##VIDEO ID:0pRmh2ZLCek## good evening the September 11 2024 council meeting of the Long Branch city council will now come to order roll call Mr dangler here Dr vote here Mrs Wht here Dr s is absent Mr Vieira I'm here please all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible and liberty and justice for all everyone please remain standing for a moment of silence and recognition of September 11th thank you I will now read the miss statement of the city council The Long Branch mayor and city council Administration are committed to cultivating an environment of mutual trust and respect our values the diversity of our community we will strive to enhance the quality of life for all who live here by making Long Branch a desirable place in which to live and prosper we will treat all members of the public with respect and expect the same in return Madame clerk I hear hereby certifi that this meeting has been published in the newspaper in accordance with the open public meeting act and posted as required by law thank you I need a motion to approve the minutes of the August 28th 2024 so move second o call Mr dangler yes Dr vote Yes Mrs whts yes Dr s is absent Mr Vieira yes motion passed thank you consideration of ordinance the public he and final consideration there's none for introduction I'll now turn it over to our City attorney Mr REO uh thank you council president um you have an or the ordinance that's on for introduction on first reading is an ordinance that amends the um provision of our code concerning the fire department and I just wanted to give you some context for that ordinance you also have on resolution [Music] negotiation of the collective bargaining agreement with the superior officers in the uniform fire division uh as part of that um settlement of that contract there was an agreement that we are going to change the just change the names of two titles uh we're going to change lieutenants uh all lieutenants are going to be called captains and all cap and and the the captain is going to be called the battalion chief the memorandum is clear that all that does is it does it's not any additional compensation doesn't change the Authority it just is this it's the same number of ranks it doesn't create any new positions um and when we do that in the collective bargaining agreement we then have to change the table of organiz change the um organization um nomenclature names that are used in the um in the ordinance so you'll see as we as we go through we change the name of Captain to Battalion Chief and Lieutenant to Captain and once again it's the so that those two items um uh are together so I just wanted to explain why it was we were doing the ordinance and how it is it relates to the contract provision thank you ordinance 01724 this is the first reading in ordinance 17-24 entitled an ordinance amending chapter 45 fire department section 45-3 officers powers and duties and 45-4 firefighters uniform fire division ufd summary of this ordinance amends 45 five Department Department section 45-3 and 45-4 to update the titles to the command officers for the uniform fire Division I need a motion to introduce on the first reading advertise and post according to law to set the public hearing for September 25 2424 some move second vot call Mr dangler yes Dr V yes Mrs Wht yes Dr Su is absent Mr Viera yes ordinance 0-1 1824 an ordinance of the city of Long Branch approving and adopting a Redevelopment plan for nonon condemnation on Broadway and 6th Avenue Redevelopment area consists of block 268 Lots 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 32 and 33 a summary the purpose of this ordinance is to adopt a Redevelopment plan to non- condemnation for the Broadway and the 6th Avenue block 268 Lots 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 32 and 33 I need a motion to introduce the first reading advertis and po according to law and set the public hearing for October 9th 2024 so move second vot call Mr dangler yes Dr vot yes Mrs whtas Dr C is absent Mr Vieira yes motion passed I need a motion to open the public portion of the meeting for all comments so moved second all in favor I I oppose if there's anyone in the audience that has a comment to make please step to the podium and state your name and address clearly for the record you will have five minutes and may only speak once thank you my name is uh Paul will go so and my purpose for today is to bring to your attention uh two issues I'm an authorized representative of your uh citizens in Long Branch who are members of your crossing guard group um who protect the kids and the citizens uh during the summer and also during the school year um as a representative we've been in good faith bargaining with the uh Township uh on a new contract that was already uh resolved in March and we've been and unfortunately we believe there's been unnecessary resources spent uh with us chasing and trying to get that agreement just signed and dotted and moved on second issue is that in uh at the end of the year there was a school a snow day that was uh offered and given to the teachers in the town on a non on a non- inclement weather day um the super visor of the crossing guards told the crossing guards to put in for that snow day when payment wasn't received we brought that to the attention of the town and the town has now engaged Us in conversation that's going to force Federal litigation and unnecessary resources being spent by the town so we're here to let you know that up front and straight to the Town Council versus through other channels because we would like to not do that but this is going to cause more money spent on something that is a minor issue but not minor in the sense that the three hours that we're not getting for each of the employees that was supposed to get the snow day they depend on that money even though it's a small amount of money maybe to me or somebody else and uh what was offered yesterday in a conversation with an attorney as well as the town um really was a ridiculous comment so we're going to be forced unfortunately we want to make sure that everybody was aware that this is going to result in some level of uh Federal litigation it's not going to be a local Town matter and uh we don't want to do that we've enjoyed an unbelievable great relationship with the town there's never been any legal action and the organization I represent are is local 210 with the teamsters so we just wanted to bring that to your attention we felt it was important to address the town directly as well as as the Town Council and uh and bring that to everybody's uh to you know front of mind thank you thank you thank you well after the public portion our city Administration we'll have a comment on that oh okay anybody else Vincent leaport 33 Ocean terce Long Branch requesting one minute notification again tonight taxes taxes taxes PL after the last council meeting you continue to be a liar you can continue to be a deflector you're in essence a lying deflector speaking about taxes you responded to a resident of this city quote Lou meaning City attorney is absolutely right about the demonstration program that's unique to Mammoth County there's assessments and it's based on a formula and quote you're not getting out of this one palone not with a lying deflection back in 2015 there was a heavy political process via the state to allow municipalities to opt out of the mammoth County demonstration Assessment program seven towns did Allentown Avon Belmore marbor mstone man G and wall palone you being an integral part of this government in 2015 instead of initiating an opt out you chose to stay in the program you have a heavy hand in the current suffering of the people of this city that they're going through today with their inflationary assessments your interest in staying in the County assessment demonstration program continues to be the county program's ability to partially offset and high the loss of property tax revenue due to developer tax abatements which continues to place an additional tax burden on most of the taxpayers in this city a destabilized tax base in this city if ever there was one it's a real mess tonight resolution 226 the firefighters contract it is what it is for now Mr Martin do you have a figure on the value of the volunteer firefighters to this city yes or no the value of the contract or the value of the firefighter the firefighters no I'll submit an Oprah on that tomorrow and suggest that have the city take a look the at Middletown's incentive program for Volunteer Fire firefighters Middletown has had a reputation for having one of the most successful volunteer fire departments in this state we'd like to see the Long Branch volunteer firefighters taken care of as well on the par with middl towns Mammoth County SPCA ceasing toist notice to all directors of the mammoth County Society for the vention of Cruelty animals be advised that conduct constituting an offense engaged in by an agent of the corporation shall be imputed to the corporation any violations of the animal cruelty statutes may involve the corporate directors I respectfully submit that the mammoth County SPCA cease and desist from the conduct here in described this was respectfully submitted by Dr Stuart Goldman former Chief Humane law enforcement officer of the mammoth County SPCA and former president treasurer of the mammoth County SPCA he goes on to further site the statutes of violations in regards to the needless killing of animals by the SPCA yes the SPCA is a kill shelter especially describing in detail the killing of feral cats Dr Stewart Goldman one minute notification continues and requests everyone quote let assistant prosecutor in charge of animal cruelty Melanie Falco know your displeasure with her lack of concern for lack of animal cruelty enforcement in Mammoth County end quote Falco currently the one Prosecuting two city employees on an animal control call she can't even do her own job and she's expected to prosecute two city employees that were doing their job and may palone you surrender those two city employees to her this is junk government I'll tell you this right now Melanie Falon doesn't have a case not only are these two employees going to take care of the prosecutor's office they're going to take care of you palone and this Council for allowing what you allowed to happen to them pure junk government thank you anyone else I need a motion to close the public portion so move second all all in favor I I opposed before I go go ahead oh sorry council president can I um just on two items that were raised uh first um I I haven't been handling the grievance with regards to the coron guard so I'm a little bit kind of catching up here um there is a gance procedure in the crossing guards contract the my understanding is that the parties are currently within um that grievance process uh the gentleman refer to Federal litigation I'm not really sure what that would be if there's a if there's a collective bargaining agreement normally there's an arbitration Clause if there's not an arbitration Clause it would be a state court matter to enforce the contract but that having been said mycen is that the parties are and their attorneys have met once already and continue to meet as to the status of of the signed contract I once again my office isn't preparing it but I certainly will find out as quickly as we can as as to what that is secondly with regards to the um assessment demonstration program and and once again I just want to note for the record that Mr leapor has kind of another hit and run has come in and now has left but if he was here I would explain to him that first nobody was given the opportunity to quote unquote opt out of the um the assessment demonstration programs and it's not seven municipalities it's actually two municipalities Marboro and Spring Lake and I know a little bit about it because I've been Marb Bar's Township attorney for about 20 years now um and they were immediately sued by the uh County tax board so there is litigation currently pending as to whether or not those municipalities can stay out it was not an option it was an not an option to the governing body um it's just simply litigation so I just want to just want to make that clear for the record so that um so the council once again gets the straight answer as opposed to the thank you are you good Charlie or Mr Charley are you good or yeah exactly what he said the only the only thing I would add is that they there is a Next Step that we've offer them and they can go forward from there okay thank you resolutions we can take a list of resolution as a cons agenda so move second roll call Mr dangler yes Dr vot yes Mrs whts yes Dr CI is absent Mr Vieira yes applications and none miscellaneous business for the good of the order councilman dangler um I would just like to uh thank everyone for coming out uh continue to be safe and um continue to say pray say prayers for those who lost uh loved ones with 911 thank you and God bless you thank you councilwoman V thank you council president um I would like to thank um both the and um senator gopal for the beautiful ceremony that was put together this morning in honor of uh September 11th and those uh beautiful people that were lost in that event it was a very uh heart rendering heart heart heartbreaking um ceremony but very beautiful uh remembrance uh of Life as we all say with September 11th we will never forget and it was just a visible uh passionate impactful message from the city to say we will never forget um so my thanks to all the people who put that ceremony together it was beautiful thank you council president thank you councilwoman WT us I also would like to thank everyone for coming this evening and um wishing you all good next two weeks and if you have any concerns we're here to listen to you please contact us thank you thank you mayor palone thank you council president uh as Dr vote said today we had our 9911 remembrance service and I want to take the time to thank all of our First Responders for their service and as she also said on this day and every day we should uh never forget uh there's a couple events coming up that I'd like to mention um it's Hispanic Heritage Month and at our Long Branch arts and culture Center will be having an opening reception on September 17th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. with live music food and art all are welcome uh we also be having our Uptown uh Broadway Festival this Sunday September I'm sorry it's Sunday September 22nd from 2: to 6:00 p.m. on Broadway between Washington streets and Norwood Avenue uh join us there for live music fun and family family uh entertainment again that's something new that we're doing this year and finally uh the city of Lawn branch will be having a paper shredding event on November 2nd from 9:00 a.m. to noon at our new Senior Center uh 852 Avenue and this event uh is for Long Branch residents only so thank you all for being here this evening thank you mayor palum and thank you thanks for coming out tonight to the fire department everybody coming out and sharing your concerns I hope everything gets worked out and uh our hearts are thought with the 911 members all the First Responders as I watch that plane hit that building it stayed with me and my heart's with him with all the people that lost their loved ones that day and uh it was a tough day with that I want to say good night and thanks for coming I need a motion to adjourn move all in favor opposed thanks