##VIDEO ID:lTM6iPSiTGU## e e e e e e e good evening everyone in accordance with Section Five of the open public meetings act be advised that a notice of this meeting was made by posting on the bulletin board in town hall and forwarding to the officially designated newspapers that this meeting would take place at Town Hall at 7 pm on Tuesday October 1st 2024 meeting details in the draft agenda were also posted on our Township website please stand to salute the flat the United States America the stand uh roll call please Mr Cohen here miss pus here Deputy Mayor sakandi here Mr Stoler mayor Romano here thank you may have a motion to approve the agenda I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda um so I'd like to make a motion to table resolution 24- 229 it's my understanding there's still some details that were waiting on I also think that given the length of the uh the document and the fact that the public has only had a few days to see it it would behoove us to postpone that to the next meeting do we need a second second um okay so may motion to approve the revised May roll call I'm sorry roll call please Mr Cohen yes Miss puus yes Deputy Mayor s Mandy yes Mr Stoler mayor Romano yes then I have one more motion I wanted to make uh to amend the agenda and that would be to table the approval of the uh Short Hills business organization bylaws the reason being the bylaws that were provided to the public did not include a blacklined copy um and that's something that I actually had to request for myself I think that when we're going to make changes like this to existing bylaws of a quasi Township organization we we ought to provide a Blackline copy or at least an explanation of what the changes are so the public is aware because they shouldn't have to go through and diff the documents themselves wasn't there only one change that one sentence I mean we could certainly talk to that was the only change it it was but I think it's just in the interest of transparency and you know to make sure that we're doing things in an open and transparent manner and to limit the ability for people to criticize us you know for not being transparent I think we ought to provide that it doesn't really take any extra effort to provide that blacklined copy so that move that is there a second is there a second no okay so may have a motion to approve the uh revised agenda tbling 24- 229 so may have a second all those in favor okay thank you okay reports uh Deputy Mayor you want to go [Music] first uh so the planning board has um started considering um an application for 165 W Short Hills Road that's a process that's likely going to take a while I bring it up simply because I know it's been contentious uh and concerning to those a lot of people in the community um the next planning board meeting that will not be discussed it's tabled until uh November so just wanted to put that out there make sure you check the the schedule if that's something you're interested in following uh the environmental commission um is continuing to hold information sessions uh on the open space trust fund so check the township website for information on on when those sessions are and encourage everyone to if you haven't attended one please attend that's it Comm sure uh Recreation committee uh winter registrations begun uh that includes wreck and travel basketball wrestling indoor pickle ball badminton stem classes an adult open gym basketball and volleyball uh new programs have been offered this winter uh arts and crafts and and others um they're also excited to announce the return of the shaune ski program uh which is open to all Sixth and 12th graders uh for for residents special improvement district uh budget introduction at the September meeting of the Sid board uh executive director gillo presented a draft of the 2025 budget uh if it's approved at the October annual Sid meeting I will be presented to for introduction by the township committee at our November 12th meeting uh prior to the annual meeting the budget will be shared with all affected property and business owners as well as public 48 hours in advance of the meeting as required by law uh the budget will have some new data uh and this is really a we've put in place a lot of kpis key performance indicators uh and measurement tools to see what the effective the efficacy of that U sit is this weekend uh last weekend this past Friday night we had a special performance by the Jersey Boys from the paper mill Playhouse uh thanks to the paper mill and to explore for coordinating that effort it was fantastic and very well attended uh this Saturday at Township Plaza October 5th there's going to be an outdoor movie starting at 7M it's Beetle Juice um and then Bull and Bear Brewing from Summit will also be serving their craft beer from 6:30 to 9:30 and the scream truck will be selling ice cream again which always seems to be a huge hit that starts at 800m uh there's also a tour of the Town social campaign on Instagram and Facebook I'm not sure if you guys are following it but it seems to be going very well lots of hits and visitors uh they had nine businesses and another uh and have another week of contact for a Content recorded and scheduled uh for the next uh next week then they have a threeway week waiting list for other businesses to participate Board of Education liaison committee the big update uh in the beginning of this is discussion on the grounds in the back of the high school the behind the baseball where that uh where the uh the jungle gym is uh we have an Architects appro a proposal and a finance facilities committee work uh with the Joint Committee facilities or committee uh to figure out next steps we actually have a uh in-person meeting on the site to discuss it Alex October 18th or so so we'll be on site doing that uh and that's where we're going to try to tur it over make more fields for everyone um joint joint fields we just discussed emergency dispatch nothing new there uh flood mitigation we did a big review last uh meeting I'll have an update next month affordable housing I'm going to defer to council and then in the other piece uh I just want to make sure that on the board today that we discussed that we have a consensus to raise the Israel Israeli flag on October 17th um in solidarity with with all of our neighbors in in Israel our greatest Democratic Ally in the Middle East it just be up for the day um so U on doing that on October 7 7 that's it thank you Comm col sure sure um yeah well Deputy Mayor sakani covered the planning board and yes we didn't even get through completing the first is testifying so this will be a multi multi- meeting event for for certain um the arum held a very successful cornhole fundraiser on um on September 22nd I believe it was that Sunday and uh it was uh we had 27 teams everybody had a lot of fun it was a beautiful day and uh we'll be looking to do that again next year and perhaps even one in the in in the spring um they're they're currently planning a Halloween event for families at the Arboretum um where you know there'll be uh trick or treat stations throughout the grounds more to come on on that um the library held a community picnic event last weekend and despite the ring it was very well attended they estimating somewhere about over 300 people came and uh everyone had a good time uh was a a good uh Community Building effort at the library that was very nice um I just want to uh thank the Atlantic Federal Credit Union they're holding a food drive for the pantry they started today um they are also a sponsor of um explore with um explore mbour Short Hill so I just wanted to give them a thank you and that's all I have Mr McDon thank you mayor um just a few brief reports just a reminder to the residents uh that their work um by psng up in the um Long Hill tyoga Rolling Hills um area of the township Deerfield section uh is uh has begun uh this is again continued gas uh infrastructure replacement and uh we will be working with them once the project is complete about uh restoration of the area in conjunction with the Township's 2025 um Road reconstruction projects I just wanted to let the publican commity know that there was an enforcement detail at the intersection of Whittingham and Ridgewood and uh there were 45 stops with 35 summons issued last week um there is uh a reminder to Residents that leaf collection is starting uh mid-mon uh the leaf collection schedule was sent out to every resident uh in their tax bill and if you don't have that schedule uh you can always get it on the website I also have a few that I'll put out here for anybody that wants to grab them at the end of the meeting um the Township in conjunction with the historic preservation commission and the Arboretum uh have now successfully uh put a um barrier-free or Ada accessible ramp into the arbor redum um and uh worked very well with the historic preservation commission to get that accomplished in in quick order uh through their minor work Review Committee and um uh it was pretty seamless project uh quite honestly I think the concrete just got poured it's tinted uh so that it uh that it had has a good look to it and just a reminder of residents about the Fire Department open open house that will take place on October 19th um again it was originally scheduled for the 12th but it has been moved to October 19th so uh you can find all that information on our website and as uh our social channels and just continue to encourage people to uh follow us on social medias and uh and the website EXC thank you thank you thank you mayor good evening um just a brief fair share housing update um late the afternoon today the P of Court ruled on all the pending motions um in our fair share housing case um there were two uh substant motions and one procedural motion the procedural motion was granted in favor of the township um but both substantive motions were denied um the subst Motions were um the township was seeking a stay of both court orders um the appell court denied the stay um finding that we that the how failed to demonstrate an entitlement to relief um no written opinion sarily denied it um and the other issue that was before the Appel division was whether or not we had an appeal as of right or the appeal was interlocutory um typically in Fair Share housing and the difference is when a case is over everybody in Jersey has a right to appeal interlocutory is when the case is pending do you have a right to go to the P division um It's A Hard burden to show because um cases would just go on and on and on if every time the Court ruled you just go to the Appel division um we felt very strongly that that one it was a final order because um we weren't given our final compliance and Repose immunity was stripped and there would be no way for us to get our final compliance and Repose so essentially the court ordering us um to enter into the Redevelopment agreement um and and the pilot agreement essentially ended the case um but the P division uh disagreed with us um and found that it was an interlocutory order um and denied our relief to seek leave to file an interlat appeal so the appal division said once there's a final order in the case it'll take um we can then um bring all our appealable issues to the appell court um so I've reviewed those orders um with this committee and closed um they just came out late this afternoon um we're still looking at all uh viable legal Avenues um but at this point the court has denied um both of um both of the township substantive uh motions without argument and both sarily without a ritten opinion and if there's any questions from the committee thank you thank you public comment when invited to speak to offer your comments please come to the Lector and clearly state your name and whether you were a nobber resident Endor property or business owner please do not provide your full address seeing our meetings are recorded and are readily available to the public for the convenience of our community there is a remote option if you called in and would like to comment please press star six now if you are attending by computer or electric device electronic device please click the raise hand button and be sure your video is on when you comment all members of the public wishing to speak will be put into the queue to address the committee to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers shall admit their comments to one three minute session you'll be prompted when there's 30 seconds remaining I remind you that this is not a time for dialogue or to debate a matter and this is a time during our business meeting for the public to offer comments I will now open the public comment period um good evening Jeffrey Phil first to all the citizens that will be celebrating the Jewish holiday L TOA um because we during the next few weeks we all transcend history and get back to of all generations at Mount Si um my questions on first on the agenda items uh you have various closed executive session meetings prior to this regular meeting are those closed executive sessions meetings recorded or you are just minutes taken I mean they're not recorded I mean people shakeing hand I think record know that they're not recorded um as to the bill list again it's my like Bim monly quest of who monitors the work product and time summaries of our professionals um since the last Mee I received um redacted the June time summaries and it's it's weird that two different law firms were uh giving Oprah advice and this this town spent money trying to delay the production of the reports that were produced to the special master in the portable housing case committee again I renew the request that we create a pleading Library um so like the orders that were just entered that the public can see what the P division ruled because it's very important as to the affordable housing because it's into latory order at some point I will have a right to appeal what happened at the um fair share the fairness hearing where the court denied me a right to question the witnesses and that was the time when judge Garner said he never told the town that they could not tell us the terms of the settlement um as to the Sid bylaws it was interesting in the report it was not announced that the November 12th trial date has been cancelled um the case has been assigned to the seventh jurist Aldo Russo um we had a little virtual case management conference last Monday because of my history with Mr rouso I be fing a motion for him to recuse it because you know he represented orange he did such a great job that the FBI raided their City Hall um the public library and some various other opinions that he defended that I was smoking crack but I think time has showed I wasn't um as to the appointment to the people to the fair share housing committees can you tell us the number of applicants to each district and what um metrics were used to point uh to point them and again I thank you for postponing the Woodmont for at least two weeks so the public can look at that template and compare it to the Upton and to the um Wells Fargo because that template will be used I guess where any says thank you for that thank you good evening David K of a resident um a question for Mr caner based on the on the report um the litigation report is there anything pending now before the Appel division anything left um and a second on the on the contract I left some comments for you there thanks thank you good evening Carrie heler resident I guess property owner as well um two and a half years since I've been here I do I do listen um I comment uh well well done in terms of your dialogue communication not necessarily always an agreement I think perhaps we could even be doing more but I think you're doing a great job in terms of communicating professionalism not necessarily agreeing upon party lines uh among other things and the reports just a lot of lot of good information also coming out thank you um not an agenda item but something that was on your agenda last meeting um town hall for many years there's been a contemplation that this building is obsolete um derl building probably fits many of the criteria within the Redevelopment uh uh act J you correct me if I'm wrong I think there's eight perhaps obsolescence there's about eight of them this building fits about all of them uh the process that we've gone through or you've gone through or Alex and his staff has gone through to renovate versus do new I I don't agree with that process the building and the employees here deserve a new building it doesn't necessarily deserve a renovated building and it's not just about cost alone there's there's efficiencies both in the building the size the height the location uh certainly the cost um I know a little something about renovating been doing something for a couple of years on the corner and keep finding new and unforeseen things uh this room perhaps is going to stay as this room conference room um maybe it's going to get bigger but a lot of the offices the stairwells elevator a lot of things don't change in renovation and you're stuck with the size that you have I was taught 35 years ago there two two reasons to renovate a building one is to get around zoning and the other is to save money so we're not really saving money and we're not really getting around zoning so the question is why is the building being rebuilt here in this location uh there's many locations from next to the library whether it's DPW at some future date y two stories rather than three or four stories whether including it into a fair share housing whe there synergies with I think just about every building in town uh public building city building Police Department fire department rescue squad DPW everything needs a renovation we're determining Gateway we have two-way traffic we've eliminated left turns we still have a single Lane coming into the downtown instead of two lanes the whole town is basically still in flux complete streets never got finished had a little something to do with that but it should have gotten finished but not in the manner in which it was approved East Milburn Avenue East of Main Street you can call it a Runway or freeway but we need to do something with it and it's more than just tayor park I'll leave you with that and I may come back and speak if I stay long enough on something else thank you anyone else before we go online good evening good evening Perry erso upper Milburn Avenue um I have to I'd like to um direct my comment to Mr caner if he could please define mediation and arbitration Mr caner uh was meeting with attorney Feld they held a meeting on May 7th which was held in his office a was that a conference or was that a mediation in your provided time St summaries both yours and your Associates Billings explanations do not coincide was there a CO courta appointed mediator or a third party representative president present did attorney fil put a settlement offer on the table for the Township's consideration in accordance to your denial letter dated May 13 2024 which was part of the proposed trial exhibits please provide which TC representatives of the majority declined this offer also I'd like to thank you for tbling tonight's resolution 24- uh 227 but I would ask uh Mr CER if you could app whether this resolution should have been done by resolution or ordinance and I'm just requesting clarification because this ordinance originally and it's approved bylaws were originally approved by way of ordinance what is the proper procedure and if a resolution is correct please explain why additionally all fellow TC's prior to taking any official action of the Sid I would ask each member of this body to thoroughly go through the Sid agenda packets carefully read closed executive session minutes and all expenses to date does the Sid entity currently have an active credit card does the executive director use a card supplied by the township to charge expenses like lunches in town and would that be permissible or prohibited I am also res respectfully requesting as I did at the past Sid meeting September 19th 2024 that the previously denied July motion put on the table by Deputy Mayor sakami and committee woman prus that the Sid re-examine Mo reexamination motion be put back on the table for consideration prior to any further changes to this challenge of the validity of the ordinance and or its bylaws of the same mayor Romano Deputy Mayor sakami committee members Mr staller Miss puus and Mr Cohen do I have a second and a majority vote thank you thank you okay I will now close public com anybody anyone like to respond um K staller sure I'll take the stab at this first of all Mr Herer welcome back uh and thank you for all you're doing for the town the corner looks great with whisk and Willow uh and we can't wait to see that open up uh and U you know it really means a lot to have you come and speak here because you put the money behind your projects and you're investing a lot in our town so thank you on behalf of myself and bya the rest of the TC as well um the only comment I want to make to Mr felt in terms of uh in terms of uh I'd like to explore at some point with our attorney the delay in production of request to affordable housing and you made that statement so I have not seen that if I had seen it I I would definitely bring it up so I'd like to explore that on the record to understand how you deduce that and and where that's coming from so that that's it thank you I don't have anything sure um so Mr crove uh we'll let uh our attorney uh respond to the question as to whether there's anything left pending before the appell at court or not uh Mr heler um you know we actually looked into the costs of building a new building as opposed to renovating Town Hall um and it turns out that would have cost more um would have probably taken longer um and you know I encourage you to look at the plans for the new town hall because it has substantial changes for example this is not going to be the uh committee room anymore um and it's going to bring in functionality um that was previously provided by police department because we're going to have the municipal court in the new building and what that's going to do is free up valuable space uh for the police department so um we we absolutely did look at other options and none of them really made Financial sense uh at this point um as far as Miss Vero goes um I I agree I think we should re-examine the Sid but uh you know at the mercy here of of the other four TC members um so see if if that comes back or not uh that's all I have thanks thank you mayor um there were only three um there were three motions pending the Bel division um one was for the stay the other one was um to allow the to allow the township to file the appeal um if it wasn't as a right or determination whether or not it was as of right or interlocutory so given that the P division denied our stay application finding and they also found that our appeal was interlocutory and denied our leave to file an interlocutory appeal there's nothing for the pen division currently um unless any questions I mean well I'm sorry I think we had something oh oh the fair share housing documentation I don't I I don't know what Mr F's talking about on line no but I'm certainly happy to uh I'm so happy to discuss Mr Feld and I believe you know our I mean first I want to say that I work with clerks throughout the state and I'm M attorney in four towns but six in my career and you have one of the best clerks I've ever worked with and her office and her Administration handle oppr requests um so professionally with such diligence um I don't quite understand um where that came from but I can assure you that um I don't know what Mr Feld is talking about but I'm happy to talk to him after about what documents he doesn't think he received finally but I know that again milour does a fantastic job with all over really Kudos very hard work and it's it's a lot of work um the other issue is um the mediation issue um so we did have a case management conference um and mediation came up first off we did have a mediation um a mediation in my in my estimation we had an informal settlement discussion and it's confusing to me how either there wasn't mediation or there wasn't and then I'm asked what wasn't there an offer made well if there was an offer made why would there be an offer made if there wasn't a mediation so obviously we met in the context of trying to determine a settlement so if I was asked was there an offer made then obviously we were talking settlement um my recollection was and the court actually agreed with us and came up on our case management conference the issue is very simple it's whether or not the ordinance was passed procedurally properly and whether or not it subbly proper um the court said there's really nothing to mediate to that aspect because either it was or was it there's no middle ground to whether or not the ordinance was passed um I don't recall Mr Feld making any um reasonable offer at that mediation um I did bring back into close and we decide to continue to litigate and we are litigating the court agreed with that um in our last so um there is there is no Avenue to mediate and we did have a mediation and I stand behind my time entries and my firm's time entries um as always as we keep time accurately um and Comm has any further questions I'm happy sure I have a question um so misso was talking about the difference between mediation and arbitration uh so I'd like to just understand those two differences uh one is why I always thought arbitrator was brought in uh can it still go to arbitration or is this just down to simple procedural law now and the judge is going to rule and then we go the next step how does that work so so to me again this was an informal mediation and I'm actually going to go back and pull my communication Mr phel because there was a clear understanding if this was a mediation when we attended and I I'll certainly go back and look at that but typically an Arbiter will will will give an award what we'll tell the parties what they feel um we'll give an opinion sometimes it's binding meaning what the Arbiter says is the result and you could appeal what the Arbiter says and sometimes it's a non-binding arbitration where the Arbiter will say this is what I think a mediation the mediator doesn't make a determination at the end they just try to bring parties together again this wasn't informal mediation we didn't have a formal mediator but certainly a formal mediator is not required to have a mediation um as was discussed I guess there were some negotiations or some positions brought to that meeting there was nothing else discussed other than trying to resolve the matter so in my opinion when two parties enter a room and attempt to resolve a matter uh and and and end the litigation that is mediation okay and for lack of beating a dead horse here when you know if you're complaing mediation arbitration um typically in a procedural uh case which you're saying this is procedural it's either done correctly or it's not does that typically go to arbitration or how does that resolve itself so these cases are typically done um uh by briefing uh and the court has retracked this case um and the court again agree and there was there was an order entered as Mr B said removing this from The Trial track arbitration is typically more appropriate when there's damages claimed and typically in the litigation when there's money at stake and there is something to put a value on okay and then expand expound upon uh Mr Russo as a judge and uh why why he was not uh I guess why he did not accuse himself is that a point of contest I just want to understand all the PES and full transparency of what's going on there the township has no issue um with with the honorable Russo decide in this case um we would like to read Mr F's papers if and when he does file a motion uh once we see Mr F's motion and certifications provided we certainly can review it and understand if whether or not we're going to join in or oppose that motion or take no position on the motion but currently the T has no issues with the Judiciary and Nexus County as relates to honor so can you bring that decision to the township committee so that we can decide as a committee whether we feel that the judge needs to be whether we need to agree that the judge should be accused or not sure great we may have to have a special meeting though because it's going to be filed on 16 days notice so we'll have eight days to respond and that's only done after he's requested to recuse himself correct right we have have we have to wait for a motion from Mr f um currently Township has no position um we'd have to review it and obviously our Law Firm would have to also understand whether or not we want to um file a motion against a superior court judge seeking recusal whether or not he we believe that judge can't be unfair can't you know can't barely rule on this matter sure I just want to avoid a situation where the other side says well you know who decided that so you know in the interest of full transparency if they can come to us take a vote on it which whichever way it goes It goes and you know then it's completely transparent we supp F thefe jour's motion long enough for us to entertain a close session on that issue yeah that would be very helpful I would think [Music] the township committee will now consider consent agenda resolutions are there any comments from the committee in regard to any items listed on the consent agenda may have a motion to approve resolution 24-22 three through resolution 24- 226 which are listed on the consent agenda so moved may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cen yes Miss pus yes Deputy Mayor sakandi yes Mr Stoler for mayor Romano yes thank you are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 24- 227 as revised may I have a motion to approve resolution 24227 so may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes M pupus yes Deputy Mayor second Mandy no Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes thank you are there any comments from the committee in regard to resolution 24- 228 as revised may I have a motion to approve resolution 24- 228 may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes Miss puus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes commit woman prose your schedule to sponsor ordinance 2686 d24 I present for consideration an ordinance entitled ordinance number 2686 d24 an ordinance to add article 10-6 amending and supplementing chapter 10 Property Maintenance of Rise General ordinance of the township of Milburn the purpose of this ordinance is to prohibit any new planting spread or impact from bamboo and other noxious Lees in the Township in particular bamboo can be damaging and impactful to neighboring properties and these types of plantings will be prohibited after the effective date of dis ordinance in addition the ordinance will address impacts to neighboring properties from bamboo that has already been planted or established prior to the effective date of disord fines will be imposed for property owners that plant bamboo or noxious beeds or allow established planting to impact neighboring properties without proper aidence tonight is the time set for the public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with law I declare the hearing open Harry Herer definitely resident um I have bamboo I've had it for about 10 years and I have it uh confined within plastic um as directed by many ordinances throughout the state uh first I am against pretty much outlawing anything um perhaps than cannabis which the TOs have the rights to but there should be conditional uses for planting it subject to planting it properly I'm not planting more of it but I do maintain uh what I have um that said within the ordinance on 106.5 C the failure to properly confine existing bamboo pursuant to the section may require the removal it doesn't really Define how to prevent it from spreading and there is a method to doing so I seen the Livingston ordinance I've referenced that before Livingston is pretty vague as well there are other towns that have more substantial ordinances I think the way this ordinance is written for anyone who has the bamboo it certainly precludes anyone from planting it but if you have it it's very ambiguous I can tell you right now I could fight this to to the end of time as to what I'm doing to prevent it from spreading I am preventing it by spreading by having the proper plastic barrier in the ground that goes down a certain depth but this is not going to cause you to be able to enforce it properly I just finding better language there are other towns that do have it I didn't bring it with me tonight but it but it does exist thank you thank you I move that this public hearing be closed and the ordinance be adopted on Final reading and that the township cler be directed to publish the ordinance by title as passed on Final reading in accordance with may I have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cohen yes Miss puus yes Deputy Mayor sakandi yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes thank you Deputy Mayor sakandi you were scheduled to sponsor ordinance 2687 d24 I present for consideration an ordinance entitled ordinance 2687 d24 ordinance amending and supplementing the township of bber development regulations conning or tonight is the time set for public hearing and final passage as advertised in accordance with the law I declare the hearing open I move that this public hearing be closed and that the ordinance be adopted on the final reading and that the Township Clerk be directed to publish the ordinance by title as passed on Final reading in accordance with the law may have a second second roll call vote Please Mr Cen yes Miss puus yes Deputy Mayor Sandy yes Mr Stoler affirmative mayor Romano yes thank you okay we have no old business no new business public comment this public comment period is is to allow for final comments from the community when invited to speak to offer your comments please come to the Lector and clearly state your name and whether you are a Milbourne resident Andor property or business owner please do not provide your full address seeing our meetings are are recorded and readily available to the public a reminder that in order to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speaker shall limit their comments to one three minute session Jeffrey Feld um I'll let the record as to Bear property speak to itself because a lot of things occurred prior to Mr Canter's involvement in the case specifically in April 2021 and September 17 2021 um the then Essex County Civil presiding judge recommended to this town ship to mediate this dispute the dispute involves a conflict of interest and whether you the town gave proper notice due diligence and whether it complied with the state enabling statute and they'll just as I hear as you said you rather litigate and not mediate um as to certain other issues um I we had a good time at the community policing event that really was not discussed I think that was last tues Tuesday and I um bring up again how the community can help the police by like having a drive to put the addresses on the Belgian block so they recommended that um I'm trying to wonder what the status of the private citizen Municipal um complaint investigation is or we ending into a Katy Brennan situation where a report is done but the real people that have knowledge are never contacted that goes back to Bridgegate the sexual harassment Katie Brennan remember that um the referendum coming up I still have issues I've not heard um conflict between the slide deck and the master plan and the protections that the citizens will have as to who decides how to use that money um also at the last Board of Education meeting was mentioned they obtained a feasibility study and made an open request they will not produce it I think that feasibility study might it's data that people might want to have for the referendum I and I want to be clear I've never attacked this clerk I've always praised her and to assist that my questions it goes to the time summaries and I provide you all with the copies of those redacted time summaries look at it because it has entries regarding Oprah there's a special entries regarding Oprah for nille attorneys also I would recommend everyone look at an article in today's USA Today regarding Milton Massachusetts and the state of Mass Massachusetts there's a litigation where the state of Massachusetts is suing Milton which is like a suburb like us just outside of Boston about doing affordable housing and Milton is fighting back um I think that's really also in January 20121 um the ba presented a slide deck as cost legal cost he did not break out the high Center and I think with this planning board if we can maybe know the during that period how much the town PID and high Center litigation thank you thank you debie Frank Milbourne resident quick question and I might have missed this did you um uh have a thing on the ex to accept the minutes I'm I'm thinking I can't tell if it was it skipped over or did I just kind of register yeah it's on thinking the agenda yeah and I I just didn't know if you needed to do this here thank you may have a motion to approve the September 17 2024 regular Township committee minutes may I have a second we have to end public comment first offici oh yeah I'm sorry was there anybody else I'm sorry car Herer um um I wasn't going to come up again and speak about the uh Town Hall but councilman Frank you address me I will address back respectfully so you're addressing this from a micro persp perspective of this building and you mentioned um consolidating with the police department I'm suggesting that if we were back 200 years ago would the town have put itself In Harm's Way in front of the flood in front of the river we wouldn't have built the town if we were to start over again we wouldn't put the town in the way we're we're we're in actuality Dam if we were to start over again right now this town hall would not be in this location would not be this height would not be this footprint you're still going to be stuck with a lot of the infrastructure that's here it sits in between two large parking lots on either side the room back storage building came down for all the wrong reasons and again I compliment you guys in a lot of ways but you still don't know a lot of the history as to how things came to be and whether that rim back storage building which Annette may know Alex perhaps may know was demolished just to create a temporary parking lot uh for for you know until lot 7 until the parking garage got built uh most own know there was valet parking for a long time in lot 7 when parking was under sized there there's so much more to Theory this building would not be in this location it might be on the DPW site but that may not happen for other reasons it might happen on I think at the lot 12 is at the lot next to the library n n it might be on top of the parking garage that's there which is able to hold another floor or maybe that top garage level would come off and two floors would be put on top of we're not making great use of the land uh town Halls don't need to be in downtown whether it's Maplewood whether it's Livingston others Berkeley Heights and Livingston Berkeley Heights if you haven't seen their Town Hall it's a battleship they have four Municipal services including the library Fire Department police department and town uh Municipal Building all within one building there are greater synergies there's ratables that can come two stories is not efficient and I can assure you from the window Factor size height of ceilings things that are not going to be able to change here it's not the right thing to do and if it is the right thing to do we haven't followed the right process to go about doing it and the reason we're here and the reason I'm here tonight is because when complete streets occurred uh whether this decision uh whether fair share housing which again Mr Feld speaks of it often s Alex was here I was here that night um as to the process and judge Gardner and the things the sense of history is not here as to what occurred and and the number of views that have been reviews that have been done for you replacing this building in some form or another um but there are other Town Halls that are much more efficient Livingston overbuilt Mikey Charles offices are now in that building but the last on the point for my four seconds is Town councils don't know better than residents and you're setting up all sorts of subcommittees and doing the right thing you didn't do the right thing in terms of the process for selection for this building thank you else okay I will now close public comment would anyone like to respond sure real quick um Mr McDonald could we find out how much the previous High Cent litigation ended up costing the town including any settlement agreements that we paid out be hopeful to have well yeah I mean there have been sever so which which well I think it would probably be good to to know the total number but I can look back to um the more recent settlement agreement took place Jefferson as well as I mean I I'll pull what I can okay great um and then could you just give us a brief update on the um investigation into the private citizen compl yeah so I heard from um Mr Robertson who is uh doing the investigation I think he is um getting close to being complete um I know he has to he he has to reach out to um the the court um I don't know whether he's going to reach out to Mr Feld or not um that is not really I'm not I'm not involved in this except for checking in on it and just making sure that that's being worked on um but I do anticipate having that probably the next two weeks great um and then just so the public knows so the town hall renovation this is not something that just happened abruptly and then a vacuum we had public information sessions um we had multiple presentations on it um there was really a lot of time that went by for people to give input and opinions about it um and you know ultimately the township committee weighed all of its options and we made a decision and the decision has been made um we're moving forward with it thanks sure I'll go um first uh you thank you to Mr Feld for sending that USA Today article in milon Milton Massachusetts I have some friends who live in Milton and um you know I'll reach out to them but uh it shows that this is a much larger problem than just milour New Jersey um Mr heler uh thank you for those comments uh we did push back quite a bit obviously I'm not a a real estate guy uh but I'm a value guy so understanding those differences in in you know having the the town hall right here versus next door versus um on lot nine uh certainly came into our discussion obviously putting it outside of downtown though in uh over at 22 East Willow or or somewhere near the mall Etc just didn't make sense so that's why it's staying in this perimeter I would welcome you to invite you to to to sit down with myself and and maybe uh Alex and got to go through some of the points that you brought to light because uh a lot of them were addressed but they're certainly important and we want to tell you how we got here obviously we had multiple public sessions Etc uh my my phone's always open and I'd love to host you for that discussion because I think he brings so much valuable information and history we can't forget the history to our town thank you that's okay so now I have a motion to approve the September 17th 20124 regular Township committee minutes so may I have a second second all those in favor I I okay sorry about that thank you oh okay so we'll open public comment again yes sorry good evening can you put your camera on please and we can't hear you either are you there nope no you try to open it again did she fall off yeah I mean they did like multiple attempts okay so I will now close public comment I have a motion to adjourn motion