##VIDEO ID:F03C50y_r1I## e e e e huh you feel right no no no no this is the new he changed the format it's just going to give you new business like I don't know why he has in both places yes I'm just going it's a new format I don't know what they want you talk about canel the second page third page we should cancel no because that's where that's where I take votes there's no votes taken in the work session sorry okay that's I thought was confusing too he got the new business at the beginning of usually Department I think we're ready all right starting the combined meeting of September 9th to order at 6:09 p.m. Madam uh please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher here council member Coy council member Harris here council member Vel here council member ptil here council member pointer pres council member schmell here all right Madam clerk please read the adequate notice adequate notice of this meeting is required by the open public meeting Act of 1975 has been provided by the an notice sent to the home news tribute Star Ledger Sentinel Desi talk on December 12th 2023 and posted main lobby misso complex on that same date thank you madam clerk okay yes for me welcome to another combined meeting a brief reminder as we begin when a speaker is recognized it is their time to share and our time to listen if you just disagree with their Viewpoint please wait until you are recognized to share your perspective and we will afford you the same courtesy of being heard it is if this respectful process is not followed I will be compelled to issue a warning with a G and should any further disruption occur you may be asked to leave so we can maintain order and continue with the township Affairs efficiently now I would like to highlight a few agenda items as we began today uh first is the ordinance 2232 this will help our make our applications be digital and when we submit for uh when the applicant submit for review making it less likely to be lost in the future for those who have been following this issue it is the same ordinance where we were concerned with privacy last time which has been addressed with this update ordinance 2233 this ordinance will enable us to modernize our app 2233 uh okay ordinance 2233 is hold on I'm lost in my directions uh this is uh the update to the speaking uh process and where we are removing the rebuttals and decreasing the minutes from 6 to four uh this I believe is a pragmatic approach but we will discuss further today in resolution 536 I would like to emphasize that we will be receiving nearly $700,000 from the Community Development block grant express my gratitude to the administration for diligently pursuing opportunities for additional funding in resolution 562 I would like to inform the residents that we are further enhancing their Safety and Security by providing our police officers with 14 toughbooks uh Panasonic tobooks ensuring that they have the essential tools necessary uh to perform their duties uh with greater efficiency and Effectiveness as they patol our streets uh one of the adjustments I would like to highlight in today's process is that I'll be restating residents questions when they ask so that everyone can be aware of that you know I captured the intent properly and it was understood accurately time I would like to yield the floor to our esteemed Council vice president who will share a remarkable story about a purple heart thank you council president um I normally would do this during uh during the uh points of light but because that's later in the meeting and I wanted to be as a courtesy to the person that I'm recognizing here um I wanted to do this on the early end so some of you might be familiar with the story of a returned Purple Heart to one of our residents um and that is Margarita Manhart you go by Marga right okay pairs nicely with Margo I like it um and um Miss Manhart was the recipient several weeks ago of a Purple Heart Medal that had actually been earned by her uncle and her uncle was uh was uh George Arthur serero and he had sustained a very devastating injury during World War II I believe in 1945 and um he had gotten a purple heart for it he passed away in 1993 at the age of 75 I think it was and um so the Purple Heart had stayed in the in the family but then got lost somewhere along the way well lo and behold someone at a flea market in Texas finds this purple heart and she buys it which is a wonderful thing to do and then uh she contacted the bear with me for a moment um it's uh what's the name of the purple heart United um and so Purple Heart United was able to then contact Margarita Manhart and was able to bring the Purple Heart back to her and it's really just a remarkable story and I thought I would give Marg a chance to first of all show the presentation case with the Purple Heart in it and tell a little bit about her uncle so Mara could you come to the to the podium and tell us more good evening all so this is the amazing plaque that was awarded to me on the 20th was given to me on the 20th of August um picture and that's his army picture his service Army I'm sorry the speakers into the microphone yeah so it's easier for the yes I'm so sorry is this on yes uh Uncle George was in an essential job and he was too old to be drafted for World War II but everyone else was serving and World War II time was very different from the time we live in now at any rate he enlisted enlisted in the Army and he was trained uh to be a turret gunner in a tank and was sent to Europe probably in January of 45 we believe it was there for two months on in March of 25 his tank was hit and he was the turret Gunner which is the top and he was the one most seriously injured he was hit in the head head and um had to have surgery was he was unconscious when he was pulled from the tank and had to had a long road back he could do nothing he could laugh that's what he could do when we saw him for the first time when he was brought home from Europe he could laugh he had to learn to walk and to talk and to socialize and to everything so he gave his uh his life through his service and the war ended two months later just in aside so this is a very big treat for us um I want to thank the woman Andrea who's a former a female Air Force person retired who found the medals at a flea market or such in Dallas Texas now we have no connection to Dallas Texas we're Jersey people and she knew of Zach and his mission which is to return lost medals to the families that's all he does he's an Army Major still active and his his is called Purple Hearts reunited and to reunite the purple hearts and all other medals with the families so he's the one who presented this to me uh Channel 2 News was there for the presentation the next day Channel 4 News came I was on channel 4 news and then the New York Post wrote an article and now I'm here so I've been invited to all of these things yeah so this is that's the story in brief I I thank you thank you so much Marga that's such a great great story and thank you for coming [Applause] here thank you for sharing with us um now I would like to declare Proclamation for direct support professional recognition week Madam clerk please read the proclamation whereas every day in New Jersey more than 30,000 people work as direct support professionals providing critical support and services to hundreds and thousands of children and adults with intellectual and developmentmental disabilities whereas direct support professionals has dedicated their professional lives and supporting serving and empowering individuals with de de developmental disabilities enabling them to live fulfilling lives in the community whereas direct support professionals provides a broad range of supports including helping with personal care participating in school work home religion recreational activities leaving important life skills and general day-to-day activities to Foster full citizenship whereas Direct professionals develop strong trusting relationships with individuals with intellective and development disabilities they're personally achieved for both the individuals and professionals The Arc middle sex County values the hard work of direct support professionals and recognizes the support of the administration governing bodies of Edison challeng for those invaluable workers who support individuals with intellectual developmental disabilities whereas the week of September 8th through September 14th has been designated direct support professionals Rec recognition week to honor and recognize the significant contributions that direct support professionals make to our communities now that be resolved that we claim Proclaim September 8th through the 14th as direct professional requisition recognition week thank you madam clerk uh moving on to number five just want to check is audience able to hear us clearly you okay oh I was soft I'm sorry I was on topic thank you okay uh moving on to number five unfinished business um ordinance for further consideration and public hearing and final adoption uh ordinance 2232 uh any CL comments or questions not open not here this is the work session okay um moving on to number six new business proposed ordinance for public hearing set down for Wednesday September 25th uh any uh for ordinance 2233 any questions or comments council president yes there this ordinance is uh at three places one here one under administrator and one under your regular session where you expect us to make the comment at this time or I would say this time actually what this time will be fine we can make comments on this do you make comments now y so this is the work session um this is where it shows up on the agenda um it appears that you want to do the comment on it now we can always skip over it in the from the business administrator of we all have our say um here during this portion right it's listed here it's listed under from the business administrator but then it's not listed again until the regular session meeting correct and during the regular session meeting it would be voted on this is technically a work session so we are doing a work session so if you have any questions or comments yes this will be the time all right Council vice president yes I have written this I don't usually write um my comments but this this I needed to write because I had a lot of them the two-word headline to describe my feelings about this ordinance is absolutely outrageous it seems more than coincidental that this ordinance has come up in the wake of the 826 and 828 Council meetings when council president had some issues with several resident speakers I was on vacation for those meetings but I watched them on YouTube upon my return my position on this ordinance change has not shifted since it was first discussed two years ago I'm told that part of the rationale behind this change is it that it will help cut back the length of Council meetings but who is the real beneficiary of that change I suspect that this is more for the sake of council members than it is for the public who have the option of leaving the meeting whenever they want and can watch the rest of it on either Edison TV or YouTube I would remind my Council colleagues who are in favor of this ordinance change that we were elected to serve the best interests of the township of Edison and its residents and while I don't like long meetings any more than the rest of you I respect the needs of our constituents who very much value and want to keep the current ordinance and allow for the transparency they seek in my two and a half years on the council never once has a resident complained to me that the speaking time is too generous in my view the only problem with the six minutes lies in the way they are handled by the council president or other members of council who interrupt the speaker instead of just allowing them to speak their peace and then sit down yes some speakers can be provocative but as a saying goes you don't have to attend every argument you're invited to in short the residents who attend our meetings are watch them remotely deserve much more respect and consideration than this therefore I will emphatically be voting no on this ill-conceived ordinance thank [Applause] you uh anybody else would like to speak Council M bresser um question to the administration I I noticed it's under the administration was this the administration's idea I'm not sure why it's listed under ba it's um in for introduction so I just uh defer to the council president uh I wanted to introduce it you wanted to to introduce it okay so this is one of those laws where a council member has requested it correct yes okay because other laws we have no council has requested it um but with that said we tried this I guess a couple years ago um it it be became just like a a a silly thing at the time and the council at that time decided not to pass it and just to leave it um I've been fortunate enough to live in this town uh most of my my adult life I have seen many many Council presidents here um Bob deal who still works uh for us here in the administration um never would have proposed something like this you know the council used to believe that hearing from the public was important um I brought to everyone's attention that the way our Township is run is backward from any sort of governance um and what I mean by that is this body does not make the laws okay and and I'll go back into that in my public comments when I talk about the law for the renters where it wasn't a council member that made the rec recommendation if the administration decided that they wanted a new law their job would be to go to council president his job would be to form a committee for the committee to look into it and use the law firm to find other laws that are out there for us to go through and then for us to make recommendations back to the attorney for him to make a final draft but we didn't do that what happens here is that the mayor goes directly to the lawyer says I want a law cuz I got four Council people in my pocket he puts it and it gets passed as unfortunate as it is it's what happens and then on the flip side the public comes to a council meeting to say that our streets are not done right or they didn't pick my garbage up or or things of that nature where the council has no jurisdiction whatsoever over that okay that is strictly an Administration issue and and this has been happening for years and that's why I say the the government that we have here in Edison with the mayor and the council is functional we don't do the jobs that we're supposed to do by law um but you know again with that said I'm looking at like transparency where they don't want to hear what you have to say okay they don't want to give you the opportunity um we had a resident Ralph bchi that asked for a letter to be added to the agenda and he came back with the attorney saying um the council president doesn't have to add a letter in all my years here in Edison when a resident wanted to send a letter to be on the record cuz they weren't going to be here okay it was done and it was added into the record now the we didn't read it here publicly but it was added so this is another thing now that has changed okay and and it goes back to you know the transparency thing where I don't believe we have transparency I think we're looking to hide things what can be said in six minutes or four minutes you can make an argument that you could say it all in 30 seconds um the problem with that though is there's many residents I see here and I've seen you before and you guys have grave concerns and you're looking for answers and and I think everybody has a right to those answers okay and you guys are very respectful of that time okay I've watched people get up and they don't use their six minutes we answer their questions take up their minutes and then when they go to clarify something we don't allow I I don't even agree with that but that's a council president prerogative you know where where this is at the end of the day is taking away minutes from not from our residents that come all the time but we had a gentleman that came here and he was frustrated with sidewalks someone that we normally don't see and he would go on and he was telling us how inconvenient it is and everything else that we have here and and he's right but he's not as well versed as our residents that come here all the time so that gentleman probably used his six minutes and he needed that to articulate correctly you know what he was looking for this body or the administration to do and as an elected official um I sat on the board of education when there was a shooting um I forgot if it was up in Connecticut or Florida at the time and I had to go to two meetings where I sat at two meetings till past midnight where I had to hear every parent in our district come to those meetings and tell me that they wanted bulletproof glass and fence over and over and over again did anybody on the board of egg complain or did we just sit there and we listen to every resident that wanted to speak to me that's what an elected official does and I did that for no pay right now actually I get a paycheck and I thank the residents right nobody complains about it I thank you for it and for that paycheck I'm willing to sit here till 12:00 if I have to so I will be voting no um on this Ord this was flawed the first time we did it and to me this is flawed the second time when people say that Woodbridge only has four minutes and Carterette has five minutes and and and this and that you know I'll be honest with you Woodbridge John McCormack is not buying containers he could buy for 30,000 for 90,000 okay John McCormick isn't doing what we do here in Edison and what we do here in Edison as far as spending is wrong and the public has a right to speak about it so because of this and as an elected official that I believe I work for the public if you work for the public you're not going to take their minutes away if you don't work for the public and the public works for you you'll take their minutes so I'll be voting no thank you council president thank you Council anybody else councilman p in fact I had the same question that my Council colleague asked uh I don't know what's the problem with my mic uh this ordinances at the three places and I see particularly the under administrator so when I I had been in the position that you are in is this agenda approved by administrator Administration yes did you look that this ordinance is under Administration I didn't put it there I didn't understand but you accepted this as your agenda line I'm correct so it belongs to you yes council president might be taking the bullet on behalf of Mayor but if you approved this agenda you should have raised this question and said council president if you would like to introduce ordinance please put under the Clark the way my council colleag did for the CL claron ordinance and respectfully the clerk's office drafts the agenda we review the items the items is listed however it's placed that's not a choice by Administration but you approved the agenda right so you are not willing to I I approve the agenda no you you come the last and you cannot approve administrator's agenda Administration has to approve fin agenda does getov your your agenda is only under clerk by the way you you you own the agenda the line items are owned by individual department heads not by you you run the council meeting yes okay so it was a clerical Overlook on my side I understand what your point you're trying to make but I I understand I understand but again if s is saying this ordinance mayor has nothing to do with this I'm okay with that but you have to come out openly and say it is not administrator agenda and we are sorry we should have looked at it we we should take it out and put under the clerk so we should technically move this under the clerk or you should not have this agenda at all this line can we do that during work session will we remove s administrator along with now this is a new procedure the way the the um speak this is a new layout of the combined meeting that was that council president put forth um what I I apologize that I wasn't instructed I was so used to the making sure you it's always under the department I didn't know it wasn't under business administrator he failed to tell me so we oversight it so it's on here a couple times we will be removing it from the work session on C and under beef the other item because he's now formatted separately okay thank you so let's let's put this in discipline going forward the people out are confused who is trying to curtail the voice of people so let me put my comment here I have been on this counil this is my 10th year I been through midnight in the meeting how many residents if you look at they come and attend the meeting very handful four five 10 once in a while we'll have probably 200 300 as elected official our job is to listen to the residents if they have something to say we should listen and if there is anything that they are emotional about or passionate about the issue and if they cross that 6 minute you can give a courtesy warning and you let them speak again if I'm there yes we need to apply the law uniformly across the board but there is there is a humanity and there is a courtesy that's the first thing second thing is I don't know why why 6 minutes and why four minutes we had this debate in the past uh if council president if your whole intent is to shorten the meeting and if you think that you have the votes on this Das to pass or approve I don't think we need to meet in this Council chamber and waste taxpayers time and our time we should go upstairs and just approve the council agenda it's my fair ask to you if at all you think that this there is a democracy that exist in this town and let people wise their concern let's be fair I would say that not six minutes give them eight minutes I I won't be supporting this ORD thank you thank you councilman P anybody else uh council president councilman app um I'll just make a a few brief comments um it is my belief that anyone that wishes to speak at the podium is able to express themselves in four minutes in the same manner as six minutes in regards to communication with council members people that are not here right now communicating with me via email via phone by text um we often have people that ask for us to stay after if they have additional concerns which we often do so to have it phrase that your ability to communicate with council members I just fundamentally disagree with thank you Council president thank you Council Point Council M Shamu I um I welcome the public I think uh when the public comes here and speaks um a lot of points are brought to the table and and we learn a lot about uh what the public has to say and what goes on beyond our four walls um we just heard from from councilman Harris and she spoke for under two minutes uh we just heard from uh uh councilman brusher and he spoke for 5 minutes and 47 seconds he usually Speaks long but um we just heard from councilman Patel he spoke for 30 seconds on the subject and uh counciling pointer also spoke for about 30 seconds everybody should have the right to speak and speak their mind but I think uh you can make a point in four minutes uh I don't think the additional two minutes would allow you to make a a a a stronger case so uh that's why I would be supporting this four-minute ordinance thank you thank you counc m so I did think deeply on this and um I believe this is the most pragmatic approach to ensure that we gather more valuable feedback from residents while we also improve the overall efficiency of the government function this change is not being made in isolation but as part of a holistic effort to improve our processes uh if we can please please if I'm talking I would like to be heard thank you this change is not being made in isolation but as part of a holistic effort to improve our processes there are changes that you notice today like highlighting the few agenda items in the president's remark which you'll notice further when I'll be repeating the questions that the residents ask to ensure the correct intent is captured changes that are coming in the future we are introducing a shot clock system in this new system we will have a big time clock not unsimilar to the NBA this shoot sh uh new shot clock system will help reduce distraction by eliminating the need for Marina to verbally announce the one minute warning no one likes to having their thoughts disturb uh even if as delightful as morina shock clock system will help you increase your time by Saving Time it makes it unnecessary to ask how much time do I have left as the remaining time will be clearly visible helping everyone to manage their time effectively this system also improves accessibility particularly those those residents who have difficulty hearing ensuring that we serve all our residents better opponents of this ordinance present a false dilemma by assuming that the only way effectively to communicate concern is through six minutes of speaking time ignoring the possibility that residents can express their points clearly and concisely in for minutes additionally this belief operates under a fixed Pi policy suggesting that less time will inevitably reduce quality of discussion in reality as my other council members have pointed out people often make their key points early on and the extra time may lead to unnecessary repetition by reducing the time to 4 minutes we encourage more focused and efficient communication allowing for more voices to be heard without compromising the quality of the conversation this this approach ensures that everyone has a fair opportunity to participate while making meetings more productive again this is about getting more voices heard not less there are certain issues that may require more time and in-depth discussion but those matters are often better addressed outside of the council chamber a perfect example will be claraa Barton many council members including myself to engage in deeper more detailed conversation with Sue and octar and many other residents to truly explore the important aspect just today I had a in-depth conversation with resident on this particular issue it went on for 20 minutes and we did talk about it very thoroughly this chamber is simply not the venue for an extensive discussion as the format of these meetings does not accommodate that level of detail so I in return I ask a question to you why is six minutes considered the ideal speaking time why not 10 minutes why not 60 I hope the council does pass the introduction of it tonight U thank you council president am I able to speak again on this sure okay with all due respect I think every sing single one of the arguments you've made here are specious I really do um the uh the fact that these discussions can be taken offline absolutely they can but then it's not transparent to the public it's not transparent to the public who's watching or the people who the watching either remotely or or who are in this chamber and so so the the public cannot hear those offline comments um every single one of the other arguments that are being made by the proponents of this organ of this ordinance are with subjective presumptions attached to them uh that every that anyone can make a point within four minutes muel I appreciate that you timed all of us in terms of of how how much we had to say that's that's great except some people do need more time some people do need more time to collect their thoughts and I think they should be given the courtesy of having that time to do so so there's not one argument that's been made by either of the pro any of the proponents of this that would change my mind I I believe and I guess the other the other thing I want to find out is why now why is this coming up now after two years two years after we had discussed this and uh and didn't approve it why is this coming up now okay uh so again my question still being is that why is six minutes considered ideal and why not 10 minutes why not 60 Minutes to allow for could you please I'm sorry council president could you please answer my question as to why now I don't want to okay why now because uh as I am the President I was allowed to put up an ordinance and this is the ordinance I choose to to put up and I'm hoping that they pass it might not pass I am not sure but again I am hoping that it passes and that is why it's put up now and not earlier um now again going back my main question is this why six minutes considered ideal speaking time why not 10 and why not 60 and if we can get an answer to that I am happy to change my mind I I'm sorry I'm not hellbent on moving this along way it is if there is good answers I am willing to change my mind but I don't really think there is and this is the pragmatic approach that I believe the council should take all right Mr Council I just want to make one point here if you allow me to speak sure there as I said that there are only handful resident they do attend the council meeting they speak up here they bring their issues but there are thousands of people who are watching this council meeting and they do get the answer based on what this body is giving answer to those residents so it's a knowledge sharing it is not just some is coming here and not let not let them speak it's more about the you are to think about the other residents as well you know who are relying on these Council meetings and how they are conducted what questions have been asked what answers are given and if they have similar question their question is answered and that's an idea here you know to give more time to the residents I hear you loud and clear why 6 minutes F two decades we are using 6 minutes is working fine I don't know why we didn't increase it to 8 minutes or 10 minutes but there was never an ask and that's what I said that don't try to fix the thing that's not broken and that's the reason I'm not going to support this thank you thank you Council P anybody else council president Council can I just add one more remark possible um in previous ordinances one of the counterpoints as to why we should pass an ordinance is that don't let the perfect be the enemy of progress and that eventually ordinances can be amended right so if we find eventually that maybe the 4 minutes is too short we can always amend it to go back whether it be five six or the latter um but if the argument has been presented before for other ordinances that hey pass it because it can be amended then I would imagine that same concept would apply to this thank you council president thank you Council pointer council president question more procedural I guess at this point um later when we go to vote on this we're allowed to speak at it um at that time that's correct right yeah Council comments are are at that time also essentially think of it as though we would be coming back on Wednesday sorry essentially think of it as though we would be coming back on Wednesday night it'd be a right it's the new session starts um after the work session and Council comments are invited on before a vote okay yes so I just wanted because I have more comments but instead of us going around over here I'll wait through BL but just remember we will be removing it from the Department's discussion we had okay yes make a that okay uh anybody else okay moving on to ordinance uh 223 4 um an ordinance amending the anoy ab development plan by modifying several sections in the overly District pursuant to the provision uh any questions or comments Council prern coun question to our attorney have have you read the ordinance did you look at the ordinance have I read it yeah yeah do you think this ordinance will hold in the court I believe so yes no I don't believe so you need to be affirmative your attorney if you ask an attorney whether or not something will hold up in court you're never going to get a yes or no straight out um I believe that the ordinance will hold up in court uh I believe that is Well written I believe it addresses the concerns of the council and of the residents uh and I cannot find a flaw with it that doesn't mean that there isn't one um but that means that it has been thoroughly reviewed by the members of my firm we're confident in it and we believe that it is um um functional that is fully functional and uh subject to withstanding challenge perfect uh is this ordinance consistent with our master plan and that's where I'm going with the UN need to be affirmative if there is if it is not inconsistent with master plan what if if the there's a litigation and they say hey there is a disparity there is no clear Cod Direction here which which stands where and judge is going to throw the case and say Hey you know you gr so Mr bignell is also here um who did the review uh to make sure that it was consistent with the master plan I don't know if you want to hear from him on that I would say he's not an attorney well he's the the Planner yeah um and the the law firm does rely have on the planner uh in doing the master plan review to make sure that it remains consistent with the standards as espoused by the master plan um we do our own review uh and we believe it's consistent with the master plan but I'm I'm asking if you also want to hear from plan Council presid if you allow me to have Mr Bell to be on the podium council president I believe the summation of Mr Big Nell's um review of the ordinance was sent to the clerk's office and I assume it then gets forwarded to council just want to make sure everybody got the background yes we do but we are not the attorneys that's the reason just want to confirm that you received his stuff okay so Mr Bell have you looked at the ordinance that is on the agenda for Amboy Avenue yes yes I have yeah uh do you think this ordinance is consistent with the master plan and there is no deviation at all the um the master plan was adopted uh they haven't done the final reading of it yet so they haven't adopted the resolution part so that's what we're in the middle we're in a flux state so if you're asking if the new changes to the a ordinance reflect that there was a report issued by the board the by the uh master plan planner and she had recommended that there be a a mix of four story and then three and a half story according to the size of the property and that was forwarded to council again my question is very simple and plain and clear oh I'm trying to explain it to you but I so it's not up to me to tell you that it meets the master plan or not I I think she kind of split the baby when it was when it was sent to the council and you've decided now that to make it three and a half story so the master plan this is this is going to be a a change to the rehabilitation plan Redevelopment plan um the zoning overlay zoning that all has to get looked at again now as part of the new next pH there I just heard a minute ago from attorney that he believes this ordinance is consistent with the master plan you can replay the clip you know attorney if you want to however you are saying that you don't know because you are adop you are no changing the ordinance which is not necessary at this point in time consistent with the master plan the the ordinance can be changed because it's it's really the old ordinance that you're up updating you're updating the rehabilitation plan underst the new ordinance really hasn't changed and you should do the whole since we did a brand new master plan we probably need to do a brand new ordinance section at a time okay so okay so there we we're there so the the rehabilitation plan still allows for um housing it still allows for office it does all it hasn't changed any of the uses all it's done is really pretty much change the the the height of the building okay so that's that's basically where you're at so um like I said the the master plan planner split the baby said that it would be it would either way it would work so I'm assuming that the council now has chosen or will choose to decide whether it's three half stories or four stories um the part that I reviewed was the the the setback the technical stuff the setbacks the height the the the setback from the road from the second floor and I made some adjustments there because that's just like a technical thing that we have to live with we we're trying to interpret what applications before the board it's going to be up to you to decide whether you want to change the ordinance or not let me rephrase the question you want to repase the question again the current master plan in it current status it's approved status or adopted status whatever the status it is in is that Master Plan consistent with this ordinance I would say yes because the master plan is a guide all right we haven't changed the uses so the guide is still we're going to allow that type of development at that property the new zoning ordinance will adjust whatever in the meantime in the interim the board is adopting or looking to adopted ordinance that will adjust the height of the building U that's and that's going to be what the master plan planner stated in her letter like remember exactly she said that a certain size property should be allowed to go to four stories okay the council has said the council has hasn't said anything yet about they're planning on doing something some change um at that point you can decide whether or not you agree with any changes that'll come with the new the new zoning ordinance in the meantime you'll be at three and a half storage so you won't be you won't be having any applications of four stories once you do that so what you're saying is your our current master plan has a four story provision it never changed the old master plan and new master plan still recommended this for rehabilitation or Redevelopment so that hasn't changed it's a l use guide the master plan does not decide the details of the ordinance and that's what I'm trying to explain to you again I'm my basic question yes the answer then would be yes it does comply with the new ordinance or the new Master Plan and the old master plan correct so the current master plan does permit the four-story building it it the suggestion is the recommendation from the planner is that on larger Siz properties could house a four-story building the smaller properties could not that's what a recommendation is and until until that zoning is is adjusted and you're going to adjust it to three and a half so four stories out at this point but when you do the new zoning ordinance you're going to have to probably revisit it again and say what's fair what isn't fair what what's right what isn't right what's good to the property owner the the neighbors and how it all Blends in so we'll have to go back and again Ask planning board to amend the master plan to be consistent with the current ordinance if this get passed yeah the current the current ordinance is consistent because the current the you're missing the the master plan is a document that talks about land use and recommendations of land use it does not provide detail everybody confuses that the detail comes in the ordinance the master plan is is created by the planning board it's their jurisdiction okay the ordinance the power in zoning comes from the Town Council understood and so at this point I would I'm telling you this they both if complied with the old and it complies with the new okay all right the standard now is you're adjusting the standard to eliminate the for it that's your prerogative okay so what what I'm hearing is it complies this one the master plan and the new the old master plan the new master plan they are both consistent nothing has been changed you we have not reped any of the overly Zone they were there it's still there in the current master plan as well as in the old master plan what we are changing through this ordinance is only the height yeah and that has nothing to do with the land use recommendation of the master plan that's why it's in compliance now you're talking about details and I think it it's form base form code or code form base whatever they call it um that's something you can adjust that's that's a zoning issue that's a zoning ordinance issue that's a that's not a master plan issue okay no I I understand that I'm not debating on that so answer your original question yes it does comply with the master plan the old one and the new one correct so that that again tells the residents of Clara Barton that nothing has been changed in master plan from old master plan to new master plan as far as the zone and it overlays and Z concern the master plan no matter what it's just a guide It's a guide I I get that but what I'm saying is it's the same nothing has been changed in new master plan from the let me finish my thought the enforcing of it comes through the ordinance so for clar Barton if you know the enforcement of it is what the laws that we pass the The Guiding aspect of it might have changed I'm not debating on that and that's exactly the reason why did we do the master new master plan because we were out of compliance you're you're not out of compliance what happens is the master plan by State Statute it used to be required to be updated every seven years they change that years ago every 10 years and when I saw the 10 years coming up we P had the planning board pass a resolution that said that we were going to relook at the we had to re-examine what they call reexamination our master plan was so old it was time to redo the the whole thing again okay in the master plan they determined this new master plan that the land uses are are are reasonable but whatever scale becomes the zoning issue and you have to decide what the zoning issue is the ordinance before you tonight lowers the height of the building and I know that's what the residents are looking for which is that's then that's up to the residents and the council to make that decision but it has nothing to do with the land use recommendation that stayed the same it's still commercial it's still office it it may be residential on top and things of of that nature that we can write in when we readdress the new ordinance and we're going to have to do that because all the definitions have to be updated um height of the buildings the setbacks things like that in all the zones the industrial zones we we hopefully we're going to create industrial zones that the ones that are closer to the Residential Properties will have more restrictions so it protects the residents the on say down in pillar park or in in in in a Federal Business Center well you're not protecting residential property you're prot you know it's a different kind of industrial zoning that's the next step so what you're going to do here tonight if you vote or Wednesday night if you vote for the ordinance that that's before you tonight all you're got to do is eliminate the the U the ability for an applicant to seek a four story okay they can still apply for the same uses but they can't make the building any higher than what the ordinance is I don't have to memorize it my head all right so what we're saying is the only the change we are doing is limiting the size 35 ft but again that's not across the board that's again in the pocket of the sections if I understand that's the reason my questions were on the master plan because the the planner did recommend saying based on the Lord size the height restriction doesn't apply there it's goes to 40 ft that was her suggestion she was saying that the properties are larger you could go to the four story that's not part of this ordinance and that's not that's going to be changed from the existing ordinance because all of it story right now and that's where my question comes in this ordinance again question to both of you does this eliminate regardless this size of the lot restricts the height of the building to 35 ft this ordinance will restrict any property from being built higher than three and a half stories regardless of the size of regardless of the size thank you okay good anybody else Council um council president what council memb has worked on this ordinance you you were the one that designed this whole thing in quite yes okay short answer yes so so when you did this you took in the um all the residents concerns right concern that they brought up in regards in general I know I didn't share this with everyone but I literally made a planning document going over the heights going over lot sizes going over angles for like where shade would come in um Tred to account for different lot sizes lot types take into account other items I'm sorry I didn't mean to take away your time no I and and did you reach out to the um Property Owners on this I I mean let's let's just be honest right everybody here Clara Barton would like something to happen right but they want to keep it minimal let let's say um but if you don't reach out to the people that own the property right that whatever you came up with right there makes sense to them to want to redevelop anything or do anything then what we're doing is all superficial because nothing will be done and it doesn't really matter you know what we did um like to me the process um should includ include them and the residents in a meeting together to see what the residents would like to see overall and and that's what do we call this area here it's a special kind of area not an area of Redevelopment it's a it's a need of Rehabilitation need of Rehabilitation right to me that's a joint partnership with with the residents the township and the property owners themselves um and the only way to make that successful right is to have everybody in a room together where everybody speaks and and and we understand what their needs are for for them to want to do this development otherwise what we do is we have this error Redevelopment that has been sitting dormant for eight years um well sad longer D longer than that oh okay it goes back a couple of adal administration saying what we're doing is superficial um like overall um and and and that's where my concern is like the way that we're handling this just seems like it's it's misguided in a way um and and trust me I am like more so on the resident side but at the same token if what we're going to pass makes the developer Property Owners not want to do anything with it because it doesn't work because of parking or whatever their concerns might be right then then what we're doing is this is just a superficial thing I mean and this is more fake and superficial than the um six to four minute kind of thing you know but only a minute so I'd also like to see that plan because what I what I got right shows me here it it shows me well if it the property's 35 foot you can do this if the properties is 75 foot you can do this if the property's 100 well okay I don't have a research team okay to to go into town hall to go meet you and get a drawing for you to give me different colors so I could see really what this entire neighborhoods doing I mean this I didn't receive it I don't know if any other Council people received some kind of thing so you know exactly what's going to be built where does anybody else receive anything that they know what's going to be built anywhere I mean there's technically no guarantee as to what will be built this is in regards to zoning guidelines and if I may just reut on the business side aspect like if the current guidelines were conducive to development it would have happened because we have the current zoning which allows for the the extra intensity the extra density M and it hasn't happen um I have a couple additional items but I don't want to take away your time okay so can I make a point one councilman the the information you're looking for was probably part of the rehabilitation plan that was created by Susan GRL and Associates 10 years ago so that plan's been in place since the zoning was put in place that has a 35t lock shows yeah the lot shows it all that shows where these development plan that should be in the clerk's office it's several years old now but it shows up what they propos for that the Z so that that information is available if you want to look at all right yeah can we get can we get copies of that um just to understand what we're going to do to the neighborhood I don't even know that the the neighborhood knows what's happening to the neighborhood I know that you you're saying you met with them right and then typically what happens is government meets um kind of like we did with the the rental ordinance right then we get sued by everybody so to avoid avoid this I I yeah like see if we can get a copy of it to all the council people okay yeah I think uh Cheryl will get it out to us all right and that was the original plan that was done there's been some tweaks to it they they talk about stacking parking and things like that and it had the four stories it raised it to four stories and and even with that we've only had one building built at four story one is approved and never constructed um the one that was recently turned it's a court matter that was at three and a half story or three stories so the whole idea was economic growth or Economic Development and it doesn't seem to be triggering that so if you lower the height of the building I I guess you're not going to see a whole lot of development there right and it's a concern for the residents and and I do get that like when you said not four stories we're going to do three and a half again six minutes 4 minute abs right does the 4minute ab work or the six-minute ab superficial does it strikes the number of units that you can build the height of the building is less so there's less economic incentive right that's that shouldn't be a zoning issue or zoning uh criteria but for the for a person that owns a property it is right because we heard it was three and a half stories but the top story was going to be used for like rooftop type stuff but then I read that that's not the case that's not half the story is is a space in a design of a building it's unusable it could be anywhere from a foot to 5 feet um if they want to use the top of the building they' be at three stories and they could use the top of the building it wouldn't be a four story or on top of three stories or three and a half stories three story then yeah it' be three but that all comes with part of the design and that's why we talked about the setbacks and how the light and that was very very U uh Pro forward if you want if you want to say talk about the shadows and things like that that's I I I did notice um some of that in there where you have setbacks for the top um in the front and the back what I asked to take out was all the the percentage stuff because you'd be there forever trying to figure out what percentage and it'd be like a nightmare so right this is where I'm going I'm trying to get a visual as to what this will look like um at the end of the day if it's developed as per our ordinance and our Master the issue here the issue really here has to be um the parking and I think that's going to be something that has to be looked at maybe the town looks to buy some properties that are adjacent and turns them into like parking areas so you have a more viable Main Street area and that's what you want to do you want to have people you want to have stores on the bottom you want people that shop there you want to have pedestrians that come out of the neighborhoods but it's going to be why would you walk up there you know you have to have a reason to and you have to have nicer shops and things of that nature no we we did I think last meeting we talked about the the parking I think in uh Clara Barton where currently there isn't a problem but as it would become successful it will obviously be a problem um and and I see that there was a note in there for the old Stewart slot right it's good to kind of keep that there as an item so yeah I I don't have an but again this is the land use portion of it the master plan what you're doing now is you're tweaking an ordinance that's existing that'll probably be you'll look at it again soon and then you can have the input from the neighbors and everybody else can come around even the property owners the stakeholders can come and say hey look I need to have this or that and and like I said the planner split the baby she put half of it in half of it out so you get them a larger lot size before you go to four story but that's not part of the ordinance you're looking at this evening okay thank you thank you thank you Council Brer any other council member council president Council pointer thank you council president um admittedly yes I did do a lot of research on this I did meet with residents actually on the Thursday after the last meeting um I was lucky enough to have a group of dedicated individuals that took time out of their day very short notice I texted at 9:00 a.m. we had a meeting at 12:30 there were I think five or six and I apologize I don't know the exact number off the top um this plan and I I will share it with all my colleagues um I was attempting to expedite because of feedback that we have received over the past couple of months to uh councilman p 's question in regards to consistency with the master plan um my original recommendations I sent out had highlighted items that cross reference the master plan to make sure that there was uh consistency whether we discuss uh type of residential options whether it's addressing parking on Amboy whether it's in regards to recommendations for Green Space whether it's having a more uh appropriate design standards um those I believe are addressed in these in this ordinance's recommendations uh for everyone's reference a couple of back items that I researched this here is print outs of the zoning map of Amboy Avenue all seven different sheets I went lot by lot to look at what the current widths are what the current depths are and utilize my experience and understanding to see what may be what may actually fit and work in there uh in regards to feedback from the residence this was a item brought forth by residents when there was discussions about uh the J Dynasty and what they would like to see in the neighborhood in there it also includes items that they uh other recommendations for instance why does it have to be misuse maybe it may be more conducive to allow for Office Buildings well if you look at the current Redevelopment plan the office building type is not allowed to front on Amboy Avenue one of the recommendations here is to allow for it to be aot to front Amboy Avenue um I reviewed old plans whether it be Dr kish's old application for the store slot or whether it be the Asel building that that was built additionally I also looked at 979 which is gas station being redeveloped which is a 100x 200 lot um that is a four story has 77 parking spots and that is the most extensive type of development that you would see on Amboy Avenue so I tried to look at what's been proposed to make sure that from a economic standpoint that any modification May would still have commercial incentive I took feedback from the residents to try to make sure that uh safeguards are implemented so that is not as obtrusive to the residence which is one of the reasons for the rear yard setback recommendation so that instead of it being 40t right at the back property the rear which is the resident line it would allow for it to be set back so that it wouldn't be right in front of your face um this addresses parking by allowing for parking that be on the sides based on lot sizes there's items in there in regards to structured parking so anything that it has a building that has space above it if it were used for parking it can't front Amboy Avenue so that way it makes sure that things are in the back if they were to go to the side if they were to go to the side then the design St the design of that building would have to be reduced to make it work um I could go on and on about it I will share all the additional information but as a resident in the neighborhood it is my heartfelt belief that these recommendations are the proper balance between resident concern and the economics of the neighborhood thank you council president thank you councilman pointer and I agree with councilman pointer uh he has done his homework and spoke to the residents and I look forward to passing this ordinance anybody any council members all right moving on to number seven administration of agenda from mayor okay okay uh ad uh administrative agenda from Mayor Sam josi A and B any questions or comments all right seeing none moving on to number eight from the business business administration we are removing one right uh we're removing C from here so it's just a and b any question or comments yes question on a disaster recovery can you give some details on that uh is this the first time we are doing or this is every year we do this uh no it's every year we do it um so separately we have the FEMA recovery monies that billennium does and then the grant stuff so A is for FEMA recovery monies okay and This Disaster Recovery is more around the FEMA or yes okay thank you thank you thank you counc um moving on to number nine from the Department of Finance a through D any questions or comments okay moving on to number 10 from the Department of planning and Engineering a through I council president Council p on I I see this bid number bid is coming from year 2022 we are in 2024 uh is this the final is it because the inspection was delayed or the bid from 2022 we paved the road in 2023 and we are clearing up these payments uh Sonia uh councilman ptil is correct we're clearing up uh the project the payment so this closes it out perfect thank you council president counc yeah just same item um we're not releasing $2 million right now correct that's just the total for the total Paving correct um we're just releasing the bond the bond right so this is already the the dollar amounts been paid that's the dollar amount of the cost of the project the bond amount is 84,000 in change okay so it's the 84,000 is really what we're okay um no that's it moving on to number 11 from the Department of Public Works a through C any questions or comments council president Council M yes uh B um another you know stickler in my mind um B we have Automotive Maintenance and repairs um I did talk to Sonia she did T did explain to me that they have um certain issues with repairs where they have to send things out to get repaired um I still maintain that we have a department and we have Manpower and our Manpower is capable to do the repairs um the only thing that they might need might be software type stuff so they can you know read everything that has to be here um and like I said but you know we're a Township anything we do we should be doing not not sending out you know to an outside vendor um so I just wanted to go on a record of saying that here we're going to an outside vendor and I don't agree with that okay and that would be it thank you coun bresser all right moving on to number 12 from the Department of recreation a through C any questions or comments counc president just a note I'm going to ask for 558 which is item C just to be pulled for a separate vote when it comes up thank you sounds good any other questions or comments all right uh moving on to number 13 from the Department of Water and Sewer A and B any questions or comments uh council president yes um B uh again here we have the the maintenance and testing for generators um with how many gener how many generators do we have overall in the entire Township uh so if I could just um 13 in total um as part of your backup 13 generators 13 generators in total throughout the township yes and the this here is under water and soore though it's for water Ste DPW um so it's for various buildings our fire our firehouses fire houses yeah a community center uh various garages Senior Center okay and and I'll tell you what again we have $225,000 this is again something that I think we should have somebody inhouse being that since I've been sitting up here I've probably approved 10 generators I'd say at a minimum um I've only been up here for five years so it looks like every place that we're going to every building we have is going to have a generator uh within the future um we should have somebody that's dedicated somebody that's knowledgeable enough uh to change the oil in the generators um change injectors um rebuild stators and you know to be quite honest with you I I don't think that any of this is really rocket science um and just for the public to know over the winter I'm going to be rebuilding a stator in a generator um and I've never done it before so I I I it's something I think that we could send someone have them trained and we can very well do inhouse with our own staff um so again same issue as the last item thank you Council thank you coun all right moving on to number uh 14 from the chief of police A and B any questions or comments all right uh seeing none moving on to number 15 a any questions or comments all right uh so this will be the end of the work session and we'll be moving to the regular meeting uh so moving on to number 16 approval of minutes may I get a motion to approve um council president I need to abstain from August 26th okay okay same for me okay you were yeah motion yeah so I'll be abstaining from uh May 8th and Council Patel and councilman uh Council vice president will be abstaining from August 26th uh may I have a motion to approve motion to approve may I have a second second all right that's a motion by councilman po pointer second by Council vice president and uh all in favor I I all right the meeting is approved uh unfinished business number 17 ordinance for further consideration and public hearing and final adoption Madam clerk please read ordinance 2232 an ordinance an ordinance amending section 36-7 major subdivisions 36-6 do1 sketch plot application requirements 36-9 do6 PL preliminary site plans 36- 9.7 final site plan 27-21 large water services and 36-8 do2 prary site plan approval of the code of the township of Edison to update electronical submission requirements on applications for developments thank you madam clerk uh this ordinance 2232 will be open to public any public that would want like to speak to it all right seeing none may I get a motion to close the public portion motion closes second all right that's motion by councilman pointer second by Council vice president uh any Council comments uh this was that item where we talked about the electronic copies and potentially someone's bedroom and and and that was kind of like tabled at the time I believe were were all those issues taken care of I think this one does not require it to be published online that's the main difference like so it's essentially the submission of the application is digital and it's not posted to the website so not anybody anywhere in the world can access it which was the main concern that we had the council had with this on the last time okay um you're sure it was available to you to read yeah that that's the the part of this that anything that said that like it's not available and all of that so so since I didn't see it but you're telling me it is that's why I asked you but to tell me that it's written there I can you show me because I didn't see that I don't believe it's written in there that it's not available online um it is it removed that part of it that requires the posting of it online so that I can't really prove a negative other than to read the ordinance and say that that part's no longer in it in the old version of it there was a a specific section of the ordinance that required the posting of it and making it available online that part has has been removed okay um all right I I mean since it's kind of up in the air for me here um I'm okay to vote on it thank you Council Messer uh any other Council comments council president app Point um hopefully with the support I look forward to not having so much paperwork thank you all right I hope so too uh moving on to oh sorry motion to adopt motion to adopt second all right that's motion by Council and ptil second by Council vice president Madam cler roll call please council member brusher no council member coil no council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member pointer yes council member schmuel yes council president Patel yes uh moving on to number 18 new business uh proposed ordinance public hearing set down for Wednesday September 25th uh Madam clerk please read ordinance 2233 ordinance amending section 2-23 entitled addressing the Council of the Township Code by providing for 4minute time for the public to speak and providing for no rebuttal time all right uh may I get an motion to introduce council president Council po pointer I move this ordinance to be passed on first reading published according to law for further consideration and public hearing set down for Wednesday September 25th 2024 may I have a second second all right that's a motion by councilman pointer second by Council mmel uh any Council comments well I think this was already U there's no public comments not on introduction not on introduction okay uh I think we already had a lengthy discussion except councilman Brer yes um in in listening to my my colleagues before you know the one thing that struck me was that that this was really to have more uh participation in the public uh I like the public to note that uh right now we have like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 maybe we have under 15 people which is our norm and has been our Norm for the last several years I I don't think people are not going to come because the public speaks too long so and and then I'd like to just add a little bit of sarcasm in my own way okay what I've noticed over the years is um be because this Council the way that we act um we don't listen to the public we disrespect the public we interrupt the public the public comes to multiple meetings to not get a question answered okay um even though you know they go to the administration and it's not our job but the council that that meets the public should do the followup to make sure that the administration is doing that at that little bit um because of that I have noticed over my time here lately um certain people aren't even here um there were Staples that we had you know we had uh Lois wilky we had uh Bruce diamond we had Walter stoal okay these are these are people in our community that have cared about our town for many many many years um I was young and watched them here when I was younger so these people no longer come okay and what this Council has gotten to save has been 18 minutes because each one of them could speak for six minutes so I'm going to ask the people that are thinking about voting yes to out of the 15 people only five will probably speak today that's 10 minutes you're still up eight minutes from the people that the this body has offended that no longer come to the meeting so we're still up8 minutes so I'm going to ask the people that would think about voting yes to rethink about those those thoughts um and give it back to the people I don't think us staying here a couple minutes longer is really that that critical overall um I had a resident tell me that they they actually called me to thank me today um another bit of sarcasm um because they said we come there and and you don't listen to us the administration doesn't listen to us nobody gets us answers and by you cutting it down to four minutes you're saving me two minutes of my life that I don't have to waste any longer and and it was sad to hear that from a resident um that that called me about it you know I mean them I told them I'm not going to support it but just overall it's the sentiment of of the resent residents out there and that would be a council president thank you Council Brer any other council members all right um Madam cler roll call please council member brusher uh no council member Cole yes council member Harris no council member ptil no council member pointer yes yes council member shuel yes council president Batel yes U Madame clerk please I will have silence please Madam clerk please read ordinance 2234 an ordinance amending the Amboy Avenue Redevelopment plan by modifying several sections in the overlay District pursuant to the provisions of njsa 48 col2 a-7 all right may I have a motion to introduce I move this ordinance be passed on first reading published according to law for further consideration public hearing set down for Wednesday September 25th May I have a second second okay so that's a motion by Council vice president second by Council mtil any Council comments president coun Appo I noticed an item and I'm going to actually ask if it's possible to amend and the reason the reason being building type 3 when I was reviewing with the residents and everything was to allow for that opportunity to be present for current single family properties that are fronting Amboy Avenue but in quick review again it seems that I lapsed in not specifying that building type 3 confront Amoy Avenue subject that it is a residential property the Redevelopment plan itself right now says that any of these building types can only be applicable to the buildings in that are lb which is light business so I don't know if we're able to do that or if it can be recommended for the planning board to do that right leg we should yeah it hasn't been introduced yet um you want to request that the ordinance for introduction be amended uh sorry I'm just making sure they've got the correct line here section one building type three residential sh be permitted to front Amboy Avenue yes where it says the minimum width would be 35 ft but just provided that that building would only be able to be applicable on a residential property that is currently on Amboy Avenue which right now there are several Lots if it's something that's a that would cause hiccup then I will P I'm just not sure I understand I so building type three residential that's that's a permitted building type in the The Zone only for specific buildings that are residential already so a new residential building type 3 that doesn't currently exist would not be permitted to front on Amboy AB is what you're saying no they would be able to so right now on to the right of the coffee house there are three duplexes right next to it right those are Residential Properties right now how this is currently written the residential property could go where the coffee house is I think the intent with my discussion with the residents is that that building would be allowed on Amboy but only at those Residential Properties which are to the right of it only for pre-existing Residential Properties yes ambo is a mixture of business residential ins they don't want the current commercial or or properties to be supplanted by residential type 3 um Amboy have yes commercial property not supplanted by residential type 3 FR permitted M built lot withd is 35 ft uh can do cons we don't need to am now you know we can that's we can we can I don't think that prior to the yeah I we can we can we can amend that prior to the final vote on the resolution on 27 I just want to make sure it's on the record yeah that is a minor change um we can amend that prior to the final vote okay yeah I just want to make sure I understood what we were talking about yeah and I I can yeah okay all right I'm glad that's taken care of sorry okay so this is the section he's GNA amend amend yes okay um before we I I'm lost as to where we are okay Council comments uh any other Council comments all right seeing none Madam clerk roll call please council member presser yes to introduce council member Cole no council member Harris yes council member PTI yes to introduce council member pointer yes council member schuel yes council president Patel yes okay uh now going moving on to number 19 public comments on the resolution anyone that would like to speak specifically on the resolutions you can come on yeah good evening uh name and address please uh Anthony T squal to Pine Street Jersey thank you so I was home watching the uh opening of this meeting and I was kind of surprised that this is coming back again the 4 minute because last time I spoke and a resident actually called this is not the resolution that's an ordinance so procedurally these are your comments right now part of the resolution section no no no that that is an ordinance these are the resolutions the public discussion on the ordinance will take place at the meeting that it is introduced for or since you are here tonight there is a public portion where you can make oral petitions and remarks where you're free to comment on anything at all so even though it's under the resolution headings it's not to speak because it's under the heading it's not under the resolution headings um no it is on the paper it's under the resolution understand understand your format is incorrect let me finish then if I'm up here your format is incorrect then so you guys need to change your format because it's under the resolutions point of order you are let me finish it is an ordinance you will not be able to speak to it now you can wait till 21 if you would like to speak to it if you would like to speak to it you can speak on it when we get to number 21 right now you will not be able to speak to it come on up am I recognized uh name and address Fourth Amendment may I continue sure thank you um quick clarification the 4 to six minute thing not on the resolutions we can speak about that later right on 21 okay okay on 21 I just want to make sure so just everything on 20 right now yes okay thank you um I'm against everything there's not one thing I'm for and proposed resolutions 20 through the chair to councilman brusher I cannot want find one thing that stands out to me that's like oh I would really love to have this on on the agenda so you know I don't know maybe you can prove me wrong but until then you know I'm not a computer I can't really read through everything in a millisecond but what what really caught my eye is R56 092 024 now I am not going to be making any what were those statements they said I made last time I'm not going to be making uh any attacks on anybody right now I am only merely stating my opinion for R56 4-9 12024 I know you want me to be as quick as possible but at the end of the day my time is my time I don't tell anyone else what to do on their time resolution providing the municipal council's advice and consent to the appointment by the mayor Malia right as judge of the Municipal Court of the township through the chair the councilman Brasher never heard of this woman I don't so obviously I don't have anything against her but the last time Sam josi put somebody on the agenda it happened to be one of his best uh his sister's best friend who her brother also be happens to be on one of his boards so I really hope with resolution 564 we're not adding someone who happens to be the mayor's friends and we can we can hire somebody like Chief Brian or the fire chief that they're officers of the court and they take very seriously their responsibility and I don't know why you're trying to uh record me right now uh councilman brush uh councilman quell even though it's your constitutional protected activity um I'm going to continue on with the with with the resolutions I don't want to get off track with him recording me right now but um you should really uh uh do your gavel because that's out of the ordinary it's against the Quorum it's against theum speak to the I am I apologize I apologize it's against the Quorum though um yeah um the last woman that he he appointed um it wasn't Miss Malia rikman but it was somebody who had no reason she had a conflict of interest and for whatever reason she went after all my father's cases so yes no I'm talking because if Malia reikan is the same is the same kind of hire she's going to be doing the same things as judge DEA is doing and I'm trying to put a hold to that I'm not attacking anybody personally all I'm saying is I want fair treatment here in Edison for everybody I'm not attacking anybody Chief Brian all all I'm all I'm saying is if the the last time we hire someone that's his sister's best friend and all of a sudden she starts attacking his personal enemies red flags get raised so I really hope this Miss Malia rikman is is a true officer of the Court truly respects respects the United States Constitution and gives everyone a fair shot that's all I'm saying that's all I'm saying nobody attacked anybody the same way I never attacked the ba the last time I was here but they abused their power and authority um how much time do I have left Mara a minute and a half where where was didn't you guys say that that I was going to be able to see it see some kind of speaker uh a timer where's no that's going to be in the future this work is work in progress okay thank you um how much time I have left minute and 29 seconds a minute and 29 seconds is not enough to expose the corruption throughout resolution 20 because it's just so so many of them um so so many of them um I'm against this cavid rat for a recreation trip $150 he can pay for his own Recreation trip I don't understand why we the taxpayers have to pay for him to go out somewhere um and at the end of the day you guys broke one of my computers did you guys ever pay for that no so why are we paying for this Mr Cav or what to go on a trip for $150 it seems rather strange to me um in the amount of more Furnishings for $285,000 uh uh what is this automo Automotive uh maintenance $285,000 um no let every single vehicle break down I want the police vehicles to break down if the police vehicles break down guess what no one's going to come down my street and harass me anymore how much time do I have left Mar 14 seconds 14 seconds God Bless America uh Mr ASF Schmo I understand you might not like what I say but I have every right to what I I'm saying and I used to say these things long before you ever came on the council so please have respect for members of the public thank you anyone else wants to speak on the resolutions Joyce jury ship 41 Main Street nice that listen to someone that's polite thank you I admire that um resolution 536 um I'd like to know how much money do we receive each year from the cdbg uh grants okay 537 uh the tur Field improvements and authorizes final contract with payment is this extra money again that we're paying for that Turf fill number three resolution uh for I would like to know the names of the streets because some people say they haven't even they don't have the names of the other streets that were paved right which uh resolution was that to you're interrupting me sorry I mean you know if I only got four minutes gez I got got gotta go sorry okay and I found out that the resolution authorizing the fee permit waiver for Edison medical building was that and um on Amboy Avenue I just it just perplexes me that we're paying for that I'm glad we're paying for that because we own the building but we can't pay the $882,000 for the library I don't know why we trying to choke the life off the library I don't know thank you okay uh I just wanted to get clarification on the questions if you don't mind if you still have time you can speak yeah so we can make sure we can answer your questions properly yeah Council pres just council president yes um uh council president wasn't here when you were asking those questions can you just go over that one more time gu what and when you tell me about deform minutes and stuff like that if you can't if you can't process the information quick enough every four to four minutes you'll be asking me over and over and over again so do your algorithm on that okay I asked for the information and 536 about the money we received for Community block grants yearly okay information asked 537 I asked about the synthetic turfield Improvement and whatever is that it added now another $149,000 for that and I asked about the names of the streets that are we resurfacing because some people said they didn't get the other Street resurface and you and you told us last week that y'all put the money back because you couldn't do something from 2010 something something you said and then I just I I spoke on that while you were while you were there about the building being fixed uh and there's no problem with that I think that's you know that's always good because for the Edison emergency thing and the CL what resolution is the building uh that was 56 563 okay uh so the questions are information needed on r536 uh the synthetic addition cost the list of streets Paving on R 538 and on 563 I believe something about a building I didn't quite catch if I hope you got it Sonia uh would you mind answering any of sure uh 536 so what we're allocating for 2024 fiscal year 2024 it's 6,7 and um uh 600 6,000 uh $674,000 for the projects listed on the uh backup we've received several million including some uh Co funds and those are going to get um pretty uh flushed out as we speak um so've been several millions that we've received in cdbg in total but for this year we're allocating um 674 th000 um with regard to the 53 7 that's just closing out the project so there's no extra money this is in a change order this is just to close out the project um 538 I believe we've listed those 2022 roads I can certainly recirculate that if you wish okay and then did you catch the question on 564 I mean 563 about the building I did not hear a question think there was a question there okay all right good moving on anybody else that would like to speak you can come on Maryann Hennessy Edison you recognized thank you first of all it's something I normally say at the beginning of the year but I didn't this year so I'm going to say it now when I come up here to address the council I address it in a businesslike manner I do not go after any one of you as a person person I will go after you in the position you're holding and the reasoning and your decisions I just want that abundantly clear I have a question regarding 529 my question is at one point we had an in-house person one was a gentleman who was very very nice and passed away after he passed away we had a woman who did the grants do we have an in-house person doing the grants okay any other questions Miss Hennessy oh yeah I do I just wanted to get that across uh resolution 564 the judge are we replacing an existing judge because if you look at the chart for the township it doesn't show three or four judges I believe it's only two you have more on the prosecutor in part and I just wanted to know is she a new hiring creating a judgeship or is a judge retiring or leaving um you'll probably shoot me down on this one but my comment has to do with um the appearance under the business administrator for the time to speak uh unfortunately that will be considered an ordinance and you will not be able to speak to that particularly today but you can speak up to it on 20 on 25th 21 or you can speak on it l later today I can speak on it later today yes all right thank you very much for your clarification on that I would like to thank Margo very much for what you said regarding the issue and AJ the same way Mr prusher the same way I recognize what the others are and I'm not happy with you and I'm not the only one so the questions are for R I29 whether do we have an in-house person we do not have an in-house person and the person that was here uh couple years ago was not doing what millennium does um so that does not so this has been ongoing for several uh years having Millennium here okay and I think regard regarding the judgeship I believe that's a three-year appointment and um Mr Burns can speak to that my understanding is that the ordinance actually calls for the township down have three judges uh and there's currently only two um if I understood correctly um the administrative office of the courts actually indicates that we have to fill the ordinance so uh there may be other Replacements coming at some point I have no idea about that part whether or not a judge intends to retire but for this judge they are filling that third slot that exists in the ordinance yeah it's an exist it already exists in the ordinance okay uh any other one anyone else yes Elizabeth Conway 20 Netherwood Circle you recognized uh my question is also to resolution 529 92024 m and it says in an amount not to exceed $78,000 is that for a given year what period of time are we spending that money up to and including okay any other questions uh second part of that question is I did hear that we have used uh this company before so what I'm wondering is if it's a $78,000 perom how much have they made back for us so if we're paying them $78 ,000 are they giving back hopefully a lot more than 78 to generate uh otherwise look for somebody else so that's what I'm what what's the uh time frame for the $78,000 uh Sonia so is 78,000 perom and it's a 12month contract and um I can give you an exact amount it's in your it's in your packet but it I would say in the near 4 million we've had um just in the the last couple of years for millennium okay if not more so we're really happy with their product okay our return is pretty pretty good for 78,000 we get 4 million that's not bad okay uh yeah uh anybody else that would like to speak on the resolution all right seeing none can I get motion Clos with public portion may I have a second second all right that's a motion by councilman Coyle second by Council vice president all in favor I all right um for number 20 any thing to pull for a separate vote I know councilman pointer suggest uh which number was that uh number 558 558 558 for councilman John pointer anything anybody else would like to pull anything out I'll try uh 537 553 and 560 anything else oh we're good uh no okay so we have 537 553 and 560 being pulled by councilman brusher anybody else would like to pull it anything all right seeing none uh the consent agenda will be our resolution 524 to resolution 564 minus resolution 558 resolution 537 resolution 553 and resolution 560 may I get a motion to approve the consent agenda motion to approve the consent agenda second all right that's a motion by councilman pel second by Council vice president Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher yes council member Quil yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member poer yes council member shuel yes council president Patel yes uh I know you just wanted to obain council appointed would you like to make a comment on r58 uh yeah just the reason why I'm abstaining is my is now in the program and I don't want any view of conflict makes sense all right so Madame clerk may I have a roll call for oh can I get a motion to approve resolution to approve second that's a motion by councilman Patel second by Council vice president Madam clerk 558 558 Madam clerk roll call please council member presser yes council member Coy yes council member Harris yes council member PTI yes council member pointer abstain council member schuell yes council president Batel yes uh councilman Brer um we can start an order resolution 537 okay you want to do it together or separate 537 separately good um 537 I I have a a question um for the business administrator which I guess may go to the rec department or something like that um as I've stated many many times about turf fields and um you know the not just the danger of it being PL plastic and rubber and not healthy for for humans um I'm also aware that turf fields are different than grass as far as uh when you run on them and when you play on them um being that children grow up their whole lives playing on grass I I don't believe that the rec department or or the um football or baseball organizations need to teach children how to run on grass right I mean they spent their whole lives before they got there learn how to do that but um Turf um so many knee and Ankle injuries um that happen to Children right and they get hurt as children it follows them through to college and then when they're my age they need knee surgeries and you know um like I said I know someone from Mississippi state that um you know great player got on Turf so where are we as far as um legally and and with the township you know in instructing people um especially our youth you know in in how to run on this new type of uh grass as far as any sort of liability our JF is covered through our Jeff um I well listen when when okay now now that was an offensive statement okay and when you say I apologize I but let me tell you where I go with that I what I mean by that is yes I'm sure somebody will pay right the GIF will pay Edison Township will pay that's not my concern my my concern was with the child's welfare and well-being you know as far as not being trained to uh run cut you know whatever they do on on those fields that they can't do on the tur Fields compared to grass so from illegal standpoint there is limited liability with respect to that at least on the part of the township due to the Assumption of the risk of anyone engaged in activities on a turf field uh depending on what program they're there for even if they choose to go there on their own when there is no program going on uh turf fields are fairly common um it is especially common if you have ever seen one of the complexes like sportia uh down in manalan Township whether it's an indoor covered Dome like environment um that that doesn't reflect on the township necessarily other than whether or not there is some sort of failure in maintenance or um other thing that would actually make the township liable rather than just uh engaged in general sporting activities it's it's no more liability than the township having a football program or having a a baseball program or a cricket program okay so so legally that that's where we stand I I can't speak to the the safety of the children or anything I'm just not versed in what what's being with with football programs or baseball programs there's instruction given to the children um with this new type of synthetic thf that we're putting out um which our people aren't used to playing on um you know well you may play it in man alipin or wherever you might live right or or you might have played it in college at the time um I don't know that our children are and to me if I was a child right and I and I went and I split open my knee and need knee surgery at the age of let's say 13 or something um with no instruction yeah I'm going to look to blame an adult um either the person that approved it right the one that was instructing me um so that's where I'm going so I just want to know like do we give any instruction and that may be the case but it's it's no different than let's say if your football coach doesn't tell you hey by the way don't you know spearhead someone you might break your neck right um so that that that it's no more it's no greater reliability than any other kind of sports program okay I I think there was a second part to that question though no that that was really it it was no no not the legal aspect there was a well the training it was really like do we do any kind of training counc do you want to do everything together yeah you can do them yes I just want he he want separate okay I just want to separately comment first I appreciate the councilman's remarks but I did have the chance to go to pep rally at the had in Jets field and I share uh listening to my Council colleages comments and I did ask are you happy with the fields uh the difference in natural grass and the turf they're satisfied they're very happy for a lot of reasons but um in the same breath no different when you play in the grass you have the CH same chance of slipping and moving and whether we cut differently or we have our grass perfect um some of the conditions fall into the same liability but they told me personally they're extremely happy with the turf field just wanted to share that with this Council thank you thank you Council MCO um so I will do this one separate right yes all right may I get a motion to approve resolution 537 motion to approve may I have a second second okay so that's a motion by Council vice president second by councilman Patel Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher yes council member Cole yes council member Harris yes council member PTI yes council member pointer yes council member schmuel yes council president Batel yes all right uh Council Brer would you like to do our 553 and 560 together yeah you can do them together okay I don't need to comment on it I commented earlier okay sounds good so can we get a motion to approve resolution or anybody else would like to comment on 553 and 560 all right may I get a motion to approve resolution 553 and 560 motion to approve may I have a second second all right that's motion by councilman ptil second by Council app pointer um Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher no council member Coyle yes council member har yes council member P yes council member pointer yes council member shuel yes council president Patel yes all right uh moving on to number 21 and this is the oral petition and remarks and uh we will take comments from on Oh I thought you raised your hand never mind anybody would like to speak first of all I like to say name and address please sorry JY ship Freeman 41 Main Street you're recognized first of all I would like to say I don't know you people were being around or not but the council people who only made $600 like a month they very very poorly paid they stay at these meetings and sometime at 2 o'clock in the morning now we have a group that makes $20,000 we got the lawyer making almost a million we got the U ba making close to a quarter million but the only people that can't talk is the people who paying the bills that is so weird it's so strange to me and the thing that another thing I don't like I like community policing but I don't like it when our police are being turned into terrorizers against senior citizen that doesn't bow well with the public I've been in other towns this week and they said whoa you you got the police all the time at the next of these senior citizens at all and then they're talking about you know talking about time are you kidding me the amount of time these people waste up here back and forth and the rude and nasty and disdain that you have for the people when they come up here that's sickening very sickening especially I mean the salary you getting is ridiculous okay you getting more than a person gets on a part-time job in America $20,000 is a lot of money and you act like you don't want to stay 6 minutes longer for all that money and you sit there you smug and you say yeah oh I time you and you you know you did like h four four minutes and you did five minutes I listen to some of y'all took you like eight to 10 minutes to express what thing what you were talking about when you're not really up on top of stuff all right and I I don't get that that if I can go to school and I'll tell the principal hey I can't control my class so can I have it half a day instead of a whole day and get the same pay that's ridiculous at all if you don't have the ability to control stuff you shouldn't sit in a high seat that's just my explanation for it and I think that it's just playing out it's just like very very sad and very very rude that you think that you're so above the people that you cannot spend at least five or six minutes just listening to the people from the community that's all at all and I know for a fact I've seen ad young professors make way less money than all of you stay them the meetings out stay there the whole night do extra work on the weekends but no no no no I I just don't get it and then the whole game that you're playing with the four minutes now if I ask questions and you're unable to process it and comprehend it at the time I have to say it over and over again so that you take all my time away doing that that wasn't figured in with your algorithm okay that's what that's the problem now what I'm what somebody told me to ask you was how much open space fund money was spent on the splash park what what is the survey all about for $1.4 million and why is 10K added for signs additional that's from the open space okay and they was telling me also that seniors who may have problems because of the AC s in the building without carpeting these worlds bounce back and forth over and over again all right and you're talking to a person that's been in front of people my whole life that's my career and I'm saying it's very sad and I and I and it's the part that kills me about certain people I thought you were for freedom of speech I didn't know you were going to be that person I didn't know Edison was going to turn into a communist place like this and the amount of people that come to this Mee beting maybe 10 and only five speak and you want to limit that that five people that speak should be ashamed to yourself really ashamed of yourself is this is really really disgusting and heartbreaking and I'm sorry that our police officers are treated the way they are I speak to those young men they are very very good people and I don't like people thinking them into terrorists for old people thank you okay so just to repeat the question how the open space fund 1.4 million was to used for a study uh can you explain that and something with the kin Kate sign was that additional I hope I captured the question correctly uh son if you want to correct it you're more than welcome too sure um the question as I understood was with regard to Green Acres funding just one SE it's still U Council U open space fund okay and open space fund the $1.4 million study yeah they they want to know how how much the open space fund was spent on the splash park and they want to know what was the survey that was designed for $1.4 million and they want to know about the 10K for signs for signs that are additional for the splash part okay so you got that I think so we got it all right go ahead Sonia sure so um the grant agreement that we have with the county county open space that is 1.5 that's what we received for the smash Park um I with regard to the amounts for signage I'm not sure what the question actually is is the question whether we spend the funding or are we going to spend the funding okay and the 1.4 you said we got from County 1.5 it's through the county open space yes okay and and you all accepted that last week okay yeah last week okay thank you all right uh anybody else would like to speak come on up thank you for recognizing me you recognized um the first question I'd like to ask and uh through the chair anyone can answer that question even people over here what law does it say that you cannot wear a mask at a council meeting what law does it State yes what law states that you cannot wear a mask at the council meeting because you guys always insinuate that such a law exists but then you you you never let us know what it is so this way we can do our research on it any other question no I I think that's very important the last two times you guys lied said that there was a law that says we cannot wear a mask and i' i' like you to clarify yourself and if there was such a law that says you can't wear a mask why am I wearing a mask right now do you have any so to me it seems you pick and choose which masks you you like and which masks you don't like through the chair the councilman Joe Co Joe Co I was thinking you ever see the movie Alien versus Predator I'm thinking about getting the alien freaking mask are are you gonna are you going to give me a hard time for that too you know are you going to give me a hard time for that too what if I walk in with you know some kind of mask where I wrap a apple around my mouth and I just gag my mouth you know would would that mask then be appropriate I mean is there actual a list of masks that are appropriate and not appropriate and um because I think I think you violated my right the last time the last time I was here I did not attack I did not attack the ba there was no reason reason for me to attack her I just wanted to use my time and say she never gave me any meetings I mean if you feel that's a personal attack uh my God there's so many other things in this world um am I allowed to wear this mask I can answer that do you have any any more questions no no am I allowed to wear this mask obviously because I'm still up here am I allowed to wear this mask um no huh no no and what reason would that be I will if once council president if I may sure so can you stop his time please so I can address this issue thank you very much for stopping the time certainly it's it's so um the speaker has actually provided the township with a notice um of of an intent to Sue with respect to violations of his Free Speech rights um any of these questions with respect to his masks his right to speak his time limits um I would advise against the council addressing um at least uh in the context of uh potential litigation okay you can restart his time Mar sorry oh was my time restarted yes oh good because once I'm recognized Lan vers rier Supreme Court ruling kicks in and that's why the last time I walked away sir I would like you to please take off the mask you can continue speaking iue speak thank you for allowing me to continue speaking um there's I love everybody whether I wear the black mask or whether I wear this mask officers I still love everybody and you know for me this is my first I want people to know this this is my religious mask this is my religious mask I'm putting it on the record right now this is my religious mask I told Internal Affairs are you violating my religious rights are you violating my religious rights we'll talk out there no problem I [Music] relating can I wait till he's done yes [Music] Tony to Pasqual to Pine Street you recognize Tony thank you so um as I was saying before um I was sitting home and and heard the council meeting because I watch all the council meetings and I was kind of surprised that this was brought up again um because I totally disagree with this ordinance and the reason that I do is and I'm sure thought went into this not trying to insult anybody but you're wanting the residents to be concise with what they speak about leaders lead by example those on a dis are not doing that you have people that speak for 15 minutes 20 minutes and they could easily make a list of the points and they can make that point in two minutes or three minutes but the law allows them to speak as much as they want I get that but you guys are trying to make an ordinance to shorten the time of the residence now in my thought I think it's a little hypocritical that you would actually do that because you have all the time in the world to speak about what you want to speak speak about because the law allows that but the 6 minutes okay you can say 30 seconds 1 minute okay but the residents this is their time to come and speak to the council and you are limiting that time and if the reason for this is based on efficiency time efficiency well then you're not looking at each one of you and the efficiency you could bring to these meetings in shortening the time that you speak even though the law allows you to speak that much well why don't you guys be respectful to everybody and make it two minutes I've been here where there's been one point that it was going on for 15 minutes by a council person and they weren't trying to make their case they were just speaking about it they just kept on talking and talking so I I don't understand what the real reasoning is for cutting this down if you're all looking for transparency which I'm sure you are looking forar transparency give the residents as much time as you can to be transparent about their issues just like you all are trying to be transparent about your issu in convincing your other council members this is our time to convince council members about issues that we might disagree with or that we have and you are again you're you're cutting our time in doing that okay it's just that a court trial if a judge is going to tell a lawyer you have 10 minutes that's all you have to speak but the judge can speak as long as they want you guys are doing the same thing you guys are cutting the time I truly again the the idea of efficiency that doesn't work because if it was efficient the whole meeting could be an hour long and that's it so that's what I think you guys should actually look at okay give the residents the time give them six minutes give them seven minutes and you guys all look at your times I mean you guys are talking Mr bignell for 15 minutes you could have easily had that here's something that I find hypocritical you're asking you're saying that we can talk to council people outside of the meeting well yeah that's true you can all talk to the officials outside of the meeting come here with a summary of that discussion and you can make it two minutes so when you look at it you really need to look and lead by example of what you want the residents to do now if you were going to say that yes we are going to limit the times that the council people can speak if you were going to do that and then you're going to cut it down to four minutes I'd say great that's that's fair now that's giving each of us the residents and you guys a part in making this meeting efficient again if it's all about efficiency then hey that's great let's do it but I don't know what else the other reason would be I truthfully don't believe you guys are trying to stop the residents from bringing being transparent in their message to you guys because again this is the time when it's on the record this is the time when everybody can see I can go back to the recording if not I'm G to bring my phone with me and I'm going to talk to each one of you and record you and our conversation so I have it on record but that's awkward cuz you wouldn't give me all the answers I'm looking for that's the problem here that's why I'm saying it looks hypocritical if if you don't intentionally mean it to be that way it looks that way it looks how you're it looks like you're stopping the residents from giving them time to convey with you guys issues on the record and with other audience here so I really think before this vote happens you really should look at the true reason why you're doing this and I really don't think you should cut the time at all thank you very much thank you Maryann Hennessy Edison I would like to say I back up everything that that gentleman said when you sit here and look at the meeting today or you're at home and you look at the meeting today your conversation goes to him his conversation comes back to you he interjects something and he answers that's exactly what goes on all the time you have more time up there than we do even the attorney has more time up there than we do and that's what bothers me in the fact that you're taking away the time that should be ours to tell you what our concerns are really I mean personally I find it a many dictatorship and you're taking away my right to rebut something that's wrong because you rebut back and forth with each other and we sit here and have to listen to it and we're not allowed to tell you shut up you've gone beyond your four minutes or you've gone beyond your sex or you have no right to interject anything that appears to anyone who's looking at this meeting and it doesn't necessarily have to be on the Edison TV it could be on the YouTube and they're looking at it and they're thinking oh my goodness gracious are they really that picky and afraid to hear what a resident has to say and has the right to rebut whether it's from you or you or a resident I'm seeing it other people are seeing it and it does not look good it honestly looks like you are trying to control us you don't want to hear what we have to say because sometimes it's quote insulting to you well that's too bad you're supposed to be working for us and when you limit what we can say as I said before it looks like a dictatorship starting so please consider the fact that we as the residents have a right because this is the only way we can get anything across to you people we can call you but it doesn't mean anything because if I call you I'm only talking to you I don't know how you AJ feel about what I say to Mr brusher I have no knowledge on that you talk within the administration we don't know what's going on we don't know what you're hearing from the business administrator that maybe we should be hearing it's dead silence and I'm sorry I have lived in this town for more than 50 years and I have never felt as insulted as I do now because of not all of the council but a majority of the council and I would never bounce around in my chair while someone is talking you may be the lawyer but I've seen you staring at the ceiling having conversation here bouncing around in your chair and even smirking and I'm a resident and I pay your legal fees I pay them so does everybody else that sits in this audience and the respect and the lack of respect is not really appreciated but because you come from a law firm and not an individual lawyer's office you behave that way that's all I have to say thank you Miss Hennessy Ron laugher 6 Nancy Circle Edison you recognized thank you um I'm not necessarily here for my six minutes I'm here for the people of this Township's six minutes uh at the council meetings um last time this was introduced was two years ago June of 2022 and we've had six minutes since and I don't see where we went sideways with those six minutes and two years prior to that we've had six minutes and before that and we've had six minutes and the people that need six minutes use it the people that don't um don't I've written things down uh week after week when I've come to Council meetings and I've tried to chisel down what I had to say to six minutes and not just in this forum in other forums you know where there's the zoning board where they had a time limit or the planning planning board didn't um so council president you asked why is six ideal we can't answer that question why isn't it ideal why is four why is two why isn't four and a half half wise five so ideal is it's working some something else might not be working but the six minutes Works um one of the things I've thought about was a lot of the population of this town English is not their primary language so we need more time they would need more time to come up here and express themselves and we've seen that where somebody was trying to explain themselves and had to repeat themselves or get some help and you take it offline after the six minutes you take it further offline so obviously six minutes for some people is not enough time um there was a council person that asked or mentioned how much other Council people spoke on the issue uh to prove that six minutes is enough well on One Singular issue yes six minutes might be too much on one issue 30 seconds 2 minutes 4 minutes but 6 minutes on a multitude of issues Main not be enough time 30 seconds definitely isn't um you're changing leg legislation to not hear the con constituents speak that's that's huge you guys are here and girls apologize are are here for us to hear us every two weeks every four weeks whatever the case may be and depending on your workload whether it's 20page uh agenda which we might not have two minutes to speak a couple weeks ago you had a 70s something pager today's a 50-some pager so the more workload you give the more the people behind me want to speak about it or other issues uh that they have you know throughout time um- which brings me to another issue um I've emailed uh a lot of you regarding an issue that persists uh in town so enough about the six minutes um I I sent an email hoping that somebody would put this under discussion items and nobody had uh I was writing concerning an ongoing concern with the residents in South Edison neighborhood on Old Post Road as some of you may know Ray CA has an ongoing application at the Edison zoning board and I assure you that I will not speak about any specifics of that uh zoning board uh agenda so how can you help the residents notwithstanding the ongoing zoning board application has Ray CA been in violation of Ed Edison zoning ordinances for some time with their existing condition of operating a parking lot on residentially zoned property what if anything has been done to remedy the situation by zoning officials have there been any fines levied has there been any cease and assist Letters by the zoning officials or Township attorney it seems that the raika dealerships on Route One have been operating with impunity in my opinion the facts in fact this is the case their illegal occupation of residentially zoned property needs to stop until such a time that the independent zoning board decision is made uh I sent everybody a picture where you see a parking lot in the backyard of a residential own property they're in the front of the zoning board now meaning they have no prior approvals to to be there okay um so can the council please obtain information and answers regarding this any enforcement uh from the appropriate agencies um by the next council meeting so I sent this out last Tuesday before discussion items uh were due for this meeting hoping that somebody would have answers uh have it on the discussion item that it would be brought up and this is just I sent a letter I took it offline and I waited one minute and I'm done thank you uh Sonia the question is is the ratina a zoning violation and has zoning done anything in regards to it so um I did not receive that request rather um I will check first thing with our zoning folks um if there are any violations issued and I will certainly pass that information on to the council thank you uh anybody good evening Thomas lucky Netherwood Circle you recognize uh just want to keep on everybody's radar the issue that I have with the cricket play the adult cricket players at uh John Adams Middle School want to make sure that say he's on everybody's radar and what we can do to eliminate that secondly I want to thank the whoever Police Department whoever for putting a sign up in front of John Adams Middle School asking the the parents not to not to stop not to stand and creating an issue with uh traffic flow on uh new do Road talking about the uh 4 minutes or the four minute time limit that you want to impose that the council or the town wants to impose on on its speakers I think it's an injustice it's stifling all to go and basically control a few I don't think it's it's right uh I I come up here maybe it takes me a little bit longer as was mentioned earlier to formulate my thoughts I don't have anything written down but to go into you know keep everybody to limit to people four minutes I think is unfair also the one thing that everybody seems to also be missing is there's no rebuttal period so we don't we we talk you answer if we don't like it we have to accept it maybe we go and we have it we increase the time limit so that it's a there's a little bit of back and forth so we don't go and uh have to have the rebuttal per rebuttal time we don't waste the time for the P for the audience to come back up to the podium and talk so I'm dead set against this and I I hope that those that voted no vote no when this res when this ordinance is is uh changed is going to be adopted and those who voted yes reconsider and say no when that the ordinance does come up and finally put this to to to rest think the I was the last meeting where you uh proposed the uh or approved the resolution for the development of I want to call it the in driving range that would be a nice place for a park in North Edison a nice expanse where you can have the you know a splash park you can have a walking Track you can have you know a walking path rather you can have you know you can put in a a a proper Cricket field whereas we don't Edison doesn't have to build on every piece of vacant land that's in the town why don't we leave it leave it as a Green Acres area for the for the residents to use and enjoy for years to come no need to no need to go and uh you know pave it over with uh you know high-rise buildings or you know think let's think outside the box if we take the inine driving range and we somehow convince the people at the oest swim club that they don't really you know we want to take that property over might be a nice place to put a school in to eliminate some overcrowding I don't know if it covers the minimum acreage for the you know what what would be required but it's also it's it seems like it it it might serve another purpose other than putting in more housing covering over you know Paving over the road you know Paving over the the the facil the green nice green grass with with new buildings and parking lots and all and increasing traffic on Inman Avenue so think that you know when when the town when the planning board and the zoning board go and talk about this this development I think that the Town Council needs to get involve and say hey hold on let's think what's best for the citizens that's all thank you thank you uh uh anybody else Elizabeth Conway 20 Netherwood Circle you recognized first thing I'm going to go through rather quickly uh the first one was uh the Stop and Shop on in Inman Grove is closing and when I first moved into my home not too far away and the senior center was built I had thought we heard that we had to or whoever government had to provide some kind of shopping for the senior center and it has changed from names to names to names and now Stop and Shop is going out have you heard anything U because there's a lot of Buzz about what's going to happen to that store that was my first question uh hopefully another question don't the next one is uh North Edison um baseball and softball at the last meeting it was brought up about um the parking lot and I started um GNA leave this managing and coaching a t-ball team tonight and I pulled into North Edison and that parking lot is in dire need of Paving so uh if you have any more money in your pockets and that was on the list I had appreciated if it could be done before next spring at least that's number two number three I'm never going to give up on Inman Avenue and Old ritton Road and Inman Avenue and raway Avenue and Inman Avenue and tingly if something can be done now I drove past um I'm hoping um the police had gone to check it out but I drove by there and I know from my property you have the curb then you have an apron and then you have a sidewalk and then there's another 3 feet before your property begins but if you drive by that property and I have nothing against those people but the bushes are well beyond what my property line would consist of and with the bushes with the leaves you still cannot see um I'm hoping something can still be done uh to improve on that so that's number three number four I'm sorry that I was late but I try coming here and showing respect to all of you I've never come up here and said you're really blowing at this time cut it out but you're really blowing it this time cut it out when people come to speak mostly they come because there's a definite concern now if the camera ever turned around and saw the number of people in this room that you're limiting to four minutes a shame I've been to meetings where the room is crowded to the top yes at that point you everybody wants to speak so you might limit at that time because you don't want to be here after 10 o'clock at night unless you push the meeting on but when there's just so few of us that are talking I find it insulting that you don't want to hear what we have to say and I I really wonder why but then there's speakers that get up and they're a little um testy and I can see why you might do it but it's not fair to the people that have actual concerns and they're showing respect now six minutes for all 10 of us that are here and not 10 of us are speaking I really don't see the reasoning other than we just don't want to hear it and that would be sad is if that's why you're sitting there you don't want to hear what we had to say you only need to get your business done thank you how much longer do I have Marina minute see I did all of that and now I'm going to go sit down but if I had another concern it might have taken longer yes uh so Miss Elizabeth the stoping shop uh in men GR closing uh we have not heard anything about it I Sonia is saying she has not heard anything about it uh it's noted on the North Edison Baseball Softball parking lot we can try to do something in regards to it right Sonia we had our engineering looked at it um and I believe that's something that would be forthcoming in the future okay good and on the inav and old Ron I did talk to county commissioner Charlie Tamaro he said that he is looking into it to see if we can put stop sign in there uh but again this is a conversation that we had I don't know how far and how long it will take um and that was it right one more I think that was it right oh the four minutes unfortunately we had a lengthy discussion on the four minutes and uh what the pick and choose aspect of it if there is more people you cannot pick and choose that day to say hey we're going to limit everybody today so unfortunately you cannot pick and choose the day that uh there is uh the whole house is packed and you cannot say we're going to cut it down to 4 minutes you cannot pick it that choose in that day uh council president counc yeah just a question on the North Edison Baseball um well I mean myself and other Council people have asked um for whatever eight months or something um and we were told that it was being done but that that the response we just got was different now than it's it was it's being done can we just clarify I will check tomorrow exactly where it is on the schedule clarify my statement okay right you said you're going to check with the engineering on that you know what it looked like there and I'm going we're not designing it or something we just trying to get a date to pave it well there may be some design uh part of it so that's why I I want to give you the right answer versus an answer but it is going to be done in the future okay can we get a a a date as to the paving sure by next meeting that's all thank you thank you counc Brer anybody else that would like to speak come out Octor Nasser Pleasant Avenue you recogniz so before me I have all these papers of things that I want to talk about and I'm not quite sure where to go because I'm probably going to go over six minutes because there are multitude of issues we've heard a lot from people talking about your plan to reduce six minutes to four minutes and I have a fiery speech about that I do not think it's a good idea but I will be able to talk about about that at another time in case you guys do decide to vote on that ordinance and pass it correct yes there'll be a public hearing on 25th yes so I'm gonna hold off on that because while that's important I do have lots of questions and um I think that we might be tired of hearing some of the same things that other people have said before so I'm going to try to make it more of a positive kind of thing where I want to kind of say that for instance I want to thank Lieutenant Turner and Sergeant Winters for their August email update to me they confirmed that they're going to restripe the area Pleasant Avenue they I've talked about and it will be carried out sometime in September and also they behaving Council mccoil I know that you spoke months ago about how you're talking to engineering about the manhole covers I don't know if you got about them sinking I don't know if you got any um answer about that uh because if they're going to repave kind of want them to take care of that the same time but you can speak upon that at at the end possibly um I wanted to talk about the appreciation for have the installation of the crosswalk with the flashing lights on Amboy Avenue I'm hoping that we can get additional ones I wanted to talk about how I recently reached out to the Traffic Unit about adding more digital speed signs on Amboy Avenue because people do exceed 25 miles per hour on am Avenue there is currently a 25 mile per hour signage there by the Stewarts but I don't think it's always working um I want to talk about the flooding that we've talked about multiple times on Amboy Avenue and I know that we have a bond for the sidewalk and before we go ahead and change that sidewalk I really think that we should address how much water is going there it goes right into the lawn of Stewart's Root Beer Lot that that's a heck of a lot of water that's right over the sidewalk can't see the sidewalk I want to talk about the accident that happened on Friday I wanted to give my gratitude to the B shift engines engines 129 truck one rescue 4 rescue 5 and car 8 they are amazing they were able to put out the fire they were able to save the lives of two people there but again this is an issue that happened on Grand View Avenue in my neighborhood where we then had lots of people coming through Amboy Avenue to go ahead and redirect since uh route one was closed for I don't know it seemed like eight hours it was so bad even at 3:00 when I was coming back for work that to go from Tano mall to my house which is a 7 Mile Stretch it took 15 minutes last May there was also another accident that happened I don't know exactly what it was on and Grand View was closed I was trying to go that way and had to redirect myself back to ambo Avenue it took me a half an hour to go I don't know maybe a mile it's ridiculous um I'm wondering what the issue is I um OA some reports to see how many accidents have happened in that area and there's significant once I brought this to the attention of I don't remember if I brought to the attention of the council but the Traffic Unit I'm wondering if the issue is that people are going and speeding through Route One when it's red I know that I see lots of people making left turns on from Grand View Avenue onto Route One it's illegal you're supposed to take the you The Jug handles um so it's not an isolated issue that we had these two major accidents in a few months span let me see what else I want talk about now I know that I spoke to Brett Baker a while ago um and he said he also complained about Grand View but it doesn't sound like anyone has done anything about these issues something needs to be done do we need a police presence over there to pull over and ticket people I also want to talk about John uh councilman Pointer's diligent work on trying to figure out how we can get three and a half stories he met with I think it was six people that one day um before his vacation I know that he was very horse after speaking two hours with us put a lot of effort into it and um I do feel as we've said before and last time I came here I didn't feel like we're moving fast enough even if we do get through with this we still have to go to the planning board there's still a lot of time that we'll um have to pass until we get things done I I am hopeful I I texted you about what Sue wanted to add there about limiting the larger Heights to um the larger properties versus the small ones I'm hoping that that maybe can be added I wanted to ask if you can get an update on the concerns I asked about the sidewalks on C roads on Amboy Avenue or even at wooder Wilson Drive to ensure that students do not have to walk on the sidewalk then have to walk on the grass and possibly get run over I know that councilman Brasher you mentioned something about we might be short changing schools I don't remember if you said it was $200,000 or something to that effect um so the township the school somebody should go ahead and address this but I don't know why we're not getting anywhere I would like to know who is responsible for maintaining the easement between the road and defense on planfield road there's significant there is significant overgrowth over there and that's right near to Charlie Brown development I also why somebody uh came up to me because I'm a committee person and said that hey on Lial Avenue I know that's a private road I don't know what the agreement is they said that you know years back ago they cut back the trees and um are they going to is a Township going to take care of who's going to take care of it it's ridiculous and as I said I have too much to talk about I've run out of time so I know that we were trying to time different things I wrote down these things I spent time there's my time thank you out there uh anybody else would like to speak uh one second before you start just just quick question yes um I'll be honest with you his questions were were too fast for me to keep track of so so I was I was was leaving that up to you but are we going to answer any of his questions uh actually to be honest I could not find any specific question that I could answer there was talk about the manhole sync which I think councilman Coy can answer um to the administration I had a opportunity to meet with the gas company in engineering they had a pre- meeting I did bring it up and I brought it up probably for the last nine months and I apologize we did not have this discussion but it was an ongoing email to engineering which a lot of people come down and we hav and think there's potholes there's you know and there are a few but what they're truly hitting is the manhole and the manhole uh after the paving has sunk the the definition behind the engineering he mentioned to me in our department he said they need a collar apparatus to keep them raised so I made it clear that before we pay ambo Avenue that this would be addressed so from what I'm told they're going through your department to request a a c estimate to get that done I can't answer whether that's been done or not and I'm sorry I'm throwing this at you today but it's been an ongoing issue they told me they would wait to pave till they spoke the administration okay um just as just as a a matter of fact I have our uh director of water and SE I'm being sort of signaled that the it may not be an issue or if there is an issue if if you could just come up council president and clarify based on his observations about the man sinking manhole evening everyone uh councilman the manholes do not sink when they repay the roads they do not raise the man holes to the grade of the repaving okay now I now first I certainly respect your time uh Bob I'm being told something different through engineering engineering told me it was DPW that would have to correct this problem and there's a collar so if we can just find out through a meeting offline sure I mean we can certainly discuss that um they are not uh however I don't know who you spoke to specifically if it was Brian or Brian it was Brian okay oh we can he's not here this week actually so he'll be back next week and we can set that up thank thank you uh and then there was additional crosswalks yes we I think that we all want additional lighted crosswalk on Amboy app but I think that is something that we are working on yeah uh digital 25 miles per hour sign on Amboy AV are you familiar with that situation council president um that's something I will discuss with the police department if there it's required or needed as well as engineering okay uh the flooding on ambo AV and the sidewalk and the stewards so typically what is done um as we're looking at our infrastructure and we're placing any uh curbing or sidewalks that's obviously looked upon so that would be part of the concrete work um I'll bring that up to engineering if that's something that we've we could add to the project okay and then in terms of the illegal left turns on Grand views can we have the police I can certainly have the police look into that right um effort sidewalks on Li Wilson uh eement do you remember anything about the easement question the question was who's responsible for taking care of the area between the fence and the roadway in the easement area and honestly that would depend on the property um generally speaking um if it's within the property's boundaries even though there is an easement there it is the property's ownership responsibility to take care of it uh there are I know properties where the uh I believe it was mentioned uh by the uh uh the woman before there are properties where the property line doesn't actually start until after the easement area so it would depend on the property but in general It's usually the property owner's responsibility to take care of that thank you councilman last I just want to mention gr View Avenue we've had several complaints again about the speeding there now it's been an ongoing I'm a resident many people are residents I think the chief is dispatch traffic throughout the town as best as we can always we can do more but I believe we just had a complaint and they immediately put a speed trap speed uh rer up there and I also believe that they gave out tickets recently over the last two weeks on that road so as much as we want to deploy our 190 officers throughout the town I think we did a pretty fair job on Grand F have always can do more we always want better for our residents but you can't say we've done nothing I mean it's been going on for 25 years we've had multiple tickets I mean geez when a retired officer ketto was there I think he probably gave out the most summonses on that block so I'll you know refer to the chief another time but I I always can do more but you can't say we've done nothing thank you thank you Council MCO you come on up good evening members of the council my name is Charlie crille I'm the editor New Brunswick today Community News Outlet available online at New Brunswick today.com uh have a few questions and comments to make tonight uh I wanted to ask uh um can you tell me who is the secretary of the ethics board any other questions yes I have many okay go ahead okay so Secretary of the ethics board okay I I notice everybody else is asking all their questions at once I prefer dialogue but if you're going to insist I'll I'll ask the questions it'll be easier for me to make sure that I answer correctly okay so I believe the secretary is Marina and um since she's here tonight through the chair can you ask Marina to tell us where she keeps the meeting minutes for the ethics board um are they archived or are they on site in this building or perhaps they're accessible from one or more computers and perhaps they could even be uh you know pulled up on somebody's phone tonight in this room if necessary um I raised this question because I've filed what I thought was a very simple open public records act request on May 14th and you don't have to take my word for it you can see it for yourself at opramachine dcom I requested copies of all minutes and recordings for the Edison ethics board meetings held since January of 22 so 22 23 and at the time I filed this a few months into 24 well I received a response to that request 10 days later saying it requires additional time beyond the seven days to fulfill and uh a citation was made to a section of the Oprah statute that uh would imply that the records were archived that they're archived records I don't know why they are archived or where they are archived um at any rate extension of time was requested by the clerk's office until June 7th they did not respond by June 7th but on June 11th got another response identical to the first one saying we need more time your request requires an extension of time till July 8th I responded and I asked uh you know I don't know why an additional extension is needed or the records archived Point Blank I asked yes or no this is June 15th and I asked how many ethics board meetings were there in the past two years no response to my questions on July 8th another identical extension uh saying my request requires an extension of time until August 8th no response to my direct questions uh lo and behold August 8th I get another identical request for extension of time until 97 September 7th was over the weekend did not get anything further uh I asked again several questions no response to the questions and then today I get a note saying my request requires an extension of time until September 23rd what's going on these are basic records that should have been produced my request was filed May 14th it's almost four months later and I have zero records it's not like you provided some and said some of them are hard to find some of them take some time I didn't get anything yet um who's responsible for this failure why hasn't the clerk's office responded to my questions are the attorneys at Ron Coughlin Mello aware of how badly Edison is bungling Oprah requests I don't know what's going on but the effect of what's going on is that the work of the ethics board is shrouded in secrecy someone who wants to find find out what the board has been doing can't find out for months at a time that is wrong I'm also disappointed to see you council president proceeding with a ordinance to roll back the Public's right to speak this fits in sadly with that lack of Oprah compliance with the extreme escalation that's been brought to these meetings by the council and with this lack of transparency that we see uh from the township I don't believe you were on the council back in 2022 but some of the people on the council back then might remember the township did something that made me very proud becoming the first Township to take a stand against the proposal for a dirty gas power plant just across the border in Woodbridge and thanks to Edison taking that stand and other towns following their lead we were able to stop that project and that was a good thing for everybody in in Middle sex County and Central Jersey I don't know if that would have happened if not for the six minutes and the rebuttal because we came to many many meetings and it took a lot of education and dialogue and the dialogue is the good thing the you know we shouldn't be stifling the dialogue there might be other nonsense that doesn't belong here but the dialogue is good so cutting the six back to four and eliminating the rebuttal is a mistake that will lead to less dialogue less productive discussion with your residents and people who are concerned about things like that proposed gas power plant um I also do have to ask uh some other questions here so um I I got to point out the township still hasn't done the right thing by uh acknowledging how the police violated the rights of a busload of people on New Year's Eve and you know that's only because the police chief the mayor and the police department have chosen to tow the line and refuse to apologize and refuse to admit that what happened was wrong and I'm very disturbed to see the police being used in these meetings I I I mean I couldn't think of anything stupider than what I witnessed tonight of somebody being removed for they they wanted to wear a mask and you didn't want them to wear a mask like I I I've heard about these things that happened at the recent meetings where uh people were removed very quickly um I don't I don't think that's the role of the police here I think that that these meetings can be run a lot better without police interference or involvement without the police being mobilized to remove people I don't think that's necessary um but uh I do want to ask did the Edison police recently deploy any of it off officers to Chicago for the DNC thank you uh as for the question on the Oprah uh I thought the opra requests were mandatory to be addressed they are however I don't know enough about the Oprah request that was made or about the responses that have been provided to provide you with additional information I will caution that um based on what I've heard uh it may be advisable to uh address that through legal rather than uh here I don't know if if he intends to file a suit if one's already been filed I honestly have no idea so okay so we will be answering that through legal unfortunately um for the I was here for the Woodbridge coal plant closing and uh I don't what was the last question something about the police officer going to DNC yeah um so I believe there I believe the the police uh Chief is here uh and he can verify this my understanding is that there was a federal law enforcement bulletin recommending that course of action is correct mik please that is correct thank you very much um and council president I would not be discussing any security detail whatsoever for obvious reasons thank you so the Edis police were dispatched to Chicago sir your time is up so police were sent to Chicago please sit down please sit down doesn't this deserve more exploration I hope the council will will see fit to explore this more please okay please sit down we'll address that I hope you will thank you council president um I just like to say to the speaker um I I miss you coming to our meetings and watching our meetings you you seem to miss quite a bit um in my discussion items I will be openly discussing uh law enforcement going to the DNC and questioning whether the residents are going to be reimbursed that's number one number two I will talk about the horrible law firm in my opinion the law firm that redacts information from a sitting council person okay never mind the public if they don't have the respect for the elected officials in Edison and the other elected officials do not stand up for those Council people but remain silent then they should just sit there silent and listen to what I have to say about our Law Firm the manello Renown and Coughlin law firm and how the Edison taxpayers are being flee that's in my discussion it so I hope you'll stay sir thank you all right thank you so the the secondary portion of that that I'm aware of at least uh is that uh well the chief is correct in that any kind of security Arrangements should not be discussed uh my understanding is that reimbursement was part of the um Arrangement reimbursement to the township once a final bill has been presented thank you uh anybody else Anthony damr uh 25 Wy um let's stay on the uh the other the police topic um there was yet another uh Breakin in uh brought daylight last week in Claire Barton um first I just want to let the chief know thank the chief for his officers they responded really quickly they were up and down um I don't know if they ended up catching the individual um but they were trying so um you know but it's uh it's not the police's fault why these break-ins are going on it's just uh something needs to be done though um it it's just it's happening way too much I remember I've been in this town for a long time and you know you might get one Breakin you would hear about once every few years and we've had in my end of clar Barton uh this is now the second one at least in the last three months three and a half months in broad daylight so the criminals are um you know they're they're they don't really have a lot of fear right now and that's that scares me um and being that the highways of 440 287 are close by um proximity of the greenway so there's it's it's you know um it's a Hot Zone in my opinion and and uh you know I I I I hope that Patrol continues especially uh even during the day but at night as well um you know and then speaking of the you know the mayor you know you hear things like the mayor might have had a security detail in in Chicago um and I know the chief said that he's not going to discuss the SEC and I respect that but if there was a if there was any security issue that he needed security detail he shouldn't have gone I mean it it wasn't an Edison thing so I mean he shouldn't have just gone I mean it's just you know he should have stayed home and meanwhile we got break-ins going on and you know how many officers that he took off the road possibly you know could have uh could have helped respond to other calls and and it's just it's irresponsible as the public safety director I said it again you should step down as a public safety director um and and leave it to somebody that you know that knows what the hell they're doing when it comes to Public Safety and you know and that's that's my opinion uh but you know I I don't know what he was doing there what that how that betters Edison um and and if the man would like to come and explain himself um that would be great um you know and then you go on to the six minute stuff I can tell you this then councilman Joi would you know it's funny he because he's lost his way he really has because he'd be probably the first one that would have spoken out against this um he really would have been and he would have done some Facebook live or something and and would have went on and rightfully so and now you don't hear anything from him so um I'd like to know what his opinion the mayor's opinion on this uh six minute to four minute uh you know drop is is you know what what his take is and um because we don't get to hear from him too often um and then I look at you know I go on these discussion items and I always see disc I always happen to read them before I come into the meeting and You Know Rich always got a ton uh councilman P's always got a ton you know pointer got always got a basically everybody has a lot of discussion items but uh I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing your uh your last name sir um out of all of the work sessions that we've had since the beginning of the year you've had one time where you had discussion items and all of this stuff that's going on I I just I'm just curious like do do you is there any opinion do you have any concern about what's going on anywhere and there's a lot of big topics here and you never have a discussion item to discuss and it just that that worries me um so you know I I we like to hear from you you're you're also an elected official um and you know it's you know you've been here for a while now I mean it's it's it's time to hear from you and where you stand on these issues so um i' like to see something in the discussion items um and one other thing uh as as far as um you know school is now reopened um and I I actually called the chief about the officer did a great job Chief I I don't know if this is I don't if this is more Board of Ed or if this is the police department but the traffic by James and row is so bad it just is and I know it's the design of the roads are small there but I have like One op like one suggestion maybe and I don't know if this is doable is you know if you had the vehicles come down uh I think think it's Harmon you know during the drop off uh in the morning and basically make that a one way and then have them drop off and then go up halo as a one way and don't don't allow traffic going the other way I don't know if that would help they did it during um a snowstorm last year uh Taro did a they did a great job so they had all the cars coming in one way exiting one way and it was done beautifully um it's something to think about to to alleviate some of the traffic because it's uh you had a l lot of parents that missed the first day of school seeing their kids get dropped off in the first day pitch is because they were stuck in the traffic jam now there was a a car I believe uh that day but nevertheless it's still always bad something to think about maybe just making it during certain times of the uh of the school day one way uh a oneway um uh Street there uh down Harmon up uh up halo um but I'm not a traffic expert um and let's see here oh Shamrocks yes sorry sorry uh Shamrocks does anybody I knew I had something else thees Shamrocks field do we know who owns that field the property up on the North End because uh I hearing it's it's there's nothing be it's dormant right now nobody's playing on it and uh who may own that property and uh I think that's uh that's it thank you council president uh so who owns the Shamrock field does anybody know uh I will wait for the ba to get back to to get the answer to you council president yes just as a member of Public Safety I just first want to speak uh for our chief and the great job he does across this town as most of you been in here across the years we've done a lot of improvements including a substation on oaki road and so many different things with that whether he chooses by a directive to send a supplement officers to a to an event I don't know what the difference would be between us using ex Duty Solutions and the teams that we have available of the 190 officers to do road work so as I listen to a speaker which I know he has just an opinion but we also have road work going on throughout the entire town so do we stop that from happening as well so I uh to hear my chief be criticized of the great work he does I have a problem with and I think as a member of Public Safety with my colleagues on Public Safety we've made some great changes we went from how many officers to now 190 officers you can't say we haven't and I just want to address uh that you know be being there and which I think is an issue when I hear this I think we've done please no talking it it's a fact you've been people have been in here for 5 10 years years as I sat here on the council and we've made significant strides from where we were before and where we are now thank you council president thank you and last one more thing I just want to add to that to attack my Council colleague Assaf shamuel who does a fantastic job his first year in a council I just want to let you know prior to this I sat in the audience just like everybody else for 27 years we never had discussion items this is a choice of the council president to do discussion items for other purposes we never had them before and this was a first time so to say he is not involved over what he chooses to put on here is wrong this week alone I've had multiple uh conversations with him and he was direct directly involved in items that are on this agenda and I received calls from him and I'm sure other colleagues can say they receive calls from him so prior it this if he didn't complain of the 20 years of other Council people and the 17 different council members why would you attack a colleague who's doing a great job in his community and for the township of Edison thank you thank you council president point of order no talking if someone talks while the other person is recognized I will kick them out because please be respectful and listen to the person that is actually talking thank you council president I just wanted to respond to councilman Coy um I did not hear Anthony attack councilman schm I heard him Express disappointment he doesn't see any discussion items on the agenda from councilman schm but that's not an attack that's an opinion that he registered and I I take umage at the characterization that Anthony damaran was attacking councilman schm thank you thank you Council vice president president Council B yeah just a question for you U my Council colleague said that um we didn't have discussion items but you're the one that initiated this this was actually in the our books it was already there we should have been doing that Council presidents in the pass chose not to follow it I choose to follow it you mean to put the list of items yes but we've always had discussion items yeah the discussion items are always there so so we've always been able to speak right you just made us put them in a list yes oh okay C just want to make the comment you know Council you know we on the DI for a long time we always had the discussion atem it's that it just that it was not listed as a point atem but any time any ccil member when their name is called any discussion item I could ask any question I don't have to put any on the list I think the council president chose to put that in the list so that he can work with the administration other departments to get back if there are any anything that can help to streamline this meeting that was the idea there right so not that we never had that and you can watch you know all along 8 10 years of council meeting we were asking the questions to Administration so just want to correct that thank you sir president I I just want to clarify it doesn't justify any member of this Council whether they're doing a a great job a fantastic job or no job each member of this Council I hear from often I speak with I meet for lunch or coffee and each member of this council is working hard and that's a fact thank you thank you Council m co U as for me I will watch for Council MMO the work gets done he calls he gets numbers we have discussions lengthy discussions and that happens outside of the council meetings just because they are not listed here does not mean he does any less work than any of us if he chooses to put up any discussions that he feels that he must do he will if he does not choose to that is his call as well all right anybody else that would like to speak come on up Brett Baker Grand VI avue Addison New Jersey 08837 um am I recn you recognized thank you my leash um the you know the the entire thing I was going to speak about sort of went out the window when I just watched five separate rebuttals occur in response to a public comment five separate rebuttals from those of you on the Das and response to a public comment this is why people don't come to these meetings people don't come to these meetings because they come here they share their opinions and they get eye rolls they get size they get us I stopped coming to these meetings because it just became a a show but I came tonight because I screwed up dinner because I was cooking I was prepping dinner and I almost cut my finger why because I listened to council president Patel saigh at the beginning of a meeting once again sigh carry over from the previous meeting when I listened to him sigh carry over from the previous meeting when I listened to the business administrator demand that the council president move on because she was not going to engage in back and forth about the resolution related to fund dispersement I don't want to go back to that all I'm saying is there was a lot of confusion at the last meeting there were a lot of questions and people got annoyed that there were questions my dear former Council uh Council woman was up here and I watched eyes not meet her face I watched multiple eyes meet my face I'm a white man and I'm left to wonder why eyes meet my face and not hers now back to what I was going to say I spent two times at The Joy ship Freeman Splash Pad this summer thoroughly enjoyed it I tipped my hat to those who planned it questions who owns the Stewart's property I saw for the first time a sign advertising the rental of the space I'm just curious about some double dipping and overlapping of the use of it just curious who owns it um great to see a new crossing guard at James Andro there's been an officer and a crossing guard and so I'm just curious uh the longevity of that um I assume it's a new guy there's training and all that but if you know me is to know that I don't appreciate police officers outside of our schools not for safety reasons just the Optics you know me um uh it's about to be snow season and I'd like to draw this body's attention to Grand View Avenue and the inability for my neighbor Grand View Gardens to properly clear snow and their residence to keep Grand View Avenue clear during snow emergencies Chief Bryant can attest that there was there was a medical emergency two years ago at those apartments and their failure to clear the snow hindered the response of multiple fire engines and ambulances I was told that it was rectified I was told fines were given I was told they were spoken to I was told I was told I was told I was told and then I woke up last winter and watched snow get plowed from their parking lot into my driveway and so I called the township I pleaded I said please please please just talk to them talk to these dear landlords who live in Brooklyn who refuse to answer my phone because they know what I'm talking about talk to them can you take care of your your property better can you have residents clear the street when there's a snow emergency oh it'll be taken care of it'll be taken care of it'll be there's going to be fines given and I woke up again to another snow emergency and snow being plowed into my driveway so just a reminder Grand View Avenue my neighbors are terrible at their upkeep and uh we have a personal challenge because they just hang up on me now when I call them then I'm just going to bring it to your guys' attention and I'll I guess cross my fingers that it'll be taken care of um I disagree and this is why rebuttal matter I disagree with the statement that Grand View Avenue has had speed enforcement I applaud the police department's efforts on there but a auxiliary police car with an inflatable body at a corner that is not near the source of a speeding problem is not speed enforcement it is not the speed problem that I have spoken about multiple times originates at the overpass of the New Jersey Turnpike and graue Avenue heading towards Route not coming from Route One the speed sign I presume is not meant to capture Speeders down by Route One it's actually meant to uh plate illegal merges coming off Route One which is brilliant move by the way I love that move but there has been very little speed enforcement on Grand View Avenue as attested by the car accident I almost got into coming to this meeting I am physically unable to safely exit my property because gr Vu Avenue speeding is so bad it is my neighbors it is the residents it is people around there and to sit up there and say that it's happening i i l last I last meeting I heard just trust us will spend the money wisely and tonight I hear we know how long you need to speak and all I hear is speaks uh speeches about decorum and I've heard you Sigh No fewer than five times since I came here lost count of how many times the ba has been annoyed in the last couple of meetings and I respect it I get it it's a hard job but when I first started in my career I had a supervisor named that my body language looked annoyed and the question was posed how do you think that makes your students feel thank you Marina the question was supp how do you think that makes your students feel there's a reason I haven't come to these meetings for the last two years there's a reason I haven't come to the meeting the last two years I've heard us talk about rebuttal and I've had us do this there is a direct need for rebuttals in this body Council president in your first term you made a miss speak and you clarified it but you gave improper and incorrect medical advice from the dis and you were called out in a rebuttal and you clarified it that is the beauty of a rebuttal that is the beauty of the rebuttal to get clarity of what somebody's speaking my questions that I posed are going to have answers and that's the beautiful thing and I'm going to disagree with some of those answers and I'm G to have questions about some of those answers and the be beautiful part about a rebuttal is that I can get those answers I don't need to follow up PRI I don't need to follow up after the fact I don't need to have some Fancy Nancy meeting with you to do it and before you hmer that's all I'm going to say stop being experts you don't have an equal chance of slipping on tur more dangerous than thank you all right uh questions on the steward's property who owns that does anybody know it is privately owned okay Shamrock field and the Shamrock field there was a question while you were not here uh do you know do you have know who owns the Shamrock field believe that's a county I'll confirm that yeah can you confirm that thank you uh and the crossing guards and the officer um they happen to be side by side is there something that we can clarify as to how long that will happen council president we're actually working on that um so we'll continue to do the best that we can down there and uh Mr Damon had a good idea to talk to my traffic people to see if we can circumvent some of that traffic to make it a little bit easier for everybody and at the same time I already took care of the speeding uh for Mr Baker um already texted my supervisor for traffic so we'll make sure we have some more traffic enforcement out there you know we do commonly have traffic enforcement out there and we do issue suenes and Mr Baker's right A lot of the time it's the residents there too but we're going to continue to do that and ramp that up thank you you're welcome and uh there's also the mention of the Grand View Gardens and the snow clearing it seems to very per that we make sure that that snow gets cleared especially if there's an emergency situation and I think the speeding and the overpress and the Turnpike was answered and I think that for Mr brat um anybody else Deb Whittle 24 carelo Drive Edison couple things um the traffic in this town we know is horrendous um and I live in South Edison and it's probably worse there um recently a lighted crosswalk um was put on Route 27 in division when you come down 27 um and you make the turn off planfield Avenue having that crosswalk there is dangerous because people are speeding up to get traction after the light changes and you don't see people there the light is kind of to the side so it's not very noticeable and I think that's dangerous um also um on the south side of Edison I would say probably 60% of the blocks between um Route 27 and Route One don't have sidewalks and you have people walking in the street um to get to the Hmart Plaza you have people crossing 27 at all hours of the day and night um and it's dangerous and you have kids riding bikes um so I think that whoever does Public Safety or traffic um needs to reconsider that um the other lady mentioned that um uh the Stop and Shop um are all closing probably by October 31st that leaves us with one non International fullscale retail store in Edison so are we captive to that store um and um how are we going to have other stores we're so worried about um Commercial Business and profits um so why are we going to be beholden to the shop right I know the police have a lot of different things to do 100 cops for over 115,000 people who reside here doesn't seem to be a lot to me especially with the traffic with um all different um sort of things happening here the traffic accidents I think have quadrupled here in Edison where the police have to spend their time um dealing with um those accidents um and so having 190 police um should be warranted given the amount of money that's pissed away in this town we should have more police also um while the police have a lot of different things to do um the homeless while this um Edison Township is flourishing um for somebody's pocket I don't know who there's a lot of homeless people in Edison um walking around and when I call the police department they told me that they would Um send a patrol car and I said well what could you do for them we can call 211 211 doesn't answer they have no money and where do you put homeless people who are sleeping under the the bus depot on routee 27 right by the municipal center and walking down Central Avenue um so I can't believe that a town of this size can't put together some kind of homeless program and the Edison um Housing Authority does nothing um the other thing that I wanted to say like everybody else um is I don't think you've the right to um limit um free speech you people are paid to be here um and I think if we add up the amount of hours that you spend publicly I think your per hour um wage um is way more than the minimum wage that people make so you should want to be here you shouldn't sit here with pusses on your face and I don't know how many of you have bathroom issues but you walk out in and out um as you choose um again what other people say about your disinterest people yawn here and they don't even cover their mouth which is something that's courteous and would be um more obvious given um covid so you people are paid to be here you should show an interest in the Township in the interest of what residents have to say we're not stupid we live here we pay your salaries we pay your taxes I don't understand why you have no interest in what people have to say here um and then you just ignore it and do whatever the the heck that you want to do anyway whoever's political influence you are under to do what is not good for this town this town is congested this town is um overcrowded this town is chaotic you can't move any place in this and the schools are overcrowded and you're telling us that you know you can't listen to us when you all have done this and so I don't understand um reducing our free speech and if you do that you don't even give us the right to rebuttal and as the other gentleman said you all rebutted a comment that you didn't like but we're not allowed to do this so I don't understand you people are you part of a republican gang to I don't know demolish the Constitution um so that we don't have free speech and you know what is this is this the next step to um eliminating the public from these um forums um going forward so I I don't understand you people and why you take this job if it's just for the money and to line your pockets thank you okay so I think there was a question on the sidewalks uh Sonia at the HMS I think that's a good important point I do believe that we need to install sidewalks near the Hmart in Route 27 is that area being redeveloped by anytime soon if I could just uh turn it over to Mr bnell if there's any development with good evening again um first off Route 27 is a state highway so they had complete jurisdiction but I do know that the the owner of the um Festival Plaza has petitioned the the state so he could he could personally pay for a traffic light and a crosswalk there to protect the people crossing Route 27 so that's in the works but it's uh state controlled so we really can't push them but he is willing to pay for the entire uh light and and put a crosswalk in so that the children are protected across in the street oh thank you and there was a question on the homelessness is there something we can do as a Town Council president we have uh unfortunately some individuals that are homeless in the town and I must say that my community policing unit they do an outstanding job uh they have gone out we actually have identified some of these people and helped them we continue to try to help them and there are some that just don't want any help so my unit my team they actually go out there sometimes on a daily basis checking on these people so we're doing everything that we can to get them some help not only here from our Township but from the state also but I just want everyone to be cognizant of the fact that we have identifi them and everybody probably knows who they are we have a gentleman that is on 27 by McDonald's you know he refuses any help from us but it doesn't stop us from going out and helping him there's also a female that's under the bridge my people go out and check on her every day and um there's also uh it's a it's a mother sister that are homeless too we're doing the best we can to possibly help them and sometimes people don't want the help you know it's unfortunate thank you for that answer um driver okay anybody else that would like to speak motion to close the public portion may I have a second second all right all in favor I I all right that's motion by councilman coil second by Council vice president do number 21 all right uh moving on to number 22 from the council member to the planning board councilman point Thank You council president the next meeting is next Monday uh here in council chambers at 7 p.m and that would be on September 16th thank you thank you council president uh reports from the council committees starting from my right Council M Brer um jets field do we have a an update for the completion of the jet what's it point committees committees not at this time sir do we any Comm committee reports no none at this time Council mcoy none sir uh Council vice president yes I've got several they're a little dated because they were middle of last month but um the uh animal sh the uh animal shelter report for August another good report there are currently at the shelter 13 kittens 12 cats and one mom with four babes canines there are 14 dogs and puppies there are three bottle babies reclaimed back to their owner five dogs and one cat and then the really good news adopted 29 dogs and 32 cats so we're really humming along with that there were a lot of puppies last month and they went fast um so I will continue to get at this point there's no real need for actual meetings and so I'm just going to continue to get the shelter updates for each month and report back then Edison Cultural Arts commission met on August 13th and we discussed uh so there's going to be the Edison arts society u in fact Elizabeth Han just sent an email about this is going to be U putting the exibition on the second floor and the third floor uh Landscapes and um so we look forward to that um looking at the P at the the public the display in the gallary it's we're looking to change that and we're we're happy to accept applications for people who want to exhibit in there but for the meantime it looks like we have coming up uh a display on domestic violence in October and uh the police department and fire department display in November possible other ones coming up in the new year would be the EMS Youth Sports and Hands of Hope um one request and I apologized to Lois tar because I had told Lois that I was going to bring this up um beforehand but uh I'll bring it up now is it possible for us for the gallery to get uh 40 by 4 40 by2 cases of Plex with a plexiglass cover and possibly four smaller ones for the exhibits is that something that we can look at I'm sure if you we can just uh take that offline and we can work together purchasing at order of those um so we can be more specific as to what you want to put in them and exactly so we can get the right right item sounds good okay thank you uh next meeting of the cultural arts commission is going to be on Tuesday August uh Tuesday September 17th Library board met also on the 13th of August um the uh let's see the the library Foundation is working on a brochure um the main library remediation took place uh for the two weeks that started August 19th I believe it's that was the top floor it's open again uh there's a logo and rebranding project going on for the library they're putting some focus groups together for that uh we had a resolution that was approved to approve a contract with McCabe for asbest testing at the North Edison Branch and a resolution to approve an extended contract for CME in the amount of $27,000 560 um I might be some additional uh things oh the um the person who uh represents the the asbest remediation is uh was Dr Mark was Mr Mark Bowski he attended that meeting and answered questions about the asbestos removal um and uh let's see the there were questions that were raised if the township had been contacted regarding assisting with asbest removal Alan kimman had responded the town had been contacted and they were very clear that it was a responsibility of the library board um that is pretty much it and the next Library board meeting is actually tomorrow evening uh and then one one other thing the human relations commission is meeting on Thursday September 17th that is the end of my reports thank you thank you Council vice president councilman pel none none at this councilman poter thank you council president um the Housing Authority had a ribbon cutting event for their resurface basketball and Tennis Courts uh it was a fantastic event out um beautiful Sunshine they dedicated the resurfacing and the project uh they've named it The Potter's Crossing Sports Complex uh with the intent that they will be expanding on what they did so it was great to see the improvements uh and I thank the Edison Housing Authority um director Hurley and her efforts and all the Commissioners both present and past for getting to that point and all the projects that they have up coming thank you council president thank you Council poter Council mm this time sir yes one more thing um thank you Elizabeth Conway for uh correcting me the next human Relations Committee commission meeting is actually Thursday the 12th thank you thank you uh as none for me moving on to point of light uh any council member with point of Lights yes several um I want to remind everybody that on Wednesday September 11th there will be a ceremony at 6: p.m. at papani park by the 911 memorial um also want to thank the Boy Scout Troop 110 who painted troop 110 who painted a combat wounded parking spot at the elex lodge really well done um big thing coming up is Wednesday September 25th it's the it's Edison's turn for the middle sex County jazz festival and it's a great lineup and I want to I really want to shout special thanks to Judy Tindle who's on the commission who has been really the has been the Mover and Shaker with all of this so we have the lineup is the Akiko suruga quartet the Carrie Jackson quartet off the hook which is um JP Stevens alums that uh have a jazz band and then finally the JP Stevens High School Jazz troop so that's Wednesday September 25th at Pap an Park 5:45 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. so I encourage everyone to go it's free and um this is going to be a great lineup and so far the long range forecast looks terrific um so that oh and one the other thing so the first um pride festival was held this past Saturday and I know it's September and pride month is June but with all the events that are going on all across New Jersey in June we we and many other communities are doing it in other months um rather small attendance this time but it wasn't exactly that well publicized next year we're expecting a much bigger attendance and uh and and uh other uh other events that are going to to go along with us I think something about the was it soccer yeah yeah um so I think they're trying to have a since we have a soccer field right next to the papani park we are trying to have an exhibition match over there right okay all right um that's it thank you thank you uh any other Council members council president M I just also want to Echo the sentiments of my Council vice president of the pride event I thought it was a great uh opportunity for this town to have pride in Edison although we always wish to have it in June I think it was also great to still have it and um great event well entertained and it was a much needed uh cause to definitely support and I truly had a good time I stayed the entire event a lot of great entertainment I want to thank DPW Administration police fire and Recreation for all great work they do I also want to talk about the Edison Jets pep rally I had a chance to join some colleagues and go over there uh what a big event Edison Jets is ready to take off their season and let's also talk about cheer cheer has multiple defin AG brackets for the cheerleading groups and uh I want to thank all the coaches and parents and cheer coaches that are involved in taking their time and sacrificing their day to teach other kids it's amazing if you sit there just for a moment to see the confidence they instill in both the cheerleaders and the players uh you there's some great speakers here but certainly there's some coaches out there that can really bring together a crowd and it was it's wonderful to witness it and be there and I'm looking forward to their season this year so thank you very much to the coaches out there the parents and what sports mean to Edison thank you thank you Council MCO um counc yes I need to rebut myself um so so uh as councilman patile pointed out to me yes that is the the September 25th is the night of a the regular council meeting so it does that does uh pose a conflict for those who want to do both but again it's 5:45 to 8:30 however with the Wednesday date um yeah we this was not the ideal date for us however we are hoping next year matachin is currently at Saturday they want to move to Friday we would love to have the Saturday date so that we could encourage as much in the way of attendance as possible we would have to find a way to coordinate that with the fall family festival and see if we can move the date of that to maybe a week earlier or a week later um so for for now it's it's on a Wednesday we're hoping next year that it can be moved to Saturday thank you thank you Council vice president any other council members as for me just as Council vice president pointed out the 911 ceremonies at Memorial uh in Lake papani at 6 p.m. the leaf back pickup uh this is important is going to be at the recycling center at 7:45 New Durham Road beginning September 23rd to November 2nd uh the fall cleanups started on SE Saturday September 7th and there's a schedule attached so the regular recycling date if it's Monday it's going to be Saturday September 7th for Section 1 and six for Tuesday it'll be Saturday September 14th for section 2 and 7 Wednesday for uh Saturday September 21st for Section 3 and 8 Thursday September 28th for section 4 and9 and Friday Saturday October 5th for 5 and 10 and also the first prior event was a great success we had vendors uh but I think I agree we do need to Market well and it is off not the June pride month so I think it's difficult getting there but I think the next year if we can get the the first LGBT uh football match going I think that would be a great promotion to get more members to come uh moving on to discussion items number 25 councilman Brer you can take it away um I'm a let's start at the bottom Interruption of council members um that was really directed at when we speak to the public and we don't let them finish I and I think we've made some changes here tonight that um actually is good um you know where you ask if they're done and those are all their questions and the whole thing I I I think that will save some confusion and you know it doesn't look like we're interrupting them so so that I do like um the restore the March 11th meeting well somebody asked me to ask about that same status I get it um definitions of warehouses I don't know where we are on that I know that we were doing something but does anybody have an update on that one so we're still working on it we're trying to figure out how to get it to actually be effective uh we had a conversation in it but that's all right really have conversations there's nothing definite okay um Amboy Avenue obviously we talked about that today um tax bill um I considered a tax bill that was sent out I I guess it said that all the council people except for me and Mr batile didn't do something um there was a a flyer went out the mayor put something out where he left myself and Mr bti out and saying that we don't vote for things um and I talked to my Council colleagues I explain that uh 98% of the things that come up to vote we vote on okay so that's an A+ um that right there borders on propaganda right and misappropriation of funds by the mayor and the administration to put that out in a way that says these people don't vote for things and these people did and he didn't ever he's never done that before when there was any other kind of controversy that came up or anything um this is the same man that did not vote for a budget okay to go to make sure that our residents were safe um he refused to vote for a budget where I voted for a budget and in that budget Edison had the largest promotional policy ever here we had to have it in the Pines parking lot I mean there were hundreds of people with the hiring promotion that we did but at that time our current mayor he didn't vote for that he didn't vote for that budget because he didn't care how safe we were and while my colleagues May sit here and say I'm on this Safety Committee or whatever it might be um you know that's a great thing there but um Public Safety I I'll leave that one for my next one next week because I I'd like to really expand upon the whole public safety thing there was a repeal of an ordinance um that I asked our attorneys to uh produce to date they haven't done it um so again what happened was no council person on this body the clarifi that was sent the rental yeah what's that was done it was sent to the council oh is it yeah today today we Reed it yes but you you can continue okay and and and the reason why why I asked for that and again it goes back to what this body does and what this body should do and what this body doesn't do and how we're dysfunctional um the proper process was if the mayor Administration felt there was an issue they should have went to council president council president should have formed a committee um and and I don't blame council president for that because nobody's been here to show him that because we've been doing it wrong for for years um this isn't you know the first time here okay so and then that committee should have went and got information when when that ordinance first came up right I I felt something wasn't right but it was one of those things that got dropped on our our lap type of thing where we didn't have a lot of time in fact I asked a couple questions um about single residents like myself like if I were to have to Reg uh rent my home to my son do I have to do it and I was told no it's only if you have five or more so if I have five Sons I have five homes I guess I'd still have to register um but but then what happened was I I was told that there were flaws in the implementation of the law right and and that was really the reason why I was looking for the law to be repealed um and I was hoping to do that before any litigation started so we didn't have to spend thousands of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars with our Law Firm um turns out then right we were sued um or we're being sued by I don't know 50 litigants or something to to that effect basically saying that it can't be implemented um but again besides that right we talk about affordability we talk about homeless people we talk about all these issues and what this body just did here was we increased the rent on everybody in Edison by approximately $200 now now Mye Council colleagues might argue and say we only raised at $100 um for the inspection fees and and while that may be true the burden on the landlords now is that they're going to have to have somebody there present when our inspectors are for every one of these units um some of the landlords are very workable they they took my concerns that I had um and they said they wanted to work with this body and do that but no one did that we just passed it so I actually apologize because when I make a mistake I I was always taught you're supposed to um I don't want to make rental units less affordable for people here in Edison by adding an additional $200 to the rent after everything else that's went up now so so that was the reason why I was looking for this repeal um I didn't hear anything from our attorneys but I'm going to get back to our attorneys back up when I get ordinance for consideration up on the top uh do we have a update on the landfill closure because this is something I've been asking about for quite some time um where are we with this we do have um a firm an engineering firm that's been working with the closure status um Mr Bell can fill you in exactly in terms of where we are on the project no okay I mean Mr Big Nell's getting up and down a lot tonight I see it's when I saw your uh discussion items I reached out on Friday to our consultant to find out where we stood we've had several meetings with them and what we were finding out is that with the notices from d and stuff we're following all that paperwork we're doing all the all the reports that need to be done one of the things that we've we've figured out though is that the landfill is probably double the size of what legally is supposed to be our landfill so so we have an extra 70 Acres of of landfill that's been that was done over the years that has to be remediated and that's coming to light with all the processes and all the the meetings on site with the D so um basically what we did we've we've we've surveyed the environmental benefits and it's it's called an EBA property that's the piece of property outside the the boundaries of the existing landfill and that's about 70 Acres we're going to have to test different spots to see how far the intrusion of land filling is and then correct that um so that's partially completed the um we had task two was to uh to review the EBA property historic documents we've done all that um the njde minor disruption permit for the ebaa that's been completed uh the NJ d l use permit application performing investigative work within the ea uh that's partially completed because everything we do has to be done with the state watching like holding our hand as we go through the process um uh I think I told you way back in towards the beginning of the discussion with this is that the uh the township of Edison um years ago I think it DOC patter Nini when he was mayor um set up a fund and we have over $17 million in that Fund in Trenton that we can use to start closing the landfill so we're going to since the the scope of the work has expanded the the scope of the price to do all the the engineering and stuff is probably going to expand and we'll present that to you real soon as soon as we have all those particulars but we are working on it we are it's going to take a it's going to take a little time to do all this because I think the state's going to require us to take all that that landfill that we did it past our our boundary of the landfill and put it in the landfill then cap it and that's that's probably going to be part of the the whole process and the whole uh the whole plan to get this thing fixed once and for all right now I I think I asked you this a year ago right and here we are well there's a lot of work involved in this I all right I understand I'm just looking for a time frame like a a timeline but besides I can't tell you like you know you have to give me something yeah well like I said we've we've got the first five tasks just about completed with the state okay um once and then they get the information and they have to they they sit on it for a while to decide what we're going to do and how we're going to go forward with all this stuff um I think it's going to take a couple years to to do what we're talking about to get all the because you have to move all that all that landfilling that's all have to be dug out put on top of the landfill and then recapped so that's what's going to happen out there so it's going to be a Monumental task because it's worse than we thought right and and I'm not looking for the closure a date I'm looking for a design you know you know what I mean when would the design I guess in the next six months or so we should be real close with a design that's been submitted with the with the state you know and if that changes I certainly will let you know you can talk to me any time we're on top of this okay all right and then we have like and we also have the money that the state gave us a $300,000 Grant to close this thing but it's going to cost more than that I believe I think that was for the design fees and that's where we're at and so what's happening is since the scope of the work is doubled because the landfill has doubled we we've petitioned the state to see if we can use some of that 17 million to I'll pay for that too so it's not coming out of the it's not coming out of the taxpayer today it's it'll be like yesterday's kind of dollars that we have set down there that's going to happen down the road okay all right but that's where we're at with it okay all right sir thank you very much um you know you you confused me enough with that whole process I think I think it was almost a 15-step process that you just gave me but but thank you thank you very much um police Staffing you know what this comes down to is um you know hearing that we have four police officers that well well hearing that we have crime right I I know we have Breakin we have breaking with Clara Barton I know that we have speeding issues I know that we have all these things um I do understand that our police chief says that there's some kind of security thing but I also do note that our police chief works for the mayor right so I'm cognizant of that um therefore you know he shall never shall throw a stone uh um but the word was that the mayor took four police officers with him to the DNC and he isn't even a delegate at the DNC which which that basically is like a political vacation okay it's called a vacation so if the mayor is going to go to Aruba does he G to is he do we give him four police officers to to go to Aruba I mean it's a very valid question the mayor should reimburse the township for the four police officers and for any overtime that has been generated otherwise I I don't to me that's almost like theft of service in a way um you know legally that's above my pay grade I believe it's above my lawyer's pay grade because it would be left to a prosecutor or something but for you to take Township employees and use them for your personal uh um I I I really don't know what they did I mean the chief has told me that there were some credible threats council members up here have received threats I received threats myself but I I don't have uh police escorting me around right and I go everywhere um but for our mayor to do that was appalling well crime is on the rise and our statistics are there to show that right so when we say that we care about the public safety you don't care about the public safety if you're taking four police officers if if we have 180 police officers you're taking four away and then every time I see you any at any event or something you have police escorts um what you're doing is you're actually putting the police in in Jeopardy of um well not being able to do their job efficiently not stop crime here you know and we all talked about already with the Public Safety Committee about the um station we had an Oak Tree Road that was unmanned right and we had the blowups inside the the police cars I I really don't believe any of this works um I I I I just don't think we have the proper Staffing of police in the town to keep our residents safe okay I just don't um maybe the administration can give us a breakdown of of what burglaries and all this has been happening for years but but we can't get that cuz that's a secret document and we can't release that to council people um or or the public because well you might feel unsafe when you go to sleep at night I guess um next question deer study um do we before councilman goes to the next topic now we have 7 minutes left 6 and a half minutes can we extend the meeting for half an hour oh uh yeah I'm okay with that yeah so can I get a motion to extend by half an hour motion to extend to 10 to 10:30 yeah second all right so that's motion by Council vice president second by Council Mel to extend the meeting till 10:30 I and all in favor I I uh dear study um now now this is a good one because you know people talk about the uh the racist flyer in that but I believe the deer study we've been looking at a lot longer than the racist flyer um does anybody know where we are with the deer study I think councilman pointed or answer that last time oh did you yeah but can I'm sure you can I don't want to take away from your time if I can just respond when when oh okay perfect okay um youth funding um because it's that time of year right we always do it um do we have all those equations worked out yet or we we do um have worked them out in terms of uh what we think is a fair process um however because of where we are in the year uh we want to be fair to the usth leagues in that uh we would probably delay it another year um they've been used to getting the same kind of funding so we want to make sure we don't know where they are in terms of setting their budgets so we thought that if we uh give them basically Year's notice that they would then understand to properly fund um dur throughout the year so so we're going to give them the same amount right if I'm not mistaken for the coming year yes for for this this year and then next year we'll give them the revised amount could you send me the um like the formula that we have for that that I could just look at that sure all right thank you uh fire hydrant right we have a leaky fire hydrant that I don't know somebody put I think you asked me where it was I have no clue it's on Facebook right because that's where we get most of our NOS here um in Edison did we find out where the fire hydrant is and why we can't fix it we did uh and it's getting fixed tomorrow oh it's amazing Facebook is is more powerful than anything out there I mean I have to give that Mark Zuckerberg credit um water meter status um we've approved funds to do and it wasn't just water meters but but water meters um scoping out our our sore lines and all that right we approved funds for people to do these studies and do this have we implemented any of this council president may I have Mr SMI up yes that's councilman the uh water meters and the fire hyr are in for ibank funding and the um other question you had asked it's was out it went through um it went out for bid for the work and has started they have chosen a a vendor and we've been talking with him and they're going through the process okay so so we should hopefully be starting that soon actual TV work of the collection system right so the the TV work when do you anticipate that starting and and and granted you know me as when you tell me January if it's February March I'm okay I'm hoping October okay good but that that has that has gone out and we have a contractor has been selected uh and the engine engineering firm is working with them and us as well so um there were some questions that had to be answered and we've taken care of it okay no that's that's perfect just looking for dates um and the water meters you said we applied for the ibank it's out for ibank funding yes okay but didn't we approve funding to apply for the ibank funding that was through tnm Associates and they have done that they've done the paperwork it's gone to the ibank and we're just waiting on a decision okay but okay so I'm getting a little lost in the process because what I was explained was we approve funding right that allows the administration to apply to the ibank um but we proceed with the work right because it was needed and then the I Bank was going to fund us and and maybe forgive the loan you're not allowed to you're not allowed to do the work before the I Bank gives you approval we're not allowed to do the work no if you if you do that then you're going to Forfeit any kind of funding from the I bank so if I may uh part of receiving the funds from the ibank is that you submit a complete proposal right of all of the work um so that they can approve the funding so you can't actually do the project you have to design it right submit an application with that and then the ibank tells you that they they have the funding for it okay so but we did design it right so it it did happen right so what what we're saying is that the application is in and we're waiting for a we're waiting for a status update right when do we apply when was that application sent in I mean how long has the state been sitting on is it two weeks talk it's a long process going through the ey bank that I'm finding out it's not as quick as when did we apply there have been several applications so if I could just have Mr Smith actually provide a status update yes all of the ones have been submitted that would be helpful to the council yes all right it's a process unfortunately no I get it but like followup yeah I I don't mind making phone calls and finding out what the what their process is for the approval process okay you know but I need to know when we applied right because if it was if it was two three weeks ago it's probably still sitting on someone's desk I get it but but if it was like 3 four months ago um then they should explain to us why they're not you know why they haven't done it or what they are doing all right that's all all right thank you um ordinance for consideration um this is going to go to this is going to a larger issue um there were a couple ordinances that that I asked for right the one was a repeal the one was for to name the splash park um after the the first black councilwoman of Edison right which I thought was good I was hoping you know after something like that um we have a park on 8th Avenue we're going to we're going to do um if we could name that after maybe like Rabbi riffkin that would be another good thing from our community you know there there's things about us naming things from people that have contributed within our community that to me is a good thing but again I feel like I'm sty okay and and that goes with our law firm of manello renown and Coughlin okay where I ask for things they don't get me things they don't get the public things okay the public ask for stuff they op request stuff they can't get that information but what the public doesn't understand is is you have a sitting councilman that requested a animal shelter report and I got a totally redacted three-page document I mean I'll be honest with you and I spoke to one of the one of the uh firm's owners I said whoever did this redaction should have been fired I mean obviously but but then what happens is we move forward in life right and and I said let's just forget that and let's move forward let's have a working relationship um that same partner I sent a text to about these ordinances I didn't hear hide or hair from that that partner okay so is it is it that they have a problem with uh Joyce ship Freedman um do they have a problem with me or are they just a bad Law Firm that can't get their act together I'm going with option number three okay um but with that right they've done things for us like we did a closing for a piece of property for over $10 million that had flaws within it notifications that other people had and they allowed us to go through the closing they didn't straighten it out or fix it and I believe it's so that they could add up their legal fees to charge us more money okay it's the only explanation that makes any sense whatsoever because attorneys of that caliber should never have made that mistake where I'm going too is we also had a um this other the the lawsuit with the apartments another lawsuit where I I think their idea is let me write flawed legislation so then I can litigate it and we could make more money okay I'm just not feeling that this Law Firm is is professional number one okay um like I said I text I don't get called back okay I make requests I don't receive them the law says that any council person here um can put up a resolution or for a vote but the lawyer works for for this body and I can't get the lawyer to to make anything up you know so at the end of the day when the residents complain that the law firm is holding something up they hold it up for elected officials myself as an elected official right um I run against the mayor for mayor I become mayor I would never use the law firm or recommend them to another Township to be quite honest with you now I do understand there's a whole hierarchy thing they're probably used because there's donations that go back and this and that I seen on Facebook about the donations down in Marboro okay that that have went on okay and maybe we should bring those to light between Ray Cantina and the lown law firm um but I'm I'm just not feeling like they work for everybody right I think they work for the person that appointed them they don't work for the body that is here um this body here is is charged with making laws every Law and Order ordinance that we put up I'm going to ask this Council body who requested it I'm going to ask you details about it so when somebody wants to jump on that sword and say from now on you know what I I ask for that law make sure you're aware of what that law all says because from what I get is most of these laws come from the administration um and and that is just wrong we should really get this straightened out and get this fixed um with that I I guess I I'll end it oh uh jet field update just quick when do you think that's when can the children you know use the whole facilities there so currently we've made pretty good Headway with the utilities on the psng side so with that um I think it's you're going to probably see a lot more progress and things coming into um into there physically so we're hopeful that hopefully in the next couple months you'll see you'll see something no no um Sonia I I I I'm not looking for Progress well I'm looking for it to be complete I'm just saying what is the anticipated um the date of completion we didn't have anything but they should have something now you know they should know we do I don't know the exact date in my mind uh in terms of um what's contractually obligated that that's where I'm going can you get that from the uh contractor what we're what we're contractually obligated to get with with any of the additional change orders that I know that change the dates you know like as we do change orders it changes the dates so I understand that but but if we can just get like an official um date and you know after that it's up to the CM to maintain that we're maintaining that schedule or let you know to let us know right so we don't come back and go you said you know June and now it's going to be next November or something like that um yes if you just get that that would be a council president thank you council president before you go to the next person just a quick clarification for the ordinance or resolution con is there any protocol on this in this chamber especially for the council members can they send a request to you or just directly because it's going to be you know who's sending where we might lose a track so can we set some sort of protocol if coun Brer would like to write some resolution send it to you or Clerk and or send it to clerk copy you and then in turn you can take it to the law for and to valid it when it can be done I will let the legal speak I think anybody can ask legal and I think they have provided but go ahead yeah and I did want to address that issue just uh to assuage I guess some of uh councilman bresser's concerns um I'm not sure why he hasn't seen the ordinances or resolutions uh in the past month I think I've put together eight or nine of them um that have been requested by various council members including councilman pointer council president ptil um you yourself Mr brusher I did put together the resolution with respect to renaming the splash park I'm not sure why you haven't seen it uh I did do the resolution for um or the ordinance to repeal um I can't comment on any of the ongoing litigation uh unfortunately although I'm sure you've had conversations with Mr renon about those uh and the underlying basis for those um but I've I've said it a number of times that if you have an ordinance you have a resolution something that you want uh our firm to put together to provide it to me to email it to me to send it over to me so that I can make sure that it gets done I'm the one who's sitting in this chair with you um the one who has to answer for that when it comes up and you ask why wasn't something done if I haven't seen it I have the repeal and the and the splash park one you should and I'm not sure why you don't um so I know that the repeal went to you on Friday okay so so okay let's be honest here if you sent it to me on Friday after my agenda right so I get the agenda and I used to go through my emails here but it was so difficult with the whole phone thing and then the the iPad thing with the connectivity thing it's not an iPad it's some kind of uh whatever it is so they print it out for me okay so after Friday when the agenda goes out and I just look at it I'm going to be honest with you I'm not looking at emails on believe it was early Friday morning but I will also point out which is what I wanted to to say before I found out about it on Thursday I found out on about Thursday from an email forwarded to me by the administration um and a request that came from them to fulfill your request but I've said it repeatedly if you have something that you want done or you want me to follow up on email me I look through my emails to see if you had followed up with me on any of these things that you had asked about or asked for I don't have anything in my inbox from you since May no and I'm happy to to follow up with you and get these things done but they have to be brought to my attention oh no let me explain I asked at the meeting right so that's formal and that's on the record council president asked if I could give you the ordinance number for the repeal now well that might sound like a a reasonable um request right in my mind I'm sitting there I'm going so let me get this straight we make one ordinance about rent control right and and inspections and I should look it up for the attorney who made it so I it it was such in my mind it was like a Preposterous question I I couldn't even answer council president back by going like are you kidding me kind of thing that's the reason why I didn't respond because you made it you should know exactly what I'm talking about it was it was about inspections of rent um I should need to more than that and that I believe I see see council president and a partner in your firm so the partner in your firm should be well aware of it right I mean the same thing where council president say can you give me the number and I'm going the guy on the other end of the email is the guy that made it I mean and he only made one for us so if he can't figure it out shame on him and I wouldn't need you to pull the number for me that I had you know that I was able to get very quickly and address but like I said if if you want me to be able to address it I I'm only asking or Coughlin or Manel to to do this that's who I'm looking to do we'll cut this every week I got a different lawyer we can take this offline if anything else but we can figure out a process but I would I would recommend councilman Brer and that is itent thank but I would recommend that if you reach out to Michael that's the procedure he really does answer back so I would there since he is here he is answering for it I would ask you to reach out to him and that should move the process of what you want get done faster all right uh moving on to councilman Coy thank you council president uh just note the time is 1011 I'll try to be brief to be four or five minutes since Council Brer took up 25 minutes you 26 you can use the bathroom too and you can yawn um first uh I just wanted to communicate let's go over communication real quick um first I want to thank the law fir for getting back to me for a few things that I had I also want to thank my colleagues for reaching out to me uh debating Amboy Avenue I I did not agree with some of them including Assaf coun masaf but uh I think he reasoned with me fair fair discussion and councilman John porner on some items again today I I'm not supporting what the ordinance is for more Avenue but I do think collectively he did meet with the residents and and thank you for the time you put into it um uh just tax revenues I just want to the administration to the council president just looking at tax revenue opportunities for you know uh 2025 and that being a uh conversation to start having now I listen to a member resident speak about the development of imman Avenue whether that site could be an opportunity for a park I think those who are here in the audience know that to purchase a large piece of land would take finance and infrastructure that site itself is under remediation with the DP so to pick that site to be a park would probably be not be a good idea uh and though we have great ideas that would not be a revenue producing opportunity for the township um Economic Development uh to the council president to um our business agent uh could we have some understanding of what we'll be doing with money and I can wait for some time but throughout this next uh month uh I made a request to my colleagues to do some studies uh and use the funding that we had on the balance sheet to either hire a consultant to do some work uh a few residents came up about the shop right uh some residents believe that it's our responsibility to try to F fill stores and make sure vacancies uh meet an opportunity whether it is or it isn't I can't speak ethically for uh legally but we do have a responsibility to make sure that stores get filled to some degree so that Revenue will be enough be a shortfall for an appeal um I think supermarkets are taking a spin to bigger stores and bigger opportunities so I still hope that this store gets filled on IM Avenue and also for the small business Stores um you know we we worked hard to get an economic development person on the balance sheet I know it hasn't happened I know it's not a difficult task but I certainly would like to know over the next month what spending lines we could do and what investment we can make through Consultants um speaking to Consultants hiring Millennial strategies I hope we can share with uh Miss Conway their report and so many things how much money they brought into us uh councilman Brer and I and Council PTI years back we' went through this in detail and they do a fantastic job bringing in money um so I'm truly happy for that I'm at three minutes I promise I'll stop at five uh affordable housing I also I'm asking the administration to discuss affordable housing and what uh what we do between now and 2025 affordable housing I think Amboy Avenue should be a part of Amboy uh affordable housing and truly part of why I'm not supporting that ordinance as well uh Public Safety on the discussion of Public Safety and how the chief decides to dispatch his 190 officers is a question I don't ask him every day uh but I do believe from listening to council M bresser and his choice of us having or not having protection for the mayor at the DNC I'd love to go to the DNC being a grandfather and knowing what could happen there uh with the change of climate and politics I would expect if I'm mayor of the fifth largest municipality in the state of New Jersey I would ask for protection I don't think that's a terrible idea if we're giving a reimbursement I don't think that's a terrible idea at the same time if my colleague believes that we should or should not have a police dispatch to certain areas then he should consider you know repealing all the overtime and stop extra Duty Solutions and let's see how well that goes because we need men on the ground and women on the ground to handle our space on the Block for construction and projects I don't find it any different where the chief decides to dispatch um police and we have ex dut solution anybody here who has an event could apply for that and post and fulfill a job through that process which has been separated from the township of Von uh last the storm water management I heard some uh complaints about that I think we've managed what we can pretty well our storm water system is is 60 years old if not more I think some of these storms that happen uh one-off storms are not happening every day to make a $5 million change to a to a to a street would impact taxpayers so I think this Township has to select what is most important based on the danger of that situation I've been on amroy my entire life we do get flooding in that one spot I'd love to correct it but what I'm hearing the man the the storm system can't handle more than what it is today built on its capacity then that's all I have council president thank you for your time thank co uh I think we should extend it another 20 minutes just to be safe uh may I get a motion to extend it to 1050 y motion to extend till 10:45 yeah that's fine may I get a second second all in favor all right all right all right council president um I just had the one item on my discussion points but but I need to apologize to my Council colleagues into the public I I need to get home um my just to keep it short one of my dogs had been hit by a car on Thursday and he broke the uh area above his wrist he had surgery Friday um but um I don't feel comfortable leaving him so long so I'm going to take my leave right now with your your permission thank you so much thank you uh Council P thank council president the first one we already discussed the second second one is residential lighting ordinance I did send few emails I think Sonia you also copied on that it's a height yes um I did notice just to Mr Burns's point I don't know that he was in the email so I would like to include him um being that he does attend our meetings and I did see the I did did see the resend on that so I will follow up Mr Burns about um but what is it that Mr Ron when he responded what is it that you're looking for specifically is it just the height or is it just the height restriction and the angle of the light and the number of Lights okay probably we might have to look at the more how many decimal of the light that that's impacting the residents okay uh the next one is on the rental property I did receive on Friday in a cons thank you for that March 11 meeting already we discussed the warehouse also I received the updated ordinance Kilmer Cricket field I shouldn't call as a cricket field but Kilmer field as I understand you know we transported the soil from Municipal Boulevard and I I did see the the contamination was uh the mitigated you I do see the bill in the uh papani Park tfield but the same soil was transported on the Kilmer Park uh do we know if we did the soil testing if we don't have answer that's fine but can we find out no we did uh we did have soil testing done can I get the report of that please I I thought I may have circulated that a few months ago when you brought it up but I will do that again thank you yeah the next one is the rer road DPW premis tree fencing I did speak to DPW director way back I think I did bring this up as one of the discussion point I was told during the fall time the trees will be planted just looking for an update orb on schedule for that the next one is the paving schedule uh for 2023 roads doing in 2024 do we have the schedule published the timelines for the 2020 like this year's Paving uh I let me follow up I know they were trying to finalize it thank you the next one 861 will Parkway you know I know the uh I sent this message on August 14 we are pretty much you know 3 weeks in the line I I understand that someone went there major the uh where the tree belongs to it appears to be Township property uh Sona do we know what's the status on that so we actually went out again today looked at some pictures I spoke to the homeowner um what it appears is that it's not an easement rather it's it's between two two residents um so this is a an issue between the two so this tree belongs to the other resident correct it's not on the township is me no it is not um and I provided the tax maps that identifies that we when we went there and looked at it so the trees on the the other property okay cuz what I was told that that's an easement but if that's not eement they should know that okay the last one you know we pretty much covered you the resident spoke about that uh we need to respect again how many hopefully we have the Quorum here now we have four people on the council dies uh if one leaves I think we should be okay yeah right so we need to respect that that's it thank you Council presid thank you Council p uh Council pointer thank you council president um under ordinances for consideration discussion uh to address the dear study aspect that councilman brusher had mention mention um there's not a a revised study like what was done in 2019 there was a report that the subcommittee had provided to the council members in regards to potential action steps um in those discussions the cost for either tranquilizing or other uh relocation efforts they are expensive for lack ofed wordss so the question was whether we as a body would be comfortable with the uh permitted hunting in certain concentrated areas because that's a you want to make sure that you're not within a certain area of uh residence uh so that's where that is um permitted tree species we received an email in regards to regulations on wild bamboo um so I just wanted to mention that I had reached out to the environmental commission um in regards to just seeing about the trees that we have as allowable within the township because there have been previous comments about having those being um listed for more native trees so it's something that I'm going to ask the environmental commission to add on with that list uh smoke shop advertising people know that I am in favor of legalized cannabis however that does not mean that smoke shops should be permitted to advertise legal THC which to me is false advertising because there's a difference between THC thca Delta 8 Delta 9 right so if you're saying that you're a smoke shop and you're selling legal THC well THC is Delta 9 which is what you need a license for so to me that's false advertising is misleading and it has to me negative Community impact so I'm not sure how we can address it but I want to at least make mention that I think we should revise our cannabis definitions to establish between the two so that any smoke shot that tries to circumvent that in regards to the language that they use for advertising that they wouldn't be able to do uh Route One traffic and state coordination o had mentioned about the accident that had recently happened at Grand View and Route One uh the request I have to the administration if we can reach out to the state representative from uh the Department of Transportation the issue at that intersection is that trucks and cars just go past the red light there's no other way to explain it when I'm crossing Route One and the light turns green I go one Mississippi two Mississippi three Mississippi and then I go because I've had near there so my request to the administration is can we reach out to the do to see if they can modify the timing of the light switch so that instead of it turning red on Route One and then automatically green at Grand View just allowing a few second delay because that instance always happens uh initiative updates I had an organization reach out in regards to the adopta spot so I just wanted to make mention that there is still interest in that and I'm looking to work with the administration and implementing thank you council president thank you Council pointer uh as for me I just wanted to get quick updates on where the status of the website is and also the Office 365 I know that was a long process that we were working through cyber security and uh the county we are still working through the um Office 365 uh as far as the website goes this week we are working on the content migration takes about 3 days um my understanding there may or may not be some disruption to the website we're told there should not be any in the event there is this is my PSA that um if you could just call our office if you have any issues with trying to find something on the website but that's where we are um okay and then I think just want to follow up on the economic developer as councilman coil did and the Redevelopment agency um is there any M on that end I will speak to the mayor on that one thank you uh I think we already answered the ra Road and the inav U and the old Ron earlier uh I think on the bike paths the bike path map which I requested from the engineering I had a conversation with Brian he said we should have the updated bike path that essentially covers all of Edison and bike paths that are not orphan but actually have a circular route so that anybody that wants to travel has a point to go around we should have that by December so I'm looking forward to that um any updates on the gmpl legal from the other side um that is as far as I know still waiting on the design plans so that we can actually provide those to jcpnl okay if you recall that was the last sticking point it's if we get the design plans we can move forward so that they can complete their engineering review of those as well design plans with our Administration are we done with the design plan or what's the status of that I'll follow up with Mr deal okay and the path on Central AV is there any moment on that the the bike path the big map that I provided uh I think must be at least five meetings or six meetings ago the it was a big map on Central app okay I'll follow up with Bob okay I think uh I will skip the benches bike racks and bathrooms because I'll need DPW Ray here for that and I would like to ask for a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn may I have a second second second all right all in favor all right all right this meeting is adjourned at 1028 charger we got e e