Comm meeting like to call the meeting to order please Johanna will you read the statement of compliance the notice requirements of the open public meeting act for this meeting have been satisfied a copy of the annual meeting notice was sent to the Press of Atlantic City The Star Ledger posted on the bulleon board in the municipal building the municipal website and filed in the office of the municipal clerk please turn off all cell phones please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance IED to the flag of the United States of America and to the for stand Johanna please take the role mayor Collins here commissioner blumberg I am here commissioner horn here welcome everybody uh we will begin with our engineering report JJ shelder Islands um salt marsh restoration permitting there's no change um fiscal year 2023 NJB reconstruction of Winchester Avenue fromont to Douglas the authorization to beid that project is on the uh City commission meeting agenda today2 Road program um there no change on that fiscal year 2023 Transportation alternative Set Side Washington Avenue streetcape and fisc year 2023 Safe Streets to Transit Washington Avenue and vendor Avenue Transit improvements um for the Safe Streets to Transit um the city received 162,000 from dot the streetcape Improvement um do award is 1.5 million um the next um thing is to schedule a presentation of the project to the um City commissioners since this was Prior um you know the concept and everything was was done all prior to um the Commissioners the Commissioners being you know like office uh Adams AB storm sewer pump station no update uh the library Park evaluation the report has been completed and we are going under final review so hopefully we can have that in next couple of weeks to the city um flood warning response plan um there's no update um ibank assistance with the lead service line replacement um no update um Atlantic Avenue alternate traffic signal timing um traffic signal timing directives have been prepar the next step is we solicit close um for the actual work to change the signal timing to have two separate timings one for peak season and one for offseason um storm water mapping uh ordinance and mapping assistance um the stuff that we got had gotten comments um from the element be submitted and on the mapping they're asking for more than what's required so in order to address that um it look like they were you know looking at what they not releas rest of we're going have to send a additional proposal just because it's beyond what we were required to do what they're asking for um pending Grant applications nothing's changed um nothing's changed on the pending capital projects um nothing Chang miscellaneous engineering on open and maintenance bonds the uh we're going to recommend release of the uh 2021 Redevelopment of wall number five is the Wells operating properly um nothing changes on the projects in close out uh the Sigman Rim recreational complex batting cage replacement theic's been installed and we have to do a final Punch Lift on the project um f Hazard mitigation funding for the historic City Hall the firehouse number one flood proofing um the contractor mobilized on February 12th toon is working and the um CIS year 2022 NJ do state a reconstruction of Winchester Avenue um nothing's really changed they're in construction the water and storm sewers have been installed um they reopened the road because they're waiting for their subcontractor to come in to um start working on the concrete BL all I have great thank you Scott would you like to begin with our department head reports mayor I really don't have anything right now tonight great thank you Roger thank you mayor uh we had a marathon plan Bo meeting last time so the next meeting we only have one Cas so it should be AG pretty smooth I Vis it in theana Balance oil on tonight's agenda you have a couple things one of them is the annual zoning relief resolution to provide uh to permit me to sign off on zoning per outdoor dining and seating and also for outdoor displays for the which started happening during the co period and it's uh been extended by the state and it's actually been pretty successful for the businesses along ventner Avenue and elsewhere within the city of morgate so once we get approval for that I'll be able to start approving the permits for that so again it's been successful to your pred to to your predecessors and you guys continue it so it's a very good very good program also there's a couple things on the agend for approval uh just basically uh our annual vendors that we use on the state contract and all the co-ops are all listed just to be transparent to the public and also to make it official that we are using those State contract and LS and co-ops that's all I have great thank you Roger Chief Hinson thank you mayor I'll be brief as well first of all because I have stuff on the agenda for the second meeting two new officers being SW in and again this is part of the process of a lot of retirements and a lot of backfilling uh the two individuals we have right now we're in the police academy and we're going to be class two officers but now we will be transitioning them to full-time officers so it's nice to know that we'll go into the Summer with the full staff uh just a quick note something we uh noticed in the last week or so but just a reminder to all the residents everybody traveling the road school is in session just a reminder to keep your speeds low I said we're we're pretty lucky in in gate with a 25 mph speed limit all the way around especially around the schools but rushing to get your children to school is uh it's no excuse for safety so just for everybody just to be aware a lot of kids around and uh just to have your head on a swivel because you never know that's all I have thank you Chief Lisa good afternoon everyone thank you mayor uh just a couple things I'll try to be brief um I'm continuing to work on the budget I sent uh a few changes to Leon yesterday and I'm expecting another draft back I am going to his office to meet with him on Monday to discuss a few things so one after I meet with him I will have another draft to send to you to review in the meantime um I did make any changes that were forwarded to me so unless I receive anything else uh it's you know going to be pretty much set but after I send you the draft you could let me know where that stands we're still on track to introduce um at our first meeting in March on the 7th um other than that I was advised that the state health benefits is having a speci open enroll special open enrollment period for in April for the month of April ordinarily it's in October where and that's the only time employees can make changes to their plans but they're adding some additional plans to offer to employees uh from the etet network so um that is the reason for the Open Enrollment I am meeting with our broker Sean Gormley and Ramona Marshall on Tuesday uh I will ask them further uh for additional information in regards to that to see if they need to send anything else out to employees other than what the state will be Distributing but the primary reason for me meeting with them as they had contacted me as you know our Brokers uh continue to monitor our plan and Market it to see if there's other options available to the city for any cost savings so I don't know what they've come up with if anything but they requested a meeting with me so I will let you know uh what we discussed after Tuesday um in over the past several years um various department heads have recommended to the administrator each administrator actually former administrator to uh increase some of our fees that have not been increased for several years some it's been in excess of 20 years since the fees um have been increased so um Pat was going to speak about increase in the water meter fees but in his absence I'll briefly touch on that he had forwarded a recommendation uh several weeks ago for the amounts he wants to increase them to um and it's basically just to cover our costs you know the cost of the water meters and to install them and the various equipment necessary has increased so we're deficient and we're not covering our cost um in addition to that there's a few other fees that I am recommending in addition to the city clerk and others uh to increase one are our dog license fees um I've been here almost 20 years and they have not increased they're very minimal so um um that I'm recommending that we do the ordinance September October um because we we've already started receiving them for this year so in order to have it set for January 1 um we would do it in the fall um in addition to that the merti licenses they were due on January 1 so to increase them for the following year that would also require an ordinance in September or October um but next coming up next are the liquor licenses which are due in June so an ordinance would need to be introduced in March to prepare for that uh by law we're only allowed to increase the fees 20% per year up to a maximum so it's my recommendation um with the commissioner's input that we begin to prepare an ordinance for March to increase those fees so we have it um effective in time for this year um as far as the dollar amounts of the fees that need to be increased later in the year I'll send you a list with uh the suggestion so then we could start preparing that and have it all ready to go so um just asking for your input and guidance is it okay that we proceed with the liquor license fee increase yeah I mean I'm in favor of you know as the memo that was circulated I think we should move forward with a lot of those changes okay um my only question I guess is some of the fees that I know you're saying merel license January 1st they due but some of the ongoing fees is it necessary to wait or if if we're so far behind well I would does it matter to change it mid far as fees for recreation Andrew has uh increased his fees in the past I don't know if you have any other recommendations for this year okay all right perfect thank you and um that's okay I'm not aware of any other fees so if any other department heads have any recommendations then please forward them to me but at this time no right now in the immediate future it would be the meran teal because we already are past the January 1 deadline for the other ones that I had mentioned great thank you so we're okay with that okay Mar are you okay with that thank you so okay all right thank you uh that's all I have thank you Lisa Andrew thank you mayor uh I just wanted to let people know that our uh Camp information for this summer will be uh posted online beginning March 4th this year we'll be signing up on our new online system um to make things easier for everyone uh and then additionally we just posted our summer seasonal applications because we've already received some requests uh from some people looking for summer work already so those uh applications have been posted on the website as well and that's all I have thank you Andrew Chief Adams thank you mayor Commissioners uh first off I want to say it's a welcome to see uh retired Captain John burillo in the audience here it's a special day for him and his family and it's good to see John John spent a number of years in the fire department it's always a pleasure to see him and and have him back in our family um two I want to thank uh we had four of our fire department officers start training uh Laport fire department members on firefighter personal safety uh and basically what they were doing was teaching the Laport fire department members how to do what's called a bailout and a self-rescue training where they're actually bailing out on a rope out of a window to learn self-rescue techniques in the event that they ever get caught in that so I want to thank our four fire department officers who are doing that training and they're going to continue it for Longport this coming Monday it's uh Captain Grace Captain eer Lieutenant Funk and Lieutenant uh mayor um lastly and this is just a reminder and we spoke about this before we're still receiving emergency calls directly to the fire department if you have an emergency call if it's a fall victim or someone's injured do not call the fire department directly call 911 and Report the emergency when you call the fire department we have to transfer the call to the police department and there's a delay in this response in service the other thing is if the fire department is out of the building you're wasting time calling to leave a message on the answering machine if nobody is there so please remember if it's an emergency type call or situation please dial 911 to report the emergency and that's all I have for now mayor thank you thank you Chief Johanna uh good afternoon I've begin began working on that liquor license resolution to change the fees and it appears that the $600 fee for consumption will go to 720 and the fee for rec retail consumption or retail sales will go from $345 to $414 so I don't you're only allowed to do it by law 20% so I think it is time that we do start moving it forward if if I have your approval we can do it every year until we reach the maximum consumption is 2500 and I forget what retail yeah I mean I believe if we look at the list of what neighboring communities are doing we are well below so I think we should well below we should be you know up and consistent with what they are doing right okay so I will prepare that for the next agenda thank you is that all that's it great thank you all right we will now open it up to public comment if anyone has has any public comment on items discussed in this meeting please step forward to the microphone state your name and address seeing that there is none is there a motion to close public comment motion second mayor Collins yes commissioner blumberg yes commissioner horn yes commissioner blumberg anything to add nothing to Horn no no is there a motion to adjourn motion I will second mayor Collins yes commissioner blumber yes commissioner horn yes thank you everybody in interest of time because we do have a lot of things on the agenda as opposed to our one minute break I'd like to just uh keep moving forward so we will good with that