##VIDEO ID:5jHSd1--TZc## senator good evening everybody and welcome to the city council meeting of December 17 2024 the time is now 7:46 will everybody please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with Li and justice for all will the city clerk please read the public meetings act open public meeting act this meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meetings law notice of this meeting was included in a notice sent to the record and the Star Ledger and advertised in said newspapers on January 17th 2024 posted on the bulletin board in the municipal building and has remained continuously posted as the required notices under the statute a copy of this notice is and has been available to the public and is on file in the office of the municipal clerk proper notice haven't been given the municipal clerk is directed to include the statement in the minutes of this meeting will the city clerk please do the roll call councilman Rosen here councilwoman wiski here councilwoman David called out councilman Wilson present council president cob here also present is Mayor Michael Wilds city manager Robert S Hoffman Deputy city manager John burner City attorney Bill Bailey CFO Michael calman and city engineer France FY um we're going to go out of order with the agenda uh Senator Johnson and assembly woman hater are here uh to make a presentation so we're going to allow them to make this presentation at this time yes thank you good job good evening everyone and uh first of all thank you for allowing us to go first and uh taking us out of order for this of your agenda and to the people of city of Englewood uh thank you for putting up with us for a couple minutes as we make this presentation to a friend of mine a long-term friend of mine longtime friend of mine and also a leader uh of uh of this of this m municipal government uh Charles Cobb so uh Charles this this is for you from the uh State Legislature we we have a resolution recognizing you for what you've done and this is you know uh this is just one page but you've been involved in politics and in leadership here for a very long time uh but uh this is just a small part of what you've done I'm not going to read this because we all know your about your leadership and um how the people of Inglewood have been uh Better Off made better off because of what you've done so if you want to come down and in this accept this and I'll let Sharma haer from the State Assembly say a few words and uh Sharma it's all yours thank you Senator good evening everyone it is my honor and privilege to be here with the senator to recognize The Honorable Charles cob for his service to the city of Englewood I'm sure there are I don't have to tell everybody sitting here all the wonderful things you've done for the people but we are here to recognize your many many years of service and Service public service has something which is done as as willingly and and as as a as a service to the people it's not for any pecary gain it's not for any uh Grand you know recognition people in I've served on a council so I know how hard it is to work on a council and get things done so I congratulate you for it yeah I'm I'm glad you said that Sharma because uh some elected officials politicians they take a position so they can move up to go somewhere else but Charles was dedicated to the city of Englewood and that was his whole that's that's what he wanted to do to ensure that the people here had a fair shake and had the quality of life that they deserve uh the cob family goes back for three generations a long time ago so uh you're a part of of this of this city so congratulations Charles and thank you for what you've done I know you won't be absent from this but you'll be involved still but still so thank you C next we'll have a presentation uh comments of the board of adjustment chairman Mr Adam Brown thank you very much Charles uh you certainly earned that thanks from Gordon and shamba and I concur with the public spirited nature of your service to the city when I first moved here 4 42 years ago I hoped I would meet people like you when I moved here and have a chance to help solve the problems of this city which I've known about my entire life so I thank you for your service likewise um I want to talk very briefly I I may take slightly more than three minutes but you'll excuse me if I do uh what first maybe want to come to you tonight was a conversation I had with Lisa wasoski last week in which she said you know we haven't heard from you guys lately on what you're doing at the board of adjustment so I uh prepar prepared a document which I gave Lisa a copy of our printer didn't work I'm going to put it on the city's website on the board of adjustment website tomorrow and you'll have the all the cases from 2024 from 2023 and the uh report from the board of adjustment for 2022 we saw no sense in doing 22 23 24 until the master plan came out because we had plenty of opportunity to speak on be on the subject of the master plan and now that the master plan has come out we can now give you a report which ref refs our experiences and uh how it's reflected the master plan but I'm going to get to that um in a second the I guess the Highlight is for this year's is that the East Hill Pool craze is over okay I think we we saw 20 pools in 2020 and 2021 early 21 we saw two last year that had to do with uh setbacks so I think the concern about the inadequacy of setbacks in the East Hill uh largely result not because of the uh houses that are properly zoned but because about 20 years ago uh this board this Council up zoned the entire East Hill to two acre zoning or one acre zoning basically creating non-conforming Lots in half of these til properties so for example my house is in a two acre Zone I have a Halfacre lot so to follow the to follow uh the strictly follow the zoning ordinance I would have I wouldn't be able to put in anything on that property so that's part of the the problem there's nothing you can do about that and the fact of the matter is we only had two cases where that was an issue um the second thing I want to bring up is the subject of the master is the medical excuse me the we have three cases pending right now uh in the downtown and we had two earlier this year where they wanted to put medical facilities on the first floor and uh in the downtown and we heard a number of cases over the last three years uh one was the urgy Care Center at Palisades Court which was approved the second was the educational uh facility that Ewood Health put at the corner of James and West pal uh another was the uh pediatric facility that was just put in on North de I'm sorry yeah North de immediately north of uh Starbucks and uh the last one was a I think we had a Botox facility on the west side of North uh halfway between Bergen and uh uh and palade Avenue that really was not a medical facility it really was a um a health facility and that was approved but we're getting more now and I'm going to discuss the master plan in connection with that in a moment but I just wanted to say those are the things we're seeing pressure for medical uses in the downtown and the absence of pool issues on the hill I don't think you have to waste your time on that I think the cases are not that complicated and uh uh I think the board of adjustment is where they belong U the next thing I want to bring up is the master plan so the master plan to my knowledge has been adopted by the planning board uh subject to various amendments which were described at the last uh hearing um I Heard a misconception that the master plan now waits for the city council to act uh that is not really true the master plan is now binding on the board of adjustment and under the law in when something is a non-beneficial use which is basically anything than a school or a clinic or an old age facility under the medich case which is the case in which we operate a uh we have to one of the tests we have to apply is whether or not the use that is being proposed conforms with the master plan okay we have we have to honor the master plan it is a legal document for our purposes and unless you want us to apply it you either have to modify the master plan in a new zoning ordinance or or you have to reject the proposal but any proposal in that master plan is binding on us if it's something that is sufficient sufficiently detailed that we can apply it so the master plan calls for medical on the first floor in the downtown if you're okay with that do nothing but the clock is ticking okay if you decide you if you pass a new ordinance for the master plan I'm sorry for the downtown and it specifically does not include medical on the first floor that's something you need to do otherwise you're going to start seeing medical uses downtown because the board is powerless to stop it okay so that's uh something I wanted to bring up the third thing I thought uh is that there's a lot of misconceptions um in town over the years I've heard between about the connection between the planning board and the board of adjustment and they're quite different uh the planning board is appointed by the mayor uh it has a city council person on it it has a member of the city staff sitting on it um members of the planning board can talk to developers uh members of the planning board can talk to members of the public okay because it is a political body it's inherently meant to be a political body and it answers to the uh it's accountable to the mayor because the mayor makes the appointments without any intercession by anyone else he owns the planning board and he is responsible for how it performs that is not the case with the board of adjustment under the law of the state of New Jersey we are a creature of the state legislature okay we answer to the state legislature the Superior Courts and we answer to you the city council that appoints us but that is our only relationship with the council okay is the fact that you appointed us our obligations are to the court I cannot talk with any of you about a case I cannot talk to any applicant I can't talk to the objector in fact I can't talk to my fellow members of the board of adjustment about a case if I want to do a site visit I can't call up another member of the board and say let's go take a look at this site okay we have to it's an appearance of propriety for me to even suggest that we're talking and I have and and I have to say to the credit of this Council in my six years on the board of adjustment no one's ever tried okay I've never been contacted by anybody and uh We've in fact when we come to uh the beginning of meetings if it's a hearing where there's any kind of public interest uh it is not uncommon this is something that I inherited from my predecessors that we ask have any of you been contacted by any members of the public or any elected official concerning this application if you do we need to know about it and I been to meetings before I became chair when people people who did not get the memo came forward and said yes I was contacted by so and so and so I I've made it very clear from the beginning I don't want that happening I don't want you talking to anybody and that has never been a problem but we are uh I don't want to call it a college of cardinals but it's the closest thing I've ever been to to a college of cardinals uh we here uh we had approximately on average 25 hearings a year each of those hearing hearings is approximately 3 hours um I can't speak about the other members but personally for every hour of hearing it takes me an hour of preparation because I have to read or and all of us do we have to read the uh applicants uh planers report applicants Architects drawings Architects Architects engineering drawings uh there may be a traffic study um all kinds of reports from him I have we have we get a report from our planner we get a report from our engineer France VY um we get an application has to be read we get a denial letter from the building from the zoning official uh these all have to be addressed and we all have to be experts if we're not experts these hearings will take 10 hours okay so we come fully prepared we hear from the the attorney makes an opening statement and we say let's get to the nub of the case you don't have to explain to us this city we know this city let's get to the heart of the matter and we work very efficiently uh that being said if you take if you do the math uh 25 hearings a year times three hours you're talking 75 hours multiply times two for the preparation talking 150 hours a year these are people who are volunteers they don't get paid and they rarely get thanks so it's a wonderful board it's been uh the highlight of my public life in Englewood I'm very happy that you uh gave me that opportunity and uh I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any hi thank you for the presentation um are there any medical offices that came in front of the board of adjustment for the first floor that were denied no that I not that I could remember I think one of the cases one of the cases it was determined that they were not a medical use okay one of our jobs is to interpret the zoning ordinance in addition to hearing appeals uh from the decision of the um uh the uh zoning officer we can actually overrule a decision an interpretation so basically what occurred when the case came before us it was actually more efficient to decide the case but in fact we were denying the interpretation of the zoning ordinance right so is there so the reason whatever the reason was that that medical offices were not permitted in the on the first floor is it still pertinent if all the cases that came in front of you were well this is a this is really a planning board master plan question but I think the issue the fundamental issue is would you rather have a pediatric facility on North de Street or would rather a vape shop so it's a question of priorities for the city uh these spaces are vacant Amazon has wiped out a substantial percentage of retail it's not coming back anytime soon um there is a healthy uh restaurant business in denan Anglewood the problem is on streets like North Dean the spaces are very small 700,000 to 1100 ft you can't put a restaurant there it's just not possible and the second problem that is a discourages restaurant business in Englewood is the shortage of liquor licenses I think we have 14 for the entire city okay but by compare that to American Dream which is on State Property where they have over 50 restaurants that are allowed to sell alcohol without a liquor license so how do we as a little town compete and anyone who who's been in the restaurant business can tell you um uh anyone in the restaurant can tell you you need you really need a liquor license if you want to make a living in an upscale business it's very difficult to make a any kind of profit margin without booze so that's who we are I mean we're not a secret board we don't have secret meetings when somebody criticizes the mayor not you mayor but Mr Ros Council Rosen will know knows what I'm talking about and uh because he was the victim of that six years eight years ago and so we but we operate as a Judicial body it's as simple as that and we answered to we under very strict controls um we are subject to appeal for a very small check uh by an applicant or objector to the board of uh to the superi court of New Jersey we've heard 120 cases in the last three years there been one appeal okay so thank you Mr cup uh uh thank you um question for you if I can Mr r two questions if you can comment um at one point years ago before I came back into public service I wondered if law firms and other professionals were able to go down to the first floor I can understand the first floor being more accessible to people with disabilities and infirmities or emergencies for that matter but I wonder your opinion if we do get tencies um would it be appropriate to expand medical facilities into other professions accounting firms law firms engineering firms personally I wouldn't why wouldn't you and again as the board of adjustment we don't have a say of this I understand but I'm interested in your thoughts I think you the the objective is to bring life to the street okay you want families coming to the street and having fun and having you know taking their kids to a pediatric fac lawyers aren't fun no they're not really I'm I'm one that's we're no fun okay we're conet um but the idea of a of a family bringing a child for a wellness uh uh appointment at a pediatrician and then going to so it's a cultural thing in angood is what you're saying we're much better off limiting it to medical and having other socialization I'm not even having an opinion I don't even have an opinion about medical okay I'm I've just I'm just apply you know these cases that we heard were very logical cases okay I mean an urgy Center is a is a logical needed facility now I want to mention to you one of the thing which is we are bound by something called an inherently beneficial use if something is an inherently beneficial use like an urgent care center it is very difficult toe to not give it a variance and so we haven't yet found a situation where someone uh we haven't seen a podiatrist yet okay we haven't seen a a low energy facility what I think you want to focus on is having high energy uses in the downtown that bring life into town you know they give it a Vibe thank you my my last question but first an admonition of thanks for your service um and it's exemplary over the years um what is your philosophy on Zoom there's a lot going on in the community I know the culture of the planning board um members can see the plans and they can engage where they're comfortable um I know in compliance but I wanted to hear your thoughts as a chairman I think Zoom is vastly U better I mean we're getting much better involvement at the board of adjustment first of all um the ability to look over drawings the members of the public and the members of the board are seeing the exact same thing okay when an applicant pulls up a a drawing a digital drawing on zoom and he enlarges it or decreases it we're all seeing the exact same thing uh the second thing is that members of the public who may not be in town or who may be uh infirm can come in and and participate in the hearings uh the third thing which is no small matter is it's much easier to get a quorum when you're on Zoom okay asking people you know when we have a use variance uh you need to have the person who is applying for a use variance use variance being you're putting a a facility in a location that where it's not zoned for like medical we're talking on the first floor you need to have five votes from the board the board is only seven members so unless you're as uh as Dirty Harry would say do you feel lucky okay unless you really feel lucky you don't want to have a vote when there's only five people there you really want all seven because your chances of getting five votes out of seven is 100% better than getting five out of five thank you yep so that's why those are the reasons I think that uh Zoom is not a bad way for us to go if this was a public involvement board like the planning board I remember Sandy used to come with signs to the planning board okay if it was that kind of board where where there's it's a it's got a political feel to it I would say let's be here where people can you know Express themselves uh without having to get up and talk but the board of adjustment where we base our decision exclusively on the public record okay there's no conversation going on outside of that meeting and where we where there's no time limit on what you can say okay someone wants to get up and ask 10 minutes worth worth of questions and you get to question every witness both the witness for the applicant Witnesses for the objectors and Witnesses for the board so our planner or our engineer you can ask as many questions as you want David Jansen has taken the liberty of Peter Jansen excuse me has taken the liberty of of exercising that privilege frequently okay um not only that you also at the conclusion of testimony members of the public get to get up under oath like any other witness and speak as long as they want okay as long as they're not excessively repetitive on the subject at hand and the testimony of the public is really important and somehow people are more willing to raise their hand in Zoom than they are to come up before the microphone at live session so for all these reasons great um I like it thank you okay thank you thank you anybody else have any questions thank you very much it's been had a question for you Adam councilman Wilson thank you chairman I'll keep it as brief as possible um thank you for the service so what you do I know it's not easy um I too served during the board of adjustments some years back and I know it can be argu tore um my question to you is have you seen an influx of applicants that have Properties or partials that need a variance because our concern is as we move forward with the affordable housing and overlay zones that people are knocking at the door in regards to building um and they purchase property knowing that it may not have the proper variance required for what they want to use do you see an influx of that as we move forward so I think is the question you're asking me am I seeing any effect of the affordable housing ordinance that was passed yes we have not seen a single application okay all right okay thank you thank you thank you Mr Brown for your service thank you next we're going to have a public hearing on the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Green Acres Program answer you want to read that the city of Englewood is seeking funding through the state of New Jersey Green Acres development program for improvements at Denning Park located at 340 Harold Avenue near the intersection of kulage Avenue and har har sorry Harold Avenue in the city of Englewood did you want yeah Mr Mr VY could you explain the project before I open up the public session oh I didn't explain sure this is an uh an ongoing thing we've we've had uh we've been looking at Denning park for quite some time now um trying to you know gather funding Etc to improve the Park area um many of you know if you go down at dening Park the playground area is falling to pieces uh the the field um is not in the greatest of shape the basketball court is cracked in a lot of areas that need to be replaced so as part of this project we're looking to fix all of that um putting some additional fencing around the field uh and also creating a pathway uh around the field to prevent that rut that constantly happens year after year that that's sort of you know a beats up the field so we're looking to make all these improvements uh as part of this and we're looking to obain some gr some grants from Green Acre to help in this in this application um part of what we'll be doing is uh also looking to go um not only app apply for some of the uh grant funding uh this round but we're also going to be applying in two phases um which means that if you look at some of the uh the numbers in terms of how much is improvements going to cost it's it's it's fairly expensive it's not something that's cheap um we're talking about you know a Million Dollar Plus actually more than that so it's quite a it's quite a bit of money to improve that part um part part of the part of what we we have to keep in mind and part of what's sort of pushing uh this project um besides the fact that the park needs Improvement itself um we've been contacted by the Green Acres compliance officers regarding the uh conditions of the park and part of what they've told us is in order to maintain our eligibility for greenacre funding we have to maintain our parks and that Park in particular has not been M maintained the way they think it should be maintained so that sort of forces our hands into improving the part because if we do not we are putting oursel in risk of being ineligible for further green AC funding and that's for Parks all over the city not just that Park oh yes it's for every Green Acre funding for every Park in the city okay just I I think people need to understand to also the location of where that Park is where it's at yes well I mean we have I mean the closest park that that is McKay Park so that section of town really uses that Park I mean we we we've discussed in the morning how you know sometimes we have you know um the playground equipment Etc being used for other exercise exercise equipment so we are trying to uplift that Park make some improvements to that Park obviously beautify it make it more attractive um so that area of of town has you know has a place to go to and obviously meet Green Acres you know requirements while we do that and it also could be used by those folks that uh are moving in on Alfred AV you know I don't want to comment on that no no no we I I understand yeah um well you know what let's let's get through the meeting so everybody will have a chance to comment on whatever they want to comment on at that time so I just want to uh just for the record uh for the record councilwoman Angela David is present so now after Mr V and uh Mr Hoffman has have explained I'm going to open up the public hearing on this resolution that's being submitted so your name the address excuse me can I give a recap yeah you can give a recap uh thank you council president just and just to just to recap what we're what the public hearing is about the uh we're seeking grant funding from Green Acres for this park if we're successful in obtaining a grant from from Green Acres for this application we are going to come back to Green Acres one year from now and apply for additional grant funding for the park our goal is to put this onto our onto uh the capital plan for calendar year 20126 we have we would have a tight window to do that but our the city's goal is to obtain between 66% and 75% grant funding for the renovation and the upgrade of this park so that is that is what we're looking to do just to make sure that uh we are able to obtain the maximum amount of grant funding and then preserve our ability to obtain Green Acres grant funding for other parks and other areas in the city in the future so thank you thank you council president thank you so now I will open up the public portion of this U hearing you have your name your address and three minutes to speak about this only hello Diane Jansen 589 rgin Terrace France FY thank you very much for your explanation my concern is uh and this goes to the compliance office of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and that office is within the Deputy Commissioner of Environmental Protection and that's the law offices and I think they would understand if you presented to them that the ladex corporation uh which is across the street and now has is in po possible sale pending remediation of the property through the EPA by a licensed State remediation professional leex Corporation in 1994 had their license suspended they dealt with a lot of metallic testing including radioactive type of testing I don't think we should be investing any money in any park where there's a swamp life water that goes into the park I've been there I've been there with Paula Roven I've been there with Mrs Baker uh posing the building the Alfred Avenue building that went up so I don't think we should be putting our children at risk or anyone at risk until the report comes in from the state right now leex has a non-disclosure agreement on this however we just learned today this afternoon I think it was that uh the state report the report to the state will be coming soon and then we can Oprah it but until that time I we don't know what leeching has occurred and for us to do anything to that area uh I'm opposed to as as our others the other pieces is they want to establish a cannabis cultivation facility across from the park if that goes through you know the federal rig says that it can't be a park can't be more than or the the Cannabis I should say can't be more than a th000 feet from the park and the park that has the equipment in it that is and therefore we should be suing uh T neck if they go forward with that Canabis plan thank you thank you and Bullock Avenue um I want to concur with everything that Diane has said in regards to Denning park I think that if there hasn't been additional testing for contaminants given the flooding we've had in recent years there should be testing done to ensure that the contaminants are not spreading um and I think that it is time that the city council engage legal to talk about what's happening with this cannabis cultivation that's going to be right next door to a park where I'm sorry our kids will be playing and I don't want my child exposed to the smells of marijuana I don't allow it in my home and I don't think that it should be allowed anywhere near a park or a school or any other place where residents actually live thank you thank you next Willam safield 251 South Dean the money you spoke about for the parks that's for any park uh FR what about artist partk no but I think specifically you told me they've had money for artist park for a while is that true Council uh Mr Hoffman is that true they have money for artist Park you know what artist Park is okay and and K Park the second Brook the West Brook is a mess if you're going to fix anything to me you should start in the parks that needed the work the most that Brook is full of trees that's part of the problem we having with water the water has nowhere to go and The Simple Solution is to dig trench it out don't get rid of the dirt put it back on the shoulder and get rid of some of the trees some areas may have to be in reinforced with some kind of concrete or whatever but I suggest that's where a lot of that money should go artist Park hasn't been raped or nothing I mean and and I've heard from the I think the councilman I mean Mr Hoffman someone at your office when I called about the lawn said they were supposed to do some kind of fertilizing in December never heard of such a thing but none of the Parks have nice grass a lot of money should be sped around all the parks but it's the McKay Park that should be our signature park it should be something like the park they have in EK where everyone goes to walk around bathrooms that work the whole nine that should be the place you want to go that's all I got for that thank you Mr good evening everybody I'm jul shears Forest Avenue um just basically want to just I don't want to like you know keep resounding and saying the same thing because of the environmental issues basically back there um we were under the impression excuse me that they going to to shut down that for a year and do the retesting I just found out tonight that that's been lifted and they're going to go in now and start building so basically they're saying that you know everything is okay no it's not so I mean we haven't seen a report uh there's someone here from the TAC and I'm going to be kind of let her further explain because she knows more about what goes on because she lives back in that area good evening I'm Paula Roven I live in uh in Tink and uh I don't live in that area but I do I've been involved with the issues around um Alfred Avenue and and Denning Park um there's a there's a federal law still in place that says that uh cannabis facility dispensary this is a dispensary and a factory cannot be within a th000 ft of a playground now state law is different but federal law is federal law and at this point the federal law says that you can't have such a facility um near the park so we're going through our planning board now and and fussing about that issue and I'm I'm not against cannabis but um and I'm opposing it because of some environmental reasons because of all the the traffic Route 4 and the traffic from the industrial area and and so on so it's more about environmental justice issues that I'm opposing it but I have a map right here um you can measure anywhere at 455 Alfred Avenue to Denning Park and it's way less than a th000 ft way less than a th000 ft you can do it on Google you can do it with some twine which we did uh but um this this is a it's interesting that all of a sudden people want to fix up that park now that there's a fancy building going up with very expensive Apartments it it's kind of interesting that that is the proposal at this time um thank thank you good evening R Raymond Diaz 408 Shannon Court um speaking about this I I see we have two resolutions I don't want to talk about right now but there's some uh uh wording there that has been added where they describe it as uh Jake's law application are we going to use that as far it's only this park or other parks and Jake's law is an incentive excuse me incentivizes the construction yeah right of inclusive excuse me for interrupting you that's going to be a separate that's a separate item okay I don't know if uh but I just want to know about it's inclusive playground for children and adults with disabilities that's the biggest point I wanted to make yeah so well well well at the next the next public hearing right after this one then we'll have them come back and explain to you on that yeah explain to because there two separate uh hearings on these two items so if nobody has any comments on this Current public hearing I'm going to close the public hearing I want a motion in a second and then we're going to have comments from the board up here I make a motion council president you make a motion yes sir need a second second comments um for those of you that do know that we've had our parks in dis repair um so this grant is well welcomed um to service throughout our community and I think that with the minds available that we will be Distributing the proper funding um for all the parks here but I will say one thing that's very important to me is that I I I think council president that as we move forward we need to do studies whether it's impact studies feasibility studies soil studies this is a lot of money that's being granted and we're matching funding and I would hate for us to move forward and not know what we're building on um just because the premises so close that it will behoove us to take a look at that at the at the very minimum um and I don't know if that Grant allows us to do those feasibilities studies for soil testing and air quality and because that that that area for Denning Park is saturated with um industrial areas with industrial buildings and Lord knows Linux did nuclear stuff there um and the fact that they were suspended just gives me paes to say let's look out for our future because those are the kids and the grandkid Grand grandparents that will play be playing with these kids that may be affected and I don't I don't think this grant has any malice to it but I just want to be sure that we're encumbering upon our future which are the kids that will be playing in the area and and the truth be told for our household pets that may be drinking from a contaminated Brook bringing that back to the house so um thank you council president anybody else I have a question do do you want to go Angela do you have something no you go first I'll go second okay um I have I have a question for Mr Hoffman um if we obtain this if we I understand that today is is we have to make a decision today on this grant is that right we can't hold this over till correct you can't hold it over 2025 so let's say we were to obtain this grant do can we do we have the option of then when we obtain the grant not accepting the grant the answer is yes and I'd like to also stress that if we obtain this grant in 2025 uh 2025 we're going to be applying a year from now for a second Grant so that we would have um 66 to 75% of the grant funding um and then the city's match would come after the after after we received the second Grant or notification of a second Grant what would our match be well we don't know what our match would be okay because our our goal is to obtain 75% grant funding from from the state for this and can you just explain one more time I just want to make sure I understand what is it that Green Acres said about I know um Mr VY was talking you said that Green Acres intervened and can you just explain that one more time please is essentially one of the conditions that we have to when we when we obtain greenacre funding one of the conditions is to maintain our park at a certain level and if we don't do that then we put ourselves in Jeopardy of losing uh losing future Green Acre funds so that was a concern with the compliance officer she went out there she inspected the park and basically stated that this park wasn't up to the uh their level of acceptance and that we were to do something regarding this park or put oursel in Jeopardy and not being eligible for future Green Acre funding so that was essentially it so that sort of kind of moved us towards getting some something done at a dening park or risk getting or risk losing funding for all the parks uh in town possibly you know and the other thing just as a point of information for the count we became aware of this grant opportunity around Columbus Day I think and so we just we decided that it would be it would be prudent to break up the Grant application into into two sections because the maximum they give is about what we've asked for um and nothing ventured nothing gained but the goal the goal is to maximize grant funding so that we we minimize the city's contribution towards improving the park as as Mr Hoffman stated this is happen in 2026 so this is not something that's going to happen right away so you actual will work if everything happens if everything plans out and we get both grants this is going to happen in 2026 and and I guess the point is what I was trying to to understand is we're not obligated no no hi I get it all money is not good money so I'm looking at it that Grant I think would be beneficial for what Denning Park would be what for the um neighbor that's there that that um elephant right there in Englewood and I don't think we should accept it but um who's going to benefit you can just dress it up put a someone said put a lipstick on pig or whatever I don't know but um no pun intended but who's going to benefit you know I'm just asking that we should really think about what we're accepting I mean you're going to make it more like they're going to sit down and smoke pot there it going to be like a pot room next I don't know the kids not going to play there sit on benches and what smoke marijuana I'm just I'm just asking that's it my comments I'd like to speak so I think that we have a concern and nobody has yet to answer how we're going to address this concern is the soil contaminated in Denning Park so what I'm I'm saying I understand the timelines and all that but if you know the history people who lived in that area allegedly a lot of them died from symptoms of having cancer so you know there is a concern and there should be a concern and I think that one of the things is Mr VY or Mr Hoffman maybe you could help me out with this is is that even if we appli for this grant today what type of testing are the city of Inwood ready to do you know um because the way I see it and what I read today you know what I'd rather not get the money and make sure that people are safe um because the one thing is the one thing is if if people get sick we can't turn back to clock and and that's that's that's my concern here um and if we have a plan which I did not hear um then I would be more inclined to say let's go get it but what what I believe is and you know this is just me saying why we find out what we got going on over in Denning Park to make sure because we there's two issues that were here right the one issue with the contaminated uh soil but the other one with the Cannabis as well and if we're in violation and if they the if they're in violation of a federal law then we should not allow people to move forward you know um and and really in that area uh when councilman HR was on we was when they first started building he started holler and now years later here we are talking about the same stuff that's over there and uh it from from my perspective I think there's a little bit more homework that needs to be done to give people comfort that we approach things in a way that's safety first people first and then we step to to do that yes we agree that the parks need to be done over updated and things of that nature but what what good is an updated park with no people are playing it I don't know and we have a lot of traffic in Denning park with soccer like five days a week that that Park is packed and I think that we really need to think hard about this come up with a plan um and really I think Green Acres didn't do us any service the compliance person didn't do us any adjust you know so I think that we need to think about this one Mr hu yeah um um if we if we if there's a concern that the park is contaminated whether we get this grant or not we need to investigate that it's we might not get the grant that doesn't mean we're okay with the park contaminated I I just don't understand the conversation here we if there's a real concern then that's an emergency you know perhaps we even need to shut down the park to to use if if there's an actual concern that there are heavy metals be pretty odd if there was radioactivity there at at this late date depending what Isotopes they used but um I you know the grants irrelevant if there's a dangerous cons consideration then we got to take care of it right now thank you Mr cob if I may I I also would agree with that um getting 66% and using State funds through um Green Acres is wise and then the governing body can make its commitment to what it wants to do with those funds if they get it if the council fails to secure the funds then you can't fix something I would also ask the health department immediately to conduct uh an investigation if there is any even suspicion with children playing soccer there as to the contaminants in the water and I would do both at the same time I think councilman Rosen hit it on the button but if we don't get money then we can't make an improvement there Mr Hoffman are we required to make a specific improvement with the putting in of the grant or that can be deferred to a later time we've we've um there's a series of there's a series of improvements that the city wants to have funded but it's all going to be depend on the amount of grant funding that that the city receives but tonight we've we've heard about the potential for contamination of a park so what we're going to wind up doing is we're going to get we're going to huddle we're going to have an we're going to have an engineering firm or a soil testing firm come in we're going to wind up identifying funds to do that so that we can determine once and for all is the park safe we have no no matter what's said here tonight we have people that are going to be using that Park tomorrow we have as council president Cobb said we have soccer player soccer groups that are playing there 5 days a week so it's used by different leagues it's used by people in the neighborhood so the city's going to the city will test the soil we'll figure out the the you know the right company to do that but at the end of the day um you know we we'll find out whether whether the soil is contaminated or not and if if it is that that'll become a different scenario we'll have to have it remediated um and if it if it isn't we still we still need we would still need the funds in order to take action and if you don't take action you can that's appropriate or the governing body at that time doesn't want to or it's not appropriate you can return the funds but if we don't put in for the funds we may not be able to afford to fix whatever the contaminant is um and if there is a neighbor that's creating this contaminant and I appreciate Miss Ragan's uh presid here um and we all may be late to the um to the visit of that Corridor U it seems that we'll need resources and there'll always be a justification with open uh with open uh you know with Green Acres that would justify that particularly since this is a park may I make a um do you want to I was you can go first I'll wait my question was that um I understand that that if we do get the funds what stipulations are behind the funds and what we are there requirements we have to use it for is it could we use it for test studies could we use it for anything else so I'm just looking at that they're going to say like you know you have the money use it for XYZ so I'm asking that question thank Youk so the the answer to the question is that um we're applying now but it's going to take several months for the Green Acres to make a determination so in that in the interim we have to find out yes or no is the soil contaminated or not so that's that becomes something in January of 2025 not not November or December of 2025 so that's okay but my question is could we use that money to do a a a a test study on the soil my question I'm asking so the answer is no and we but and we also would not be receiving that grant funding until the end of 2025 and you're going to want to know whether the soil's contaminated or not in the be in the beginning of the year and that'll help that'll help make the policy decisions easier for the for the council okay hey may may I Jimmy Jimmy may may I make a recommendation okay I'd I'd like to make a recommendation the um the recommendation based on this conversation is that one we we go forward with the grant but on the same applying for the grant because we're not obligated and and at the same time based on I don't know what you read uh today councilman C because I didn't I did not receive any information so I didn't read it but if if you're truly concerned about the safety of the children and the contamination of the park then I think the the council could we could all agree to put a resolution on today saying that that the park gets closed down tomorrow morning pending pending these studies and we've determined that the park is safe so we can do both things at the same time we won't lose the funding you know and we shut down the park to make sure the children are safe and we and we uh do the studies and we can do that by resolution tonight um Dr wasi my question also is that while we would accept the Grant and I don't know the stipulations behind a grant how it can be used that's my ask so I I I want to say something the you know we're talking about this grant funding and all that and that's good and that's nice to have but the God's honest truth is is that we just completed a master plan all the parks should have been part of the master plan development and that money should and we and that should be part of the budget that we do for that 73 million that they talked about for the master plan that should have been captured in there grant funding if you get it that's great but the reality of it is we should have already planned for the enhancements of every Park in the city of Anglewood because the master plan is a 10-year plan so we failed the plan again so that that that that's what I'm saying so but again the this if we have this problem with the park we we need to address that tomorrow and get on there and and I don't I don't worry about the um the grant because if we planned right we still fix the parks anyway thank you again I think there are two separate issues here if the if the park is contaminated it's going to get fixed whether we get the grant not get the grant it's completely irrel relevant it's and at least I can tell you would be my highest priority not Paving streets whatever it takes we're not going to have a contaminated Park that people are going to get sick in so so if and if it's not contaminated we need to pass this grants so we can get the money to fix it up later but I think we have two different issues here I don't think there's any situation where God forbid we have contaminants that that are hurting the children and the residents of Anglewood we're not going to fix it so let's do a and simultaneously let's do B which is apply for this Grant and then if if they start merging then we can figure that out later but you know we have the resolution on for now and I don't think we need a resolution to fix a contaminant that's an emergency you know we don't need a resolution to put out a fire I mean we we you we just do it yeah um my question to you also that um I don't know the stipping on this um getting this um this benefit I would like to know could we use it on studies I don't know I don't know what's what's on it we can't use it on studies you just said that so I don't know we can collect it and what sit on it you said we can't use it for that right who said can't Bob said we can't we cannot use it for studies cannot use it for studies cannot cannot okay let's we got that what' you say okay all right yes thank thank you council president for those of us who visit the parks we know what's needed um this is an opportunity for us to take advantage of the grant funding uh we just did some beautiful things in McKay Park K Park's not done we have moris Park we have Den par we we have a a whole list in front of us and this is one of the ways for us to get there to check off some of the things um and I for one having Den Park in my ward will not allow us to beautify Park under contaminated soil so rest assure that I'm going to put my keep my foot on the gas to make sure that it's not contaminated and saying that I I I think it's important that we really consider this grant um these opportunities don't come along often uh our city manager and others have done diligent work in regards to finding this grant I think we need to take a a great opportunity and turn it into something that we can use and rest assure um I'll step down before I let something contaminated continue um in our city and in my ward so thank you council president thank you the the point that I'd wanted to make has been uh was made but the city's going to do its due diligence we're you we're we're going to tomorrow tomorrow morning we're going to figure out who's going to you know who we're going to contact to do soil testing and we will wind up uh closing the park until further until further notice it's um there'll be people that'll be you know that'll be going into it they won't get the word but eventually they will get the word but you know the we will we will start that tomorrow and then um the council president did bring up a good point about our Parks he mentioned the master plan but in January we're having a separate I will call it a recreation master plan being delivered by ruter University they looked at all of our Parks outside of McKay so we're looking forward to that and um looking forward to the recommendations that have been have been made in that that particular study so we will be able to use that for the next several years thank you so uh and closing because we're going to vote um I want to be assured and want want to assure the public that whatever testing is done it is made public and put on the city's website number one number two um we need to know that testing will take place as soon as possible so that people get the Assurance of that and number three if we were to vote in the positive for this grant that if it turns out positive testing we send it back thank you what roll call councilman Rosen yes councilwoman wiski yes councilwoman David yes councilman Wilson yes council president cop yes next we have a public hearing on Jake's law application YY can you read that the city of Anglewood is seeking funding through the state of New Jersey Green Acres Jake law program for improvements at Denning Park located at 340 Harold Avenue near the intersection of kulage Avenue and Harold Avenue in the city of Anglewood come on Mr Vol we speeding up yeah this this is essentially the the same subject it's a different section of the park it's a playground area it's a different it's a different grant that we're going for the uh for the playground area Jake's law just deals with allinclusive Parks so that anybody with any any uh physical ability Etc can will be able to use the Park area and the playground area there so that's essentially what it focuses on and that that's the grant we're going after just for the playground area Dent denting part thank you and again this is a 75 25% match yeah is is is that new equipment in McKay Park does it comply with Jak Jake's law okay I'm going to open up the public hearing name address three minutes hi Diane chanson 589 ridland Terrace uh thank you for your thoughtful vote um my concern uh and I'm going to speak on this part it also pertains to the other but it's already been voted on and that is that when the leex report becomes avail able through EPA that we get a copy of that report and that we also hire what is it called a licensed Medi thank you thank you Mr Bailey a licensed site remediation professional profal thank you an LSP or whatever so if we could do that that would be uh very beneficial official um in addition uh we should be suing uh if T neck if they put up that cannabis plant within a th000 ft uh violating federal law especially with uh PE disabled people uh both young and old thank you Amy bulland Avenue um I just want to point out for the Council um page 55 of the master plan actually identifies over 50 contaminated sites throughout the city so if I read the master plan and saw that I have to assume that you did too it is not just a Denning Park issue um thank you for the vote I agree with getting the money while we wait for the money we can fix the problem in regards to uh Jake law I support all of our playgrounds being accessible to any and everyone that wants to use it but before we put this money in if we know that they're looking at building a cannabis Factory less than a th000 ft away should we not deal with that first before we go build this fancy Park and find out it has to be shut down because what they're not going to do is tear the building down once it's built we didn't take the fifth floor off of town center where they're not going to take a building down so yes let's explore how we can improve the park fix the contaminants but the city council has an obligation to deal with what's happening with this cannabis Factory and I know that the mayor has made comments about people should get an attorney we have one his name is Bill Bailey our taxes pay for him and the council should be working with him to find out what recourse we have in dealing with this cannabis Factory and store or whatever it is that they're trying to build next to our park next to our overburdened community that has historically been dumped on and used as a Dumping Ground by companies throughout the years thank you thank you uh June Greg uh Anglewood um I just want had a couple of questions or rather to clarify I mean I I think I know the answers but um Greenacres money can only be used as directed like so we could not be used to clean up any contamination that's found in Denning park for example or be used in any other park it can only be used like as directed is that correct yep okay and um I also wanted to understand because I what the first grant was I think you said it was like a 65 something split and Jake's law uh Grant 20 uh 7525 split so that's like maybe $1.2 million left over is that just going to come out of taxes to be paid for good evening Council Leroy Campbell 287 tfly Road um one of my concern is how long has this plan been available can anyone the Denning Park yeah how long has just planed been on the on on the on the agenda for I mean on the planning board for to do whatever needs to be done there and um and why the other thing is why are we applying for the grant so late we're not applying for it late the grant came out in October that's when F and I met with our grant writer so it's a it's a tight window okay and then it's been on the um the the plan has been on our website for probably 10 days a little longer okay and the other thing is at Denning park at Denning Park one of the things that we should do is make sure we test the soil before we do anything um and there are soil companies in the area um Johnson soils for one right in Bergenfield we need to make sure we test the soil um the first thing we should do is we should close the park we should allow no more activity to go on in that Park Until the soil is tested and we get a reading back from a soil testing company to make sure we keep the people that are patronizing that park now safe from any more possibility of I mean somebody mentioned earlier a lot of people in that area have died from cancer and yes I've been in Anglewood most of my life and that's true and so a lot of those people that I passed away I went to school with Y so they were young people so we need to fix this whatever the issue is we need to fix it we don't need to go back and forth about who's going to do what or what's going to happen we need to fix it and I think the mayor said if we have to spend the money to get it tested then that's what we do and that's what we said before right that's what we do yeah but just haggling back and forth about uh testing uh Grant we need to listen no one wants to lose grants but we need to make sure that we put what's in important and prioritized first and the first thing is testing that soil yes we agree and that's what we said we're going to do starting tomorrow thank you uh good evening Pete Jansen 589 ridland teris uh just to give you a little background on how this all came about and what brought us to where we are right now is the lenux corporation has been operating at that Lo at that location for decades in 1994 May 1994 the nule nuclear Regulatory Commission suspended their license to use radioactive materials because the corporation lenux Corporation could not commit financially to providing the funding for remediation if there was a problem so that's how this all came about now we find that there is a problem on site and we need to investigate it the second thing the Federal Regulation regarding the playground it says a cannabis facility cannot be within 1,000 ft of a school a university or a playground and the playground and the university and the school is defined not only as to the location of the playground equipment but also the parking area for the playground equipment and if you look it there is a parking lot on the east side of the soccer field for that Park and the distance from that parking lot to the Cannabis facility is less than 500 ft thank you James Evans 341 washing place um as a young man I'm very fam with the area uh I would like to know at what point will they be testing there are factories and have a I guess a little stream that goes back there and I'm sure some things were dumped in there that wasn't supposed to be in there so I'm just wonder are you going to test just the park or are you going to test all behind those other fact please you know this all just came up tonight so we're going to figure this out tomorrow and we will probably wind up doing water samples as well but I just want to make make it clear that people there's an allegation that the soil is contaminated we don't know if the soil in Denning Park is contaminated but what we are going to do is we're going to find out one way or the other yes or no and out of an abund of caution we're going to do what we always do which is the right thing and we're going to start by closing the park tomorrow and we're going to find out who is the right company to do the soil testing and we are going to be in contact with the D so that we're doing it with the proper procedures so we don't know but again this all just came up tonight we are going to be taking action and we're going to be taking action starting tomorrow my question are is are you going to just test the park or are you going to test the the stream that runs into it I just answered the question that we were going to take water samples too yeah okay fine Paula Roven tck um when if you clo if when you close the park um I observed one day to see what was going on in the park when we were doing the measurements and there are many many many many workers who go to coolage Avenue to those um a lot of food cor companies they produce all sorts of food products and I think they take the bus to Route 4 and um decator and they walk across the park you can actually see the path going across the park I would hate for them not to be able to get to work a lot honestly that that's how they get to work across that Park so if there could be some provision so they can cross the park and get to work on time and not have to walk whatever I'm I'm concerned about that but um the water there there's a little stream between buildings on Alfred and over there that stream is disgusting it's vile it's filthy it's filthy right it's disgusting um the the Leo I don't know if I'm pronouncing it right Corporation they used radioactive materials they investigated what was in different kinds of Metal Products I looked out today and was able to speak to somebody because I was doing my research this morning all morning to get more information for tonight and I actually actually spoke to somebody from the de Department of Environmental Protection his name is um um Joe Powell Power Joe power he said that they have completed the uh investigation within the building um the old building but I said well can we and he said they're going to be issuing a letter I said can we we have the letter this is very important to people in the community you know it has to be done with a uh uh Foya request so that could take a while to get any kind of or o oah request that could take a while to get any kind of proof that even the D has done that investigation so um that's that's important um so I think the water has to be tested and the soil and um and you know the issue of cannabis Still Still Remains you know are I guess it's it's also a te a big T-Neck issue because they're going ahead with something that's illegal youel she is Forest Avenue basically what they're not basically saying is that the owner can you hear me now yes okay now the owner who basically built up the first building uh what he did was he shut that down he shut like there used to be where you could go undergr ground and go over to the other side to catch the bus well he closed that down so why did he close that down so now you got to go up come up decer you know go down go around and then walk up by the highway so all that's basically being closed then he basically like I said with the whole cannabis craziness you know you're going to basically have a a u Building open from 8 to 8 and you're going to basically have trucks coming in they're going to basically set it up to basically where people people are going to come in is going to be security you're going to basically have to you know sign in and then you know they're going to have trucks coming in there those 18 wheelers dropping off stuff so they're going to basically manufacture they're going to store it and they're going to produce it and then like I said with all the contamination nobody is nobody is doing anything you basically have like I said there's an overlap there of inle and te neck so what happened is like they saying that you know who's going to basically kind of take care of it like where that fence is you know like I said you know I was basically told you know oh it's just a little stench well that little stench now is bothering people that little stench is going to basically where you can't be able to sit outside that little stench is basically where people going to have to close their doors their windows and you're not going to be able to be able to sit out in your front yard and nobody seems to care nobody's doing anything the first building like I said you know they're going to be light and they you know they're not really they're not caring about what they're doing to the people over there they were supposed to have closed that building down the second one for at least a year so now all of a sudden it's open again and they're going to go in and start building like what happened is what happened is why they decided to change that and not close it and basically do the Environmental Testing it's totally contaminated back there and somebody needs to do something about it thank you I'm gon to I'm going to tell you right you you have to stay on the topic of of of Denning Park but the play but this is just simply for the playground I'm just saying the next person up right so we have have to keep it there so we can do that and we need to speed up here yeah I I'll keep it brief I'm I'm Alex scofi 166 Grand Avenue uh scofi so I just wanted to not I mean someone mentioned in the master plan there's a list of contaminated sites um and page 55 they're seeing a lot of them I'm just a note would be probably to be proactive we probably want to use this if we're going to do the testing to just check the list I mean there's 30 different dots I don't know exactly what that means on here of contaminated sit so I would just say make sure as we're doing that we're checking all these other places as well just probably saves money too to get them all at once rather than this oh someone else is yelling now we go back to the next one so if it's right here in the plan you know I'm just saying probably should use it that's yeah should be a part of the uh how we go forward right we should remediate all those places if if they're contaminated yeah so you know anyway thank you thank you jam Z 40 Jefferson Street hackin sack I just want to State for the record and knowwhere everyone is on the record if we're talking about a building that may have contaminated a park that has a stream that flows to areas that flow beyond the park that you're talking about the playground on this one that was the last one before excuse me yeah this is about specifically about the playground playground playground we talked about the park on the first the playground this is about the where playground it's in the park the and yeah but separate things right this is specific to the grant for the playground but what I'm saying is that if that playground which Resorts by a stream that is by the playground which can flow underground to the soil on that play ground flows to other areas I want to know and I want the people on this day to state that they also check the areas surrounding those areas where that water flows yeah going forward I mean you could test that area first but I want everybody to state where they stand in testing the areas in that community that they're going to do further testing if that area proves to be contaminated thank you understood so I'm going to close see that I don't see anybody else here at the mic I'm going to close the public session and I need a motion in a second and then we we're going to you can't do it till after that I make a I make a motion councel president okay a second it comments my first home was the fourth ward my children played in Denning Park I lived at 276 coolage Avenue before I came to the third board um I'm going to start this and that's close to me that was my first home so I'm asking for a study of um test and soils and honestly I don't know how that elephant in the room with that monstrous building got here I don't understand how that happened I know that's different but I was not on the DI at that time when it happened when that building was there I have a one of my closest friends on a planning board in t neck I'll say his name d green and he said we never challenge them and that's what he told me on the record true he told me we never challenged them and I wasn't on the Das at that time no one challenged them to do this it's hideous that's I'll have to say roll call councilman Rosen yes councilwoman wasi yes councilwoman David yes councilman Wilson yes council president Cobb yes next we have resolution 356 a resolution accepting minutes and these are minutes from wow okay I'm going to read them all this is a lot regular meetings February 20th 2024 March 19th 2024 April 16th 2024 May 21st 2024 June 18th 2024 July 16th 2024 September 17th 2024 October 15th 202 24 November 26 2024 Workshop meeting January 16th 2024 March 5th 2024 April 2nd 2024 May 7th 2024 June 6th 2024 July 2nd 2024 September 3rd 2024 November 12th 2024 special meetings March 26 2024 June 6 2024 October 28 2024 I have a question we got a workshop June 6 2024 and we have a special meeting 2024 how do we do that same day okay I need a motion in a second for this I'll make a motion second I'll make a comment congratulations YNC this is wonderful I'm so glad to we got all the minutes for the whole year yep roll any roll call let's go uh councilman Rosen swag yes councilman wiski yes councilwoman David yes councilman Wilson great job gy yes yes council president cob yes next we have approval of payment of bills and claims and the amount of 2,276 3512 C I need a motion in a second I make a motion council president all right I'll second it um any questions well wait a minute if everybody's going to go off to d That's disrespectful to the public no we don't want to take a break what do you mean take a break we want to get a we'll go without you let's go this this is what you got this is what you bought into well no listen C council president in the spirit of moving forward I've got a question or two yeah okay then we're going to vote Mr Wilson thank you counc we got three people on the Des that's just uh I I'll keep it brief um on page three uh hold on one second please um 24 4- 02341 New Jersey career Fire Chiefs Association 2024 fire promotional exam $14,500 um to say the least this is a um thing that's near and dear to my heart being a retired firefighter um and my concern is that we've been working with the Chiefs Association who creates these exams and my My Hope Is as we move forward that we would um give give other testing op testing organizations opportunity to usher in and do something separate from the Chiefs Association um that may be tainted so uh that's that's my question about this foot it's not really a question I'm just bringing it up to bring light to it um I I just don't like the way it's operated and so I don't like seeing $14,500 on here for that and that's a that's a personal experience thing with the chief Association which has been known to show some bias um and if we can jump to page four and then I'm done council president uh 24- 0327 Atlantic Towing and Recovery uh was that for one of our our machines the towing cat 930 or was that the ones we were which P was it again I'm sorry 24 p on page number 44-0 3270 Atlantic Towing and Recovery Towing cat 930 loader 3,39 is that for one tow for one machine or is that Towing for the quarter the month there was uh one toe for ,650 another toe for 1,200 uh they did a repair loaded tire for 275 I'll tell you what the 1200 one was for it was a few things uh excavator move DPW van to Van to noan Avenue noan Avenue to corner of lafayett and Forest corner of lafay fars to noen again um there was uh responded to the customer location loader sunk in mud by the lake so what is that six different items maybe yeah like yeah for okay and and and the reason why it sticks out to me because you you know we've been having Towing issues in our town this has nothing to do with that but that amount is concerning to me and it doesn't list anything it doesn't list that it's four different occasions and if in fact we're moving loaders are these are loaders that we are borrowing or sharing from another town and can we not incorporate whatever that cost is to us when we get a loader can they not move it themselves as opposed to something separate so the the um valid valid points the this is part of this is the long arm that we've borrowed from Bergen County so uh we don't have a piece of equipment to put it on that we can move it from one location to the other so that's why it's being moved by by this company and um you know the Deep the DPW is uh going to be requesting a you know a longer flat flat trailer so that we can put something we can put put the equipment on ourselves and move from one location to the other excuse me just to be clear on on that particular for the loader the amount was what was that $1,200 the loader was stuck sunk in the mud was 1650 1650 okay all right and that that was over at Crystal Lake that was that was so that was in August was that the one in August where we were clear clearing that was in September okay and and the other and the other part I I just want to make clear about is you you know change comes out of course and um for us to do dredging if you will I don't know if that's a political correct verbiage that that's the slang for desilting Des snagging and silking there you go um this is is some of the course that comes along with improving um the environment and doing what we need to do to try to minimalize uh flooding so thank you council president thank you br call councilman Rosen yes councilwoman wiski yes councilwoman David yes councilman Wilson yes council president Cobb yes next we have an ordinance for second reading ordinance 2410 would want to read this this is an ordinance fixing salaries of the superior officers of the fire department of the city of Englewood effective for the years 2021 2022 2023 2024 and 2025 let's let's let's be clear Mr Kaufman explain to the what what's Happening Here or council president if you want but um this is the um this is the the vehicle that will allow the city to um pay our fire officers of their payments for the for the um for the contract for these calendar years for c for the calendar years that were just listed 2021 through 2025 so the the the contract and the salaries have to be adopted by ordinance there is an introduction at at our meeting on November 26th and this is the public hearing this is the way the council uh introduces and then adopts um salary ordinances for contracts so this is what we're this is the procedure that we're following now I'm going to open it up to public hearing so anybody who wants to speak just on this step to the mic give your name and your address and you have three minutes close it Campbell cly Road um I guess my question is to Mr Hoffman for clarification on this ordinance 2410 because it says for the years 2021 22 23 24 um when you did your explanation the one thing that I didn't hear is that this is all back pay because they didn't have a contract is that correct yeah the contract the contract had expired and this is going to be for their retro payments and it's also going to be for calendar year 2025 which is going forward if you notice I didn't mention 2025 because we're not into that yet I'm I'm talking about the four years prior to 2025 it's all retro pay because they were working without a contract that's correct thank you sure thank you since I don't see anybody else at the mic I'm going to close thank you this public hearing and now I need a motion in a second I make a motion council president I second oh roll call councilman Rosen yes councilwoman wiski yes councilwoman David yes councilman Wilson yes I'm I'm I'm so happy that we got a chance to put this to rest so yes council president cob yes next we'll go to for Public public comment on resolution on the consent agenda resolutions 306 338 339 340 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 73 74 75 76 77 and 78 any comments on these resolutions you got 3 minutes name and address Amy buend Avenue um 361 resolution authorizing agreement with Burgess Associates Incorporated for specialized Services related to the city of inwood's round four affordable housing obligation Burgess and Associates did the overlay Zone which now has Us in the midst of a lawsuit we just did a master plan which is supposed to have a housing element but yet we were told the housing element was done and settled through the lawsuit by fair share housing but now here we are hiring Burgess and Associates to do are round for affordable housing is there a reason that we did not have a company who did our master plan deal with this given that we're paying them I'm guessing hundreds of thousands of dollars and since housing is a part of the master plan I'm just curious to know why we are again paying Burgess Associates to come in and do our round for housing when we are just passed a master plan it should have been Incorporated so I'd like to understand why we're wasting taxpayer dollars thank you I think uh the record should reflect that Miss Bullock is actually um a member of the litigation against the city and the city purposely cannot comment as she's a party to litigation if I'm not mistaken correct Mr Bailey that's correct to the extent it pertains to the pending lawsuit which challenges and it's on the subject on the merits of the lawsuit that she addressed the governing body so the record should reflect that there was no response hi Diane Jan in 589 ridland Terrace um I object to hiring Burgess Associates for round four on three grounds uh the first is that they put together the round three overlay Zone and seven of the 15 areas were in FEMA flood areas I don't know how a planner could Overlook that but my husband and I did not that's number one uh the planner was uh Mr uh John Sabo number two uh Chelsea G who works for Burgess Associates is on the planning board why didn't she pick up some of this stuff that was happening earlier number three uh John sabbo also serves on the board of adjustment uh uh of which I do think he does a very good job I must say um uh however I do not believe that we should have uh what are they there's this uh some saying about uh you have somebody watching the chicken hen oh the fox watching the chicken Coupe so you know when uh when the overlay Zone came up I never heard Chelsea gly say anything about you know uh in the overlay Zone being in flood prone areas you know we need somebody with another set of eyes with all this money we're spending thank you thank you crazy ass 48 Shannon uh the same question about 361 when did uh because I did ask this question in several other uh meetings we had and I learned that uh Burgess Associates was part of the negotiation so when did they start I mean did they start from the beginning that like a year or two years ago because they're supposed to look at the third round right and the fourth they're not starting now please don't tell me that no so they have some background into it they know it correct they're they're able to give that information by before the deadline correct right all I'll say is that Burgess and Associates went in front of Judge farington they they represented the city in front of Judge fingon and she's the one who is the traffic cup huh she said go to an attorney with our uh I also like to ask resolution 35912 1724 awarding a required disclosure award to Cooper Plumbing and mechanical for the Inglewood ice rank Chilla demolition are we replacing that Chiller what is it what is that I I don't get it I see a lot of money going to to a rink so I I'm going to keep asking why sure uh there's this is the old Chiller the the um the rink has been using a new Chiller for the last two and a half almost three years so this is the chiller that had broken down before um the new Chiller was installed the goal is to remove it so that we can use the space for other needed needed things for the rank so we're going to have we went out to bid we got the best price for removing um you know this large almost twostory mechanical apparatus it's going to be disassembled and taken away and then we will be able to use use that space for storage of the bumper the bumper cars and other things and you know related to the rink okay so it's offline it's just in the way yep I have another question regarding 340 the uh awarding a fair open award to accurate constru construction for the relocation of the clerk's office are they staying in the present building or they're going to outside the building it's going to stay in the present building stand in the building yes this is the same this is the same building they're just moving across the hall great thank you I hope it's nice for yansy there um no no excuse me let me go I don't want to take your time thank you I'm going to close the public session of this meeting um I need a motion in a second and anybody have any comments anything want I'd like to um hold to separate a resolution when do we the motion in second we we we got to add we got to add something first we got to add R resolution 381 I think everybody's gotten that it's by the community block grant I need a need a motion in a second to add resolution 381 I'll make a motion that we add it I'll second answer roll call you got aint sorry uh councilman Rosen white this is for a cdb endorsing grant for Vantage Health this is the add something and they came in today right they came in today late this afternoon I vote yes thank you um councilwoman wasi yes councilwoman David yes councilman Wilson yes council president cob yes so this was just to add to the agenda just to add to the agenda 381 now does anybody want to pull uh any ordinances off of here uh resolution resolution I mean yeah I just want to uh have just separate for a separate vote on resolution uh 377 anyone else what did what did you uh pull out Angela what did you pull out was it 361 36 361 um okay so the first vote will be on or on resolution 361 one vote on them first or after one vote on them first yeah vote on then we just my notes are all over the place just it's just 31 361 we're going to have discussion on or just yeah okay so then we need a motion in second we need a motion in a second on resolution 361 I motion I second comments comments questions comments okay roll call hold on I got comments as we go into another round um there are many questions by myself and constituents in regards to resolution 361-1279 you guys well know and evalu evaluated the third round obligations which many of us aren't happy with and I can tell you sitting here today that I was one of the ones that voted no um and I didn't think that we fought or the lawyers fought hard enough for us in those rounds to get certain things done um and some of those things you you they talk about in the package if you're following the package presumption of validity it's it also talks about affordable housing dispute resolution programs of what they should suggest to us and I I I I plead to this particular section because I for one do not want to get recommendations on what we should be doing under a time crunch I'm sure they probably did the best they could do I I just wasn't happy with How It Came Upon Us the time limit um how it talks about the municipality housing stock and what we have to choose from future construction of low and moderate income housing uh land developers have expressed committed to provide low to moderate income we talk about resoning environment it it go it goes on and on and so I I know we're under a time crunch um I for one council president and disappointed about everything that that comes across our desk that we're under a time crunch as if we don't know these rounds are coming up um I for one don't agree with how this was handled but I will say that they have a lot of the information and for us to get somebody new at this particular juncture to catch up that may miss something um is it's daunting to say the least so there's some language in this particular resolution that gives us the opportunity once they bring this forth that the city manager can recover this information we can digest it and hopefully in a timeful manner that we may make different decisions as we move forward those are my comments on resolution 36112 17-24 thank you council president yeah um council president on 361 with the Virgin and Associates I'm going to do a hard no on it um I'm strongly against the overlay Zone and everything and I don't like how this was handled I wasn't there I didn't vote on it um and I need them to come back somehow with something different when I saw I did not like it it was horrible so that's it anybody else got comments I I'm going to make one comment um August 23rd I believe was the date 2020 three I went to the court hearing with with with Burgess and Cy it's John zel with judge farington and I know that we met and Diane you could correct me if I'm wrong but I believe it was 19 elements that we were required to make and we adhered to them and were approved by judge farington Burgess and Associates got of students round four the key for round four is it's 166 that we we have 166 units and what they mean by that is is that we need to assist on the repairs of 166 units and we satisfy round four so you know one of the things is if if if you're not happy with burgon Associates that's that's your opinion but what I would say to you is this is that they're familiar with what we have to do and how we have to get it done now if we're overusing him that's that's fine you you you can get somebody independent but we married ourself to to to Burgess and associates they know who we are so far they've been able to help the city of anger with navigate the waters pretty well with judge farington she is the affordable housing person traffic cop for for Anglewood so you know let's understand what we what what what we got right here and and it's for us is to get beyond that and get prepared because we can say whatever we want but we should be asking oursel how did we get here how did we get here with affordable housing when 30 40 years ago Englewood never had this problem always made allowances for that that should be the question and when we answer that question we'll be able to move forward to answer all the rest of them as well but that's my comment and we can vote roll call YY sorry coun councilman Rosen swag yes councilwoman wiski yes councilwoman David no councilman Wilson yes council president cob yes okay final vote is four yes one no motion passes councilwoman wasi wanted to pull 377 have you have a separate vote well we can vote on it right now yeah we need a motion in second we I make a motion council president yep me a second I'll second it let's go comments questions questions um I just wanted update of where of uh the last time we spoke about triy on P the oh s excuse me so I didn't get this resolution until this afternoon so I didn't have a chance to really review it or review the topic but um it wasn't in my packet on Friday but um so my question is I'd like an update please on where we are from our last conversation with this area councilwoman David you had told me that as liaison to the board of ed the Board of Ed wanted to do some kind of expansion possibly in this area has have their plans changed no no it has not changed okay um they were supposed to put up a retaining wall has that taken place fron no it has not taken place and what happened with the DP at this site okay all right okay so is is there a reason this can't wait until we get all the information this is a reaffirmation to make sure that this happens that this this is why that resolution was put on to bring it to the attention of the public that we're reaffirming that yes we are committed to putting a pool back there where the pool currently exists and so that's simply what this is reaffirming at the council's commitment to that to having that pool there there's no there's no build myself and and councilman Wilson also know and Mr Hoffman also knows that there will be no extension being built over there from the school we were told that from the superintendent so and and and the business people there so we have clear sailing to put a pool there but we want to make sure that the city puts this on their radar to make sure that pool is put there that pool is of historical uh as because it was the first inground pool in the city of Anglewood and we want to make sure that we have that pool put back in place that's why it's put there to make sure and that's it president yes so um Mr Bailey do do we own that land no okay no um and we don't have permission from D to build a pool I think that's what you just said Mr VY yeah and we don't know how much a pool would cost we we we got estimates Qui yeah we we don't know we we have estimates on on the pool okay and Mr Hoffman knows that we've had that conversation and this is just why it's put on there just just just why it's put on there so I don't see how we can have a resolution well you could vote to uh have us spilled on someone else's property no there always it just well makes no so that's like us passing a resolution or we want to buy this property so now the seller knows well they can charge $100 million now because we've made a commitment to buy it who who does business like that it's it's just ridiculous and um and excuse me Mr Bailey can a current Council obligate a future Council to any activity no except when for example if the council authorized a contract with Burgess for example that just happened yeah but we could yes that is going into the next Administration but a current Council couldn't say in 2025 the next Council has to sign a contract with you know with hack sack for shared services agreement that has to come back before yeah okay Mr President one of the competing interests I remember when we had the meeting on the pool that the cost would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars if not even a million dollars uh was the refurbishment of the one in McKay Park to make it an olympic size pool and drawing people of all Wards into our Central Park if you would those are compe competing interests between building what would be a storage site in your mind to the first pool in Ood to now going in a modernization of a pool that would be used um more ecumenically by everybody so again the cost of you know if councilman Rosenburg is right we don't own the property I don't think we can commit the governing body to make commitments until ownership title and other issues are resolved and we have a full-on uh investigation as what's the best interest of the city although I believe your heart's in the right place to make sure that we replace something that was there we may have a better idea um and I hope that you'd participate in that as well oh I I no I I I I got to speak if if I may okay let let let let me speak this is this is what happens when you don't understand history this is what happens when that was always the arrangement that that pool on that site that was partnership with the board of education so to disenfranchise people because that's what you're looking to do worrying about a pool of McKay park that's the pool right there we replaced that pool we was said when we closed before and I'm not going to drag Mr vosy and Mr Hoffman in into this argument but what it is is the commitment obviously you don't want to make a commitment to the pool that's what it is why don't you just say that and we can move on with the rest of the meeting cuz I'm not going to waste my time with that but we know what that's about I'm not I'm not going to wait but you see it right here historic pool that's where everybody learned how to swim now put that back disenfranchises a whole side of Anglewood the kids can't walk from all the way over there that's all we just vote on it and move it on we we got to have this conversation I have something to say this is a slippery slope situation my daughter daughters three of them learned how to float in that pool but on the other hand I was three term elected on the board of education went through numerous superintendents who wanted that property for something else they wanted to do like maybe a swim team then one said that you know what we're expanding maybe we should just build another building there because they closed another school so it's like and Suzanne Mullins you there Dr Mullins you were there in that don't know hi you were there in that conversation when they said maybe we should develop it into a building so there was numerous things said with several superintendents who wanted that property because it's our property well not my I'm not the Board of Education anymore but it's the property the Board of Education who wanted to do that for several reasons they wanted to maybe you know have a swim team and and another building because now with the overlay Zone we may need it I'm just saying um cuz more people more you know busy so I don't know um so I'm asking you guys to input and come to the mic hopefully when he ask okay okay thank you okay roll call go ahead if you can do it come on thank thank you council president um I have visited the pool several times with Mr hofman U Mr Cobb um and and other members here on the board I for one could give you history as I grew up in that pool as well and for us not to reconsider our commitment as what was said earlier um why would we commit we've committed for several years to repair it um and we've committed to letting people take the funding to repair it and do a dismal job and so it's incumbent upon us as a community to service the whole town not just part of the town we have a obligation to other people on the other side of the town and we don't have to find land there I've spoken to the superintendent and they're willing to go into a lease agreement with us and so we've we've had professionals come out and give us prices and I I can't find a reason why we would want to continue to put all our money in one particular spot to service the whole Community when we have an opportunity we do not hesitate for funding for M almost got me saying it but um the John T Wright um Arena that's right we approve approve and tonight again approve without hesitation because it Services a large part of our community and I I I'd say this that it Services probably more people that don't live here amen amen than that live here I could be wrong Mr Hoffman you're not you're right I I could be wrong I I don't know the numbers I heard or no but I I I know there's a lot of people that we serve as that don't live here and I I I think it's our responsibility to service the people that are here in our town amen I mean that's why we're here we're supposed to be mouthpieces for our constituents not what Kevin wants but what the cry is and so for us to sit here and to to ignore the cry we're doing your disservice and it's upon you guys to let us know that you're un satisfied we're fighting to fight for you and we have to continue to have equal distribution of the welfare and things that need to be repaired so our future kids know knows what it is to have a pool in their Community without being tethered without leaking chemicals that's what I have council president thank you roll call yes councilman Rosen swag no councilwoman wiski I abstain councilwoman David yes we'll see if it happens councilman Wilson yes council president cob yes okay so final vote is three yes one no one abstain motion carries so now we'll take a final vote on the entire consent the on the entire consent agenda minus those two items minus three minus 361 and minus 377 need a motion in a second I make a motion councel president I second it roll call councilman Rosen yes councilwoman wiski yes councilwoman David yes councilman Wilson yes council president cob yes next we have a resolution for vote 379 12 1724 resolution to override The veto of ordinance 2411 relating to the amendment of the personal residency preference for hir in in police and the fire departments we need a motion in a second I motion oh public comment no no what any any comments from the council counc w i I'll try to keep this as brief as possible um we've been tethering and pulling this down the road uh for some time now um and the consideration of this particular resolution is in no way shape to exclude anyone it has nothing to do with race gender height religion the only thing we're talking about is preference doesn't say that you get the job doesn't say you Leap Frog over anyone it doesn't say that anyone gets to the back of the line we're saying that people that are committed to living in Inglewood why not give them preference we're not saying tck New York bod Personnel cannot apply Li for the test we're not saying that at all we're just saying that you get preference as deciding to live in the town that you hope to serve we've had a oneyear um residents resolution for the last couple of years it has helped others have say that 12 firefighters were hired from Inglewood I don't know where that name number came from uh but they didn't estimate how many police came from there um so this is incumbent upon us once again council president to just think of the future uh I I get it police and fire for some of us we don't want our children doing that dangerous jobs I I get it we say Sho coach but for others this is just merely a tool a a opportunity to do so and if anyone was paying attention at this last planning board meeting it was stated by someone on the deas that we should be excited about building in Inglewood so our police and fire will have a place to stay so I'm confused about the veto I'll leave it to you guys to decipher that later but I as a council member am totally confused how you veto and then you want the workforce to be here uh I could go on for a little while longer council president but I won't no we've been holding these people hostage all night okay I heard yes um I am for the um residency requirements and I said it over and over again not just of a wife of a retired firefighter but just that my children who are daughters want to follow their father's path as well who are born here in Englewood um even um when I spoke to Bob Hoffman you said also that um even if if they don't pass it it's like you know what fine they don't pass it but at least you know you did the right thing so I'm asking all of you here in AAS to make sure that our children get the right chance to take the test and make sure it's preferences that's all I'm asking not everyone in Engle is going to pass the test they I mean the psych and everything so I'm just asking you guys also I'm pleading to you guys to make sure that you give them preferences that's all I'm asking they here tax dollars are being paid here my taxes PID for a lot of things thank you thank you um so at the last meeting I asked that we bring our labor attorney in so the public could hear his opinion on on this a very significant labor role and I was criticized well if you wanted to speak to him you should have called him of course I called him called him multiple times about this ordinance and it was his opinion that led me to vote no at the last council meeting and now I'm not a lawyer um but you know I don't want to Mis represent what he said but one question I have is why wasn't he allowed to speak at our public meeting why could if we're going to have transparency why not have the labor attorney here to answer questions about this that's what we pay him for we we hired him unanimously let's let's utilize his services so I said I don't want to misrepresent his legal advice cuz I'm not a lawyer and I I don't want to get anything wrong with it but one question I asked him was are there any other municipalities in the state that have a three-year uh residency requirement and he said he knew of none so last last uh month we were in Atlantic City for the league of municip ities at multiple sessions I asked around does anyone know of any municipality that has a three-year requirement SL preference thank no one knew of one one person literally laughed and said three years you might as well make it a hundred years no one's going to be able to qualify for that we've become the laughing stock of the state because of this we're going to be the only municipality with such a a huge requirement all we did in this was change the number from 12 to 36 we didn't put anything else in there to help out with the 36 so does everyone remember what was going on let's let's say someone applies today 36 months ago actually it was the height of the covid EP epidemic the Omron virus that was the highest numbers 36 months ago so now you're going to bring a young man or young woman in and say prove to me where you lived on December 17th 2021 when the whole world was in shambles now you know these are people who probably aren't on the utility bills probably the name isn't on the lease or on the mortgage it's a really tough to even prove one year for these people it's going to be almost impossible to prove 30 for 36 months so someone proves 35 months but not 36 months and we know and we know and we know that they're resident of Anglewood they don't get any credit they're just back uh as if they or zero months have they lived out of town that's why this ordinance is unworkable um so excuse so that's a racist so I have a nickname for this ordinance I call it the P County jobs creation act because it's actually going to do the reverse of what it intends it's going to be almost imposs possible for an Anglewood resident to show their proof of residency and then we're going to then no one's going to get any preference and that's why I'm voting no and I'm not going to vote to override The veto thank you Mr Cub I'm I'm speaking now yeah go ahead can can the point of order be that this is not a requirement that this is a preference a prefence re keeps coming up that's not what this is yeah it it's just a preference but what I don't get is that since the mayor wants to speak I'm going to speak first so I'm set this the record straight since I was the guy they said didn't reach out to the attorneys or I declin to meet with the attorney you know what the one good thing about these meetings they all recorded they all recorded and you know what how if you're not going to work for us we got a problem we got a problem anybody can come here and apply for these jobs but with what they're not saying is what is it Wilson five well one of five fully paid for five departments in beron county and every time we have a test we get over 300 people cuz they want these jobs these ain't jobs these are careers and they're coveted careers we got one of the highest paid police departments it covered care is and residents it's good to have a balance it's good to have people who do these jobs living amongst you in the history of ingwood a lot of people have sent their kids to school that were police officers of fire fires paid board houses paid mortgages and we'll continue to do that if given the chance and the opportunity and we don't have to agree but I can tell you this right now that is that is wrong that is wrong and anybody and everybody could still apply this is just the rule I think what what people need to understand is these jobs are game changers what we're saying is we want to give the the kids here the residents here and young men and women the opportunity to participate in getting these game changes these life changes we're not taking anybody out of the game we're just saying hey here's an opportunity for you thank you Mr cup um I'm happy Mr Wilson to explain the workforce housing reference in the master plan and and uh Visa this experience and as you're well aware the culture of what happens to our police officers and firefighters after they're onboarded is very different based on the kind of work that they do some of the police officers that I spoke to told me that they have to move out of anger wood because they end up with their children in shopr right meeting people that they've arrested and that they need to look for Workforce affordable housing in other communities when we have a hospital our biggest employer police and fire and ambulance workers working in our city my point during the master plan is that we needed to create that kind of Workforce housing independent of our own Department I want to address some of the misconceptions about the veto that I issued first it's true we did not hear from the police chief the fire chief labor Council and the city manager obviously and I had a chance to then get information from all of these individuals on HR on hiring practices some of it I'm not going to share publicly because it has to do with Personnel but all of them were against advancing it from a one to a three year The crucial Point here is that we already have a year and there were at least a dozen hires with more in the way where we exhausted the pool of residents and there were complications proving even the single year I was aware of no instance where a resident was passed over outside of a hire where the three-year measure would have been impacted what the three-year change would do is it would make it more difficult and set a higher threshold to verify residency in the first round of hiring through the one-year rule several legitimate residents could not even prove the one year three years would be exacerbated more over the three-year requirement would adversely impact veterans recent not college graduates but recent college graduates who had registered to vote in a different address and others in similar circumstances involving recent travel and Military who have temporary relocation and are still deeply vested in our community let's remind oursel I think our fire chief and our police chief both came up as dispatchers the fire chief lived a block away from Anglewood we shouldn't have taken him in ladies and gentlemen we should be getting the strongest the smartest the most astute and yes we should give a preference to angood Residents that's achievable I received dozens of text messages on my personal cell urging me to vote to veto not to veto the ordinance or the similar message so it's clear there were some Grassroots organizing around this but there was a lack of background information being included several of the people reached out to me who work at City Hall who know me very well most were unaware that we already had a provision to give residents a one-year preference and when I responded to them in a text in a phone call or in an email and I responded to each they appreciated it because they were led to believe otherwise so that politic I guess is fair game but inappropriate I always appreciate input from residents and feel strongly that residents deserve a thorough explanation about all actions hence I Penn the three three page statement of veto a detailed explanation posted to the website and distributed in about a 15minute video explaining my vote all of us remain committed to hiring Anglewood residents wherever possible I've spoken to the superintendent I've gotten kneed deep in the uh recruitment efforts that are going on not just in local churches but in schools and other social efforts that are going on businesses trying to increase resident applications and trying to make sure that those young Cadets that take classes are are fire chief for 35 years Chief Anderson had something impactful when I met him about 20s something years ago and he said I was sitting in the Lincoln School looking at it the fire department across the street my dream was to be a firefighter and I became chief of Department There's Something Beautiful when Chief Bowman rest his soul would live locally and he would have a vehicle parked outside his home I appreciated what that did for the Neighbors the community and our youth who felt one day they too could be a chief of Department don't get lost in the politics don't play politics when it comes to personnel and I'm afraid phone calls have to be returned and experts have to be presented to us because this is not about what we think we're going to do better than somebody else there's a reason not one municipality Hamlet Village or Township in this whole state has gone to three years and we can't make this personal we have to make this professional again we want the best and if an Anglewood resident can fit the psychological the physical the intellectual profile they ought to get it first thank you let's go let's go Wilson let's councilman Rosen oh I'm sorry did you also have something else no councilman Rosen no thank you councilwoman wiski no councilwoman David yes councilman Wilson yes Council yes council president C yes Mr Bailey the final vote tally is three yes 2 no did the motion pass yep per the city Charter to override a veto it requires 2/3 of the full membership of the governing body so in this instance while normally three votes carry uh to overturn ordinance requires four votes so it did not carry thank you what happened the motion did not pass I'm I'm going to talk first cuz I'm going to can we do your resolution first yeah cuz we got somewhere to go what happened we can't we can we can can we do your res huh can we do your resolution first I I I gotta go somewhere so can we do resolution 380 you we got some to that's what I keep what I'm asking can you let him go okay let's you know what can we can we look can we look the public yeah I got to do something I I got something wait I got something waiting on okay right let's let's do resolution 38 then I'm gone not I can't stay do this now everybody going to talk for two minutes huh I got to go so you can you can run me I got appointments okay and my shoes are KN deep in  380 okay we're going to do resolution 380 let's go need a motion in a second I I make a motion council president I second it let's go roll call yeah 380 councilman Rosen sway yes councilwoman wiski yes councilwoman David yes councilman Wilson yes council president cop yes before you go huh hurry up that you have to do something so this is on behalf of the city it's on behalf of the city this is presented to Charles Cobb in grateful appreciation of your nine years of outstanding dedication and service to the citizens of the city of Englewood your distinguished tenure as council president and councilman at large has exemplified the true meaning of Public Service commitment and leadership thank you and it's dated December 17th 2024 and it goes with the resolution that was just passed you missed it huh missed it what you got the glass it's on video glass TR Championship yes what this this one that's what I'm try to get out what's iation you can I don't know why you was they both yeah I'm going to do what I what do you want answer you want me to say a few things answer you want me to say something like to say a few words okay well hold on let me do that okay um I just want to uh you know address you for a few minutes first of all I want to thank everybody who came out tonight I really appreciate that um your support um and your caring about this community um if you would ask me many years ago would I have been in this position or looked to seek to be in this position I would have said no I was a young man a little boy who grew up in this town who's a product of this town grew up right over there on Humphrey Street born and raised there and you never know how things are going to change or what's going to lead you in a direction in life so but I'm thankful that the residents the people of the city of Anglewood had confidence in me and allowing me the honor to serve them which is which is very important so that's why I take it so personal when people say and do certain things and they don't know what they're talking about but it's it's it's it's very important and and during this journey you know obviously your family is important because you're taking time away from them and you know they correct you when you're wrong and and even when you're wrong you try to say that you're right and all that but I thank them for uh putting up with me um that's not easy but they did and they do so I thank them for that you know during this journey there were basically two people who are who rode side by side with me uh um city clerk Yancy Worman we started about the same time so we took a lot of steps together and I thank you ancy for that um but also councilman Wayne hyr Wayne guided me when I joined the council he made sure I didn't step on those landmines you know and when I did he picked me up and pulled me over to the side and said how do you avoid those things again but it but it was important but I can say with both of these people they cared about Anglewood and cared about doing it the right way and it and it's very important um that it's done the right way you may not agree with me but you know what I sleep good because I know I did it the right way every time I got up and and tried to do something and that's what's important to me Englewood clearly from my perspective and I could give perspective because I've lived it is at a Crossroads there are a lot of things that are going to go on you got the master plan you got a affordable housing you got a budget you got a lot of things that are going to happen in 20 25 but I can but I can tell you that you know it's easy for people to criticize you or whatever but they don't know the work that goes inside this they don't know the sacrifice that made and and the one thing I will tell you is if you ever hear me talk you know I'm talking facts I'm not talking anything else I didn't do this for people to like me I did this because I wanted to be somebody who made a difference who made a contribution to the to their City you know and often times people don't see it right in front of them but I could tell you their journey is 270 more affordable housing Rock Creek and Park View number one that's very important people don't talk about that but me and that gentleman back there we worked on that councilman a and also there's a revenue stream from that that people don't understand and don't know so I I I I look at that and then I say to myself okay what else the budget we put budget discipline in there so that means that we didn't exceed the cap we didn't want to see the 2% cap so guess what that keeps your taxes in line and you is still able to afford to live here in Anglewood ve very important um we created a a financial Advisory Board and those members and Adam Brown happened to be one of them that allowed us to think about what was going on we recently got a good rating from S&P how did that happen because small group of residents that were appointed to the financial Advisory Board along with the council work together and we put the discipline we put debt management plan into place and voila now we have a pretty good rating so you know there are there are a lot of things that people say well what did you do okay you know what when we had covid and every municipality that was laying off people she knows we said we're not going to lay off people and we're not cutting services and we got through that because I knew that it would impact families I knew that would impact families so those those those are some of the things and and we work with the people from 111 the housing authority and they worked hard and they continue to work hard to to service those seniors and people who are disabled that live in that building and they've been displaced for almost three years now from that particular uh residency we you know we're we're working on it now you know with all the dredging and all we call that's a bad word but you know cleaning out the waterways around Anglewood um but started with Mr Mr VY and and Mr Jenkins and then continue with Mr cman and a light so you know when you're a part of this journey it you have to ask yourself what are what are my contributions and what did I do because collectively you can't really do any my not many things by yourself but you could do it as a team and people need to understand that you know how does this work I probably forgot more things that I did than things that I could remember because sometimes you just do those things but you make sure people are all right you make sure you return phone calls from people you make sure you visit the areas that have been impacted to understand you make sure you Advocate one thing I'm proud of that I've done to as well is the annual apprenticeship program you know advocating for money and getting things done I don't exploit people and I don't go here looking to take pictures or anything like that the an will tell you I didn't want none of this cuz I didn't do this for this I did this because I wanted to have an opportunity to serve people that's what's important to me and I it will always be important to me when we talk about affordable housing I went to Trenton to understand that so I did my homework and do my homework and we continue to do my homework and continue to advocate for people it troubles me when we don't fight for everybody you represent people the expectation is for you to advocate for people but maybe that don't mean nothing people and I think that what what we have to do here is how does Englewood move forward how do we close the Divide because the Divide is wider and I tell people now it looks like we going back to 1960 because of the behaviors and the attitudes of people and I see people shaking their head because they know what it was like here in Englewood you don't want to go there you don't want to be there so what I what I really think we need to take take stock in is what do we want this town to be or this city to be we we got a lot of good people here that we need to engage to move forward but it's very critical with the things that are on on on the table right now that the city has to get through and has to navigate one Hiccup and we could have problems financially socially so you know when when when you try to make something that's going to involve everybody and make it count for everybody you know we have to think about that we have a lot of people who care and we have a lot of people caring their own ways you know but I I think that we have to do some homework do some thought some some some sou searching that's that's that's that's what I believe CU we have we do have a lot of good people with a lot of good ideas but people don't want to get involved because they don't want to waste their time and going back and forth you represent people you you're supposed to advocate for them not for you because if you do the right thing it will take care of you as well so the Journey's been good good to me in a lot of different ways now it's time to do something else and I'm good with it let's let's be clear I'm real good yeah yeah that's right Reverend Harper I'm real good I'm real good and and and Lord knows what I want to make sure is that y'all are all good too you know and I thank y'all for coming out tonight uh and really really just you have to pay attention the city will be what you want it to be you are the bosses don't give the power away just use the power in the way it should be used Advocate conversate and work and understand how this government works with that being uh okay well let me just say with that I think we'll be a better town I I just want to recognize the ladies from the health department thank you for doing a great job and I want to I want to they are they are those ladies go under the radar and continue to deliver top services to the people of the city of Anglewood but all our departments do a fine job I want to thank all of them for the jobs that they've done and hopefully they continue to do um I just want to make sure that uh the workforce has a good work experience here in Englewood you know I think people for the most part come to work and they work very hard and I I I think that uh you know we don't understand how hard people work um I want to thank this DPW for doing their thing they're out there and I was received a comment today said the city looks good with all the leaves up and sometimes we just forget about those but again you know the police department they got their hands full of fire department we just want what's best for everybody here and we want what's best and make sure everybody has that experience so as I move on I wish y'all well you know it's it's it's it's been good and uh you know please stay focused stay informed um because it's important and each one of you has the ability to contribute something and whatever your contribution is don't take it for granted it's it we need your contributions and we need your participation so thank you God bless y'all and I'm out you got something to say say it cuz I'm gone answer you in charge Kevin Wilson's gon to be in charge hey girl huh yeah yeah no I'm I'm leav yeah they can communicate later can I speak now go okay go ahead thank you council president um I was afforded a unique opportunity to be voted in by my constituents and some of it I knew what I was getting into a lot of it I didn't and so I had many mentors in this short two-year term and Mr Cobb is one of the mentors that shared information with me um went over material with me guided me in certain directions so for those times where you did your mentorship Mr cop I appreciate that um I also would like to thank your wife and your family your son and your daughter um for for allowing you to serve the city in that manner because not not only sitting where are you not only sitting in that position that your husband and your father sits in is taxing on him I I know it's taxing on the family so thank you guys for Lending your father and your husband to us uh he will be missed he's a wealth of information unfortunately he won't be returning right now but the fight's not over for him he Still's got information to share with us and we look forward to hearing from you and whatever your endeavors are I'm sure you're going to flourish thank you thank you uh good evening everyone my name is ala Jones I live 87 the boy Court East Apartment 87d Englewood New Jersey first I give a lot of uh criticisms but I want to give a compliment to Mr Hoffman it took him two and a half months to fix Ewood Avenue but he finally got it paved correctly and I want to say thank you very much for that and some of the other streets look good too now I also want to U talk I'm talking about the streets this um Williams Street and Palisades Avenue okay on the corner you know there that corner comes out in the middle of the street almost I've mentioned that before and I don't know how something hasn't been done about it but somebody's going to get hit on that corner because I saw a young man today standing there in the middle of the street it looks like it's the middle of the street and a car came around the corner and almost hit him this needs to be taken down at least two feet I mean two feet it needs to be taken down okay if you would do that I would appreciate that okay the third thing I have is about me I want to know what are the the policies and the rules for the police to give tickets to people that are sitting in their car the car is running and they are giving them tickets they gave me a ticket I'm a handicap I was parked yes I was parked but I was in my car my car was running he asked me if I didn't hear the horn I said no I didn't hear the sirene then he said but did you see the light I said yes but I wasn't moving so why would I move I'm sitting there waiting for the car in front of me me to move because I needed a place to park but he didn't see that so he came around he gave me a ticket I said how can you give me a ticket when I'm sitting in my car my car is running so now I want to know what is the rule and regulations to the police on giving tickets and it's true I was right there on the corner and that's what cars run the but listen they can't turn but so close to the court to the curve because if they do they're gonna run up on the curve and I am having a fit with that because as I talk I'm sure I'm speaking with someone else and people are just afraid to say anything but I want you to know I want this done I want it taken care of I want to know what the rules are first I'm not going to sit down until you tell me what are your rules okay and the police telling me uh he gave me a ticket I have it in my hand $0 I have to pay I'm sitting in my car that's what infuriates me I'm sitting there in my car the car is running I'm not going to park there I was just waiting for the car to move and my the car in front of me then he had the audacity to tell me well you can move the car I said how am I going to move the car when you have me blocked in and I'm he said oh I don't have you blocked I said yes you do and when I tried to move I couldn't move back but you know what he had to move back himself so he saw that what I was saying was correct and I was infuriated with that I want this to be changed I want to know what are the rules and tell me tell me what the policies are because I'm not the only one I'm sure there's a rule if I had left my car and left it running I could see him giving me a ticket okay I'm sitting in the car and the car is Miss Jones oh I'm sorry thank you thank you you can talk that you can take it offline with your friend over here Mr Hoffman okay y' y'all buddies so y'all can have that okay then the next thing I would this is my last thing is about the master plan no no I know just just a the master plan you're giving the master plan out to the people after you have already passed it what kind of condition is that you've already passed the master plan it shouldn't have been passed you should have related this to the people in the beginning then you go and write your master plan and do what you want to do but this is ridiculous I think we all need to review these situations and the way we handle situations the way we handle people we are all one there's no difference in us we are all one thank yes s short Mr C sure sure whatever for you let's go God bless you all first I have a message Mr retiring Mr Cobb yep it's from one in the person of Bruce Harper he said he wanted to be here tonight but he could not be right he congratulates you on your freedom second councilman Cobb your service has been noted in a positive way you served unconditionally those of us that regardless of our Ward our religion our religious beliefs our gender our culture our race unconditional all of the time all of your unlike all of your fellow Council persons your leadership and service from you as a third generation Dwight Marl high school maroon Raider is beyond noteworthy and unmatched the four of well it's more than four alumni here so everybody from Dwight wild High School alumni raise your hand we present you with two gifts one it's maroon and white like the colors of Englewood and the other one because of your Rich service to this community we would like to present to you a check for Bergen families in your honor of you and your mom simple it's $100 but it's in your honor so we thank you Mr Cobb for your service we hate to see you go but we are also going to enjoy your presence on this side of the podium may God continue to bless you and your family and the entirety of the city council God bless you Mr K thank you so much it to the Amy Bullock Callen davue council president cob yes ma'am we have more often than not not agreed correct but what cannot be denied is that you committed nine years of your life to the city of Englewood and while some of us think we could do it you actually did it and for that I say thank you thank you it is appreciated and it does not go unnoticed that you did that whether we agree or not thank you so much thank you so much Mr cob you know how I feel about you yes um we've been through thick and thin together um it's going to be sad to see you go but the work still has to go on and we will continue the work please um that's what I had to say to you um what I want to say to Mr Hoffman and everybody that's here there's a young man his name is Jay Bradley he's a African-American 25 years of service to the city of Anglewood there was an incident in the he works in the police Poli Department as a dispatcher 25 years this young man was suspended for 6 months six months Yes W is Right six months but this the story here is he was suspended for six months but we have a sergeant in the police department along with a female officer who was having an affair all right they're Caucasian having an affair they were suspended they weren't suspended I'm sorry they were suspended with pay now there's something wrong with this picture how can one person African-American be suspended for six months and a serent who was responsible for this female officer that works under his leadership they're suspended with pay folks there is the police department is in a disarray it is in a disarray and it's not right what's happening and it's not just happening to Jay Bradley it's happening to other people within the police department because the police department right now is divided you have the group that's down with the chief and the deputy chief and then you have the other side who supported the former Chief and the former deputy chief and the side that supported the former Chief and the former deputy chief are being crucified they're being crucified for no reason all these guys want and I talk to them all they want to do is come to work and do their job they got to go out in the streets and and perform F to Serve and Protect and they got to worry about not only what's happening on the outside while they're out on on patrolled they have to worry about what's going on in the inside and Mr Hoffman I know you're new to Anglewood and you come in you walk into some of to this but this is in your lab you carried a burden for this because you're the city manager nothing goes through without you or you should have knowledge of what's going on and people within that Police Department are upset they they feel that they're being discriminated against they feel like they've been not not being treated Fair because they wasn't on this side with the new Administration they were on this side with the old Administration and they feel like they're being held accountable and retaliated against because of what they stood up for and that's not right that's not right Reverend given are you here all right I'm going to get with Reverend given and we are going to meet with all of the clergies in the city of Anglewood African-American clergies in the city of Anglewood and we are going to orchestrate a petition to go to the governor and the Attorney General thank you thank you James irn 40 Jefferson Street hackers saac New Jersey our first and foremost I just want to say uh council president Cobb um job well done cuz job well done um this job is not easy anybody on the day knows the hours the time the commitment um when you have a thing that you think the city with best for the City versus what the people may clamor for and you have to make those decisions it's not easy you put in you all put in tireless time and effort and uh but for you I appreciate you uh and I love you and you did a good job boss all right um I just want to say a couple things I just want to Second something that um councilman Wilson said regarding uh the fire department and the chief's test assessment uh I would ask that you uh take a look into what the councilman said regarding the chief's test and and any test that's administered where you see that someone who has served in that capacity thinks that there may be a bias or an inder to uh one party or another uh as someone who served he he would know better than someone than a Layman uh as someone who took the test three times I've sat in D Mah High School uh lunchroom 300 deep and you know 90% of the people that were there were from South Jersey and so I would also uh you know uh say that you keep that preference toward ingwood residents and the city can do uh the job that they're doing to seek residents from Inglewood for uh those uh great paying uh great service jobs in the Inglewood Police and Fire Department they are very very much sought after when people drive three hours away to come for work far from home those jobs are far sought after um I just want to say this about politics politics is not easy um we all come here these are the usual I call them The Usual Suspects we all know we have some type of intellect of how things worked I would employ people to understand the process understand the process um don't get fooled by the process uh this job requires relationships it requires understanding but most important you have to be able to sit at the table with someone who that you may not agree with that's very important because that's how you get things done in politics to those elected officials I would say this you have a higher intellect than the people that you serve I would ask that you serve all the people not just the people in your ward you serve everybody and I would also ask that you don't use people don't use people to get the things that you want for example having people run that have no idea what they're up to to get people out which is what one of your deserved desires was to get councilman cob out which I know personally and I won't speak on it but if you want to speak on it I will but you got your job that's what you wanted and you got it done and I think that it was done in a nefarious manner William Englewood um to me uh with the police thing mayor it's kind of like what they call police uh community policing and and I think community policing means living in the city now I I've worked all over Bergen County and almost every cop you run into who was happy and jolly lived in that town came from that town knew the all the football players and all that kind of thing went to the stores and I've said this before at the meetings you would like to see an officer walk right out this house and start work walk to work and just in general to me community policing means you live in the community now I've heard everyone say you need these experts I don't think so that's just common sense and think about this every emergency you have later on we always hear this fire department guy had to come from here imagine Sandy or any other major event doesn't have to be you know anything else but if a guy or a lady has to come from way out of town to do the job it kind of makes it you know kind of crazy so if you lived in town like you were mentioning David bman and all these people it much a much much better situation now Charles to you you did a good job I'm not going to go all off we all know you did the best you could and that's the best we want out of anybody but here's what you didn't do you didn't do Forest Avenue and we're waiting Forest Avenue is terrible plus parts of Dean Street and in general if we're going to talk about police the police should see everything I'm tired of walking by signs where the stop sign is down I know a cop rote through here and he knows the stop sign is down but there's a light there why didn't he get out the car and just pull the sign up there's a big pothole everyone who works for the city should have identified that the garbage people the police the whole town has to communicate as one and once we get that going on maybe some things will happening but far as that police thing for sure the more the people live here the better it is the kids go to school here the better it is they pay taxes here the better is the money stays in town and then the idea that you get to know these people is better and here's something else we need to do start at the high school trying to recruit people te does this well repo them for the garbage whatever eventually they can move up in all of the different ranks let them know how far they can go but to but for us the community once the community comes here and tells you what they want that's what you should give them don't go by an expert don't want to hear about nothing else we are the experts especially those of us like me who grew up here my parents moved here when I was born and I've been here ever since so I know and I live next door to the rights who were part of the whole industrial complex far as garbage sanitation the whole thing so stick with the people who've lived here they're not trying and I know I'm over time but let me just say this one other thing we need a a a swimming club or we need a swimming in our school Olympics is big but we need to have swimming so to me the pool at the high school should be covered bigger covered so it can be used year round especially for the students but I know as as a kid during summer school that's what kids learned how to swim he went there early in the morning CU I spent one year in summer school looking at these kids having a good time out the window while I was struggling with algebra all right cops have a good time hi thank you I'm just going to say something on behalf of myself then I'm reading uh something that Liz corini uh of Bergen the former uh vice president of Bergen Family Center uh wrote she could not be here tonight and uh send her regrets for that but is happy that I'm going to read this uh the first thing I want to say uh council president Cobb there's something great about leadership when you disagree you come up to the mic and then you hear the vote and say you know what they did the right thing so thank you for tonight I spoke out on two counts and I feel the council voted and did the right thing after I heard what you had to say so takes Minds to work together that's the key and what Liz said well please bear with me I'm trying to get my this is from Liz Corsini during some of the darkest moments in our that our community has faced in recent years I walked alongside Charles surveying the devastation brought by catastrophic floods I witnessed firsthand his deep commitment to local youth at BFC developed its highly attended after school teen program and summer business apprenticeship program two initiatives that at one time filled a critical Gap especially in a city without a community center Charles was a regular Presence at these programs sharing meals with students while offering them encouraging encouragement and mentorship his advocacy for senior services and age-friendly Anglewood has been another Testament to his dedication Charles championed effort that Empower residents to age in place with dignity addressing the needs of some of our most vulnerable neighbors during covid the covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath Charles levage leveraged his vast networks to ensure that local nonprofits were supported as they work tirelessly to deliver Services during the one one of the most challenging times in recent history as Charles concludes his nine years of service on the city council let us unite in appreciation for his lifelong commitment to approving the city of Anglewood his leadership has left an indelible mark on our community and his legacy of care advocacy and action will continue to inspire those who follow in his footsteps thank you council president Cobb for your years of dedication and service thank you good afternoon and good night good morning I'm I'm I'm here in a in a very pleasant mood this evening uh and Mr Hoffman we need a meeting ASAP we need to get a meeting together very very very very soon but to council president on behalf of the city and on behalf of the clergy we want to say thank you we appreciate you and congratulation for your nine years of service you you have done well let no one take that from you congratulations you and your family and your job is not finished yet God bless you and I'm going home man good evening I just basically want to say congratulations Charles we go back to uh DWI Mar and we had a lot of good times and U I'm so happy for you and like I said you know you're retiring and you did a phenomenal job so again you know we appreciate you and just want to let you know you know thank you so much as you move on to new Endeavors God bless Mr CB I would like to thank you for your service nine years seems like a lot longer we ran in Cadence with each other the last three elections and we did go through some dark times in our city but you were always sincere heartfelt and I agree with Miss Chini you will leave an indelible mark on this city and you will be somebody that will be regaled as someone who cared and we will be looking to you for guidance and expecting you at these meetings and not silent because we are a work in progress and this great experiment this wonderful City only gets better with diversity of opinion I do want to thank your wife and your children children for parting and sharing you I know like no other when there was a snowstorm or rainstorm or we had to do some des snagging and desilting I wasn't alone that Charles was either at another site or we would meet up with one another and he set a very high standard we may agree we may disagree but I always knew that you had Ang's best interest at heart and I wish you godp speed in your next Endeavor good health and a lot of love from your family like you gave to the city thank you um are we going in order so Charles it's been over 20 years since uh we first started the municipal committee and um congratulate you on uh finishing up your time on the council and I wish you the best for you and your family going forward thank you for your service president Cobb is an honor to have been my first year with you I come from a structured background as three term elected on the school board and also a Masters of Science and education which means that I'm like laser focus and you know and the bard of vet has structor training we go through mandated trainings that's mandated to get credits and everything and here when I signed on I'm like you don't have any training what class I to take so that was a little different for me um but you you did you did teach me and taught me that certain things were like Angel's not like that may I call you up some weird hours you were like no not like that and I do weird hours and I want to thank your wife also M for sharing your husband for this year because I did not know where I was going or anything but thank you um and everything for your wisdom and I'm also going to call on you when need did if you don't mind yeah Charles I wish you well on your retirement I wish you good health and um and to everybody else I wish you a happy holidays and a wonderful New Year uh good evening uh everyone and good good evening particularly council president Cobb just a a few quick announcements calendars will be mailed out next year for 2025 and then um I want to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas a happy Hanukkah and a happy New Year I'd like to also close by thanking council president Cobb for his years of service to the city of Inglewood and then on a personal note I want to thank you for your willingness to share your knowledge and your Insight with me and also for your willingness to to talk and and to meet on weekends to look at whether it's where where trucks should be parking or look at uh potential flood sites um and then to to basically discuss problems and then arrive at Solutions because they're they they weren't always clear but the opportunity to talk things out with you because of your knowledge and your history it made the decisions better so I want to wish you the best of success in everything that that you will be doing going forward and um thank you for your service appreciate it excuse me Bob the calendars you said are coming out soon did we get a copy of it to approve no we did last year I don't know if you got one this year because you said it's coming out soon that's my question yeah they were at the printers right now but we didn't look at it this year I mean he says that the printers but last year we looked at it but this year I did not look at it like um you know what make a you well I'll make a motion council president to adjourn I second all in favor meeting's over happy holidays y'all okay let me see