all right good evening everyone and welcome this is the uh Town council meeting for December 5th this meeting is call pursuant to the provisions of the open public meetings act this meeting was including the annual notice of the meeting schedule set forth in resolution R22 245 adopted by the Town Council it's regular meeting of December 20th 2022 advertising in the official newspaper on December 29th 2022 and January 5th 2023 posted in the bullet boards outside of the municipal building and has remained continuously posted there in addition a copy of the annual notice uh has been available and is available to the public and on file in the office of the Township Clerk please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance FL United States of America to theice Madam clerk uh roll call councelor Cummings absent Deputy Mayor herlock present councelor price Abrams pres councel Russo pres councelor schlager here councelor Terry present mayor Spiller uh present and we'll move the agenda with flexibility um first we have uh couple proclamations um and and certainly uh Council know you're going to um make sure those are read and presented tomorrow appreciate that but certainly um wanted to note and I'll I'll turn over to you just to speak you briefly about uh uh the proclamations and uh okay uh um you know how they'll be presented and why they're being presented tomorrow so please councilman okay thank you mayor much the one 100 Club will honor the legacy of former Township manager Joe hartnet at the Giblin Gardner community service award rein at the 58th annual dinner on Wednesday December the 6th The 100 Club was established in 1966 and maintains a fund that was established to support the families of police officers and firefighters injured or killed in the line of duty provide scholarships to the qualifying Children of the mclair police department officers and firefighters the award created in 2009 was named in honor after the former police chief Edward Giblin and the former fire chief John Gardner uh Joe hartnet as many know was a manager here in the community for uh many years you know I had the opportunity to work with him and uh was a a great man unfortunately and tragically you know passed away just recently the other recipiant is a uh Carl Zimmerman Carl Zimmerman a retire HED firefighter who achieved the rank of Lieutenant embarked his life journey in Newark before he relocated in Monclair in 1963 he earned his education in Monclair graduating from Immaculate Conception High School in 1981 where he notably served as captain of the football team in 1986 car joined the fire department and in ' 89 he married his high school sweetheart Kathy welcomeing in joining their son Jake in June 1997 Carl developed an Enterprise founding just Jake beond being successful businessman in the community Hub and he's a musician and offered entertainment at that location so both of these individuals will be honored at The 100 Club tomorrow night thank you very much thank you well well deserved thank you for doing that appreciate [Applause] that uh we also have presented to us um the minutes so they're presented the minutes of November 13 2023 I so move second any corrections additions modifications seeing none all in favor please say I I opposed extensions okay we've got that uh next we're going to open up to the uh cdbg hearing for the applicants for the 2024 Community Development block gr Janice I'll have you come on up thank you so much and if you could just present an overview um you know and then of course I think many of are familiar with the process but'll explain itth for everybody listening as well uh and then uh the time allotted and then we'll begin thank you okay good evening uh the township received nine applications from agencies to participate in the 2024 Community Development block grant program um and we have representatives of each of those organizations here tonight to give a summary of what their proposed project will be um I know you have score sheets that I uh submitted to you the purpose of this is to evaluate all of the applications and score them on your score sheet with a you have a total of 20 points to allocate among the nine applications that are you'll be be uh listening to tonight um and then some give me that score sheet afterwards so that I can um tally the numbers and prepare resolution that prioritizes the various applications that are under consideration um so since we have a for here I think I'd like to start off with the first um application or the first uh organization which would be family promise and I know there's a handout uh at your seat as well we have Tia Ary here tonight who will give a brief description of their proposal for 2024 thank you it's great to be here again um Family Promise of Essex County has been the proud recipient of cdbg funding for over 10 years and we are extraordinarily grateful to mler Township and the council for your investment in our work over the years we are proudly celebrating our 35th Anniversary this year originally named the Interfaith Hospitality Network for the homeless of Essex County we were founded in 1988 as the community response to the crisis of family homelessness while Our Roots were in Orange New Jersey our administrative offices and Family Resource Center have been located within Central Presbyterian Church at 46 Park Street in Monclair since 2009 a fact that I I was the one that moved us here and I can't believe it's been that long actually um you have before you a brief synopsis of the impact we've had in Montclair during 2023 as you can see 40 Montclair households participated in our prevention program receiving case management and financial assistance with rental or utility aers two Monclair families with six children were given emergency shelter and 17 households were provided with free tax preparation Services while much of the financial assistance provided was made possible through the Monclair rent relief fund and an individual private donor who lives in Montclair Family Promise is able in some cases to braid these local funding sources with other federal and state funds to assist households in need unfortunately as you will see the need far exceeds our financial capacity to help um last year we put our uh application for assistance on our website so that we can track who is calling where they're from and in a much more form way than we did in the past and year to date we've received 188 requests for assistance from Monclair residents 22 of those requests were were for emergency shelter and 166 were for prevention assistance so as you can see the the Need For assistance far exceeds our capacity to help um this year we are we are requesting cdbg funding to expand our partnership with home core um several of the families that we assisted this past year were were residents in home homecore housing and needed help with um preven rental rental rears so so we have talked to home Corp about expanding this partnership so that our case managers can help those residents maintain their housing um and we can also help home Corp with a recertification process that they they need to go through in order to keep those affordable housing units um this has been a very valuable partnership for us and and we hope to continue that we're also continuing to provide on-site services at Tony's kitchen at least once a month we have case managers there and and they've provided Outreach to a thousand or more people this year so I'm happy to answer answer any questions you have any questions additionally well thank you so much for do appreciate that thank you okay next we have uh Cynthia K from succeed together quick greetings and regrets from Marcia Marley she just had a grandbaby this afternoon a couple hours ago so she's with the baby not you sorry is it all right when you everybody are in this room have read about and thought about pandemic learning loss and it's been in the newspapers it's been on TV and we hear about it but it's real and the kids in Montclair have been experiencing it it's kids in Monclair need your help and that's why I'm going to talk to you about that the New Jersey Board of Ed did an analysis of Monclair schools this year and they presented it in June and what they found out is well yeah there's been some improvement in math and reading scores in town but you know it's only for some of the kids and we're looking at the kids who didn't get the help who didn't get Improvement and these are the kids from low-income households kids of color and kids uh and I'm sorry the kids of color and in from low-income houses of family sorry about that I'm just a little bit nervous thank you um and so we didn't those are the kids that's our target audience and that's who we're trying to help and we have help the kids that we have now 80% of the children that we help this year uh got higher grades and we've done it and they've succeeded better but there's a lot more kids that we can help and these are our children in Montclair that are hurting and Monclair is is we've always we're a nice bunch of people and we're good schools and we're but there's kids who need help these are the kids who who can fall by the wayside these are the kids who um who their Futures are at stake really it's like because you know how knowledge is accumulated and it's sort of a cascading effect so if you're doing badly in second grade that's probably because something happened in first grade that you screwed up then you get to let's say sixth grade that means one through five you're doing poorly and you're getting and so this Cascades up and up until you get to high school and if you get to high school like this a lot of kids would maybe drop out or if they don't drop out their future is limited because they did poorly the grades are bad they're not going to go to they're not going to go to uh higher education so that's their future and there's been economists who have studied this and for New Jersey they said that the kids who are suffering from pandemic learning loss will lose approximately 20% of the annual income that they could have received had had they not had the pandemic not happened and that's the problem with the with the pandemic and kids from lower income families it started in during the pandemic it comes down to of course money and during the pandemic maybe they had one computer for four kids so how could four kids all have classes at the same time so they got behind that way and maybe their parents weren't home they had to work so there's nobody over there saying making sure that they're watching uh that they're doing their work so it started from there and these sort of like slip below the cracks and the schools are doing their best with the way they have it they with their budgets um and they have a lot of problems they're trying to work out now so we're trying to work with the schools and that's how we're expanding uh we want to use the money that we get from here to expand into the schools and do after school work and we've already talked to two schools about this they do after school programs for enrichment and we've we're planning with them them to do a um free tutoring program soic scholarship program that's going to be Invitation Only we'll be talking to the teachers and we'll ask the teachers who do you think needs help and who do you think can't afford to have tutors so we're going to start the programs in two schools and hopefully we can expand to others and we're also going to try to do a large uh do a large outreach program and to and for one more minute I was going to say we need we really need your help because we can't do this without without you guys hold on and this is Leanne Ferguson whose daughter Maya has been going to school I sueded to together there for four years I will be a lot calmer than I am good evening everyone my name is Leanne Ferguson I've lived in Montclair since 2004 and I just wanted to let you all know how important this program is to me and my family my D my daughter started the program in the middle school and she was not catching up on her grades and we realized that with having resources from succeed together she was able to accelerate and Achieve academic success um the program has offered other outside resources that we have been lucky and and very thankful to be able to receive and without the tutors and the teachers that she has she would have been one of those children that would have been left behind it's not enough just to go to school and be able to just take in all the information in the classroom especially for my daughter she suffers um some learning challenges and having one-on one after school Services is very important for her academic success and we appreciate the program for for me as a single mother it's beneficial financially because I'm able to to have a sliding scale fee to be able to give my daughter these services and it's very important because without without being put in a position financially I wouldn't be able to pay the the scale rate that teachers offer when they do summer school programs or when they teach your child after school hours so I think that we need to just step back and think about the children in this town that need that program that are able to Excel and move forward and look forward to a a college a college you know future life yes sorry but um thank you so much thank you thank you told she mayor mayor I just want to ask Leanne um I go back 25 years with lean because she used to own mangoes which is where I had my first parties you did you graduate from mon State already and taking graduate schoool child advocacy so I was just with the faculty group tonight um I want to ask you and Cynthia too you got $116,000 last year what I want to do is you know I'm going to give you a high rating you know but there's six of us seven of us have to vote on this so I'm going to give you a high rating because I want to see it uh I want to see it go higher for you get a little more resources we can't always give you what you ask for but I wanted to ask this question because maybe it'll be Janice that answers it the whole national cdbg grants have been cut by 50% over the last years and it started under President Bush cut the CBD from $6 billion nationally $6 billion nationally and we in in Mont CLE used to get 600,000 Essex County used to get maybe six million everything's half of what it used to be just so you know and all of that comes from bad National policies that priorities were and I remember President Bush said well we had to spend the money on the war in Iraq so we had to cut back on these wonderful grants to our communities so I wanted to ask Janice maybe you can talk to Marcia about this too Cynthia give her my regards on the baby how are we going to get more money you now we can't we can reallocate more to you and take some from somewhere else but we keep getting a shrinking pot from the federal government so where does that all stand Jan are we still cut back or is is there a way we going to get more this because now we got a president at least that's favorable even though the Congress isn't uh well that's a very good question um I have not been what I've been told is that it will remain the same even it is 50% of what it was in the in the in the 70s and 80s but at least there's no decline you know we're we're holding steady at the same rate for the last couple of years I think the best way to keep the money is to spend it say that that's to spend it with in um sorry and with inflation now it makes that money even worth less that's the big problem you have to stretch it further but that's okay the point is let's call our Congress people let's get our people from you know Washington to appropriate more for this very very good program well one of the big main problems is we're if we want a hire staff and hiring now costs more than hiring a year ago two years ago I know and that's what we're going to use the money for to get people who will work for us okay okay thank we'll do our best thank you uh thank you Cynthia and Leanne uh next up we have mndc and Reverend uh Craig Dunn is uh the representative who's here tonight good evening Council mayor and everyone I I heard what Cynthia was saying and what Tia was saying I've been affiliated with mmdc since I was 10 years old to my first martial arts class there in 19 something something and we've been in the same location since 1969 one of the oldest community service organizations in the community last this past year we had over 100 students in four schools in our after school program this past summer we had close to 60 young people from kindergarten through 8th grade in our summer Oasis program they were exposed to Aviation through Eagle flight music art children's book illustration they were exposed to soccer with a professional soccer player pickle ball chess we even had a young man who learned how to to play chess in one day and tested through academics in the third grade student who tested at seventh grade level in the past our summer program was basketball focused this year it was academically focused with enrichment built-in one of the things we Tred to do at MDC has built a lot of Partnerships we partner with the Y we partner with the school district we partner with other organizations in the community one thing that really stuck out this summer for our children is that at the end of our program which ended on the 18th of August that Saturday the 19th the why provided bus transportation for all our families to go to the day at the lake camp at the lake where our children were exposed to swimming boating fishing archery even making s'mores but there were some young people who are so excited about going to the camp because they had never been to a lake some of them had never been on a boat some of them had never had archery or participate in archery but I see these young people all summer long and I see them in our after school program and I see them as they come to our Wally Choice Center we partner right now we partner with the mler school district we have nine students in the community based instruction program who are going to school at the Wally Choice Center Monday through Friday we partnering with Mill to expand our senior programming so now instead of three days at the Wally Choice Center we have five days of senior programming so in all of this we are looking to continue to do job training for young people to develop our youth to support families cuz the bulk of our business is prevent homeless prevention we help people recertifications of Section 8 and vouchers we do homeless prevention so we did about 191 cases this year of Monclair and according to statistics the area around Glenfield Park is the most deprived area in Monclair there's 3500 people who live out of below poverty between Walnut Street and Lincoln and we're doing our best to change that and lastly personally I hate when people say college is not for everyone there's a book called their Highest Potential and every child will rise up to the potential you set for them the bar you set for them we keep lowering it at M andc our goal is to raise it so that these young people will have a path when I was a junior in high school some someone said to me guys from the W don't go to college and he started naming guys I grew up with nether went to the military or they went to jail on my eighth grade basketball team from Glenfield there's only five of us alive so I was in intentional about coming home after college to show this community that yes you can go to college we don't have to lower the bar and that you can get a degree or at least if you're not going to get a degree at least learn how to read Because all these trades you have to have education and we're doing the best we can to support that thank you for your time thank you thank you any any questions any questions thank you so much thank you thank you Reverend um next on our list is um Oaks integrated care and we have Michael Rivera here from Oaks good evening folks how are you Mr mayor council folks uh I'm going to warn you in advance if I start coughing I'm getting over a cold that would kill an elephant so don't take it personal um I am the new program director at cope I've been there since September and while I may be new to cope cope is not new to the community um cdbg funding the first time that I ever heard of it was when I actually started this job I have been in the substance abuse treatment field for 2 years and this is probably one of the most amazing initiatives that I've ever heard of where it's community- based and community- based funding so um our initiatives before were basically focused on helping combat homelessness with people that suffer from Substance Abuse and Mental Health disorders as everyone in here knows uh the cope Center's primary focus is we are an outpatient substance abuse program uh we serve as both adults and adolescents and we provide substance abuse services and Mental Health Services uh in addition to that we provide Psychiatric Services medication monitoring and we also provide medication assisted treatment so what we're proposing to do this year for fiscal 20124 is called the utilities medicine and food assistance act um I heard what some of my colleagues said in regards to things like the pandemic and homelessness in the community and since 2020 like I said I've been doing this for about 25 years I have never seen a more dire need for services than I have since 2020 since the pandemic hit um what we're proposing to do is utilize any funds that are sent our way to provide case management and supportive services in addition to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services that we offer to residents of Montclair so basically what I'm talking about is you have somebody that is having difficulty putting food on the table okay okay we're going to get you over to the Board of Social Services and we're going to get you plugged in with either tanif or general assistance uh you're having issues getting to medical appointments we're going to help you with that you're having a problem with utilities we're going to find programs for you and we're going to get you involved with that complete case management services and wraparounds uh kind of take some of the burden off of the households that are dealing with addictions in addition to that continue the work that we do with the addictions and the mental health components of things and when I say medication I'm not just talking about you know people often stigmatize medication to mean okay it's just he's talking about mental health or medication assisted therapies for people with substance use disorders yes that is two of the medications that we're talking about but I'm also talking about physical medications you have a blood pressure problem uh you have diabetes we're going to get you plugged into services that can help you with that as well so I'm going to keep it short sweet and simple to the point because I don't want to be coughing all over your microphone um but I do want to thank you you for the previous assistance that you guys have given us and I really am looking forward to continuing the work in the community so Mr Riva just the name on here is Oaks integrated care forly cope so what is the new Oaks integrated care is that a a national network or it's not National sir it's uh it's actually a larger company that's down in South Jersey they acquired the cope Center in 2020 so we're still the cope Center but we're now under Oaks integrated care uh where're I guess you could say the most Northern Outpost and sometimes it feels that way so okay thank you yep any other questions thank you thank you okay thank you Michael um next is Sophia and we have divin baj Paul and Kristen Wald to present am absolutely not like the judge everyone just got I can good evening everybody mayor councilman um we are from sopia and Kristen Wald is our vice president she's uh representing today along with me I'm the van p i served the board uh I've seen many of uh familiar faces here from the walk that is one of our ways to raise the funds uh Cynthia Walker is uh not able to come today but there is a letter attached and I'll let um Kristen take care of couple of the bullet points from the letter and then I'll go over the program details and then we can address any questions that you may have yeah and so Cynthia really did want to be here tonight but she wasn't able to um this letter just highlights a couple of the aspects that we've been very grateful to be able to develop with the m um with the money that the council has given us um through this grant um one of the main things that we developed over the last couple of years is that we started to provide um therapy and counseling to domestic violence victims and their families and we have been able to do that um in Spanish as well as English for people who needed that um we also continue to do our sort of success programs which are Financial um and self-empowerment programs which are free and open to the community um the therapy is specifically for clients of Sophia but the sort of success program is open to clients but it's also open to anyone which is part of our Outreach and part of our erasing the stigma of domestic violence um and they've been very popular and um since the lockdown for covid we've done it over zoom and that's actually raised our attendance and so we've continue to do it now as well because people have found it easier with child care Etc to be able to attend um and one of the things that we wanted to highlight is that with all of our programs with the therapy with the workshops one of the things we try to do as part of the community is to utilize individuals with skills in the community so our therapists for our programming for our clients in the community are therapist from the community and so that means that the money that we are um paying stays here and um several of our volunteers for workshops have we've been able to pay them for the workshops and several of them are former clients of Sophia and so we've been able to turn around that for people in the community and Empower them to be able to contribute back and I'm sure you all understand how important it is for people to feel that autonomy and to feel that um contribution um so that they have a certain sense of well-being and joy and pride in themselves um so we do plan to continue to support both local individuals and businesses when we're able to and to incorporate new ways to reach the community and we've had so many wonderful Partnerships with many of the groups here as well as business and organizations um in the community as well I I often go to the high school several times a year and um give presentations as well as many of the houses of worship and other organizations as well what's also in this packet are some details about some of the Outreach programs we have every year and we also included some background and um feedback from people who participated in the um programs as well and I apologize for my printer being a little bit spotty I think you you can still read it but um so I think D would like to add a few details to that thank you you're welcome um I want to take everybody out of this Council room to a place which I sometimes visit uh sometimes too many times that I don't want to visit and that is a police station when a victim of domestic violence comes in it could be 6:00 p.m. it could be 6:00 a.m. sometimes it it is 1:00 a.m. and at that time domestic violence response team members are supposed to join in with the law enforcement team as the New Jersey director when you see these people you are talking about I want to connect this programs how important they are that these people are broken they don't know where the next meal is coming where what are they going to do tomorrow or will they have food on the table or will they be safe so from that angle when we are talking that dire breakdown of a human being to rebuild is quite a process it takes a village we do our part we involve if you look at the examples of the workshops we are talking we're talking about how to do more with the applications from technology angle but we are talking about authentic something very simple but difficult for a Survivor to adhere to so these are really building up individuals who will become productive again and become the part of the society that we all are and if you look from that angle each person who does not become homeless each person who becomes does not become a repeat victim that's lower that impact is big on the township so lower police calls uh police officers could actually go to places where they are more needed and also in terms of the support services there is a lower impact so what we are doing we are building not just the society we are trying to reduce the overall impact when the problem becomes much bigger so with that said last year we served about 300 40 families our goal this year is modest goal about 375 families and we want to invest everything that our volunteers bring in uh people like our presenters uh therapists who contribute to well-being of these individuals we really are looking to maximize the value proposition of each and every penny we get councilwoman thank you both for the presentation really everybody um so I'm just interested because of the part you explained really this very tangible way that how is it that you get the call how is it that you does the person who's come in who's been I guess subject to abuse in some fashion so in the police how is it that you're called do they have to know to have you called or does is the relationship you already have with the monair police department can you share a little bit about how that works so that is from the New Jersey state director that every police department will be calling a domest domestic violence response team member within the township so do we have others you are one of from different organizations yes okay there's okay yeah and it's not by organizations alone it's it's by people who respond but people who've gotten certain training to do that count the Essex County prosecutor's office runs the program okay thank you I didn't know that and it's a mandatory law so everybody gets a chance to speak with somebody who can give them resources and when you people are talking about resources these are the top type of resources that people are looking for other than safety and getting a restraining order and other things that are not relevant here in this present thank you you questions Council question um you know your increase in request is like four times what you did get we have one group uh later that's getting maybe 880,000 less than last time so maybe we can even it all out but it's very hard for us to give you what you request um I've always supported Sophia since the beginning when Cynthia and I got involved with assembly MC Giblin who gave her first, here's my question of it's indicated here that you've had a lot of work with Bloomfield College and I was just at the faculty meeting where Bloomfield faculty have all been merged with Monclair state so monair state has now taken control of Bloomfield College we're helping them survive can you tell me if you have anything G that you've been doing with with Monclair State directly before this or we'll be doing it through the Bloomfield College connection how about the monair state connection yeah we've um we've given presentations to Social Work classes Etc and um and we've also done Outreach programs at different monair state events okay so that can continue with the Bloomfield College absolutely and I think we have had volunteers uh from Monclair uh State have worked with us in the social work field yes good good okay thank you thank you very much appreciate thank you thank you okay thank you um next we have strategic mentoring and uh Joe Davis is here to present good evening everyone even thank you for having me um my name is Joe Davis I'm the executive director of uh brotherto brother mentoring or strategic mentoring I'm here with my program director Alex Hunter and um we are fortunate enough to continue the good work of brotherto brother mentor I'll give you just a little brief background I don't know if everyone got a brochure or not but I do have them uh in case you do want one but uh so brotherto brother covers an extensive uh range of activities and workshops and um ensuring a holistic approach to personal development from uh stress related workshops yoga and meditation uh techniques college tours hiking biking um and an extensive uh list of trips and our offerings are diverse catering to a wide spectrum of interests and needs and we we recognize the importance of addressing the issues that matter to young men today including dating etiquette uh bullying Substance Abuse Prevention uh and we do this through engaging lectures and uh interactive discussions uh in addition to promoting personal growth we place a strong emphasis on community engagement and giving back uh through community service projects and career days our participants learn the value of being active contributors to the communities and explore potential career paths uh financial literacy is a vital aspect of our program equipping our young men with the skills they need to make informed financial decisions in their future um enrichment is another key component of our program and we offer a diverse array of opportunities from art and music appreciation to tennis chess golf um we have an Robotics and entrepreneur workshops which provide a unique platform for nurturing creativity and Innovation uh physical fitness is promoted through activities like boxing basketball fitness challenges and encouraging Healthy Lifestyles and teamwork so we understand that some of our young men face unique challenges and come from disadvantaged backgrounds um our program is inclusive and accessible to all um irrespective of their circumstances and we are committing to breaking down the barriers uh and providing support to those who need it most ensuring that no one is Left Behind um in summary our team mentoring and enrichment program is more than just a service is a transformative Journey for our young men equipped them with the skills knowledge and experience is needed to thrive in the complex world of today so we um we plan to use the the monies and the funding from cdbg to establish a stem and steam program um and in today's rapidly uh evolving world the significance of science technology engineering and Mathematics and its integration with arts or steam has never been greater so these disciplines uh form the Bedrock of innovation offering young minds the tools to navigate an increasingly complex and interconnected Global landscape stem or steam education empowers youth with critical thinking problem solving creativity fostering a generation of adaptable individuals who are poised to drive advancements across various Industries as technology continues to reshape every facet of Our Lives equipping our Young Learners with stem and steam skills have become Paramount for their future so and success so a stark need exists to bridge the existing gaps in stem and steam education particularly young men and young uh and men of color statistical disparities persist in in access to Quality education and opportunities Within These Fields perpetuating a cycle of underrepresentation uh this program recognizes and addresses these challenges by providing a targeted and inclusive environment by tailoring the workshop series to resonate with the experiences and interest we aim to Foster uh a a sense of belonging and relevance igniting a passion for Learning and self-improvement that would transcend so uh societal uh barriers so right now we're looking at roughly 60 Uh current students in the program looking to add another 40 uh to benefit a total of 100 uh uh uh students and 55 households um we are doing this with uh and continue to build our network with Partners including the Salvation Army um Monclair YMCA and our partners at 11 Pine Street um so our population right now uh the project uh targets are are school age boys from the fourth grade through 12th grade um the stem Workshop series is is uh designed to benefit the underserved groups within the Monclair Community aligning perfectly with our focus on supporting the initiatives that serve those who are risk or marginalized by actively addressing these barriers that hinder equal participation and stem and steam education a program strides to create an inclusive environment uh where young men feel valued and empowered uh and motivated to pursue their academic and professional uh aspirations um and uh you know the the population needs are assessed by me uh the executive director and are based on interviews with the youth their family members School Personnel members of the community and National Data um the envisioned outcomes of this program are diverse and impactful and students who engage in these workshops are expected to exhibit enhanced problem solving skills increase self-confidence uh and heightened creativity by nurturing a Fascination for futurism architecture among young students and the program aspires to Kindle an early interest in architecture engineering and art there thereby fering a pipeline of budding talents for the future so um you know we're we're uh requesting uh the money that we're requesting $15,000 um will go to to the stem program and building that um I as I said I do have brochures uh if someone would like you know a brochure to know more about um brotherto brother mentoring but um that's the information I wanted to share with you tonight if you have any questions concerns I gave a lot of information I got to write it down cuz I don't want to miss anything so yeah so all right well thank you so much for that appreciate that thank you see I hope to see everyone at our pancake breakfast on January 20th was to ask that when is that January 20th yes it is okay oh thanks Joe best pancakes good pancakes they're great pancakes uh next we have uh Angelica Diggs who is the executive director of the Monclair History Center I would also like to approach the bench to thank you thank you very much good evening everyone and mayor council thank you for having me this evening so I'm Angelica digs and I am the executive director at the Monclair History Center uh so tonight I am presenting on an application for barrier-free access to one of our historic sites which is the Nathaniel cran house so the two handouts one is more just information on us which I'll summarize tonight um and the other is a little more informational to summarize the project quest with some visuals which you might find helpful as well so just a little bit of background the Monclair History Center was founded in 1965 as the Monclair historical society and our mission is to preserve local history educate others about its importance and share the stories the people who have need the community what it is today we are the stewards of three historic sites on our Orange Road campus so the first includes the crane house and historic YWCA so this serves as our Public Museum telling the stories of the crane family incl the stories of those who were enslaved and servants that were part of the household from 1796 to 1900 as well as the period when it was a YWCA for black women and girls from 1920 to 1965 and most recently it's transitioned to a museum telling the story of preservation in its formative years in America from 1965 to 1970 we also operate the Clark house this um holds our archives our research Library um and Museum offices so we preserve and maintain a collection of over 10,000 archival materials as well as 5,000 artifacts um as a part of our museums ranging from 18th to 20th century history very site specific to Monclair New Jersey and the Tri-State areas um library is a really valuable resource for teachers students historians you name it people come in on a weekly basis to access this information so the Nathaniel cran house um which is the focus of the application tonight um operates as our Visitor Center an additional programming space for our sites uh the Historic Site includes specifically a 19th century General Store and Schoolhouse exhibits um used heavily for educational programs as well as a modern gift shop um for visitors so Nathaniel crane house is located behind the crane house and Clark house if um you are not familiar with the property itself so these buildings plus two acres of property including Learning Gardens um and the Monclair Community Farms also make up the orange Road Campus of our organization so we offer a variety of educational programs throughout the year um serving Monclair specifically but also greater Essex County um these programs include Museum tours summer camps walking tours film series field trips Outreach programs you name at um we're proud to host montclair's third graders every year um going on 40 years now I think um and additionally we serve other school districts including um for example all of norc second graders come for history field trips as well so our historic buildings and grounds are essential for us to being able to serve the public um and with historic buildings comes challenges for Access um which brings us here tonight so our application seeks to improve the access barrier to the Nathaniel cran house um so the materials I gave you in the second handout show the architectural plans if you wanted to take a look you're welcome too to upgrade the space um these improvements include an ADA ramp that will be installed um there is no there is no ramp currently on this building to access inside um so that would provide access from the parking lot itself um a wider door um to that entrance into the building um so that that it is Ada accessible improving the grading and the front entrance of the building um which would impr improved access to the stairs um as well as new railings to also be installed at that front entrance um that would make access easier as well so this project is managed by cus architecture of Montclair Anderson Engineering Consulting and also the New Jersey historic trust um all project plans have been approved by the Monclair historics preservation commission and Zoning Board of adjustment as of this summer so that's all in line um we're requesting the 15,000 to complete this project um the project total cost is estimated 30,000 for Capital project we have the other match already from New Jersey historic trust in hand so that's all lined up as well um the Nathaniel cran housee just to reate is really used for a variety of educational programs um and events and most importantly our field trips each year so we I mean thousands of individuals about 6,000 people come in and out and access that space on a regular basis um we've documented instances um where people would have to change plans um could not get inside or could not partake in all activities because of that barrier um so we were really seeking to improve that for the public as a part of this um and our re mission is really to make our resources accessible to all individuals and create an opportunity to participate to connect with montclair's history which is important and crucial to our mission as well um without the completion um the first level Nathaniel cran house will remain um inaccessible to certain people visiting our sites so I thank you for your consideration of course uh if you have any questions please let me know any questions just a quick question I always have but you've only asked us for 15 but you got 90 last year is that correct so the 90 is for uh phase one of the Ada which is for the Clark house so this phase two um for the Nathaniel cran house is a phase two of the project so the total for that is 30,000 we have half we're seeking the other half of it and now the 90 as we were saying before we have to use it somebody said said that before it was important we use it so what's the status of the 90 that's been used well we will use it um what happens is this is a capital project and it's not an annual cost like we have with the other service agencies so it's essentially a onetime cost and we have other applicants tonight who also have uh capital projects in addition to the Township's capital projects so we have always have more more projects and money that's the reality and uh I'm I'm happy to say we're about to enter into bidding for the Clark house from last year's project so that will be completed uh I'm hoping early spring so as we get there in 2024 so thank you thank you great thank you so much okay uh thank you Angelica next is neighborhood Council and here tonight we have Stanley white and Victor Deming who are with the neighborhood Council they've also brought their contractor um who is in charge of putting the new roof on the house that's Ronaldo nezaj I I think I butchered his name but thank you me okay met Mees good evening I'm Stanley white I'm the president of the neighborhood council with me here tonight is Victor Deming the treasurer of the neighborhood Council I will Begin by giving you a brief history of the site and Victor will follow with the details for the application for funding in the early 1900s the Junior League started the use of 50 Maple Avenue as a site for community service some of the services included immigrants were uh assisted in preparation for citizenship the Montclair Health Department began in this uh site and it also provided daycare for uh parents that were working in 194 46 the Junior League signed ownership of the facility to the neighborhood Council sometime thereafter the late Miss Anna colan became president of the neighborhood Council she remained president until her death in 2011 fortunately I had driven Miss uh Coman to many of the county evening award Ceremonies for the Community Development block grant it gave me some insult for some of the what was involved when I succeeded her in 1970s under Miss Coleman's Guidance the council purchased the adjacent building at 48 Maple Avenue with Government funding and under the direction of Martin daa and his architectural firm the two buildings were connected to form the structure that exists today Mr deming's going to let you know about the project that we're uh planning on doing thank you Stanley mayor Spiller council members you know we're seeking to see dbg Monies to replace the existing roof and also gutters and leaders and what we have done we have gone out and we were able to come up with a a project a vendor Elliot Works uh they're out of Clifton New Jersey and uh Mr ralo nzar who will speak in a minute will give you the details currently we're seeking to replace the roof and more than likely we're prob probably talking about a capital project and uh that's because the existing roof quite Frank it's been there 30 years it's leaking and so we have had this architect who has been monitoring on a regular basis the roof uh and we now recognize there's a need to replace the roof so you said the neighborhood Council yeah we're the neighborhood Council who's been in existence for years and one of the things that we do we have a child care The Neighborhood Child Care with approximately 85 students to include now this year Universal pre so it's all one continuous uh operation organization in addition to that we have admin admin ministrators 15 26 administrators and and and instructors and quite frankly even though we're not in the child care business I feel that it's conceivable that as someone responsible for a building which house children we have to be very concerned very concerned about the health and safety not only uh of the children but everyone who visits the center and we do have a lot of visitors right now I would like to turn it over to Mr Ronaldo and ask him if he can provide you with some insight as to what we're planning to do for the roof and I for the uh replacement of the roof and I believe you do have a package that uh before before you do what's the before we turn it over what's the dollar amount that you guys oh I'm sorry $53,500 so Janice as you see that right so the the information we have is talking about a your furnace and you know um that was not that was last year sir okay that was my mistake it's in the memo but I probably didn't put it into the checklist okay you look at the memo all right great thank you thank you thank you okay good evening everyone thank you for having me tonight uh my name is Ronaldo nzai I'm with Elite work and uh I will briefly give you a walk through of the problem the causes from it and and the end of the solution so uh after closely inspecting the roof uh there's been it has extended its lifetime and also has currently multiple leaks and the potential risks are um you know the structural Integrity of it is not safe also it has a leaks that can cause further damage to the to to the interior of the building and and uh basically the um we have there are two quotes one of the quotes includes the roof replacement itself excluding the uh base that the plywood sheathing and also the uh itemized Gutter and then the next quote includes the ba the sheathing the plywood sheathing uh we believe is necessary because there's many layers put on onto it and especially that the majority of the roof space is a flat roof so the risk is that um you know since it has many layers and during winter with the weight of snow and also water accumulating it can lead to potentially ceiling collapses and the solution would be to replace to do new plywood then put the roof layers on and then uh have a a good drain drainage system so replacing the gutter system too and happy to answer any qu the manufacturer would be GF that's the largest uh used in North America we're CER ified and trained with GF they're also based in New Jersey and uh you know warranties and more we can we've given all the details and happy to answer any questions you guys have thank you any questions yeah I have a a question for Mr ding or or Mr White so on the description it says that um the building 30 Maple Avenue is leased so who owns this building no owns the facility yes the council I see the council owns the facility and it's the child care who rents from us oh okay separate 501 C3 okay good it's the description wasn't as clear okay good thank you Janice do you need us to bring any additional information for the council um well if you have anything to hand out that's fine I didn't copy anything I did not but you have links to the um to the all the application materials in the memo so if you click on it that the link in the memo that'll give you all the application materials in addition to the summary if there no more questions thank you yes ma'am yes counc Council price saving does thank you so um I don't know what the overall cost of the replacement roof is if that's the total cost or is there a match that you've otherwise raised like is this partial or no that's the total cost cost maam that's the total cost okay the 534 thank you okay okay great thank you thank you Mr Dem you okay thank you and for our final presentation tonight we have sister to sister and here to present is Evelyn gay good evening Mr Mr Mayor and Town Council I'm pretty much going to be reading to you because I'm the worst when it comes to being off the cuff so bear with me so sister sister is an Innovative after school program for girls in grades 4 to 12 who are mentored by professional women promoting positive self-esteem social and life skills and empowerment since our beginning 25 years ago sister the sister has served more than S 00 young women at the high middle and elementary school levels inspiring them with the highest ideals of character conduct and educational achievement that they may become productive resourceful and empowered leaders of their communities sister to sister had a very successful event filled past year here's the list of our many activities that were designed to increase cultural pride and awareness level the playing field and increase educational aspirations we took a college tour to mclair State University and Ruckers University and provided lunch and with brother to brother we took a college tour of the College of New Jersey providing lunch we we went to the national museum of African-American history and culture providing lunch and dinner and this included the elementary and middle schools as well as brother to brother dinner in a movie with brother to brother we showed the emit till life story and we provided tutoring for sister to sister members who were in danger of failing a class and this program was so popular that our um membership went up by 50% and we're ex anticipating that the same is going to happen next year because so many of our girls are far behind because of covid as as has been explained previously and when they learned that sister to sister is providing free tutoring we charge for nothing none of our programs um it just made us that much more popular um we also provided SAT prep for Rising seniors another very popular program so we're probably going to have to do that for about 20 girls this year we also coach seniors on their college applications we took the little sister toister members to see The Little Mermaid 44 tickets and snacks were provided um we've had health and wellness speakers and programs and we have partnered with the NAACP on various programs sister to Sister members were also encouraged to give back by volunteering to make many community activities of success such as our chocolate fundraiser the girls sold boxes of 60 chocolate bars to raise money to buy gifts for other girls who are in foster care and we bought those girls those 15 girls Michael Kors purses and we bought each of them a initial necklace we're in the process of uh selling that chocolate right now until December 14th let me know if you want further information I want two bars or whatever they are okay we've got a bunch out in the back and I'll be right back okay we also had a popup grocery shop for seniors in North we helped out with nishaan school dance for second and third graders and Quanza festivities at Nisha school we also participated in the mon race Amity Day Festival and circle of Sparks playback project sister sisters past year has been so successful that it has generated positive feedback among our Target population of female students in the mon their Public Schools as such we will provide three months of SAT prep for it says 15 Juniors here we already have 20 signed up and due to popular demand we will also be starting a sister to sister chapter of girls who Co this January so it's for the increased SAT prep and the uh new chapter of girls who code that we're seeking funding uh we have never received any money from the cgb cdbg funds so we're hoping to get a more favorable response this year so sister to sister serves the young women of Monclair who are most likely to qualify for free or reduced rate lunch and will be the first in their family to attend college given this sister to sister is proud to say that 98% of our girls graduate from mon their high school and go on to college thank you any questions seeing n thank you so much appreciate thank you thank you I'll be bringing a chocolate [Applause] in so just in summary um I'm just going to summarize the township projects for this fund because approximately half goes to our service agencies and approximately half is for Township uh projects um one of our projects is to continue to make improvements to Cornerstone house that's owned by the township it's operated as a shelter as you know we've put money in we put a new roof in or we that was funded last year we right now um are preparing the bid specs for our new roof um we submitted a grant to put in a new heating and cooling system haven't heard back on that yet so the next round is to fix the exterior of the building there's no insulation and the floor is underneath the kitchen um the the um the wood elements the exterior wood elements are in very poor shape so we need to be there needs to be repairs to the exterior stripping and painting of the exterior um the stairs need work um and there is no Ada accessibility so um we we're looking for $50,000 towards those um other improvements to that very old beautiful building that's right next to the municipal building sorry Janice so uh before you move on so would this address the Ada thing or that's not what this I didn't include it in the description but it's something it's on our list of thing we have a long list of improvements to that building I'd like to include that in it and see if we could put uh include that in the quote okay within the amount that you set aside yes um other project is 14 Miller Street we're in the process of acquiring the property prop um and again there's a lot of uh improvements that are needed to that to to that building I'm only looking for funding to improve um what did I um the oh new heating and cooling system for those for those dwelling units I know they have relatively new um hot water heaters but again there is no cooling system they have air conditioners so we're going to look to to make improvements to those we anticipate getting additional funding we're we're um identifying Partners to work with us to manage and perhaps acquire that building but in the meantime once the existing tenants uh leave we want to be able in a position to start making some improvements to that building and cdbg is one of the funding sources that we want to use and the final project we have on here is for the Monclair Public Library as you know this year we we've just completed improvements to the bathrooms at the library they're the third floor and the first floor are now completely 8 accessible um but we didn't have enough funds last time to do the second floor bathrooms but we have the bid specs all ready to go so we've included $30,000 to redo the bathrooms on the second floor of the of the library to make them Ada accessible so again we have a lot of projects we have got more projects than we have money for um so that's why it's important for you to prioritize so that's one of the considerations when we meet with the county and we go through all of the project um descriptions um and how the uh uh various organizations have worked with the county and responded to issues and all of that factors into the ultimate allocation of funds okay thanks one second did you say 14 Miller Street yes okay and what type of location is that what type of building is that it's a three family house okay that we the the plan I apolog the the plan that house is being sold to the township by homec cor we intend to make it into deed restricted affordable housing so okay Janice one question for me on the library my students visited the main library and saw the third and first floor what about the the branch library Belleview when they went into had this terrific problem and the water damage all over the walls and you know it's been there a couple of years but is that something cdbg money could be dedicated to does the library have its own funds for the libraries it has to be to to improve accessibility accessib so I know we I've I've been in conversations with them about um an elevator but when they told me the cost would be a million dollars I said that's more than we have in the in the fund but the water damage wouldn't qualify it would qualify okay thank you thank you thank you uh councilman um I just want to say I I I've my family and I have lived here for 32 years and um in all the many years I've been on the council and we go through this this evening's um um review of all these amazing um programs from these organizations I'm just sitting here tonight I maybe I'm feeling sentimental but I'm amazed of after 32 years to see the same faces here not year after year of these dedicated volunteers of in our town I see Evelyn gay and Joe Davis and Mr Deming and Mr White and Reverend Dunn Cynthia K and Marcia Marley I also I see Daddy Bennett here who who didn't speak but and Kirsten Wald I'm just um so um touched by all these people for so many years I've known you our kids went to school together um and that you're still here doing this important important work and I just have to applaud all of you really it's [Applause] amazing exent thank you thank you thank you all right those thank you to all the grant applicants appreciate you coming in that will conclude uh that part of the meeting so we appreciate that and certainly uh Janice you'll be working on that with the county and then of course the will be shared out once it's available so thank you all very much appreciate that thank you thank you [Applause] guys which yeah Joe has like voices you just [Laughter] like you should be narrating some music situation all right all right excellent we thank them again we appreciate that um next uh we're going to move to we did the cdbg we have a couple hearings that are open right now so we're going to move to pending ordinance 02337 which is an ordinance to amend chapter 237 of the code of the Town Monclair which is the uh school speed limits and the roadways I so move second it's moved in second second without objection I'm going to open to public hearing on this ordinance is there anyone wishes to speak to this pending ordinance seeing none I will close it any other additional questions or comments come on up are we going to do public comment May or to this because we always do public some folks are here for public comment there always are any would you like to speak to this ordinance yes yeah thank you uh good evening uh my name is Andrew Hawkins I live at 15 Warfield uh dad of two kids and I'm one of of the organizers of the Monclair bike bus um just wanted to commend the council uh for moving forward with this plan uh to lowering speed limits in our town especially around school zones as this will go a very long way towards making our road safer as well as helping us at the bike bus feel more confident when we're out on the roads uh with our kids um I don't know if you saw recently uh but our numbers have grown tremendously we're around 32 20 or so uh at our Peak it's a little colder now but so not quite there uh as we were a couple months ago but uh it's clear that there's a lot of demand uh for for biking to school and I think that the lowering the speed limits especially around school zones will go a tremendous way towards encouraging more kids to come out and participate in this activity um we'd like a little Clarity around um how this is going to actually proceed so maybe the council could take a moment to explain to us sort of what the next steps are what the speed limits that you guys are recommending is this going to be townwide is this only for town roads is it going to include CL County Roads as well um and what the speed limits will be around the schools in sure so so um I think we we noted this at the last meeting um as well specifically um but we are moving uh through a number of different ordinances that we're moving correct cuz some things are recommendations to the count you lumped a lot together there right so we'll split it apart a little bit we're moving to have all Township roads 25 mph for All County Roads that run through the township recommending 25 mes hour that is not us just doing right recommending um school speed uh uh speed as well we're looking to uh see 15 milph right um and again we're also looking at what other locations that might be best for so that's the comprehensive Mr Leo did I miss anything in that that's sound corre okay is your is your m the ordinance for the townwide reduction and speed will be on at our next meeting right for the distance that we needed from the first introduction so that's the comprehensive list of and do you have a sense of when this would uh go into effect if everything goes U Mr Burr what's the time frame you have to wait 60 what's the time frame that after for an ordinance to go for 20 days okay second if I could just add something to you what we're doing tonight is 20 miles an hour at the the locations that are County Road School locations you know that's something we've got on here now but as the said we want to get to 15 for all of our school locations and then there'll be 25 all throughout the town every road County and but but again not promising for the county we County to approve we have to get the county to approve it but we are recommending it we'll get that done don't worry um so I would just add then just very quickly uh lowered speed limits is a wonderful first step um but we also need uh to redesign our roads to really seal in these improvements uh raised crosswalks daylighting at intersections to make them safer for pedestrians and cyclists alike uh bike Lanes especially protected bike Lanes uh numerous Studies have shown that these types of improvements uh can really help improve not only safety but also increase uh foot traffic to local businesses tax revenue towns Prosper when they make these kinds of changes um so I'm really encouraged to see that the town's taking the step and I would encourage you guys to go the The Next Step Beyond which includes Road red redesigns and uh traffic calming measures to really help uh seal in a lot of these improvements thank you very much thank you thank you thank you Paul anyone else wishing to be heard on this ordinance yes please yes thank you hi um thank you I hear name name and oh sorry Paul mwit S van uh bike walk Monclair and I hear I want to again applaud the efforts and I hear the recommendation uh going to the county and I just want to encourage you all to not take no for an answer um I've already heard a little bit uh over this year about the 85th percentile and speed studies and uh that kind of research that needs to be done and when it comes to lowering speeds there's absolutely no reason to have to do any kind of study to rationalize lowering the speeds for safety um it's Antiquated methodology and it's flawed it shouldn't be applied to roadways going through towns and I just want to give you all uh the encouragement to just push back on County if they say oh no we did a speed study 85th percentile it's got to be 30 or 35 whatever it is it just flawed and it's uh I hope we don't we don't run into this into that so that's that's what I want to say I'm just kind of getting prepped for the speed study uh response anyway thank you very much we'll get you prepped for it by going to their meetings uh when they have them and yes Paul what you have to do is Lobby them the County Commissioners okay if and I just want yeah I just add to Paul so I'm sure you know the vision zero task force again is another venue where these things can be discussed but if there's things you want us to know and read please just send along the link to something you know to that point Thank you hi everybody my name is Jamie bedan 113 Gordon Hurst how were your pies Mr Spiller very good thank you okay good I'm glad um I just wanted to follow up on what my friends and colleagues have talked about um and I'm not here as a journalist I'm really here as a parent um the um listening to what Paul said got me thinking about um this you know some of the the obstacles that we might face with the county but I mean the things that are some just my personal observations one we're just more congested than we used to be there are more cars on the road and the cars are larger and I don't know about you but when I'm so I live you know as I said on Gordon Hurst and it is so difficult to see when you you know I pull out on to park I hold my breath I pray I say you know I look to the left I look to the right I look to the left and I just I can't see and I know I'm not the only person so when we talk about like Street design I do wonder if there's something that we can be taking into consideration with regards to parking um I'm certainly not an expert but I do think all these things um play a role and I did want to ask when we have a specific concern um for example I mean at Valley is Valley a county or city road County Road oh okay but you know the house on Valley with the hedges uh where Gordon Hurst and Valley that t you know by the Acme it's already such a dangerous intersection and now it's getting harder again to see to make the left and I just wonder like are there little things that we can be doing to continually improve our site because the short answer to these questions is yes so I'll I'll say this um specifically a good example parking right right now we work through uh uh Township uh departments like if if there are sight line issues right there they put markers out as to where Vehicles can park and distances from to kind of open that space up that's assessed right that's something that can be done um and happens now um secondly when you talk about Hedges that is an ongoing thing I think every one of us on the council gets a report of it's a bad sight line area um we then refer that uh to Mr Lola to have the team go out and look at that and hopefully ask the homeowner to trim that back um or in some cases you know handle that and build them but um so all of these things are a yes you know that's a yes that that that's the work that happens now and I think even as the councilwoman noted um kind of broader standards and other pieces that can be put in through the Visions Z task force I think are things we can um more standardize as we kind of do the work but yes as the answer these things happen and that's something we have been doing just so that I'm over here sorry I have a cold so I apologize but to the mayor's Point that's something that we've been doing ongoing with intersection so now that you've noted that I'll make sure since it's in the first word I'll follow through to make sure that the sight lines clear thank you I mean I have noticed the increase in the markers that you're talking about for parking purposes um um and you know um I would ask one more time that if there was any way to consider making Gordon Hurst in Fullerton a four-way stop we've had so many studies and I'm I just I'm so fearful that somebody somebody is going to lose their life um you know what we actually see there more than anything is cars who think drivers who think it's a four-way it's not a four-way they stop and they're inadvertently causing confusion do you you know what I mean and I I just think I know um sergeant agzo not Lieutenant thank you I know that we've had studies it's just I don't know that it's studi in that sense I've lived there 13 years it's it's just um it's so just the the studi piece I cat you on that too for I no I totally think it's exactly the way you frame it actually encapsulates it perfectly because there's a number of intersections I'm thinking of one on Gates as as you're speaking right um but the challenge around it the study is what's required under the law right and and the study is an assessment of any accidents that have occurred speed assessment of the you know there's a there's a warrant study that has to happen and and my understanding the history of it Janice could probably speak to it better than I um but the state put in these these standards that you have to hit to Warrant a four-way stop um the reason they put it through is they didn't want towns putting four-way stops everywhere um but you have to look at these studies to see does it warrant this four-way stop so it's one of the challenges we always run into um but we do always refer those pieces to get a study the police department works with us to see they try to study it at the um most most favorable time to see what might happen right not you know in a you know less travel time or something else that would lower one of the thresholds um so it's an ongoing piece there as well but but certainly again pieces we can discuss if I might just ask one more question are you saying that that's the state um requiring of the township or the state requiring of the county or well that's not a county road so yeah I mean I I don't know what it applies on the county level to be honest I'm not exactly sure but I know as as a local every time we always get these four-way stop requests that's what we that's what we engage in we have to do through the state mayor Jamie I want to refer you to this gentleman sitting right here my former student I guess I'll call him his sister works with the do the Department of Transportation presented to my students and is going to present to division zero a whole report on all the things that can be done to traffic calm signage all the rules of the state so as the mayor is saying it's it's a state rule for the county and the municipality to have these studies but there's ways that this can be done efficiently so if you talk to illmore on your way out out he'll get you some more information I know you live at the corner near Valley on gordonhurst right I don't actually live near the corner well I live walking distance to the corner right that's what I mean close to the corner I used to be on Bruce Road right off there sure so youp my mother lived there and went there all the time it's the Acme now um years ago the County Freeholder for our area Louis palagano got the the speed limit reduced to 25 going across that b air house and Acme crosswalk because it was 35 people would go 50 they got 50 older people one person got killed other seniors got really scared because they couldn't cross so we did get it done it took quite a while it was the county approving it they usually will approve what we ask and we have enough connections with the county that we can get them to approve it but what you need to do hopefully and others please you know talk to Brendan Gill our County Freeholder commissioner they call him now and Carlos pomus covers Monclair Bloomfield and the other towns when we get them and the mayor Jackson is the county administrator Essex County he was our former mayor they all have heard from me Bill Hurlock the mayor and others we've told them all we need them to support what we ask for so I'm confident we're going to get it but residents like yourself can actually push them you you're they're elected by you so they're also another layer of government that we've got to get through so keep in touch on this thank you thank you you're still at Montclair State you're still at monair state monair state and Sean Hall okay good than anyone else was to be heard on this ordinance ilar Vander 127 Edgemont Road thank you councelor Russo that was a perfect introduction to my remarks I just wanted to touch on what I spoke to you about at the last council meeting which was my sister's report as was mentioned as I forwarded to Mr laala per his request and that brings to mind another issue you know my sister is an engineer and we used to have the most wonderful in-house engineer in Montclair Miss Kimberly craft who was um well known to all of us and uh my father worked with her on behalf of his architectural clients on a number of projects there are a number of intersections and roadways which I still remember to this day her redesign which I think hold up beautifully well and I drive through them every day and the measures that she took have still have lasting effects to this day there are pros and cons with everything of course but one of the pros of hiring someone in house versus hiring a consulting firm is that they are directly responsible and accountable within the government structure versus you having to go through a layer of people to get um accountability and clarification and other things in a consulting firm there's typically also a high turnover of Staff multiple people working on multiple projects for multiple clients and it's it isn't always the the same level of um attention to detail that is provided by somebody who is in house and um another you know deficit is of course that the consulting firm is not local they're not on site you know when I would typically talk to uh Miss craft she would literally from memory say oh yes I know the street I know the intersection you're talking about I know the conditions there and everything else you don't have to take someone from far away bring them here explain bring them up to speed uh and typically an in-house engineer that's hired would have a higher level of experience under their belt anyway so I would Advocate strongly and urge the Town Council to demonstrate its commitment to this issue because when we're talking about redesigning intersections and roadways that component becomes very critical uh to put the resources uh and the commitment behind reinstating a a full-time in-house engineering professional position within the township thank you thank [Applause] you okay I'm seeing no one else wishing to speak to this ordinance I'll close it any uh questions concerns comments Mr Mayor if I may Mr Deputy Mayor thank you I just want to um in the spirit of what we've been discussing actually the original that came out was 20 on Elm 25 on Grove 25 on Valley 25 on Valley and of course I express the concern as did others and I know uh Council schlager one of these is in her Ward the other two were in mind um uh having seen um former mayor Jackson who's now who has been working with the county and speaking to him about this I want to thank him for working with us to your point Mr Mayor and getting these all down to 20 which is where they should be if not lower but I do want to say that we do work with the county they were very receptive and we effectuated these from 25 to 20 thank you yes uh thank you Mr Deputy Mayor noting um that uh we do have that great work relationship and we'll continue to we're sure thank you any other qu any other comments seeing none U I'll just Echo what the deputy mayor just noted and uh pleased to see it moving in this direction uh Madam clerk please councelor Cummings absent Deputy Mayor herlock absolutely yes councelor price Abrams yes councelor Russo about time yes councelor schlager yes councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes next is ordinance 0 2342 which is the [Applause] ordinance um this is an ordinance to amend chapter 327 vehicles and traffic and the code of the township of Monclair to prohibit parking uh on Park Street that leftand turn uh at the intersection of of Park and had in place uh During certain hours I so move second it's been moved and seconded um uh on on this one uh any questions concerns comments as we introduce this my colleagues seeing none Madam clerk councelor Cummings absent Deputy Mayor herlock absolutely yes councelor price Abrams yes councelor Russo about time again yes councelor schlager yes councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes uh and we do have three brief uh uh resolutions so we'll just do these here the resolution R23 243 uh which is a resolution authorizing the contract with Imperial parking for our of deck ISO move any questions concerns comments seeing none Madam clerk councelor Cummings absent Deputy Mayor Hurlock yes councelor price Abrams yes councelor Russo yes councelor schlager yes councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes next resolution R23 290 which is a resolution awarding fair and open contract uh uh for the music group for architectual design the health department Renovations I so move any questions concerns comments Madam Clerk councelor Cummings absent Deputy Mayor Hurlock yes councelor price Abrams yes councelor Russo yes councelor schlager yes councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes and next resolution R23 291 councilwoman schlager um yes thank you mayor whereas invoice is against the township of Monclair in favor of the following persons for the amounts set opposite their respective names have been received duly audited and found correct now therefore be it resolved by the Council of the township of Monclair the County of Essex that said invoices B and they are hereby ordered paid and that checks be drawn by the finance department to the order of such persons for the amounts respectively and here and after stated on the computer print out attached here too and made a part hereof The Spill list is dated December 5th 2023 they amount to 20, 486,000 and 54 cents and I so moved second moved and second any questions concerns or comments um mayor I just had a couple of things that I want to ask but I don't want to bog us down I'll take these up with the manager at some point for example we spent some money on the turkeys at the shop right in Brookdale $750 I just want to know where they all went and um there's a lot of little things here that we've been spending money outside the town and a lot of these charges I'm sure they go uh to Philadelphia or other states but they're locally purchased so when we get something it's Staples just to clarify this for me there's a lot of thousands of dollars spent at Staples we go to the local Staples from however they bill us but the bill comes from out of state so we're not really spending money out of state we're just getting build from out of state okay thank you questions counc price havs thanks mayor um Mr Lolo I know uh it's on page 17 it's it's the shoreline energy advisors and it's for the micro grid Phase 2 so I think I know that relates to this whole emergency backup yes would you mind just maybe just briefly where we are in that project and I'm glad to see that you know well we're basically trying to get the BPU to approve our plan uh in terms of the micro grid we're we received the grant but then their own regulations prevent us from accomplishing what we were given the money to do this is our consultant that we're working with trying to accomplish that because there's certain regulations about when you you know pass over other types of power that you can't do it that way so we're trying to reach a solution on how to how to get that done that's an ongoing effort with the BPU okay follow up with you for more detail on then I have time too thank you any other questions seeing none Madam clerk councelor Cummings absent Deputy Mayor Hurlock yes councelor price Abrams yes councelor Russo yes councelor schlager yes councelor Terry yes mayor Spiller yes all right thank you very much everybody um next we're going to go to public comment all speakers complete the signing sheet next to the podium before addressing the council uh uh for for Council uh comments we'll have 2 minutes for public comment before speaking please state your name and uh your address if you wish to comment uh on on anything else uh please this is the time uh please come on up and two minutes and state your name and address thank you hi my name is Terry Sullivan I live at 10 cresmont Road I'm here tonight representing Aging in Monclair known as aim it's a organiz hold on hold on one second okay if I could just ask sh just cuz we're trying to make sure we hear everybody thank you want to make sure you can be heard please go ahead our organization represents we have over 600 members of in our organization we provide programs for senior citizens and Advocate on behalf of senior citizens um we'd like to thank the council for some impr you know progressions that we've made this year with the hiring of the filling the vacant position of Senior Services director hiring a social worker we're pleased that that happened um but tonight I want to talk about the elephant in the room a senior center something that we have been waiting for for years um and for the past 10 years aim and other organizations have been advocating for a senior CI Center your first one of your first official acts when this C Council was formed was to reject the proposal for leasing the Mills building for a senior center um since then there has been nothing happening as far as the senior center um many many other towns here in Essex County all around have very vibrant senior centers um and our members are frustrated um we've been waiting so long for this and we are presenting a proposal to you tonight to rather than waiting even further to start getting the ball rolling to set up a committee to consisting of council members and Senior representatives to investigate a senior center to come up with ideas on funding a senior center um we've added timelines to our proposal um and we we use strong language in The Proposal words like demand but that is just an expression of our frustration about this thank you that's that is your time but thank you oh okay yeah thank you that went fast mayor I I wonder if we might everyone's queed up it would take more than one of us oh you're going to finish I I just wanted to say if people wanted to sign and then they don't have to stand on the line like you could sign and sit seems to me and come up when it's your turn they like just thought anyway okay I have been asked on behalf of the board of directors of aim to read you an urgent proposal which I think Terry will be passing around to all of you on March 28th 2017 the Town Council not you guys passed a resolution r7090 to affirm its commitment to the establishment of a comprehensive Senior Center a vibrant Town Center where seniors could age in place it has become obvious that this was an empty political gesture no more we are we are well over 600 older residents who have joined together and worked in different ways for over 10 years advocating for a senior center we are disappointed and angry the failure of this Council to take any meaningful action to make budget Equity real and not just a talking point is a notable failure of many elected and appointed individuals and the town government as an institution aging Clair proposes and demands the following of montclair's current Town Council by January 15 2024 the council will appoint a senior center committee this group is to convene no later than February 2024 timely action on the designation of Representatives to serve on the senior C Center committee is of utmost importance in order to adhere to the aim expected timeline how am I getting the senior center committee will be composed of at least two council members and three or more representatives of the senior community in Montclair the initial mission of this appointed group will include identifying a suitable property for a senior community center this group will Undertake and begin plans for the center's development including funding design monitoring okay want to take over I you minut okay Char's G it doesn't quite work that way but if you can come on up please it doesn't work that way yeah cuz everybody would do but if you can come on up and you can finish for sure make an exception for these the senior citizens the people have worked through us for years we try to make sure it's the same for everybody so that same for everybody but seniors are special okay give the seniors a little more time okay thank you very much Bob I appreciate it uh where was I development including funding design monitoring bids for contracts and building approvals and plans in May 2024 the senior center committee will submit a draft plan for the building of the Montclair Senior Center to the full Council and to the public we expect that the final Senior Center plans to be on the agenda for adoption by the full Council not later than July 15th 2024 we want a senior center in our lifetimes senior residents are well over 25% of montclair's population and they vote a senior center is much more than a place to play games and have lunch it will be the heart of our town bringing all groups together thank you thank you thank you my name is Carolyn luck I've been a resident in Montclair for 67 years in my early years I was interested in the education of my children and in the government of Monclair in past years uh in recent years as one of the founding members of aim I've been active in trying to meet the needs of Montclair citizens in past years I have seen proposals for two senior cers denied it is shameful that mclair does not have a senior center like other municipalities have council members always seem to say they support senior issues and services recently you have responded to our wishes and have hired a director of Senior Services a social worker and support for Michelle DT and we do appreciate that however you have taken no steps to establish a full service Senior Center and we struggle to find places for the many activities that Aging in Montclair provid Ides it's obvious that you need help so I urge you to form a committee as just proposed to get this project underway it is long overdo thank [Applause] you just want to respond for a second if I may you're not on the senior issue are you okay so Carolyn no but he will someday yeah just want just want to just want to respond particularly to Carolyn um because I know you've been here for many many years I've been pushing for this for 20 years and you should know that Roger Terry who sits to my right as my colleague at large tried to get the Town Council back in 19 in 2009 I think it was but correct me if I'm wrong Roger to buy a building right Roger Roger really tried it I think he got three votes on the council it was a bad time economically somehow of budget issues I was not on the council at that time when you referred before Terry that not us but there is us because councelor schlager myself councelor and Deputy Mayor Hurlock and mayor Spiller were here in 2017 so we did do something with a sincere interest in getting it done now I do remember that as soon as we were reelected some of us there was a proposal to buy you know to rent a facility at 60 um 60 South feron I do remember that I asked the council to please go ahead with whatever was done but there were reasons and some good reasons that the rent might have been too high whatever my concern is that we don't stop exploring that and exploring other issues but we we have not done as you say we have not for three and a half years done what you would like but I want you to know that Roger Terry's here now I'm still here and we're going to get this done and Roger serves on the services committee with myself and counselor price Abrams we could be a core of whatever you're asking for the three of us could be the if the council's okay with that we could be the three council members because you can't have more than three so that's the council presence that will for fight for this I'm hopeful and I'm just asking my colleagues again I'm almost crying because my mother died three years ago at 101 lived in the Bell Air house there was never a senior center here in this town I go to Neptune down at Ocean Grove all the time in the summer Neptune has a fully operating beautiful it's half our population beautiful senior center with a director a staff rooms activities all on Route 33 if anybody ever goes down that way near the hospital Center there there's a big hospital it's a terrific Senior Center they bought that from the county now we have our County facility we have our Edgemont Park we do have you know places that we have activities but I agree with you a Central Senior Center which Roger tried to get us to do was off Walnut and Greenwood right Roger so I'm just hopeful we're going to get to do what you're asking and I appreciate you coming I don't like to get criticized when I tried to do something but I understand your frustration it's mine as well thank you appreciate it and I I would just say this you know I think it's important uh in addition to being hopeful is the actions and one of the things that we took was was to acquire the property next door as a definitive step uh that was a significant investment and the CH the the the reason for doing that is to give a footprint uh for the future to be able to build uh on that location and this one to provide again the space that we hear uh from view yes for senior center but for community centers that we hear the request for and other pieces um that first step I'll note was a significant financial investment right I think it's uh the committee work is so important but without the million dollar property that you purchase next door it just doesn't happen right so um we are I think taking the actions yes you noted some of the positions and thank you for it that that we filled along the way um but I think a huge step towards it is the the the actual dollars that you know are going to take over a number of years to be able to put a million into buying a property the millions into building a facility the M you know those steps uh along the way are important to put in financially and I'm very happy that we've been able to take those steps um and not just talk about it but invest uh Millions right million million plus into a property to make sure we're moving along that direction but there is money available and one of the things that this committee could do is look into what are the sources of money yeah oh I agree with you any place we can get more dollars we absolutely we can speed up our process no question not you I mean the next thing that happened was that you know the schools started falling apart our grandkids go to those schools we don't want them to be in dangerous places so you well thank you thank you yeah we got the schools the school stuff there us not at all well we we're investing and moving be here that long each year we get older we all we all hope we do we us too so we're hoping right yes next week5 oh EXC bless bless happy birthday I like it I like it thank see you at home Terry good evening Council Mr Mayor thank you for your time U my name is Ancor jetley I am a board member of mesh Monclair located um on 619 Bloomfield Avenue I'm just here to one say thank you for the support you've given so far and just ask for your continued support uh we currently have uh a rest bit set up at St Mark's Methodist Church where we have 20 people uh usually when the weather is under 32° we're housing them you know keeping out of the keeping them out of the cold for warming Center as well and at 619 Bloomfield Avenue where the restaurant called the office once was uh we're serving anywhere from 50 to 60 meals 6 days a week and we just need your continued support um to make sure we can keep things going uh because obviously in terms of Staffing and providing food when needed when we don't always have donors for those kind of things the majority of our work is done by volunteers but we do have a few people on staff which are on payroll just to make sure we have the consistency for our guests as well so just wanted to thank you one and just ask for your continued support I believe there was already um a request that was made by our president for that so I just wanted to come out and just say that thank you so much thank you I just want to tell you you're with the mesh board yes yeah because councelor Cummings is not here right now um he told the the folks who were here that night to please get us some specifics yes so make sure they follow up with him so we can get you what you need all right good thank you thank you and I will add I I believe the bill payment uh for for the 175 like that's part of the commitment we've made previously actually was on tonight's bill is I believe so okay yeah thank you thank you each uh for your service uh I'll try to meet the time a lot at its brief my name is David fulin flick and I speak tonight to urge montclair's leaders to fulfill its promise my mother Vivian fulin flick was brilliant funny and loving a few days before Halloween she was killed by a pickup truck an enormous one whose driver accelerated into her she was walking in a pedestrian crosswalk in Upper Montclair with the light a bit past noon on a perfect fall day she did not stand a chance five times before her death I had called or emailed to express mounting concerns about the collisions at that intersection and the reckless driving at the neighboring one where my kids get picked up for school no fatalities merely by the grace of God or luck of the draw over the years we've ensured that motorist can get through town smoothly instead of making sure everyone can go about their lives safely on foot on bikes buses cars whatever ultimately that values cars over people I do want to thank uh police chief coni and deputy chief young for their thoughtfulness and responsiveness about my concerns uh in the time since but I am hurting and I am angry and my concerns transcend my own immediate area they Echo throughout Montclair I applaud tonight's vote to lower some speed limits and that's promising but this has to be about more than setting and enforcing tighter laws this requires rethinking how we set priorities a lot of places have done a lot better with fewer resources than we command here I have great hopes for the vision zero task force Great Hopes And yet we cannot wait for them to reach consensus before anything ambitious is done we need to seek out for example demonstration projects to show benefits can outweigh and conveniences and there's a lot of funds for infrastructure improvements out there the township must seek those grants now from County state federal sources before it goes away there's a lot also that can be done I want to stress with Innovative design that shouldn't cost much since mom's death a lot of people have approached me independently to share their own experiences and their own outrage entrepreneurs Realtors and attorneys senior citizens and parents of young kids clergy and activists bicyclists and Librarians a few more moments please sir teachers and Law Enforcement Officers they want Montclair too to fulfill its promise about this sense of community about valuing the people who live here shortly after we first moved to town before our fences arrived our young puppy bounded past me and was killed on these same streets that was hard 28 years ago on the other side of this country my 28-year-old sister was killed by a drunk driver an impossible blow especially to my mother I now have three daughters of my own I have no lives left to give none if we take no initiative until the task force work is complete what do you say to those who are hurt or worse in the meantime who here will take ownership of the safety of the citizens you serve right now who here will commit to making those steps and who here will commit to ensuring that the vision of vision zero becomes reality because if no one does it will not happen thank [Applause] you I want to say that's not a rhetorical question I want to offer you this is a forum in which you commit to that thank you thank you and we certainly as we listen to that understand um we lost and so sorry to hear all of that and certainly your commitment um we are all committed to the work of vision zero that's why this group voted to do it and what about taking you know that could be 18 months 36 months what what about in the time between sir well again hold on we have other people to speak we are we are going to be committed to the work of vision zero you're seeing we're taking actions tonight and as things pop up we'll address them but thank you let me just say this though I know what you're saying okay and we have not put the funding in place to make the vision zero Project work I keep asking the manager where is the funding for this program to work it's just a committee right now it's had a meeting or two what is the funding source for this Vision zero I've had many people send me requests asking me what's going on I just want to know manager what what's the status of talking the funding of of vision zero Staffing funding we we we provide some of our people to provide you know uh to do work for the committee this first phase is funded the rest will be funded in the next budget so there is no wanting for funding for the operation of the task force at the moment counselor but now isn't the bid giving us some money towards this yes for the first phase and then we will pick up the cost for phase two okay so this gentleman's asking when is the phase going to come that really get something done no that's not what he's asking I believe he's asking what we're doing he's asking what we're doing I think we're doing is passing a lot of ordinances and resolutions but is the committee getting the funding it needs to have staff promote these things and get them done and is there funding being shifted in the police budget into traffic and and safety which has very very little funding for that section of the police department to do the work on the streets to do the enforcement none of this means anything unless we can enforce I'm just going to tell you this because two of my students on Friday met a police officer on the street who was not enforcing the law on the watch Young Center Circle where everybody gets into almost killed accidents they they witnessed in five minutes time two students from mon State witnessed in 5 minutes time that there were six cars that made left turns illegally at wat young Plaza when the sign says right turn only now we need to put no left turn signs they're very clear my students are making recommendations for this I'll pass it on to you but I don't like bureaucracy that doesn't get things done that's one of the things I've always fought against so I'm what I'm saying is I hear this I hear this gentleman and I don't hear the answers I want to hear from our government which has the money and the resources to do things put more money into traffic and safety Street work in the police department that's what I want to see now when are we going to get to that budget shift sorry well but I I'm not going to have you take everyone's time but I will say this um I think that is why it's important to have the vision zero task force do its work when I hear comments like that we are not going to enforce our way out of this problem I agre with you sir I know you do right we are going to have to redesign we are going to have to look at infrastructure we are going to change when you one off as you're hearing I think it leads us in a direction where you just go in whatever Direction you think your piece is it is important we hear from the experts it is important we have conversations around long-term infrastructure as well as shorter term and medium-term things we can do but it has got to be led through conversations with experts and all involved and I'm imploring you all the above including your dependent clause in the shortterm and medium term demonstrate show can be done yeah agree agree with you thanks can I just sir I if I could just first of all I'm I'm so sorry for your loss but I just wanted you to know that I had a meeting today with the chief the deputy chief the lieutenant and the um engineering department and the conversation was about the particular intersection in which this tragedy occurred they took a look at the infrastructure of that light because he wanted to see if we can add things there to warn people about how much time they had turns out that the the the entire structure was built incorrectly it's Antiquated it can't be upgraded so it would have to be replaced the cost of that could be upwards of half a million dollars but I can assure you it will be in the next capital budget so I it may be just a small step but to make sure that that intersection ultimately will be safer for the people who cross there and David I just want to your voice is familiar to my ear you know we many of us know your voice and I just wanted to say thank you for bringing your voice to this room you shared very painful truths and I I'm just we're all deeply sorry and and thank you for you know we don't need more motivation I think we're motivated but nonetheless people are welcome to come and say their peace and and thank you for doing that thank you good evening Mr Mayor members of the uh Council Reggie Jenkins 105 Chestnut um I I don't want to say flipping it's hard to follow the gravitas of what we just have just heard and I want to thank the gentleman for sincerely the uh traffic issues that he brought um because I've seen those twoo and we can't argue with safer streets um what I came up here for this evening is as you've heard me speak before uh in support of the Clary Anderson rink um I won't go on about it in detail because you've heard me speak before we will be here again uh to go over that I just wanted to let on behalf of myself and our uh our gathering to let you know that we are here um we want to thank the councel for the work that has been done so far we know that the RFP went out to allow for at least the study to to occur so those steps are incurring it's moving forward what we want to do is first say thank you for that getting that process going but then to also remind you that again we are here you're not doing it by yourselves there is a partnership out here that's willing to PCH pitch in and help and lend our expertise lend our voices lend our efforts lend our votes um but all we ask for is now that this step has been taken that we keep taking the steps and that we don't lose the momentum and I know it's probably still in the deliberative stage deliberative stage but when it can be released and when we can be informed when that next concrete step is please let us know so that we can participate as necessary but again thank you very much for your your efforts and your help and we're here and it's going to be better for us it's going to be better for our kids and the community in large thank you very much agreed thank [Applause] you hi Darren sens 75 Mar Clair Avenue um I'm going to share my time with somebody that's providing service here Prov he has a program Ken illian runs the Wolves hockey program it serves a lot of kids in Monclair a lot of kids in XEX County my son plays there Scott son plays there I just want him to explain sort of what he provides to the community if you don't mind thank you and thank you Council for hearing this uh I just wanted to let you know that I do I run the Jersey Wolves Hockey Club out of Clary Anderson Arena is our home um we have we've been in existence for 15 years uh every year we probably have between 150 and 200 families uh involved with the club I also run the involved with running to learn to skate uh so my club uh has kids aged 6 through 18 uh we also have learn to play uh learn to skate and a rookie series which is probably over the course of the year when when the ice is there uh upward of of probably 100 kids I would say in and out of the program um but plus as you guys are aware the two high schools of course utilize the rink as well um I grew up in Bricktown New Jersey uh which has an ice rink I've seen what an ice rink does for a town uh the lessons that it teaches the youth in the community um the traffic and the exposure it brings to the community and the community businesses um it's a tremendous source of Pride and it could be really a a heartbeat of a community um and i' like I said I I've been doing it there for a long time and uh have a pretty big Monclair following there as well thank you I appreciate the support and appreciate everybody listening thank you thank you appreciate that thank you thank you just want to say uh good evening to the counil welcome back mayor and before I start I'd like to ask you sir are you going to honor Me by let me have the two minutes that you promised me before you left that's number one not sure what you're talking about but okay you've got two minutes oh add it to please be You' got two minutes no add it to the read that I get right no well you you don't keep your promises mayor uh I asked the deputy uh mayor when you were here when you left would he give me the two minutes you were supposed to add two minutes to the three that was taken from me just so they we're all clear I Never Promised You two minutes for the mayor that's but please go ahead okay I'll go ahead well mayor we know how you are about keeping your word okay but anyway you know if I ever promise you something my words is B you got it but thank you for just considering me and I do hope that you enjoyed your vacation I'm not sure what you're talking about now what I want to talking about there there are a lot of problems I mean I've I've been around I've been doing some observing since you were on vacation I was taking account of a lot of things and for one thing when you talk about the traffic it's amazing people are driving a lot faster and Mar Clair in General on not just one Street on a lot of different streets I mean I I was surprised you know and and and that's a problem that it's going to take a long time to solve it it wasn't a problem that just developed overnight so I'm glad that you're taking your studies and everything and doing what you have to do to try to solve it but you do have a problem hold on one sec uh can we ask that that door is shut in the back or what that is and uh I'm going to keep it short and I thank you for indulging with me whether you kept your promise or not and let these gentlemen know about here about what they need that help is on the way that I'm on the way and I'll I'll get here 2024 and I I got you back you and the gentleman here that uh you know so since you didn't give it to me mayor I'm going take one minute yes you going to give me two I'm going take one thank you anyway like I say I'm on the way my name again is Reverend Dennis L Washington and for the members that are really about change and want change fast whether it be seniors whatever it be I got their back and I will be sitting back there next year I guarantee it thank you thank you okay and I won't only sit on my Laurels I will do something that's right and if I can't do anything I'll get up and leave no one have to put me out or vote me out thank you thank [Applause] you all right good evening uh my name is Patrick cetto I live at 95 Upper Mountain Avenue um as I mentioned last month when I spoke my partner and I have been lobbying to adjust the speed limits and safety on Upper Mountain and throughout Montclair for a year um first I want to applaud the Council on their actions today and their actions two weeks ago and hopefully the actions in 2 weeks to limit the speed limits on town roads so thank you um for those who care a brief update on our dog who's now had two surgeries 15 days in the hospital two titanium rods in his right leg but he is finally back home so we are thankful for that um I want to talk a little bit more and you know thank you councilman Russo because I think a lot of us in this town are really frustrated by the bureaucracy and like I understand the purpose of the vision zero t ask Force but there are things that are just obvious that can be done the purpose of traffic calming is obvious that's to make people pay more attention when they're driving so that they don't hit dogs or senior citizens or a child or bicyclists I really think that it's very important that the town not wait for the vision zero task force and instead use this budget cycle to start taking actions to change the engineering of our roads some some of us noticed for example that Highland Avenue has a big project being done it's an idiotic project you're narrowing the road and you're putting in Belgium blocks people were working on a weekend that makes no sense what an irresponsible use of our funds our taxpayer funds you should stop any traffic engineering projects until you do things that are going to save the lives and make our lives better in this town um you know that's something that I think again stop the bureaucracy and start making changes um shifting gears with one last thing I think some of you at the new Jersey bike walk thing last night um I'm going to make a quick plug for traffic enforcement cameras Deb Kagan and I are working at the state level to try to get hopefully at least a pilot program done and I hope that the city council here will choose to potentially have Monclair be the pilot program for traffic enforcement cameras in this state thank you very much thank [Applause] you not the same uh Douglas TR 12 Victoria Terrace um my daughter's here with me she's a uh founding bike bu member along with myself um I came here a couple months ago and I feel very hopeful about how much has happened um in terms of the traffic and um safety measures that the have moved since then Vision zero the speed limits um I don't think I can add anything to what the parade of other concerned citizens have said except to ask um I don't know if this is a Town Council question or a a town Administration question but I want to just know um when I go uh and use our streets and um and I am unsafe with our current structure and with our current enforcement or lack thereof um what type of accountability processes are in place in this town to um to bring people uh who work for the town to um to address the the words that are being said when when a person is struck in a crosswalk when uh uh there's a new number of collisions I understand there's tra there's um um uh process to changing the the street structure um but I want to know like who here is paying attention in the township to each of those events and and bringing urgency to those those questions thank you so not really sure your question in the sense of you know obviously any or something is police involvement right so that's what if that's your question I'm not exactly sure but uh that's the key piece the the implementation of any structural changes and things like that are done as you've heard before engineering and other pieces intersect but if if your question which I thought I heard in there if someone is struck in a crosswalk that absolutely is you know police uh are the ones who you know respond um and make sure their concern is met there and then of course beyond that when we look at the safety of each of these pieces that's why we've got Vision zero and so many other things looking at what we can do infrastructure wise and otherwise yeah I was using structural more in the sense of organizational structure rather than uh physical structure as in uh who's creating urgency inside of the town government and um pushing the police to uh enforce rules pushing our um our Township to um follow the rules on the books uh in terms of building the physical environment that keeps us safe let me just let me just respond again I've been doing this for 24 years the time I was mayor 20 years ago I got a lot of things done I really did but that's 20 years ago now I'm going to stick around here till we get something done I'm telling you that right now I'm going to stick around 6 months from now I'm going to tell them manager right now you're a nice guy Michael but you don't know Mont CLE you just came here six months ago you're being paid like a a $10,000 a month fee then your consulting firms getting another 5,000 for Consulting on what I don't know the point is you have to get these things done for these people you have to understand this former government weak mayor really the council's weak too but we do hire the manager we do hire the town attorney we do hire the clerk that's about it we can't even talk to the police I was reprimanded when I was mayor for talking to the police chief about stationing one cop at one end of Church Street and one cop at the other end because the two of them had to be together to keep themselves safe and I said my God that they don't troll double to keep themselves safe they need to be spread out so that the the people who had stores that were being robbed on Church Street this 20 years ago could be protected I'm outraged with that somebody just sent me something saying why did I mention that the police W enforcing I saw my students saw this happening they reported it to me and I'm talking I I'm not afraid of this lock me up you know the point is that the police have to enforce these rules so we got all these new signs at watch Young Plaza councilman herlock and schlager worked on it for quite a while with councilman yaka Bellis I you know acknowledge that I've been working on it for 50 years so they tried to put lights in Watchung Plaza 50 years ago and it didn't succeed the thing is if we've got signs up that say no right turn we should add signs that say they say right turn only we should add signs that say no left turn blinking lights around the signs these are all things recommended by my students at Monclair state in a class called government problem solving let's solve the problems Michael let's get these signs up let's do this enforcement because if the police were there that day and my students saw them they're they're disillusioned as students in political science and government at mon State they said Gee the police officer said to them that there's not even enough Staffing to enforce now that's not the answer see not enough Staffing let's let's deploy the Staffing let's not have a lot of people in the administrative end of government right rather than on the streets doing the job what I don't like is Administrative spending and not Grassroots worker spending I want Cops on the beat I want enforcement I want teachers in the classroom not a bunch of principles and administrators and superintendents making high salaries let's get the money where it needs to go in traffic and safety in the police department I know you had a meeting with the police on the budget I was not informed of it I wasn't able to be there I'm not going to talk to the police chief somebody said to me I should tell the police chief what happen no cuz I'm not supposed to talk I was reprimanded 20 years ago so people please understand the history that I know that the history is that this government doesn't work this way you see you come to us at these meetings you want us to do something we did what we could we passed the ordinance now it has to be enforced and you're the one manager that deals with the police and the allocation of resources and getting them out on the streets they cannot be out on the streets not enforcing the laws Wang Plaza is a death trap it's a death trap people are all over the place ready to hit each other every day I saw it my students saw it people who are Merchants there were crying out to my students and I the other day that at the coffee shop and at the green place they said look right from the window we see eight cars making the illegal left turn and there's no enforcement sorry that's what I had to tell you you'd like to you'd like to say well first I'd like to correct the record counselor first of all I am I am paid by the town I have never been part of that consulting firm I have never worked for them I've never done a project for them I don't get any of the money that they get and I've explained this to you several times before secondly the police are doing their job they do their enforcement we no longer over the past few months give difference to Residents to say cut me a break I was going 5 miles over the speed limit and I live in town we have plenty of disgruntled residents who call me on a daily basis to say the cops are being hard on us and that's because we are trying to enforce the law on the last part if you want to talk about the uh ordinances uh to to reduce speeds you want to talk about funding for vision Z Vision zero that didn't happen when the person in the seat lived in the town I may be from out of town but I understand the issues I have 40 years of experience at this what's happened here I can't be accountable or explain what happened before I can tell you that there was a dir of investment in these kind kind of improvements and the next budget will show or be recommended to you that you fund these improvements but nothing Happ happens overnight this is not my doing but I am doing my absolute best as is a police department to improve these situations okay well you're here three days a week I understand so I appreciate so you're not here all the time to deal with it okay thank you thanks I'm a truth tell folks and so am I counselor well I hope you get you enjoy your next year here six months whatever it is hi my name is Ezra and I'm here to talk about my street my street is like a highway and people speed all the time and there are a lot of kids and bus stops that are hard to get to there should be more stop signs crosswalks speed limits and speed bumps and four-way stops here's an example a few months ago a car crash almost happened and I almost got it I was almost in it in it thank you for my time thank you thank you for sharing what Crescent so what Ezra a crescent Walnut Crescent okay near Walnut Street right yes thank you for your testimony thank you Ezra so I'm gonna be my own time thank you good evening my name is Melanie Robins my son just spoke about pedestrian safety in our neighborhood I'm so proud of him for coming tonight and taking initiative to share the important perspective as a young kid in our neighborhood streets to add some spe specifics to his concerns we desperately need a four-way stop at the intersection of Walnut Crescent and Walnut Street it's a confusing unclear area that people fly through not realizing who has the actual right of way I would also suggest speed humps and even a crosswalk or better yet a raised crosswalk by the intersection of Walnut Crescent in Oxford as well as potentially or around there in tremount and Oxford as these intersections are on the way to our bus stop the bus stop forish way for Hillside which Remains the Same bus stop over years and um so given there are many students who regularly need to cross Oxford there it would be helpful to have a crosswalk we can safely cross when people are flying down Oxford as a cut through from Grove to Ridgewood since Ezra initiated our presence here at tonight's meeting I figured I would add a few agenda items I've wanted to discuss but cannot get here I still cannot understand why there is not virtual comment for Our Town Council meetings I really can't fathom why this can't be accommodated to make our democracy genuinely more accessible to more members of our community who cannot attend inperson me meetings can you please explain to us why we cannot allow virtual public comment many towns do it I don't understand the problem please also clarify public comment procedures as it seems to change or is just generally unclear the Monclair Police Department second agenda item monair police department has a substantial grant that has been pending to create a hate crimes protocol and community relations program this over $360,000 has yet to be deployed given changes in Staffing and other internal issues in town management I am imploring you to please rep prioritize this initiative since October 7th the rate of hate crimes particularly targeting the Jewish community and Jews as well as Muslims Arabs and Muslim and Arab communities we are not immune to the world around us and we have experienced anti-semitic incidents in town many of our students are facing bias and bigotry in the schools we also know that there are more than enough bias facing other minority communities in our town such as the hostility of the neighbor at a local church using racial slurs I'm formerly the deputy director of the Anti-Defamation League new New York New Jersey office during the years of 2016 and 2019 through 2019 during my time there much of my work was Community Gathering building relationships between Interfaith communities between communities and law enforcement and communities and elected officials much of this work was premised on building coalitions against hate and bias I know and have seen how vital this work can be we need this work right here in Montclair and we need it now by prioritizing this grant you will be able to help build Bridges between our communities in town you will enable residents to know their rights know how and when to report bias-based incidents or crimes and you will begin to develop an immediate response mechanism for supporting communities who are targeted it will also help manage Community tensions as people then understand what is and isn't a biased crime and will be able to better respond to crimes or incidents that do occur I'm beseeching you to direct the town manager to prioritize this doj Grant and give the PD support they need to get this project off the ground and running fast thank you I will get you upate on that um I just wanted to recognize that um some of us who have the opportunity to work at the education committee who help with the grant process and our Consultants I guess I'm not sure I can actually explain it's been it's been a tortured process through bureaucratic systems to get access to get something released and so I'm going to just ask the manager just to follow up on that is there anything else that can be done that needs to be done that isn't ready in the works because I just know that there's been a lot of efforts through um it's I'm sorry um which of our grant writers yeah not the grant writers um in the police it's Tyrone Williams liutenant William Lieutenant Williams I'm sorry I just couldn't think of his name so um you know who who has been working through that with our grant consultants and with some of the Personnel in the building so thank you for bringing it up and you're right this couldn't be there's always an important time for it but we know that there's continuing and ongoing needs so thank you Mr leolo for just seeing where we are and where we can meet I will get you an update thank you good evening mayor Spiller and Township Council I'm here to address two things very quickly first um I'm a 41-year resident of the Town currently residing at my home that I own at 67 pleason Avenue the home is co-owned by David Toler I'm speaking um tonight in favor of the stop sign relocation at Pleasant and Hilltop current stop sign I believe is on the northeast corner and it just which is uh cesac where I'm sorry it's like a dead end street so that's the sign the people who live on that little dead end they're the only ones that get the stop sign the people who come on pleas and Hilltop from the other directions don't so someone uh on our block did come and address this at the November whatever 21st meeting it was um and since I've been here he said that since that meeting that he's emailed the inter interim man manager Michael Lola twice but he hasn't heard anything back so I'm just here to say you know we would still like to see that happen on the Block the other thing I'm addressing is that at the November 21st meeting my name was mentioned erroneously so um there was um actually my name and David to we like I said we own the house together at 67 Pleasant um dear Scott the 59 Pleasant insist that we are affiliated with a Township um committee and neither of us are so I just needed and her assertion was that because we are have some type of quote unquote connections that the laws and ordinances of Mo don't apply to us and that's just not true um specifically noise complaints the police in the six years that I've been at my current home um the police have been there four or five times total and they say turn it down we do and that's the we live happily ever after but again um we we don't we don't have any connections to the town um we have to obey the laws like everybody else and that's all I have so thank you for your time this evening and for your service to my town thank you ma' what was your name I don't know if you said your name I didn't say my name I'm sorry Amir Toler Stout Amir okay right thank you thank you Mr Leo I think at the last meeting too I I did mention I think councilman Cummings was looking at that piece but if you can look at that intersection I noted it I I know that the police were out there the study was done so okay I'll get back to let me know because I talked about switching it remember hi good evening sorry my name is Elizabeth Karo and I live at Nassau Road in Upper Monclair you may remember me from a few weeks or about a month ago I'm here to talk again about traffic safety um I'm very grateful for the efforts that you've made in the past few months to Institute the divion zero task force and the speed ordinances and um from what I can tell um there seems to be some initiative within the Monclair Police Department to sort of increase enforcement um so I'm very grateful so thank you to all of you um I feel a little awkward um now stating that I just feel like it's not enough um uh you know um we witnessed you know too many deaths too many injuries um we're all uh you know feel unsafe driving unsafe walking unsafe biking um and so I stand here today asking what more can we do um now Vision the vision zero Tas force is um an amazing thing I'm confident there are so many smart incredible people and there's coordination hopefully among um the right agencies and right um parties yet [Music] um the people who are going to take carry forward the work are not on the vision are mostly are not on the vision zero task force and so we need money and we need people staff um that are employed by the town to carry for carry this project manage and make sure that this sort of this Co a cohesive plan actually has legs and then that work needs to start now so that it can s of get off running not in 36 months right but now before more people are killed um and you know Mr Russo councilman Russo I'm very grateful for all the reference you've made a little while ago you were talking about you suggested to someone that they call the the county the county or call Brendan Gil for two years now more than that well that's my time no finish it up what were you say well for two years I've been trying to make changes ask for changes on Valley Road and mount heon we have a lot of accidents there we've had crossing guards hit flip cards um you know it's a it is a problematic area with very high speeds now I have labored hard and long and called everyone I can and still yes there was a traffic study done but nothing has happened I don't want to talk about that specific instance I want to talk about the fact that there's no one to actually carry the ball forward in town right it's not my job to make sure the county does it right someone in town it should be someone in Town's job I don't work for the town right right so I find it I just I'm sorry it's really you know so I just I'm trying to emphasize this point that we really need someone some people we can come here and show up but it's needs to be someone's job to make sure these changes are made right and maybe we need a full-time Town manager it it sounds pretty great to me we've got a big town with a lot of problems so anyway thank you for the extra time let me just let me just finish up because this time thing you know that that buzzer all that's going to go away in 6 months um here's the point here's the point you're in Nassau which is the corner near Mount Hein and Valley right that corner where the church is where those old lights are now Bill Hurlock councilman from that area has worked very hard for a while to try to get those lights improved they have to be done by the county and the county the county commissioner we're talking about Brendon Gil had an accident himself there well my students looking at that several times now I cannot understand how simply these are not new lights now these are old lights that are there they don't really face the right way they don't work right but we've had so many near accidents and accidents so that's right near where you live I'm trying to get some attention to this I know bill has worked hard on it the thing is that I don't understand myself as a teacher of government why the two levels of government County and municipality can't get those lights improved to make it safer I can't understand Mr POA says he's been doing this for 40 years now I respect that he worked with the transportation folks he worked with the um Turnpike why can't we get those lights fixed on the corner of Mount Hein and Valley Road which been been we've been told for two years that they were going to be fixed I don't know if you know what I'm talking about uh Michael but it's a corner right near the university and all you know a lot of accents there's Mount Hein there's a school right there you know on Mount Hein Avenue it's called Bradford school I mean these kids are going to get killed well God forbid there are intersection happens you don't even get an answer you're elected by 5,000 people and you sit here and you ask questions and you don't get an answer okay I'm not walking out anymore okay but I'm not staying and just keeping quiet because I want to know why we can't fix those lights on the corner of Mount Hein and Valley Road they're all screwed up those lights any knowledge of this uh I mean what do we need to the police in here at every meeting to talk to them about it we don't have a town engineer we got a consulting firm right consulting firm they're not here the engineer where are the people that like you're asking ma'am you're asking who's going to address this I can't I'm trying to raise the issue if it's no one's job then it's not going to happen so I'm just trying to emphasize the point that more more budgetary dollars to this should be Sanitation electricity Public Safety it's basic it's a basic good without it what are we you're right so this is a maner this is a manager run government strong manager system can I can I ask a a question who who on the council who on the council are the liaison and go to the vision zero meetings mayor and the the two of you okay but there's been one there's another and there's another spot there's three spots that we could go on all time and when and there's been one meeting and and I guess I if I may Robin I'm sorry yeah sure but may not know Mr Leo off hand but there are many staff members people who work for the town who are actually also integrated into the vision year task force and Paul you might know remember the numbers it's your microphone on sorry I I had a meeting yesterday with Laura turo who's right the chair and we and the purpose of the meeting was just figuring out the logistics of how staff will be supporting the vision zero task force we had a follow-up meeting with Lieutenant Enzo if I say your name correctly and also Norberto who's our Consulting engineer he is an engineer and um so they will be participating in the meetings with a bunch and our health director and a bunch of other people but we are coordinating very closely with them I don't think there's any distance between us in terms of what our goals are logistically we're working through that and I don't see there's any problems at the moment right thank [Music] you aava fad president and first founder of the tenants organization of Montclair because there are three more we are the group that brought you a rent Control Ordinance good evening mayor and councel I'm happy to be here tonight I'm adding to my public comment ad lib as I've had the honor of having worked with and presented to the young men and women of brother to brother and sister to sister please give them all that they need their programs are a necessity in our Township I trained with Daddy Bennett while at Montclair High she was my dance teacher made me feel very comfortable as an athlete and a musician there's no surprise that this program is growing and all the women who work with the program are dedicated all the young men I've ever interacted acted with and brother to brother have gone to positive pastors and have done great work in this community and others that they've moved to counselor at large Mr Roger Terry I'm sorry I did not properly acknowledge you at the last meeting I didn't get to say a lot of things considering considering the public comments previously welcome back to the council my late mother used to speak very highly of you I didn't know much about the council because at the time I was in undergrad or grad school they overlapped and I'll never forget how highly she spoke of you at that time I had no interest in politics I was immersed in wishing to work in children's television program and media Consulting fast forward to coming home to Montclair New Jersey permanently and standing up to organize for the revitalization of the rent control movement I love being from and living in this Township I'm happy to see the ordinance pass for the speed limit for bikers and Walkers I'm hopeful that it works tenants organization of Montclair will continue to offer monthly meetings public and or virtual the 2024 first 6month schedule will release by the first full week of January we welcome volunteers have a good night have a great night thank you thank you I have a point of information do we have a to the clerk do we have a two minute or a three minute timer on here tonight two well who decided it should be two I said it at the beginning of the meeting you said it at the beginning of the meeting who decides this you arbitrarily decide as mayor that it's 2 minutes there's not that many people here they all need at least 3 minutes otherwise we wouldn't have to be cutting them off this is an undemocratic system of having people be cut off with this stupid buzzer that buzzes after 2 minutes at least give people the three minutes then they could all have concluded the seniors included I don't understand mayor I helped you get elected mayor and you're up here acting like some kind of a AAR you decided 2 minutes at the beginning I was sitting here from the beginning of this meeting I never heard two minutes I turned to my colleague here she thought it was three minutes who knows what it is Bob I appreciate that and I I appreciate your desire to uh campaign from the podium I'm not campaigning from the podium uh I'm not running against you we had a cdbg meeting at the beginning of me running against Bad government we had a meeting at the beginning of the meeting cdbg funding we started early and therefore given the time that we extended that into we said 2 minutes for public comment mindful of everyone's time we've heard before that people want to hear the business done before a late hour including many people in this room so we moved we moved some of our agenda items including the speed limit piece because people wanted to see that done we have public comment at this time we have two minutes given the number of speakers thank you please my question is who decides the two minuts the council of the meeting decides weak mayor system hi um thank you so much for the ordinance I'm really excited about that thank you uh I want to speak to you as Citizens as change makers not as a weak mayor and a weak counsel um we're all grown-ups we're professionals and as such regardless of barriers I think it's really time that we think beyond the status quo I fully believe in you um Mr Leola I I really do and I've seen the action that you've already taken and I really really appreciate it I want to inspire us to think differently about budget and opportunity and let's like let's just do it let's stop having all of these excuses let's stop looking at the barriers let's stop looking at what's wrong and let's look at what could be right over Thanksgiving lots of us went away for the holidays and we had an incredible opportunity we got to see in Europe in South America in different parts of America the incredible traffic infrastructure that small towns the same size as ours have decided to implement over the last few years they've decided to implement this because they care about their citizens this is not a special interest group these are people viven David's mother was a person and she mattered to her family and now she's not here we shouldn't wait for Elizabeth to continue to ca campaign and maybe three years down the line somebody dies at her intersection because of a crash and I know you guys agree with me so that's why I'm saying let's think as Citizens Vision zero is one small part of an overall systemic and strategic plan there are other things that we can absolutely do and we can do today again as change makers as Citizens I want to know how how we and Mr laola I think this is a big question for you how we can ensure our complete streets plan which montclair's the first was the first uh town in New Jersey to implement a complete streets plan how we can Implement that how we can budget for this and how we can do our jobs better to ensure Traffic Safety thank you thank you Mr laal I'm pleased to hear as you noted before that one of the budgetary focuses is going to be around investing in the infrastructure work as you noted so appreciate that yes mayor thank you good evening members of the council my name is Kevin Dyer and I'm a resident of world W one in Upper Monclair in the theme of pedestrian safety I wanted to talk a little bit about Monclair safe which is our complete streets program first envisioned in 2011 and last updated in uh with public input in 2017 this plan which included many of the vital Street safety improvements we're talking today such as uh daylighting intersections to make pedestrians visible to drivers improving street lights to a human scale uh and creating dedicated bike glane Network throughout our whole town as seeming pushed to the Wayside as pedestrian fatalities across this country have reached 40-year highs uh many of these plans were lowcost and were listed in our monair safe plan as only needing up to two years to implement and that was back in 2017 so my question to you is why are these Street resigns not current currently being implemented and I I'm sure we also have many uh planned repaving of our streets within the next 5 years so why not use these as opportunities to uh Implement a lot of these vital pedestrian and bike safety improvements thank [Applause] you hi I'm Ari alet I live at 316 Park Street thank you for passing the traffic ordinance tonight I want to talk about five blocks a five block area uh three blocks and two blocks from where I live starting at Watchung Plaza going up to Belleview and park uh Watchung Plaza I watch every single day as people make leftand turns or go through to Park Street uh ignoring the sign that says right turn only on Park Street as I come out of my driveway or drive up to my driveway way going the speed limmit people are passing me on the other side of the street that is crazy it happens all the time my daughter who is a brand new driver was terrified the first time this happened something really weird is going on and then finally at Belleview Street Vivian Fulon flick was killed right at Park this five block area I cannot understand why there isn't a police car stationed in this area to I mean the Wang Plaza issue it's like every 10 minutes someone is going against the traffic it this is like an incredible funding source uh giving out tickets right there I rarely see anyone so uh everybody is talking about these different parts of the Town um um where this is happening and it's clearly a time to act and to fund and lastly I just want to do a shout out quickly to all the incredible women in this town who are fighting to make the town better whether it's rent control leaf blower bands Pilots lacana Plaza issues with the fire department these are women with full-time jobs family and countless other obligations who have found the time to drive down rabbit holes and come out with research worthy of PhD thesis and I want to thank them all and I hope everybody who's watching is thanking them too for helping our town thank [Applause] you you know I'm really you know very happy that you started saying all the right things about Road Safety just remind her NE sorry I'm Marana and I live on Garden Avenue but I haven't forgotten that in October we came here we came with Jess and we came with several bike bus volunteers and we asked you for a few hours of a grand writer a few hours of a grand writer in a town that spends over $18 million in Personnel cost for firefighters alone and you told us no our safety our kids safety our parents safety is not worth to you if a few hours of a grant riders for a very lwh hanging fruit the safe routs to school program several similarly sized similarly affluent municipalities in SX County have collected millions of dollars from this grants you passed on it you didn't give us a few hours and you know why it's a few hours because Jessica tiller and have volunteers had already written the grant they had written it and they needed a few hours of the grant writer to go over it to put some Town specific information that we didn't have access to to make sure that it was kosher and to make sure that the township was willing to submit it for us and you need them you did not submit it so telling us that you've implemented Vision zero that you do this and this and that we can't believe you until you do it because now you owe us you owe us every penny we could have gotten from that Grant you owe us to submit at least five grand a year for infrastructure you ow that because you just said no for few hours of a grand writer and then on November 13th I come here and you tell me you've implemented Vision zero you haven't you haven't implemented Vision zero until you implemented system safety in our streets you haven't implemented until we have complete streets you haven't implemented until stop repaving and recuring incomplete streets instead of building completing streets you haven't implemented until we have dedicated bike Lanes so our kids can ride a bike to school alone so we don't have teenagers 16 year olds driving to the high school parking where there's nowhere to park thank you thank you no I'll take my three minutes you know why instead of limiting our time to speak you need to limit your time to speak from the dice because we would be out of here so much faster if we had our three minutes and you weren't interrupting us not interrup we might fully agree in terms us people liit your time don't limit ours $115,000 of coverage for a consultant is not enough you owe us millions of dollars in safety infrastructure you owe us every intersection to be daylighted you owe us every street to have sidewalks and you owe us Street lighting in every pedestrian Crossings and then everything else division Z do Force you ask of you you owe us that how are you going to give us that next year how much will be on the budget because I was in the budget hearings and I didn't hear a penny right our Department of community service that would be doing this building did not ask for Penny in money for safety infrastructure for complete streets for any of the things we're asking for for so how much money will be there let us know thank you take it from the fire department they're useless useless good evening my name is Jessica stalsberg I live on Fairfield Street um it's interesting I'm pretty a pretty easy to connect the dots between Vision zero and the gas leaf blower issues because last spring when as you know we were working tirelessly to get you to move towards the legislation that you passed thank you um someone on the de told us in the spring that he would not prioritize it because he was so dedicated to Vision zero that was last spring and you know what that guy sped out of town in a shiny new red car two days after you guys pushed through laana Plaza at the objection of your own planning board so this is next level dysfunction because now you're all talk about Vision zero but that was being held up as the reason why you wouldn't focus on the gas leaf blower last spring and now this fall Vision zero is coming together and there's actually two people dead because someone else died at I believe it was Grove in Bloomfield and you get off on a technicality that you don't have two deaths on your conscience because I think they considered it Bloomfield where it happened like it wasn't quite Montclair but where all of us who live in Montclair it scared us just the same because there are two people who died near where we all live and so let's move on to the gas leafblower thing because I think you know how much we know how hard we worked and how much knowledge there is in what we did so Lori your task force that you passed last month when most of the leaves were always on the ground what I don't understand is how come I was able to get on WNYC to speak on Brian L's climate segment to talk about gas leaf blowers but the task force needs to be head up by an old prior mayor most of us don't even remember he preceded my time here and when I spoke to him on the phone by the time he was done with the conversation that he didn't expect to have from me he said I'm not really sure what the task force is for because the law has already been passed and I told him why don't you use your great well-regarded people's skills to get your house in order and get the equipment that your employees need because you know what overall this went quite smoothly and sorry I am going to take my time to tell you something you've had a task force all along we are like a secret quiet task force doing your work for you because you won't acknowledge us you don't take us up on our offers I emailed you Lori many of you who were involved in passing it Lori you took a week to respond you were the only one who responded a week later and said I'll Circle back and you never did and then the next month as this as the legislation the most important thing you've done to protect Public Health in Montclair since any of you have been in office you did not end up F you didn't respond to me when I said can we talk about enforcement and communication and let's make this as successful as possible so anyone who got this in their water bill by the way I wrote it with other people my husband put this nice little border around it and see the little logo of the town because I wanted to it to look official this was my idea to put it in the water bill following another town my husband put this on your secret task force got this out not you thank you okay also this is your town flyer your town communication thing on this important legislation you passed it was redesigned by one of the members of this task force we changed the language to update it because you guys just hadn't and it was languishing so Lori thank you for this task force it's kind of like if you brought people to the table after the Smoking law has happened to talk to the smokers and the business owners to find out how how they were doing and if it's going to help make it successful that's great but we are all quaking in our boots that you're actually going to weaken it in some way or also why is what is Ed remon's role here where is he from he doesn't know anything about the gas leaf blower but I'm glad he's a good talker because that's what it sounds like you appointed him for at the stroke of midnight when no one knew when it wasn't on the agenda and it is just so maddening you're welcome thank you you have never responded to one single email that we ever sent to you about the gas leaf blowers over 6 months that's your time and thank you and we appreciate being able to pass that thank you appreciate moment that we passed it thank you did you have you done anything to let the to to like really like strengthen it thank you I didn't think so not one word out of any of you until a secret task force came forward in November when the leaves already on the ground it's kind of enough is right because basically I don't know why you're seething angry basically you say I'm angry well does anybody here not recognize that is anyone else in this room angry we're all Angry guys are not taking care of this community why aren't okay I'm sorry I didn't mean to re-engage you what I want to do is make my comment I just I I will happily talk to you another time I'm what I'm trying to say there's a lot going on in the world and there's a lot going on in this town and I think everyone's carrying a lot of stuff and Everyone's entitled to it I guess what I'd like to say is that at the time that we and I believe I played a substantial role in trying to work with everybody Jessica and and Anna and many other people who are Advocates as well as Council colleagues who wanted there to be a gas powered leafblower ban and we did successfully do that and I know I played I'll say a significant role in helping it get over the finish line I'm not trying to take the credit I I credit the Advocates largely with educating us but what I do want to say is I was aware that I didn't have the time as a as an elected official to dayto day be doing that and I asked how can we move this forward and we said could we could we appoint some kind of task force and it didn't happen initially and we said we're going to give it to the staff and to some degree Michael aola and Lisa Johnson who's our something like sustainability officer whatever her title is um began to bake some make some efforts and it was with in cooperation I guess with you Jessica and others that we made sure that we got the information out in the water bill and I didn't know that you and your husband worked on the border and everything else but I know that you are a partner we wrote the whole thing very good thank you thank you because you care deeply you care deeply and that's fine that's you didn't even engage did you even know I did yes I did know and I was talking with Lisa to an email okay so as I'm saying I acknowledge that the staff had to play a key role and the staff did what it could for some initial period and then we didn't have an opportunity before October came I mean I actually would like to have seen that happen much sooner it is the way it works we are all beset with many things not necessarily in the order and the wish that we have them and we I will say I did my best on my part I believe other people have done their best and we know that many people are complying and there probably is some lack of compliance with that and to the extent that people can be educated further and and the obvious goal of a task force at this point isn't for the initial um what it could have done if it was if it was able to be birthed in the very beginning but it will be a further ongoing education process about sustainable practices and ways that we can make our town healthier have more sound um you know again for public health personal health all the reasons that we passed the thing so I'll leave it at that but um I'm happy to reach out to you and talk if you would still like to after this thank you can I just ask a question very important to me because when Jessica talks about a midnight resolution that was passed I'm the one who objected to it and two other Council people voted against it that means it only had four Council people pass it in the last three or so weeks I haven't heard anything about this this committee this task force headed by a former mayor who has his own political agenda I objected to not only the task force because unnecessary but the way it was passed that night is the key to why people in this town are frustrated at 11:30 at night I was handed a three-page resolution with the final words in it saying whereas whereas whereas therefore now therefore we appoint Edward remson to be the chair now we usually let committees that we appoint pick their own chair so that was out of order secondly it was midnight thirdly the person picked to chair it has his own agenda and as Jessica just said he told her he doesn't even know what it's going to do and all I'm asking as a council member elected six times with 5,000 votes last time can somebody here tell me where is this committee what is it doing when is it going to meet what is Mr remson doing is he creating it is he shairing it is he meeting with people what is going on maybe the manager can tell me because after we pass that then shouldn't we pass the appointment of the people to it for example it says there'll be two or three advocates obviously Jessica stalsberg is an advocate shouldn't she be appointed then you're going to appoint two people who don't like the ordinance then you're going to appoint two landscapers that hate me then you're going to appoint two landscapers that like electric so who's going to appoint these people when are we going to get their names are they applying to serve on this committee is Ed remson going to pick them all out these are legitimate questions I'm asking the questions that the residents are asking me where did this ordinance this resolution come from at midnight three weeks ago I praised my colleagues Bill Hurlock and and and um David Cummings for voting no on it I left before they voted but I objected in the Clos session because I was never really involved and yet this is something that I worked on for 20 years with Jessica D conic our former Council so I'm just telling you folks how frustrating it is to serve up here with these Shenanigans going on there seems to be a majority that keeps doing these things last minute no input from the public and especially from the people who are most involved like Jessica and her husband did some work I mean what are we doing as a government I don't blame you Michael we had a manager before you that we had to get rid of because of this problem because of not responding to people because of criticizing council members like me who ask questions maybe treating people badly now you're a nice guy but you got to get these things done for people and for the council when we ask questions and because I'm in the minority on the council I guess you don't think it's important to respond to me well I'll simply say this you know one of the challenges when um we mentioned late night votes right and we see the hour as it ticks along here right one of the things I mentioned at the start of this meeting and we're hearing I even heard a couple residents talk about the time that some are responding and taking up here in their comments that is why then when you're going to take action on things it happens at 11: at night that's just because I spoke now I'm I'm be 11:00 at night thank you so you can't have it both ways so what we see we're always working with is you're wanting to hear from people but also not do things late night right so today good example of moving some of the business to an earlier time frame so that we're able to discuss it people are able to see what was on the agenda and move things and quite frankly I think that's a model we might look at I know councilman Cummings is looking at when we put public comment and some of the things um I know he's got some recommendations on that I think he shared them at the last few meetings in terms of signups and when that happens um but certainly and as chair I'm looking at let's do business some of the business people want to comment on some of the business that we have great uh general public comments the end so we don't hear oh there's these late night votes right so that's one way to address it um I I think specifically too you know as I sit here I listen to often times comments about people trying for 20 years to do X Y and Z one of the things I am very proud of is that we actually are doing things right and I sense the frustration um but I am very proud We Were are still one of the first to implement a gas power leaf blower ban right as as challenging the discussions and everything else we took that step we are you know a community that leads right when we finally again people's noting 20 years been trying 20 years been trying we passed a rank Control Ordinance right we're hearing from people tonight talking about the impact that it has and we see it when we talk about you know the work that division zero is doing excellent it's it's we're moving forward with these pieces right um you know so I I appreciate the comments that are here and I I sense the um you know the desire to make sure we keep moving and as we should um but certainly I will also not uh you know have I think the mischaracterization when we hear things like you know fire department's useless I don't agree right I think they do a great job when I say think people saying the community um you know isn't thriving it is thriving we have multiple community events people are dying to be here there is wonderful things going on I'm very proud of that so I I just want to say to my counil colleagues who I know um do sit up here and have late nights uh I'm appreciative of the effort and the things we're doing and I know many people in the public are um I think it's upon us to make sure we're managing here and I will say lastly we need to model the behavior right so when we talk about setting Norms in some of the pieces you may or may not like it but at whatever hour you also don't want to be the last one waiting when people have gone over time you you probably don't want to hear people you know speaking out of turn up here either neither do we right any of us um so in that Dynamic um it is on us to make sure that we're leading in that space and we will continue to try and do so and and I'm very proud of the things that we are being able to accomplish here as a Township so with that thank you and we'll next person and we'll conclude our public comments please uh good evening my name is Sarah Avery 25 Irving Street I've had to strike quite a bit I hope I can fit it in the two minutes all of law enforcement would be marshaled to prevent a hold up at the bank but so-called elected officials can P up the P taxpayers of Monclair through fraud waste and abuse then these same so-called elected officials brazenly use our taxes to pay law firms over $225,000 to cover up crimes these counselors took $8,200 each from the njaa pack for the 2020 election Spiller and Russo took an additional $8,200 each for the 2024 election for a total of $65,000 the njaa pack requires the local union in this case the mockler Education Association to make the request for local campaign contributions in their meeting minutes in the 2020 municipal election over $100,000 was paid to putic for advertising Spiller and his slate all of you up there outspent Renee Baskerville by $997,000 Spiller then paid the mcarter and English Law Firm $45,000 and Russo paid an additional $10,000 for a grand total of $55,000 how much money does it cost to count all the votes in a close municipal election $55,000 or is that how much it cost to steal the Montclair municipal election Sean Spiller is sabot aging the Safety and Security of this community he does not possess the skills knowledge or expertise to run the State teachers union let alone any Township there is so much need in the community it is heartbreaking but there would be plenty of funding for helping others if this Council didn't spend so much on themselves thank you thank you hi my name is Monica Goodrich I live at 214 Alexander Avenue I've lived in Mont Clair for 19 years um I want to thank the council for taking the first steps towards a safeer Montclair um passing the recent ordinance about speed limits uh please continue to communicate with Essex County to reduce speed limits on County Roads that run through Montclair particularly Valley Road and upper Mountain Avenue reducing speed limits is of utmost urgency like many residents I am frustrated and angry about our dangerous streets but I also want to share a new vision for Montclair we have the opportunity to create a livable walkable Town one is that is the Envy of nearby communities it's time to embrace Street design that puts pedestrians first that puts our children's safety first that puts bike transportation first our top priority should not be moving cars through town as fast as possible always and everywhere this is an outdated way of thinking we know that a more human Centric Street design significantly enhances safety narrower Lanes designated bike Lanes wider sidewalks and improved crosswalks create a safer environment for all Road users studies consistently show that such design changes reduce accident rates protect vulnerable ro road users and encourage healthier modes of transportation change does not have to be expensive or take years to create Urban designers could advise us of inexpensive temporary solutions to implement right now by creating inviting and accessible public spaces we not only enhance the quality of life for residents but also attract more visitors and businesses these changes can boost property values and promote economic growth we all want to live in a town where we can safely walk and bike and where our children have the freedom to explore the town safely and independently better Street design will make this possible I urge the council to consider Creative Solutions let's design a city that thrives for generations to come thank [Applause] you hello my name is Amy V and I live on uh 535 Upper Mountain Avenue on the corner of Mount heon and I just want to take a minute and it's been a long night and and I want to acknowledge each one of you and say thank you I know that sitting where you're at it's not an easy job and that there's a lot going on in this town and there's a lot of a lot of strong feelings and I I really thank you like I know it's not an easy I know it's not easy and I appreciate your efforts and I really like I applaud your passing the ordinance today thank you thank you it's like this is part of the change that we really need and I believe in you guys and I believe in this town and I feel like listening to everybody's speak the there's a real need for change on our streets and and we all know it you know it we know it we see it you see it um it's real and it's not just here it's it's across the country like the level of um violence towards pedestrians with vehicles has really risen and so I I stand here I think with the rest of the community with you not against you but with you because I really know we can do it and I believe we can do it um and we have the power I know that there's bureaucracy but let's not wait for the worst before we make change let's change it before the worst happens we can prevent it and I Believe in Us I really do um I think I'll just leave it at that so please keep keep carrying on um have a central Source a central place where we can work as a team as a unit as a community to address the issues in the town and the traffic where it really needs to CH have changed so again thank you thank you thank you for being so kind thank you mayor oh just as an update on the Upper Mountain Avenue portion that is the county controlled by the county our engineering department has completed their study and review We believe that we will provide we believe that we have a justification to present to the county to reduce the speed from 35 to 25 and that will be presented then we are cautiously optimistic and we will keep you informed but that study was already done than you for all all the residents on Upper Mountain and value Grove those as well but for Upper Mountain residents thank you oh you're welcome thank you so much and Amy thank you for working with us I really do appreciate it thank you hi I'm Chrissy Thomas and I'm a 54 year resident of Montclair and I was here last week when councilor Cummings brought up the idea of limiting the number of people who could address the town by effectively locking the church doors at a certain time so people who get here late can't speak this week without any notice you changed the amount of time we could speak from 3 minutes to two it's not our job to listen to the public it's yours we come to be heard taxpayers parents children grandparents because something is bothering us we bring it to the attention of our elected officials with the hope that they'll be able to address issue not pay at lip service but actually try to resolve problems or at least stop creating Problems by not abiding laws and processes we don't come here to complain or waste our breath or at least I try not to we need a record of all of the laws that you ignore all of the processes you disobey and all the lawsuits that you invite by for example violating procurement processes and procedures remember during Co I told you that Clare Anderson was not abiding the ordinances did you know that there are no there's only one public skating session per day and it's at 1 in the afternoon no kids can go there's only one on Saturdays what is what are we doing we're giving contracts to your friends without proper bids it's it's unheard of I also want to let the public know that there was already a lawsuit about Montclair failing to abide procurement procedures and it was titled Maddox versus Ed remson and some of you counselors were part of it you despite his failure to abide the law chose to put him on the leafblower ordinance a or the leafblower task force after it passed I don't know what you're doing but you're not abiding the law stop it thank you wow what a night I'm Joe Purdue 54 North Mountain Avenue born and raised in Montclair um incredible experience hearing all this I was just here I had no idea I thought I was going to be called how I signed in which was about 50 people ago um I live in North Mountain Avenue I've been running around the town literally walking and running around the town for six years and I had no idea what I would hear but people are going 60 miles an hour on Highland they're speeding every we're we're simply a shortcut for people to go from Garden State Parkway or Clifton to get to Essex PHS or this is just crazy cars going by 60 when I'm running on Highland pot all the time I guess that's legal now whatever but Valley Road uh parts of Park of course Grove North Mountain Upper Mountain Highlands ridiculous I mean 5060 M hour all the time I have an easy idea easy the easiest thing we've heard all night self-funding I've not seen one policeman people a red light a light turns red I wrote M um Chief Cony one car goes through five cars go through we're promoting speeding we're promoting running through red lights I had no idea what I would hear tonight that other people are talking about this Claremont and Upper Mountain whether coming down going up coming from um monair Kimberly Academy or from upper Monclair the light changes it's Lawless 1 2 3 4 five people running speeding everywhere no police who do I speak to to get the police to give out tickets which would be self-funding and if somebody gets a ticket they're going to get points and have to pay 150 bucks they're going to slow down there's other towns you go five minutes over the five miles an hour over the speed limit you get a ticket who do I speak to to get the police to sit on Upper Mountain Avenue behind any body any worker's truck a car comes by at 50 you're getting a huge ticket 150 bucks ticket Monclair gets the money it's sell funding we'll make money on it we could make money on turning Monclair say we're losing the town I was born and raised here thank you I I have a question for him right here uh what did the chief conf what he say to you when you talk to him he's doing yeah no response I didn't expect the chief of police to write me back when I say five people go through red lights people are speeding we're a shortcut for other towns we're promoting this activity we're promoting it by not doing anything about it well it's getting worse every year let me I talk to Chief con all the time I want to make it clear that they do stop Vehicles all all the time and there are issu in Suites speeding listen to me speeding is a regional issue this is not just a Township issue it's a regional issue I you know I've listened to a lot of the conversation here tonight and I don't think that people really realize how much of an issue that speeding is not just Monclair but Bloomfield Verona uh Glen Ridge the other municipalities around I was a police officer for 35 years and I see him speeding around here I do know that our traffic and safety division is out there issuing summonses all the time now is it a budgetary thing I've heard that like a little bit before also you know if you want to add more police officers then you're going to have to pay the budget and move more police officers out there on the street but however however there are other issues that are going on besides speeding there's people's houses getting broken into there is stolen vehicles out there there's domestic violence there's a lot of different issues of pie chart so as an administrator in the police department you have to take all of these things under consideration yes you know maybe some calming for you know some of the streets you know can be done but my my uh view is it's going to have to be some education more education to the mass of people around the region and let them know that listen we need to slow down we need to take it easy on our streets in the region that's just my take on it you know enfor my understanding is we have 60 sworn officers in Montclair roughly a lot of the speeding happens between 7 and 9 when they're going across Montclair speeding uh somewhere around 4:00 CL you can't believe what Highland is like I've not seen one I've spent it must be 150 hours running and walking around town not one policeman have I seen pulling somebody over do you know who I would speak to to try to get more activity as far as red light running and speeding you call my office in I mean not one it's mathematically impossible and a lot of the break-ins all these cars being stolen that's at night this is rush hour I I'm telling you it's it's a mathematical impossibility but it's you know it happened but thank you all so much and this should be a bladder control uh commer we need a break hi everybody Eric deato uh 25 Norwood in the First Ward I just want to say a couple of things about traffic that have now been mentioned tonight the first is that you actually may have really saved lives literally by doing what you did which is pretty good I mean literally my kids's life may have been saved and that's great the second thing surprisingly that has not been mentioned tonight um is something called an autonomous or self-driving vehicle so after a long period of overhype And Delay the era of the driverless car has finally arrived if not yet in Montclair as of last month when you call an Uber in Phoenix you need to specify that you want a person behind the wheel wow wow exactly Robin that's what that's what I said well this is kind of freaky and a little bit creepy I think it's actually good news especially for a community like ours for one thing D it suggests that on a mile for mile basis self-driving cars are much safer than human piloted ones but they could be transformative in other ways for a place like our town largely first of all removing in the problem of parking almost completely and making it easier for people to spend time and money at our wonderful commercial districts we will also see a change in the size of vehicles on our streets instead of people always using the same big family SUV or sedans will be able to quickly hail a lightweight one or two Cedar when it's just us in a companion or a couple of shopping bags and with fewer big vehicles on the road we may be more likely to walk or bike and be safer when we do so so it's a very bright future I think but it'll be a lot brighter if we as a Township actually plan for it so while we are working to make our streets safer today we should also be actively thinking about what happens when today's cars are replaced by tomorrow's cars being a progressive Town shouldn't just mean being somewhere off to the left politically it's got to be about anticipating progress including technical progress and making it work for us here thanks thank youting great great that's interesting I know that is something we can all agree on they'll be speed right they'll that's right I know don't mean to keep everyone here and wasn't planning to speak again but I feel compelled to by recent comments it's ilmar Vander 127 Edgemont Road I wanted to Echo the statements made by many of the previous speakers regarding public comment and public hybrid participation meetings as a longtime student of politics and Communications professional I strongly believe that we need more public comment not less of it and it is an essential component of democracy as well as openness transparency and honesty in government so it's been my experience that elected officials who are averse to hearing public comment are often those who forget who elected them and why they were elected to serve in the first place that's just a general observation and I want to go on the record as saying that I am perplexed and puzzled why Montclair Public Library as well as the Monclair Board of Education have been able to successfully Implement hybrid public participation at their meetings postco yet the Montclair uh Township Council considers this to be an impossibility apparently so I would welcome any insight or clarification as to why uh it can't be implemented in this context and environment thank you thank you okay so with that I will close public comment uh public comment is closed councilman price Abrams uh thanks mayor I did I did want to come back to um just the matter of um as Ed rson uh had been in earlier discussion former mayor um someone that I know many of us um consider as a someone we consult as an adviser just some history um from his tenure in service and so I really just wanted to be clear about the reason I um and others considered asking Ed to serve as a chair of the leaf lower task force was not because he has expertise about Leaf flowers but because he has process expertise and the idea was that he would just help bring together the right kinds of people I know it's still in process and as I described before it's not obviously to implement the thing that's taking care of the leaves that are already mostly picked up at this point but it's to make sure that we're considering a broad array of things and I really just wanted to um ensure that I thanked Ed publicly that I um acknowledged again for anybody who was wondering if you haven't been yet consulted or or otherwise that they're they're assembling the right kind of parties as as Council Russo noted it's meant to be bringing together different perspectives on the issue but nonetheless Ed was requested to serve because of his again skills in sort of process and bringing people together so I will just want to thank him and and partly really to make sure that that those who had asked understand where where we thought that was a good fit so thank you again um Mr Lola can you please go through the uh items on the agenda for discussion and I think most of the things we are generally aware of so you don't to spend too much time on them but if there's something there's additional questions on you can do that uh all items will then add to consent agenda for the next meeting assuming there no objections okay go ahead thank you Mr leul all right uh resolution number one is just a housekeeping resolution from uh from the tax collector in terms of refunds of less than $10 uh number two sets the uh the rate for penalties and a grace period for the receipt of delinquent taxes pursu with the state statute uh resolutions three four and four have to do with the the township participating in different um uh uh uh co-ops um and we try to join as many co-ops as possible because we get uh better rates um number uh number five is a uh a contract for home for repairs to um to uh um a property in the uh Monclair Home Improvement program uh numbers uh uh six and uh seven um or do have of a fair and open Professional Service uh process for the hiring of an appraisal company and um uh two appraisal companies uh used by our uh tax assessor um number eight is a refund of escrow balances for projects that have been deemed complete or dismissed denied Etc by the planning department um number nine is a uh resolution for allowing for the payment of uh of debt Debt Service uh that's due between the end of the year and the next the first meeting on uh January 2nd um uh number uh number 10 is the uh a contract water contract with Matrix New World services having to do with EnV the environmental remediation project that the uh uh Department of community services at 219 North ferton uh number 11 is the resolution uh awarding um of a fair and open finicial service contract to the D franccesco law firm uh number 12 is um the award of a professional service contract to Eric Bernstein and Associates and number 13 is a appointing uh Janice tally to be a the town's representative on uh the Community Development uh committee sounds good does anyone have any objection to those or we'll add those to I'm sorry it's it's Janice and David cumings well yeah but it also is a third name you you overlooked the third name that's my question assistant sorry it's that there's an assistant but now here's my question years ago councelor schlager was on with another council member I was on at one time and I wanted to be on now it says that the county the reason it's three is the county is allowing more so they could have a quorum so the Quorum is allowing us to put more people on my suggestion is more Council people go on having her assistant go on doesn't give the council more input now I go to every event when they give out the checks for cdbg I know that councelor schager did it in the past councelor Cummings does it now I go to every every session when they give out the checks I interact with the county at all times I would like to serve on that as a liaison rather than have the assistant to the town planner I'm I'm not mistaken I'm sorry I believe Mr Cummings yeah I I believe ioun I believe that allows you're it's not a third me a member of the committee it allows another person to be appointed so if one can't be there the other one can go in their stad more alternates Al sort of like an alternate thing so if if one of the others they could send a another representative I believe that's I think that's it but I also know that what it's saying is they're having a problem getting a quorum now what I'm saying is this is so important we heard all the people tonight asking for money we have to respond we ask questions it's a very important thing to me that the county gives us what we need and I have enough connections with that County government and I've gone to every meeting which you don't don't know about Michael up in Cedar Grove when they present the checks I'm there to take the picture with Janice tally sometimes I'm the only one I would like to be on that committee if there's going to be three let three let be two council members and Janice tally rather than her assistant I'm just suggesting you don't want to put me on there fine I have a a related question I guess and and that's just um does that person need to be serving as a council member you know if after after this Council tenure ends I I don't know the answer I'll ask ask Janice to yeah we're not doing we're not doing it till next time I just want you to check Michael can it can there be two I know there were two Council people in the past I know this so I'm just saying the council has a real role in hearing people and getting the money for them and it's a council role it's not an administrative role Janice plays a good role as going to all the meetings once a month I used to go to me when Joyce gemman was the council liaison now I just want to ask one other question this number 11 and 12 I hope my colleagues will hear me 11 and 12 I know we're not voting on it tonight but before next meeting if everybody would just listen to me for a second number 11 I'm not having as big a problem with as I used to the def Francesco baitman Law Firm does commercial I've asked the town attorney you can clarify for me if you could Paul commercial tax appeals are done by D Francesco baitman right by actually by both of them both oh and I thought that Bernstein did the residential no uh they do both they do both okay they do both and and uh Department handle some of the resal right now I want to I I don't know if anybody's listening to this the clerk the manager I'm asking these to be looked at very carefully because manager if you can hear me these two firms were rehired last year we gave them $80,000 each my question was very clear and I've got an answer again today that Mr Bernstein I'm not talking about def franccesco baitman although I had questions about them being very politically connected and I thought maybe they could do all of this work which I think they could do all this work or our town attorney being paid maybe extra as we used to pay our former Town attorney extra to do it but the one that's number 12 bothers me because Eric Bernstein is an attorney for Mr Tim Stafford and he attends and has attended the court sessions for him so I think there's a conflict and a problem for us to be paying $80,000 for a gentleman whose Law Firm represents somebody that's in legal conflict with us just just for clarification Eric Bernstein is not Tim's attorney it is uh one of the um Associates or in his law our Equity Partners yes in his law and Mr Bernstein uh firm Eric Bernstein Associates was appointed to represent Tim as part of the uh GIF yes so it's it's it's uh through through the GIF that the manager former manager is getting representation um and and it's not the township is paying for it it's through our insurance carrier as his position as Township manager not as an individual litigant in the okay um do you do any of you see anything wrong with us giving $80,000 to a gentleman's firm that is in a litigation situation with us that is defending somebody that we removed because of problems do you see anything wrong with that everybody I've talk to sees a very big conflict there just for clarification Mr Stafford's not uh in this lawsuit that Eric Bernstein and Associates is representing Mr Stafford as the township manager he's not suing us and we're not adversarial to each other in that litigation um um I believe Mr Stafford has his own personal attorney who is um he who represents him in a in in personal matters not in this stship matter okay I know some people are not listening I'm going to say it one more time for the record maybe for the public we are spending aund there's $160,000 to do tax appeals when our former attorney used to be paid $220,000 extra and handled all of them so I would think that Paul and Gina for an extra 20,000 each could do it and we'd save $140,000 so it's a partially a question of the money we're spending secondly it's a question of these firms being politically connected they're out in Warren County without in Warren forget about it I don't think that people are listening to me so good night okay you don't listen the things that I'm telling you that you how does one demonstrate listening Bob I'm sitting here quietly listening to you I seriously okay do what you want to do what you want toic should not be given $80,000 okay so um I think it uh it it certainly I think uh I speak on behalf of the remaining counsels it it is um certainly frustrating for someone who does um note uh that he interrupts meetings all the time but then uh when we talk about the hour with Which business is done uh we are the ones who do sit here and remain and do the business and we do have a colleague who uh quite frankly leaves every time right fail Mr Mayor without without fail right so um very frustrating in that regard completely out of line completely out of line I mean so what do we do about it well you know I mean I guess that's for the for the for the it's been going on for years so well Mr Mr bur I guess you could look into you know the fact that you know if a council person is just not you know quite frankly ever finishing meetings to do their business where does that leave us I appreciate the attacks that they then give of how they would have voted if they actually stayed for the end of the meeting um and they share that with the public but that's actually not a vote and it's actually not making sure your constituents voices are in this space right we we disagree on things I think even up here our constituents who elected us know that we're advocating and um is what that is but once again I look at the hour here we are and I see who has chosen to leave early again I think he noted this meeting he wasn't going to leave early but there you go never going to do it again [Music] anyway I I'll I'll look into that and um provide you with something yep okay um so to close the door could you close that door so I'll just uh start us off as a in this space and I'll go Around the Horn uh very quickly but I'll just say this uh to each of you and uh you know certainly I know um my my little guys were not able to see Santa at the uh on on the fire truck this year uh Mr Deputy Mayor but we missed you Mr Mayor and your family certainly um but but I do want say in that Spirit um you know just wishing everyone a happy and healthy holidays um you know certainly I think as you noted in this meeting um you know the world is uh is a is a challenging place right now and uh I think everyone uh is feeling that the emotions are are right there uh on the surface um but uh it is those moments when you see the the businesses uh giving out that hot chocolate um you know and other things which which I like the hot chocolate um but but everybody coming together um you know uh I'll just share this with my colleagues I think you guys experienced this as well um rightfully so we hear from residents here who have their concerns they want to share them um and so often when we're out in the community we hear from those who are um just truly enjoying the great things that are happening and that and I think it's important to note that each of you uh collectively we are are part of helping to make that happen I want to thank you for that and thank you for for the service there so uh with the time with your families and friends and everything else just want to say really a a happy holidays to each and every one of you and uh certainly um enjoy the work we're all doing so thank you guys right um Mr Deputy Mayor yeah thank you thank you Mr Mayor I appreciate that very much I'm going to go a little off script though just because I think I'm not not that I'm counting but this has got to be the third or fourth meeting where we haven't had time to go around the horn so if you will just indulge me for a second because there's so much and we're going around the horn so do it and and I'm here I'm I'm I'm at my end of the horn Mr Mayor and there's just so much that's been going on in town that we're really missing unfortunately be because of the nature of some of the meetings um and forgive me I am going to go back a little ways and it was an honor to preside over the Veterans Day ceremony I thought Mr Bates who is uh one of our our own here in Montclair did a great job um the holly berry my son Ryan and I went to with the Women's Club of Upper Montclair um that was a great event I I know many of you go over the years and and I know you go there Robin as well we've had many Public Safety Committee meetings with my colleague Mr Cummings and uh now with Mr Terry trying to address many of the issues we're talking we talked about tonight um I'm going to go way back now cuz we haven't had a chance to talk but the Montclair Film Festival was phenomenal uh was fortunate enough to take in many of the events there including the Martin scors Acy event at uh at the at the pack in nework which was great um attended a bunch of lunches with the Women's Club of Upper Montclair Our Lady of Mount Carmel there were some of us there the other day with the turkeys and the distribution for the Thanksgiving they're doing a great job there of course many of us were at the league um benefited from a lot of the the uh seminars and meetings and things that we've done down there there was the tree lighting as the mayor just mentioned it on Church Street and tonight before I came over as well there was the upper Monclair uh tree lighting over at St James Church there for the community and for the upper Monclair Business Association so lot of stuff going on a lot of positive look things are bad right now across the board local state Federal um we know that we don't have to say it again however there's a lot of good still going on and let's not miss that and with that Mr Mayor thank you yes and and noted that one of the real good is that it wasn't that cold on the turkey giveaway I was I was I wasn't freezing too bad but uh that was a big change from last year if you remember huge change and the tree lightings actually both of them were relatively warm bomy I would even say Thank you Mr Mayor thank you thank you so much uh councilwoman yeah um yes I um um I also would like to Echo that um what you said um Deputy Mayor is that and and mayor there are a lot of good things and a lot of positive things and and I try to focus on that and I TR try to focus on um you know kindness there were a couple of people that came up tonight that were so kind and um and I really appreciate that and it and it means a lot you know of course there will always be people that are not happy I'm not happy with some things that happen in um in our town but but um but I appreciate the positive and kindness that people show especially around this holiday season um Friday night's the first night of Hanukkah and which some of us celebrate and many of our um neighbors and friends and um Town um people celebrate Hanukkah and this year is more important to celebrate Hanukkah than ever I feel in my house anyway um Mr Lola I want to thank you for your efforts um I know you've said it um just not long ago this evening you haven't been here that long and for the short time you have been in here you have been here I I think you've been very responsive very um very positive and um and you and you quick learner so I I appreciate that and you're not perfect either Mr Lola but um sorry but um I think I think I heard that tonight but I but but I appreciate your efforts um you know it's this is this is our town these are our friends these are our neighbors these are you know no matter what Ward you live in no matter what Temple or synagogue or church you go to these are this is our community and uh you know let's just show some kindness and and Mr Cherry we have here with us now I'm so grateful to be back with him so um and that's all I wanted to say thanks it is a great town and Community yeah it really is Roger uh thank you thank you all first of all it's been an honor uh for this month and a half serving with you you know it's uh it's been a little challenging uh anytime you have an opportunity though to serve in your community to me it's uh something special you know it always doesn't come out the way you wanted to sometimes I feel the uh anxiety and anger in some of the people here but uh just like you were stating before yeah there are more good than there are bad you know this is a great Community to live in I've lived around the country and traveled around this is one of the best regions in the country to be in most diverse region some of the best food you know I mean look look look at all that's going on on the on our eer around town you know our restaurants uh it's very Vibrant Community I've gone to uh some of the high school sports football team did very well they were in a championship game the soccer team did well so the health of this community I believe is very very healthy uh I also realize that they're going to be tragedies unfortunate that that happens from time to time but when you've been dealing with human beings as long as I've been dealing with them things are going to happen unfortunately I've seen The Good the Bad and the Ugly you know but overall overall this is a great Community to work in and I think people miss that point sometimes you know how grateful and blessed they are to be in a town like mclair you know I also want to say that uh unfortunately some people still come and uh some people act disrespectful and that shouldn't be you know we all live here in this community and you're not just doing this to be doing this you're doing this because you love your community and you really care about your community you care about the people no matter what the circumstance is so uh hopefully as we move forward that we'll be able to help the ones that we can help and uh even ones that we can't help that at least will be respectful to them as we move forward happy holidays to all and hope you hopefully you'll be healthy and safe yeah thank you thank you thank you sir Council U well thank you and thank you all for uh just a breath of comments that uh you know Deputy Mayor going back I I was thinking also I had I almost brought the book last time of the the courses that I captured at the league cuz it's really a nice opportunity to hear some more of the things about sustainability or whatever it is that I'm uh or several of things that I've ran into Janice on and and so you know it's just a nice coming together people we know from across the state in all kinds of capacities it's just a very enriching time so I appreciate that in this role we get to go down there and really um exchange some best practices and and share some good things we're doing and learn um so thanks for hearkening us back to that point but um you know really echoing a lot of other people said one event that I attended um no one yet mentioned um the Unitarian Church was the host to a very all faiths kind of event really to try and help us whoever tended uh or listened to to process again some of the very difficult feelings we all have about what's going on right now in the Middle East and um this war of Israel and Hamas and and you know it different Faith communities all had an opportunity to speak it was a response and sort of I think in the YuYu Spirit it was like a we we hear you we love you everyone was acknowledged for what's their truth and and everyone didn't have to agree but it was really respectful and that's I think what we all um want more we we would love to agree but where we can't agree we can be respectful in that um so that was a very powerful evening I did miss the fun that preceded it though at the tree lighting and such so I'm glad to know that there was a great turnout for that um Robin noted thanks um Hanukkah is coming up so you know that's as a holiday that I observe I just want to note as all the holidays I think this season there's so much about bringing light into the world and Hanukkah the the rabbis of your had decided are we going to are we going to start with eight and go down to one or are we going to build and they said no we're going to increase the light every night so we start with one and we build to eight nights um and you know we put them in the window as a sign of just sort of letting people know that's what we're bringing so I just maybe we'll end with that sort of both spiritual and um and just PR practical calling forward of bringing more light I know we're all looking to do that in our own ways and I appreciate everybody here and whatever form of service you're doing and the people who come some of whom just walk back in to say that you know we it's not easy to hear everything we have to listen to but we we appreciate an Engaged public and we appreciate the opportunity to you know reflect and and serve so thank you yeah excellent thank you Mr bur anything nothing mayor nothing tonight uh to report but I will thank all of you for the positive comments you just made it makes going home this evening uplifting yeah uh clerk's office M clerk anything yes I don't have any report either but I do wish you all a healthy and happy holiday season thank you anything like just happy holidays to everyone excellent Mr Leal just just two comments uh mayor uh first um I I want to mention you know sitting here tonight as we we listen to the to the uh comments or the testimony of the people who are applying for these grants from cdbg it reminded me that it's important if I'm sitting home turning on Channel 34 it's nice to see the people's business being done so I urge as you mentioned earlier about how this meeting is uh how the meeting is organized in my experience in government and other locations you open the meeting and you perhaps you have presentations or whatever and then you open the meeting for the purpose of commenting on any item on the agenda the board the the the counselors would then take official action there's discussion on what they're doing and then at the end you open the meeting to the public I think that's a much more functional way to to conduct business and I think that's as important as your job is to conduct the people's business and that should be the priority and then at the end we can open you can open it up and people can talk about whatever they want but I think it's important you know you have that jux position or irony of we listen to you listen to the public all night and then when you finally take action you're accused of taking a midnight action because that's when the meeting's occurring so I think it's important and I think if if you turn the TV on tonight and you saw these people as you mentioned the backbone of the community making these presentations that's important for the public to see and it shouldn't be if they're watching three hours into the meeting so I would urge you to reconsider how you structure the meeting everyone will have the opportunity to speak but I do think that's important that we get down to the business of government first the second part is um is that in my sure tenure here and I am not a resident I can tell you that the people who work for the township of Monclair work really really hard and while occasionally we may have a bad actor or an issue that someone may disagree with the firemen do great job the cops do a great job no one is sitting around they're doing their jobs and some people have jobs that are not glamorous working on the back of a truck or answering a phone but they work hard and I have to tell you you have a great great Workforce in this town and sometimes you have to say that out loud yeah absolutely well we thank you for doing that thank you for that uh Mr and certainly I think on behalf of all of us we want to acknowledge all those Town employees and thank them for their service and everything that they do um and and I'll just take the the last moment of privilege to um give a big thank you to um congressman goheer who I had the chance to go to the uh White House holiday party uh last night which was really really really cool and I have to say you know that it was pretty pretty exciting you know I was like whoa but it it's it's uh you know walking around there and seeing everything and uh you know the president the vice president and just uh quite frankly both parties everyone coming together right you know you see you know we see what we see on TV but at something like that you really see how it's important I think the theme of what we're all saying you come together and um it was really really special to see as well last night so um I want to give a big thank you there that was really really cool so with that let's all enjoy the holidays and and that Spirit of it we'll see each other again uh before but then you know we will um you know just keep enjoying uh uh the time with family and friends all right so with that I'll turn a motion to adjourn all right all in favor great thanks everybody good meeting thank you Sean I went I went