e e think e e e thank you everybody for coming uh if you could please stand for a moment of silence and salute to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the Union County Hawk advertised on January 4th 2024 notification was sent to the Star Ledger and is posted on the municipal website the municipal public bulletin board and filed in the office of the municipal clerk informing the public of the time in place according to the the provisions of the open public meeting Law chapter 231 pl1 1975 roll call please miss Cameron mayor blumenstock here councilwoman Bodo here councilman Foley he is excused councilman Lazaro here councilwoman ndi here councilwoman salmon here council president Carney here uh roll call of staff and professionals please Sandy Bruns assistant administrator CFO here Adam Abramson borrow attorney Doug stoer chief of police here Mike disco burrow engineer here okay we'll get started uh with our report from our burrow engineer Mr Disco e e e yeah we'll talk about it after your your report I think e e e e on the list after I got an email from was the issue that I e open cont story in the spring I will getes from them Min work think this is a probably but that's that seems to be the solution the end of the day that's what it is probably line know the chief hasc Street the railroad problem should okay thank you Mr disco and thank you kudos to keeping all of these Street projects straight um and thank you for looking into uh this with Mr Dixon I did speak with him um and so while it kind of stinks that it's that big a problem at least we now finally know and we can take care of it um does anybody have any questions for Mr disco before I begin the infrastructure Grant conversation okay okay so um as Mr disco mentioned the Union County infrastructure Grant uh is uh due next week um I have been talking to miss Bruns uh about this as well as Mr disco but in the finance committee I know has had some discussions about it as well um one of the items that I know Finance was looking at was the flooring uh in the police department uh burrow off Administration offices and here in council chambers uh Miss Bruns did get some estimates that came out to about 33,000 uh and so given that this is a matching Grant we usually get about 35,000 give or take and here's hoping we get around the same thing we did get a little bit more last year so maybe we will um we can do this we can apply that as well as uh something else or a couple of things and we can if I remember correctly with this grant we can kind of list them in priority and then when we find out how much we get then we can make the decision together um but uh so I wanted to put it out there the only thing that Miss Bruns and I had talked about with some some of the banners around town as a community uh Improvement project is some of them are getting very old and faded and um perhaps could use uh some updatings not all of them but some of them um so I wanted to put that out out there I know we had just spoken uh previously that you had another idea and I think it could work as well yes thank you mayor so last year with the infrastructure Grant we were looking into putting a duckus AC unit in the breakroom at the DPW for some reason we didn't get to that last year so I'm hoping we can add it on for this year so I think um Mr Harris had an estimate somewhere we'll have to look through his files to see where they are um did you want okay um I know when we updated the electric down there we had that in mind there is a a dedicated line on the one side for that we did prepare for it so if we can't find that maybe we can speak with um our superintendent and uh our foreman to see if they can get something I think if we're we're remembering correctly it was like what you said about 8,000 maybe that's what I remember I think if we put in for the flooring if we put in for some banners and if we put in for or that that would kind of equal out to sort of you know that 35 and our matching um and you know we again we can see how much we get and then make the priority decisions if if it turns out that we need to um any other thoughts on it is there um anything Mr disco that you think um the infrastructure Grant should you know I knew you talked about a number of things that you we can roll into um projects that we already have coming but is there anything that you feel um from either sidewalk projects at all at all that you think would also be things that we should consider at least applying for or or not I think we're in very good shape with what about sidewalk ex like do you think that applying for I know we had talked I think a while ago about eventually extending the sidewalk on West Street um you know do you is that something we could add to that list and then we obviously we don't have to commit to it but just even having it as a option existing to consider as you know for the grant I think the priority is the flooring um and I agree we should definitely do the DPW because that's something we had decided to do the electric work I think those are our top priorities and then we'll see if we can add maybe the sidewalk does that sound like something that everyone would be on board with is ending looking into extending the sidewalk on West Street for example because we are starting that project on up to I it was Spruce or something um yeah and we could be sidewalks on E or other other streets that we can and we can take a closer look maybe have the um uh the citizens advisory take a look at it as an option as well so um obviously I think I've talked about it up here I know I've talked to Mr disco about it um about getting some more crosswalks Al along West further back because we do have some kids who cross West to come to school um and it is tough because there is no sidewalk so I'm all forward you know extending That Sidewalk past Spruce so that we can finally do that um would you have to provide estimates to that's easy enough to provide Miss brones to put in okay um listen I think it's let's pile it in see what we get then we can make the decision I agree on having citizens advisory take a look um everybody good okay all right so miss Bruns we we have our our Walkin orders on that thank you does anybody else have uh anything for Mr disco than okay well thank you and um you're free to go I always forget to say that so I'm not thank you I appreciate your your help with this uh moving on to our report from our bur attorney okay report from our assistant administrator uh just a brief comment on an ordinance that's on the agenda tonight ordinance 2410 the sewer and Industrial Waste and fees the bar engineer calculates the industrial sewer rate based on the overall sewer cost of the RV rvsa billing the 2024 rvsa charges increased 16% over 20 23 and that is reflected in the new G which this is in this ordinance that's all for my report mayor okay thank you Miss BRS okay I have a h small report uh well I spoke too soon at our last meeting I want to start off tonight by thanking dispatcher John drone and the PD uh for getting our electric sign back up uh they got it back up and running this past weekend I still don't know how they did it given what Lifeline told us but they pulled off a miracle here so they seem to be able to do that so uh thank you very much for your perseverance Chief and and Mr drone uh we appreciate it um so everybody can check it out the clock is correct um I wanted to provide the public with an update on affordable housing uh bill s50 which was written to overhaul the way affordable housing in New Jersey is created and calculated was signed by Governor Murphy yesterday so in my opinion as well as that of the league of municipalities while well intentioned and obviously needed um and while some of the changes it makes do push affordable housing in the right direction I think this bill did have amendments added to it that could cause concerns for landport municipalities such as ours uh there is a section 23 for those that want to take a look uh that is uh a requirement now for a municipality that receives a vacant land adjustment uh they need to address 25% of that adjusted obligation in this next round uh again this is a new requirement and could be an issue for municipalities like ours with very little land left to develop um and also a concern in the bill is just some language that could possibly reduce protections from Builder remedy lawsuits it's just that the language is very Broad and open to misinterpretation from what I believe is the actual real legislative intent um so the league had asked this bill to be held to address some of these changes and over my many discussions with other Mayors um I would say the concern was warranted however it was signed into law um and I want the public just to be aware that this is something the council will have to deal with very shortly uh according to the bill numbers for municipalities will come out in the fall uh and we will have a very small period of time to then come up with an affordable housing agreement with the DCA so Switching gears uh as you can see on the agenda local government week is coming to New Jersey once again from April 7th to 13th we will celebrate the different people and departments that keep this town running smoothly for this year's local government week we're going to do things a little bit differently each day our social media channels will feature a video where residents can meet the people behind the scenes here in Garwood in our various departments from police to our finance department and Beyond uh will'll give residents a quick peek at the employees and volunteers who serve our community so keep an eye out online for our local government week series and that is all for me so we'll move to comments from the council councilwoman Bodo no comments today mayor thank you uh councilman Lazaro nothing for me councilwoman ndi I have just a couple of things to say so I just wanted to um uh give a a thank you a huge thank you to our um uh Garwood partnership for arts and culture volunteer Gabby bevens for her program discover art and nature this past weekend she led participants on a beautiful spring morning walk around the recreation center Park and the kids drew lots of pictures of all the nature that they found they drew trees flowers Birds insects Twigs Stones um and they really enjoyed their experience so thank you to Gabby for for doing that and also this past weekend was the Garwood town skate night at waren Ino and everyone that attended enjoyed thank you to katcha lysc for organizing and uh for photos of both of these events please follow the burrow on Facebook and Instagram thank you yes I know we had over a hundred attendees which was great atate night and I did come up at the nature walk towards the end and the kids were so excited to show me their journals so that was that was a really great activity um okay thank you councilwoman salmon no comment this evening council president Carney uh no comments tonight mayor okay minutes miss Cameron uh yes minutes of the meeting of the uh mayor and Council held on March 7th 2024 minutes of the executive session meeting of Mayor and Council held on may7 2024 uh can I have a motion to accept the regular meeting and executive session minutes as presented so moved second all in favor I I opposed Communications miss Cameron New Jersey state League of municipalities received and filed coun Cranford regarding ordinance received and filed Bruce Patterson citizen regarding various correspondence received and filed we will now move to our ordinance portion of the meeting miss Cameron uh we have one uh ordinance up for adoption can you please read ordinance 24-9 by title only yes an ordinance to create part two general legislation chapter 99 health and sanitation new article 9 section 42 non-reusable food and beverage accessories in the code of the burrow of Garwood do we have any correspondence concerning this ordinance we do not mayor okay it's time to open to the public does anyone present wish to be heard concerning ordinance number 24-9 please come up and and state your name and address on y everybody uh Russ Graham 12 Liberty Court um I rise in support of the ordinance and um I think it's one of the few times it's actually win-win for everybody uh the businesses um they they still have to provide it only if it's asked for so they're still going to buy the stuff but it'll go a long ways and they're going to see a savings over time so uh that's wonderful for them and people that are going to eat a salad in the car don't have to use their fingers they could still get plastic utensils I mean a lot of us get take out we go home we have we don't use the plastic so as Mr near out upsh sure will point out it ends up in the trash or in a junk drawer which eventually ends up in the trash so uh it is a win-win and uh I support it and I welcome uh the misali like ours um in addressing it and I hope that enough attention is drawn to it that the state will adopt it um as others have done so uh it's a cool thing so thank you thank you hi Jill Paul 543rd Avenue I agree with uh Mr Graham I think it's you know when I was sick um after my surgery and everything I got more takeout from my family than you guys could ever imagine and what I will say is maybe it's just the places that we ordered from but for the most part they actually weren't um including this stuff which we also appreciated because you know what I have ketchup I have soy sauce I have my preferred Brands I have forks I care about the environment and and if my mom or dad wanted something specific they would say hey can you throw this in and they would but I will tell you that the majority of places we have been ordering from or had been ordering from didn't include all that nonsense Marty young with clean water action I just want to thank you all very much for moving this forward um and I want to thank everybody who has come up and reiterate what they have said I know that there are con some some concerns with maybe government overreach that is not the intent as people have come up and said before the purpose is to just remove the Clutter that we don't want it's not to remove the things that we do want if we want it then we can ask for it you know Dunkin Donuts and McDonald's can lay you know can have it out ready for people to take as needed um it's not again it's not a matter of enforcing I think the restaurants you know as as people have said the restaurants it sounds like in Garwood are doing a great job as it is with not providing it um and they will probably continue to do that as people realize that that's what we should be doing because it's saving the money it's saving all of us clutter um and we will be doing education for the town it sounds like you guys have a very wellth thought out um path forward I am happy to help out um in any way I can um with educating the public with educating the town but it sounds like you know that won't be an issue just like with the bag band it took us all a little while to figure it out and then it wasn't an issue um but I'm happy to be here to answer any questions and concerns because I I agree I think this is an absolute win-win for everybody and I don't really want it in you know people do get sick the plastic breaks down and we all end up getting sick it's in our Bloods and it's just a simple way to reduce uh the unnecessary Plastics thank you very much good evening mayor council members my name is Brian Thompson I'm a member of the mammoth Beach environmental commission and I just want to assure everyone that this is a bipartisan issue I live in a republican town and all you have to do is look at the votes we are Republicans in Mammoth Beach Stone Harbor already has this ordinance it is an entirely I don't know about your political makeup everybody on the Stone Harbor mayor to council is all Republican they already have this ordinance they've had it for uh a couple of years I believe Mammoth Beach is now at the urging of the environmental commission which I belong to which as I say is a republican town is in the process of attorney development of the ordinance looking at what Stone Harbor has what Redbank just past what Maplewood okay Maplewood is the People's Republic of Maplewood but that's another matter uh so so it has broad political support and uh from from the right to the left and back again and I did a survey of the restaurants uh food eateries whatever you want to call them in Monmouth Beach by foot walking from one to the other we don't have that many and every one of them said this would save us money we like it and I can assure you you know you can have the display out there if you want they can just pick it up um otherwise just have them ask for it if they need it but I know I got sick and tired of all the plastic forks and knives and spoons that I found in my kitchen drawer recently and I even tweeted a picture of it so I would uh I would applaud you for taking this step uh it shows true leader ERS ship in New Jersey right now when we are faced with a tidal wave plastic waste this sort of thing is urgently desperately needed thank you good evening mayor ladies and gentlemen of the council Bruce Patterson 325 Willow Avenue uh I I'm for sustainability but I mean it has to have common sense behind it um you know there needs a broader strategy that needs to be addressed uh some kind of balance between the environmental goals and and the uh practicality of what you're trying to enforce there was the other meeting when it was first introduced uh it was said that it would reduce garbage on our streets and so I said well let me go take a look you know I Pro to myself is that true and and I actually walked uh the block from CVS to the aolian castle and went Wendy's McDonald's grilled Creations wels Farms two pizza places barbecue that was about 2600 feet both sides and looking in the gutter in the right away I saw like seven items um you know I looked for condiment packages plastic straws stirs and plastic utensils I saw seven items that worked out to about one item every 430 ft which is like finding one item every football field if you walk I'm sorry a football field in a half no that then you see an item so I I don't I also did between Terell Bill likes this bill between Terrell and Leland and that was about one every 300 feet which is one football field and he knows exactly what's over there a lot of lot of food places but I but just and in fact actually there you know you guys various organizations put out you know what they were doing Road cleanups North Avenue South Avenue and they put out articles in the newspapers and I didn't see anything about condiment packages straws utensils stirs I saw nothing like that listed in any of these articles I had a copy of three articles I'm not going to read it but it's it's not listed I have copy here so anyway so what I'm I'm saying is table it for now and I'm just you know it looks like you're leaning towards it but you need to just tweak it just one more time tweak have the pl the food places actually ask if you like ketchup or straw I mean it's strange to give somebody a uh a glass through the drive a glass of soda or plastic container through through the drive and not even give them straw but have the establishments ask the people I do that at at Burger King I go to Burger King and Burger King does that and it's and it's convenient this way is is just putting the onus on on the people and John bck I don't know if he's listening or not but John bck said it right I mean you know the the progressives are trying to regulate every human activity right down to a trivial bit of like a condiment package so have the establishments actually ask the people don't just have the people ask the establishments that's putting an inconvenience on them they forget and they go home and you know then they're missing out on soy sauce or whatever it is so that's my uh that's my request at least one more tweak thank you hi um Debbie Ledger I live at 662 Avenue I've been on those those cleanups picking up the trash and carrying the the bags the whole length of North Avenue and by the time we're finished those bags we've usually got three or four of them they're usually you know around 10 15 pounds a piece and I've picked up an awful lot of straws wrappers ketchup packets napkins bags I I'm not sure I guess you picked a good day because the debris is significant we used to pick up a lot of shopping bags but we don't get a lot of those anymore and my understanding of the the ordinance was that you could have those things if you want them so I'm not really sure what the dispute is but I support the ordinance because it would be nice to have a little less to carry on those clean thank you is there anybody else in the audience did I see a hand okay hello I'm Amy Goldsmith I'm the New Jersey state director for clean water action and um this program to skip the stuff is part of a larger effort called rethink disposable we're doing an incredible amount of work with Meals on Wheels and other programs to get them to use reusables and we're being very successful um we're finding many institutions are saving you know anywhere from 30 to 40 to 50 to $70,000 by not using these things um but by using either reusables we're not even asking people to re use reusables here we're just asking people to um make the request for those items and as has been mentioned it will save businesses thousands of dollars you know you think each straw oh it's an incidential amount of money but when you add it up it adds up really fast and if you have have a successful business you are spending thousands of dollars every year on this stuff that you don't need to buy therefore you can put more money into your business and most of the businesses that are supplying food um and meals are small businesses so we want to make sure that the businesses in town are thriving um as I know you do and um sometimes that margin that little margin of ,000 do or 2,000 makes a big difference um so I really um it is an environmental issue um it is something that uh makes our neighborhoods and our streets you know uh less clogged with clutter and and and trash um but it is also something that makes good business sense so I just want to applaud you for bringing this forward um and we are working on other towns I live in Redbank and we did pass our ordinance last week I know Cranford did it long ago as part of their um you know when they pass their plastic bag so um you would be in the company of neighbors um but you would also be in the company of other towns um around the state and we are working to get enough towns to then have a Statewide policy and we will be um working with GrubHub and others you know to to uh change their policy so that it's a affirmative check off that you want something as opposed to a negative so thank you very much for your hard work and and um attention to this matter thank you good evening Bill nearad 320 Hickory Avenue I wasn't sure if I was going to speak uh particularly following uh the executive the director but um just a couple things I too participated in an awful lot of those uh North Avenue cleanups and I'm the one who writes those articles so maybe I didn't write in there condiments okay but um there are other things that are actually I will will certainly admit that we pick up more okay cigarette butts okay if we can have an ordinance I'm only kidding I want have anybody come down and tell me okay you know but you know I mean that's we pick up more than anything else okay but um uh they are picked up we do have obviously establishments that use disposables if we can enact this uh and and you know become law in in Garwood that would be great I think we're on The Cutting Edge of moving this along hopefully as Amy said it will indeed become Statewide this is how the plastic bag band did begin with municipalities adopting it and finally uh ending up with such support throughout the state that it became a state law so um I decided to come up because I figur I'd be Biff if I didn't say something people say why didn't he say something so um at this point I support it I look forward to its adoption tonight and I want to thank clean water action for coming up tonight as they have in support of this thank you thank you uh is there anybody else in the audience is there anybody online who wishes to speak okay please state your name and address hi this is Michelle capab biano at poral for mytle Hi how are you Hi good thank you um at the last council meeting I also I you know I stated before that I feel that this should not be an ordinance at this point it should be a conversation and a Community Education initiative I I don't think any of us disagree that you know conservation and and things like that are are not a good idea but making decisions in a vacuum by not Consulting and partnering with our local businesses especially the large fast food restaurants that this is going to affect the most is not the way to go about this um I actually stopped into Donald and the longtime manager there I I asked her and she knew nothing about this and she said that there would definitely be some issues with them especially at the drive-thru doing this um you know they have corporate mandates and so you know these are the kinds of things that should be thought about and planned for and talked about before an ordinance is ever brought forward um keeping the the stakeholders everybody involved in what obstacles they may face by having to do this before ordinance is brought forward and passed well you know that that's just common sense and you know you can't expect to enact an ordinance and then people you know if they have to redo their systems or something you know like there's all these things that need to be thought about and I just feel that this should be put on pause and all that information should be gathered first and that's all I have to say thank you thank you is there anybody else who wishes to speak online Amani okay please state your name and address Valen 516 4th Avenue I just want I just wanted to say that I I do agree with Michelle um I'm not saying that this is terrible ordinance by any means I just feel like it was very impulsive and a a lot more research needs to be done at the last meeting I asked two questions um one of which were the local restaurants um did they have a conversation about this and this was you know two weeks ago the other question was did anyone have a conversation with the Westfield Regional Board of Health who would have to be doing uh the complaints or following up on the complaints uh the answers to those questions were one I didn't get an answer about the Board of Health and the other answer was the council person talked to two members of the small business Advisory Group and they were both indifference so it was apparent that none of the restaurants were consulted so I just don't believe like there was enough consideration for the rest of the restaurants in town to implement anything uh in the future in the near future I spoke with several restaurants in town and none of which were consulted I also stopped into Taco Bell and they had no knowledge of this whatsoever however they did say that at one of their locations this was implemented but they had at least eight months of communication leading up to the ordinance going into place so they had time to set up for like you know they have nationwide system so they had eight months communication uh I stopped into Wendy's and unfortunately he was going to come in and speak tonight but it appears that he did not or could not uh they have a nationwide system and in order for their POS system to even complete their orders they have to ask what kind of SAU they want with their chicken Etc they can't even complete the transaction without asking that question and this ordinance would actually put them in violation of a nationwide system that they have in place without any sort of notice so I just feel like this was just done very impulsively I'm not saying it's a bad thing but I think that a lot more thought process needs to go into it and more notice so I am asking that you and like I said a couple of weeks ago I strongly advise communication that it be tabled for now and I do understand that people are saying that they're picking up ketchup packets around town and they don't have to pick up bags anymore but to me that's not a condiment problem that's a littering problem that's a whole different issue so I'm my other question was popyes has anyone informed puy they're potentially moving into the Leal par parking lot if they find out about this ordinance and they had no knowledge of it prior to signing an agreement that could be a deal breaker so I just feel like more thought needs to go into this before it gets passed thank you thank you is there anybody else online on Mani I please state your name and address Ed Augustine 114 will it drive my question is how is this ordinance going to be enforced when the burough can't enforce other ordinances on the book okay thank you is there anybody else amanii okay um can I have a motion to close public hearing so moved second okay discussion um I just want to First address this is not uh something that the Westfield Board of Health would be involved in this is something that um would inevitably well in the ordinance it's B administrator or the design which would most likely be our code enforcement um councilman Carney do you want to speak to some of this because I know there is a little concern about the education um to the the different restaurants in town which there is obviously a plan for uh yeah there have been some you know anecdotal conversations I frequent a lot of places myself um it was 5050 on who knew about it before I said something about it um so uh we've been uh working to develop uh some informational Flyers that are going to go out um we actually have an example one here that the folks from uh clean water action uh gave us they were out with the agendas and the audience as well uh this is isn't so much uh what would be directed to businesses this is more an education piece for the public so we were planning on doing one of each of those things uh and also doing it on social media and uh I apologize for dropping this on you in the meeting Chief I was going to speak to you in the next committee meeting but I know we're about due for officers to do their Rounds Around Town and update the uh business contact listing I was going to ask if they could uh carry along a notification with them and just you know with a referral to speak to our public information officer for questions uh and I don't think the goal here was to come out of the gate uh sprinkling summonses around the town uh it's definitely going to be a A Conversation Piece before it moves into hardcore enforcement piece so I don't think that was anybody's intention up here and I well I I think it's kind of similar when we when we changed um some of the parking regulations and we we passed those ordinances obviously our Police Department wasn't out the next day writing tickets on some of those there's been a there is and there still is on ongoing education and flyers put out to the people who park on the street letting them know that this has come about um it's very similar to that uh being a small town is it's a that's a real big Pro in our town that we're small enough that we can do those sort of things and and get to everybody and reach everybody um and educate everybody about what's going on uh who who might be affected um and you know so yeah I don't see this enforce I don't see the Enforcement issue being one I said this last time and you know I'll repeat it where we you know somebody's coming down and and writing a ticket uh you know someone called the catch-up police you know um it this is this is uh for the good intentions that I think you you've heard um explained up here before and I and I and I understand the concerns but I do think that they will be addressed as we you know do educate the businesses that do serve food um and we educate the public did you have something else I see a hand I wanted to speak to the comments about the large National chains uh this is a state law in I believe three states and I know there's a fourth state looking at it these businesses all or these corporations all operate franchises in those States uh in some places this has been a law for well over a year it's a law in the city of New York which probably has more restaurants per square foot than any place in the world um there the large corporation should have no problem adapting to this but you know again certainly there will be contact made with everybody as the police are going around and as we push information out through social media and our email blast so uh we will do our best to get to everybody if I have to go out there and do it myself is there any other discussion okay um can I have a motion to adopt ordinance 24- 09 so moved second uh Mo uh sorry roll call Miss Cameron yes uh councilwoman Bodo I uh councilman Lazaro I councilwoman ndi I councilwoman salmon no council president Carney I okay uh we have one ordinance up for introduction tonight um miss Cameron can you ordinance 24-10 by title only yes an ordinance amending the burrow code of the burrow of Garwood by amending chapter 134 intitled sewers Article 5 Industrial Waste and fees subsection 134-141 so moved second a roll call please councilwoman Bodo hi councilman Lazaro I councilwoman ndi hi councilwoman salmon hi council president Corney I all right moving along to our Council standing committee report Finance um does anybody have a report for councilman Foley yes so the finance committee met on three separate occasions to iron out details of the 2024 budget here are some highlights of those meetings as the public can see on tonight's agenda resolution number 24- 074 is indicating that the finance committee has made a recommendation to move away from hybrid meetings while this was initially put in place due to covid there are a number of factors that have made our committee unanimously agree to move forward with this change in policy the most significant reason is the legal liabilities associated with moderating an online Forum a few months ago our former burough administrator was erroneously Accused by a resident for purposely sharing the phone number of a resident on the zoom Forum this led to a series of legal corresponden including a threat to Sue and money expended on legal fees that ultimately led the finance committee to determine that Garwood does not have the financial resources or abilities to sustain to sustain the cost of any litigation associated with this feature the money saved from eliminating the moderation of call-in public comments can be used to eventually upgrade sound quality for the recording of public meetings therefore Council meetings will still be accessible via Zoom for live streaming and on YouTube for later viewing but members of the public will need to attend the meeting in person if they desire to speak during public comment in addition residents are always welcome to send emails letters or call council members or the mayor to share their concerns and they can send also send an email with questions to our clerk to be read out at a council meeting a second major update has to do with the sewer Fay this has been discussed at length and while the committee is in agreement with the idea the timeline of the implementation will be slowed down we're looking to introduce a sewer ordinance sometime in late May or June so we can iron out the language and details with our new burough administrator and attorney again we will continue to update as we move along that path and finally I want to remind the mayor council and the public that the special budget meeting will be on April 9th at 7M in council chambers that's all for my report thank you councilman and I I understand the um that there are residents that might be um saddened by not being able to participate in public comment online um even though they'll be able to watch on Zoom or YouTube um but due to those reasons uh that you stated it just uh I I do agree that that we need to um eliminate it at this point um and again anybody who is at home who needs to um who who isn't able to make it is able to email the clerk uh before the meeting and have their questions read uh into public comment for an answer um okay uh we are fire and OEM councilman Lazaro first I want to report on the fire incident that occurred on Saturday March 9th on the 500 block of spruce thank you to our fire department for responding to this kitchen Fire Within 6 minutes of it being reported the fire was put out and while there's uh some smoke damage to the property no residents were injured thank you to the Garwood fire department for the incredibly quick response and to the community for quickly reaching out via social media to see if they can help the family affected also we received correspondence from the New Jersey Division of fire safety in this letter it was noted that Chief scal adona and deputy chief Gregory took a proactive approach and made contact to ensure their Department was up to State Standards prior to the njdfs receiving any complaint from the public this letter which is coming from the highest accreditation Agency for fire safety also stated that officers in the Garwood fire department were in compliance and are qualified to perform at a fire related incident we are also full in full compliance regarding hazardous materials incidences all Garwood firefighters are trained to handle the most common of these incidents and three officers have The Incident Commander certification to operate at the highest level calls as well DFS did a full inspection and also gave the department some recommendations for the future but they have been deemed fully qualified to continue to provide the services our town has come to expect and I'm grateful to the fire department for being being proactive and working to put any concerns the public might have to rest finally I want to make it clear that while disgruntled former firefighters will likely continue to poke holes or disparage the garard fire department mayor and Council the state has made it abundantly clear that the department is properly trained and certified and I will not give voice to concerns that have disingenuous intentions to settle a score with members of our fire department as an aside the division of fire safety made some recommendations to our burough attorney to better align the wording in our fire code with the state's requirements by amending some technical language Mr Aon is working on these changes and will most likely have that for the council for our next meeting even though our code can never supersede the states anyway it is certainly better to ensure for the future that it is cohesive with the state's language and that's all for my report thank you Council uh Community Development councilwoman salmon thank you mayor I have no official report today we are still in conversations are ongoing with the paper Board site thank you uh Public Works councilwoman Bodo thank you mayor um in addition to the requiring activities Public Work employees perform pothole repairs on the north and south side of the buau including but not limited to the following areas intersection of Cedar Street and North Avenue Walnut Street gville Road New Street Kenedy Plaza they installed new playground mulch at hotman Park changed the seasonal decorative banners in various locations perform street sweeping due to the warm weather and my favorite activity of this report they prepare the sports complex for the Easter egg hunt on Saturday I'm really hoping the R willare Us we'll see there were a few items referred to the committee for review one of those items was the clock outside B hole as you mentioned it is working thank than to council president Kerney for the time he also spent making it happen with regards to the T-Mobile home toown Grant uh we are meeting on March 26 to discuss the application process I will provide further details at our next meeting and lastly I was able to speak with superintendent Dixon in connection to the street opening ordinance and we'll have an update once we meet with him next week that's all from our report thank you thank you councilwoman uh police council president Carney uh thank you mayor just uh calling everyone's attention to resolution 24-70 on tonight's consent agenda and I want to extend congratulations to Sergeant sugs and Sergeant pridey on their promotion uh sergeants are the backbone of any law enforcement agency and I know these two gentlemen will do the title and the Garwood Police Department proud uh and also I just want to quickly Echo uh your thanks uh earlier mayor to dispatcher John Dron who uh reached back into a personal Museum of laptops uh using versions of Windows from the turn of the century uh to be able to tap into our electronic sign out front uh dispatchers are well known for their Ingenuity and especially for perseverance in the face of cranky technology so uh again well done sir and uh that's all for this report thank you uh Community engagement councilwoman ndi yes thank you mayor um my report is a little bit long tonight so be patient the Garwood partnership for arts and culture is celebrating National poetry month in April with the first annual Garwood poetry Festival the weekend of April 20th 21st local poets please submit your poems to be considered for my to my burough email coldi garwood.nj and at the crossroads at 12: on Sunday April 21st due date for all poetry submissions is April 5th the next regular meeting of gek will take place on April 8th at 6:30 the recreation committee met for its regularly scheduled meeting on March 1st at 7:30 the committee worked out details of the upcoming townwide Easter celebrations as well as discussed upcoming Recreation offerings so we have our Easter egg hunt on Saturday we hope at the sports complex at 11:00 a.m. the rain date is Saturday March 30th at 300 p.m. this is for children uh toddlers through third grade bring your own basket there will be a raffle DJ and pictures with the Easter Bunny there's also the Easter Bunny drive around the Garwood Recreation committee and the Garwood fire department are excited to announce the Easter Bunny drive around scheduled for Saturday March 30th the Easter Bunny will make his way around town starting at 10:00 a.m. there are several Recreation programs that I would like to highlight tonight uh the stem program beginner youth python coding program is being run during spring break it will take place Wednesday Thursday and Friday April 3rd through 5th from 9 to 12 and this is open to 3rd through 8th graders um the activities will include analyzing Pokemon cards using python creating Morse code translator in Python and encrypting and decrypting messages in moris code um so there's a lot of interesting things going on laptops will be provided and this program is run by Zera data anal analytics please register soon okay uh parent assist soccer and soccer Squirts and uh is open on Saturday mornings so there's three different levels um one is for ages 2 and a half to three and a half these are all um um and the other ones are three to four and a half and four to five and a half all of these soccer um uh activities are happening on Saturday mornings um they start April 13th and go until May 18th so there's something for every um age level um from the very smallest to ages five and a half um these programs will provide fundamental skills of soccer including dribbling passing shooting and defending classes will include a series of fun challenges structured activities and scrimmages adapted to ensure everyone achieve success the Garwood summer camp is scheduled for June 24th to August 9th 9:00 a. to 12: p.m. this is for Rising 1 through 8th graders registration is open now and if you register before May 24th you can get the early bird registration rate of $110 per child the next Recreation meeting is April 8th at 7:30 uh no report for historical this month the next meeting of historical committee is Monday um Monday I don't know the 23rd okay thank you it's all oh the 25th no the 25th the 25th I have it written down yes I will have a report at the next meeting about the historical and that is all for my report thank you Library mayor's representative councilman Lazaro thank you mayor uh some of the upcoming events include on March 25th and Mondays in April at 10:30 a.m. you can join the knitting club which is open to all levels on April 11th at 3M there's a build it bean bag toss uh program where you can swing a hammer and go home with a bean bag toss game which great for the spring right uh for kids in third grade and older limit of 10 April 9th at 3 p.m. for kids and April 16th at 3 p.m. for adults join the library for virtual crafts pick up your craft supplies and follow the instructions registration is required for craft kits and is limited 10 participants for adults and 15 for kids sign up on the libraries website event calendar or by phone on April 17th at 10: a.m. to noon the ask kiosk aging service will be available this is the Union County division of Aging staff uh they assist seniors or their caregiv givers with information on services such as meal delivery respit care adult daycare and support services for caregivers um and then as mentioned uh by councilman uh councilwoman NY on April 20th at 11:30 a.m. the poetry reading in honor of national poetry month the Garwood Council for arts and culture will hold a poetry reading at the library featuring local artists and just a reminder the library will be closed on March 29th and 30th for the Easter holiday that's all for my report thank you councilman uh School Board liaison council president Carney uh thank you mayor and councilman Lazaro I'm looking forward to your poetry entry uh so the Garwood Board of Education held their regular March meeting this past Tuesday uh the 19th I think I'm a little I'm confused about dates now so uh the business administrator Mrs Pinto uh provided a preliminary overview of the district's upcoming budget uh the presentation was fairly comprehensive and I'd urge anyone looking for a full accounting of it to call up the video recording of the board's meeting on the Garwood schools Facebook page uh items of note in the budget uh the school district is dealing with many of the same challenges which affect local government budgeting uh including increased costs due to Rising salaries and health benefit costs which the district is projecting a $1.17 million cost for the upcoming fiscal year uh Additionally the need for technology and facility upgrades and the loss of Co era Federal funding sources uh one bright spot for them was an increase of 10.62% in state aid uh and also increased funding from the state for the district's preschool expansion uh the district is estimating this year's tax impact at 168 uh dollars per year using the most recent averaged assessed home value uh this number is likely to change by a few dollars uh either way between now and the formal adoption of the budget uh the board will be holding a special meeting to adopt this year's Budget on Tuesday April 30th uh in his monthly report superintendent Kenny uh referenced numerous school activities and also reminded us about a construction project which begins on or about March 29th uh that project will include the replacement of sidewalks along alongside the school building uh so there may be a need to plan an alternative walking route while the project is in Pro progress uh this will most likely last until about a week after spring break uh there's an overhead map of the project area shown in the full superintendence report which is posted on the Garwood schools website uh just click on Administration from the main page and follow the link under Mr Kenny's name for the most current report uh again I encourage everyone in Garwood not just current parents uh with children in the schools to check these excellent and detailed reports out uh about our school district uh also mayor blumenstock and I continued our monthly meetings with superintendent Kenny and the board president uh we were joined this month by two additional members and discussed revisions to the facility usage policy uh the use of the school building for inclement weather Days by the summer Recreation program uh and Concepts regarding the possibility of continued pilot program Revenue sharing uh I've relayed some information on that last topic over to the finance committee for followup uh and I'm looking forward to our April meeting as I feel we're making a lot of positive progress between our two governing bodies uh finally the board's next regular meeting is scheduled for Tuesday April 16th and that's all for this report thank you council president I have our senior uh report um at our club meeting today though he wasn't able to attend I let the club know I would be honoring uh Mr Pat def fabiio with a mayor's Proclamation for his 16 years of service as the senior Club president um and he uh this Proclamation was dropped off at his house along with some goodies from um fellow senior club members uh Carol Hart and Carol Lombardo uh and he was very appreciative of it uh Pat has volunteered in Garwood in many ways over his 96 years and his work with the senior Club is just one of the many many ways he has given back to our community I'd like to quickly read his proclamation to the record I told him I would so I hope he's listening um Mr Pat defabio has been a resident since the age of eight years old Mr defabio joined the Garwood fire department uh on January 3rd 1951 at the age of 23 he served the Garwood Fire Department in various roles until his retirement from the Department in 2022 Mr defabo also served several years on both the Garwood fire preven Bureau and the Garwood first aid Squad Mr defabio remains an active volunteer on several Garwood Community organizations he is an active member of the Garwood historical committee and the Garwood citizens advisory panel Mr defabio embodies our bur MTO of being a small town with a big heart for his extraordinary dedication and commitment to our community Mr defabio Dedication shines no greater than in his work for the Garwood senior club for 16 years Mr defabio served as president of the Garwood senior Club until he stepped back in 2024 the many hours he spent in commitment to the G Garwood seniors is unmatched Mr def Fabia REM maintained a warm and positive demeanor demeanor during his time as president of the Garwood senior club uh his many days calling Bingo numbers will always be remembered with fondness and laughter as he often delighted the members with his jokes and it is with great pride that I mayor Jen blumenstock publicly thank Mr Pat defabio for the remarkable leadership he has provided to the Garwood senior Club over these years so Pat thank you for your time as president and here's to many more years at the bingo table with us so our next meeting is April 4th at 12:00 p.m. at the kns of Columbus and we will have the Union County surrogate Chris Hudak attending to talk about their services and what they can provide for the Garwood Community um small business advisory council president Carney uh no Small Business Report tonight mayor but I just want to take the opportunity to say Pat to Fabio is a legend and yes he is welld deserved um Board of Health um does anybody have a report for councilman Foley uh in fact I do I attended the meeting uh in his place uh last night uh so the Garwood Board of Health did meet yesterday March 20th uh and welcomed our burrow clerk miss Cameron uh who is replacing Kathleen wor binsky there after her retirement last month uh the board discussed the current rates of respiratory infections and flu and covid activity all of which are at a moderate level uh another topic of discussion was the report of a confirmed case of measles uh which was reported in Camden County during the month of January uh along with this there was a CDC ad advisory to healthc care providers Nationwide uh warning that cases of measles are on the rise as of uh March 14th of this year there have been 58 confirmed cases uh which is equal to the total confirmed reports Nationwide for all of 2023 uh discussion from the board continued on the impact of vaccine resistance uh which is now showing up in one way with the steady increase of measles cases uh the board also continued discussion on the topics of Youth mental health and the board's Community engagement through participation in town and school events uh they're going to continue to work on that and I expect uh councilman Foley will have more in his next report uh the next Board of Health meeting will be held on May 15 and that's all for this report thank you uh planning board leaz on councilwoman salmon thank you mayor the next meeting of the planning board is March 27th okay moving right along to officers reports miss Cameron yes chief of police monthly reports for February 2024 can I have a motion to accept officers reports so moved second second all in favor I opposed okay we have hit our public comment portion of the meeting if there's anyone in the audience who wishes to address the mayor and Council please step to the microphone and state your full name and address please limit your comments to five minutes Johnny Richard 410 SP Garwood I'm glad that that clock in the front of the municipality has been fixed thank the Lord for that tonight I'd like to say that we must back our police officers and firefighters and risky Squad Personnel they're out there doing their duties when when called upon we need to back them up in every way then let me say this abolishing police departments abolishing fire departments and abolishing rescue squads is not the answer and Mark well will I just say ladies and gentlemen they are they should never be the answer we need to back them up every way they're out there the're ones you can can on they're the people who are I'll be there NE a fear kind of guy and gals I'll be there never you fear that's their Mantra that's their attitude we let's back them up in every way and we should also back our military personnel our army navy Marine Corps Coast Guard and Air Force we have some sons and daughters in the military services from Garwood they're out there defending our nation both at home and abroad we we failed to back up our men in Vietnam we lost three men from Garwood during the war they loved us so every day in 100 ways they told us so in honesty in affection they told us [Music] so they loved us so and every day in aund ways they showed us so with loyalty and bravey they showed us so they are Defenders and they kept us free they took an oath to guard us and fought for Liberty they loveed the so and we should know for we love soon and finally ladies and gentlemen we need to pressure the state legislature to reopen some closed hospitals such as milenberg but what if another 911 attack occurs we'll need those hospitals very very badly the soon reactivates some of the hospitals such as mberg the better off we all will be do I make myself clear thank you Mr P is there anybody else who wishes to address the mayor and councel hi Jill Paul 54 Third Avenue so first I want to say congratulations to the two new Garwood Police Department sergeants on their well-earned promotions um and thank you to our volunteer fire department and volunteer first aid squad for all you do I know that there's so much chatter online and honestly I hate people online because you all have big fists and big words and liking and just being nasty with no repercussions and honestly I hope that some of these private citizens here decide to sue y'all for the things that you've been saying about them because it's disgusting um I wanted to say thank you to um councilwoman Bodo for um listening when I talk about cardiac arrest and CPR and going and getting certified you have no idea how much that means when people say that that's what they've done um and so for the rest of you in back of me in front of me the Garwood first aid Squad is hosting a CPR um basic life support um CPR AED training on Sunday um if you're interested just go online reach out to them um and that is also a great fundraiser for the squad who we know is all volunteer and runs on donations right so um I did just want to I'm going to just say this because there's a lot of people here who have not been here my hand is shaking again which is weird the mission of the alra foundation is to raise awareness and funds to install all weather aeds in outdoor wck spaces while also providing crucial resources and educational opportunities to individuals and communities um we have had nearly 20 people in a matter of 48 Hours sign up for our survivor support groups which is amazing that really shows the mental health aspect there um I'm speaking at The Rotary meeting next Thursday early I don't know how I'm going to do it 7:45 in the morning um about the foundation and how people can get involved so if anybody's interested come down to that it's at the Cranford uh Community Center we are doing something fun and I know you are going to come on um April 14th we are having a Kine dog SE PR and first aid information um seminar and Mary Alverson who is considered the K9 expert here in Garwood and elsewhere is actually leading that discussion um and she's donating her time and the Garwood first aid Squad is donating their venue so it's $20 it's at 2 o'cl it's an hour if you register for that our foundation gets all of that money which is awesome um I know that we're well Chief uh not Chief right Sergeant right Captain right right what is I don't know what he is now um right is working on that Grant got that Grant in for the second um outdoor a enclosure um for Hartman if we don't get it we'll pay for it so I'll get the I'll get the funding for that um I will tell you when I heard about the virtual meetings and that whole option because again this is internet chatter that happens I was pissed um as the person in the community who is game time decision every every time there's a meeting because of my health and being chastised at the last meeting because of my lungs even though I said I'm not sick it's my lungs um that been going on for years um I was mad because I was like how am I going to participate right so I really appreciate that you are thinking about the AED I'm the AED sorry the ADA accommodations and letting people submit their public comments um so that it can be read here because that's really really important so I really encourage people again to get to the route and ask the questions instead of just assuming based on what other people say online lastly I just want to know if there is a social media policy on etiquette for the mayor and the council members because I think that that's really important to know and if not to may be put in place so that some of those likes um or angry faces aren't happening thank you sorry is there anybody else in the audience who wishes to address the mayor and councel good evening mayor ladies and gentlemen of the council Bruce Patterson 325 Willow Avenue uh I guess the next clock to work on is this one over here anyway uh just just the irony of uh you having the people on line that won't be able to to participate and to submit uh comments ahead of time but a lot of comments could come out of when you uh are speaking so just keep that in mind that you know somebody may want to comment on some what somebody said in their report I'm one of them a lot of times uh the uh yeah yeah the IR the irony of that is uh you know resolution 24071 you're celebrating New Jersey local government week and and then later on 074 is you're shutting down the uh comment period for the people online so to me that's a little irony um I just want to parse uh whatever the subterfuge that councilman lazro was saying about the fire department and of course you know people blast a Facebook uh people online and but yet something came out of it some facts and I forwarded you the Matrix showing who was certified fully certified and who wasn't and from what I understand uh councilman Lazaro saying is okay we have a ordinance that adds on a more stringent requirement onto this but I'm just going to go back to the state to see if the minimal requirement is met which obviously it is I guess from what you're saying however the more stringent requirement that was put in by our ordinance was not met so therefore they have not been certified according to the New Jersey statutes and according to our ordinance now councilman Lazo then uh said he was going to be working on adjusting a code I I would assume you're probably talking about the ordinance and what you're going to do is probably remove the more stringent requirements of being certified and go back to the minimum requirement of certified which I have no problem but it's just that Facebook actually came out sh that they were not fully certified according to the state law and the ordinance of the buau itself so I mean at this point you're not going to give it any voice well that's too bad because I I know you tried ducking things and that's what you did was it was subterfuge no I just want to point that out that they weren't certified and you're going to actually adjust things downward so they are certified so I mean you know here we are Facebook was right still wondering about the firet truck you haven't mentioned about the firet TRU at all that's out you know a $1.3 million firet Tru so I I really would like to know the status of that and in addition Chief scal adona I was hope was going to be here at least to answer some questions but for some reason you're afraid of them I guess so that's how it is thank you very much else in the audience who wishes to address the mayor and councel good evening mayor and Council uh Rachel her 614th Avenue um I just have a few questions that I'd like to get clarified the first one is that I O made an Oprah request back on February 15th and it's not been granted and it's almost five weeks uh we have a full-time Clerk and I'm unsure why an extension is cited you know why it's needed uh there's been op requests made after my request that have been granted so I honestly can't help but think it's an intentional issue but I would like you to clarify that um additionally um I want to get clarification of what was stated at the last mayor council meeting which was while I totally appreciate what you said councilman Lazaro um I want to know 100% on the record was an extension given to the Gard fire department to obtain their Hazmat certification because when I was on Council there was a different discussion so I just would like to know I'm not saying that they're not in the minimum standard requirements I just want to know were they given an extension um and then lastly in reference to the fire department um are there Sops that require all responding firefighters and officers to wear official safety gear on scene because I mean in my brain that's a liability if you're not but I don't know if that's like an official you know uh sop and then off of the fire department lastly I just wanted to know about the summer wreck program are Garwood residents allowed to go to the Clark wreck program because we're allowed to go there for you know the wreck the sports but I wasn't sure if they're allowed to go for summer wreck um because their programming is $65 for the same amount of time as our programming being 110 so um I just like some clarification for that and will our full-time recre director be physically running wreck or are we still hiring a Rec director and an assistant so those are my questions thank you address the mayor and Council is there anybody online in money please state your name and address hi this is Michelle Capo biano at 404 Myrtle again go ahead okay so councilman Lazaro and the rest of the burough Council um you said that a resident threatened legal action because a phone number was exposed so let's set the record straight once in for all that Resident is me Michelle cabano 404 Myrtle last year you the moderator showed my personal phone number the whole time I was talking I didn't know that that was happening it had never happened before I dial into the meetings the same exact way every single time for years I speak multiple times so to blame me for something when I am the victim is outrageous when I noticed this several days later when I watched back the YouTube video I immediately reached out to Kyle and the mayor and through email and anybody can opener those emails and find out exactly what happened Kyle gave me the runaround and told me it was my fault that I did something wrong and I said no the moderator displayed my phone number and it's funny because I had just been speaking about how our employees in our burough for five years Straight had not been trained properly on it security I find that very that you know my phone number is suddenly displayed I emailed you mayor I emailed Kyle went back and forth with Kyle a bunch of times he refused to do anything all I asked was that my phone number be redacted or the video be taken down you could fix it or something because it it's wrong it shouldn't have been done everybody refused to do it I reached out to the burrow attorney and the mayor a second time without Kyle and oh well you know because you I said I was going to contact my lawyer to see what could be done about it well we can't talk to you anymore so I got my lawyer involved my lawyer sent a letter and you still refus to do this this could have all been solved very easily so to sit here and try to blame a resident for something that your employees did is outrageous to me really and it's just a cop out from everything that's kind of gone on the past few months I didn't do anything wrong I called into the meetings I am I am just like baffled and if you really wanted anybody else to participate you could have people just phone in on a regular phone since the moderators can't seem to handle that that Scotch Plains does it Springfield does it they don't use zoom so to try and blame it on a resident is is really is really low so that's all I have to say about that thank you is there anybody else online ammani please state your name address please state your name and address Ed Augustine bor4 will it drive so back to the ordinance with the plastic forks and everything how can we enforce that if we can't enforce the ordinance with the fire department qualifications I mean if we can't enforce a safety ordinance how are we going to enforce a environmental ordinance also your top three officers in Gard fire department through oppr request are proven not to be qualified as inent commanders garard fire department policy is the most senior person on the fire scene is supposed to be the instent commander chief scal Zona not be an Incident Commander because he is not properly certified his second in command is also not properly certified to be an incident commander and the third is once again not qualified to be Incident Commander how are we allowing him to be an officer if he can't hold inent command Spruce saire was told to be all handled by the Numbers it's funny how no one in mentions how a Fire officer a lieutenant got hurt forcing the back the back door once again is this because he's incompetent as an Incident Commander or was it an accident but someone was hurt at that fire yet we all want to say no one wasn't why can't we just be honest about what's going on also this is just what what's going on with the ladder truck it was such a big need to have this ladder truck and now we're going on almost two months with it being down with no report being given on the status of the slatter truck we relied on mut Aid before the before the ladder truck so what was the purch the purpose of this $1.4 million purchase it's it's kind of like we just wanted a cool toy if it's for Public Safety why isn't there an urgent concern to get this taken care of and get it fixed let the public know what the estim is we were told back in the beginning of February that we were going to get updates on this and we haven't no one has said anything about the ladder truck and then also op requests it's kind of uh it it is suspicious how come certain op requests get answered before others um the spruce Sapphire an opal request was answered within two days 48 Hours another op request was issued for the fire report and yet in extension is requested what what is the reason for the extension it's kept on the computer all it has to do is be scanned and sent over but yet we're delaying it why is the town delaying these Oprah requests so that's all I have to say thank you thank you is there anybody else online amanii please state your name and address yes Colleen hay 516 4th Avenue um I just wanted to say that I I wasn't even gonna speak this time around um but actually Bruce Patterson brought up a very good point about the zoom sessions and um eliminating them and having the ability to write in or email in a question um but that actually was just a great point that was just brought up I listened to Michelle K biano talk and that was in um regards to something that councilman Lazo had said basically blaming a resident for the reason that the zoom sessions are not going to be going forward now when I read the agenda the other night I literally was under the impression that because it was uh brought forward by the finance committee that it was a financial issue so had I emailed that question it would have been way off Bas but now I'm going going to speak where I wasn't going to speak because of what was said at the physical meeting so I again I was under the impression it was for financial reasons so if that's the case then it's under $500 a year to uh do a zoom a professional level versus a government level and my next question is if we can keep it going forward which I really would appreciate because a lot of times I'm babysitting and I can't physically make it to the meetings so I appreciate being live online and listening to the meetings why is the um why why is there a separate moderator monitoring the computer when it actually should be the public information officer which I believe is also under the recreation director so if she's being paid to be the public information officer why isn't she moderating the meetings so I am for keeping the zoom meetings live I would appreciate that there are a lot of other residents that would appreciate that as well because not everybody can physically attend the meetings and again to Bruce's point this was a perfect example as to why the email questions won't work thank you thank you is there anybody else am Man online okay can I have a motion to close public comment so second second all right um all in favor I opposed okay um in terms of uh I'll answer the questions that were asked thank you everybody for your comments I I will go ahead and answer any questions the firet TRU there is no update because you haven't been given an update because there is no update at this point it is still being um examined in terms of the insurance company um and so we're we're in the same place we were last time when there is uh movement we will let you know um in terms of Sops for safety gear that I wouldn't know we have we'll have to get you an answer to that from uh the fire department um Mr uh uh I can answer the summer wreck I okay go ahead okay so I can answer the questions about the recreation um I can't tell you for sure whether Clark would um accept uh out of town participants you'd probably need to check with Clark um but what I can tell you about um the question about whether katcha would be on the field with the kids on the days of the um uh Camp is that um right now she's providing us a valuable service and that she's planning and preparing all the activities uh she's also going to be hiring um all of the um Camp counselors um and the recreation program wants to you know we want to provide a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone uh that participates and so therefore we think that uh more adult supervision is better than less adult supervision um so she will be on hand to assist in any way um but she does carry uh several other responsibilities that she has uh with her job such as a public information officers that would prevent her from really just being on the field all day with the kids so she will be providing supervision she will be um on hand in case there's any um you know any issues that come up but she will not be uh a camp counselor she will be on you know on call all right does that answer the question I think so okay um Mr Abramson do you want to talk about the Oprah requests a little bit as to why it's not all equal each request is not equal and that's kind of I believe when there's request your request we don't have certain capabil Compu I believe that is ConEd and you should be receiving a response from the so I think it it's with we have to get it from your firm right so it's not intend it's just that not every request is is able to pull up right away and it it really depends on the request so it's not something you can put it necessarily as it come it's not first come first serve it's it's depends on the type and what is available right at that moment um so that's that um uh in terms of social media etiquette I don't believe we do have a a social media policy for Council I'm not even sure I'm not right right no I don't we don't have a we have a social media policy for our um employees um and as well as our Volunteers in our volunteer groups I'm not sure honestly if elected officials how that would be legally I mean I don't mind having one myself I I think they're great to have um but I'm not sure that would have to be something we would have to look into if legally because it's uh elected official if they you could have that I wouldn't know um so we can look into that um and then um in terms of the the um the hybrid um did you want to speak to that councilman yeah um so first of all I mean there's a lot of factors that led to this decision um but the main factor because it was finance committee is financial it still is Financial because you know regardless of of you know uh you know by no means do I I'm not going to you know try to pick a fight with a resident I that's not my intention but there is financial ramifications um to to the actions that Hur whatever you know disagreements that occurred between that Resident and our burough employees it resulted in quite a financial toll because we had to pay our lawyers to basically respond to these letters and then there was a potential of there being legal ramifications and then also the reality is is that you know we just do not have the capacity as a town to be you know as I think one of the residents said about having it and having our moderators train for it we we just do not have the financial capacity we and we just don't think in terms of the fact that we still can provide the ability for people to still participate by sending letters we can read it out loud people can come to here also there's no other Town neighboring town that has this call-in feature through Zoom we just do not feel that based on those Reasons from a financial perspective given the fact that all of the additional costs that we had this year that we felt it was something that you know we could continue with um you know regardless of of that unfortunate situation whether it was a miscommunication or not it has financial implications um and we have to consider all financial implications when we make decisions um so it's not personal at least from a financial perspective it's really just about the bottom line here and the bottom line here is that we thought that that money could go towards improving the quality of the sound oftentimes we do hear feedback that we aren't able to get the quality sound for residents to listen to the actual videos so people could actually watch it and get a full full understanding of the entire meeting if they can hear everything clearly and in addition you can still respond to anything that was said during that meeting after the meeting is over just because you don't respond right in the moment does not mean that your voice is not being heard your voice is being heard whether it is said after the meeting before the meeting it's heard and so I think it's important to understand that this is not designed to limit public interaction the reason behind this is financial and the reasons I mentioned before are legal as well as the cost associated with it so I I'll leave it at that good I mayor if I can so I'm on the finance committee also um I was a little surprised tonight because in the finance committee we more focused on employee retention for this position increasing the salary to $4 an hour for this position which obviously nobody wanted to do um we didn't talk about a lawsuit so I was kind of surprised we didn't talk about that in committee when we made this decision so when that came up tonight I was a little taken back that that is what we're going with as a reason when I didn't feel like that was our reason so I I am now I feel like I'm struggling maybe we can have it go back to committee we can talk about it but I mean we I have emails saying we can't find employees we need to increase the position to $40 an hour never one time do I have any correspondence saying anything about what we're reported on so you know so we there was a number I first all I said one of many reasons in my report so this was one reason was the legal ramifications associated with this you know so I did speak to you privately about this now maybe we didn't say speak about it in you know in general about it on on uh in a finance committee meeting and it was definitely talked about as a cost savings measure whether the cost savings is for the purpose of saving money on the employee or saving money on the legal fees all this was a cost Savings in my view so if I if if you know when I reported on this this was just one of many reasons and so that's kind of why I kind of you know just decided to do this because ultimately a a lawsuit could obviously cost the burough quite a lot of money to incur so that's kind of why I went with that may could I have a sure sorry I didn't no go ahead um so this whole concept was really my brainchild uh this is something that I push very hard for and those of you who are on the council with me in 2021 would remember those discussions and look there was a lot of push back at that time on this concept people were concerned that we may have to cancel a meeting if the technology wasn't working and you know there's a lot of things that can get affected by the cancellation of one of these meetings when we have ordinances that are in progress um the financial costs for things like that could could add up and I know uh I believe the committee was the mayor uh myself and uh former mayor to disco and we struggled on that for for months and it wind up not getting implemented until pretty late in 2021 I think I might have been Late July or or late August that we did it uh and also my thought process even when doing it then was we were coming out of covid and I had just seen you know more people involved and engaged and I've noticed over the years the further away we get from the covid times that it's less and less involvement and engagement you know I used to see our our recordings of these meetings get five and 600 views and now they get at 50 or 60 so I'm not saying that it's it's not a worthwhile Endeavor but you know part of the job of council members is to is to balance everything and what is best for Garwood and um you know again as somebody who who loves the tech but also as someone who was sitting there for 15 minutes before the meeting kind of pulling my hair out to make the audio work right I mean the system does need upgrades I had spoken to Mr Harris earlier in year about perhaps even doing a capital project for it to add a little bit more Tech into this room to make it more effective for the modern era when we're doing presentations and such but Mr Harris isn't here and I'm going to have to start a new with a with a new administrator in a couple weeks I I I spared Miss Bruns um but you know at the same time there's been difficulties in Staffing the the moderator position and that is a necessary position um there has to be somebody available to manage this queue and manage the comments and just to make sure that this thing stays on the air so um because of the zoom people being on Zoom um Zoom wouldn't really go away uh I know our court also uses it for virtual court so we would have to maintain the account regardless uh but by not having the public on the zoom component and just watching on YouTube it eliminates the need to have that person uh babysitting zoom and making sure also that there's not crazy stuff going on that there's not comments going back and forth whatever else there there's a lot of things and a lot of permutations as this technology developed that were not in my mind when I advocated to implement this in the first place and frankly in the absence of a state law that either requires or regulates this a little better um I understand why the burrow attorney would be giving advice along the lines of caution caution caution you could walk yourself into a lawsuit you don't even have to do this and you know to that point I could not get put into the burrow code in 2022 uh an a a local law requiring us to live stream I think the compromise position from Council uh was to Simply record which is we do both things but again the concern was that if the tech breaks down do we stop the meeting so I do think there's a lot of factors involved in this not not just you know one or two and again I I'm of two minds about this because I'm really the guy who pushed for this in the first place but you know I also have to listen to my my colleagues when they're saying that hey this is a problem I I think that the most important thing to remember is that the public record of the recorded meeting is there for any want to see and to comment on later in as via email or or or at the next meeting or at the next meeting right um so I think that you know really that's the thing that we just have to remember that there is a public this is a public record this is a public meeting there's notification of these meetings and and I think that's you know at the end of the day we are fulfilling that requirement I mean listen I get it it's it's it's a nice it was a nice service to offer I really do think that and I think it's helpful for people it can be inconvenient to have to come to the meeting in person if you have something that you want to say um but I think there was a lot of reasons and I think we heard all of them up here I know councilwoman sammon you said in the meeting you talked about saving that money and how hard it was to to find moderators at different points and you didn't want to have to raise salaries and spend that kind of money and you wanted it to go into other things councilman Lazo brought up some other things tonight councilman Carney you brought up some other things it seems like there's a a bunch of different reasons um and you know I go back to there was a planning board meeting um and this popped up in my head when you told me that the finance committee was talking about this that at the planning board meeting we were going over the master plan and there was some technology problems and the people who were on we now couldn't hear from and they couldn't comment well this is a pretty big thing the master plan it's not like you know a usual meeting um it's a pretty big thing so we actually postponed the master plan discussion until the following meeting which inconvenient and whatever but it's it's part of that problem that people who had expected to talk online now couldn't and we felt well you know we had already said that they could so we we have to make this available to them and so technology isn't perfect obviously we all know that so this popped up into my head as part of the reasoning as well um so I just think there's a lot of a lot of things going on here um and again it was a it was an extra service no other Town provides it it just doesn't seem to make sense to me given everything but um any further discussion okay all right we will move on to the consent agenda does anybody have any resolutions they wish to pull all right um can I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda so moved second second roll call please councilwoman Bodo I councilman lazro I councilwoman ndi I councilwoman salmon I council president Carney I okay do we have any new business okay payment of claims miss Cameron be it resolved that the following claims as approved be and the same are hereby ordered paid when properly signed and verified and the payment of payrolls is listed is hereby confirmed and ratified do I have a motion so moved second roll call please councilwoman Bodo I councilman Lazaro I councilwoman ndi I councilwoman salmon ioun president Carney I all right the regular meeting of the mayor and Council will be held on Thursday April 11 2024 at 7 pm in council chambers information for meetings is posted on the B website can I have a motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor I opposed okay good night thank you everybody for coming what's that