##VIDEO ID:vm5_wHMB7XQ## this meeting is being conducted in compliance with the open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by advertisement in the kar wave on the township website and posted on the bulle board to township hall we request anyone wishing to address councel please wait for the deputy mayor to recognize you please state your name and address for the record and please remember all comments must be kept to three minutes or less please stand for PLS I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for [Music] all okay roll call council member Conrad here council member here council member Roy here deputy mayor here mayor all righty uh nothing on the work session so we're going to move to the consent agenda anyone on Council have any comments on the consent agenda none no comments comments hearing none we closed uh anyone from the public have any comments on the consent agenda to consent agenda only he no comments we'll close that portion approval of the minutes November 18th 2024 resolutions 2024 377 through 2024 394 and ordinance 20 2419 this is a salary and benefit ordinance for the township lower this is the first reading of this ordinance the second reading in public hearing is scheduled for December 16th uh we have a motion I'll make a motion second council member Conrad yes council member yes counc member Roy yes Deputy Mayor yes mayor SEO ordinance 20246 an ordinance amending chapter 3 administration of government article 6 Office of the township manager departments subsection 3-21 Township manager of the code of the township of lower to formally establish the duties and obligations of the position of Deputy manager this is the second reading of ordinance 20246 this and public hearing this ordinance has been posted published and made available to the public anyone on Council have any comments on this ordinance no comment none hearing none will close anyone from the public have any comments on ordinance 20 24-16 hearing none we close mot need a motion motion second council member Conrad yes council member yes Roy yesy mayor yes mayor okay moving down uh Mr manager do you have any report to make this time no report Deputy manager okay public comment any did you have something no I just said I called you Deputy manager something because you just read that word it's all right worse Deputy Mayor to Deputy manager is uh any one from the public have any uh comments You' like to make at this time if so please uh go up to the podium and state your name and address for the record please my name is Sam Sano I live at 223 West Wild Avenue in Villas um first I hope you had a good Thanksgiving and thanks for your service um I'm I'm just here I want to raise a concern I um purchased my house back in 2010 and I recently retired down here um the house was um a flip and um when I purchased it the Decks that were on it were never in good shape they I don't know if the town inspected them when the Builder who built the place um had the place built but anyway last year I applied for a permit to replace three existing decks um I gained no square footage uh a few weeks ago I received a um notice from the the tax office raising my taxes $1,000 when I went in to inquire why I was told um by the clerk that the uh Township had hired somebody to look up airbnbs and look at pictures on airbnbs so it wasn't only my deck that I was being charged on it was because I replaced two bathroom vanities from single vanities to double vanities so I applied for an appeal um I guess my question is um you know I'm a rule follower I apply for my mertile license every year I have the fire um Department come out and inspect the house um when I used to rent it um this year I'm not renting but when I rented in the past I um you know had the heater inspected I you know paid the fees to the township I feel like I'm being singled out and penalized that um going on Airbnb I mean I know lots of people in town who have redone bathrooms and who have made improvements inside their house and have not been reassessed and I guess my question is is this like is this normal um I I could see if I put an addition on I could see if I added a new bathroom um but none of that was done so today I received the phone call they want to come out and inspect the house they want to go through the house I'm fearful to let them in because I'm afraid that they're going to say oh you have a a new floor in in that room or you replace this window so I I I'm kind of like between a rock and a hard place and um you know I'm sure you can't give me an answer tonight but if if the entire town was being reassessed I would have no problem with this but I just feel like I applied for a permit to have my rotten decks replaced and now I'm being penalized and charged $1,000 for gaining no extra space in my house okay so can I just wait in real quick so Mr I'm sorry sir can you say your last name for me again sasano Sano yes so one of the comments you made you you indicated that you filed an appeal of this added assessment I I did and um I got a call today they want to come out and inspect the house so if there's a pending appeal before the County Board of Taxation or if there's an appeal with the tax assessor's office my recommendation would be to council not to weigh in on this at this juncture it's typical just like pending litigation there's a process that an individual has the ability to follow to pursue to challenge added assessments even the reassessment of a property and until that until those administrative remedies are exhausted it's really not proper for this Council to weigh in on the assessment that was levied by an assessor from a general standpoint sir I can tell you that you know municipalities do added assessments from time to time when they're made aware that improvements were done to a property which may have not been uh disclosed I'm not saying that you didn't disclose your improvements but if they weren't disclosed previously if a prior owner did the uh did the renovations and they're discovered it can in some situations trigger an added assessment which increases the assess value of your property uh but if you have an appeal pending at this juncture that's the recourse that's available to you to challenge that assessment so if I don't let the assessor into my house and the appeals rejected I can come back next month and you're you're going to I I can't give you any legal advice at this juncture I mean my understanding and it's limited I'm not a tax attorney is that when you file these added assessments a component of that is is allowing the assessor to come in and inspect the property but I guess if that if you're not going to allow that then you'll have to deal with the County Board of Taxation at this juncture so is that a common practice then that the town is just going on like so everybody who's running their houses out illegally are fine but people who have um applied for the license to rent their house out and has it listed on Airbnb or another site we have somebody in the town that's working for the town going on looking at pictures and then reassessing people so the now the township has completed I believe close to 400 added assessments over the last couple of months here um October 1st so I mean we hired a new tax assessor in this Township and they also procured the services of a third party um to catch up on assessments added assessments which have been missed over the years you're in the process of that appeal uh that appeal so my direction in the council would be to not make any additional comments until that appeal process runs its course if you're dissatisfied with the results from the County Board of Taxation there's other recourse that's that is available to you um you know I'm in a bit of a tough situation I represent lower Township I can't I know I advice all right all right thank you no problem anyone uh anyone else in the public have any comment okay hearing none Council comments Council Conrad it's it's winter it's cold please check on your Elder neighbors and anybody else um it's a safety Factor please it's getting real cold at night and we have to worry about everybody councilman kums I have none coun Roy just like to thank everyone for coming out tonight it's always good to see a friendly face in the crowd and U hopefully um you got a little something out of this meeting so again thank you for coming mayor Sipple any comments some Che on mayor Sipple hello com okay thank you okay I have some announcements to make uh December 3rd Tuesday tomorrow uh trating ceremony at uh it's going to start at the rec center at 7 o'clock and there'll be uh some facilities there and then everyone will walk over here to the front of township hall and uh the Rotary will light to Christmas tree um also uh December 14th Saturday 6 p.m the L Township rotary Christmas parade uh we'll kick off uh at the uh Breakwater and bayro Road continue down bash road to uh Radell Parkway in North Kate May so the parade will start off at 6 uh December 15th Sunday 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the uh Ferry Merry Christmas uh party at the ferry terminal and December 27th 8th and 9th the Elks bealer basketball tournament will take place I believe that's going to be at the Junior High and um December 31st uh New Year's Eve Tuesday at the lower Township Rec Center there'll be a New Year's Eve celebration from 6:00 to 9: and is there any announcements and the only thing I've got to say is uh have a good night everybody motion to return motion second all in favor I