##VIDEO ID:9dw67dNUusk## I like oh God it's doing you do your best best homework when you're when you're rushed a th% so so I'm helping you yes ma'am I'm sorry it's we're live I to I totally agree with you oh sorry I thought we were California why is it not lit he's like I'm like on a 4our time difference now he's like I'm all messed up no it's not it's not lit up but it's so true the did you press the button I did well I thought I did when you let the button go after you press it see see was it not plugged in I don't know good evening everybody uh welcome to the Wednesday November 6th meeting Long Hill Township committee Megan would you please read the statement of presiding officer in compliance with the open public meetings Act of New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting specifically the time date and public call and information were included in the meeting that was electronically sent to the echo sentinol Morris Daily Record and the town and posted on the township website the agenda and public handouts for this meeting can be viewed online at www. Longhill nj.gov a public comment perly held in the order it is listed on the meeting agenda thank you Megan would everybody please rise join me in a pledge of allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Megan please take roll M here commit woman right your in line here will not be joining us Deputy Mayor lavender pres mayor oh thank you Megan uh present I don't know if I said it was present uh item number four we're doing a proclamation presentation this evening Public Safety update it's Public Safety update oh I'm sorry I'm sorry he got excited so Public Public Safety update uh director peoples and officer in charge Lieutenant Jer bellaa and thank you for both being here this evening good [Music] evening good evening mayor uh the lieutenant chambrell and I took the opportunity to put a few um notes together on what we've been working on over the uh past uh uh few months and we're kind of going to work off each other here so um I'll start I wanted to give you an update on H how we're making out with um our selection process uh I did report uh I believe two meetings ago we had made four conditional offers of employment uh to four candidates one candidate um Turned a pos position down he took a position that was closer to um where he lived the other three candidates have all been through their pre-employment um checks uh they're all ready for um The Academy starting in uh January I've spoken with uh um uh administrator bar about uh um they need to be appointed prior to uh attending the uh Academy and administrator bar is uh working on that we took the opportunity to read vertise uh for um vacancies we would really would like to Target trained officers um already uh um we received uh we read vertis for about a month we we received a positive uh um feedback we conducted some interviews last week this week and uh next week and hope to have some uh recommendations for the uh Township committee uh um soon on that um the today um I participated in a pre-construction meeting for the paving of Northfield Road there had been some discussion in past meetings about some mitigation um opportunities at Valley and Northfield while we're doing the traffic study um Lieutenant chambrell worked on um securing uh a pedestrian crossing sign I spoke to the the township engineer today on the appropriate placement for that ass sign at the crosswalk on Northfield Road at Valley um and I spoke to Lieutenant Chella today on that we're going to um uh place that uh sign at the cross bu walk at on Northfield at at Valley hopefully that will also warn uh motorists coming up to the stop sign uh that there's in fact a stop sign there and obviously if there's any uh pedestrians U Crossing so the crosswalk itself is going east west west east not across Valley that's correct because I thought to myself that do sound safe on Valley but right I wasn't sure was that the resident that spoke about that would was she referring to a cross exactly like I keep thinking across Valley so to be clear for the public it is east west Crossing Northfield on Valley that is correct be incredibly unsafe that's correct so we we'll see how we do on uh hopefully it doesn't get hit too many times if it gets hit it just flops down and we'll flop back up but hopefully that's an additional uh mitigation uh opportunity um few months ago when I when I started here and I I rode around at night I was astounded about the am the amount of street lights that were out in this town um conducted a survey there was 65 street lights that uh were out um we worked along with Jersey Central Power and Light over the last um uh few few months uh 63 out of the 65 have been re uh repaired there's two of them that still has some some issues they're working on and I believe those street lights are costing about $12 a month for or unlit lit or unlit uh so in addition to the to public safety issue um you know we're paying we were paying for street lights that were um you know not not operable uh I would give some updates on the police headquarters uh a building another thing I I kind of recognized when um I first started is the building was a bit rund down the exterior the the interior um Al staff has been helping me us out on inclement days um he's been sending uh his Crews um to do some painting so we're kind of picking off one room at a time um today after several months of going through the the quoting process with ry's help uh we started to renovate um uh second floor bathrooms uh there's two bathrooms on the second floor that were constructed 23 23 years ago and haven't been touched since so that's going to be a welcome uh you know Improvement uh for us uh again when I started the natur the natural gas generator uh if anybody's been IR headquarters it's a huge uh generator the old one was inoperable uh we had a new one but we right now we kind of had to Kickstart the project so uh between Al and the the contractor and and Colette um that generator is online and we had a power failure a couple weeks ago and I was in the office kept my fingers crossed and the transfer switch worked and uh so now we'll have power during you know a power adage um some additional uh improvements uh if you've been to Police Headquarters you may have seen dumpsters in our parking lot where we throw our trash and recyclables Unfortunately they were unsecured had a gust of wind came came along it uh rolled a dumpster one in the patrol one into one of the patrol cars and caused damage we took the opportunity to fence in those uh uh those dumpsters uh in order to make it more aesthetically pleasing and then also secure them not have uh uh damage uh down at our range our back the back stop um was in the state of disrepair uh we had a fence company uh come in replace the fence um Al's uh staff helped uh clear all the brush away uh so we did a lot of nice uh tidying up of the uh uh the range area if mayor if I'm going on too long just let me know okay so okay but I do have one question just just to give a perspective and I have no idea what the answer is maybe you don't either and and Lieutenant maybe you do maybe you don't 65 lights were out do we have any idea how many lights there are in town just to get an idea of I do not uh I do not exactly know but I can get that information from good question right was it half out or right right a quarter yeah right and generally speaking how how has that I I remember years ago when Ken figer who's now a deputy director OEM he used to do that as part of his job I I would see him sometimes when I was driving around town at night he'd be looking at light how is that process now other than the a oneoff where you and maybe uh the lieutenant well what what's how's it going to be handled in the future so we don't end up with 65 lights out excellent question so we've instructed our Patrol officers during routine Patrol um if they notice a street light out um they are to call call that into Jersey Central uh you know Power and Light okay um a few months back we uh another thing I had observed is we had a lot of um records um that were we were storing 20 years old 30 years old um working along with um uh Megan we were able to identify the records that we could um destroy consistent with the records retention act um so I think we we were able to shred about 60 box and ironically just yesterday she reached out to me that uh the digiti we we would like to along with I believe some records here at Town Hall we'd like to actually digitize those records um we've received uh some uh proposals from companies that can digitize uh Township records police records we can then access them electronically um that will certainly free up some much needed uh uh space at uh uh police headquarters um last meeting there was some public uh comment I think it might come from Mr liberado about um uh news releases and public information um I spoke to Lieutenant chambrell after that meeting historically we would usually issue uh news releases on a weekly basis um it's kind of migrated to more of like a monthly uh basis I'd like to go back to a weekly basis and then anything that's maybe of uh High interest such as a home invasion a multi vehicle accident with injuries uh a structure fire anything else that uh maybe the residents in town their attention is drawn to it from one reason or another um we would like to get that information out as long as it doesn't jeopardize a a criminal investigation uh within like 24 hours after Ur how would you release that um we would release it uh through our uh media Outlets we'd also put it on our uh you know our our Facebook uh uh post and uh I would probably um I'm looking forward to the township web site being um revamped because my understanding is we're g department tampis will have access to um updating our particular pages and then I'd like to post post it on our uh the police department U uh web uh web page um last uh last when the last couple weeks the entire department received Advanced arrest search and seizure update training by the Morris County prosecutor 's office concentrating on contemporary search issues they're always changing um so that's something that we we need to be uh um you know on top of uh you may have noticed the police cars um we used to all the police cars except one we're kind of like in a stealth mode um I And discussing with the staff and just my personal philosophy community- based policing um I feel it's important that when we're riding through the neighborhoods uh that um you know our residents can readily identify you know the vehicle as a police vehicle so we have markings on them not that we didn't have markings that they were kind of a little more stealth but now they're white and you could see on the black backdrop of the car you can um readily see the uh uh that is a police vehicle um uh few weeks ago we responded to a u a medical call it was an overdose victim uh the officers that arrived quickly identified the victim as an overdose victim uh administered norcan uh the uh the victim regained when they first got there totally unresponsive uh the officers again identified as an overdose victim uh applied naron administered narcon uh the victim regained Consciousness subsequently transfered to the hospital for further treatment I just mentioned this because it it kind of came at the same time that we were are participating with the local Municipal Alliance Save a Life day where our officers um uh teamed up with Minal alliance members at Police Headquarters and we actually handed out 18 uh nor noran kits uh to the public uh the department so the the range has been uh our we have a local range it's it's great for our training because we can do Dynamic training versus static training if we had to go to the police academy um you're kind of just standing in a gunport range of firing your gun at our range we can do a lot of St I training it's a great benefit to our um training program here uh but there's been some you know noise complaints in in the past uh our range officers right now for two reasons are researching uh equipping our rifles with suppressors uh which is kind of like a silencer uh one um God forbid we ever had to discharge the you know the weapon without earring protection uh it there's a good chance that the officer's uh hearing would be uh you know affected maybe even damaged so suppressor will cut the deci down and also when we do all our training it will cut the noise down at you know at the range I personally uh went up to the Sterling lake a few weeks ago as a range officers were testing these suppressors I could clear clear clearly hear the rifle concussion at the Sterling lake because I believe Randy R we had a complaint maybe from uh some uh residents up there um I could not even hear the rifle with a suppressor so I think the so would the suppressor be a permanent maybe that's not the way to phrase it part of a rifle it would not just for training but for exactly exactly so I hope to have some more recommendations on the best suppressor unit to um um you know the purchase um Lexus IS GNA take over here in a minute uh just two more things uh we I I just think it's important also to bring to the committee's attention is that we do receive um letters of appreciation uh from the public um for our officers last month we received uh two uh letters of appreciation from residents those officers are given a copy of th that those letters uh from the public and it's also made part of their uh U personnel file let me just see did I did I miss anything okay go ahead so once you take those and then take the LPR and the body War cameras okay um in the past month the officers participated in the trunk Retreat and they also participated in the Halloween parade judging it and then additionally um we did a community event with a coffee with coffee with a cop that was at Starbucks which was well received um with regard to the body warn cameras they phase out probably every 10 years or so and there's new always a new platform a new a new version that comes out and you have to keep getting it updated so um what we have currently is phasing out and um last year Megan Gates and I applied for a small rural tribal uh match Grant and we actually acquired $222,000 to offset the cost of the body cameras uh for this year and um a director peoples uh went through the process with Motorola to get the uh to purchase those items and they just actually came in last week and uh Cliff maros is going to be working with Motorola and uh it to have those roll out um with regard to the alpr as of this afternoon uh the last two of the six cameras are now up and running so that happened just as of today uh we just have to receive the training and then that'll get deployed to everyone so that they can utilize that uh it's been beneficial for stolen vehicles and um now they'll have access and be able to communicate with the rest of the County uh with regard to stolen vehicles as they travel through our County um these are automatic license plate readers yes are they sinked up with Warren and Berkeley Heights and watchong too no no they have different uh vendors um but the goal from what I understood was eventually the state was going to completely integrate and then they'll all be able to talk to each other um lastly the licensing was new in 2024 so we had 11 officers that had to go through the renewal process so that's been completed and put through and we just have to wait for that to get approved I think that's it one thing I think you didn't mention is that uh Lieutenant Chella wrote the grant for the alprs uh it was 72 72,000 with Millennium well your signatures on it so uh the we received Township received $72,000 to uh uh Implement that program and to committee mandor's uh uh point we did look into um maybe purchasing the same camera alpr camera system that Warren and burner's Township um had because uh the county system although it's very robust um a lot of good exchange information um what affects crime trends that affect the rest of moris County really don't affect necessarily Morris County um we're we're more in in sync with the crime Trends in Union County and Somerset County um unfortunately there was they had different types of camera system and they were actually more uh expensive uh so we we stuck with the original uh Grant proposals um and just how for the public and your information how those work is that you know a car comes into the town let's say it's stolen or wanted uh the county will get an alert they'll run the license plate to confirm that it actually is stolen um or wanted and as soon as they make that conf confirmation they initiate a command our officers it pops up on their mdts uh that there's a stolen vehic icle just came in let's say Valley uh and River County will uh confirm that with us uh we have a good working relationship with burners Warren and in uh in Berkeley Heights and anytime their cameras hit a car that may be traveling into a stolen car in our town they notify us we're going to do vice versa and it's going to be a real help for us because we had that home invasion a couple weeks ago up on Long Hill Road um in all likelihood it was probably a stolen car that came into the township um we're going to know that that car there's a stolen car floa around our Township and we'll have a heightened sense of uh um awareness um I think that's it what do you think I do have one question or have a question thank you uh I I don't know if it stopped or just but it seems to have restarted the patrolling of uh neighborhoods and I know you know forget my role here uh as a resident I always appreciate it often times 3:00 4 4:00 in the morning I see lights uh go by and it was a police car patrolling uh the neighborhood and for me this a security there's a comfort to that and I was speaking to one of the officers at the Halloween parade I I was amazed at the number of miles on a shift that one of the officers will actually drive around on their uh I town right because it wasn't even the whole town yeah right Aubrey was there so thank you so it's interesting to bring that up mayor because we had a staff meeting a couple weeks ago where you know we were talking about our mission and our philosophy and we're very you know Community Driven and you know to your point is I think the residents really like to see the patrol cars you know in the neighborhood you know hence one of the reasons why we marked up the cars to be you know more visible and we had a we had a discussion about um concentrating on our P patrolling our uh residential areas um recording when we're uh um uh patrolling the residential areas so if you receive some positive feedback maybe you know they it came out of our renewed conservative effort of patrolling the uh yeah I mean to point it was comments made to me but it was also personal observation I said oh gez that I for I had forgotten and I said you know I missed that and I'm so glad that it's it's been uh reinstated so thank you lieutenant any questions I I have a question the all the updates that you mentioned are they from like the last time we heard from you guys or really kind of the past several months I would say the past uh you know several months I mean I like there's been like fencing put up and all that that's yeah uh I would say that you know happened between probably you know April and you know October um you know I know the lieutenant and I being up here is a as a result I I believe the township committee's uh you know desire to have you know have us kind of report on them a monthly or every you know CLE months um you know we have we have a lot going on uh so and I this is you know reflective of some of the work that we're doing every day we appreciate the update thank you and the coffee with a cop I should probably know this when is it is it posted like on the website should we be announcing it here like how do you guys on Facebook it was on Facebook oh that's probably why I don't see it I don't do Facebook okay good to know thank you but it was like if we could announce it here if we wanted I mean not that you want Matt or Vic we didn't we myself did you all right so I blacked out I'm sorry never mind okay great thank you that that was great I the website oh I had one other question website is that something that's imminent or you think I would know that yeah it it'll it'll be up by the end of the year okay it that's great follow on that and then the other question was you mentioned the um letters of appreciation from um citizens yes is that like I mean not that we have to share all of them but I don't know I feel like uh bad news always travels fast fter than good sometimes like and if there's you know special things that our offic I mean I know our officers do special things every day but getting those letters are also special and unique if there's anything that can be shared that we can you know make sure that the public knows about the appreciation or the outstanding efforts um and they're getting recognized I think is a nice thing weing at the next meeting that we will have some recognitions of uh not only officers employees also yeah because I it takes effort from the citizens to write something because again it's so quick I think a lot of times to um critique versus celebrate so I think it's it's great that citizens are taking the time to do that and then also that the um department is receiving these so it's just something to celebrate and share if we can and the noran save is something I honestly I didn't know about that so that's that's just unbelievable that's great yeah so thank you guys yes I mean I think if I could just comment on the noran um application I think it's just a testament to the officer you know training skills knowledge and ability um I I think I had communicated with you mayor a couple weeks ago about a serious accident on Myers Myersville Road you know a head-on collision and when the officers got there there was one victim that was bleeding profusely and the officer administered a you know attor it to you know control the bleeding um and then you know had a couple other victims um so you know I've commented before you know the officers are very you know well trained they know their job no thank you both and thank you for all that you're doing collectively from all of us and from all the residents thank you I I can say to to Aubrey's Point uh the feedback that I receive from residents regarding the police department is immensely positive so thank you yeah welc thank you okay very good all right so here we go uh item number five on your agenda ordinances this is second reading for adoption ordinance so it's really perfect just satisfy the technical requirements of the D rules questions comments from the township committee no I'd like to open it up to the public for comment or questions regarding this ordinance 554 d24 seeing none I'll close it looking for oh I apologize anybody on Zoom would like to make a public comment please raise your hand now I don't see anyone thank you Megan um so we'll close it to the public looking for a motion to approve 554-2424 this is second reading for adoption an ordinance establish establishing the promotion process for chief of police and supplementing and amending chapter 2 of the Township Code entitled Administration um I don't know if Jack did you want to give a a an overview of what it is we're doing here yeah this establishes a process for uh promotion to Chief of Police it involves the uh New Jersey State Police Chiefs Association as an outside agency to conduct both oral and written exams and to be part of the process and it sets forth the the scoring system and things like that so it really formalizes the the process for promotion to Chief thank you Jack that's great summary there uh questions or comments from the township committee yeah I do um I I have a few away Jack um so U what was the model for this ordinance is this something that mirrors model ordinances from the state or is this something that uh from other towns yeah this was drafted by labor Council and it's based on his experience in other towns and it is a fairly common process for for promotions okay and then um I'm looking at um under Section 2-14 13.1 promotional procedures item number one I just want to make sure that I understand this correctly so it says in order to be considered for the rank of chief of police the officer must be a member of the L Hill Police Department and have held the rank of lieutenant or higher for a minimum of one year Andor Sergeant for a minimum of three years and must possess a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university to be eligible to participate in the process so um how long all right so the way I read this either a lieutenant or a sergeant can apply for this process is that a true statement yes as long as they meet the time and service requirements and okay and so uh Lieutenant for at least one year and Sergeant for at least three years but how long do you have to be an officer before you can be a sergeant three years yeah I was going to say three years three years so a sergeant could move up to this role minimally in six years correct and then how long do you have to be a sergeant before you can be a lieutenant I don't know director peoples is there any requirement for that I mean as a practical matter it's not going to happen overnight but one year one year one year and remember those are the minimum time periods you know it's not going to happen on those on those dates okay so just to kind of just to kind of rewind and re re explain this to myself again so um from the point in time of an officer joining the department to being Chief there's a minimum Runway of six years realistically it's going to take a lot longer than that um the uh the process is open to both lieutenants and sergeants correct according to this okay um second there's a lot of talk in here about psychological examinations um is this something that's now required or recommended by the state it's certainly Universal it's Universal so is this um and is this tied into the licensing aspect as well I'm not sure I defer I don't think so no right okay it's just a it's a common police hiring and promotion requirement okay and is the same psychological exam required for promotion to lieutenant or Sergeant or is this just in the case not the present time I don't believe okay and then the background check um is this also Universal yes where it should be okay and if I if I remember correctly that was part of the uh consultan study that said we should we should yeah you're right yes okay and then so the the the past fail basis um where is the bar set on the psychological exam is this coming from a a licens it's a professional yes okay so so they're either saying fit or unfit correct okay and and it's a detailed comprehensive they don't choose themselves they have to go to where their sense they'll go to the same person that's right okay yes so it's not arbitrarily applied Okay so assum they pass all these hurdles the time served um the psychological test the background check then this is going uh written and oral examinations administered by the New Jersey Chiefs of Police Association yes and the township committee which may in its sole discretion consult with the township administrator and the appropriate Authority will then make a selection based on the results provided by the New Jersey so what what do the results look like um it says utilizing the rule of three so our expectation is they would give us three qualified candidates to choose from yes and that's the procedure used by Civil Service okay the township committee can choose any one of the top three candidates and the township administrator and the appropriate Authority in this case the uh um Police director the public safety director excuse me they would have an opinion a recommendation but the township committee would then vote for the final decision from those three that's right the ultimate decision lies with the tent committee okay did I miss anything or do I understand this no I think that's it's fairly straightforward okay and the last thing seniority shall Prevail over residency in the case of candidates that are ranked equally great it's a Ty Breer is the tiebreaker okay that's great Scott I appreciate you going through that thank you I appreciate Jack explaining it because this stuff is hard to understand so any other comments or questions I I still think three years a Sergeant's way too little I mean in reality like I said it could be a freak thing but you could be the chief after being on the on the department for six years so you can show up today and six years from now you can be the chief it's a that'd be an odd odd example but it could happen and I don't think anybody's ready to run an organization no matter what organization is if there six years of experience especially with all the specialized skill and training you need and basically more of it's just the in the field training which is probably the most important thing and and to two mat's point on that that recommendation for the three years came from our labor Council yes and that was based on what just his experience as far as I know okay but that could be something that we could change in the future of course you I we just change it now so we don't have to worry about it I'd vote for five but a minimum i' like 10 but three is way too the the and I hear what you're saying Matt and instinctively I would agree with you uh the only thing that they're going through a fairly or not a fairly a very rigorous process to get recommended as one of the three yeah a lot of people are good on paper oh I said a lot of people look good on paper six years experience in this job paper there there's oral interviews I get that but 60 you need the time on the job you need to be out there in the field you need to be dealing with people in those situations six years experience to run an organization to run 20 people with all the rules and regulations they have to deal with on a regular basis to me it's just not enough time and and I hear you I'm just discussing it not so much I have a strong opinion one way or the other U kind of the people doing the pro the process are experienced oh yeah I'm not worried about the people doing the process I just don't this count committee that's doing it it's the the state police chief I I would think I would think that um that would certainly be a big criteria for the public safety director to opine on as well as the administrator and as well as us as well I mean it would be a fair thing to compare right because seniority shall Prevail over residency well seniority prevails over Jun you know seniority that's less right we're not going to get three candidates that have six years of experience I think the odds of that are slim and none oh no I just don't want to prevent any of them forget about three any no I I hear what you're saying Matt and I'm just going along with what the process seems to have uh come to but again Jack always as always we can amend this correct and remember the seniority provision is to get on to the list of three oh even just to get on that's only a TI though it's totally discretionary with the township committee to appoint any one of those top three candidates but to get on to the list of three seniority will fair enough will bump somebody up in theory though you could have three people with less seniority you could and if so why amend why don't we fix it now prevent the problem from happening that's my position to move it to five is that your I I don't think that makes sense though I don't think that makes sense because the process itself prevents the problem from happening I agree I don't trust the proc like people slip through the cracks and you're you're you don't even give them a choice then they can't even consider somebody unless they have the minimum experience and you don't have to worry about anything else then then they can't apply so to me it's why trust the process where you already put a safeguard in and they abide by it and we're good well let's so let's do a little tabletop exercise with this because you're going to have more you're going to have more sergeants with six years of experience than you are with 10 years of experience so let's say seven officers apply for this what comes out the back end is going to be three of them right should and of those three what are the chances that three of them are going to have six years of experience and if one of them has six years of experience and is an absolute Rock star why would we not want to at least interview that person I think we'd want to I think unless you have somebody definite in mind uh I'm still going no yeah no one definite in mind I'm just saying you know if we're going to talk in in theoreticals I think we want to see everything we can see right I I don't see it as being a problem I mean I I I understand and principle Matt's concern but this is another one of these things where I think we need to set the process and then trust the process and Trust the people that we have running the process right because we have the chiefs of the chiefs of police we have ry's opinion we have Mike's opinion we have the collective opinion of this committee which we hope would do the right thing I'm fine with it exactly the way it is um right in principle yeah six years that would be a that would be a yellow flag for me but it wouldn't be one that I wouldn't want to consider that person solely because of that so I'm done talking yeah okay so I kind of agree with Scott but I fully appreciate what Matt is saying it's not like I think it's it's it's not uh logical uh so or welcome again to the I'm just doing research while you guys are talking I'm listening um I do trust this process in terms of that being neutral coming from the New Jersey Chiefs of police so I'm okay with the three I do hear you about the length of time so I'm like I'd be okay if we moved it to five um I can argue it either way I'm just looking at the some statistics from New Jersey just to see what else was coming up I I admit I'm deferring to La Council who wrote it uh and made that recommendation if if if he had written I would probably agree with five to be honest so it's not like I'm married to Fred yeah I'm kind of on the same page as you public second reading yeah second reading let the public speak yeah no no no we'll open it up to the public so uh let's open up the meeting to the public on this ordinance and that is 55524 good evening good evening Charles I'm running with Millington I left the meeting at the first reading where you guys and gal had a lengthy discussion on this 5ye six year 7 year 8 year n year 10 year I left the meeting thinking that we had it at eight or nine years I read this ordinance it's not there if you replay the meeting attorney pigeon recapped it and we said more years than three we we didn't mention three cuz that's the requirement for sergeant but we said no you guys said at the last meeting you were comfortable with eight or nine years now we're back to six please reread or rewatch the meeting and it's not here thank you thank you Joe far Andino 623 Cheston Street question how many on the day has had a gun stuck in their face and been robbed just want to know because you're deciding on how a police officer has the ability to do his job and yet you've never been in that position back to a police chief someone who's walked the streets who's been in very difficult situations who's able to tell who's got the medal to be out there to do the job so again I ask who here has been had a gun stuck in their face and been robbed I think you you you maybe missed what Scott and Jack were talking about the process is run by the state police Chiefs Association not by this Township committee and the same thing with all these specifics they were so what did the the last meeting I was here the um the bureau or the group of State Police Chiefs Russo was his name Chief Russo right he he he suggested that we have a police chief that came through the ranks that has the um has the respect of his offices and he's the one who should lead the department which I believe is very important because again back to doing the job knowing the job having the experience why was that totally disregarded was still without a police chief correct but I don't think it I mean I don't think it was disregarded do we have a police chief no but that's what we're working on we're working on it we're putting it but we don't have one no because we're putting it into place we can have a police chief but we don't have a police Chief we don't have somebody who's in charge of our police force who has the respect of the officers that he's leading or she's leading correct right that's and that's the point of this process and I I think you're misremembering what Chief Russo said Chief Russo didn't say promote somebody tomorrow Chief Russo said we will help with the process which is in fact what this is uh codifying or whatever the right word is right and I would say today the leadership of our Police Department is is actually here right now yes and he is a civilian I said and they're they're both here and Shake officer in charge okay but we don't have a chief we have an officer in charge and a civilian and back to the um duties that the civilian Public Safety Officer can and cannot enforce cannot do the job of a police chief is that correct do not do not address that excuse me excuse me um Randy he cannot what I said do not address that that's Personnel issues do not address that I love it have a good night you too J thank you I think I was getting St any other member of the public I don't see anybody online Megan would like to speak absolutely maryan would you please State your address and and and name for the record we know who you are okay Arian in laana Boulevard jillette mayor Pia I had sent you an email specific to everything has that has been spoken on the Das okay there's definitely a disconnect from what I heard at the last meeting in terms of duration with regards to an officer the clarity in item one is not clear did you read my email briefly because I had a busy time at work I'm trying to remember what what specifically did you just say the duration meaning what the timeline with reference to an officer whether they're a lieutenant and a sergeant how many years of service that should be distinguished that whole paragraph should have been broken in two pieces it does not also address if someone was to be hired from another Township how much is that counted because to become a chief of police in Long Hill Township you have to reside in Long Hill Township and then I went further to look at the premise in terms of what the hiring procedures are with regards to our police force you only need you do not need a bachelor's degree you need a high school diploma or GED there is a major disconnect here and I'm just I'm very confused okay and to the extent that there have been so many meetings regarding this and if you had read the other emails that I have sent to the township committee summon private discounting Randy because he's a human he's one Mar can I just say one thing those what you say in those emails needs to become part of the public record you need to say it here you know now I do not sending it to me is not going it's not it that's one thing but back to the thing about the GED or high school degree it's up to it's up to individual towns to to determine whether you need a college degree that's correct and and and this for years I and director people's office at CH Briel of lieutenant chel if I I mean the idea that you need a college degree has been part of the process for 20 years maybe longer so may p with all due respect you just stated that you need a Township you know a Township an officer needs a degree but an officer could be hired without a degree so in capture it is stipulated in item one of that ordinance that you must have a degree absolutely okay so my question at hand and I do understand because we have older officers where maybe the guidelines did not stipulate that you needed a Township you know you needed a degree I get it but we're talking specific tonight about Chief the position of Chief not an officer being hired I understand that read again if you look at point one that needs to be very differentiated Matt has spoken in terms of years of service okay Scott as well he's agreed to this ordinance but he had questions about it well to be fair to to uh uh Deputy Mayor lavender I think he walked through that process to make sure everybody understood Scott was very aware of the answers to those question he's totally aware I again I'll just reiterate reiterate what uh Mr pigeon said earlier this ordinance was written by labor Council in consultation with with Jack and frankly I think it's pretty clear May Pia unfortunately you glance through my email again you have you Maryanne you have the floor forget your email you can State on the record what it is that you think is unclear I just have okay and I will also stipulate whether mayor whether um Michael peop had a chance to read it as well as our two presiding officers on the police okay thank you Megan anyone elseas would to speak good evening Yasmin so Yas it's on this ordinance at this point in the meeting yes okay fire away yes um I'm surprised at myself too but I just I was just curious when it comes to what um Mr dorsy was saying and the discrepancy between a minimum um of he was suggesting A Min a minimum of five years or six years and Mr lavender was saying um he'd prefer three years I don't know I just feel like in general like the more um you've been on a job and the I guess the more experience you have I feel like the better um and I don't know much about the rankings and stuff but just hearing between the two arguments um about more time I don't see why that would be necessarily a bad thing to have more experience on the job especially when you're being considered for some position as the chief so that's just my two cents on that be considered no no no thank you and and again I don't think be considered we can disagree with what Matt said it's logical it makes sense yeah uh but I I think where we came out is I agree with what Scott had said the odds of reaching uh the conclusion of this through a rigorous process run by the state police Chiefs Association remember where the township committee is not running that process it's being run by the state police Chiefs Association who have vast experience in this matter and in consultation I know we keep calling directed people uh uh a private citizen uh but he he's a former police chief with enormous amount of experience in this matter so by the time it comes to the township committee um it it would be uh a rigorous process so whether it's three years or five years as sergeant if if we we discover it it doesn't make sense we we can change the ordinance and I I mean I don't know can I say like this wasn't made like in a bubble there was consultations and input and research from multiple sides right like I don't know like what I'm supposed to say or not but like there was input we've had discussions with to Joe's point because I know Joe might not be awake right now but um is it was it like to your I think Joey brought up a really good point that it's you know you're right we don't walk or I don't I don't know maybe other people do walk the beat of being a police officer at all which is why to do this we did consult and and and look at standard operating procedure in other departments as well as with the Chiefs um as well as with our own leadership do we do we also know what the surrounding towns like around us because I know we like to compare what they use their Baseline for for how long um someone should be a sergeant personally I do not and I don't know about Matt mattor okay but one person definitely does and that's our labor C M okay I would say probably and the State Police Chief's Association I'd probably say Mike peoples probably has an idea as well and uh uh Lieutenant you know my my point on this is you know the more we try to massage the requirements acting like we know when we've already consulted with the experts the more we get ourselves in trouble yeah we do exactly what we're being told not to do stick our nose into things and I just want to emphasize it does say minimum so I I mean again I we're not going to be able to Define it to every single iteration um but I think you know it says minimum and again there's a whole process it's not just like okay you have three years done it's a whole process that goes around it so that makes me feel a little better and I think you guys know I as T of questions so I'm like and you have to prove yourself yeah you have to prove your your your your medal for this look I want to be see CEO of the company I work for and I could be that tomorrow but it's never going to happen right know but sometimes setting the bar higher might come out with a better result and if it's something that needs to be lowered I would rather go on the side of more experience and more time on the job then I guess less and then if it becomes a discrepancy Scott like that U Mr lavender that you suggested maybe then it's become okay maybe we lower it to to four years or three years but if I could if I could um step in there you rais an interesting point it's exactly where we diverge is um having the bar where it is ensures we have more people to look at not less raising it means we have less to look at and again the process itself will weed out the uh the applicants that um are not worthy yeah for me I guess I just go more towards that's yeah that's that's that's a difference of opinion I guess yeah yeah no it's a good conversation thank you yasine appreciate it Megan at home okay so I'm looking for a motion to pass on second reading ordinance 554-2424 so moved look for second oh second Megan no woman inine yes Deputy Mayor lavender yes mayor Pia yes uh also second reading ordinance couple years so sounds what this is s it sounds fair and Randy since we're on this uh before we discuss it this committee I I forget when six month whenever it was we asked you to do a survey of uh salary ranges for these positions and you put an awful lot of work into it uh brought a lot of data back to the township committee so these ranges weren't just chosen out of thin air there there was a basis for certainly based on towns that look like Long Hill size Etc right and and the mark the market um the responsibilities uh you know a lot goes into it uh what what the position actually is department head position or or lower level position so there's there's a lot that plays a factor into these salary ranges yeah I got a question for if I can ask AB question of course um so I assume the reason that we we we change these ranges is so we can be competitive when we go to higher Personnel right correct and have there been instances where um we even we haven't been able to get who we wanted to get or maybe we've lost people because we haven't been able to be competitive well the majority of the people that leave leave for more money doing the same job just with another town and do we do exit interviews with them um I have done exit interviews with the people I can't speak before before me but is what you're saying that the main reason you get in those interviews is uh salary was not competitive correct okay and if if I could add a Nuance to what uh Scott just pointed out the the time to treat an employee fairly is while they are your employee not when they've now been approached by another town and this is a project that we started discussing three years ago and we knew that we were in some instances not competitive and and I think in some cases they were Hometown discounts offered by some of our employees who were very valued and we wanted to make sure that we objectively paid uh our employees we happen to be in a good financial situation and I think that's what uh jump started this this conversation again and so again Randy I this didn't happen last meeting this is something you've been working on for quite some time oh absolutely yeah and I guess again I just want to emphasize we've been going through it comparatively all the different ways to make sure we're comfortable with the rationale and the Abes to pay for it and the ranges that are being set competing that's comp well this is just setting this is just setting the ranges as far as what the salaries are that depends on who we hire we don't have to hire correct we choose to hire correct and again these ranges I feel comfortable with because we did all the background checking both as a team and then individually I I I have no other thing that people might not know is a lot of our employees are severely underpaid compared to all the towns around us so if you see a bigger percent raise that's most likely get them where they should be to begin with because we got him at a guy set at discount for whatever reason so sometimes you'll see a higher percent raise and that's probably that's the only reason really explain and I would say also with that we looked at it com comparatively to towns around us as well as comparatively to towns that are more apples to apples to us in terms of scope of work and um number of population size yeah mhm feel like it wasn't just saying like Okay you know because the town next to us might be three times the size or half so just to level set that that we looked at those ranges thank you Aubrey so the township committee's okay so let's open uh the meeting up to the public this is just first reading no it's second reading adoption yeah so 556 d24 amending salaries and wages ordinance so for members of the public who are present as I brought up once before Oh Joe fandino 623 Chestnut Street Sterling as I brought up before we had uh Frank Regio talk about Union County their uh public safety director 113,000 I don't know what their population is my friend um har rosf is on the um H what is it the commission for Byrum and his public safety director gets $113,000 a year they have 8,000 people population similar to Sterling and um my question again is why our public safety director gets paid $217,000 a year well to be quite honest with you there's no change in the salary range here so I'm not sure what you're asking I'm asking why other towns we're going to talk about salaries this is a salary wage ordinance set in the ranges which if you look at the paperwork that was given out the public safety director has a range of 175 to 235 that was determined while ago there's no change in that and that assessment was made in comparison to what townships what municipalities because again Union County got a hell of a lot more population than Long Hill Township Patterson New Jersey got a hell of a lot more crime and population than Long Hill Township so what what was the criteria for making this decision you know we we can have this conversation every meeting the township committee unanimously at the time agreed to uh what you have described and pay pay Mr peoples $213,000 a year right and to it's not the subject no you're you're safe go ahead I wasn't here for that yeah I know before my time so again back to assessment of salaries what's the criteria that were basing the assessment of our employees in comparison to other employees in other municipalities in the state of New Jersey I can't I can't speak to the challenges that exist the breath of uh of work that is being required there's one thing I can assure you uh $133,000 is I I don't know what that person does but it would be public safety director titles don't tell me it doesn't tell me that's the title I understand their titles 8,000 people Township I I Jersy I don't know what their responsibilities are okay I can speak for longer I cannot speak for byon Township okay thank you Jeff and please I mean there's a there's a part at the end of the meeting that uh is for comment on that the only comments that we're looking for right now is on this ordinance salary ranges I thought I was on point no I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm just pointing that out Joe's a lot bigger than I am anyway um Charles running withs Millington part of the discussion at the first reading was we're doing this salary range so we don't have to revise it all the time and we're going to give wide ranges so we're in sync going down the road and we have don't have to do these first and second readings my question tonight is is any position in the township approaching that top Ranch Mandy sure there would be yes well I was under the impression from the first reading that we're making these ranges so we don't have to do this every time and if someone is approaching the range why didn't we make the range wider you're absolutely correct and we I try to do this um so that we don't have to come back every year uh things change people leave new people come in the market uh the market tends to uh get to get changed uh this was introduced prior to a finalization of a resolution that's on later in the uh meeting um we are not exceeding any limits if we have based upon what's going to happen later in the meeting if we have people approaching the high range why don't we revise this in this session so that we don't have to do this again in eight months or 10 months whatever positions they are uh Mr Mayor if I can ask the legal question if we change um one or two of these uh limits does that materially change the ordinance where we would have to have a another hearing or is this in my opinion yes you would have to continue the public hearing on the ordinance as amended which means you couldn't adopt the resolution setting individual salaries at this meeting okay so I would recommend to this committee not to change anything from this ordinance and we could we could uh we could entertain it next year Rand you've been an administrator you've been a CFO for many many years changing salary ranges is a fairly regular thing right this isn't exceptional what we're doing no that's a question rather than a statement yeah I mean it in fact this is this is minimal these are minimal changes so and will probably happen again next year I would think it may very well happen next year I would think that it it it probably would thank you I was under the impression that we were in your executive sessions we've had salary discussions the last two or three meetings have we not yeah that's part so I I'm just concerned on the timing of the discussions of employee salaries with these ranges and if we had people in positions that are approaching the ranges we're in these discussions why didn't we change them again it's it's a range I I can't hear the conversation so it's a range we won't hire somebody at that rate oh that's you're saying okay the problem generally arises when we're hiring someone new and if they're offered a salary higher than the salary range then they have to wait to start employment correct because the proposed salary doesn't fit within the ordinance introduced it's easy to amend the ordinance with respect to current employees but but it's more in the case because it takes a month to adopt it so as I say if you're hiring someone new and and they're outside the salary range or you hire someone in a salary that the salary ordinance is hourly you know you're run into problems so how many employees do we have based on later discussions that are at the high end of the range I would say there's two employee and two positions here that would probably need need to be changed next year okay next question the range for the township administrator is that appropriate didn't change I'm saying based upon what we're paying or whatever we're doing is at the appropriate range all right so my my response to that is in in I can answer it because we're specifically talking about the administrator CFO no the administrator I understand administrator is 75 to 180 our right so our administrator CFO one person performs both roles roughly speaking CFO a quality one with experience is about $130,000 a year an administrator uh with EXP experience roughly 160 170 so to answer your question uh I would contend and and also in both cases have uh pensionable Sal salaries and health benefits uh so to answer your question right is it appropriate it's very appropriate and in fact it's a it's a great deal for the township and for the taxpayer and is what come into play Under the current Arrangement this would only come into play if if we hire r's replac future with the direct employ correct Mr pigeon you're very familiar with the township of Bernville what what's what's the range for Township administrator I'd have to look I'll help you oh okay thanks you've already done my homework the current new salary for the township administrator in Bernville is 194 is that a comat Township administrator that is correct that's what I said no no I I was my question is is that town comparable to ours very similar in a lot of ways yes okay but the r well I don't know what the range is I know what the compensation is this year it's 194 I don't know the range because I didn't do my homework on that so let's assume she's in the middle of the range so I'm going to come back and say you contend that the 180 is a good number for us I'm not so sure it is it may not be right I think it's not thank you thank you Chuck members of the public in the courtroom seeing none Megan hi can you hear me yes okay thank you um quick question with the reference to the salary range yeah I don't know if this is appropriate for me to ask this question at this time or during the comment period after the meeting but um these are my questions number one do we have an HR consultant yes yes yes I'm sorry it's difficult okay thank you number two do we have professional performance reviews for our employees yes I I'll let I'll let administrative bar answer that question yes we do man sorry okay thank you lastly typically in a corporate environment which I grew up in um part of the PO per performance reviews are goals outside of your regular jobs I have seen specifically one Township employee who she has gone out of her way okay and she happens to be sitting there um to implement and streamline her job okay so in essence with reference to goals are goals included in these performance reviews yes because if you you okay so to summarize Within These salary ranges and any promotions or salary increases will not only be based on how you perform on your daily duties but also outside of the goals that you have put in that you would accomplish for the year correct that is correct thank you thank you marann Megan anybody else at home anybody else on Zoom would like to make a public comment please raise your hand seeing none I'm looking for a motion to approve ordinance 56-24 on second reading so moved second Megan yes woman yesy mayor lavender yes mayor yes so uh item number six on your agenda consent agenda resolutions we are going to PLL 24-28 4 uh we're waiting on a few more details so any resolution that a member of the township committee needs to pull for further discussion or needs to recuse themselves um I'm sitting out of uh 24282 the wck basketball salary range okay anyone else I am I just have to figure out which one it is sorry 276 two it's up higher than I thought okay yes then the bills one yep anybody else Scott no all right so looking for a motion with the uh recusals 282 for Matt and 276 for aubre so moved second yes yes mayor lav yes mayor yes uh committee reports Aubrey can we start with you and I I Lisa sent all right and and Lisa sent who has the W report I gave I you do okay so fire away Matt I have nothing to report except if you want to look at the uh burnard's Township Health uh it's Bernards health.org has their uh monthly newsletter out for November there's some exciting things going on so if you want to know about them please go to Bernards health.org thank you that's it that's it all right night nothing here Matt have a great evening thank you see you later should I start Recreation go ahead right do you want to do Recreation first right okay that's usually thing happens okay so the gry ghost AKA Northern Harrier was photographed by Ed zindell of Myersville in the swamp this past week this is considered a photographers coup as the gray ghost is extremely rare this past week in Recreation we held a babysitting training class where 16 new babysitters were trained on how to handle all sorts of activities and safety issues that come up when babysitting it was a great class we also wrapped up all of the travel basketball team tryouts and teams are practicing now getting ready for their Seasons we met with our playground manufacturer and installer the playground construction should begin the end of November and be completed the beginning of December we're so excited for the new playground and a woodland gnome fairy theme our fall yoga programming at the old Millington Schoolhouse is still ongoing on Mondays and Wednesdays Saturday recreation basketball programming will now start on November 23rd or will start on November 23rd I added the now sorry I don't want anybody to think it changed okay adult basketball registration is still open for anyone who would like to play pickup basketball in the gym at Central School all players must pre-register for the program on community pass the program runs on Thursdays from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. when schools are open and is running now through May 1st next slide please thank you a look to the sky is our current photography contest free entry of up up to three photographs on community pass now through January 15th whether it is a beautiful sunset or Sunrise a comet Northern Lights a special Moon a starry night interesting cloud formations a rainbow Etc there's a lot to see in the sky lately we cannot wait to see your submissions so again that's uh on community pass three photographs can three photographs can be submitted now through January 15th just to reiterate that okay coming soon letters to campaign start behaving now holiday cookie decorating contest holiday house/ buus decorating contest and then please watch the website for more details and jump in on the fun for these specifics also please mark your calendars for the Myersville tree lighting Sunday December 1st at 5:00 p.m apparently I'm having trouble reading the rest of these I'm sorry okay next slide our don't be a litterbug campaign continues we will continue to harp on this until it is no longer a problem Oscar the Grouch still has some concerns and finally we are always looking for new members on our Recreation advisory committee raise your hand and get involved we'd love to hear from you contact the recreation department for more information and I apologize that wasn't the most updated one there are two pictures here it's our Hills yay field hockey woo finished up seon this past weekend our 78 te went to the playoffs and had a great season they played two very exciting and close games Sunday coming overall 21 me breaks nice yeah he does the field hockey and it'll be great because the eighth graders will be going hopefully to watch Young Hills to fill in on their field hockey team and I recognize the coach that's former deputy mayor uh me Briggs he's been doing it for years it's great all right thank you me should we do the library ones next yes are there slides for those or no over sorry I don't mean to put pressure on you Megan Megan slides okay the lill Township Library is open seven days a week including 10 to two on Saturdays and 1 to five on Sundays next week we're going to have a pop quiz for those that come to the township meeting every week or every time we're going to have a pop quiz on those hours all right slide two please find here the library's weekly schedules of programs and events one for kids and one for adults there is all sorts of good stuff happening then the library hosted many Halloween themed crafts and stories including book aen pictured above kids had fun dressing up marching in a costume parade playing games making crafts and listening to Spooky Stories super cute all right where am I okay the library hosts two off-site silent books clubs bring any book you like and read in contented Silence with other books lovers guy and I obviously can't go to that we would fail we'd be kicked out anyway throughout November the library celebrates can I add lib no throughout November the library celebrates dinosaurs with the mashup called dinovember first we will build dinosaur skeletons with 160 foam dino bones next we will read stories about dinos and dig for fossils on November 23rd we will host a show featuring paleontologists and the 8-foot Triceratops skull they discovered in 1996 check with the library for more details that's exciting oh my god look okay we have free line dancing class and maang club for adults on Fridays plus an additional maang instructional class on Tuesdays at 10: a.m. Fridays are droing but please call ahead about Tuesday's majang class I want to do that class with Grace but I can't do it at 10:00 a.m. on and most PL this is really good just sidebar because I have been looking into maang classes a lot of times you can go and play but you don't they nobody wants to teach you so it's really exciting if anybody has any desire it's great that our library is offering that he sorry the friends of the library are hosting two fundraising events for us a holiday market with local Artisans selling arts and crafts and a shredded event the Holiday Market will run from no Friday November 8th to Sunday November 10th the shredded event will be on Saturday November 9th in the parking lot and that is it it thank you Megan for being slide Guru Scott y I'm good thank you so just one NJ American Water kindly at our request gave us an update there's about 30 bullet points that they presented I I don't know if uh anybody really wants to go through them Point by point but uh the upgrades the updates Etc are on schedule the target date for the lifting of the sewer ban contractually is October of 2025 so less than one year from now um and so it it's just the result of uh the sale of the sewer system which was October of uh 2020 when the contract was sold so it's a 5-year uh upgrade process and it is uh in motion and Megan I believe we invited uh Kyle myth Hassel he's going to come December or is he he was going to come December 11 however his he has a schedule conflict that we have him sched for early next year but the work grou is going to meet sometime in early de perfect so I I I I know we've discussed this in the past and we're going to have uh more detailed conversations in public uh in Rapid Fire now because the the target date is uh fast approaching uh one of the goals or requirements of the sale of the sewer system of course was to accommodate uh what was Co then fair share and I don't know we what we call it now well but we'll just call it fair share fair share housing um and and there's a whole bunch of other things that have gone into it you know three new and upgrad filters etc etc and I can go through them um and NJ americ water is working with the US fish and wildlife uh regarding permits etc etc so we'll have a more detailed update from NJ American water and we'll probably do that almost on a monthly basis now because this is going to uh progress pretty uh quickly okay uh next up the administrator's report thank you I just have uh two quick updates speaking of New Jersey American Water they are out doing uh if you will test pits or test uh core samples uh various locations throughout the town uh so if you do see um a truck that's uh doing a a core sample that's um not in the roadway it'll probably be uh a off the road and in the easements um that is also in preparation of continuing work with the New Jersey sore um sorry the lill township SE expansion uh public service gas lines uh are are well on their way uh they are done with most streets for uh in the streets for the gas line itself they are doing service connections to the house I believe they have two more streets to do for the um gas line in the street uh but please check uh the Township's website we keep that updated on a weekly basis of uh where they are what they're doing and what they're working on thank you ma'am thank you Randy uh so now uh discussion we don't have any discussion items for this evening old new business none uh announcements uh friends of the library shreddit Day November 9th 10:00 a.m. to 1: p.m. just outside the library here um uh the holiday tree lighing December 1st December 1st okay 5:00 p.m. and as always that thing starts on time uh and so be there uh I believe we will have pretzels again uh Scott does that sound that's the rumor that's the rumor okay um the volunteer dinner we have I don't know 250 incredible Volunteers in this town probably more uh Megan do you know the date of the volunteer dinner de yeah that sounds right actually December 4th um Monday is Veterans Day uh we should honor our veterans every day of the year but especially on uh Monday so please keep them in your prayers and and and of course uh your hearts November 10th is the Marine Corps Birthday just okay what I said November 10th is the Marine Core birthday it always happens it's obviously right by it's November 10th okay so November so it's easy to remember and I I heard somebody in the audience out there and I think that must have been Mr rwit uh and of course it it's an unusual situation because of the way the calendar works we will not be meeting again in public till December 11th so Happy Thanksgiving God bless everybody uh and now the meeting is open to the public on any topic good evening uh Frank LeBron Millington uh I first wanted to say uh thank you for the public safety director and the officer in charge giving the presentation tonight uh it was great to hear everything that's been going on kind of get updates on things uh so it's nice to see and hopefully it'll be something on a regular basis so you know we we keep in the loop it was really good to see a lot of the accomplishments and things that have that have gotten done so far um a as far as the ordinance that got passed tonight for the chief selection process um is it safe to assume that you know now that process is going to start relatively soon and maybe even have a timeline if it'll take a year to complete the process do we have a maybe some parameters well I think we're discussing it with the police Chiefs Association so nothing is is set in stone just yet but now that this ordinance is passed I think it'll move pretty rapidly uh we have a good relationship with the the state police chief so they've been helping out and working with you guys will and I I randomly ran it to uh a police chief at an event uh regardless of what it was so um we're back on track that's good and then uh the last question is in regards to uh I guess handling whatever details I worked out with the prosecutor's office is that all taken care of now as far as uh what duties and positions regarding bring the public safety decorous position is that all taken care of as far as I'm concerned it is is that sufficiently vague yeah that's a very very well answer a well polished politician answered that question almost a lawyer would have said that no how dare you I take offense the S jacked up it's okay FR so uh is that something you think will be resolved in your opinion before the end of the year do I do it was never as contentious as it appeared it's just you know we take should be strong in writing so when you read it it kind of you know true well as you said lawyers yeah all right so at some point that's coming to a head some okay all right thank you thank you thank you Frank uh anybody else I see Mr rtz coming happy birthday to the Marine Corps and thank you for your service jck thank you very much I reminded the students at Bernard Township what was happening when we were talking about the Declaration of Independence the Marine Corps was founded eight months before that anyway uh Charles rewitz Millington first congratulations to guy and Aubry on their thank you Chuck I app yesterday thank you officially now you're an elected official not appointed anym thank you no questions just comments so I'm not going to respond all right chck this time I'm going to turn this off okay thank you that starts now two special meetings ago I recommended that you hold individuals responsible for the problematic employment agreement for the public safety director and the creation of the position to be accountable and responsible for their actions in my opinion this this employment agreement represents a d elction of Duties with negligence and possible gross negligence some of you know what the conditions are for that and I won't get into that but if you're interested I could get into that the person or persons must be held accountable through either termination resignation firing or a possible lawsuit over their performance these possible candidates to be held accountable are the labor law firm of plasia Cohen LLC they were spoken of very highly today about the ordinance with the police chief I don't have that confidence that you have after opening all the correspondence between them the township committee and the prosecutor's office they created a lot of the problems in my opinion so they're they're one candidate the other candidates are Township administrator the township attorney and or members of the township committee you must act now about this agreement I don't want anybody hiding behind a settling agreement which has happened before in this Township so you've had two months and I've heard no action on the problems with this agreement and no one's been fired no one's been re asked to resign and no suit has been filed on our behalf thank you for your time but I'm looking more importantly for the actions recommended thank you CH any other member in the public in the courtroom seeing none Megan Mar n would like to speak I'm back on yes hear you we can hear you um okay thank you um Mr renoit just brought up the topic um and it's it's regarding a settlement agreement with regards to litigation um I had posed and I put out a uh email to the township regarding a resolution that was put out um I did get the appropriate response from um Megan and then Randy uh then until the minutes were passed the resolution that was signed uh would not be put out to the public um until the minutes were approved does this pertain to this litigation that was the meeting that we had toting yes it yes so so um those are executive session meeting minutes the meeting minutes were approved t um you can appr you can you can request the executive session meeting minutes but they will be redacted if it's an ongoing issue um the other regular session meeting minutes will will reflect the time that the meeting opened if anybody made a public comment um what resolutions were passed and when we went into ex okay thank you but um does this pertain to the litigation that was just spoken about potential litigation potential litigation and it was discussed in executive so you can you can request executive session meeting minutes however they will be redacted if it's an issue that's going personel related okay so I could put an Oprah through if you want okay um okay next question uh with regards to the GCA coming out with their estimates in terms of affordable housing initially I I I think I had probably sent everyone um an email that the thought was that it would be 108 affordable housing units for lill Township now um it's currently 106 so the attorney I obtained that data from we're pretty much on the Mark um a very basic question do we have affordable housing credits to carry over for round four um and then may pcia to your point um I will have to now put this open to the public you just mentioned that the New Jersey American Water the Su van lifts will be October 2025 but that's the Target by by October 2025 it could be sooner and probably will be okay but this will but will this be conditional in terms of us delaying the affordable housing mandate fourth round and how many credits do we have to carry over I'm gonna let Jack answer that yeah I'm not sure the exact number of credits but we will have some credits carried over from Lansbury Meadow uh yeah and we also have some group homes which aren't credits per se but they have been uh uh created so we will they will be part of our fourth round we we've just started uh the town Committee created an affordable housing committee that committee is about to meet and discuss all of these items uh with respect to the Sewer ban yes we do have a durational adjustment uh they call it uh for those units that can't be built because of the sewer band and that durational adjustment will run out once the ban is lifted and I just to add a little color to what Jack said when he says I don't know the exact number it's not that we we don't know the number or unnum it's that we haven't been directed by fair share or whomever that body is now how many credits will be uh able to be carried forward by Lounsbury how group homes will be accounted for uh so we know we have credits we just haven't they haven't been defined yeah and we obviously take advantage of all the credits and bonuses we can to to mitigate that number correct my guess is it'll be somewhere between 3050 30 and 50 okay um Jack you just mentioned that you just that you know I believe it was you we um the township just um created an affordable housing committee um who's on that committee and would I be eligible to be on that committee this is the first time I've heard that it it's it's my it was created by the tant committee it's all tant of officials at this point in time uh at some point in time it may be broadened but these initial discussions uh it's a member of the planning board uh two members of the T committee I believe uh the administrator the township planner and me okay thank you um then one last question um this actually for Randy uh with the reference to the new website I I do have one specific question I do have a lot but I don't want to hold up everyone um the new website there's an incredible search engine capability on that website okay do we know that this is still going to be available because there is a ton of historical data on there it yes and it can be used against us or for us but I do tend to use that when I cannot find information readily it's it's it's like a godsend yes the intention is absolutely we're gonna uh continue with that um search engine and and quite honestly we're going to fit as um much historical data as possible it won't be um accessible on front pages but it will be accessible okay so in essence Randy you just uh stated that it it should be the it should be exactly the same as it is pretty much we what we're doing is is trying to take it and and mirror it over and then we're going to make some modifications once it's up and running okay and can I ask one more thing in in light of the fact that you're going through this process and I don't know um what the contract was based on in terms of hours if or if it was just a um a standard contract uh with the designated um amount of money in terms of the conversion um would they be able in any way to utilize take that data and sort it by date order um I'm I'm I'm not the best it person but I think that would certainly be doable and I'll I'm writing down a note to find out from them I don't see why that couldn't be done because that would be fantastic you know um you know a lot of this history um you could o all you want but unless you know what you need to open you can't find data but um for a search engine uh it for me personally as a resident I find it to be a fabulous tool um and also one more question with regards to all the township employees X Long Hill Township Police Department um has everyone been privy to the tutorials and to the demonstrations with regards to the website um and has there been anything postured with um employees putting their input in writing in terms of how their jobs may be streamlined and I put one case in point I was a little bit fuddled about the amount of time that Megan was spending on the Gillette train station her capabilities are far surpass her having to do this type of clerical work so kudos to Megan um but has anything been defined in terms of streamlining processes because when you when you're giving a demo and I've designed platforms Trading platforms this is the time this is a chance for the employees to really think like hey let me get this clerical garbage off my desk okay so my question is has anything been put forward with regards to this sure we we've done actually we've done quite a bit of streamlining this year with h payments online uh having access to various uh forms and applications online um so not just um you know uh we we've done that across the board with many departments and we're looking to continue that uh as far as the um training on the website and everything yes all the department heads will be trained on that to be able to um put uh if you will real time data information uh where if the public safety director finds that he needs to put something at 3:00 a.m. he's not calling me in the morning he can do it self so uh you know that that is going to be one huge uh benefit that that we'll get so um yeah I I agree with everything you're saying and yes we look at that uh continuously okay maybe if we could do that in advance and maybe do a prep you know when the township employees you know are reviewing this um you know maybe a form in terms of what they see in terms of what could be streamlined from the mundane boring you know daily duties that they may have believe me it's a process you know I've been on both ends of the spectrum um and the other last question is with regards to the stdl portal is this still going to be utilized or has the league of municipalities changed or mandated a different type of portal there's several different types of portals out there similar to sdl but uh you know we're we we do look at these various portals to see how we can take advantage of different technology through those types of platforms uh currently we do as sdl and and we are actually putting more and more information on the sdl uh so if if we make any kind of improvements to different platforms and everything all that information would be transferred over to the new platform but I I if I get what you're asking there will we will continue to do use sdl or a similar platform okay because um with the sdl platform um I think it would again it would be a lot of streamlining um you know Megan doesn't answer personally or maybe she just has to push a button okay you know or whoever in the township I'm pointing at Megan but I know that um you know debons has to do it as well um and you have to do it as well but you know it would be very easy just to simplify it just to acknowledge when someone puts her request and where they could look for it thank you that's all I have thank you I appreciate it everyone anybody else at home anybody else on Zoom would like to make a public comment please raise your hand I don't see anyone there seeing none uh so before we leave happy Happy Thanksgiving God bless everybody thank you everyone motion to adjourn there you go I did a motion to adjourn second all in favor I yes meeting ajour yes hold on you waiting for this you supposed to say I or yes