not uh 6:04 p.m. calling the work session meeting to order all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the repblic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher here council member coil council member Harris yes council member Patel council member PTI council member poer president council member shumal right adequate notice of of this meeting as required by the open public meeting Act of 1975 has been provided by the annual notice sent to the home news tribute St Ledger Desi talk and New India times on December 12th 2023 and post Main Lobby Municipal complex on that same date thank you madam clerk now opening up the oral petition and remark going from the list Joel bass off good evening Joel bassoff 17 Beach Lane proud to be a member of Edison's public um I'll try to make my remarks in the form of questions so that anyone who wants to respond will be allowed to do so under the council's rules uh so first a question about the budget I saw that um njs 44-10 States the budget shall be adopted no later than March 20th of the calendar fiscal year or September 20th of the state fiscal year and my question is isn't Edison on a calendar fiscal year and if so shouldn't we be adopting a budget under the statute by March 20th and my question is so how is it that we get away with not having a budget until September since we're not on the state fiscal year um then I also have a question about the uh tax appeals that are on the agenda I see that there are a number of them so my question is does that indicate that there is an erosion of property values that we should be concerned about is this like an early warning uh or does it indicate that maybe uh Edison is being too eager to settle tax appeals uh on the culture C Al Arts commission ordinance uh I see that that's on the agenda so my question is can we acknowledge the council vice president Harris worked hard to put this on the agenda and can we thank Joyce ship Freeman for pushing this forward during her term on the council and working very hard to see this come to fruition it looks like the answer is yes we can um so I know that performing arts and visual arts Foster a greater understanding of each other and Foster a closer sense of community so another question is is there anyone who doubts that this commission will be a boom to Edison and I also have a question if the ordinance can be amended to uh remove the requirement that members of the commission necessarily be citizens we we have uh permanent uh residents uh people with green cards who maybe are on a path to citizenship and they're fully participating members of the community and if it's allowed under state law maybe the commission could be opened up to people regardless of citizenship status uh now I have some questions relating to land use matters uh is there anyone who's not familiar with the Court decision in American Outdoor Advertising versus Edison zoning board the the premise of that decision is that even if the zoning board denies an application if the neighbor don't present expert Witnesses the court will order that the variances be granted and that the project be approved so my question is is there anyone that that doesn't understand that that Court decision and if there's anyone who hasn't read it would you like me to send you a copy of that decision and I have a question if there's anyone who thinks that a public Advocate would put a stop to all development in Edison uh I'm wondering if we can agree that a public Advocate would just help make sure that development applications are consistent with the zoning code with the master plan and with the municipal land use law and my question is is there anyone who's against enforcing the zoning code and the municipal land use law now regarding the claraa Barton neighborhood uh I would question if the council can repeal the commercial Corridor overlay for the Amboy Avenue revitalization Zone uh the commercial Corridor overlay allows for four-story buildings so I would question if there's anyone who doubts that residents of claraa Barton do not want four-story buildings uh is there anyone who would disagree that four-story buildings turn Amboy Avenue into an urban Canyon and that four-story buildings would cast unwanted Shadows on nearby Residential Properties uh I have a question question about uh digital billboard Ordinance do we have a timetable for the adoption of an ordinance that would reflect Uh current technology with digital Billboards and with the ordinance pertaining to uh updated Warehouse definitions is there a timetable for when that revised ordinance would be on the agenda and I have a question about Municipal Broadband I know that's come up at at previous meetings so my question is where is there an area where that has not lost money and I know some people might cite Chattanooga Tennessee and i' ask if there's an awareness that that that's a service area of over 400,000 people while Edison only has a little over 100,000 people so those are my questions for this meeting thank you all right Sonia do you want to answer the budget questions sure um under the local Finance notice um the March 20th me date that he's referring to it's actually the introduction or the very last meeting that the council has for that month um for introduction doesn't have to be adopted but it needs to be introduced okay uh as far as the tax appeals I have Joan Jimenez here if you'd like her to come up and explain the trending of our tax appeals sure good evening Council um on the agenda R six as Mr bassoff has stated um in your memo packet there were um I believe three others that were also settled that were complete withdrawals of the cases as well as one of our affirmative appeals where we are granting an increase um the trend of the appeals is not that we need to be unaware our appeals are ongoing as I've discussed with you all in the past um these settlements represent work that have taken uh several months um I've also explained in the past that the docket is very high in the state courts and um judges are at a minimum so we are being guided to try to come up to settlements um if it's so possible um those settlements that are before you today some of them go back to 2020 so they have taken several years to get to this point but our commercial appeals have been steady and again that's another uh thing I wanted to note these are all commercial peels which are a little bit more complex uh we have seen a downward Trend with our County appeals which are where most of our residential appeals to take place and last year we were fortunate to only have 66 so the trend with the market in today's economy um has been geared to a lower number of appeals instead of a higher Trend that Mr Bass off may be concerned with is any of them related to co um some of the commercial appeals um there are two maybe three hotels that do have an influence of covid with regards to the valuation at the time because as I have discussed in the past commercial um real estate has different methodology that is predominant in calculating their value so income plays a role in that and that particular area of Commercial Business was impacted with covid okay and also I from what I hear that there's hard to get judges from for this tax appeal stuff or is that something else that I'm there is there is a shortage of Judges um some people that had been nominated or under consideration have actually withdrawn their nomination because the process had taken so long okay okay um I think for the cultural art commission we are going to be looking into the resident and I think that was concern was addressed at the legal department or legal and also so we're trying to cut down the number of members to nine to make it uh uneven to make it easier for that to pass through um in terms of the ml outdoor versus zoning yes we are aware and uh we are looking into it there are two ordinances that are drafted by Lou Renown uh that I have to review uh that what they do essentially is they allow from what I understand I'm not sure if this is 100% I haven't had a chance to review they allow the escro money to be used to hire professionals if so the board deem necessary so that is something that they can use going forward but again I still have to review that uh I think me John and Hank are planning to meet soon to review that including the digital billboard that you requested um again clar Barton I agree with you I think four stories are a little too high uh and clar Barton clearly states they don't want four stories uh so yeah I think I missed couple um let me see and the public Advocate I think we have discussed that at length prior uh moving forward anybody else councilman brusher uh Richard Brer 868 Grove Avenue I don't need to keep that a secret uh resident called me and I'm up here today because if I don't put it on the agenda as a discussion item I can't ask the question which another council president did at one time I don't know who which turned out to be a disaster that we have residents that no longer came to our meeting so we ask the residents come to the meeting but then we treat them and we don't answer their questions like we just had a resident that came here I didn't hear anybody talk about the Broadband that he brought up or maybe we just missed that but that's why you don't do something like that now getting back to that at the last meeting right when I was told that I couldn't speak I couldn't speak for a reason because all of our comments were going to come at the end which if that was the rule that made sense except our council president spoke our ba spoke and Hank big Nell spoke yet a councilman who's elected couldn't speak and council president shut him down from speaking which you down was a courtesy it was a courtesy it's a game you're other people you should be here you eled you should be here can you stop my clock please can you stop my clock Marina it's a giant joke counc president I'm sorry in fact I'd like to get that 15 seconds back gonna have it council president order of the of the room Co please let him continue please continue so yes other people could speak but the council person couldn't speak and that's what I thought was wrong then we came to this meeting today and the resident spoke but we didn't wait till the end to give him answers so I have no clue what the direction on how you a how you handle this goes but it should be fair and it should be adhere to everybody Council people the administration everybody that we have and you're not doing that but let me instead of wasting this time this was for the resident the resident told me that they are against the soccer fields being turned over they say we're spending too much on sore and water they looked at our calendar and the calendar has a area for condos for garbage pickup or recyclable pickup but they were under the impression that condos don't get their pickup that they handle it privately so that's a question do we or do we not resolutions the way they're worded are tough for the public to understand and I think it was the one for the telephone company in particular that I seen doesn't mention anything about the telephone and the agenda but it does give it to us in the backup so for the resident to look at our agenda they can't discern exactly what we're approving so they'd like to see if we can fix that Planning and Zoning they would like to have the screens put back up on the wall so that when people come in to do their presentations they can be up there and people could see that uh Mutual aid grant I'm not sure we'll skip that one um council meeting oh this goes back to me um just so the public knows I got an invitation to go to all the council meetings for an entire year they asked me if I'm coming or not coming or maybe I'm coming council president I assume I'm coming to all of them so I don't know what that was about um how many minutes do I have left Marina okay I think I'll just use my six minutes at at next meeting um but that would be it thank you thank you all right so uh let me repeat as to why we do it this way uh most of the council members were able to get in their discussion items by Wednesday councilman Brer had trouble getting it in by Wednesday so we gave him the leniency to come in on Thursday to put it in his discussion items even then I guess he missed them and that's fair that can happen but you never emailed us that you had more and this is how you wanted to present yourself that is fine you can conduct this way that is okay as well please let me have my time now moving on to the discussion items none of these are something that you couldn't have emailed and we couldn't have discussed but that is fine okay but let's discuss it in public if you want to yes let me Contin no no I'm going to I still have time but you're not there you're sitting you're sitting down now I'll go back so like I explained to you at the beginning of the meeting a resident called me today I could show you when she called me I could give you that whole list of items that she gave me I'm sure the resident is sorry that she could not have looked at the agenda on Friday when it was published asked me the questions and then I could go back in time like this is some kind of time machine to Wednesday to put the the questions on the agenda so what you said made absolutely no sense the agenda comes out on a Friday sir if it comes out on on a Friday and the residents get it and then they ask me a question to ask at this body how am I supposed to do that two days prior one minute you can answer you have your minute sir well I'd like to know how you plan on doing it I will wait well you can wait you can wait and I'll just sit here because I'll tell you what I honestly like I said at the last meeting right I thought you were a bad council president I still think you're a bad council president the only reason why you want to do this is so you can get home to your family you never intended to think that you could get elected to put in the time that you have to put in and the residents suffer Al so that people can go home early not true because people can't sit here it's stop my time Marlene I got a Heckler so like where I go with it is rules are made for everybody and if you're not going to follow the rules and you're going to answer the public I'm actually going to answer the public and or cheap there if you order them you might arrest me but I'll go down that road I have no problem doing it trust me thank you thank you all right that's Richard brusher said council president is his time complete six minutes complete okay let me I don't know what the new rule will be next that he could let me he can object from here i' I've never seen this order in 30 years in 30 years let me just uh continue this I the resident asked a question so let me answer him you don't know what you've done job okay I I counc I have him removed if he can't point of order point of order let's just continue the meeting I understand this is something of novelty but we do need to answer the Bri uh resident Richard brusher so Mr Richard brusher a if a resident has a concern they could email the clerk and we could answer those questions they could come up here and ask those questions so we can answer them and in terms of what what you just said rules are made for everybody I think I was pretty clear as to the what rules are that we will follow and you obviously are not seem to follow it you did not give us the discussion items on Wednesday as asked you chose to do it Thursday even then I was lenient and put it on now there are might be you are right there might be something that happens between Wednesday and the reason Wednesday is not something I came up with on my own this is already in our rules this is in our ordinance I'm following the rules here fake law again let me speak fake law our attorney should answer that again because I was told by David that the laws the are fake you don't have the floor sir you don't have the floor sir I know let me just continue so there are rules that we have to follow I will ask for a recess please council president motion to recess may I have a second second recess uh do I have to take a roll call for this Rec we need to all right five minutes recess we'll be back so yeah so we have these fake laws in Edison where you cannot you cannot restrict an elected officials position any longer we couldn't do it let's start the meeting at 6:30 restarting the meeting at 6:33 need ation to rec uh anyone has all right I will honestly this is a much heated debate that I want to have and I'm more than willing to take this offline with councilman brush pressure but if he wants to continue uh we can continue here uh moving on I do want residents to speak so if anybody wants to come up and come on it Anthony deam 25 Wy I wait for councilman oh there he is councilman Coy councilman Co I I'll debate you anytime you want to debate on what you've done over the last 30 years honestly so we could talk offline we could do it right here all right the way you treat members of this public councilman coil is disrespectful all right whether you disagree with them is one thing but to go after them is is is terrible and any council member people that come here councilman coil who are concerned about issues and you continu continuously attack them it's it's it's terrible that's why this place is empty sometimes to be quite honest with you all right let me know the record in time you're talking about because you're just making false because anything you bring up is there's never have an IQ of four to not realize that councilman point of order councilman Coyle please let the residents finish give me a break and the time regarding the times of the meeting councilman president um I don't know how many meetings you've been to as a private citizen before you became a council member um but I've been I've been in Council meetings where sometimes these go four five 6 hours and thank God some of them did go that long um because that's sometimes how how long it takes for the issues to get out for members of the council to to discuss uh you know much heated uh uh debates over certain certain topics certain issues and I'm for the listen nobody wants him to be that long but if if if we have to be here for that long and we need information from a certain council person um we should be able to hear it uh I left I asked I asked the councel regarding the Train the the Train on on on Vineyard Road um last time and unfortunately I had to leave before I got the answer um and that's to me unacceptable um to to now make calls after the meeting to find out information um it shouldn't be that that way that we go to these meetings for this reason um and I do apologize before for calling out from the city council president as I shouldn't have done that um but uh regarding the uh the Train the con the Conrail train there on vender Road um just just just for for as a concerned resident my my issue is really more about the making the possible Trek across Vineyard Road ripping up Vineyard Road the traffic that it will cause um the uh the M of traffic gridlock it's already it's it's already terrible there uh to begin with um and I think the administration should keep an eye on this um I understand it's not their jurisdiction but I think it becomes their their jurisdiction or they have interest in it once it does cross uh um once if the plans do decide they do decide to cross ven your road um those trains do go behind these residence homes uh they already are dealing with a lot in terms of noise and um you know I I just like to see uh or I'm sure many of these residents want to have the feeling that that the administration will will have their back that if if if the plans do if they do decide to to to go across Vineyard that we're going to do everything we can to make sure that doesn't happen um and um I think that's that's that's what I know a lot of residents back there uh are looking for I don't speak for everybody but um I think it's something it's in the best interest of of the town and these residents uh to keep an eye on it at least thank you council president thank you U Jo Freeman come on quickly uh 41 um Main Street Edison New Jersey um about xinity and broadband and all that I wanted to where know where that's going and then secondly I just like to say you know you can't let your emotions get so involved in you that it becomes a thre man argument back and forth and then you just can't let one other person argue every time they want to scream out and not bang the hammer at them I mean in all fairness when council president uh apped was there when other person kept getting out of hand he he he he he stopped it he made it so that one person can't yell back and forth if there's no back and forth then it can't be no back and forth for anyone you have to do everything fairly because this is what the public is calling me that's what they're talking about and the public also told me the reason why they stopped coming was when I was vice president and you know who was president they had to wait till the end of the meeting to get an answer now if I'm coming and I'm 5 to 10 minutes in and I got to wait till 14 other people speak before I can get an answer that's what happened to this not the twoh hour or the 4 Hour none of that stuff the people were very very discouraged by them not being able to get an answer at that particular time it's not fair for people have to wait for 14 people because other people have other things to do so when they ask you a question you can please at least give them the answer it doesn't have to and I'm not telling you put all go go back and forth back and forth I'm not telling you that I'm saying but you can give them the courtesy of I don't know right now I'll get back to you but just give them the courtesy of answering that because with the information that um Mr Bass off said and asked about uh some of this stuff is missing and I I tell people all the time all the questions that somebody asked before you if you wait to the next person and next person there's no way you can answer them efficiently because let me tell you you can't do that because you have to think about it at the time that it's processed and the information that you receive and what happens is like it happened to me when I would come on my way to a counsil me they say I'm going tonight some of the older residents who don't come out at night because of their vision problems cataracts and other things they would call me at the last minute and say hey what are they doing about such and such what are they doing about this okay so that's still a problem too that people have vision problems they're not coming out you might see them in the summertime but they don't come out a lot in the winter because if you know it gets dark by like 4:30 5 o'clock but I'm just saying if somebody asked you a question at that time don't be rude to your other council members I believe that's a law too that's written down too so we gonna go by all laws let's go by all of them let's let like cherry pick the ones that we want you know even if you have descent you're supposed to politely disagree ask the lawyers that is that isn't that what you do you respectfully disagree with the other person isn't that what's done that's all I ask respectfully disagree with the person don't be going at don't go back and forth because it makes you look bad it doesn't make the person look bad because if your parents told you if you arguing outside with a fool and nobody knows who the fool is then thank you thank you anyone else from the public that wants to make a comment no okay uh motion to close the public portion motion to close public portion second all in favor I okay uh reports from all Council committees uh starting from my right councilman rusher I'll leave this for Council Vice president for a meeting we had two councilman Joe Coy and none council president council wice president okay we had the first subcommittee meeting to the animal shelter on January 16th from 12: to 1 pm unfortunately we could not do so in person because the weather was not good then so we did a zoom meeting although councilman Brasher did get over there having not gotten the men the MEO that we were doing it but via Zoom um um but I'm glad you did get over there um so uh just to start with the Haley's harp event on January 13th with the uh this was an adoption event the dogs were not dogs were not there cats were not there there was a lot of activity apparently a lot of people interested and Haley's donated uh about $1,000 to the shelter and proceeds so that was a a good thing uh speaking of events there are several coming up that will be proceeds that go to the animal shelter on January 30th next Tuesday from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 P.M it's Taco Tuesday at the Edison TexMex Deli on 2024 Woodbridge Avenue on uh February 10th at between 12: and 4:00 p.m. on 13 North 4th Avenue in Highland Park it's pooches at penos and the 24th of February from 6 I think doors open open at 6:30 p.m. St Matthew's Church it's lucky paw Bingo night it's $5 per family and all proceeds go to the shelter so those are upcoming events for the shelter we discussed uh what kinds of things are working well what what's not working well and there are pro so the there are things that are going on that are good the isolation room is now being rehabbed with stainless steel cages but that's that's a half finished project there are the cameras I believe have been delivered for the shelter but need to be they need to be installed and apparently DPW needs to have three consecutive 50 degree days in order to do that um there are a number of jobs that have men have finished and part of the problem that Dr fedon the veterinarian had discussed was that the a the access to medication has been very very slow and in fact she's had to pay out of pocket for some of the medications and vaccinations and also get some directly from little silver where she's veterinarian um there's something going on with the purchase with purchasing and some issues with regard to getting the right paperwork in um we did find out we can get emergency we can get an emergency purchasing order if needed uh cement needs to be sealed there's uh the staff needs to be hired there interviewing for volun they're interviewing for volunteers at this point uh they are also looking at a fostering program and a euthanasia protocol the uh budget for 2024 vendors and uh the vendors and uh the the various needs uh requests for uh purchases um we're looking to establish relationships with other shelters and we need council's support with the vers vers versus social media um to get some positive public relations for what's going on with the shelter there are a lot of good things that are happening um so the next meeting will be February 13th at 12 noon and that's a report on the animal shelter um we met for the public Advocate committee last Thursday I believe it was and we're at this point where we are going to be at some point soon I hope we're going to be resubmitting an introduction for the ordinance um the the question at this point is I actually had saved this for discussion items but the question is if we cannot get the support for the public Advocate what is the protocol for getting it on the ballot for a referendum and I would turn that to you uh Mr attorney uh I did do a memo to you um it wasn't finished until earlier today uh so it might not have gotten to you yet but it does lay out the procedure which is essentially um that it's got to be done by petition U There are rules and procedures in the charter uh that essentially set the numbers the timelines all of that um for how that petition needs to be signed how many people need to sign it when it needs to be submitted to the clerk how it needs to be certified uh what the time period is for certification and then presentation to the council so that the council could then uh move to put it on the ballot after it's been properly certified um so it is a it is a fairly complicated procedure um in that it's got a lot of moving parts and a lot of strict deadlines that need to be adhered to uh in order to do it that way and then it would be uh voted on um by by the voters of the township if that's what they sought to do um so that that's the the the whole thing is I think maybe four or five pages um laying out what the initiative and referendum processes are what they're designed to do and how they're done so you should have that if you don't have it now just forward it okay uh council president Cas you just forwarded it to you so all right thank thank you um yes I understand there are a lot of permutations and combinations of this having to do with and I believe it's Mr bassoff who's done his uh his homework on this permutations and commutation uh and combinations such as um whether or not the council if how many petition signatures are needed with Council approval to put it on the ballot or without Council approval to put it on the ballot is that correct that there are different standards for for that and if it's a special election vers special election versus on a regular November election well the special election would be depending on when it's actually submitted to the council and how much time before the regular there is if there's more than I think it's 90 days before the next regular election then I believe that it has to be done by special election um from what I recall I don't know that there's a difference in the number of signatures necessary based on whether or not the council approves of it that I didn't see that in the charter anywhere if there's something else in the ordinances maybe that that covers that but from what my understanding is that it's uh 15% of the registered voters uh in the township that need to sign it okay all right well to that I would say to those of you out there in the community who have been so for reforms of the animal shelter I mean I'm sorry of the um you know for the public Advocate the public Advocate if we are going to need a lot of petition signatures we're going to need everyone to put their money where their mouth is and understand that we're going to need people to walk and go door too to get these signatures because it's uh I think the number was somewhere between uh 1,500 to 20 something hundred I don't remember councilman brusher do you remember the numbers for that at all it it goes by the last election um I I believe it's going to be somewhere around 2500 okay is where it should be unless you're going to do the other election the like you know the off number which is 15% okay all right it means a lot of signatures so for those of you who are really really down for the public Advocate we're going to need your help in order to make that happen if this has to go to the ballot we'd love to get this done here in Council and get that taken care of and have that approved as an ordinance but if it means that we want to put this on the ballot because that's not happening here we're going to need boots on the ground so just putting that out there those are my reports council president thank you thank you vice president uh councilman AJ P none at this time sir councilman poter thank you council president uh the Smart City advisory committee is going to be meeting on Thursday uh the 25th the deer population subcommittee is going to be meeting on January 31st here at council chambers uh the historic preservation commission is currently figuring out its schedule for 2024 and uh tying in with the billboard subcommittee I'll wait until discussion items on on that item thank you sir and none for me moving on to point of light any council member with point of light yes council president CC Vice President we had a week ago Saturday Martin Luther King day and again it was a wonderful turnout that uh that we had and some terrific artwork that was submitted by the students and they they grouped them by various group grades but terrific artwork and essays and it was a it was a great event we had some representatives from the NAACP and it was it was very moving some wonderful dance some number some some really wonderful expressive dance numbers that were done so that was another successful day in celebrating the life of Dr Martin Luther King happy to welcome back Joyce fcha director of recreation we had a meeting with her last week and and it's really nice to see her back and uh I hope her health continues to to be well finally uh on another sad note but but putting it in points of light because he was such a point of light was the passing the de the really very very sad passing of retired Sergeant Joe luistro and I think it's a testimony to how beloved this man was because there was a nixel alert earlier about wooding Avenue it's uh his the viewing is at boand funeral home and talking about today and tomorrow for the viewings that wooding Avenue is going to be very crowded during those hours so I think that's a testament to just how beloved he was I know Joe was uh was really a terrific guy this is a guy who was so involved with the community and that even after he was diagnosed with ALS he run he ran for counsel he still wanted to help out he still wanted to be very much involved with the community and I just I I just um I was so sadden to get the news of his passing so um just want to a shout out to his family and all of his many many friends in the community and uh hoping that he rests in peace thank you council president thank you vice president any other council members seeing n president I just want to comment on uh sergeant liso and the passing and I do apologize for his family and um what a good person he certainly LED his town in a better place and in the police department and it was wonderful to meet him and it said I had just received a phone call from about six days ago uh energetic and um asking questions about town um residents so very sorry to hear this thank you counil McCoy seeing none moving on to from business from the business administ ation point a to d any questions or comments from the council council president councilman brusher uh when I when I spoke before at the podium um here was the one that got me was the C resolution awarding contract purchase order uh for Via it it when you go into the backup then you see that it's for the telephones you know and and that makes it pretty good but I don't know that the residents see what we see and and that's where I think the question came in okay um on a I was um I'm estatic actually on a I I know that before I spoke the resident said that they didn't like it but but I myself actually am a big fan of of this this happens to be a organization I see um and they want grass and it it's it's enlightening to know that um you know we have adults and parents and and children here that realize the benefits of grass over plastic that's laid on top of concrete just about um professional players are all switching out of the whole Turf thing um and it it was just nice to see that we're doing grass I mean I don't think middle sex county is doing grass so at least here in Edison you know we do take grass and trees serious I guess um that would be it council president thank you councilman brusher any other council member okay uh Sonia for the who comes up with the language for these I mean it's a it's a combination of Works between uh Clerk's Office attorneys um it's it it becomes more of a legal term um if there was a point of clarification I think in the resolution what what what specific language is not clear I guess is my question I guess for C some residents had concern that they didn't know that it was about telephone so if there is something that we can make it more clear sure like referencing our telephone system like Town related sure something more simpler okay sure um Lally the same thing with telephone yeah okay and moving forward to eight from Department of Finance a through J any questions or comments council president councilman brusher um did a business admin Mr I have a question on on dispersements how should I ask my questions about dispersements to you like we have a lot of pages right Cho by a page number or do you want me to go by like 24- 00118 I mean I would just first ask the questions to see what exactly it's referring to so whatever gets you the most clear well that's what I'm saying I mean to the business administrator what's the easiest way for me to get you there which which one of these numbers on each line quite frankly I think the page number would probably be more precise because it the way it's broken down so if you could reference the page number okay um and typically there there's a um budget line so for example if I were to say you were to say to me Sonia page two um under the operating supplies General something to that effect if you could just reference page number and then the budget and then the budget the budget usually What U so you'll if you look at the page to now the page correct right so up top where you have all of the fields the way read this is that it says account description so the account is the 3- 9-55 and then below it it's a PO ID vendor number and then there's an item description so that's the way you read each line so um if you want to just give me the page number and the budget okay no I'll make that up you know it was I in in looking through it I see that there were certain things we had um like where we went to Home Depot and we bought something for $287 cents right which is great because we get to see what you bought um but then we have legal bills like $20,000 you know what I mean so some items are are broken out and some aren't really and um next meeting I'll refer to those so that we can get a further breakdown to them so with the legal bills I think we've um talked a little bit about this that if there were legal bills that you would like to look at you can schedule and or pop into our office quite frankly anytime during the day and look at the legal bills um because it may take some time for legal to redact depending if they're Personnel related but if you come into my office make an appointment or just drop in um during during the work hours we'd be glad to show you those specific uh legal bills yeah no it's not just legal okay um it's right some line items are are lumped right and some are like like the one there's a purchase order in here for Lowe's but there there's 47 items and the items are $2.75 $8.95 right so I see that's that's really broken down so we have the ability to do that um it's the other items that I'll I'll bring up and I'll question I just want to know how to refer to that in the future and um then I'll have them as part of my questions um that would be it for a okay the bond ordinance to provide for the township wide water meter replacement right I asked if that if those meters were Township wide actually and we said yes and the question is why are we putting water meters in in Middle sex water so just to clarify that we wouldn't be putting meters in Middle sex water only the town meters that are owned by the town okay well my question was I believe it was a typo because it says Bond ordinance provided for the township wide water meters so the township make is made up of North and South right we have Township water and we have middle sex water but the the water would be the all the water no these are for the meters that we own these are just for Middle sex water okay uh uh one question I don't know if I seen something incorrectly but on the tax appeals is is there one that we're actually getting more or or we reassess higher than did I actually see one council president if um Miss am menz may come up yeah thank you there is one that's an increase and it's an apartment complex okay I I you know it was I've never seen one that went up and I and I looked and I I put a couple before you I have put a couple before you but in that grand scheme of that long memo there was one increase yes I appreciate it thank you thank you that would be a council president okay any other council members with questions Council pres councilman Patel a quick question through council person to Sonia on The Bard Bond ordinance 8 and 8.8 million this is just for the water meters or this includes many more things this is for d uh so this is for D it's just for water meters or this is more than water meter because this amount seems to be way high for the number of water meters it's all of the work that goes with the installation of the water meters I can certainly have a breakdown for you before Wednesday absolutely thank you and my other questions definitely on the tax appeals so if you don't mind very few and simple good to see that you know we have we are closing the Gap with the number of tax appeals and every time it comes on the agenda I do ask the question so my question is do we have anything outstanding prior to 2020 there may be a few I would have to come back to with regards to how many that are still 2018 2019 but the majority of those have been settled okay and the reason I'm asking is is there because we are settling many of those with the trying to catch up and trying to come close to 2023 2024 if there is a possibility of settling those as well because those are 2018 17 those very outstanding but if you can come back with the number and approximate dollar amount for the tax bill that would be helpful as you know um those that are dated back are normally withdrawn okay um with our settlement negotiations but I will provide the administration with an update perfect any anyone is active like other than withdrawn if anything is outstanding 17 through 2020 that would be helpful okay and good job on settling all these tax appeals you know I did look at and as my Council colleagues said one did ticked up so that's a good thing and I do understand the hotel business we all know about the covid the businesses went down and of course with their occupancy rate you know they would come back but hopefully this is the last round they are coming back thank you you and good job done thank you Council pres thank you councilman Patel any other council members with questions no seeing none moving on to nine from the Department of Health a any me council members with questions or comments council president councilman Brer the um this is for the veterinary services yes right yes we in the past what have we used for the veterinary services was was that like 150 ,000 or so so it was always 150,000 not to exceed um when we put out the um rfps these are the three vendors that came back which was Garden State Island and the traveling vet so you so we're awarding like 150 to each one of them yes but technically we're probably going to be about the same 150 right um more or less the I know there was a question with regard to Piscataway if that may affect this um we're hoping that with not having Piscataway which quite frankly was about a third of our shortfall in the report I I supplied to everybody I'm hoping that that number would come in less now when we approve this right you're in in essence we're going to only spend 150,000 out of the 450 but what what gets shown in our budget so as I'd mentioned to everyone we did not have an animal shelter budget per se in the 2024 uh fiscal year we have a actual budget I did follow up with a report to everybody with all of the expenses and revenues from the animal shelter um that came out of the trust account so that gave you more of a better picture of our our expenses and revenue uh but going forward there there will be a separate budget for the animal shelter for 2024 so um having said that hopefully in March we'll introduce one and we'll have that animal shelter to you no but I I want to I I guess my question is we're anticipating spending 150,000 not 450 because we're going to award it to three different people in the budget do we show 150 or do we show the 450 450 okay um that was it thank you council president thank you council member Brasher any other council member with questions seeing none moving to number 10 from the Department of Law A and B any council members with comments or questions council president Council vice president B about the ordinance amending chapter 2 Administration by creating a subsection Cultural Arts commission very brief comment I'm thrilled thank you thank you vice president any other members for the comment just a quick question council president we have various members appointed on the culture art committee will they carry forward or will they be appointed as a part of commission or this is going to be brand new appointment I believe I would want to carry them forward I think that would be the plan uh I would leave it to council vice president to speak to I'm the what was the question again is we had the culture arts Committee in pass right so we have already Bo members appointed to that committee will those members continue as a part of commission I would think so now they're going to be divided up into these terms of I think three year um uh is it two years I think there's several different terms right they're all the same terms but they're staggered Stagg so with the first appointment um it's a one year and then a two year and a three year so that they are staggered appointments so you never lose the entire committee all at once uh my understanding is that the intention is to carry forward those appointments uh from the the committee to the commission uh but again that'll depend on how the appointments work who's capable of doing so who wants to do so who wants to be part of the commission correct and then there will be alternates there will be two alternates to the commission that's thank you thank you legal I had a question for you Mike uh for this did we change it to nine members uh or do we do that now I need to make we need to to make two changes one uh rather than citizen it which the the implication there uh totally understandable uh would need to be a resident of Edison Township M uh the other one would be either nine or 11 uh so that there's an odd number I don't know how many are on the committee right now but I know that um I know that the intention was not to bump anyone off so if there's currently 10 members on the committee um okay uh the we could always do an 11 member uh commission um and then go from there and if it has to be Whittle down if you know that there's already eight you do a nine member commission um as well we do that now or do we wait they'll do it before we introduce it Wednesday right I'll have to do it between now and Wednesday Wednesday so I just need some guidance on whether you want to do nine or 11 um with those two minor changes that'll take me you know 15 minutes to make sure everything lines up right this format properly I'll discuss that with the committee thank you all right moving forward uh number 11 from the Department of planning and Engineering A and B any questions or comments Council B councilman Patel on a uh question to Administration Sonia this a is is a good thing you know because that's the strip that I'm complaining about striping uh that this signal but my question is uh this Improvement $614,000 I believe you know chunk of the money uh is coming from the grant uh and only probably odd $50,000 Township will be investing is there a reason that we picked up this particular intersection because we have so many intersections in the town I keep bringing up like raway and Inman we have U you know e boulevards uh we have the Brotherhood and Hardley you know we have many I would say sensitive areas so what is the protocol you know how we can prioritize those and we can get the grant money so that you know we can start moving faster in that direction so the uh the reason this was identified as a area um for um to be addressed was because it's the mapping for the low and moderate income that that particular reason is why this intersection um is being addressed we' done the roads the sidewalks and now we're moving on to the push buttons and that's exactly what this is so is uh part of the Truman uh project okay um so that's typically how we would identify and how we would get funding essentially was um to to do these areas thank you thank you Council thank you councilman Patel any other council members with comments or questions uh seeing none moving to number 12 from the Department of Public Works a any questions or comments council president councilman Coy I just want to coment on the great job that Public Works been doing and I know there lose a lot of salt it's necessary and I think our streets look great thank you thank you coun Coyle any other questions or comment all right seeing none moving to 13 from from the Department of Water and Sewer a any questions or comments uh seeing none moving to 14 from the chief of fce A and B any questions or comments council president Council M bran B um well I I got the answer for a I guess and I mean it seems like most of that stuff we do have um but you know I don't know maybe if they need more like we just authorize the I I think purchase of a command trailer or something anyway right but the county hasn't so I mean I I guess just for us to sign up it's not a bad thing but when I go to B what is this enrollment in the one33 program for 2024 what is that so the 1033 program it's essentially um it's a military program where we could essentially get those items for at a cost of nothing nothing so whatever the um military uses computers there's a list of different vehicles um any equipment that they have they go through like an auction cycle an auction cycle if you will or a a picking if you will and the reason those specific items are not in there like a Dell or or a certain vehicle is not on there is because the the list changes but the kinds of items non-military items are listed um on the resolution so um you those are really great it's a really great program I know this this um police department has used it um I've used it in the past in other municipalities and uh for example uh command vehicles and vehicles used for um storms um that are useful for emergency purposes uh could be boats could be you know some of the vehicles you see out there tank uh I won't say maybe not not non-military if you will uh but are useful for emergency purposes well I think we have it's not a tank but it's got a Hummer or something like that yeah it's got some kind of big wheels that can go under the water or something like that um okay that would be it thank you thank you councilman Brer council president councilman pointer uh just to make a comment on the 1033 program and I know son you just mentioned it but I just want to reemphasize they are not mil military grade equipment so if there's vehicles or anything that that is um auctioned off or given away they modify so any weapons any military so I don't want people to think we're militarizing our police here these are demilitarized items okay thank you sir thank you for that information councilman pointer moving to number 15 from the chief of fire a any questions or comments council president Council M bression yes this was that this was the actually the item when we were talking about um approving a portion of the budget right this is for the volunteer uh first aid right so we approved it but we didn't approve it for 105 like we approved was it the 12% of the budget or something moving forward at the last meeting um yeah I'm not too sure about that um th this is a contribution that we make and it's by Statute so um I think I've forward that information over to everyone so I I'm not sure no I the last meeting we approved a portion of the budget um 10% 12% oh so you're talking about you mean the temporary budget temporary budget appropriation right and in there we only had like uh whatever that percentage of of this 105,000 that's what I was asking at that last meeting because I know that we don't pay them like we give them 105 we don't give them 10,000 and then 10,000 you know then so is this for this year or last year this is last year this is 2023 oh okay all right so we already have that all appropriate and we just give that to them at the beginning of the following year then or the last quarter so um usually the last quarter yes okay thank you CC yeah just want to ask you a quick question on that is this going to Edison EMS because they change the name from R return Valley to Edison emergency yes yes it is it's it's it's a combined I believe there was one now there was a total of three and other's just the one and they um operate in conjunction with what we currently have through JFK so as long as it goes to Edison Emergency Medical Service yes sir thank you any other questions okay councilman uh moving on to number 16 from council member of the planning board councilman pointer thank you uh council president the next meeting is slated for uh next Monday the 29th here at council chambers at 7 pm thank you sir thank you moving on to unfinished business ordinance for further consideration public hearing and final adoption okay uh starting with the ordinance 2202 any questions or comments seeing none moving to ordinance 2203 any questions or comments seeing none ordinance 2204 any questions or comments all right moving on to discussion items I will start with councilman brusher yes we um I I sent Sonia some um some Paving things and I got I got your response that we're going to do it in the spring um does that get who checks that is that engineering or is because I know we have different departments that check different things but who would be doing that is that engineering so it could it could be both in the pictures that You' sent me um I would typically send out DPW there too because it may be something more immediate however if it's in the road Improvement um overall project I would probably have engineering address that um so it it depends I I'd have both I'd rather um be safe than sorry and have and we work we all work together so um okay um and and just for the administration when they were talking about the train you know the thing that came up is and and I I asked Hank if he could um you know reach out to the the train people um just so that we were proactive and we do things like like I talked to him and he was was going to put a Crossing in um but I asked him if he can put a silent Crossing in you know if we don't ask for that up front they go in they put something in and then they they B because now they have to tear it out you know to to give us something a little different the community power program where are we with that we passed something about having green power right but I don't think we signed anyone up I believe the program you're referring to was the energy aggregation program so um I believe um uh councilman batil also asked that question so what we did last year was met with the firm um and right now uh it there no action at this moment okay so we're not so the Township's not using we're not using any green energy or anything here I'd have to look at the ordinance exactly what you're referring to with the green energy okay yeah if you could look that up it it was an ordinance I I think it was Charlie crabville came and asked us to pass an ordinance um so that all residents would get their power from Green energy unless they want it to opt out and that was passed I guess like two years ago so it should be implemented so I'm looking at the uh get an update on that then if I can get an update on Floyd Street I I see that we don't have anything yet but again if I can get an update on it because um where we are in the process you know any drawings that somebody might produce or paperwork if if they could just send it to me an email um just so I know someone's working on it that was a street by JP Stevens with the sidewalk and I asked about the allergy ordinance and I was told that everybody's in compliance in Edison so when I go to a resident and it's not in compliance as per our ordinance who do I bring that to that would be with the health department with one of our inspector so they can go out to the restaurant that particular establishment to make sure that they are in compliance well I I guess my my question to you is I technically I should bring it to you right you certainly can yes and and then this allergy ordinance has been on the books now for like 3 years so if that restaurant was inspected three four times in the last three years four years um there should be a record of non-compliance right so if I find a restaurant that doesn't have it then somebody that went out and did an inspection didn't do it or you would get to the bottom of that for me sure if you just let me know what the establishment is I'd look into it okay I I'll I'll do that um that would be a council pres thank you councilman rusher I will jump to councilman pointer thank you uh uh council president um I'm going to hold off on the tree items I had uh several conversations earlier today with the administration on some of the items I was going to bring up um I kind of need to take a deeper dive so for the moment I'm going to hold off on those uh comments in regards to the uh uh billboard ordinance uh I got an update from Mr B Nell today we had submitted a draft ordinance um primary L dealing with the design standards for Billboards now there are certain First Amendment right aspects to Billboards which is why this is taken a little bit of longer to get to where we're at today uh we did receive comment back from Mr Bell so combining with the billboard subcommittee uh I guess the next action steps would be for us to set up a meeting which I'll send out tonight establish that review the ordinance make sure that the subcommittee is okay with with all the design standards that were uh suggested and if there's um any other items of consideration you know hopefully address it at that point if not hopefully we'll have ordinance for introduction I would hope by the end of first quarter that sounds good thank you councilman pointer thank you council president uh councilman Patel if you don't mind I'll take councilman Harris Council vice president okay um just a few we scratched off the list the one about the referendum for public Advocate um I had gotten a question from a resident about Oprah requests being delayed and uh i' discussed this and the answer that I've gotten is that um sensitive requests or search for documents require extensions for further review um in 2022 there were a total of 4953 oer requests that were that were granted um 3181 were General and 1772 were to the police in 2023 there were 207 there were 4714 that were processed 2751 in general and 1963 to police um the only grounds for denial of an Oprah request are if they are not uh part of the government record um so that answer I got I another Resident asked how much did the township pay for the St in the school building and the answer was a dollar back in 1982 did we say was a dollar2 okay um then my question is getting back to the splash park and given that water rates are increasing um I wanted to know I had asked this question I think a year or so ago about is there any possibility of building this Splash part with the water that can be either recycled that can be recycled and may be filtered so so that we're not just wasting water where it's not literally just going down the drain and I wondered are there any possibilities for such a system to be installed Sonia so we'd explored that option early on um but I believe the mechanics of it um actually would cost more but I will get you the answer exactly um how we went into the non- recycling option how you went to the non-recycling option of the water as to as to why we did that yeah I think it's I think it's a shame I I just I hate to see all this water and therefore money going down the drain that way literally so um boy if there's a way that that can be done if not now at some later point I sure would like to see that and I think a lot of residents would too thank you thank you Council vice president councilman Patel thank you council president uh to council present to administrator Miss Sonia thank you for providing the updated list I think you know half of them are sorted out at this point in time based on the responses I received however I have a request that if you can have someone uh work with me from Traffic Unit so in one shot I can explain the issues on the Maplewood emoy the speed signs on o Road the extra signs on extra speed sign on the uh gr Avenue uh Brotherhood the uh the sign uh new Bruns week and talme and these are all related with traffic it will be more helpful if I can work with someone and maybe you know have a tour to explain in one shot so we can get off those things sure I have the deputy chief here and we'll set someone up to contact you perfect thank you the other couple of L atoms are uh I don't know how this is going to work the uh water problem on the Bara Avenue I saw your response on the it's a high water table area but looks like there is no drainage system in that neighborhood maybe engineering has to really go there and look at what exact the situation is and probably report back to you and you can let me know sure uh and the rest of the things I now wait I know Glendale is you know we had uh you know that's going in uh I don't know it's a planning or zoning uh tal Mage Road property purchase if you can help me to understand where we stand on that sure I can certainly provide an answer to you so uh this Administration sent a letter to the Board of Education we're waiting for a reply okay thank in terms of their interest sounds good uh and the the clarification that you as on the number of streets they were reopened this was very specific expect to BU utility company not by Edison water or anyone again when I say utility is more of a psag middle six water company or any of those entities which are not tied to Edison like the township itself that's it thank you Council thank you councilman p as for myself U I wanted to update on the latch key program Sonia if you can give us the numbers as to one of the question I had is what's the neighborhood townships are doing and how much they're charging sure um so we're still working on that on that however um I know that having done some research um our program is probably nearly nearly a quarter of what some of our neighboring towns are charging for programming um I will get that to you before Wednesday as far as the number goes and what some of the neighboring towns are charging okay that sounds good uh the question on scooter way I know this is something that open space is really interested in I just wanted to ask is there a possibility of getting the scooter way next to the soccer field I think we were in discussions with then our Public Works director and that's something that we can explore as we're doing the modifications to the soccer fields okay uh as for the sidewalk I know we discussed last time that we were looking for the 2005 study do we have that um I believe I'm still trying to obtain that one there okay for you so when can we get that by Wednesday if possible and I think website uh are we going I think we already discussed it and then the open space trust fund I'm not sure if I got the numbers uh from Ken uh I don't recall seeing them the open space updated you wanted the updated funds yes um but just to go back on the website so what's before the council for consideration is the um is rejecting the bids because we are uh modifying the specifications to include some mobilization for an app um and some Securities on the back end okay so I appreciate your input on that as well I'm glad I'm glad that the mobile optimization was one of the key features that I wanted and as well as the interactive calendar uh which ideally would link let's say for the council meeting it would link the videos and the files and the agenda right on the calendar so hopefully you don't have to go through various buttons and clicks and to figure out where exactly everything is so hopefully that will make it easier for residents that are interested in following along to follow along to the boards and the council and uh that will be it I'll take a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second um and do all in favor hi hi all right this meeting is adjourned how's