e e e all right calling the combined meeting Thursday April 25th to order at 601 all rise 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 under God indivisible with liberty and justice for madam cler call please council member brusher council member coil council member Harris here council member Patel here council member ble council member app pointer president council member schmuel 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 annual notice sent to the home News Tribune Star Ledger Sentinel and Desi talk on December 12th 2023 and post Lobby miso complex on that same date thank you madam clerk uh as for the president's remark uh ordinance 2214 uh amending the waivers to provide for reduced tree fund contribution for certain Residential Properties and amending chapter 25 section 13 tree fund to designate projects that are eligible for tree fund expenditure uh will be had will have the public hearing on May 8th as the new newspaper made a mistake in the ad and will need to be republished uh moving on to number five unpunished business uh ordinance for further consideration of public hearing do we have to read this no this is just any comment okay any comments on ordinance 2213 from the council no and any comments on ordinance 2215 all right moving on to number six from the Department of Finance any questions or concerns from a through H um council president yes yes um I'm going to take the uh the sore rate um I know we have an increase right increases happened um but what are the increases due to is this to like the charges we get from the county or are are these increases due to um our bonding it's related to the bonding um a lot of the infrastructure we're putting into we haven't updated the rate since 2019 since the commencement of the U of the utility I did send I didn't set over an analysis to the council just to outline exactly what has happened up until this point so if you um just reference that what this increas is is a two and a half per increase which is about a dollars in change okay on a yearly basis okay but it was really due to we're spending money on the infrastructure now and then this is basically the cost for that finance a lot of it's really the cost for the financing of it in part yes MH all right um thank you and uh budget temporary budget Appropriations um are we going to have a permanent budget we are we'll have it at the next council meeting did the uh committee have a meeting yet we had an initial meeting we discussed uh where the budget is at it hasn't changed much we're waiting for some numbers from the state regarding um their Appropriations and that's really um much of we what we we're doing we're also trying to clean up the capital uh the capital budget which would also come alongside the introduction all right okay thank you thank you Council thank you councilman can we get that mic fixed okay okay uh moving on to number seven from the Department of Health A and B any questions or comments all right seeing none moving on to number eight from the Department of Law any questions or comments okay moving on to number nine from the Department of planning and Engineering A and B any questions or comment I'm seeing none moving on to number 10 from the Department of Public Works A and B any questions or comments all right moving on to number 11 from the Department of Water and Sewer A and B any questions or comments all right number 12 from the Department of recreation uh any questions or comments moving on to number 13 from the chief of police any questions or comments council president um 13d uh about the procurement card um this is a first for me um what do we normally do when we have to get get prisoners from other states or other counties so what usually so this is um part of the procurement uh C for the procurement card it's required that it comes to the council for resolution and approval um it doesn't happen often and I don't know that it's happened much uh maybe one other time um but we are required to Via resolution to get that approval from the council in order to get the reimbursement costs so we we don't have to pick anybody up or anything we do we have to pick we have to pick someone who's essentially not in location okay um and I assume that this is big crime not I don't know the level of detail of the crime but I can certainly provide that to you could you Chief thank you councilman so in this particular instance we had to send two detectives to Florida uh they've already been there and back they did bring a prisoner back with them that was wanted here in Edison for a series of weapons offenses um quite a few weapons offenses uh obviously made it worth our while to go pick him up and extradite him back to New Jersey uh that's already occurred at this time um okay this is a reimbursement for those costs oh it's a reimbursement it's not for a occurred they've done their due diligence The Prisoner is back in New Jersey this is basically reimbursement yes okay yes I thought it was we were authorizing like a credit card um to go down and get them uh no problem thank you very much Chief yes sir thank you council president thank you any other questions or comments all right seeing none uh number 14 from the Township Clerk a andb any questions or comments all right see none moving mov on to the regular meeting all right unfinished business uh Madam clerk please read the ordinance in ordinance amending chapter 37 zoning by amending the following subsections 37- 62 sign regulations to add language pertaining to off premise billboard guidelines all right so this is uh number 150 2213 and nice open to public uh comments if anyone wants to make a comment on this all right seeing none uh can I get a motion to close the public portion motion to close you have a second second and um any Council comments on this council president just my understanding because we did not get the report back from the planning board just in conformance with the master plan that this was going to be I guess tabled until the next meeting am I understanding that correctly Mike what are we going to table this since we haven't heard back from the planning board yeah because this was previously sorry so uh the discussion that I had with uh councilman pointer uh with the clerk was because it had been uh published for today for public discussion uh and the public hearing um that rather than republished potentially confused the public about when it was going to occur have to incur the extra cost that could be on today for public hearing for people to um make their comments known to the um to the the council uh and then uh table it until the next one when the planning board has the opportunity to get their comments back so that it could be voted on do we have to have a specific date it's uh it is on the planning board agenda for Monday okay so then we can do May 8th then so that would so it would be for yes so let's get a motion to table for May 8 just whatever the but uh you could still conduct the public hearing today so that people have the opportunity to be heard on it if that's what they so desire I think we did that I would like to make my comment on the ordinance at the time of the vote if that's okay um there all right so can I just get a motion to table this to May 8th motion to table this until May 8th I may I have a second second it right roll call please council member brusher yes council member Harris yes council member pointer yes council president Patel yes all right Madam clerk please read ordinance 2215 ordinance amending chapter 17 housing by amending section 17-2 multiple dwelling registration I will take any public comments on ordinance 2215 all right seeing none can I get a motion to close the public portion motion to close public portion may I have a second second all right I'll take any Council comments on this councilman Brer yes um I'm reading this and and I just to make sure I have it clear and I I read it correctly if if I were to um retire right and move to Florida and I rent my home to my son and my grandson would would they have to pay a fee for this no I think it's minimum is five if I'm not mistaken the license applies to dwelling units or rental units of five or more units so it's five or more yeah that's for the the license fee I you would still have to obviously pay the inspection fees and things like that that were always part of the the or those were existing yeah those were existing the inspections all right thank you all right any other questions or comments all right um Madam clerk roll call please oh do I get a motion to adopt motion to adopt may have a second second and Madam cler roll call please council member brusher yes council member Harris yes council member pointer yes council president Patel yes and that was a motion by Council vice president and second by councilman app pointer someone asked me to read that out loud okay yeah all right moving on to number 16 new business uh proposed ordinance for public hearing set down for Wednesday May 8th uh Madam clerk please read ordinance 2217 this ordinance amends the Edison Township Code to establish rates the township charges for users of the Township's water system all right um may I have a motion to introduce council president I move this ordinance to be passed on first reading published according to law for further consideration and public hearing set down for Wednesday May 8th 2024 and may I have a second second right that's motion by Council po pointer second by Council vice president may can I have any any Council comments all right Madam cler roll call please council member brusher yes council member Harris yes council member pointer yes council president Patel yes all right Madame clerk please read ordinance 2218 this ordinance amends Edison Township Code to revise and update the 2024 per gallon water rates the township charges residential and non-residential users for the discharge of of normal domestic sewers sewage and the rates charg significant industrial users to the township sewer system all right and may I have a motion to introduce council president I move this ordinance be passed on first reading published according according the law for further consideration and public hearing set down for Wednesday May 8th and may I have a second second and that's a motion by Council vice president second by Council in pointer any Council comments our seeing none may I have a roll call please council member presser yes council member Harris yes council member pointer yes council president Patel yes okay so now we're at number 17 uh this will be public comments on the resolutions and this will be only to the resolutions and do is this the one with the list okay so anyone that would like to speak on the resolutions Joy ship Freeman 41 um next on the temporary budget of Appropriations what uh number is that what number 205 uhuh are we going to just keep doing these until the budget comes apart and do you know what time we're going to have the budget to so this should take us till June and we should have the budget on next meeting and that should be in time if I'm not mistaken right you are correct okay okay and 211 are we just is this just for one pumping station Improvement I believe so uh Sonia yes it's for the Ford's Pump Station yes one yep okay thank you no problem anybody else make a comments on the resolution thank you am I recognized you are recognized and if you don't mind can you speak to the ordinance that you'll be talking to the number absolutely resolution sorry okay I'm against R 205 okay I want I want to know what that includes but not right now r223 the 350,000 for the law enforcement I would like through the chair to deputy chief D Dash to explain what that $350,000 would be used for actually I have a list here if you don't if you want I can read it go ahead and read it uh the ammunition is one of the biggest part which is 175,000 there's Firearms which is 30,000 uh forign arms accessories 5,000 non-lethal weapons riot control parts and accessories I heard enough I heard enough they they don't need none of it um through the Char of councilman bresser they don't need none of it let's not give them any of it most of these officers that they want to give ammo and weapons to don't even understand a member of the public and stand and a publicly accessible area and some of them do but there there's quite or they just maybe they they do and those officers just guess like you and take illegal orders and they do a good job pretending to be stupid either way um no no absolutely not I'm against it I'm against r223 I hope you're all against r223 I'm against r223 because they're asking for $350,000 for all these supplies I do an requests for their standard operating procedures which should be made available to the public $4,000 so what are they trying to hide what's being hidden what's being hidden from the public um until they become more transparent to the whole town no no $350,000 for them another reason I'm against giving them the $350,000 is because because through the chair the deputy chief D Das are you still the media coordinator for Edison Township you can address the questions to me address the questions to you okay is he still the media coordinator for the police for Edison Township is he the media coordinator for Edison Township dudes Chief dudes I don't think so okay yes he is I I feel that we're using the police media to use their connections point of water do has nothing to do in regards to the purchasing resolution Absolut absolutely it does uh through the chair to the lawyer the reason why I believe it does is I'm I'm letting you know why I'm protesting the $350,000 to them so I'm explaining you know because of this issue and because of a b c and d I'm against giving them the 350,000 and now councilman Co or simply just wants to waste my time it it's it's Clos sir um the the purchasing request is for specifically equipment um you know if you can make the point quickly I think it it'll stay within the r no I I understand I understand but I I'm against giving them the $350,000 because quite simply you know the police is and shambles were using them to go after the the mayor's political opponents um we're putting fake charges on anybody all over town again I think you're going off track here so can we stay on topic as to what are you you don't want the police to have ammunition is that what you're requesting absolutely because a lot of these officers who they don't even know members of the public and stand in a publicly accessible area they they're a danger to society they're a danger to members of the public why give them more ammunition we should be taking away their guns uh we should be giving them more training and First Amendment protected activities and things of that nature is there anything in the 350,000 towards properly educating these officers on civil rights and First Amendment protected activities ra rather than just military specifically to equipment not training exactly so you know maybe if there was something that was real Community orienting one minute policing like educating these officers and you know not to act like animals not to take IL legal orders um like I said proper education and the Civil Rights people's civil rights how to follow proper attorney general protocols and procedures maybe I would support the 350,000 but until then I I can't support it I that I got police officers trying to push me out of the building all the time they're not allowed to do that I got the I saw a video where the ba brags again I think you're going off of track okay well I just find it disgusting I just find it disgusting I understand okay I'm something do I have left it doesn't matter if somebody holds a government position if someone says say hey they have a weapon ready to be used on a resident and the police don't take action I mean I got I got a question the police now thank you council president yes just one one point um that wasn't answered but you know in that money all the ammo uh we looked into this a couple years ago it's it's not up to us to decide it's actually like a state law that they have to qualify and they have to get you know x amount of ammo to do all of this so a lot of that even though it seemed like a lot at the time I think it was like 500 rounds um I mean jokingly I think I asked the chief if we were going to take over mouin um but it was a requirement that they need to qualify so many times a year um so the money is required for for that item thank you for inlining us thank you um uh anyone else that would like to make a comment on the resolutions okay seeing none may I have a motion to close the public portion motion to close second second all right all in favor I I all right moving on to number n anything to pull for a separate vote from the consent agenda right seeing none the consent agenda will be r201 to r224 uh may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda motion to approve may I have a second second and that's a motion by Council vice president second by councilman pointer Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher yes council member Harris yes council member pointer yes council president Patel yes right number 19 oral petition and remarks now I'm going off the list Miss Chui is it jaffy or jofy jofy okay joffy and a long e good evening um Diana joffy 86 Laurel Hollow Court I'm back about the uh sight line between reron Road and Inman Avenue so this has been ongoing I've been up here a thousand times I hate repeating myself but I was a teacher so I'm used to it um after investigations and the ba Sonia was very kind she got in touch with me Engineers were on the phone it was police officers looked at the sight line with the hedges I had said so ultimately a bad haircut was given to these Hedges this winter and as we all know in the winter there are no leaves so there were twigs and you can you go you drive up to the you know stop sign and you can look over and see see the cars coming and now it's springtime and guess what's grown the hedges are higher the leaves are all over it and we're back at square one this seems to be paralysis by analysis I feel I feel like I've been processed I feel like everybody thought they were doing the right thing I don't think there was any malice or intent but it's I it took me 10 minutes to make the leftand turn to get here tonight I don't know how many of you live near in man Avenue M coun and brusher I don't know if you're closer if you've seen it it's a nightmare there's there's no traffic light and I wasn't asking for that but it's seems like the um the rights of this homeowner in Edison he has more rights than the drivers of cars and vehicles have it is dangerous it's a traffic Hazard there's an obstruction of you know where you you have to turn your head like this and wait and see if you can see the color of a car coming in between Hedges it's dangerous it's hazardous people can die and yet we were worried about the owner and how high or low we could cut the hedges I don't know where they measured it from from his property or from the road there's a difference I don't understand why such a simple issue has become so frustrating so if somebody can answer me help me out um I'm not doing this for me personally well personally but for everybody else who's on that road it's just a safety hazard so let me Sonia do you know as to what's the situation and how we ended up there so when I had uh reference to Legal this was an Enforcement issue so if the hedges are overgrown then we'll have to go out there and do some enforcement that's really the next measure and what is the height that they're allowed do you know by any chance top of your head 30 in 30 in okay so if it's anything about that they have to cut it correct and would they be penalized if they are not yes okay all right Miss JY okay we're going to keep it to 30 and just if it grows above that let anybody know and we'll follow up on it thank you thank you council president gu a question about that um this would be in the right away though wouldn't it what she's referencing is actually on the property it's on their property so it's like with it's it's what 15 ft from the street we did that with our engineer when she was referencing that we went out there and did the measurements so it's not in the right away it's in the property owners okay all right interesting right thank you uh the next person is uh Xavier Charles thank you I recognized you recognized okay through the chair to uh councilman Brasher councilman Brasher if you could be so kind to request from the police department the standard operating procedures because iopa requested it they're trying to charge me $4,000 for some reason they feel the need to there's things they need to redact in it when police departments Across the Nation are releasing this as publicly accessible information um I don't think that's right I think this is this should have already been information that's on their website and um yeah I think that's a crazy exorbitant of money $4,000 just to get their standard operating procedure how can I know what they're supposed to to do and I'm supposed to do unless I read it for myself you understand they're already breaking the Attorney General's directives all the time and his guidelines I just want to see how much of the standard operating procedures are breaking all the time that's all so um you can afterwards you can okay still it's still my time to speak okay um yeah I think the Edison police department is corrupt but I think what's even more corrupt is the way you guys run this Council not all the members of the council but I just find it strange how through the chair to councilman Brasher I just said a few words Choice words on deputy chief D Dash nothing out of the ordinary just a few pieces piece of piece of piece of whatever it was going to end with that I was going to move on to to whatever the next is but for whatever reason every year the council knows they're not supposed to interrupt the speaker when it's their time to speak but they like to create Havoc make it seem like the speaker is out of order when he's not out of order and yeah I ended up dropping a few F bombs not for anything really that D Dash did but if you want to keep interrupting me as I'm trying to make my point I'm going to go 100 I'm going to use the law 100% I'm going to use Rosenfeld versus New Jersey I'm going to use my first amendment so please if you don't want me to drop F bombs don't interrupt me when it's my time to speak I think we're all grown adults and we can all understand that when it's my time to speak I can't be interrupting the meeting I can't be disrupting the meeting the only person disrupting the meeting is the person breaking Robert's Rules of over Rules of Order trying to speak over me every time I always come to these meetings I never speak when it's not my time to speak how can I be disrupting the meeting but people like councilman Cole Nish Patel they all know they're not supposed to do this but they pretend like they don't know they they learn it every year they learn it they agree they're not supposed to do this and then a new council president comes up and starts violating rights again and I don't like that I don't appreciate that councilman Patel even though you're you're not as bad councilman Coyle was you still violate my rights some of these times I understand the mayor pressures you and through the chair to councilman pressure even when I go to do my rebuttal I I find it rather strange that you can hear him through hot mics ordering the lawyer to police my rebuttal like they claim I never do a real rebuttal when I actually do a real rebuttal every time it just goes to show their nefarious intentions it's always caught on live TV and I don't appreciate that I'm not going to have people Gaslight me anymore you understand when it's my time to speak it's my time to speak you know how much time do I have left Miss Marina uh two minutes two minutes so Deputy Chief dudash Deputy Chief dudash knows what I started off saying wasn't anything out of the ordinary that was just me being me but for whatever reason councilman Patel why did you want to stop me when I want to call someone a piece of or a scumbag you're not allowed to do that you know you're not allowed to do that you wouldn't do it for other members of the public but when it's me you want to play stupid I don't I don't appreciate that I don't appreciate that um I'm not being boisterous right now uh I'm speaking in in educational context and if you don't like what I'm saying here you want to stop me from what I'm saying yet there was a ninth grade poem given out in Edison school district very graphic child pornography through the Char of councilman bresser and of course once again councilman Cole is late to the meeting because he has no respect for Edison people it's time and time it's it's a pattern with with him constantly late to the meetings um and you wanted to be council president councilman coil thank God we didn't make you council president it would have been Margo who would have been the council president but in any case how much time do I have left 36 seconds 36 seconds God Bless America and stop violating my rights I know what you're doing you're trying to Gaslight me uh gaslighting is a form of abuse why are you abusing me during my first amendment protective activity it just speaks volumes to your own character and even if you don't want to do it even if someone's forcing you to do it you're still an accessory and an abuser yourself so I hope you stopped doing it I hope you don't do what councilman call used to do and Order police to surround all right thank you uh next is Joyce sh Freeman D sh Freeman 41 you recognize Main Street um this is a thing that I'm kind of disturbed about that even speaking as a ex-council person that we're all these lawsuits we are settling behind the scenes for millions and different amounts of dollars and they they wind up going through Jeff the council people have no say so in how our money is being spent now I know that RBA sits on the insurance Comm Mission but you know and and and one of them I wanted to call out you know uh this particular girl for the police and I'm hoping that it wasn't because she was black or she was a woman that she didn't get the promotion because as I when I seen it and I was like disturbed by it and then I said wait wait a minute they're also extracting stuff from the things they promised her that means the union has no say you know so it's it's kind of we gave the Union five cookies and we took back three but I'm just really really I I think this is um I seen different people uh politicians and Court hearings and stuff behind doing stuff like this GIF thing where whereas you do all these things and you do these things behind your backs because I don't know how many millions that we're going to get get get out that nobody up there is saying yay to okay so maybe it's the ba and the mayor who controls all the purse strings and everybody just sits there number two um I was looking at some of the reading and some of the explanation and I seen about the transit villain Transit Village and the different things toward Edison and it just reminds me of jun June Choy 2.0 and you see how far that went and then I'm looking and I'm seeing that we gonna have Amboy Avenue we gonna have these building that's 4 feet then we going to go down a little bit further we're going to go to uh middle set College that's going to have 14 plastic fills then we're going to go over here and we're going to block something else off you know we're going to block off uh another street so it's already takes you like 30 minutes to get to the other side of Edison ah congesting pricing maybe we'll have that because that's how long it'll take us to move in Edison you can't hardly move now but everybody's this wonderful thing and as somebody uh called me and and told me they said about they hope they're not talking about Transit Village down the by planfield Avenue because they say there already a wreck and they said the people that's presenting it they live in little pockets somewhere they're not involved in the actual traffic and they said that's the part that's really hurting them because trying to get around in this town is already it's it's really really crazy for you to even try to move around here so I understand and I know what people are talking about making money and doing these other things but I mean what what is the expense of the quality of life of the Edison people like I mean you're going to steal the whole quality of life from them every place you go you're gonna be just like this not able to move at all because I've seen it and I the amount of accidents we have in Edison like how much more can we go how much I just I just don't know it's like too much at this particular time and I'm trying and then they're talking about we get a developer and to move things along I you know I I hope we do because seem like we spent everything but my last thing I'm saying again how many millions are we going to give out behind closed doors without any say so of anybody at all you know I mean we can't even highlight the council people or nothing because they're not even okay in the money the money is just going out going out going out and and I see you know I think they even got a case in New York about people doing money things behind scen politicians you know you need to get it together thank you thank you uh anyone else that would like to speak council president yes can I ask the attorney something about that yeah um I I have read that Council has to approve any settlements um that are done you know by the township yet we go through the GIF and Council doesn't approve right and is that a a end around because at the end of the day the GIF is the joint Insurance Fund correct and like my auto insurance when I hit a car typically my rates go up um because of that so this body right we don't we're not getting to approve the gif's increases because we're not getting to approve what the gif's settling for it almost looks like an end around to the council should have the authority to approve settlements um I I'll be honest with you Mr brusher I'm not entirely certain which settlements we're talking about that have been approved without the council review um I I'll have to to look at that but what I can tell you about the GIF and dealing with them on lawsuits is that oftentimes what happens with the GIF is that they will um they will approve a case for consideration uh under the policy uh they'll assign councel um they'll make a determination as to what they're willing to settle for um and they will stop or terminate coverage um for that amount essentially if uh if the case doesn't settle if if the the township doesn't settle it so if they say this case is worth $500,000 and that's what we're approving for settlement and the plaintiff has accepted that and the township says well we're not going to pay that J will say then hire your own attorney here's a check for $500,000 good luck don't get hit for 3 million because we're not covering the rest of that um and so I know that that is a component of any settlement with the GIF is that they ultimately decide what they're willing to pay for it um with respect to to cases being settled without the the council's input or review um I'll have to look into that for you right that that's what I'm what I'm looking for because right when I was on the school board um we had like a gif I don't know different name but basically yeah uh insurance company and they were required to get the board of educ education's approval on any settlement yet like I said I read that this body is the only body that can approve a settlement um I don't know if it was by state law or by Edison's ordinances but we have the GIF that has settled something and and with that if you could check one of the thing with that in in the one settlement um I believe now there's something that we are obligated to do as far as uh promotions within the police department and my my question is how would the GIF be allowed to determine our promotional policy when that would come like through the administration and then this body to approve a certain promotional policy so like I know we had one and we eliminated it um but now the GIF is saying we have to do something that the administration you know didn't come to us and and we didn't approve and our and our um security who's on the security committee we have a bunch of people here on the security committee um I don't think they're aware of any of this so that that's actually less unusual um if there is and it's usually not JF uh that does it a lot of times it'll be perk or it'll be the Superior Court who orders it um but it's not unusual where if there is a statutory requirement that is not being followed that has to be followed or if there is a significant body of of case law that has essentially become this is how this has to be and you can't do otherwise um that they'll mandate that it be followed as part of the terms and conditions of continuing to be insured by them um so that can happen again I do you have if you have the details on any of these cases if you can email me about them so I can sit down with do the Facebook link okay okay that's where I get my legal stuff when get sued from Facebook by the way um but yeah I'll I'll take a screenshot of it so you can see what on or whatever it is that way I we can discuss it in full we can maybe go into executive session and discuss the details of the settlements okay um if if necessary but that way I can look into it fully as as opposed to throwing out no it's right I'm looking for an answer on those two questions all right uh thank you very much thank you council president you can come on you can come on M Lois Lois waly Peak Road uh I have a question about when Edison Council meetings will be add on uh Edison TV they will always add 7 o'clock the night after the meeting and then again 12: noon on both the work session and the regular council meeting and they also I believe were add uh one day over the weekend maybe Saturday the reason I asked I know one recent meeting you purposely didn't air but the meeting after that I couldn't find it and I was wondering what the here are my questions uh what the schedule is presently for the council meetings and I heard a rumor that there's uh only going to be one uh scheduling one airing at 10:30 during the week it's 10:30 p.m. uh if that's the case who made this decision and the name of the person and the rationale behind it um you know we fought long and hard you people probably may be didn't even live in Edison at the time to get these meetings on TV and there are a lot of people that don't have computers older people and people who can't get to the meeting who rely on seeing it on on TV and I just want to know if there's any truth to the rumor that it's only going to be Ed that one night and um you know it's only one way for Edon residents to see what's happening to be informed and I hate to get the perception that this Administration or this Council doesn't want the people to see what's going on so I'd really like clarification on the three questions I asked uh so yeah do you know who decided the timing and what is the timing as far as decision making uh to check with the TV schedule uh it's my understanding is shown twice a week it is live it's on the YouTube channel uh I understand for folks that don't uh have the internet connection it's shown at 10:30 I have to check to see if it's am. or PM but I will clarify that for you council president I had gotten the same question from Esther nemt who has been a long time actually okay but I I just want to piggyback I what Lois is saying Esther who's in her 90s now who does not have any of the technology and for a 90 something year 10:30 p.m. just isn't that's just not going to work and so I am fully in favor of restoring something that's more accessible for residents who don't have the technology and who very much want to keep up with these meetings I agree with you I think we should have it more reasonable and more frequent I just don't know how to go about doing that Sonia can you make sure that it is uh done more frequently uh that way the residents can follow through follow along I think es Nemitz might have contacted the council because she's shut in and she only has the television to watch the program so I'd appreciate if we could make it more accessible to people my second um thing I'd like to discuss this goes back to the February 26 meeting took me a while to get back here but I said I would um I had some questions about the racist flyer um I asked about it at the February 26 meeting I had to leave early and I assumed even though I wasn't present at the meeting that my questions would be answered I waited for meetings after that after that after to that and the questions were never answered so I'm going to repeat what I said at that meeting so you've had all you've all had two months to think about it and I hopefully it was important enough to you to think about it and have some answers if I came back and this is exactly what I said the residents of Edison have not had an update on the racist flyer issue in conjunction with the 2017 C Board of Education campaign it's over 5 years now that it's been with the state down in Trenton we've gone through two Attorneys General and it seems Edison and this issue have been put on the back burner in hopes of sweeping it under the rug it's insulting enough that the state has chosen to ignore it but even more it's a disgrace that Edison elected officials don't care enough about the residents to follow up and bring this issue to a resolution my questions were and I'll ask them again hopefully I'll get answers who in Edison Administration has been following up on this issue over the years who's following up on it now what is the present update and status on this stand and Trenton and what is the next action Edison plans to take to bring this to a closure and resolve it thank you uh so as far as I know I talked to the legal about this at the last time and they said it is with the attorney general in the state and we really cannot do anything it is up to them to take up the case uh if you have anything more to add to that particular no we can't compel them could you speak in your microphone please sorry I keep forgetting that it's it I put it up um we can't compel the Attorney General's office to take any kind of action um we can only follow up with them um that's the other part of her question is who has been following up and and that would be on the the you know a question yeah to be answered by the administration um but there's no no legal mechanism anyway um to compel the Attorney General to take any kind of action on an investigation particularly one that's seven years old at this point okay okay it's just a shame that unforunately your time your time is up so you can talk but I will continue this answering this question so that way you know it's not forgotten about but Sonia is there a way we can follow up with the AG to I can bring it up to legal and discuss that but I was not part of that so um I can have an update for you okay but unfortunately since once it goes to the AG we really don't have any mechanism to necessarily force them to take this up it is up to them to do this uh I don't know any other way is there anything else we can do on our side to move forward with this or send him a letter or something yeah okay that that's basically it like okay yeah up to contact under that okay yeah all right to all right anybody else that would like to speak Don tar 52 Rita RH Edison you recognized thank you uh several weeks ago before this body I recommended through the chair to address councel uh to examine two possible Municipal Taxes that could be applied regarding Billboards Municipal Taxes not State not federal Municipal not County one was applying a municipal tax on any billboard built on any Edison Township property and another was apply a reduction of Municipal Taxes on any residential property within X feet of one of these monstrous Billboards my question to council president and then to the chair what has your research developed regarding those proposals um would you like to answer sure yeah uh so uh the easy one is the uh reduction on Municipal taxes due to uh the proximity to B Billboards that's built into how uh assessments are done right um you know it's if you think about uh the proliferation of homeowners associations it's all about keeping the neighborhood looking a certain way in order to keep property values High um that is essentially how the tax code Works how the County Tax Board makes those judgments and assessments based on surrounding areas surrounding property values amenities uh detractions so that's baked into how those Municipal assessments um are calculated uh if someone's dissatisfied with how that um shakes out how that calculation Works they have the right to uh appeal to the tax assessor to file appeal with the county tax board um to make those arguments to have an assessor come in and provide hard numbers to reduce it even further but it's it's baked in and it's not something that the township has the ability to go and mandate and say if you are within X feet of this we are going to say that your property value is that that's preempted by the state tax codes the township sets up its own Municipal tax rate does it not not the county Township sets up Municipal Taxes but the calculations are mandated by the state tax code I understand but it's you know common knowledge that these Billboards reduce your property value by 10 to 50% okay then moving on to the first one why cannot the municipality apply a municipal tax not a county tax not something that has to be approved by the county m a municipal tax to any of these electronic Billboards built on any property within OC in Township so there are um a couple of issues with that um the the primary and really the the most controlling of those issues is that it starts running into um what are essentially First Amendment rights um that is the controlling law law that has dominated the discussion amongst the courts with respect to how much you can control electronic Billboards regular Billboards uh and whether those tax schemes or um additional fees or assessments start to infringe upon the ability of those companies um to actually produce their message it would be easily challengeable um whether or not that challenge would be successful that's a little bit less clear um haven't dug up anything yet that says directly it's not allowed um but just as equally concerning having dug up anything that says directly that it is allowed um which would then essentially make Edison a test case for it which is problematic in and of itself um particularly with some of the concerns that some of the other residents have put forth about legal bills about settlements about lawsuits so it's not a easy solution U to just say okay well if we don't want these we're going to impose a tax on them um because of the nature of them and the the Constitutional issues that it we do apply other Municipal Taxes that we have a library tax correct did we ask the any anybody if they wanted to be taxed regarding libraries is that not a First Amendment right too it is not it's not okay I see part of the problem lies in our failure or our reticence to take on difficult issues with a possibility that we may be beaten in court what about all the people who property values are going to decline because of this what about having a billboard a monster billboard in my backyard flashing I have rights too why are you afraid to take them on okay we lose but let's take them on and see if we lose one minute and by the way uh seven years is not the statute of limitation seven years I'm sorry you switching I'm switching topics to the racist flyer statute of limitation s years off the top of my head I'm not sure because I'm not because of it is all the attorney general has to do is sit on his ass for the next X number of months the seven-year statute of limitations will then expire and he won't have to deal with it that's what happens when you refuse to deal with difficult issues council president yes a question to the attorney yes the res when he came up and we were talking the last time at the last meeting um and we were talking about that area right and now you're about everybody around that billboard let's say within 500 ft um would be entitled to uh a tax reduction yes is there and you said there's a mechanism in place where they can go individually but why would each individual have to pay an attorney 1,500 or2 $500 or whatever they charge you to do the tax appeal because they will be successful I believe can they do it as a community as and get you know one attorney and have them go in and sit with the uh tax sessor and look for this appeal as maybe a group within 500 feet or 1,000 feet or something of that nature so uh you can just one second I think our limitation is 500 feet they can't have any Billboards within 500 feet right Council poter I think they are two separate questions to what councilman Brer is I know I think that he's asking whether or not we can appeal the tax rate and has have it done as a group in the ordinance though to your point the buffer is proposed at the the 500 feet but that's zoning no matter what right they can apply regardless looking for a variance and to question for you uh can they do that can they the like a class action or some I I don't know what mechanism um so the the mechanism that's built in for it is in the assessed value of the home right that's the baked in mechanism and if they're not happy with that they could each individually go and hire an attorney they could find an attorney that is willing to take on each one of the they can't file them all together at the county to say this case is the 16 properties all applying for it that has to be done individually um but you could go to an attorney as a group uh there's nothing stopping them from doing that and saying will you handle all of these appeals um at once and with the same issue so that you can discuss it with the um assessor discuss it with the the attorney for the township when it goes to Tax Court um to see if we can get a reduction that is fair and Equitable all of us rather than you know 16 homeowners one gets 200 off one gets, 1500 off one gets 1,000 off no but see let me tell you where I go with this because I actually fought a uh my my taxes to be honest with you my very first home I got it reduced by about 33% um in Piscataway uh and that was really sitting down and going through because they charge you by the square footage by the bathrooms by and they have they have dollar amounts for everything right but the the base value of my property and this is where I'm going with these residents every one of their base values are diminished by the same amount of money so there is no way an appeal should be able to go through for 10 different residents and have them reduce them at 500 200 or500 the the property itself now has been affected therefore that's why they're getting that reduction but that reduction should be the same reduction in every every single home by our tax code because that's based upon the property and the value that it is within that realm like if you're behind a train track and the train comes every day and I live a mile away my property is assessed more with no home on it on the same square footage in the same lot in theory yes but um when you file in a tax appeal right uh one of the things that you have to remember is that you don't file a tax appeal and say hey my house is overvalued because of this one issue and then they only look at that one issue right what comes um I've I've done these on behalf of townships I've done this on behalf of myself I've been in front of the County Tax Board um number of times I've been in front of the state tax courts um they don't just look at that they don't say oh you have one issue we're going to look at just this one issue um they look at the entire property and they might say yeah you're right you should get a $1,500 reduction based on the fact that um you're within this proximity to the billboard but also what's missing from your property tax card is that you updated the kitchen um you added something to the backyard you did these other things it's all going to even out in the end and you get no reduction on your appeal but we'll change how the numbers look on property value versus Improvement value um because of the overall evaluation or we'll change it by a compromised amount because you know we're trying to get this settled without ever having to go to the county tax board or we're changing so the while the underlying theory is sound in practice it's it's simply just it doesn't always work out that way um and you might not have all of them in front of the same Commissioners um usually you do um and that's a l easier to do if 15 people all go to the same attorney and have it all filed together uh but you might have different Commissioners who have a different view of how it's done and if it's done individually with different attorneys and maybe this attorney gets a um assessor to come and do the numbers one way and a different attorney has a different assessor that they work with and they do the numbers a different way and they just have a better day at court um the Practical reality of it is that you're not necessarily going to get an even distribution um when it's done separately yeah I mean I just thought that when you use like the word practical reality if 500 people came to me for the same condition right the Practical reality would be I wouldn't want to go through and count up that they added an extra uh sprinkler in the backyard um because to just save time and and efficiency in government I would acknowledge that their issue was there and I would reduce Everybody by whatever but I think we all know it's efficiency in government is a a fond dream sometimes uh and particularly when you're dealing with the county tax board and you have different Commissioners you have different uh days for the hearings you've got a number of these things going on and they do do a very good job there they do a very thorough job president point of order can we move forward I just think we're at a midpoint here this should be a large discussion with the the assessor here is complicated very complicated comprehensive I'm not speaking wrong your uh remarks Mr brusher because it's a great idea it's a WID spread of topic yeah thank you councilman Co and I'm open to a full discussion at a certain time for 20 minutes if you yield that time for that spefic specific I think uh next meeting on May it should be a better discussion period as we are going to be implementing the billboard so we can discuss it then thank you counc uh moving on any other members that would like to speak Lois Tara 52 reader Road Edison New Jersey you recognized thank you I find uh it objectionable that the attorney would say well we have to look at whether we whether it's profitable for us or if if it's something we should follow if it's a it might set a precedent if we didn't take cases that set precedents in this country for things we wouldn't be back in the stone ages let's not let's not go by what a precedent is but let's go by what's right I think that's fair thank you all right anybody else that would like to speak all right Steven Z Bal 7 all Avenue you recognized thank you um I'm here once again as the president of Edison EMS which is Edison's volunteer first aid Squad uh good to see everybody again um one just wanted to quickly start with a a little good update for us uh so far we've had our busiest month of the year uh April absolutely blew up on us in a good way we had a lot of calls a lot of activity a lot of events covered including couple of 5Ks and a lot of Earth Day uh Earth Day events coverage I've also uh worked in a progress of recruiting a whopping 14 members which we are in progress of working on um probably the biggest group of new members we've had in the past 10 years which is excellent um reason I am here on March 28th I made a formal request to the township um to the Town Council to the mayor to the business administrator for increased funding um hopefully everybody was able to review the request um so they could have a good idea of why we're making this request um to the township um first I would I would like to ask through the um Council if I could ask the ba if there is an update on that uh but I guess real quick before that I just want to stress two things um the request is more than a financial need um this is a community need everybody we have spoken to including yourself the distinguished council members the residents JFK EMS which is the paid Services everybody has collectively agreed and stressed Edison deserves a volunteer Squad and a volunteer Squad is well supported um that is well known with that said to meet this need we are simply asking that the Edison guarantees our volunteer services will exist for future generations to come that this Township has that support um and we're simply requesting increasing our funding we do hold the responsibility quite literally of someone's life in our hands not every call is a critical call sometimes it's just talking to a patient in need but we do hold that very heavy burden even as volunteers we recognize Edison as many hands to feed duly noted but we hope that they can see the value and importance of what we do and separate us and see us as an essential service for what it is EMS is an essential service um and that need should be requested as such so kind of would like to ask if there's any update thank you uh Sonia is there any update or do we have to wait for the budget still I'm actually waiting for legal because there's a specific requirement i' shoot this out to Mr Ron uh Mike by the way um regarding any sort of requirement or allowance that we're to we we're allowed to go over what we usually do so it's more of a legal question than anything okay and when would you happen to have the answer my do I do not but I will follow up tomorrow again okay so we will try to follow up on this with the legal to see if exactly I'm still not sure as to what the the holdup is so I I haven't looked into this because um she s over Mr renon but per the statute there is a certain amount that is permitted and then and anything over that is what we're looking into uh or what I she has Mr R looking into um to determine um what the mechanism is for being permitted to go over that amount okay so we are working on it and we'll get the answer thank you just just to clarify the statute is that a New Jersey statute you're referring to or is this something with Edison Point New Jersey point of clarification because I I read the statute that you had sent it recently got updated at the end of last year originally it was the 35,000 multiply by three that's how we get to the 105 that that Mo that amount has been increased there is language in it though where I know how you came to your calculation how the statute reads though I would question if that's the full amount but it was revised so that the amount permissible has uh since increased thank you for that council president council president I want recognize I told Mr Brer I wanted to go first but uh I just want first thank you for being here uh council president thank you for listening to the squad and all members of the council um I think it's quite interesting what they accomplish over Decades of time having geograph Geographic coverage throughout the town but more important you know the slope of what they've been through prior to paid Service uh prior to uh contracts with uh HMS prior to training they went through an entire ski slope of up and downs and I rebuilt this through losing a lot of you know great members of the squad who just you know through attrition faded out and they're still existing and it's a it's a great Mutual Aid to what we have existing especially during covid um I'm sure most of you would know during covid it was difficult to fulfill you know every call and having them come in as well is just a great opportunity and we've had a pretty good and I'm not saying we have it budget but it's certainly worth looking at we we've had a lot of cost savings since we decided to go with HMS for those who believe in the service we have we don't have any liability like we did before you know we don't have paid staff we don't have liability of trucks like like you do on the squad uh work comp Etc just a list of Maintenance that comes with running an EMS Department it just goes on and on so I think they've been a great service I hope we can look at this fundamentally because they're in a in a dire straight here and they haven't asked for any more than they've asked for the past it's is certainly something to look at for the fact that there still exist there's you know young people still running it to train others and to continue to have Su a succession plan you know today a good friend of ours is not doing well Mr buers who ran for 30 years ibody knows the name their entire family volunteered um sad he's not doing well today and my prayers are with him but um it's amazing how people come through the squad and then became EMTs or nurses or some doctors so it's just certainly something for us to look at and I know we're challenged by different obstacles but uh I definitely need to sit down with you council president on that note thank you Council mcoy Council council president yes um I'd like to let Sonia know I mean I did speak to someone in the administration but it wasn't Sonia at the time um I've always been supportive of our volunteers um I was against us sending and transferring this out to JFK um it's my understanding that on every call that goes out JFK gets reimbursed and I don't know that JFK bills when our EMS gets called but I don't know why JFK as the man call it a management organization could not bill for your EMS when they go out and JFK pays Edison a fee for to have this service you know like we gave it to them and they give us a fee for that I don't know to me if JFK would bill for the work that our volunteers are doing which they should and it'll be paid by an insurance carrier somewhere along the line they increase their revenue but that increase they could increase what they're giving us that we contracted them for that then we could award that over saying it doesn't cost the taxpayers anything at the end of the day they get the funds that they need and um I I spoke to councilman deal Bob deal I got that for so many years but I I spoke to him about it and and I haven't done a follow-up with him um but I did not speak to Sonia so I'd like to see if you guys can look into this and see what kind of you know mechanisms we can do to take that in place we can unfortunately your time is up but we can talk offline I I would assume that there might be some legal ramification as to why you cannot build but we can talk offline about it and uh if you can follow up sure I can do both U but just to answer the question with regards to so JFK is our contracted vendor we and we have a a contract set with the vendor so legally I would not I would have to defer to our Council about how that would actually work work where um we would have two vendors vendors essentially or could potentially have two vendors I contractually I don't know if that would be allowed councilman what councilman BR is asking is if JFK could take the cases that EMS is working on and Bill in because they don't have the facility to Bill and JFK bills for them and collects the fund and then passes the fund along to or a portion thereof portion or thereof to EMS uh or uh to us again that's a contract's question but we can follow we can talk after all right thank you very much thank you um anybody else uh good evening Council I will be uh remaining Anonymous tonight uh I've come here just to uh talk about uh something I'm in Edison tonight because something has come to light uh was brought to my attention you guys are doing something that I don't like um you have implemented some kind of rules um against profanity which we talked about the First Amendment um time place and manner limited Forum it's never going to win against the first amendment I understand there was a resident or a gentleman who came out and used some profanity and um I guess this rule was made and I would assume some sort of to persecute uh it reminds me of when I was uh in like sixth grade in gym class and somebody did something wrong and they made everybody run 15 extra laps and uh I don't have any children currently in school system so I'm not sure how they do things anymore but uh I'll be 42 next month so uh not sure if they do things like that anymore but uh to punish everybody body and to implement you know and I'm glad you guys didn't fight me on my address or my name because it's an nymous Communications are heavily protected with government so thank you for not violating My First Amendment right there but with this rule that you have this procedure in place against profanity you are essentially forcing someone's speech by not by disallowing them to say certain things I'm not trying to rat anybody out but the gentleman before said ask is that profanity uh if I say is that profanity I mean we're all Americans here and this is the best country in the world and I think we all share similar American values so it's very discouraging to see this this this rule that's been implemented because it's not the right way to approach the situation um you stepping left when you should step right or stepping back when you should step forward uh freedom of speech is the most important thing it's the reason why it's the first amendment I don't think you guys need a refresher in the First Amendment but it is protected speech against unfavorable things that are said and I'm not going to match stupidity with stupidity and just curse right now because I know I can but just please rethink what you're doing don't punish everybody in the same moment of persecuting somebody because of whatever Reasons I'm not really sure but uh First Amendment violations are are something that's not okay and uh nobody should be okay with it and we all have our right to say what's on our mind whatever words we choose it's the one thing we have at the end of the day so reink how we're approaching things tread easily because you guys don't need to be opened up for any more lawsuits or any of these things like that so just think very carefully about members of the public I am you you are me we are all we're all the same we're Americans we have American values First Amendment right should never be infringed on should never be violated and the rule that's been implemented it's an absolute violation of the First Amendment right regardless of limited Forum time place and manner doesn't that's not how it works so I just wanted to share my comments thank you for not violating my rights by trying to force my speech by giving my name and address and thank you all thank you no uh Miss John you already spoke uh you already went right so you can't go oh okay for rebuttal yes are we at rebuttal uh let me just go with anybody else for the first time speaker okay you can I I Diana jfy 86 Laurel Holt I respectfully disagree with the last speaker who has a right to say what he wishes I think that the the I don't think the First Amendment does have limitations you can't go screaming into a theater fire and this forum here should be dignified it should be respected there should be no profanity there's no reason to treat anybody up here with profanity you people are here voluntarily you work hard you do everything you can for this town uh is it perfect no do we disagree yes on things if I ran a classroom where children were allowed to say what they wanted when they wanted there would be no dignity to education there would be no education there are limits to what we should say in public forums and profanity is certainly not one of them thank you miss jofy any any other rebuttal okay council president I just want to thank the speaker who this gentleman here for it choosing not not to exercise this amendment to curse as a courtesy to those who are listening the children that are out there I do understand part in all of what you're saying it's just those as you try to conduct a meeting and practice uh good to the community and for the young people listening and others it's challenging you don't have to but you can choose to and I believe we all know that so thank you for not but also explaining your position and I I appreciate you ending those things and if I may as we are all living in the overcorrection era and the cancel culture culture the only way to fight free speech is with more free speech obviously there's things that are limited in terms of you can't make threats you can't do these kinds of things I that's kind of goes without being said but in a limited Forum First Amendment rights they should shine we have an openness in government and that should that should Marshall Pride on our open system of government B and it's just one sec sir can you pause this time just going to call out the port of water and I know this is your first time here in our rebuttal I'm not sure if this is a proper rebuttal I would ask are legal but he originally spoke on this matter so therefore it's not a topic that he didn't initial and I'm asking for clarification which I'm permitted to do I think that is true you can only rebut somebody else's speech right Council that he that they did not originally speak on and I'm trying to be respectful they paused the time but performance with the proper I appreciate no I I think Mr pointer is correct um the way that we have read and interpreted the rebuttal rules uh you have the right to come up for a single rebuttal the ever cascading rebut someone's rebuttal to rebut someone else's rebuttal uh has has been it deemed not to be the intent of the ordinance or how the ordinance is worded so because we can go back and forth all night um where it's I disagree with him I disagree with what she just said well I disagree with what she just said about what I just said I'm pretty much done anyway and I appreciate the comments and sorry so unfortunately you won't be able to rebut like I just said you you'll have to sit down please I just wanted to say one more thing I appreciate the open dialogue thank you sir I wanted to say thank you all right and any more rebuttal you come out opened upand so he can say the the same things but it's my time now council president just want to recognize we have a young child in the audience today you don't have to recognize anything what are you trying to say what are you trying to insinuate councilman coming up here to c as a courtesy what are you trying to insinuate you didn't start my time yet Mar right order guys as a Curtis you can choose as you do all right you know what I can do all right you have your floor who are you rebutting and what are you rebutting there's no need for me to say who but I I'll tell you the statements that I'm rebutting wait don't don't start he's he's asked me a question I I'm not starting my thing so I I I should be able to respond you're you're talking so you time is starting all right well then I'm not going to reply to you um I'm going to reut the last speaker um well not the last speaker the one before the last speaker um um uh AB absolute disgrace everyone can curse that they don't have a problem with cursing but as soon as I curse it becomes a problem let's throw this guy out um I was falsely charged three three felony cases and I went through the process through the chair to councilman Brer councilman Brer I went through that process again I'm still not getting the rebuttal what are I'm rebutting the last speaker statement um about cursing so I had every right to curse when I did come and curse because I went through that process I beat the case it was proven what deputy chief dudash said through the media was absolute lies okay so when I came here and I cursed that's how I felt about the situation a lifelong resident that Lo that lost his right to post on social media for two years uh that lost thousands of dollars um very demoralizing dehumanizing uh can't take care of your family when you're supposed to take care of your family and no absolute disgusting and please stop the gentleman's time I'm going to I'll educate you when when I hear your point and I can also reference rosenal the the uh the Board of Education in which case they he made a statement against the entire Board of Education not not an individual that is a separation um I believe the gentleman spoke about this during his initial time in which case then this would not be a proper rebuttal and to be fair amongst all the speakers here if I called out the previous speaker on a similar item I should make the same point of order here is just the point of order is not my uh determination okay I understand what a point of and it's it's a valid point of order it's a valid request that if there's going to be a rebuttal new topics or not new topics but new points um that are in rebuttal to it need to be raised as opposed to a reiteration of what you were already permitted to speak on you're correct Mr pointer he required to to raise a a new Point rather than repeat what he's already said um no the the last speaker made a statement now now you're interpreting it as you see I read the rules for rebuttal I actually educated a lot of you guys on the rules for rebuttal so I think it's very abusive that councilman pointer o over here he knows that I'm I'm doing a legit rebuttal but he wants to stop my time in order that's abusive I'm rebutting the last speaker statement I had I have every counc president point of order he he's just rambling he's not making a point if you're rebuttal what are you rebuttal about be specific I the last people the last speaker said that people shouldn't be cursing and I'm saying we should be able to curse it's our First Amendment right to curse and for PE for people to Gess like me like I had no right to curse or I did something wrong absolutely disgusting I earned my right to curse cuz I beat the case you guys slandered me through the media and if you want to make a a big deal I lost thousands of dollars I can't come up here and and one minute and curse I can come up here and curse everyone else curses the same people who don't want me to curse Mr tar came up here and curse today so it just goes to show the gas lighting I want but I'm going to I'm I'm going to continue to rebut the last speaker actually I'm going to rebut another speaker council president he made his point I'm reing anothere now I'm moving on and he's erupting me why he stat okay I'm moving on and he's interrupting me so another speaker said that there was no purpose that there was no uh no purpose to removing the meetings there is a purpose it's done by Design every time this ad Mayor Sam josi gets exposed he removes the meeting and then gas lights me and says it's because I cursed or somebody cursed why when other people curse the meeting doesn't get removed why all right thank you thank you any more ruttles seeing none can I have a motion to close the public portion council president can I before we okay can me close the motion uh can I get a motion to close the public portion motion to close uh may have second all right I have a motion by Council vice president second by Council mcoy all in favor I I Council vice president yes um not to put you in a tough spot uh Mr Burns but can we get some clarification legally there's a lot of case law that's being cited and can we get some clarification on what is and is not allowed in terms of free speech here based on what these what these people have been saying uh do you want me to address that now or do you want me to put together something for the council that can actually lay out what the the terms are what Rosen says what some of the more recent case law says um I I I can give you a brief summation of what legal's opinion is on on what's permitted what's not permitted I think that would be I would actually like both and answer to your question um but for for right now some kind of brief synopsis would be helpful so um legal um the way that we we've reviewed this is that this is a uh limited time place and manner restriction on a limited public forum uh that while the council cannot uh sanction anyone for uh disagreeing with the content of their speech uh that rules of decorum uh apply uh that excessive vulgarity um that personal attacks that involve excessive vulgarity do violate those rules of the quorum uh and that the speaker uh if they are in violation of those rules of the Quorum would then forfeit the rest of their time um that is what was determined that is the procedure that the council uh follows so that if someone does in fact deliberately intentionally and maliciously violate the rules of the Quorum their time will be forfeited their right to speak at this meeting um would be forfeited at which point they would be uh required to sit down um the content of the speech doesn't matter um they could be excessively vulgar and fully in support of a member of the council and it would still be in violations of the rules of decorum uh and would result in the same penalty that is the the only penalty that the council um has discussed imposing uh that is the the rules as they are applied to people when they come up so uh what is excessively vulgar um that is is a judgment called to be made by the chair indeed and it's very subjective it's very subjective and I think that's that's the disturbing part and I think it's that's what this gentleman over here was trying to get across in these rules where can we find the written rules of decorum about this so there's the case law but then there are these rules of decorum on a more microcosm level where can we all see the uh the the written Decor rules of deor and how that's spelled out so there are rules of decorum included in the ordinance with respect to addressing the council um and the behavior during Council meetings um there are also more generally rules of decorum including Robert's Rules of Order which govern any uh instances that are not specifically uh addressed or accounted for by the ordinance itself those would be the reference guides that you would use to determine what the rules of the Corum are and then obviously there's case law on what is or is not permitted uh in a limited public form talking from the can so can you make that accessible to council members and then so the rules of decorum on the microcosm level as against First Amendment um when those two come into when they converge are you saying that the rules of decorum will take the will will take precedence in a limited public for such as this yes the only requirement um at a public meeting for the public to speak is that they be provided with an opportunity to speak that is the only statutory um for how um public meetings are to be held the public meeting uh the council meetings they're to be held um in order to conduct the business of council it's the open public meetings act that requires that that um in addition to that the public be given an opportunity to speak or to address there are as many different variations on how those rules are implemented as there are municipalities um in the state of New Jersey there are public meetings where the time is limited to less than five minutes uh where no council uh members are to address questions from the audience where any questions that are posed are to be written down and addressed at a later council meeting to be determined at some later date um there are restrictions and permissible um restrictions on the Free Speech portions of it across the board if unfettered Free Speech were the rule of the day um then every member of the audience right now could be shouting up here to address the council however they want while they try to conduct business and there wouldn't be a thing that could be done about it however if that were the case you wouldn't be able to accomplish the purpose of the meeting which is to conduct the business of the council and if you notice there has been the occasional use of um curse words tonight during people's addressing of the council um that is maybe distasteful but it doesn't necessarily violate the rules of the Quorum the instance that we're all talking about the instance that we appear to um all have uh very strong views about is an instance where I don't think um there's well I won't say that I'm not going to speak for anyone up here but where there was um a great deal of volatility a great deal of exceedingly vulgar language being directed at a specific member of the the administration and being done uh repeatedly no talking please that's that's um please sit down an instance where council president has a point of order to courtesy to Council Mor Harris could we go and do this is such a deep dive and I do appreciate the subject but I think it just for those who listening those are waiting and and I'm thankful for those who had a chance to speak chose not to curse but I think this is a a roller coaster thank you can I can I just close by saying I am troubled by the subjectivity of all of this and it kind of reminds me of George Carl and seven words you can't say on TV um and and so I I'm trou led by this and I'm not sure how I'm not sure how this gets this gets litigated in the long run so I'm uh I'm left feeling unsettled thank you thank you council president anybody else just just as a point Council um i' I'd like the public to note that at 7:35 it's probably the earliest meeting double meeting that we have ever had right and this is an important discussion I believe in fact probably one of the most important discussions that we need to have as a body okay and it's only because this has led to many many meetings that I have gotten calls by the administration where they said the meetings were um let's say dysfunctional okay um and a lot of it is because the Quorum in the meeting devolves into chaos um I don't think that we should stop this discussion I think Council Vice President should finish getting her answers I have questions myself okay you can ask and and I'd like to kind of get to this um so if Council vice president would like to finish and then I'd like to speak afterwards no I'm I'm ready to yield to you councilman Brasher all right I um where I'm going with this is number one I don't believe that the First Amendment gets superseded by anything okay I've said that from day one I believe that I believe it to be able to be litigated and I believe we will lose I also I also would like to make a statement here that I believe um our attorney by coming out publicly and saying that he believes that some kind of dorum rule or Roberts rule or whatever that might be would quite possibly supersede the United States Constitution has now opened up this body to more chaos so I believe that our attorney through his words and his actions are are opening this body up to thousands of emails that that I've we've received throughout the years about this type of event um and I I just think that that's wrong I I believe the First Amendment uh I believe all of our amendments are the basic principles the founding principles um and I disagree with colleagues here you know when we talk about all things like guns or whatever it is if it's in the Constitution it's here it it's what we live for it's what our men have died for what my grandfather and uncles have went to war for they went for all of that first amendment stuff and well it might be offensive and and I say I understand the word offensive um and it goes back to what my Council vice president said um we opened up Pandora's Box and I said this before um My Generation with with George Carlin we opened up that box and now we're not happy because that box is getting pressed to a certain limit and I don't think that once the box is opened that you can try to close it without costing this municipality hundreds of thousands of dollars in litigation and then payments for stifling the First Amendment you know and and I've I've been like this for years on this um I I myself don't run around you know yelling and cursing at people in the stores but but I recognize it as a right and I don't find it even shocking in the day that we live today because of what we see on TV and what we see on the little reels um it it's coming from from our children right so we've we've progressed I mean some of my Council colleagues are younger than me right so you didn't grow up with with my yes a lot but you didn't grow up with like my grandmother and what would happen if I used if I use like a little dirty word not even one of the seven dirty words but one of them ones before how much soap I had to eat as a child but we are no longer in that generation because we unfortunately opened up that panor his box um that would be it thank you council president I understand and as for the cursing I believe it is okay to curse uh if you need to curse to express yourself that is okay uh I hope you don't but you are allowed to curse and that is fine what is not allowed is if you are not following the decorum which is what the legal was trying to say if let's say I were to ask you to stop and you continue talking over me and yelling over me I do have a right to stop you and have you uh please don't talk from the public for the PO thank you at the end of the day you aren allowed to curse you're allowed to speak your mind you're allowed to be critical of anybody sitting here you're allowed to be critical of and you are allowed to say what you have what you want to say but what you are not allowed to do is not follow the Robert's Rule of decorum which is why you have a certain time limit as to what you're allow what time you are allowed to speak when you recognize you're not allowed to talk from the audience and disturb the person that is recognized there are certain rules that we have to follow so that we can all be heard clearly and that is all we ask simple as that uh moving on to the from number 20 from the council member to the planning board councilman poter thank you council president the planning board held a special meeting special board meeting on Monday April 15th there was only one item for the board's consideration which was p04 d202 for the Lan at Edison 222 planfield road RC Zone preliminary and final subdivision approval was sought to construct eight single family homes on a culdesac plans were conforming to the established RC Zone which which as you may remember is part of the settlement agreement between the township and the developer regarding the challenge to the council's ruling on the original townhouse application testimony was provided to the Conformity of the bulk and design stand standards additional items discussed included fire safety measures entry and exit onto the street considering the new uh entry point and spacing available provided if individuals park on the street additionally several requests requests made by residents were agreed upon as conditions of approval upon motion and second to approve the application was unanimously approved with no further items for consideration the meeting was adjourned the next planning board meeting is scheduled for this Monday April 29th at 7:00 p.m. here in council chambers note that an update to the master plan with additional revisions is being presented as well however I will specify that I am unsure if additional comment will be taken at that time or if it's just presentation only uh thank you council president thank you councilman pointer uh moving on to number 22 points of light anyone have any points of Lights yes I do uh vice president actually what about Council committees that was oh sorry Miss number 21 uh reports from all Council committees any reports CC pressure you point to light no we're going to 21 sorry I moved I jumped over a little uh any uh reports from the Committees no I didn't get the meeting set up this week okay uh councilman Coy any reports oh just waiting to confirm a meeting for finance thank you thank you uh Council vice president yes to um the cultural arts commission met on April 9th and and discussed were uh the fact that chairman Tony masero had a meeting with mayor Joi Bob deal and Pat Coyle things addressed were the possible appointment of Don tar to this commission with uh no clear objections from the mayor letter to the Addison art society that we are a clearing house to all exhibits the mayor agreed with that and also the possibility of using papers as a fundraiser for walkway into the building and the mayor had no objection to that concept either I had also uh I was not at this meeting I was at the special Library board meeting but um I had let the commission know that uh human relations and the library board are wanting to team up with the Edison Cultural Arts committee and uh commission and uh that I think would be a very those would be two very positive pairings um also discussed where the possibility of utility boxes to be decorated with um students painting and looking maybe for high school kids to find a box by their house and submit ideas for decorating um it was Michelle uh Michelle sudakar said that uh they will work on inventory for utility boxes for decorating um and so uh that I think would be a plus a lot of a lot of uh towns and and uh uh places to use do that and it's it's really quite nice and it it really discourages graffiti from being put on those boxes um uh regarding the jazz festival which will take place in Edison on September 25th of this year uh there was a zoom meeting in February between with uall and uh Judy of onor commission uall is getting teams and performance together Judy's working on it Judy had all has had has all three acts already with food vendors food TRS Etc she's submitting the application for May 3rd approval the next session will be May 14th and uh according to Lois tar the bylaws will be ready for the next meeting that is the cultural arts commission moving on to the library board who had their meeting on April 9th um president's report Miss Massie recognized it was the library's 95th birthday kickoff as well as National Library week and National Library workers day Miss Massie thank the library staff the library foundation and Friends of the library for their work she she stated there are many programs available at the library but she has signed up for an author for the author talk programs and highly recommended these programs the director's report uh Mr kimman discussed the new the new bookmobile the small book mobile he stated it will be used to go to smaller stops and expand services to Nursery schools and seniors the new bookmobile will be able to do Lobby stops He also mentioned that the library Foundation spoke about their goals at The Retreat he stated it's great to Library foundation and Friends of Edison Public Library is to fundraising and advoc advocacy arms he provided an update on the North Edison Branch construction project indicated it seems likely the program will the project will go to bid sometime in the summer and that construction will not start until at least mid-fall with regard to the main branch construction project the contractor G Meyer group has filed for permits they're expected to be received by the end of the month and once construction settles the library will look into improvements at the Clare Barton Branch it's likely that some programming will shift to Clare Barton during construction uh new staff member Elizabeth freed has been hired as a full-time principal librarian she will be focusing on Older Adult Services Miss liry announced the Edison Farmers Market will be returning it'll be held every Thursday 2: p.m. to 7: p.m. at swes Park starting May 30th and the next Library board meeting will be held at the Clara Barton branch on May 14th and they'll that concludes my reports thank you thank you Council vice president Council mner thank you council president uh I was unable to attend the environmental commission meeting last week I've asked for them to provide me a report um which I'll give a full update at the next meeting but I do want to express my appreciation to uh the environmental commission for the recent cleanups that they've been uh been doing they've included at milbrook and at Glendale um a lot of trash has been picked up so I just wanted to express my appreciation for their efforts the education uh committee held its monthly meeting on Tuesday April 16th uh numerous items were discussed which included OEM coordination with schools regarding natural disaster events uh we discussed the school board objectives regarding their strategic man management plan going forward uh goals and objectives with the implementation of the prek program in the Township as well as findings from the recent demographic study uh we discussed collaborating with the Board of Education to um in addressing issues found through their study and verifying the the study's findings to make sure that um there's good uh coordination uh that next the next meeting will be in May I don't have a date established at the time and that's it thank you council president thank you uh none for me moving on to number 22 point of Lights yes uh Council vice president yes well first of all I'd like to point everybody's attention to the fact that the seal is back on the wall at long last and I'm hoping that those of you watching on TV can see it as well so we're really happy to have that back where it belongs um I'd also like to talk about what an honor and privilege it was to attend the police wearing in ceremony on April 17th along with councilman Brasher counc Coyle and councilman Schmo we have new officers Ahmad aad formerly of Patterson Police Department Samuel kfos formerly Franklin Township Police Department Brian Hartman formerly Long Hill Township Police Department Gregory Spath formerly mental sex County Sheriff's Office and then Ernesto Fernandez Hannah florer Lisa and Kyle tnik um just a note about Hannah FL Delisa for those who don't know she is the daughter of uh of of all a I'm blanking out of of thank you thank you Joseph listro oh my god um the late Joseph luistro who was very much beloved and she was it was very touching she was actually sworn in with her father's badge she has her regular badge but for the swearing and ceremony she was sworn in with the badge so we're happy to have all of these new hires and um that concludes my points of light thank you thank you Council vice president any other council members council president counc Co I'm truly proud of the new hires uh through Public Safety and the chief and the mayor and the administration that was a wonderful event thank you for bringing that up councilwoman Harris uh great opportunity Edison I think we're certainly doing great things when it comes to Public Safety on another note we over the weekend we celebrated Eid um at py Park I think it was a wellend that event among many culture events we have I think this mayor and Administration has done the most when it comes to diversity and having different events to in town here so uh great opportunity probably 7 to 8,000 people plus attended and many different mayors and dignitaries around different towns and States came which was wonderful so thank you Council pres M I have one more I'm sorry one more yes um also attended the openings for North Edison Baseball and the Midtown uh softball and uh the North Edison Baseball it was was freezing out but uh all these kids came out it was wonderful to see it had to be at least I'm going to say about a 100 100 kids there and of course the next day was Midtown and that was a a be that was a gorgeous day but it's nice to see everyone playing ball again thank you thank you Council cour I mean councilman poer thank you council president uh just want to wish a Happy Passover to those observing thank you council president uh I just want to make some announcements so this Saturday April 27th the Edison police will be hosting the DEA National Prescription takeback day from 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the council chambers and on Saturday May 4th the fishing derby at Lake papani 8:00 a.m to 1: p.m if you're interested to ATT uh I was ATT in attendance with councilman Co and councilman pointer at the E which was very well attended beautiful weather and many and many kids having a lots of fun so I'm hoping to attend next year as well moving on to number 23 discussion items uh starting with councilman Coyle thank you council president uh my update and Communications I spoke uh through the administration and most of those discussions are been completed um Finance I just wanted to again emphasize on the squad and looking into that opportunity whether we can or cannot um support their situation at this time future tax revenues we'd have discussion economic develop developer just curious to status I know we're interviewing looking at people we getting council president we getting close to the economic developer to the administration I believe I was going to ask for the update myself okay we are scheduling interviews okay thank you I don't think that's an easy person to find and um the makeup that of that person should have a diverse you know group of qualities when it comes to that so I can understand taking time and I certainly looking forward to the impact of change that can have in the community I also uh wrote down the small business and retail stores that's also part of the economic development affordable housing uh through the council president through the calendar year could we pick a date sometime in the next 60 days to have someone come here to speak 10 minutes on affordable housing and the application process maybe do a small slideshow there is a fine line of confusion among those who are applying how they list and how they get on the list of affordable housing and what the criteria is and if there's any priorization between a veteran disability you know how the list you know comes together and and where is the list not that it's our list but how it gets calculated in the state um and some I want to take a deeper dive and I think other members of the council have the same questions um I believe it's run by one particular you know State you know organ organization uh but I don't have all those answers so I'd love to see that U let me one sec Sonia is that something we can do next like to get the process of affordable housing can someone make a report on it and have a presentation sure um we technically have so we have CG p& who runs the affordable housing for us um and they do all of the qualifications alongside the repair program so they have actually they're they're very um detailed and they do a presentation for us so I don't see why you know if the council wishes to have perhaps a 10-minute uh presentation by them to inform folks I I wouldn't see an issue to that so I can certainly try to accommodate that with the administration to have them here to present um because as you know as the council you have to adop you have to approve that plan essentially along with the mayor and along with that presentation can we also discuss the affordable housing units that we and how that process works I can certainly bring that up to them I know that our it's coming up in 2025 yeah so I just want to make sure that we are ready for it I I'll work with legal on that on that aspect because there's more techn Tech there's a more technical aspect to that okay so I would like to have them both combined the presentation if that's possible sure um when do you first having that presentation so I could prepare would you be ready with the next meeting or you want more time I think if you uh the later part of the May meeting if that that's fine we can do the second the last meeting of may put that on the agenda this is my time you want to do a a special let's let councilman Co finish just um if it can be done during the work session that's would my be my interest only if the council agrees only because we won't have anybody else waiting and I'm I'm happy with 10 minutes I'm sure there'll be a lot of questions at the end of the day if if and when a resident applies where they wind up on the list how they can see the list who they call to check up where they are on the list um that's all thank you uh Public Safety Council president we had discussion about the officers being hired at public works I just wanted to get into uh having a meeting with the director through the ba uh just on a list of items some stuff we've discussed but I want to get into a formal meeting to understand the summer plan uh throughout the town there are some things that are doing which I'm impressed I but I just wouldn't mind getting up to speed with my other council members on what direction we're going uh in Edison as far as beautification and so forth and how we tie the calendar of Maintenance together last I just also want to comment I had a chance to visit the mechanics garage today uh I had not been there for a while and not long ago we voted for a new floor for the mechanics garage I have to tell it looks really good the place was spotless I was just surprised that it's been installed probably almost a year ago and it was spotless there but aside from that they had a training room there and they also have a lunchroom there and more impressive during a storm the TVs are constantly running so if anybody is working and on edge of wanting to know what's going on why they're grabbing and and and re you know uh refreshing their cooler with coffee and moving back out to their truck during a 24-hour snowstorm they can see what's going on and there is a team meeting room uh set up it can be a conference table or set up for for a teaching so it's well it's a good Flex station you'd have to see if you Haven been there ready I was impressed I mean I know from the residents looking at the council and knowing where their tax dollars is don't see that every day but when you see the efficiency what's happening in public works and how we get uh men and women out onto the street do their job it all happens because of the new organizational plan that's happening there and you'd be you'd be really impressed um so I hope one day visit with someone else here I'm sure Council bran would come with me uh but I'm hoping to join anyone but it was quite impressive so thank you council president and I'll wait for the affordable housing discussion of the day thank you thank you Council MCO that's going to take place on the work session May 20th and and last council president when and if we do that I would just want to add a caveat that perhaps the affordable housing team could come up with a small quick video synopsis of how someone could apply you know throughout our Channel I'm hoping that the the 10minute presentation with maybe that's it that's fine yeah all right councilman brusher your discussion items um I'm not going to talk about F I'm I'm leaving that on but I'm going to come back to that um in another couple weeks because I I know they're working on that um I'd like to see if there's any way possible that we can get graffiti removes around town especially that spring is coming um that you know I know we talked about it last meeting but I I'd like to say is there a way possible that we can get it this removed around the town over the next two weeks before our next meeting I have to wait for the green light nope pun intended um if you could at least if there are specific areas I'd certainly like to address those um well I'm just talking about quality of life in general okay so like what I'm saying is I'd like to see it taken care of over the next two weeks wherever it might be um we have hundreds of employees on the streets every day um our Police Department drives throughout the community all day so if they could make those notes and send it to DPW and then maybe they could take care of it and before next meeting I'll take a drive around and see if I seen that anything was actually done um you know I don't you you don't want me driving around really to dictate everywh where it is but it it's just an overall problem that I've heard um some of it was like by 287 that I heard that we had quite a bit um I know some was down on Route One but it's all around town you you can't kind of miss it and it's not art um so yeah if we could do something with that and let's see where we end up with um by next meeting uh May Street they had a issue with like flooding and ponding water there so if we can have somebody take a look at that the sprinkler fire safety Township buildings um I I have not looked at my emails recently to know whether uh you sent me a list of our our inspections by our Sprinkler Company and fire alarm company for our municipal buildings that had that was sent previously um what will be on the next council meeting is the we went out to bid and so the award of the bid will happen at the next council meeting for approval we do need to redo the entire system oh okay can you send me the reports though just so I can see how bad they they are at current time sure all right thank you um Youth Sports funding I did receive an email from Ken I kind of skipped over it so I I I'll respond I I don't really know what he asked me but I reason being because when we had the discussion about the formula yes there was something that you had uh worked on and made sense and that why he's getting in touch with you to just have some background because his team is doing an analysis um to follow up on um making sure that the calculations one are correct and that if there's a potential reallocation of funding whether you know uh there's an increase or or everything stays on par but we're doing an entire analysis and I knew you had some background on it so that's why he communicated with you okay so yes I'll I'll follow up on that one and I acknowledge he did send that to me I just was kind of busy on that one um the flooding areas I'm I'm going to go over uh I'm going to jump down then to safety notifications um is there some way and so we had issues right we had a um potential bomb threat or a Potential Threat at one of our uh strip malls uh we had an earthquake right um and I I know that the mayor put something out um with in to the bomb threat that we had and and I know that it turned out that it it wasn't really credible or it wasn't really relevant to Edison it might have been relevant to a nearby town or something like that and then it came out but I'd like to say if there's a way that that could go out as like a nixel alert like when it first comes out so so we're aware of this and then like nixel you know when the traffic is cleared right nixel could send out that alert saying you know the the threat has been cleared um I like that the mayor did that you know and came out publicly and said that there was something because well if something was there and you happened to go there and you didn't know this you could end up being a victim so I'd like to see if we could do this more like an nixel alert as opposed to like a Facebook type of notice all right um lawyer conflict um this came from a meeting I guess that that we were at a couple weeks ago and you know I'd like to say that uh the mayor presented a budget last year and in his budget he was misleading in how we have the lowest tax increase or you know whatever his statement was it was misleading because it it made it sound like this body was the person that did that and it wasn't this body it was the Board of Education in Edison and the county that that allowed that to happen but what I want people to notice about that was that I allowed the mayor to give his presentation and at the end at a certain period it is my turn to speak and at that time I spoke and I said that well he was you know in the presentation and when we talk about the Quorum and things of that nature um that's how it should be him handled you know in my mind if if somebody on the diet says something that's incorrect right when it's your turn to speak You're lab you're able to do that or or you can uh rebut what's there but at the meeting a couple weeks ago I felt that our attorney was doing to me what our resident Christo was talking about which was gaslighting right which was I was saying something that was not flattering let's say maybe to the mayor so because of that I was interrupted which caused me being gaslit to allow the meeting to disol devolve into um more chaos so I'd like to know that we're not going to interrupt people we're going to give people their opportunity to speak okay um with that being said uh I might as well then be honest and also say that I believe that there was a conflict uh my Council colleague told me that he spoke to our attorney the attorney said he was only trying to protect the mayor when he sits here at this body he is here for the council he's he's not here to represent the mayor so there is a conflict because at times the council and the mayor can be in Conflict um it was one of the reasons why a few years ago I proposed that we had a separate attorney that would fall legally underneath the attorney for law which would be the same Law Firm but that a separate attorney that was chosen by the council um would be present and that was legal as per our last Law Firm that we had as long as it fell underneath the same lawyer like we have other lawyers that do um labor negotiations they do tax appeals um so we do hire other attorneys to do other things um when we get to talking about like protecting um I'm kind of offended when I see the lawyer and he wants to protect the mayor I I also don't believe so much that the attorney needs to protect elected Council people okay we're here and if the Public's upset I think they have a right to express how upset they are and say whatever they do say um there is an exception though that I do have and that does take up with our employees okay and when our employees are attacked by members of the public I think it's wrong because and I'll tell you where I go with that I believe that all of the employees here in the town are here and they're following the direction of the administration and I I know I've used the word Administration and I've spoken to the ba and and she took it as I was um talking about her and and her role and I explained to her that the administration isn't her only it is her but it is it is ultimately the mayor who is ultimately the one responsible so for me for the resident to be upset at the employee he shouldn't be upset with the employee he should be upset with the head of that department which would be the mayor himself so I do believe that our attorney while trying to protect the mayor by interrupting a council person is wrong I do believe the attorney should protect our employees our last attorney that we had that was here um Bill northg grave that was here um anybody that ever witness bill in this uh council chambers would tell you that bill would jump in front and take the abuse from the res president to protect the council members and the employees and I commend him for that now I do understand that these are two different men and the they do things differently but I'm entirely disappointed in our attorney for all of these reasons and I just wanted that to be on the record and that would be a council president thank you councilman pressure I do want to forward you an article that I I read recently on um hiring a separate lawyer for legal U you can read that when you get a chance it was in New Brunswick I think the Judge essentially turned down that the council can hire their own attorney but I'll forward it to uh as for me I'm going to start from the bottom up the update on the economic developer uh as Sony already said that they're still doing the interviews um any update on the website I have to check with my office who's uh intimately working on that um Miss ly and question on uh the UI and who decides and how that will be approved who's working on the user interface of the website that would be the vendor as far as you mean who in departments would be like using the website no who will be approving the user interface as to you know the design and the administration okay would have you gotten that yet not yet not that I'm aware of I am interested in it once you do get it take a look at prior to approval if you can sure thank you uh is there any update on the bike path under the power lines in the papani park let's check with Mr Dale on that one as well I think that that with jcpnl Mr Burns no it's it's still with uh JC pnls legal department to make sure that everything is all set um because it's over with their legal department I've been working with the the the contact on um getting everything prepared for when it gets out of their legal department so that we can move quickly once that is is through so anything that we can address um on our end um we're working on that way we don't have to wait but hopefully that should be soon okay and for the number eight Transit Village near Edison Train Station this was a topic of discussion that happened at the open space committee um we were talking about essentially bike paths near Edison Train Station to Ruckers uh Livingston Campus and we have a lot of lands there I'm not sure if all of it is owned by Edison and U the idea that we can utilize that land to develop uh essentially a Transit Village which is already in the master plan but getting thoughts on it and something that we can work with um talk about it in public get more opinions on it so it's not something be closed doors uh but the idea is we to get the transit money because there's a lot of money in transit Village that the state provides if I'm not mistaken and we can use that fund to help build our town this would also help us with the affordable housing uh requirements that we do have to meet by 2025 and I'm hoping that at the discussion on May 20th we can get the numbers and we can get the idea as what the timeline is and hopefully we can um use the transit money in near Edition ation to knock out two birds with one Stones so that's the idea uh let's I do want to devop that idea further down the road uh now moving on to number 24 adjournment Mo can I get a motion to adjourn uh I you can talk after unfortunately this is all the public portion is closed we can talk offline you can we cannot talk back and forth unfortunately I'm sorry um motion to adjourn motion to adjourn and may I have a second second a motion by Council vice president second by Council pointer all in favor this meeting is adjourned at 8:13 yeah yeah e e for