##VIDEO ID:uzvkkg4_xkY## [Music] call the meeting to order at 6:34 p.m. Dr Roach will you do the roll call absolutely Mr an baronson here Mr Fugi yes okay uh let's see Mr Schmidt here Mr kovak here miss Davenport here and chairwoman Ford here okay and commissioner franois should be joining us shortly she did say she'd be in attendance so I'll note it when she arrives thank you you're welcome can now can everyone stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic it stands it stands one nation God indivisible lice excuse Madam chairwoman I'm going to pop off and pop back on I'm having a problem I can't turn my camera on we'll wait oh well you know I don't want to wait go ahead guys talk I'll I'll just I I believe me I'm here okay in accordance with provisions of chapter 231 New Jersey public laws of 1975 the open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the giving of notice to the corer news posting the agenda in the public Lobby of this building 48 hours prior to this meeting delivery of this notice to the Franklin Township Clerk at least 48 hours prior to this meeting and mailing notice to those persons properly requesting to be mailed notice of meetings at least 48 hours prior to this meeting um we're going to have the audit presentation fiscal year ending May 31st 2024 yes hi good evening good evening um okay uh we we issued the we we're in the process of vising the the audit report for the 24 fiscal year um it'll be an unmodified opinion which means a quote unquote clean opinion if you will the highest level of insurance that you can provide um in regards to the single audit we um performed a state single audit over your expenditures um from the New Jersey ibank program related to the Marcy Street sanitary sewer rehab um in regards to some Financial highlight lights is it okay if I share my screen yeah stand by sure thank you okay you should be present or No Yes here we go thank you very much so just to provide some financial highlights this is the the independent Auditor's report that we were just discussing that is going to show a unmodified opinion um in regards to financial highlights on the balance sheet on your statement of net position your total assets and deferred outflows increased by 2.63% all in all I think the theme of the audit was that your account balances were relatively um in the range of uh 3 to 5% fluctuation across the board uh generated a $2 million um operating income change in that position 2.4 I get you up from 67 to 69 as you see here you're also at 2.4 in a year prior so it's relatively consistent there your revenues here increased about 8% well your your operating expenses here increased by 11.98% or 1.6 million um with the introduction this year of the appropriation to the township of Franklin for $600,000 new item uh and you can see some variances here uh just on the um p&l here um just in regards to one last finding uh one last item rather excuse me is the finding um and it was a it was a minor finding I would say it did not rise to the level of having to be reported on the governmental loading standards requirements so it doesn't appear on these reports that we have up here it it is merely in this back section and what it go what it discusses is we found some instan es where the um the purchase orders were not being executed prior to dispersement prior to expenditure um some of that was related to the system some of that um so there were various explanations as to why that was taking place however we do note that corrective action has already been implemented and we uh don't do not anticipate especially with the introduction of the new the new system um to have these types of issues going forward um with that I'll open it up to the um to everyone here to see if there's any questions anything we should be speaking to uh specifically I will jump in uh just U to add to the the last commentary there are cases uh because of the nature our work as Steve Alzheimer and Scott noero they may be out in the field and experience an emergency or some sort of exigent circumstance that they are required uh under their license to act upon right away so something happens say Friday afternoon at 4:30 they may have to call a vendor uh order equipment or parts or whatever and that part is uh delivered and invoiced on a Sunday or Monday morning before we could even generate a PO or voucher and go through that process so I think that's what the auditor picked up or one of the cases is where um uh purchases were ordered and fulfilled and invoiced before our assistant even knew they were there however we did respond to that and um you know that internally uh Steve and Scott have to contact me if not me then April uh but also now with our new system now we're on Edmonds there is um a required approval process to go through which won't necessarily cure the out of order sequence of the scenario I just mentioned but um it it does make our purchasing systems more solid and accountable agreed and that's been our experience with Edmonds it's it's it's one of the more commonly used uh softwares out there in the governmental space and we've we've had very good uh reactions to the over to it overall uh I'll also note on the um the audit uh notes that our our operating Revenue did grow approximately 1.5 million uh but our net position did grow by 2.4 million which is good which was my intent and our Capital assets increased by 1.9 million which was also my intent and I'm happy to to agree with you that you did not identify any deficiencies in our internal controls to be a material weakness correct and that anything of you know technically non-compliance we had a reasonable response to just have a a I guess a curiosity question our Revenue went up around 5% you said the expenses went up uh by 11% you said and yet our net income was in line with the last year so numerically that percentage was as far as the actual amount as you can see was the there was a flat 2.4 year to year okay because it's somewhat of a comparative percentage yes yeah you're so we we're talking a 3.59 um increase in that position overall and uh uh councilman if you recall uh I I designed this budget to account for our growing uh number of projects that we're required to go through yeah uh the cost in the big one is cost increase of of doing these projects but uh our Guiding Light is always our bond covenants we have to have a certain amount of cash on hand yeah no that's good I'm happy about that yeah yeah so we can get the the cheap money the cheap lending and uh to grow the cash uh you know our net position to grow that not easy uh because you know other people see that we got cash and then they want it you know it's like my wife I can relate I could yes sir Anthony do you have anything other uh no if if nobody has any other questions I'm I'm uh pretty much know the presentation you know as I said just wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone for their assistance uh for this past fiscal year and uh was a successful audit and I I think the audit kind of shows that so well all the work that was uh with you uh between you and the authority was conducted by Dr Roach she was the one who tirelessly uh gave you all the documents and explained everything and made sure uh she was on time but she also made sure you were on time yes absolutely thank youil thank a pleasure a pleasure pleasure Karissa and Anthony to work with both of you and have you both join our our uh our audit team we appreciate you for everything you do thank you very much and we appreciate you as well thank you everyone have a good evening thank you thank you bye bye bye bye bye okay is there a motion to open a meeting for public comments so mod second is there a second second it's Robert okay all in favor I I I seeing that there's no one here oh Franklin reporter okay yeah Franklin reporter is here okay and I would have been here an hour later if I had listen if I had paid attention to what it says on the township website that this meeting starts at 7:30 I just I've I've had experience with you guys so I just figured let me just check in and see sure enough you're running the meeting um the average Franklin resident isn't going to go searching for legal legal notice in case you're going to tell me that it's in the legal notice they're going to go to the township website which is what it's supposed to be there for to tell them when the meeting starts and again an hour later so I don't know why this keeps happening I keep turn I keep bringing it up every single time and I'm going to keep keep bringing it up because it's not fair and if somebody who's less suspicious or more suspicious than I am would say you're trying to keep things away from the public that's what this that's what this points to so that's just my two cents you it's really aggravating when when you go and you look at the township website and it says it's going to start at a certain time and you guys are an hour early having your meeting Bill apologize bill this is the second time you brought this to our attention I I want to thank thank you uh have you brought this up at the countship council meeting who owns I've told the mayor every time it happens I haven't messaged the mayor yet but I've told the mayor every time it happens I have brought this up to um the township manager and that was supposed to be some website issue they were going to update it it fell through the cracks apologize that's all I I I I didn't check it up I brought it up and I forgot about it didn't follow up so I got we'll do it again B do you have any questions on the audit that was just presented no because I missed all all but the last five minutes because I didn't know your meeting was starting at 6:30 okay uh you want me uh to give you the highlights yeah sure okay um number one they did not identify any deficiencies in our internal controls to be a material weakness uh any of the technical non-compliant uh items uh were noted but had reasonable responses from our agency uh our our operating revenues grew uh at about 99.7% our net position grew at about approximately 4% which is about $2.4 million our Capital assets increased approximately 2.3% which equates to approximately $1.9 million and um we we are basically getting a full complete uh satisfactory audit submitted to the state and uh if you want we can uh you know if you want a copy of it obviously it's it our website do you guys post your recordings on the township YouTube Channel we don't post them there but they are posted there okay so a video of this meeting is would be will be available on the township YouTube channel yeah uh I would assume it would be I the day after all our meetings I uh download and then uh download our meeting recording I then upload it to an online repository and then I said send an email to the editor and uh the township I think it's the townships it person in charge of it and then they usually put it up online but also let me also just you last month we had an internet uh outage during our meeting and it kept uh it we all kept getting disconnected uh it was it was a technical catastrophe very disruptive to the meeting we had the the meeting was I cancelled and then restarted but it's all been recorded even though it's a lousy connection that meeting uh recording from last month is not yet up on the website because the two different video recording uh video files need to be combined that hasn't been done yet and that's that's all my fault don't you guys just meet in public in person uh right now the board is choosing to stay remote but what's the reason um I can't speak to that can someone nobody nobody wants to say why you're meeting virtually not in person I mean is there uh there then you wouldn't have those issues with connectivity yeah that was a that was quite the anomaly though we've had FL system for four years and the governor hasn't rescinded that um that permission for for um public bodies to meet virtually uh I'm not aware of that okay no public buys can still meet virtually I have a number of public entities that uh continue to meet virtually that I represent because I'm because because they find it uh you know easier for people to show up to the meeting and get quorums and participate so there whole host of reasons why people why entities do it and then when you when you when you advertise the meeting starting an hour later that's really gonna you don't have to deal with people banging on the door Bill Bill that's unfair we don't this agency does not incorrectly advertise our meetings and that's a very unfair statement that you just made I think it's very unfair to keep the public out of these meetings whether it's whether it's because of the time is misadvertised or because you're meeting it virtually instead of in person I don't know of any other board in town in the township that meets virtually except no I do I take that back the library board although they've started meeting on in person again so hey April the meetings are posted on your on the the sewage Authority's website correct sure that is correct the correct time correct correct so sir you understand that the Franklin Township sewage Authority is a separate entity AB from the township yep so and and the and the entity that's actually running the meeting accurately has the time on its website so the fact that the township has a different time is not does not make this process here with this meeting unfair to the public because it's a separate entity separate and apart from the from the township properly it properly advertises the meeting if I ask 10 people on the street where do they get their information on Township meetings they're going to say they go to the township website well that's that's you know that's the unfortunate because this is a separate entity it's like you know I get it if it was the planning board or the board of adjustment which comes Under the Umbrella directly of the township that's a different issue but this is a separate entity that is created by Statute that can sue and be sued and performs its own functions and they properly and accurately advertise the time of the meeting on their website again if no one looks at the web you have any statistics do you have any um any viewership stats on how many people hit your website on a monthly basis and go to that page bill I really wish you would dedicate this much time of this discussion by delivering that to the township Council not here since it seems to be their issue not ours well you're the ones who I'm talking to right now so I know and it's not a very productive use of your time or ours it's not our website we don't control it okay thanks a lot I I just want to ask uh commissioner and baron who's also on the council you did say that you were going to um follow up on that issue again regarding the um posting of the correct time correct second time I will do that I I didn't want the um Franklin reporter and Advocate to think that we were doing anything un no no no the IT department at the township is different the uh information I think one time it was posted um despite my reminder it was uh still not updated I I see that I will carry the message one more time it's I can only do that beyond that people have to do their jobs thank you very much um are there any other comments um from the public okay and with that is there motion to close the meeting for public the comments so MO is there a second second okay all in favor right oppose okay motion is carried uh direct your attention to the working session uh board meeting minutes approval of the minutes from November 6 2024 meeting has everyone had a chance to read the minutes are there any questions with regard to the minutes any additions seeing that there none is your motion to accept the minutes as is so mod is there a second all in favor I I I I any oppose motion is carried uh we'll move on to the executive summary professional reports by executive director Joseph Danielson thank you chairwoman uh for the month of November um under our Legal Services uh we had we worked on the rules rates and regulations the Wesson Canal rebuild of the pump station Shirley Avenue Pump Station Private Collection systems and their owners uh meetings resolutions bankruptcy cases uh foreclosures and general uh legal support uh our finance platform upgrade and migration which is completely uh managed by Dr Roach is going fantastic as I mentioned last last month while we were being somewhat interrupted by our uh internet connections I'm going just note again that a financial platform migration or upgrade typically only comes around for an employee once in their career uh so uh very few internal people have experience managing these projects and Dr Roach volunteered to manage this she's doing a great job we had a few hiccups or bumps in the road which were quickly ironed out this project has two phases to it the first phase uh is dealing with our finance system and that is a work in progress that includes the project management the escrow accounts Bank reconciliations uh things like that phase two is our utility billing uh we have not gone into phase two yet um that's going to be determined based upon the training dates and well the pending of the phase one progress that uh well that will that progress will dictate our training dates tentatively we're looking at mid-February of 2025 for our phase two training dates um when phase two is completed I have engaged the auditor to come in and perform a project and finance system audit that will begin after phase one and phase two are completed to make sure that the end uh of our old system is synergistic and compliant with the beginning of the new system so uh there more to come with that but right now we're working pretty smoothly on the new system with some of the old system uh in place the high Bay garage project the building is completed as you all know we did make our final payment for that building uh we this um The Unfinished portion of that is the compliance and approval from the uh Delaware Ron Canal commission which is an ongoing process because we're right next to the screen Corridor in the 100-year flood plane Zone very technical but uh we recently did get a comment letter back from them on November 26 the engineer is replying back to that comment letter I believe we'll be submitting a waiver request uh that waiver request is a waiver to the strict compliance uh of that flood zone uh next project is a Somerset Street Pump Station uh upgrade and a construction work is moving fast much uh work was completed in November uh I noted that the electrical duck Bank uh uh was detected and had to be addressed that was addressed quite easily and the work will continue to go by smoothly its sister and companion project is the Brookline Avenue sewer Rehabilitation that's the collection system of all the sewer lines significant amount of work has been completed also V in November that includes the lining the gring and the cleaning of the lines next would be the manhole lining and that should begin very shortly I will note that the um D representatives and you have to excuse me in the report I put EPA I meant NJ DP Representatives will be on site to inspect this project um for its progress and compliance on December 12th uh for that inspection the Western Canal PB station uh rebuild project again uh we're in a holding pattern uh we did have a an update meeting on December 18th and the holding pattern is because we need to either have PS buy a strip of land from the njd who owns a strip of land between their property and the road or njd needs to grant our Authority a license agreement to access or use that land both have been submitted a purchase request by PSG and a license agreement by us our license agreement that we submitted has been reviewed and now it has been submitted to the legal department of the njd for their legal review we're waiting both parties are waiting for response from the the Commerce Street Drive Pump Station Rehabilitation uh preconstruction meeting was held on November 14th that went well we did uh issue a notice to proceed to the contractor on November 18th the contractor advised though that there is a long lead time that will be expected for the generator and the pre pre-cast building all the way uh and through May of 2025 other than that delay and that lead time this Pro project is in the uh in the green and going well Shirley Avenue Pump Station rehab we went to Executive session last month to discuss some uh sensitive um topics regarding uh the land and and um making an offer on the land that we need the 20 20 feet or so I did exchange some emails between uh between me and the land owner each of those three two or three emails I asked basically if we could have a quick phone conversation to get a verbal agreement on an uh agreed amount my hopes that we could get to that point and of course then send a formal offer letter to them I have not been able to schedule that with the owner uh I'm not getting a response from him so we'll continue to work towards uh accomplishing that uh regarding the Shirley Avenue pump station that is our uh the one thing uh putting us into a holding status right now we can't go any further till we resolve that under General engineering um the only thing I have is the Harrison Towers water meter uh I'm assuming without confirmation that their water meter was replaced and installed uh once I get a confirmation from our Township engineer or the director of Department of Public Works um I'm going to engage a second flow study on the Harrison Towers sewer system and then compare that to the water meter readings of that same period that's crucial for our relationship with New Brunswick if [Music] um excuse me one second okay uh chairwoman if there are no questions from the board on any of these projects I can go into my executive director's report are there any questions please go into the report thank you ma'am for uh under the revenue Vue report for as of November 30th uh we received in checks which were deposited 2,1 12,588 which is significantly above average year-to date we collected 7,527 43738 I hope I have an open balance due of non-metered billing of 1,51 157 56 for the month of November uh penalties generated were $ 6,738 180 which is above average under expenses as of October 31st expenditures were an amount of $389,962 year to date expenses 3,888 $ 57.72 we have spent 2.84% of our budget and we are 42% through our fiscal calendar year normally I'm close closer in those two percentages of budget and calendar and that's uh that's an anomaly and um certain bills haven't been uh been paid or we haven't been invoiced yet for right cash position as of October 31st in the category of unrestricted we have 2,1 159,00 5785 under restricted and by under restricted we have 14,815 18288 and under designated we have 4, 558,000 $998 that gives us a total net cash position of 21, 533,000 budget which will be on our website under the audit the uh final audit was presented tonight at the December 2024 meeting it was noted our operating Revenue did grow by 1.5 million our net position grew by 2.4 million our Capital assets increased by 1.9 million they did not identify any deficiencies in our internal controls to be a material weakness and any non-compliance uh was noted with a reasonable response I'll also note when you look at these numbers as we're growing our net position on our assets uh I'm going to note that we have 400% more projects simultaneously going on than we did four years ago and we are anticipating um uh an equal amount of projects in the next four years that are unavoidable which is why we have to grow our assets and our net position uh I'm going to note that we we just went through a census data and post employment benefits audit by the division of pension and benefits that came that that audit comes in two parts we just completed part one of that um that's another project that Dr Roach uh individually handled and managed all by herself uh um at some point they're going to uh render an opinion or corrective actions uh and I will report that when that comes in under the category of banks um it noted to me from time to time we receive checks that we deposit assuming those checks are for us where the the names that paid to the order of it might say Franklin Township it might say Franklin Township utilities or whatever and we go ahead and we match it with their account we deposit but we've been running into um companies that don't know the difference and we end up depositing them and they say oh no we sent it to the wrong people we want that money back and it's a whole work process so we're going to get an opinion from our bank What minimum names on the pay to uh pay to the order of uh and once we get that standard in writing uh all checks will be required to comply with that or they'll be returned without deposit under land Acquisitions we have two land Acquisitions we're in process of right now that's the pscg property and the property that um currently is at our Shirley Avenue Pump Station and the details of which I've already reported on um I'm working with the attorney to take our volunteer firefighter policy uh that I've outlined and uh the attorney will be writing that up into a policy uh I'm G to before I ask the board to officially take a look at that I still want to um present that to the um operations management and the operation staff just to see if they have any further suggestions um Franklin town the Harrison Towers water meter I already reported on oh so uh last month I presented amendments to our rules rates and regulations this is a very significant uh event for us um this is years in the making years in the writing and developing our rules rates and regs that's this is our Bible this is our ordinance um this tells us basically what we can do and what we can't do and what equally important what everybody else has to do and what they can do and what they cannot do um we are we are our Township's now in a situation where there is a lot of Aging collection systems out there and some of which are not being maintained um to the standard they should be and that comes at a cost to our rate payers much of the Amendments that we reported on last month are addressing uh those standards and our enforcement mechanisms and that's the important part the enforcement mechanisms we think we have a fantastic set of amendments to those rules rates and Rags that was a joint effort uh from uh Scott Nero Steve holtzinger our attorney April roach uh C me and uh I was hoping uh that we would be able to vote on adopting them tonight but I want to give the public uh more opportunity uh to review them uh and I will be asking the board to consider voting and adopting them uh in January uh moving on internal engineering we had five new connections during the month of November that brings us six to date we do anticipate at by the end of the fiscal year having a total of 98.8 connections and we're only at six now so we anticipate the remainder of the fiscal year to be quite busy we had the technical review committees uh we did have five applications reviewed uh there is one particular development I don't know if it was part of the TRC applications but uh Council been embarrassing brought it to my attention um there are some concerns with it uh he's going to talk to the planning department and clear those concerns up or um get direction for us to deal with it in the coming month uh Somerset County grants and the municipal grants um those projects that we got the grants for have begun and at some point we will be receiving invoices for those projects and we will be sending those invoices to the county municipality so we can start drawing uh money from those grants you should also note that this today I uh wrote an email to our engineer that I would like the status of these grants to be a part of their L engineering reports so we can see right there in the monthly report how much money uh we've been getting from these grants from both agencies and that we've been sending them the invoices and how much of the grant money is uh remaining it'll it'll give us a nice optic on that uh on that free money that is going to these critical projects uh I will note that all the projects are moving forward as expected though some have delays like the uh High Bay garage and the Shirley Avenue but these are all um I would I call normal type delays that are not insurmountable uh tonight under our standard standard resolutions uh under the consent agenda will include a payroll account our operating expense account our renewal and replace account and our escrow account uh under the last item of other items I'll note under our operations we had uh under uh Odor Control we had no complaints for the month of November our maintenance STA and operation staff they flushed approximately 27,7 125 ft of gravity sewers and they did CCTV inspections on approximately 550 ft of main lines and service lines all normal maintenance installations and repairs were completed as needed and they are proud to announce they have zero accidents with our Personnel chairwoman that concludes my report thank you very much uh now for the committee reports negotiation Personnel committee so um commissioner schmidth and I met with uh uh the executive director on the subject he already mentioned about the volunteer firefighter um uh time and compensation issues I think you know we uh uh proposed uh or we decided to bring it up to the attorney to uh write it up and share with you uh that's about a week ago we did that and um there's some another another issue came up uh we haven't decided how to pursue that um but we will follow up and uh report on it uh soon that's all I have thank you all the municipal leis on I see that uh commissioner goodness um Francois is not present but um commissioner andaron do you have anything to add with there isn't anything that uh pertains to the Sur Authority that uh has to be reported from the council side two things uh one the uh the meeting time start time on the website and um there was the the issue of that one devel proposed development um that might may or may not be going to the planning board yeah okay now yeah so we'll definitely follow upon those thank you with regard to the construction committee I'm very very said by Mr J about all the projects um nothing new to talk about that that's all thank you thank you uh chairwoman once we get past the these land purchase issues uh the construction committee will probably be meeting you know with commissioner farooqi uh much more often where we're just simply in a holding panon right now okay thank you um now the safety report um executive director you already basically told us that there were no issues with regard to safety is that correct there's been there's been no uh injuries since our last meeting thank you um moving on to the resolutions uh the approval of the resolutions will be done by consent agenda all the items listed below are considered to be of a routine nature thereby requiring one motion and one second for all items and if any member wishes to remove an item from the consent agenda please advise me at the time uh which resolutions need to be handled separately and they will be addressed and voted on separately resolution number one the payroll account $153,400 resolution number four the escrow fund account 29,000 $393 75 is there a motion to adopt these resolutions uh commissioner Kovac I believe you are muted yeah I'm no longer muted I move to adopt the resolutions I second it thank you all in favor hi hi any oppose motion is carrying uh now any additional resolutions there will be a motion for each one resolution number five is the resolution authorizing the approval excuse me approval of the meeting scheduled for the Board of Commissioners of the Franklin Township sew Authority for 2025 is there a motion to adopt that resolution zot is there a second second second PA in favor I any oppos resolution is adopted resolution number six resolution authorizing an account with Verizon files for Internet service is there a motion to adopt that resolution excuse motion to adopt is there a second I'll second it CH uh chairwoman if I could just inject real quick uh this is in something I wanted to do for a couple of years but certainly after last month's um problems with our internet connection with Comcast the you know they they've just been chronically and historically uh running into problems with their equipment burning up uh in the street or melting or dis get getting disconnected um I engaged Verizon to install the fos service in our building and we're simply waiting for an IT vendor to come in and uh pull the last uh cat V Line uh from one side of the building to the other and um we won't we won't run the risk we were with Comcast thank you okay um having heard what the resolution is is there a motion to adopt the resolution motion a second second all in favor I I I any oppose resolution is adopted resolution number seven resolution amending revising and supplementing the Franklin Township sewage authorities rates rules and regulations is there a motion to adopt that resolution chairwoman I believe we're tbling that until the January meeting so noted resolution number eight resolution authorizing the executive director to execute an amendment to the Engineering Services agreement with CME Associates for additional supplemental construction phase services for the sanitary sewer Rehabilitation project Mar Street area is there a motion to adopt this resolution motion to adopt all in favor I I I any oppose resolution is adopted resolution number nine resolution to refund and over an overpayment relative to 44 Bolton courts Somerset New Jersey 08873 is there a motion to adopt the resolution so MO is there a second second second all in favor I I I any oppos resolution is adopted resolution number 10 resolution to adopt the audit for fiscal year ending May 31st 2024 is there a motion to adopt that resolution move to adopt is there a second all in favor I any oppose resolution is adopted with that said uh is there a motion is there a need to go into executive session I don't have any need I do not either uh chair War thank you okay in that case is there a motion to adjourn the meeting so M second all in favor I I in your PO okay with that thank you everyone all right happy holidays everyone happy holidays be safe by see you next year all right bye bye good byebye [Music]