reading to order please noce of this meeting was provided in accordance with chapter 231 Public Law 1975 Senator Byron and be open public meeting act like to have the invocation please moment of silence we'd like to have commissioner Victoria Lo Pledge of Allegiance please IED Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all commissioner Al commissioner Lo here commissioner Soro here commissioner marshan here commissioner Taylor here deputy director Romero here director Soo here do I have a motion second open public comment on resolution [Applause] [Music] only all in favor you know the routine you definitely know the routine right what state your name yeah yeah [Music] yeah uper deerfi resolution uh 20241 110 everybody that has been here for a while I TR to up know the lawyer fees um I see we guy got somewhere around $10,000 how much did it cost us and pleas so uh I don't have the final bill on this but sign significantly less given it was at a hearing at the AOL then litigating it all the way through had not so um at the time it looked like the best course of action for the C significantly less would be less than 50% sure a a full-blown trial on the thing I would estimate to be between 20 to 25 Grand to present the proofs yeah at at the superior court and it would wind its way through the courts to get there and the appeal is of course St over by right out of you really have accomplished very little had the right just s the heck of it who was the the law firm that represented us this was the test okay thank you um on the resolution 112 there must be a great story around this U has to do with the the the jail and the bathroom I'd like to defer that to commissioner Romero he had the same question you did okay so U commissioner would you like to call upo when you get a chance to okay I listen I the resolution came out the the invo came out and I called on Friday Saturday morning I called CIO uh commissioner CIO uh right away and um and we picked back on it so I know you guys were that was one of the things that you guys were going to do and you Pi on it the only difference is we' did a lot more work that it says there but it's going to be itemized from now on now this will not be a s uh you know but he's going to be revived and andiz it so we let Chuck Chuck up are you on chck is cheuck I had a conversation with I did too today it's it's not just a bathroom it's remember the jail has a lot of security things that have don't be watch and he pointed out some things they do but the this is actually two projects and some of the areas in jail we work going to use anymore we have to because we're up to 180 180 inates we're taking inmates back from from Hudson County which is a good thing and so we have to upgrade areas that haven't been upgraded in a while and remember that you know because you been all these be with us that here he is sh up now you just walked in you just walked in so he can answer your question in full detail but do me a favor some of the uh the issues are not very appealing to the general public if you understand what I mean by that cuz we're talking about Plumbing so so he'll he'll speak to the issue um soon as he gets in this is the type of thing no all you're up how are you okay I'm not sure of the question but uh I think I know the answer um Jeff did you explain it all the how we structure it or contract mechanism no it was more focused on what the actual soap of it was okay okay um because I think there were questions that came from both if I mess up on your part jump in but um it's really not an expansion of work or a cost overrun or anything like that there really are three additional individual projects that are part of that uh Jeff just said the the more transparent way and appropriate way to to list it financially was to do it this way uh for uh resolution so um I hope that addresses at least the fact that it's not like a cost overrun or anything like that it's three additional projects that were not part of the original scope um there three I'll go with the simplest one was we needed a sink large sink replacement in the kitchen where our our food prep is done I was able to secure the funding for that out of my 2023 budget we paid for that and had the syn on in place and it's really just the installation of something that was purchased in 2023 we were able to spread the cost out that way over two fiscal years so we wouldn't pound so much into 23 uh the second aspect I I think at different times um publicly um and certainly with the the County Administration and and Commissioners I let them know that our with our staffing our Target goal is to have about 115 to 125 um incarcerated persons at the facility um what I've that's goal the experience has been that with our best efforts at times uh and this is one of the times we've fluctuated I think our count today was 185 so we're well above where I want to be uh part of that is is coordinating uh with getting some of the additional people out to Hudson um Hudson has had their own issues with covid this winter so I think they kind of slowed down a little bit with us another factor and it's it's actually a good thing from a county perspective is the um courts and the prosecutor and public defenders have accelerated getting these cases through the court system so what we're finding ourselves in of that 185 that are there today 25 to 30 of them are actually in need who we permanently transferred to Hudson who have to be back in Cumberland this week for court so in order to make sure we get them there on time we bring them in in advance of the court date so we have them available so that part of this project is also to uh increase bed space so when I got initial funding when I came on board last year if we were a when we're able to keep our population more in the 120 to 125 range it's easier for us to keep them in the newest portion of the jail which is the annex so when we expand to this extent we're we're forced to populate almost the entire new jail as well so we've had to continually do additional Plumbing projects the almost all of the plumbing in the new jail needed to be upgraded and replaced so what we've done over the year that I've been here and uh up until now is gradually as we needed them replaced and what you see before you now is one of the final pieces of Plumbing in the new jail so that we can have bed space you know whether I prefer to have 125 or the reality is when I have 185 I have to find a place to sleep them and it has to have running water and it has to have a toilet that works so a chunk of that money is dedicated to that the uh the last piece on this the third component of it is in the annex which is the newer part of the jail um we have Plumbing in the showers that's over 30 years old and what that plumbing was and as soon as I tell you you're going to wonder why they ever did it and I that part I can't explain but in order for a incarcerated person to take a shower they have to hit a button and that puts the order on for about 30 seconds um so what they continually have had to do is basically try to take a shower with one hand holding a button and wash wash themselves with the other um um not that it's not funny but that when they tell me the story they're not laughing quite as much but obviously it's a problem so what they've done you know uh incarcerated people being what they are they've found ingenious ways to jam things in the plumbing to keep the button in tie strings to hold it in and over time it's just you know long story short is that plumbing needs to be replaced so what we're doing is they had already done it several years ago in the new jail they had gone and and replace them with more conventional knobs that just like in your shower turn the water on um you know so that they can take an appropriate shower um I know there was some concern expressed I saw something posted where there was an observation about the cost and and um how much it costs the the thing I can tell you is it's a really extensive project and when you think of pling in a in a jail or a prison sending please don't think of it like it's your home um it's in often in very obscure areas uh it takes a lot of work to get to sometime they have to actually remove pipes to get it pipes um it's a very detail process the only thing I can tell you is uh the contractor that you see uh putting in all three of these Northeast is the county approved plumber um and I spoke to my um the gentleman in overseas maintenance for Ray before he came in and he's been doing this for 15 years and he said he has we have never had an instance where we've had to have them come back in and redo anything that they've done which I can tell you right now if you've ever dealt with contractors that's not always the case and I can tell you that they don't work in an on monitored setting we always have security people with them and maintenance in an out so all I can tell you is that we have never had any instance or circumstance where we question their integrity of their billing or anything like that if they're if they put 240 uh man hours on it first of all that's 120 for two people um they're going to be there for the 120 hours or if they get it done sooner then they're going to bill us for 90 or whatever the actual hours they are we've never had an issue once and in fact they've been a huge help to us because as you can imagine um it's not like a conventional building if you have a p problem here you can kind of shut the building down get it straightened out and come back in we have to operate through it so there's times when we have Plumbing emergencies that Northeast has been a great and reliable um uh resource for us um in that regard so um I just want you to know that we will continue continue to be good stewards of the money and monitor that whatever this commission approves will be spent uh appropriately and monitored that way so I hope that answered the question so yes what we not I'm not questioning the honesty side of your side or northeas what I'm what we question is when it's all over Facebook so I don't want to say totally in the S 29,000 $900 I I would like to see more an invoice which is more atomized to prove what we spend for 29,9 because it is all over Facebook right and uh I wasn't happy to see that okay but if I can interject it is broken down between labor and parts and fortunately we have a lot of the parts already on hand uh for this particular work that we're doing so most of what you see is labor cost so it's hard to break down labor beyond the fact that so many hours at the hourly rate and I think we did ask for a more um detailed and the problem that you run into with plumbing is until you get back into some of these areas you really don't know what all of what you're going to find until you get in there so there there's uh some miscellaneous parts that are listed because it's really difficult until they get in and do the job to know but I think if you look at them closely um you'll see that the over overwhelming majority of the funding is for labor and not for parts so and I do think Tony I know what you're speaking of and I think you know maybe some people oversimplified the project just saying it's a simple shower head and what what we're dealing with at the county jail is not your your bathroom in your home so I I know that and you know that truck knows that but when you got 10,000 people out there in Facebook saying that the county just spent $29,900 in a sink in a in in a toilet you know it's not it doesn't it doesn't excuse I did Plumbing work that was my my business pling um and I got to admit I was thinking about canceling doing and going back into work again for this kind of money the reason why I say that is even after reading that okay now I did work in the jail years ago and it's pained in that for security where the amount of time it takes you to get from your truck to that particular area and back down to the truck or whatever if you forget something you waste a lot of time I understand that they don't know that exactly okay so what commissioner Romero was speaking of if he could just give a little bit more information because seriously when I read the invoice I went okay um I wish I was still in business so I'm just saying to you is that we need a little bit more explanation not so much just for the Commissioners but for the public I mean and they they they're do that and and I'm I again um that's why I'm here and standing here I'm not sure how I can convey no we appreciate the clation I think maybe just asking for more detail from from the uh North easn but I I would like to commend you for um keeping a building open and running in such a way that you have um a building that has been neglected by the county for a number of years and I would like to give you a lot of um commendations for that and listen I appreciate that and it's honestly it's the it's the unspoken thing in this room right now also it's not your control when talk to social media so it it's it's was something that maybe not was necessarily misrepresented but but just that the Optics of it looked very suspicious that's brought it out so at this point at this point though to not be labor this ision it's very explainable when you get down to the weeds of it all sure so I think that's pretty much where we need to let it let it stand at this point Mr H I think you're satisfied with this and if you want to speak further with me about it I can get into nitty-gritty about what the director spoke to me about it and it's not pleasant so I the only I have one other question um you mentioned about the $1,300 bill that you paid in one year and put it on another budget 23 budget I'm wondering is this somewhat normal is it Creative Accounting no no no that's maybe I didn't make it clear I purchased the item the SN out of my 2023 budget but did the first of all we had to wait for it to come in well we had to wait for it to come in first but it was purchased with 2023 funds the installation was being done in 2024 good enough yeah it wasn't it wasn't it's a part of the building that's been we weren't really thinking of upgraded to get it roll we concate on the anct so that we had to start doing stuff and listen it's a very difficult thing to understand Ray always hits me with one one quick thing that I'll just tell you we had an instance where we had Ray as my maintenance guy got confronted about the cost of a toilet so any of you we all go to Home Depot you all see you can buy a toilet for probably a little over $100 to $300 and they were questioning why our toilets are several thousand dos because they're not conventional toilets and it's it's just the nature of the Beast and it's hard it really is hard for people to uh to wrap their heads around so that's why I'm I'm here every month and I'm always willing to answer these questions and and we we know very good sir thank you very much we appreciate it anybody else public speak please state your name sir your address minutes VI bmz taxpayer hope Township uh also president PBA 231 uh going off what albino uh said the jail which I'm having report is getting fixed in the past these items that they're fixing were fixed for years and we have rooms that are down that we could use uh for two to two to four inmates in each room that have been shut down since 2018 and what what I can say about the past is there was a lot of money being spent in the jail I'm not going to mince any words they were creating a narrative to shut it down like like they do with the manner it's it's it's uh too cost it's not cost effective we're spending more money than we're getting so they were running up the bills and not fixing anything and that's where we are now but I can say that is totally different now so what I saw that bill and I'm thinking in my head that's kind of cheap compared to all the stuff that is broke down in the jail cuz I worked in uh I was a brick layer in construction too so I know the schems you guys can understand that the floors are like 2 ft thick deep and there's no Drilling and digging in there it it's it's it's a it's a structured building that's filled with a lot of concrete and getting through old systems so we have a lot of rooms that are down the inmate counts are going up all New Jersey by 100 in all of New Jersey every single County Jail is going up and it's because uh I don't want to say anything bad about bail reform I got my own opinion about it but it's catching up everybody's catching up so when we're bringing people from Hudson County that one inmate may have seven charges so he's coming down for his second one he's got five more to go so they're going to keep coming back keep coming back to get adjudicated on each thing that they were arrested for so this is going to cause a problem and we're not the only ones the whole State's having a problem with running out of room because the thing was Bell reforms doing this and that and really it's it's not it's just buying time for the inevitable of getting back to where we were so with that being said I'm happy to report that we're looking like open for business not shutting down and they're trying to um house the mmat properly the showers they've been down for since 2017 2016 a lot of rooms inoperable since 2018 and uh they didn't want to fix it because they figured they were going to shut it down so now we're getting to fixing them and I'm happy report that that's what I'm seeing and I know what they're talking about it's been a problem it's been a it's a disgusting problem that's been there for a while and it's getting addressed and uh I understand that they can't tell you itemized because they haven't dug down and got into it yet and it's scary when I think about when they do what they're going to say uh and also I came up here to ask about the um resolution for the uh operational subcommittee for the County Jail uh I want wanted to know uh if at some point well I was going to go out on a long limb and see if any of the unions could be involved on a subcommittee for one and two at any point will we be briefed on how the meetings are going and what the meetings entail and what's going to happen uh Mr we have uh a partial answer for you at this time okay all right I'm my time you can go ahead and answer okay Mr car please sure so I can report that I attended a uh meeting of the boords of the participating County wardens and of course uh that was tasked with beginning to meet as was the the other group that was referred to and uh it is patent clear that the unions are stakeholders that need to be involved in those conversations from an early point and that was raised in the meeting with the wardens he been raised in the larger group so it's coming the key is to formulate a group to begin to set the thing on a path um and then of course the sending police the prosecutor the public defender the unions right it goes on and on but the stakeholders absolutely need to be involved in that point so and basically what we're doing is is what basically the C said for including everybody at this point um it's a smaller group at this point but eventually I'm sure that the smaller group will reach out it's been mentioned in the in the larger group right with the the Commissioners and it's also been mentioned in the wooden group that's why they're planning this is a year of planning to see that's what that's what they're trying to do get so so it's not right the second but it should be you will be involved because we're planning to make it go and over this period of year so we open 2025 everybody's all board ready to go so thank you any other anybody else from public comments H us such encouragement there you go good evening I'm Nancy rway from Upper Deerfield and Fairfield Township uh we have a resolution here this evening it's resolution uh 2024-25 and as a resolution authorizing approval to submit a Grant application and to execute a grant agreement with the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development for the uh fiscal year 2024 W ioa summary youth work experience program could we have some more information on this it sounds very interesting ch's here okay just looking okay was in the back she I know she's got on bre too for Valentine's Day I'm a day early hello everyone my name is Christy deardo and I'm the director of the Cumberland sale and Kate May Workforce Development board and Nancy thank you for that question um this is actually our third summer um having the summer youth program we um are looking to apply for a little less than $400,000 this year to put about a hundred youth between the ages of 16 to 26 years old um into employment and internship type programs each one will make about $16 an hour and they will work uh no more than about 200 hours for 8 weeks um and that will will start right after school um we also have some slots available for some college interns because I know it was very very difficult over the last couple of years so that um for them to be able to graduate college and get their bachelor's degree or even associates degree um so we have connected with the Employers in our community so that they're able to be able to do their engineering side or if it was the health care side we're connected with inspir so um that's what that program is all about it was been it's been very very successful um so we're hoping that after this year maybe the New Jersey Department of label will make it a um a full year round program instead of just a summer program does that answer your question anything else she's laughing very good thank thank you Mr okay anybody else once T dri a motion second all in favor I resolution 2024 109 resolution authorizing approval to submit a Grant application and to execute a grant agreement with the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development for fisical year 2024 wioa summer youth work experience program do I have a motion and second move second commissioner albre yeah yes and uh I just have a comment about it that it is a very successful program we took full advantage of it in the county to bring it in turns I think most departments at least grab somebody uh on this and uh all and hopefully the as it grows it was mentioned grows into a fulltime I would love to bring more and more interns into this into this building college inters or high school to take advantage of to show them what could be done done or how they can maybe earn living in this County so and this program fits perfectly with that um uh what I got to note here too that U one thing I asked that maybe one of the things could be shortened there's some kind of a trading part the beginning of the program that could be shortened so people actually do have more work experience than sitting in I don't understand that all part of it if you desired it could you add shorten that period of time you can spend more time with in the field thanksor we actually did yeah just say real quick so we actually did request that um in a technical assistance uh meeting that we had with the state and they did shorten the hours um and so that they could actually have more of that work experience but the pre was always really for the younger uh high school students so that they could get that more work experience work development prior to I appreciate it being addressed that's good thank you so it's a yes thank you commissioner LS yesion Saro yes commissioner Maran yes commissioner Taylor yes deputy director Romero yes director SEO yes resolution 202 24-10 resolution approving settlement in the matter of Ronnie buyers pending in the office of administrative law AOL docket number SCV 8725 d23 do I have a motion in second second M commissioner Al yes commissioner L yes commissioner star commissioner Maran yes commissioner Taylor yes deputy director Romero yes director Soo yes resolution 2024 1111 resolution authorizing use of competitive Contracting for providing out of school youth industry focused occupational Training internship program services for the Cumberland County for Cumberland County do I have a motion and second second commissioner albre yeah but I would I would would like to hear from Mr because this is actually another good program that should be refriger didn't ask about that but it would be nice to hear CU this is a this is something we've been asking for for a while you're back on there so this this is actually something we've been asking for a while and it's a it's a good kickoff to it and uh hopefully there'll be more of this stuff so I have a few items on the you want if you want to address can we do this question is if we had discussion before you're supposed to just vote on well sorry Mr sorrow I make comments and I will make comments this is a kind of a a cons set on a vote you're just supposed to vote you're supposed to do all your comments and in the begin in the beginning when when they have comments on the resolution they they are the times to do the comments not during the vote that's for the public not for the Commissioners the Commissioners make comments during the vote when we do it so I'm not going to vote and live and if I have something to say and I'll continue to say it okay I'm sure so would you please get up to the podium please thank you hi you have two other additional yeah um for the out of school youth program right would you speak to both of those please sure so um about oh let's see July of 23 we received addition funds for um for youth this is completely separate than the grant that we were looking and we will be applying for because y' all just approved it um so this particular uh funding is for out of school youth so we will be serving youth who are out of school so either they dropped out of school or they met a criteria that would make them eligible for the program and we do you know we put out an RFP through the purchasing department and um that's what this RFP is what we're requesting so that we can serve this particular population and hopefully they'll become um well geared to get employment within our County um but it's not just Cumberland County there's the other two counties that also have the same exact RFP the funding is a little bit different um so that's what that particular program is all about and the next one please um so oh for the Atlantic City Electric okay just want to double check so um we've been very very lucky here in Cumberland County and the Workforce Development board Atlantic City Electric gave us a little over a million dollars um five years ago and we are in our sixth year of this particular program so about a year ago um my colleague Jamie Gomez um and I we got together with Cumberland Regional High School and bridon High School to see if they wanted to Pilot a program and it was with South Jersey Technical education and apprenticeship program I'm not sure if everybody is aware but the trades trading um availability not only in our County but in the region is zero and this company has come up and um they have partnered with us and we have been able to help support this particular program um the one that you are looking at now is the second cohort the first cohort with bridon high school and Cumberland regional they graduated in early January um with 100% um passing of the test on the electrical side so that program has been like I said really successful um and that's why we wanted to do it again so Atlantic City Electric approved us to be able to utilize those funds so that we can continue this particular program and um there's the same number of students on both sides for both high schools um Jamie and I we actually go and visit and check in to see how they're doing and at the end of the program um once they graduate high school cuz mind you they're in high school once they graduate high school they're going to have a um a hiring event so we're going to be inviting some of the trades that are here locally in cumberlin County as well as Salem and um they're going to do a hiring event so that they can continue and be as an apprentice once they get hired sounds like two great programs thank you apprciate I appreciate that and the idea is to point out that we're trying to tackle the trades which is been asked for over and over again and Workforce Development has been tried attempted to do that this is electrical there should be other programs in the future that will bu to CCT TCH Advanced manufacturing program stuff that's coming so that's why I want to point that out thank you commission yes on that commission LS yes commission SAR yes commission Mar yes commissioner Taylor yes deputy director Romero yes director C yes resolution 202 24-12 resolution approving change order number one to contract of providing plumbing repair services for the county of Cumberland and the Cumberland County County cooperative contract purchasing system identifier number 181-c ccps bid number 23-6 resubmission do I have a motion in second move second commissioner Al I want to make a comment on this also listen I'm going to keep making comments and if this is a work session which is where we're supposed to do this so if you guys have a problem with it say it now okay that includes the clerk okay the bottom line is that this I have no problem with this that we've been upgrading our jail system and this is part of it but the one thing I have question about is that we hire we have and I'm putting on notice that we have plumbers that plumbers that we hire in this County that this should never get in this condition and and I like to put them on notice and it includes all our trades that what I'm being told that and and I'm saying it that they've been asked to work cuz it was all hands on deck it was a year ago to help fix this jail and and then when people bring in notes are told that they can't work in a jail or don't that's that where I'm assigned they work for the county and and I'm saying it maybe the other Commissioners won't that maybe just maybe that their jobs are not as uh as secure as possible cuz we can delegate it out if they don't want to do their jobs and that includes the plumbing carbure electrical all those jobs if things like this are one of our main buildings commissioner may I just speak for that actually I'm just make a statement no I'm not saying some of those some of the projects that you're talking about the one with this particular contract and um there's another contract with was local but a little these particular projects are a little bit more in um the public works that our departments little bit out of their scope of work so that's why you're seeing some of this outside contractors coming in I I feel what you're saying you'd like to see more of it done inous to save money and I agre you there this has been done over time and if little problems are tackled they don't become big problems so I'm not saying that this is could be bigger we need professionals to go in there but I want to make sure they know that when we're they're told to go into areas to help fix it and they don't want to go into those areas that's their job and and if they don't do their job that we take do that's what I'll point out so move to the The Roots yes thank you Comm LS yes commissioner Sor commissioner Maran yes commissioner Taylor yes deputy director Amo yes director Al I mean just off resolution 2024 1113 resolution authorizing an amendment to the Sher service agreement with the commercial Township for resurfacing of a county owned roadway within commercial township do I have a motion second so move second commissioner albre yes commissioner LS yes commissioner SAR commissioner Maran commissioner Taylor yes deputy director Amero yes director Soo yes resolution 2024 1114 resolution authorizing memorandum of understanding between the Cumberland County Cumberland Salem Kate May Workforce Development board and the Cumberland Regional Board of Education concerning funding for electrical program for school starting February 2024 do I have a motion in second move second commissioner Al yes commissioner L yes commissioner SAR yes commissioner marshan I'd like to make a brief comment many of you know I sat on the board of K Regional High School for um a year and I know the administrative staff there as well as the board were making a concertive effort to fill the needs where it comes to the trads and I'm I'm very excited to see this program I'd love to see more of it and absolutely a yes on this commissioner Taylor yes deputy director Romero yes director C yes resolution 202 24-15 resolution authorizing memorandum of understanding between the Cumberland Salem Kate May Workforce Development board and the bridon Board of Education concerning Ace funding for electrical program for school starting February 2024 do I have a motion in second second commissioner albre yes commissioner loads absolutely yes commissioner Soro yes commissioner Maran yes commissioner Taylor yes deputy director rero yes director SEO yes resolution 2024 1116 resolution authorizing payment of bills do I have a motion and second second commissioner Al yes commissioner LS yes commissioner sorrow yes commissioner marshan yes commissioner Taylor yes deputy director rero yes director Soo yes before we get into the public comment per I'd like to make an introduction of the new addition to the administration uh that's Council Jeff bazaro say hello Jeff hi everybody welcome thank you he's been on board for about a month or so now uh about 3 weeks about three weeks now congratulations sir thank you very much all right all right we want to open open this up the public comment new business oh I'm sorry my apologies these are the ones that are on the agenda resolution or item ID number 14813 resolution awarding a contract for providing a probation enrichment and transportation program the life skills component for the cumberly county new Services advisory Council RFP 2359 resubmission resol resolution 14944 resolution accepting Grant award for the ffy 23 state and local cyber security grant program 14 971 resolution authorizing application and Grant agreement with the New Jersey Department of Human Services and the Cumberland County Office on Aging and disabled for the Cumberland County State Health Insurance assistance program 14533 resolution awarding contract for specifications for FY 2023 Federal Road program townships of Fairfield Hopewell Lawrence and Marsh River Cumberland County New Jersey Federal project number stbg p- d00 s state job number 6 364 bid number 23-32 1492 resolution awarding contract for providing specifications for 2023 local free impact fund Road program 2 CR 650 bid number 24-1 14907 resolution authorizing the award of a non-fair and open contract for annual support and maintenance services for the info share case management and cloud service for the cumland County prosecutor's office 1491 7 resolution authorizing the award of a non-fair and open contract to provide software support maintenance services for the records information management system rims 14933 resolution authorizing the award of a non-fair and open contract for breaky license Premier unlimited IOS and Android extractions for proprietory software Hardware 14936 resolution authorizing the award of a non-fair and open contracts for providing proprietary software and Hardware upgrades to the courthouse access system 14937 resolution authorizing reward of a non-fair and open contract for providing an employee assistance program for the employees of cumland County 14938 resolution ratifying the award of not fair and Open professional service contract for providing legal services for the Cumberland County Board of Health 14939 resolution authorizing Brant agreements between County of Cumberland and the participating municipalities for the administration of DM H youth leadership grants to prevent alcohol alcoholism and drug abuse 14943 resolution sending resolution 2024 55 resolution appointing assistant County Council sign to the division of Social Services 14945 resolution establishing the Cumberland County Jail operational subcommittee and appointing members 14947 resolution authorizing purchase at Barracuda networks message archiv cloud services par s number 244 22665 from the New Jersey Cooperative purchasing Alliance contract vendor for the Department of Information Technology 14948 resolution authorizing the award of a non-fair and open contract for the purchase of West law prolex subscription services for Thompson rter for the Department of Corrections inmate Law Library 14952 resolution authorizing the award of a non-parent open contract for providing printing of election materials for the C Cumberland County clk's office and Board of Elections 14956 resolution authorizing purchases from State contract vendors 14957 resolution approving change order number two and final the contract for specifications for the 2021 Road program city of Island Cumberland County New Jersey bid number 22-2 14958 resolution approving change order number one to the contract for fiscal year 2022 Federal Road program city of vland Cumberland County New Jersey Federal project number stgp d655 14959 resolution canceling expired contracts for February 2024 covering material services and supplies 14960 resolution authorizing increase of monetary ceiling for providing legal services for civil commitments and representation of the county of Cumberland and the county adjusters office 14964 resolution authorizing State equipment use agreement with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for the state Mosquito Control Commission to provide equipment to the Cumberland County Department of mosquito control 14968 resolution authorized and reward of a non-fair and open contract for providing professional legal services to the cly County division of Social Services 14970 resolution exercising option to renew the shared service agreement between the Cumberland County prosecutor's office and the City of bridon Board of Education the city of mville Board of Education the city of violon Board of Education the Cumberland regional district Cumberland Regional School District Board of Education the Cumberland County Board of vocational education concerning the Youth traum Intervention protocol and amending the set to include additional obligation of federal funds 14972 resolution authorizing assignment of the matter of an investigation of a complaint made by an employee of the Cumberland County Department Public Works 14973 resolution authorizing assignment of the matter of an investigation of a complaint made by an employee of the kland county the kland area transit system 14977 resolution gring final approval of the halter Farm application to sell development e met then go to the reg resolutions some of these are placeholders 14963 resolution authoriz and approving additional temporary budget Appropriations and the amount of that's just going to be for whatever get right 14764 resolution awarding parent open contract for providing vaccination services for the Board of Health RP number 23-7 it's pending 14895 is a resolution awarding a contract and that's a placeholder 14935 resolution awarding Open professional service contract that's another place 14950 resolution authorizing purchase from New Jersey state contract vendor that's another placeholder if I may I just want to identify the placeholders just because the way it looks on the agenda there no information at all right um so the one 895 is actually for a bid for a multipied asphalt so the bids we received they're just not tabulated yet so they're going through the paperwork 935 is for the planning board solicitor cuz that was re advertised 93 six is for proprietary maintenance upgrade from the courthouse access control um so that's with a company called Integrated Systems 950 is for the 911 upgrade for the voice recorder which was part of the 2023 Capital plan and the 976 is a change order to motor roll's contract for the 700 MHz no cost increase or decrease it's just a minor scope modification so if there was a certain model radio that was originally ordered but then there's a different model version It's just changing the line Okay 14962 resolution authorizing an amendment to the sheriff service agreement with commercial Township concerning the replacement of a county owned bridge on Miller Avenue within commercial Township 14975 resolution authorizing application to grant funding from the Attorney General's office for the state fiscal year 20124 alternative responses to reduce instances of violence and escalation together grant for 14976 was explained 14978 resolution authorizing a shared service agreement between Cumberland County Salem County gler County and the Cumberland County Improvement Authority concerning design work related to the regional jail facility site 14981 resolution authorizing local Recreation Improvement Grant application 14982 resolution authorizing a shared service agreement between Cumberland County and the Cumberland County Utilities Authority 149 983 resolution authorizing assignment of a complaint related to part-time employee health insurance 14984 resolution authorizing assignment of Labor matters concerning the Cumberland County Utilities Authority to test the heck test the white in accordance with the shared service agreement do I have a motion and second with a public comment for new business okay any like public comment good evening Nancy richway from Upper Deerfield and Fairfield Township you just went over the agenda for the next meeting and aren't you going to discuss any of these you Cate anything in particular we had a shared service agreement with the the ccia resolution authorizing a shared service agreement between cin County Salem County bler County and cin County Improvement Authority concerning design work to a regional jail facility site it's a m isn't it yes it is we have a site shoot on the road what is happening with that site well let's go right to Council on that because I think we have some answers for you to so there's communication about the potential for a Regional Jail between Salem and crumland and GL in order to examine that and explore it there needs to be some uh architectural work some engineering work and uh we have Bond money that's held of course by the ccia so there's a need uh to have a shared services agreement in order to repay uh or to facil itate the design work there was application for grant funding for Le funding for the effort and for the engineering work due to Wetland study that need to be made as to a larger site at the footprint of the sale in jail if that can move F I heard this afternoon around 1:00 that this was set in stone already that we were going to do the shared service agreement with Salem County and glester County for the jail I thought we were going to do a study to see if it would work out and if glester County really wanted to be on the board so glester county has joined to the extent that they did sign uh the agreement now there needs to be a study because right now there's no numbers put to paper right and that's what the purposes of the engineering right is that's what we need I would like to sit on that board and make the 40 [Music] Grand is that fair Mrs rway if I might if I I just want say this you want to make a separate board for this combined jail that it would be an entity within itself that is correct like a jail Utility Authority and that's statutory from the state does everybody understand that that was a mouthful yes it's a positive direction for the Three Counties to share the load um in the future and since you mentioned the slab that's yeah we SP a lot of money on that there still litigation for part of the energy unfortunately it was a um a very um mistaken uh opportunity and we're spending hundred of thousand of dollars to redo our jail that we already have in Bron it's the same architect unfortunately we're caught in the situation where we need to use the same um facilities and operational contractors and project managers because of the bomb Mr direct director it'll take time for us to get that built and operating we we're doing our due diligence our our homework right now to get it all set up but it's going to take time to build those wigs meanwhile we have a jail that we have to V and we need to use why the budy there I understand that but a lot of people in the county don't understand how come coming county is going to take taxpayer fund and build a facility that or property that we do not own in another County um now that is a big question that you need to ask the Citizens Council would you please explain well we understand what you're doing but I only have five minutes you're posing the question so like Council that maybe address you know everybody so they get take time away from from pause the can we pause the pause you guys stopped it you guys are going back so it is not clear at this point Who's going to own the ground right now Salem owns the ground uh but the creature of Statute uh that's designed by the state at this point calls for a Perpetual Authority uh to maintain uh control of that ground so that looks like a lease or ownership I can't speak to but the last Model that was provided by the state right before the most recent update that was supplied Commissioners was had a lifespan this calls for a Perpetual lifespan although there are moves right for entities to get out but there isn't a standard lifespan where we have to walk away so as to ownership and control one or the other uh you're you're going to need to have that asset we're creating a regional facility and that's why and it just happens to be in sale and then you know because we in C County we have how many how many prisons a jail prisons and a federal prison another one is going to hurt we've had to come in county jail for what right 50 years or so maybe 250 years a repurposing of what we have here yes ahead we are going to put it to use yes we're going to have to because we're going to have to well I don't know because uh you might be having a regional jail so you might not have to bring the prisoners back to Bron to use our court facilities have a number of years in time before that facility is ready to go and we still have to maintain right and it'll probably be a 40-year agreement and none of us are going to be here in 40 years okay we have another Bridgeway I do believe that the hope is that even if we do build this Regional facility we still have this building that's here and the hope is that it can be used for something else in the future some other need that we need commission Lo is correct so many different options still it still is a County property that we should not continue to allow to fall apart that's correct I'll keep my mouth shut on um we have another resolution here that u a resolution authorizing it's a 14962 authorizing an amendment to a shared service agreement with commercial Township concerning the replacement of a county owned Bridge or nor Avenue within Comm commercial Township can anybody tell me what's happening with the South Avenue [Music] Bridge coun right so Council please so if I understand correctly that has now been pitched to the DP right everything was done State historic preservation shipo had weighed in and it is in the hands of the DP with the clock running for the various permits that are needed the last you thought we had the permits we have quite quite a few quite a few permits but you don't have the last of them it's like a b exam of a of a juncture of tidle wetlands freshwater wetlands historic you name it it was there oh you name it and it was there boy I wish all those rules and regulations was in effect five years ago I have a bridge that you could use since you need to uh place a bridge there's a bridge on um Burlington Road at Irving Avenue that uh you replaced 5 years ago and uh you've been holding my property hostage all that time with flooding so I suggest you know you should never come up to the microphone and make any statements without having a real good suggestion so I suggest that you take that bridge out use it in one of these other bridges that you need to do and put a bridge in on burington road at Irving Avenue that will allow for the water to run through properly without the bridge being on top of a sewer line therefore I could maintain my property and maybe save what's left of it thank you we'll we'll take we'll take a look at that you should take a look at that look at that 3 or 4 years ago we m shepher m Ridgeway came up and asked us and we did review that and it was found that were many I don't remember the answers to it but they did look at it and so there is a report about it so and your engine said that her property will be FL that's what your engineer at that time stated property will be we have different engineer now so we'll I understand that thank you very much okay anybody else please state your name Sandy ASO Upper Deerfield Township um I got a couple here why why do we repeatedly uh read vertise for requests for additional proposals for Legal Services it seems like every month there's always a a read advertisement for Legal Services is there a reason behind so we put it out once and we got a bunch of responses and there was questions from the Commissioners and the professional staff of did we get the broadest scope we could and it went back out once so I don't think it's time after time I think this second round well maybe on this one but on others maybe on this particular one but there's others that that go out think they all went out again it's you know no no no you have you have lawyers you've already hired that are on the case and they go back to you and say you know we need more money and you give them more money on a monthly basis this month I didn't see any but every month we get an increase La the question IO is that why we go out for bid on either the same attorneys or additional attorneys is to create the pool we're exactly I just took the words out of my mouth we're expanding the pool so therefore we have more choices we don't That's the basis of it I'm concerned about the additional cost for the county that's involved every time we go out for these re uh re advertisements you've got staff time you got publication time I mean and you've got a huge list of of attorneys I think you need to take advantage of the ones that bid when it first goes out and have an interest instead of C do they all come in within big numbers that we are acceptable as well that's another thing too can I bring up commissioner please not all areas are Bid at the same time you understand what I'm saying in other words you don't have we'll say attorneys that are going to be working on real estate just use an example that might be one one time and then you're going to have uh attorneys that are going to be working on we'll say um uh employee matters that'll be another time and so what I'm saying is we have different segments throughout the years for different attorneys for different projects so what happens you you might see two this month you might see another two next month but they're they're going to be related to different matters they're not all coming out at the same time it's not like we started in January and get everybody at one time firms plus different firms have different attorneys who handle different Scopes Scopes so therefore you're going to see the same you know attorney um um attorney type um whatever you call just I don't attorneys same fir excuse me fir I'm sorry same firm that U comes in time and time again that's another reason why you'll see it but like like he said Real Estate or whatever you're talking about our AR advertising just that we can we can probably say that's minimal uh but we can probably find that out if you wish would you care to would you care to for that information oh I it's I got it for the advertisement we can get that no I know I know what I know what it says what type of information are you talking about you're asking about the advertisement the costs yeah I'm talking about the cost of read advertising you know over more than once we can get that for you um I'm sure we can do that well I don't know how you would get the cost of re-advertising because for the staff time and things like that I'm sure it would fluctuate yeah so whenever we do a resubmission it's nothing has changed as far as the specs go so it's really just adjusting the dates it's the same document you just add res submission at the end put it to the papers and then post it to the portal um it's not that much but yeah if you if you want I can get a dollar figure for that um if it helps illustrate that I think the planning board one though that one there were responses the first time but they were all rejected because they jacked up their ownership disclosure he had no that was thank you um ID number 14982 on the ccua shared services for legal matters can somebody give me some insight on that so call from uh Bob Carlson I've got questions about this I've got questions about that um the County Council Office although we're two attorneys now which is great um has a potential for a conflict in providing uh legal we can provide backup but we can't provide legal guidance to the ccua uh to the extent that this board has the right to reject to their Ms so this the recommendation came by uh let's do a shared service with them and make our lists our attorney pool list available to the CC that's where that comes from and thank you for that and I I guess the public didn't really hear the name and the position of this gentleman right here when he said it the first time I'm getting some I'm sorry Jeff bazo that's he cany cancel Esquire yes I got help finally thank you you can't find me f I'll be under my the next thing um last meeting um the resolution [Music] 2024-25 24 meeting it was a resolution approving a change order number one to contract for providing Security Guard Services for the County Department of Social Services County library and various locations is needed Miss LS uh you had stated that this board was saving the taxpayers money by Outsourcing the security guard Services um so I feel you may not quite understand how that works when you're already paying someone to do a job in this example the sheriff's department but then you hire someone to actually do the work that's not saving taxpayer money by any officers are being paid at different rates depending on the years that they have in depending on their position and for the most part and I I haven't looked at exactly who the sheriff's department is assigning to these locations um and first of all that resolution was just to adjust hours based off of an error in in in hours that were originally assigned that's all that resolution was but I did say that because sometimes we have Sheriff's officers who are being paid at a much higher rate than some of um the the Personnel that are coming in from a a third party security uh company so that is why I said that yeah I I get that but if if you're already paying the sheriff's department to provide these Services no we're not already paying the sheriff's department to provide those Services that's I asked I just as though we're paying you know we have police that we're paying we have Sheriff's officers that we're paying it's not necessarily that were paying them to guard County buildings that's not necessarily what their task is but I think I believe I asked that you said that that was what they what they they that they that the sh I believe I asked that and you said that the sheriff's department provided the security for those for those said that okay you first of all the resolution was to amend the number of hours that was being given to cover those Security Services understand what the resolution about what I I think the question was asked why are we not using Sheriff's officers to provide security to those buildings correct so far am I correct so far today no last month that you were referring to am I correct so far no it was stated from someone on this board that that was one of the functions of the sheriff's department was to provide security for the county building and offic I said that and and that is the function of the sheriff's department for certain areas for certain buildings we're talking about the courthouse we're talking about our Administrative Building but not every single building no that is not their I don't have to go back and listen to the tape then okay thank you you know the drill Hi how are you celest comberland County Clerk um first I had a couple announcements from the office which is this Saturday um is the fire elections for the three municipalities that have fire elections and it's from 2: to 9:00 p.m. not necessarily hours that we are used to but 2: to 9:00 p.m. commercial Township downtown and Mars River and our office mailed out 688 vote by mail applications to voters who are all future elections to those municipalities um we are also currently working hard on getting ready for the primary election and I noticed are printing um resolution here for the Board of Elections and my office is on this on a resolution for the next week's um vote so I wanted to go over that a little bit and if you don't mind just to say um we worked very hard to streamline the this year and I want to also explain that um since 2018 the printing budget has increased exponentially because of the state mandates for increasing um vote by mail ballots all future election and having paper ballots at the machines um we also increased um our our paper Printing expenses because of the type of the machine that was purchased by the county a few years ago when we um went changed the machine and so we have a lot more paper but on the plus side um when the state initially said that U municipalities can move their elections to the general election and the county would take responsibility for those election Services the agreement was that in the primary election we would build back the primary expenses back to the municipalities and that has become now um much more expensive for them because the primaries because we are now um required to do something called District level reporting which means um we now go from um 14 ballot styles to 92 different ballot Styles which yes exactly it has really increased their expenses but um this year the state has said okay well we know that District level of reporting costs a lot of money and has created a burden and so um we have a grant program that allows us to um apply for refunding of some of that money and we did apply for it and um we will be getting back 158,000 of that money so even though the printing budget for my office is something like $500,000 $158,000 will come back to the the actual County from the state of New Jersey for that um there was also about um a grant that was just reimbursed also for vote by mail for 18,000 that we've already received so we are um trying to and working with um trying to get our costs down so that we're it's I know that that's a 61,000 but my office is 525,000 but with the reimbursement of the grants it comes down to 348,000 which is more in line for when we were um printing for 2019 so with the help of the grants I think that it will level out and we will now reimburse once we get the money back from the state of New Jersey um we will be reimbursing the municipalities $100,000 so Mr Ry can you mention the uh I mailed you a letter I know that but can you mention it publicly that um the types of reimbursement is going to happen the townships because there are the ones really that are will be suffering the most I would think cost wise right so because there many budgets yeah um I don't have the actual breakdown for each municipality um and I can get that for you if you would like I I've given it over to the finance committee because the money will come to the finance committee and then we're going to have to do the reimbursement for this year but moving forward because this is every year we're not going to build them for these services so the the mailing ballots the setups the emergency ballots the setups and the provisional ballots the setups so that's $100,000 every year that we will not be billing to the municipalities because we will be getting it back from this to from the state of New Jersey so instead of doing billing them right we're going to get the money anyway so is that is that a set fee of H or adjust it it'll adjust it'll adjust depending on the amount um that we actually have to produce so for this uh for this year um we currently have 12,460 actual ballots um vote by mail ballots that uh we will mail out to they're they're on our list um but that means probably it's going to be more like 177,000 to 18 000 since we're in a presidential election year and campaigns will start increasing their um drive to get people to V by mail so but um I think that's all good news getting money back from the state of New Jersey excuse me yeah when you say the 17 it would be about 177,000 is that just for a primary not both the primary and a general that will probably just be the general they'll start in I what we see is um and my election supervisor is here Kelly Hoffman what we'll start seeing is um the campaigns will start gearing up and we start getting inundated with vote by mail applications they'll be encouraging um in fact we saw it last year with both both parties um they were trying to increase their vote by male voters um and so because of that it really does put a a bur financial burden on the office and and and the the counties because paper costs money each ballot costs money and um yeah so I think what did they estimate for the primary for the primary well estimated you mean actual by oh for the primary we're going to have 6,913 actual Democratic ballots and 2,893 Republican ballots so is the is the clerk's office sending out um vote by mail applications no yes we are yes we are and Bas on what criteria to everyone or we we actually mailed this year vote by mail applications to people who voted provisional um and for people who senior citizens in a certain age group and that's it yeah we don't we don't like no we can't do everybody we cannot do everybody parties are working to increase vote by mail and that's putting a financial burden on the clerk's office but the clerk's office is also stting vote by mail voters as well yes yes yeah but we only do it for people who as I said who seem to have issues with voting at the machines so vote by mail voters like we we well one we have to we have to also touch on unaffiliated voter in the primary so that's 2,420 we have to send them a letter that says that we can't mail you a ballot cuz you are unaffiliated and you have to declare a party and that's that happened last year so yeah is there been any talk about you you said it used to be theal is now it's 96 or 93 no it was 14 yeah 14 ballot Styles now it's 92 different ballot Styles you said they change it that increase the cost and so the state's solution was to give money give a grab did they ever talk about maybe going back to no no sorry have to give any money back no no I mean I feel like we're fortunate that they're at least going to reimburse us take you put um but that doesn't decrease the work and you know okay so any questions on just anything yes yes John how would the general public um obtain the ability to do a mail and ballot so what what what action they take so they could get that sure there's many um they can call our office and we can um mail them an application and uh once they mail you know mail the application back to our office then we they're on the list so any but anybody who's on the list um prior to the 45 days we have to have the ballots out that within that 45 day period so um you want to get on the list as soon as possible all right if you're interested in voting by mail no is there I've asked this question before the uh the local prayer this is a consistent again and again is there any possible that a local PR could gear up to do this at all so up till 2020 right we have done rfps and we got we received no no um biders other than the one we currently have we used to and Kelly can give you some history we worked with gem printing G prin prior to Prior with the prior Clerk and what happened he came to us and he said he was not able to do this he was not going to put a million dollars into his company for two elections well three elections back then because you have to be certified through the state and through Dominion voting system in orders to even do the ballot printing because it's not just printing on a piece of paper because it goes through once we design it and the printer prints it then they have to ship every single ballot to dominion and get it approved by them that everything scans properly with these new machines that we took over 200 2001 yeah something 2021 so we just can't anybody just can't print it so it's not just like printing a regular piece of paper and another thing is that where Dominion keeps you coming in is the ballot logo paper so every election the paper is different whether it looks like it's white paper or not there's an emblem on there and you can't use that same paper for every election so that's where we get into money now water was it Watermark some type it's got like it's something like you know like you know your clerk like the clerk steal or something that's in like in printed yeah and the paper because the ballots are different every election bigger different sizes you might have a front and a back it's always different paper that you have to use for every election we're getting into the weeds of this but um it's very interesting I think we should probably talk more with the um with the clerk in the future um about the difficulties that we having um it seems like uh this is more of a um way of basically becoming a monopoly on one particular you know there's only a few printers in the state of New Jersey that are actually certified to it um we understand okay all right thank you very much for your time all right any others going once going twice all favor yes resad please resolution 20241 resolution providing for a meeting not open to the public in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey senator Byron and be open public meeting act and JSA 10 4-12 matters relating to litigation negotiations and the attorney client privilege and matters relating to the employment relationship do I I have a motion in second all in favor commissioner all right yes commissioner LS yes commissioner SAR commissioner Mar yes K yes deputy director Romero yes director yes so I believe you would have us walk to leave people if they want to stay in the room and there's no action anticipated after your executive okay everybody's welcome to state we going to go [Music] back1