##VIDEO ID:_tShMLUI_sQ## y Council agenda Township precip Troy Hills Township Council agenda meeting of September 10th 2024 introduction posting of notice adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings law by following the notice in the office of the Township Clerk and by posting the meeting notice on The Bu bulletin board at the municipal building on December 20th 2023 where it has remained posted since that date a legal notice appeared in the daily record of the New York St Ledger on December 26 2023 may I please ask everyone to stand for the flag salute to the flag of the United States of America rep for it stands one nation God indivisible Li and justice for all roll call Mr herandez here Mr McGrath here Mr Mella here Mr neglia here Mr kifi also in attendance are mayor James Barbaro uh Township administrator Jamie ran Township attorney Wade Baldwin and municipal clerk col Madden council president we have a quum may I begin yes please okay uh upcoming meetings September 24th 2024 at 700 p.m. is the regular meeting and October 8th 2024 at 7:00 p.m. is the agenda meeting at this time I'd like to ask the council and administration to please review the ordinance for second reading in public hearing which will be on for a vote at the next meeting okay seeing that we have no questions at this time we'll go ahead and move into the public session at this time I'd like to entertain a motion to open up the public session motion second motion made by Mr neglia seconded by Miss Hernandez roll call Mr Hernandez yes Mr McGrath yes Mr Mella yes Mr neglia yes Mr kifi yes okay uh motion passes the floor is now open to the public to speak on any matter uh once you approach the mic I ask before you speak to please sign in you'll have 5 minutes to speak and then after the council may or may not address your question in in the event that you still have something to say after your 5 minutes is up you can stick around after the meeting and and speak to whoever you'd like to speak to directly okay with that being said do we have anybody for a public session good evening kenowski orany um I understand that item three on the non-consent agenda is a contract with an accounting firm to do the audit for the uh Board of Ed I assume that's correct and uh as I said last time I am not either for or against this audit however if we do the audit uh it we just needs to be that that there's valuable information that's going to be acquired that can not otherwise be acquired by looking at these looking at these public documents so first I'd like to know uh you know how much we're paying for this audit and second I think the council ought to ask and I'm asking what is this valuable information that is in public documents but nobody seems to know what you know what it is or how to go about it such that we need an auditor I've been told by Mr cryan that there is valuable information I have no idea what it is um and I'd like to understand it better and I would encourage the members of the council to ask the same questions of the administration thank you thank you uh Nick comc from uh Lake auth I'm I'm here to voice my concern my disgruntled concern about what I what took place in his Zoning Board of adjustments that um the advertising sign large advertising sign in an inappropriate location will be installed and will Shadow and obstruct and trespass upon the Benedict living historic trust property now apparently uh pipy I have to say ppy threw in the tow because they were afraid of a lawsuit now the Petersons invested $40,000 in the previous hearing and the plan board voted no they hired a expert landscape architect and return and the conclusion was you can't put the sign where it's inappropriate so now the developer comes back and we were blindsided at that meeting we didn't know there was a close session between Pacific advertising and their attorney and the zoning board and the zoning board seemed demoralized but here's what I have to say you could have won that lawsuit because the Petersons already won it so I remember when Johny Gino was here we had go suits all the time there was no problem with any of them and most of them were fous or unnecessary or he's working for the town but he's working for the developers so he's gaining on both ends so why precip threw a tow for that U an additional inappropriate action against that property in neighborhood before it was the school which I'm disappointed to say the Board of Education supported that to avoid the public housing which is it's like a scorched Earth you're not going to avoid your your obligation so I didn't understand I didn't really understand that but there there's I just want to in our age of ample alternative channels Outdoor Advertising should be deemed anti- community and nature in its overs scaled intrusion of visible and light trespass into into the surroundings must the people be constantly bombarded from every angle as mere consumers for some product at the point of spoiled community and landscape and I didn't make that up I got it from a u uh a site where you can actually challenge these kind of intrusions into your community and and supposedly there's an ordinance that PRP set themselves up for this U lawsuit and I'd like to know what the ordinance is um it says the town I outright forbid at all Billboards without exception carved out for itself uh could such a Prohibition stand essentially if the billboard metioned could be confed conveyed effectively in different and less obnoxious forms so what ordinance did pting make that set themselves up for this lawsuit and advertisement is freedom of speech really are we that lost in our uh our degreg as Citizens to Consumers so I would just like to say I hope something can be done but once again theet is won the argument but the me through in the town so that's all I I I have to say you have any any comments I'd be glad to hear them good evening mayor and all council members I handed out some notes uh this I found today in uh was sent to me nine New Jersey towns of Father the lawsuit on affordable housing uh Floren Park maybe one I was at the last mayor's council with Bob maybe we can get a hold of him and possibly join the lawsuit in that and it it'll you know this say here's who affect is Mur and everybody else uh also I handed mayor a very copy of the sign uh which is there I bought 20 of them I hope we get permission to deal approve signs to put them down the stop signs uh we almost had an incident tonight 10-year-old boy was trying to across F Cliff I slapped put my fourways on mother went around them another mother in the back decided to try and go around them and gave me the finger so I tell stick it out further I might break it off uh basically and uh also uh one your back picture we had uh s a movie night I hope to get with Glacier Hills people that turned around we had approximately 300 kids there we had fruit box juices for them water for the uh adults and we had popcorn machine and pop made popcorn for the kids so we get more of it done it be know y was nice they had Kung Fu Panda on some of the kids were run around in pajamas uh you was great that's all I've got to say thank you uh good evening mayor and also all council members uh my name is balas samaga you have seen me regularly coming here for this council meeting I I live in Glenmont Community um so in the past we have come here we have said our road issues and uh I have heard repeatedly from your member saying that road does not belong to Township and also I heard like they have put a loss uh against the developer so first thing we would like to know what's a status SEC and again the status I know that okay once there's a lawsuit it takes years so every time if you any come here we would not like to hear that okay lawsuit has been filed the case is going on we need a solution from us till that case comes into Solution that's the first thing second thing yes as again all of us in the past we have said like okay there a lot of parts it needs to be fixed and I'm seeing a lot of communities where they are doing very good road works but I'm not seeing anything around the Glenmont Community getting into the Glenmont Community or like somewhere in the because they did lot of patchwor but I'm not seeing any repair over there third thing uh I just want to highlight like a New Jersey state gives us something called The Anchor repair program if because we are paying regular property tax if there is a delay they put a penalty and Al they send us a green sleeve red sleep whatever with penal so when we are paying almost 5 to6 million from our Township we expect some work for our roads or you can think from the New Jersey state rebate program you can give us some prit programs based on the property tax we are paying and using that cumula amount we can do our internal Road call so just the mindset I think we have almost 30 members who have come here to represent our community so you will hear the same thing I would appreciate some response from mayor and all the council members sir I can I can tell you real quick before the meeting started there were a couple residents from your community that were here that I spoke to and and gave them an update on where we were at but then I saw after that bunch of people had walked in so I mean I'll let the attorney speak on it but there are a few of your neighbors over there that know kind of where we're at yeah uh so I was giving an update uh the township filed suit uh earlier in August and uh we effectuated service on August 23rd uh which means they are they have the lawsuit and they have to respond to it they have 35 days to respond to it um so at this point there's nothing for us to do but to wait for their response VJ panchamia I'm also from the Glenmont and as Bala said uh you all know the road condition right and I know there is a low suit and you to wait for the response but is there anything that can be done right now with you know all the Pooles that that we have it is almost back to square one right and it is becoming like a a safety concern quality of life issue we have kids who are you know driving their bikes on that road we have seniors who are walking there you have motorist that are trying to avoid the potholes it's an incident that's waiting to happen right and recently unfortunately in our town we had two three such incidents where kids are getting hit you know because motorists are trying to you know avoid or trying to you know go around it or whatever right so to to us that's a safety concern that needs to be address irrespective of you know how far we go with the lawsuit that's number one uh second we also see you know it's been almost a year right uh since you know we've been coming here we also see just outside of our development very close to where this developer is build you know has built another development right on a mountain way he's doing his work he has done some patchwor it's a very shorty patch work that he has done you come through that road you will see the road is almost dipping like 6 in down on you know going towards the Glenmont right so can we at least make sure that while developer is doing a development in that development that whichever area he opens up he at least does a good work so that you know the neighborhood does not run into problem because he's doing another development all right so those are the two things I want to bring it up if there are any other updates we have I know lawsuit is going on but anything you can do to kind of you know give us some short-term relief would be appreciated thank you Mr CR I or mayor I know in the past you had a crew go up there and we're working on patching some of those things is that possible again to have we'll do that again okay ntin shano part of Glenmont as well I don't want to belabor this point over and over again but I just want to add to what BJ said the uh patchwor done on Mountain Way so shy so shorty when it rains you can't make out the edges of the road I actually uh my kid who was sitting on a uh booster seat she kind of really fell off you know had it not been for the seat belt she would have fallen off the seat you can't Pi out the edge at the edge of the road it the 6 in and when it rains it's a safety hazard I think you letting the same developer maybe not the same legal entity but the same person get away with what they did to us in in Glenmont thanks my name is Jack Rea I'm a member of the parity Board of Education I'm speaking tonight as a private citizen and my comments do not reflect the position of the board of education at the last Town council meeting after the public comments the mayor discussed his reasons for pursuing an audit of the Board of Education that he had received some stuff from councilman McGrath and the numbers were all over the place frankly I'm surprised by the lack of precision on the nature of this stuff that the stuff refer to the balance sheet the income statement the budget or was it something else that a review of the financials or their footnotes couldn't explain regarding so-called questions why wasn't there an inquiry you have a CFO and you have your own auditor to reach out to for guidance Valerie Dolan is the partner at naaa the auditor who signed off on the parci township audit report and I'm sure she could answer any concerns in the meantime the citizens of parity erose Precision on the nature of your questions further I'm sure your CFO and your account would both would both advise you that an auditor would be required to be independent in fact and in appearance the relationship as described would create at least a perception of a lack of Independence finally the council needs a resolution to to consider if this expense should be an expense to the tax to the taxpayers or if it should be a campaign expense on a slightly different note there's a huge Warehouse going up on 2011 on Tab road with 25 with it's actually more than that there's about 60 docks on 30 docks on each side it's about 500 ft long on each side this is not a pilot I called up the town of Morris Plains and there are no Pilots currently going on in Morris Plains why is parity so aggressive in employing Pilots what's important to remember is that doing a pilot May well be worse than doing nothing if the costs exceed the revenue brought in from that pilot it seems to be the hope of the to keep all revenue derived from the pilot projects within the township and excluding the school district however that will leave taxpayers to provide the funding for what is likely to be hundreds of additional students that could be a tab of millions of dollars that the taxpayers will pick up that is not just my opinion I invite the council and citizens to read the letter to the editor in the parity focus on September 3rd by sheral Suarez she correctly sums up that sooner or later there will be a short fall in money from the pilot projects to pay towards the school district and that shortfall will be made up by taxpayers of parity now and in the future let me repeat sooner or later the shortfall from Pilots will be borne by the taxpayer yeah hello everybody my name is DH rajana and I'm also from Glen mon common but you know while they have raised the all other concern I want to know what is the governance around anything rais through the go pilot program I wanted to know that because I raise a request to kind of you know fill the Pooles what my friend n CH just told that right and I'm not sure if any of you have seen that road there's no Road virtually there's no yellow line there's no white line right even if you go in dark Little Misty conditions or rains right you virtually with hit the other side vehicle definitely if your vehicle is wider so I raise a a kind of a request to go pilot on 1st of March it was received on 4th of March and 5th March it was closed with the command that engineer has evaluated the road but since March till today nothing has been done nobody called me nobody explained and there's no potle not even single inch work has been done the road has further deteriorated because there's another buildup going on in the side by right so why are we getting into that condition and what are the governance around whatever the citizens are raising concern through the go pilot we wanted to know who looks after that who supervises that that particular request has been closed properly or not thank you for [Music] [Music] to the council Tim Berrios 24 Farmstead Drive um somebody had just said this but I just want to bring it up again it was to my surprise nj.com n New Jersey towns suing the state over of affordable housing law um it's a nice list here Floren Park Hillsdale Manning man Milburn Montville ultan no parpy hadn't we heard for weeks and even a month that we were going to be on some sort of uh lawsuit or is it because the law firm um that's representing these guys doesn't uh doesn't play nice with the current Administration um I was going to talk about the B ofed audit but you know my colleagues have spoken and they're they're very good at what they said so I don't have much to add um so for for many of you folks sitting on the Das here and many in the audience you know a couple of years ago uh an email that I sent uh a private email that was sent to the Republican Club of Paran somehow made its way out and became public um and uh caused a caused a lot of upsetment caused a uh current board member at the time to file ethics charges against me I won ethics charges were dismissed and um when that happened I did uh because I'm in the cyber security business and do this for a living made a few phone calls did some research and found out who were the um who were the uh rats nipping at the cheese so I have all that information that's sitting with my attorney in a very nice safe spot for a rainy day so this past August a rainy day came up surprise surprise um I'm a school bus driver and I have a Department of Transportation CDL certificate I was getting my uh my physical at the AFC here in pany the nice family practice very nice people and was I surprised to find it on online at Facebook now this idiot could not have known that when you post it on Facebook it's what they call open source and I found it and I found all the information I know who got it I know where it came from I know all this stuff and my attorney and the AFC attorney have been working very nicely over the past 30 days for our next steps on this process Shazam disat last Friday I get an alert from the same security company that says hey Mr beros your background information was inquired they took a records check they took a financial check they took as much information as they could publicly get a hold of as a background on me that's amazing by the way dot records are personal they're full on the hippo okay Hippa that's a big law in New Jersey so anyways so right now I have the same security they're doing their research probably won't have it for a couple more weeks because it's a little more detailed but we're going to find it and my attorney will get all that and then we'll take it from there but here I just want to say that this is what happens when you as a public official a private official whatever stand against the regime when you stand against people who are not working in the best interest of our town there are at least two people that that falls in line with and they have no right to sit in front of you okay the other thing is just think about this I am a law- Abiding Citizen I am not a crial okay I volunteer my time I volunteer my service to this community whether I'm cleaning up off the street or I'm driving a school bus or I'm working I'm sitting on the board of education no private citizen should have to deal with this especially from two elected public officials all I can say is God help you if your names become associated with this background check I'm going nowhere you cannot intimidate me nobody sitting in front of me is big enough to intimidate me I am coming every meeting she gets weirder it really does good evening everybody once again my name is Deon Sharma from gont comments attended so many meetings I have an observation I just want to mention that in if you live in New York there's something called forgotten burrow that's Staton Island where we live in Glenmont we're kind of Forgotten area of Pary in spite of pain with all honesty the taxes from all these gentlemen that come in attend meeting all you know they all pay taxes gentlemen this is ongoing issue okay we know that there a lawsuit filed God knows when we have that we'll have that result but we need some kind of solution this Builder has been getting away from doing wrong things forever everyone sitting on the panel knows actually including the mayor the previous administration that he was on he came in inaugurated the park actually and promised you had beautiful Park you'll had beautiful roads came back again we had the same issue over and over okay we send out emails actually I sent out back in uh February of 24 with multiple points actually of world's par condition all of that actually no response okay once again in August I sent a many email with the same thing we speak the same points over and over I want to urge other residents of parip that are living in different areas in par please come and see okay we're not trying to go into the pocket of other taxpayers okay we are just asking for our rights of whatever the taxes that paid for last 23 years take some things beautify our area you go on one side of Denver they amazingly did the road they and on parip side quarter mile is left there's nothing as the other gentleman had mentioned no yellow line no right lines there's a pond you can drive into on the other side on Bluff mow beautiful road that falls into p with yellow line in the center there's a cop watching for Speeders great it's amazing safety what about us look at us guys come on I mean please respond to us you listen to us but show some kind of an action just come and put a Band-Aid on those uh uh uh hairline fractured roads that's not the answer okay do something go after this Builder don't approve new uh proposed sites actually that he has all right do something if we as residents do something wrong the city comes and starts getting aying $500 a day until we fix our problems why can't you do that to the same into the Builder somebody's Afraid over here okay lawsuit we can't wait 3 4 years to get some kind of response okay enough is enough please we are coming here to get some kind of response from all elected officials do something that's all we ask thank you [Applause] [Music] hi yes my name is JD Rula uh I'm here to actually speak about Glenmont Commons as well uh the reason that I'm here today is really we as a community really feel ignored uh we pay our taxes we do everything else we're actually a good Community a very family oriented community and one of the problems that we're having is really that we do feel ignored we feel like nobody cares about us nobody listens to us and ultimately yes you have cited that there is a lawsuit um the way we see it is is that money is really taking over our rights we understand the Builder Rich they have an exorbitant amount of resources we have children we have elderly we have no sidewalks in that area and so what you have is people that are walking on the street when I'm going to try to um avoid a pothole there's a danger that I'm going to hit somebody whether it be a child whether it be an elder person um and so from our perspective we're just asking that you please listen to us and that you please take action to help our community thank [Music] [Applause] you see no one else entertain a motion to close the public motion hello my name is Susie golderer I am a Bo Boe member but I am here as a parsipany resident of over 29 years Mr Mayor I welcome an audit paid for by your campaign funds not by my taxes you're using this for political purposes s I'm not afraid of your bullying tactics the school district will receive is 0 from your housing Pilots you are leaving the school district unfunded unfortunately the parity residents who are who will be on the hook for over $90 million in Lost Revenue in those 30 years you won't be around and you don't care but you will long be remembered for the wrong things [Applause] we talk about this or we wait until we're done he let me we got close well well let's why don't we do this let's close the public session and under your reports if you guys can address these issues is there anyone else that would like to speak during public session okay seeing no one else I'd like to a motion to close the public session motion second motion made by Mr neglia seconded by Mr Hernandez roll call Mr Hernandez yes Mr McGrath yes Mr Mella Mr neglia Mr kifi yes okay the floor is closed um at this time before I move on to the presentations and reports which you guys can address it fair uh just quickly review the consent agenda and the approval of minutes which will will be acted on at the next meeting okay seeing there's no questions if we can go ahead go on to the presentation reports we'll start with the mayor and then move to the township councel thank you um uh Clark Township Clark um I got a detailed report here I'd like to go uh go over but before I get to that I want to um address some of the comments that were made here tonight with regards to pilots and and and the audit the audit that it's not an audit it's a review of their audit is what it is their numbers are all over the place I did have conversations with councilman McGrath and basically this AIT if I I have no clue why they're so worried about this audit if everything's in check and everything's fine then there's really nothing to worry about um that's the bottom line and it's not political they keep saying it's political they can say that all they all they want but what I find in intriguing for me personally I can't go out and say I'm here as a member of the public and and I'm I'm a taxpayer I'm mayor 24/7 is what I am council members are 247 I guess Schoolboard members are only Schoolboard members when they wish to be Schoolboard members which doesn't really make sense to me really you when you come up here to speak you're coming up here to speak as a school board member because you report back to the school board um with regards and and that's a fact and they don't want to admit it but that's okay um you know I'm looking for it and I've sent out emails to the superintendent of schools of getting together let's talk about the pilot money there is no pilot money going to the schools you want know why no Pilots have taken effect a pilot does not begin until there's a CO certificate of occupancy so not One Pilot has affected the schools whatsoever not one why cuz they're not complete and some might not be complete for three five maybe seven years some maybe 10 years but the school board doesn't tell you this they get 100% of the money because they're Capp at 2% they're Capa at 2% and basically what it means pilot or no pilot pilot or no pilot they get their money a perfect example would be the money that was um that we have to pay the township has to pay this year is $156 million because that's the cost for for the schools we're the tax collector okay me personally I wish they collect their own taxes it would be a lot easier for us but that's not the way the law is that's the way the taxation warws are if there was a pilot guess what they still give us 156 million but what what happens is we have many tax appeals coming that's why we do we do pilots at times not everything's going to be a pilot in town economy gets better this pretty much jump started our economy with with regard to some of these Pilots okay and you know you continue to hear about you know warehouses this and that so so what do we do as a Township what do we do okay well nobody wants housing because why supposedly it increases the school age children coming into parsipany so then we get a warehouse and you you pretty much get uh yelled out for the warehouse but the warehouse brings no school-aged children it's 100% tax for the township and for the schools say to catch 22 it's not easy you have to do it though but I just want to clarify the one thing about about the pilots there's none and when they continue to say we get zero money they're correct cuz we get zero money from the pilot cuz they're not done we don't get a nickle from the pilots cuz they're not done and some aren't going to be done for a while and if we give them money percentage wise Revenue wise it affects their the amount of money they get in Aid so we have a negotiating that we're going to do I sent an email yesterday to the to the superintendent at schools to give us some dates and of course we got to wait we have to wait because the ba doesn't live in New Jersey so we have to wait in order to have these meetings Okay so going forward I'm looking forward to some sort of settlement with the Board of Education I really am I mean cuz there are things that I please control yourself there are please there are things I believe we can do now and it's kind of funny that when the Board of Education members come up to speak we respect them we listen to them we listen to what they say I don't moan I don't I don't moan and Gran I don't say anything I just sit here and I listen but when we get to speak they scream they yell okay you're a liar that's very immature you're you're a board of ed member but you're acting like a 5-year-old and that that is a perfect example of what I'm talking about so when they come up here and and they want to say they're here all right here as a c done when you're here as a citizen and a resident guess what I'm a citizen of Paran I'm a resident she said 29 years I'm here 60 years okay it doesn't matter we all pay taxes we understand but to come up here constantly and say Pilots are affecting them they're not there's not one pilot that has taken effect yet so I just wanted to clarify that remember one thing ladies and gentlemen I'll never come up and say I'm coming here as a citizen and a taxpaying resident I'm not here today as your mayor I'm your mayor 24/7 now I would like to go on about my report here [Music] kind of redundant here but I would like to wish our children teachers and power professionals and administration a wonderful school year I'm here to report on um tragedies on 46 and I read this into record the last time pan had experienced several pedestrian fatalities in less than 6 months on approximately 1.5 mile stretch of rout 46 Chief pantina and our team remain committed to we're doing whatever we can to ensure this is the last strategy on our roads but we cannot do it without the great assistance and guidance from commissioner OK Conor and the NJ do who we met with on September 4th now I don't know Jamie if you're going to elaborate on it but the meeting one very well we specifically talked about the intersection of North beverick Road and the intersection of Balman Road or a lot of the fatalities occur and even further down they brought they brought a pretty much a top engineer with and our engineer was available at the time as well their engineer said the only way to stop fatalities happening on 46 is with a fence so we we took that into consideration um I know nobody wants a fence but every time there's an accident it seems like everybody points the finger at me like I'm running people over when I'm not so we also discussed the left hand turn on Route 46 from Baldwin Road where two vehicles are lost control they lost control of the vehicles and they ended up on the Smith Road field um we discussed that and and they're looking into putting up a barrier for us I've been in contact with the do with regards to the staging area that's been going on for for years we discussed the staging era in rounde 202 where our Engineers have reached out I can't tell you how many times to the NJ doot and um commissioner o Conor said he's committ to helping us out and he's going to give us feedback on the staging areas as well with regards to the affordable housing lawsuit where nine towns are challenging the new affordable housing regulations as you saw um Mr baros trying to make this political by saying I didn't like the law firm with regards to not being involved um and that's what I'm talking about you know they're he's constantly making things political but that being said I've never dealt with affordable housing attorney Michael Collins and I'm I'm an affordable housing administrator and I've dealt with many many affordable housing attorneys I know some that are fantastic I want to meet with Michael Collins I want to I want to feel comfortable that we're going to get we're we're going to get involved in this lawsuit but I want to feel comfortable with Michael Collins so we're going to be reaching out to him today I mean tomorrow to have conversations with them and and most likely we'll be putting up a resolution to join the towns I spoke to the mayor of Hanover Township and we're they're going to join as well I think they're going to do the resolution tomorrow so we'll put our resolution up for the next meeting but you know I don't I just don't plan to go into and and I got to hear I don't care what the law firm is they're going to do a good job and they can help us out and help us out with the affordable housing regulations and that that's great for us it really is I have another side note here on the baldman road which was supposed to start on September 9th but it's been moved to September 12th that's the BN Road sewer project that will be finally completed it's going to start September 12th at 8:00 p.m. and they will be working through the weekend that's the road actually by the p g pilot as of September 10th year to date total concerns is 559 like I said year to date open right now are nine which is 1% of the 559 in progress of 46 which is 8% and the concerns that have been completed and closed are 504 which is 91% this Thursday we have a summer concert at veterans featuring Garden State Radio which begins and this I call Family Fun week because it's it's going to go all the way into the 15th um which begins at 7:30 p.m. on Friday September 13th we have our Farmers Market from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m. and our summer concert series is at 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. featuring the band overboard band overboard is a very good band several of the residents are par uh several of them are residents from Pary this Sunday September 15th from 12:00 to 5: join us for our annual Fall Festival which will be held at Smithfield on a sad note um one of our patrolman who I just swore in uh last year um and his father this Sunday um passed away tragically and I want to send out prayers for him and to his entire family and I wish the council the same do the same tomorrow I join us uh for a 911 ceremony um at 8:40 p.m. a.m. excuse me at the P Trails Minister building for solemn remembrance ceremony honoring the victims of September 11th attack and I have this year we are honored to welcome Richard Palmer Jr as our guest speaker Richard is a 9/11 first responder and tyus advocate for those affected he will share his powerful and and his story of courage and service um I met with him and I'll be totally honest with you I was I was Blown Blown Away what that man saw and what he went through uh during 911 and I want to thank the local uh uh PBA local 131 our police department and I want to thank patrolman Dave Cavalier for getting this uh gentleman for us to speak tomorrow very powerful speaker um it was on ground zero and um I'm looking forward to it and um council president that's the end of my report thank you thank you Township Council yes okay um I have a few things so bear with me here um our traffic committee some of our traffic committee met to um last month at the August neighborhood watch meeting there was an informative presentation by the New Jersey bike and walk coalition indrian bike safety a vision for safer streets in poran one of their objectives is to adopt a complete Street policy in moris County Mars Township has adopted complete streets policy and has invited local Mayors and Reps next week to discuss the benefits I think this is something we can explore where it's feasible because we're different than other towns being so big but complete streets are designed to ensure a safe and adequate accommodation of all users of the transportation system including pedestrian bicyclists public transportation users children older individuals and people with disabilities even Freight Vehicles which we'll be having a lot of those soon um NJ do and us do promote the adoption of complete streets so I know there're have I think you might have gotten an invite they're looking to see if somebody from the council might want to go as well um on for the parcion environmental committee and green team um recently the governor signed into legislation A4 619 and S 3479 enhancing uh historic property reinvestment in brownfields re development but what that's going to allow us to do is to do solar on landfills and I would like us to we've been talking about this in the POR Green Team for years I'd like us to finally maybe move forward with this Council and business administrator we have a plan we can save money and we can have clean energy if we do this in parcion half our energy usages from the wastewater treatment plant I also went to a Highland's uh seminar on Friday which marked the 20-year anniversary of the Highlands Council act reminder that 82% of people in New Jersey get their water from the highlands hence the need for this act and their oversight of particular interest was a presentation by Hunter Den County on the money and assistance they received for storm water management and for economic development and the reason why it's interesting is because hunon County was suing the highlands early on because they were in a Development Area and they were felt that they were being controlled by the highlands they've received a lot of money for storm water management and economic development with influencers and really rebranding their town maybe parcion could help could use help with some stor Water Management we do have issues here and Ms new ms4 requirements and maybe we could look for maybe some other Alternatives and economic development with all the vacancies that we have in stores and buildings conformance also can help us update our open space and Recreation plan these are extra dollars and resources that should not be left on the table these are opportunities and I did want I did talk to you um a little bit the business administrator I'd like to talk a little bit more with the council moving forward on the fair share housing and or responsibilities in the next few months please and that's all I have thank you Mr herandez any other from Council so I do want to talk a little bit about Glenmont Commons because I do have a question so you know they do keep coming up and they have some good arguments here about what we're trying to do we have a lawsuit that we just started what is the opportunity for us to go get a bond fix the streets and ask for that back from this lawsuit with whatever additional cost or or potential cost would be on top of it what's the risk legally the risk I mean the risk is just lawsuits are are never known and you'd wait until the resolution of the lawsuit which I mean they're accurate it can take years so that is a a known risk and the risk is you never know what the actual amount is going to be um if it's settlement down the road it's going to be a negotiated settlement that you don't know what it's going to be and if it goes to trial you don't know what a a jury or judge will assign to the value so I mean that's the risk is just the unknown so I'm sorry what is the lawsuit actually asking for so it is uh a lawsuit to the developer uh because they never transferred the roads okay so just for transfer so it's their uh responsibility to maintain it so so that brings up another problem can we fix their roads like like if they own the roads can we go and fix them so how would that affect the lawsuit we would need an assignment of the roads at some point and to take over them but I mean they're in the jurisdiction of the township and and what's the cost to fix these roads do we have a cost ba that mean approximately the last I heard was like between 4 was it 4.2 million or $5 million 4.3 to answer your question with regards to regards to the roads and why why we don't bond for it we don't own the road can you get the assist and I and I and I just I'm going to be very limited in what I say because we are suing the developer with regards to um who owns the roads and um you know I I don't want any of us to uh jeopardize our lawsuit uh with regards to the actual lawsuit so that's why I won't publicly speak on it um but you know we put the lawsuit in for a reason and it you know there's really not much more I could say because that it could be held against us so so maybe I guess is that something we can take to close session or or like what what can we do you could take that I mean I'm not the attorney here but sorry you you you can bring it to ex discussion we could have in close not today because it must be posted but yes potential litigation or litigation matters uh confidential matters can be discussed in close session thank you who who owns denville's roads I mean if it's the same developer that's there does it does Denville own those roads no Denville doesn't own them so it's the same developer but he's not doing our roads what I mean basically I don't know the details yeah it's just we can't this we'll have this for executive session yeah we we'll for that sorry yeah I guess I would just like to make a few comments myself before I uh went on a quick vacation I actually met with um the dot at the staging area um one of the takeaway items that they're going to look into is seeing what they can um how they can enhance the Shrubbery of the staging area to make it less of a visual eyesore for the residents in that area um towards the top of Lake par siany um and then I I guess you know with number two you know I'm glad that we're you know advancing um cannabis and getting the you know special counsil for this I would just want to know you know what the process will look like as we roll that out um you know who's going to be involved how we can make sure that it's a fair and Equitable process for everybody that is involved um and then number three is I do think it was a missed opportunity for us not to lead this affordable housing lawsuit I understand that um it's important to feel comfortable with the council that we choose to take this on but I think given how injurious this affordable housing has been to parcion and LED rightly or wrongly to so many disputes that we have about housing and pilots and the best way to deal with these matters we we really should have been the leader here and to to not be so um is is a real missed opportunity um and then the last thing I'll comment on is I see that the audit is on here again you know I need to reiterate my staunch opposition to this I think that um you know it's been made clear how the community feels about this and I think what might be a better alternative is to see what the superintendent says about any concerns that the Administration has about their numbers because if there are numbers that need to be cleared up I'm sure the superintendent or their auditor who happens to also be the town's auditor that we trust and that we pay could speak to that um so I don't think that we should vote on this I think it should be tabled until such conversations happen um and that's all I have any other member from Council yes I would like to read and the record my statements on long-term tax exemptions otherwise known as pilots and the recent antic antics of our Board of Education and want to be politician Mr Justin Mella I have a unique perspective of these matters because before I was councilman I served on a PRP Board of Education 15 years 6 years as president from 2016 until December 31st 2021 I've worked on several other capacities for our children too numerous to name for decades in this town frankly I will put my resume of commitment to precipi Children up against anyone on this town in fact I've been serving precip children for over 35 years longer than councilman Mella has been alive so what I'm about to say I say with long standing experience and unparalleled commitment to our children in our schools Council M you are a disgrace for putting this trash piece out along with the Board of Education members and it it's just a disgrace you know doing our corporate developments 30 all this stuff and by the way you spelled School wrong it's s c h o o l not s h ool it's a disgrace you would put something out to try to discredit someone who's done so much for this town so I'm a little upset about that you know better you know much better that I I I do for all the children of this town and the precip children and what I want to claim and and if you want to claim you didn't have any involvement in this despicable piece of literature then say so at the end of my my conclusion of my remarks otherwise young fell you own it the board of education's antics regarding Pilots are also despicable spreading misinformation about municipal government policy and using taxpayer resources and funds to do so is reprehensive ible but that is exactly what the board of education has been doing since late last year and to what end more on that in a moment we have a problem in this town and the mayor has properly identified it vacant Office Buildings more than any other in this part of New Jersey I don't understand the infatuation that councilwoman Mella and the Board of Ed seem to have with vacant Office Buildings is it cool is it a thing is is it today's thing I I don't understand what am I missing they cost us money and they need to put be put to productive use if zoning alone soled this problem the problem would have been solved the reality is that Pilots are necessary in some but not all instances to make these properties productive again we must be smart and take measures to reduce the tax burden on our residents by shifting it to our commercial properties the mayor is exactly correct about this it is what he ran on and is what the majority of people in precip want us to do there have been a lot of lies and misinformation about pil Pilots which I would like to address the board of vet and Council Mella continue to lie and claim that Pilots take money away from the schools this is a lie and they know it the truth is the Board of Ed gets every penny it budgets for whether they're a Pilots or not so folks the fact that Pilots they they don't take money away from the students not a single penny so please stop lying to our parents and children by saying the pilots will result program Cuts they don't some in our community want to compare how much school tax will be paid on a project if it were taxed on a regular tax bases as opposed to Pilots to them Pilots Place more of a burden to school funds on those who pay regular taxes that sounds real smart but it's not the reality is if these projects don't don't won't get done without Pilots it it comparing a pilot without a pilot is a false comparison that is why we have financial consultants to review projects and determine whether a pilot is needed the new lie is that Pilots produce schoolage children here's a news flash folks Pilots aren't creating the recipon housing boom the New Jersey Supreme Court is under the mountain roll affordable housing Doctrine and in fact not one child has been placed in any precip school from any pilot this Administration has approved and will not be for many years to come the Board of Education knows this but they misrepresent the people that Pilots are creating schoolage children this is a lie that is not to say that Pilots cannot or will not be used for inclusionary development from a planning and project quality perspective we want quality development and approp areas that may require Pilots to be considered on a caseby casee basis but to suggest that Pilots bring schoolage children now to our schools is just plain stupid and a lie the units that are these that are going to be built somewhere in town and they're coming whether or not they're Pilots or not when I left the Board of Education as president on December 31st 2021 the board of vet finances were sound and strong a lot has changed since that and I don't think for the better because the board of as has opt to have elections in November it is subject to a 2% cap on increases the problem for the board of vet I suspect is that its expenses are going up more than that in addition I suspect the business practice of the board of had waste a ton of taxpayer money so self-imposed 2% cap and wasteful spending have likely put the Board of Ed in a bad financial situation so here's my view on what's really going on the board of head actually understands or at least the Smart Board of head members that Pilots can be good thing because Pilots provide an opportunity for the schools to receive a financial benefit outside of the cap so their attack on Pilots is really a Shakedown of us on the council and the mayor to provide them with a direct Financial benefit from Pilot funds the township receives this was confirmed when Board of Education president Andy Chael said he would send the mayor a letter every week to make sure and to meet on how much money the Board of Ed will get from the pilots Andy you're behaving like a spoiled child who demands money from his parents that's shame on you you're much better than this you're you're a good man Andy why why do you go this route Justin Mella is a fool who's being used to do the Board of Ed bidding because he thinks it will get him votes Justin that's why I can't respect you all you care about is Justin you don't care about the kids the mayor has taken a position which I support that we should get an audit of the Board of Ed finances to see if they are being good stewards of the tax fire money before we consider sharing pilot money with them why should we hand the Board of Ed more money to waste if if that's what they're doing again when I left the Board of Ed in December 31st 2021 its Financial house was in order but I'm hearing that may no longer be the case the mayor's audit is appropriate and in my view necessary to do before we commit giving pilot money to the board of ed folks we all have a responsibility to do what's right for our community and kids lying to the public about Pilots is not right shaking us down for pilot money is not right the board EV enlistment of a naive and very green political wanabe politician like Justin Mella to further your cause is not smart it's not helping you get money the mayor loves our schools as much as anyone I knew including myself he's a product of our public school system as I am he's at all the events and I know because I go to many of them as well I don't see Board of Ed members there but I see the mayor and I we've both been doing this for years he raises money for school causes so much money it's unbelievable how much has have you raised Justin for the ppan children and the school system if there's one thing no one can question is the mayor's commitment to the children of our schools the mayor has said that he is conceptionally agreeable to working out a shared service arrangement with the schools and Pilots I share the mayor's viw on this and I suspect most us to do I also share the mayor's view that it is necessary to understand how the board of Ved is spending our taxpayer money before we commit to sharing large sums of money with them that makes sense and anyone with any sense would agree with this I would like to conclude my remarks on a positive note I love this town I've lived here since 1966 and I've devoted much of my adult life to its children as a volunteer as a board of education member and its president and now as a councilman we need to turn the pays on all this nonsense that's been going on the past few months we need to work together and get some positive things done for this community and the children of our community thank you well you're not going to read that into the record without me responding to what your most serious charge what proof do you have that I gave something like that out at that meeting well I'm just asking if you did no no no that's not what you said you said it as a statement of fact well no no let's answer let's go question by question were you at that meeting I wasn't there but there's a lot of other people there see okay there a lot of other people there handing it out you know okay is that me no it's not you okay so what proof do you have let's go back to your most incendiary charge that I handed that out what proof you weren't at this meeting you showed up a picture that's not even me so what proof do you have that I handed out something like that if you see what I said Justin I said publicly denounce it I I I'm publicly denouncing the fact that I didn't give it out but don't say for one second I didn't say publicly you know you did it's not the first time that you've done that all right and let let's get we're going to continue to move on since we we put that to to uh to to rest I have never for one second questioned yours or the mayor's commitment to the town we go to the same events together we support the same causes I'm going to raise my child here who's going to go through the education system so don't ever say for one second that I don't care about this town and that I don't care about the future of what happens here I believe you and the mayor do in your hearts and I've never said that once about you and I've always kept my criticisms of these policies professional and not made it personal calling me a wanabe politician well I I've never said that to you and I've always shown you respect so don't dare say that for one second I and and the one thing that I do agree with you in this town we do have a problem and that problem is it's elected officials that abuse their power and attack people who question those who have [Applause] it council president can I please respond to that you know first of all Justin cuz you consider an attack when it's not agreeable to you and it's not an attack no no one's attack and if someone disagrees with me that's fine they can disagree with me and I've said that to you a 100 times I said I respect everybody's opinion but when I when I when I come back and say something it's because I'm attacking them I'm not attacking nobody i' I've been in this town um like I said I've been in this town 60 years I've been mayor uh going on my 12th year and you know I constantly get attacked and I don't take it personal you know I don't and that's just part of the job and it's just the same thing as as I speak again as you can see in the back you have the individuals who just can't be respectful so yes I'm going to respond to those that aren't respectful so I'll leave it at that I don't I believe we all have our hearts in P siany you know what I would say is to be fair to the mayor we've had some disagreements we have an OB seen ey to ey but we can talk to each other without personally attacking each other and I appreciate what you said and and and I think that's you know very kind of you but um you know there's no place to just throw insults and question this person's commitment to this town and say that there a WN toe politici when the basis of the disagreement has been on policy I think is just really lacking into Quorum council president could I say something sure this now on the non-consent agreement we have 20241 151 and I'm thinking this is the source of fless conversation about pilots and Audits and I need to know more about that we get when we get to that we okay that's what I'm just I'm just putting it out there sure any other member of uh Township Council wish to speak or make any statements I was expecting respon unfortunately um if they haven't responded at this time uh if you'd like to stick around after the meeting which should be over fairly soon you can speak to them if there hasn't been a response I thought we had to have a closed session well the closed session is not going to be today we have to advertise it according to the open public meetings act so we can advertise for it and then have a closed session at the next meeting and then you can open and and discuss it to the public whatever that they deem could be public information at that time but what we'll do is uh as long as the council president and mayor uh authorize that we will go ahead and uh advertise for the closed session on the next agenda and we can have a closed session discussing this matter but just quick question isn't the point of Clos session not to discuss what we there there can be matters in the closed session that can come in public if what is the go ahead you want to answer that yeah yeah so it needs to be notified that it's happening and what it's going to be discussed but then the actual discussion is happening for session but we won't be able to reveal to the public the content of that conversation that is true the majority of the content may not be revealed but there could be content as as sometimes they report out to the public sometimes after the close session the attorney reports out to the public and sometimes for example if we're going to be voting on a resolution so it could be something along those lines but you are correct Council if I can add cuz this is being said it needs to be said we have a lawsuit okay we cannot discuss that lawsuit out in the public it's that simple and if we discuss that lawsuit out in the public we're putting the town in Jeopardy now I want to respond to the residents but we have a lawsuit and I can't come and respond for that reason and vice versa to council so I want to make that aware I want the council to be aware that when we have an act of lawsuit you cannot be making any comments to the public or to anybody else until that until it's settled um because now you're going to put the town in Jeopardy and you're going to put the um and you're going to put the residents in Jeopardy and possibly who we suing can get an upper hand so I just caution you to be very careful and any specifics when you speak about a lawsuit I I actually do agree with the mayor on this I would feel really uncertain as to what would the point of going to close close session on an active lawsuit and coming out we're setting the expect we do not need to go into close session that is a decision of the council and the administration if you guys choose not to go into close session then I at the clerk's office will not advertise it at you can't go to Executive session you just can't discuss it outside the perimeters of executive session but the point I'm trying to make is I question you um I would say if none of the council members have any questions in reference to the lawsuit there's no need unless unless no the council need to go into close session and to get any kind of update no there's no there I have no issue with getting an update I think we were setting the expectation with the residents that we were going in to come out and tell them yeah no an update when we can't really do that that's a good point Mr M and that is correct is that was that your expectation okay so if that's the case uh then like council president said in the event that Council has any questions then we can go into close session but if there are no questions there's no need to to put a close session on the agenda for the next meeting until otherwise instructed so okay I mean as say I don't feel like my questions been answered so I would love a close session so we can talk a little bit more about it yeah okay so we have a request by council member McGrath uh council president um K will go ahead you can put it on the agenda then okay any other member of Cal Council wish to uh speak or report out seeing no one I we'll move on to the township attorney cannot take any questions at this time Township attorney anything uh no report okay Township administrator thank you thank you council president uh just real quickly to to follow up on what mayor uh mentioned about the meeting with the NJ do uh commissioner uh commissioner OK Conor uh the Deputy Commissioner of the uh NJ do and uh a team of about five or six other people came up uh to parci last week um as a a gesture uh on the surface just as a gesture to show how important safety is to them and how much they understand uh the issues that we are experiencing here um in pipany some of the things that uh were discussed merid mentioned the fence that's one of the things that uh they're talking about they're looking to expand the um crosswalks to about 10 to 12 ft um that will make it more visible they're putting in new technology uh when Crossing that will make sure that the lights don't change uh until someone is fully across uh so they're doing a whole um a major technological uh um initiative to enhance the safety uh of of uh Route 46 particularly other things that they talked about were what they're seeing um around the state and they're uh going to be making a push forward with prosecutors is that people are the uh police are pulling people over and then they're going to courts and they're getting dropped or so there's no ramifications for a person's unsafe Behavior so they're going to be making a big push with that uh uh two prosecutors um all around the state um and they believe that that will help and I I would say that that would help if you've ever been to municipal court and see the amount of times that things have been you know something significant gets put down to something no to nothing um you know just a couple of extra dollars it's uh uh it's 90% of the time seems um but that's really it they they want to prioritize that uh and make sure that they are um helping us with grant money for enforcement and for education so there's going to be a push for that they uh the commissioner actually went over to the staging site to take a look at it and see what we could what he could do to make sure that that's prioritized cuz mayor made a big deal about that to him and he was apologetic that uh uh his team originally wasn't calling back then some members of his team kind of came out and uh uh uh when they weren't supposed to come out so now it's um uh back on track and uh uh they they're going to do everything possible they can to make sure that they are partnering with us to fix some of these issues that's all I have one um idea that I that I uh that I had actually came from a study I read about uh one municipality that was combating uh increases in traffic accidents is that they've try they've started taking down signs that are redundant in the Advent of GPS to reduce traffic friction and also help take um the attention that drivers might have on signs did that I don't know if it let me know if it came up but is that something that we could easily do is start looking at you know which signs do we just not need anymore and have outlived their purpose um to just make it a more easily visible drive when you know um people are driving and pedestrians are walking I I think it's something that that can be looked into and Achieve definitely outside of their roads that they control and you know uh but around town that's something that can be worked on just an idea that I that I saw that um some municipalities have started doing okay U moving along to the non-consent agenda R 2024 149 approving and author authorizing retail Lial license renewal for the licensing term July 1st 2024 through June 30th 2024 can I have a motion to approve the resolution above motion second motion made by Mr neglia second by Mr herandez roll call Mr herandez yes Mr McGrath yes Mr michella yes Mr neglia Mr kifi yes motion passes r224 150 uh contract with uh attorney Ronald mandelo a special Council for cabis matters can I have a motion to approve the resolution above second motion made by U Mr neglia seconded by Mr muella roll call Mr Hernandez yes Mr McGrath yes Mr melum yes Mr neglia Mr kifi yes motion passes r 20245 one contract to Di Maria Di Maria LLP for accounting auditing and Consulting Services motion to approve the above resolution motion so Judy did you want to discuss this more yeah so before we do that let's have a motion in a second and then we'll have open discussion can I get a second second okay motion made by um Mr neglia seconded by Mr McGrath uh at this time we'll go ahead and uh open open it to the council members for any questions I do have questions it's kind of harken back to what um Mr kandulski mentioned before what's the goal what are we looking for how much is it going to cost and did we get competitive bids if this is for the audit of the Board of Education by the municipality so there's a few questions there what what is the goal what are we looking for so I think in the attachment that we received it said it was 175 is the estimated cost that's an then that's for an audit that seems like it will not exceed not exceed not to exceed not to exceed that's what I thought so that's kind of an un low cost so what are we looking for then we're auditing the budget auditing the audit I think what we're doing is this it's not it's not auditing their audit it's getting the detail of the audit we have an auditor who's been doing this I guess 40 something years he's auditing their their audit not auditing it he's reviewing the audit and he's it comes up with findings and if he comes up with any then he comes back to the township and said this is what we found and such and such let's have a meeting with the Board of Ed um you know if you want Township money I think there has to be a way to say we need a professional that understands I understand the township budget and understand it very well the Schoolboard budget's a little bit different and you know the numbers were all over the place and I I feel comfortable with having an auditor and if there's no issues then you know we're going to move we're moving forward anyway we're going to meet with the Board of Ed um hopefully shortly I I sent a message out today to meet and uh that's really what it comes down to so I think Judy for me right some some of the questions that I've looked at and I try to answer and then Mr dolski had sent me an email where I sent him a response uh and I believe I blind copied you on that response at the whole you know Council could have it the question originally stemmed from when a mother came to our Council session and said that because of the pilots right and we we inherit all Pilots I don't get to say oh I've only been here nine months I didn't accept a single pilot I have to inherit what was here before me whether it's 1515 campus 2 and three silv all of it I inherit all of it and we all inherit all of it so we all have to answer for it but when I looked at the data what I saw was inside the actual audit do for 2023 it's like I don't know 170 180 Pages it shows a reduction of over 267 kids over time so it shows a decreasing population of what's coming into our town now also a previous School Board member had given me a document that outlined what's the projected number of students and you start with 1515 that's the first one that'll come online uh and if anybody hasn't go drive by it and you'll probably estimate it'll come online in the next 5 six months would be my estimation maybe sooner maybe later but it's certainly not going to be 100% populated in in probably this calendar year I would I would assure you of that no way but based on the number of a point4 multiplier against 23 in townhouse type style bedrooms you're looking at about 54.4 kids I I look so so plenty of room but we heard it's we're going to have unfunded we're going to have not enough room for students number number of students Mr Ray brought up Miss Golder brought up there's questions over how many students can we fit in the school now the only data sets I pull from are from the schools data sets the first page of every simplified budget gives you a readout of the number of students from 2010 to this year you can plot them on a graph you can see what the estimate was you can see what the actual was and you can see what was called out in the audit I plotted it on a graph and what I saw is that we're probably somewhere about 270 300 students below where we were at a high point when my kids were here if I wanted to really go high point I could go back to 210 there was even more kids but I'm going to judge it just based on recent memory so the challenge is the school feels that there's kids in their school that they have to go above a 25 to1 ratio because of Pilots today and that was stated in the school board and that parent that came here said she received communication from the school board and from the superintendent that that's accurate well I think I think the school board can can't just let in the middle of the Year say oh we're going to change that so that's I think that's maybe why they do it before the year and I was on the planning board when we did the land use plan for the Stanberry and all those and the numbers in the original land use plan were not the same as what you had there were higher numbers so so when to go back to the numbers again from the master you know the master plan and affordable housing 2023 enrollment as of October 15th 2022 6,992 students four years previously 7259 my estimation is there's probably room for 54.4 students at of point4 multiplier now additionally on the document provided to me it does give the actuals of where they are against where their rates are and they're a little closer to where the Rucker study or the Harvard study is around a02 multiplier so the question of can we fit the students it looks like we can and the nice thing also about when you go to the simplified form it gives you a breakdown of special needs students enrollment share time gives you a full breakdown so you can kind of do the assessment hey special needs are maybe a 4:1 teacher ratio versus a traditional student is maybe a 25 to1 whatever those ratios are but it also gives you a breakdown of par of teachers so the teaching staff in the same time period went from 765 to 884 so the question Judy back to your point is if we have 84 teachers for call it 7 ,000 students that's less than 10 to1 take out special needs which are about 996 I think was the last reported number so call it 4 to1 that's about 200 teachers 250 teachers out it's still not matching what the school board see so we have a problem right the numbers don't match now Additionally the big thing for me and if anybody's sat here you can go back and listen to me I've called out a few problems we have coming we have posos right as we sat down and listen to sha Andre's we get help with that from the federal government absolutely Jud when it I definitely will change my opinion on things but until then it's 5 million Wellhead 18 that's 90 or we'd have 30 with those 10 that are going to do treatment around it then we have the piping which we've approved we've approved Judy $7 million like two three times already and there's another pipe burst on bail can we municipalities nobody listens to me nobody calls me back nobody listens to anything I say when it comes to these things that you're talking out let him finish okay I apologize so Judy it's 464 million 220 Mi 5280 a mile 400 linear foot we've been approving those if you go back and look we're approving those right so we've all seen it and then the last piece in and you've heard people talk about it there's a billion dollars in tax reassessment and I talked about when I first came in there was $2.9 Million taken out of our tax revenue day one so coming into this year we're $2.9 million sh so if we raise taxes 2.78 we still didn't catch up with the tax reassess well the problem is on a billion dollars at 3.4 is roughly our tax rate do the math right and we as the town and the school combined are about 30 million of that now I'm not saying the school has to give us the dollar back the school has reviewed that early January as well as I believe it was in June and they said they're not on the hook for paying us back and I'm not asking them to that's our problem we got to deal with it but there's a big butt all of the pilot money that comes out my understanding is is expense money which means it raises our tax rate so out of all the things I've just told you it's tax rate tax rate tax rate tax rate so when you have a 2,000 foot house on a third of an acre and you're paying $20,000 in taxes all the things I just said to you are the things that we've already identified as problems so if we're going to say just give away money then I say let's verified because I also asked and and hopefully the school board can shake their head yes or no I asked the question when we met when I read up on the towns that took pilot funding they could not take it because it went against their 2% cap and the references are like Hoboken goes into a trust fund split across three schools that go towards capitalized projects because if I just give you the cash it goes towards your 2% you actually walk away with nothing extra so the goal is is to look at what are capitalized project that we can help with what are shared services we can help with I voted for a budget that put the SRO a shared service that kept the garbage collection in so to me being Frugal and looking at this before we just say yes which would be a new tax rate so everybody would come up here in a year and say how'd you raise taxes again I'll tell you to come back to this video and rewatch it that's what you're going to get with so we should look at it understand what it is then determine if it's right or wrong that's all I'm saying I think understand the data spent a lot of time doing that I wish we would spend time looking for other sources of revenue as a municipality that are on the table that we're leaving that's a separate conversation I know but I've been sitting up here month that week after week that we're up here and I just feel like we're not moving forward I think um I'm frustrated you know it's definitely evident um councilman McGrath that you've spent a lot of time on this and you know for the full disclosure councilman McGrath and I met um you know he shared his findings with me he raised a lot of questions I'm not an expert on the board of education um so you know clearly there were a lot of um questions that he had um and I did tell him I would relay a lot of the uh questions that I had um to the to board president chaa which he did um and got some responses back from the superintendent um I think big picture and what's very unclear at this moment is will this Di Maria and D Maria where the center of contention is about number of students uh teachers the Auditors that I have spoken to said that Auditors do not look into this in verifying that they look at do expenses equal revenues do the grants received equal the grants applied for um but there is no indepth um you know I guess microscope on the composition of the school district and that seems to be a big question here so I don't know if D Maria and D Maria will look at that but since they were brought up here I I do want to just read the the quick highlights um that were that were mentioned so when it comes to school age children uh the question that you know I had asked is that in 2020 um there was a reported enrollment of 7,259 students and in 2024 the last reported was uh excuse me in last reported in 2023 was 6,992 um and the superintendent wrote back and I'll summarize it's unclear where the township has garnered the foregoing numbers it must be remembered that the district's en enrollment figures are not fixed they vacillate depending on when students move into and out of the district for student uh or student becomes homeless for repur reporting purposes the district's enrollment figures are fixed on October 15th of each year that does not mean that District refuses entry to students after that date nor does it mean that the number of October 15th will not decrease at some point in the future the following represents the accurate number of students from the past three 3 years acknowledging that the district will have its reportable number reportable to the Department of Education not the township on or immediately after October 15th and what we should expect to find is that in uh 2021 that number was 7,010 students 2022 it was 6,991 and in 2023 uh that number will be 7,147 representing almost a 200 student increase than when it comes to the number of teachers I also had asked about that um because councilman mcrath pointed out that uh in 2023 there were 765 teachers and in 2024 there's 804 teachers it's a logical Point enrollment is down but teachers are up um and the superintendent wrote back again it is unclear where the township is obtaining this information just like the township the board of education's employe employee comp element is fluid however using the number of certified staff members not just teachers who are members of the parney Troy Hills Education Association the union that represents all certified members as of September 1st 2024 the district has 783 teaching staff members in the district so that's a lot of content that basically suggest um the the numbers do not look like how they are on on on what you found I think that it would probably be important to have that meeting before we go ahead and authorize an audit because we don't really know what is being audited um so can I can I answer his question yeah sure goad so so when he checks in it's the parney Troy Hill school district parney county of Morris New Jersey annual comprehensive financial report for the year ended June 30th 2023 it's submitted to the state of New Jersey page 115 and it does call out o 15th as their point in time similar what he said and it does say teaching staff includes only full-time equivalence of certified staff so this is the audited report that is being looked at this is the document that I'm referencing so when he asked me where I got it I got it from him and I got it from the school so this is where I think the questions come in now again for me personally I've gone through the financials but I do have other questions when it comes to the financials that are reported versus what they say is in their budget and this is a big challenge as well because and I'm going to admit I'm not a CPA so I don't understand everything but when I look at the revenues on page 20 revenues are 205 million against a budget of 175 expenditures on the following page 2011 is 27 million now this I plotted against the dra graph here across year over year over year and it's about 165 million in R revenue and I think it was about 158 million in overe expenditure now granted that comes from different funding sources but this is stuff that I don't understand I acknowledge it and that's why we need an expert to explain it to us I don't deny it but that's the question is is 205 million enough for the student population that's reported and to his point there was a document provided and it is online uh on Facebook one of the one of the members of the Board of Ed did publish it and I have it right here this was from the 125 meeting which does document the number of students based on 125 and this is as you can see councilman there's 213 pre students 600 6, excuse me 962 elementary middle and high totaling 7175 at this point in time now this also comes into the question prek is a paid service these students are the taxable students I don't believe we're taking or I don't believe we've been forced to by the Govern yet to have prek as a business but if we did I believe there's 1.8 to 2.2 million in dollars that the governor has to help us now again this is something I don't know but this is a document that is online on Facebook and anybody can go and pull this so when he wonders where I get it this is from the Board of Ed parney Troy Hill School Superintendent Board of Education bulletin January 25th 2024 number 12 that's where the numbers come from so this is why again I'll go back to why we probably should have an expert come and look at this because if the superintendent and I can't agree on their own paperwork we we probably have a problem any other discussion on this matter before we I call for a vote okay uh you know what I'm just going to say listen again what Mr McGrath said there's just there's just too much inconsistencies with the numbers I mean these are numbers that were provided by the school to the state but then the school is saying something different than their own numbers that they provided to the state so something's getting lost in transition somewhere so you know somebody applies for a mortgage they check it out they don't just give you know the school board's asking us for millions of dollars we're not just going to turn around and just give them millions of dollars let us at least do our homework and with these numbers being little elusive I think we need to get true answers and like the mayor stated it's not an audit it's a review of it if everything comes back fine great but if not then at least now everybody up here has a a good comprehension of exactly what's going on so okay so at this time I'm uh going to reiterate we have R2 24151 contract to D Maria and D Maria LLP for accounting auditing and Consulting Services we had a motion by Mr negri and a second by Mr McGrath and then we had some discussion at this time I'm going to go ahead and go into roll call uh Mr Hernandez I'm going to vote no Mr McGrath yes Mr Mel no Mr neglia yes Mr Ki yes okay so we have three votes uh that are yes and two that are no the motion passes um moving along to approval of payroll and bills list CFO Leonard ho recommends authorization for payment one authorizes payment of the September 13 2024 regular and miscellaneous payroll estimated at 1, 650,000 and two payment of bills from vachal list of 9124 through 9324 which is 1, 19,4 $497 motion to approve the authorization for payment motion second motion made by Mr negli seconded by Mr Hernandez roll call Mr Hernandez yes Mr McGrath yes Mr M yes Mr and Mr Ki motion passes could I please have a motion to adj the meeting motion second motion made by Mr Hernandez seconded by Mr Mella roll call Mr Hernandez yep um Mr McGrath yes Mr Mella yes Mr enega yes Mr kifi yes okay our meeting is adjourned have a good night everyone can I can I make a motion to ban Wade from coming to another meeting