##VIDEO ID:PiHQmHJmUFM## for good evening everyone this is a conference meeting of the Council of the township of Montclair and is being broadcast live on Channel 34 and is streaming live on Montclair tv34 YouTube channel it's available on demand and can and will be rebroadcast Sunshine statement this meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meetings act this meeting was included in the revised annual notice of the meeting scheduled as set forth in resolution R2 24174 adopted by the township council at its regular meeting of July 17th 2024 was transmitted to the official newspaper on July 24th 24 posted on the bulletin boards outside the municipal building and has remained continuously posted in addition a copy of the revised annual notice is and has been available to the public and is on file in the office of our Township Clerk we're going to uh rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and after the Pledge of Allegiance if everyone would please remain standing for a moment of silence on this the first anniversary of the attacks of October 7th 2023 mning the Lost of lives of the hostages taken and the ongoing humanitarian suffering throughout the Middle East I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you madam clerk would you please do the roll call yes ma'am Deputy Mayor Anderson here Council Birmingham here councelor demato here councel lochman here councelor Toler here councelor Williams here mayor Baskerville present we've been presented the um minutes from September 10th 2024 and September 24th 2024 I'd like to um ask for the approval separately let's begin with September 10th 202 for minutes so moved are there any approval or additions Corrections hearing none so moved second all in favor now let's take a look at September's 24th 20124 minutes are there any corrections or additions changes to those minutes I have a few that I've given the clerk okay um did you wish to share them or you didn't feel like it was consequential enough they they're not very conse they're small okay anyone else have any changes that they'd like to add at this time no so moved second all in favor I I I any opposed abstain okay um this is a very exciting evening we have some wonderful guests with us uh this evening so many of whom are here for us to celebrate so many are here and we should be celebrating and maybe we'll get to you another time for this evening we're going to begin with a proclamation that the township Council has um for Jose German and um councelor Eric deato will present that Jose would you David please come down and any other guests that you have that want to be here good for you my friend standing brother changes leadership and I wouldn't any other way be stand here but um so when Eric came in he also had similar feelings and so I trumped him so I said well let me just stand here so you realize how important you are to a whole community of grateful individuals uh Township of Montclair New Jersey Proclamation honoring Jose Herman Gomez where is Jose Herman Gomez a mlar resident will celebrate fif his 50th Anniversary as an environmentalist and Community activist and we want to recognize his extraordinary community service whereas at the age of 17 Jose Heron Gomez implemented his first environmental restoration project as part of his Eagle Scout project um it is important to notice that the environmental movement got National and worldwide attention in the early 1970s that's true where as in the late '70s Jose created his first urban farming project in Old San Juan the organic microfarm has chickens ducks a goat rooster and vegetables to feed his family in 1992 after seeing the farm of a friend on the outskirts of the national rainforest in Puerto Rico Jose noticed that the relationship between native plants and Wildlife he decided to replicate the rainforest vegetation in his backyard as an experiment without knowing that he was creating a wildlife habitat at he did it and in less than a year the backyard was transformed into a healthy habitat that attracted Birds butterflies frogs and lizards that he had never seen before in his yard and whereas in 1995 Jose moved to New Jersey and immediately created a vegetable garden in the balcony of his apartment and a year later a small garden with native plants Jose moved to Montclair in 2000 because he loved the community he opened his his home to host people during the holidays that he did not have a place to celebrate becoming a tradition of 24 years now the passion for gardening and the environment protection grew up and for the last 24 year years Jose and David wouth have been implementing projects in Monclair they got the township certified as wildlife habitat community in 2008 the first town in New Jersey and number nine at National level due to montclair's population after years of roting local food renewable energy and backyard habitats Jose founded the Northeast um Earth Coalition and created the crane Park demonstration garden since that time the work of the NEC under Jose and David wouth leadership has grown significantly to the point where the NEC is running eight Community Gardens in Monclair alone plus 14 long-term environmental restoration projects and whereas Jose Herman Gomez has demonstrated a strong strong commitment to fight hunger and support people facing food insecurity his project the free Little Pantry has spread around Monclair with 13 locations for food distribution in addition to five more in other neighboring towns this project that started in 2020 has distributed over a million pounds of food to support people in need this project relies on individual donations and the support of over 200 volunteers whereas Jose's passion to teach the young Generations has integrated into montclair's public schools Jose is currently working with Renaissance Buzz Aldren Hillside Monclair Co-op Northeast and Monclair high school students the environmental Legacy of Jose Harmon Gomez includes hundreds of trees planted over the past 50 years as well as thousands of native plants to create pollinators and wildlife habitat Gardens and have grown thousands of vegetables to support people in need moreover his community composting project is constantly expanding and has now 10 locations in town four of them in schools and three in houses of worship whereas because of Jose's environmental initiatives Montclair became a monarch USA City the home in New Jersey of the Northeast pollinator pathway as well as the host town of acting locally for a more sustainable World Conference three ordinances promoting sustainability and Environmental Protection have been given to the Council of Monclair all them unanimously approved Jose writes a column writes a column in the Monclair local gardening life since 2017 whereas Jose has been recognized at the state level by the Latino index to 2022 award as one of the top 10 most influential Latinos in in New Jersey in 2023 Jose was recognized by the international environmental organization pollinator project as change maker of the month later in 2023 Jose was awarded the prestigious rubberry making a difference award 2023 this year the organization New Jersey peace action recognized Jose's Community work with the peace action award 2024 Jose has taken his successful environmental and community service in Monclair to various places in the United States and other countries becoming an ambassador of montclair's environmental sustainability achievements and it goes on a little more the National American Community Gardens Association invited Jose to speak at loyal University in New Orleans during their annual conference in 2022 the Sustainable New Jersey organization invited Jose to speak at their NJ sustainability Summit the previous year as well as nework Academy's environmental week the nja annual conference 2023 acting locally for a more sustainable World Conference at Montclair State University and again to speak at the American Community gardening Association in Welsley College in Boston now therefore I mayor Renee Baskerville mayor of Montclair New Jersey do hereby Proclaim October 11th 2024 as her Jose Herman Gomez's 50th Anniversary as environmentalist and Community activist in Montclair New Jersey well done sir thank you um councelors uh Mina Toler ER yamaro Carman Logan elen Birmingham Susan Ching Anderson rahun Williams and mayor Dr Rene Vas my sister tonight I can believe that this is happening 50 years of community activism is a lot this Friday I'd be 68 years old 25 years of which I has been in love with this town serving my community has been extremely rewarding and gratifying I have accomplished many things in life but he has been always a team effort I'm honored to have a lot of great volunteers working with me to support environmental initiative sustainability local food production and to support people facing food insecurity the honor is to them thank you okay hello I want to thank all of you I'm Leia Massie a fourth W resident and Northeast Coalition Earth Coalition volunteer pollinators such as butterflyes bees and bats play a vital role in our Global regional state and local ecosystems which support New Jersey Farms and Gardens Montclair has been a sanctuary for monarch butterflies and residents and environmental organizations have created plenty of habitats for them which helped the township of Montclair to be designated as Monarch City USA this is why we need to continue to work in collaboration with local environmental organizations to restore the land and to create a healthier environment for humans and Wildlife thank you on behalf of the Northeast Earth Coalition uh I want to let you know that we support the moratorium of uh artificial turf 100% that is something that we need to accomplish because it's not only artificial turf toward polluting the land the we where we are growing food but also the roof of every home in town is polluting with microplastic the land so this is a serious issue that we need to prioritize thank you thank you we actually have a proclamation for the monarch butterflies I guess you maybe we're not aware of that but thank you so much for your kind words here's your Proclamation and thank you for coming to be here with us this evening thank you okay so at this time we're going to um ask for the uh Z Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sari please to come forward and maybe give us a skew weed or something on the way down oh I'm sorry okay good thank you would you like to join us absolutely yes you want to see you sure you okay okay so before I begin this Proclamation I just wanted to make a statement for the public um Please be aware that I'm neither affiliated with this sorority nor a member of the organization the Monclair chapter of alphaa Alpha sorority Incorporated operates as a nonpartisan group this organ organization continues to grow attract ing women who play a significant role in the community and Excel as leaders in education business law and medicine this chapter is dedicated to fostering Sisterhood and service while actively engaging education and inspiring the greater Monclair community and Beyond I recognize these ladies the incredible impact this organization has had in our community and Beyond I commend them on 40 Years of dedicated service best of luck to you all with your upcoming Rose brunch scheduled for October 13th 2024 in honor of the pearls and Ivy Foundation good work lovely ladies and in the words of Booker T Washington if you want to uplift yourself lift someone else up so I I won't read the entire Proclamation okay um but I will do the first and the last paragraph Just and present it to these lovely ladies whereas Alpac Kappa Alpha sorority Incorporated a national service organization was founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington DC in 1908 it is the oldest Greek letter organization established by African-American college educated women alpaca Alpha sorority Inception to cultivate and encourage High School scholastic and ethical standards to promote unity and friendship among college women to study and help alleviate problems concerning girls and women in order to provide their social stature to maintain a progressive interest in college life and to be of service to all mankind additionally these ladies have have always participated in the community so I'm going off the cuff now um I've seen them working on Martin Luther King Day serving meals I've seen them giving backpacks I've seen them at Thanksgiving I've seen them doing the holidays doing adopted family so whereas the mayor Dr Renee bille and the Council of the township of Monclair do hereby honor alicron XI Omega chapter of Alpac Kappa Alpha sorority Incorporated for their dedication and valuable contributions to the Monclair committee Community sorry so good evening good evening everyone I am Candace Jefferson I'm the chapter president and here you see some of our chapter members We Just Want to Thank The Honorable mayor Dr Renee Baskerville we have done Partnerships with her and we actually honor her last year through our foundation for all the work she has done we also would like to thank all of the council for the proclamation especially councilwoman Meer and so I just wanted to just say thank you and we will continue to serve the mclair community only a minute now you're up which one is you okay all right is anyone here this evening to receive the proclamation for the Montclair Brewery on national black Brewers day do you like to read it anyway just to recognize it I'll bring it by later yeah um I don't see anyone here so we may not read the entire thing it's going to be up to um councilman Williams but um perhaps everyone is not familiar with the fact that we actually have the um National Brewer Brewers day the national black Brewers day so we'll just call this education and they do so much for our community um as well so I think it's important that we read this into um the minutes for the day thank you mayor so I have a pretty long Proclamation here but I just want to touch on uh a couple of things here so the proclamation is for October 10th to be black Brewers day and and part of this it came about uh from in October 10th 1970 uh Theodore Max senior and a business associate uh celebrated the purchase of people's Brewing Company in Oshkosh Wisconsin one moment oh oh so come down please to the yeah we'll we'll rewind rewind you must have planned your entrance I get it she's coming she's coming okay you want to do yours first we do yes what is what is yours um then we're going to go to do the Hispanic Heritage Month Proclamation and then after that the um family will will be here to receive that please anyone that's here to receive the Hispanic Heritage Month please come forward if you didn't come specifically for that purpose but may be able to receive it on behalf of the um Hispanic Heritage Month please feel free to come down Marcia ala is here thank you so much anyone else that wants to come down and receive the proclamation please come forward at this time for Hispanic Heritage Month thank you good evening so um today we are issuing a proclamation in honor of national Hispanic Heritage Month which actually started um Sunday September 15th and it goes until October 15th so this is um an annual observance in the States paying tribute to Hispanic Americans for their contributions and influence on the history culture and achievements of the United States um the annual observance uh was initiated in 1968 and um the first national observance uh was uh implemented by President Lynden B Johnson now the date of September 15th I wanted to note is significant in case you didn't know because it is the anniversary AR of Independence for many Latin American countries such as Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras and Nicaragua and also Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16th and 18th respectively the onewe observance was expanded to cover the now 30-day period um in 1988 by Congressman eston Edward Torres and um it was enacted into law under pres President Ronald Reagan in um 1980 no that doesn't sound right 1988 was he the president then I don't think okay sorry I'm throwing my age okay anyway um so we are um celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month by exploring and celebrating the histories cultures and traditions of Americans with Heritage rooted in Mexico the Spanish-speaking nations of the Caribbean Central and South America we know that um the Hispanic community in the states has woven very unique threads into the diverse fabric of our country and has played a very important role in shaping our national character as a people of Limitless possibility including these two people who are standing with me right now um I wanted to just uh note the uh a new a new were advocacy group Latinos Monclair founded in May 2022 here in mclair um which was founded for the purpose of uniting the Latino Community to provote Greater promote greater V visibility celebrate cultural diversity and encourage Civic engagement and um this organization has been hosting uh many events in the community to honor Hispanic American cultural heritage at the library at the art museum um and many other locations so I am very proud on behalf of the mayor and the Council of the township Monclair to present this Proclamation and join in celebration with Latinos of mclair and uh people of Hispanic heritage throughout Montclair New Jersey and hereby Proclaim September 15th through October 15th as Hispanic Heritage Month in Montclair thank you for all your contributions well Latinos in Monclair has been an incredible developing force with a incredible also social impact more than 27 uh businesses in town are owned by Latinos uh in uh in the main uh business district um Latinos are also increasingly uh growing in our Public School System um and one Latino from the Caribbean not wide or european but am mulato was the first New Yorker coming and set down in Manhattan you know at the very beginning so he was the first settler Juan Rodriguez and that is the contribution tion that we need to keep in mind the Latino has been around where where you know for Century in this continent thank you I acting this on behalf of the Latinos although I found the Latinos um we found it we found it yeah four years ago we step down from the organization to let the younger generation do the work okay so thank you very much to everybody on we'll make sure they get it thank you and so at this time we're going to present the proclamation um for Montclair Brewery on national black Brewers day so it before I read this it's my honor to present this proclamation to you one I've enjoyed a lot of beverages at your establishment the raspberry jam is that's my jam right so and third W business I mean you know so I got to throw that out also Third Ward residence as well so there we go so I'm not going to read the whole thing I just want to touch on a couple of key points so your business Monclair Brewery started October 13th 2008 18 18 yeah so your anniversary is coming up um so the proclamation here is for black Brewers uh day on October 10th the significance of that date is that Theodore uh Max senior and business Associated celebrated the purchase of people's Brewing Company in ashkash Wisconsin and became the first black Brewer Brewery president of the United States and the people's Brewery Company became the first blackowned Brewery in the history of the United States and that was on October 10th so uh now therefore the mayor and the Council of the township of Montclair do hereby Proclaim October 10th as black Brewers day and encouraged residents of monair to observe this day with appropriate programs ceremonies and activities to celebrate and acknowledge the contributions of the Monclair Brewery and other black Brewers in New Jersey and the United States want to thank you thank you all thanks for patronizing the business thanks for all the community organizations that um choose to partner with us our motto is building Community one beer at a time so we take that seriously and we do um enjoy um collaborating with different businesses and organizations within Montclair as well as in the nearby town so we thank you for that also in in in addition we are members of the national black Brewers Association which was I'm actually on the board of that which is is an organization that's in its second year it's a National Organization and um through that organization that's how the national black Brewers day was developed and we feel um very um yeah we we're happy to be the only black majority own Brewery in New Jersey and happy that we are residents of Monclair so not only business owner but residents and we feel we always loved Montclair but feel and always felt spe felt like Montclair is a very special place and that's why I think it was warranted hey you know what if any place in New Jersey to have a black own Brewery it's fantastic that it's in Monclair and we feel very great about that and thank you thank you so much thank you thank you thank you um at this time we are going to invite the Montclair police I see Chief coni Deputy Chief young um and any other um people that will be presenting with you oh lieutenant Tyrone Williams they're going to do a presentation um to the township Council and we we welcome you guys it's always great to have you here with us haven't seen you in a long time uh Lieutenant Williams wow good to see everybody you surprised me when did Paul decide to shave it all I to be welcome to the club all right uh well thank you mayor counsil for having us Mr Lola and obviously for those who don't know we have Lieutenant Williams and deputy chief Will Young excuse me we were asked to go over some of the protocols surrounding mental health calls and an update on the anti-hate crime task force which we'll do when we're done and I know we're limited on time I was prepared to go a little bit longer but I understand we have a lot going on so we'll just push forward so the first question we were asked was what are some of the protocols for responding to calls involving individuals who are experiencing mental and Behavioral Health crisises now unfortunately department has quite a um deal experience in handling calls with mental health related crisises but there are several policies in place right now that address that there's state laws there's directives that we have to follow and I would say although every call is a little bit different the policies help guide us so we have a consistent response when we're respond responding whenever we do encounter someone who is in distress or going through some type of Crisis you're always going to want to deescalate to the best extent possible but for this uh conversation I would say there's two scenarios or two outcomes we'd probably want to talk about the first the person accepts a voluntary referral to a hospital where psychiatric staff are available and the second there's an involuntary commitment now if we're going to be assisting anyone going to the hospital there's a few things I just want to run through many times a person is going to go to claros Medical Center by EMS depending on the condition of the person two officers will accompany the ambulance one will be inside for security one will follow close by when the officers arrive at the hospital they're not just going to drop that person off they're going to make sure everybody's safe they're going to search the person for any weapons or implements that they could harm themselves the hospital staff or the officers and if the person is incarcerated and arrested and be housed in Monclair the desk officer can order a close observation of that person for potential suicide if need be we can call an ambulance to come by transport that person in the hospital and do further evaluation or we could reach out to the mobile uh unit that will come to headquarters do an evaluation and make sure everyone's okay if we're going to keep that prisoner at MPD more specifically we had a question that was asked what is in place and plan to comply with the attorney general's directive around deescalation and use of force in addressing law enforcement response to barricaded individuals so many of the principles that are around force and any encounter with citizens already covered under the use of force policy that everyone in the state is mandated to comply with now what's interesting about that policy is that policy went many years without being touched or updated then December 2020 it was updated after much of the police reform came out it was updated again in 2022 and now again with the barricaded individuals so like I mentioned many of the topics are already covered in use in the use of force policy some of the topics that are covered the officer shall make every effort to preserve human life and the safety of all persons officers should consider an individual's mental physical developmental intellectual disabilities other factors hindering the communication with the person experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis utilize all available deescalation tactics only using Force as a last resort and using time as a deescalation strategy the new policy which is an expansion of the current use of force policy includes notifying the Essex County prosecutor's office and they would assist in contacting any health professionals to come to the scene and if needed and only if needed a tactical team will be called out as well the the first responding officers must decide whether a barricaded individual situation exists they have to contain the situation establish an initial communication begin to request appropriate resources not force a resolution and in Monclair we have approximately 30 officers that are CIT trained in Crisis Intervention for a while we had the most in the county but due to retirements we lost a few and we're in the process of getting more people trained but they could start the negotiation into a crisis negoti team would arrive Department's also in a process of having the arrive together program that that was another question that was asked and for those who don't know what that is that pairs mental health workers up with the police officers they would go out and they would respond to anyone suffering with the Mental Health crisis now what's interesting about this is Lieutenant Williams for years have been working with people um who are suffering with mental health and before I touch on that I'll say this we had a meeting going back about two weeks ago with the AG's office the prosecutor's office and every um I say every Social Service Agency that would be involved in this program the only thing that's slowing it down right now is trying to determine what is the best model and the best way to roll this program out it's definitely coming here I had a follow-up meeting myself with prosecutor Stevens at bassex County he's excited about bringing it here it's just a matter of when it's going to be coming I would say sometime this year we're going to see it if it does come out this year I'll do a press press release so everyone's on board we understand what we're doing but the AR together program will be coming now back to uh Lieutenant Williams for years now Lieutenant Williams who supervised the community policing unit he's worked with many social service agencies including Tony's kitchen Family Promise uh Salvation Army the Mental Health Association Essex and moris counties worked very close with Bob Davidson who's the CEO of that Association so credit to him he's been way ahead of this for years is seeing the problem with the unhoused who are mentally ill on the streets and trying to get them Health unfortunately there's not a lot of services for these people we were dealing with someone today actually and um we're lucky to have someone like Lieutenant doing this so just understand that's not normal not every town has someone like Tyrone out here helping people out I just want to put that out there right now the other question we had was what is the training for this discussion around use of force and around the uh mental health couple mandated trainings we have to do the use of force training twice a year the Attorney General mandated Firearms qualifications twice a year Crisis Intervention training like I mentioned we have 30 officers right now that are trained that's a weekl long course the IAT training integrating communication tactics that teaches deescalation skills that's the mandated training the able training active bystanders ship for law enforcement teaches skills to intervene and prevent harm and diffuse critical incidents bias-based policing another mandated train mental and behav Behavior Health crisis response and then the clear training which is Community Law Enforcement affirmative relations that's given twice a year the topics change but it's not usually around um improving community relations and working on U deescalation and people experien with health health Mental Health crisis so they're all kind of overlap a little bit but they're all either mandated or programs that we have here in Montclair two other things I I know I'm pressed for time here I was told to drive through as quick as I can we have the duty to warn notifications for those who don't know what that is we received notifications from hospitals where if someone in Montclair is suffering and they go to a hospital and they're threatening harm against themselves or others and that person happens to live in Montclair we will get a notification we will put that out to all the officers this way everyone has all the available information if in the in the event that person comes across that person they have all the information needed to hopefully safely resolve this situation and then finally in terms of mental health for the officers we have the cop toop program which is a 24-hour telephone help line for law enforcement and their families help deal with personal or job related stress and behavior health issues cop to cop will also help find Professional Resources for whatever the person is struggling with if an officer has U concerns they can go to their Union they would direct them for help we have a resiliency officer program in the department actually Lieutenant Williams is one of the resiliency officers if an officer wants to go to him he would direct them to the help he needs we have the employee assistance program in town and I have to thank Alicia Dawkins for that one that took a long time coming but she was able to drive it through and get it done so we have that and then obviously any cop can come to myself or the deputy chief we make sure they get the help they need now Deputy Mayor you asked those questions do you have other questions I know you said you're short on time so I just push through them um thank you I I really appreciate all of the information and just for a bit of context um my inquiry was um sort of initiated because of uh the death of the shooting death of a resident in Fort Lee New Jersey this past summer Victoria was 25 years old and her family um in the middle of the night was calling 911 to get help because she was having a mental health crisis and um that was not anything that was unfamiliar to them um but unfortunately uh you know an ambulance the ambulance that they initially asked for never came and as a result um and in the end she was shot to death and um this Saturday was would actually be her 26th birthday but even before that um you know in 2023 there were two other incidents um where uh individuals n GC Brooks in Patterson and um Andrew Jerome Washington in Jersey City both in 2023 um police were called barricaded individuals same same fact pattern so um I just wanted to make sure I mean I know that um these situations are really difficult um for everybody the families first of all that are calling for help um for the police officers and I just want to make sure that there are protocols in place I I'm really happy to know that um y'all are have already been talking about um bringing arve together so I guess one question that I have is um you know the the whole program is is the whole idea is to pair a mental health professional with law enforcement um uh when responding to these calls so I was just wondering what resources um would we need to be able to implement that okay so right now the last conversation we had they're still trying to determine what model of it is going to be here and what I mean by that is we may be partnering with other communities around like say if Cedar Grove wants to partner with Montclair Verona Glenn Ridge and then each department would have that worker in their town or Clair and they would have to respond back and forth that hasn't been finalized yet so I'm not really sure how it's going to work with the other towns as far as resources talking about money being put out they're my understanding going to supply the mental health worker we have to staff the Monclair police officer now that's doesn't uh always work out to everyone's benefit when it comes to money because if we're going out with minimum staff we're going to be obligated to put a car out on the road they want an unmarked car with that particular Health worker so we're going to have to staff that anytime it would be hard turn to cover Montclair and the other communities so there's going to be a cost to this it's not going to be automatic U free to everybody understand that they'll be I'm sure the health workers will be free and the follow-up that they do will be free as far as montclair's concerned the state will be paying for it someone's going to pay for it but the fact that we have to staff it understand there'll be times we go out a minimum we have to make sure we have enough cops to cover mon cair first and then the additional Health worker that'll be on the road yeah yes councelor Toller thank you um thank you gentlemen for being here and I can attest to Lieutenant Williams work in the community I've seen him in action um I guess the question that I have and I think I know the answer but maybe some of the public may need to know this is um is there any way that residents can leave paperwork at mclair Police Department regarding a family member that may be suffering or has suffered from mental illness maybe on medication so that when those calls come in you're aware that you're going to one two 3 m Street and we know it might be Uncle Joe who's didn't take his medicine or out of his medicine is there any procedures currently in place for something like that we we currently have a program that addresses that we call it kind of our take me home program and it encompasses that also because what we developed that for was should a person that was nonverbal or suffered for something get separated from their family we have their uh information at at headquarters to be be able to return them home but then when we looked at it we said we should just expand this to anybody that would have a any type of special need that if we even we um particularly kids uh with neurodiversity issues if sailor lights trigger them when we respond to the house we can put that in our computer system so that when that address comes up it flags and tells us so for anything now we can put that in our computer system we call it all falls under our take me home program thank you mhm and just so we usually do that program around autism month correct a lot of times families will come up the people are non-verbal and kids and we'll get them in the system right so residents could just probably and I'm asking they can stop in and let you know that their address call Lieutenant Williams they can come in we can usually email them the application or one of my guys will go out to okay thank you for that just like the duty to warn documents that come from the hospitals we can enter it in the same fashion thank you okay oh I'm sorry Council B sorry um Council Birmingham just a very quick question you mentioned um how difficult it is to get services for people that may need them do you have a social worker on staff or how does we have one we don't have a social work on staff no that's what the arrive program will be a full available mental health worker ready to go yeah a lot of times when things happen we have to reach out and then you're waiting for a crisis worker to come and depending on the situation you may resolve it before they get get here or they may come on scene and they can't even stay cuz they got another call to go out to some other community yeah councelor lochman um do you have any resources for like suicide prevention for Su yeah someone for you talking about the community or our community our community um we don't no I mean we work closely with Hospital once we drop them off the hospital I mean that's pretty much it but we give them all the information available now un fortunately we deal with a lot of people that are going through crisis in this town and we're familiar with a lot of the houses sometime they repeat calls so we more or less know how to handle those calls and usually everything works out thank you councelor Toler yes and I I know that um deputy chief young you mentioned that residents if they need to get the application to contact Lieutenant Williams would you be able to just share your email or a phone number for fam so that they can contact you if they need to get those applications thank you sure I'm not very hard I'm pretty out there but my email is t Williams at mclair njusa all one word.org t Williams Monclair NJ usa.org or just call police department 7441 1234 and they can put you into my extension I'll just add one thing we're talking about mental health causes we have substance calls that are very related and Naran saves and everything else that goes on throughout town it's not just mental health but it's all obviously very similar all right the next topic I know the one you want me to get to as soon as possible uh Lieutenant Williams and to talk a little about the anti-hate crime task force want to update that sure um I'm sure everybody knows we've been we were awarded a anti-hate crime task force Grant what technically is the ma Matthew Shepard and James Bird Jr um anti-hate crime grant that we were fortunately to be awarded in 2021 unfortunately we were tied up in red tape up until actually and I won't go through all of that but until May of 24 we finally got the budget approved in May of 24 that was the holdup we could not do anything doj specifically says do not do anything with this grant until your budget is approved that actually happened in May of 24 unfortunately the grant was a three-year cycle is 36 months it was expiring in September of 24 so where we at where we are right now is we have applied for an extension and actually we just got something back on October the 4th from the Department of Justice I was fortunate enough to attend a Grant's conference down in Birmingham Alabama last week where I did meet with our representative from the doj and she was very familiar she knew who I was when I walked up to her cuz we've been going back and forth and trying to get this thing done um but she was well aware that we had submitted for our extension there was a few minor things that need to be uh adjusted and I'm hopeful that this will be approved within the next few weeks unfortunately what what what people don't know is we're at the mercy of the federal government right so no matter what we want to do when we want to move they move at their own pace and sometimes you're dealing with people that have been there 30 years so when the summer comes they take the whole summer off the whole summer so you can submit all you want to but they're off and then when they get back guess what there's other priorities so I will say it's been a very uh quite an experience but I'm hopeful that we have submitted the extension we we've gotten a reply back we're tightening up tweaking the small things and hopefully we should have an approval within I'm hoping within the next few weeks sorry but is any questions is it a three-year extension that you're looking for so that's where we just got Kickback for the the Consultants that we using the uh to help get this Al put in for a three-year extension the doj says no only do one year and get that approved first and then we will go forward with the other two years so that's kind of what we're where we at now we did put in for the whole 36 Monon extension but they want us to do a year at a time and that's for a third of the money well so it's a 36 month Grant we're we're not they're not they're not they're not going to end it in the first year it has to go through the completion so the and and actually the way the money system works anyway it's not like they're just going to send us the money we have to spend the money and be reimbursed so there is no you you you got approved here's the money no you you got approved now you can go charging against this money and then you'll be reimbursed as long as it falls within what's approved in that budget any other council members questions yes mayor I have a couple questions if I may deputy mayor thank you lieutenant Tyrone and I know I've been bugging you about this for a while now but um I appreciate all the information um so I have a couple questions because um I think there are a lot of uh I don't know I there's a lot of confusion about what this what the aims of this um the the work of the under the funded by the grant are supposed to be and so my understanding has been um that this is a mclair police department LED initiative right um that includes um Community engagement is that so actually it's a mclair police department grant all right and the grant is Dei designed to better facilitate communication between the police department right and groups that are marginalized or would not not normally come to the police department the grant is the purpose behind the grant is to help the police be able to better communicate with those who would not report hate crimes who don't know how to report hate crimes who don't know what a hate crime is and actually to educate people what a hate crime versus an a a bias crime versus a bias incident is because believe it or not a lot of people don't know the difference well well they don't know the difference so it's about education it's about training to have people within certain Community groups be able to act as Le on and facilitators to help people come to the police or report however they need and also to just Community awareness and and encouragement to people to report bias incidents and bias crimes okay that's thank you um so um and yes I I recognize the importance of making sure that people understand um what uh can be reported and should be reported because we all know that people people in different communities tend not to report because they're scared or do they don't think the police will listen to them or you know um um different situations I one question that I have um and um I think uh I think is on the minds of other people um in town is is there any room in this grant um and the aims to um fund like Community dialogue um because I I think that the longer term one of the longer term goals is to prevent uh hate crimes and bias incidents and one way of doing that is to Foster dialogue and you know have people communities different communities members of different communities um learn from each other and educate each other on you know um experiences that they have and so I so actually the the part of the process and the program is to hold Community meetings and with different groups and the partner so they're going to be there two actually groups that are a part of this there's the community partner Group which I already have formed which I have been working with to to have light meetings so far we actually are scheduled to have a meeting this week then there's the larger Group which is the anti-hate crime task force which in that group you will see we will try to have all every representative of any uh group or organization that experiences bias or or hate that feel that we want to come to the table the uh Community partner group is actually a group of local organizations that we've worked with in the police department over the years that have been our partners so we that's kind of the steering committee for the larger group that's going to be kind of kind of uh driving where we go which way we turn and there is a plan um that is actually a very comprehensive plan over the 36 months that uh implement mentation plan and on all that that goes with it but it will be steered by the between the two groups uh get thank you I I do hope that you um I mean there are organizations in town um and and you know the O's office also has a lot of resources um and and you know I mean these groups are are are doing the so I'm sure you'll all work together been in touch with all them in fact we were together in in Birmingham um we've already worked with the FB talk to the FBI the prosecutor's office all of these monair State all of these organizations are own Public Schools we have Representatives so it's about getting everybody together at the table so that hopefully we don't miss anybody because the whole goal here is to make this a a broad net so that we cast it to capture everybody so we're all in this together to encourage people to report and know what it is and not have a fear of coming to the police because we actually realize that there are groups that that they come from places that police are not the first person they going to go to in fact it's the last and and I will say even further on that realizing that in consultation with my bosses here one of we have a coordinator that is going to be kind of our Point person for this grant who is actually a professor from mclair state that I've worked with on Dei committee before and she is going to be uh Dr Laura Kos is going to be our coordinator of the grip and we will work together to get it done excellent thank you thank you do you have anything else um Chief this evening no thank you so very much we appreciate you coming here and always appreciate your time I personally want to thank you um and deputy chief for responding to the um incident that we had a little earlier in the year we our manager um Mr lepola and I brought um one of our neighbors to your attention that was um in in a mental health crisis and you you handled it so well I am inestimably grateful to you for everything that you did thank you thank you thank you okay okay so um next up is a presentation by neglia engineering um regarding the new New Jersey storm water regulations so thank you for being here with us good evening mayor and Council goes with this oh okay good evening good evening hope you're all doing well uh for those who I have not yet met uh my name is Norberto Hernandez I am a representative of neglia group uh and we have been the township engineer record for the last uh six plus years and upon Council request we have prepared this uh presentation uh to go over um in a broad sense uh the new amendments to the New Jersey uh storm water regulations and specifically um montclair's potential impacts okay so I'm joined by my associate here Richard Caprio he's a GIS manager and he'll be assisting me uh with his presentation tonight as well so here's a brief outline of what we'll be discussing tonight now the topic of storm water management is extensive uh and can be discussed for hours literally un end days uh but I think uh for the purposes of the discussion um we'll be highlighting the critical points of the Amendments that were uh introduced by the state last year and to do that I think it's important to really key in on three um aspects of storm water management rules uh those being the new New Jersey flood Hazard area rules the New Jersey storm water management rules as well as as the uh New Jersey uh Municipal separate storm sewer systems uh regulations as well okay so we'll be going into a little bit of detail on each of those areas as we progress through this presentation okay so starting off uh we'll be jumping into the uh New Jersey Department of of Environmental Protection flood has an area rule requirements now to begin this discussion I just want to have a um pause take a step back and kind of uh talk about what exactly a flood Hazard area is um so so so we're all on the same page and the um the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection defines a flood Hazard area as the land and the space above that land which lies below the flood Hazard area design flood elevation which is commonly referred to as DF um and the flood Hazard area designed foot elevation is a flood equal to the 100-year flood plus an additional amount of water in flal areas to account for possible future increase in flows due to development or other factors and those other factors can be simply just a uh a more intense rainfall event beyond the 100-year storm okay so just kind of a built-in safety a factor of safety in that uh in that calculation okay and when we talk about flood Hazard areas I think it's also important to note that they are um not all flood areas are not all flood Hazard areas are created equal there's very distinct uh differences between a tidal flood Hazard area versus a fluvial flood Hazard area um tidal flood Hazard areas uh generally governed by or more significantly impacted uh by tital flooding from the Atlantic Ocean okay so that's generally Coastal communities um but not exclusively Coastal communities there's certain um municipalities which while not directly on the coast are severely impacted by the ties so there's that is what defines the ti of PL aard areas on the flip side we have flal flood Hazard areas and these are areas which are again governed by or more significantly impacted by direct storm water runoff okay and that's more your Inland community such as Monclair so the purposes of discussion moving forward when we're talking about flood Hazard area requirements we're talking about fluvial flood Hazard areas as that pertains to Monclair so now that we've kind of G gone over um the Baseline um uh theory behind flood Hazard areas just like to give a little back bit of background on what spurred these amendments from last year um and it's no secret to anybody but um over the last several years we've been experiencing uh more significant rains more frequently and the state that's something that the state has acknowledged um and done extensive studies on and what they found was that the data that was historically used to model and um design St Water Management systems and and determined flood Hazard areas uh was really not representative of the storms that we're experiencing today that data is really um dates back to about 1999 when that data is really uh obtained and we're now in you know pushing 2025 so uh there's a significant time that has passed uh since the data has been updated so the state has done brother studies that has essentially determined that since the year of 1999 which is the raw rainfall data that we have compared to Historic rainfalls data that we've received in 2019 there's been a 5% 7% and 15% increase in the amount of rain experienced for the two 10 and 100e storms and those storms are critical because that's kind of the Baseline um when we speak about uh flood Hazard areas and storm water management on how we compare storms okay um so those are the ones that the state really focuses on in on and projecting forward through the year 2099 2099 the state projects that those same two 10 and 100e storm events will continue to increase in rainfall uh received by 24% 27% and 50% respectively um and again that's projecting over the next SE several decades so that's kind of what is the real Genesis of these amendments to try and Tackle these specific issues okay so what changed right now there's extensive um uh material that goes in detail on all of the Amendments but I think for the purposes of flood Hazard areas the most critical at least in my opinion for the purposes of this discussion changes how we establish that critical DFE that design flood elevation okay so just to give a little bit more background under the previous rules okay there's essentially two sets of maps flood maps that the state has um approved for the purposes of determining flood Hazard areas okay that's the New Jersey state mapping flood mapping that's was mapped and studied by the D and then there's the FEMA FL flood mapping which is on the federal level and they map all across the United States um those are the two um Baseline maps that we go to when we look to determine flood Hazard areas now under the previous rules if and it's an if because the state mapping doesn't cover all areas um but if there was State mapping available then you could use that information to determine your flood Hazard area elevation Your Design flood elevation and it would essentially be a one: one um comparison if you were using the FEMA flood mapping you would take your 100-year flood elevation which was determined by FEMA and their flood studies for those specific areas if studied and then add an addition foot on top of that and between the two whichever one was higher you go with the most restrictive one and that's your DFE okay and that's what your Baseline is that's what you're designed for that's how you determine your flood Hazard area within um Within These uh sensitive areas under the new rules now same Maps we still refer to the same Maps however if we look at the state mapping we now need to add additional 2 ft on top of whatever was determined to be the the 100-year uh flood elevation on the state maps it's additional 2 ft on top of that if we look at the FEMA Maps it's an additional 3 ft on top of the 100-year storm elevation as compared to 1 foot of increase under the old rules okay so there's a significant change there and I'll go into a little bit more detail with some examples on what that looks like for the impact okay and just for comparison sake as well uh there were studies that were performed post Ida uh that determined that there was an average rise in the 100-year flood elevation of 3.1 ft during kind of the peak of the of that storm so that's kind of where the I guess the uh determination came from through the state studies of how they fell to those numbers so these rules do not apply everywhere okay these rules are limited to either flood Hazard areas or reparan zones okay and those are determined uh by the state that there's a flood Hazard area and a reparan zone that exists along every regulated water that has a drainage area of 50 acres or more okay so if there's a water body like um Ton's Brook for example okay um pretty much every section along that um that water course drains over more than 50 acres okay um and that's a regulated water body so along that channel um you'll see that there's Maps prepared that have delineated the um the the uh the flood planes okay along that area so if you fall within that area and you're looking to Sure councilor Williams yeah sorry so I see you know you have a lot of information and a lot of this is good information it's very deep in the weeds here but if you could just tell us how this affects what we currently do any sort of changes that the town Montclair is going to have to do yeah yeah so actually uh okay if you want to jump ahead um okay just jump ahead again continue okay so here we have uh some just conceptual illustrations okay on what the change looks like okay so on the left hand side we have an illustration of what the previous rules are on the right hand side is the change potential change okay under the new current rules and what this shows is the dark blue line okay that you see kind of in the middle between all the houses that's what's represents the water body the water course the light blue shaded area is what would have been determined to be the flood Hazard area under the old rules and if you look closely you'll see that only one of the three houses fall within the flood Hazard area okay and that's the red house now as I mentioned earlier under the new rules we need to raise that elevation by at a minimum 2 ft okay and that's what's represented on the right side image we now see that both the blue house and the Red House fall within what is now the new regulated area okay that's determined by that DFE that's the flood Hazard area okay and if you plan to do any work in that area you need to comply with the new rules with respect to um uh flood play management okay and the land use rules that gets reviewed and approved by the state of New Jersey so that's the impact okay that areas that maybe did not think or need to account for potential flooding now do okay and that's kind of the progressive approach that the state is trying to take to try and get ahead of um disasters such as Ida so that the um impacts are lessened okay next slide and I have some more illustrations of kind of what this what this looks like again so on the left hand side of this image we see just a conceptual image of what would be a channel River brookstream whatever the case may be and the dark blue line which has this old flood HED area r on top of it that's kind of what would be representative of the old rules and in the old rules the house on the left would not fall under that area it would not be considered at flood risk under the new rules with that now dfv raised by a minimum of 2 feet we now see that it is potentially at risk for flooding so again not that it necessarily needs to do anything okay to protect itself but if they were to do any development then they would need to take that that flood risk into account and be councelor toer did you have a question I did um thank you first thank you for this presentation um but for Mr lapola this isn't the presentation that I asked for uh no I asked for a presentation regarding the upcoming state regulations on state development and Redevelopment plans um I'm happy with the storm water presentation um but this isn't what I asked for we mentioned I mentioned that we wanted to um get get a better better understanding of the upcoming Rags coming out in June of 2025 um as far as development and the two rivers that run under M CLE so I mean I have the email that I sent you on September 23rd but since you're here on storm water we'll continue to listen to it you mentioned FEMA my question for you is are you aware aware of any streets here in town that are in a FEMA flood zone and if you are can you share with us what streets they are good question there are several there several how would you say exactly um I couldn't tell you up the top of my head I I don't want to give false information but um if you look at um again um Tony's Brook for example right that comes from um the uh the um northern part of Monclair right Little Falls and runs through neon Park and further Beyond so there are areas such as um Parkway Brookside um if you kind of look at that area by the truss wall Valley Road um going towards Upper Montclair that area is within a FEMA flood plane so those part portions of those streets in essence are also within the flood plane and there it's not unique to that area it's spr across town but um I can certainly give you more information yeah I think Walnut Street Glen Ridge Avenue portions of Greenwood Avenue are also in FEMA flood zones Brookside yeah there's a lot of FEMA flood zone areas here in town um have you had a chance to read the NJ Pack State rags and if so can you share in detail your best understanding of it and what it means from mon clear well that's referring to the potential new rules this is what I asked for I sent it to the manager I'm not sure would he relate to you to do for a presentation but it wasn't on storm water but since you're here we're want to listen to it but I still have some questions in hopes that you can answer a few of them yeah so I do have something related to that as well towards the end of my presentation but I will just jump into it um so those are still under review those rules are not finalized I believe the expected timeline for approval is sometime in the fall of 2025 okay councelor damato um hi thanks um I just have uh a question about slide seven and the uh regulations that it that it mentions and implies which is that basically all these activities that become regulated and subject to an FHA permit mhm so so any creation of impervious surfaces clearing cutting and removal of vegetation in our reparan Zone any grading or fill excavation so what does that mean in Practical terms does that mean that in places like Parkway and other of these areas that are close to that that any of those things that's what we're seeing in terms of the added burden on on your activities that that these are going that these are need to be permitted all of them in those cases those developments right I mean they're not large developments but they're still development yeah would need to be reviewed and approved by the state of New Jersey okay because it's the regulation of the state of New Jersey state of New Jersey regulates those areas okay in on top of whatever local ordinances that the town has and just just as a ball as a real barn door estimate like how many um tax lots are we talking about let's say in town in the township you know how much of the township is subject to these to that to that kind of regul specific flood plane yeah requ the flood plane map that we see normally that I've looked at a million times that's on the website that has dark blue around Hony Brook hundreds of properties as far as what comes to my desk for review not many however there had been instances actually just um about a month ago something came across my desk I forget exactly what they were doing but they were doing some kind of development on their property um and I looked at the maps and I noticed they're within a flood Hazard area potentially um so I kicked it back to the engineer and said hey you may want to look at this because I don't really want to spend the time reviewing this because this may totally flip on its head um it's a different set of rules that need to be adhered to and they agreed and um they're kind of back to the drawing board so a handful of times that's come across my desk that the two kind of Worlds Collide if you will um but Monclair has its own set of rules that developments need to adhere to with respect to storm water management okay it's kind of the mix of between just general storm water management and then flood plane areas I think is kind of what so these are all by definition involveed properties that would be subject to having to get flood insurance correct so people would know that they're in first correct okay and then the the sort of regul the the permitting and regulations about like downhill water that we're hitting now are something different because those would involve places that are not actually in the flood plane correct that's just general storm water management okay yeah if I may just coun can I just correct or add to that um so not everybody would know that you have to have um flood insurance because not everybody has a mortgage it would be the mortgage holder who would tell you if you need if you don't have a mortgage right you wouldn't know whether you're in a flood plane would you or the town doesn't tell you anything right no the town doesn't tell you anything directly and said with these new rules yeah the manager said your homeowner insurance would probably tell you if you have a good one yeah they they should and um like I said there may be properties which historically have not been within a flood a are but with these new rules may now fall within a flood a area because now everything is kind of taken into account to be um conservative uh to account for future flooding so that's kind of the shift that's um that's occurring and the state is constantly reviewing and restudying and updating Maps uh to kind of keep up with uh the new information but to believe the last updated Maps were in 2020 so that's kind of what we base off of now any other council members have um further questions I I goad yes um yeah I I think the slide 31 refers to the real rules that you were talking about before um and I know um myself and a few other Council people and um a couple of Staff members um were able to join a webinar that the New Jersey League of municipalities um uh organized this or the last week um and the record there is a recording for people who couldn't make it um and a slide deck so I I I just wanted to know um and it wasn't clear to me from listening to that webinar um it seemed like there were a lot of questions actually I think councelor Birmingham asked about the potential impact of like Inland you know we are Inland we're not a coastal area or Wetland right yeah so I'll I'll address so as I kind of mentioned the the start of my there's two different kinds of flood Hazard areas right you have your tidal and your flal the Inland flood protection rules which is kind of the basis of you know what I was discussing earlier is what pertains to Monclair because Montclair is an inland Community it has flu VI flood Hazard areas what I at least my understanding is and again this is still very preliminary the rules aren't finalized so who knows what the final version of the rule looks like and what the requirements will be it's focusing now on the coastal communities the tidal areas okay believe it's like raising like I discussed flood areas are now being raised within Fluval areas by 2 feet or 3 feet right I think Coastal communities are looking at something more like 5et I don't that I don't believe that's going to have any impact on Monclair because Monclair doesn't have any title flood Hazard areas okay not to say that there may not be some portions of the rule that impact storm water management um in Montclair but I think the state believes that they've addressed Inland flooding with last year's rule amendments now they're turning their focus to castal communities can you speak about mandated C to thank you I'm sorry can you speak on mandated streams and what the rags would mean for Monclair or what your belief is with the mandated streams here in town mandated streams Tony Brook is a mandated stream is that correct it's a regulated water body so can you go into a little detail about how that might work with this presentation you're presenting on storm water and flooding there's anything we as a council or Township needs to be aware of that we should be doing to ensure that those streams are free and clear do we well the issue with that is that a lot of the areas associated with whether it's Tony's Brook Nish way Brook Etc most of it is within privately owned properties the portions of that run within Township owned property aside from maybe some parks uh it's within the roadway and those are primarily not open they're they're closed Channel CTS um and those are generally maintained by the town Personnel but the portions that flow within privately owned property is really outside of the Township's um really legal bounds to do any kind of cleanup or improvements right that falls on the Pacific property owner to maintain or um I know like for example during Hurricane Ida there was a lot of tree debris or just general debris that fell um you know the property owners are responsible to maintain their portions of a water course if it flows through their property so that's kind of a very more nuanced situation um you know to say that the town can't explore options uh to address those areas but um just as a general rule historically how the township has handled those situations it's and it is town uh privately owned property so the town doesn't really reject just no just give me one second I'm sorry and if you can't answer this now then we're going to have to maybe have you come back in a couple of weeks um can you speak on the New Jersey resilient environment and landscaping that's the real rules yeah the real so that that that that's what I just mentioned right cuz it's in place for May through June 2025 so you're not comfortable speaking on it at this point in time because you're that I'm not comfortable speaking on it is that is that I don't know what the final version of the rules is however from what I've researched and understand I don't think many of the rules at least the major changes will have a significant impact on Monclair because it's focusing on the coastal tital flood Hazard areas not necessarily Inland flood areas which these rules are primarily focused on manager Lola did you yes thank you thank you mayor and uh just in terms of Tony's Brook um uh we have a meeting set up on Thursday between representatives of Monclair Glen Ridge and Bloomfield to start brainstorming and figuring out how to address some Tony Brooks flooding issues because no Municipality of those three can cure those problems by themselves the goal is to assess the problem and then approach our federal Representatives hopefully to get some assistance what we can do on our own we will do but if there's a long-term um probably very expensive solution to some of this we're going to be doing it together so our first meeting is going to be held on Thursday morning great thank you um councilors if if there are other specific questions that you have I'm going to ask please that you ask them now and if not then I'm going to um thank you very much for coming your presentation and then we'll move on um councelor Birmingham thank you um thank you for coming um I think storm water really is such a big problem so I appreciate your being here um and just to be clear the rules that you're describing are final rules that that that that the um there are some that are still not final the real rules the development but what you're describing here the expansion of flood zones are final rules in effect okay there in effect yes um and so when you say that the state basically if you're within this realm you know this this Hazard Zone you have to get State permission or they have to sign off on anything that you would be changing the easy answer is yes okay uh the more complicated answer is it's not that simple either um depending on what you're doing the state does have um levels to permitting okay if you're doing something relatively minor you may qualify for what they call a permit by rule okay okay and what that basically means is there's specific activities that are defined under the permit by rules and if you fall under one of those rules like construction of a fence right there's specific requirements that are listed and if you are complying with those requirements then then by rule you're permitted to do it okay you don't need to go through a full d review process but the more generally the more involved the project um the more involved the review process will will end up being um but there is some latitude where um again you need to record that documentation because in the event that there is an issue or D swings by um you can't just say oh well I thought it was okay um you know you need to demonstrate that you did comply with whatever requirements state okay right um and then on on page 24 you have a summary of mon Clair's ms4 infrastructure slide 24 I'm sorry um can you just in a in a minute or less because I know we have a lot to get through tonight but you know we hear often at least I do because I am the word counselor for um the Burnside you know that that area um that frequently that's in the flood zone as you described yes where people are saying we need another storm drain here we we need another storm drain here um it storm water mapping is coming is that my understanding is that it's required it's required yes so we are going to be doing that soon right like a town yeah okay okay yeah so yeah so that's something that's required by the state under the again the yeah okay old new rules right there's new rules coming so this estimate here where you have the infrastructure is estimated to consist of is sort of will be confirmed is that the idea right this is just kind of a rough idea that actually uh Rich from my office um looked at uh based off the information that the town has available to date that's kind of what we're estimating um however once you start really going out there I mean essentially what needs to happen is uh we need to go around every street at Montclair all 82 miles um of Township on roads and inventory every single Inlet manhole pipe and um put that on a map okay mayor final very Council deato um just very quickly um when we are going to be mapping again does that mean that we start so I understand that they are going to be raising based on our existing Maps you know some feet with under some formula but that doesn't address the possibility that our map of of our flood zones is changing because our topography or something like I mean in our packet was is a Communications from somebody who has had on Bloomfield and park not part of the traditional you know not part of the official flood map that theyve been getting terrible flooding the last couple of times and I believe that also at Claremont and pine we had a situation so I mean this is a dumb question but I don't care like does it change over time it's a fair it's a fair point um just because you're within a flood zone does not mean um I'm sorry just because you're not within a flood zone does not mean that you're at no risk of flooding okay and I can speak that from examp from personal experience my sister bought a house in Sommerset uh 2 days before Ida and um was not in a flood zone perfectly fine thought to be at least Ida came and we got totally wiped out um uh so surprise surprise um it's a matter of capacity depending on what kind of storm that we run into if we get 5 in of rain equally spread out over 24 hours probably not a problem uh if we get 3 in of rain in 1 hour big problem uh it's the amount of capacity that these pipes CTS can handle um and there's only but so much of it and once that capacity is exceeded uh if we have an intense rainfall event uh that fills up but that doesn't change sorry that doesn't change the map correct in other words like in the last big storm we were surprised because Claremont and pine was was harmed quite badly and then as I recall other parts of town that had traditionally taken it hard were were spared right so at some point do we does the map change because of this or is the map just the map councelor lochman can I add something sure I think part of that is the change in impervious um surfaces I mean the person who talked about this Claremont and pine had specifically cited that the new Surface parking lot that the um Hospital put in since that was put in they've experienced much more water and we have seen more development around town which would obviously eliminate some of the perious and that kind of leads into in 2021 uh the planning board I believe you might have sat on there uh adopted amendments to the S Water Management plan and in there they recommended that uh new storm water requirements be introduced by ordinance to kind of account for not these major development projects that are regulated by the state but the Lesser ones which in a vacuum doesn't really cause a big issue you know someone's looking to put a rear addition on their house again in a vacuum probably doesn't really cause a big impact but multiply that by 100 a thousand different developments over the course of several years becomes a very big issue so before 2021 there was no rules that really governed those projects now we do uh that's what we call in Monclair and this is a Monclair rule not a state rule this is a Monclair requirement they're called minor developments and that's that's what I review about 90% of my time is minor development projects in Monclair um to make sure that the best of our ability that we're getting ahead of issues and making sure that these developments are providing what's necessary in order to mitigate flooding councelor Toller yep thank you um you said that most of this is about Coastal you're saying that there's not going to be any migration if you will or integration of land use is there any new updates coming up that you're aware of there may state land resource Protection Program yeah there may with with the real rules there maybe some overlap right okay but with respect to maybe some new definitions new requirements on storm water management modeling I'm sure they're going to continue to these Ru these rules have evolved several times over since they were first introduced and they're going to continue to evolve but I think the major changes when it comes to like flood mapping are primarily going to be focused on the coastal tially influenced no I'm reading it right here it doesn't say what you're saying so um it says these rules work in Tandem and collectively help protect New Jersey's Land and Water Resources as well as afford protections to Public Safety Health welfare Etc so I'm just trying to understand the word coastal that you're using and not bringing it here to Montclair to make it make sense because it sounds like these rules that are coming it's going to be a collaboration of coastal and land so I'm just asking if you can speak about that if you can't right now that's fine and perhaps we can have you come back a little later you know for just for this specific topic because I think that'll be a good idea to come back later um and I'd like to thank you for the presentation and and for the handout we all have copy of the handout and if we have questions or further discussions perhaps we can do that offline the individuals um the hour is late it's about what 8:38 or so I see a lot of people are here this evening who perhaps want to to speak also um so I'd like to thank you very much and the next on the agenda will be the public comment thank so um for those of you who are here for public comment uh please the rules are the same you have up to 3 minutes no more than 3 minutes please make sure that you put your name um up here at the um table sign in and when you come to the podium please give us your first and last name and make sure that um the comments that you wish for us to hear are within the three minute time period um I'd like to thank you for coming and we welcome you good evening mayor Baskerville Town Council Mr Lola and and everybody else um came over tonight just to briefly um offer some comments about the um resolution you're considering regarding uh plane fields in Monclair please may I have your first and last name sure I'm Andrew Lacy I live at 319 Park thank you sorry um I wanted to start by just grounding my thoughts in celebrating some student athletes that are at the Collegiate level at Montclair uh in around the country um I'm sure there will be you will hear many more anecdotes like this from across various Sports communities I just want to make a couple comments about um men young men and women soccer players that are playing at the Collegiate soccer level um there are a number of them but what's truly remarkable and I think actually unique across this whole country is that right now six of them have been selected by their coaches or peers as captains at universities like Georgetown Indiana Williams College Wesleyan University Arcadia College um these kids have excelled in high school and gone into Super competitive environments and been seen as leaders and exceptional athletes um that happens because of a rem remarkable ecosystem that exists in Monclair thousands and thousands of kids participate um across a whole bunch of Athletics in town and it's a complicated ecosystem it involves facilities um that the township owns uh that the county owns that the Boe owns uh that mka owns that Montclair State owns um and i' I'd like an appreciation of that ecosystem and the the hundreds and hundreds maybe even thousands of volunteers um that participate Mr Burr and been one of those for decades um among probably many other people here tonight and so the only things I would ask um there are no planned turf field installations right now across this town so what I what I just ask you to consider is to um take the time to consult across those stakeholders um whether it's the Boe whether it's the remarkable organizations that run programs um whether it's the coaches uh at the high school and other levels consult the second is to perform a thorough evaluation of the field requirements across that ecosystem this has been done recently in Milbourne um because all this about the fact that we live in the in the most densely populated um state the country in the most densely populated part of the state um and it is hard to maintain and and and meet the utilization needs of those fields and then finally after all that is done um I'd ask you to reflect on the pros and cons of the will of the people and considering a referendum uh to establish the will of the people in that thank you very thank you very much next please good evening name is Keith Ali lifelong resident of Monclair in fact my family settled here in 1898 my grandfather married my my grandmother in 1920 this prestigious uh Council gave my grandfather award when he was 104 years old councilman basket was here I'm here to speak about the Masjid that I attend and Islamic phobia that's been circling around and the accusations of some of our members being anti-emetic as some know that I worked for Muhammad Ali for 43 years I was also the county Warden simultaneously I started with Ali when I was 19 all right we have relations without throughout Montclair we have roots in Monclair that maybe this Watchdog group that is circulating these rumors is not aware of our our beloved brother Charles Williams who recently passed away who is Sheila Oliver's Aid sat on our shur committee does anyone here know what a shur committee is you know what a church committee is church board same thing Charles was uh instrumental in getting the governor to have the Council of imams and our ifar dinners in the in the warden in the uh governor's office and also to muriate some of the complaints that arose after 911 while I'm here is the young lady that was the U fencing Olympian she was told that she couldn't come to display her book and speak at a school what what one of the things that is occurring as I was a Wen I investigated and I worked on the inmate uh consent to Cree they had a con condition of confinement allegation against the county I was the principal investigator at the county I worked with public Advocates and I worked underneath four wardens we investigated the issues when a complaintant comes and he tells you what the complaint is and what to do about it that should raise some alarms we're not saying that there is no anti-Semitism but you cannot go to a person's um social media and see some pictures of some of some Gaza children that have been killed and then assume that that mass jid or that individual is a Hamas sympathizer now some people do that you know why they do it right they do it because they'll send that letter to George Soros after the town paper I don't know if there's a reporter here but after the town paper WR the article about the alleged anti-Semitism and they generate uh is my time up thank you m do don't worry there's more coming thank you we'll be back next please good evening uh first let me start by saying no more Turf in Montclair my name is Lonnie summer Padilla and I am resident of Montclair I have been attending Town Council meetings on a fairly regular basis over the last several years and as an advocate an activist for a variety of social justice causes as well as to advocate for policies that I believed would improve the the quality of life for the people of Montclair I've been to a number of tense meetings and I've even engaged in civil protest actions Within These Chambers including holding signs and standing up in the audience to show solidarity with someone speaking at the podium several of these tense meetings included people shouting at the council and protest and I have done that myself once or twice that is certainly within the rights of the public to do as we all have a right to free speech and I cherish that right as an American however over the last few Town Council meetings I have observed a growing tension amongst neighbors who are in attendance at Council meetings unfortunately that tension reached a fever pitch at the last last council meeting where those who were speaking at the podium were yelled at by neighbors sitting in the audience and carried over into glares and offensive comments made to those speakers after walking away from the podium I left here two weeks ago with a deep pit in my stomach and feeling devastated by these interactions I know several people both on the day and as commenters have chastised those who have expressed their frustration with the council by calling out from the audience or speaking angrily and sarcastically to the coun during their public comment and I appreciate the reminder of the need for civility what I am wondering is why when those speaking at the podium were being yelled at by the audience you said nothing didn't address it at all this brings me back to the Silence from the council when hate speech was spoken from the podium and the Silence about it that continued into the last council meeting and again so far this meeting I will tell you I am not letting that go I can't and not just because the hate speech was is directed towards Jewish people which I am one of but because when hate speech is left unchecked it spreads and that is exactly what we saw happen at the last meeting we went from one person using hate speech to a fever pitch of tension between neighbors as a result of it and that is because you have let it go unaddressed and we can't do that not in Montclair and certainly not in the town council chambers of Montclair when hate is left unchecked it affects us all of all of us not just those who the hate is directed at our lives are intertwined our success bound up in each other's success we cannot let our community be divided by hate mayor in your closing remarks two weeks ago you said hurting people hurt other people while that may sometimes be true that is not how I live my life I believe and teach my children that hurt people stand up for other hurting people and I believe that is what Montclair is about and it is the only viable path forward thank you for coming next please hello mayor and city council good evening nice to meet you all and my fellow constituents um so uh just coming here to express a minor concern and it has to do with the uh intersection at Central Verde um Lane name please oh I'm sorry uh my name is Matt Jorgenson and I live over at um seven Bell Street um I'm a Montclair resident for a couple years love it here um I lived at Valley and Bloom um for most of my time here and I recently moved to Bell Street um so it's the uh the corner of central Verde Lane and orange Road or Orange Street I think it's orange Road um I just wanted to uh bring that up with city council because uh it it creates really bad blind spots coming out of that oneway lane um it's the exit for that parking garage but also I guess you can just drive through there from Valley um and uh coming out from that exit there's you know the left side is completely blind of cars are parked there um and same with the right but I think the left side is a lot more dangerous um and I especially wanted to bring this up because it's close to two schools it's in proximity of uh I think it's like an elementary school and um in the Middle School uh or whichever those those two are across from each other on orange but uh uh so anyway I just wanted to mention that and I'm not sure if there's any plan in place or uh maybe creating like a yellow yellow space there so that cars can't park there or at least within like a twocc car distance uh to create visibility so um I hate to be the person that uh takes away free parking but it is you know just a something to bring up so um someone will get back to you um after the meeting so okay your council person okay great all right thank you very much thank you uh good evening Council people uh my name is Bill Baron I know some of you personally um i' like to address a couple of things uh tonight uh one is I'd like to commend uh Mr Lola for the decision to purchase electric vehicles uh it's very important I know you're starting small with two but I hope you know we rapidly expand to include the entire fleet of uh the vehicle Fleet in Montclair uh the other uh the second issue I'd like to address which I won't go into in detail because there'll be uh people with more expertise uh than I have uh regarding the the moratorium on uh artificial turf uh I think it's a very important issue I uh interesting that the first person uh talked about the ecosystem of artificial turf but really what we're talking about is the ecosystem of our natural uh environment here in Montclair and the impact that artificial turf has on that uh environment uh with the past uh runoff and uh the heat uh uh Island that it creates and everything else and you know we just have to look at our uh new uh celebrity resident Monclair uh Aaron Rogers who knows the dangers of uh playing football on artificial turf so being out for a year because he broke his leg uh and blamed it on the turf at uh giant Stadium uh but what I'd like to bring to your attention is a new issue um which is a New Jersey transit's failure to restore bus service in Monclair um you know New Jersey Transit issued a press release on August 8th um when Coach USA abandoned uh service in ber and pic and Hudson counties and um you know Kevin Corbett the president of uh New Jersey Transit put out a press release saying we are once again stepping up after yet another private carry abandoned service with little notice we are ensuring that thousands of customers who depend upon these routes for their Mobility retain these vital bus services um and uh not only the operating service um but they're minimizing the impact to existing bus routes um and it's important to notice that all of these customers in Bergen pic and Hudson County will see no difference in their schedules fairs routs bus stops or the look of buses uh Monclair has been you know totally ignored in this process uh the service that they negotiated um you know I understand it was the first one that they had to deal with uh but they need to come back and uh really restore uh all the service that the camp had and what I wanted to ask uh of the council is that you uh you don't have a transportation committee uh you know please restore the transportation committee and form a working group with the other much for coming I appreciate that next please good evening mayor council on mayor council Town manager and everybody up here I just want to thank everybody that afforded us the opportunity to have our first annual block party for fire prevention kickoff week this week we're visiting all the schools in the local uh Junior highs elementary schools as well as the prek um I look around the room pretty much almost everybody in the room here on the Das as well as technology Tony fan visited or came by or had some sort of collective participation in this event we had tv34 there we used the internet through the township to put out our posters our Flyers Council people attended councelor Toler Williams Shan Anderson were able to come by on Saturday we were able to uh teach a lot of kids a lot of things about about fire and fire safety and and what we do on a day-to-day basis uh the foundation which is what I'm representative of the mclair firefighter Foundation as well as the local president of the local 20 union we all got ourselves together we partnered up with St Barnabas we partnered up with local the toe companies that we have to get a vehicle demonstration um we had local vendors Supply pumpkins for the kids we gave out over 150 free pumpkins to the local kids in a pumpkin patch so it was quite the event so uh we look forward to next year already we worked with Parks and Rec DC d uh DPW uh again the list goes on and on a special thank you to uh d uh DJ Jeremy who we all do know he came by for pro bono and and MC the whole event for us so complete success collectively done through the whole Township and the Partnerships that we all work day and day in here so I just want to thank you all thank you and um as well as that also with all the weather going on in the southern uh portion of the country the fire department will be starting a relief fund drive and a uh Collective location at fire headquarters for goods and things that will be we will be transporting via truck through the state fmba and we will be local collection points so please look forward to that via social media that we be putting out this week good thank you thank you again next please I'm Kevin Ali I'm the twin brother Keith Ali I want to uh convey to you a Nexus of our experience with the Jewish Community with individuals that are Jews and with Islam and I'm not as eloquent as Keith but we worked in boxing we promoted over 70 world championship fights Showtime HBO and network television I was in the PR department so I was sent to carry mury Goodman's briefcase you know Mar Goodman press agent for the Yankees his son Bobby ran Madison Square Gard Murray I would pick him up 9:00 in the morning he'd take us to Bill Gallo's house where Jerry Eisenberg might show up if we were in Vegas and it's a fight going on they sent me down to the Parlor to sit with the writers cuz I wanted to be a writer so I'm sitting all day with these fascinating storytellers how that Nexus is with us is here in Montclair my mother grew up on Elwood Avenue most of the blacks lived in elw Avenue B Street the hollow or Charles Street all the streets there Jews own and they were the only ones were rent to black families our legacy and our value comes out of the Old Testament you look at the morality of our mothers and our grandmothers and our grandp fathers and you look at the birth of the Civil Rights Movement part of that started right where that m is down there on Bloomfield Avenue where you remember Renee we used to go there and work for Operation Push and operation bre bre basket and we learned how to do cusing and we learned how to show up and March and struggle for freedom justice and equality so I don't want you to forget who we are we are the brothers who participated in the committee for unified Nork that staged the four black power conferences that put uh Carl Stokes and office in Ohio Coleman Young in Detroit uh mayor Jackson in Atlanta and then Ken Gibson in nor and mayor Hart in East Orange I work for mayor Hart I work for five Mayors two Governors and three County Executives I've sat on transition teams and committees at the United Nations before I finish college this comes from the experience of Magnificent Men of Honor exchanging guidance and direction through their stature and their demeanor and we are no less short of that in the Muslim Community and many of the Muslims that you see of my peers we began to gravitate towards Islam around the end of the 60s some called the black power movement but we called the culture nationalist movement part of that culture was the kente cloth that you see Renee wear she wears it all more often than anybody I know do you know the first Quanza was participate by 10 and seven of them brothers was from mclair in California and Alana kanga's house thank you for coming thank you thank you next please good evening mayor basille council members even Township officials my name is Jeffrey Robert Grayson and I represent something that is becoming increasingly rare in Montclair someone who was born raised and and still lives here what used to be a small congenial Community where families both black and white shared an inter relationship that stretched from one end of town to the other now because of gentrification Monclair has morphed into a mini burrow in the fourth ward you don't even have a relationship with the people on your block let alone the people on the other side of town with this disconnect problems arise this disconnect makes the problems harder to solve the political rhetoric or division that is a constant theme of certain individuals has infected towns like Montclair Across America like some kind of flesh eating virus people feel neglected people feel unseen people feel unheard I'm sure the Haitian community in Springfield Ohio wishes they had the same access to Media as the person who is spreading lies about them eating cats and dogs I'm sure the Mexican community that is doing your Landscaping renovating empty houses working in the kitchen in your favorite restaurant wishes they had the same access to Media as the person who is calling them rapist murderers and drug dealers who are here to take black jobs I'm sure the people in Sudan wish they had the means to show the world just how badly they're suffering unless we are able to witness adversity and suffering with our own eyes then our perception of both is dictated by what we see in the media let me State for the record here tonight that I don't speak in any coded language I don't speak using dog whistles and I don't speak using tropes you don't need to resort to any of these tactics when you speak the truth we all know that words can be taken out of context we also know that words can be placed into a predetermined context that already contains malice and forethought thereby allowing those words to feed into a negative framework let me make it clear that I am a disciple of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I have stood in solidarity with the Jewish Community during a prayer vigil when someone tried to firebomb the synagogue in Bloomfield I stood in solidarity with the Muslim Community when a certain someone tried to enforce an illegal travel band I have attended all the ecumenical studies organized by Union Baptist Church where both Rabbi temper and Iman am Amin were moderators I have known Iman am mean since we were teenagers playing football is that me thank you for coming okay I'm not finished good evening count Monclair Council folks and mayor basille um my name is gay over be Cole and I am going to defer my three minutes to Mr Grayson thank you again I have known Iman I mean ever since we were teenagers playing football on the battlefield of Glenfield Park 50 years ago go it's ironic that I would find myself with the Iman on a different type of Battlefield 50 years later racism islamophobia and anti-Semitism are all present in America in fact they are a Cornerstone of a certain person running for president in this era of cancell culture misunderstandings and misrepresentations can have someone labeled as anti- this or anti that once that label gets attached to you you wear it like a tattoo cancel culture Al also often times allows the offended party to ignore the blemishes that stain their own Hearts it seems like we are at a defining time in Montclair if conflict resolution is the goal here and not some other agenda we have an opportunity to be agents of reconciliation in an atmosphere supercharged with division we have opportunity to access the highest values of our faith to chart a course that negates the sinful nature of man that nature that nature would rather seek revenge than to offer forgiveness we have the opportunity to rise above the mentality that says an eye for an eye you hit me once I hit you 10 times you hurt my feelings I break your soul we only need to turn on the Evening News to see how well that's strategy is working out maybe you needed to be born and raised in Montclair to appreciate the opportunity we have here and to believe that it is possible the monair that I grew up in until about 20 years ago was a much more harmonious place to live present day monair is always promoting its diversity while at the same time its housing practices are having a devastating effect on the very people who were equal Partners in that equation that gave Monclair that reputation in the first place the new gentrified Monclair is good at having street fairs and festivals they're good at opening new restaurants they're good at taxing black people out of their homes they're good at building tow houses Condominiums and office Towers what Monclair really needs are more of those old school mounty soldiers who were good at Building Bridges the current situation that exists between in Monclair between these two Divergent religious communities requires open communication between both sides good evening Latifa Jana 19 Wheeler Street I would like to seed my time to Mr Grayson thank you the current situation that exist in Monclair between these two Divergent religious communities requires open communication between both sides what's not required is behind the scenes manipulation to ensure that things are seen a certain way the public narrative is one-sided there are petitions going around to enhance that narrative there are threatening emails demanding that the Ean be kicked to the curve or else all of this actually lends it self to the perception of what got us here in the first place all of this all of this negativity provides Monclair with a golden opportunity to do a new thing out of this emotional Rubble rubble a bridge can be built the construction of that bridge requires both sides to lift their ends and meet in the middle the construction of that bridge requires both sides willing to put aside grievances with the minimum goal of understanding and respect each other respect in each other's positions and a maximum goal of forming a coalition this Coalition will show that Monclair is capable of rising above the the ways of the world and we are not beholden to the nature of man I know this may be a little too ambitious for some and the last things they may want to hear well if that sounds like you then maybe you need to step to the curve and get out the way so that we can give peace a chance we can begin this process by simply coming to the knowledge of the truth and that truth is this the words spoken by Iman Amin at the previous council meeting were never intended to slander demean or disrespect montclair's Jewish community and that's the truth thank you thank you for coming next speaker please good evening Imam Kevin Amin uh 50e resident of Monclair um I'm also the Imam for MH Wu I just want to go over a couple of principles a couple of principles which Define what regulates my behavior and that since God Almighty holds me to it you can hold me to it also the first principle that is from the Quran he addressed us he he addressed mankind by saying that we come from a male and a female and you were made into Nations and tribes that you may know one another verily the most honorable of you is the one who has the most God consciousness and God is all knowing and all aware our Prophet who is the final Prophet which began with Adam continue with Noah continue with Abraham continue with Jesus continue with uh Moses and continue with Muhammad as the seal and the final he said that the community of Muslims is like a body if one part hurts the whole body hurts and we all know if you if you pick your finger everything's hurting if if you hit your head everything hurts also he said that he commanded this community if you seeing evil change it with your hands if you can't change it with your hand then hate it in your heart finally the Quran says that if you want to be the best Nation or you want to be the best religious community command the good forbid the evil and believe in God Almighty so these are the principles I've been employing since I came to this um Council on I believe it was uh SE September 10th same principles these are the same principles I've been employing as a member of the M as of Micah the clergy I'm a two decade member there's only two or three people who have more seniority than I do so I have quite a crack a track record with the people in that particular group who come from all and I'm the only Muslim there's Catholic there's Episcopalian there's all kind of Christian denominations they are three they are three um temples and if something happens all of sudden we have like five because they come from Verona and other places and that's okay so these are the principles that I employ and these are the ones I have to do so if I see something wrong I'm going to say it I don't care about anybody's feelings because I'm being held to this by God Almighty so I just want you to be aware of that I'm going to stop on my time thank you very much and um you'll probably be here for me um later for some other things thank you thank you next speaker please good evening Suzanne Atman uh chair of the Monclair environmental commission it's great to see you all up there um so thank you for considering this policy to establish a moratorium on artificial turf uh the Monclair environmental commission recommended this and forwarded it to the council the Mec in fact um took a position on artificial turf back in 2017 when we advocated to the Boe to consider installing artificial turf made from less toxic materials at that time we were only addressing the crumb rubber infill as that was causing concern given the presence of heavy metals and carcinogens since that time however there is growing concern about this product as it is becoming broadly recognized that the plastic grass and matting can be a serious issue our state is desperately trying to figure out how to regulate microplastics and pasas and from a climate change perspective doing what we can to protect communities from increasing heat and storm water runoff is critical both of these issues can be exacerbated by artificial turf not to mention the role of fossil fuels in the manufacturing of the turf I think the stakes are even higher in Monclair as the fields and outdoor properties here are providing an ecoservice currently for a very long time Montclair has maintain land without the use of toxic uh synthetic pesticides and fertilizers which kill the soil and its microbiology thanks to our great DPW for doing such a great job in refraining from using these chemicals we can assume our fields are healthy and biodiverse so the idea of covering these biodiverse lands with plastic carpets would be counterintuitive and even more damaging separately and related as you know uh we recommend fully codifying the town's practice of refraining from the use of toxic pesticides and insecticides on Township owned properties um and thank the Human Services committee for reviewing the draft ordinance for Council consideration at some point given the concerns and following the precautionary principle a moratorium on the installation of artificial turf at this point is sound policy and aligns with the environmental urgency of the time the idea of the moratorium is to recognize that concerns about this product is growing and in several years scientists are likely to have even more concrete information on the negative impacts at that time the township can decide the direction on this topic we hope you can pass the moratorium so we avoid any possibility of making an environmental and costly mistake that we regret down the line and at the same time use this as an opportunity to bring people together and answer the question how can we Preserve our lands in an environmentally beneficial way and in a way that ensures those using these lands whether for sports or picnicing are thriving from this question creative and sound ideas can arise thank you for your consideration and your wonderful work for our Township thank you thank you next speaker please hi I'm Drury Thorp at 21 mapen and I'm here for two reasons first to urge you to pass the complete and green streets plan uh just yesterday as I was driving through Belleview and park with my daughter um going to practice uh someone ran the red light and almost hit us so this is one of many near misses that I want to again bring to your attention to show you the need another point to show you the need is that last um week one in 13 children rode their bikes to school with the Montclair bike bus that's a huge number one and 133 um there's a demand for better infrastructure and traffic calming measures the um what you're doing already that doesn't involve completing green streets plan I applaud you that's awesome let's keep that going but then also let's get this plan in place so that we can have kind of a direction forward uh secondly I'm here in support um of the resolution for a moratorium on the installation of artificial turf I played Sports here growing up in Montclair I then went on to play D1 lacrosse at a Collegiate level I now have kids that play soccer lacrosse and softball on Montclair teams and I've coached many levels in this town from kinder kickers to Varsity High School lacrosse I love sports anyone who knows me knows how much I love sports I also love clean air clean water and I believe in protecting our own health and our environmental health these loves are not mutually exclusive and I'm so disappointed that some in our community are portraying this as an athletes and sports clubs versus environmentalists narrative I'm also concerned that misinformation is being spread this isn't productive what is productive is sitting down and understanding the wellestablished and emerging science about posos and other contaminants in artificial turf how it affects our bodies and our environment we should be listening to Public Health experts such as statements from Mount Sinai children's Environmental Health Center we should be um looking at injury studies which show that lower extremity issues uh injuries on Turf are actually more common and higher incidences of heat related injuries we should re be researching what other towns and states are doing and why especially those that are successfully maintaining beautiful grass fields right here in New Jersey we should be following science this moratorium will give everyone the pause that's needed to allow for more information to be discussed for more educ ation about the issues to be understood and for all of us to better understand the science which is fact every day at Wang school I'm a teacher at at I watch my school children roll around on that Turf I pick little green grass hairs out of their hair um and I feel the heat emanating from the turf uh because of their developing systems children are especially vulnerable to toxic chemical exposures it's clear to me from the language in the resolution that you are aware of the science and I applaud you for for taking the time to dig deep into that issue thank you thank you for coming next please hello my name is Keith Asal I'm the world's number one leading spotted Lantern fly squisher today I'm here to talk to you guys about the moratorium on Synthetic Turf which I hope that we pass um as we know Synthetic Turf is made with forever chemicals or posos and according to the EPA there are a lot of dangers in being exposed to to P we got decreased fertility increased risk of cancer higher rates of obesity and cholesterol developmental effects and delays in children including low birth rate accelerated puberty bone variations and behavioral changes um aside from the chemicals it's also more than 50° hotter than grass I've tested it myself uh anything over 120° get surface Burns so this is not a safe thing for kids to be playing in for really for anyone to be playing in it's literally just a big sheet of plastic that's going to get absorbed inhaled ingested chipped away spread all throughout town it's it's never going to break down turn to dirt so the moratorium to me it it should be a no-brainer what what is more important than the dangers I just listed playing you know Sports on a rainy day nothing there's nothing more important than our welfare than our life our livelihood and it's also not this or that instead of discussing whether or not we should Implement more uh plastic Turf why don't we talk about natural grass and and building fields that we could play on and maintaining natural Fields we're being gaslit by the oil companies we just should talk about how to maintain health Green Fields I was raised that we should leave this world in a better place than we came here in plastic Turf is the opposite of that we're doing something that last thank you we're doing something that like feels good for some people right now which clearly is is debatable if it is good for anyone and then it's just a problem eight years from now and poisons everyone along the way so that's it it's it's a nightmare I please hope that you guys pass this moratorium let's figure it out and figure out how to make these natural Fields instead of artificial turf thank you thank you next please uh good evening my name is Sergio ojik I'm a resident of Monclair I used to be a soccer coach in New York City and uh I'm here to read a statement from a parent of a soccer player who was too scared to speak tonight um okay so here's the letter I am the parent of a current Monclair United player and I have to speak up up anonymously because of the likelihood of retaliation and ostracization sorry I have a problem with that word I believe it would negatively impact my child's experience on their soccer team this is a pretty sad State of Affair the soccer Community has created in addition to being a sports parent I also work in the medical field artificial turf contains known carcinogens endocrine disruptors which are chemicals that cause anything ranging from delayed puberty to testicular and gynecological Cancers and it contains neurotoxins I don't want my child playing on turf turf leads to more injuries in the short term and more major health problems in the long term my child even says they're worried about injuries on Turf my child comes home with microplastics from the turf and infill in his clothing and socks and it worries me especially the more we know and the more this is being researched and written about how can Monclair United just ignore it and the rising temperatures which we can see harming us right now with yet another megastorm on the way why are we okay with fields that heat up to dangerous levels that will also be too hot to play on open your eyes to who is in the room tonight and know that many of us are at home because we have to hide how we really feel about this to protect our kids who love sports as much as the kids whose parents are here who think it's okay to keep damaging uh demanding artificial turf fields that are being found to be unsafe the moratorium is about protecting our kids all of our kids please remember it's not about taking something away it's about making something safer um that's the end of the letter thank you very much I also want to add because we saw that presentation earlier about the field the storm water management and impervious surfaces and how some people have noticed now other areas are getting flooded where they never used to why are we laying down more plastic surfaces that are impervious that are going to just send water into other different directions something to keep in mind thank you very much have a good night thank you next please hi I'm Ariel xat very nice to see you all up here uh I'm also here to support uh the moratorium on artificial turf like lead paint and asbestos we've all seen numerous materials go from Top Choice to toxic as research becomes available now that the science is rolling in on pasas and artificial turf I think we owe it to our children and our community to take a pause before installing an expensive material that may not just be dangerous but may also end up being mandated for removal another very expensive process just this year the EPA passed first ever National limits in p and water further leeching of pasas into our water system via artificial turf would have dangerous and expensive consequences I emphasize expensive here because artificial turf has often been talked about as a more affordable alternative but with the information we now have I believe the moratorium not artificial turf is what is fiscally responsible water contamination is just one potential expense when we chopped down the trees across from the wung school and put in an artificial turf field we created a heat island we then had to install expensive shade structures where the trees had once stood so that children and parents could play and sit in the park the whole thing defies any Common Sense speaking of common sense I was walking at Glenfield Park this week with my mom and as we were passing the playground my mom told me that she had seen the grounds crew mowing the artificial turf and uh sounds crazy yeah well when I looked at the playground floor grass was growing out of all the places where the turf was disintegrating not only do we have children playing on disintegrating Turf made of forever chemicals but we are now paying to have it mowed and then there is the possibility of much bigger expens enses think of the babies and toddlers playing on the artificial turf who put anything into their mouths or the kids who on a 95 degree day get burns on their feet due to the much higher temperatures of artificial turf than grass or the kids who play every day on an artificial turf field who are later diagnosed with cancer these are all major lawsuits in the making potentially even class action suits the town has been made fully aware of the potential hazards leaving little defense as a resident wanting a safe town a healthy town and a fiscally responsible town please take the small step of a moratorium this allows both further further research and a chance to revisit the subject again in the future thank you thank you next please sorry I digress um Joan pransky 11 Steven street at the last meeting or two um you signed off on a resolution naming bdp holding as the redeveloper on lacana the resolution recited substantial experience in mixed use development and the town manager apparently confirmed the experience and virtually every meeting public meeting that I remember on lacana person after person got up and talked about placc not having experience and some of you conferred with him and know that he didn't have any experience although placc worked for shop off which was a real estate developer his work was in acquisition financing valuation his hire was because he worked at Dr advisors a real estate investment adviser and before that ernston young nothing suggests that he had experience as a developer in 2018 he sought to develop 300 Apartments 80 tow houses 10,000 ft restaurant community space and 54,000 feet of retail space in Bernard's Township judge Miller said Mr playc has no experience as an individual developing such an immense project and cannot legally demand the township enter into any Redevelopment agreement with him do any of you know a single development that was undertaken by Mr pek and if you do share it with us and if you don't know about his substantial experience then share with us what made you sign off on that resolution you then next moved to a discussion about Redevelopment agreement which was next in line and understandably you were not particularly informed and your attorney was not ready and one of you actually turned to the attorney for the developer to get their legal advice what would make you do that you are now going to be asked to deal with a a pilot I beg you before you do that please make sure you do your homework make sure the tax assessor tells you and us what the taxes would be on that property if there was no pilot and what the pilot would look like if it's 10% as Mr Leola had once recommended or 15% and what the difference is so that we know whether or not you are best serving us finally a moment I want to thank the gentleman who came and spoke and reminded us of some history and what that made me think of is that I wanted to say to you all your most important task is not about being cordial it's about being substantive and tonight you were reminded how important that is thank you thank you next please good evening Anna grman um Monclair resident uh Monclair has over 23 Acres of artificial turf fields that's 23 AC of pasas and microplastics like lead there's no safe level of pasas that's why EPA regulates it at parts per trillion and microplastics well we're literally breathing them in the air Maine New York Vermont Minnesota Colorado Rhode Island and Pennsyvania have all banned artificial turf with pasas in it other municipalities have passed moratoriums and banss the EU has banned synthetic infill and turf due to the microplastics epidemic and they are moving on sweeping regulations against PAB here in Montclair we were promised pasas free Turf by the Boe however they installed Acres of artificial turf that has pasas in it recently major manufacturers of turf have admitted there are indeed pasas in their products and that they need more time to fix that problem they've spent years denying at a recent Town council meeting in Rhode Island a field Turf rep said the company can't guarantee past won't wash off its product after denying it for years the Rhode Island Department of Health and environment m al management collected water samplings before and after installation of artificial turf fields and concluded recently that artificial turf fields may be partly or wholly contributing to the contamination of nearby private and public drinking water supply Wells this was reported in the news you know what Mount siai says they're unequivocal they recommend against installing artificial turf fields and that's the country's most eminent Institute for Children's Pediatric Health the town is a party to a lawsuit in which you seek funds from polluters of pasas to remediate our wells contaminated by these forever chemicals a costly Endeavor and yet you accept that we house 23 Acres of this and are okay with more coming in in your inboxes you have an email from an award-winning grass management expert an NJ doe employee no less you have a healthy and safe alternative at your fingertips when and if you need it we've come to you because we need you to protect this community we have come to you with a very basic environmental justice ask most of these fields are in overburdened neighborhoods most of these fields exacerbate heat islands and flooding it's not complicated protect us pass some moratorium so that we can be assured that at a minimum no new artificial turf with pasas will enter our environment and expose our families much like our firefighters are moving away from turnout gear that has pest so too should we move away from Fields with pest in them a moratorium affords us as a community a three-year period in which to research Solutions and to work together for something that a few use but that no one should be harmed by we all want healthy and safe Fields artificial turf fields with pasas are not healthy nor safe a moratorium also supports something that I know many parents of athletes support it tells the industry if you want to do business with Monclair then stop using toxic chemicals on products our children use pass the moratorium keep us safe thank you councelor Toler thank you next speaker please good evening I'm Paula Roven I'm a Teck resident My Three Sons played soccer and baseball on grass fields my adult sons in EK I urge you to support the ordinance calling for a moratorium on the use of artificial turf in Montclair I taught kindergarten in first grades for 44 years in New York City before I retired I'm the co-chair of food and water watch North Jersey volunteer team I am also one of the defendants who were arrested while we demonstrated at Formosa Plastics headquarters in Livingston New Jersey on August 2nd one of our goals in blocking the entrance to Formosa Plastics was to call attention to this horrendous company which produces plastic in what is called cancer alley in Louisiana and Point Comfort in Texas causing great harm to the workers the residents and the environment Formosa Plastics lost of $50 million lawsuit by my codefendant Diane Wilson because of its harmful practices but it continues to pollute and has paid $22 million in fines since 2016 which foros of plastics considers just the cost of doing business but there is a human cost for MOS four wants we want to expose those human costs of making using and disposing of plastics even here in Montclair a main ingredient one of the ingredients of plastics is vinyl chloride Vinyl chloride was in the tank cars that derailed in East Palestine Ohio a byproduct of that was Dio that fire was dioxide which the same dioxin in that's in the herbicide agent orange which harms so many Vietnamese people and so many US soldiers and Marines including my partner Jan Barry a former Montclair resident who's here who's just now dealing with health impacts from asent Orange from being in Vietnam in 1962-63 whether mon Monclair continues to use artificial turf it's a matter of whether you plan to hear and listen to the scientists here are somewhat of some of what the scientists um we hope will be allowed to say what if they are allowed to be expert Witnesses in our foremost case foros of four case the evidence of multiple neurological deficits associated with exposure to chemicals and Plastics have increased dramatically over 30 years one is autism and there's a dramatic rise in the in autism among boys the link to autism between Autism and plastic chemicals was strengthened dramatically by paper published in July 24 that the presence of plastic in mothers during pregnancy is associated with increase in autism next please good evening mayor and council members I'm really happy you're our new mayor by the way my name is Lynn hendy I live in Ward 2 I'm a film producer and I've been entrusted with the film rights to the estate of Rachel Carson Rachel Carson wrote a groundbreaking environmental wakeup call of a book in 1962 called Silent Spring the title refers to a possible future when our spring season is silent because all the song birds have been poisoned by toxic chemicals one of the effects of her best-selling scientific book was the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency she was also one of the first people to broadly communicate the concept of interconnectedness between human behavior and the health of our planet she fought for all of us till her dying day I'm sure miss Carson would be pleased with much of the progress we've made since the 50s and 60s however I can promise you that she'd be shocked and dismayed that a progressive Community like Montclair might be considering installing children's athletic fields that contain known toxic chemicals you've all received many in-depth materials from sustainable Monclair among others about the hazards to children in our environment caused by artificial turf you know that multiple states have passed bands on artificial turf with pfas in it which is the do documented case with ours many thousands of pounds of microplastics are released by artificial t Turf into the environment Toronto found that the number one source of microplastics in their city is from artificial turf and the statistic I find most disturbing is from the study which found that in our oceans 20% of the microplastics come from artificial turf tonight I make a plea to you on behalf of Carson's Legacy and the holistic health of our community that you read the science and support a moratorium on artificial turf and thank you counselor Toller and any others of you who are already up to speed on this important issue thank you thank you next please Cynthia O'Keefe I'm a resident of Ridgewood New Jersey I'm here tonight to urge you to move in the direction of approving the moratorium on artificial turf or to ban it alt together um the re the reason I came here from Ridgewood there are so many parallels between your community and our community and it's a daily fight for us to be part of a community and be what Ridgewood calls an obstructionist we're not obstructionists we're actually we love sports we're not anti- Sports at all so what I'd like you to consider you've already heard all of the the facts and figures about forever chemicals and you can do your own due diligence which I implore you to do nobody's cheating children out of an opportunity to play and and the valuable and beautiful benefits of open space what we're saying is moving in the direction of of synthetic artificial plastic field when New Jersey is one of the hottest states in the nation and you can check that it's on the njde website um there's research that's coming out every single day nobody's obstructing a child from playing what we're saying is we we care so much about the the health of these children that we don't want them to play on a pest Laden artificial turf field that is bad for your groundwater that is bad for your storm water and the very first gentleman who came up I don't know him I'm not from your town spoke about an ecosystem there's no ecosystem when you're talking about artificial turf none whatsoever so what I'd like to ask you to do as such a progressive Community is to dig deep into your own moral compass as each of you sit up here to safeguard your residents the most vulnerable are the children of your community the most vulnerable their systems are developing and they're playing on high hot plastic grass that is it's just unacceptable um one last point I want to make is UN secretary gutterz said we are in a climate crisis what are actionable steps to move away from that I think each municipality has to dig deep and really think about what steps you can take to move in the direction of being more sustainable you know we all get awards from you know Sustainable New Jersey we're so proud we have our green te in Ridgewood same exact thing it's greenwashing if you're accepting an award and you're moving in the direction of artificial turf and a synthetic impervious surface you talked about flooding these all these things dovetail together so I implore you to move in the direction of a moratorium or Banning it all together New Jersey will probably move in that direction as other places have it's a smart decision I implore each of you to really think about it thank you next please good evening my name is Dan rivlin I am a Montclair resident my daughters are current high school students uh we have lived here since they were about a year old I am also the president of Monclair United Soccer Club and I am here to say that a moratorium would be bad enough but a ban on replacement of the current Turf would in my opinion and I think my those of the over 80% of people who voted for the bond referendum that was passed not too long ago would agree sports sports are essential for thousands of kids this will Impact Sports from kids three and four year olds through the high school a small minority of the Town wants no Turf demand for fields is high and growing 80% of the Town passed the bond referendum a small minority stopped the renovations that were going on that stopping of the renovations negated the entire track season for having a home track meet there is trickle down effect to people trying to prevent Turf from being here this resolution completely disregards the kids of this town and their needs Montclair United alone has over 1,700 kids that we can barely get onto Fields because there aren't enough out there and if there are rain and for the amount of use that the fields get even a little bit ends up cancelling games this resolution will impact and limit sports for our kids and it will impact every sport the high school has six soccer teams three girls three boys it has two two or three football teams then there's lacrosse baseball softball and field hockey every one of these Sports will be impacted and limited by this resolution this Council should be focused on getting more kids out and playing our Town's ability to get kids out would be limited by a restriction or limitation of turf fields this resolution would do exactly the opposite of what we need to be doing which is getting kids out and playing I implore you not to do that to the kids thank you thank you next speaker please hi my name is Amanda mccab I'm a resident of Glen Ridge um but I'm also work for an organization called Grassroots Environmental Education uh we're a public and environmental health nonprofit um and we're working with mount siai on their um healthy playing surfaces project I would say um it is wonderful that there's so much enthusiasm for getting kids to play sports my daughter plays softball I'm a big fan of kids sports but public health and their health and the quality of the surfaces that they're playing on and the chemicals that they're being exposed to I think is Paramount so um I spend my days reading about issues that are impacting municipalities plastic waste and posos are at the top and Synthetic Turf is the perfect storm of these two things I was cautious about Synthetic Turf before I started this work and now I'm adamantly against it we know its harms we know that there are towns that are successfully maintaining natural grass fields in the Northeast it can be done and I have resources I would be happy to share with you um and there are also towns in the South I should say that are replacing their artificial turf because of uh increasing temperatures that it's not sustainable for them to be playing on those fields um I applaud Monclair for considering a moratorium on Turf uh we know it's harmful in all sorts of ways uh you can find a 17-page index of studies on the harmful components of Synthetic Turf on our organization website which is Grassroots info.org um that's an index not um in an index of studies it's about 166 I believe um it's prudent of Montclair to put any further Turf installations on hold while we gather more information and follow the science thank you thank you next please good evening uh my name is Brett Winston um as Mr Grayson earlier this evening mentioned uh I guess I to am a rare breed I grew up in Monclair and I still live in Monclair um I'm here tonight representing the monair baseball softball club uh one of many youth organizations in town um each year we have not as many as moer United but hundreds of families participate our program using both grass and turf fields uh in town and within the county uh to piggyback on Mr R's comments from earlier uh feel there's no need for a moratorium on Turf there are no new Turf projects on the horizon any Turf projects that are potentially going to be considered should be viewed on a case-by casee BAS bis the arguments issues trade-offs should differ which each field in each situation these should be addressed individually rather by a blanket B on Turf uh although the anti-t constituents uh frequently claim science most evidence found in the internet is selective and speculative the issue is Progressive to any vote sorry if this issue progresses to any vote the council should conduct its own research and fully consider any trade-offs that are involved thank you thank you next please hi good evening mayor and counsel Michelle karada Recreation director uh first of all I just wanted to say I've just arrived back last night from Florida so I wanted to express my thoughts and prayers for what is happening down there and what uh those people in the path of the storm those who have gone through Helen who are still suffering so I know all of what we're thinking of right now is first and foremost here but what's happening down there is going to be devastating so my hearts are with them um I just wanted to clear up some things because I know you're going to do the discussion on the moratorium for the field Turf so just to let you know that the township only has I want to say one and a half turf fields the one being at George Washington field and the other being at Mountainside Park which is just the infield of the baseball field the outer sections of the field is grass is natural grass we do not have any plans right now for any Turf on our Fields the board of education is a separate entity from the township of Montclair we do use their fields all the time we're in hand inand so our children are playing on their fields as some of the high school students are playing on ours we are in a joint uh uh workmanship together to get usage now I will tell you this we do go out and permit for extra Fields because we don't have space so a lot of times our children are headed down to Brookdale which is tur Fields now Glenfield Park which is turfield now and Anderson which is still grass thankfully um just saying that um Recreation we do our best to have everyone involved we have a whole array of sports going on we want to keep things going on yes in a perfect world with perfect T Turf we would say we would be able to do that okay but we do not have any plans right now to have any turf fields installed under the township now I don't know um maybe you can answer this Paul if this moratorium would cover the Board of Education Fields it's uh unfortunately it's unclear it just says uh it says any be resolved that uh um a moror will be placed on any new installation or replacement of any facilities or amen amenities using artificial Synthetic Turf for 3 years so I'm not sure if uh what the intent of that is by the by the uh author of The Resolution okay so as we all know we have the Woodman complex which is completely turfed now we have a Watchung fields which is under Board of Education which is which is Turf is well um I don't believe there's any other plans for Board of Education uh I know they're redoing Hillside School Fields I'm not sure what that's going to be so just you know I had a lot of questions from a lot of people calling so we don't our our only turfield is George Washington and half a Mountainside Park thank you very much councilor lochman Miss camarada can I ask you a question please um I we own Washington field on Baldwin Street yes uh it's in Glen Ridge but it's owned by Montclair we share the field with Glen Ridge however I understand that within the next say two years or so the artificial turf on Washington field will need to be replaced is that correct we will we had it looked at we had some small repairs done to it um there was some vandalism and they were able to put you know to put some type of whatever underneath where the the turf is on top to build it up yes we had it groomed but there is no plan right now um I believe it's probably coming up to its life expectancy that's what that's what I understand it's at its end of life so within the next couple of years it's it's safe right now we've had it looked at it's safe to play on but you know how long that that will be now in the event that there is a moratorium on that field and then all of a sudden it's not a safe space so then that Turf would have to be ripped up it's my understanding there's all kinds of gravel and everything underneath and then a regular uh grass fields would have to you know be put in if if the moratorium was in place so I also understand that three times Glenn Ridge has had a referenda denying uh the use of artificial turf on any Fields And since since Montclair owns this field it doesn't apply but they P that that town has a referendum on installing artificial turf are you that was about money not not Turf okay thank you very much I appreciate next speaker please good evening mayor and councel good evening aava fad Montclair native and president and first founder of the group that brought rent control to Montclair with the community happy to be here tonight because of speaking um there are many who are being empowered and freed of fear fear of speaking uh keeps a lot of people from being heard uh there are many residents who are getting the help that they need I want to thank all who were in The Wings writing letters to the editor of various local and Regional news outlets in support of and to shine more light on our rent Control Ordinance some residents however have been bearing in circumstances that would break a Ford motorc car in half barehanded at the tenants organization of Monclair we Advocate um not force unfortunately we're not equipped for emergencies as a completely volunteer group so we do ask for everyone to be patient with us as we do our best in returning calls and emails within about 10 business days often times sooner to get you to resources that can help you more immediately with more help we can respond faster they are cons we are consistently recruiting interns mostly at mockler State University I would like to provide um do some thank yous now I would like to thank India uh mler High School Temple University Candace one of the professors Amanda mler High School Kane University will William Patterson University Amber Harlem NYC Temple University and now University of Maryland College Park working on her government and policy PhD program Trevor Montclair High School and American University put in a straight two years with us steadily never giving up helping from College move to move to move in Montclair and not in Montclair Jasmine Immaculate Conception and Spelman College um our next meeting is going to be our meet and greet will be on October 17th um you can see the ad for that on Facebook at tum advocacy last but not least I would like to congratulate Mr William Scott for his third Good Marshall award I missed the event unfortunately because I had to work today and happy birthday Mr Scott um everyone have a good night thank you next speaker please greetings happy birthday William uh Kia sweat as I always say so far born raised stayed I also represent the national independent black parent Association um and I'm the founder of pack parents prot protecting all African children I'm here tonight consistently as I've been since August 13th when I thought that I was bringing bringing a very beautiful gesture to help emphasize that Monclair is about diversity August 13 2024 I brought the Black Liberation flag to this Council uh representative thank you sis represent representative of myself my culture my people our struggle and all the beauty it's a beautiful flag that represents a beautiful people so I thought I was doing something really nice and I really appreciated how each and every one of you responded on that day you were receptive uh and it was very Equitable soon as I finished that night um there were two individuals who publicly presented themselves in opposition to the fact that you received that flag our flag the Black Liberation flag I was really uh disgusted with that I have continued to be disgusted about it and what has happened is it made me think about the quote by Dr neie Fuller when he said until you understand racism and how it works everything you do understand will only confuse you so the fact of the matter the way you responded that evening was very Equitable all of a sudden when this flag came we need to talk about the processes and procedures that do not exist when this flag came we have to start trying to come up with some type of barrier that did not exist when any other flag came and I think you should maintain your integrity and with this particular community as you did that night and not feel intimidated by people in this audience I'm going to share another quote with you because Malcolm X said the most neglected the most disrespected and the most unprotected person in this country is the black woman this space here has shown that since August that's right from where you're sitting you saw it before I did where two persons who are here now attempted to intimidate me and come sit behind me while started to talk about me I watched it okay this is what has been happening here so it really shows what we really what M CLA is and I hate to say that again because I'm born raised State it's my home I love it but we have to do better the racism and the black oppression here it has to stop and anyone who actually stands for that please stop black hate anyone here who's in agreement with that when people like myself come here with these issues and I mentioned how black girls were sexually assaulted I forgot to say that they were also called stupid ends that we've had superintendents that say they're okay with racism teachers saying they need slaves all types of things happening but when it happens to us there's nothing but silence I also never mentioned on this microphone that I attempted to bring that flag two times two times thank you next please good evening my name is USTA I will be passing my time to Kalia sweat thank you qu and that was a few years ago that was a few years ago so I really got excited thinking finally these are the individuals who this this powerful symbol can come through so it is a symbol but this one I mean symbols are important this is a very powerful symbol that's right it's a powerful symbol so for it to be trampled upon in order to become a a conduit to this uh the stuff that's have been happening in this room today is not as intense though it had more people but today is not as vicious as it has been I missed somebody's comment last time before I arrived who kind of mentioned the process of my bringing the flag and you accepting it I don't really remember all of her words but she kind of then mentioned the KKK I also read a petition where there was a phrase oppression Olympic what type of place is this that we start to play around with oppressed persons any group that is oppressed or ever has been oppressed we don't play with the words of Oppression we're not silent Dr King said it comes a point where your silence is the Betrayal so you actually did really good by responding to me the way you did in August you want to know why Equity also comes with with a sense of urgency there were people in this town who helped get an anti-racism policy into our school district and they're gone now so when you have the privilege to have this exchange with people who speak truth to power you ought not waste that time please there are some of you sitting there that I voted for now I stand here and it's kind of like you can't see me you can't hear me I don't understand what that's about so here's the thing here's the thing I just simply need to know going and I appreciate you but the fact of the matter is I simply said going forward every February juneth which is June 19th and every August what it's so difficult to say yes we're going to go forward with that you guys did a good job don't let anybody out here have you diminished your principles don't let them do that I'm done peace and my mouth is dry thank you next W it's happening again again terrible terrible terrible praise the Lord everyone um before I get started Marcela simader um I want to correct something that I said last time I was here about uh the Civil Rights Commission it being on the under the same leadership it's my understanding that leadership has changed so I just want to make that correction but then I also would like to go into comment about my experiences and the reasons I've been coming here since August 14th um mostly just to um support the um the the flag raising that KH brought here on August 14th and I just want to thank her publicly again just to let her know I don't know how it's been so many years and it's never been risen in this town but thank you for bringing that and it was Kalia that when the flag gets risen in this town I everybody to know that was because of Kalia sweat Kalia sweat did that and I just wanted like that night I couldn't even really believe it cuz after she spoke first one woman came up here and she started um you know complaining about it and then turning to Kalah and asking Kalia to help her with her agenda like how racist could you even get how racist so um that night that was an August I didn't come to next meeting I watched online so I I saw the things that kalad described and I'm really upset that no no one here said anything about that just actually basically asked Kalia and the person who was bullying her to be quiet so I I I want to express that uh what else happened that night oh back to the night in um August I also want to mention how the other person came from home didn't even have nothing to say just came out of her bed to come here to oppose what what Kalia did opposed the raising of the RBG red black and green and K already told you what those colors mean so I'm not going to get into it tonight but came out her bed just to get in the way just to get in the way of black power just black liberation so I want to speak on that a little bit say that and um Kalia mentioned this petition and we saw a woman tonight come up here that's the same woman that came out her bed to oppose that flag talk about people yelling at her I want to be clear of what happened that night there was a woman after she spoke when she was walking back to her seat she called my friend an animal referred to my friend as an animal she told Kalia to stop hissing at her cuz I wasn't even going to speak I didn't know anything about anything that was going on with between the Jewish community and the Muslim Community but I did see what appeared to be this that man getting a little bit beat up on and then what prompted me to get up is when that woman when she walked to her seat called my friend a cat H like how does that happen here in this space how does that happened here in this space and then you you got this whole petition where you're misrepresenting what happened you're liing you're defaming people I'm not even going to get into that cuz I'm not worried about y'all like that but check your racist selves okay and what flag is that is that a count next speaker please and you don't have any recycling bins here I got to take this home to next speaker please let's keep it rolling hi my name is scretchen bar I am uh one of the VPS for mon soccer club I have been volunteering countless hours for probably close to 25 more than 25 years with mon night soccer club and the I do believe in science and I want you guys to consider the science before you consider this moratorium currently it's very important to look at the United States government they have been studying this combining all the studies for 25 years and they have found no conclusive evidence that tur Fields have any increased harm that aside there are currently seven different organizations companies that produce turf fields right now without pfas in them so there it's possible for you to go in that route but what is not possible is to take away the option of playing for thousands of children in this community thousands and I'm not here to talk about the ones who go play for college I'm here to talk about the benefits Dr Baskerville is a pediatrician I'm sure you can turn to her and she will tell you how important organized sports are for children it cuts down on Obesity it cuts down on depression it cuts down on child suicide it improves children's success rates in school it includes their success rates in their Futures and this organization and these fields allow us to let every child play not the best children not the richest children not the privileged children you can play for soccer on a team and get a uniform and learn what it means to feel part of a group get outside and exercise in this community for $25 we take everybody if they want to play we make sure they can play but we can't do that without Fields last spring on a 9we season it rained six consecutive s Saturdays I have never felt like such a jinx in all my life but if it wasn't for those turf fields those children would have been sitting home for six out of nine of those weeks um and I think that when you're thinking about this you also have to remember that we are talking about playing fields like a tennis court like a skateboard park like a pickle ball court like a basketball court these we are not talking about turfing all of our parks that we just enjoy and run around in we are talking about playing fields please reconsider this moratorium there are next please good evening Council my name is Kent akmed uh 16 Maple Avenue my family has been in mclair since 19 195 I'm here to make uh two quick statements in support of daud I a member of the Masid here and also to support uh Kalia and her group with the black uh Black Flag uh I I have known uh Imam Kevin Delwood for 40 years I have never known any anti-semitic ISM from him we have had Jewish people in our Masid he has invited and Christian people so many that one time we cannot even get in the Muslims cannot even fit in he has good report with the many rabbis he's always working to uh unite the communities and the charges leveled against him were totally false in addition I'd like to also support the group that uh with the black uh Liberation flag the person who wrote These false charges against uh M Imam Kevin dud is the same person the other people are talking about who was here at that meeting who referred to uh who got about her bed or excuse me left her home was so offended but I don't know why with the uh putting up of the Black Liberation flag she got Abad B and come here to protest it this group Miss CLE and her supporters have been working in this community to be equipable for the kids to get together and work together they've had a national Equity plan put in place in Monclair that I think only one other place in the country has and that's Seattle Washington and this person um maybe she has another agenda that she slandered Imam daood which is not true and you can even I forgot the rabbi's name I've met him several times he's been there more than once we have a good report but this lady I don't know what her agenda is got got left home and was so offended she came here to protest the waving of a the the black liberation flag just through just for a black history month juneth and August we are trying to give some our black youth some examples to turn this to turn this cycle around eador that's all it is but this person is so uh hateful or whatever she couldn't take it our black liberation flag flying and had to come here and say derogatory things so maybe there's a pattern here with her and not with our Imam who I know for a fact Works he's been on he's he's been on the uh Interfaith Council over 20 years I know he gets along I've seen it with my own eyes with the Jewish community and the Christian Community they've been to our Masid so I just wanted to give some facts uh to to counteract this slanderous article that that was written about our Imam and to support uh Miss Kia sweat and her organiz thank you for coming next please hello I am anay Turner and I come with a heavy heart this evening because I'm still waiting for the day when mon cair practices true Equity I was raised here and left because of this exact reason and I finally came back because of sister Kia so before we before I even go further I want to break down the difference between equality and Equity equality means everyone gets the same thing Equity means the most disadvantaged group is the one that you help first so I just want to put that out there first so how about we start with those let me take this off how about we start with those who have suffered the longest and most tremendously in this country let me provide some context back in August sister Khia brought to your attention a disgraceful reality that up until August of 20124 the township of Monir has never flown the Black Liberation flag it is because of her that the flag is was even raised but in a town that Prides itself on diversity and inclusion it's become clear that this is in fact Just an Illusion I want to publicly thank sister Kalia for speaking for people of African descent and advocating for us to be represented however I am disgusted to see that since she fought to have our flag raised in August she has been faced with hate and utter disrespect I have heard with my own ears on a live in at one of your meetings council members a public comment about just being disrespectful towards her and even our flag being comparable to that of a KKK flag sister Kalia being harassed by other residents of this Township right in front of your face this was also taped and nothing was done to provide a sense of safety and even when the flag was raised it was among it was almost completely hidden behind a tree and couldn't even be seen unless we were lucky enough to get some wind on it my question to the council is this when will you speak out publicly in opposition of those persons and groups of people whose sole purpose during this process has been to disrupt black progress which in turn contributes to Black oppression will this be the Legacy that you leave in this Township why are we waiting to create a why are we waiting to create a process for this flag there was no processes for any other flag but now we want to come up with a a sub committee for this flag this is racism at its finest council members it just creates barriers I spoke earlier council members about Equity because one thing that has become apparent is that there is none in this Township let's start there thank you next speaker please is there next speaker good evening my name is Aaron bullan I live on Champlain Terrace I'm here tonight to implore you to support and pass a three-year moratorium on the installation of new Synthetic Turf artificial turf chemical grass it has so many names and none of them guarantee safety safety for players or safety for Neighbors of these plastic Fields as well as neighboring towns and communities who have no say in what Montclair puts into our Collective environment but who will suffer the effects of the products we choose we know synthetic chemical grass fields contain posos we know posos is harmful to humans soil air water pasos contains endocrine disrupting chemicals reducing sperm counts in males delaying puberty and causing infertility in females and promotes cancer cell migration in everyone we know artificial turf blades deposit microplastics into our soil air waterways and bodies even those of unborn children we know plastic and rubber Fields heat up to dangerous temperatures putting players coaches and supporters who choose to use these fields at risk this raises the temperature of the surrounding areas climate scientists call this the heat island effect putting everyone else in the area at risk to too despite their choices storm water run runs off hot from those fields that hot water runs into our streams rivers oceans devastating the EOS ecosystem as it flows depositing microplastics and posos along the way it's important for kids to play sports we all agree with that and it can not be at the expense of the larger community's health and safety by continuing to allow the installation of this non-recyclable chemical product we are willfully harming our greater ecosystem from storm water no longer being absorbed by the soil of a grass field a natural grass field to the human bodies playing on plastic and rubber past carpets to the temperature and content of the very air we're breathing as a resident living next to over five acres of this material my family body and property have been trespassed upon by those who didn't consider the needs of all before the wants of a few recreational goals are not more important than public health please do not allow this practice to continue until we can guarantee its safety for all community members thank you all for your time and your energy and making this the kind of place that we feel like we're protected by our leaders thank you for coming next please how yall doing my name is Chris I'm here to talk about the panafrican flag the Black Liberation flag but I want to first start off and say thank you to my sister Kia SWAT she does so much for this town and she also spoke about silence not once since I've been here the couple times I've been here have y'all said anything still silent looking at a bunch of people in front of me silent and I'm going be honest I was happy to see some of us up there on the board now not so much it's a shame that we are doing this to our own people and for the amount of disrespect racism in this room not even in this room in this town is ridic ridiculous but I'm here to say when I'm in this room the racism and the disrespect to my black queens and my brothers will stop because if y'all not going to do nothing about it I sure them will I don't really I sit in the background and I watch and I listen and the stuff that I'm seeing is disgusting and I'm disgusted with some of y'all disgusted and when I read that article I was even more disgusted cuz it almost seemed like Renee you took all the credit for the flag and let me ask you a question do you know where that flag came from and I bet you going to be sent about it that was my flag that I gift it to y'all and if y'all not going to do nothing with it the right way give it back power to the people Justice Reigns I just want to say the city that I live in the flag is raised regularly right because the African Liberation flag was created by Marcus Garvey 1920 right because what happened prior to that was racism against black people we had nothing and I knew my parents they knew their parents and their parents knew their parents so we didn't just drop out the sky so the Black Liberation flag is important to Black Americans here I always have to hear about everybody else coming to this country I came here to work hard I came here to do this well none of my people came here 1619 project they were brought here they were stolen so that African flag that black liberation Flag represents our freedom here in America that we're still fighting for the little bit of democracy that America has it has because of SL what happened to black people during slavery that's the only reason you have it and even Martin Luther King had to make this statement when when they were let free right when they said slavery was over at the same time they told the black man to pull themselves up by his bootstraps they were giving free land to migrants that came into the country here we are in 2024 the world we know it as you and I know it it's over we are here to set A New Path so what path will that be I will not tell my great great grandkids that they're going to be slaves and I want them to know that they were more than that in the education system not teaching it why what are they saying to us what are they saying to me so at some point in time we as so-called humans have to rise up right to the occasion and do what's right cuz black Americans built this country it would not be here we're fighting for reparations we ain't never stop fighting so we need you to fight with us if you're going to be in these positions if you're not at least be truthful enough truthful enough to let us know where you coming from so we can know how to address you power to the people thank you next speaker please hi my name is Marana ARA I live in monla gon West Avenue um I came here today to say thank you I'm going to try to not use my whole time today thank you so much for pulling the defense Indemnity ordinance from the agenda today and considering it another time I hope they will come up come back a bit differently and strike a better balance between being fair to taxpayers and still defending your employees yourselves and your volunteers from undo legal liability just don't shift all Li all of the liability to us you know that's what it does right now and as you go into executive SE section today you're going to talk about cases of discrimination and retaliation so please also consider the moral hazard of having an ordinance that shifts the liability for any case that doesn't lead to a criminal conviction to the taxpayers because it makes it easier for py managers and I don't mean a manager I mean someone who supervises someone else not the town manager to retaliate you know to act on their ptin and it helps Prejudice people act on their Prejudice and discriminate and it helps misogynist people harass so I think the township itself will be better protected from liability not if we if people are accountable for their actions to a certain degree so we need to strike a better balance on that and to be faster I also want to thank you so much for bringing the moratorium resolution today I'm so happy to see that I've see it as very much a promise that several of you made during the campaign and I'm so happy to see it come up so fast for every parent who's really anxious about their kids losing play time because they're going to play in Grass instead of turf I think there may be a parent like myself who my daughter did soccer for one summer in preschool and that from one fall in preschool and that spring did not go back because that was the spring of 20123 and by then I had read about Turf and I would not let my daughter play in it and that's a for problem right people who don't care about carcinogens and their kids to play people who care does not do not and they can go play something else but that's not the case this moratorium is about Safe Water for all of us I can continue to not allow my daughter to play on Turf but I cannot prevent her from bathing I cannot prevent her from drinking water and just this week I read the Verona is spending $5 million to clean their field from P largely concerned about the fact whether their local field is the source of that P termination and running out of time deeply offended by the gentleman from Monclair United who says that all of us who voted to improve our educational facilities voted for T fields we did not we care about children's education we don't we are not polluters you are sir thank you for coming next please good evening my name is Jana Robbins and I'm a resident of of monen Park Street tonight I'm going to give my voice to parents who didn't feel comfortable speaking because they're parents of kids who play sports I'm a mleo resident for over 10 years I'm also a parent of a child who plays both soccer and baseball I have suffered retaliation for speaking out previously so I have passed this comment to another to speak for me I'm afraid of the aggressive and outspoken Sports community that I'm part of but not in agreement with and do not want to speak out for the fear that it's going to impact my child's athletic life in Monclair surfaces like artificial turf not only pose harm to the young developing children playing on them but also to the broader Community through both drinking water and microplastic pollution spreading across our natural environment it is not logical that mon takes the Gamble and risks with our health we need to collectively pause do the research and find healthier natural alternatives to provide Sports Community with the fields they need I agree that Sports are so good for our children and should be supported but not by collectively ignoring the alarms of scientists and health experts I believe we should grow more resilient and better natural grass turf field moving forward for the betterment of this town's young athletes and everyone who lives here thank you thank you for coming is there another speaker hi I'm Chrissy Thomas 257 North Mountain AV Mont CL raised resident I've been here for 45 years um class of 87 I love this town so much that I ran for mayor and I didn't win so I don't have a vote but I still care enough so much that I am willing to share my knowledge with you I have 25 years of experience as a lawyer I have a master's in Business Administration a masters in public policy two two full courses in legislative Drafting and I'm asking you and thanking you for pulling the um the uh ordinance regarding um indemnification but I don't really understand why we're trying to cover volunteers when we've never as far as I could tell with all the research I did ever had a volunteer sueded except for the town counselors who are all volunteers the whole reason that indemnification ordinance was written was about the um attorney general serving a subpoena on the township and all of the information demanded was prepared in the normal course of business and most of it was subject to Oprah instead of having our attorney just respond we hired rker Danzig and paid them $56,000 $ 56,3 to answer one subpoena it is outrageous that is something that's done in the normal course of business and just between February of 2023 and May 14th 2024 we paid $23,000 for attorneys for Peter yabis Robin schlager Sean Spiller and William herlock and some of them were duplicate invoices for different amounts I don't understand why we're trying to create more moral hazard by indemnifying people that have historically never needed it it emboldens people to act improperly and it's not something that we've ever needed in the past and it's been misused by the council before to cover things that shouldn't be covered I'm also hoping to speak to you as a coach and a parent and a person who played Sports in high school and division one and division 3 field hockey and softball I think that and my daughter currently plays and I coached field hockey she is on the title 7 field that and comes home with um black little black bits in her hair and in her mouth and she's a goalie so she's on the ground all the time it's so hot it's so dangerous we can use that $100,000 to line the fields and take care of the fields and take care of our grass let's do good things with our Brilliance next speaker please good evening no Nicole farj I'm sure you guys are as tired as I am again I didn't feel like I needed to speak tonight until I heard some of the speakers unfortunately I was moved to speak I am speaking in favor of stopping the synthetic grass no more Turf but I also wish the same passion was put into stopping the building of weapons genocide and Wars do yourselves a favor and look at what those things do to our climate change seriously look it up racism that's why I'm speaking tonight when I see it I have to say something about it I saw it in our schools when I worked there I spoke out many of you know about young black boys being put in seclusion closets unjustly and illegally and I have talk talked about that for many years still dealing with that within our school systems please support the stopping of secluding children because it's unjustly used on black boys also the people that keep coming to this mic the ones that left their homes to come and protest the pan-african flag I can think of nothing more disturbing they come here and use the KKK in a statement that they're using to protest said flag talk about it there's other events happening in this town that you're well aware of that shout racism and I don't see any of you up on the day as talking about it I'm not at Liberty to speak about some right now but I'll be back Mr Lola I was here October last October to talk to you about two flags you you raised when some same some of the same people probably called you to raise two flags in this town and you did so two different places in the town and we came here to ask you to take that down at that time there was no procedure what I saw when the pan-african flag came to you was that you all voted on it you all voted unanimously on it there was a procedure keep the procedure in place Place build on it do something about it you can leave a lot earlier at night if you speak out and do something about it you want people to keep coming it's because you're not taking action for important things like raising a panafrican flag thank you next speaker please Diane England president m naac so I'm here to talk about the power of communication and the reason why I'm asking Kalia to come up here is because uh we had a conversation now she will tell you that we don't agree on everything but what we do agree on right now is uplifting African-American children and talking about just the pride in monair so it is not enough to just have the monair African-American day where we all wave our red black and green flags it is not enough just to have juneth where we celebrate and come together and raise the flag the truth is is that we need the flag up and it shouldn't even be a question so as a mclair NAACP I am saying tonight that I am in agreeance with the pan African-American flag being raised in request for February juneth and in August however the next thing I need to talk about is communication and the power of communication and how the NAACP wants to offer ourselves for Community conversations o I need these glass we recognize the importance of fostering an environment where all community members feel heard valued and respected regardless of their religious background or personal beliefs in today's world it is vital that we come together and engage in open and respectful dialogue that promote tolerance social cohesion and mutual respect the monair NAACP is committed to working with local leaders Faith communities and organizations to help bridge any divides and create platforms for constructive discussion questions we believe that these conversations can be a Cornerstone of building a more inclusive and understanding Community where differences are acknowledged and celebrated and Common Ground is sought in pursuit of justice and equality for all it is important that we do these conversations um there is not one group that is over another we're not going to sit here and start comparing traumas but we really need to come to the table and I offer to help that that might mean funds that needed to you know be um given but we will facilitate that I was given names of some folks that might be able to come to mountclair but it's time we start having conversations on isms we're not going to put what ISM there's enough isms out here but Monclair needs to start to heal we need to come together and we need to talk so I leave here tonight giving you the promise that the m NAACP is here to help get those things going thank you very much thank you okay so now we're going to okay so this will be our last um yeah sorry person for public comment and then we're we going to move on to our pending ordinances yeah sorry to uh prolong this but uh I'll be quick and uh what I wanted to speak about is uh disturbing Trends in affordability in Montclair multiple properties in the historically africanamerican neighborhood including Mission New Washington wheeler and adjacent streets have been converted from affordable to luxury housing beginning in 2019 a small group of related persons and entities using the same construction team attorney architect and planner have applied for uh 57 zoning variances that were approved 17 properties 57 zoning uh variances approved increased density in a neighborhood that is already dense and approved with no public comment whatsoever none of the members of this small group are or ever have been residents of Monclair where do they get the right to make Monclair unaffordable for families that have lived here for Generations many of these properties were lost by foreclosure to the bank as a result of the subprime mortgage collapse in 2008 these properties were allowed to become further distressed and exploited by people who have access to Capital to buy properties at bargain prices now the neighborhood is unaffordable for the the people who lived there and the residents of this community are being told we must spend Millions more to build affordable housing unexposed fraud corruption waste and abuse undermines equity in the community thank you thank you very much okay at this point in time we're at this at this point in time we're going to go to the pending ordinances okay is there anyone else because after this last speaker we're going to go to pending ordinance a I'm I'm coming on behalf of some of my neighbors from um for street so um I'm just been uh informed that Ron Williams is head of our award um so I'mma try and give this to you when I leave please tell me your name Joshua Joshua my name is Joshua Harris I'm from for street here on behalf of some of my uh my neighbors um so we want to do something about people speeding on the street a lot of people have children on the street and um it's a concern so we've been trying to do things before in the winter we had like a monitoring for the uh speeding of people and it was helping uh other people have different ideas like um you know speed bumps this is unilateral parking is what they proposed um it's a conversation that needs to be had I know you have to discuss and then we have to figure out how that goes logistically with traffic flow from Bloomfield lav uh and then away from Bloomfield LA but right now most of the traffic is coming like people are coming down the street cuz they're trying to park to go to restaurants etc etc um but that's really all I have to say listening to other things that people were speaking about today I just want y'all to know right as a black American as a a person whose parents are Negroes if you want to call it that right they've been here since before 1900 uh juneth is not an complete American holiday there's a juneth flag right there's specifically for juneth there's a actually a David Hammond flag that actually has the American flag except red black and green when we put a Pan African flag that's inviting other people to ethnos side as a people okay so I'm not against black Unity but this is not a whole world black holiday it's a Texas holiday it's not a New Jersey holiday it's not a California holiday it's a Texas holiday that we're trying to take assemblance of so to include everybody is not what we actually need for that this is a specific holiday celebrate specific thing so let's actually highlight the specific thing and have the right flag there's actually a flag for that so I I I get it I don't want I you know as a truth Bearer I got to face the mob and all of that but it's the truth the truth is there is a flag for juneth and it's not red black and that it's red white and blue which is this country so but who cares but who cares look the man who made that flag is a Jamaican man who got deported okay he was not a law about it that's all I'm saying all I'm saying is I'm going to give this over and there is a flag for juneth that y'all should look into so that's a better flag to put up because it's not a holiday for everybody but yeah I you my time thank you very much okay we're going to move on to the pending ordinance a um councelor deato can you please do pending ordinance a H what happened okay pending ordinance a has been pulled from the agenda moving right along to pending ordinance 02 2432 I would love I would like to have that thank you pending ordinance 0432 ordinance to Super proed repeal and replace chapter 110 cannabis of the code of Township of Montclair New Jersey so moved second was right any discussion no uh oh sorry sorry mayor yeah I I read it it looked like all the edits that we discussed um at the last meeting have been Incorporated sorry I think that the mayor should huh hearing open hearing give the open hearing notice oh thank where is the open hearing notice we're going to open the public hearing without objection is there anyone present who wishes to be heard in relation to the proposed ordinance without objection oh okay yes I'm opening the public hearing for ordinance 0432 I just wanted to thank the council for working so hard on this especially councelor damato and I hope that you um pass it thanks thank you Council we ready to take the vote Yes all in favor oh we have to do a roll call thank you very much um Madame clerk will you please do a roll call Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Council Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toller yes councelor Williams yes mayor basille yes moving on to new business resolutions resolution um are we these are for discussion or just the ones the bottom Okay resolution number one um Council Burmingham resolution r24 d220 resolution renewing the 18month term of the vision zero task force and extending the membership terms of the vision zero task force and I so move a second discussion Council toer yes thank you uh I'm trying to understand Vision zero is requesting to be renewed for an additional 18 months until May of next year to do exactly what because I'm it's not worded here and trying to yes Council deato uh I believe that this just got a little mixed in Translation it is a 6-month extension is it 6 months or 18 months we 18 months based uh based on the initial resolution creating the task force it's it runs an 18month terms they have was due to expire on October 16th I believe yeah it expires before our next meting task force duties to do to pass such as uh they're they're working on the visen J T um plan to um make come up with a plan for the town to follow with regard to traffic but Council Birmingham but this language is renewed for an additional 18 months until May 1st 2025 is not yeah it's not right it's not right I I do believe it is for 6 months because it was about um that there are three phases of work and that there's the third phase including some deliverables and we could we could extend again after 6 months no problem right manager Leo yeah I I think the explanation is is that when it was created it was for 18 months it took six months to start so we're 12 months in on an 18mon initial plan so it's extending at 6 months which would be the first 18 months of vision zero okay thank you for the timeline but I'm still trying to understand the work that they're doing because I haven't encountered enough sufficient information or statistics from Vision zero to convince me that work will be done effectively address many of issues in the fourth ward I acknowledge that Vision zero has worked on the outskirts and examined um some of the problem areas what I'm calling the outskirts of the fourth ward um but I need to see some more information and data on other parts of the fourth ward I know no one's probably here now to speak about it but I'm just going on record you know for example Maple Avenue they're two schools situated there the south end of orange road we've seen Uber drivers dri the wrong way down the one way street I mean when are those Hot Topic hot button items going to be addressed or even visited by Vision zero um well for if I can yeah go ahead managera Vision zero and the last year in my opinion has been instrumental in the lowering of speed limits and many studies Etc but it it is not years ago authorized there's no authorization they don't take any official action they and there are still much in the planning phase I I am not a member of the test I understand but I haven't seen any data in their planning to get into the midd I don't think I don't think they're there yet I think this is a very um and counselor you're I believe you're on there um Deputy Mayor Shen Anderson um yes I just wanted to uh so councelor deato Dr um I'm sorry mayor Baskerville and I are um Council the aison to the vision Z task Force basically um what they need an extension and what they're continuing to do is um they are in phase three of the the Strategic plan that they put together and um and another part of it uh that is still pending is um completion of the the um the revised Vision zero policy which um you know they are hoping to get before this Council so the extension the work that is being done is per the the plan the project plan um that they um are authorized to do so that's how many phases are there you said they're at phase three this is the third phase but how many Al together three three so they're they're at phase three they're asking for an extension and we still haven't I haven't seen because I follow Vision zero I listen to the presentation Laura gave back in last May um so they're working just on the outskirts of the wards and that's what I'm trying to find out and understand because this seems more to be about biking than actual traffic and I realize what manager Lola said is that they're not authorized to put in place parameters if you will but when's the data going to be assessed for the insert the inside of the fourth board that's my question I'm sorry councelor Birmingham just to Echo what um councelor toler's asking I think those of us who are not on the task force there are just simple traffic safety measures that are this town is begging for like daylighting intersections Maple Avenue like we need I guess the question is of course we support Vision zero but where when will we just see these this is what needs to be done we're going to get it done that that's what I think at least I want to knowly which is not knocking them it's just yeah we're when is it coming I think that you will um be pleased to know that it's probably coming now and I think that it is not accurate to say that the vision zero is solely about biking on the outskirts there are I didn't say they solely were I said it seems that way because I haven't seen any and I respect how it seems and now I'm just going to take a minute to reassure everyone that it's not just about biking on the outt and and some of it does include possibly um a uh path that can uh give access to people to get to and from work people that use their bicycles to get from um outskirts like say East Orange or whatever that that do come up the south end in ar orange Road and drive through the township to get to their drive so yes they do have those but they also have the things that councelor Birmingham is talking about they talked about um Street calming measures and other types of things that we can do they've talked about adding some um orate you know trees and different things that that were in their very lovely presentation that they did so while right now the thrust may may seem that way and I don't know whether their presentations have um you know have done that I'm not sure um because I have been working um with the group for a while and I understand a little bit better I I feel comfortable that um after we revise the plan and and in this phase three of the plan people will begin to um see more you're not going to get results because the plan's not completed yet so there's no data like to say we did you know this and whatever they can uh demonstrate some data that may not be that pleasing about what the um lowering of the the um traffic the speed limit has done in the township to be quite honest with you that might not be something that we're really excited about when we see it but I'm just saying that I I think that the types of things that we're asking that would be helpful we will see it as we move into phase three um councilor lochman um so am I remembering correctly that Vision zero wanted to have um something on the town website where people could report report uh places where they thought like Eileen is mentioning that you could have a quick fix if you cut these bushes down you got a better sight line something like that is that happening or am I misremembering that I that would seem like in line with what we're saying that there could be input from the community for getting something done quickly if if they knew about is something like that happening I don't know they're doing a councelor demato they're thank you they're doing a lot of stuff at once but basically they're they're uh one of the key deliverables for the third phase was is a is an action plan and also a lot of Crash data and other data and I would just say councelor toer that they that there is a very strong ethos throughout the task force of looking at the at the issues of the south end and and and and that basically people know and are are deeply um uh focused on on on on on on that as being the most you know uh unsafe part of town in some regards for pedestrians and so so people people are are are are very they're focused they're in this culmination phase and we are all going to have to talk very soon about the complete streets you know this's a very complicated process but basically there is an ordinance and we're going to have to walk through it and look at how it works and um and that that's going to be coming down the road as it were quite soon but I understand I think your probing questions are great I've been doing a lot of probing with them as well they could probably tell you uh and I would just say that you have my pledge that if if their work gets to continue that that I think you will be satisfied and if not you can back over me in the George in his parking lot well I just remember coun dman I'm I'm sorry but I I didn't get an answer to that question is there something from the people who leaz on with I'm not certain I believe that is the plan that is the plan and that hasn't happened yet but it is the plan to have some kind of access we also we also received the grant for traffic coming and they're working where they'll be making recommendations for temporary not permanent things but different ways to calm traffic and this their focus is auto walking and bicycles however you're going to get around so it's not it's not you know a bicycle driven but it's basically how does everybody get their you know get around and be safe in Vision zero the goal of vision zero is not to have any pedestrian death so it's all of those issues but they are collecting part of what they were doing is collecting the data to see where the accidents really occur and where they do not because often we're requested to do studies based on a specific accident could be horrific or whatever when the the issue is that accident but not a history of accidents or something at that location so they're they're collecting that data to say okay this intersection has serious accidents on a regular basis this one had one but nothing in the uh nothing you know in the last 10 years so they're they're putting all that information together good and and to finally address some of the things um councelor to that you're talking about like for for about 10 years now we've been trying to stop the traffic in south end in front of 340 Orange Road from making a left down Lyon Avenue so I share your concerns um on a lot of one part of fourth but I'm also talking about the real meat and potatoes where there's Elwood Avenue Lexington Lincoln Maple I hope some data and statistics will be available to ensure that you know some traffic calming can happen there all that and and and it's helpful too if you um and other people present those areas that you know have the the concerns and I don't think anybody's going to not address thinkon I'm just want to put on record can assure you with me sitting on there that that will not be the case Pleasant Avenue there's a whole list of them um Council Williams forget me there's no problem so a lot of good discussion but the date what date should it be in here we're doing six months you're going to have to make a a motion to amend so corre to correct the date councilor demato do you want to do a motion to amend so that we can move this forward you're not amending the date I think you're amending the from the 18 months um in the third whereas six months but I don't see how we get to May 1st from from October 15th what's today's date April 15th so we did May 1st when is it 12 months month April 15th or may it's it's two weeks extra April 15th de January April April 15th it's I know know that date is that what are you counting from tax what date are you counting from are we counting from today I would say the 16th the day that they I mean we don't want them to expire right for whatever reason I think that that seems like a good idea not to let it expire so the 15th to the to April 15th October November J March April 16th so we would have two changes we would have 16th 16th uh in the third paragraph for an additional uh 6 months and then in the last paragraph extended to April 15 20125 and also uh change the 18 to 6 months and then now therefore be it resolved paragraph all right oh yeah yes an additional six months right sorry who second it but then do and then and then further be resol May no until April 15 but does the title of the resolution need to be changed what is renewing the 18-month term so I would just get rid of the 18 month just resol resolution renewing the term of the vision zero task force yeah okay that's good yes just cut it you moved the amendment was there a second I second okay there's a second um all in favor we need a roll call okay all right um Madam clerk please do a roll call Mayor Baskerville is this a roll call for the Amendment yes okay thank you Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor Dada yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toler yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes yeah you have to Amendment uh carried now you have to vote on the actual resolution we will um now vote on the amended resolution please call the role I'm sorry mayor who's the moveing in the second for the adoption of the amended resolution I'll move it okay thank you Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councel lochman yes councelor Toler yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes thank you thank you moving on to new business councilor lman will you please yes um resolution r-4 d221 Township ofm Monclair a resolution approving participation with the grant program administered by NJ Department of Law and public safely Office of the Attorney General you want me to keep going oh sorry yes I'm moving this second discussion any discussion I just have a question what is this grant money for if the manager can explain I I know it's coming who it's coming from in the amount but what purpose will this be used in what department justce the police department yes it's the it's the uh it's uh Lieutenant Williams and detective uh ducus and it's the community services unit of the police department thank you justy mayor thank you I just have an issue that um the the memo says that the application award uh conditions contract and resolution are attached to the memorandum but I don't see any of those things attached to and at least in my in my packet I'm sorry about that counselor okay I can provide those to you and you can okay put the vote offer later if you'd like but I don't I don't have those with me would you like to hold it so we will remove it um you no I I'm sorry Council of Birmingham um just where it says with a local match of benefits for the proposed total project cost of $455,000 65 and then on the back it says it's essentially contributing to the their salaries I think is that um to Def Fray the cost of the salaries of Lieutenant Williams and detective Lisa gutas is that um I'm gonna I'm going to ask that you we pull this and we take action at the end of the month yes thank you because I think the numbers are thank you thank you so um resolution R 24221 will be pulled from the agenda next please that me yes Deputy Mayor Shen Anderson resol resolution r- 24222 resolution authorizing execution of a fair and open contract with red beans Ford of Washington to purchase Ford electric vehicles bid 24-20 I so move second discussion Council lochman yeah I'm um so this is the parking utility correct yes and what and I miss what are these vehicles used for I'm wondering why they need two pickup trucks SUV oh sorry SUVs I mean are these the people are giving tickets why do they need these big vehicles yes so um councelor Williams so I I asked we we think think I I asked a lot of questions around this because these are fairly fancy yeah EVS right and there are vehicles that are specifically made just for parking you see them they have three wheels and you might see them in New York City and whatever and the EVS uh however just through research those particular vehicles wind up being just as expensive as these vehicles and the range in those Vehicles maybe at Max go up to 100 miles per charge whereas these I think are a couple of hundred so you know after all that uh and then they further chose for because I I think that they were looking at uh a model 3 Tesla which would have been a little less expensive but Tesla never got back to them in terms of the pricing uh on that so they couldn't pull the trigger on that so that's how we landed with this I didn't quite get an I didn't quite get an answer as to whether or not the other vehicles that I listed I think there was a a Chevy EV or whatever the case may be if they would qualify for the $7,500 EV grant that the federal government is giving if municipalities qualify for that that I wasn't sure that would defray the cost answer for that I um if if they looked at you know some of the other eligible Vehicles so okay can I councilor lman yeah um Rah just to follow up on your question does Tesla still require its own unique unque charging station or is it a universal charging station no that that's the North American charging standard right and you can get you can get an adapter for it and these probably Ford next actually actually next year Ford is probably switching to that connector that uh would be able to be used with Tesla Chargers but I don't I don't know if they want to wait until next year by and we have to install a charger when we I think we already have them we do I I think uh DC uh no the parking utility is the only Department that has them okay thank you um councelor damato and manager Lola uh so councelor Williams I I also went down the same rabbit hole if you remember at the beginning of our term with a special another like golf carty thing and really worked them and they um and part of the reason I liked it and would would still have liked it is that they actually are very slow vehicles and it's called Pace pace car basically so it slows traffic a little bit and that they thought was not necessary you know they they do kind of want to be able to zip around um a little faster but most importantly we load up our parking vehicles with a lot of electronics so they they have they have cameras and plate readers and they did I did did see some specs which showed that they had to pull a lot of power and they so these vehicles do get outfit with a lot of stuff on them and at a certain point even though it would be very nice to have a very small vehicle for the footprint we are asking our employees to be in the car the whole day or you know a large amount of time and I think a little bit of com you know we have to be a little sensitive and these so we got we we made we have a victory right so they originally we're going to have a hybrid vehicle which you gas up and now we have a pure UV and so it's good uh just briefly and just I want to correct the record from an earlier speaker it was uh councelor deato after we had proposed the hybrid Sue as to be pulled and we go and find electric vehicles I was given credit for that but he's the one that deserves that credit you I'm telling you I'll do anything for a piece of candy anyone else council members a discussion on the resolution no but did you was it moved and second and second okay yes please would you do a roll call Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councilor Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lman yes councelor Toler yes councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes councilor Williams please res uh resolution R d24 d223 resolution awarding a Fe and open contract to h2m Associates Inc h2m from the environmental remediation project at 399 Orange Road so moved second if if I may councilor Williams so I I'm I'm generally fine with the work the only thing is I I understand that they're looking to use the same vendor out of convenience but I would like if they put it out for bid just to see you know I I get the convenience factor but to see if the same vendor is you know you know just to make sure that we're getting the best price for it so that's my only concern there um yes Council Birmingham I had a similar question in terms of it's called a fair and open contract and I I thought my understanding was that had to be advertised and then there was some sort of competitive bidding so I guess yeah just technically is this a fair and open contract orer the council right so I'm just trying to understand what do we have to do yeah it was an RFQ isn't it a grant it's a the money is a grant the process was a request for qualification so it's so it was pre-qualified and then it's the best solicit the qual yes where where it says to retain the same vendor to continue working that's where I'm question I'm just just this is just me questioning is that we have pre-qualified uh Municipal engineering Consultants so that's you pre-qualify them and then you can select from that list so that you don't have to go and bid every single one okay and that's considered fair and open yes mayor yes I'm sorry councelor TOA thank you so I have quite a few and I know Mrs Telly isn't here um but on her Memo dated September 17 uh the second paragraph towards the end it says um something about F the the grant for $5,000 associated with Grant Management assistance which will be paid through the planning department budget do you know what that $5,000 cost would be or could be cuz that sounds like I know this project is done through grant money but she's here saying that possibly another $5,000 would need to be paid through the planning department which is really our Township budget right so do you have any understanding as to what that my understanding is we don't don't we we don't have the technical ability to manage the environmental part of this so there is an administrative cost associated with that okay um and this is grant money and this is for this property I think we acquired first in 2002 okay so maybe we should make sure that this says that her Memo should say not to exceed so we don't go over that amount the other question that I have is how do we ensure that HT h2m Associates doesn't exceed their amount for the year that one 1 173 945 well we we monitor what they do but since this is this is grant money it's not you know it we it's uh you know there'd be no guarantee that they would be paid if they exceeded the amount from the grant so we all are very careful about how we uh they're careful about how they you know maintain monitor their own spending as are we because if there's no grant money additional grant money they're not going to get paid okay so that's great um on scope of work I have task 4 5 6 7 9 and 10 where I have some questions um I can read them now or I can email them to Miss T and copy the council you said on this on number four the scope of work on from the report you can email those to both of us and then pull it well it's just some fine tuning that I have some questions about and then the cost estimates person that the HT h2m submitted um on the last page here where it says cost estimate um if Miss tally can please see if they can submit a new report that specifies that their monthly invoices um will be submitted with a detailed description of what the payment is for which includes but is not limited to the actual work completed during said month the scope of work meaning completed task un completed task with dates included cost of materials and labors because what I don't want to happen is we're not kept a breast of how much this project is costing and if we're going to exceed that grant money so if the contractor can submit detailed invoices on a monthly basis and our purchase orders match them then we should be able to keep a better guard rail in place to ensure that we're you know not going over the grant money I'm happy to email this to you Miss tally copy the council just I would like to see another report from h2m specifying how they're going to submit their invoices with details because this can easily go way over budget Council lochman no I I know you you you have said this is grant money but isn't 75% of it grant money and 25% from the town I I misspoke then yeah I thought Miss tally said the other 25% she received another Grant Maybe I'm Wrong maybe I miss I think we're using some other it's not Grant it's some other well I'm just reading what's in the memo sorry yeah it's in the second paragraph of the memo that's what I asked T we can table it doesn't matter make a motion to table make a motion to table yeah we should probably table the rest of the table the rest of the the minutes there's nothing here that we have to do and I will share this my recommendations with the council and I'll send it to Miss T and uh Mr mapa okay moving on um to resolution R 24224 counselor Toller sure thank you uh resolution R 24224 resolution approving the 2023 audit corrective action plan is so move second discussion mayor Shen Anderson um I'm sorry I is there an urgency to this because um I I really found the document the corrective action plan very lacking yeah there is a time frame that it has to be done by this meeting but we also had a discussion about this at the uh finance committee meeting La was it last night seems like a week ago last night and um and uh this is and as the CFO said this is how these corrective action plans on Municipal audits work they're very general and we monitored ourselves and by the audit next year it should have it should not show up any further but there's no detailed other than this this is the detail that's um required and and usually done there's these are relatively um minor issues so uh the order said it's sufficient and this is am I a questions so councelor told oh I'm sorry Deputy M Anderson yeah no I okay I I I hear what you're saying and I I hear what is being you know shared I just never saw anything I mean it doesn't how are we going to be ensured that there are procedures in place um that are actually you know it says corrective action they'll be taking the necessary precautions to ensure all dispersements are made timely that's it like so I don't I don't really I'm trying to get a sense of until somebody's and I don't mean to be you know until somebody is not comp I mean it's it's it's it's more of a um you know they have to like with the parking ticket thing or the or the Miss mcord how to you know those are you know for them to do but unless you know the those are responsible the chief Etc will been made aware the municipal court so it's up to them to then you know make sure that they're complying we periodic I Ally monitor the biggest one has to do with the not to exceeds on the contracts we've already started implementing that last year and as those contracts come up we will um you know we will uh you know deal with that and uh make sure everything is on the agenda but these are very I don't want to say basic but basic you know uh sometimes these a Auditors would even put some of these things um on the corrective action plan but the CFO says this is efficient uh to comply with the state statute and um she prepared this and we need to have it uh it had to be done within I think 60 days of when we received the audit we don't have another meeting until the 29th so we would be out of time if we waited until the 29th well what happened then what's the you know we're out of time I think we get fined how much I don't know and I just were you done I'm sorry councelor Toler thank you um there were seven out of 25 exceptions is that going to be included in the corrective action plan and identified because I agree with Deputy Mayor this is a little vague and I I I how about if we um I would suggest perhaps if you would like if we need to pass this to get it to Trenton but I will provide you with a more specific plan that will not be part of our submission but how we will monitor compliance for all of the items and you'll get that within the next few days Council lochman I just I guess I have one more question so you said this is prepared by the CFO yes and isn't it an audit of CFO functions pretty much Financial functions and so it SES me it's you know shouldn't somebody else be preparing this it's it's an audit of of the entire town of all the Departments but all the financials of the department dep you're correct about that but of the Department's Financial so how they are how they are performing and and she has she has the statutory obligation to submit this to uh local government services so she in turn gets for example speaking to the courts and how to correct their issue yeah she then compiles the document and says it's sufficient to submit so that's how that works and then they look at it the audit just looks what well the DCA looks at it local service they review the corrective action plans may oh sorry Council lochman how much do we pay this auditor do you have any idea I don't think it was 88,000 for the year how much 88,000 88,000 to do this audit wow that's standard that's Deputy Mayor sh Anderson I just wanted to Mr laola I just wanted to verify so you said within the next three days or next few we we'll all get yes okay thank you yes Council deato I'll just say for the record that it doesn't make any sense to me that there's a implementation process for having things that exceed the bid threshold go to the council I mean just send them to the council like I don't get it that's the whole point is making sure it gets to the council in past practice there were some that did not can't here it started to be corrected last year so we are be corrected at once we we can't correct the existing is it a software glitch no it was a oh I see yeah so there there contracts that have to run out yes and then get coming up everything will then in compliance yes thank you madam clerk please roll call Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councilor Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toller no councelor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes moving on please to the next resolution councilor damato please uh resolution uh r 24224 five resolution authorizing the tax collector to refund the tax payment charge due to autopay system issues uh so moved second I can explain that so what happened was we have a system where you we have auto pay system and uh there was a point sometime in August under the contract or the parameters of of how it works there was a cap on how much of our money they could hold in any one time so we reached that cap in a handful of people who their auto pay was rejected they were then charged interest um so it was brought to several counselors uh attention so we went back and found those uh those persons and the only way we can reimburse them is through a resolution so we're we're you know this is an issue of just our our system now our cap has been raised to a number I'm told that we could never reach if everybody pay their taxes on the same day so uh we have apologized to them and once this passes we then can get them uh their their uh there's still maybe two more people who have not paid their taxes so when they do you may have another resolution at the end of the month um May Council Birmingham um yes thank you for getting this taken care of and I I think we want to emphasize this is a very particular situation um around the vendor and communication and I'm just thinking going forward um the auto pays are all coming out on one day I think it was like August 8th or something it was all supposed to happen can we um in like for the next quarter can we sort of the day after um the auto pay is supposed to be scheduled can we like confirm with the vendor that they all were taken out um appropriately just so that we don't have a repeat of this cuz it sounds like I didn't think they were all on one day they she does them like weekly or whatever yeah it was like it was it'll tell you it was scheduled for what like a day and then they don't in this case they didn't tell them that it didn't actually happen and we've only been using the system for about a year so we didn't realize that this cap issue could possibly yeah exactly so okay thank you anyone else um mayor I I just wanted to say thank Anderson thank I just wanted to say thank you um to Mr Le and also members of the finance committee for addressing this so quickly and taking care of it and I also want to thank our tax collector Lydia for her help as well okay roll call please Deputy Mayor Anderson yes councilor Birmingham yes councelor damato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toler yes Council Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes um so are we at number seven the resolution r24 226 the bill Bist yes Bill list resolution I so move second no I already seconded it roll call please Deputy Mayor Anderson oh if we need discussion yes Council Toller thank you um I just in um there's a purchase disorder for big belly solar um sidewalk receptacles I know that the department head isn't here and the email exchange that I've had with him in the past regarding the same receptacles down in the fourth ward that are in other Wards do you know if it's going to cover anything in this amount here I I do not but I do know that I was part of that conversation and that in our we will make sure that they are now extended to where they originally were supposed to be extended to which goes into the that's that's this purchase I'm not sure if it's per this has been around I this may do you know this may have started prior to even you you know like before we have that discussion so I don't know the answer to that I can just tell you that we are on track whether it's this or the next to make sure that the big bellies are um yeah in the fourth FL where they where they were supposed to go in the first place yeah exactly that's thank you okay others Madam clerk roll call please Deputy Mayor Anderson excuse I had another question Council to unless someone else has another question no councelor Toller um so we're paying this purchase order for ambrosia construction for the Home Improvement repairs is that part of that affordable housing home repair program okay so this is what you want it back on councelor damato from the last time this is this is not from the last time this is a new one yes this is two units all signed off on um Council Williams yeah I I sent uh I I got answers on some of the things I that I had questions on um and there's some further followup but I did see uh the second river payment in here 26,000 uh councelor damato I mean how how it's a quarterly payment how is how is every other town do I mean what just if anybody has any insight I mean and we don't have to spend a lot of time on it but I I did see that that payment and I was just like what is it for I mean I could tell you that if we stopped paying you'd find out very quickly it is it uh both of our sewer utilities that we feed into are feeding into the pic Valley I don't know if it's also a conduit for payments to the pic Valley um but I I will tell you that it's a relatively they seem to be pretty tight chips we have some litigation expenses otherwise it is there there hasn't been a lot of um of uh maintenance but uh you know big maintenance but they do maintenance on on you know the the 12 miles I guess both of them are like about you know between 5 and 10 miles that run down in nework and they're very large seore systems and they inspect them regularly so I went uh yesterday to to the Third River meeting uh and we you know we we had we were read out a report I was there with attorney Burr and they you know we we looked at uh reports that they do uh I guess quarterly on on the flow and they brought actually charts for me to cuz I was the Newby to see how some of the connectors worked um I would just say it's something that doesn't you know that that that works and uh I don't know I don't have a comparable thing in my life to tell you whether that 26,000 is is bad but um keep but I would say you know compared to paying twice that for Gra clippings uh you know we could let the grass clippings pile up let's put it that way we have a roll call please Deputy Mayor Anderson yes Council Birmingham yes councelor deato yes councelor lochman yes councelor Toler councelor Williams yes mayor basker yes moving on to discussion items do we need to take a break at all or everybody just wants to keep going keep going anybody need a break no okay we're going to go to discussion um discussion item number eight please councelor uh Birmingham no I'm sorry councelor lochman okay number eight um so this is for the October 29th agenda correct correct yeah and so it's a um resolution amending the fair and open contract to neglia Engineering Associates for calendar year 2024 Municipal Engineering Services anybody have any questions or discussion on that or can we move on to next discussion item mayor yes um deato I don't know if we need to talk about this now it's very late but I mean just the bills for our engineering department are are high and uh you know at $700,000 it is you know more significant than than I would have expected um that was always a thing with one of our predecessors councelor Russo always that was his man you know Mantra that that we had a an in-house engineer and and the world was better I don't know if that's true no I that that we need to have that discussion at some point I don't know what the protocol is here I mean we we're we're here as a group uh maybe that I don't know which committee would fall to to have that discussion but discussion about an inhouse um engineering versus continuing with the U way we have it now so the particular the reason for this overage from what I understand is about storm water a lot of it it is about the downhill things and un applying these permits so it's a new it's a new mandate that they have to deal with permitting and and and Roberto said that this was some large portion of what he's doing now and he's overwhelmed with it so but it's a lot of money if I if I may address yes manag L okay so what happened is I think in 2022 the then mayor and counsil adopted more stringent storm water regulations part of that is a review of storm waters on all of these application so we are going to propose and I think I sent it all out to you today an ordinance that basically would create a uh an escrow where you'd have to put $1,500 in and we would draw down from that if necessary to cover the cost of this because it's he's I think up to they're going to hit over a hundred of these this year and everyone requires a very technical review I mean the ultimate goal on the Storm order show is important but we are now absorbing the cost so I we've had this um ordinance drafted and I didn't not quite sure which committee it would go to but um I think that's something that the that you as the governing body will have to decide is whether or not you want to pass this charge along but that's about $150,000 uh of our annual cost right now I mean it is you know and it has to be done I mean according to our ordinance quick question so Council Williams thank you so some of this uh that we're paying the firm is some of that reimbursed by any of the developers and stuff like that is or is that separate that's a that's separate that's totally separate so this is some of this will be charged back to uh I believe it's $100,000 approximately will be charged back to ordinances so it's not part of the operating budget and we charge back whatever we can if they're doing something that's for examp example you approve you know road construction or Paving and and there's monitoring of that then the money is charged back to that ordinance the other issue we have and I'll be really honest with you the previous director of DCs uh Mr wood left in uh uh last fall and he uh used up his time before we changed the way you could use up your six months here of getting paid but no director and we relied heavily on neglia because we had you know no one who was an engineer in charge and I do agree and I know the conversations for another time is to find you know a civil engineer to be on staff actually I think we did have one and um she left and I think went to Hoboken yeah um but that being said the issue right now with civil engineers is that all of the money from the in the federal infrastructure Bill and all of these things has now come to fruition so civil engineers are are and there's a shortage and they're paid extraordinarily well well we did the job description for um for the head of DCs we put civil engineer preferred and out of our 120 uh uh resumés I think we got three who were engineers and two of them were over 80 no disrespect intended but they've been retired a while um so that's that's what's going on also not since July 1st but prior to that as you can see from the memo there was a constant um request for an analysis for different intersections uh and to fix things and that they were coming in literally we just had a slow it down but they were coming in several a week and the council would direct that they be you know reviewed that has not been happening as much but that's the reality of where the money's been going yes councelor Toler thank you um when does their contract end with us or has it ended already no it's not ended and I I don't know what year we are in of uh I think originally 31st right yeah it does it does what does December 31st get us that is that the end I I was hoping that would be the end period Well the reason I'm asking because if if the contract with them say for example does end December 31st mhm we can table this until we have a discussion if we want to go forward with another firm or if we want to put this out to hire an engineer it gives us the time that's why I'm asking when there's a contract expired my apologies it's always a Professional Services is always 12 months so we went into this contract when I'm I'm sorry I'm not reading but is that exclusive um or or the 200,000 just gets us up to the December 31st day I mean we can still be doing um what you're saying look I I'm all in favor of U of of having a civil engineer or two on staff absolutely the reality of it it's not all going to be done in house and we will still have to I know councelor Birmingham mentioned the other night about uh Princeton who have uh they have seven people in their engineering staff just engineering just just in that department yes so and outside firms and it's their budget's well over a million dollars for so just for the engineering yeah just for engineering I think probably getting you know properly y good reports in good work I'm not saying this company isn't but today's presentation just didn't rasle dazzle me and it's also not what I asked for and he didn't seem to have a lot of answers so that's my concern we need someone that's really an expert and that's going to be able to help and guide us I mean I I thought his presentation was I mean he didn't get to really give his presentation so I I anyway and and just to point out he only works three days a week eight hours a day not enough and I don't think that that's enough either I think we days a week other Engineers two days a week but we rely on all other people as project by project that's just that's just ring on them three days a week and you said we're using who else so do we want to assign this um discussion to a subcommittee or how do we want to have it because I think the discussion we need as counselors can discuss this in executive session at our next meeting if we want to we don't everything do have to go to a subcommittee okay well at this point in time everything doesn't have to go to an executive session because our executive session is not going to start till after midnight wait minut can we can excuse me can can we talk about that Council lman I thought everything does have to go to a subcommittee well most things should right let we should talk about that right I mean okay so for tonight can we can we you know really figure out what we want to do for tonight in terms there wouldn't be a vote tonight anyway so we're going to move on move on on to the next discussion item and then yeah I'm sorry Council lochman I heard what you're saying and I agree we need to try to figure that out but maybe tonight doesn't have to be the time unless you guys say it has to be the time then it okay okay so we're moving on to discussion item number nine please and that's sus Deputy Mayor Shen Anderson uh discussion item number nine is resolution requesting approval of items of Revenue and appropriation pursuant to njsa 40 a um 4- 87 this is an insertion insertion of any special item of Revenue in the budget anyone I just Council demato no the next no one okay I'm sorry I just wanted mayor I just wanted to know what I'm maybe I'm missing this it's the grant money um available from the 2024 safe and secure Grant and so what department is it going to police police right okay and this isn't the same one that we just tabled is that no I mean okay I just want to double check thank you um and um discussion item number 10 counselor um Toller just jumped over Council I did sponsored it and I was aware of it you thought it was so late that I didn't know that resolution establishing a moratorium with installation of artificial turf on playing and recreational fields I so moved are we having discussion item that's just discussion just discussion oh yeah second we're having discussion it's a discussion item this is just a discussion item we're not voting on yes this is a discussion item and it's the resolution established or moratorium of the installation of artificial turf and so discussion councilor Williams yeah I I think in general I'm I'm fine and and the the head of recreation came up and said that there are no plans to install artificial turf on Municipal Fields uh so you know most of the fields that we're talking about are owned by the Boe or the county so I'm in general fine with this I I just think that this some of the wording needs to be changed in here and and tightened up a little bit for example uh I would take out all these reference a lot of these references and folks may not agree to what was done in in other places and things of that nature I you know I I would go into a little deeper we can kind of talk about that um maybe in executive session uh because I have some legal concerns with this so I took a today we had 17 people for it four people against it um I've heard the the yays and the Nays um I don't understand why tabling it you know if we go through with this we can amend it at a future time um for me personally I have seen an increase in autism in the schools especially in boys and it starts very young at age three I've heard the concerns about soccer versus Health um if it rains no soccer that's not to me a good enough reason to not care about somebody's Health um in my opinion there's resolutions in the best interest of the entire Community it gives us an opportunity to ensure that we take a pause on installing installing any more artificial turf we know that artificial turf conerns contains these PFA pfas chemicals and we know that those are not good for our kids we have plenty of fields we should take a break we should know more and we can understand more over these three years what's affecting our water our soil and our air um this isn't about allow not allowing children to play soccer at baseball instead it's about insuring our health and safety as a community there are no safe levels in pfas and we have a responsibility to keep all kids safe um for me personally additionally as someone who has seen firsthand the harmful effects of chemicals on a person's body and the difficult treatments people undergo to under to regain Health from it we can prevent some of this if we put this moratorium in place in my opinion any delays it doesn't benefit the entire Community but instead puts us at risk for more exposure the studies all agree that these chemicals are not good EPA says there are no safe levels what else do we need to hear or know at this point it's like buying a car or any other product if Consumer Report tells you that there's a defect in your car do you still buy it no you pause and you research other options so I'm just sharing what my belief are for this moratorium and we need to do it um I know some other people here on the diets might have some other reasons why they may want to pause it and do a little more research or what have you but we do have the power to amend it if we need to while we're doing the research so I just wanted to put that out there to me it's not good enough reason to not do it because we want to review it and amend it we can amend it later if we need to no I know I'm just saying well she's as she's she's saying that she doesn't see why we can't go ahead is that what you're saying um councelor toer I understood you correctly um I personally don't don't have a problem with it I've been um opposed to artificial turf since I first uh spoke up against it at a Board of Education meeting when they started coming to the um the baseball field and as a um physician and in particular pediatrician the reasons that I feel that way are just long and I don't need to discuss them all at this late hour um I know some of the questions that were raised that I was not able to answer are does this affect the um indoor um soccer fields and the indoor Fields as well so um I know there was some questions I I did receive councelor toer that you're saying we could um amend some things at a later date on I'm sorry I said we can check we can check with bar or another attorney on this because are you still the vice president of the mon soccer I'm not I don't have a conflict on this just want to trouble check am let's find out if the I represent I represent the township of mon no no just putting it out there you know um so let's go to the other end then and um if everyone would just you know give um how you feel should we move to vote on this this evening or should we wait until later date um if I may yes counil um I would say we should not vote on it tonight for for one particular reason which is that um we don't even know if this applies to I mean per of the manager um to the Boe I do know that the Board of Education members of it uh people of good faith were felt pretty blindsided even though they don't have any plans so first of all there's no rush to do anything because there are no plans to Turf any Fields can can I no council demato are you finished just give me a second and and the Boe you know we have embarked on a you know New Journey with this independent body this co-equal body in some regards um uh which hit a rocky patch a few years ago over this issue tangent uh and and led to litigation and a lot of bad feelings um uh and so uh you know uh hearing from our colleagues over there that they basically felt disrespected uh just you know heads up you know they just didn't know that we were looking at this even though again or maybe because of the fact that they're that they're not they don't have any plans to Turf anything you know it just it it didn't it didn't it just seemed rushed and and again I'm really I'm really wondering right now like what exactly you know what exactly is the hurry or we should be having the the question of like the discussion of like a the question I would put to the attorney is would this bind the Boe as written I I can't answer that this time because I would have to do research of the law but it would ALS would probably invite a challenge so that that's the litigation aspect if we don't if we don't if if nobody is planning on turfing anything and I I heard from you know people on the board of ed that they they said we're not planning anything then why but they at the same time would probably be interested in protecting their institutional prerogatives just their legal prerogatives to do things why would we invite a lawsuit by doing this okay Council lochman I just wanted to correct something and um Mr L poo you can help me out on this but the Washington field has the potential to need to be retured because the turf there has a natural Lifetime and uh life shelf life and it's expiring and um that could be a potential site that needs to be retured if that happens or we can say you know we're not going to put art artificial turf on this so that I just wanted to correct that because I believe I believe that is true okay and just with respect to my can I continue yes coun lman so my point of view is this so for the bulk of my career I worked for a mining company that mind Asbestos and um we had a lot of uh you know early on people didn't really recognize that asbestos was a problem product and then it came gradually to the four that there were a lot of associated illnesses L lung cancer mesothelioma all kinds of associated illnesses that came to the four about asbestos I'm kind of seeing that here when you start to read the research that we've been given and that I have read and you're seeing in the just the normal press here that the pest in artificial turf can be very damaging to your health so I see no reason why we need to have a product like that that we have inklings of you know problems with that going forth you know later on class action one of our um members of the public said that absolutely true we know about it you have no defense for it so I feel like we should absolutely not have artificial turf on any of our um town-owned properties be they Bard ofed or Municipal properties from that very reason we're exposing ourselves to the potential for loss in the future by and not only just the financial expense obviously the illness potential illness to our um citizens here so I would definitely be in favor of a moratorium or even a ban on artificial turf but that's not the question at hand thank you counselor Council Birmingham um I am not entirely unsympathetic to an idea of a moratorium um I look at these locations listed here in this resolution I guarantee you that none of these released a resolution on a Friday afternoon and then voted two weeks later on a moratorium New York state to just be accurate is has a moratorium on fields that where there's intentional use of pasas Colorado I hear mentioned is not Banning it until I don't know if it's 2026 or 2028 because before they do that they're banning it peas and dental floss menstrual products ski wax other things that are waterproof conquered has a carve out for their high school I'm sorry they have a who conquered the town here listed has a carve out for their High School Boston Massachusetts it was City Fields it does not apply to their schools um the reference here from the February 8th technical memorandum did not conclude that there needed to be a moratorium on fields um I will reference the AAP the American Academy of Pediatrics uh released a um built environment and Pediatric Health just last year in 2023 uh referencing the importance of a of parks and walkability which we have a lot of here in Montclair um and they did reference Crum rubber Fields um they did not um say that there needed to be a moratorium on this I I um really just feel like there is an issue of respect and that when you are going to do something that will um will involve and really will make your fellow stakeholders in a community have to do something you will consult with them before you do it you will you know inform them that you're doing it and why you're doing it and you will take stock of what your options are I understand for example that the hillside field could be a really good proof of concept for a grass field that can be high usage and and be maintained as a grass field I just again I am not unsympathetic I am as mayor Baskerville I am also a pediatrician I have an mph I am not unsympathetic I was surprised to see this resolution in my packet on Friday I as councelor damato said um you know we do not have imminent installation the George Washington field and I can tell you the history of George Washington field like the back of my hand because it was a issue of Glenn Ridge and Monclair and being unfair a little bit to Monclair I can tell you the history of that field and why it was turfed and when it was turfed and how it was paid for I understand that it will be at some point need Rehabilitation it is not going to need rehabilitation in the next 3 weeks four weeks 5 weeks and if it did we would have to approve funding for it so again for me this is really I am not unsympathetic to this idea it is an issue for me of as a community again most of these Sharon Wayan Cong they had Community votes in fact they had several of them had referendums I it is just you know I would if if you want to make it only Town Fields the one property that we own in two weeks we could vote on that if you want to make it like New York State intentional edition of Pas in two weeks I can vote on that otherwise as an as a matter of respect to our fellow you know members of the community who are also working hard I would just I will I would rather have an a open discussion a complete discussion because I do not believe that the people you know again that PE I believe that we this this when you have a moratorium that could extend for 3 years and it's not even in this referendum how long the moratorium would be it deserves discussion and it deserves Community involvement of all the stakeholders thank you agreed thank you um Deputy Mayor Shen Anderson um thank you uh I really don't have that much more to add to um councelor Birmingham and councilor damato's comments I can with both of them um I think the community deserves the entire Community deserves a discussion particularly the Boe um I I heard somebody say that um back in 2017 um the environmental commission had advocated uh to the Boe uh about this very issue and this morning I get an email from a member of the B Boe wanting to be part of the discussion so I see this as a good opportunity to um come together and just have an open dialogue about it before we decide that um that that we're going to again I am not um I am not unsympathetic either um I I've read the science I I I um I understand I've I've listened to all of the sides um and I just I don't know why we have to feel rushed to to vote on this especially since there are no plans um and if it's an opport to bring Boe property into um this as well that makes sense to me so um that's for those Reasons I'm I I would not I do not want to vote on this tonight also that the language needs work um the language also needs work I don't know you know this hasn't been reviewed by the Human Services committee um I I see a lot of issues with the language and so um just for for that reason um by itself I I really don't feel comfortable voting on this councelor um councelor Williams but I it appears as though we don't have enough to move it to a vote today but councelor Williams I'd love to hear from you oh I don't really have anything more to add than what I just said in the beginning I had you know I had concerns with the language of here and I I also you know to I probably shouldn't say this but I I think that this is more or less just Optics even if you were to pass this because there's no plans to install anything now in in terms of replacement right if for example there's there's a patch of field that needs to be replaced are you not going to allow you're going to make them rip up the whole thing because a 4ot uh portion of that field needs to be replaced I I I think it it just kind of needs to be looked at and we really need to really weigh all the ramifications of what's really going in here and just have a conversation so that's that's it okay so um unless unless I'm wrong it doesn't appear though we need to vote on this this evening so we're going to move to um just have one word the executive session at this point in time because that's just a discussion item and we're going to have the discussion at a later time council deato is it's something that that really is urgent I just think that everybody and it's short because I would like so we're going to have a conversation in the community we should have and I think it should be like the one we're not going to decide that tonight no but it should be respectful and we should encourage everybody to be respectful of each other and you know and listen to each other and understand that it is about you know priorities that thank you Council damato um um we're going to move into the executive session yes I do one thing and I apologize for this just to distribute this and the September 10th meeting we pulled a resolution for the roof the new roof on Cornerstone building next door there's an explanation how we did it it's grant money so we don't put the new roof on the building we lose the money so we have to make a decision on what you want to do there's a detailed explanation on how it was put out to bid twice we didn't did an RFP it was done in part so we could negotiate that so I'm I'm sorry I'm sorry um manager Lola what we're doing I'm just going to pass it out and we'll talk about next time hopefully okay but all right that's it we had to do that before the executive session for some reason I'm just trying to figure out what's going I just want to be in the context of the discussion items that's all oh okay yeah we're going to um adjourn the meeting for executive session and um if anyone needs to take a five minute break then take move in in a second huh I I I'm sorry mayor if we're going to move into executive session are you are you making that motion yes I'm going to make motions to do that okay you going to do a voice Vote or yes okay yeah all in favor yes I thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e I think or what goes through subcommittees and what doesn't that's really important yeah because that was outrageous okay um a motion to return from the executive session and we return to our council meeting is there a second second second all in favor I I I okay I'd like to make a motion to adjourn the meeting U with apologies to council members who had other things that we were not able to get to this evening but we will make every effort to get it done as soon as possible is there a second to the motion to adjourn second and to that resolution all in favor I okay good night good morning