##VIDEO ID:5O-ABceiCbU## recording adequate notice of this meeting has been given in accordance with the open public meeting act pursuant to the public laws of 1975 said notice was advertised in the Asbury Park Press and the beacon and was posted on the bulleted board showing the time and place of the meeting please rise for the salute to the flag in a moment of silence I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right okay first reading of ordinance 202 24-26 six setting salaries for non-bargaining employees ordinance of the township of lacy County of ocean state of New Jersey amending an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the township of lacy County of ocean state of New Jersey a fixing and determining the salaries wages and compensation of the officers employees and members of the governing body of the township this is the salary ordinance for all non-bargaining unit employees um and this is for 20124 and 2025 with a 3% increase for each year second Mr McDonald yes Mr Kenne yes Deputy Mayor K yes mayor Juliano yes resolution 2024-the the executive session excuse me execu execution of an agreement with the Ocean County Board of Health for use of facilities resolution of the township of lacy County of ocean state of New Jersey authorizing the execution of an interlocal service agreement with the Ocean County Board of Health this is for use of County animal shelters move it second Mr McDonald yes Mr Kennis yes Deputy Mayor KIRO abstain mayor Juliana yes resolution 2024-25 funding move it second Mr McDonald yes Mr Kenneth yes Deputy Mayor KIRO yes mayor Julian yes resolution 2024-25 authorizing a chapter 159 in the municipal budget County of ocean American Rescue plan act Bamber Lake Dam Spillway resolution of the township of lacy County of ocean state of New Jersey providing for the insertion of a special item of Revenue and appropriation in the 2024 Municipal budget of the township of lacy pursuing to njsa 4A colum 487 this is for the insertion of the money that we'll be getting from the county um for the Bamber Dam project moving second Mr McDonald yes Mr Kennis yes Deputy Mayor KOLO yes mayor Juliano yes resolution 224-3146 pH two project Township engineer inspected the site uh and determined that all of the bonded improvements were suitable and the bond could be released move it second second Mr McDonald yes Deputy Mayor Kera yes Mr Kennis abstain mayor Juliano yes resolution 20 24- 315 authorizing the cancellation of a mortgage for a property that participated in the cdbg housing rehabilitation program resolution of the township of lacy county of state of New Jersey authorizing the cancellation of a mortgage on block 285 Lots 77 and 78 this is for a property that participated in the community development block grant rehabilitation program move it second Mr McDonald yes Mr Kenneth yes Deputy Mayor KOLO yes mayor julo yes resolution 2024-the the employment of a full-time mechanic for the DPW resolution of the township of lacy County of ocean state of New Jersey authorizing the employment of Cory Syer as full-time mechanic for the Department of Public Works move second Mr McDonald yes Mr Kennis yes Deputy Mayor KOLO yes mayor Juliano yes resolution 2024-the resolution of the township of lacy County of ocean state of New Jersey accepting the retirements of various Municipal Employees this is for two employees in our Police Department move it second Mr McDonald yes Mr Kennis yes deputy mayor to yes mayor Juliano yes resolution 2024-25 authorizing the leave of absence in the DPW resolution of the township of lacy County of ocean state of New Jersey authorizing a leave of absence for Dennis Riley second Mr McDonald yes Deputy Mayor KERO yes Mr kenis yes mayor Juliana yes resolution 2024-the the refund of deposit monies resolution of the township of lacy County of Ocean State of New authorizing the refund of deposits held for the use of Municipal facilities second Mr McDonald yes Mr Ken yes Deputy Mayor K too yes mayor Juliana yes resolution 2024-25 1,888 second Mr McDonald yes and I'll abstain on te's 0035 Mr Ken yes Deputy Mayor hero yes mayor Juliano yes motion to approve Township minute excuse me Township meeting minutes from November 14th 2024 move it second uh Mr McDonald yes Mr Kennon yes mayor C yes mayor julan yes motion excuse me I'm Excuse me obstain I wasn't here apologies you know whether you're cover I'm here now that's what's important okay thank you for that motion to approve executive session meeting minute meetings from November 14 2024 move it second Mr McDonald yes Mr kenis yes Deputy Mayor CA yes mayor julo okay comments from the committee Deputy Mayor Cella than thank you mayor um just some business updates before wishing everyone a happy and healthy Thanksgiving and safe travels it's uh one in three Americans going to be on the road or in a plane or on a train this weekend so along with the uh ninth legislative district I was fortunate enough to uh go down um to manah hawen and we have members here from the Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce and we welcome them uh to their new home on the mainland they were housed over in the island but now they're more mainstream on the mainland so uh we're going to be seeing a lot of advocacy from them and they are they are a great organization um so uh also the league of municipalities uh another uh I mean if you're a municipal leader or you're a government entity that is a good place to be I know it's uh when uh we purchased the wibbit uh certainly former mayor McDonald and current committeeman McDonald was the lead on that and we were both down there purchasing the wibbit down there oh okay looking at that so it was uh it's just a plethora of good items and uh an opportunity to uh see this if we can augment and and provide additional Services uh want to congratulate our our County Business Lees on Sandra Lazaro and commissioner sedi they got two million hits uh they had uh done a PSA uh for the World Cup that is going to reverberate and we are going to feel that here this summer uh so it's going to be a boon for business uh home run uh everything we will feel that uh those folks come over and they stay for an average of three weeks uh so we're looking forward to having some of that and I'll certainly let um dest to Mayor Juliano to talk about the Koba event was another great event um Happy Thanksgiving everyone thank you mayor thank you Mr Kennis thank you mayor um we've are in the process of redoing the bulkhead on the township Marina that's expected to start around December 99th and end before March 15th and have a Happy Thanksgiving that's it thank you Mr McDonald thank you mayor uh yes my is short and sweet I just want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and remind everybody that the parade is not this Sunday but it's next Sunday December 8th I kicks off around 3:00 ends here uh Town Hall when it ends here so about about 5:00 and yeah we'll have Santa Claus here again for little kids so that's all I have oh thank you okay that just a couple notes on on the um Parade day that morning lenoa Harbor Firehouse is having a big breakfast starts at 8:00 in the morning if you can get over there it's a fantastic event they feed you very well for a really good donation for our fire company that's one thing speaking of the fire companies for the month of November so far they've done 75 calls just to be very aware of what our volunteers do I constantly remind you of that because it's very important as Mr as our Deputy Mayor mentioned we had a cobra event last Tuesday at um Community Hall we um joined in to help them as members of the Cobra both uh the deputy May and I what it was is to get businesses out and get some knowledge to people that maybe didn't know about this business being here or that business we opened it up to everyone to come out and so we also thank you to the deputy mayor he got the county to bring down a blood mobile we did very well with the blood mobile um we had flu shots available we had Co shots available I think it was a very good event we would have liked more people out but we you know we did well for the first time and we're going to make it a yearly thing so it was a a good event all the way around on another note I just want to give you some dates so those of you that like to attend our me meetings you'll have the dates in front of you um December 12th we will have our regular Township meeting which is at 6:00 at night December 17th we will have our capital budget meeting the first one 6 o'clock and then 12:23 we will have an our Township meeting that day at 9:00 in the morning this is typically what we do every year so it's not anything we've changed up just so everybody has that other than that I'm going to open up the floor to public comment say one word Mayor oh sure I just wanted to commend the mayor the mayor was the force behind that uh Central Ocean Business Association Koba uh bringing that here she worked hard at it and contacted all of those good folks um and it wouldn't happened without without her and so it was um it was filled that night and uh I do think that it was uh beneficial to the businesses and that was thanks to Mayor Juliano's efforts thank you Miss C okay I'll open the floor to public comment yeah Regina okay this does not all right there thing on the left right there orbe your right my left I sometimes I can't Barry's got it it's all right I it's pointing at me but [Music] WR my bad on too great hold on hold on you're in trouble now Barry yeah I know he's been a trouble before be the first time all right Regina Des Sensa Sunrise Beach forkid River um my first request could you please change the meeting times back to 700 p.m. please to give people a chance to either go home have dinner or just get here from work because 6 o'clock is too freaking early every time I leave the house my husband saying where you going where you going I said the meeting's at 6 I got to go bye go dinner sorry um so my new favorite subject of course is the $92 million Lacy Township School District referendum Bond scheduled for March 2025 and the reason I'm talking about it here is because we all know more people watch this meeting then the other meeting and I do go to both and I do speak at both meetings when I'm in town if anyone wants to see they can check the comprehensive annual Financial reports for the Lacy Township School District online with the New Jersey Department of Education anyone can read these reports find the line item and see the 10 years at least of neglect and constant reduction of Maintenance and Capital Improvements in their budgets you can all whistle Dixie about those roofs but in 2009 we can play the tapes about Dar Cara Rabino and Ray Angelini the solar installer promised us those roofs would last 20 years so if anything the school district in my opinion has a good legal case against those two to come fix the frig and roofs and I'll be the first one to help them get a lawyer for it thank you for your comments anyone else like to come up and speak good evening good evening and Happy Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving to you too okay so I agree with the time change um it would be better for everyone in town I do believe more people could come um and my other issue is The Lord's Prayer are we going to be saying that yes or no we at this moment we've discussed it and and the truth of the matter is is if we open it up to that there are many um people's different choices of what they would like to read or say right so I then we would have all everybody having their opinion on what could be said the reason we have a moment of silence is for you at that point while you're here to say your Lord's Prayer right to you we all say our own little prayer up here so that that is okay um I don't know the Lord's Prayer said at other meetings in the county I I I can't answer for other meetings I I attend the planning board and the MUA meeting and we don't say the Lord's Prayer at either one of those meetings Okay so you've decided that you're not going to say the Lord's Prayer yes okay they made a decision that everybody can say the Lord's Prayer or any other prayer for that matter the moment of silence is they can say anything they want want to say at the moment of silence that's why we have the moment of silence everyone's right moment of silence did you hear our new our president Trump he says um let's make our country pre again right I so we're not allowed to do this out out you can't say it can't say the Lord's Prayer in public by having a moment of silence we can can ensure that everyone will be able to pray it's obvious you have a particular religion that you'd like to respect anyone else from the audience that like to speak seeing n motion to close the I want to speak but I want to make sure hi hi meline calib cbes um the reason why I'm here is we brought up something last week about Newark Avenue and the street being filled with cars at some point in time there are bicycle Lanes on either side of that street which leaves one lane going one way and one lane going the other way if those houses that eventually will be built there on both sides of the street are allowed to park in the street where are they going to park in those Lanes or you going to so those lanes are actually called fog lines they're not bike Lanes cuz you'd have to have the bicycle Insignia painted on they do they they have it but so you have to park your car with inside the fog lines to do that if they could do that or park it yeah okay so you're saying that a car can be parked there the bicycle lane is this big a car Lane's going to be this big how much of that street do you really think is going to be available with all of those houses having cars parked somebody's got to take a look at this somebody's got to tell the people who are buying those houses that they cannot park on the street because it would be bedom so somebody you guys have to understand that if I could mayor sure go right ahead thank you mayor appreciate that I uh I I heard what was said last week and I took it on myself to call Chief Kenny and there is nothing prohibiting a car from parking there now we trust our chief and it was the same issue down with Dusk and the Bayfront Park at some point we trust our chief and our great police force to have um that discretion but we cannot stop people from parking there and I made sure I asked him that and he's been on the course for many many years he's a highly respected Chief in our County and in our town so we cannot prohibit parking there okay I have no doubt that he's a highly respect respected person and that's fine I don't care I care about the fact that that street is too narrow there's only one lane that you're allowed to go back and forth what are you going do with all the cars going and there's traffic there now so what are you going to do when cars are parked on there what you are we going to wait everybody's just going to wait in a line to try to pass I mean that's going to that's ridiculous law is those those vehicles must and there's police officer in the back of the room two of them uh those vehicles must yield to pedestrians for Public Safety so I mean I I cannot I don't want to say I there's five of us up here equal we cannot prohibit it unless there's some type of ordinance or some such thing like that and I don't think we can do it because that would be selective then so that means that when houses are built and cars are parked there you're going to have to wait until the car on this side gets through so that you can come through that happens all over in the in the barnegate Pines as well it's the same same street widths In the barnegate Pines do they have as many cars and as many people that you've got two big developments down there they have just as many cars and as many people and when you go through various sections of the barnegate Pines and their street widths are identical to the street width on nor which is 50 right can go back and forth with no problem no you can't because I live in the Beret Pines and sometimes I have to wait for an oncoming car to go through in order for me to go the opposite direction because of all the cars that are parked on the side of the street I get just as I'm going to say inconvenienced by it well T typically the people do not park on the busiest roads uh like Newark Avenue and Beach Boulevard or Sunrise Boulevard so it's something we could take a look at but generally people do not park on those streets okay if there's not an ordinance against it it's just that generally they're smart enough to not Park in streets those people that live in that are going to live because there's nobody there yet but that are going to live in those houses are not going to park on the street well I can't say they're not but I'm saying generally um they do not on on the on the on those busier type streets they generally if you go down Beach Boulevard nobody really parks on this on on Beach Boulevard okay we'll see what happens well we could take a look at it thank you anyone else from the audience that'd like to speak raise your hand now I'll Pi come on up just tell us your name and where you from you don't give a street address uh Lucas bernaldo uh lazy Township okay what was your last name sir bernaldo b e r n a l d o uh hi Happy Thanksgiving you can adjust that mic up so you don't you can bring it up so you don't have to uh over uh I'm here today um I'm to raise a little bit of a concern uh I live actually over on Paradise Point uh the doc project you brought up today is actually what I'm here to talk about um I am concerned because I found out one I'm very happy you're replacing the bulkhead um it has needed to be done for quite some time I've spoken to miss lay about it over the years um I have kids they've almost fallen through the bulkhead many times um but what I'm concerned about is I spoke with the engineer at Alo today I spoke with the director of Public Works today um apparently the engineer when they designed this project they didn't know anything about the flooding issues we have over there um and the 24 new homes that are going in that are also going to increase the flooding issues that we have uh so they're replacing the bulkhead are planning to replace the bulkhead in kind and at the same height uh the marina that is over there the private Marina has replaced their bulkhead and rais it about a foot because the river uh has risen as we all know uh and Spills over which I'm sure we all know this uh into the roadway and I can't get to my house my neighbors can't get to their homes I my school's my son's school bus doesn't come the garbage doesn't get picked up uh it doesn't seem like really there was a lot of thought put into this I understand from Miss Laray from the director of DPW we don't have the money to raise all the roads to build the infrastructure I get all of that totally understand but I also understand that it's our job to plan for Capital Improvements to go and fight for federal funding and and do all of this we just free paved you know cranberry Hill and Sunrise Boulevard and Beach Boulevard and we're planning for all of this um so it it would be who in my opinion to when we're going to plan to do a bulkhead have a fiveyear or a 10year plan on maybe you know keep the bulkhead higher two years down the road add drainage five years down the road raise the road you can cut me off that's fine what you're in the business and you know that and two years down the road it's not going to work and you were told by the director of Public Works that that whole Road would need to be redone completely in order to prevent additional flooding and drainage because there's none over there and there's a natural swell that runs from your backyard which comes what happens there's a pipe that goes out underneath the one house that's raised on Maritime that goes out to the river and in the river the middle branch that flood your backyard it's not from anything that we did or are doing but there's no check valve on it well I don't know if a check valve is really going to help that over there but you didn't allocate the money or pay can finish for a second though because you didn't allocate the money or pay to have the engineering study done before you decided to design a project and waste a million dollars on the bulkhead that's my that's my frustration more it's more than just raising the bulkhead over there because I get that but let's spend the money to do the study to sequester the storm water and the flooding they Hadad did it Surf City did it why why can't Lacy do it am I just supposed to live underwater my kid not supposed to get on the bus but the flooding that you're having is not beach has the problem why excuse me right just yeah yeah each time that Miss lay goes to say something you want to stop her to say that you want to finish but you're not according to same courtesy to miss lay so please let her finish her statement as well okay sure because I wasn't done speaking my first statement when she you can continue apologize go ahead and respond okay what what would you like to say then in response I I wasn't I was just trying to direct the dialogue so that everyone can follow it my my point is I think that it would have made sense and it still does make sense to study the actual problem before we start just replacing bulkheads and spending millions of dollars to then potentially rip up that million dollar project in the future um I don't know if the committee has anything to say about that I don't go ahead I'm sorry yeah well no without knowing specifically what you're talking about I don't know where you live I mean I'm very familiar with all the air the low-lying areas in town I'm a builder myself I built a lot of houses in town so uh again um I would have to know exactly what you're talking about on Paradise on Paradise Point it's a fair question as to why the bulkheads are aren't raised I've raised this issue a few times with private property owners they should be raising their especially down Beach Boulevard those homeowners should be raising in their bulkheads as much as possible that causes other problems though so specifically as to the town docks um I I know it just hasn't that's always been the height that it's been at um we've replaced some of it before so I don't know what the reason I'm not sure it would help your situation or the situation over there but just raising the bulkhead there doesn't do much in terms of raising roads there's a whole host of reasons uh you know where to begin or even how to begin so the the the the worst uh uh roads that get flooded in town are the Hawaiian streets in Beach Boulevard and we've tried different options we did all this stuff check valves and you know we've talked we've talked about raising the roads but there's other obstacles into just raising the roads so you have to get all the neighbors and those are relatively small streets with not that many houses on them but you have to get everybody on board to to be able to do something like that it's not that simple so without knowing what the engineering is in your specific situation you know we're um you know I'll find out I'll get a better answer why we set the bulkheads at that height but that's kind of the height that they've always been set at right and my I was just shocked when I spoke to the engineer that designed the bulkhead and they said they didn't know there was flooding issues I've raised flooding issues my whole town my whole block knows there's flooding issues well again not knowing exactly fry knows there's flooding issues yeah but so so that's so built 24 homes there right so if you're going to pick again Mr Kennis is responding if you're going to pick on that subdivision all modern subdivisions are responsible for their own runoff so he so his drainage is calculated out for those houses has nothing to do with your house has nothing to do with the township docks that's designed as current you know the current standards to the state of New Jersey he's following meaning he's responsible for all his own runoff I I understand that there's been a whole host of issues with that as well with d but it doesn't matter there issues he got the appr he has he's got he received his approvals from DP so it doesn't matter if you disagree with those stop work orders well again if he he he has his permits to build what he's building he's got those permits from the D so if you don't like what the D does that's basically that's you know it's out of your hands they they said it's okay for what he's doing and that's what he's doing so but that's a separate issue it seems like I don't know where you live I don't know what the drainage issues are you're you quoted the project today though the what Frank SES no the the bulkhead project oh yeah no the bulkhead no I said and I said I'm not sure why the I'm not sure why the township you know I don't know why the the bulkhead height is set that way it's a it's a legit question but I don't know again without knowing all the is there anything that can be done before December 9th not at this point no we awarded the so if at this point we awarded the project we would be in in breach of contract and have to pay that contractor that money anyways without the project being done and then have to go out and re-engineer and reect it get permits from the state again because we already have our state permits as well at that height for the bulkhead and then rebid the project and typically any of the that that long term major engineering it is we do it years in advance like we do plan any of the projects you see around town are not done on a year-to-year basis they yeah so they're they are engineered well in advance of us actually going to do the construction so you know the bulk to the height of the bulkhead should have occurred probably when we replaced the first section of it which is at this point probably like 10 years ago so again but you know you can only do so much and think about so much you hire the engineers and ask them to go survey it and do whatever they you know whatever they feel is best I don't know the reason and that that is specific to the bulkhead they were doing we're replacing the bulkhead we're not raising streets and you can raise bulkheads to stop the River from flowing over I I understand that comment and I said I said I don't have a great answer I don't know why it's the same answer I you know when I don't know why when homeowners go out on the water and they don't raise their bulkheads I don't understand it if it were me I would raise my bulkhead can I ask you how long you've lived where you are 5 years I and the flooding has just gotten worse and worse well the reason I'm asking you how long you've lived there because you have you ever come in front of the township committee no I've spoken to m r plenty of times okay I was just curious and DPW plenty of times yeah but like I said most of your issue is that pipe that goes out to the middle branch that goes through that one house that's raised with all due respect goes back into your into the back area of your backyard and that's what's coming up into your backyard area with all due respect you're a Township administrator not engineer you didn't hire the engineers to study it that's the frustrating part you don't know that well I know that because I've spoken to our engineer nor do you live there oh that's correct I don't I live there and experience it every time it happens I have an engineering background as well I work in the industry I'm asking why you didn't spend the money to study the issues that I keep calling your office and telling you about and you told me you just didn't have the money and Fork of beach was more more important well on on again on these so how typically on our capital projects how they work is we do it during budget meeting and there's a there's a laundry list of things that come from DPW they set they give us the list of stuff projects there's it's probably like 10 or 15 items on there we can't do all of them so we sort of you know you get on the list and we address it as it goes off so my suggestion to you would be you should be coming to the budget meetings so when we're doing our capital projects I mean I know but this is the same thing you're finding out about it now but that's how the process works I'm told everybody I tell that it floods over there says it's flooded over there for 25 years and get used to it anybody I've told that too well again these issues there's to the director of DPW that's what he told me today he said I I lived I lived here my whole life it's flooded there your whole life so get used to it it's flooded my whole life over there too okay and it's just going to get worse but it doesn't mean that as it's not your job to try and figure out how we mitigate that so again nobody this is the first time I've I've been on a committee now going in my 12th year this is the first time I've ever heard about par that that area town flooding then the director DPW is lying and in addition in addition any of that any of that stuff other than the bulk just the bulkhead has never made it onto a capital project on our budget meetings but that's why I asked him how long he lived here because I've never had it come in front of us here that no other neighbors nobody else has come here and so I understand you may have talked to to Veronica many times but you I mean again I could be wrong but I never got a letter from you I never got an email from you so I always tell everybody if you want you know to get a better answer send an email to everyone who keeps a boat down there has never expressed concern that their boats are I've never got I've never seen email not me personally they've only expressed concern over the condition of condition of the boat we agree with you on that and some of the road is falling into the and nobody you're telling me that all of you on the committee don't know that the D Marina floods this is the this is the first I'll speak for myself this is the first time I've heard a comment about that that project down there the Beach Boulevard it get all the time all the time but all of you are going to go on the record and say that you you the Town Marina doesn't FLIR what Mr Ken said this is the first time you're the first one that's come forward and said that there's a flooding problem down there that's surprising seeing as your own director of Public Work says he's lived here his entire life and knows that it floods down there but that's a different thing him he's that there we're talking about right here none of us have been told this before I get that I just find it shocking that one personal person's personal experience can differ so greatly from very hard I usually call Veronica and say the wine streets are flooded she goes yep then I go any other places in town and she mentions some usual spots that flood sometimes sometimes they don't it it depends so I and never once has she mentioned that never once my comment never made it through okay all right I guess nothing can be done and then well it's that nothing can be done you have to come budget meeting you have to come to a budget meeting and request but what's frustrating for me is that the money that you just allocated for the bulkhead is going to go wasted because you're going to put the bulkhead back where it is and the river is going to keep coming over it and then it's going to be even more money to replace it and it's you're just going to keep saying we don't have the money for it I don't know if that's exactly true to be honest with you I I'm living on the water myself okay I live on the water you know I can't keep raising my deck on my bulkhead every time the water changes what what I'm saying you understand what I'm trying to say I get that it's it's part of living on the water near the water around the water it's all you know it's the nature of the Beast I'm I'm just I get that but when it's at a historically low spot and every time it's a high tide it's at or above it it needs to be raised that's just it's just not that easy though it's just not that easy to do okay can you elaborate as so why what I'm saying to just just D alone just the D alone the the marina right next to the Town Marina did it no problem it's 12 Ines higher again nobody we said we've never earmarked anything to do an engineering study there so you know that that'd be the first step I get that and all I'm saying is it's just frustrating because it's good budgeted money that is thrown down the river but you we could say this all over town everybody sets their bulkheads at the same height they they replace their bulkhead They Don't Really raise it Steve you know introducing an ordinance and mandating we actually we actually kicked around the idea mandating raising the make it's probably a good idea until everybody gets starts coming complaining so we didn't get there it pleas everyone but you need to prepare for the future oh so we're replacing the bulkhead we're trying to make the and that's great and I appreciate that thank you thank you anyone else would like to speak she's grabbing a mountain Hall good evening uh Lacy Township residents mayor Township committee members I'd like to wish our entire town and committee a very Happy Thanksgiving it's a time to reflect on the important things in our lives such as family and friends and to be thankful I'd also like to mention the importance of remembering those we have lost in this past year and being thankful for having them in our lives and to honor them for me personally this has been a difficult year I not only lost my beloved mother Helen who would have been 102 years old on November 7th but my cousin Joseph Michael Kowski who in all instances was like my brother died way too soon tragically out in Las Vegas congratulations to whoever won their seats in the past election and I'm extremely thankful for the results nationally I had no doubt that the American people would choose Freedom over a government which was endorsing censorship and weaponizing the government agencies against its own people and which caused High inflation and endless Wars when logic prevails we can do great things when emotions and feelings take over it leads to nothing but chaos I was not able to attend the last Township committee meeting but I was very pleased with the way Mr Calo handled the meeting always respectful and took control of the meeting when it was necessary and conducted his role as acting mayor very professionally thank you I have spoken about this before and I'm saying it again it is never Justified for a member or members of this body to scream and shout at members of the public who you were elected to serve and who are paying your salary the behavior I Witness from the video was embarrassing and extremely disrespectful no matter how someone views something from the public whether you agree with them or not there's no reason for that kind of behavior to ever take place in this forum I would appreciate that this will never happen again it saddens me to see that several individuals from the forkid River Beach area had to come to a meeting yet again for the umth time to address this body for its lack of making a definitive decision on the grass Mowing and cutting in that area of town the citizens of lacy who live over there that way were promised last year a meeting which has never taken place I'm no longer interested in hearing excuses on this topic of why it hasn't occurred you know the so-called exp experts you wanted to bring in are not going to make any difference on a very passionate topic help called by the residents who live over there if you had taken my advice and just had a meeting with them and hashed out a solution this would have been resolved a long time ago again this is an example that there seems to be a disconnect between this body and the individuals who you are elected to serve I also ask this body to conduct a survey of what we the people would like from this town and what is important to us it has brought to my attention that members of this body do not like the divisiveness that has taken place at meetings as of late this may be a good time to self-reflect on your own behavior and actions or lack of of asking yourselves why this is happening the answer is quite clear if you're capable of doing that type of soul searching I was pleased to see that the Charles A Smith Association has joined one of the two lawsuits to protect the Charles A Smith Memorial Hall and the warden house the Charles A Smith Association has standing in this case for it was the association that gave the property to the town with the conditions that it is to be kept and used for educational and social purposes only selling this property was never part of the equation and certainly not selling this property to be used as a quick check there is an easy solution to this lawsuit Mr de George should withdraw his contract and if the township is unwilling to keep the said property for its original intentions then it can always give it back to the original owners the Charles A Smith Association it was never the intention of the association to give this property to the residents of lacy and then for it to be sold buying another building across the street is not going to solve the problem problem the problem is the actual property which was given and the existing building which sits on the corner of Route 9 and Lacy Road what this government body is doing on this issue is morally wrong would anyone who lives in Lacy be okay with giving something to this Township with the conditions that this property was to be kept and used for social and educational purposes and the town reneging on their agreement I think most individuals would be appalled as I am if the original document resolution stated that the town could do whatever it wanted with this property that would be one thing but that was not the conditions that were laid out by the Charles A Smith Memorial Association back in 1934 I have a question where did the sign go for the warden house somebody stole it somebody cut it off with a SSA and stole it and are there no cameras around there no cameras unless TD Bank and we probably have to go back four or five weeks and they don't keep their camera footage that long now why would somebody do that I don't know but it it's clearly cut off at the at the posts if you go and look at the post there somebody clearly cut it off and nobody noticed this at all the pawn we did notice it I don't know if the pawn shop has they got cameras every yeah nobody no like we well I honestly would like an investigation to happen on this because that's theft of property of government property that's a crime actually um so I'm requesting that there's some sort of Investigation to get to the bottom of that I also have another question there was mention about um black mold is there a verified document done by an expert showing where this exists in the building is there some sort of document to back up the comments that have been made in the past I'm just curious to to know if that's the case if there is is just something that some people are just saying well the the building does have what appears to be mold in there I was in there but there is no standard for mold in the state of New Jersey um so I can't tell you if it's black mold green mold purple mold or whatever type of mold it is but and Mr Kennis can verify as well that there is definitely something growing on the walls and everything that are in there okay but no stud no test has actually been done by no we did not invest any money because again there's no standard for mold in the state of New Jersey I've done that here no I understand but people who we did not um bring somebody in to test it okay so at the last meeting turning to a different topic at the last meeting there was a member of the public a woman who brought up some comments about the Lacy citizens for responsible government and the evaluation that they did of one of the candidates for election and I just wanted to read this off because I did this many years ago when we founded the organization for an update so people like this woman will understand the purpose of someone like me and other members of our group and why we do what we do because we have really good intentions we're a watchdog group the background the Lacy citizens are responsible government across the country citizens and taxpayers are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with some of the practices occurring at all levels of government these practices include but are not limited to undo attentiveness to special interest groups and political contributors lack of transparency in spending and decision inattention or disrespect for public input in opinion fiscal irresponsibility and wasteful spending corruption nepotism favoritism of patronage for friends and relatives selective enforcement of laws and regulations and other practices that reflect a disregard for integrity responsiveness to public concerns ethics and accountability in government at the state level a number of groups have formed to monitor enforce these Ethics in Government these include the New Jersey policy perspective the New Jersey foundation for open government New Jersey taxpayers Association and others groups have been formed to monitor local governments including the Roxbury taxpayer Education Association concerned active residents of Mount Arlington New Providence taxpayers ex of Association etc etc the purpose of all these groups is to monitor the dealings and actions of regional government in order to ensure fairness responsiveness to community needs ethical behavior and objective decisions making on the part of elected and appointed officials due to numerous and widespread perceptions concerning problems with Integrity honesty fairness lack of respect fiscal responsibility and political bias on part of lacy Township government entities we feel that the time has come to form a local Watchdog Group which we formed back in 2011 in order to challenge the way local government entities do business ensure that local residents have a fair voice in the process advocate for responsible government actions and help make sure that political leaders who embrace the needs of the community are elected into office our mission of the Lacy citizens of responsible government is to promote responsiveness Integrity fairness openness and accountability in the decisions actions behavior and performance of elected appointed Lacy Township officials and tax funded institutions we monitor presentations debate discussions and other decision-making forums in order to ensure that all points of view are fairly represented that information information presented is factual and unbiased that elected and appointed officials are attentive and involved that Community needs are weighed equally with special interests and the elected and appointed officials represent the needs of their constituents as opposed to their own personal views and opinions to Foster fiscal accountability Mr bidnick I have allowed you to go over the five minutes and I want you to continue I just want to know how many more pages no it's just this one yeah but thank you for listening um to Foster fiscal accountability so that a balanced budget can be achieved and maintained to minimize the personal and political bias that can lead to financially imprudent and or unjust budgetary decisions to enforce ethical behavior in all facets of government function to ensure that federal state and local laws and regulations are enforced uniformally and not selectively ignored or emphasized in the interest of achieving achieving a personal or political agenda to minimize intimidation deceit manipulation coercion or other tactics that may be utilized by elected or appointed officials in the interest of pursuing their own Personal Agenda to limit undue influence of special interest groups or campaign contributors in decisions being made by elected and appointed officials to facilitate transparency in all activities of local government to make available in a timely manner all meeting agendas minutes proposals budgets Etc to the public via the township website to make available all information to the public that is being utilized by elected and appointed officials regarding finalized contracts legal matters Human Resources Etc so the taxpayers are empowered to make informed decisions regarding the most efficient economical and ethical judgments regarding the direction of our town to objectively analyze the cost Effectiveness efficiency and management quality of town services including the Board of Education and police department so that quality services can be maintained without the need for constant property tax increases to facilitate town planning that values quality of life life safety and Environmental Protection and relative equality with economic and political motivations to serve as a resource to individuals or groups that do not feel they are being given fair and just treatment by local government entities regarding their given issue to support the election of officials that most efficiently and ethically represent the needs and concerns of our com of our community Lacy Township local government entities can be viewed as a corporation responsible and accountable to we the stockholders or taxpayers the taxpayers can and should expect responsive ethical and financially accountable performance by the elected and appointed indid individuals and entities that represent them in order to facilitate this accountability an organized group of concerned citizens can serve to ensure that elected officials and entities are fulfilling their responsibilities in a manner that is best represents the needs of our community this is the mission of the Lacy citizens for responsible government I am posting a new website for our group and I'm going to encourage that people in our town join up and join with us and we can make this as working together and I think that any government that goes unchecked is is not a good thing and when you only have one party in control and I'm not in favor of parties and local elections I I think that you need to have somebody there who's looking out for the people I mean you can get caught in your own little world let's face it I know what this is like you can get caught in your own little world with your own agendas which you want to do why have agenda I'm just want to make sure that's and clear I don't have an agenda I would really like to see the survey that I've asked about on several occasions be given out when you do the newsl or whatever or doing it online so that you can get an understanding of the people that you represent because you don't speak to most of them I do speak to a lot of the people well there's 30,000 people have you spoken to all of them I'm at everything and anything I can possibly go to okay so I think it's important a lot of people may not want to say to you a lot of positive energy back to I'm sure you do I'm not saying this is NE this is positive what I'm asking you is to find out the things that the people in this town want from you that's a positive thing yes that is I know what they want what is it that they want they want us to control our spending number one one of our thing and we do we run a very tight ship here we don't give out dollars that easily believe me I'm not questioning that we don't yeah I just want a second I say it all the time the townships run well I've said it just about every every other meeting up here I've been here 12 years there's a lot of little things that you know we could sit here for hours and hours and hours and talk about things but I'll just give you just a small example okay our DPW is running on 10 less people back there we've never hired back okay okay that's effici working these people are stepping up and doing more than they did when you're down 10 people okay in a department I just sat here and listened to a gentleman who lives over in area who he was talking to this department and they're obviously not communicating with you so obviously it isn't working no okay not not to cut you off we take care of a lot of stuff the town is run extremely well not maybe not an A but we're like a solid C+ we got a lot of stuff with and we do it on a very that is not the point that I am making I sat here and I listened and so did everybody else at this meeting we heard a gentleman talking about his area of town where you're going to build a bulkhead that you didn't do the engineering study about the future thing I have a question we just went to uh Chris Smith got $6 million for the road to nowhere that you want to extend now that money could have been used for that area of the town where the how it works it doesn't work like that though well then how does it work it's allocated for a certain thing C I can't just pull it from why didn't you ask why didn't you ask asked FEMA and do you know what not not for his particular area but down in forkid River Beach we did go to FEMA to say Hey listen we need to raise these streets do you know that they they told us the streets basically go nowhere they don't warrant us to give you money to raise those streets now if I needed to raise Beach Boulevard because it's a collector Road they would give us money to raise Beach Boulevard but not the the tributory street off of Beach Boulevard it's not it's not that simple it is it's it's very difficult you just can't take money from A's grouping and you just said that I think what he meant is that we should have applied for those streets versus right that's what I was saying with Chris Smith beforehand well we've had we've gone to Chris Smith about a lot of things actually and Veronica and I worked hard to get the money that's that's there for the bulkhead and for the dam we had to go to the county about that like we do bust our buns trying to get money brought here not questioning that what I'm saying is that the priorities this is what I'm saying we heard this gentleman tonight we all heard him say that he has had numerous conversations with the DPW which you're praising okay that's fine maybe they do a wonderful job I'll continue to praise them okay my point is there's a lack of communication going on because if this is the first time that you've heard about this and this guy's been coming to Veronica and such maybe they're they're not telling you okay not a question of not telling me well you said you didn't know a second so here's the thing first of all we're not full-time employees understand that okay we we're not here 7 days a week five uh eight hours a day we're I'm considered a part-time mayor that's what I am okay so we're not here so every little thing that happens in this town cannot be continuously displayed to us okay Veronica is the township administrator and she has to make decisions she's spoken to this gentleman and explained to him that it's just it's not that easy for us to just say okay we're going to do this now we're going to raise your street he actually made a very good points tonight it's like you're going to put this whole thing in again and it's just going to keep flooding and getting worse and worse did you listen to Veronica's answer to him I listen to her pipe when was that pipe put in Veronica oh probably long before those houses were built because there was a house built over the pipe but again the whole entire Street nor Bas and Plaza north and south needs to be completely ripped out and the drainage needs to then be put in and that's not part of the permit that the D asked for and the DP didn't ask us to raise our bulkhead who have the authority over no and I understand that but there to me it's like if if people in the town are bringing this to your attention I'm just saying look at it from my perspective and other people who are here in the audience this is what we heard tonight they're coming to you with this problem and it's obviously a big problem the guy's saying every time that there's a major rain thing there's all this water and certain issue in various of the community you're correct it's so I'm just saying and then you're sitting here and saying to all of us tonight this is the first time that you're hearing about it I'm beginning to think again there's a huge disconnect going on and we need to do better is what I'm saying you were here during our budget meetings yes you made no comments nobody no nobody made any comments from the public when we had those budget meetings right they were also at 3:00 in the afternoon well you were here that's an excuse make it there were people here but he that guy was working first of all those budg are at 5:00 County there at 10:00 in the morning I mean like's just wait just wait so that's the time when we get the list of things to do from the DPW I we it's it's a decision that they're making what's a priority or what they think should be addressed so they already weed like we weed out the budgets by the time it gets down to like the you know they're making a decision on what should what what project should be uh presented at budget and from there we have to pick and choose what projects we could do so that's how the process works so somebody if is the first time that that gentleman was here never heard it before so he should be sending if it was that big of a problem and I'm not saying it's not a big problem but they should we get emails all the time from the Hawaiian streets I that's the first time I've ever heard anything on Paradise Point but you know what I'm going to say this from my own experience that I have had okay I had an issue with the former um code enforcement that was going on in the town with people that were living next to me if some of you might remember I had to come to a meeting I never do that I usually try to work with the people who work here about getting the issues Sol for me to have to come to a meeting and actually do what I did is not usually the way that I work I usually will work if I have a problem I'll call Veronica or whatever and or the person indeed and I will deal with it and I stay on top of it I felt this guy tonight I I think I understand the frustration that he has because he had to come here before he's going to get any attention and I had that experience myself and I it was taken care of after I came to this meeting with in two week people were out and that place yes I know they are they are my neighbors you can have them really I'll send them back to you anytime no thank you no thank you very much funny but anyway I appreciate the way that that after I did come to the meeting I mean seriously it was taken care of like instantaneously and that was a problem that I had to deal with for over two years with those people so I'm glad that that was resolved but we shouldn't have to this is the point you we only have a limited amount of time at meetings right that this kind of stuff if it's really an issue you can need yeah tell people that all the time yeah well people Mr B the other thing I would like to say is if for this gent let's just use him for example okay right if he didn't feel like he got anywhere of Veronica and he didn't feel like he got anywhere with the DPW now he's here right he came here but he why didn't he reach out to we have emails everybody knows you know to just send an email a lot of times when we get the emails I we end up I'm sure one or two of us will call as soon as she sends something to us and we call her and say hey what's this about you know we have a I don't know you'd have to ask him why he didn't do that that's what I'm saying I don't know well I did that's why I basically said to how long have you been here I'm just hearing about this now I know but mayor Juliano I know personally from my own experience I tried to do what he did with my own issue for two years and it takes me a lot to have to come to a meeting about something for myself like that to come and make a complaint it's different when you're handling it yourself yes and you know you got neighbors and you're trying to sy so I I mean look at it from most of that person's perspective look listen I'm a member I have to deal with a lot over living on Water I get a lot of water in my life over there too so I understand that frustration but I just feel like there would he I wish he had gotten in touch with us well he did okay so let's see what can be done about it thank you very much again Happy Thanksgiving C and to everyone thank you again Ste close it up you got anybody else in the public I know I'll take care of it I don't need anybody to tell me how to do it is there anybody else in the public that would like to speak see n make a motion to close the floor second all favor I no no motion to NOP sorry sorry resolution 24321 resolution in Township of lacy County of oan state of New Jersey authorizing the convening of an executive session in accordance with the open public meeting act move it second Mr kenis yes Mr McDonald yes Deputy Mayor C yes mayor Julian yes no further business that's what we say all the time