the the CIT Bank it looks like we're paying admin administrative service $355 again it's not a lot of money it seems like it's Bank fees on P that's page uh four towards the bottom CIT Bank any idea what that is no okay I comment is that is that your final comment or question those are my questions on the bill yeah thank you and you know you can say that I'm admonishing you but I would just say that anytime any of the council has asked a question in advance of the council meeting relative to the billis I would say 99% of those have been answered to everybody's satisfaction so um I think that just needs to be S so thank you uh councilman OSI you have a question no more of a comment um I know a resident brought this up tonight and uh and other residents brought this to my attention over the weekend and I I just want to comment on it and that is U the concern about uh there being uh I don't know $500 or so charge I don't have the bill list in front of me related to an introduction to accounting program and what I've said to anyone who asks me is I think it's applaudable that an employee for the burrow is trying to advance their knowledge their education regardless of the you know as long as the course relates to the role that they serve the burrow in uh I personally would be very supportive of that so I I just want to make sure I understand that there's a lot of frustration boiling over on a lot of different topics but especially as it regards continuing education and advancing your skills as you serve the buau uh I think I can speak for the entire Council we're always going to be supportive of that so I just want I just want to go on the record it's making that comment thank you Mr Mayor I trust you wrote those questions down and you can get the council answers tomorrow for councilman Weber's questions see not well I I guess it all depend on if the person who needs to answer those question would be available to you tomorrow I assume they will I'm I'm I happen to be on vacation but I'll make an effort to do that thank you okay uh make a motion to approve 20244 second Mr Noble yes um Mr gzi yes M money yes Mr Weber no because there no one here to answer my questions mayor yes uh okay um IND ual resolutions um we have 32 2024 168 Sil Lake Restoration Team support make a motion to approve 2024 168 second second Mr Noble yes Mr I have a a couple comments I'm going to make uh in Council comments related to this but for now I V yes uh M Mahoney yes Mr Weber you know if you think the uh budget process was long um the effort to restore this lake is a really long long effort and two people that are really integral to it are sitting here today I don't know if you came just to see this resolution pass but thank you both very much and and Kathy Martin so thank you and I both yes mayor Fox yes uh 2024 169 adting rep and findings of the B's conf attorney regarding appeal fire company's member displ decision dat March 6 2024 adopting the recommended decision containing contained there in make a motion to approve 2024 169 Mr Noble yes Mr gzi yes Mr Mom yes Mr Weber yes mayor pass yes uh there are no announcements um I'm going to ask U council president denov to take over at this point it's 1 a.m. where I am and i' like to get some sleep so uh Council woman if you could take council president if you could take over very much appreciate thank you all all right so let's go on [Music] to the mayor and Council report anyone like to go first I like to go first CC woman Mahone I'm going to go first mine is quick the land board met on August 15th a third one-year extension for the proposed mixed use building at the auto tech site on Main Street was approved a request for the demolition of a two-story bedro Cottage and the construction of a one-bedroom garage apartment on 4th Avenue was carried to the September meeting the environmental committee will meet on September 9th here they will discuss the adopted train program and the upcoming fall that is my thank you Council all right thanks everybody um and sorry for raising my voice before what I I'm feeling your your pain as far as getting spoken over while you're speaking um I want to congratulate the people that are going to be on our ballot in November people in this community some in this room that stepped up and talked to their neighbors and got their signatures and um decided that they want to at least take a good look and change in the the form government in this town so congrats to all of them uh let's just as a bit of information people should know we don't use diple anymore we use Community pass uh I think the change was made maybe it was announced I don't know but when we Chang to community pass for the lockers I guess that's when we Chang for regular Beach badges I know nothing about buying Beach badges online you know you probably don't nether because you live here but um just let me know anybody asks um I too went on vacation and uh I went before the August 13th meeting with uh local 152 and I thought I'd come back and you'd have something solved and that's not the case so that s continues and that's um a bit of disappointment to me but uh at least the meeting happened and they agreed to meet again as far as I know which is pretty good um and I have been up here for like eight years and you know they haven't come to every single meeting but the B administrator whoever they are they tend to come meetings unless there's some exua circumstance why they can so it may be accurate to say that they're not required and I'm sure that's true um just making an observation that all those previous B came when they weren't required to um okay so I'm going to do the fire report and then switch to my phone and give the bir date report because that's how they came in for the month ending July 31st depner responded to six day calls and nine Night Calls um uh nine were for fire alarm activations three were for natural gas leaks one was for a first aid call lift assist the department conducted one training for hydrant operations the department participated in two special events one was the presentation to the recreation campers and one was the fireworks detail at the beach front there no Mutual Aid request and the department filled 100% of their assignments for the operational period uh they're still looking for volunteers and they offer free training qualified individuals and you can get information on that to the Burrow's website and for the first day report was hiding in the phone somebody else was on vacation but they got it into me just in time so for the period that ended today the squad responded to 29 day calls 29 Night Calls for 57 calls 38 were medical 15 for fire calls four water rescue requests from the answers team to two motor vehicle crashes the squad provided medical OverWatch for br fire department 5K the squad has one drill for the safety and education of the members on their new suction equipment this equipment is used to remove fluids from a patient who has a blocked Airway okay uh Squad requested no Mutual Aid assistance and repli provided one mutual uh Aid to Neptune for a medical emergency they filled 100% of their assignments uh they're still looking for volunteers anyone wants to volunteer uh applications on the burough website and they do accept applications for a Cadet program young people from 16 to 18 years of age uh if they're interested in serving their Community uh flet Lake commission did not meet in August so that is my report thanks very much thank you councilman Le councilman luosi normally I um I am the liaison of the police department and normally I leave with a police uh report but Chief I didn't get one this this much soize next one will be very long I fig Brown been on vacation because we are all waiting with baited breath for that next report so uh so everybody get more comfortable next next me we'll have a longer one um I'm also Thea on to the C light commission and ladies that were're already recognized thank you for being here for your leadership gools on the commission um as many of you witnessed a few minutes ago we passed the resolution in support of the Restoration Team that's been working on S Lake uh planning and securing grant funding for over four years now uh last week in the commission's August 21st meeting the lake restoration team members which include captain Mesi Martin mugh and our own Jim shishas um attended that meeting along with our burough engineer Ben M from CME they discussed uh the great progress being made to involve various private entities as well as state and federal agencies to continue to secure funding for the lake um they also discussed immediate next steps that which the Restoration Team Will begin to uh spend close to $100,000 of ree grant funding REI uh excuse me I forget what it stands for but it's federal grants uh they have $100,000 of ree grant funding that they've already secured and they're going to use that to begin conducting water quality testing in the lake as well as to begin some engineering surveys and design and and surveys and design relat specifically to how dredging would occur where dredging would occur um you know in order to uh have maximum uh Effectiveness for the health of the lake this team and CME and this is really very noteworthy the team of experts are in if you will independent we we the council voted our support for them but they work are working independently to hire engineers and so forth to help us restore the lake um and largely doing that with grant funding but what's important is uh that B matac from CME also attended this meeting and the group including Mr M pledged support to work together because as you're all aware the burrow uh will at times Avon burrow as well as Bradley Beach burrow uh will will at times request funds for you know repairing our size of the it could be a living Shoreline on the Avance side it has been for Bradley as well for us more recently we've got funds that uh grants have been U approved for um for for fixing our bulkit which is collapsing um what's important though is that bulkhead needs to get fixed in a way that is consistent with the broader design for restoring the lake so that might mean it's angled a different way or it's cut in a different way what whatever it means to the broader uh health of the lake Mr malac has said we're not just going to go in we BR the beach won't go in blindly and just restore the bulkhead to to fix a wall we'll do it in a way that is uh aligned with the broader vision of the lake so that's to me that was a phenomenal resolution for the Civil commission and and again uh that commission deserves a tremendous amount of credit because it's a commission that represents both rather Beach residents and ab by the C residents um I also just want to comment on local 152 uh Union contract negotiations uh councilman Weber referenced that there was a meeting a while back a week or so was very long ago uh and we were copied on correspondence between the union negotiator and the mayor and the mayor pledged that we would get to yes in that meeting and and if it if it was needed we would go we being the Bradley Beach Representatives would go uh three days if if needed to get to yes and apparently they had one meeting and they didn't get to yes and they decided wasn't even worth having a second meeting a second day meting so I don't know the details but upon learning of this outcome I did reach out to our business administrator and I asked and I probably should have done this earlier but I asked for a side by side comparison of what the current proposals are by by broad category salaries and wages we're offering this the Union's offering that uh pay time off we're offering this Union is offering that and so on um because you might be wondering why am I asking for this you would think perhaps that the council is aware of what's being offered and what's what counters are being made by the union and unless I'm the only one in the dark I'm pretty sure the council is not being made aware we've asked in the past uh we don't know we don't know what the specific sticking points are we'll hear a rumor here and there but I and I personally ched in one point on one particular issue I spoke to BN our attorney Mr Bernstein and uh Mr barbach our resident volunteer who were leading the negotiations and I talked to them uh about concerns I have with one particular issue being negotiated um and to the best of my knowledge I don't think they've acted on my concerns but I think it's time given were more than a year and a half into these negotiations that the mayor and the administration provide greater Clarity to this Council the council that has to vote for this contract uh ultimately um they have to give us great clarity for the issues uh that that are now being negotiated um and I did ask the ba that was an email of a few days ago today she replied to me that the mayor would get back to me so uh I did ask in response I did ask when will the mayor get back to me uh that was only hours ago so he and he's on vacation so uh you know obviously we'll give this a reasonable amount of time but we just got to get we just got to make progress it's just not it's not fathomable that this is dragging up for over a year and a half that concludes my comments thank you thank you Council toi update on the um shade tree there was no meeting but they are looking to explore a possible grant that would treat the spotted Lantern fly and they're asking if you have an infestation infestation um on your yard or any place that you do know to please send them an email at shade tree at Bradley Beach nj.gov with that location tourism Saturday in the Park Concert Series began in 2019 and has certainly grown in popularity the tourism commission director are thrilled at the feedback receive from the businesses the visitors and the residents this weekend DJJ will have his final dance night at the beat trunk pazeo on Friday night and then on Saturday night in the park the series continues with the Eddie tester band next weekend closes up with jump back playing Rock rhythm and blues and coming on September 14th Riley Park will host Viva Bradley Beach Viva Bradley Beach was created in 2019 and it was put on hold due to co and unforeseen circumstances but it's back with two live bands a DJ free salsa class and did I say salsa yes salsa um and lots of food the event runs from 2: to 8:00 p.m. and we hope to see you there so please mark your calendar September 14th 2,575 visits with over 2,000 direct clicks on the QR code that was created this year was um to restaurants for Take out delivery and or D in so that a huge success that was just brand new this year and the tourism event page has received over 25 visits since June so all in all a hugely successful summer congratulations to Michelle Willie the commission and especially our director Amy Hall well done next up I attended the Board of Ed meeting last week and the Bradley Beach Elementary School is preparing for another successful year filled with academic excellence and holistic student development couple of the highlights for the upcoming school year phonics program introduction for grades K to 2 the Dual language prek program will launch the AVID program expansion commitment to family engagement Student Life uh Community collaboration and student wellness tuition and space availability not only has Bradley Beach become a destination for the ocean and the businesses it's also become a destination for our school as well and um I would like to thank the Board of Ed the PTA the entire staff and we look forward to a very productive engaging and successful Academic Year and that concludes my report I would like to Now open up to public comments Cindy C 2184 there two things one um yes all events have been great it's fantastic one thing could we just keep in mind possible for next year of trying our best not to compete with events because there have been many times like even tonight you know we have we have a a to meeting it'd be lovely to have more people here but there's music in the park going on um same as on you know one Friday we have the DJ and then we add the band up up on the park so if we could you know out of the 120 plus days for summer do a better job of spreading it out absolutely absolutely tonight um I did have in my note that was actually um postponed it rained on a Saturday so this was the only night they were available but I I can see like I came over tonight was well attended because I think people are used to Saturday nights right so we we try to you know get everybody in as well as we can but they they do have to work around the weather so that's absolutely but and and they do collaborate with other commissions as well and even the bbca they they collaborate with them so they try not to you know duplicate on the same night but well well taken and just the other point um if by moving this along that you have the opportunity to speak with the CFO can you please um I'm sure it's not prior to or during that or certainly before your decisions upon adopting or not adopting that budget um request that all of the members that have been part of that process to date are part of that meeting whether it's the ba the CFO the CFO fck the mayor um that everybody here is attended for that and that actually the extent of that your questions are answered are actually answered not just the same you know yes we've answer that is not going to suffice for Mr Barts knowing that he has to actually give you concrete answers with proof so I don't know if that can be something you can speak offline to or demand or whatnot but at the very least please see what you can do for that so that it's a productive read that is a great suggestion and it's funny I wrote down all the names this as you was speaking and I was taking the same thing so we're on the same page great thank you very much anybody else Sha Sha 414 M Avenue um first of all I just want to thank um councilman goosi and councilman Weber for referencing the local 52 contract um I have to say I feel like I'm speaking to the choir and unfortunately the mayor has left the meeting um and in addition to that you know there's there's a tentative meeting in in early August which didn't occur and then for for the second meeting of the month um the mayor's on vacation so he left her uh shy the public comments um perhaps in the future consider switching that tentative meeting having the early August meeting and if there's you know no need to have a second meeting in August but this becomes very disruptive because there's information um that really needs to be addressed that the bur the residents the burrow is really not having access to um so I'm sorry that I'm bringing this and raising the question to the four of you I really would have preferred to raise the question to the mayor because he's really the only individual who can actually provide answers other than the ba is not here so um just driving down the down the streets of Bradley Beach we're all very aware that there are two very strong issues that concern the residents um looking at all the lawn signs um the residents are asking for the local union 152 contract to get resolved the residents are asking for movement on 319 Lorraine on the church property um it would have been nice if the mayor um I understand that he is elsewhere and he's 5 hours ahead it's early in the morning of the next day for him um but to have submitted public coms uh excuse me um mayor's comments um so we can be updated on some of this information which is really very pressing this information is um second or equal to the issue of the budget which is very important clearly very important The Local Union contract so the fact that we are not hearing anything meaningful about where the contract negotiations are going and now uh councilman kosi I appreciate all the information you provided you shareed as much as you know um you know the the community needs to be heard uh the Local Union uh needs to be addressed this is just unconscionable that it's now 19 months and they don't have a contract and this is our coveted DP W and clal it's just unconscionable um and 319 Lorraine church we understand there was uh a public auction we understand there were no bids at all uh I do uh recollect that the mayor had given a very brief update of where things were but where are things going to go um you know we're the the community is waiting on information there was a promise by the mayor that this would uh this would get uh taken care of by September now that was very questionable and clearly it's like it's put on the back burner again so we don't hear anything about it so I just want to say for the record that I am very concerned and clearly the residents are very concerned about both of these issues and this is something that we really need to focus on in addition to the to the budget surely um and that needs to be taken seriously by this mayor as the leader of Bry be I don't know if there's any commentary of my comments from any of I I would like to add I I did send an email requesting that we do have a meeting on August 14th and I understand the mayor has a a relative that is suffering from an illness and I said I I would gladly run the meeting I did not get a response although Erica did call me and said that the meeting because it was so showing tentative so to me it sounds like it may still happen and she said she was going to change it to cancel so I did not get a response but I did get resp response from the mayor as far as 319 the rain because I said it's been you know a while since that auction went on what's our next steps what are we doing what's going on and he said that we've been collecting information from a number of Realtors developers and a commercial real estate management company we so that we can recommend a path forward you me recommended uh your recommendation of a major slot subdivision right now F into the feedback we are getting so I don't think a workshop is necessary I want to get this on the September 11th agenda along with the appropriate resolutions to move us forward I suggested that this go in front of the L board and rather than having a builder go in front of B boort to get the preliminary subdivision approved because they could say no they could say we want to see three lots we want to see four no one is going to buy this knowing not what their to get and so I he have I don't know who he's talking to he has not been included in the process but um I do hope that this will be on the agenda on September 11th and we'll have more answers on that thank you I appreciate it okay we're trying thank you Mia I'll Mia avue um I went to the Riley hit the farmers market it was about two or 3 weeks maybe 3 weeks ago now and when I got it was a hot summer's day but it was just lovely with setups of all the stands and especially the farmers market itself with the fruits and vegetables all local um but there was nobody there and so I went home and I checked the website to see if it had been posted on our calendar and it wasn't nowhere to be seen and I thought what a shame these people all set up they're ready to go and there was no highlight on and I'm probably speaking in the choir here because you don't have a VA here who probably should be managing the website like some events are not on the website but it's a new website so you think it's up to date but it's just if I may I can answer that for you you like answer okay so that is run by the BB BCA and not the burrow oh why wouldn't it go on our calendar though to draw is it on the calendar I think it would make sense I thought it was a shame I I think it's recently added I think because I remember approving it I think in June and I think they did the calendar earlier in the year so it's a website though not you guys but even yeah no go ahead the council actually agreed there's a you know a letter of I don't know how how we work together with with various entities including the bbca the bbca specifically had a uh letter of understanding that the council approved which said we would work together to advertise their thing their events on our website our things on their websit that's supposed to happen I'm I'm just afraid we're going to lose those vendors they're not going to want to come back and it's really a nice thing in town be able to run up and get ahead of lettuce tomatoes you know like it was just really nice we used to have it weekly on Thursday nights and that went away on the ocean well it was on the ocean when Riley Park was being red I for wish we bring I'm not the my to bring it back I would if I knew how to do something like that but this was this is a monthly thing and now that could go away too which I know PA was here earlier but I'll the message maybe work that's just the website make sure it's on the website seems like some things are not there I understand well thank you for okay thank you uh Miss meta Nancy meow Park um it's my understanding that we've numerous calendars on the website and we're at our maximum so bbca has have your own calendar that's just what I'm hearing from my parents um well there's a lot of comments I won't make because somebody's not here to hear them however when we skip a meeting certain things do get overlooked like in my opinion and from what I've observed the life guard situation there was actually a mascot on the life guard stand on my beach it is an elephant it's about 2 big at least and I take that as a nonpartisan thing quite honestly offensive I won't even address the drinking issue and what other other issues but Mr goopy I don't know if we're in good company together or bad company together but I had an incident with DCA this month it did not go my way I found them unhelpful uncooperative uninformed so just making that little um contact M Mahoney I'm sorry that your name was misspelled it happened to me actually on a ticket and I was told that there was nothing I could do without it so what can I say regarding continuing education I'm a teacher I'm all for it but not at the schooling of the burrow so if we have a policy we we reimburse people if somebody wants to move up the ladder and wants to take a course I get it if you are underqualified for your position I do not get it because you want to be in the job with the proper qualifications um I recollect a meeting where um miss Gavin was given the task that she now has or said to have she was not given the task of assistant to financial C CFO my recollection is that she was given the task to enter invoices um it's a big difference um food pantry is no longer in Bradley Beach how many is I said get it off the website but have a link now we don't even need a link it's in another town and yet it's a big thing on the website you click on it it's still there we've moved with all the stuff that is so inappropriate especially how quickly that got done and yet all the other Corrections that need to be done on the website are not done I realized you guys don't deal with this but um we four more months before something's going to change we hope we don't know how it will change but the four we don't need four more months of Destruction so anything that you can do to make things better would be appreciated um I'm glad that it was brought up about the church I clearly thought it would have been on the agenda and I think this underscores why the ordinance says we need to a month we still have other nonprofits blurring Lines within the burrow um I don't remember approving it's kind of like a freefor all I don't remember approving the umos acknowledgement Flags in my Park this year it just sort of appeared overnight I don't remember um proving all of the local summer signs because I always felt to others blur the line local summer was quiet a time for us it was not to invite others here to make us crowded it was to reward us for all that we have survived I will say like I survived what you're disagreeing with me I age oh for once thank you more than once you you miss some good ways to it's just and you know bluring lines church and state every morning when I walk um but it's interesting when other people are meetings out there that um the religious people are not there I wonder where they go then Jo those meetings and how they kind of disappear from the board very interesting to me um okay that's not you guys oh and this is the other thing now we're told that um and again I didn't mention the name so I'm com the prime point is being done by miss Gavin okay let me wrap my head around the sequence of events we had a ba who chose to um retain Prime point because the bank was paying for now we have our employee and Prime Point bills wonder my CES I wish I had an answer okay I wish you did too know I really do I wish you the future's looking brighter though I I I can't make this up I'm not a creative I'm all left I know I understand thank you very much anybody else any comments questions TJ TJ oh here he comes than you open public can you state your name and address please Thomas J 62 Third Avenue thank you um open public meetings are a wonderful thing because it's the sharing of ideas and Concepts and you learn something so tonight what we learned was that mayor Fox was holding the 2023 AFS and not giving it to the council not giving it to the public not putting it on the website that is horrific Injustice now the other thing we learn tonight is with mayor Fox's comments is that he referenced Bond money helping with the budget well wow let's just go to our credit card and use that to keep the taxes down it's fake and it's phony and that's why you guys have to dive in that has to be reviewed immediately my next question I'd like you to look out for is that the 2023 AFS exists somewhere but we don't have it and that tells us we don't even know who prepared it we don't know who signed it let's think about that Anthony minino was our CFO in 2023 not Mr Garts is Mr Garts signing the document for Mr minino does Mr minino not want to sign the document something's WR somebody has to review this this is not Mr gz's document he didn't prepare the anyway it it just goes on and on I want to know who signed it um and then uh you know in terms of time frame we were told oh an August time frame you know um some of the previous commentor said oh well well I asked about this and it was the September time is it September 24 or 25 we don't know because nobody is specific in this administrative office with dates times anything I mean the fact that we don't have the audit is horrific was due July 1st there's no extensions being granted by the DCA I already checked with that so where's the find again I I already said that but you know a a a comment to previous said disruption and you know disruption reads disruption and this is Mayor Fox's disruption we just happen to live in okay that's the problem we have I do have one really nice comment because uh I want to thank uh our chief for the new police uniforms because the new blue uniforms are really classy and I was really not happy for many years under the Leonard WEA regime where we had the brown shirts that looked like they were going to Desert Storm okay so thank you for CL thank you for classing up the joint thank you very much thank you do we have anybody on Zoom wait I just want to say Monday is Labor Day I'm sorry I forgot to see this and I am bringing things over to DPW to honor them for laor day if anyone is interested they can see me thank you that's very sweet anybody else oh I just want to say Happy Birthday J thank you it's my birthday just me I can have a drink now yay and I I'm thankful for you all being here I love what I do here and I love serving you and um we're trying our best thank you again everybody have a great night that exes oh shoot yeah council president yes I want to make a motion the concern we do have an executive session planned but the two CR critical issues there are things the council's raising for the mayor to address and without the mayor joining us tonight and again he's on vacation it's not a criticism other than we didn't know that when we put this on the agenda um I'm going to make a motion that we table this until our next meeting I need excellent point I'm going to second that Mr no yes Mr yes M yeah Greg I'm just double checking that it's okay that we just skip okay yes may like to the meeting birthday two kids to fill out the waiver and I'm good do before the end the meeting