recording in progress thank you welcome everybody it's nice to see everybody uh welcome to the chadam township committee meeting of March 26 um we are coming back from executive session so we have confirmed that adequate notice has been given and I'd ask everybody to please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance PL to of the United States ofer the stands na indivisible andice well I think many of us are here for the same reason uh I'm certainly excited to start the meeting uh honoring a longtime volunteer for the municipality and for the broader community Tom salvis I met Tom almost 10 years ago at the time I knew him as the producer and videographer for the Township's Comcast broadcast and as a volunteer for the mayor's Wellness committee it's amazing to me how many other things he's helped with over over the years and he's always approaches every person and every project with kindness patience and enthusiasm I'm excited to have the opportunity to honor his contributions and I thank committeeman Lois for nominating Tom salvis there was no one more deserved iring Tom is joined this evening by his wife Sandy daughter Liz and her husband Brian mcgan and Tom and s's grandchildren Calli Callum who will be nine in a couple of weeks and Gemma who is six uh Callum and Gemma go to Southern Boulevard school where Liz went to elementary school um I'm going to read the proclamation and then we'll ask Tom to come up for his citizens award which by the way we had a lot of trouble F fitting all your volunteerism on this sheet good problem to have uh whereas Tom salvis has a long history of service to the township of chadam and the chadam community as a whole and whereas Mr Salis has worked with fellow residents in many capacities including the mayor's Wellness campaign advisory committee Historical Society library of the cadams and many different iterations and organizations of the township committee and chattam Township municipal staff and whereas Mr salvis is a member and past Trustee of the historic Historical Society of chadam Township having documented a great deal of history in the chatam directly on video with audio recordings and through photographs and whereas Mr salvis uh collaborated on the planning and implementation of three historical markers erected in our Township and also was part of the critical production team for the chadam colony Association Centennial event and whereas Mr salvis is the United States Air Force veteran who served on active duty and Reserve assignments with the rank of Captain in the United States and Germany and whereas Mr salvis is one of the creators of the veterans project of the chadam which is a biographical collection of local veterans on video available on demand and an archive maintained by the library of the cadams and whereas Mr salvis was the driving force behind the effort to share meetings live on video over several years from concept to actual launch in 2009 and continued to serve as producer for a decade and whereas during his tenure as the government Access TV manager Mr salvis produced 225 Township committee meetings over 10 years as well as more than 70 Board of Education meetings prior to 2018 and whereas Mr salvis is generous with his own funds and resources quick to provide personal equipment expertise and his valuable time and does it all with a smile that leads his signature kind manner now therefore I Stacy Ewald as mayor of chatton Township presented Tom salvis a chattam Township Citizen Award in recognition of his various contributions to the chattam community in a variety of services service roles Tom do you want to come up so we have a new item of know theot for this I think about 10 or 12 years ago we came in and photographed that emblem there and Greg has had that file forever and that is and you will be the first one oh thank you receive that thank you very much oh whoa beautiful [Applause] I have a word oh please yes I am familiar with the chambers and as I would tell people um we moved to the township 36 years ago and the driving force was not only because we knew something about the community but daughter Liz was ready to enter kindergarten and she did in Southern Boulevard school and now the grandchildren Callum and Gemma are students at SB S as well so the tradition continues but the whole television uh Adventure started when I had a a chat with my neighbor former mayor Joe Riley up on Lisa Drive and we determined in about 2008 or so that we needed to televise our meeting so as you explained we got things going and I worked with former mayor Nicole hagner and a number of people during that that time to follow to make it happen I'm pleased to see former mayor uh um Kevin Sullivan is here and Kathy Abbott has joined as well whom I I collaborated on another project it was when single stream recycling hit this town and we produced an award-winning actually from the county little video on what do you need to do with single stream Recycling and I think folks are probably following it pretty well but uh we felt good about that I think that was about 2010 or so so I'm uh I'm honored that the committee is recognizing uh my accomplishments and Community is equals uh collaboration and I think one of the great things about uh chadam Township chattam burrow with whom I've also collaborated on a number of initiatives is that people get out and they actually do things and and my Association now more recently with Andy and and Karen from the library on the veterans project has gotten me to meet uh several veterans from the cadams and and document some interviews with them which are available on the on the library website I think we have some interesting thing things coming as a veteran as you mentioned uh so stay tuned for some more news about veterans of the cadams and some plans that we have to further recognize their sacrifice and service to the community so uh again thank you very much I I really appreciate this it's it's been a lot of fun the work will continue as we continue into year 37 here up up on on Lisa drive but it's great and now we have the Next Generation who's also living in the township so thank you all very much thank I do want to bring up your family I wanted to bring up your family for photos but I did want to give uh residents an opportunity if they wanted to say anything uh share any words about Tom before we kind of bring everybody up for photos Madame mayor Madame mayor thank you committee thank you Tom congratulations uh we spent a lot of time in this room uh together and uh you know that that resolution and and uh Commendation was wonderful but to know Tom and to see Tom in action and to see what he did in this room with the camera work and the Angles and the artwork after it was all done and inserting slides and pictures and and just really uh brought it to a higher level we used to joke about the ratings we're going through the roof at home so many people were tuning in and a lot of it it was a sincere commentary about Tom's wonderful work he took it to a higher level instead of just a a wide angle lens capturing uh you know he he he zoomed in and captured the moment of many of the meetings but so much of what Tom has done if you know him if you've been on the other side of his camera could you turn just a little bit Kevin Stacy could you move just a little to the left you know what you know what I don't like the background let me get another one but he is the consumate professional uh the work he's done for the veterans I commend him um he has done some wonderful interviews our own uh residents who serve the town um policeman Anthony lto who is a Navy Submariner but really his work with Colonel sha Schaefer was really phenomenal and what he did for the colonel and that family uh 40 years longest serving physician United States Air Force a fellow 45 45 a fellow Air Force uh veteran that Tom uh really uh as as only a veteran could uh similar and same service um you know uh really went out of his way to honor him so so your work with the library has been tremendous but whether it's a Veterans Day Memorial Day uh Park opening pick up the phone call Tom can you be there Tom to take a few pictures you bet so I'm sure he has wonderful pictures of his family and and grandchildren as well but uh thank you you have captured so much of living history in this town it's really been phenomenal so thank you great and I know Gemma an apology because I said her name wrong and I and such a beautiful name I apologize for that hi I'm Kathy Abbott do I say anything uh not my address right um so I just wanted to say um that I worked with Tom on the environmental commission and as a Township Committee Member and he is a as really Kevin suin already said a um consumate professional um has a great Studio voice like okay in 5 4 3 2 1 go kind of thing and just makes everyone calm and um uh you get the feeling that he's for everybody never against anyone and just wants to do the best for the town so I appre I'm so glad that we're having this um what you call it recognition for Tom thank you thank you Andy did you want to see I wasn't quick enough if I may um I'm Andy Hollander I am a president of the Board of Trustees of the library of the cadams and uh Tom it's what you were saying May Ewald about the the list of accomplishments is not easy to put into um a succinct um U package Tom you're an inspiration the amount of uh uh cont contributions that you've made to the library the chams and really to our community um is is so long um I know that you and I have spoken and uh one of the things I appreciate about what you just said is the service and the sacrifice that you document um in our community so uh the the library any library is going to be talking about stories about narratives what you were doing with the narratives and the interviews and the hard work that you're putting in um and showing our community um about the service and sacrifice of not only yourself and people like uh Kevin uh Sullivan um is going to be a testament for generations to come I urge any of you who have not yet had a chance to look at the uh veterans project of uh the library of the chams um web page on the library website to take a look and just sort of sit down um press play and uh get to know some of the veterans who have have served our our country and our community so Tom I'm I'm I'm just really honored to uh be able to speak um as one of many who recognize and applaud you thank you thank [Applause] you I should have mentioned uh you know some of my activities have certainly been working with all of our First Responders from our Police Department to our fire depart year we continue to honor our First Responders and respect the very important e the trying to hold the for the fun okay let me see do I have my microphone okay that was a lot of fun uh on the agenda tonight we'll have the opportunity to honor other dedicated Volunteers in our community with a resolution to increase the loap payment for our emergency Squad and fire department volunteers very timely announcement a losap payment is a small sum deposited into a retirement account for the benefit of our first responder volunteers who meet minimum service requirements it's been almost a decade since the last loap or since loap was increased and I'm pleased we're able to bring those payments in line with where they should be today we'll move forward with the acquisition of the 17 acre parcel at 441 Southern Boulevard also known as the fensky property this purchase had been in the works for a long time and as some may recall had to be put on pause from last year while the family worked out some details regarding the trust we're pleased we're now able to move forward and I thank our administrator and our Township attorney for their efforts also on the agenda we will formally introduce the 2024 budget with the goal of holding the public hearing and final vote at the April 23rd meeting our administrator held a full budget presentation at our Workshop meeting on March 12th tonight he'll go over some of the highlights but I encourage residents to watch the full presentation on YouTube for more detail you could find the link on our Township we website I want to thank the finance committee which includes Deputy Mayor Troy committee woman Roland our Township administrator and our CFO for all their work on the budget we have many budget challenge ahead of challenges ahead of us in the next few years but knowing we're still in a strong financial position I asked our finance committee to work work towards a flat tax to maintain a healthy Surplus and to set aside funds for capital projects to mitigate debt they delivered on all three it's a good budget that we should all be proud to endorse as I mentioned we're in a great place today financially but we have budget challenges ahead we have nearly 10 million improvements needed for our wastewater treatment plan to make sure it's viable in the future we have a request from both of our fire departments for fire trucks to place replace existing trucks past their useful life that request is for approximately 3 million the library is looking for the township and the burrow to contribute funds towards their $7 million Capital project we have a county mandated townwide revaluation that will we will need to implement over the next couple of years that can run anywhere from 300,000 to 500,000 or more and the state just passed new affordable housing legislation locking in the timeline for the fourth round of affordable housing which is due next year this is all on top of the normal operating budget pressures and the annual Capital Improvement efforts like repaving the roads replacing Edge police and DPW vehicles and equipment we will work to engage residents and get their input on prioritization of capital projects and our Administration will continue to work continue to work to identify grant funding so I guess the point is enjoy the enjoy the moment uh in terms of our uh good news because uh there's more coming down the road uh last but not least Le I'd like to highlight the retirement at the end of the month of DPW employee Raymond Clark Ray started his tenure at chadam Township on April f 5th 2010 with the water pollution control plan taking care of the daily checks and maintenance of the facility in May 2014 he transferred to the building buildings and ground department he started out as a custodian for the buildings which included Town Hall the police station and the DPW Ray's last project was the rehab of the dock over a colony pool the dock was ripped down to the pillars and rebuilt Ray is fantastic and organizing he spent a lot of time in the shop where he reorganized the parts area to save time for the two mechanics Ray is still very active in the Boy Scouts donating his time when he can he's also an avid camper raised knowledge and expertise of chadam Township will be missed and we wish him the best of luck in his retirement okay I think we will move on to reports uh committee man Lois thank you mayor um so I in my role as leaon to Colony pool I have to tell the public that the early bird period is ending at the end of this month so if you're planning to get our best rates of the Season uh please take action before the end of this month which is this week um The Colony pool committee is certainly is looking for feedback they sent a bunch of U I'm sorry we sent a bunch of uh advice from The Colony pool advisory committee and and um specifically on the poster contest promotion we're looking some for some feedback from this committee um the and and specific requests such as um everyone's favorite topic here sand toys and a few others as well as our calendar of events we'd love to I'd love to be able to report back to them to you know to know what uh what has been approved or what's moving forward so if anyone has input on that I would love to hear it for um utilities we had a major storm event on March 11 in uh the township 2,000 residents uh you know two 2,000 residential addresses were affected and um that was for multiple hours that was due to a storm there was saturation of the ground there was many trees down there was also uh utility poles that were broken it wasn't of course just chadam Township it was uh New Providence Long Hill which apparently we very connected with Long Hill and the utility grid I have talked to the um to my counterpart there and um they the good news there's some good news and then there's um some opportunity here uh we have there's planned improvements some of them are ongoing right now that there's a transmission line that's underway and people have seen that uh uh under it's work is ongoing there and that's um one that's that feeds the Green Village substation and cuts through the whole town up from River Road and generally along the power line um and then it diverts at some point but the residents that have been affected by that are aware of it and ongoing work but beyond that that there's planned improvements at the um Gillette and the Green Village transmission um stations and I'm told that those are going to bring improvements now those improvements are already budgeted for and are not related to the energized plan that jcpnl is presenting to the BPU they have an energized plan they're hoping to uh have a rate increase and do additional um improvements apparently the their Improvement plan is $900 million that that they're presenting and they're asking for rate increases in order to achieve that um the our liaison has specifically asked to present to us at least so that we would know what our portion of uh improvements under the energized plan would be so in addition to the Gillette and Green Village um substation improvements and the transmission line that's being done um sort of that's ongoing now they would like to uh present so you know maybe at our next Workshop meeting or whatever this committee finds acceptable they would be happy to present what portion of that 900 million would be coming to shadam Township and what those improvements might be I I I personally think that might be a good idea just so we know what we are supporting or not supporting in terms of the uh you know their energized plan um okay and then since since I'm first I'm going to take a little bit of uh leeway here if you'll allow me mayor just to report on the EMS dinner I have some specific stats about the great things that they've done there so um we the EMS installation of a new officers uh dinner the annual dinner was held recently and I'm always impressed with the stats of what uh what that volunteer organization is up to so um in 2023 they had answered 1,451 calls over 250 calls required a second or third crew so that's a crew beyond the on duty crew um all calls were attended to that that's really saying something um in the past in in past years at the at the dinner they've explained that other communities where um the volunteerism especially for EMT work or is they do not necessarily they're not necessarily able to answer and respond the way that our uh Squad does 58 members um were responding when not on duty so that's for those second and third crew calls 58 members responded in 2023 not on duty 20 members had over 100 lowp points um and 100 members are active on the squad so loap is a high standard of where you you earn certain points for um meetings attended and on call hours and that's a very high standard so that's impressive um there was 11 new members four 11 new members in 2023 four new members just in 2024 so far as of the night of the dinner and two two more r on Deck so the participation and the volunteerism in that organization um is truly amazing and um they gave out also the dick Richards award that night which is not often awarded and it was given out to Jim Martin um and when I say it's not more often awarded the criteria for was it is only to a role model an outstanding EMT who does extensive extra service shows leadership makes contribution to the efficiency and the collegial atmosphere of the squad and uh some of the comments made about him were that Jim Martin was a go-to guy and a problem solver there are a lot of references to duct tape um and that he's great at maintaining the vehicles fixing things um as well as the patients and then a lot of kind comments about his collegial uh contributions to to the squad so Jim Martin we we thank you thank you for that uh mayor thank you committee M mugh thank you mayor uh the environmental commission um and open space teams have installed the trail markers on the uh the Green Village Pond Trail so um you won't get lost get out there and and check it out uh enjoy the spring um the adop drain program which I've mentioned a couple times already is officially kicked off uh you can link to sign up at new jersey. adopt a.org uh the township um has 1,021 storm drains uh if we keep them clear uh it'll help uh be a great tool to minimize the risk of flooding um the native plant sale with the Great Swamp Watershed Association goes live on April 1 and that's not a joke it really does um reminder that uh once again we will be holding uh a tri Town Spring yard sale and that benefits the Great Swamp Watershed uh the yard sale date is May 4th so anticipate and you can uh check out the Facebook page of the environmental commission for information on that um and on May 6th the uh environmental commission will be host hosting a talk at the library of the cadams uh with a Rutter's Master Gardener uh titled fight invasives uh go native to kick off native plant month I didn't realize there was a native plant month but we do have it and it uh get down there and uh check it out uh speaking of the library and I'll transition to that uh the teen center Grand Opening uh will take place on Friday April 12 from 3:30 to 6 um all residents are invited to attend it's a great space uh we really should uh check it out um when the planets uh are in the uh appropriate alignment which seems like it may be coming soon uh with all the collaborating efforts of many uh the back entrance to the library uh actually uh at the moment is scheduled to reopen uh hopefully the first week of May all right so hopefully that's some great news coming uh when the residents oh this is something that has happened over the past uh when the residents U get a call from the library oftentimes your caller ID would uh show uh chat Ur uh this thank you to uh Jamie uh sabb's efforts uh has been rectified um and this has finally been corrected after a very very long time so your caller ID when the library calls will say the library or library of the cadams so you know who's calling uh that's my report mayor thank you committee woman Roland thank you mayor um the exterior restoration project at the Mount Vernon School continues on schedule uh so hopefully that will be completed in the next couple of months and um the Chamber of Commerce for the chadam uh recently celebr CBR ated 100 years in existence in chadam uh they recreated this past weekend a photograph that was taken I believe in 1930 um with members of the chamber uh in front of the train station so that was pretty deep uh and I encourage anyone who's a business owner or just interested in meeting everyone there are meetings that are held I believe monthly at great places like pasc carala and Scoops and you don't have to have a brick-and-mortar business to be a member um you can have a Consulting business or any kind of business uh and it's a really a great group and um good to get involved that's it thank you Deputy Mayor thank you mayor uh with the commencement of spring means the conclusion of winter and this past winter was um uh the first year postco that the chaden recreation Ski and Snowboard Club um uh kicked off uh it was uh a tremendous success uh we had hundreds of children registered for the program uh every week that uh the buses went out out to shaune it was at capacity near capacity so I think it was just a testament to the uh demand for uh for adding that program to the portfolio of recreation uh recreational activities here uh in the township uh so please still look out the intention is to continue the program given the success uh so this coming you know with the Advent of this coming winter uh please look out for registration uh registration information and uh the program is always looking for chaperon so if you're ready willing and able uh adult uh please consider uh participating in making the program ever more robust um early in March uh The Joint Rec advisory committee um was offered the opportunity to listen in on a presentation held by uh musco lighting uh it's a vendor that installed uh field lights uh they were in fact the vendor that installed the lights here at Shan Pike field um they had presented a concept proposal uh to light Lum field in the burough um and the a couple things that I think are worth noting uh I think with the uh uh technological advancements and progress in terms of uh better or enhanced designs for these fields uh it's they were able to present what I thought was a certainly intriguing potentially compelling uh installation of of Lights at Lum field um the the driving force here is uh you know night resources uh being outpaced by uh you know the ever growing demand for uh field space the recreational programs are uh continually growing um uh so the he had he presented a couple case studies that uh were successful uh in its implementation and well embraced by uh the mediate vicinity one was in University of Colorado and one the other was in Allandale in Bergen County uh both in heavy residential areas um and uh both were by all measures deemed to be a success Allandale by way of anecdote U it was a it was a third attempt to get that field lit up and um uh a number of the residents said it actually is a wonderful design uh near zero to zero leakage in terms of a light off property um no glare um the techn technological advancements to the light uh the stanions and the LI heads are are are quite magnificent um in my capacity it lison the township Lis on for the Board of Education um just a couple quick highlights um Dr lus had presented preliminary bo uh budget to the board uh $91 million budget um about 72 million in appro Appropriations the balance about 5 six million uh coming from state aid uh we have 3500 approaching 3,500 students uh enrolled in in the in in the chadam public schools uh they do anticipate slight decline certainly FL for the earlier years um uh um you know one of the positive anecdotes is we continue to be below the state median average in terms of cost per uh pupil enrolled in the schools uh my takeaway from this was um uh you know I think they are uh fairly diligent stewards of the budget the operational side uh at the school uh they're obviously see a number of factors here that um or or sort of Runway numbers that are quite candidly exogenous uh to the school things like health insurance um out of District uh uh educational costs but uh as as far as um uh variables within their control it does appear that um uh they're quite studious as to finding ways to keep uh that budget within uh within Arms Reach um an interesting thing that popped forth during this most recent meeting was a proposal was put forth uh by Harding Township and the proposal is to send their students to chadam um they currently have about 25 students per grade at the high school level um nothing certainly written in stone uh I think the Board of Education uh received the message with open arms we obviously uh you know consider it in Earnest uh and will certainly not uh make a decision based on the long-term best interest of the township but um you know additional students but uh obviously additional fees for uh for the school um and um funds are ever ever needed so um something keep in mind if you would like to stay a breast of it I think they certainly will continue uh providing any updates during their Board of Ed meetings uh or you can come to our wonderful committee meeting i' be happy to update you uh give you my uh my synopses there um one last thing with regard to uh the Lum lights at the burrow um it it was a very uh it a very con concept design stage type meeting uh they of course will be providing uh additional open sessions for the public to partake listen and get informed uh and perhaps uh provide some feedback uh they certainly make it plan to make it a collaborative process um and I think it would um I I think the uh implementation of it would be you know certainly a boon to recreational programs for both the burrow and the township um and I think uh I think the design and techn technological advancements facilitate uh what I think would be a pretty well-received uh installation there uh so with that mayor I think that's thank you includes my reports Mr Lan did you have any report um I do not have any report at the moment okay uh do we want to do Mr shotty or M Kon who would prefer to go next okay thank you um I have one item to report on and that is the pending um open public records act legislation yes thank you um and I just want to summarize it's pending it is not adopted yet but I just want to give a few High Lev points of some of the things that the open public records act proposed legislation uh proposes that I think are favorable for everybody um I think it's uh something that is long overdue and make some great changes to a law based on experience and what's happened over the last two decades with the law in existence um some things that it does it prohibits the use of the open public records act for Discovery pending litigation it expand it safeguards residents expectation of privacy through through an expansion of the exemp exemptions and um permissible redactions to documents um it um no longer requires a custodian to provide a document in the requested format medium it says you don't have to convert it that took a lot of time and effort from custodians now it is you have to provide it in whatever medium format that you have um um limits immediate access to only records that are under 12 months old so older documents you don't have to provide immediate access to it reasonably takes more effort and time to find those documents older they are um allows custodians to provide the requester with the website if the requested document is available on a public agency's website so that is considered to be responding to the request and it also encourages municipalities to put as much on um online as possible documents online as possible um prohibits Anonymous requesters from filing denial of access complaints um fines for knowingly and willful violations are no longer personal to the custodian um establishes a process for the public agency to go to Superior Court for harassing requests um I always said requires government records requests government records be made available on public websites to the extent feasible prohibits the selling of data obtained by Oprah which will eliminate a a large number of um requests um but I think that covers the Highlight uh the highlights of what the bill does the legislation poses um and again it's its main intent is to safeguard reasonable expectations of privacy and um limit Oprah requests to reasonable requests for actual documents instead of information thank you you're welcome um and just to let residents know I had asked our attorney to give us some information about the uh the anticipated Oprah changes or at least what was initially drafted and then pulled uh back because it it does impact our residents and I I wanted to understand uh and in case this committee wanted to make a a a request of our legislators our state legislators uh in terms of any um changes that we want to that uh legislation so it did get pulled back and um I think you know hopefully they'll strike a balance between transparency and protecting you know privacy rights or uh protecting uh M the municipality from these you know massive requests that are more about somebody's commercial interests than about any real uh discovery type of uh efforts so um so I I thank you for providing that I know it's it's is a lot of maybe a bit of controversy on the topic differing opinions for differing opinions thank you uh and the other Hot Topic which I but hearing but but hearing that list of of things some of them are subjective I mean if the idea that you can't uh you can't use it for um Discovery for a lawsuit I mean you might have a legitimate um you know reason to explore prior to a lawsuit um it seems to be a little bit subjective and then also to say that you can't use it for harassing I mean who is to determine what's harassing and that those are some some overreaches that I I could see in there I would I would like to um you know speak out against that if in the you know the collective voice of this committee certainly against things like that because you know that that puts it in the uh you know the administrative states purview to determine what what is harassing or what's not and you know criticism always seems harassing thank you um I guess I would um because I I had talked about that like I said there could be some um simplified version of an Ask um but if we have specifics also so I guess I would ask the committee if there's anything you know either from the discussion or from what you uh learn that you would want for us to include in a a resolution and ask to our uh state legislators uh in terms of what they can do when as they're crafting this um Oprah legislation if you could send that into Mr shahadi and he can coordinate that into a resolution ask mayor if if there are not that there's a time limit limit but certainly please send those to me before the workshop meeting and I could collate them and then we can put together a draft for the resolution at the workshop discuss that and then to get up for adoption yeah thank you um and then like I mentioned in the uh in my mayor's message the um affordable housing legislation did pass and that is very much on our radar uh and we um you know are thinking about whether or not same thing to have some asks either a resolution here and uh to to reach out to our state legislators to uh see if there can be uh amendments that um for some of the aspects of the legislation uh that don't make sense I mean there wasn't a lot of opportunity for municipalities to give input for planners to give input um so as we go through and we figure out um what's changed and certainly the timelines are very very tight and you're subject to build Builder remedy if you look the wrong way or slip and miss a deadline so um I I there's definitely going to be some ask so we're we're working with our attorney uh they're going to give us kind of a synopsis of what's uh in the legislation and then uh we'll think about what that ask might look like uh for chadam Township great uh and Mr shahadi Mayor uh I think the only report list is anything else but I could uh speak about the budget do you want me to talk about the budget now or sure after intro or uh did you you know what what don't we do with the intro yeah that makes sense over there um and I mean the the other stuff you covered the the loap conversation that was a point though is there anything else you'd like me to touch on uh no we could do it as we go through thank you yeah okay so we're going to open the hearing of citizens uh Mr lanti can you please provide the guidance around the hearing of CI me members of the public are now welcome to come up to the microphone to address the township committee this is an opportunity for any member of the public to be heard about issues which are not topics scheduled for public hearings tonight those present May step up to the microphone to be heard if you're watching via Zoom you may speak during any of the public comment sessions by following the zoom instructions to raise your hand whether in person or online when you're recognized to speak please mind the following procedures one please say your name spell your last name and give the name of your street you do not need need to give your street number all public comments will be limited to three minutes rather than any uh rather than use any of your time answering questions the township committee will wait until you finish speaking before responding there are two public comment sessions on tonight's agenda each member of the public will be limited to one comment of up to 3 minutes during each public comment period written comments subject uh written comments submitted to the Township Clerk before 3 P.M today will be read during the public comment sessions written comments are subject to the same guidelines as oral comments duplicative written comments may be summarized rather than read in full according to guidelines issued by the New Jersey Division of local government services okay thank you okay I'll open it up if anybody wants to come up do we have anybody on Zoom thank you please Kathy Abbott Winwood Road um I the I'm a member of the League of Women Voters there are some concerns about the um Oprah Bill related to it overreaching and I don't have all the details um but I would I will send you the position where there's it's um I know the league of municipalities supported the original version um but I think that um some of the transparency um intentions of the open public records act that exists now um will be um taken away by the the version that was you know in the former bill so um I'll just send so you can be informed because it was studied by the League of Women Voters in a serious way um it sound everything that um Miss Kon uh read sounds very smart for the township but there's some issues for democracy that the League of Women voter is concerned about thank you if I may yes um if anyone's concerned about this Oprah legislation I would recommend actually reading the legislation and you will see that it is largely in line with what was presented Ed by your Township attorney okay seeing no one else at the mic I will close the public hearing okay so we're going to move on to ordinance 2024 D2 flood plane management um do I need a motion to introduce uh well it's already been introduced um not quite yet this is the one um we're going to have the public hearing tonight but okay the the planning board has not yet had their um master plan consistency review um discussion on this uh there were two meetings scheduled for this month both of which were cancelled uh the planning board still we're still within that 35 day window so um if we uh the board's going to deal with that on April 1st which is um still within that window so um once the board has had a chance to discuss that we can uh the township committee can take action but um we we would still have the public hearing tonight we can proceeded with that and then okay have adoption or um vote on it at a later meeting okay uh so we don't need a motion in a second before the public hearing we'll just jump right into uh no in either way we'd have the uh public hearing before any motions oh okay okay in that case I am opening up the public hearing for 202 24-02 flood plane management I'm just debating if I ask you for a twom minute synopsis for I know we when we went over it for in Workshop I'm just for residents I should have probably given you a heads up that I no no it's fine I mean we've got a lot on the agenda and I'm like it is it's a lengthy uh it's a lengthy ordinance and I mean the title that we have on the agenda is abbreviated but I think also the title does clarify something so I'll read the title first um and what it says is it's it's an ordinance amending the Township of chadam code to repeal chapter 30 article 10 flood damage prevention and flood Hazard area regulations and to adopt a new chapter 20 article 10 flood damage prevention and flood Hazard area regulations to adopt flood Hazard maps to designate a flood plane administrator and providing for SE severability in an effective date essentially uh this came about uh from a review uh through a land sale or perspective land sale where there were some inconsistencies found in our our flood maps what some of our regulations are required under FEMA and uh this just updates all of that it was was reviewed by folks over at FEMA prepared by our engineer um it you know makes sure that our maps and our ordinances are all consistent with each other and that um whatever sort of penalties and uh remedies might need to be there are there and it's also in conformance with the D requirements as well as well thank you so it's really to help us comply with FEMA so that yeah yep and and what it does is It ultimately helps uh helps homeowners who might be having to pay flood insurance and ensures that um you know they can continue to get flood insurance and that the the rates make sense in accordance with the guidelines that you know put out by the federal government and the state government so um nothing that I would say immediately affects people but it just it's making sure that all of our ordinances are up to date because state regulations Federal Regulations change and sometimes um our local ordinances don't follow that as quickly as they should or until an issue is brought to our attention and that's what happened here thank you yep you passed the test that was very good um okay so our public hearing is open for that ordinance 20242 and nobody online no hands raised okay and we will and nobody's here so we will close the public hearing and we will um we can revisit this at the April 23rd meeting okay thank you um and the next is ordinance 20243 mover movie theater inspections and we're going to open the public hearing for that one Mr Lany could you give like 30 second summary of what this one is yeah real quick it's a housekeeping ordinance that U takes away the requirement for the building insector to uh do an inspection of a movie theater before the license is issued this is um keeping it in line with the the UCC under uccc the uh building inspector can only do an inspection when there's a permit uh an open permit um the ordinance will still require that the uh statutory fire inspector be done before the license is issued and separate from this requirement there are um Health inspections for the snack bar and such so we will still have other inspections we're just taking away the one that's technically not allowed under uccc and uh the requirement dates back to I think 1972 and was superseded so we're just catching up with the uh statutes great thank you so uh the public hearing for that ordinance is open do we have anybody online okay then I will close the public hearing uh do we have a motion to adopt ordinance 20243 so moved can I get a second I'll second can we get a roll call please Mr Lois I Mr McHugh yes Mrs Roland yes Deputy Mayor Troy yes mayor e yes motion passes okay okay we'll move on to the introduction of ordinances uh ordinance 20244 the cap Bank ordinance can I get a motion to introduce so move and can I get a second second um okay Mr shotty do you want to give a little brief overview of this C Bank ordinance sure um this ordinance is largely uh a procedural ordinance it's not um changing much for the the budget this year we haven't had to uh use it we didn't use it uh this year uh what it's doing is any state has cap Banks has caps for Appropriations and and levies the Appropriations is how much Township is anticipating to spend the levy is how much the township is anticipating to raise uh there are caps on both that have been instituted by the state uh what we're talking about today is the appropriation cap uh which is capped uh to 2.5% annually every by the state however uh there is an allowance to allow that to go up to 3.5% if approved by the township committee uh this this ordinance does two things it uh increases the cap and it also allows you to bank what is not used um so what we're doing here is increasing the cap but also banking uh all that because we don't need to use it we're well within so this ensures that in the future um there is a cap Bank avail available for Appropriations should there be unforeseen circumstances emergencies anything that necessitates having to increase Appropriations above that 2 and a half% just because Appropriations are going up or potentially going above to 2.5 or 3.5 or even using the cap Bank what's banked it does not necessarily mean that the levy is going to increase that's because the Appropriations are then offset by revenues so you may have more revenues and that offset that appropriation um and then therefore and as well as your your tax base so therefore you could still have a situation um as we have had and and is existing here where you um I'm say not happening this year where you increase your Appropriations above that amount but keep the taxes flat or um you know have the levy still be less than uh the two and a half or the three and a half% because the levy is still capped as well okay so what we're doing here is just uh increasing that cap because the state allows us to do it and if we increase it it allows us to bank that okay thank you and just so I'm clear it's not a pool of money that exists so nobody thinks that this is just cash that's being squired away it's literally just paper uh you know it's just on paper authorization it's just an authorization yeah okay any discussion any questions well every year I've have uh opposed the cap Bank ordinance and it's for a very simple reason um Appropriations which is spending always uh is the way and the the reason why taxes continue to go up and I think the cap which it's a great explanation here the cap and the bank being separate we could vote on just the cap or just the bank um we don't need both and um I you know the idea that we're authorizing are to go to three and a half percent from you know two and a half percent cap I think those caps were put in place for a very good reason just to control spending on the local level U which wasn't being done this these laws date back to the 70s you know New Jersey hasn't significantly improved and I don't think that we're doing ourselves a favor by continuing to pass the cap Bank it is true that many communities pass this um it's also true that it doesn't necessarily uh lead immediately to a tax increase but it does allow the flexibility to change the budget more than you possibly could otherwise which inevitably and by change I mean spend more so it's not a something that's uh beneficial it it's to the public because it's going to lead to higher taxes um and as we've seen I mean we saw the cap Bank in its full effect when we had 20% Municipal tax um increases in this town not you know you know in the period of 2020 and 2021 so it's it's not like it's ancient history that uh that I'm I'm talking about if you had a long sustained period 10 years or so of uh no tax increases or 0% uh you know tax increases that doesn't mean that as has been explained that doesn't mean that the township is not receiving more and more and more Revenue whether it be from taxable sources and others but because as the ass test values as the as improvements as people's homes as different structures businesses whatnot um pay more in taxes just based on their assessed value as the assessed values go up so you know we have a natural rise that's built and if you look at it in chattam Township it it turns out to be about one and a half 2% every year and and then we we get a two and a half percent cap and we're kind of authorizing ourselves to go to three and a half um in spending and then Additionally you know and this is the a bigger problem with it is you know the only reason we really passed this is because we don't want to go to the public I mean if we went right to the public you know and the the argument being that well you know we're going to the public now the ordinance is out there but what's going to happen is we create this Bank the bank gets bigger and bigger um and then at some point in the future someone can really crank the spending up and that's what I'm I'm not in favor of that I don't think that's good for the for the public and I think that um to exclude the public uh from that decision because normally you could crank the spending way up you could have Appropriations not that we're doing that in this budget but this is setting it up for next year or the year after or the year after that by by doing by passing this now we're just excluding the public because you could have these increases um if you just took it to a referendum and then the last thing I'll say is that the number of exclusions is enormous emergencies is one of the exclusions um Capital spending are the exclusions the the list of exclusions in the statute is is enormous the thing there are things that are statutorily outside the cap um entirely and then what is inside the cap has exclusions and also there's things that are inside the cap like healthare which naturally has 4 and a half% which is even Beyond this three and a half per. so I I I truly think this is completely unnecessary I've spoken about it every year and um I just thank you for listening this year as I expect uh we'll have the same outp outcome as we have had in years past but I I I don't believe this is necessary do anybody else have any comments questions yeah committee m loen i I would share your concern about uh sort of runaway banking um but I am more than adequately comforted by the notion if I'm correct me if I'm wrong that um the bank Burns off every three years so it's not as though we are uh entitled to Bank in perpetuity you know build a forever increasing War conceptual War chest again it's not actual cash it's just a uh it's an authorization more than anything else um um so the fact that it burns off every three years it um there is a self uh internally self-controlled mechanism to the C Bank um I think my perspective on it is um uh it it's a zeroc cost option to afford you yet another Financial tool um to manage the budget um I think the concern you have and it's certainly could be concerned if I believe there there were to be nefarious individuals here on the committee who are looking look to unscrupulously spend the taxpayers money uh I'm I'm I'd like to believe and I certainly have seen evidence thus far that I think everyone um has uh a proper stewardship hat on and looking to spend wisely um at the end of the day there are a multitude of services and and requirements that must be delivered uh to the constituents and it's Our obligation to judiciously you know distri disperse those funds and make sure that those services are in fact delivered so um again it's it's it's it's a tool um that can be used or could not be used and good Lord willing we don't need to use it but um I think there's been instances where uh charges come trickle down to the municipality from the county or the state that are unforeseen and good Lord willing we have an ability to absorb some if not all of the burden uh and to the extent that anything does change I think there is again a uh you know an internal mechanism whereby we do go to the public every time we need to take action and that's the whole point of uh sitting on the DAT and passing resolutions and ordinances so um I think I'd like to believe that the process here in and elsewhere uh in any um Municipal governance setting that um we are putting these things before our constituents uh and and advocating and and uh um challenging as we should be thank you yeah thank you for directly invoking me there um I'm sorry well I was invoked by name I heard I didn't hear your name but I would love to get comments from the rest of the did you invoke as he began yeah so I I'll make it very quick I'll just say that spending wisely um you know it absolutely we'd love to think that every member of this committee would spend wisely and I'm sure whoever's voted for tax increases of 20% in the past did think that they were spending wisely but those uh it's not meant to invoke aspers or to cast aspersions I'm not trying to invoke um you know blame uh but I'm sure they thought they were spending wisely I think equally the people in the you know in the 70s who came up with these caps came up for a reason they they didn't come up with them to cast dispersions on all local committees and local governments they came up with these caps because they thought that it was reasonable so I think the laws that were passed at those time I'm I'm not going to judge that and say you know those caps were unreasonable and you have to come to that conclusion um and then as far as the point of in order to think the Cap's good and then as far as the point of the burning off it is an average uh I'm sorry it is a bank that's rolling for three years but it never Burns off it doesn't go to zero unless the bank doesn't pass so it it doesn't burn off to Z zero and I'm not saying that you were saying that I just feel that uh that could be misconstrued from your statement thank you any other comments uh Mr shotty again I'm sorry I was just gonna say I believe you know I'm not fully familiar with this but if this is an opportunity to have something some funds available if we need it because you can create the best budget in the world but it's only as good as that that day because you can't foresee what's going to happen and I've created thousands of budgets over the years and the budget is never equal to the actual at the end of the financial period so if there's things that come up that we you know to your point that we haven't planned for that are unforeseen then why wouldn't we be able to have this tool available on paper without us having to spend I mean I guess that's why there's a committee that we can vote on things to decide how we use the money and what we do with our money and and our and our budget and and our 11,000 constituents so I think um you know having something to cover unforeseen circumstances which is always the case um I don't see a downside to that thank you um feel bad putting you on the spot and if you don't know the answer do you would you happen to recall how much of the uh budget is within the cap the the Appropriations cap while I do that may I just want to know also I mean just as who Whoever thought it was wise to make it two and a half and that's what we're resting our Laurels on is the legislature felt that two and a half was okay they also allowed it to go up to three and a half so in that same wisdom they provided for that and things have changed since the 70s there's a lot that's that's changed a lot more mandates a lot more uh you know and when you try to squeeze everything into that operating budget you know it then what ends up for especially if you're limited to just say two and a half now you're forced to say okay well what can I pull out of here that might have been a a capital expense like purchases of vehicles or whatever and now shift them over to borrowing so at the end of the day it still results in that tax increase but when you're adding the interest and compounding that it just creates a bigger problem rather than just saying you know what let's increase this $100,000 you know increase that that cap $100,000 uh or whatever it is to buy that vehicle rather than borrow and pay $200,000 for that same thing um you know so it it's a tool and and I will know that last year my first year grafting the budget and this year um you know we we started to replenish and and bring back this idea of this cap bank and we haven't used it so you know the the idea that it's it's it's a horrible thing we haven't needed it and so I think for this year you look at here our appropriation cap is somewhere around um 433 under the appropriation cap I'm sorry about $433,000 under the appropriation cap okay for this year but what was the oh that's it what do you mean what what was the sorry what was the budget that fell within the Appropriations so the budget or total Appropriations I'm sorry so total Appropriations are going to be um not including the library I have that let me give that to you for a second but does that all fall within the cap um no there are some things that fall outside of the cap it's a very complicated yeah that's I was trying to remember what that number so if the budget's like 17 million was the inside the cap like 12 million correct um I can tell you like 10 that's what I was trying to remember I mean it's still a big chunk of change was the point that I was trying to make correct so um amount on which the cap is applied this year is 13 Milli about 13 million okay okay so it's a large part of the budget um I want to make sure residents are clear on one point um the committee who uses those funds will be held accountable for using those funds so uh you know Mr I will not invoke his name because apparently that extends the discussion but there's discussion about uh uh increases those increases were largely tied to affordable housing I'm not even sure if the cap was used at that point residents understand that and uh seem comfortable with the decisions that were made uh related to affordable housing so you know if a cap was used that would be an example of a place where you know we need it extra U Authority but the committee that's in place that makes that decision we're just giving them room they have to decide if they're going to use it so next year's committee the committee after decides if they use it and they are held accountable for that decision and I would hope they would be able to justify that decision we're just giving them the room to breathe should they need that um okay so I think we'll we've heard from everybody I would uh ask for a vote on the introduction of the cap Bank ordinance Please Mr Lois nay Mr McHugh yes Mrs Roland yes Deputy Mayor Troy yes mayol yes motion passes public hearing will be on April 23rd thank you okay we're going to introduce ordinance 20245 repealing the Harding emergency dispatch contract ordinance which is basically stale a stale ordinance that doesn't exist and I will summarize it very quickly that way um no need to unless you wanted to say something it's just another housekeeping like the one before thank you okay uh do I have a motion to introduce ordinance 202 24-5 so moved you have a second second any discussion can we get a vote Please Mr Lois yes Mr McHugh yes Mrs Rand yes Deputy Mayor Troy yes mayor eal yes motion passes public hearing April 23rd thank you ordinance 202 24-6 midblock crosswalks uh do I have a motion to introduce so moved second thank you do you w to brief yes thank you that is to um align our ordinances with the existing midblock crosswalks that exist this was reviewed by the chief of police and the township engineer and this is not adding cross U midw mid Block crosswalks it's just uh codifying the ones that exist one note I see a typo here for Woodland Road that is Dodge drive not dig Drive there's an i instead of an O so I just wanted to make that and I will be providing um the clerk with the corrected ordinance for that but so that's what the the three existing midblock crosswalks will be in the in the code thank you do we have any discussion okay can we get a vote Please Mr Lois yes Mr McHugh yes Mrs Roland yes Deputy Mayor Troy yes mayor eal yes motion passes and public hearing on April 23rd okay we have 20247 Bond ordinance for property acquisition do I have a motion to introduce so moved do I have a second I'll second thank you uh Mr shotti could you or misson give the uh little brief introduction on this one you got so this is the um Bond ordinance to authorized issuance of $419,000 bonds to fund a portion of the the $790,000 purchase price for 441 Southern Boulevard by the municipality um the uh remaining portion is going to be funded by a Morris County Grant through the trust for public land in the amount of 350,000 okay and I did mention this in my uh the opening mayor's message thank you do we have any discussion can I get a vote Please Mr Lewis yes Mr McHugh yes Mrs Roland yes Deputy Mayor Troy yes and mayor eeld yes motion passes and the public hearing for this one will be April 9th and then 20248 author authorizing property acquisition can I get a motion to introduce so moved I'll second thank you and this is the related property acquisition ordinance correct yes anything else to anything else about this one besides the fact that it's the related property acquisition ordinance that's that's it that SS it up just again I know it's been said but to emphasize that the the public hearing and the adoption I think clerk mentioned it just so it's unusual that we will take action in a workshop meeting but I just want to note that for the public thank you for clarifying yeah so just so everybody's aware the public hearing and the adoption would be at our Workshop we don't usually take action during workshops so um um if you're interested in uh learning more or saying something you need to come to our next meeting on April 9th thank you and the reason for that mayor Also to clarify is because we are under deadline by the county for this Grant and so that's why we want to move as quickly as possible great thank you any discussion can I get a vote Please Mr Lois yes Mr McHugh yes Mrs Roland yes Deputy Mayor Troy yes mayor eeld yes motion passes public hearing April 9th thank you okay Mr shahadi you're up uh resolution um 2024 079 introducing year 2024 Municipal budget do I need should I do a motion yeah can't do the motion first okay can I get a motion to introduce 2024 d79 what's uh adopting the resolution to introduce the budget it's a slight technicality because it's it's an it's a resolution acting like an ordance so yes it's adopting the resolution to uh introduce the budget okay what he said can I get a motion so moved can I get a second second thank you now you're up Mr Shah thank you mayor um so I I do just want to provide an abbreviated presentation uh there is a full presentation uh that was provided at the workshop meeting uh the I'm sorry yeah the earlier Workshop meeting this month um I do want to note though that there are a number of Corrections nothing substantial that's going to affect the bottom line which is the tax rate just in the presentation the one that I put up on the computer did not take some of the changes that I had saved on another computer uh this one does and I will publish the uh corrected version on the website as well uh but again to note the bottom line is still the same and I'll I'll go over that so first I do want to uh recognize the finance subcommittee um of the township committee that was the deputy mayor and the committee woman I want to thank you both for for all your hard work on this the theme for this budget I called it securing the future and that's because uh what this budget does is is really just that it ensures a a prosperous and financially stable uh future for the township and and I'll highlight those a little bit later on uh I think it's important to to emphasize this slide it's in almost every slide or tax bill mailing that every municipality puts out and that's the breakdown of where your tax dollars go uh the Highlight here is that what you control what I put together in this budget with the help of our CFO and the finance committee is just 177% of your tax bill uh that's all that we're talking about here the rest of it is controlled by and as the deputy mayor mentioned the school SCH budget for example they were what in the 70 million or so I think you mentioned 70 80 million was the school budget you mentioned right we're talking about 171 91 I'm sorry 91 million right we're talking about uh significantly less a smaller number than that we only deal with 17 177% or 17 cents of every dollar that taxpayers pay and so what does that look like for 2024 our total Municipal purposes Appropriations that's just the spending here in the township um and that does not include the the library mandate uh for what we collect for the library is 18 million I got to pull it up on here because it's hard to read over there it's 8,676 43 uh compare that to last year at 17.2 and in 2022 at just shy of 17 million uh so where do we offset uh the amount we're raising by taxes that's through Revenue uh whether it's grants whether it's fees fines a whole number of things that's about 6.8 million so we have to raise the balance of that by taxes that's 11.2 million and uh we take that across our net valuation taxable or the tax base and that takes us to a rounded tax rate of about. 32 which is consistent with what it's been the years uh prior 2023 and 2022 so because of that residents uh should not see an increase in their Municipal purposes tax rate all of that money that we're spending on that that you know is appropriated that's to spend on the following services and it is a long list of services that we provide and and some residents don't aren't aware that even things like the street lighting that you see you know we pay for that and we also include in their subsidies for our fire department our EMS and even our senior center uh but we and the fire hydrants as well that's another another expense that some people don't realize that we pay for the uh movers and shakers as I like to call it the notables right break it down here into five five big things but there's also the sixth one which is the capital Improvement fund the biggest one is about uh 1.5 million almost 1.6 million pensions and Social Security that's uh a 9% increase over the previous year are uh I'm sorry 1.7 million that's an increase uh over the previous year where it was about 1.6 that's $140,000 increase our debt payments this year is about 1.45 million compared to 1.32 that's a 10% in increase and then our emergency response and Public Safety that's our biggest ticket item everything from police fire uh dispatch um you name it that's about 3.8 this year uh that's a $73,000 increase and then insurances that's health and liability health for the employees and retirees and our liability insurance property casualty uh making sure Parks the vehicles everything's insured that's a large item of about 2.7 million um and then finally Public Works you know everything from the parks the the roads uh all kinds of Maintenance throughout town the buildings and grounds the snow removal um that's 1% increase over last year and then finally our Capital Improvement fund uh that is probably the largest that's been in a number of years at $900,000 what that does is it reduces the amount that we have to borrow so by bumping this up uh 95,000 over last year to take it to 900,000 what that does is ensures that's uh 95,000 less that we have to borrow but overall $900,000 less that we have to borrow that we can put into things like um what we have planned in what we have received requests for things like our fire trucks uh things like uh the the buildings things like our affordable housing mandates uh that's you know all coming out of the capital Improvement fund and what we can afford then goes to to uh borrowing but the subtotal of those line items is 13 million 107,5 185 that's uh just about a 4% increase on those big ticket items and when you look at our total Appropriations that 18 million number uh that's an increase of 800,000 over last year so 500,000 of that is just those six items right there that's more than half of that increase and the remainder of it is 303,000 that went up utilities fuel electricity um you know and in a lot of areas in the township uh departmental spending was either flat or even went down so uh kudos to the department heads for doing a great job and I want to point to our Surplus if you look at the 2024 column here on our Surplus uh We've grown it to a very healthy level which is within best practices it's within guidelines for fund balance uh policies keeping us between that 10 and 15% total of total expenditures uh and we're using about 3.5 million of that to offset and reduce how much we have to uh Levy by way of taxes but that when I refer to securing the future this is one area where I'm referring to here we expect that we'll have a balance of our Surplus or what we call a fund balance of about 2.3 at the end of the year uh which helps us to make sure that interest rates are low that we have good credit rating and that we can um meet any of our obligations also be prepared in case there's any emergencies you know last year for example health insurance went up 26% so had it not been for a surplus like like this then taxpayers are the ones that have to uh pay for that in that particular year um overall the summary here is that we've kept the tax rate flat we've maintained Services we haven't cut any Ser Services uh We've improved our fund balance and we've got uh Capital Improvements that are going to continue this year uh much needed improvements and a lot of it goes to uh essential services like Public Safety great thank you uh do we have any discussion I have a uh one or two quick comments questions okay um I when I came on uh the committee you know a lot of my semantics had to change from uh everyday business and day accounting to Municipal accounting and so just for the benefit of the public because it took me a while to get over um the word Surplus is something that might be misleading and so for the benefit of the public um Mr shotty can you explain what the Surplus really is sure uh I can go in a lot of detail a summary yeah yeah so it's commonly known as a surplus but what we refer to it as is a fund balance and so uh whatever is not spent in a given year right eventually rolls over into that fund balance and it doesn't happen immediately um you know whatever we don't spend let's say in the 2024 budget it goes into a reserve budget and then after the reserve budget is when it goes into the fund balance and uh so there's almost like a two-year lag before it finally hits that fund balance um what that fund balance is is used for ultimately is you look at how much can we use for Revenue um but it's constantly a cyclical replenishment right things like your reserve for uncollected taxes or um if you are doing better in terms of bidding right let's say you put in we're going to budget $200,000 for a contract but it comes in less uh that money is what goes into the Surplus and it helps to as I mentioned before helps to keep your interest rates low because the better your credit rating is uh you know uh agencies and uh fund you know Banks whoever you're going to be borrowing for looks at that and they want to make sure that you have a healthy fund balance to be able to pay those obligations but also ensure your your long-term Financial Security thank you I think that's helpful not just to me but to many others U I also had one other question and one it's not a slush fund okay that's not I think it's always important to say that's what I mean semantically what some people might understand sitting on this money um you know we it's it's constantly a cycle how we're using uh some of it and we replenish it right the diligence of uh your actions in the finance committee and uh based upon the state law uh and how to put together um a budget I think it's an important distinction that many uh may be very clear on that but some may not and I think it's just a a word choice that might be uh confusing to some and this this chart is also helpful for people to see I mean you look at 2019 that fund balance after budget adoption was almost 980 in 2020 you know it went down to almost 490 and and the pandemic had a lot to do with it we can't predict these emergencies so we we want to make sure that we've got a healthy Surplus not only to deal with the budget realities of that given year but also any surpris that may come up after budget adoption thank you I have one other question this is just uh actually doesn't appear here on the overall but is something uh that I would ask for you to uh uh be clear on um something close to my heart uh and that is a separate line item and separate out of the budget is what is um uh supported for the library right uh and there's a calculation to that um and my understanding is uh by semantically 1/3 mil uh type of calculation is that uh the amount which is the minimum amount uh required by law is that the minimum amount that we allocate to for support of the library or do we have a different number uh a great question so in most municipalities have their own Library kind of just on their own the the minimum is that it's onethird of a mill of your uh essentially your tax base is what the what they come up with um here in China because we have a joint Library there's a uh another formula that's used uh so it does end up being a little bit more than that but that's uh that's essentially uh how it works out thank you is it more I think in the past it was less um I want I'll confirm that but I believe this year it's it's more in the sense that it's more complicated but it's slightly less in its amount in the dollar amount yeah so if we paid if we had our own library and play the paid the oneth third of a mill you know let's say it would be 1, 100,000 but because of the allocation way that's an allocation formula correct yeah between us and the burrow it comes out a little less than that 1,100,000 that's the yeah and that may have changed due also due to their reevaluation which makes it much more complicated because we haven't revaled so yeah anyway okay um I do have a few comments oh okay okay um you know I I I think the municipal budget is uh very good I I'd like to you know say that the U finance committee did a great job with it I do have some concerns um mostly around capital projects because those often uh Drive debt and we I did see a you know there is an extensive list and I know we're going to have more discussion about capital in the future but there is an extensive list in there of um Capital requirements there always is right uh so there's always places to to drive capital I I have a few suggestions um that that total 323,000 it's exactly three um $323,000 which I would like to see driven directly down to capital projects um and and this it's very short but I'll just start with uh saying you know I I think the finance committee you guys took on um a suggestion that I made in May 9th of last year which was uh about the utilities um leading to to $117,000 in savings off over last year's spend um so in other words we're 117,000 lower than um was previously budgeted so that's a savings on on utilities so that's obviously going to go right down to the bottom line that's that's wonderful um we are folding in an unexpended Capital ordinance I talked about those you know ad nauseum uh all throughout last year so on Capital ordinance 20226 is 3 3,000 so that's wonderful um another thing I talked about on March 7th of last year and many other times but was the reserve um of uncollected taxes pushing that up a little bit and I think just for the benefit of the public we have a 99 and a half% tax collection rate in chattam Township and we have historically had a 97 a half% reserve in the for uncollected taxes the state statute um you know allows us to have uh a rut as high as three the three-year average of our collection and so we could set the rut quite High um we went this year from 97 a. half% of the rut this Reserve to 98% that half percent is going to add $127,000 to this budget over last year so you put those things together and you got $500,000 so that was great that you implemented mented all those things um you know push that into this budget I would say it was it's the most amazing thing to me is with the rut uh the amount of push back that I got about talking about the rut last year and in years past it is that it took a lot of courage to increase the rut from 97 and a half to 98% but given that in the Great Recession in the um during the pandemic um you know during the housing downturn we've never had a uh a tax collection rate that's dipped below that 99% 90 High 98% I I would encourage this uh Committee just you know take another half percent walk towards what we're allowed to what the maximum we're allowed to if we did that we'd put another $127,000 back into the budget you could kick that straight down to Capital um another thing that I I saw in the budget here is we are budgeting interest at $350,000 so in other words interest that we collect it's paid to us in interest on investments um we know that last year in 2023 we collect 453 we collected 453,000 so but we're budgeting 350,000 now we haven't worked on a better cash management plan everybody knows I've been talking about cash management plan so to to say like last year we know we could have a better cash management plan we know that we know that interest rates are higher now now than they were last year especially if you average across all of last year right the the rates were on their way up rates have somewhat stabilized in my opinion or what we see in the banking world so I think hitting the bar of 453,000 so hitting last year's number what we actually realized last year is is a great that would be a great way to just set it I think it's conservative I think it's doable I think our our managers can absolutely hit that I think they can do it so we're at $350,000 budgeted if we went to 453 that's even without our cash management plan we know we need a better one we know that that could really well at least from um what I put together we could increase interest as much as 75% with that uh better cash management plan but even excluding that if we just use last year's realized interest we put another $153,000 back into the budget so between interest and the reserve um you're talking about 103 103,000 and 127,000 so that puts us at that's a $230,000 bump and then the last thing I I'd asked that this committee look at is legal fees before final adoption um in the 2023 budget the actual 2023 year rather the actual spend was 152,000 and I'm sure that our current um Municipal attorney Miss Kon will be just as diligent as our the outgoing um previous attorney in watching over that budget um he you know previously our our Municipal attorney really acted as a law director specializing and pushing um work out you know to the best possible person in that field or to those who were authorized in our pool um we are budgeting 245,000 but last year we spent 152 in legal fees so that's a $93,000 jump so if we simply budget legal fees at the same amount that were they were last year and you add that to the interest and the rut you could realize uh by my calculation here $323,000 in additional money that's almost 3% of the um Municipal budget in terms of its portion of uh Municipal tax revenue so the you $11 million so Municipal tax revenue if we um $323,000 would be a very considerable portion to push towards our capital projects and currently although it's subject to change we have several million dollars in capital projects and only several $1,000 in actual down payment so I think that $323,000 which would be almost 30% more could really go a long way in that portion of the budget okay do I have any um well let's see if anybody on the uh committee does anybody have any any input any questions well let's go back a second any other questions in general or comments about the budget can you confir was the rut changed I thought it was left uh we did up making a change on the rut because of the largely Capital adjustments but also um I want to go back to the slide as I was talking about Surplus right the fund balance um it's all cyclical it's whatever you put in the Rut if you don't use it ends up going back fun balance right so you know going in the direction of increasing that percentage has the effect of decreasing the amount that will eventually replenish the fund balance the only reason we went to 98 as opposed to 97.7 whatever it was before was because if you see here our fund balance uh after we were able to finalize those numbers uh went up to 5.8 million so that gave us the comfort in knowing that we can start to make that adjustment you look at the numbers before that they weren't trending so well and So based off of this that minor change in the Rut has the effect of potentially in the future decreasing the amount that the Surplus is going to be replenished by but enough such that we've offset that in this year's numbers where we know that we'll easily make that up and will not put us below what we should be in terms of our fund balance so I would not feel comfortable changing that above 98 but that's why it was changed after we finalized the Surplus numbers from that 97 point whatever figure to that rounded 98% so the million 357 reflects 98% a 98 rut I'm sorry say that again a million 357 sheet 29 oh the total rut amount yes okay correct uh and part of the rut is that if if we're not collecting in we still have to pay school district we still pay the county county the library the library so we take the H correct and that's part of why we're conservative and where we set our run correct and it's all again a cash flow issue too when the timing of when that money comes in how much of it's going to come in at what quarter and what we have to pay out at different times of the year yeah I mean I I can tell you when uh revenues were dwindling and they started dipping into the Surplus and then you didn't have enough Surplus to dip into anymore you know that's when we were and that's where we were dealing with the the covid we were dealing with affordable housing it was just not a good place to be in and there and then you go to the uh increases that uh had to take place at that point so um I'm not really keen on raising the rut any further than where it's been raised um in terms of setting the interest I think it just really it comes down to what you were talking about is it's you're kind of taking a conservative approach uh and then depending on how the year goes it comes into Surplus and that effects and we know we're going to get harder hit next year so in some ways you're kind of planning for the replenishment of that Surplus so you can use we're using 3.5 million of surplus in the budget that's a big chunk of the budget is coming from Surplus so if you're not replenishing that then that's coming from taxpayers and they they already spoke that the governor spoke and notified the legislature that uh health benefits are going to be facing another massive increase most likely next year so you know we want we try to forecast these things on the topic of interest rates you know why we were able to bump that up also is because uh our CFO and I have been meeting with banks and our existing Bank uh TD gave us a great interest rate they were able to bump up our interest rate and um you know that that is reflected in our Revenue amount but again if you get close and you fall short as unfortunately happens in some cases despite the best of your planning for example you know last year we looked at historical numbers for Revenue with the construction Department right and they were less than expected then you're dipping into your fund balance to make up that short F so conservatively you know we we acknowledge that we're going to put in more money in the 2024 anticipated Revenue line item for interest than we did the previous year but still a little less than what we realized because again you never know what might happen with with interest rates we know what we're getting and is that's going to be locked in for just a few months but it can always change and we don't want to be in a situation where we have a significant shortfall that we have to dip into the Surplus even more okay um any other comments new comments oh I just want I mean one of the reasons also legal is much higher this year is because we anticipated negotiations for affordable housing this year um that was a big one uh that did not you know that didn't need much last year um our affordable housing trust fund is the revenues are not meeting what they were originally projected to meet and so if they don't come out of that affordable housing trust fund then they have to come out of the operating budget and so uh that is the largest driver of why the legal expenses went up this year is because of affordable housing in the next round of negotiations okay thank you okay can we move to a vote uh for the formal introduction of the budget I believe is Mr Lewis I will vote to introduce I hope this committee takes um heed to modify the budget Mr McHugh yes Mrs Rand yes Deputy Mayor Troy yes and mayyal yes motion pass passes and then on April 23rd we'll have the public hearing and a resolution to adopt the budget okay uh moving on to 2024 d80 budget self-examination can I have a motion to introduce to adopt to adopt the resolution okay so moved can I get a second I'll second um uh does this need any kind of discussion or brief uh in terms of how this fits yeah no I mean this is uh one of those procedural resolutions uh municipalities are are on a cycle of essentially when you uh have to submit your budget to the state for their review and go through a whole lengthy process and then uh sometimes as long as you meet certain requirements then you can just do what's known as a self- exam if you're out of that cycle and that's that's what this is great I think this is year two of three and next year will be state state review thank you okay any discussion can we get a vote Please Mr Lewis yes Mr McHugh yes Mrs rowand yes Deputy Mayor Troy yes and mayor eal yes motion passes okay we're moving on to the consent agenda um do does anybody want to pull anything out of the consent agenda for discussion yes I I need to pull two three and nine okay uh can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended with two items two three and nine taken out so moved second Mr Lois yes M uh Mr McHugh yes Mrs Roland yes mayor Choy yes and mayor eal yes motion passes thank you okay before we move on I just wanted to mention um our emergency Squad president is here and we did just approve that loaf increase so I just wanted to make you aware and I want to thank you and the whole squad for your service and I'm so thrilled we could do this for you okay so resolution 2024 082 approving minutes of the meeting um can I get a motion to approve I'll make make a motion a second right yeah can I get a second second okay discussion none did you pull that one out yeah I need to abstain from both of these I was absent from one of the meetings in the form of the resolution okay it all together uh great can I get a vote in that case you could do 82 and for the consent yeah let's do is this a consent for oh I just lost track of what I was doing did we we already approved the cons yes we we can we approved the consent agenda now we're voting on resolution2 and 83 okay so Mr Lewis abstain Mr McHugh yes Mrs rowand yes Deputy Mayor Troy yes and mayor eal yes motion passes so did we do 82 and 83 together or do I have to do yeah they were together thank you that's how I understood the motion okay great and then we 089 and then res resolution 2024 d89 reaffirming adoption of idol free zones can I get a motion to approve so moved second thank you discussion this is one of the resolutions for the um certification or the sustainable Jersey recertification process thank you yep and this is just a reaffirmation of a previous um resolution but it's I guess we're 17 years later or so and I None of the facts have really been updated um so it's an idol and you know I mean cars have you know automatic shut off at this point auto start uh electric cars I mean it just seems to me if we're going to pass it as a resolution it should be accurate because it you know it's it's based on Cafe standards from whatever that is 18 years ago 17 years ago it's been a while since I read this so I'm trying to remember there was nothing that really stood out to me um is there anything that you I don't I don't certainly don't object to the to the concept of it it just seems to me factually inaccurate you know because it's based on 2007 numbers well you have the automatic shutout and the electric vehicles Etc that aren't going to idle anyway so they're in compliance it's the old Diesel and certainly the other gasoline and that don't have that right right I'm sorry all of our whereas you know statements are you know this sort of like fear mongering because it's just it's just you know it's it's it's not accurate so I guess I'm trying to understand what would you edit specifically just so we know if we want to modify oh sure let me pull the because we can still pass it with edits I mean we could take out I don't know if it's 25% of New Jersey school children asmatic I don't know that we need that statistic in there yeah it's exactly things like that of that nature um so uh I don't think that's going to lessen the uh for the for New Jersey sustainability I mean we could take that one we could take out the statistic that's in there pareses or the en just the parentheses the statistic yeah that and the you know the average car produces 20 pounds of carbon dioxide I mean that that can't be accurate um where is that one right below it the next whereas and the the the third whereas it's and I'm sure we past 20 million diesel yeah I don't recall if there was any time frame on when this resolution needed to be adopted by first sustainable Jersey but perhaps we should have the environmental commission do some research to update these warehouses uh yeah I'm just thinking about the time constraint I'm thinking maybe we um not worry about the details and go ahead and improve it because everybody agrees with the concept and then uh we could always ask them to adjust it after the fact why don't we do that because we're not going to I'm not going to start looking up whether or not it produces 20 pounds of carbon dioxide or 18 pounds of carbon dioxide at this point why we just strike a the where ases and just you know we'll start with the first one and support to the adoption of 2012 and 20 you know the first and second um whereases are great and and you know and I guess the and then leave the whereas is on the final page in the second page the the last two because that just that just guts you know idling for 10 minutes use as much fuel as it takes to travel five miles I don't know if that's even accurate I have no objection to it I think the point is still made yeah okay um yeah let's let's we have a motion on the table to uh approve as is so why don't we go with that and then we could always ask the environmental commission to go back so um we have our motion and our second and so the motion is uh voting as is uh Mr Lewis no Mr McHugh yes Mrs Roland yes Deputy Mayor Troy yes mayor eal yes motion passes and could you take back to the environmental commission to just take a look at this and to update it for us thank you okay we're going to open our second hearing of citizens same rules apply yeah same rules as before and we do have raised on Zoom thank you steuart you're live yes uh can you hear me yes yes uh good evening my name is Stuart Carr c a RR from three Crestwood Drive in shatam Township uh had one item but now I have four um first three number one um I Echo the comments of the committee on the congratulations to Mr salvis and also Echo the comments of uh former mayor Kevin Sullivan and former committee woman Abbott and whoever else spoke on his behalf a terrific individual and again well done by the committee to um uh recognize his service over time number two uh what is the status actually of 441 Southern Boulevard we have the uh Bond ordinance that's um being set up is that a A pns or not pns what do you call the purchase and sale agreement been signed has it still like a memorandum of understanding kind of what is the status on that specifically in contrast to where we were for example in December 1920 or 2023 if you could speak to that just for a moment uh number three uh c bank I agree for about the third or fourth time with Mr Lois on the skepticism of the use of C Bank as kind of a ballast if you say you're responsible in a particular year for a budget then stick to that budget for that year and then the next year start again with kind of a zerob based budget type of concept as opposed to having some fluff or ballish for last year the whole concept of well what if we need something during the year if you were at the 3 and a half% or whatever the number is in the given year then you could always say holy cow I have more problems and I'll still have to do something to go to the voters or whatever else so conceptually if you want to have a budget stick to the budget or if you don't like what you have then just have more reserves in there pack more into funded depreciation or whatever else and don't use it as ballast so again multi-e agreeing with Mr Lois on that number four uh the Oprah issue which is why I uh got on the phone agreeing with Mr Lois again um that doesn't happen too often but actually does happen periodically um in any case a skepticism with this um uh as it was the other day I understand and I appreciate Mr uh lante indicating that we should read the uh document and that's that's good advice appreciate that you should always be reading your documents and number two the council who gave some comments about why it's good for us that's good what the council didn't speak to and I'd like perhaps if she could do that at some point is to get to this um CJ Griffin attorney or somebody like that who says here is where there were problems with the um uh uh proposed legislation as opposed to the good things it did I'm sure what the council just went through are all good things but it doesn't speak to a lot of different things like the statutory capability via the Oprah versus the common law type of stuff it she didn't speak at all to the fee shifting where it becomes more problematic effectively for people to actually file an Oprah and have have these attorneys work on contingency to get there and then with respect to the issue of the commercial Dimension I'm sure it's in the uh website someplace but if Mr lanti could produce for the uh for the public or for the uh committee at least a log of say The Last Five Years on a monthly basis of what has been happening with these oah requests not only the commercial Dimension but all the other things to see just what kind of time and effort has been expended just in chattam Township what has been happening there if he could speak to that steart that's that's fine and then finally if we could have uh the council speak a little bit to the statutory authorization versus the common law and get somebody here to speak with somebody like attorney Griffin so if you're going to put together some kind of a document to your state representatives or to the league of municipalities or whomever that you're able to do that from a modum of knowledge as opposed to just basically being spoonfed what the leue of municipality says so I don't thank I'm have to ask you to wrap up unfortunately we exceed our I'm done thanks so much for your help thank but if you could speak about the 441 please thank you thank you um can we uh are you okay Miss Kon to uh kind of explain the status of 441 or what you can share41 Southern Boulevard fky Park um the status thank you uh the status is essentially the same um we've introduced um ordinances to um further the status but as of right now there's nothing that's changed yet the status has not changed from what was referenced the um letter of intent I believe it was that was signed um is the only document that's signed so far I don't think there's anything that's changed yet the actions that were taken tonight are in an effort to change that and proceed but hasn't happened yet yeah I just want to know mayor essentially you know the the clock we we paused the clock last year you know we introduced which is exactly what we just did tonight but we paused the clock because we couldn't go forward um due to some concerns that we had to you know do our due diligence on but because you can't carry over an ordinance into the following year you have to start over we're just starting over but picking back up where we left off yeah with with the assurances now that we can proceed yes and and what I said in my opening statement was and and mayor Fel last year said the same was the what put us on pause were things that were being dealt with on the seller side had nothing to do with us so we were allowing them opportunity to work through and now we feel we're in a better position to uh move forward um and and we you know we're all uh 100% behind this the purchase of this property so um yeah I guess that's pretty much the status that we could provide at this time um and everything else thank you I appreciate your input um okay I think we are pretty much wrapped up do we have a motion to adjourn oh I didn't close the public session I'm sorry did you have a question I'm sorry I never get up here I know Tyler bartha Randol I just really want to appla you guys for uh raising the lowp payments um and this comes as you know a private citizen not as someone of the press um it really Awards people who um uh put their time and often their safety aside in such a hustle bustle World working a volunteer position really takes a lot of time a lot of energy and it's just it's really it's just it's a really good thing that you guys did my uncle um he this was the low payments were a lot of what kept Him going financially even in his darkest times and uh if you're wondering why The Courier hasn't reported on uh the budget as of yet I was at his funeral so but that was um it was really what supported him both medic you know his medical bills uh his financial well-being uh having a retirement fund um you know even though it it may not have been you know humongous but um it was something and it was something that really kept him going even you know in his last couple days so thank you thank you we appreciate that I'm soorry sorry for your loss okay did we have anybody else uh online for the public hearing uh no we don't have any other hands up okay in that case I will close the public hearing and I'm looking for a motion to adjourn so moved do I have a second I'll second all in favor I I thank you I