e e e e all right calling the regular meeting of Wednesday April 10th uh to order at 7 p.m. please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance States uh Madam clerk roll call please council member brusher here council member Cole here council member Harris here council member Patel here council member ptil council member poiner pres council member schmuel here all right Madam clerk please read the adequate notice adequate notice of this meeting is required by the open public meeting Act of 1975 has been provided by the I notice sent to the home News Tribune straw Ledger Desi talk and news India times on December 12th 2023 and posted main lobby missal complex on that same date uh okay the motion can I get a motion to approve the regular meeting of November 29th 20123 motion to approve have a second second a motion by Council vice president second by councilman pill all in favor uh for president's remarks I don't have much to say today so we will move on to the resolution of recognition Madam clerk please read the resolution of recognition whereas the Edison public library was established on January 28th 1927 at the corner of wridge Avenue and thomasine street but not officially recognized as a library until 1929 theyve have grown to serve the township of Edison through three locations and bookmobile services the Edison Library offers the opportunity for everyone to connect learn new skills pursue their passions no matter where they are on life's journey the public Edison Public Library is accessible the Edison the public library has 95 years of serving as trusted Institute striving to ensure Equitable access to information and services for all the members of the community the Edison Library over the past 95 years has adapted to everchanging needs of the community developing and expanding collections programs and services that are diverse on the populations that they serve the Edison Library inspires us for a better tomorrow and is treasured Institute that preserves our Collective Heritage and knowledge safeguarding both physical and digital resources for present and future Generations the Edison library is an essential public good and fundamental Institute for in our de Democrat de Democratic Society working to protect the rights to education and literacy and promote the free exchange of information ideas for all whereas the Edison Library foundation and Friends of Edison Public Library join Library supporters and Advocates Across the Nation to celebrate National Library week and the 95th Anniversary of the library founding now there for be resolved by the municipal Council of Township of Edison finds it proper and deserving to recognize National Library week and Edison Public Library 95th Anniversary which we encourage all residents to visit their libraries and celebrate the adventures an opportunity they unlock for us every day thank you madam clerk I would ask Madame vice president to present the recognition open to the public oh so let's first open it up to the public come on up Joy ship um 41 South Main Street Edison New Jersey I would like to applo our library and I would like to let everybody know that I'm I'm very very happy that within the library itself that on the board they actually have Librarians that actually care about the success of our libraries and I would like that they carry through because because it is very important to keep libraries open because when they say when you get rid of a library you get rid of an ancestor so I would like to applaud them for all the hard work they're doing and the work that they're going to be doing in the future to make sure Edison libraries represent all of the town thank you thank you anyone else just a name and address please yeah Pat Massie Library place and I'm here tonight as the president of the New Jersey um Public Library board I really want to thank you for recognizing the 95th Anniversary of the library uh I think it's a great accomplishment and I want to invite you all to um join some of the celebrations that we're having I know some of you uh may have gone to the Celebration tonight at Clara Barton and tomorrow North Edison is going to have an event at noon um we're also having the book and the bake sale um this Friday and Saturday at the Clara Barton Branch from 4: until uh sorry from 10: until 4: we had a library uh board retreat on Friday on Saturday and we really uh discussed the roles and the responsibilities of the library board the friends and the foundation and we're very fortunate one of our responsibilities as a board is to hire a director which we have done and we are lucky to have Alan kimman as our director who has then gone on and hired Deborah SAR as our assistant director and they really lead the library with um and help us move on with going following with policies and everything that needs to be done to make the library work um finally we are seeing a lot of results from long-term planning we have the Sprinter that just arrived some of you may have seen it already um I believe it's going to be at the at the book and bake sale at Clara Barton this weekend um along with our bookmobile that we have we're going to be starting the interior Renovations at the main branch um very soon I think we're just waiting for the permits to come in and the engineers are working to get everything in place to go out to bid for the North Branch so we have we have things that have been in place and we are finally seeing some Real Results which is really very exciting um I want to point out that the library's mission is to be welcoming inclusive and dedicated to Excellence and we look forward to strengthening our Partnerships with the township we want to remember that this is one Township and as a former a former principal of mine used to say together we can make a difference and I think if we really work together we can strengthen our community and really make the Edison Public Library an outstanding resource for the community so thank you very much and I hope you're all friends of the library thank you thank you p sum alone Barber 85 Pleasant Avenue you recognize thank you um I just want to congratulate Pat on being elected president of the New Jersey library trustee Association I think it's an amazing achievement and um I think it's great for Edison that our president of our library board was elected to the Statewide um position so um I think as everyone knows Clara Barton is pretty passionate about their Library um lots of good things happening um big friends group we talked about that on Monday and it's really great I think Edison is just getting stronger and stronger the library system and the things happening so congratulations on the 95th Anniversary thank you sue anyone else all right seeing none can I get a motion to close the public portion motion to close may I have a second second all right that's a motion from Council W president second by councilman ptil and I will open it up to council comments actually motion to adopt first uh may I have a motion to adopt motion to adopt second motion by Council vice president second by councilman um any Council comments councilman brusher yes um I agree with my um ex colleague up here um libraries happen to be a Cornerstone I believe um of a community and the education within it and I'd like to thank though today while I have uh the board members here um for the fine job that they've done over the years with the library I haven't heard complaints about service or anything like that um I myself hasn't had any kind of issues going to the library with my grandson um I don't do it for myself now I do it for him and it's nice to see that we have uh Allan here at the helm and he's it seems like he's kind of stabilized it and you guys are moving forward and I think that's a a a big plus to Edison itself here so I'd like to thank you all um for the service that you've given our Township thank you thank you councilman rusher thank you council president congratulations all of you uh with the leadership from our library director Alan we have good leadership president Pat we have Sue Lisa Tony De Pascal you're doing a wonderful job uh at the library we also have Janu Board of Ed member here who also a big supporter and of course the friends of Library we have Mrs and mror here congratulations this is a long way to go uh 95 95 years and we still celebrating so this is not an easy job uh keeping together library was a big deal uh if you have seen the what happened in library last 8 n years and where we stand today I'm very proud to say that you are holding together making good progress again congratulations and if I miss anyone on the library board again I apologize if anyone is there thank you and congratulations thank you Council M PTO anyone else council president Council M poter I'm just going to reciprocate what my colleagues have said what everyone else has said in regards to thanking uh everyone on the board directors um friends of the friends of the library all the volunteers that partake in what make the Edison Library great uh with that just for anyone that is interested in participating in the Edison library and everything that goes on please visit Edison publiclibrary.org there's a lot of information there uh some that I personally need to take more advantage of particularly on the technology side um because there's a lot of good information there so with that again thank you for everything that you've done and it's good that this is here thank you councilman pointer anyone else council president councilman Coy I just want to thank everyone from the lab congratulations and your hard work those who are paid staff who work extra hours without overtime and those who are volunteers who take away time from their life and um they volunteer to you know be a fabric of the community and work alongside the school district and helping our neighborhoods truly it's a it's a remarkable opportunity I'm looking forward to the growth of it with your leadership Allen and uh exciting stuff thank you and thank you councilman Coyle anyone else okay as for me I just want to say congratulations on the 95th Anniversary uh you guys are doing a wonderful job especially I met Al Allen and Pat uh keep up the good work uh as for me history-wise when I first moved from India I moved to El Paso Texas and the library was the one place I could go and have entertainment and uh you know they gave out pizzas if you read like five books so I used to get pizzas there too so uh libraries hold a really strong place in my heart and I continue want to support library in any ways I can um and thank you for the all the audio books that I rent get from you guys through my drive so and keep keep with the good word thank you very much uh now we'll take the roll call we did council member brusher yes council member coil yes council member Harris yes council member P yes council member poiner yes council member schmuel yes council president Patel yes and now I'll ask Council vice president to present the award and the Border colleague all right John thank you all for coming tonight it is my honor and pleasure to serve this is my second year as the library board leison and it is a pleasure to be of service and to and an honor to work with all of you and I'd like to introduce everybody here um I want to start with our library board the executive director Alan kimman uh un fortunately Deborah SAR the assistant is not here uh of course you heard from Pat Massie our library board president uh Sue O'Neal our the vice president is not here um we have Lisa KRA our secretary and we have joty all right this yeah mukala I practiced it too um Tony D Pasqual Joe Romano and of course our friends of the library we have Sue Sue Barber um we have uh octar Nasser and and Sarah Nasser who are so instrumental and how the friends of the library have grow has grown um by Leaps and Bounds since covid pretty much right since it less than a year old right it's great it's really great and so we encourage everybody to join I think they want us to spread out all right all right um I would encourage everybody who's listening to consider joining the friends of the library I think we said there are 60 members right now uh we want more and uh consider becoming a part of the one of the trustees of the foundation where there are spots open for that so this Library it's it's 95 years old and isn't he 95y old it's a little creaky and and tired but from what the library has told me I've gotten this on good on pretty good Council that the library is going to get some Botox done the library is going to be the library is going to be doing some uh some some weight training and and yes definitely a facelift and when when she's a hundred you're not going to recognize her so it is my honor my pleasure to present this to our library board on behalf of the mayor you don't need me to go through all the whereases again um and congratulations to all of you and Alan I'd love you to say a few words thank you um thank you very much um uh it's it's has been an honor to be the director of the Edison Public Library um this is now my fourth year um I came in right at the end of covid uh in which uh not just the Edison Public Library uh but every Library uh not just in New Jersey but across the state uh was limping along um we lost readership um people had stayed away we were closed and I had the opportunity to begin to I would almost say a rebirth of the Edison Public Library so I almost feel like we have a new uh egg and we crack the egg open and so over the last couple of years we've been trying to get the library to where it needs to be um our uh readership has remained steady um we have about 27,000 library card holders in town which means almost one in every four uh people in town have a library card and our goal is to increase that in the next two years to make it 50,000 um at least half of the town will have a library card we have so many exciting things going on and yes the facelifts and the botox but that's that's just the building piece um what we're really looking at is how we uh pivot and change services um we've just gotten our second uh book mobile which will allow us to expand mobile uh service around town we continue to look at new resources online uh for those who um rather um live digitally instead of uh reading a physical book but I do want to say um you would be very surprised the book is not dead um the book is as alive as ever and there are more books being published today each year than there have ever been in the past so um I don't know where we'll be 95 years from now um but um I could think uh if I could look in the crystal ball we're all going to be pretty old in 95 years I know that for sure I will tell you that the Edison Public Library will remain the Cornerstone of Edison uh and our residents and it will be the place uh where people look towards uh not just B reading but for civic engagement and Community engagement so we thank the council for this wonderful honor uh on National Library week and our 95th birthday and I hope that we get to see all of you this year uh we have planned events throughout the entire year um for our 95th birthday so thank you all very much I just like I'd like to add that that egg that cracked open that Allan speaks of I'd like to think that it's sunny side up all right all right everybody and I I should mention Shan Patel is also a library board member I neglected to mention him did I miss anyone else okay good all right thank you oh Fiona oh my gosh yes thank you yes so thank thank you all for what you do and it will continue to be a pleasure to serve with you thank you for coming tonight thank you okay uh moving on to number seven new business proposed ordinance for public hearing set down for Thursday April 25th uh Madam clerk please read the ordinance ordinance amending chapter 25 section 11.1 waivers to provide a reduced tree fund contribution for certain Residential Properties and amending chapter 25 section 13 tree fund to designate projects that are eligible for tree fund expenditures may I have a motion to introduce I'll make a motion counc yes um I don't have my little sheet here oh uh Madam clerk will get it for you thank thank you do you want give it to okay all right all right okay okay you all right this this ordinance be passed on the first reading published according to law for further consideration and public hearing set forth on Thursday April 2th Thursday April 20th 25th 25th 25th all may I have a second second all right so I have a motion by councilman brusher second by councilman pattil uh any Council comments all right seeing none may I have a roll call council member brusher yes council member Coyle yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member pointer yes council member schmuel yes council president Patel yes Madam clerk please read the next ordinance ordinance amending chapter 17 housing by amending section 17-2 multiple dwelling registration I may I get a motion to introduce I move this ordinance be passed on first reading published according to law for further consideration and public hearing set down for Thursday April 25th 2024 and may I have a second second all right so I have a motion by Council vice president second by councilman Patel any Council comments all right seeing none roll call please council member brusher yes council member Coy yes council member Harris yes council member ptil yes council member pointer yes council member shamuel yes council president Patel yes all right Madam clerk please read the next ordinance ordinance amending the code of the township of Edison to establish a position for municipal public Advocate all right may I have a motion to introduce Council presern councilman [Music] Patel I move this ordinance be passed for the first reading published according to law for further conation and public hearing set down for Thursday April 25th 2024 all right may I have a second second all right so motion by councilman Patel second by Council vice president Madam clerk please have roll call council member brusher yes for introduction council member coil no council member Harris yes council member PTI yes council member pointer no council member shimu no council president Patel no motion for okay uh moving on oh the motion failed for introduction uh moving on to number eight public comment on the resolution is open to the public any would like to speak this is for the resolution only and uh please uh name the number the ordinance that you're speaking to so we can follow along resolution Joy ship Freeman 41 South Main Street I ask this question all the time but hey it's always the authorizing to refund for the water over payments what number is that yeah that's number 172 okay it's always the I wish I could be get awarded some of that money with the price of the water bill now uh actually um the resolution authorizing the execution of the grant agreement between the township of Edison that's 174 the township of Edison in the New Jersey State library for the community center digital connect Grant I'm just curious about that because I know that that building is on the rosi because I was on the committee for that over three years and nothing changed from there so I you know I'm I'm I'm kind of quizzing on how you get a grant and you put it there even though it says estate and a library and the community center digital so maybe you can explain that scribble Scrabble to me at when I finish with the rest of these um I think that's the the resolution referring to the amended Redevelopment plan of 1,000 M and Avenue and planning bur pursuant is that um having to do with uh housing for 55 and under and what number was that one that one is is 175 all right and uh the resolution 196 resolution authorizing loan application for New Jersey I I would like to know how much uh that we're going to borrow and what is the interest rate on what we will be borrowing that's 196 and 197 okay okay and I like to say congratulations to the people who got appointed to the housing board and you know it continues to do well so those are the ones I need answers to at all so thank you if I don't get answers it doesn't it doesn't fall on me it falls on you guys not being able to give me answers thank you thank you uh Sonia can you answer number 174 as to the rzi and how what what we're getting the money for sure so the well let me if I may start with the first the water refund as I've answered prior that's just Rec reconciling what the meter read um then what we do then after and so if it gets reconciled then there's a refund secondly the Stelton resolution um so the building is on the rosi is um councilwoman ship Freeman mentioned the resolution simply just allows us to accept the grant uh for the Stelton building to do all of the um mentioned Renovations at the building okay and for 17 what age uh I believe this is um age restrict so it's 55 and up and then under the resolution for 186 related to the New Jersey infrastructure bank that is a 0% to the township okay and how much are we B the borrowing amount um that's dependent on the project um so you've previously passed some Bond ordinances ranging from 8 to 9 um this is specific to project um let me just pull that up for you sure would you mind just pulling up the resolution and does it have an amount on there um on 196 yes 196 and 197 I think this is just for the application there's no right there's no specific amount on here yet okay all right uh moving on anyone else would like to speak okay uh seeing none can I get a motion to close the public portion motion to close may I have a second second all right motion by Council vice president second by Council m pointer right uh all all in favor right close all in favor okay all right anything to pull for a separate vote uh no all right so then the consent agenda is from 170 to 202 I mean 200 all right may I have a motion to approve motion to approve and can i a a second second all right motion by Council vice president second by Council M muel Madam cler roll call please council member brusher yes council member Coy yes council member Harris yes council member yes council member pointer yes council member shimu yes council president Patel yes all right oral petition remarks anybody want I have a list uh first person is beatric beatric p is good evening it's been about 41 years I was speaking up for my original neighbors uh on a corner of my home at 11 West Street I live at Nine West Street in Edison and um with my twins uh when they uh that's the DOA Woods section uh developed by um wine Garten so I my twins on my shoulder I was there when they were grading the land it just came to me today I said God's going to give me something to go on you know so I know that that whole section was done properly okay so what I'm having over the years we through the Great Recession I've gone through aging I've lost my husband etc etc um the original owner owner number one it was all graded no problem I must have lived like that for 20 years okay I've been here for 44 years um owner number two came in and he built a beautiful pool beautiful but it was never built correctly I guess what his recourse was to go after the people that did it and to correct his problems well he was flooding you know from the time they put the pool in until so we were on the road working through the Great Recession and you could hold on to everything if you have skills he kept promising me he was going to take care of it he was going to take his fence off of my fence which I incurred all weeds and everything I have since taken care of that because I can't see where anybody is coming along and doing their job you know I'm I am um restricted from using my property and um it certainly never had water never now it's to the point where owner number two if you follow me he told me everything was going to be resolved owner number two had all the water taken out of the pool and they corrected it and then he found somebody to put the water back in the pool okay that didn't correct his problem he sold the house as is the owner number three so then right up underneath me I didn't see a for sale sign I didn't say a here be I'm I'm I'm not I'm going nothing you know and we have all been Cooperative to all of those people owner number three was very humble when they first moved in they said that they were going to take their fence off which he has done except one part um he said he was going to look into what's going on with the water I didn't have two holes in the back of my property I have two holes now at the back of my property that water is become from a puddle to a pond to a river going down our house it's not only affecting me it's affecting my super AIA which we protect okay where her vegetable garden was it's puddle of water it's gotten bigger and bigger and bigger you cannot grow vegetables in water okay I cannot grow grass in water okay so I have mud grass they were more empathetic to the people on the petting zoo with the pigs being flooded out than I have been done now my neighbor on the corner his whole backyard is flooded they can't use their property I think they're getting ready to have an affair for the little children but we're not sure if they're going to have mud and stuff back there or whatever all right and there's a big tree in the corner of their property I don't have domain over anybody's land I said I wanted no trees I couldn't tell him knock those trees down cuz the people might have wanted the trees that's a big danger because that in that um excessive water can make that tree cuz you know we had a hurricane come through here fall down on the children's bedroom so after that we're going to hit the news and say oh GE was such a shame we cannot tell Mother Nature what to do do but I cannot use my property she well it's in a corner but she doesn't like it our super Ager the young couple with the little kids he works all the time when he comes home he has to give time to his wife and his children and get some sleep okay so we're all beholding raise our hand to the man behind us and it's totally unfair and I said to him when my daughter couldn't believe it when she came up she it was that Saturday when it was all on the new you know the recording on our phones when the mayor said um you know we're going to have flooding and everything and uh she saw it she couldn't believe it I've been telling her you know she she took well she has a special phone she took pictures of the whole thing I have a whole 20s something pages that you go all perused okay she couldn't believe it could not believe it so who what where when why and how I got all of that except how how he's doing it you see and his partner his wife she seems to feel that they're not going to pay so anybody in my neighborhood can tell you that I'm than willing to help someone beatric your time is up but if you don't mind passing those photos sure and then also give give the address do you all have purella or something I didn't want the um we do okay so you do your hands before yeah I got I caught a bad virus over 15 years ago so it's good to my I you can't yeah we can't continue to talk I'm sorry thank you so much oh after is that my neighbor every time ma' ma'am your time is up you there's only six minutes per can I no unfortunately you cannot please sit down thank you I want to thank the the I understand but I can't thank anybody no I'm sorry I'm sorry okay so that's it that's thank you okay uh the next person is William William Mado okay but you can talk about it if you like no it's one person at a time you can come after yeah okay great all right so I mean we just saw the audience for name and address again sorry oh I'm sorry William Maldonado 71 Brier Avenue okay obviously hadison okay so I'm going just read a few notes here that my wife made uh these new um Billboards is supposed to be 500 feet from petroleum pipeline um what else you have here 500 feet from a yard oh but and less than 500 feet from our yard all sides will have to display all sides will have the display visible only from a state or interstate highway not local roads or Residential Properties our backyard unfortunately has two signs blown into our yard and they're huge they're over 200 I got 200 fet they're very high they're in h hel Park matter of fact in 2004 that's when they went up and I've actually been emailing the city council ever since then um I've had we've had some resolution they came out they turned off the lights at one point that they don't shine into our backyard when we're in our our kitchen we don't see this humongous television set across the turnpike um so I know that they're going to put up more signs throughout the city and I just want to say that this is not a good thing for the residents of V for the homeowners on our blocks is just not a good thing it's not a good look for us um can I leave anything out no like I say I I've actually emailed every single council member over the years uh dating back to' 04 uh I had the Sony board officer come to the house matter of fact mayor Joshy came out to the house we spoke he spoke we spoke about the situation also but again nothing has been done the lights are still on they're still clouding our area actually not clouding brightening it up our day on on our late nights so that's what we have to say about the ordinance with those signs and if that could be resolved if somebody could come out and turn those lights out that would be fantastic thing for us uh so in okay so this ordinance really tries to put a limit on the what the Billboards can do we are defining I understand none of us like Billboards we don't want them in our uh neighborhoods but there are state laws that prohibit us from Banning it outright uh there's is also the first amendment issue that I'll sure yeah so unfortunately there's many legal and practical issues that we had to deal with when coming up with this ordinance and the billboard committee met and discussed these issues and this is the best way to contain as to what we get in town I understand that there's a billboard right across your house unfortunately this it'll become grandfathered in right we cannot yeah we cannot go back and you know change that but you know when they do come up for any changes on those Billboards they will be implemented to follow these rules uh the design guidance I understand but it would be great if at least they could turn that light down for us and our neighbors in the neighborhood I don't know if anybody could do anything about that like I say we can we can make a request unfortunately when they got approved is what they have to follow and uh it'll be up to them to actually follow through unless if they come back to us for something else and then we can I know owning officer came to me and he said to me that an ordinance cannot be changed was in this in the books and I'm like we could change the a constitutional right to anything we we could actually change an ordinance I don't see the problem with that but yeah that is the goal and that is why we're making the changes to make sure that you know something like that that doesn't happen uh one sec I would have legal so the the zoning officer um may not have been able to to express to exactly what he meant there you may have misunderstood uh yeah we can change ordinances that's we're doing that with two of ordinances that put on tonight we can change them uh the the issue is that once something is built according to the ordinances in place we can't change the requirements for something that already exists by changing the ordinance so if the rules say I'm allowed to build a certain way and then we change the ordinance after that it's not fair to someone who built according to the rules initially to now say well now you have to up dat without um without any any repercussions to us that's the part that that they have difficulty I hear that and when the order when that sign did go up actually was done by the uh owner of hel Park and he unfortunately passed to away and the deal that was made with him was that no it would only advertise for hel park now it's advertises different things and actually the lights were off because he he had consideration for the neighborhood now days is not going that way so if that could be looked into we would definitely appreciate it issues that might so is it on after a certain time because that might still apply it does it's on it comes out you know they say it's supposed to go off at a certain time but it doesn't I mean it goes up late at night like maybe 9 or 10 o'clock at night which is kind of late I mean it gets dark at 4 o'l in the in the winter time but you have one minute remaining okay yeah in the winter is like on from 4 p.m. till the next day so the lights are on constantly but if that could be changed that would be helpful okay I mean we can Sonia can we make requests to zoning board to see if they are following what they agreed to in terms of the lights um and we can make sure that if they are not they follow it and if again welcome to come by and visit and see what it looks like I know mayor Joshy came by and looked at it but you're welcome to come by and just see how it upsetting it is to everyone thank you William thank you thank you for your time S sber sim barar 85 Pleasant Avenue you recognized um I know you all got an email from Esther nemits about the scaling back of the um airing of the Council meetings um and so we texted a lot in the night last night and um she can't come herself so I'm just here to say that you know I I think um I I hope the council can can help make that a little better one time may not be enough I mean most of us uh take for granted that we can just go we have unlimited data and we just just go on the internet and we look watch YouTube but there there are people who really can't don't have the means to do that and so I think um one time probably isn't enough and the fact that it's late at night is is problematic so I don't know um why that was changed benefit of the doubt there must have been a reason but maybe um the council could influence that and see if at least one more time it could be aired like in the morning hours maybe the next day or something do you know what I'm talking about n you're talking about the council the council meetings airing on channel 15 on regular television okay I we know they're on YouTube but that's problematic for some people Esther is probably not alone in that she doesn't have internet and she probably doesn't have an unlimited data so her way to watch the council meeting is let me ask Sonia to channel 15 did we change that for a particular reason can we get I can look into it I'm not aware okay can we bring that back if if that will you know I'll check on it okay so thank you very much all right and now it's open to anyone that would like to speak on up uh good evening Angelina Maldonado 71 Brier Avenue you recognized um um I'm speaking once again about the billboard I believe Mr Maldonado left one or two little items that I wanted to discuss first of all the sign was turned to off for about 16 years there were absolutely no lights on that sign um then one day I wake up and I see the lights are back on so I initiated and I believe I either called uh the industrial park or I text them I'm not exactly sure what I did but Jeff the lawyer I I think you all know who he is came to my house because I guess I got I annoyed them about the lights and we sort of agreed that they would go off at I don't know Sundown and up I don't know I was not happy with the proposal but I figured you know what he's a hot shot lawyer somewhere I'm only someone who lives on Brier Avenue I'm not going to fight the issue but now that it came up and you did mention about prior you know it was done before well my in my thing is the lights were turned off 16 years ago now they're turned on again so we should go back to what they did 16 years ago since we are not going to be grandfathered in if the ordinance goes through then at least we can have the lights turned off I think there was a misunderstanding they when they built uh the the billboard whatever the law of the land was whatever the ordinance that they followed that's the Ord that they will continue to follow no matter what happens to right I understand that however some for some reason well not for some reason we sort of protested on our street and the lights were turned off okay okay which has nothing to do with what the ordinance was prior to the lights were turned off now why were the lights turned back on 16 years after the lights were off completely so that way we don't have to see these lights while we're entertaining in my yard I don't have to see the lights while I'm washing dishes I don't have to see the lights on this beautiful piece of property that I have okay now I would say h four five six about seven years ago is when the lights were turned back on and that's when Jeff came to my home and we talked back and forth I was not happy as I told you in any case I have my suspicions as to why the lights were were back on the gentleman um forget his name from Hela Parkway wanted to be a good neighbor and he was very nice and he said no we'll turn off the lights then something happened I believe he's no longer there unfortunately and the lights go back on so what I'm saying is truly that regardless of what the ordinance said prior okay the lights were turned off 16 years later the lights go back on we should go back to where they were they were turned off and that's what we should go back to the lights being turned off I understand since that we are not going to be grandfather day which is most certainly unfair here you have a beautiful little neighborhood back there with these two Billboards and it looks like the Las Vegas Strip and I'm really angry and annoyed because this has been going on far far far too long and everyone keeps their property so nice and we don't want to see that anymore and that's that's why I'm here I understand I'm going to have Sonia check up as to what laws they have to follow and if they're following it if they're not we will okay that's fine I hope my my six minutes are not up but it's not a law it was just a verbal agreement okay there it's not going I don't think I may be wrong but I do not think it's going to be found anywhere but the lights were turned off yeah I'm sure you probably find it somewhere in 16 years ago of your um minutes or whatever it's probably in there somewhere okay so this was agreement in public no I don't no the newsp well it was in the newspaper article but I don't think it was in a I don't remember coming here and speaking or anything um you know the there was it's a small block so about 10 of us got together and we had a little meeting at my home and somehow or another um I don't know who was really the one who did it all but the lights were turned off no it wasn't done here um so I don't know I think it was between us I want to say and hel Parkway probably you know I I don't know how exactly it was done I will refer this to the administration as they'll be able to handle this better but Sonia if you don't mind getting all the information and then she'll meet up with you after okay thank you no problem okay uh anyone else come on council president just real quick um can I just add one more request onto that yes uh J made mention that the use of the freestanding sign was originally for H Park which may differentiate a off- premise sign aspect so if they're changing the use of the sign that would be something of Interest as well yeah because they did go outside of it so I am curious about that yes apologies councilwoman all right Joy ship Freeman um I'm going to speak a little more about the flooding also because I've be getting tons of calls about the flooding and they seem to think because we only have we have a engineer here but the rest of our Engineers that we rent out they don't think that they think enough about the people who live in the houses these people that have lived here 40 years 50 years they've lived here they're all experiencing flooding problems and they tell me it's because of the grade because the engineers are not going out checking before the new properties are being built and the other properties are being built as such a high rate that the people who have lived here forever and have the flooding problem and this is what the problem that they're having because they passed a new law in March saying that if your property is in flooding hey the property value goes down that's a new law okay in the state of New Jersey and that's why they were you know very interested in that um number two please you don't go out and look for a loan without the amount of money that you're going to be trying to get from the ibank and you're not going to the ibank for 9 million or whatever you're going there for like 125 million or whatever because we got a real serious tour and water problem so to play a game like we don't know what kind of money that we're going to get a loan for we just going to ask for a loan you ask for empty loan oh we just G to ask for an empty loan and that'll be it at all so and also what was uh discussed about the human Relations Committee that I reinstated uh I would like to you know you can come get this ordinance and hand it out to some people the reason why I reinstated it is because in this town we have Chinese we have Filipino we have Nigerian we have africanamerican we have Indian we have Muslim we have Hindu we have Christian we have all these people and I don't understand why we would want to cut down a committee that that would service the whole town so what are we going to cut certain people off and just have our little select group of people that we have you know I mean I I don't think that's fair at all when we're talking about that at that time I don't think that's fair to other people and uh I asked even when I was there before the number of streets that were paved in 2022 and I noticed that the when I looked around they had this thing about the line now about getting rid of the line and about the information then they have this whole thing about this racial flyer now even when I go to my club I go to in the morning the health club they want to know why do they pull the racial flyer out every time it's election time they want to know it's seven years if you don't have any any uh convictions or anything on people why do we keep bringing out this r fire it does nothing but divide the town so if it's s years old put it to bed let it rest is what they're telling me they said they're like through with it already you know what I mean just bring it up bring it up bring it up bring it up it's a sad State of Affair that this is what we got to use every time that we can't do anything on our own Merit thank you thank you and as for the amount uh the first one the r196 is uh referring to the replacing the existing water meters I don't remember the exact amount but this was already previously passed so the amount stays the same uh same thing with the r197 uh which refers to the contract number one which is the mcginness and popular Road water main replacement contract two contract three and contract four so the amount is already been approved this is just the application of it the approval of the application council president Council MCO um flooding is definitely an issue and uh Miss Freeman mentioned a lot of phone calls if she could speak to the clerk if the clerk could speak to her and get the addresses it's going to rain Thursday and Friday I'm available on Friday morning I can go visit those addresses of the flooding and just take a look to see okay thank you okay thank you Council M Coy uh anyone else would like to speak Don tar 52 Rita Road Edison you recognized thank you uh like to address the billboard issue perhaps from a different perspective um we live on Rita Road and apparently the will of the people means nothing on Rita Road when it comes to the establishment of that monster that's going to be erected there because under our system the courts have determined that it can go there even though the people of Edison don't want it with that said perhaps there is a different way to look at this problem so I have some questions to ask of the attorney through the chair uh since Edison is involved in establishing rules regarding these Billboards I can assume then it would not be out of place for someone in Edison whether it be this body or another body to establish a tax to be placed on these Billboards and tax the hell out of them based upon their size and their illumination secondly it's a well-proven fact that these Billboards lower the property values of homes within the 3 to 500 feet of the Billboards I suggest that this body or another body and Edison then determine that those homes should be paying less taxes to the city than they are now let's look outside the box because obviously the courts are not going to help us here but this body or another body can establish a tax and make them pay for the pain that they are bringing to our communities let's not let it so that they can just come in and establish pel m whatever they want to do the people of Edison have said they've had enough you have the chance to be heroes take it thank you council president councilman russan yes I'd like to um ask a business administrator um actually me and my colleague were talking about taxing them a moment ago that's why when you said that that was awesome um but on the tax reduction I I do know I talk to people in the state um about Amazon and and because certain residents are affected now differently than they were they could actually get like a tax reduction my question and I'm going to ask you if you can talk to the like our tax assessor is is this something that we could just do to the area that's affected or would this be something that the individual homeowner would have to apply for I I believe that that Mr tar is correct I think they can get a tax reduction on their taxes for um certain inconveniences I think I understand that we would want that but the problem is remember what Lou told us Monday which is that the County tax assessor essentially determines the taxes so we don't really have a control over that right well yeah but she she's here with us do no we we don't have right right we we okay we can't actually um do it it she does it she she does it herself but I I know this if they open up a railroad behind my home um and I've talked to people in the state my property is undervalued and the tax assessor can lower my taxes and and they will yeah I mean they've ackowledge that so what I'm seeing is if if there's a mechanism in place where where those those people that are affected could do it without having to individually do 300 you know tax Appeals to try and get some money off your taxes so do go ahead yeah ask um that is always a possibility um the the tax assessor um submits their valuations of the property to the county tax board for review and approval um before the the valuation is then taxed essentially so if you have a change in condition at your property um that you think should be reflected in your tax valuation you can always head down to the assessor's office and have that conversation with them uh prior to having to go and file an appeal and go to the county tax board and then appeal that determination um they have some leeway in what they can do as the tax assessor based on actual tangible information so they they can do that I don't know if there's a formalized process that the assessor has you would have to ask the assessor what her process for that is but it's fair I've done it in my town okay no thank you that's right that's exactly what I was asking for and thank you very much uh Mr Tor that was out of the box um per se so thank you for that thank you councilman brusher councilman Co if there's an opportunity I know this uh billboard was looked at by a few colleagues here in the council and I think it's a great opportunity just to relook at it one more time uh whether we pass it you know this month or the beginning of next month the purpose to to look at the revenue opportunities in the lighting and the stagnant Billboards first the ones that flip you know they flip what 12 times an hour and uh each one has a different lighting uh glow factor I think there's definitely a revenue um discussion that should be had just for the um nuisance of these Billboards and last if we're going to tax rental properties and we're going to tax bedrooms and hotels I couldn't see why it couldn't be looked into and evaluated and last to you to the administration maybe we can get a history of what uh they pay in taxes today and what the application fee is per year thank you thank you Council M Council presid I just want to you know this this is exactly this conversation I started on Monday we have to look at you know some of those areas where there will be an opportunity and we can ask we cannot ask individual homeowner to go and do the tax appeal it will be unfair in this situation this body or this zoning board will pretty much know when they are approving the billboard its impact yeah we have know light sound all that flashy looks good in the approval but reality is different know people are facing the problem when you spoke I remember 6 years ago I was in to some extent it's a nightmare right again residents will complain probably there will be some action but at the end of the day again they go back to original state and again they keep coming back and this is the reputation so we need to look at the long-term solution maybe one way is to tack or put the fees good enough that we can give back to that neighborhood which is impacted or look at the neighboring properties and reassess rather than they coming and applying for the tax break we would know the at least 100 200 ft or 500 ft where the impact is and we should be able to reassess those areas and give back that value uh to those residents so they can probably put more curtain or blinds or whatever they could but again and not not a pleasant condition to live in but at least the the revenue that Township is getting should be passed back to the res and that's my point here thank you council president thank you councilman Patel uh I was discussing with legal to see if we can uh tax uh I would let legal explain sure um so there are certain fees um that could potentially be applied uh for for certain use cases possi one of the issues that you run into especially with the the Supreme Court rulings regarding um commercial speech freedom of speech digital Billboards and how they fall into that schematic uh means that there are certain challenges that might need to be overcome with respect to whether or not it's considered a an unconstitutional imposition on Free Speech before we start implementing taxes so it's something that legal would have to look into to see what other towns have done what other the last thing we want to do is throw out an ordinance out there um and then end up in another Court battle over something that may or may not uh work out so obviously it's it's an approach and it's approach that might possibly work but it's also an approach that might not be permissible okay anyone else would like to speak Lois char R 52 reita Road you recognized it it's great to lower my taxes that would be a great thing if you're were going to do that once this billboard goes up but I think to disincentivize the developers if there's some kind of a major fee or profit sharing with the individual who owns the property that the billboard is on with the neighborhood in which the property is in which the billboard is built might be another way to look at it so thank you leis I think as the lawyer was explaining earlier we are going to look into whether or not we can tax it and whether or not that will be that would get us in trouble or not uh and we'll get back right right thank you uh anyone else you can come on thank you am I recognized you're recognized uh that's fine you're recognized public comments right now yes yes okay um so I just got some of my equipment back some uh my computers back and through the chair to councilman Brasher and uh councilman coil Margot too marot to but uh while going through some of uh a lot of body warn camera footage that I never had a chance to go through um I went through one which quite concerned me a lot it went back to when you were council president uh councilman Cole and it was the day of the meeting with the mayor here and when you go back to that meeting through the chair to councilman Brasher can you believe they were ordering police to surround me and intimidate me and harass me for for no nothing when you go back on the tape through the chair to Brer and Margo simply stating hey it's been um 90 days there's still no master plan you made a campaign promise that you're going to have a master plan in 90 days and that's why they surrounded me with police to intimidate and harass me I bet you he still doesn't even have a master plan yet are you going to surround me are you going to surround me with cops today too I mean absolutely disgusting and I mean Margo thank you for giving me a ride uh that day um but you should watch out because you know once you give me a ride home they're going to say you're part of the conspiracy but don't worry Joe used to gave me a ride home one day when when he used to you know have integrity too so hopefully they'll retaliate on him too I'm a little pissed off at him I hope they retaliate on you too that's how crazy they are how much time do I have left uh minutes okay uh before Sam josi became mayor um Council uh councilman Coyle uh I felt very safe coming to to these meetings because I I have it recorded that that he stated on publicly councilman Brer he stated publicly he'll defend anybody coming here that everybody should be safe to come here and then all of a sudden Mayor Sam Joi became mayor and councilman Joe Joe Coyle completely changed changes there's a complete 180 I don't think it was councilman Joe Coyle that was the problem I think it was uh the Mayor Sam Joi and the way he retaliates and he forces people to do things that they don't want to do so I'm not going to take it personally councilman qu but when I do go back that day you didn't order me out of that meeting you didn't order me thrown out but you want to know something funny the mayor illegally had karino Mayo throw uh throw me out and they were all under the impression that they had the legal authority to throw me out now 6 years for a federal civil rights lawsuit so even though I didn't do a Tor claim I don't think I did a Tor claim on that maybe I did maybe I got lucky but I'm G get I'm G get them I'm G get them lawyer how much time do I have left 2 minutes 33 seconds and I really do mean that councilman qu I I did used to feel safe before Mayor Sam Joi I did believe you when he made that promise promise to everybody so you know I I really don't know what changed um look looking back at the body warn camera the cops are recording me and only me they're turning their body cameras on only when I come on the podium that's a little strange to me that day they were that day they were going to beat the living crap out of me they were five nine of them following me you you know the only thing that stopped them Margo that day when you came over over and said Crystal I'm going to give you a ride home I didn't know but she saved me that day oh I can prove it to you I can show it to you on the you saved me that day Margo thank you so much thank you for having Integrity because you have no idea what they were planning on doing to me that day so how much time do I have left so I don't want officer katarino Mayo around me anymore I don't want officer Chang around me anymore I don't want any of Mayor Sam Jo's Personal rats around me anymore if you're so stupid that you don't understand you're allowed to record in a public Lobby or in a post office I personally don't think you should have a gun and if you're that stupid no wonder why they they take they they'll do anything Sam josi tells them to do Sam Joi can start one minute thank you so much Sam she could tell them to start throwing Mexicans out of the council chambers and they'll do exactly what Sam joei says because they have no Integrity they're a bunch of order followers and there's no leaders over there in that is in Police Department there's no one over there that knows how to take charge um I'm going to release that footage too I can't believe councilman Joe Cole I can't believe that you know if they would have legally arrested me that day that would have been a violation of my my pre-trial release I would have probably been in jail 2 years and I beat all my cases I would have been in jail for two years as as an innocent man for what because I questioned Mayor Sam Joi why the hell he doesn't have a master plan yet are you kidding me Joyce wouldn't be treated that way thank you thank you I know if I spend one minute more you'll shoot me so let me walk away you can sit down thank you all right anyone else Octor Nasser Pleasant Avenue you recognize so I'm G to add a little bit of light to the conversation before I get into a little bit more seriousness I wanted to thank councilman Cole for causing Mass confusion about when my birthday was in the last council meeting but I on seriousness I wanted to um thank you for stopping by from to the library for celebrate the 95th uh anniversary celebration there um yesterday councilwoman Harris was at the celebration at the main library and we were having a conversation about the uh Street signage for the libraries and I asked about this on Monday but I know you guys have changed the rules about how we talk and I'm still not used to that um so perhaps I can get a uh answer today so I want to know that where is the next step it's at the administrations uh I know that councilman pointer stepped out for a second but um I was talking to coun woman Harris and she said that maybe Sonia might have an answer about what's the next step for the signage as for the library signage to help guide correct the residents to the library so what they're looking for is a signage near Amboy AV uh bigger signs pretty much everywhere guiding residents to the library letting them know that there's a library nearby uh is that something you can help us out sure we can we can certainly help with it um is there a proposed design or anything like that or is just sort of an initial request as I understanded that there were um sites locations that were forwarded by councilman pointer I'm not sure about designs where the conversation is but as I understand it's in the administration's hands right now uh I think we are I I I would assume that you'll be okay with the signs and would it be ordered how would this work uh well I touch base with alen um Library director and we can discuss that about what what to do next okay yeah sure okay um the other thing I want to talk about was my disappointment with the public Advocate vote here um it seemed like we had the four votes last time we did get a new member here was hoping that you would possibly go ahead and be the fourth vote for that but at the same point um the public Advocate has gone through thousands of revisions uh people have been personally spoken to about it and it sounded like whatever you needed to be in there was going to be in there but sadly it was not something that was voted upon so I I think there's a secret agenda here you guys want me to keep on showing up for clar Barton and talking about things like sidewalks so if that's what it is then that's what I'll continue to do but um if seriousness in all seriousness if the idea is that there's a fund there that can be used to go ahead and have somebody challenge whatever plans are there I still don't see that that's being used that's at their discretion so I think that we need to have a better conversation if we don't like what the public Advocate said this time then tell us what it is that you want in there otherwise I have a feeling that this is going to go to a referendum that's it thank you youor anyone else all right seeing none uh may I get a motion to actually do do rebuttal any rebuttals all right seeing none can I get a motion to close the public portion motion to close public portion I have a second second a motion by Council vice president second by councilman pointer all in favor I all right and can I get a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn may I have a second second motion by councilman pointer second by Council vice president all in favor I I this meeting is adjourned at 8:16 e