##VIDEO ID:9LdA_Eosx-w## e e e e e it's not let the record reflect we've reconvened with all members present for those who are able please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I ask you to remain standing after the pledge I pledge of ALG to flag United States stand liy and justice for all let's take a moment to remember two madisonian we lost over the last couple weeks uh Janet Jan Baker died on November 28th born in Oak Park moved to New Jersey to complete her MBA start of a long successful career at Western Electric AT&T and Lucid Technologies she was summoned to gave back to Madison uh through uh the Garden Club of Madison friends of Madison Public Library and also sang in the St Vincent's church choir she survived by her husband Chris her sisters Barbara and Robin her brothers David and Andrew and their families and also remember James Bower longtime Madison resident died on November 2th third age of 92 he was born in Newark and uh 32 um living with his grandparents when he was 15 years old after living in orphanage he met his wife Angelina at the Olympics Park Olympic Park Skating rank in Irvington and they were married in 1952 after the wedding he served our country in the Army achieving the rank of staff sergeant and having been a baker since age of nine he spent most of his time in in the kitchen baking and cooking for his fellow soldiers his love of baking followed after his uh discharge from the army they settled initially in Irvington where they opened Bower's Bakery and later hul's Bakery in Orange which they ran together for 11 years his uh passion for baked goods and brought great joy to his family and customers he survived by his wife of 72 years Angelina his sons Daniel and James and six grandchildren 12 great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews let us take a moment to remember Jan Baker and James Bower and let us pass our thoughts on the families and friends that they leave behind thank you right I have a motion for the approval of Special M meeting minutes of December 2nd the special meeting minutes of December 2nd 2024 so moved second any discussion all in favor I welcome all and again apologize for slightly light start hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving I don't know about you but it seems like it's already a month ago to me it's uh but that may have something to do with me spending too a little bit too much time around Christmas trees right now uh what is still fresh in my memory is the day after Thanksgiving with the incredible parade welcom Sanda to town and we lit the Christmas tree on Waverly the crowd was one of the largest if not the largest with people coming from all around to see Madison at at its best and probably come back and uh Shop Madison the tree was donated by the Madison School District and came from high school and it was dedicated in the memory of Jake Mako who died at the age of 20 and so many thanks the totto family and the entire committee including Council councilman Forte for setting the tone for a great holiday season and last Tuesday along with uh many council members attended the annual Madison auxiliary police dinner just is a small thank you for the all the hours they put in not only supporting our events such as bottle Hill day and of course the Christmas parade but also the amount of time they have to uh put in for training and certification so they may be auxiliary police and uh the auxiliary police are looking for new members so if you're interested please reach out to the police department and in the quest to a healthy New Year I am looking to restart the madis mayor's Madison mayor's Wellness campaign so if you're interested in joining the committee please uh reach out to me or fill out a citizen leadership form and just a reminder this is our last U meeting of the Year our reorganization meeting scheduled for Thursday January 2nd we will be uh confirming the time very shortly excuse me the um employee of the month for December is Jim Trimble of electric utility department Jim has helped with several special projects throughout the burough in addition to his daily responsibilities of water electric meter reading most recently most recently has been the point person for replacing water meters throughout the burrow which includes the transition from a first vendor to our current vendor so if you see Jim and you can't miss him he's very tall please congratulate him for employee of the month and anniversary um firefighter EMT Lieutenant Bruce baros celebrated his 20th anniversary on December 6th in the fire department and uh as for those that uh attend regular meetings especially in December we know that in Madison we have a new tradition and that is to be uh seren by friends of the Drew forest and this year we have support from the spotlight kids so uh I will invite the uh friends to come up and uh got the microphone set oh right um oh she did heern who was a resident of Madison for many years who was responsible for the L and Dave Thompson who uh or David Thompson who is the score for us but most of all the spotlight for kids and I'm going to let them be the spotlight not me for and Catherine there's Catherine there's Katherine M Manis who's pulled us all together for us and thank you Katherine Katherine's also a resident of Madison and a graduate of Madison High School so thank you very very much and please I have four things to say and the last one is please join us have some lyrics don't sing along [Music] thanksor and it's l by one and all we should agree that it must be forever Standing Tall it's a striving thriving Forest that's been lingly restored it's not just talk go take a walk and spring you will be it's a growing glowing forest and when you see all the trees give a to every one woo the woods of Drew Oasis we hold dear so many work to say give them all a cheer it's ay Forest we will sing it long and Loud a place that's right with wild life our region can be proud it's a living giving for giving more can be seen for this is you may not know it keeps our water clean woo the woods of Drew Oasis we hold dear many work to S them all a cheer it's a ho J season and things keep going fine oh my goly we will see for for all time oh my go we will see for a for all time [Music] [Applause] certainly the uh past performances were very good but you've really raised the bar now thank you to the spotlight kids well done all right we move from that to uh reports from committees Public Safety Council president range thank you mayor from the police department tonight the Madison police department community relations unit along with other members of the Madison police department took part in Thanksgiving Outreach with St Vincent's Martyr Church on November 25th the officers took receipt of over 35 Thanksgiving dinners and delivered them to the residents of the Madison Housing Authority the police department has been participating in the this program for many years in which they deliver food to families during the holidays like to thank uh Corporal quino for uh who oversaw this operation on Tuesday December 3rd members of the department gathered at the 2024 uh triaa Community Traffic Safety Pro program lunch in that was held in Hawthorne New Jersey Captain Longo of the mass and police department was awarded a AAA Traffic Safety hero award for his work with the complete streets initiative to improve roadway safety here in Madison further the Madison police department was also recognized for the continued effort uh to address Traffic Safety efforts by triaa congratulations to all those involved in that program we'd also like to congratulate tonight uh Corporal dco for being awarded the 2024 uh Madison police department officer of the year all members of the department vote on a fellow officer for the recipient of this prestigious award Corporal dco is welld deserving of this award and is a huge asset to the department Corporal dco is currently assigned to the traffic safety unit and the award was handed out each year after the uh annual Christmas parade uh so thanks uh to uh mayor Conley uh who was on hand for the presentation uh and that's all from the police department from the fire department tonight um during the month of November uh the fire department responded to a total of 182 incidents 108 of these incidents were EMS calls uh during which 73 people were transported to the hospital as of uh Friday December 6 the fire department has officially responded to over 2,000 calls in a year for the first time ever uh the fire call volume alone has been the busiest in history even without the additional uh calls from the EMS division there was there were a total of 27 home salale Co inspections performed in the last month and there were uh 48 fire prevention inspections performed as well the fire prevention Bureau is currently finishing up the remaining life Hazard inspections for 2024 uh and preparing their annual report which will be sent to the state division of fire safety uh by the end of next month we would like to thank the uh Christmas parade committee and the FL and the uh Madison police department for once again organizing a safe and fun uh Christmas parade uh the fire department would like to extend its thanks to Floren Park New Vernon Morris Plains chattam Township chattur uh Green Village East Handover and Morris Township fire departments for providing safe lighting throughout the parade route on December 4th the fire department along with pitini Arsenal fire department trained together and a confined space rescue this all day event ran through different scenarios that the fire department might face when responding to these types of emergencies pitini was also able to go over their specialized equipment for convin space as well as uh their vast hazardous materials response capabilities uh and as this is the final Public Safety report for this year the police and fire departments would like to wish everyone a very happy holiday season thanks mayor that's all tonight thank you fin bur clerk M zck thank you mayor okay the accounts payable department reports that borrowing emergency or urgent situations 2024 purchasing for the burre of Madison is now closed the department heads were all notified weeks ago about this important first step in closing the burrow books for the year special thanks to Kevin o'keef and Stacy duly from the purchasing department for processing over 250 requisitions in the last week now onto the budget tonight we continue our work on the 2025 budget back in November we briefly discussed the proposed 5-year Capital plan this important document including as Jim knows both the odd and the even pages is available on roset if anyone would like to review it tonight we'll review the open space Recreation and historic preservation trust fund including the 2024 activity in this fund we will have a first look at the electric utility budget and we'll be focusing on electric utility Appropriations the burrow will have to pay 3.8 8 million in additional costs associated with electricity in 2025 electric costs are primarily made up of three components first is the actual electricity second is the cost to transmit to get the electricity to us Jim says think of that as the highway tolls that we pay for the electricity to be delivered from the generation plants to our substation and the third component is the capacity cost which is a fee that we pay to make sure that there is enough generation and electricity on the peak consumption days of the year unfortunately all three of these cost components are going up as previously mentioned the capacity cost is going up by over $2 million in 2025 and an additional $2 million in 2026 Madison is not alone in this every utility in the state of New Jersey is experiencing these grid mandated cost increases fortunately Madison's electric utility is in a strong financial position and as such we will not have to take any rate action next year by contrast jcpnl psng and all the other investor-owned utilities will be raising rates to all of their customers tonight Jim our CFO will briefly talk about the impact of these cost components and I expect that the electric utility and the associated cost increases will dominate our budget discussions over the next few months as you've heard in the past the budget process revolves around our 2014 strategic planning guidelines we continue to be guided by this important document and the work of our late councilman Ben walowitz in fact it was these guidelines that helped put our electric utility in the strong position that it is in today and it is these guidelines and the financial stewardship of the council governing body over the last four years that will allow us to hold our rates flat in 2025 while all other electric rates in the state increase the Burrow's budget process is a very transparent and open process and voting on the budget is one of the most important actions that Council takes anyone who has questions about this should visit the annual budget process page on roset thank you mayor thank you Public Works and Engineering Mr leran thank you mayor from the Department of Public Works as of December 4th yard waste collection by an outside contractor has ended for the year DPW Crews continue to collect leaves throughout the burrow please they ask that you please get them out as soon as possible as the last day for pickups will be December 20th pumpkins can be recycled at the DPW garage they can be dropped off until December 13th in the trunk in the truck marked pumpkin recycling Christmas trees can be put out on the curb for pickup by DPW beginning on December 26th and continue through January 31st and finally residents can also bring their Christmas trees and yard Wass to the recycling center on Saturday July 4th and Saturday February 1st from 8:00 a.m to 2:30 p.m. thank you mayor January 4 jary January 3 yes January thank you very much utilities mrus thank you mayor welcome everybody from the community uh first on the electric utility many thanks to the electric utility staff for installing a nice Christmas tree beautiful Christmas tree and the decorations on where really place in time for Santa's arrival at the holiday parade the tree was donated by the Madison High School which we just heard before uh I know many depart many Department many bur departments were involved to make the parade such a success a special thanks can go out to the DPW for staying late to clean up after the parade if you were downtown Saturday morning you'd never know thousands of people have been lining the parade route the Night Before Our newly repaved and renovated cook Avenue parking lot is now open for business the electric utility did a great job saving the burrow tax dollars installing underground wiring and assisting Verizon and Optimum removing the overhead cable and phone lines this week you'll see them installing 14 historic lamp posts and fixures throughout the lot it's going to look so Charming the Water Division they are UNS scheduled with all required water testing even though we had lots of rain today New Jersey is still under drought conditions please continue to conserve water ordinance 37 2024 on tonight's agenda for a public hearing has some initiatives and incentives to encourage water conser water conservation the water department also assisted in leaf pickup when they had some downtime last message is if you get a chance to do some holiday shopping please shop local and give extra support to the many merchants on Main Street impacted by the much needed work at the cook Avenue parking lot it took many months thank you mayor thank you Med feris onahan thank you mayor uh from the Downtown Development commission we have the last Madison farm and Artisan Market coming this Saturday for the year uh it was a great success and we look forward to 2025 with new features the next regular meeting of the Downtown Development commission will be held on December 12th at 7:15 in Harley Dodge and secret santa has returned to Downtown Madison um from November 30th through December 21st between noon and 3 you might be randomly approached by a special secret Santa and awarded a Madison gift check to continue your shopping from the Chamber of Commerce search for Rosie the reindeer has begun and will end Saturday December 14th Madison gift checks are available all year round at Citizens Bank and can be a great gift to get to use at Madison businesses during this season Rose City chocolate walk is a new event and will be happening on Saturday February 8th more details to come and as a placeholder on your February calendars the taste of Madison 202 will be held February 24th at 6: p.m. the Madison Community Art Center has many uh things happening Spotlight kids who were here this evening will present The Drowsy chaperon from December 13th through 15th um many other uh music plays art you name it I recommend you go to the Madison Community Art Center website for more information thank you mayor and Health Mr Forte thank you mayor 67 animals were vaccinated at the rabies clinic at our volunteer Ambulance Corp building this past Saturday residents are reminded that all cats and dogs in the burrow must be licensed and vaccinated against rabies additional free rabies clinics can be found by Googling Mars County rabies clinic during the month of November the health department investigated five environmental complaints inspected 12 retail food establishments and investigated two communicable diseases rates of RSV are increasing especially among children ages four and under residents 60 and older pregnant women and those 18 and over who are at increased risk of complications are recommended to have the RSV vaccine residents should discuss with their healthc care provider if vaccination is appropriate for them residents can follow the health department on our social media platforms for local timely and accurate health information on Instagram at and I always remind residents that we contract with Westfield for health at Westfield regional health department and on Facebook at Westfield Regional Health Department thank you mayor thank you now move on to Communications and petitions uh yes mayor mayor and Council received an email dated uh December 9th from Resident Ron and Jenny Gund of uh Fairview Avenue regarding U resolution 337 supporting the Immigration Act resolution that's on tonight's agenda thank you we now move on to our first of two public uh invitations for public comment this one is limited to items that are on our agenda discussion and also the resolutions I will outline those in just a second uh as we always do you uh we encourage you to try to keep comments at three minutes but we will stop you at four minutes after a one minute grace period uh when you do step up to Le turn you state your name and address and the agenda item or the resolution you're commenting on if you want to comment on other topics there will be a second uh comment period uh later in the meeting these are the agenda discussions that you may comment on Green Acres planning incentive Grant application the year-end uh Capital uh cancellations and the open space capital and capacity charges and these are the resolutions you may comment on these are also going to be part of the consent agenda at the end of the meeting resolution 335 awarding contract for yard waste collection disposal to Waste Industries uh this is from operating budget uh and subject to availability of funds in 2025 through 2027 and not to exceed $83,000 for the three-year contract resolution 336 is uh cancelling completed Capital Improvement ordinances you'll be hearing about that shortly resolution 337 is supporting the passage of New Jersey state immigrant trust act um which would be uh codifying the uh immigrant trust directive at the state level resolution 338 is confirming membership of Brandon Perez Ura in the um Madison Hose Company number one resolution 339 is authorizing a execution of memorandum understanding with the township of long hill for styrofoam recycling a shared services resolution 340 is requesting um insertion of item of Revenue in the budget this is of 5 $17,500 and this is uh Green Acres Jake law grant that we received for the Dodge field playground resolution 341 is insertion of item of revenue for Budget year 2024 of $100,000 this is a epu Community energy grant for Harley Dodge Memorial resolution 342 is another insertion of item of Revenue in the budget for 20124 another BPU grant for the Masonic Lodge of $100,000 resol resolution 343 is um another insertion of Revenue into the budget year of 2024 this is uh $75,000 local Recreation Improvement Grant uh resolution 344 another insertion of Revenue in the budget of uh $17,200 for Mars County historic preservation Grant uh resolution 345 and yet another insertion of Revenue in the budget of $562,500 this is the Mars County historic preservation Grant supporting the purchase of the Masonic Lodge uh resolution 346 is uh authorizing the sale of surplus property no longer needed for public use on online auction resolution 347 is Grant um authorizing Grant application the Madison fire department for a grant 2024 FEMA assistance uh firefighters Grant resolution 348 is uh the enabling resolution for the Green Acres Program which will be hearing about shortly resolution 349 is authorizing a budget transfer of $330,000 from legal services to general liability and resolution 350 is approving a film permit for Winger Productions uh on green Avenue for 17 days so you may comment on those resolutions or the three agenda items again as I said step up the Lector state your name your address and the item you are commenting on anyone wishing to comment please step forward Lisa Jordan uh 36 B so okay to comment on the resolutions yes you can comment resolutions or the three agenda discussions so it's with much gratitude and thanks to Mayor and Council for introducing resolution 337 I spent today in Trenton as a volunteer lobbyist uh lobbying our state legislators for their support on the Immigrant trust act the dayong event was organized by New Jersey Alliance for immigrant Justice and supported by our local immigrant Resource Center when the spirit and this was my first time lobbying at our state capital I had to learn a few things before I went I had to find out who my State Assembly members were in our state senator then I remembered I had met assembly woman done already at the Christmas parade two years ago but new to me was assembly man baranco and I looked at his picture I wondered if I could identify him fortunately I had my chance there's a tunnel underground in the state house and apparently this is where lobbyists lie and wait to see legislators they recognize and I did I said oh are you District 25 and he said yes and he joined us in a nice conversation with wind of the spirit um folks and immigrant Justice Advocates and he spoke fluent Spanish and I heard him say something like Madison is the best small town in the world and he talked about bottle Hill day and he knew where the window of the spirit officers were it was really great I like the Immigrant trust act because it aims to protect all new jerseyans and to treat everyone with dignity it seeks to reduce fear for everyone needing access to important services like the library healthc care and schools uh I hope to be able to follow up with assembly M Bronco to share Burrow's support for the resolution along of course with the valuable coverage in the Madison Eagle thank you thank you Lisa anyone else wishing to comment please step forward my name is John du I live at 25 Hill Crest Road Madison New Jersey I came here tonight because I saw an article in the paper it's kind of smallish we got a lot of room in that newspaper but it was kind of small it was on the immigration trust act and uh I don't think it really put too much in there for us to understand what was going to happen if that is okay by us what happens as far as taxes what happens as far as resources and um our own um our own uh safety okay I'm not sure what that entails I was in New York before I worked there for 20 years but I sure didn't want to raise my family there so I moved over here and got married moved over here and this seems to be a very safe place but New York City right now I wouldn't even take a house for free over there because I think it's unsafe and so people have uh left New York to come over here to live because I guess they see see things the same way I do that this is now a safe Community but I'm not sure how long that's going to last once we pass that particular act I want to say also that uh what kind of an organization is wind of the spirit I tried to look it up I couldn't find much on it I looked and looked and looked I don't know who's in charge for sure um and they have a space down there on two Green Street whatever green Avenue and I don't know what their situation is so they can get a space down are they paying for it are we giving it to them um is this a religious organization don't know much about it okay and um however you know I know there's one uh political uh uh a guy who has a he has a lot of money and that's right up his alley establishing a place or an organization like this because he wants open borders and he wants the people to be able to go wherever they want to go in the whole world well you know the whole world doesn't necessarily want that and that was also shined upon by our last election that was the number two biggest issue was immigrants okay the first one was taxes and money and things like that which is also kind of getting out of hand um I I'd like to know more about who these people are and why we're supporting them just because a few people came over here last time and wanted that pass I'd like to have a few people on the other side be able to comment about it too and also are we going to have to hire somebody like Alvin Bragg to sort out uh our problems over here with law enforcement because he's doing it over there but people aren't too happy about it so we have to get somebody like that to run our our law enforcement situation because it's not going to be as normal because you know these people they're sort of above the law from what I can see in this act and uh so anyway I think we're taxed enough already I don't want to pay any more taxes for anything like this and I don't think other people do either so that's a lot to put on the plate right here and that could take a while but I would think a big article or an editorial or something in the newspaper would be handy for us to understand what's going on here thank you thank good John anyone else wish heard please step forward Michael I am Mike Sorano uh 230 Woodland Road in this summer 51-year resident of Madison a great town um I want to speak on the Immigrant immigration trust act I did send a correspondence to the council and I got into some political stuff this is not political this is something that is personal to me and I did read the immigration trust act it's it's a lot there paragraph 1A states that this act seeks to protect the safety and constitutional rights of all people in the state of New Jersey and I want to underline all people paragraph 1G states that public schools should be safe and accessible to all eligible community members paragraph 6f states that nothing I repeat nothing shall prevent any state county or Municipal law enforcement agency from responding to a valid judicial warrant court order or RIT issued by a federal article 3 judge or magistrate judge and paragraph 6G states that nothing shall be constituted to prohibit or in any way restrict any action where the prohibition or restriction would be contrary to federal law it's a long act but there's some very important parts of it so taking all of these statements within the immigration trust act I want to take a little bit different tact and talk about some unintended consequences the safety of all people in the state of New Jersey includes our inner city youth who on their way to and from school have to deal with illegal immigrant gang members and violent criminals under the threat of violence to themselves and family members to join or cooperate with gangs for their own and their families protection inner city gang intimidation and violence prevents many inner city youth from being safe not only on their way to and from school but in school as well this is an impediment to Inner City youth obtaining a good education a good education and basic literacy is necessary for inner city youth to obtain a job with a living wage and health care benefits there has not been enough done at the state level to rid gangs from inner cities in New Jersey including cities like Newark Patterson Trenton and Camden for example what one minute Mike okay so I am requesting that mayor connley and the Madison Council proactively Lobby Governor Murphy new New Jersey legislators as well as our federal state and House Representatives to provide resources necessary to rid our inner city of gangs this action would be do more to improve the education of our inner city Youth and most any other program all youth not only in Madison but especially in our inner cities deserves safe neighborhoods and safe schools thank you very much thank you bu anyone else wish to be heard please step forward hi my name is uh Mary Wilson 27 Sherwood I want to start by emphasizing that I am in favor of legal immigration I wholeheartedly support increasing the number of legal immigrants into this country and make the process easier I think it's fantastic that many immigrants have chosen Madison as their home and have contributed richly to our community however the issue on the table tonight is whether or not the town of mad Madison should endorse the New Jersey state immigration trust act have you all read the current directive what lessons have we learned from its rollout because it's been effective the last few years are there any studies or facts that have emerged over the last few years in my research I found the following stipulations from the proposed law s 3672 a state county or Municipal law enforcement agency or official shall not make an arrest detain or prolong the Detention of an individual based on civil immigration warrants or immigration detainers why should Madison agree to that what is the benefit to Madison of ignoring the federal law a state county or Municipal law enforcement agency or official shall not provide assistance to Federal immigration authorities by facilitating or complying with immigration detainers civil immigration warrants notification requests and transfer requests from federal immigration authorities why should Madison agree to that what is the benefit to Madison of ignoring federal law a state county or Municipal law enforcement agency or official shall not provide assistance to Federal immigration authorities by continuing to detain a person past the time the person would otherwise be eligible for release from custody based solely on an immigrant ation detainer or civil immigration warrant why should Madison agree to that what is the benefit to Madison my question is this why should local law enforcement work hand inand with State why shouldn't local law enforcement work hand inand with state and federal law enforcement Partners what are we trying to hide it seems to me we are building barriers between local state and federal law enforcement agencies when we should be encouraging Bridges one of the key lessons we learn from the tragedy of 9/11 is the importance of open communication across different law enforcement agencies if you have evidence to the contrary I'm eager to listen to what you have to say the benefits of having immigrants here in Madison are enormous but I am also aware of the concerning headlines around the country that highlight the negatives of immigration I trust city state and federal law enforcement as well as our legal system to find the right balance between ensuring Public Safety and promoting the growth of our community all right anyone else wish to be heard please step forward good evening everyone my name is make sure you address the Council oh yeah okay um I am a board member of with not the spirit Nate name and address first like uh my name is andreaa I was a Madison resident for 25 years we recently moved to chadam for personal situations but I also work in Madison as a teacher at Tor satin school as a special uh assistant I I also have a board member with the the spirit and I'm here to represent my organization like we are a community I came to Madison 20 years ago I live in Madison for pretty much my whole life and now I'm here just to defend the people that come S as me I'm here and I'm like I didn't prepare a speech because I just hear some people um but I'm here just to said that it's my community has support Madison in so many ways many people has grown my kids were born in Madison like now we live in ch but we are still connected to Madison we come we share like families friends I have my co-workers I know many people in Madison and I I ask everybody here just to support the act because I believe like immigrant Community not only Spanish Community but all The Immigrant Community has support like laws schools Works um like every every single place in the United States is not only Madison it's the whole country like that has many immigrants that has that are here supporting every every other like not only the Spanish Community or any other community it's just so many other communities that come and just bring business bring uh opportunities for any other people like we have like I know many companies that were creating by Spanish population that now like so many people from many other countries like benefit that's pretty much what I have to say thank you very much thank you anyone else wish to be heard please step forward y just don't need to raise your hand you can just step forward thank you Mary I didn't want to cut anyone off um I'm uh I'm Christine Boya I live at nine Buckingham Drive in Madison um so I have a partially prepare comment and then want to add to it so that might be not as coherent I'm here urging you to support resolution 337 passing this would be another example of Madison's leadership in New Jersey and an example for other towns to follow it also sends a clear message of support for our community members who are likely concerned but do not feel comfortable or safe speaking out all of our community members are and should continue to feel protected by our excellent public servants this resolution also demonstrates that the majority of Madison feels that all of our community members add to the rich wonderful fabric of our town the other comment I would just like to make in terms of civil warrants and civil you know civil actions not being cooperated with something to think about is that those are not criminal actions and when you are harassing people or people feel afraid to come forward say if your child is harassed or mugged or something and they are a witness to it you would not have that person feel safe to speak up in a community and talk to our public servants because they might feel that it would be used against them because of a civil action or proceeding that may may or may not exist um and folks don't want to step up for har harassment even if it means helping sometimes thank you thank you CHR anyone else wishing to be heard please step forward hi my name is Kristen calor one Douglas Avenue I'd also just like to speak on the Immigrant trust act and Madison's resolution in support of that act I feel as though it might be a bit immature for or premature I'm sorry for Madison to be approving this this res resolution only because I find there to be a lack of information on the ramifications of this resolution I first learned about this resolution the other day reading the eagle article and I noted that there were four Madison residents that were quoted and they were all in support of the resolution but there wasn't a contrarian view I did shoot off an email to the eagle to ask about that because I do feel as though both sides need to be discussed and it's not clear to me what the implications are of this approval it's not clear to me if it's it's even required by the immigration trust act that Madison actually take this step like why are we doing it is it required is it something that we just want to show our approval for but what are the actual ramifications to the Madison taxpayer for this um it just feels like there's a lack of information out there I couldn't find anything on it and so I'm worried that we're approving something that that the Madison residents aren't even clear what's being approved thank you very much anyone else wish be heard please St the foro Michael Martinez five Independence Corp uh I'm going to take a I'm commenting on the resolution The Immigrant um immigrant trust act I'm going to take a slightly different approach on this and it's it's a suggestion that I ask you guys to consider um if you feel compelled to to vote affirmatively um I'm going to ask that you revise and delete the final sentence Council calls on our District's representatives in the assembly and Senate to co-sponsor and vote affirmatively um I find this language uncharacteristically antagonistic of this body Vis our state legislation the body has apped on pending federal and state legislation a total of 15 times since 2017 in the form of a resolution you've used that power very sparingly to your credit um in these 15 other resolution this type of wording has never been used uh this was even in moments when our former representation was seemingly at odds with uh the council's resolu uh resolution in 2020 23 for example resolution 284 ironically sponsored by our current Senator Tony Buco calling on the delay of the fourth round of affordable housing you did not ask Senator Cody John mccuan Mila Jazzy to sponsor this or vote affirmatively in 2022 resolution 175 opposing assembly Bill 1294 urging that the leg legislation not Advance further was actually sponsored by Mila jassi yet your language went nowhere near what you're doing here um I was uh encouraged and very much agree with uh uh the first round of comments on uh on Christian on Aura on Tony I've gotten to know them I consider them friends I know them to work very very hard to represent and promote Madison's interest from infrastructure crushing overdevelopment and unrealistic affordable housing mandates getting tough on crime and of course finalizing the purchase of the Drew Forest I think we should treat them with respect and not go out of our way to play political gotcha games at their expense thank you Mika anyone else wish to be heard please step forward hi I'm Alex Jennings six Edge Wood Road in Madison um I spoke at the council meeting AC a couple of weeks ago um uh saying how I uh hope that the council votes um to pass the resolution in support of the Immigrant trust act and so I won't repeat everything I said at the last meeting which mostly just focused on um how the immigrants we're talking about are not nameless faceless people they're our neighbors our friends our co-workers the parents of our um kids friends and um deserve to feel as safe in Madison as anyone else but I just wanted I can't um uh I don't have the facts and figures to to talk about everything that um has been brought up tonight but I did want to say in case it puts anyone's mind at ease that the um sponsor of the Immigrant trust act in the Senate uh Senator Johnson is the former Sheriff of Bergen County so he should know it works in terms of both um effective policing and uh respecting people's rights so just in case that little piece of information um helps any one I wanted to mention it here thank you Al anyone else wishing to be heard please step forward come on okay [Music] I I to I just tax thank process anyone else wish to be heard please step forward no no no no no to [Music] us yesterday thank you very much anyone else wishing wishing to be heard seeing none I close this part of the meeting let me just uh share some thoughts and there may be some more thoughts when we get to the uh consent agenda um one as was uh stated in in the resolution there there already is the immigration trust directive that was put in place by the Attorney General of New Jersey um just a couple of quick facts but you can go to nj.gov trust to look up more details on this but a few things nothing in the directive suggests New Jersey provides Sanctuary to individuals who commit crimes in the state nothing in directive limits the ability of Law Enforcement Officers to enforce state criminal laws nothing in directive restricts officers from complying with the requirements of federal law nothing in the directive prevents officers from enforcing valid court orders including search or arrest warrants signed by state or federal judges and nothing in the directive stops officers from assisting Federal immigration authorities to uh response to uh exigent uh circumstances um and just I I want to thank everyone speaking on both both sides I know this is a a passionate issue um as was stated this resolution supports the efforts of assemblywoman Ellen Park and state Senator Gordon Johnson that would codify the current immigration trust directive uh by New Jersey's attorney general and uh this directive was put in place and by codifying and protects all those by removing the fear of reaching out to law enforcement should they be a victim of a crime or even to report a crime um this does not change how we do business in Madison this is the way the state is operating right now anyone documented or undocumented who needs help or assistance will receive it regardless of status clearly these are challenging times and as a country we must come together meet the challenge of U managing and entering the the challenges are faced by uh those who enter the country and caring for those that are already here and uh let's be clear that we are talking about fellow human beings individuals and families who have left the country they call home to try to start a new life fear free of violence oppression or pover poverty and and as someone who has only lived in a two mile radius his whole life I can only imagine the making that decision to leave your home because life has become unbearable until we attack the root problem not actually IM uh immigration but the reasons people are leaving homes behind for a d dangerous journey and unknown future we will be continue to deal with people cross our border IM immigrants have defined our country since its Inception 250 years ago and as already been stated new immigrants are our neighbors they filled many jobs that may be left vacant again human beings who deserve to be treated with dignity as a state we must make sure all documented undocumented can get help when it's needed and that's why this resolution is on the agenda and as a country we can't ignore this immigration issue it's time to come together for a lasting solution so just some thoughts and again thank you for all those who uh shared their thoughts we now move on to uh agenda discussions Green Acres planning sensive Grant application I can take that mayor uh on a regular basis the Bureau of Madison applies to the state department of uh Green Acres for funding assistance uh in particular grants to support our open space and recreational opportunities and historic preservation ation and previously the bur has been fortunate to receive a $ 5,575 th000 Grant from Green Acres which allowed us to pay Down The Debt Service on our M the Madison recreational center complex uh to our Field Complex uh tonight's resolution relates to an additional Grant application that will be submitted between now and February of 2025 to Green Acres in the amount of 7,741 7678 in that will allow us to do uh three things one is to finally pay off uh the MRC Debt Service which is a good thing as the uh Turf service is getting ready to need replacement and will allow us hopefully to pursue the uh en close on the acquisition of the Drew forest and in addition uh it will allow us to pursue the acquisition from duw University of three additional Acres of open space Elsewhere on the campus so we're recommending to the governing body that we adopt this resolution it's a condition of the application process that the governing body supports it and that we hear comments from any residents as to whether this is a good or bad thing to be doing and we open the floor for those comments May any questions or comments for Ray all right this will be resolution uh 348 on the consent Now we move on to year end cancellations CFO Jim Brett thank you mayor uh this is a ministerial process that we do every once in a while what happens is the council will pass an ordinance to fund a particular project purchasing a dump truck uh the 2020 Road program uh green Avenue Road improvements we a lot a certain amount of money and that is set aside then the projects completed once the project is totally completed and all the bills are paid if there's any extra money that money is cancelled and it reverts back to the capital Improvement program so it can be reallocated by Council and another ordinance and we haven't done it for a few years um but uh you know so we have some significant cancellations that are going on here but I ask that Council support um resolution 336 and uh cancel the aforementioned uh ordinances is a total of 1.4 million yes sir any uh questions or comments that'll be resolution 336 on the consent and we'll roll right into open space Capital capacity thank you mayor as councilwoman erck mentioned we're we're ready to get dive deep into a budget process the first few meetings we have are more informational we had the fiveyear capital plan at the last meeting we're going to talk about open space and then we're going to very talk at a very early time about the electric utility if you could Advance the next slide Michael um this is activity in the open space trust funds very similar um schedules produced every year it shows tax inflows revenues for field rentals um interest and uh and other revenues and then it shows the outflows we didn't have too many major ordinances this year with the exception of ordinance 7 which was $250,000 for Memorial Park phase three um Trail work um other than that all of the other uh expenses out were uh typical um uh typical outflows um you'll see that rental field renter and user fees they come in up top on the inflows they go out on the outflows and they're kind of just put in a little coffee can you've heard me use that phrase before that that that those funds are used to um uh help um their their um we're adding those funds together so when it comes time to replace the turf field we're ready to do it um next slide please this shows interest income we all know interest was like almost non-existent um until a few years ago now we have significant interest we're going to have more because this is only up through November we have December um interest as well so we'll earn more interest this year than we did last year on this fund next Slide the current conditions of the turf field um last year I said uh we had about two or three years we still have two or three years um we've been able to kind of um through a really good maintenance program credit to Zach Ellis and to Bob Duffy and the DPW um we're and and the product that was purchased we're very fortunate the product that was purchased is lasting a long time so it looks like we're two to three years out um of life remaining and as I said um the rec last year I'm saying again the recreation director is working with various groups um researching infill options next slide please this shows the field rental and user fees um we haven't collected them all for 2024 so I don't want you to be concerned that the number is a little lower than in years past sometimes um they get prepaid sometimes there's a delay in payment but um rental and user fees are going to be about the same as prior years um if we go to next slide um this shows the uh original this is just for I'm not going to get into this it's the original Turf financing and funding if we go to the next slide this shows the uh payment debt schedule on the bond there is a bond that was split up into two Parcels one was for land one was for Turf land on the left Turf on the right and that schedule shows um what we have left and you can see that um the the field will be paid off in 2028 so if we can keep maintaining it maybe we'll um you know it'll field will last as long as the debt payment um next slide questions Tom mayor thanks Jim nice brief presentation speed read I read it before though so one question I had in the beginning sorry I wanted to ask you so the interest that we earned is just from the open space money that we're holding in a fund it's all the money in the trust fund so even if we don't allocate a full ordinance that money is still sitting in the trust fund we haven't paid that made that payment out we're earning interest on it so it's everything in the trust fund it must be a sizable amount because you earn a lot of interest which is good on the outflows you didn't total it uh it looks like at least I can't you have you have available balance at the bottom so what is that like $800,000 can you go back Michael to almost I miss it on the page going back is oh you you know I didn't you know I apologize Thomas I'll make sure we summarize the outflows as well so is it is it balanced or this year outflows a little bit more than in no um uh so the beginning balance was 700 thanks for pointing this out I should have pointed this out um the beginning balance was $756,000 in the trust because we didn't spend that much this year we didn't have a lot of projects we're actually ending the year with more um money in the trust fund we're up to 1 million 65,000 that's good because we've got a lot of things coming down the pipe with Drew forest and with everything else so thank you for teeing that up what was Ray referring to that we're getting this uh this open space Grant and it's paying off yes so we have Green Acres funds that come in and then Green Acres funds are used to pay off so we're earning interest on Green Acres funds that is given to us that has yet to be used to pay off the debt but we are not paying off one one whole part of the debt I must have misunderstood that when Ray said we're paying off something he just ain't going towards paying off yes that that's that's a better way of say none of these big payments are being paid off now because you showed us the schedule correct yes it has to follow the bond schedule and I if I recall correctly most of them were at very low interest rates so there's no reason to speed up and pay pay the most I wouldn't I wouldn't prepay this very low R yeah no correct correct yeah good job managing it Jim thank you very much any other questions or comments very good next we're going to get this is the earliest I've ever talked about the electric utility but you know and councilwoman erck mentioned um we have an impact coming with rising cost so we could go to the next slide um you may or may not have noticed this in the news you know maybe you all noticed it because you know it's important and I sent you articles on it but not the John Hugh public but pjm is Pennsylvania Jersey Grid it's the regional transmission organization they're the ones that run our grid and one of their major goal is reliability Texas has its own um Regional transmission organization and they didn't do such a good job guaranteeing reliability and they had a significant issue a number of years ago pjm is very uh very concerned about that they recently changed rules on how the um generation is classified and it's very technical but the end result is that costs went up significantly um and uh we're going to anticipate as councilwoman erck mentioned a significant increase in costs we could go to the next slide it's a lot of numbers I apologize but I'm going to I try to color code things to make things a little easier if we look at the Top Line revenues cash collections in 2018 were 23.2 million we haven't even gotten to 22 million since 2022 people are are making um improvements to their energy efficiency people are consuming less and so as an end result um we have a $1.5 million less in Revenue now than we did in 2018 it's not including the dividend the dividend is is off to the side just total collections is off also pretty obviously some of the office buildings are are empty are not fully utilized on campus there they were some of our largest and most significant consumers of electricity the Bureau of Madison is one of the largest consumers of electricity and we have revamped our pumps at our wells and been able to reduce our costs and and we do charge ourselves so the bur medicine electricity charges the bur medicine water utility because we want to make sure that we're um accounting for everything properly so all of that's included on that first line um all the yellow in um and all the yellow in that um section there 3.81 eight million total increase in costs referenced by councilwoman erlick um that's the electricity the electrons that's the transportation of that electricity from the generator plant to us paying the highway TOS to get that electricity to us and then it's the capacity cost over $2 million just in the capacity cost the cost that pjm is charging us so they can turn around and take that money and give it to generators and make sure that there is enough power plants online on the hottest and mo the biggest peak days we have in the year so so you can see in the third of the three blocks um uh that's transmission the second one 785,000 to $2.7 million it's humongous and as councilwoman erck mentioned it's going to double again next year we're going to see over we're going to see a $4 million number in there next year so uh because of that we have to be conscious of of what we're doing if you look at line B it mentions the uh sustainability program we used to do 200 100,000 the last two years we did $900,000 that basically helped us fund the MRC carport we fully funded the MRC solar carport um we're going to get money back in srex we're going to get money back in federal dollars and we're going to save money because we're not going to be buying electricity for the equivalent of 80 homes in town but um it's it's appropriate for us to reduce that number it's also appropriate for us to reduce the capital line if you see um the electric utility Capital goes from 1,295 next year's budget I'm going to be the administration is going to be advancing $500,000 in capital so less money being spent in capital there even with all of those changes we still see the Orange Line 15.7 million going up to 18.2 million it's a huge number in order to make things balanced Administration is um asking Council to approve that um the dividend be temporarily suspended or set at zero this year the it's it's a semantics I know the mayor thinks of it differently um than maybe the way Ben wiltz proposed it years ago but the dividend in many respects was the electric utility was performing well and we anticipate continued excellent performance therefore we're going to give um residents back um a small amount of money equal to 8% of their bill 9% of their bill so a $50 bill might be $5 um a month but uh this year we're asking Council to uh suspend that if you look up top number a we're not showing that as a loss of Revenue and um that is going to help us kind of keep things in balance as councilwoman erlick mentioned I feel every utility in New Jersey is going to have to increase their electric rates we won't have to do that we won't have to take any rate change other than the um suspension of the dividend for a year or two or more because of the excellent financial position we're in thanks to you thanks to the Strategic guidelines that um councilman wlt's developed and thanks to your stewardship over the last three years so um this is more hey this is coming um as councilwoman erck said this is going to be a dominating Topic in our budget hearings over the next three months it's going to impact the amount of capital we can um uh projects we can appro create in 2025 for General capital and uh it will have a significant impact and um I'll take any questions but then at the end mayor I if Council would be willing to actually have a vote um to suspend the utility dividend um that just gives us the authority to starting January 1 um to change that on the utility bills one quick clarification so we have the uh dividend and we also have the uh targeted $200 rebate for uh those that are Income eligible we are not touching that program that we saw the funding toh keep that going um and uh Jim alluded to the uh spirited dis uh discussion that Ben wtz and I had with the the name of this program when we went with dividend I was calling it a temporary rate rate adjustment because what we were faced with um when we created this was the fact that um we had gone from very high pain of costly contracts to very positive contracts and um so we we were faced with either completely revamping our electric uh rate structure or creating this dividend AKA temporary rate adjustment because we knew looming years ahead would have been the transmission and um capacity and so that that bus has arrived on the toll road and uh so we are now in the position of um the dividend we can't afford to do it anymore or we can say that yep the temporary rate adjustment time is expired so any other thoughts um I think it's possible um and I don't want to attempt to prognosticate that um I would also say that there is potential future Development coming and um say for example even the apartments at the movie theater right the movie theater probably didn't use a lot of electricity and now and certainly didn't the last five years and once those apartments are online they'll be consumers so um once some of the off Office Buildings get more fully utilized they'll they'll be um uh so it's it's possible it could go up but it you know I I like to work with history so I'm going to assume to what you're saying it's going to be flat next year right I we had 27 uh 21.7 million in 2024 my estimate is exactly that for 2025 and then what's in yellow effectively is items that are out of your control meaning this is what we're being fa faced with you know uh public Services did it to me with the gas from my apartment you know they up the transmission cost and you know I don't use any more gas but I'm paying more so ex exactly every UTI is facing this this wasn't like Madison made a mistake and other utilities had a different strategy um in actuality we were we're we actually did a good thing by making sure we're in a strong financial position other utilities will have to immediately take rate action I am sure that over the next two years when I come with the next phase of the electric utility discussion where I show the electric rates for the other utilities I do that every year guarantee you they're going to be going up higher absolutely okay thank you Joe so um we're seeing a drop off that brings us we had a large amount last year for exactly what you said we had an inconnection we have an interconnection agreement with jcpnl they deliver us electricity we buy it it has to go through jcpnl lines to get to us so we have an interconnection agreement with them and over the past few years they said we need to revamp this we need to just do all this work on your substations it's almost like uh if our electric utility told you you had to upgrade your circuit breaker at your house same situations we had to do upgrades to our circuit breakers and to our infrastructure in our house in in um in our substations so that was some significant work that we had that we have funded um and as a result we're able to drop down to more historically historic levels of uh $500,000 a year which is still going to be a significant Capital program for the electric utility any other comments just a coup couple of comments you want to go Rachel go ahead sorry um you had your hand raised before go ahead okay well just comments on the Outlook about maybe bringing the dividend back you said next year two years three years who knows we don't really know if you're going to bring it back right but it would be something that when we do see you do a good job with your purchasing you have been known to do maybe we will have that opportunity do you believe that this um what do you call it the capacity uh distribution cost is going to stay I couldn't have asked you to ask better questions I should have said that I appreciate you saying that Tom that's a really good question there is a huge fight going on in pjm between the towns like us and the electric utilities and then the generators the generators were saying I mean if if we go back to 2021 we paid pjm 2,498 you can see that on the capacity line uh E7 it dropped down to $785,000 they were screaming this is crazy we can't even afford to stay in business with this so there was a huge fight and pjm changed some rules they made some weird not weird don't put weird in the Madison Eagle um they made some interesting um assumptions when it came to uh the various generation and how much would be available how much uh uh uh Hydro energy would be available if there was um a grid stress or how much wind or solar or coal or whatnot and they changed all those factors and the end result and we talked about this at a meeting um with councilwoman erlick the end result was they basically artificially suppressed the supply and the end result was that we had a supply and demand imbalance and when demand is greater than Supply the prices shoot up and so to your point all the people on our side are saying this is not fair and so I think I'm hopeful not next year but maybe the year after we could see a correction going the other way yeah because I I I know and you've given us this comparison before that Madison is on par with the state or better than some of the state rates and I I can uh I can uh reinforce that with some places where I've seen other rates um so it would be good to just know that we're being treated very fairly and we have a great electric utility the most responsive probably if not in the county in the state so to suspend this for a little while I'm okay but I know that people are struggling a little bit we say that you know it's really about 10% if I remember correctly so a $300 electric bill is $30 that we're going to add to their cost of living a month it's it's not nothing but it's something that maybe we'll keep the money there and we use it for tax reductions and other other areas too are you going to be comfortable with this final number I can't read it on my sheet $5,900 th000 yes I think so yes yes I I I think so this this is a first pass at um generation of fund balance and everything I'm I'm comfortable with this budget I don't think it's going to change at all in the presentations there might be quite honestly a few changes to um E10 admin and operating I I kind of we don't have that full number in there um uh fully refined but that's such a that's I don't see there being a significant change at all to this budget and to your point um regarding the dividend we're going to be talking about it every year how's it looking now can we maybe do a little bit of a dividend can we can we is is it is it worse did the capacity prices get worse did they get better what's what's happening every year we're going to be having this conversation richel so Jim like you said I just want to add a little context for what's happening with this crazy Market with pjm so you made the point that supply and demand and the reliability Dynamics are seriously imbalanced at pjm right now pjm interconnection serves 13 uh States and so it's far more than Madison more than New Jersey it's it's most of the east coast and and the southeast so PGM has been warning about coal plants and gas plants retiring for years but they have not been able to bring new generating resources online in a reasonable time frame so new generation cannot come online quickly because pjm has a yearslong interconnection backlog so these high capacity uh market prices uh which in a normal Market would signal new generators to come online and and start generating it's not working as an effective Market signal here to for new entry into the market and it's working as a windfall profit for existing generation right so the the it's not working like a market should so I just want to make the point here that what pjm needs to do to fix this is they need to focus on interconnection reform so that they can deal with this huge backlog they have this existing queue of new generation that wants to connect to the grid and it's overwhelmingly Renewables far more Renewables in that queue than fossil fuel than gas plants there's no new coal plants coming online and those Renewables have to make their way onto the grid so that we don't have these crazy capacity charges uh that we're faced with now so that's a problem of pjm's Z making pjm is a nonprofit effectively they they don't have the resources or The Leverage to to drive the market the the way that maybe they want to but uh they've they've made this problem for us so I just wanted to give a little bit of background on that that's that's great and that's exact you're a th% right and and um I would just add that when you do something behind our meter like we install the solar car port we don't have to wait for pjm we install the solar carport when someone installs solar on their house we don't have to wait for PGM they can install solar on their house if we just had a fu Feld and wanted to install solar and connect it to pjm we'd be waiting years in order to do it so we're fortunate that we have our own electric utility and that we can do things to to minimize um the impact though that solar car port will reduce our capacity costs in in year in the out years Eric actually Jim you you just sort of reinforced the point I was going to make which was you know because we you know right now in Madison the electric utility owns no generation at present right we're going to bring on um the solar carport we have at uh the MRC we have others you know in the queue to to examine um but if if pjm for lack of a better phrase can't get their act together in two three five you know who knows how long this uh $2 million nut is going to be dangling out there we should be ready to do what we can to shave our Peaks and to look at our own generation obviously we're not going to put up a you know put up our own and be totally self-sufficient but there are certainly things we can do to address um those Peaks which is the driver of the capacity charge um so I think that uh you know we should there's no one Silver Bullet to this whether it's reducing the um reducing the div dividend to nothing I think we have to be looking at all the options around around that to to look at reducing our our capacity charges making really good point and I and I if I could add to that um battery backup if we were to get grid scale battery back up of 5 megaw um the the peak charge for people who don't know we are charged that $2.7 million and that 2.4 million based on 5 hours of consumption of electricity over the entire year they look back PGM looks back and goes when we're our peaks in the grid Okay Madison what were your Peaks if we had a battery that was behind our meter connected to the grid we could do it immediately wouldn't have to wait for pjm approval we would dispatch that battery and turn it on on the hot days of the year and our Peak would go from here to here and we would save that amount of capacity by doing that so we're looking at that um installing more solar we are looking at the next wave of potential solar installation um again behind our meter that would support the burrow that brings our capacity down time of use rates if we we're going to be I promise they're coming I promise um uh was just emailing the software company today um the the test program will be launched hopefully by the end of January um where we have time of use rates and we're testing them and it's voluntary voluntary for people that want to do it but um mandatory time of use rates would be an economic trigger for people to encourage them to shed load during that time and then um you know the notion of we need to at least not close the door on um potential generation where it was a a natural gas generating unit that only ran a 100 hours a year but reduced our Peaks but was also sitting at DPW and if we had a superstorm Sandy event could energize a huge part of our town for two weeks until um the grid was was back so we're looking at those things obviously that's going to be all those things are Council decisions and we'll be bringing them and talking about them um uh over and over again for the in the future months any other comments I could entertain a motion to um accept a recommendation from the CFO that the dividend be suspended for 2025 I moved second any further discussion all in favor I unanimous voice now move on to ordinance for hearing with a clerk please read the statement the ordinances scheduled for hearing we're introduced by title and passed on first reading at regular meetings of the council held on November the 13th and November the 25th 2024 they were posted and filed according to law and copies were made available to the general public requesting scene I call up ordinances for second reading ask the clerk to read ordance by title ordinance 34-22 24 ordinance of The Bu of Madison establishing chapter 145-11 of the burough code entitled private owned salt storage I open hearing for ordinance 34 anyone wishing to comment please step forward seeing none I close the hearing mayor I move ordinance 34- 2024 second any Council discussion roll call vote please M erck yes Mr landrian yes Mr range yes Mr harm pus yes Hanahan yes Mr Forte yes I declare ordinance 34-22 24 adopted and finally passed and ask the clerk to publish notice thereof a newspaper follow the ordinance in accordance with the law and there we had uh ordinance 35 2024 um if you're looking sequentially we had the hearing for that at the special meeting on December 2nd so we move on to ordinance 36-22 24 ordinance of the Bureau of Madison revising ordinance 30- 2022 setting the salary ranges for non-union full-time employees I open the hearing on ordinance 36 anyone wishing to comment please step forward seeing none I close the hearing mayor I move ordinance 36- 2024 second counsil to discussion roll call vote please mck yes Mr landri yes Mr range yes Mr harm pis yes Hanahan yes Mr for yes I declare ordinance 36-22 24 adopted and finally passed and ask the clerk to publish notice there of newspaper and follow the ordinance accordance with the law ordinance 37-22 ordinance of the burrow of Madison amending chapter 190 of the Madison burrow code entitled water to authorize the revision of the burrow of Madison's water rates and service fees mayor I move ordinance 37 2024 oh I'm sorry m i I open the hearing for anyone wishing to comment on ordinance 37 anyone wishing to comment please step forward seeing none I close the hearing and now mayor I move ordinance 37 2024 second any counsil discussion again this is uh for high high I use water users and also clears up the disconnect so to speak of the uh size of service going into uh homes that the larger ones will not be penalized any uh further discussion roll call vote please oop I'm sorry Rachel I I guess I'm maybe um Jim could you clarify when the water rates will go into effect it immediately okay January so I just want to reiterate that we um should should prioritize some of the Outreach to those users and with paired with education to understand uh what this ordinance is intended to do which is to conserve water that's all in fact we would be very happy if this generated no additional income because people kept back their water use absolutely any further discussion roll call vote please M erlick yes Mr landrian yes Mr range yes Mr harm pus yes Miss Hanahan yes Mr for yes I declare ordinance 37-22 24 adopted and finally passed and ask the clerk to publish notice thereof the newspaper and follow the ordinance accordance of the law we now move on to our second of uh public comment this is when you may comment on any topic uh again same rules apply please step up to the elector state your name and address write the same on the clipboard try to keep your comments at three minutes but we will give you that one minute grace anyone wishing to comment please step forward seeing none I close this part of the meeting we have no introduction of me of ordinances because this is the last meeting of the year and so we move on to consent agenda resolutions will the clerk please read the statement consent agenda resolutions will be enacted with a single motion any resolution requiring expenditure is supported by a certification of availability of funds any resolution requiring discussion will be removed from the consent agenda all resolutions will be reflected in full the minute mayor I move the consent agenda resolutions 335-2244 d224 go ahead say second uh any that we want to remove for discussion move okay all right uh any uh any further discussion mayor maybe we just want to uh talk a little bit more about the Immigrant trust act one so 337 will be removed from the consent thank you the consent uh resolution is 335 to 336 and then 34 to um um 3 38 to uh 350 no so you don't want us to make any comments on 337 would uh 3 337 will be moved separately and comment me oh move separately I understand sorry so moved second okay roll call vote please mck yes Mr landrian yes Mr range yes Mr har pis yes Miss Hanahan yes for yes can I have a motion for resolution 33722 so moved second Council discussion Tom so so mayor I would uh just like to comment on the intent as I understand it I've actually been reading a little bit about it for the meeting in tonight and it seems like the state is just trying to protect the residents that are here with the rights that we have already given them from 2019 uh it wasn't brought to light until now when there's going to be some changes next year as to how we deal nationally with immigrants I don't think we're going to allow anybody to be above the law and have any additional rights or protections but there are some basic protections that we should respect as far as not having any fear to go get medical treatment or if anything inappropriate were to happen to them they're not going to have any issues going and Reporting it and saying who they are and what happened to them but I also am sensitive to what people are concerned about so hopefully the state will monitor it properly and they'll give us the right direction once we uh give them some support to say yes we approve you know just treating people fairly which is what you said earlier too thank you and just to you know we had the one resident making a comment about gangs yeah that a someone who who witnesses something if there have a fear of reporting that because of potential uh other issues that may never get reported where you know at least uh by having this level of protection another thing you know regard regardless of what may be going to n um National level a year from now there'll be a new governor coming into uh the State House a new attorney general and so this codifies um what it was attorney general directive which could have could have expired so another way to look at it Eric and then yeah just to be clear I mean the this um as you say mayor this codifies um the existing AG's directive which has been in place uh since 2018 it has been used by and governing the policies and and how law enforcement organizations in the state including the Madison police department um have addressed um all residents including uh the Immigrant Community uh since 2018 uh for those of you doing math at home that's two separate uh Federal Administrations um multiple Attorneys General here in uh New Jersey including the current one who is a born and bred madonian um so I think we have um you know this is not a knee-jerk reaction to anything this is um a longstanding uh set of policies that um do have outcomes that we can see around us um and I think it's important important that uh these sorts of things are dealt with via the law and not necessarily via um the whims of um regulatory agencies or or Attorneys General who might just say hey I want something different now um so I think it's important that the legislature take this um take this uh action I I think the biggest thing we all need to remember is that none of this protects criminal acts if someone assaults someone doesn't matter if you're here as a citizen if you're here as a uh legal immigrant as an illegal immigrant undocumented what have you you will be arrested and you will go through the judicial system that is not what the this is not to Tom's Point giving special rights to anybody it's insuring that we all live by the same set of uh set of laws so thank you thank you may other comments Bob you know I agree with everything Eric just said but there were some comments tonight that really got under my skin and I guess over the years it's benefited different individuals in politics to make enemies or site individuals to be Falla guys you know and I hear that gangs are immigrants that's not true there are just as many American citizens as member of gangs than there are immigrants but what's happening is they're making the immigrants The Fall Guys the bad guys and that to me and my Brooklyn is going to come out is a lot of crap um I support this ITA resolution I support everything that the mayor and Eric has said and everyone in this Council has said uh and the last thing is you know you hear warrant what the heck kind of Warrant is going to be issued and that's what our concern really needs to be and that's where the attorney general and the legislators Le legislators of this uh State need to step in because warrants can be issued by the federal government but what type you know they could be frivolous they could be a way to just work their way into a community that's where we have to be careful that's why I support this plus it puts an extra layer of protection against the residents of this town be them American citizens or those in the process of getting their citizenship I don't want anybody coming into this town saying show me your papers that's not this country that my father fought for and that's not the country that I joined the rooc for and I wouldn't want to live here if it was thank you mayor any other comments Rachel uh so you know I think um when I think about Chief Misha and the job that he and the Madison police department have to do I think our local MPD which is focused on community policing wants to continue to focus on protecting their residents uh and businesses and community members in Madison I don't think they want to do the job of the federal government and I think the one of the strongest things about the Immigrant trust Act is that it creates a clear segregation of Duties and hierarchy between federal government and the matters that the federal government administers and our our local government and especially our local police whose priorities and whose mandate is quite different than Federal enforcement so I think this clarification and the segregation of Duty is important to our police department and I think uh I won't put words in the mouth of our MPD but I I think they want to focus on continuing to protect our town and and not being told uh how they should be using their their powers in a way that is not consistent with uh their values so I think that's a strong aspect of this and I'm glad to support it John Mayor I think uh just piggybacking on uh councilwoman Erik's comments um I'm not sure that most people in the public are aware but the police department actually gets their guidance around issues like this from the state attorney general so as I see our role in this uh in this vote tonight it's really to eliminate ambiguity and to make sure that the that our local police department understands that there's really no difference in terms of how we view this than how the state may view it and that they've got the full unwavering support of all uh legislative bodies in the state of New Jersey who they may have to interact with and I think that's really important because I do think to your point it's it's a difficult job for them at the local level uh and again they don't get their guidance from us but I think knowing that everyone is in lock step on this is critical because you know it's it's it's a flash point and um you know for for folks who don't know what I do for a living I'm I'm an an expert on Municipal liability law enforcement liability and I think if you look at this through the lens of a law law enforcement liability issue I would certainly want to make sure that everybody understands what the what the rules are and what the governance is around this issue thank you other comments Miss Rachel I was interested uh in the point that was raised by Mr Martinez thank you Mike for your comment and your analysis of past resolutions that this body has passed calling on the state or federal government to um to take action and I did notice the strong language in this resolution that calls on our assembly and Senate representatives to co-sponsor and support the it ta um and I thought about that and what I thought was that I'm personally willing and and will in fact contact our assembly members and and our Senator Buco and ask them to co-sponsor and support the ITA so I think that's uh that's a reasonable request if this governing body uh feel strongly about supporting the immigrant immigrant trust act I think we can we can call on representatives to to do the same and if and if they have differing opinion and feel like they cannot support it for any reason then we can surely have a conversation about why they won't support it in its current form thank you any other comments roll call vote please mrck yes Mr landrian yes Mr range yes Mr har and pus yes Hanahan yes for Mr Forte I'm sorry still yes yes I apologize all right there is no unfinished business we move on to the approval of vouchers will the clerk please read the voucher totals from the current fund $134,200 354 from the electric operating fund $36,250 184 from the Electric Capital fund $33,000 even from the water operating fund $3,867 124 and from the trust 28,000 $173.66 the total is $ 366,924 Mr Fort yes and the only uh new business is to wish everyone a very happy holiday season and we will see you in the new year on January 2nd time to be announced very shortly I think this meeting's over may I move to a Jour all