it's a little hot in here man good evening and welcome to the city council meeting of April 16th 2024 the time now is 7:33 will everybody please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all will everybody please rise we're going to have a moment of silence for faith wringle for all of us who know who she was and what she stood for and the contributions that she made to not only to England but to America from her activism and her art we just want to have a moment of silence thank you well the city clerk please read the 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 C Kirk please do the roll call councilman Rosen here councilwoman wiski here councilwoman David present councilman Wilson pres council president cob yeah also present is Mayor Michael Wilds city manager Robert S Hoffman Deputy city manager John Berkner City attorney Bill Bailey CFO Michael calman city engineer France FY and City auditor Gary Vincy Gary speak first yeah I think I think that that was thep to have Gary speak first yeah and then I'll go Mr viny give you a presentation and and maybe you could give a little background what you're going to cover there cuz I don't have it here sure good evening everybody uh tonight before the city council you have um Mr viny man these people can they be co could you introduce yourself because there are people who don't know who are so sure we just want to make sure they know and they get a sense of who you are no no no uh my name is Gary Vincy I am I'm a partner in The Firm of lurch Vincy and Bliss we are the uh City Auditors thank you uh tonight before the city council you have a few budget items tonight uh is the budget hearing on the proposed 2024 budget uh and there are also uh two other items on the agenda one dealing with um the city ordinance for a index rate Cola ordinance which provides a cap bank for the appropriations of the city that are within the 24 budget as well as the city's Chief Financial Officer has a resolution um the state only reviews now local budgets one every three years the two other years your Chief Financial Officer will certify that the budget complies with the various statutory uh requirements and that is also on the agenda for tonight um and obviously there will be a budget presentation by uh Mr Hoffman the city manager um regarding the proposed budget but just to highlight where the city um ended the fiscal year 23 um just a snapshot for the um overall Financial POS uh position of the city right now the city's Surplus has continued to increase and at the end of 23 uh the city had $1.8 million in Surplus the budget that is being proposed tonight is drawing down $3.1 million from that uh level of surplus but I think what's also important there are other reserves that the city has been able to fund over the last few years so in addition to the Surplus the city also has a $2 million reserve for settlement of potential outstanding tax appeals uh most municipalities have um an extended list of appeals that have been filed so it's very important to fund this Reserve should any of the decisions be rended against the city uh the city also has a $2 million terminal leave reserve and that would be for the payment of uh unused vacation days that employees have earned during their employment here and they will be paid upon their separation from the city um as well as a storm recovery reserve of about 600,000 so I think overall when you look at your reserves and surplus the city has an excess of6 million uh and it has steadily increased those reserves and and the rating agency standard and pores has actually provided an annual report where they review your financial condition and they have actually complemented the city because right now your credit rating is a double A minus but they have upgraded the city from a stable to a positive review um which is very important for long-term financing of City bonds uh and actually they have mentioned that there is an opportunity for a credit rating increase should the city continue um with the Positive outlooks positive results of your financial statements so the city has done very well over the last three or four years uh and it's being noted by standard and pors questions before I think want to turn over to to Bob for the presentation anybody on the D have questions for Mr viny no questions Gary Bob you want to give your presentation thank you council president um good evening ladies and gentlemen good evening members of the governing body um tonight we have our our public hearing on the 2024 Municipal budget City budget I want to thank our auditor uh Mr Vincy for coming here and providing the overview for the for the council the uh standard in pores that uh Mr Vincy mentioned it's very important we received that that change in rating from um you know to a strong Outlook that that occurred last year when we went through a ratings review the next step is to keep go keep that that positive outlook going but just as an example that one little change meant that we were able to save $83,000 in interest payments over over a 12month period so that's that's something that's very important so Michael if you could go to the to the next Slide the budget the budget is the funding mechanism to provide goods and services to the city so the objectives that we have is to invest in infrastructure and then to maximize grant funding with an emphasis on capital projects and you'll see in a few minutes that the city has been able to do a very good job in in obtaining grants and it's been a team effort but we've been able to obtain about 67.6 million in grant funding which means we can do uh we can pave roads we can do infrastructure improvements and um we're able to use Grand funding and that's that is something that um means that we can leverage our tax dollars and and do more then we want to be able to minimize tax increases we want to be prudent with your money and then we want to comply with the state appropriate iations and tax cap Levy so there's a 2% levy on one end and a 4% levy on the other and then there's going to be a class at 11:30 tonight that Gary Vincy will be giving just so that you can understand all the complicated formulas for for the uh Appropriations cap um then um we we also want to maintain an appropriate Surplus level so you heard you heard Mr Vincy talk about that and we're doing we're doing a good job with that you know the state and we also want to be able to have Surplus so that we can we can fund emergencies in the future last week we had an earthquake luckily we didn't have a lot of damage but you need to be able to put money aside for unforeseen contingencies and then over time we want to be able to plan to reduce debt and be able to have funding for that Michael so these are some of the goals that we have the the goals haven't changed since last year uh on our website but by any objective measurement we want Englewood to be rated in the top 1% of all municipalities in the state of New Jersey so that means we want to be number one but there's room on the platform for other people but we want we just want to be in the top one% we want to continuously improve our our service to our residents our customer service we want to be a laboratory of innovation and we want to be able to think outside the box when necessary so what's an example of that we have have storm water issues we have flooding issues uh we were able to have um representatives from the federal government the state government come meet on site and that was um something that the mayor was able to set up about a year and a half ago and then um we were able to get an agreement so that we would be able to clean the overp creek and that led us to taking out 433 truckloads of material from the overp creek and that's helped make sure and that's led us to be a ble to clean out covers and other things that have been silted up and that's um that means that we have had less flooding and that's something that um our city staff is very proud of and we're going to continue to work on that we want to invest in repairs in our infrastructure as well as in our staff we want to be able to invest in technology so that we can serve you better what's an example of investing in technology the council was gracious enough to in um to fund um some software we we're using a a program called SD sdl where we will be able to take take information and put it out there so you'll be able to retrieve it very quickly we have boxes and boxes of information in Patterson that's stored in a warehouse we need to be able to get that information out scan it in so that the governing body can use it our departments can use it and we can we can make sure that all of our residents have access to it so um that's that's part of what we're doing so what are some of the results of the of the budget and the adoption process so um the budget has a 1.99% increase that would result in a $10 and22 per month increase on the average house that's assessed at $471,500 and that means that the uh this is for the local this is for the local portion of your property taxes so this does not include the school district or the county they are separate taxing entities but the city does collect money for the school district and the county and we also collect money for the library the library is also is is a has a separate line on your tax bill but that's a that's formula driven and then um what we do is the total budget is uh that's proposed is 77 million $358,900 56 so the CFO made us put in the 56 cents I'm only kidding that's but that's the we we do the budget down to the penny so that's the tax rate is 1 Point uh the increase is 1.99% and this funds the essential Services of the police department the fire department the garbage collection the health department which was the unsung heroes during covid and the recreation department and and all of the other all of the other things that occur behind the scenes so that we can provide services for you and the budget also has money for unfunded State mandates that are we are required to do uh to complete so one of those is every 10 years we do a master plan that's required by the state but they don't fund it but it's the the cost of the master plan is over $100,000 so this this budget um and and our budgets going going forward they fund these types of projects so the proposed budget has as as the uh auditor has said we used $3.1 million from Surplus the same amount as last year we want to be prudent with the use of surplus so that we can have it for rainy days uh our state aid which is called en the energy tax credit is $2,796 th000 um then we have the uniform construction code which is we received $1,165 th000 from it and um we're going to use some of that some of that construction code money to to buy a different type of beeper for the uh for the police department over here and so that was an increase of 868 $868,000 that um that's just for fees that came in for new construction bathroom and Renovations things of that nature and then we have uh we have licenses that went down a little bit so what's important is the amount to be raised by taxes so that's $ 60,770 th000 and that's the amount of money that goes into yourx tax bill that's the amount of money that um that uh that is is calculated for your property tax bills the um some some of the some of the items that are on the expense side of the budget are salaries for our our city staff and that includes police fire DPW it includes the engineer and it includes uh includes all of all of our staff uh then there's the garbage and recycling that's the that's the collection cost and the cost of fees so it's a where're we budget and we use a million dollars for that so that's been that's been flat our Leaf disposal we collect the leaves and branches that's gone up by about $50,000 from last year and uh we've got that budgeted we also have some plans where we're we've applied for permits so that we can we can collect and hold the hold the leaves and brush on our city property and then make mulch out of that and then we want to be able to give that back to some to our residents or a portion of that use some of that for city parks and then we'll trans we we will take some of the rest of it to a transfer station or an environmental transfer station but that will reduce the cost of uh Leaf disposal and it'll help us be better environmental stewards than we are right now then we have Capital Improvements now this is a very important part of the budget because to do our Capital work we have to have a 5% down payment in the operating budget so the 5% down payment is required so that we can um fund the the ordinances that that we will introduce during the during the year so some of the other expenses that we have our util our utilities are about a million seven they went down slightly because we were we were able to be um better stewards and uh we were we were able to conserve energy make some energy improvements and that helped offset rate increases for um that the utilities passed along to the city so others are other costs are social security and pension payments healthc care which is insurance and then the this is a pie chart of just the U our contractual obligations and all of this will be on our website so you um you'll be able to take a look at look at that on on our website the important thing on this slide is that 91 9.61% of the budget is for contractual obligations so that means that um we we have less than 10% of the budget for discretionary um discretionary expenses so some of these um some of these are basically as the as the auditor Mr vincey talked about we have terminal leave uh we pay for um uh we pay for the DP for DPW uh disposal costs and then sewer sewer disposal costs so every time you flush you flush the toilet the water goes somewhere it gets treated but there's a cost for that so that's that's part of the fixed costs then this is the revenue side and we're uh we're going to look for a new color color palette next year but um you'll be able to take a look these These are where the funds come from so uh you can you can see and you know we use S Surplus is about 20 21% of the budget go ahead Michael so this is a tax rate this is a tax rate chart we look at this on a on an semiannual basis we want to track how we stand and then this this helps us make adjustments in the future for our you know for our long-term planning and then as Mr vincey had indicated uh this is this is chart shows our Surplus from 26 16 through now and we made the point to show that um I don't know Gary can we take off the unaudited or is this still the is this still un audited all right darn it so um but uh the the audit the Auditors are are in agreement that uh our our Surplus is about 11, $837,000 so we are trending in the proper direction and this is what standard and pors and the other ratings agencies look at good the um important thing when we talk about the capital budget and what we what what the uh the plans are for for the future is that our capital budget is 19 is proposed to be $1,948 76 this is the capital ordinance that's on the agenda there's going to be another public hearing and you'll be able to comment on that if You' like but our capital budget or our Capital ordinance is tied to Grants we have grant funding and we have arpa funding arpa funding is from the federal government and that's about $2.9 million the federal these federal funds uh if we're if we do not use them we must give them back and the guidelines from the federal government state that the projects the arpa projects that will have arpa funds tied to them must be bid out they must be awarded and there must be a contra cont signed by December 31st of this year if that doesn't happen then we have to give the money back and the the projects we have until December 31st of 2026 to complete the project so we we have a window but basically we need to we need to put the projects that we have identified out to bid very soon and then make sure that um that the contracts are signed before the end of the year and then we have have uh $4 4,653 th000 in Grants from the county and from the state for different projects right here this slide is just this is not an all-inclusive slide but it just shows some of the projects that the governing body has discussed and um we hope to be able to begin during calendar year 2024 so it includes Road programs and rebuilding of Roads as well as sidewalks sanitary sewer and storm water drainage improvements it also includes improvements to parks and playgrounds improvements to traffic signals uh in this in the city and then the the needed purchase of certain types of equipment for the DPW this chart is about state aid so you've you've you've heard the term state aid um I will say this state aid is really not state aid it is really uh money that should have stayed in the city of Inglewood it goes back to the 1880s when municipalities received money from Telegraph companies to allow them to put telephone polls in or or telephone your polls in for the telegraphs and then it also allowed the C cities also allowed um utilities to put um pipes underground and wires underground so in the 1980s the state decided to they were going to reallocate state aid so that's that's what they do but um over the last 10 years we have lost the purchasing power the the value of the state aid that we have lost is $ 7,961 th000 so what does that mean it means that inflation averages about 3% a year so it's actually been 2.9% over the last 10 years and that means we've lost the purchase purchasing power of 7,961 so that's the that's the equivalent of the grant funding that we were able to obtain in 2024 and this is how your tax dollar is spent in uh in the city of Inglewood so out of every tax dollar 43.676900 cents out of every tax dollar for the school district and we passed that along to the school district this is based on their their budgets so they they vote on their budgets and then they pass they pass along what needs to be collected to the city and we are the collecting agency and then the library receives $2,115 th000 and then the budget uh the budget covers the uh covers the master plan health insurance all of the other items that that were just discussed and if you wanted to look at the full document Michael how big is the full document it's hund and something P something Pages that's uh that'll be that'll also be on our website but that you we can go into the Weeds on that but I want I want to thank the governing body for their um for their assistance and for their input during our budget process the budget process started in October we had budget meetings in January and February and um it was a it was a team effort uh there was there was good questions that were asked and we evaluated programs that uh that the governing body has asked us to look at that will benefit the city this year and for years to come thank you thank you Mr Hoffman read okay this is ordinance number 24-02 calendar year 2024 ordinance to exceed the Municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap Bank under njsa 48 col 4- 4514 I'm going to open up the public hearing on on this ordinance however before we do that I'd like for Mr H Kaufman to explain what the cap bank is at could you explain that so for our audience so the state allows the city to go up to 2 and a half% over appropriations of the previous year the cap Bank allows two things lets us go to three and a half% if needed and anything over any we Bank the city's able to bank anything that it did not use for future years in case it's needed it doesn't mean we we have to spend the money the council still needs to adopt the budget and approve it spending of the money it's just a for emergency purposes mrman you want to add anything to that uh no council president that was an accurate description okay yeah I'm going to declare meeting the public meeting open any questions regarding this ordinance please come to the mic your name your address and your question is only to this ordinance if you have any on the cap Bank ordinance if there's no questions I'm going to close the public hearing and I'm looking forward for a motion in a second motion second answer councilman Rosen no councilwoman wiski no councilwoman David yes councilman Wilson yes council president yes okay uh final vote is 3 yes 2 no motion passes Mr cab I have a question if I may may thank you um for the uh to the auditor um I remember vetoing this years ago um to override my veto it would take three out of the council or four out of the council I think it's four it would take four yes okay thank you um could you just address since the buck stops now with me if I'm going to take that action or not um why this ordinance would be a necessity for the city um or um is it a luxury so the ordinance before the council uh as Mr Kaufman mentioned allowed the spending inside the cap to go from 2 and a half% increase over last year's budget to 3 and a half% so that 1% differential allows for an additional $610,000 of budget Appropriations to be included in the 24 budget the city actually is using $150,000 of that 610 in the proposed budget so the amount that is remaining the approximately 460,000 will go into a cap bank that is available for the next two years if it's not used after two years the city loses it and it's just a rolling bank that every municipality um has the ability to use should spending inside the cap go up for example Le there are some costs that are subject to your cap that you have no control of um pensions would be one that is administered by the state of New Jersey um you have Labor settlements and depending on the labor negotiations you could be very close to that uh cap amount of the three and a half% uh your utilities have started to escalate there is a benefit for health insurance but there is still an amount that has to go inside the cap so it's not necessarily a dollar for dooll benefit um but as I mention I after each year the cap bank reshuffles so you if you do not use it you then just lose the amount that has been banked so it's a funding mechanism for the for City Hall to draw more money if it needed for other purposes and you wouldn't do it if you didn't want to create Revenue easily available is correct that is ABS it's basically an insurance policy for future um Appropriations that may need to be built into the city budget right thank you sir you're welcome M Mr viny I think what you said is important I think the message here is that with the events that have happened in Englewood and if we needed addition funding we're planning ahead especially with our infrastructure issues and all the other things with with storm water and things like that this would help us with this this would protect us this would give us some relief right it would give you the ability to budget more monies uh in the next couple years City's budgets that's correct right and Mr Hoffman as one of the stewards are putting this budget together you you would want that flexibility to work with the engineer if we have issues of infrastructure right absolutely absolutely council president this is um this is something that's just um it's important so that we can help fund the unknown you know if if it occurs and again it's an insurance policy and the the the city council must vote on the use of it in the future so this is not a it's not a blank check the city council has to be discussed by the city council and then voted on by the city council right thank you thank you next we have resolution 14441 1624 resolution to allow the budget to be read by title only I need a motion in a second I'll make a motion council president I'll second roll call councilman Rosen swag yes councilwoman wiski yes councilwoman David yes councilman Wilson yes council president cob yes next we have public hearing on the 2024 Municipal budget I will open up the meeting to the public on the municipal budget speakers will ask questions only on the municipal budget come to the mic your name this was just the ADV your address and any questions you have regarding the municipal budget hi good uh evening my name is Jonathan blinkin 320 Hillcrest Englewood um I just want to address one part of the budget um from what I understand there is a um part of the budget is that there's going to be overtime cut from the police department do I understand that to be accurate answer yes finish your question okay we'll so if that is the case from what I understand the police department uh should have 90 full-time officers and from the information I've gathered there're uh about 80 right now so that would necessitate extra overtime for the existing officers and if we cut the overtime budget uh that's could negatively impact Public Safety uh the first duty of the Council of any Council of any government is the safety and the protection of its citizens before anything else before potholes are filled before you know libraries are open we have to ensure Public Safety and if we're going to cut overtime because we don't have enough officers that is going to directly impact Public Safety so I would ask the council to think very carefully before we cut overtime uh there's been a tremendous increase in crime uh from all sorts of areas and I think it's extremely important particularly in this day and age when there's been a dramatic increase in crime car thefts breaking and entering assaults that not only do we not decrease the police budget and overtime but I dare say increase it additionally I think we should have the full complement of officers and if we're not actively hiring the full compliment of officers that all the residents of Englewood deserved in every Ward we all deserve it we should aggressively be hiring the best officers we can as soon as possible because everything on Palisade Avenue all the stores and everywhere else every part of Englewood we absolutely need need Public Safety because without Public Safety and without the residents feeling confident and putting their heads down at night everything else is moved thank you thank you Mr Mr Hoffman do you [Applause] want Rick will being with New Jersey yeah I also want to talk about the police overtime I think that it's a very good idea to cut the overtime that's fiscally responsible I sleep very well in Inglewood I feel very safe in Inglewood the police department does a very good job uh the only thing that I have a complaint about is let's just say look at Palisades Avenue the quality of life issues and the enforcement issues that the police need to address more in certain areas but as far as I'm concerned as somebody that lives in the community that's somebody who represents a family that was killed by a police officer here in Inglewood the ranking file in the ingwood police does a very good job considering the fact that they're short-handed and if we're going to hire more and more cops to fill those gaps we know who those cops should be we need people from the community that recognizes the community that puts the Community First and has the trust of the community as of right now as of right now we do not have that trust and I don't know why people are so afraid to live in one of the safest towns in Bergen County I really don't understand what this fear is really all about okay I mean I live in the fourth ward and like I said the police presence is pretty much there it could be a little bit more but I feel very very safe and angle with it I don't have a problem with cutting overtime and allocating it to programs for children especially in the fourth ward that need things to do to stay out of trouble our kids have nothing to do nowhere to go this is what we need to focus on it's a problem reaction solution if we do not become more Community oriented and we're topheavy on enforcement we to continue to cause problems in certain communities other communities don't have to worry about the problems of their interactions with the police cuz they have cookouts and pool parties and stuff like that up in the hill so they don't have to worry about that but down here is a different story thank Pete Jansen 589 Richland Harris uh earlier in the presentation it was mentioned that there's $600,000 available for emergencies uh could you go into and describe um how that funding might work uh let's say there's a flood would it cover things that would directly assist victims of the flood uh help them with food help them with shelter that type of thing or or is it for something else related to an Emer mergency okay Mr Hoffman do you want to take that question on sure thank you council president the uh the C you're referring to the cap Bank cor correct is that what you're referring to the 610,000 I think storm recovery trust or was it was it the storm recovery Reserve I think so the storm recovery Reserve is um is is basically for infrastructure it's just for you know for repairs and things of that nature but um we have a contingency so that if there's an if there's an emergency and OEM is activated and that you need to you need to have food for for residents and things of that nature there there is a way to pay for that is now was that your question okay okay so there's there's a I can't identify the exact methodology just based on this you know what you've described but it it depends it depends on the type of emergency and what you know what resources are required there's different annexes that will be activated and then then we would be able to do that council president yes um I wondering if we can ask Mr Hoffman to address um Mr blinken's uh concern for the overtime I know we swore in a very high amount of new officers and that at the same time we had retirements um as I read the budget the department increased the overtime went down by $4,000 um and I'm sorry $80,000 um could you account for the public safety uh concerns that the community has mayor before before before Mr Hoffman answers your question I think the key is to understand everybody's talking about reduction reduction and let's talk about the number yeah that's it's over a million dollars no that's why I wanted him to explain it yeah no what I'm saying but the budget and whatever adjustments were made to the budget were made by the city manager they were made because we were originally given a budget at 2.59% and we wanted to bring the budget in under cap so he made he made those decisions and he's going to have our discussion he'll be able to talk to those decisions that he made right so I I just want him to account how he reduced the budget to the desired 1.99% and didn't compromise Public Safety and I want the community to be assured by what went into the calculus when it came to reducing that okay but we got to still finish the public s of course when he's when he's done but you addressed the other gentleman's uh thing right away I thought this opportunity I didn't want the overtime to be Cast Away no we won't we'll we'll we'll we'll take care of let's address this gentleman right here hi Martin toak BL 217 Fountain Road can I hear you can you come a little closer please I just wanted to address the um the uh the police overtime budget at a question what happens if we um if this passes is cut and something happens in our town and we need more police presence where does that money come from well we we'll answer that hi good evening Anthony Mammon I've been a resident in Anglewood for 30 years um the gentleman at the back spoke very well and he mentioned the fact he sleeps well enough with the budget and the amount of overtime at present so there really is no reason to reduce the budget oh sorry the overtime we're all sleeping well at the moment why would we red ju the overtime budget that's it okay thank you next my name is James Schwalbe I live at 400 Eastwood Court in Anglewood longtime resident in Anglewood I grew up here uh and I urge the council to reconsider The Cutting of overtime for the police department with the rise of the 150% rise of anti-Semitic attacks and events that have been occurring nationally now is not the right time especially for members of the Jewish Community who have definitive and distinct fears we are lucky enough to live in a community where there is a wonderful police presence where the police are responsive and are incredibly talented and skilled in protecting us but to cut them now of all times I think would be creating a potential danger to the to our community and I don't think it's warranted if their Cuts need to be made I think the council should reconsider where they're cutting and I certainly do not believe that the police department is a place where anybody should be [Applause] cutting Howard sha for 87 Spring Lane Anglewood I'm the ward one district one representative to the Anglewood Democratic Min committee I'd like to understand how cutting police overtime is not cutting the police budget I'd like to understand that anybody else want to address this topic before I close the open uh hearing hi my name is bend it just bend it that's all guys can hear me my name is Rachel Haber I live at 80 Brighton Street in Anglewood and I also wanted to address the cut to the police because as someone said if we're sleeping sleeping well at night and if we're feeling safe I can't understand how we would think to disturb something that's protecting that and how we could think to take away from that I raised three kids in the city I love my life here I love my community here I love the entire city my kids walk around they enjoy time in all the different Wards around here and I know I grew up in the Bronx before I lived here and the police we had such a great relationship with the police in our in our neighborhood and when we started having less police presence that's when the crime started going up the safety I enjoyed when I was younger growing up in the Bronx young people today don't have and it has a lot to do with how the police are struggling they're not supported and in this way I think we really need to support them and if we're if they're already not fully staffed if they're already functioning with less staff than they they should be we know that that's putting a strain on them and we should be supporting them in any way we can and I want to see a great relationship with everyone in the city and the police and if there our police officers are stressed I'm a mom and I think about when I'm stressed my relationships with my colleagues at work are strained my relationships at home are strained with my kids and I would not want to do anything that stress our police they so vital to this community and I hope that you guys reconsider any cuts to the police if anything I'd want to if hearing that they're um underst staffed we should be supporting them to to recruit in any way we can so I hope you can reconsider that thank you thank you [Applause] Lucy Walker Washington Place inward it really is disheartening to hear that people are so afraid a former friend of mine she's still my friend Hillary Goldberg said that people in Te neck are afraid to be Jews I taught in tenet public schools for almost 30 years so I said huh and now I'm in this courtroom and I'm saying huh because we have a Tonka police truck police car you know the oldfashioned one that they had when I was a kid this a a belly it sits on a cake back iide my house the police presence in our neighborhood is so sparse that we make jokes that that Tonka police truck car is in our neighborhood so maybe they're right maybe we need more policemen you know because I'm not getting it maybe there should be more so I can see them in my neighborhood so thank you [Applause] okay Amy Bullock howand Avenue would the council be able to provide us with a breakdown of what the overtime was for how much of the overtime was for community events like movie night in the park or the Christmas tree lighting or the 4th of July versus how much of that overtime was actually spent on police patrolling or investigating or doing activities related to some type of criminal situation Mr Huffman you have a breakdown of that or can we do that uh council president I don't I don't have that here uh that's that's something that that's something we can do yes okay thank you uh Rich Cambridge Avenue um I pretty much was going to ask what uh the sister before me asked right that's a very critical question because overtime is because there's work that needs to be done correct so if there's no work to be done then why are we spending money on overtime and the only way to justify it over time is to have the the stats the information to show that police president is needed right right thank you y thank you Sarah Sarah strowman 72 West Hudson um so I just want to there is a point into this but this conversation has quickly reduced to racial animosity and I for one go to planted and there are cops that come in all the time and get coffee there so I love them and they're great but I just want to say that if we're so worried about crime um I know poli police deserve their breaks as well and they do a fantastic job thank you you checked me in before um but the real question is if we're reducing the money is that money going to the community because the real work happens in the community and not when we have officers who often times are afraid for their lives and make the wrong impulsive choices against people that are not in fact criminals they do not we've seen this it's been recorded most people that are police officers take ha people incorrectly they shoot people incorrectly and usually those people happen to be black so when people stand here and talk about the community and how much they enjoy their Community the question is what part of the community do they actively enjoy and where are they upholding racist practices and how is the city council also upholding racist practices hello thank you my name is Gabe Schiff 262 Oakwood Road um sorry I'm justess like this I'm a volunteer soccer coach here at s Leonia High School the soccer teams that are there there's probably 100 kids right there right now are comprised of public school kids private school kids from Englewood tck Leonia and other towns within the region I'm going to go back there right now actually after I speak I volunteer I offer any of you the invitation to come and talk to the children that while you think it's appropriate and acceptable at this day and age that cutting the police is okay it's Le only High School feel free to come by afterwards feel free to come by on Thursday night as well I welcome you thank you thank [Applause] you Brad NY 220 spear um what is your name Brad nety 220 spear um over the last few years me and my family have had a couple of interactions with the local police the first time when my then 9-year-old son looked up from doing his homework with my wife and yelled somebody's breaking into Daddy's car um police were there immediately and and unfortunately the guy wasn't caught but they were there immediately and very professional the second time when my you know then 17-year-old daughter rear ended another car and again the police were there almost immediately and were very professional um so now at a time like this where they are professional I've met a number of the police officers here on a number of different occasions besides that uh they they're very easy to work with very good with bias crime skyrocketing all across the this country um all across this town I think it's from zero to a couple of dozen last year why are we cutting any more of any of the police Sal salary uh overtime thank you thank [Applause] you anybody else Mr Hoffman you excuse me I'm going to close the Public's come on my name is David arbit I live at 375 Johnson Avenue um like my other community members have just said it's an era where there's increasing threats from outside of our community uh I was here when the rally was here in front of this building and without that police presence to protect us um I would have been I was afraid as it was but I thought that the police did such a unbelievable professional job at protecting us uh at a such a stressful unpredictable moment so in this era when the world looks so Bleak and so violent and we can be subject to unpredictable forces against us the analogy I love analogies if uh I'm a physician if your cholesterol is going up and up I don't say to you let's cut back on your cholesterol medication you need to be protected now is not a good time to cut back on the police force thank you so [Applause] much anyone else I'm going to close the public hearing on this ISS on this topic Mr Hoffman would you be so kind as to uh address those questions and I think give some clarity about no services are being cut no services are being cut because everybody's saying the services there are no Services being cut let's be clear yeah there are no Services being cut there no Services being cut over o overtime is as a couple of people said there something that you need in addition to what's going on but there are no Services being cut but Mr Hoffman is going to walk you through because he's he's The Keeper of the budget of of of what he did and his comments to answer the questions that came and as we move through this meeting we will entertain other questions from everybody and we will explain it to you all right thank you council president the um there's been questions about the police budget and specifically the overtime budget first and foremost everybody needs to know that the police department in 2023 did a very good job of managing their budget and they The Command Staff should be commended for the work that they did part of that work included in uh looking at looking at the budget looking at the way officers were deployed and it was recommended to the governing body in the in the second half of 2022 that we changed the shift schedule so try and say that quickly three times shift schedule but we we changed the shift the shifts in January of 2023 so that we had better deployment of officers for coverage in the city and that helped that helped reduce the amount of overtime that the police department used because in 2022 the police department that had used more overtime I believe I believe but um so that that was that was part of it and the the in 2023 1. 1,467 all right so in 2022 $1,467 th000 was expended in police overtime in 20203 it was 1,1 180,000 but actually it was less than that because they they did a very good job managing the police overtime budget so Chief gley Deputy Chief delar Rosa and the Command Staff deserve um tremendous credit for not only protecting the health welfare and safety of our residents but prudently managing the budget in 2023 we also engaged in an evaluation of what are the needs of the department in 20 going forward for the next several years and the process included looking looking at the number of officers that that needed to be hired so we're in the we're in the middle of a hiring process right now and when you hire officers that means that your overtime should be lower so we are we are looking at that but we've also looked and used data analytics to take a look at where where do we need to have officers strategically placed during uh During certain times of times of the year and so we've we've put that into into into practice again there is no threat to the public safety from this budget there are certain contingencies that are built into the budget and there are certain things that we know and there are certain things that uh we will be able to plan for so one of the gentlemen that stood up talked about the the meeting here on October 24th where the police department in the city had nine hours to plan for close around 700 people coming to the meeting and that was that was overtime and even with that overtime the police department came in under budget for overtime so we we anticipate that there will be challenges in 2024 but we will be able to meet meet that and Michael did you have a qu no I just wanted to say one thing that the salary and wages not including the overtime the regular salaries last year we budgeted 6,490 this year 6 sorry sorry 12 million 7 uh no 13 milon 323 we spent 12,793 and this year we're budgeting 13.8 million so that's going up from what we budgeted 600,000 from what we spent a million so we have in the regular salary wages we have over a million dollars more than what we actually spent last year so if anything if we need money if if there's emergencies that we need to spend money overtime and towards the end of the year we could do transfers and transfer money if we have extra you know from the regular saling wages to the overtime also correct you that that's very good so thank you you you beat me that was going to that was going to I was going to explain about you do budget transfers after November 1st but as I had mentioned there are contingencies so our CFO just articulated what some of the contingencies are um and the with o with overtime our Police Department is also entitled to get refunds from certain other levels of government for some of the overtime that they've done but again there's no threat to Public Safety with this budget you just heard that the operating budget actually has increased for the police department and we were able to do this with meeting the meeting the Mandate of having less than a 2% budget increase yeah Mr cob if um if you don't mind council president uh Mr Hoffman with the uptick of anti-Semitism and also the Spade of push and grab crimes and I would like to first thank our Chiefs and our fire chief uh Chief Kaplan is here as well um all of them are to be credited with keeping us safe um can you account for the numbers of officers uh Mr blinkin had indicated that we would be fully staffed at 90 where are we and how does that factor into the uh safety that the communities perceive to be at risk well M Mr Mayor as I mentioned before we are in the we are in the process of hiring additional officers so we are we are evaluating um folks that took a a written exam in January we are very clo we are very close to uh select selecting candidates uh for for a July police academy and then we are we are we've already started looking to the Future so the first step is the the council if this budget is adopted there will be funds available to hire additional police off or police police officers to get us up to where we need to be I'm I want to make it clear this is not additional police officers we're not going above our authorized amount but we will be able to be be at be at or near our full compliment we're always going to have retirements and that's why we need to have officers in the pipeline or or people coming up thank you so um we're already into the second quarter of this year how much have we spent on overtime so far this year in 2024 do we have that number yeah yeah the for the police department we have spent $419,990 so it's going to end up being 38 2,387 right and then there's another reimbursement for 18,000 and then our you know our we we track the overtime and the overtime is uh you know is is coming back in line and and what's overtime budgeted for for 2024 we've been throwing around a lot of numbers the overtime for 2024 is budgeted at $1,100,000 so we're on Pace right now to spend sounded like 1.6 million to me with the reimbursements maybe 1.5 million we're in Pace to be way over budget here and the year's ticking by so this this number is 1.1 I think is is fictional there's no way the police are going to be under that number based on what we know on April 16th 2024 too much of the year has passed we've needed this overtime if and we're talking about hiring new officers if if we decide today to hire a new officer to put them through Cadet school to Police Academy and then they work as a a Cadet how long until they're on the street unsupervised when officers go through the academy in July they will they will be able to be on patrol by themselves by April of 2025 that's what so when we have gaps it takes a year and a half until that officer is out there those gaps are filled with overtime that that's the cause of the overtime um I was at the Sid meeting last week and that's a public meeting you could you could watch the zoom online uh the re a new crime is taking place with two perpetrators or two actors I guess you'd call go into a store one distracts the shopkeeper the other one steals a very expensive bag I didn't realize bags could get this expensive um they get into a car drive down Palisade Avenue they're they're back in in New York City within you know nine minutes very very tough crime to uh to combat you'd need extensive overtime to do that um and the shops no one's getting hurt thank God no there's no violence with it and in fact the the clerks are instructed just let the people go cuz you know you know we don't want people hurt by by the criminals but the shops can't take keep on taking that hit they're going to close uh they they're going to limit they're going to lock their doors and then we'll have empty stores downtown uh because of the crime and if we want the police to enforce this it's going to take over time you know whether it be uh plane closed policemen more patrols on the Avenue overtime overtime overtime uh Dr arbit talked about the protest overtime overtime overtime uh we had a council meeting two weeks ago April 2nd since then we had a major storm trees fell down caused house house fires there's a policeman standing there making sure people don't get electrocuted by down wires overtime overtime overtime that's when we say keeping people safe thank God we don't have everyone running around with a gun shooting each other here that that that's not what we're talking about but you could die by touching a live wire and thank God the police officers put themselves in between us and those dangerous situations we had an earthquake last week crazy right no one got hurt thank God there were a lot of police calls because of that earthquake I got calls because of that earthquake uh overtime overtime overtime to to answer those calls I've been told calls are up like 15 to 20% this year how do you answer those calls overtime we're having an extra event this year for 125th anniversary of the city it's going to take planning going to be officers on the street for that to keep it safe how do you handle that overtime that's where the overtime budget why are we setting up the police to fail with an unrealistic overtime budget it makes no sense to me if the numbers are meaningless then let's just not even have any numbers and we can figure it all out uh after November 1st BR you put the number on the paper you know the chief is going to be held accountable to that number and he's going to think in his head do I send one officer to this two would be a lot safer but I'm already over overtime I'm just going to send one and and I want him to air on the side of Public Safety and I and I'll pay that Overtime Bill and we'll figure out the money from the Surplus or transfers whatever but I don't even want that calculation to go on his head I want it to be what's best for Public Safety and that's how many officers I'm sending out thank [Applause] you is there any other Council thank you council president good evening everyone thank you for coming out and such large numbers being concerned about an important issue uh coming from the side of a first responder I understand how important it is when you need Manpower that Manpower is available I can't tell you that there's anyone up here on the Adas that wants to put our city our citizens our babies our future our Grands our grandparents at risk that's not What's Happening Here what we're trying to do is bring home a feasible budget that's been out of control for some time what we've attempted to do this past year was change the shifting which takes which takes a moment to get people acclimated with the new shifting and slash overtime and as the numbers have not been disseminated as of yet in regards to the overtime part of the budget that for fireworks for special events that's calculated into the overtime we're not sending out our police officers to underserve anyone in our community that would be unresponsible for us as Council people as a mayor I understand that there are certain communities that may be having some fear of being under attack we would like every citizen in ingwood to feel comfortable to be able to sleep at night that doesn't mean we need to have a million plus budget for overtime and what we've negated to say is that we've hired in the last two years several police officers to fill that Gap and unfortunately there are people that are retiring during that period so during this transition period there will be some shortcomings but there's never going to be a irresponsible Chief in our town there will never be a chief that decides about overtime whether he should send someone on a 911 call that would never happen on our watch we have our our we have Chiefs that are responsible budgetary and as far as fiscal and as far as personnel so the people that are here today that think that we don't have viable Chiefs to send out the proper Manpower or women power I would ask that you wait a moment and take another look at what comes before you in regards to a budget and the overtime thank you council president um thank you with all this new development we have have going on I understand your concerns right because the stranger danger people moving out relocating here and um you have to do take a deep dive to understand adk and overtime is not a lot we have ten ofly cops also servicing Englewood and other cop servicing as well so I need to know who's paying them also um but I just think that we just need to um also have more bodies there because the safety of our s doing overtime also is crucial but also not because they're here overtime and it can't do the job effectively you know they're out there eight hours or 12 hours and 16 hours and you're putting their lives and other people lives at at risk so I just want what's right for the community and that's it okay uh thank you council president just as a just as a point of order the uh when when you see ten ofly officers in or officers from a different municipality that's usually that is for private duty most of the time so that's to do that's part of the PSG work that's being done in the city or violia work that's being done we we are a part of the state's uh plan to harden all of our infrastructure our utilities and we have many of our streets that are are being dug up and other things but you will see you will see when we are unable able to to have officers from Englewood cover those private duty needs of the utilities other officers come in from from different municipalities so just just to be be clear on that the the city is blessed with good stewards we have a great Police Department we have good managers in the police department we have good managers through throughout the the echelons of the city and we are looking ahead we are assessing needs and we are making good decisions and then we have contingencies if there is if there are funds that need to be uh transferred be because of something that we haven't been able to to think of so um the the issue for police overtime is that it's it starts out it's it's high in the beginning of the year there's a there's a valley then it goes then it goes back up then it Trends down so we are we are looking at those averages and um we make the we make decisions based on on the data that we have and I'm comfortable with the decision that has been made and the overtime that's in this budget for the police department as well as for the fire department and we will look at this every month just like we do last year year and this year and report back to the to the council thank you Mr hofman Mr just I I have something to say man sure um what I don't want anybody to walk away from this meeting is is thinking and I said this again before is that we are reducing or the request is to reduce services that is not the case that is not the case the services will be the services and I think that that's what we need to focus on you're focusing on the overtime if we giving you the service don't matter the overtime will take care of itself that's that's the point so when we get this this these messages and whatever and I'm glad you came here tonight because you could get the facts so you don't have to get it third hand fifth hand your services will not be impacted these gentlemen down here even said so if we go over the overtime budget we can transfer dollars to satisfy that budget we can transfer those dollars now if you're not happy with this with with with the services that you're getting that's another story then we need to address that but that's not what I'm hearing and I think the answers that have come up here and what I'm asking Mr Hoffman to do is give us a breakdown of the overtime and see what's real overtime and what's really not overtime cuz when you come here I want to deal with facts I want to deal with all this messaging that you hear this hearet he's giving you the facts and the good thing about it is you can always come back to the next council meeting and call us out I'll be here but I I I I I don't like this where we think that we are going to not give you the services you've paid for these Services you're going to get these services and ain't nobody's cutting don't use that word we're cutting services that's not true and you didn't hear that here so you're going to get your services I would hope some of us get even more services cuz I did ask the question is every Street in the city of Engle with Patrol so please understand don't walk away with here saying I'm I'm my services are being reduced and I'm glad that the the folks that did come to the meeting tonight heard that here instead of saying I heard it from somebody else and it's not true no service is not being reduced mayor WS thank you um this is the normal uh tug and pull of a community a bureaucracy and public servants um as the council president articulated no services are going to be cut and perceptively we need to keep things under control the governing body I think should also appreciate the anxiety in the different parts of our community given world and local circumstances 200 gun permits generally a year in the month of October there were 200 applications that went in on their own to the credit of our police chief and our deputy chief not one phone call that I've given in the many years and I'm the longest standing mayor of the city not one phone call from either of these gentlemen has never been returned every single email has been returned with narratives to Residents to give them the assurance that time and thoughtfulness is being made nobody's complaining behind anybody's back about resources everybody has everything on Deck earthquakes pandemics infrastructure storms uh and then the normal Spate of crimes that we get seasonally as Dr Rosen swag indicated we're right by Route four and you're a few minutes away safely or 95 and technology has increased so that we have license plate readers and residents despite their own personal discrimination and bigotry in politics are not marginalized they're heard and we do respect diversity here and we'll fight each one of us for the right of anybody to spend three minutes to articulate thems even if we don't like the content but I think it's very important for us to be resolved that there is Plan B and that if we need the funds the funds will be there we also share this responsibility I'm a former auxiliary police officer myself from New York I'm a former Federal prosecutor the plans that we make are made in concert with the Bergen County prosecutor's office which has a superseding legal Authority and law enforcement in the County as well as the Sheriff's Office the rapid deployment Force there are redundancies in place here that doesn't give families that are concerned about the propriety of shootings against children of color in our community or a boy whose parents live in tenly who was kidnapped in Gaza we have a job and that's to keep this community safe and we've denied many permits on both sides of the issues in order to keep this community safe and I can share with you scores of emails from residents that are grateful for the approach that we've taken this is not something we should be uh debating we are all on the same side and I want to thank the city manager for exercising judgment and at least giving the Assurance to the community a concerned community that they will remain safe thank you thank you m [Applause] I'd like to speak thank you I'm glad we're having this conversation because facts don't lie so we look at the police the police and fire departments came to the city council on budget hearings and when they presented the budget for us they presented a overtime budget of 1.18 that was the number that was presented to us I don't know what happened because I wasn't in the room when that happened but then when the budget was introduced somehow that number was changed to 1.10 with no explanation given to me I will give you the numbers um we'll start with police and then we'll go to fire just looking at the overtime for the police over the last for 2019 20 21 22 and 23 there is no no year no year that they went under where they even hit the 1.1 Mark which is what's being presented today there was one year that they did go under the 1.18 that they asked that was last year last year they started with 83 policemen right now there are 80 policemen two are about to retire that'll bring us down to 78 this is a problem the the hiring process that we're talking about Mr Hoffman told you they're they're looking to hire police officers they're not going to be they're not going to be here working until April of 2025 I'll say it again they're not going to be here working until April of 2025 so what are we going to do well I guess we have to do atal transfers which is what we tried to do last year and that and even the police were criticized for that and that those are the four police officers that were hired in November of 2023 and the police got beaten up for taking four lateral transfers so and and that brought us now we're at 80 about to be 78 um let's look at the overtime of the police in the last three months and and uh councilman Rosen swag I'm going to correct your math a little bit so the the police overtime from January through March was 41 19,176 point21 if you project that out for the year that's 1.67 million right now the police are on track for an overtime of 1.67 six and maybe there's some Grand so maybe it'll be 1.6 and if you look at last year's overtime at the same time period because we're dealing with facts facts January through March of 2023 the police had an overtime of 228 785 I'll again repeat what their overtime is this year January through March it's 419 177 we are setting up our police to fail because there is no way they are going to make this madeup 1.1 million overtime budget in fact as of today they're more than 38% used that overtime so we're telling them we're telling our police chief this is what your overtime this is your goal we're giving them a madeup number that they can't satisfy and then we're going to hold them accountable yes I'm sure we could transer money which I guess we'll have to do and if anybody wants any of the data I'd be happy to to share with anybody let's go to fire let's go to fire let me find my fire papers okay let's talk about the fire department we had a wonderful we had a wonderful presentation from the fire chief and there's one and I listened to it again this week and there's one thing that he said over and over again he said I've got a young fire department he used the term um let me see if I get this right you can correct me Chief Kaplan if I get it wrong but I think you said you have a vacuum of experience is that the term that you used a vacuum of experience on the fire department and as and if you've been following what's been going on in the city you know we've had we had hires we had we had we had um hired fired we had lawsuits but our fire department has been understaffed um it's uh right now let me see if I'm going to get this right Mr calman how many fires um I asked you this today how many how many people do we have on board now are we at 50 and we're budgeted for 55 or 58 well anyway our fire department is under staffed it's a very young staff what does that mean when you have a young staff when you have a young staff when you have that means that you need you need extra what 58 we have budget we're budgeted for 58 and we have this this is a few months ago the chief could tell you right now what we have better we had 53 at that we have 53 and then and we're budgeted for 58 yeah okay and every time there's an emergency he's got to call in another another shift so for example today there was a fire he had to call in on overtime another shift last week there was a big car accident I don't know if you remember on Gran Avenue he had a call in another shift okay we had the big storm April 3rd and April 4th he had a call in another shift that's all overtime like like councilman rhen swag said overtime overtime overtime um looking at the fire over time over the last five years and again you remember I say I said the fire chief when we when we originally got the data they asked for 1.18 for with without any explanation they were knocked down to 1.1 there is one year in the last five years that the fire came under 1.18 and that was during covid that's when people were in driving driving cars restaurants weren't open so in so again you want to talk about facts or you want to talk about madeup numbers in the last five years the only year was during covid that the fire did not go on under 1.18 so what what what does that mean to for the fire department that means that the fire department needs to do extra training because their force is not trained this is not only to protect the residents of the city of Anglewood but this is also to protect the fire officers right because if they're going to go into the into a fire they need to be trained so we need a lot of extra training a few weeks ago I happened to be at the Jon DC and coincidentally the fire department was in the pool training you know and I saw that I saw that was covered with a grant but a lot of the training that the fire department does is not covered with a grant I want to make sure that the people who come here to work for the city that they that they have the training that they need whether it's to do a water rescue in the case of flooding whether it's to do a fire rescue I want I want to make sure they have it to protect themselves and to protect us and and I'm just going to go back to what what Mr blinkin said in the beginning and and that is the job of government is to protect its residents first second and third so so we can say yes we can look at the facts and say okay we gave a number but we know already we're not going to meet that number and we're putting undue stress on our our Chiefs who now have to figure out make decisions because they going to be because they're responsible for an a madeup number so that's all I have to [Applause] say Mr Hoffman you w to close this with your comments uh certainly council president uh first comment I have is that the the mayor made a couple of points that were valid and that reminded me that one of the Investments that the city has made is we've made investments in technology and specifically we've had difficulties over at the Dean street parking garage so the uh there's been an investment over there so that we we not only have cameras and all of the cameras are working but now we have uh we basically have a monitor so that there's an there's a a chime that'll go off at the Dispatch Center when somebody's in the stairwell so when so we we will the the our dispatchers will be able to take a look and make sure everything is okay and then they're uh the police are able to go so they've there's been 22 U the police have been over at the at the the garage for 22 times in the last in the last month but um ex oh all right the uh so that's that's just one one of the one of the ways that we're we're we're helping to make sure that we that we have safe locations for our residents and for the people that visit the city there's been a lot of discussion and a lot of conjecture about the budget and how the budget has been made uh has been crafted and it's the uh the budget that is here has been crafted with the with input from the council the council uh has given given guidelines for what is what is needed one of the items that was that was required is that we have we come in under a 2% the 2% cap and that's what we have done we have contingencies in the budget we have uh we have extrapolations that are being done based on the first quarter of the year and that's fine to do but part of part of the part of the needs of the city is to manage um manage the budget appropriately and if we need additional resources make sure that there there are resources that can be become available for whatever that contingency is this budget has that contingency if it is needed but there is also the possibility that that contingency will not be needed the budget for the police department and the fire department overall has uh when you when you look including the operating budget of O and has increased for 2020 four so that we can meet the needs of our residents we are about to hire two additional firefighters so that we will be able to come closer to to Staffing and then we are going to begin the process of looking for additional firefighters we have a list that's valid for 3 years and we are going to we are going to go at that list and we're going to interview and we will do the same for the police department so this is part of the Continuum there will always be people that serve well here in the city then they retire and they need to be replaced and that's what we are going to be doing during the calendar year and we will be looking for qualified people in the fire department qualified people in the police department and the budget funds those needs thank you thank you Mr Offman we're going to move on we're going to move to resolution 14504 1624 self-examination of the 2024 Municipal budget I need a motion in a second but before we do that um Mr V you want to explain that so the public understands what we mean by that yes so the resolution uh actually allows the city's Chief Financial Officer to certify the budget in Li of the state actually reviewing your budget uh a few years ago the state changed the requirements and they only review a municipal budget once every three years so the other two years your CFO will certify the budget uh and included in the resolution is that the uh budget met the requirements of the cap laws which we've talked about uh required Debt Service has been budgeted uh and various other statutory requirements thank you it's not a requirement we have a motion and a second I make a motion council president I second roll call you answer wait a minute councilman Rosen yes uh council masas is not present uh councilwoman David yes councilman Wilson yes council president cob yes not not present is here I'm sorry did I skip you no I I called councilman Rosen SW I called Council yeah U sorry councilwoman waski we're doing a roll call on resolution number 145 yes thank you next we have resolution 14604 1624 authorizing the adoption of the 2024 budget I need a motion in a second I'll motion I'll second roll call councilman Rosen swi no councilwoman wasi no councilwoman David yes councilman Wilson yes council president cob yes next we'll have bills and claims resolution 14841 1624 the approval of payment of bills and claims excuse me oh I think okay you know what I'm listening I got it all right sorry I have to amend that you want to go out sequence you ready where's that at well no we don't need that all right resolution 147 041 1624 resolution accepting the minutes of 2023 regular meeting March 30th 2023 March 8th 2023 and March 30th 2023 special meeting council president I make a motion that we accept those minutes second looll call councilman Rosen yes councilwoman wiski yes councilwoman David abstain councilman Wilson yes council president cob yes now now we can do the building next we have resolution 14841 1624 approvement approvement of payment of bills and claims in the amount of 12 million $971,000 S I need a motion and a second so move I'll second questions yes so Mr cman thank you I emailed you some we got these last week so I emailed you some questions I think of interest to the public you know the the school is obviously the major um bill on this which we pay every month to two months thank you for that and I saw a $15,000 for a computer and in my field sometimes we buy very high powered computers with a lot of computer powering to to go through genome sequences and I was wondering why the police department was was doing genome sequencing but it's actually 10 computers so thank you for clarifying that councilman Wilson councilman Rosen you finish yeah councilman Wilson thank you council president if we look at uh page two for the police department at the bottom 24828 for Ford rental vehicles that's the off duty vehicles are those are new vehicles we purchased yeah it's the Ford Mavericks because it read like we we renting M um it's it's like a lease to purchase so we we we lease it's a lease we pay every month and at the end we'll buy for like a dollar okay thank you and the interest of time council president I will address the rest of these questions offline thank you thank you anybody else have any questions with the bills and claims roll call councilman Rosen yes councilwoman wiski yes councilwoman David yes councilman Wilson yes council president cob yes so we don't have 14 okay next we're going to go for ordinances for second reading ordinance 243 will the city clerk read the title this is an ordinance of the city of Anglewood County of Bergen state of New Jersey to amend chapter 307 Article 1 disorderly conduct of the general ordinances of the city of lewood I'm going to open up the public hearing on ordinance 243 anybody wishes to come to the mic name address just to this ordinance yeah uh Rick will be with New Jersey is this thing about the parking garage again yes okay so what is it with like the lighting over there like why we can't get the proper lighting over there with that parking garage that's part of there's work going to be done in that parking garage on the ligh does that include more overtime overtime overtime overtime well I would hope not do people feel safe over there they don't as we understand can people sleep in their cars over there at night comfortably safely I would hope not so what's the problem with the disorderly conduct well CU you're having people that are going over there uh tagging the place uh graffiti yeah graffiti graffiti graffiti yeah and and doing some other things there that supposed to be doing what's that cuz I don't know I don't go to the garage like um I don't go to garage they said damaging the elevator sitting setting the elevator on fire some other things that they're doing over there I I got lose some weight so I take the stairs so the elevator is damaged that's my understanding and what else I don't leave Mr Hoffman with no yeah I mean I want to know because I want to know I mean I don't go to the garage or nothing like that but I want to know what the problem is is three minutes going what what what are some of the other things over there if you could elaborate sure do you have any other questions I don't want to take up your time no you do it all the time it's okay you can take it up I'm more concerned about the Quorum go ahead all right so in the in the the parking garage as the council president has said there's been tagging uh there's been uh there have been uh incidents in the stairwells that were were're we're being that are being addressed and will be addressed there is um also there as was mentioned the there was an elevator that was vandalized it's still out of service okay now what I want to know I'm going to take back my time I want to know because we see all these ordinances and laws on the books but there's no enforcement like even for Palisades Avenue for instance it's a uturn wild wild west over there there's no enforcement you go down palis Avenue there's double parking there's triple parking there's fifth parking there's all kinds of parking you know so what is the use of having all these rules and regulations and laws if there's no enforcement is this going to be another thing where there's another law and another rule with no enforcement this is what I want to know all right thank you thank you still Lucy Walker still on Washington Place on the night of the activity that people fail to call a riot I had to walk past the parking garage I made the mistake of thinking that the sidewalk on Palisade Avenue and the side walk on ingwood Avenue that they were connected by walkway so as I walk past down I see that oh no that sidewalk goes right into the garage and there were policemen from all over the county basically staging there but the sidewalk ran out for me because I was trying to get here from palisad Avenue I think that someone should deal with that but the point is I was walking in the dark and I was scared because there was a whole lot of activity out there and there were no lights on the exterior of the garage now let me tell you something about teenagers and other people who like the tag I was a teacher for 27 years you have Darkness you have an invitation to Mischief put some lights on the outside so you can stop messing with the kids who are going in there because they won't be going there if it's lit up on the outside is there another reason why you're not not lighting up the outside of the G parking garage is it the same reason you're not allowing people to park over there behind City Hall at night when Trio employees have gone home I'm beginning to wonder I'm going to close the public portion of the meeting and I need a motion in second on ordinance 243 so moved I'll second roll call councilman Rosen yes councilwoman wasi yes councilwoman David yes councilman Wilson yes council president cob yes next we have ordinance 244 the city clerk read that by title this is an ordinance amending chapter 8 Article 5 entitled Municipal Alliance committee we're going to open up the public hearing for this particular ordinance anybody invited to the mic name address before you take my time I just want to know what is this what is the municipal Alliance committee can you explain can the attorney you want to give it to and then I'll start talking stop the clock the municipal Alliance committee uh we had a presentation at the last meeting is a committee that uh many municipalities have that entitles it to get funding for for example alcohol abuse and things like that for people within the city uh the ordinance itself it's it's already on the books it's being updated because I don't think it has been a number of years to include uh recommended representatives to be on that you know which includes the council representative police representative president of school board Student Assistance coordinators people with background in drug and alcohol uh treatment and things of that nature so that's it's a a volunteer committee uh but by having it enables the city to apply for funding uh from I I think it's from the county in terms right now I'm going to reclaim my time thanks Bill I want to know if you talking about drugs and alcohol what about mental illness is that something that's also going to be addressed yeah yeah councilman heymer addressed that when he came here um so they do get funding and they do try to uh address that as well that's one of okay so they also work with the schools and they give funding to the school do the schools get any money Bill schools get any money I I guess the money goes to the city and then the committee because I have a 9-year-old that goes to school here and they have no uh money for toners and ink at the school School you understand Ken toner toner toner ink ink ink they don't have it where the Board of Education yeah I was just asking so being at the school is a part of it can we get ink ink ink I think you have to go to the board Mr willby with that one all right well you know my wife wanted me to address that issue yeah okay I'm going to close the public portion of this meeting for this um we need a motion in a second I'll make a motion second roll call councilman Rosen yes councilwoman wisky yes councilwoman David I have questions so I just got question is on here excuse me you can if I can just I don't want to speak for councilwoman D but she was all right just in the interest of time um the uh the statute that permits this has recommended positions that's where that list comes from and what is that subsection D I think that is what is recommended um pursuant to the administrative State administrative code and the applicable statute it's really the administrative code actually um so that's where those come from and it's recommended that they come from those representative groups it's not required though thank you yes yes yes thank you councilman Wilson yes council president cop yes next we have ordinance 245 answer could you read it by title Please sure this is Bond ordinance appropriating 9,948 76 and authorizing the issuance of 11,735 428 in bonds or notes of the city for various improvements or purposes authorized to be undertaken by the city of Anglewood in the county of Bergen New Jersey I'm going to open up the public hearing on this ordinance ordinance 2405 come to the mic name address any questions regarding this particular ordinance quick question on that Milton sonberg from yugon Avenue uh what's the uh imputed interest rate on this Michael there's no interest we didn't borrow the money yet this we we if we borrow the money it would be first time we'd be able to be do it is next year so this is not to we're not actually borrowing the money now we're just authorizing to do the projects so we just authorizing the projects as and what are the projects then that's so there there are there are several projects that um that are authorized it's everything from road paving to improve to putting in new sewer lines to making improvements in some of our Parks uh purchasing equipment for the Department of Public Works uh there is the I mentioned during the budget presentation there are arpa funds that are in that are part of this ordinance that's the $2.9 million that would be have to be allocated this year the projects have to be bid out they have to be awarded and the contracts have to be signed so they're going to be used for sanitary sewer lines the majority of that and some improvements to the library are there line items are there line items there are items that are are located in the or in the ordinance um there are you know full numbers but there are not line items so I can't tell you how many linear feet of asphalt if that's what you mean that was going to be my next question yeah the answer is no until we go out to bid for that we we we don't have that information I'm not understanding you you don't know how many linear feet need to be fixed we do but you were I can't sit here tonight at whatever time it is and tell and tell you how many catch basins are going to be put in on whatever the road is um yeah yeah there was nothing they were not available when I not enough not enough of them available but that's fine that's maybe I'll be back good question yeah thank you good question any other questions if if not I'm going to close this portion of the public meeting and I need a motion in a second so mooved I'll second roll call councilman Rosen yes excuse me councilwoman wasi yes councilwoman David yes councilman Wilson yes council president cob yes next we have have no new ordinances for first reading um we're going to go to public comment on agenda items only the agenda is resolutions from 149 to 158 we've only take comments on those items only Rick willby again uh I want to address the uh 6-04 the appoint traffic advisory committee uh members you know I keep wondering right as I deal with the traffic on Palisades Avenue and I don't know how many of you venture beyond the tracks and go up and down Palisades Avenue but what used to take me a couple of minutes is now taking me 15 minutes to go to shopright I mean like we keep having these committees and we keep having these organizations but the quality of life is getting worse and worse and worse in England like why is that and then they come in here and they want to talk about overtime maybe people would want to give you more overtime if they saw you actually doing the job you know I mean can anybody understand or even relate to what's going on here in ingwood we have a traffic advisory committee and there's more and more building and has there been a walkability study that these traffic advisory people are you know uh empowered to look at you can't even walk around engood anymore really really there's so many people there's so many cars there's so many double Park cars there's so many tractor Trails there's so many unregistered mini bikes with people riding them without no helmets like where did the quality of life go in this in this city I mean there's no qual so what is the use of having this committee if this committee is not really taking action to tell the police about their findings and what things need to be done to improve the quality of life I don't see that intenna you know what I'm saying I don't see it in demoris but I see it in Inglewood it's like the Bronx y you know what I'm saying and then you know people talk about people getting robbed this is what's going on in New York where they rob somebody they get on a mini bike and they're out of here so prevention is better than cure from what I believe what are we really doing with these committee people I've been to the traffic advisory board you know they need some coffee nobody's doing nothing they're just sitting there they're not talking about anything you know so it's like I'm real sick of tired of coming to these meetings and watching things on the agenda that are completely useless that don't add to the quality of life in Inglewood so I believe that it should be taken very serious is there a liaison from the council me you I'm going to be a liaison so how long you've been a liaison this year what who was the previous liaison previously who was the liaison you she's no longer here who was that she's no longer here oh okay all right good so let's leave it alone what Happ let's leave it alone okay as I often do I went to the law so I could find out what a sid is and I was feeding a lot of information walk is it any of these items on here oh well what I'm talking about I'm talking about the parking the same thing he's talking about you talking about the traffic advisor and basically what it's described in the law is that the said is supposed to be figuring out ways to move traffic around and that includes the truck that are loading off produ and whatever to the stores that is described right there in the law and if someone I will send you the link to that because I see that um that realization has hit anyone here because what he just said is supposed to be doing that okay not happen send it send me that thank you thank you since I see no other folks at the mic I'm going to close this portion at a public meeting and I'm going to ask for a motion in a second I motion anybody any on second hold on okay we got the motion on the floor already okay roll call sorry councilman Rosen yes councilwoman wasi yes councilwoman David yes councilman Wilson yes council president cob yes now we're going to have communications from the governing body and the city manager mayor WS thank you was air conditioning left out of the budget we heard you were going to wear a short sleeve shirt and show your biceps sorry about the biceps but my jacket's they check for guns on the way in yes sir we want to keep we got yeah [Music] so uh ladies and gentlemen um for those watching this in YouTube and those who stayed here thank you again for your good citizen Cher brute for a lane closures it will be overnight closures uh tonight as well as both daytime and overnight closures Wednesday and Thursday and daytime closures Friday visit the Inwood Police website for Facebook or Facebook page for further details the angood uh PD Rave alert system um the PD has switched from nixel notification to a new service called Rave residents can sign up by texting angood PD to 67283 this will allow you to receive emergency alerts and other important information in real time again residents can sign up by texting angood PD to 67283 or learn more in the Anglewood Police website or Facebook page Dwight Mar High School will have a community Forum of principal candidates um the Board of Education Dr Hazelton the superintendent um invite parents Guardians care Akers family and community members to attend Dwight Mar High School Community Forum to meet candidates to Dwight Mar High School principal position from 5 to six at the king Hall uh common uh area angood Junior environmental Commissioners um were sworn uh last week these are Middle School uh students we commend their maturity and vision uh last week we had the privilege of welcoming several members of the stem students to join our environmental commission and Commissioners I also want to thank the police department uh particularly our deputy chief for meeting with me and a group of uh owners and Proprietors based on these uh uh Smash and grab our crimes that we spoke of uh in the central business district a bearing witness I want to thank the Simon wisenthal Center Congressman Josh gimer and the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey for bringing us a screening of the film bearing witness about the October 7th attacks in Israel this past weekend in tck it was my priv privilege to sponsor the event this is a harrowing No Frills look through cell phone and security camera footage of the tragic events and a powerful reminder that we must stay vigilant Against Terror bigotry and hate fuel uh violence I thank my Council colleagues uh for joining us it was impactful uh that you were there uh as we are all one community and one impacts one indeed impacts all I want to wish everybody a meaningful holiday whether you pray on a Friday a SAT Saturday or Sunday we should all be praying and working together thank you councilman Ren s hi thank you good evening everyone um uh we had a moment of science earlier but I'd like to again offer condolences to the family of Faith Ringold it was uh it was wonderful to honor her here at the council for the second time uh two years ago on 2022 I was council president and then a month later uh my instit tion also honored her with an honorary degree uh so um our condolences to the family uh not an Anglewood resident but a thing a frequent Anglewood visitor Joe liberman who a sister-in-law and brother-in-law the fish has lived in town for many years uh and uh condolences to his family uh Senator liberman famously spent uh Thanksgiving 2000 in Anglewood while the hanging chad was being debated and he had full Secret Service uh protection and he was a frequent visitor and uh and uh got to know the community so condolences to his family um I had the uh I'm a a founding member of the East Hill synagogue and they had their 19th annual dinner a few weeks ago uh the the council was invited i' like to thank uh councilor mski for appearing but also there is an extremely special guest New York city mayor Eric Adams uh uh came across the bridge uh to uh offer of support to the anglea Jewish community and I greatly appreciate uh him doing that uh and it very rousing and inspiring and and thank you mayor Adams and uh finally wish everyone who celebrates a happy and healthy Passover next week next Council woman wasas hi I want to extend my condolences to Faith Ringold family and I want to wish everyone who celebrates a happy holiday next councilwoman David um I would like to thank the um city manager for your prompt response and getting back to me during the earthquake when we had several issues in the Third Ward um you and I were connected and I did drive over and saw the resident home and everything and I want to thank you um several of my um constituents did ask me when my next meeting is and I will holding a next meeting um sometime next month we had a great outcome we had about 60 plus people people and I received numerous emails um that they I did not reach out to them but I didn't have their email addresses but I'm going to ask um Mr Hoffman to assist me in reaching a greater audience for this and that's it thank you thank you councilman Wilson thank you council president first giving honor to God without him I wouldn't be here um I'm privileged to serve uh the city my ward uh I am the liaison for the planning board uh to the council and we have been working diligently through applications that have been before us and one of the major projects that are before us at this particular time is the master plan um unfortunately we've got a dismal amount of responses from the community in the number of 315 surveys is being filled out and maybe the number has fluctuated from 30,000 in the city but 315 is not doable um and as we come and fill this chamber tonight worried about certain issues I'm sure there's certain issues that would fall upon you and your family that would impress the next 10 years on how the city moves forward so I would implore those that are here tonight the ones that left the ones that are listening to please get involved um we've got some great minds on the planning board but we also need your help and the planning board prepares this master plan for my constituents to approve um and I just like to state that when we go through committees and processes like the budget I don't think if anybody's been watching um I'm a numbers guy I will scrub the numbers to it's somewhat aggravating for people and I've been told that I've asked too many questions in regards to the budget my concern is that we're fiscally responsible um and we have a city manager that comes with a certain set of skills that has been able to re-evaluate some some of the ways that we've done things and we've asked him as a council also to adjust some things we want to be responsible for the whole city not part of the city so I think that when people make a snap judgment in regards to how we run these committees and that we just check boxes that's the furthest from the truth we're committed to serve you guys and make the best possible decision possible um and those people that would ask me we have um my co-counsel Mr roses swag he is the Sid liaison and so any questions you should feel free to reach out to him I'm sure he has a plethora of information for you guys um we we talk about traffic we talk about downtown uh I'm sure my colleague was be estatic to answer any questions in regards to the Sid program there are many questions that surround the Sid today um who's involved who's not involved and so it's important for us if we move forward that you the public get involved this is your city this is your town we look forward to serving you guys in any capacity possible our next meeting for the planning board I believe is uh on the 25th so if you guys have the opportunity to fill out these applications uh these surveys it would help us uh we don't want to close the door and then we have a full chamber where we say hey we need a light at such and such a street or or Transportation what whatever your whim may be now would be the time to engage and I will just share this one L last thing as we move forward we need to move forward together there's been certain divisions throughout the city through throughout this Adas that's inappropriate and so I would ask you guys as intelligent caring ing residents to just think about some of the statement and some of the propaganda that you guys are putting out because it impacts all of us there was a point where certain members of the council were called anti-semetic that's such an unfair statement but then when we support that community that isn't mve forward so if you have something to say I would like to see you come forward say it to the individuals and not to group us as all at once so thank you enjoy your Passover and have a great night thank you council president thank you first I just like to thank everybody who sat through this meeting in this heat you know I I want to thank you personally for that but I want to thank everybody who came out tonight and those who tuned in um because this is a very important process you're going to see how your money is being spent your tax dollars this is very important um so I think that was important in the commitment for people and their concerns if if you tell people some things this is how you turn people out well we got to turn out tonight cuz people were concerned and we answered the questions get the facts come here and get the facts that's we'll do and if we don't have the facts we are obligated to get them to give them back to you uh councilman Wilson mentioned about the master plan what I'm just going to add to that is is that you can go on the city's website and go to notices and you can get right to the survey for the master plan so if you want to tell people to fill it out but it's important 35 out of approximately it's by census we got 28,000 people here it's just not a good number it's just not a good number and this is talking about planning for the future for the next 10 years what you believe what you want to see in this city and this is your opportunity to contribute to that through your own voice so please share that friends relatives neighbors and all to to come out and get that get that done we need that to get done so it helps the Consultants that we've hired to complete their plan so we can be able to move Anglewood forward and no idea is a stupid idea or a silly idea you know so you have an opportunity to bring some of your ideas here and you know your creativity will help move this city forward and that's why we want you to complete the survey um so with that I'm going to hand this over to Mr Hoffman and wish you all uh happy holidays on whatever you celebrating Passover or any other holiday as you may be celebrating Mr hofman thank you council president and good evening everyone uh since our last meeting we have experienced heavy rains during the weeks of April 1st and April 8th uh we had an inch of rain on five days during those two during that two week period we also had an earthquake and then we had an eclipse so you can you can go look at your whatever biblical Revel uh biblical story you want go to Revelations or whatever but it's all it's all linked um and then um during that period of time there were several trees that came down as well as wires so our fire department was very busy responding to calls they responded to 35 calls in a 24-hour period and uh they they did a wonderful job there was no flooding to report and no injuries from multiple storm the multiple storms that occurred and what I mean by flood flooding is I don't mean on C certain streets but I mean in people's basement so we our project over the last 15 months has been successful so we have helped to improve the quality of life of people because they don't have to they don't have to leave their H their houses and then this is directly attributable to what our public works department has done and what and um they they need to be commended for the work that they've done and during the storm period our Police Department they did a they did a Yan's job as well they worked in conjunction with violia the water company as well as psng to ensure that all of our residents were safe until until psng could get people out to to babysit some of the lines also a shout out goes out to the to the governing body here to the city council because we were able to pave second and fourth streets milen paved second and fourth streets we were able to uh receive a grant from Community Development and this was an Apollo 13 moment where failure was not an option so the governing body agreed to have a special council meeting so we could award a bid on a Tuesday we had a construction meeting on a Wednesday and then we had rain but we were able to Mill and pave in the rain and then we were able to have some sun on Friday just before the earthquake and we got the roads paved and then we we were able to get them uh striped and we had to have the contractor paid by Monday April 8th and send the paperwork into the to the county and then they had to get it down to Washington DC so by my count fronts I think we had 54 minutes um to spare by the time we got all of the paperwork done but this is just I want to thank the governing body we were able to pave two roads basically for $9,000 because we had a that the project came in at$ 159,000 and the grant was for $150,000 so this was the third time that the council the engineer and the city staff have moved with lightning speed to make sure that we didn't lose grants and we probably have now paved $600,000 um with minutes to spare $600,000 worth of roads with minutes to spare over three different projects so thank you again for that and I just want to wish everybody peace and joy if you celebrate Passover but I also want to make sure that uh I finish with with this that we have more ties that bind us together than things that separate us so just let's keep that in mind and let's move forward with the city we have a great opportunity with this budget to do wonderful things and that's what we intend to do so thank you council [Applause] president thank you Mr hman now we're gonna go to the Open Session public session of our meeting name address you have three minutes Howard schaer 87 Springland Anglewood um it may be hot in here tonight Mr council president but in my view the temperature in this room has dropped dramatically over previous Council meetings and for that I'm grateful I want to thank councilman Wilson for your vigorous support of the disorderly conduct ordin I think it's sorely needed um in my humble opinion there was a lack of planning in the original garage construction and I I'm pleased to see that the council is now taking steps to address that um somebody came up here and said that the police overtime budget discussion was racially divisive to the contrary I think it brought the city together I sat here meeting after meeting historic and listen to the people from the fourth ward complain that they never see police officers and cars in the fourth ward tonight we heard that there are other City residents that that uh that feel unsafe and there was a pretty unifying voice when it came to the police overtime budget and that was very nice to see um okay well thank you all thank you thank you good evening my name is Chanel Jones um before I start Mr Hoffman if there is any emergency in town I think they Ed your voice because you sounded like the perfect person that I would need to hear an emergency from if earthquakes or anything is coming um um I have great roots in this town my name is Chanel Jones like I said my family grew up on Belmont for the last 60 decades or whatever my grandfather Leander Jones he was the first black lieutenant here in Englewood Mr Michael Wilds you work closely with my Aunt Deborah Jones for many many years um of course my family is the Sugar Hill Gang I can sit here and talk about everything but this lovely lady Donna Jones just passed away and that's my mom and I lost her last year and she has great Roots through the whole entire Community my mom has contributed so much from just doing things with the prayer meetings that she's had to shelters helping women with drug addictions and things of that nature so I was convinced to come before you wonderful people tonight and bring up the idea of maybe we can name a street after her uh Donna Le's way I think that sounds good I don't know how the whole process goes but I know that my friends have advised me to come by and speak to you wonderful people and I could show you everything that she's done for the community I could give bios she was just on A&E recently um for 50 years of hip-hop I just recently performed on MTV with Queen L for 50 years of hip-hop and I'm only bringing that up because my family the suar Hill Gang has brought so much to this community and my mom was very inspirational and influential and moving that record to make sure that hip hop is where it is today so I thank you for your time and hopefully you guys could take it into consideration thank you Ricki Rick hit the button the hit the button right there I think is it is that it is it all my time I want all my time okay ancy gave you your time okay uh everyone thinks of changing the world but no one thinks of changing themselves right this is what we have here in Inglewood we have a problem of people that don't change themselves okay and it's some Rise by sin and some by virtue I don't like special people all right I don't like special people all right I have a question I want to ask Bill Bailey I need an answer right after this is there any law that prevents a non for-profit from joining the Sid I need an answer to that question because I want to have a viewing at the Bergen Performing Art Center of roots chosen people of the caucus Al nakba and the Little Mermaid to bring the community together I think those are some good movies that we could watch together and learn from all right so there's a lot of strife in this community I spent a lot of time in Teck protesting with those people over there and it really is just genuine when people talk about being the victim of so-called crimes when they themselves are the victimizers of an entire ethnic population I've never been called a so many times in my life as I have been called by so-called Jewish people white supremacist have never called me a that much times in my life I have to admit it so why is it that there's so many people that believe that there's only issues that pertain to them racism is a bigger problem than anti-Semitism police violence is a bigger problem than anti-semitism ISM gentrification is a bigger problem than anti-Semitism redlining is a bigger problem than anti-Semitism I was just at a debate with Larry ham that's running as an independent candidate against the gentleman that's trying to be senator in New Jersey and he talked about the the the hospitals that are disappearing in disproportionate matters in Black communities we have so many bigger problems I've never seen a group of people that have everything and still want more and are not satisfied and just complain and complain and complain like everybody's against them but they themselves are yeah keep watching the clock Lisa going to be quick just keep complaining and complaining and doing harm to other people Hoffman was talking about the Bible and the Bible by commandment the children of Israel were required to love thy neighbor as you love thyself but yes do we have a war in Gaza you're commanded not to steal but yet still people are stealing land and caus it overtime from the police to protect synagog that are selling property from occupied territories ingood could be just like Teek so we all need to be responsible and bring the temperature down cuz teac is on fire and people are going to Rally Leroy Campbell 287 tly Road Anglewood I have a couple of things um the first thing is I think that we need to name a deputy chief in the fire department and I highly recommend Joseph sanelli I think we should also name a captain to replace captain sanelli and I highly recommend Lieutenant Joseph hoil these men live here they spend their money here they pay their taxes here that's one thing uh mayor I noticed you mentioned the fact about the council went to see this movie but you never named the individual from the council that went to see this movie um Ken and Lisa invited to councel But Ken name that Lisa was with her she named her by name um the three people that went to see that movie were the same three people on the council that were being accused as being anti-semitic and I think that you should have named them those people that were there because everybody on the council was invited but the only three people that showed up was Angela Davis Charles Cobb and Kevin Wilson and I think the the public should have you should have you should have explain that to the public the other thing I have cuz I take notes I'm 7 years old so I can't remember everything and councilman council president maybe you or Lisa or Ken can give me an answer because I need to know how the three of you are going to work together when councilman wasowski and councilman Rosen swag put out a petition against you so how are you people are going to work together on the council I so I'm anticipating that I can get an answer from all three of you that this can be resolved some kind of way because at the end of the day you serve you guys serve us and we need you to be able to work together in harmony we need you be work together in harmony um the other thing I have is for my councilman I live in the first wood for my councilman Ken I would appreciate it if you when there's bills and claims I would appreciate it if you ask the question in a public session and not meet with the Chief Financial Officer the day before and have a discussion because myself along with all the individual that lives in the First Ward would like to know what kind of questions that you're being asked okay am I clear am I going to get some answers Mr Campbell I'm I I'm elected to work with everybody I I'll answer I can answer for myself um I'm accountable to the people and I work with anybody okay um the fact that that has happened lets everybody in the city know what's going on but you know I come here and I conduct my business I conduct the business of the people what the people expect of me to do that so I I I have I will work with with whoever whoever's here whatever the cards are dealt with me and I continue to do that but I'm not going to compromise who I am as a person but I will work with everybody okay is does that mean that your constituents is going to work with you I don't know you have to ask them that this is for the public session for you and things go through the council president I'll talk to you offline no I I don't want a conversation offline I want a con conversation sort of public in here or or then don't don't don't reach out to me don't contact me um you know you know this is not a press conference no and I don't and I know I'm not looking at as as a press conference I'm asking you got your answer I'm asking for answers and evidently neither one of you are going to answer me so that's fine I work for the city wait Mr Campbell then I'll take the time obviously I work for the city and I dedicate a lot of hours each week only for the sole benefit of the city and every action I take is for the benefit of the city every single aspect from who I meet with who I talk to um I had a lot of questions on bills and claims I didn't want to use a whole Council session for it we have a closed session coming Mr uh Kaufman got back to me on a lot of the issues we're encouraged to we that's why we get the bills and claims a week ahead of time we're encouraged to ask questions head so we're not putting people on the spot and they can investigate one of the questions Mr calman is going to take a couple weeks to get back to me on it didn't make sense to ask him here about it one of them I thought was of interest to the public so I said that out loud but some of them I just didn't understand what something meant and he clarified it for me there's no point in in in taking up um precious Council time to go over that and and he explained it to me and I thanked him for it and and all those emails are operable if you if you want to read them um there's no secrets here but I'm just trying to be efficient with the time and and that's why we get it a week ahead of time but you took the time to to make a joke about hello about uh puffy chairs um bean bag chairs yeah yeah I took 10 seconds to to make that joke don't don't want to interrupt you but yeah I took I took 10 seconds to make that joke got my answer when my time was allotted I would have to interrupt me understood Miss Walker still Lucy Walker still on Washington Place the first time the Inglewood volunteer Ambulance Corp took my grandson out of my arms he was three months old he is now 15 every single year up until he was 12 he had to be taken out of his home or my home at least three four times a year a a a year okay to the hospital last year it was in May and then December right before Christmas okay I am disappointed in every last person sitting up there that you didn't do something to save the ingwood volunteer Ambulance Corp [Applause] Sarah strowman 72 West Hudson councilman Wilson I'm going to respect what you said and I'm going to point out that it was me I'm the one that said that that last conversation turned racist because it did and I need people everybody in the room to recognize when we're upholding white supremacy in our language mayor Wilds will know this because I brought this to his attention language is used all the time whether it is used correctly or incorrectly we live in the era of trump so I'm going to direct this directly to Lisa wowski because I watched the recording from last month's video where you referenced the skating rink almost as a white Savior and I understand that saviors are going to be saviors people want to believe that there saviors that they're doing the right thing for the community and I'm still not quite sure that an ice skating rink is the best interest but I'm glad that we're able to get money for it and that the New Jersey Devils donate to it and that this is a Cornerstone pillar of the community even though there's still no Community Center now there was an article that was written and as much as I don't necessarily care for council person cob um the article that was written and the language that was used and the rhetoric specifically the word Jew hate um I do think that racism and anti-Semitism are both used incorrectly all the time um it's manipulated both of them are manipulated and the word hate is also manipulated but I think we understand that the word hate feels stronger if you use the word hate it conveys unsafety in it conveys fear it conveys we need to protect ourselves and F everybody else so in the article that was referenced it came across as though individuals were're stereotyped and this is what I mean about oh subtle racism and upholding white supremacy when we reduce black individuals black men specifically to nothing more than individuals we need to be afraid of that is racism and that is upholding white supremacy so if you're going to stand or you're going to sit here and you're going to claim to protect all of the communities and all of the individuals and all of the diversity that everybody loves to talk about when it comes to Anglewood you're not doing it leadership is being able to uphold a truth and to get people to work with you and I don't necessarily think anybody's getting anybody to work with them here so respectfully thank how you doing um all right Rich uh Cambridge Avenue earlier today I sent an email to a couple of council members I just want to have this on record right I've heard so many things this evening talk about the lack of police lack of uh fire department you know personnel and you know I've been living in Englewood for some time now and it's one thing that always bugged me is that there's no residency requirements for these kind of jobs that the Inglewood um actually pays for right so I read I came across something that you guys had uh ordinance 1902 I think it was dated back in 2019 and the word preference is used preference is a decent word but a word that's more solid and to the point is requirement right it should be a requirement for people that live in Englewood to have the opportunity to have these jobs that are funded by Englewood so we should have an Inglewood residency requirement for these jobs so this is what I sent earlier if if if you if you can just bear with me uh because I've had the opportunity to speak to a lot of great people at Englewood and I think they all share the same idea right so you know I wrote B basically many Englewood residents want uh all positions for you know uh Englewood City on Englewood City's payroll required a a residency a residency requirement right um bear with me I'll have my readers on this initiative um aims to honor communi history create opportunities for young residents stimulate Economic Development and forer a sense of unity and support a local community for everyone the city council has the opportunity right now to make it happen because if you pass that ordinance 19 what 1902 in 2019 you can revisit that and revise it and make it a requirement that's all that's all I'm asking for so it's on record so you guys should go to work and make it happen thank you thank you so since I se no other folks at the mic I'm going to close this portion of the public meeting answer okay he's going to answer you Rick uh just real quick the special improvement district consists of a district that goes from demer Avenue to the from the north to angood Avenue to the South tenly Road to the west and excuse me Grand and angle to the east so business owners and Property Owners within that District can be members of the Sid what they do is they assess themselves actually fees and what have you to go to benefit that District so it's limited to that District I'm not aware Mr Wilby if there's a Prohibition on 51 c3s my guess is that as long as they're in the district that they could potentially be members so just to so what like a hot you have to go in front of their members um um we got one more comment we got one more answer Mr Hoffman wants to answer Lucy Mr Hoffman wants to address your question about Eva right um thank you for the question Miss Walker just so that everybody knows the Inglewood volunteer ambulance Corps is not part of the city of city government the city of Inglewood they're a priv they're a private organization they're they they are a 501c3 the city for the past 18 months was working with them to see about see if they could boost their the number of volunteers that joined the the core and there's a there's two 240 hours of training that's required to become a volunteer ambulance Corps member uh they were not able to attract additional members their membership had been declining uh they were only able to ride and cover one shift and they made the difficult decision to um to um to to close down because they were not going to be able to serve Anglewood the way they wanted to the city has always contributed to them to them they've always made the city has always made a monetary contribution to uh the ambulance Corps and supported them in whatever way uh the ambulance core had requested so we are just as sad as you are that they they wound up closing their doors but that's part of the sign of the times they they talk to us about the fact that um people are working two jobs and could not could not make the time to to volunteer and it's just it's a sad commentary but um you know they they served our community for 70 years and they they need to be remembered and celebrated for that thank you thank you now with those comments finalized we're going to close this part of the public session and we're going to go into close session so want me to I need a motion and a second I motion and this is to go into close session discuss pending litigation Mr belly could you uh read us in the close session and yeah be resolved by the governing body of the city of Anglewood that a meet Clos session to discuss 431 East Palace Avenue versus the city of Anglewood uh be a further which is permitted under litigation in the open public meetings act be further resolved that the discussion conducted and closed session can be disclosed to the public of mon taking final action to Iran right does not constitute undo invasion of privacy or violate the attorney client privileged can be it further resolved that it is not envisioned that the council will return to open session to take any action other than to adjourn the meeting think I guess need a motion second and second motion I I all that Angela and I