##VIDEO ID:Z3dh5M1caJc## we're waiting for you we good okay yep this meeting is being conducted in compliance with the open public meetings act adequate notice that this meeting has been provided by advertisement in the cape Mayar and wave on the township website and posted on the bulletin boards of township hall we request anyone wishing to address Council please wait for the mayor to recognize you please state your name and address for the record and please remember all comments must be kept to 3 minutes or less thank you please stand for pledge of ladance remain standard possible for the invocation by Suman mclin I the United States of America stands Nation God indivisible liy and justice for all if all hearts and minds are clear Lord thank you for allowing us to gather here today thank you for protecting us and guiding us through 2024 please continue to guide us through 2025 please bless all those that are serving this country please bless all those that served this country please put a head of protection around them please guide those that are thinking about serving this country thank you for our First Responders please continue to bless them as they do and allow us to protect each other and everybody as we go through it and for it every day God bless these people that are serving this city and this municipality please allow these gentlemen to continue to serve this municipality very well now that everybody loves the Lord say amen amen amen thank you Sim mcin please be seated at this time I like to recognize some of elected officials that are here today we have Stateway men Antoine mclan who just provided invocation for us thank you Antoine gate May County Sheriff Bob Nolan director commissioner desid darel if he's not here be here in a minute County Vice director Commissioners Bowski County Commissioner bar County Commissioner Colette County GOP chairman Mike danu and lower Township leader Jeff Lindsay so thank you for coming out elected [Applause] officials if Sheriff Nolan would please come forward to swear in mayor Sipple [Music] yes sir repeat me me your name I Frank simple swe that I will support the Constitution of the United States I support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Saint and I'll bear true faith and allegiance to the Saint and to the governments established in the United States and the government establish the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people people that I will Faithfully I faithfully impartially impartially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of the position of Mayor all the dutes and position of Mayor of the township of lower of the township of lower according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me [Applause] God thank you Lu now if councilman kums would please come down to be sworn in his Deputy Mayor by mayor Sipple I state your name I Kevin C where I support the Constitution where I'll support the Constitution United States of the United States and the constitution of and the constitution of the state of New Jersey state of New Jersey I bear true faith I bear true faith in allegiance to the Saint in allegiance to the same and to the government's established and the government's established in the united states in the United States and in this state and in this on the authority of the people on the authority of people I will Faithfully I will faithfully and partially partially and justly perform and justly perform all duties of all duties of position of Deputy Mayor position of deputy mayor for the township of lower for the township of lower according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations [Applause] [Music] and before I move on I do want to mention I forgot to acknowledge one of our long-term uh elected official in Kate May County actually gave most of his life to Kate May County Jerry thoron over here Jerry where you at Jerry stand up please give Jerry a [Applause] hand can we have a roll call please council member Conrad here council member Roy here Deputy Mayor here mayor Sipple here resolution number 20 2501 this is a point ointment of a municipal solicitor for the year 2025 as a professional service contract without public bidding this is to appoint Robert bolasco Esquire okay any Council comments on this resolution no no anybody from the public want to comment on this resolution I close the public portion I make a motion to move forward with this second council member Conrad yes council member Roy yes Deputy Mayor kums yes mayor Sipple yes uh mayor Deputy Mayor members of council I just want to thank you all for the vote of confidence to continue to serve here in lower Township it's been an honor working with you all the last several years and I look forward to continuing to do so so thank you very much great thank you now we're going to put you to work now sounds good okay so we're going to ask this list to kind of speak the process of filling the vacant war two seat that was vacated by councilman certainly mayor uh so the process is governed by the New Jersey municipal vacancy law in this case Deputy Mayor formerly council member kums uh was uh appointed as elect as a member of the lower Township regular Republican party uh and in light of the fact that he was a nominee of the Republican party and was elected as a member of the Republican party when a vacancy occurs the uh lower Township regular Republican organization was given notice of that vacancy and pursuant to the law they're required to provide three names to council for consideration to fill that vacancy uh those names have been provided uh to the members of the governing body uh for your consideration and if you see fit to do so you can entertain aot to appoint an individual from the list of those names to fill the vacant War I Council seat um that appointment would be temporary so essentially it is um to fill the term until the next general election in this case the War I Council seat uh doesn't come up for re-election until 2026 it doesn't expire until December of 2026 so if you appoint someone that individual would serve for this calendar year and they would have to rerun to fill the vacant unexpired word two term through 2026 in the November general election and if reelected they would fill the balance of that term and then have to run again uh to serve another uh regular fullterm uh for the governing body okay thank you and I just want to confirm to clerk do you provided the three names all members of council too yes okay with that being said I'll make a motion to um temporary Point Joe wam to the word to Council seat second council member Conrad yes council member Roy yes yes Deputy Mayor kums yes mayor Sipple yes turn to the floor so if Joseph War him would please come to the front to be sworn [Applause] in told me memorize whole thing mayor need the Bible I state your name I to support the Constitution to support the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the constitution of and the constitution of the state of New Jersey the state of New Jersey I bear true faith I bear true faith and allegiance to the Saint and allegiance to the Saint and the government established and to the government established in the united states in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people I will Faithfully I will faithfully and partially and partially and justly perform and justly performed all duties of all duties of position of council person position of council person word two word two the township of lower for the township of lower according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me guide so help me guide congratulations J good to see you buddy thank you okay we another roll call council member Conrad here council member warham here council member Roy here Deputy Mayor kums here mayor Sipple here at this time we're going to ask Dave Perry please come forward on there tonight Mee in Council was December 16th I believe it was okay we asked him to come back today to recognize him for all the service in Township B Perry most life was Volunteer Fire for Town back town back fire district he worked as a Fire official the township retired from the township and spend 10 years in Council so if you do Ma I think it's over 50 years da you provide the service back to L to we want to thank you for that okay that being said appreciation super dedication I standard service to Res lowship councilman War I from January 2015 to February 2020 and deputy mayor from February 2020 to December 2024 thanks not only did Dave work so hard he's a good friend of ours too very passion about Township and he Bey all the time I always so think we can't thank you enough and just as a a memory when you're sitting home boarding up remember all the time you served up here okay uh stay right here if we could have we can have Janet come up Janet Harry where you at Janet working for us he a lot of things with his wife okay she wanted to say thank you for all the support Without You providing the support okay he couldn't work so hard for the township so thank you very much okay want to say anything Dave [Laughter] at this time want to ask to County Commissioners to come up here and recognize Dave Perry also [Laughter] see so the chairman has asked me to to present this Dave it's an honor to be up here and may it right always put lower Township first over and above everything else and to thank you to family for allowing you to do so for all these years so we we're going to wish you a happy retirement a healthy retirement had a little scared there but thankfully all good so the board of County Commissioners wishes to recognize and conr David Perry Deputy Mayor lower Township upon his retirement after 10 years of dedicated Service as a member of the city council the board of County Commissioners wishes to congratulate Dave on his retirement and would like to thank him for being a fierce independent Advocate and a voice for the people of lower Township and a county of Cap May dated the 16th day of December we were coming then but uh we were asked to wait until today December 2024 so Dave thank you congratulations [Applause] [Applause] I want to personally thank you for your support when I first got involved down in Township and on the county level you were always very supportive and very helpful so I want to thank you for that and congratulate you on your retirement thank [Applause] you know what I've said right you and I have seen eye to eye for [Laughter] many years of service to one municipality isett much unbelievable that's a long time A lot of times missing parties a lot of times missing events lot of times missing games because you had to do things for your community and that's something and you really meant to do it and you know what you were a great public servant and as the commissioner said I'm sure we're going to be hear a lot more from you and all the best to you best wishes good luck [Applause] may now you're good director you get a guy from Jersey I know that I know that thank you director County Commissioners for coming tonight okay we're going move on to the official rep of the evening move the Cent agenda anybody on Council have any comments on the Cent agenda none anybody from the public want to comment on theend agenda only I see nobody from the public we'll close the public portion is there a motion to move forward with this make a motion second a motion approval of the minutes uh December 16 2024 resolutions 20253 through 2025 63 ordinance 2501 an ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and establish a cat bank njsa 44-15 c14 and ordinance 25 02 an ordinance amending four chapter 400 Land Development article 12 affordable housing regulations of the code of the township below to establish a mandatory affordable housing set aside both this is the first reading of ordinances 20251 and 02 the second reading and public hearing has been scheduled for January 22nd 2025 thank you is there a motion to move this Forward Motion second council member Conrad yes council member Wham yes council member Roy yes Deputy Mayor yes mayor s yes we move to the public comment period anybody from the public want to come up and comment to council by anything I see none we'll close the public portion and we'll start with councilman Conrad I want to thank Dave Purry for his time uh kind of touched on this the last meeting he was a necessary breath of fresh air when he came on he was is needed for this Township to move forward I sorry to see him go uh I've known him for back in the fire service when I was with EMS and we worked well together we didn't always agree but at the same time we were civil respectful and we got along great because we could work things out Dave you were needed here more than you know thank you [Applause] almost done got some where oh and I wanted to welcome Joe I know what kind of person he is and I'm looking forward to work with him in the future okay thank you thanks Tom councilman wereham uh well as a commissioner said out there uh Mr Perry says he was stepping down but I think I've been at his office every day at work uh picking his brain and asking questions and I'll probably be there tomorrow so again he'll never be going from here so um with that being said obviously I just got appointed tonight um I want to thank the lower Township GOP committee for um supporting me um and endorsing me as a candidate and I appreciate Council uh deeply for giving me the opportunity um and a vot of confidence in me to take this on um I'm in a fortunate situation because this Council up here is very experienced has made so many um so many uh impactful changes to this Community already and um I'm looking forward to working uh collectively with them and continue to make lower Township the best and the greatest place to live for future Generations so I thank you guys all all right thank you councilman councilman Lory I'll try to best give a speech here U but bear with me if you will first of all I'd like to thank everyone for attending tonight it's a packed house and it's very refreshing to see that so many people are here and that they have an interest in our community like to also congratulate Dave Perry on your retirement sir it very much an attribute to the uh Community as a whole she sitting next to me Council me so thank you Joe welcome to theion board um good job mayor congratulations on your position and with that everyone have a happy New Year safe and happy New Year and I hope to see you soon thank you thank you councilman Roy as you notice councilman Roy he he's fighting the flu right now so but we thank you for being here today deputy mayor uh first of all happy New Year uh secondly congratulations and thanks to Dave Perry uh I'm going to have some I know I have some big shoes to fill uh I'll do my best um congratulations Joey warham uh and also I wanted to uh give my heartfelt condolences and prayers to the uh victims of the uh New Orleans attack thank you okay thank [Applause] you i' like to thank everyone that came out today support our reorganization family friends our lower Township GOP family elected official and the firms that provide first class professional service at the lower Township I welcome congratulate our newest councilman councilman Joe wam Council wam has spent years as a volunteer on the recreation Advisory Board and member of the lower Township GOP and elected as a fire commissioner thank you for stepping up to serve public service is not an easy task but it's so important please know that I'm here to support our effort to work together to make lower Township even better place to live at the same time we sworn Deputy Mayor Kevin kums when Deputy Mayor Perry decided not to run for reelection Kevin did not hesitate to express his interest in the position we're able to fill the deputy mayor position with experienced councilman with the addition of our newest councilman and now new Deputy Mayor there's no doubt in my mind we continue to work as a team and always put the res of lower Township first I like to thank our manager Mr Mike lafy for his service to the township the clerk's office for putting this meeting together today and all Township employees who worked extremely hard that makes lower Township the gem of Kate May County lastly I'd like to thank the residents who have placed Us in off office trusted us over the years to do what's right be conservative with the tax dollars and always put the residents first on a separate note like to put a reminder out there for our next meeting our next meeting is Wednesday January 22nd at 6 PM again it's Wednesday January 22nd 6 PM um following this meeting today we're all traveling over to the Cy Lou Ferry second floor we Refreshments uh and it's open to the public everybody here is welcome to come uh Jeff Lind is bring his checkbook he'll make sure everything's paid for okay so again there's no cost to those in the room today so go over and spend his money okay so uh with that being said I make a motion to adjourn second all in favor all we're jour