##VIDEO ID:rtM7hvI3cJo## e e e e e e e e e all right calling the regular meeting on Wednesday October 9th to order at 7:03 p.m. all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands indivisible andice Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher here council member Cole council member here council member Patel here council member ptil here council member pointer pres council member schuell here all right Madam clerk please read the adequate notice adequate notice of this meeting as required by the open public meeting Act of 1975 has been provided by the annual notice centent home News Tribune Star Ledger Desi talk in news India times on December 12th 2023 and post to M Lobby missal complex on that same date thank you madam CL good evening everyone Welcome to the to the regular meeting a quick quick reminder before we begin only one speaker is allowed to speak at a time so the rest of us can listen everyone will have a chance to share their perspective so please be patient if someone chooses not to follow the respectful process they will be given a warning and if they continue with the destruction of the township Affairs they will be removed from this chamber uh what is on the agenda tonight uh resolution 576 the Jackson app I believe the council will most probably table this until next meeting uh but we will see uh resolution 591 we will be receiving an additional $120,000 for the opioid settlement and I think that brings our total to 4 million um resolution 593 the Redevelopment agency this is something I've been asking for the administration to appoint someone for a while I believe this is a great initiative it is already on the books it's just not an agency that has been manned and I'm hoping with this appointment and with continuation of appointments we can have an agency that works for the township to Target all the blights around the town and hopefully the properties that are not necessarily paying into our taxes can be improved and get more taxes from those same properties and decrease the blight I think it's a win-win situation uh and that's it for me let's moving on to the approval of minutes number five may I get a motion to approve motion to approve and may I have a second second that's a motion by Council vice president second by Council mmel all in favor right that passes moving on to number six unfinished business ordinance for further consideration for public hearing and final adoption Madame clerk please read the ordinance an ordinance amending chapter 37 entitled zoning section 61.3 entitled outdoor lighting of the code of the township vettis thank you madam clerk uh this be open to public comments if anybody would like to make a comment on this ordinance dude the technology in this thing is insane watch this all right uh you are recognized sir can I get the name and address for the record artificial [Music] intelligence all right you recognize recogniz was that yeah I'm against this ordinance 0. 225 Dash 2024 who who gets to decide how bright someone can have their lights how is the how's the township going to enforce this I mean don't don't people have a legal right to you put lights on their property attorney yes and the township has the right to regulate the intensity brightness and positioning of those lights who gets to decide how intense these lights can be quote unquote intense the ordinance will decide that well the and the ordinance is based on standards promulgated by national codes uh recommendations of experts and engineers in the field and who's this ordinance targeting it doesn't Target anyone specifically it's meant to address an issue in the township there there's an existing issue so it's it's targeting that issue so who who are you once it's you have on the books who are you intending to use it on are you intending to use it on top golf are you intending to use it on McDonald's I think it's it's a I'd like you to answer that the existing ordinance already addresses those as does uh as do other ordinances within the township um they're already subject to that as part of their approval process planning design and uh they're subject to that the same as any other business is subject to it so I can't put put up Christmas lights disordinate doesn't prohibit that okay so who's it going to be used against those structures and uh properties which violate it which which properties are those I do not know uh I cannot predict the future council president which properties have violated this ordinance if if it took effect as the lawyer said we cannot predict the future well I'm not asking about the future I'm asking who did mayor Joi decide to uh start targeting this time I mean we can go further details as to how this issue came about but it was not necessarily targeting anybody we are there's an issue in town that is uh brought up to our attention by councilman AJ pel and this was an issue that Council agreed that we need to address moving forward so that you know other neighbors would not have to suffer through Bright Lights okay I'm again I'm against this uh the whole thing how much time do I have left Marina two minutes two minutes what about lights to grow marijuana would would those be prohibited I think this is going off topic this is outdoor lighting I want to I want to grow a little bit outside too if they're mounted on the outside of a building then yes they would be subject to the ordinance I'm against the ordinance I'm against it can you name one good useless ordinance would who it would benefit because I don't got no UFO lights outside my house so speaker has one minute all right it's just rather strange to me who put this word and Sun agenda the council specifically who on the council recommended it uh it was it was the issue was brought up by councilman a Patel as already stated and then the council agreed that we need to bring this up AJ can you can you put in here that we're not including any lights for marijuana grow I would answer all your questions once you are done with six minutes I don't want to take your time okay thank you anybody else on ordinance 2235 all right may I get a motion to close the public portion motion to close second all right that's a motion by councilman pointer second by councilman Coy all in favor all right Nick can I get a motion to adopt motion to adopt may I have a second second that's a motion by councilman ptil second by councilman pointer any Council comments thank you council president and thank you this Council for uh putting this ordinance I understand that there were several questions on this ordinance but this is very the our current ordinance doesn't reflect the control on the intensity of the light especially for the residential though it applies to the commercial as well with the new development that is happening all around the town now the new design you know people started putting the lights on the second floor bright lights not one every feet feet and a half and that does cause an issue especially in the backside if the neighbors it's getting in their bedroom you know literally it's like if you understand what happened to Top Golf that's exactly the situation in the neighboring community and hopefully this ordinance will put some sort of a restriction on those types of Lights as well this also covers to the greatest extent the similar things for the uh commercial as well uh it's not about the the Privacy it is not about the safety but it is about the controlling how much how many lights and how much light you can uh it's basically light trespassing that's the uh this ordinance addressing the light trespassing to the neighborhood thank you council president thank you Council Patel any other council members okay as for me I fully agree in support of this ordinance I believe it's part of being a good neighbor not to annoy your neighbor and I think this essentially regulates that and I hope the council passes this uh Madam cler I got roll calls council member brusher yes council member Cole yes council member Harris yes council member pel yes council member pointer yes council member schmuel yes council president Batel yes okay moving on to number seven right public comments on the resolution so this is specifically to the uh proposed resolutions and if anybody has any comments think sum alone Barbara 85 Pleasant app you recognized um resolution 59310 2024 um providing the municipal council's advice and consent to the appointment of the mayor um by the mayor of I can't pronounce the first name Mr Patel uh to the Redevelopment agency I have some questions about that um I am in favor of Redevelopment agency but um I'm I'd like to know um is this the first appointment to the Redevelopment agency um do do any of you know who this person is and can you tell me why you think this appointment should be approved um have you seen a resume uh what are this person's qual ifications um is this person connected in any way to the mayor or anyone on the council um I understand there can be seven Commissioners on the agency we have some familiarity with this because um one of our Clara Barton neighbors Tom OA was actually a commissioner on a Redevelopment Agency for sville um we brought this up with the mayor early on Tom made a proposal um and I think he's he would really be a great person for this agency I can come Circle back on that but I just reread the ordinance and apparently there's some new rules in 2023 for a Redevelopment agency and I think a town of our size can actually have nine Commissioners um versus seven and uh with a maximum of three if we go to nine three uh Township officials on that board board um I I I would like those questions answered but I also would like to urge the council by by the creating a Redevelopment agency which I think we really really need it's important um but uh you as a body need to be very very very thoughtful about who is appointed to this agency um by its very nature they have a great deal of power and responsibility and I think um people should be vested in what's right for the individual Redevelopment zones um you know I'm talking about Amboy I think it's Unique in that it's an entire commercial Corridor um I I know um other towns have have have residents or people with interest at stake in their individual Redevelopment areas um and I would urge you to speak to Tom he has a resume he has qualifications for this and I know he would like to be on the agency so um I again would like the questions asked about requirements people's the the person being appointed I have nothing against them but I'd like to know like what what are their qualifications to be on this agency I think um a Redevelopment agency will have a great impact on the town but because they do have that kind of power it can be good impact or not so good impact and this Council had holds the keys to making sure this is an effective Redevelopment agency thank you Sue and I agree you uh with great responsibility comes I mean great with great power comes great responsibility as Spider-Man uh in terms of first appointment yes it is the first appointment uh we have this on the books but we never appointed anybody onto it so this is the first member that is going to be appointed to it uh do we know the person I personally don't know the person I can't speak for the rest of the council uh but I do not know the person we do get the resume for the person he is an engineer by trade and it the resume seems good to me at least but again this will be for the council to decide uh qualification again it's the resume is what we have to go with uh connections I can't speak for that I don't know you know who knows who uh but I based on the resume I think this would be a great first candidate at least will'll get something on the books and get something started uh that that's all I have for all the questions that you asked okay thank you s okay thank you counc thank you council president um to the attorney for for first of all I I think this is good um having the agency but but what is the agency's actual um Power to be able to do um do do they have the right let's say to negotiate and circumvent planning or zoning um or are they more like a guidance to to guide developers and and guide building in the town so I'm not an expert on Redevelopment agencies uh and everything that they do I know Mr renon is far more familiar with with that I know he was very helpful in getting this done with the mayor um my understanding is that they are more of a guide uh and only have as much Authority and power to act as they are granted um or as is approved so that they can make recommendations they can come up with plans for certain things but they can't act independently from the greater Township interest uh without oversight so that's not something that I believe that that need to be concerned about um there are certain aspects to it that they can be granted the authority to act and then have have some some leeway to act within the grant of that Authority but that Authority has to be granted to them okay but I I think a longer more in-depth conversation with with Mr renon will actually give you everything that you need um because like I said I I'm not an expert on Redevelopment agencies themselves and how they they function entirely so I know he can answer every one of those questions for you like I I've seen I've seen them do some good things in the state in certain areas I I do know that it it depends on the individual that that are on there right and and the connections and the people that they know and the relationships they have um as far as it being successful or not um so it might not have um like a degree in engineering might not be that important but if they have connections with certain types of um businesses or you know different types of groups whether it's hotels or because it seems like everybody has a specialty that they kind of are part of um I I think it's a good thing I think it's great for us to try and try and do something here so um thank you as I'm sorry I forgot about the one question for Tom Moshe I I will put pass that on to the mayor but the mayor is the person that decides the mayor has you can't talk for that I'm sorry your time's up anybody else that would like to speak Elizabeth Conway 20 Netherwood Circle you recognized thank you uh on the resolution uh 593 uh my question for this is was this uh agency posted that they were looking for people were there applications filled out was there um an interview policy and I did hear you say that he's the first of up to nine did I miss I didn't hear that our is seven okay yeah after finish okay and my other question is what will be their ultimate goal because I know in the past uh there have been um I've heard anyway that there are different places around town that are in need of development so will this agency be overlooking those needs and looking for new leads and what qualifications on their application uh makes them appropriate for this position is my first item um the second one is our 611 where resolution awarding payment to various nonprofit organizations in a dollar amount of 200 didn't bring my glasses 24,000 I know um I had heard that you were working on a new formula but is this figure on the old formula and you haven't come up with the new formula yet is my next one and number three the resol uh the resolution awarding Brian Sheek to the ver Veteran Memorial committee uh same thing was that something that was was posted applied for and what is their goal uh moving forward for that committee so let's start with the first one um this is an agency that's been on the books I am not sure when it got on our books but it's been on our books but it has never held members uh so this was something I've been asking the mayor to appoint people to and the process is yes you have to apply and you have to the mayor selects as to what his particular process is I am not sure the mayor selects it comes to this body to approve uh so a the first member he chose is ratilal Patel and it comes to us to approve him or not what is their ultimate goal their ultimate goal is to essentially find any blight around town any property that is not being used to this fullest it is just sitting around and we have plenty of properties I'm sure you are aware and I'd be good at it unfortunately we don't have a particular group that is focused on it and I'm hoping that this agency their sole Focus being Redevelopment agency is to redevelop this properties and bring in front of us or move that process along faster so we can get those Pro uh properties up and running remove the blight get more tax taxes from the same property that are just sitting around and not doing anything for the rest of us uh so that is the goal and qualifications I believe it is engineering will be good but again I think as it comes to us each individual members we'll have to judge them based on their resume uh that will be my recommendation unfortunately I can't speak for the rest of the council uh the second question the old formula 611 wait wait wait wait wait yes the first one was posting was it posted uh I'm so how do you apply for something that you don't know about especially for a committee that hasn't had members sure they posted it because this is Administration did you guys post this uh typically it's postings for any committees or commissions are done through the list of the clerk posts okay um and this is one of them was brought to our attention when there was discussion about the Redevelopment um agency so the just for reference this is uh the ordinance 16 1626 from 2008 references the duties powers and the makeup of the commission so i' reference that for um for Miss Conway okay uh sorry Miss comment um 611 it is the old formula the the new formula they haven't finalized it because they played around with some numbers but it seems like if we change it this last second the teams that are depending on this money would be kind of really in a dire straight so rather than throw them off and completely throw off their yearly year we decided to keep this old formula in and we'll work on it to finalize the final numbers uh this 623 Brian Shrek this is actually a an error on our part because this is something I wanted to talk about at the work session which I missed but we have committees that are not active Brian Shrek is the person that actually does all the veteran stuff he is our sole lead for all the veteran stuff uh so when we dedicate streets uh street signs and everything he is the person that we go to but he is not on the veterans committee and he just does all these things because he was the sole person and we didn't even realize that he's not on the committee and he pointed this error out to us and it was an easy uh solution saying hey yes you belong on this committee you're doing the work you're just not uh you're just not on the committee and this was something I wanted to BR bring up during work session that maybe we need to look back at our committees and figure out which committees are actually being utilized to their full potential and which ones are not and if the ones that are not maybe we can remove them from the books and then reassign them so that they can work as intended but again this is something I'll discuss at the next next work session it's not going to be discussed today did uh joa Freeman sorry since I raise a lot of money for the veterans sorry uh name and address Joy sh Freeman um you recognize since I raised a lot of money for this particular committee the memorial committee and um what was discussed about this committee was that it didn't have a formal ordinance it didn't see the length of the time of the people and it didn't have what the actual instructions are so I would like to see them if that's been done by now because I'm very very concerned about that because raised a lot of money to fix up that Memorial over there I raised a lot of money to get it fixed and there's nothing we've done for the veterans at all but they'll get done cuz next year's election year that's 623 all right moving back along um discussing the Redevelopment now the Redevelopment when I was um president of the council the Redevelopment we had three people we would meet in the room we have a meeting a session with our then lawyer uh northg grave northg grave will discuss with us what the Redevelopment is and the particulars and stuff and what needed to be Dev uh redeveloped in each part of town now I see why they're apprehensive about Mr Patel to the Redevelopment agency because I haven't seen the resume I haven't seen the connections of anybody and I know like you said you don't know who's connected to who at all and the mayor well it can be connected to the mayor because he makes all the decisions correct and uh about the awarding of the nonprofit organization I think you answered that because you were uh said this is the old for formula which not which is not a fair formula because as I noticed as I was after living here for such a long time I noticed that I see kids walking around with um soccer balls now with nowhere to go and I just see pickle ball fields but nowhere for the soccer kids to go so I'm hoping we do better by our children with our leagues thank you anybody else drct Nasser Pleasant Avenue you recogniz um I would like to table 576 I'm hoping you guys were discussing about tbling it anyway uh I do not want us to tie be tied to the project son you said that if we accept it then we really can't reject it because that'll cause problems in the future we have residents and of any kind of side whatever position they have I would like to have them go ahead and address their concerns and uh also I've been in contact with u councilman pointer I don't know if you were able to digest that email if even if you didn't I don't know if they were good ideas or not but I think there are other things that we should uh consider before we make a decision that's kind of finalized today as the issue is still fluid 593 uh I would like more information maybe even table this um position that we're offering right now um again I'm concerned about how this person was selected it was it you said it was by the mayor I believe okay um does anyone else have any consideration in who should be um nominated for the position it's his sole discretion um again you said that he had a resume um and it was shared with the council everyone got it okay uh he said his qualific ation are that he is an engineer can we be specific about what kind of engineer is he is he a chemical engineer because that doesn't really help with what we're trying to go for any comment to that one oh I was I'm going to wait till you're done with everything okay I prefer to do one by one so that way if I have to ask a follow-up question it' be easier for me all right um is he also the third vice chair of the Edo uh because I'd rather have somebody that is not you know having a political position I would just like to have something that's clean so I wouldn't even suggest myself as well does um I think that we need to do a better vetting process does this person have any um properties in any area that's our area of Redevelopment because that would be a conflict of interests and I don't think that's a good idea um let's see what else again uh you said that he's not related to anyone but you're not sure on the dis or to the May or something like that but I think that that's something that we really should go ahead and take a look at there are just too many connections everywhere in Edison when I moved in here that's something I learned when I tried to get my job here that was one of the things that they said that they wanted to make sure that it was somebody fresh that wasn't related to somebody and I think that's a good idea so I think that it's a good idea um and the first pick I really think should be Tom oay because he's the one that actually said that we should bring this back and it's been IND dormancy so it's really it would show good faith and it would be a really good idea to have somebody who actually had a position in a Redevelopment agency that actually knows what it's all about and can accomplish what needs to be done I'm not sure who the other person is exactly I kind of know of the person sort of but I think that somebody who actually has led one of these would be your first pick I'm not sure why this is our first pick um again conflicts of interests are things that I have an issue issue with and the public has an issue with um and Tom was going to make it today but I kind of told him at the last minute and uh he found out that he actually had something else to do otherwise he would be up here telling you all the details and everything that he's done he will be a great addition to this that's it okay um so uh resolution r i mean resolution 576 yeah I believe we are tbling this as I said on the president uh presidential remarks uh because I think they are meeting with the Jackson now residents the administration is meeting with the Jackson out residents and I'm hoping that after that conversation we can make a better decision and that's the reason I I'll be in favor of tbling that in terms of uh resolution 593 unfortunately any recommendations that comes to this Council will come through the mayor so if the issue is what the mayor picks is a problem unfortunately we won't really have a choice because by the ordinance the mayor picks but you can decide not to vote for that person we can and so that's why I'm hoping that you've done the due diligence everyone that's up there to go ahead and check that this I believe we have seven vacancy right now and I believe this is the first candidate they put out and he is an engineer actually I can't recall what type of engineer he is does anybody have that resume in front of them and I do believe he is part of the Edo somehow I don't remember that on the resume Council president he is the third vice chair of the edu yes so I feel like that's not a good idea to have somebody with that kind of position that kind of power um I know how the Edo works and I know how people get elected and this is not a smart idea want it and he is a chemical engineer okay so that's not really helpful a civil engineer would be much better or somebody if you want me to finish my conversation I would love to finish my thought please thank you when can I talk then but when I'm done I I let you finish thank you sir why time i' expired that's my problem okay so then I'll let you finish sir well I'm just so I'm not allowed to go Ahad and comment on whatever you say let me finish my thought and then go ahead okay uh your questions which you asked and I'm trying to answer okay is that he is a chemist engineer in chemical Bachelor's in chemical engineering I understand what you're saying about being uh Edo and conflict of interest unfortunately it is for this Council to decide and I'm okay with it because I believe someone who is a resident of this Edison is good and has good intentions for the town and can make a impartial decision can be impartial on an agency and I believe Tom oay would be a great candidate but again it is not up to this Council it is for the mayor to bring him to this Council and if the mayor brings BRS him to this Council then I believe we will approve him but it is a process that we have to go through we have six more members to appoint before this agency can even function as intended it hasn't even started and we're already infighting about the most basic of the facts I agree with you that this needs to be done and this needs to be done to make better choices for the town and the best way to do that is let the council do their job and make decisions based on what the agents uh what is being brought in front of us thank you anybody that would like to speak good evening Council Charlie Caville um from new brunwick I'm the editor new brunwick today uh appreciate the discussion on some of these items so I have a question question on the Redevelopment item as well um may I ask when and why and how did the the Redevelopment agency become defunct or or you know nothing but vacancies okay anything else I'll answer all the questions at the answer well similar to the last speaker I do like to ask follow-up questions so could you just answer this one now and you can cut into my time to do it okay uh this agency I just not just point of order can you pause this time I just would hope that you would follow the same procedure I agree and you're just point of order you're changing it and I I don't mind which way you do it but you started with answering questions at the end and now you're having back and forth it's your choice but if you're going to do for one you have to do for all okay thank you council president uh Marina can you un pause I will wait till the end so when you're done for the record you did answer at least one of Miss Conway's questions in real time can I just get an answer it's your it's your discretion I don't see the problem with providing an answer I would prefer to wait so if you would like to continue with your questionings I would prefer you well I respect your preference I wish you would respect mine I'll move on to 592 corrective action plan and I believe this is probably associated with the final resolution the annual audit can you tell us what findings were in the audit and what the corrective action plan is so what was in the annual audit and what is in the corrective plan okay anything else that's all for now I'll uh uh I'll I'll hold the floor in case you I have a followup okay in terms of I can answer the resolution 593 I am not sure if that ever became defunct or if it was actually anyone appointed in the first place I think was added to the books as far as I can recall or at least as far as I know and it was never appointed uh does anybody else know if if any members were added and then removed no the Redevelopment agency always it existed since long time I was the member of the Redevelopment agency though uh we did not appoint a member from a public but this is the first time we are appointing member from the public it was more Council representation plus the planning board plus the Redevelopment attorney and along with mayor's representation that's how the board was earlier and when was it last defunct I was there for 3 years so until last Administration it continued there okay and then they only Council it was only Council only and then okay uh Sonia I will ask you to answer the questions on 592 and the corrective action plan sure I have Finance here as well so with regard to the annual audit as you all know um we typically do about this time followed by the annual audit is the corrective action plan based on uh the recommendations and findings so would if you would like I can go through those recommendations however it's presented to you um if there are any specific questions with regard to the recommendations just let me know uh the whole is posted on the website so if you want to go through in details you can and it's also in the book if you want to go through it in detail uh unfortunately I don't think we can read because there's quite a bit of material that we can just read through could you just give a summary of the findings what what were the problems and how are you going to correct them uh sure Sonia uh so without going in great detail again as you mentioned it is in the packet and we covered um some of it on Monday um however some of them are just uh general ledger uh accounting functions paperwork um submissions to our Auditors that were then corrected however noted so um just generally speaking um nothing of um I would say that would be of great concern to the township we're in pretty good Financial standing and um otherwise there's nothing else I could report on this thank you okay so I'm sure you can see why it helps to be able to ask follow-up questions I it sounds like the audit was not a clean audit that there were some problems and I guess can you give any details on where those problems were found were they in specific departments and what specifically will be done to correct the problems I didn't really hear any details on what's going to be done to correct them I just heard there's some paperwork issues council president is this audit made public to made it is it made available to the public yes it's I'll posted on the website it is posted on the website okay thank you well I don't does it get posted before the recommendation sorry the audit isn't posted until after that's after we approve it resolution's speaking about is on the website and it's in the packet as right so the documents I'm interested in are the audit and the corrective action plan you're supposed to have a plan for what you're going to do differently how you're not going to have problems again and I think for the benefit of everyone here it would make sense to tell us what you're going to do it may be on the website but I'm here now and I want the answer point of order council president I'm just GNA have some you okay pause this time um that of respect uh when did we received this audit I just got it myself but when did the administration receive it uh couple few weeks ago or so Mr credille is it fair to say that we can get you these answers back by email or the following council meeting I mean to have an immediate answer today I don't think you'd be asking that to 534 municipalities some of these action some of these Corrections are are General to a lot of townships I'm just being fair to ask we just received it I think your questions are important I think it's fair to the next council meeting or an email in between that you should get your answer well I'd like the answer as soon as possible it sounds like you're about to vote on a correct ctive action plan and I think the public would benefit from knowing what's in that because may be things that that uh uh there may be suggestions or um input that the public has but if we don't know what's in the plan and then you've already adopted it and then a couple weeks from now I get a copy of it I don't think that's sufficient I think that before you vote on it the public should know what's in it what's the plan council president uh councilman brusher yes um actually I was going to ask for this to be tabled um just because I received it Monday it was just just because I got it on Monday and there are comments and there are recommendations we haven't really been able to go through them or or go to the administration and ask what they're going to do for a corrective action plan on this so so that was my reason to have it tabled I mean I I thought maybe the administration just got this you know like on Thursday and that's why they gave it to us on Monday but knowing that they had it for a couple weeks now I don't know why we weren't presented with this so we could have asked those questions if it doesn't end up being tabled then this evening I plan on reading the general comments I mean it's about 10 or 15 pages so you'd probably have to be here till about 11: or 12 if we don't table it but and the recommendations um so at least it's out in the public for for everybody to see and hear but I'm I'm pretty sure everybody got it at the Monday's meeting um so I don't think it's unusual to ask for us just have a little time to look at it that's all that's fair I just think there a fundamental thing you got yeah thank you thank you okay council president councilman I do I do just want to comment that we are required uh I think by State Statute to actually sign off that we've read and understand the corrective action plan so I I certainly hope everyone's done so before signing that paper thank you thank you uh moving on anybody else that would like to speak how you doing my name is Patrick Duff I'm an investigative journalist I actually am from Haden Heights uh so I came a far away to be here tonight um you know one thing I appreciated about your Council uh prior to the last meeting is that you guys actually have the camera on the speakers but the camera is not on the speaker anymore just so everybody at the council knows I wanted to preface that uh you know if you're going to hire somebody if you're going to vote on somebody I was listening to you guys on my way up here about the Eda um why not have him here why not have the guy here sir this is resolution only so do you have a the resolution for the for the person for the hiring for the Eda I'm sorry what you're you're you're you're putting somebody on the economic development oh the Redevelopment agency okay so what's the question on the Redevelopment agency my my suggestion is that you would have the candidate here I mean if you're going to hire somebody for the city wouldn't you want to ask them some questions wouldn't you want to ask them who they're related to or if they have any conflict of interest that might come up later or what they do what they've done what they will do how much time do they have to actually put forth to the city if and how much are they being paid is it a paid position and is that six paid positions you know that you have to fill and how much are they being paid is that uh is that something you could answer is that it do you have any more questions the final question would be just just in the sense of uh the if it w if it hasn't been here right you haven't had this committee um my recommendation is that as as a council you consider if the committee had been formed before and had been working before if it ever worked you know try to look at the history of this not just say oh we don't have six people or seven people in this committee we're going to fill this up and I'm sure it's going to cost money but what is it what's the purpose of it is is the issue and I understand Redevelopment of these bladed areas but you'd want to interview the candidates as my suggestion because that's you know you can't if somebody doesn't have time just time alone that would be the first question how much time do you have to to dedicate to this this agency uh and which would be the Redevelopment age of your city and I'm sure they're getting paid uh just quick sample example in Trenton there's a place called greater Trenton Inc the the guy that runs that gets $350,000 a year we still can't figure out what the hell he does so it's just a title they get a million dollars a year so just watch out where you put your money and if you're going to hire somebody just speak to them first okay uh just so you know this is not a paid position and uh that's good thank you um anybody else that would like to speak on the resolution only going to gra theol okay uh sir name and address oh uh Anonymous are you recognized thank you R 591 and what's the question on 591 okay did the township did the township did they sue a opioid manufacturing facility I'd like to know what what's this from so your question is on resolution 591 what is that money from yeah uh that is a money a settlement money for opioid uh Law class action lawsuits that happen throughout the states all right I understand that but why is Addison Township receiving that money rather than families that were affected by it okay any other questions how is the township a government entity in in and of itself affected by the opioid epidemic because Edison Township was never addicted to it the township never took it so how are you guys receiving money and not families okay so the question is how is Edis Township as a Township affected by opio pandemic I didn't say that I said as a government entity how can you receive the money and not the families affect by it it's rather strange to me okay so how is the government entity Edison Township gaining money for opioid settlement any other question yeah are you going to distribute that money to families that were affected by the opioid epidemic who's who who holds on to this money okay how are we going to distribute that money any other question uh do you have any other questions or no yeah I'm looking for the resolution right now okay how much time do I have uh Marina three and a half minutes r62 622 I'm against it r623 I'm against it R 624 I'm against it R 619 I'm against it r618 I'm against it r617 I'm against it r615 I'm against it r614 I'm against it r613 I'm against [Music] it r612 I was I I was about to be supportive of it but I'm against it r611 against it r610 against it r609 against it how much time uh Marina two and a half minutes two and a half minutes wow that was only 30 seconds when it got to myig Grand Council when brush your time I would like you to focus on the resolution please yes yes yes yes yes yes which res resolution is the audit 624 is the audit which res resolution has supercharged entertainment in it supercharged resolution what number 622 yeah okay Brian Shrek Is that Captain Shrek former Captain Shrek not former Captain Shrek a different Shrek there's so many of them okay I'll support six did I say I was against the 623 well I didn't even look at it um I'll support it for now and the r619 we have enough vehicles too many vehicles code enforcements vehicle it's like well it's like do they really need that vehicle it looks like they're driving around the president of the United States in that vehicle yeah I'm against the consent agenda and its entirety but I want to know why the township is receiving money for the settlement since the township itself was not affected thank you your time is up uh Edison Township was part of the lawsuit that the state made to all the opioid uh companies uh including all the distribution what are they Whispering this they are sir point of order sir point of order that is not a valid point of order that is part of the legislative process they are entitled to speak to each other without it being on the record um if you continue to interrupt with respect to that issue uh it is not going to be addressed okay okay uh Edison Township was part of the lawsuit that the uh State essentially brought forward to the Distributors pretty much anyone that participated in opio epidemic and as being part of those lawsuits we are entitled to some money as to We Are have so far collected $4 million and we are limited as to what we can do with those money it is not to be added to our operation fund to build roads or anything like that we have to use it for the victims of opio opioid epidemics and I think this was a question I brought to Sonia last time and there were some suggestions that theba made I would ask her to repeat them if she can sure um as part of our um Addiction Services that we already provide we can add to some staffing um we are adding some programs um by affected um persons residents if you will so we're it's programming it's Staffing that we're only allowed to there's there's a quite a list but um those two in particular we have now taken action on thank you um and Brian check I believe it's not the one that's the captain uh anybody else that would like to speak on the resolutions Anthony damr Wy AV you recognized um for six 622 the license game game license is is that just to is that to operate I guess for the racing just do that and is is that something that they have to do every single year is apply every year um and if so I know there was a lot of problems there in the beginning when it first opened um uh a lot of you know police activity and stuff that went on there are we is there any stipulations in terms of we holding them accountable for anything making sure that that doesn't happen again um I don't know how it's been lately but I know that there were I believe some problems there um and uh again if that's something that they have to apply for every every year um thank you council president uh Anthony so I think this is something that they have to apply every year I don't think we can put stipulation on the license as far as I'm aware what legal it's a state requirements right State gaming uh requirements they are subject to certain regulations uh but those are statutory and those would go into whether or not the license can be approved uh the fact that it ended up here indicates that they met the requirements for it and now it's on the council to approve that license Okay and like the question that the Anthony brought up was there were a lot of uh police yeah there were there there were there were problems there police activity yeah there was police activity uh just just to be clear is is it is is it g can we please stop that is it for gaming license I think gaming license I think in gambling so uh is is this gaming license for G it's not for gambling so I mean what what's I don't understand the gaming part I know he said the the the state is has to you know issue it what do they need games license for I don't understand um it's for like I might be missing something arcade arcade games arcade games yeah so we have yes an annual license for the privilege of having arcadians for that's a simplest way I can put it thank you anybody else on the resolution all right motion to close public portion motion to close may I have a second second so that's a motion by Council vice president second by councilman poter all in favor I I all right the public portion is close moving on to the consent agenda any council member would like to pull any particular resolution council president Council pointer uh 576 576 593 5 uh 623 and 624 one second 593 what was the next one uh 623 and and 624 624 uh anybody else okay so the consent agenda will be Mr councilman Brasher um did you mean 593 or 592 I just want to make sure because I I know what you had said about 592 uh I just want to make sure that we have the right right numbers for you um 592 is the resolution approving the correct action plan for the audit which is related to 624 which is the annual report of the audit 593 is the resolution for the Redevelopment agency um well actually 593 um the 624 was the resolution for the audit which has the general comments and and whatever might you know that's fine okay mistakes are made in here um so um right I was looking to just table this until we could send the questions to the administration to ask exactly what we're going to do to kind of fix these things um so then you might want to also request 592 because that's the corrective action plan for the that's why I want to make sure of that you had everything then if okay if we could pull them and put them together I guess sorry all right so you're going to be pulling 592 593 623 624 for councilman brusher and 576 for councilman coiner anybody else that would like to pull anything for a separate vote all right seeing none the consent agenda will be [Music] from sorry 577 through 587 587 sorry 587 uh through 622 minus 592 and 593 in the middle um so may I get a motion to approve the consent agenda motion to approve the consent agenda may I have a second second all right that's a motion by councilman ptil second by Council vice president Madame clerk roll call please council member brusher yes council member Cole yes council member Harris yes council member B yes council member pointer yes council member Schmo yes council president Batel yes okay uh starting with 576 thank you council president um I'm asking this to be tabled Just In fairness to the residents they have there is a meeting scheduled for next Tuesday uh with the letter that was sent out with the details of the grant so just In fairness to make sure that there there's a a distinct opportunity to provide comment from the residents I think it's fair that we just table it to the next meeting which would be um October 23rd okay so that you want to call for a motion to table that would be a motion to table until Wednesday October 23rd SEC all right so I have a motion on to floor to table our resolution 576 to October 23rd uh by councilman pointer second by councilman ptil Madam cler roll call please council member Brer yes council member Coyle yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes to table council member pointer yes council member schmuel yes council president Patel yes uh councilman brusher I will let you okay the the 592 and the 624 I'd like to propose a motion just to table this till our next meeting um just to kind of review this with the administration um which are the concerns that the residents talked about um as opposed to going through through all of these here at the meeting today um so I'd like to see if we could table it so I don't have to read for an hour and a half today um if that's a possibility so I propose the motion to table this second all right that's a motion by Council council president counc before we go into the motion this resolution that we got on we received it on Friday in an email and signed on it on Monday Monday they were reviewed it so we're taking this off after we already reviewed it I believe this is the motion on the table we don't have you don't have to vote for it but councilman brusher but we we can comment on it after we motion it and then I'll open it up to the council comments okay so uh motion by councilman brusher and second by Council vice president uh to table both 592 and 624 so they have more time to review I will open it up to the council members to make comments now so councilman sh yeah what I what I said before we we all signed on that we reviewed these uh recommendations I I don't know why we're going backwards yeah uh Council I I'll I'll explain why um normally and and I guess you can check with the clerk how long does it normally take me to sign this document do I sign it that day no I don't um they asked me if I could so I reviewed it at our meeting on Monday um because a hard copy is what I need um because I still have difficulty with this iPad getting on the Internet so so after three years with this Administration not me not being able to do my work on an iPad right I've kind of given up so I I need the hard copy documents when the clerk's office calls me at whatever you know could be 12:00 and says I need you to come by and pick up your packet unfortunately right hey I I can't come by at Friday at 3:00 to pick up a document you know if if the agenda was out earlier right I could pick it up Thursday or maybe Friday morning and there would be other options for me so unfortunately because my laptop doesn't work and I would challenge any councilman up here to use my laptop out in the parking lot or by my home to see that it actually works I know I was dismissed by certain Council people at a time um thinking that because I'm older than them that I can't navigate these type of things and then when they seen it they were appalled at what I had to go through but I still challenge every council person up here to come over my home and see how what I have to deal with on electronic issue um it reminds me of being back in 199 95 so right all I was asking was as opposed to me reading all this aloud today right was to wait until the next meeting where I could sit down with the business administrator or or her design just to go through these corrective plans um I don't believe that if this does not get passed today the township of Edison is going to burn to the ground right obviously the administration I just found out had this for weeks so if they had it for weeks why couldn't I have gotten it a week ago why did I have to get it in electronic format I guess on Friday and then hand it my hard copy on Monday and I don't think that's an unreasonable request okay um and that's just where I stand on it but it's up to you to vote however you see fit sir okay so we have a motion would you comment yeah I would like to make the comment again I even I think you know all of us signed that document that only means we reviewed uh but we still have the questions and what my Council colleague is asking basically if you can table this give a two week get those questions answered and bring back on the council agenda and we approve or disapprove whatever it is but the whole narrative is we reviewed doesn't mean that there is no question or there is no ambiguity so let's give a time asking two weeks to move this uh to the next agenda okay president councilman co uh first I'm open to councilman presser reading any remarks through the report to listen to his comments second I would suggest we go into close session to hear from our CFO uh some of these uh summary comments are fundamental um I'm not saying what Mr brush or his state is not important but um this is our first time working together uh nine years on the council that we had have question the corrective measures and I just wanted at least hear from the CFO in close session uh for five minutes just to listen out to what her recommendations would be and from the ba only to move things forward um and again first time and U even Council ptil and I we're here together about nine years and I we've never questioned uh the fundamental comments of this through the audit and it's the same auditor I believe you've had for about 15 years no so I'm just I'm just uh making suggestions I'm here to support the council if you want to table it not a problem but I would like I'm asking to go into close session to discuss this council president if I may respond last n year it is not that we didn't review we did if something is objectional objectionable then only would question otherwise there is no brainer and I wouldn't say that there are too many red flag most of the items are common but there are couple of them that do concern and that's why there is a request to table and believe me every single year I go to the budget I go to the audit I go to the uh the feedback that we receive if there is anything alarming I will send direct question but this is the first time I got the audit Monday now we are saying hey can you vot on this is unfair to this Council if I would have received the entire document maybe a month ago it's a a different story and that's the reason I'm saying give me a time two weeks to respond thank you sir council president I also think it's not fair to the public I think Charlie kaville brought up uh some very good questions and I I would like to see the public have a CH more of a chance to review this so I am in favor of tbling this council president uh first if I misspoke in regards to signing uh I gu that's what they say you never assume right um so if I did assume I apolog ol councilman bresser I'm okay with tbling it to give the courtesy for that followup um in my opinion I don't think it's necessary so to say because the recommendations in the corrective action plan are laid out in the resolution and the audit itself is from a third party independent auditor that we would just be accepting the audit but uh I'm I'm okay with giving the courtesy for that additional review thank you council president all right uh any uh I'll take the roll call please which made the motion who second it was um second Point CL councilman Brer motion to table are you saying date or next meeting next meeting October oober 23rd y okay motion October 23rd okay council member brusher uh yes to table counc counc member Cole no to table council member Harris yes to table council member ptil yes to table council member poiner yes council member schmuel yes council president Batel yes okay all right uh 593 counc presser uh 5 93 I I just wanted to speak about about this um it seems like there's concerns um that and and I've heard what the residents what their concerns are um as far as their affiliation um with um a democratic organization Republican or whatever type of organization I I'm personally not offended by it and I and I'll tell you why the township has 100,000 residents active residents we probably have 2,000 um so when we have someone that's willing to do some work I'll take them um we we have I believe seven people that we could possibly appoint I I also don't believe that having an engineering degree or an architectural degree or or anything of that nature is as important as their personal connections with certain um business business or communities like if you were looking for Amboy Avenue I have certain people that I said that were developers and stuff right but they're looking more so to develop the entire area as a whole right but but a development agency like this they could have somebody there that is looking for specific types of of venues there um like Jonathan Bush the mayor of mouin right I've heard Jonathan approach people about opening up restaurants in mouin so he's actually acting like his own Redevelopment agency in a way and we don't have anybody that does it so so whether this one individual brings that aspect to the table or or a different one we we won't know until we see what they bring um so because of that and it's our first step I I'd like to just get the board filled and after it's filled if it's nonproductive well then then it's time to change the board but I'd think I'd like to see us give that a chance um so that would be a council president Council anybody else council president Council CL uh I'm open to table this listen to some of the residents who who have complained about sections of Edison I understand um some of them came to us to make this happen and I'm challenged that count some of the council members are making this happen now they object to it happening at the same time I'm hearing that certain appointments or boards may people may be on may not be appropriate and could be conflicted but at the same time people at the council here in residents are also committee members which is an elected office that has an influence who get meetings and get special privileges in my opinion and other people's opinion so whether we pick someone who is currently part of another committee or involved or on a board uh we should decide whether we do have this or not or create a resolution that we don't have people that are on committees hold other committee positions that could be conflicted so I'm just challenged when I hear from residents uh that are already committee members who have influence and they object an appointment of someone who may be in the same see they in so it's it's challenging but I'm I'm going to vote to table this uh for the few residents that came up that are not happy because even though it's a step forward to what they've wanted I'm here to listen to um you know vote note at this time and table it for further meeting uh councilman Co there's no motion on the table for this particular ordinance as I'm just commenting on the separate uh when it comes for a separate vote okay uh councilman pel Council % in fact it's a great idea that we are we started appointing the members on the Redevelopment agency however I have a lot of different opinion here it's not about the individual but it's about the process I think this is very very I would say the important agency that we are looking forward to form especially when the members of the public are appointed three or four things are very important number one is the resident of the Town how much that person knows about the Town what the connections are what the business relations are because we don't need a conflicting people to be on this agency and also the time and energy that person is willing to put on this uh this thing so my request would be possibly table this resolution form a committee interview people get the application interview people and probably appoint the right people on the agencies let's not start with some cat saying because we are starting fill someone uh because need it anyway we are not going to do anything with this agency until the at least more than half of the board is the vacancies are filled in so let's take a time maybe three or four or five people we can appoint once interviews are done and it can be subcommittee you know whoever wants to be on that subcommittee can interview the applicants form the recommend those names to this Council and hey you know that will be a good way to approve uh these members I know even though it is consent from the uh consent of the council it's coming from the mayor but we can always uh encourage the residents to apply for the position so mayor can filter through and then this Council can V on is whether that's the right fit thank you council president okay council president Council apped thank you council president um I'm okay with moving forward with this um two reasons one we as a body have the right to appoint whatever entity oversees a Redevelopment or Rehabilitation project so when we go into a Redevelopment agreement for instance with um the IM Avenue one on it it says that the municipal council is the Redevelopment entity so we actually establish which entity would be now whether that's the Town Council whether that may be the Redevelopment agency itself or maybe that might be the Housing Authority which they are also under the local Redevelopment law we have that authority to dictate which entity ends up being the Redevelopment entity and when I say Redevelopment entity they are the ones responsible for making sure that the Redevelopment plan and the Redevelopment agreement are actually seen through and everything moves forward um so because we have that backing to be able to make that determination it's not necessarily to say that hey on every project the Redevelopment uh agency is going to be it additionally much like the Housing Authority they're going to need an executive director so I'm looking for candidates that will be able to process information and make correct decisions when I look at the resume a lot of it is quality control and quality assurance that's taken information of the guidelines that you presented formulating your opinion and making recommendations on how to move move forward so with that I I'm personally okay with moving forward but I leave it to the council's discretion thank you council president thank you councilman poter council president one last comment councilman at uh different times we hear from residents that don't want Realtors on the planning board don't want Engineers on a planning board zoning board here today we have an applicant who's who's neutral he's an engineer he's a chemical engineer he's not a he doesn't have a a a building engineer or he's in that he's not in the criteria of the complaints we've had before I just want to make that as a record we hear this many times at the council meeting we don't want Realtors we don't want Engineers today you have an engineer chemical engineer so it I think the mayor has giv you what you want and you're still disappointed thank you thank you president councilman brusher yes I'm I'm a after hearing my my Council colleague um my my perception of of this board right here is technically that they have no No Authority um they would they would let's say go out to solicit um potential people to move into certain areas um but that would kind of be the extent of it and and maybe try and give them guidance like if they wanted to go and build a fivestory on Amboy Avenue right these Redevelopment people would say listen that's never going to be able to happen here you know what I mean is that the purpose of this board or is this board going to have some kind of authority where they could give approval to things um because that does change things and then the the next question is this here from what I'm I've been told is an appointment by the mayor um if the council just all says no aren't they still just approved no because it requires the advice and consent of the council to address that last part uh if the mayor send you an appointment and you refuse to approve it then you would deny it uh and then we would go from there and figure out how to let me just let me go go back a sec from my my Council colleague um if if this Redevelopment agency falls under the the guidance of the council then why isn't the council appointing the people to this board as opposed to the mayor it doesn't fall under necessarily the guidance of the council the council has certain uh ability to approve spending right um can't just spend money without any kind of of um Council oversight right uh the Redevelopment agency has certain powers and abilities under the Redevelopment law um but those powers and abilities are granted by Council review and approval before they can enter into agreements with like if they go out they identify a business that they want to move into the town right they can't enter into an agreement with that business that has to come before the council for review and approval right well I I don't know cuz certain towns they have a lot more Authority than what I believe we were going to do and under your ordinance it requires them to uh obtain Council approval prior to obligating the township under bonds or expending funds on behalf of the township but you can grant that them that ability so a Redevelopment agency can identify properties for acquisition and then can request funding to uh acquire those buildings in order to engage in Redevelopment uh projects Redevelopment Falls underneath this body then then why wouldn't this body do the um the the appointment and maybe the mayor gives his advice and consent because that's not how zoning board because that's not how the law with respect to Redevelopment agencies is set up it's set up for a mayor appointment under the fauler ACT um and they work with the administration the same way that the administration now now works to identify some of these Redevelopment projects uh designating areas in need of Redevelopment um and attempting to make those agreements that then get brought to the council for review and approval okay so in a nutshell then this agency can't make any kind of deals or anything like that they they're just like a guiding for the most part yes okay um like I said they are not permitted to enter into those agreements without your your review right without your approval they're not permitted to obligate the township under financial matters without your approval um they have other abilities that can be granted to them under the Redevelopment law so that this council could say we want you to I I I don't want to give a specific example because I don't want to mislead you at all if I get some of the details wrong this is what I was talking about before I'm not an expert on the Redevelopment agency protocols um and all of the laws under the re development law that go into it uh I know Mr Ron can answer those questions for you if you need um and can lay everything out for you very precisely uh I could have looked into it a little bit more if you'd have asked me on Monday uh so that I could be a little bit better vers tonight for for this aspect of it and I apologize about that uh but they don't have the ability to act independently okay I'm um you know what I mean I'm not opposed to somebody will want a table till we get that clarification or something but I mean overall the general thought of it I've liked I've told you I've liked the idea um because what we're doing isn't working um okay so I will take a motion for you 30 seconds council president Council I'm sorry Council vice president Council I just want to be clear does does the mayor appoint all of these members yes okay uh I will take a motion counc just wanted to do 1 30 second last comment sure several residents want something to happen council members here took an initiative to push the mayor to provide a name and interview a few people and make this happen so today on record he's provided you a person to Just One of seven members so there are six more times you can come here and you know ask this Council whether this person is qualified or not so this as we most know and councilman ptil knows Council brusher knows we've seen these committees sit and sit for a long time so to move forward this is an opportunity to move forward again I sit as a stalemate listening to Residents who want something then change their mind but I'm just following through and if you do vote this I will support this thank you thank you I will take a motion on resolution 593 councilman brusher would you like the motion to approve or motion to table um I since it's the first one I I could approve it okay so I have a motion to approve by councilman brusher second all right second by councilman pel Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher yes Council May m Coy no council member Harris yes council member PTI yes council member pointer yes council member muel yes council president Batel yes all right and the last one 623 um yes I just wanted to to Echo what you were talking about earlier um this turns out that this was was a mistake um and the mistake came to light was because we appointed three new people so so he's been working uh I I've met him on the veterans committee he's been one of the people there um and then when they appointed the three new people he was made aware that he wasn't actually on the list that was there so what our thought was was that at some time his term expired um it might have been just removed so the very simple thing was he reapplied and uh we're here to approve him tonight um but he does quite a bit of work for the veterans so so I'm I'm proud to vote in favor of him um okay I'll take a motion Council Brer unless if someone else has anything to say okay motion please motion to approve oh motion to approve yes motion by Council rusher second second by Council vice president to for resolution 623 Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher yes council member Coy yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member app pointer yes council member schmuel council president Patel yes uh moving on to to um number nine oral petition and remarks I will start from the list leis tar Lois T 52 reader Road Edison New Jersey you're recognized I'd like to invite everybody to view the addition to the exhibits in the gallery downstairs on the first floor October is National Domestic aware uh violence awareness month as such the domestic violence team put together an exhibit downstairs which shows the horrors of domestic violence as well as a numbers to call to deal with if you know anyone who is a is a subject of domestic violence or if you yourself are so I would encourage everyone to go downstairs take a look at it there's a lot of giveaways there with phone numbers on it and hopefully everyone will enjoy it and see what's doing thank you lisis so as uh Lewis stated if anybody does need help we do have a uh team that helps domestic violence abuse uh survivors or me people that are you know abused domestically and we can you do have help so please do reach out uh anybody else that would like to speak jury ship Freeman again you recognized um people are calling me up saying that even though you're not showing the people on television you can't hear the seniors at home said they can't hear for some reason you're making this mic real low so I'm just telling you what they told you like they you know tired of you playing games with them whatever so from the beginning what disappoints me the most about Edison and about this because I being a teacher Lois tar and I believe uh Elizabeth over there all right when we have leadership positions we need usually nip the Bad actors in the bud so back in SE in January the bad actor should have been nipped in the bud now the whole class has to be punished because of poor leadership skills it saddens me it really saddens me because first we did what we do first we said oh we're not going to show you so we're going to hide all the meetings from you next we're going to change the format of the meetings here we go we're going to change the format then if that doesn't work we're going to uh cut everybody's minute then if that doesn't work we're going to hide all the people that speak it's a sad State of Affair you know to myself I'm like gee Crystal gets to run to town okay if it saddens me okay he would never run my classroom never never in a million years would he ever run my classroom at all I'm that's just to be whatever and then they asked me um somebody else told me to ask about I don't know they said something about a further investigation of the police department and the security um they said how is that going with the security department um for the trip to Chicago I don't know much about it but they told me to ask how is that going is The Whistleblower in trouble or if they're going to lose their job because you know they spoke out against the trip to Chicago so I I don't know if they're going to lose their job or what direction that they're going in and as far as you know do domestic violence that's very very crucial domestic violence domestic violence is like the worst thing that can happen I have people in my family that were murdered during domestic violence I myself uh uh we participate and we have different um things going on we have paint sips and all that you know I I don't know that people actually understand the extent of domestic violence I don't think they understand it I don't think they realize that domestic violence is also verbal verbal violence all right and then I was watching and I was watching councilman pointer explain a point or whatever he was doing then I'm like I see the other council member and they just ignoring him completely of what he's saying and then say something else always jumping playing these games of defense and stuff you know to me it's a very sad State of Affair that we've this year 2024 this is what we get for 2024 this is what we get no answers to any questions but always a cut down of something a cut down of something still where's the m plan where's the master plan that's why I told somebody don't worry about the Redevelopment agency let them put everybody on there I'm still waiting on the master plan so maybe we'll be waiting on another three to four or five years waiting on the Redevelopment is it sad this is sad and let me tell you something you get paid like 20 almost $20,000 not 20,000 but almost they act smug and they act like it's condescending like H H you do I have to answer those people back and forth okay because you cannot and you're inep and answering question because you cannot do your job we all have to suffer so now we got to participate in the circus all because nobody nipped it in the butt is that fair no that's not fair been in this town forever and let me tell you I went to Council meetings back and forth back and forth okay sometimes 12:00 sometimes 2 o'clock and the council members only got maybe $600 a month maybe $6,000 I guess they for the whole year but guess what they were polite they answered questions to the best of their ability and they were respectful people that sat in those seats it's it's very very shame because you know how each person you know how they're going to answer you know what I think I think it's kind of ridiculous too you got a council member filming the audience he's filming the audience okay tell me that's not childish and ridiculous okay oh I don't want to film them but you can film them you know what I mean sometimes I think people should be ashamed of themselves they really should this is like a CL a talk I give to my preol students I talk to them and tell them some things you should be ashamed of yourself that you do you know and I seen the film of the people on Clara Barton and I seen the guy saying there's no foot traffic down here well guess what and there's parking spaces but I still say them bump outs them bump outs is is the worst I seen people work with snow plows and stuff those bump outs are the worst you know trying to squeeze in and trying to maneuver everybody doesn't understand once certain RADS get blocked because they don't live that near us when certain RADS get blocked it'll take you on uh Amboy Avenue you like stuck there for 20 30 minutes there's no there's no threeway with that it's I'm good I'm good I'm going to sit down so you don't call the cops thank you council president counc just to address the question on the master plan it was adopted July uh the resolution at the planning board memorialized it so next action steps would be on the uh council's directive thank you council president thank you councilman poter council president Council Brer yeah just for our attorney to take note uh um our former councilwoman she was talking about um the whistleblowers being targeted um I I heard the same thing I I heard that they were looking to get phone records and I don't know if they were for um police officers um elected officials or residents um I also heard the judge denied them but the concern would be if somebody actually did go do that so I'm going to ask the attorney to find that out um to see if there was an official request that was made and um let me know okay um anybody else Elizabeth Conway 20 Netherwood Circle you recognized okay number one um with questions about the auditor I know this is something that has to be done but wouldn't it be more efficient if you met with the auditor he went over it because most of the stuff is very uh limited and just easily fixed and if you have any questions it can be done right then and there with someone in administration so this way it can be shared I know on um the Board of Education an auditor comes and actually explains all the different things that were found and how they were being fixed so I think that might be an easy I way to go my opinion number two I'm not against the gentleman that was appointed to the re development agency I'm morally questioning the process now I looked because I was told that the lists of committees are online so I did look and it does have read development agency with nothing it has one two three five vacancies and expired terms of 2014 when I look back to the human relations commission I'm on that but I was expired in December of 20123 and I was told oh no they'll just update it well I guess we need to look into that but it's the process do people know if by going on this that it's an empty committee that they should apply was it posted that we're looking for people how many people applied how many interviews were given so this way you can move forward and and say everybody that I spoke to if the mayor is doing the evaluation that it's being done fair I don't really care if it's Edo or mdo or Rdio whatever you want to call them as long as the person is stepping up and is interested and has gone through the proper process that's what I'm questioning is the process being followed and obviously it's nine years since anybody was on it so I guess you have to read develop the process in order for it to be fair number three Inman Avenue in Old Ron Road when I came on Monday night and you were in executive session uh president Patel you had it on your list uh regarding a stop sign on Inman Avenue well I believe there is a stop sign but even though the stop sign is there at that point we couldn't see even though there was a stop sign so if you're talking about thinking about stop signs maybe if you could have an all way stop I don't know if that's as difficult as a light but if everybody has to come to a stop it might prove a little safer and last but not least six minutes to four minutes I think the meeting's gone pretty well even though we have very um funny visitors tonight but it's been mom I've taken some pictures I think it's hysterical I'm going to share with my husband but um but I appreciate that they're trying to prove a point but six minutes to four minutes is still an insult to me and to somebody like Joyce and somebody like Lois we were teachers teachers talk and we're not just asking marinaa every two seconds Mara how much time do I have left no I'm saying what I have to say and then when my time is up I will go sit down and hopefully you'll answer me but this really needs to not only be tabled but put onto the table and stomped on thank you thank you [Applause] uh of the auditor Sonia can you quickly go through the process but that's for us I can show you this is what the audit looks like so it's kind of difficult to go through all of it but the corrective action is much easier to swallow if that's the yeah this is the audit yes so it's a very detailed audit but uh if you can go through the process as to how this goes about uh so our Auditors uh they get here about probably late spring um and they go through each department and uh there's a set of requirements um mostly uh you know accounts that get reconciled processes that we need to follow whether it's the procurement law whether it's um you know State Statute laws that we have to follow so um there's just an array of documents um but if I could make a suggestion just like the budget um I'm my office hours are out of office hours and anybody would like to make an appointment like to sit down with you as well as our CFO and finance director answer president just that let me just finish the the answers and then we can get back to is that okay okay it was same yeah uh I lost my train I thought um yes the Committees I agree with you I think the Committees do need to be looked at and the processes needs to be looked at and I think that whole process needs to be handled better and I am going to take a look at it and I'm hoping the council members will agree and will come up with a new process that will actually incentivize committees to be active and more engaged and dynamic in terms of what we need as a town um and then the Inman ab and the old Ron Road uh again it's with the county they are in discussion with the township to figure out whether or not we can have all stop sign I don't know how far I I just wanted to get an update from the administration as to where that ended up being but that is what the last I know of of that particular situation Council Brer yes I just wanted to explain to miss k um this audit is the same audit that you've looked at when you were on the board of education and when I was there um in fact we originally had the same Auditor in both entities um up until just really a few maybe a couple years ago um I think it was a personal issue but you know when you get it it's kind of laid out and it does show you quite a bit but on the board of B we would get it you know what I mean and then I've met with um hodik and Morris I went to their office right we've went through some of the items that maybe I have questions on um but with this this was just a thing that just happened you know it's not like I could call and go meet him or talk to Sonia I mean I'm just you know you give it to me on Monday Tuesday I'm not really available okay um so so that's where that is and and your point on the Committees 100% agree these are appointments by the mayor okay and and our mayor when he was a councilman you know used to say I want this and I want that um but he's just ineffective um we have an insurance committee right look at the insurance committee online they're supposed to review like with our brokerage and that to make sure that we're getting you know really decent deals and things of that nature that that that committee I don't think has ever met um not with this mayor not with the P right and like this Administration will go well was the past administration didn't do it either just cuz they did it wrong doesn't mean you can do it wrong and it makes it better um but he doesn't seem to get that so so these are his appointments for his vision right and this on our agenda was his vision so that's kind of where it is um thank you council president thank you Council pressure anybody else suum alone barbar 85 Pleasant app I just oh thank you just a couple comments we're we're not against a Redevelopment agency in fact we are we believe that a Redevelopment agency could be a really good thing um like the other resident said I that my questions were directed at was this person properly vetted is does this person is this person a political pointy which the E Edo is like but that doesn't mean they won't do a good job it's just I don't I think I would have avoided that um but mostly I'm appealing to the council that these are really important appointees and you have to really make sure they're vetted um we know Edison is development happy and if you if if we have a Redevelopment agency that is gung-ho and not following Redevelopment plans and really taking into consideration what's right for each area will have problems it can be it can be damaging or it can be really great so so that was the point not changing the Mind appreciate the mayor's getting the ball rolling um we've been talking about it for a while um it's the process um okay uh a question why why was the decision made not to put uh the speakers on camera did you get that any other questions to uh and then yeah I do have I do have a couple other things or one other thing um it's just a followup really it's been quite a long time and can someone tell me what happened to the warehouse definition ordinance that was brought forward um and where is that and also there have been many requests for an order ordinance that protects residential areas from warehouses and where is that um the council has proven recently that it can move pretty quickly but these things seem to be stalled and quality of life um for residents is is a thing um so those are my questions okay so the warehouse definition and the the other tie in with that with the residential uh places protected from warehouses again it's a discussion that is have had happen and we are still working to find consensus to gather a right balance and also to make it effective because if we put it on the books and it's not effective if it doesn't really work so that is something that we are working towards unfortunately I don't have a timeline as to when that will happen um now as terms of the decision for the camera angle I will let the administration answer that that is not a decision that Council made we are not part of the executive branch hi um with regard to the camera we're just um trying different angles council president uh oh I'm sorry are you done so do you have any other questions I I don't understand that answer okay uh if you don't mind I can give it pass it on to the council vice president yes I actually uh spoke to Bob deal today and because I've been getting a lot of people who are complaining about that and I don't blame them I I don't understand why all the focus is going to be on the council members and not the give respect to the people who are speaking and so I am I'm going to be discussing this at the next meeting in my Council comments but uh I I would like to see the camera angle restored to the way it was before this makes no sense to me thank [Applause] you U no o there drct Nasser you're recognized all right so one of the things that councilman coil has been asking for since 2016 is the economic developer um I'm hopeful that we can spend it was like 120,000 150,000 what you said it was but I'm not sure why we can't get that sounds like that has some promise we really should work on that we spend a lot of money on overruns on lots of things why can't we get this one personnel there uh in clar Bon all across at and that would be wonderful to have so it's a good idea I think we should really push through on that unless there's something that you guys can say that I don't see one of the reasons I like coming here and why I wanted to have like one question and go back and forth is because I don't always understand every single thing that's there and so if we go back and forth I can probably understand that a little bit better and think other people as well or if you say something that triggers something in my head and like let me go a and discuss that now versus offline does do make sense to have uh disjointed conversation the other thing that I have is I don't speak for you you don't speak for me there are narratives that are being brought against selective groups in Edison or about people I never said that I was against the Redevelopment agency as the other people have said back here I'm against the process I'm about transparency the qualifications to make sure that people are vetted properly and so one of the things that I wish we had on the council was that we could rebut the council because sometimes you might misunderstand us and we don't have any recourse to say anything the the meeting ends and then we can do offline or whatever or it can come during the next meeting and then something could be said wrong again and then we just keep chasing this whole process over and over again and it's kind of very frustrating so I would like to have the Redevelopment agency I just think that we should be getting the best candidates we should not just pick the first one um that's given to us you're you're allowed to go ahead and say no to the first one I think again as I said Tom mhe the one that actually brought this to the attention of the mayor and I thank the mayor for running with us by the way um and listening to the residents I think that that would have been the optimal choice right there somebody who has experience um I do not have a problem with the person that is there but I do have a problem with not disclosing every single thing on the resume which again is what the vetting is I just personally have an issue I wouldn't personally run or I wouldn't ask for that position because in in my opinion it's my opinion only that somebody who has that kind of power that's on Council or somebody who's a committee person they have influence and I just want a normal everyday person or somebody that has experience or like councilman poter said somebody can take the information disseminate it and make a responsible decision so I mean this person looks like they have the qualifications but again I do question why on the rway nobody or council president you weren't able to tell me that that U if you belong to the Edo but um um councilwoman Harris was so I'm just confused about how that was possible there uh I like the idea of having a person coming and asking one question and then having you respond but again it is at your discretion so again uh Tom also was the reason why the real development agency was out of dorcy and again I do think that he does not have any conflict of interests and I think that he would be the best pick and that is basically all I have to say thank you all right thank you up there for the economic developer that is something that I have been asking in um my discussion items and it is something that Sonia has assured us that they are looking for a right candidate and they hav found I will ask Sonia to update it at again I I believe that's still the case uh and in terms of uh I I agree rment agency is something that we should all support uh and then tomay I believe that he sounds like a great candidate but unfortunately it is not for the council to appoint it is for the mayor to appoint once he appoints it then we can review his resume and then we can decide whether or not we want him for the Redevelopment agency I still have time right yes um so if somebody like Tom oay like you said that this was advertised somewhere um can we make it much easier to find um and I tell an application it's just an application but I I believe they might I'm not sure what the process of advertising but uh I can ask the administration to make it more more permissive or pervasive because he would I'm sure he would have applied and he just wasn't aware and really him being at that mayoral meeting with lots of people like I really feel like he should have been reached out to and been the first one really Anthony Damron Wy have you recognized um you know I was I was back there looking on my phone um I was looking up at the uh Edison reporter which I recommend everybody it's a tremendous local news Outlet now uh just like New Brunswick today does a great job Charlie uh so I was looking at these tic this all these articles and it came across an article from about a month ago regarding the mayor you know and allegations regarding sexual uh misconduct when back when he was a council member it I can tell you this I I I I was approached uh at my H at my home one day two years ago by a the the victim at the time who I didn't know and uh she began to tell her story and you know I'm not judge of jury but I'll tell you this there's some things in this that story that just make you just say how is there not an investigation into what the hell happened here she needed surgery for for crying out loud um and you know I I I am not about to you know the mayor was a good was a friend of mine was a good friend of mine at the time and he deserves his side of the story as well and we haven't heard a single comment from the mayor and I don't believe anybody outside of maybe one uh council member um none of the council either I mean it's these are some serious stuff here and and and the fact that you know hey they looked into it in the county and stuff and nothing came of it that's that's nobody believes that I mean that doesn't mean anything but something did happen believe me I mean it did I I don't know I'm not judge of jury but I mean we deserve to hear his side of the story and he does he deserves his side um but there's some some stuff that was said I mean it's just it's just amazing and it's um you know I think we need to take that a little more seriously um regarding the um the the the public comment stuff you know I I I was myself was at the time uh one of the leading voices behind getting the these meetings uh live streamed first was the Board of Ed did it and then the council finally did it supported by councilman Joi at the time and councilman actually at the time uh the mayor at well he's councilman at the time uh supported even having a people in real time ask questions via the YouTube live um I don't know if that's legal to do or how that works but he was supportive of it I was as well and you go five years later we are going backwards we're not we're not progressing we're we're we're actually going backwards now and taking time away and know back and forth and you know uh it's just I don't even know why you even have public comments you just everybody should just then write their questions in and you guys can read them off um quite frankly that's where we're getting to um so I'm you know I like to see the other to go the other way um also um Warehouse another W two warehouses supposedly going or being proposed next to the dog park mouin Edison dog park which is the old uh was that Green Acres I think L property behind Whitman Avenue I mean that is Ground Zero for overdevelopment I've always been I've been saying that forever and now they want to put a warehouse or two warehouses back over there it's just I I mean I that's my old neighborhood back there it's just incredible how they're going to the traffic there is just going to be a disaster um so I really hope they uh where's the planning board or whomever is looking into that um really really gives that a good look and uh hopefully denies it possibly who knows um James Monroe traffic I I did ask you know about doing a traffic um I know the chief was looking into I did see the the the police out there doing some type of maybe study or something um it it's really bad getting worse and I just fear that if there was an an emergency God forbid in the morning during and it's only like 10 minutes of time that we're were talking about here uh I don't know how a fir TR or an emergency vehicles could get down Halo it's just it's real bad so I mean going the these vehicles in my opinion should be going in one way out out the same way or out the other way um in a flow of traffic um it's just it's really it's really scary so the there's really 10 minutes a time between 8:45 and 9 you're looking at um 15 minutes that you know you you worry about gbit if there was an emergency um so hopefully they could we could something could be done about that traffic um at least for those times make them more like a oneway for certain P you know time out of the uh out of the morning um oh uh if there's I never ask about my time how much one minute one minute thank you um I oh I need that stuff for Esther by the way um Esther still going still still on hanging on strong still watching these meetings um I Dr we drop off the uh the agenda tour anyways um there should put up like a a clock right there that that shows us our time I mean so we don't have to ask maybe that would be a little more feasible just a suggestion I don't know and uh that's it council president thank you thank you Anthony I believe we are working on the time clock we should have that up and running soon uh anybody else that would like to speak Anonymous am I recognized you recognized okay I came here I came here to speak about other topics but because people want to mention my name and lie with my name involved I'm going to set the record straight the last time the mayor tried to repeal the time okay the VA lied ex councilwoman lied up there and said members of the public made racist and sexist remarks that we never made you guys enabled this mayor so when they're saying to me that we're going to nip something in the but Bud what are we going to nip in the bud what do they want me to do get shot in the head for what coming to the meetings and doing my constitutionally protected activity which is speaking during my time if you got a problem with the mayor and what he's doing go speak to the mayor I don't I don't care if you guys are a bunch of cowards all right take it up with the mayor um it's a ad administration's problem they don't want to show the public and they even lie about it but you know to bring up my name to to mention something that happened in January um you guys deserve to get cursed off uh you guys tried to frame me for an arson that never happened you guys gave me three felony charges you guys slandered me in the newspaper that I was uh criminally restraining child PR editors and threatening to cut off their peeps so when I had for two years I wasn't able to use my social media generate an income an income that I used to uh give to my mom you understand I didn't get a YouTube paycheck until one day after my mom passed away and I was found innocent of those charges so this town keeps with me all right they keep blaming me for  that I have no control over you got a problem with the mayor take it up with the mayor do you have uh enough Integrity to say that no one made no racist or sexist remarks no you don't you won't say that today and be because of your zero Integrity actions the mayor used that to Tech other residents where Suzanne Russell put it in the media that somebody made racist and sexist remarks it was insinuated on Mayor Sam josi's Facebook page that it was me and a whole bunch of people were threatening me over it it's not my problem go yourselves go yourselves sir excuse me we've been over this I politely say no I'm politely saying it sir if you continue the use of vulgarity the council president is within his rights to revoke your time please I will I I will file file a Tor claim and I'll file point of privilege uh he has a constitutional right under Rosenfeld versus New Jersey to be able to curse so sir you have not been recognized by the council president I would suggest that you sit down how much time do I have left point of privilege you will recognize pause this time you so any speaker here is allowed to curse that's Rosenfeld vers New Jersey 1972 so you threatening him with be able to curse or not excuse me I'm not done yet um is a violation of his rights is a deprivation of his civil rights which is a criminal charge thank you uh you can start his timer the answer to the point of privilege uh we will continue this conversation thank you you can sit down have the answer to it though Mar can you the point of the Quorum here is that we want to not create violent insightful language and what he was stating was a violent insightful language no it wasn't to me it was and it is my duty to keep a decorum the your point of inquiry was answered please sit down any more disruption will be asks you to leave thank you you can rules you can continue this time okay I still got to go to trial I still got to face all those fake charges thousands of dollars I lost but the mayor terrorizes this community and instead of the community standing back towards the mayor we got to nip it in the bud we got to with Christo we got to bother kristo I don't appreciate that that's complete and um how much time do I have left Marena about two minutes I can't even stand here right now my M my migrain is so severe I'm I don't even know how I'm even able to stand up but thankfully I came um the mayor's a piece of he's attacking the residents and like we see sir former your language former Council people and and other other res other residents are blaming me for it uh deputy Chief dudash you're not a victim you were never a victim I cursed you off what of it you put in the media you lied in the media and I and I came here and I set the record straight through the chair to do that I came here and I set the record straight so what what problem is that this is this is the appropriate time place and manner to set the record straight so what's the problem do would you like members of the public to show up to your homes and get the ansers there or can they come to this meeting at the appropriate time place and manner how much time do I have left Marina almost almost a minute pause this time if you don't remove your mask you'll be removed um I don't recognize my time being paused I continue to have minut sir if you're going to keep your mask on I will be asking you to be removed from this chamber point of privilege officer of priv please remove him I called the point of privilege I'm calling a point of privilege I called the point of privilege okay can I get my can I get my stuff from over there so I'm being told to leave under threat of arrest corre oh what's up Sam what's up you want to grab yourself and here they go using the police they come after us that they're not the enemy you're the enemy sh shame on you councilman shame on you and you know what this town and the government you got a problem what I said you guys man I lost thousands I lost thousands all okay uh anybody else that would like to speak name and address Edward Lefty Grimes I'm with sativa cross.org we're a 501c3 here in New Jersey fighting for disability rights and for cannabis patients rights you're recognized you're not going to ask me to take my mask off oh sorry I please take off your mask I had to remind you to do your job yeah I've been a little there's a prize underneath for every time there's a prize don't you want the prize today it's Joshy can you see it what does it say Pat Joshy is a Milky the only one person at the I don't know what a Milky liquor is but if it's in a Jerky Boy movie if you ever watch a Jerky Boys movie uh he talks about milky Liquors I it could be funny it doesn't seem to manifest certain social redeeming characteristics but either does Joshy so however I'm here to um hypnotize you and I'm here to maybe exercise some of you and I'm going to ruin a song for you I'm going to make sure that the rest of your life you're going to have an earworm in your brain from what I'm about to do you're never going to forget disability rights are human rights disability rights are human rights and I'm going to make sure you never forget this you ready okay disability rights are human rights disability rights are human rights disability right are human rights disability rights are human rights disability rights are human rights disability rights are human rights disability rights are human rights right disability rights are you council president uh please pause this time app point of order has been called sir please stop I'm in the middle of the disability National an you don't interrupt I'm I being there's been a request president a point of order has been called by a member of the council councilman pointer thank you in our rules and procedures it says that we can call a point of order in terms of items that are repetitious in nature you said stay the same sentence multiple times for over a minute so to me that is statement yes so the point of order has sustained sir you have no longer right to speak you can still participate by listening to the conversations I'm not done how much time do I have left sir your time is forfeit my time is forfeited for what for saying disability rights are human rights really for saying disability rights are human rights you're going to Forfeit my time for saying disability rights are human right remove him are you kidding me it's just a point of disability rights are human rights how do you how are you going to are you a disabled vet none of you people are Disabled Vets how dare you he's a disabled vet you wouldn't have this Council if it wasn't for disabled vs fighting for your right to be ignorant and ableist how dare you how dare you silence disability rights how dare you who do you think you are who do you think you are telling me I can't talk about disability rights you wouldn't have that cushy seat that stinks without disability disabled vs fighting for your rights how dare you who do you think you are you want to play political theater we're the best at it we're better than you you move the chair you move this back you think you're smart you change the camera angles you think you're smart you wore your mask today thinking I'm going to ask you to take it off you think you're smart no we're going to be smart you wait till you see what happens to you when you get sued for taking away Zoom access for the disabled vets wait till you see what happens to you because other towns are being sued for it I can't wait to see your your attorney get sued for disability rights not being human rights in your town shame on you shame on all of you 68% of Jesus's Miracles were for the disabled where's your energy at where's your energy at and yes my sign says Joshy is a Milky liquor and the rest of you are too disgusting disgusting we should come back here every week shame on you shame on you and yeah she's right it should have been nipped in a Bud because now you started a huge tree that you're not going to be able to control you should have nipped it in the bud but you're too ignorant now you got political theater up your butt and then they can end it's not going to be pretty all right thank you anybody else that would like to speak council president Council Brer yes ju just for the record on on the zoom meeting right um I just want to be on the record to our attorney and to the business administrator so she can let the mayor know um I know that we've had many lawsuits here um which will come up as he's tries to run for office again but if we end up getting sued because we couldn't make a reasonable accommodation for people that have disabilities with zoom I just wanted on the record that the attorney and the business administrator was was notified so I'd ask you to please send an email to the mayor to request that we have this done we did it during Co it is a reasonable accommodation um anything more than that is just you know in the face saying because I don't want to hear from certain people I don't want to do it that's not an adult thing to do I'm looking for the mayor to do the adult thing here so please inform him that would be a council president thank you council president Council Monday Monday work station meeting actually Zoom link Zoom access was my discussion item and I did ask Administration to seriously look at it I'm in fully support of for the transparency and for the Democracy let's open the zoom link and I I spoke about that I was told that you are looking into it but hopefully by next council meeting we'll have some answer thank you council president thank you Council Patel anybody else that would like to speak yeah you called me yes name and address my name is bang Holio you can find me on any bong any coffee table across the the state of the country I'm a bong you spell that b o n g h o l e l e o that's the correct spelling of bong Holio some people get that wrong so I'm here with my baby this is bang hito and I think it's unfair that uh I'm not being valued properly as a resident or member of the public I would like the the audience to see me at home so I'm gonna take a couple steps up here and I'm G to turn around so that the people at home can see me sir remain where you are officers you can't just make a rule up like that on the spot it's my time to talk iose chose Reed to remain at the I chose to do what I was able to do last time sir you are remove please remove him please get him out one sec one sec I'm getting kicked out unun told you not okay sir sir officer sorry officer I misspoke he returned to the podium if you if you step away from the podium again you will be removed yeah because the way you guys do your policy is is a warning at first so you just tried to remove me illegally not even based off of your own it's my time please let me talk Mr attorney Mr attorney please it is my time to speak okay what I just witnessed was unbelievable you just Tred to kick a man disabled man out for saying disability rights are human rights you guys realize you just did that right you just tried to remove a person in a wheelchair disabled person after you brought up the fact that you guys are going to get sued you guys aren't getting it I spoke here in April unbonded okay came here told all of you to be very careful about members of the public I warned each of you that I am you you are me and we are all the same we have American values when decorum issues converge with the First Amendment it never wins I was here to speak about the profanity issue before there was ever mask violations and all this garbage I spoke to you very seriously as an intellect I warned you guys about what road you were possibly going to be going down this is before all this mask nonsense you keep coming up with this time place and manner thing that is not how it works when it converges with the First Amendment you guys should stop paying your borrow attorney he's not doing a good job he's a failure for an attorney I mean this is beyond unreasonable I have spoken as bong Holio probably over 40 different Council meetings in New Jersey believe it or not I've stood in this bong in Council meetings more than Pilots have flight hours do you understand that this is serious business this is not a joke I'm not I'm not even supposed to be here I should be holding my baby for Christ sakes my wife pink Holio is going to be pissed off that I'm not home with the baby you understand this right or do you you just don't care I'm getting a lot of  for this for being out here at this meeting but do I have police standing around me I just felt like I had police standing around me so weird what you guys have done this meeting's gone pretty smoothly but you guys I told you last time like I said back in April you're stepping left when youed to step right you're stepping back when you should step forward you guys just don't get it I could be dumber than you but apparently I can't you guys are just unbelievable it is absolutely absurd every single time that I've come to a council meeting I've performed a song as bang Holo and to keep the tradition alive and the only reason why I came out of retirement tonight is cu that means you guys have failed miserably big failures not little failures huge J gantic failures so to keep the tradition alive I'm going to do a song would you mind holding my baby thank you unreal you want a political theater circus you're going to get one better all start acting like adults you know what time it is my Bluetooth on not working that's right how much time do I have Marlene about a minute five minutes a minute a minute speaker one minute I love you a my baby I love you [Music] it's big bong o' yeah it's hit 30 I've been sucked on a lot so I'm a little dirty is everybody smoked up in the building it's been a minute tell me how you're healing cuz I'm about to get into my feelings how you feeling how you feel right now o I've been sucked down by so many people oh the women they're always my favorite oh I'm not the I your is up thank you bit might turn up the music my time's up give me a light pack up my head piece let's all get stone tonight okay sir please I'm a big damn bom officers can we please remove him what's a tough one to follow uh name and address please my name is Patrick Duff I'm a Haden Heights resident and uh I'm a First Amendment activist uh the City attorney probably knows my name I've sued many of cities and I've won every single one of them Oprah mostly Oprah lawsuits and Tabernacle I I don't know if you heard about what happened in Tabernacle with the the town hall but uh the mayor the deputy mayor the administrator and the uh engineer who by the way was a chemical engineer uh who said the building was going to fall down oh they've all been removed from office for my work so uh you don't want me at your Council meetings trust me you don't want me here the reason why I'm here is because I don't just file Tor claim notices I sue the hell out of you so you can kiss my ass if you remove me with the police you can be sure you'll be making the next movie I'm a film producer I just did who killed Les crane who killed LC crane.com and let me ask you administrator do you have the authority to put the camera on me please could you Mr Patel can you please remove the costume mask because that mask you have is the biggest costume mask we've ever seen in the world that does nothing can you please remove your mask officers can you remove Mr Patel can you please remove Mr Patel he is wearing a costume mask and he just had Christo removed from the building for doing the same thing sir what are you wearing that for why are you wearing that you look like an idiot you do you look like an idiot with it on and you all look like idiots for taking transparency away and not showing the public now it's going to be everywhere I mean this is going to be thousands and thousands of views online because we're making a spectacle of it because you have removed somebody who has a First Amendment right first of all what does the mask do to you how does that hurt you could anybody answer that no answers doesn't bother me okay Mr Patel does it bother you does it bother you and here you are wearing a silly costume mask are you do you believe that that mask can help you do anything except for cover up just like you're doing to the public here by not showing the public [Music] this sucks can I borrow your mask because if you remove me I'm now you know what first let me I gotta bring somebody out well let me be clear this is Governor Phil Murphy I am here to give a message to the Edison Council you suck you suck and if you remove Patrick Duff he will sue the Mighty Balls off this city till you can't have any Redevelopment agencies anymore and I'm going to Oprah your phone records to get the camera view from that side because Council people who use their devices during meetings can be oate will you just forward the uh the thing over to my residents Tammy will accept it thank you very much um as your great Governor the first amendment is very important and if you remove somebody for using their first amendment they can sue the big balls off of you and that is what's going to happen no I'm not being removed I'm cursing I'm not being removed can you remove your mask please uh sir can you pause this time this take this as a warning if you keep the mask on you will be removed if you keep the mask how about we do it together sir can we remove the mask together take officers can you please remove him if you remove me you're going to get sued big time don't touch me nobody touch me nobody touch me you suck you all suck not all you you're pretty cool I like you oh don't touch me and I'm not leaving the building here am I okay to stay you can if you want to continue without your mask well can't you take your silly mask off dude that is of a costume mask than this let's be honest here I mean are you Anthony fouchy you know what they call him phony fouchy because he's a phony just let listen I am going to be so happy to help Christo sue you now um you know that he's filed all these Tor claim notices I said well why don't you file an actual lawsuit so I'm going to write it for him I'm going to give it to him for free and he's file it against you um and I want to do it too so just have them remove me please uh please remove please remove gentlemen thank you is this under threat of arrest am I being removed under threat or arrest uh you are being asked to remove by the officers no you're being removed for violating the council rules that's all excuse me for violating being removed for violating what rule can you please point of privilege point of privilege what rule sir it's been explained to you not I my first time here what's the what's what's the rule just officers please remove him for what one minute left officers yeah I got one minute left come on don't touch me I don't have a mask on he's got a mask on he's got a mask on you can't just take let me ask you a question officers please remove him got go you want you out is this under threat of arrest is what I'm asking for violating the counil chamber rules what rule nobody's stating a rule keeping the mask on when what rule is that can you state the rule the decorum rule the decorum yes but what is the rule state that's very important it's that's what law is it's words so what do the words say that allow you to remove me sir 23 seconds left I 23 seconds come on don't touch me don't touch me I'm the last one you want to touch CU I sue everybody I'm very very good at it don't even need a lawyer for it any I recognized uh not with the mask on so am I being thrown out if I don't take it off yes okay awesome so I already sent you guys Tor claims for um other issues for Zoom access um I received two emails back um not from you um so you guys removed Zoom access so you know people that are home like a disabled veteran like me that want to watch your your stuff and maybe even um participate I can't so Ada access you have none you used to have it but then you took it away so I already sent you guys a tour claim um I'll be suing too because I already sent the tour claim for that um now that you just told me I have to take this off I'm going to be removed that's another tour claim it's not in at the Quorum you guys also violated um Roser F versus New Jersey you have absolute right to curse that's also 1972 and they the Supreme Court of United States on con versus California um and in Rosenfeld he called the Boe  you're allowed to whether you like it or not first am amember texts the speech that you don't like not not what everybody likes um so you're in violation of that so you'll be sued for that um that's a deprivation of civil rights that's a criminal uh charge uh you're you're witnessing the criminal charge deprivation of civil rights just sitting there I mean you're a nept so we'll be following an Opia uh violation with uh the state police and the Attorney General's office um you have nothing in The Mask so you're wearing a mask right now you're not a doctor right are you going into surgery so it's rules for us and not for the you do what you want and remove people we sit here for for you know two weeks to be able to speak for 5 minutes 6 minutes whatever the case is you should be letting us speak for that entire time mask no mask cursing it really doesn't matter the only thing that you can't say are fighting words and there were no fighting words admitted by anybody um so I sent you guys a Tor claim for Facebook um for the mayor he's not letting people comment on the page that's already been ruled on um in federal courts as well as r versus curette where it's a public page you can't you can't do that if you've G to League of municipality meetings and they talked about this at the league of the last two League of municipality meetings so you guys are in complete violation say the tour claim already we're just following all this stuff up so we could we could sue you because you're so easy just to trigger it's it's it's amazing um I'll be op requesting the film over there and and videos and pictures that anybody took um so these guys are being trespassed not just from the meeting which is the opma you guys could throw us out or for violating the law he didn't commit a crime they're telling him he's got to get off the property this is public property he's out of the bu he's out of the room he's out of the meeting they're saying because the meeting's happening in this building he can't be anywhere in the building that's a violation I mean you guys just do whatever you want I mean it's incredible um so the other issue is the shelter so on their website it says it's open to the public but appointment required so that's in violation of a23 administrative code um It also says on there that acl's do animal cruelty investigation uh and animal negle uh uh neglect is that the case is that's what's going on I'm sorry repeat that question so the question is it says on the website that AC do animal cruelty and neglect investigations is that true ACO does animal cruelty and neglect is that true Chief uh says it on the website actually let me wait till you're done before I answer your question and then um It also says if you have injured Wildlife to call uh a wildlife rehab center guess what acos have to pick up any injured animal so right in a right in the the ACO and title 4 it says in there every animal under God's kingdom you have to control now if it's just there as Wildlife is around you don't pick it up if it's injured they have a duty by law by title four to pick up that animal not to say oh call Raptor trust or call some Wildlife Refuge Center that's not the way the law Works um so I tried doing an IIA earlier your officers said no I'm not doing it so they're in violation of the law law says any any person can follow an IIA with any officer at any time so I have on tape no I'm not doing it um speaker one minute okay so you guys deprived a whole bunch of people here of their civil rights um I think I might just charge a criminally um so all these committees everybody's talking about with their resumes being put in once once those people are put in you can open request all resumés that that were submitted for uh to be looked at you can also look at Financial disclosure statements of of the mayor you can also find out anybody that uh donated so you can Circle back around to see if these guys are paying to play and um or connected to the mayor in any way um it seems like you guys are just kissing everybody's ass the the the mayor's ass um the metal detector new I've been here a bunch of times I've been all over the state your time is up there's there's no law sir your time is up thank you bunch of Fu all right anybody else uh so would you like to address the ACO issue we have uh we have detectives uh Mr President in regards ards to that are trained in animal trty cases our detectives conduct those investigations thank you with the sir your time is up yes your name and address hello again Council and uh to everyone listening to my disembodied voice on Edison TV my name is Charlie Caville once again I'm the editor in New Brunswick today and uh um from New Brunswick I think somebody already asked the question I wanted to ask if there was a reason that Edison TV is not showing members of the public who speak at the podium I think the answer that was provided was uh laughably insufficient um I I don't know what you're what the administration's trying out here but uh I agree with councilwoman Harris there's no good reason not to show the public and uh I think folks are venting some frustration over that here tonight but I'll give you some some good reasons to restore uh uh what you used to do and show the public one is that folks who are part of hearing um can understand what people are saying by reading their lips um they can't do that if you don't show the speaker and uh I also as somebody who watches a lot of government meetings and uh watches them on YouTube uh which credit to Edison TV for putting them on YouTube not only after the fact but live um especially when it's a long meeting I can't watch the whole thing to find the part I need but if I can can see who the speaker is I can scrub through it on YouTube and get to the part I want to get to to find out what was said by the person I wanted to hear from and now if you just keep the same shot on screen for the entire video it's much harder to find the part of the video that I want to see to do my job as a reporter so I hope that uh whoever's out there listening uh will will stop this and and restore the uh you know highquality video work that Edison TV has become known for for and I think that uh this is unfortunately part of a pattern I spoke about it the last time I spoke to you um things like having the police remove people from the meetings things like insufficient responses to Oprah requests I I even forgot to mention it last time but there's of course the issue of the meeting videos that were deleted from the Edison tv YouTube channel of these meetings uh with no good reason given and um yeah I I see this as troubling so I took time out of my day to come here and and wait for my turn to speak on this I hope that you take my comments to heart because I think we can all get the sense that things are going in the bad Direction here um transparency is good and uh over the time I've been coming to these meetings I've seen transparency uh uh sort of vanish or Fade Away things like the remote Zoom access that was a great thing and I'm glad some council members support bringing it back I think that would go a long way towards uh helping folks attend who don't have the time or the transportation or uh uh it may not be in good health or may not want to drive late at night to to come and speak to their representatives I think you owe it to them to give them the the full access that you can with the technology available I also do want to uh thank Mr Burns for having some dialogue with me about the Oprah request that I um spoke about last time on the ethics board minutes but uh the response I ultimately got from the clerk's office is woefully in efficient um I was provided with six records uh meeting minutes for six different meetings two of which were redacted so I know this has become a all too familiar site here of the the big black bars blocking out what I thought was a public meeting minutes um I don't know why redactions were made to public meeting minutes but regardless there were 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 other meetings for which no minutes were provided at all there's no good reason to be keeping these minutes a secret and especially after learning tonight that some of the boards are defunct or disfunctional in this town I'm really concerned about the ethics board hiding what they're doing the ethics Board of course investigates the conduct of Municipal Employees and uh can has the power to find them uh for misconduct and I think that what goes on there should be public uh public meetings are public I don't think this is news to anyone but when you're redacting the meeting minutes or failing to provide them upon an Oprah request you're not doing your job the clerk's office is not doing its job in terms of keeping these records I'll also note the minutes I was provided were not signed um uh the response was s completely silent as to my requests for recordings of those meetings and nowhere was an Oprah exemption identified to justify the redactions um the response is really deficient and unfortunately it's not the only Opa request that I've got a deficient response to I also uh had requested some documentation of the DNC trip that the mayor took and the security detail and the expenses and reimbursements I got one document it was a copy of the $20,000 check speaker has one minute thank you and uh the response was totally silent on my requests for the backup documentation and I understand that there is uh uh those records do exist based upon the comments I heard at Monday's meeting but I wasn't provided them I've also asked for a simple police roster the list of all the police officers you have I want their names and their badge numbers this should be a basic request uh that should be easy to fulfill I filed it on September 12th got a request for an extension on September 23rd I asked a follow-up question to the person who uh made that uh request for an extension they did not respond to my question and then on October 8th another requests for an extension so I'm still waiting for the list of the police officers I'm still waiting for all those ethics board meeting minutes and I'm still waiting for the documentation of the um expenses that were incurred by the township for the mayor's trip to Chicago and I think we deserve better your time is up uh this your first or the second rebuttal a rebuttal okay just so you know rebuttal within public comments okay Elizabeth Conway 20 Netherwood Circle you're recognized people think I'm nuts because I come to this meeting but I come to the meeting to learn about what's going on in my Township I come I ask questions I look for answers I hear what you have to say and if anybody has any questions I'm able to share with them the last few meetings have been turning in a different direction and tonight has been appalling I don't know what's going on council president point of order and Miss Conway I you know I support you but this is not a rebuttal yes it is because I'm rebutting everybody else that's been getting up here and upsetting me it's not a rebuttal but I'm not going to stop you from continuing wrong Elizabeth Elizabeth if you can point to a specific topic that they mention that you can rebut the gentlemen that have gone before me have been standing there saying freedom of speech and they've been talking about things that are not in appropriate decorum I don't come here to hear vulgar language I come here to learn about my Township I don't know what's going on behind Clos doors or anywhere in any office but I ask that this stop go back to it being an informational meeting to the public thank you thank [Applause] you anybody else this will be a rebuttal this will be a rebuttal lowest draw 52 Rita Road you're recognized I come to these meetings as many of you know and I don't speak at everyone I speak when there's a reason to speak well tonight there's a reason to speak in rebuttal to what went on tonight allowing people to make this council meeting a clown show it's gotten to the point where I suggest that you let them sue you and win because they won't if you settle with them there'll be more of it and we'll continue and I have a question is there a way that the council can allow residents of Edison to speak prior to people from outside the community can you put the preference of the people who Edison speaking first and if they don't give their residency which is by the way in your code that you have to give the name and and place of uh your address that if you can't I think you can make them do that but if you can't make them do that then put them at the end of the speaking that everybody here can walk out and not have to listen to it thank you thank you Lis so we don't necessarily have a way to put residents first but I do know in general who comes here and I tend to pick out the people that you know I know that are going to add to the conversation and be more informational and have have a good dialogue uh and then I save them till the end because I know that there is a purpose as to why they're here and their purpose is very clear to anybody watching but that is fine unfortunately it is as they State their First Amendment right they are allowed to say what they choose and as long as they do it within the rules of this chamber and within the decorum of this chamber I am okay to listen to them but when they do not follow those rules I am okay to KCK them out as well okay anybody else that would like to speak all right seeing none can I get a motion to close the public portion motion close the public portion second motion by councilman coil second by Council vice president all in favor and this meeting has oh wait one second meeting is adjourned at 9:49 p.m. e e e e e e e