Philipsburg Town council meeting April 24th 2024 meeting the order meeting of April 24th 2024 it's 601 sorry for the minute late it's old and slow under Jo I know you're laugh good good under vice president Council of woman PA to please read the open public meeting act statement this meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of of the open public meetings law this meeting of April 24th 2024 was included in a list of meeting notices sent to newspapers of record and post it on the Bolton board in the municipal building and has remained continuously posted as a required Noti is under the statute in addition a copy of this notice has been available to the public and is on file in the office of the municipal clerk thank you everyone please rise your pledge allegiance it's behind us second I pledge allegiance FL of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all councilman scura would you please do the invocation we seek blessings and task before us bless our efforts with clear Insight our deliberations with wisdom our work with clarity and accuracy and our our decisions with impartiality amen amen councilman Clark I with to SL please yes uh thank you council president um I'd like to ask for a moment of silence for the passing of Reverend Bill slack as many folks know he was a pillar in this community and he will be greatly missed thank you roll call please councilman cour here councilman Kennedy here councilman Sero here Council vice president PA here council president Marino here bills list please the regular bills list as of April 24th 2024 is [Music] $661,000 $7.97 for a total of all funds of 3, 36,43 16 need a motion please uh councilman I have a question uh bill on here for uh forward planning Incorporated $921 ba to address that Mr Hall would you address that please uh forward plan does our our uh sorry estro analysis uh pilot analysis uh so they've done 75 South Main they are in the process of doing 540 Marshall um so that's uh I believe that the work build here is for 75 South Main thank you any other questions on the bills list Matt that should all be paid out of escra too posted by the developer yes correct yeah any other questions on the Bill's list you a motion so move second roll call please councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president paace yes council president Marino yes minutes of April 3rd 2024 work session minutes you a motion no second second I'll second it rooll call councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro abstain I was absent Council vice president paulus yes council president Marino yes minutes of April 10 2024 regular meeting minutes so move second any questions hearing on seeing on roll call please councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman Scerbo yes Council vice president paus yes council president Marino yes this time like to have the report from the chief of police statner chief good evening I'll be uh very brief um March and April for the most part is our uh mandatory training month which would be all our state mandated trainings we have to do guys have been busy doing that and as we move into May the end of May ear June will be participating in the click or ticket campaign um so you'll see more more cars out in the roads during times looking for seat belt violations you also see some press releases go out around that time too notifying everybody warning everyone that's my report for this evening sir thank you Chief any questions of the chief seeing none at this time I'd like to call meeting for an executive session counselor how long do you think we'll be there uh I I hope no more than 10 minutes I don't know sounds good I can't predict it either okay we need a motion we need a motion to go in executive for matters regarding Personnel expect the time being in executive is about 10 minutes no AC being second second R call please councilman CLK yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president bace yes council president Marino yes you need a motion to reconvene so moved second Lo councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman stero yes Council vice president yes council president Marino yes all we were in executive session for 17 minutes during which time one subject was discussed involving Personnel within the police department no action was taken FL is your thank you counselor he we got a pro Proclamation for 2024 Police Unity Tour I don't think the officers here whereas the law enforcement torch run began in 1984 when Port Authority police officer Steven Vitali soly need to involve law enforcement with their communities in the Special Olympics and whereas since the Inception of the law enforcement tourron it has has become a global event in which all 50 States and more than 46 countries participate and has raised over $600 million for Special Olympics and whereas the law enforcement tour run for Special Olympics raises over $2 million annually by more than 3,000 officers through local and Statewide events and whereas the town of fburg wishes to commend the efforts of its officers and supported this worthy Endeavor now therefore be a Proclaim at the mayor and Council of the town of filbur hereby honors and commemorates Friday June the 7th the annual law enforcement tourch run for Special Olympics New Jersey featuring more than 3,000 officers taken to the streets of their local communities split up into 26 separate legs with some starting as early as 4:45 a.m. and run to raise awareness for Special Olympics New Jersey thank you police officers okay moving on public discussions on agenda items only it's a 3 minute limit and I'm going to stick right to the 3 minutes and Davis um the budget this is the absolute best we can do I mean yeast and school district is cutting $3 million from their budget and anybody that knows anything about a School District budget knows that's huge so in addition to an 11% tax increase we all just got our sewer bills and there was a surprise service charge on there up to $30 not to mention everybody's bill was higher than what it was and this is the absolute best we can do there's absolutely nothing we can cut give me any suggestions I'll pass some on the council well I mean every every penny adds up I mean we're talking $1,000 for curtains here but we're not telling people about the overtime we pay DPW workers to stay and put them up they blocking fire exits if the State Fire Marshall walked in here you're getting fined I mean we're paying $30,000 for a playground program that we could be doing sewer rates gone I mean people are not happy you're forcing people out of this town you're bleeding us dry senior citizens cannot afford it they're living off Social Security they can't keep up with it we're going to put rent control in and now we're going to tell landlords how much they can they can up on their rent you're going to increase by 11% but tell them they can only go up certain percent you're going to lose property owners in this town and this is nothing against Mr Merlo I know he knows where every single penny in this town is there has to be something that we can do because we can't afford it you know everybody's like oh it's only $1,000 for curtains but every th000 adds up and we just keep bleeding this money out like there's no end to it and we have to stop blaming previous administrations because these decisions are being made now um real quick no I I I um I'm sorry I was just double check yeah I I know you were paying attention to no I was so the municipal tax increase doesn't include the sewer rate uh just the council person paes uh um bring up she brought up March 27th she uh brought up actually a sewer rate uh freeze freeze freeze um yeah so the average with the 11% increase the average Municipal tax rate here Municipal tax bill is $4,600 in fburg we round that up to $5,000 just for the sake of argument let's round it up so your Municipal rate is less than half but we'll say 50% we'll round it up again um you're looking at probably so 11% of $2500 is 75 a year or $22 a month rounded up now I understand the sewer rate the sewer bill is much higher than that much higher than $22 a month a lot of people were hit with that um I do think all of our professionals uh including myself um CFO business administrator took into account what the deficiencies were and where we needed to add I think for the average cost everything round up again um $22 uh a month I know that does hurt some people in our town um hopefully we can provide some relief with some sewer discussions going forward um and uh you know next year I'm hoping that um we don't have to increase it or we can talk about offsetting some of those costs with additional grants we've been um extremely motivated and aggressive pursuing those to try to offset costs um that's that's um my response to that I hope it hope it makes sense to everybody thank you council president go ahead so um just to refresh my memory I believe that our fire chief approved it to be safe for us to have the meetings here in the parking lot and that is not a hazard of any means am I correct I'm I'm sorry could you could you repeat that fire chief he said it was safe for us to uh I I did speak with Chief a and there's there's no okay still open to the public your name please three minutes go ahead go ahead I'm Chris ferly I'm actually from Alexandria Township but my wife and I own a few properties here and have uh renovated some properties first I want to say thank you to everybody up here I've been on Alpha Town Council on my Town Council in Alexandria know it's a a job that takes a lot of effort and not a lot of things so thank you for for doing this U my comments on the rank control here um I could read articles um you know about uh why it doesn't work in towns you look at forbs you can look at Bloomberg uh you can look at all those uh different different towns and you'll see they don't work you have Camden planfield Elizabeth Newark Atlantic City rank control towns is that what we want this town to look like like you could say there's Jersey City on the other side Edison um you know but they have proximity to to New York um putting rent control in this was in a couple years ago it was voted down it's not something that's going to help this town and this town is really taking off as they go down 22 Old buildings going down new going up South Main Street actually people going up and down new businesses opening people buying buildings and renovating them putting a rank control will put a complete stop to that so I don't understand why you would consider consider it and the impact study when I read that resolution what they're proposing is really they're not doing an impact study they're saying we're going to give you three different ordinances to pick from to do rent control and I don't think that any of those are going to be a good option for anybody here so I whether you're a d or an r in local towns I don't think it matters what you want to do is keep the growth Happening Here keep these people bringing money in and reinvesting in these properties and redoing them um that's all I have thank you thank you Joan Pierce on rent control um I have my phone up not to be ignorant or anything but a one-bedroom is going for 19900 a two-bedroom 1650 with nothing included um a three bedroom two grand with nothing included everybody has to pay their own utilities I have a three-bedroom that's 1650 I have a great landlord not complaining but all these rents went up before the tax height and the sewer rate if we don't put a rent control in to say to the landlords you have a max they're just going to keep raising the rent and raising it there's a house right now on SRA Street that's going for 2500 a month three bedrooms two bath who can afford it cuz I know I can't right now I'm in Aluma I have no health Insurance I'll be proud to say it's either pay out of pocket or pay my rent I understand landlords want to make money but before the taxes went up and rent went up everybody was at a minimum here but now everybody's getting greedy in their pockets the rent keeps going up I mean who can afford one bedroom for 17 or 18800 or a three-bedroom 2500 who can afford that I'm a lifer here in fburg and what's going on right now use our pushing us out so everybody from the cities can come in and take over our town us lifers want our town address coun please you know we want to keep everybody here and everybody in business here are still coming it doesn't matter what the tax rate is businesses are coming businesses are staying investors are coming investors are leaving businesses are still coming no matter what the taxes are here so please do something for us tenants you know who's the say I mean the rent the the landlords are coming in and saying oh we can raise it whatever we want who can afford it nobody can I mean it's not fair to us tenants that we have to worry every month how much our rent's going to be for the year you know so please do something for us you know it's not right every day I see it on different sites how much the rents are who can afford it we sure can't you know we're we're drowning us tenants here are drowning so let's come to some kind of compromise for us all I understand you know the landlords you have some good landlords you have some bad landlords you know let's all work together thank you how you guys doing Matt amobile um nice to meet everyone that I've talked to over the phone um land Lord in town um I grew up here in Philipsburg I've got 25 apartments right now uh 26 years old and I see myself I say that age cuz I see myself being here a long time and investing here and helping this area grow because you're right I see fburg growing and growing and people coming in and this area getting better and better and I grew up here until I was 9 years old and my parents moved this out cuz they didn't want me to go to school here and so after college I came back here I bought a for unit here I renovated it made it look nice and I I came back here with a dream to make this place great and I still have that dream and I still have this Within Myself to keep investing and keep putting money in and I could show you guys my properties and how nice they are and um what I I give the tenants to live in and now I do agree with what was said that those rents are ridiculous uh my my one-bedrooms are going for 1350 my two bedrooms are going for 1550 and my three bedrooms are going for ,750 to 1,800 um and now I think that's a sustainable rate and I think that's where things can can run off I do believe that once we start getting up into the 22 23 24 2500s that is that is greed that is people coming in and and not doing the right things and so I do think that there does need to be a protection for the people here in Philipsburg but I also think that there needs to be a protection for the people on the other side who are really putting the work in and have that vision of growth for for Philipsburg and uh yeah I'm open to discussions with anybody on the phone if you want to talk further on that but uh thank you for giving us this space to come out and and share our feelings and uh yeah I I'll be looking forward to how this progresses forward from here thank you thank you thank you hi Carol D again um I just have a a comment on the proposal from the consultant I I don't know what they were asked to Pro provide but um I did Consulting for many years and normally what you would do is you present a problem statement and they would come back with recommendations this looks to me like they've already been told we're going to do rent control just give me the pros and cons and I think you're you're G to be wasting your money because in the long run what's going to happen is like you're not going to get any fresh ideas if you had instead asked okay here are issues we have like not enough inventory we have like rents are too high they might have come back with some really good Solutions like people on the last meeting said there are other options or other tools available that we can use this isn't the only option but I by by the way this is written you're not going to get what we really need and we're spending to the point about the budget $111,000 that we don't have so that's my opinion thank you thank you uh we do need a middle ground I wrote one you have it you've read it right now you're 32 uh after the next election it might be 2 three right now a developer in that group isn't going to be for it and if it shifts to the other three too then you won't get them all to be for it either I put together something that will not hurt the developer and will preserve the rents that poor people need therefore leaving that aside anybody else want to read it fine they've all read it or they got it this ordinance about who to pick to give a report first uh I'm more qualified in as far as paperwork kind of crap is concern stuff apology apology for that word I would um to be an expert as well and I can represent poor people as well as rich people this thing the the primary question the study needs to be answered are a list of pro uh developer statements this survey I could go to the library and make it a whole lot cheaper than $10,000 by just copying the recent stuff that's been done promoted by uh developers we have a community that can carry both the development of people like he said as well but we can use that's another plan that I proposed about 10 years ago okay leave that one go if if you're going to use an expert don't use this one and don't use this format for your questions these questions beg the question let us look at what the developers judge our system to be we need to look at the poor people who are paying the rent that I and we need to look at the organizations and how they're presenting and come up with a new plan I propose my took takes out all the stuff that I've been a guests in previous proposals I'm an avid fan of good rent control and I have been against the last two proposals that made it to the council because they were all screwed up with um very Pro developer skate uh uh loopholes and they also uh had fixed value incomes like 3% or would be better than the a fixed rate uh uh say $100 a month something like that instead of that I only ask for you to give the next tenant what you intend to do next year no bureaucracy to appeal to your appeal goes directly to the Secretary of the inspection department Who records your promises if you break your promises me Joe your time is up thank you anyone else three minutes hi Teresa trius beely I am a real estate Chris is my husband um I've been real estate broker for 23 years and I just wanted to anecdotally say a couple things from what I'm hearing um when we renovate when we have a tenant that leaves often times we buy properties that we would consider have upside meaning that they haven't been updated in a long time tenants have been there 11 years 16 years 17 years um the last apartment that we renovated the tenant was there prior to us owning it by the time we were done with it bathroom kitchen all things it was $35,000 to update the apartment um so I hear what you're saying but when you're investing that kind of money so that my tenants have better kitchens than I do at my own home I think that as a landlord you have a right to increase your rent according to the investment that you're putting in the property and then the last thing I'm going to say is that just again anecdotally I spent some time in Manhattan met a young lady who said oh yeah I'd really love to move to Miami but we're in a rent control building and we are in a lease that actually doesn't belong to us it belongs to my husband's great aunt and now we've taken it over so if we leave this four bedroom apartment in Manhattan we can no longer you know we're only paying $900 a month because it's rent control well because the lease really isn't for them it's for someone else so what they do is they lease share amongst people to get the maximum benefit and then that's why the landlords when they do have an apartment that becomes available raise the end to $3,500 because they're trying to make up the difference for them subsidizing this rent controled apartment for multi-generations of family right so I just wanted to leave you with that I appreciate all of your efforts I know it's not not easy to sit where you're sitting and govern and look at both sides and try to come up with something that makes sense so I wish you all the best and I look forward to how you decide to handle it thank you very much anyone else as I had stated before I live with rent control and I'm glad I do because our landlord is nothing but a SL on Lord and He our group the group that owns it is Harbor management and they also own Norton's Apartments they're nothing but a bunch of Slum Lords we just went 11 days without hot water 96 apartments no hot water and we understand it's because they didn't pay their bills to the plumber and so who suffered we did you've got to run slum Lords out of town anyone else okay see another one we'll move on the 2024 budget public hearing resolution 2024 d77 resolution off the izing adoption of the 2024 budget for the town of billsburg a motion and second the public input so Mo second okay we're opening it up to the public just give us your first name have three [Music] minutes somebody has to talk okay seeing none officially no one from the public go into the public okay go ahead you three minutes you're speaking on the budget yes I will speak on the budget I'm I like what you're trying to do with the budget in the Long Hall you have to stop buying bonds and selling Bonds on the future and start getting up to date I am P I am upset by when walking in my in front of my own house and seeing that the garbage came hands have been removed again I walk by I pick up garbage and I throw it in the KN garbage bin the people I say hello to on the street most of them don't vote most of them are poor there's a few in my in South Main Street who have a little bit of money but it's not the money we we they're all we're all decent people we aren't robbing anybody we aren't hurting anybody they're pick up trash and then throw them in garbage cans that's been taken away again I want all the garbage cans back point of order does this have to do with the budget Mr absolutely we're talking about spending money and spending more money rather than less money yeah you're making the point of order I assume to the the lawyer I'm letting you speak no the council president is allowing you to speak I'm letting you speak I'll let anyone speak three minutes yeah yeah uh so I I I'm glad you're doing this very hard task and since I have proposed many things that uh uh in the past I'm hoping you that it can be understood that we got to get caught up the more seniors like me we have who have part of our taxes Frozen yes the better my tax for my home has not gone up since I was 65 years old and I'm 85 so I get a $900 Kickback every year on my taxes which means yes I get a break but those people they offered me $ 33,333 for my property they were going to buy it I said how about I fix it up first no we'll fix it up there's capital gains to be made they're perfect this excuse me Joe time's up that's it thank you any J Pierce on the budget there's no way we can cut back on the budget anywhere nobody will take a pay cut nobody will forgive their pay a percentage of it nothing nobody's willing to do that for us taxpayers for our people that are going to Poss lose their homes I know it's a tough request I mean between the taxes and the sewer Bills going up like we can't cut it any further than it's already been cut cuz US taxes payers didn't ask for this I mean we entrusted hate to say previous Council not all but most voted for this we did not we entrusted everybody to do what was right and you all not all but some got the task of doing this to us taxpayers and the people of the town so is there any way that we can do this over a little bit at a time so it's not such a burden on everybody I mean I understand taxes have to go up but I mean we're getting hit with taxes we're getting hit with the sewer rate we're just getting hit from all ends is there any possible way I mean I know Bob's worked hard on it he always has and you know he even said last year it wasn't a great budget but nobody wanted to listen nobody sorry not nobody a few did not want to listen and now here we are the people are going to suffer for it which is not fair to us because we entrusted entrusted to make the right decisions for us and apparently they were not the right decisions for us and now we're all suffering for it so I beg and plead that maybe somebody or somewhere we can cut it somehow and it doesn't mean not pay our bills cuz that is not the right thing to do thank you okay last call okay moving soing okay we're going to close the public hearing on the budget we need a motion no you have motion a second public hearing discussion amongst the Council on the resolution vote now we vote roll call please no no you have to have discussion amongst the discuss on Council counc SC would you raise your hand counc SC no I have something go ahead Council kenned I I stated my case against this budget uh previously um I realized taxes were going to have to go up to some degree this year uh because of the bond payment uh my argument is with the new hires the raises some of the spending uh the tax increase did not have to be this extreme in my opinion case in point is the resolution we're voting on tonight putting out nearly $1,000 for a study on rent control I mean the spending is getting a little out of hand um I did ask uh regarding the new hires and the raises and the the the reorganization of Municipal Services I asked what they were basing this on and they said it was a organizational chart from back when um and that they're just filling positions that existed previously now for the Ba's credit he did send me an organizational chart that he made up but this is not the this is not what they were basing the new hires on this is where it stands right now now we we got by without all these positions for this long and I didn't see it necessary to do this reorganization to give people substantial raises and you know sending money $111,000 for a study I mean this is what's jacking your taxes up to the extreme level that's all I have council president thank you councilman anyone else on C councilman scur yeah so I think we we talked about this in length a couple meetings now um some decisions I know people want to say you can't bring up what happened in the past but I tend to disagree with that because if you had foresight when you made those decisions last year you would have been thinking about this year um I know comments were made if I would have known this uh we were going to hire new positions may maybe I wouldn't have voted for the budget last year um that sounds like copout comments to me um without any facts to prove what they should have done last year we can I I met with Bob um one day he went over thoroughly I tried to look I was on school board for 6 years the budget's twice as size as this um so I'm well well well versed in budgets um I don't see anywhere functionally that we can cut that it would actually be a disservice to our community if we start cutting these positions and we would be in bad shape um as far as the town running an efficient way I think that's why it hasn't all these years and I applaud the mayor for trying to actually grasp that and to try to put it in the right direction um by doing this new reor chart um that was I think that was his thinking of trying to do that not to give raises it's it's the order to make it more functional and better for our community and give a better service to our community that's why we're all elected is to give a better service to community I know the tax uh taxes yeah it's it's high I agree but it could have went gradually the past two years if we would have had an increase of maybe two last year two the year before and we wouldn't be looking at 11% this year if it would listen to the advice of professionals instead of the former mayor who in my opinion wanted to do this to try to get reelected last year that's my opinion um other people might have other things to say like I said I look into this I take it seriously um no one wants the taxes go up you know but I didn't see anywhere we could cut um I just think that it's it's kind of hard if you don't stand up for the way you your voting record in the past um and then you try to make Arguments for now I think that's contradicted to me um so that's just my opinion on it thank you any one else on Council counciling Clark thank you for the opportunity to speak on this I agree with councilman Kennedy I agree with the first Speaker this is not a budget this is an assault on felsburg residence this tax hike 11% is unheard of it's Insanity you don't see this anywhere else that equates to a $1.2 million increase in tax collections who's paying for this we hear about rent control and the need to keep things affordable from some people who then flip-flop and say we need to justify this tax increase makes no sense now I know we keep referring back to the last two years but let's get beyond the politics for one second every person in here has been given an analysis stretching all the way back to what 2015 back to administration of mayor Wy and as everyone saw the level stayed fairly flat you saw a little bit of increase here and there and once we come here right up I guess for nearly 10 years we just weren't paying our bills or we had folks and this is no criticism on our professionals but we had politics regardless of democrat or republican that worked within a budget we didn't spend more than we could afford and we hear time and time again new positions being created we can't afford it right now that's where the Jump's coming from now we may disagree up here I rather disagree on the policy than the politics and the personalities but numbers do not lie we know why this is going up and I cannot justify this we also heard the cocktail of Economics rent control with 3% tax on invest ments an 11% tax hike on Municipal Taxes sewage rates it's a lot but this does not have to be 11% and I spoke with members of the administration as well so in good conscience I cannot support this assault on the Philipsburg taxpayer I cannot I cannot see a justification for it and I believe in keeping a physically responsible bud for everyone as long as we can thank you you're welcome council president PA would you like to say something yes I would thank you um I I don't understand where you're coming from when you say that you will not support an 11% increase in taxes nobody likes to see an increase but you had absolutely no problem raising those sewer rates 75% over a 4-year period and 75% was for the fixed rate the consumption went up 5% there was absolutely nothing said about that you voted for it and as far as the increase this year we've said it I don't know how many times half of it is due to the $600,000 bond payment that wasn't made last year we had a 23% increase in state health benefits um last last year this year it's 7% next year it's going to be a double digit increase again when you have all these increases statutory increases that cannot be avoided and you offset them utilizing onetime revenue and using Surplus what do you think is going to happen it doesn't take an accountant to figure it out and it's so unfortunate it has to be done now some of the things that have been implemented this year under the new Administration I applaud him because you know what it's stuff that should have been done years ago and just wasn't and if that was the reason was to keep the tax rate flat not only did the residents suffer but the employees did too he's doing the right thing and again as he stated the tax increase is not as substantial of an increase as the sewer rates were that's why I'm trying to take the lead on doing something about freezing those rates if not decreasing them eventually um what have you done to try to uh Implement an increase what suggestions have you made because I haven't seen her Council vice president I don't like to use the I word because I believe in the team I didn't vote for that sore increase last year why because we were told this is going to be a bad budget so we'll forget last year we're going to V this year in previous budget meetings to those who come there meeting every council person up on this bias was asked tell me where you want to cut tell me now a cut is what I understand be corrected for every penny is like what 70,000 maybe 72 72,000 that's not bad for an old guy so that means if you cut one position it's only 72,000 it's one pen correct so if you don't want no taxes and I'm against raising anything not at my AG I don't want to see nothing go up but no one sitting up here told me where they wanted to make the cuts everyone sitting up here was elected tell me I'm not going to tell you where to make the cuts cuz I'm not the VA and I'm not the mayor but if they would say in unison and we got four to one five not the whatever kind of vote no one's sitting up here so when you want to talk to the public tell the gospel truth so help you God tell the truth okay no one of pair told me where the cut and I shouldn't have done this and I'll admit it I said you want to cut 10 cops not a response you want to cut the DBW in half no response so when you're going to talk to the people look them in the eyes and tell them the truth if you can't look them in the eyes and they can't look you in the eyes maybe you want to run for Congress but tell the people the truth because times are tough I help a lot of poor people in both States when you hear this agency is going to help it's a liot they don't have money so when I talk for the people I talk for both sides and whenever that report comes out I know 10,000 is a lot of money but I want the truth people come up I want to hear both sides that's the kind of guy I am that's the way we were brought up and when I swear before God I mean it I had a federal job so I wasn't going to lose pension because of a dollar bill or anything but you're sitting up here look the people in the eyes and tell them where do you want to make the cuts this is your last time tell me where you want to cut now you heard it 72,000 is a penny so to those in business in that you know to math okay tell me where you want to make the cuts they didn't so now I'm done preaching now we have a motion give a second or in a second oh hold it let mayor May hi um I I just would like to elaborate on what um the rationale on some of these uh increases are um so discretionary uh spending is down $200,000 this year that is uh the wild spending um compared to last year we did bring down discretionary that's spending that we're uh that we decide to spend it's not it's not insurance it's not stuff that we are legally required to spend so we did cut discretionary funding are spending by $200,000 um we uh with the increased positions it's two police officers were my main um concern so one of our biggest budgetary items is police overtime um you know I'd like to be able to add more police officers right away I thought four but um that was a bit too much of a tax increase so I think by offsetting some of those the overtime hours um it could help make our community safer bring that overtime down we're paying newer officers who come in at a lower rate to help make our community safer um I think DPW I would also like to increase I think having enough people to maintain what you have we we keep putting out great projects but if you don't have a maintenance schedule or you're not able to maintain it properly it ends up costing you in repairs later so I think having the bodies there to be able to maintain what we have properly is extremely important and cost effective over over the long term um I do think l so The Bu the budget is going up $1.2 million this year that just happens to be the exact close to the exact amount that we spent in onetime payments last year if we had it we don't have that money left if we had onetime payments left we could offset it to zero that was used last year instead of an 11% increase last year so we drained that account to offset it last year um so I just wanted to put out there the rationale in those increases what we came into the thought behind it I hope it makes sense I hope you can appreciate it it's not something we ever want to do is to charge people money like I said on average um the average tax rate is about $22 a month uh increase I think that's less than what your what the sewer increase was I think you're getting more for that $22 than the sewer increase um and I'll just put it out there and let you decide for yourselves thank you okay we have a motion we have a second roll call please councilman Clark no councilman Kennedy no councilman scuro yes Council vice president paus yes council president Marino yes okay moving on the resolutions on the consent agenda anyone want to pull any resolutions yes council president I'd like to request pulling uh 202478 okay any other councilman want to pull anything [Music] y motion for motion okay we need a motion on the rest in a second so move second all call please councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president paace yes council president Marino yes councilman Clark thank you Council thank you council president so I wanted to pull this because I will not be supporting this uh this study this resolution um I share many of the concerns that were brought up in the audience um I just don't think it's a good fit first of all $10,900 I think that's a huge waste of money especially as we're talking about costs going up taxes going up I think it can be better spent somewhere else uh second I have serious questions about the scope of work on this study alone uh the main purpose as this was sold was to get an equal Pro R toan's analysis of run control on the town of Philipsburg yet when you read into some of these questions it makes you wonder first question alone is if enacted how many households within the township are likely to benefit uh another question is or question but what are the National best case examples of rent control programs but not offering any worst case scenario and explain why they didn't work and then the final one is how should a rent control board be established and who should serve on the board we didn't even establish that rent control was good or a benefit to the town yet and yet we're already talking about how should we go about building the board and who should serve on it so this is a study not to test or analyze the pros and cons of rent control to see whether it would work or is right for bburg but it seems like they've already uh decided that rent control is going to go in and we need an uh the administration needs talking points or supporting facts to push for rent control so I really don't have any faith in this um also with this letter it was sent to the mayor's office April 8 we didn't receive this as Council until Friday um so it's been laying there for a while and we had no idea that this was even going to go forward so also with the fact that this didn't go out to public bid uh this was handpicked by the administration themselves no so there's a lot of questions around this so one I don't see an argument for rent control because I think it'll actually have the opposite effect but two the study alone just seems a little tilted in one favor than the other so under normal circumstan ances if it was more fairly balanced if the expert being chosen was more of a public discussion and more transparent maybe I could consider it but in this case I have to vote no against this thank you you're wel council president if I may go ahead Council candidate uh obviously I'm against rent control so uh therefore I really don't think it's necessary to spend another $111,000 on a study and I also have an issue as far as the transparency aspect uh you see this resolution is for uh forward forward planning Incorporated on the forward planning website it says forward planning was hired by the town of filbur New Jersey to analyze the prospective impacts of instituting a rent control ordinance in Philipsburg I we haven't voted on it yet so again there's a lot of talk about transparency this looks like uh some deals were made ahead of time um that's really all I have to say thank you thank you Council any other Council can I sayoun just for the The public's benefit and also for the council's benefit the uh first of all Todd p is is the um financial analyst who will be performing this study I know him you can I can vouch for him I think those those of us up here have worked with him uh he's as mad has said he's done the 540 uh Financial agreement analysis he also did the 75 South Main uh Financial uh agreement analysis and he is he he's very very good The Proposal that was presented has four phases uh it's a not to exceed $10,900 phase one is where the meat of of what we're looking for as a council comes into play and yes it it includes in there an analysis of best case rent Control ordinances because you can't do an analysis of the impact of rent control in a town unless you have an idea of what that rent control program would look like and operate under because there are different ones so he's going to take different rent Control ordinances those scenarios and then do an analysis as to the impact these different ordinances would have if enacted on the uh economic stability of the town and that includes the impact on property value whether property value is going to go up or down the reduce Revenue to landlords uh impacts the building maintenance and investment this in short the short and long-term impacts of rent control and also the impact of rent control on property value and he's going to present those findings and at that point the council will say yeah yes or no we think rent control is not good because if we enact rent control under scenario a b or c property values in town are going to go down by X or increase by Y and therefore we want to do it or we don't want to do it um so it's not a foregone conclusion at all uh it was presented to him that his charge I can represent to you his charge was to do an analysis as to the impact of rent control if enacted in the town of Philipsburg and that's what he's doing but that's why he has to um look at rent Control ordinances so that he can apply different scenarios to the town in order to do his analysis and if the the council when when Matt and I spoke about this when the proposal came through um I told Matt all we need is Phase One in my opinion all we really need is phase one from this proposal you have it not to exceed $10,900 you have fourth phases but the council conc certainly authorize at this point the administration to uh charge Todd to to complete phase one and not go beyond phase one because here can get to phase two unless you're happy with phase one anyway um so it's done in tranches and that's that's fine but there's does not have to be a $10,900 you know fee at the at the up front so that's that's why it's not it perhaps it was the most clear proposal but I want to assure the audience uh the residents non-residents property owners and the council that it's not hey we we nod nod you know it's going to come out on top of rent control Rich yes B threshold was this required to go out no so we have a qpa big threshold is over $444,000 our quote threshold is uh is this is over the quote threshold of $6800 but it's $111,000 we would have to get three quotes but it's Professional Services anyway so we don't have to do any of that it's the procurement process state law L standard in all municipal government the procurement process was followed it is it is fra yes okay any other questions from Council I believe I have some go ahead Council yeah council president if we were to bring in another say urban planner to offer like a different different uh opinion or another opinion regarding rent control is that still open to us after we vote on this yes okay council's have time to look at everything that's why you get elected that's why you get paid the $200 a month to look into things and know what you're talking about okay I'll take any offense to anyone who says that I was aware of everything before I don't play that game and I won't do that game okay Town's using it we've had different scenarios show me a community of under 16,000 with 51% poverty in the country so you can't model this like you hear other areas that's why we're using this professional to get an opinion no one up here has stated that they going to vote on how can you vote on something that hasn't been presented to council yet correct it might work and it might not we don't know I don't know I'm not the expert but so if somebody wants to kind of like tilt it that this was underhanded not for me guarantee it won't never come for me but I don't want to hear there's other agencies that could help people cuz nobody's helping anyone and it's got to be balanced for both the tenant and the own okay I shouldn't share this counil I'm going to no yeah hey I tell it the way it is I get a phone call you got to come see my rental I know you the guy for 40 years so no now you're not going to put me on a spot that I want to do a your job because you should be checking on your properties I think it's a 10 mile right or you have a property manager and if anyone's done pro property management and I have for 3 years our duty was to check these places they you know you get a complaint we're on them so it's a tough thing I understand it I understand both sides but we can't go forward if we don't have experts tell us what to do and you can't come up and say let's give the indigenous help that's not council's job we're a legislative body we like to help everyone that's not our job okay so therefore anyone who called me or tried to get a hold of me I didn't respond back so come to the meeting so that's all I have to say we heard everything from Council so council president may I yes go ahead so I think what we heard here um Mr wner clarified a few things we were under the a bid threshold for this so um we did do that correctly um by law we also are hiring Professional Services we're we're not doing anything underhanded which was basically put out there um we're hiring a professional to give us their analysis on an important decision that we need to make and it comes in phases which was explained as well so there was a lot of comments up here that were made that were not true and they were used to try to put out untruths to the public so I thank our Council um for clarifying those things that were made um I think this is the right track to do hire professional service for anything because I'm not a professional in this field and I don't see anyone up here at the day that is as well so I think this is being responsible we talk lot there's a lot of talk about being responsible and having responsibility I think this is all covered here um with the comments that were answered um as far as what uh councilman Kennedy had said about the company putting something on their website I am not too happy about that as well um I don't think that was appropriate but like I said it didn't come from anyone sitting up here it came from a company so to make an accusation that you think that there was some kind of backround deal being done I mean we could say that you could say that about anything that someone puts out there you can say that you were a part of it and and see it throw it against the wall see if it sticks I don't think that's a right way to govern here I think we need to get on track here and I think this is a good way of doing is H hiring Professional Services to come in and give us an analysis professionally thank you any other discussion I see it as doing our due diligence so if anybody wants to fault us for that so be it yes no you just need a motion have a motion okay we need a motion on r224 d78 so mooved second roll call please councilman Clark no councilman Kennedy no councilman Scerbo yes Council vice president paace yes council president Marino yes okay moving on to Old business any Council have anything under old business if I if I made council president sure go ahead I just wanted to follow up regarding the uh pedestrian cross crosswalk near Joe steak shop if uh we had I know we agreed to it um has any been anything been scheduled for that or not yet okay just want to follow up okay anything else nothing on their old business Matt yeah I just um like I brought up last meeting just want to remind uh fellow councilman on Council people on Council here um if you have any suggestions on um re the renaming of Needler Avenue um if you could throw them into Mr wner uh so we can try to get on that and um get moving forward positively to change that to um a better name for our town um and I also just want to follow up what I brought up about Irwin Street um if we can look into possibly putting a street sign or something to curb uh speeding um there's a lot of kids over there I've had a lot of complaints over the past couple months um if we could get something back from uh police department on that I'd appreciate it hey anything else under their old business okay sing on new business we have open space and Recreation appointments I like to take these let's do the uh open space everybody have the list uh do Recreation first in space everybody has in front of them Recreation appointments any questions on them you want to do one at a time or you want to vote in as the blot okay let's get a emotional Council Recreation appointments so moved second any discussion on it roll call please councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman Scerbo yes Council vice president paulus yes council president Marino yes okay then we have appointments on Council open space appointments uh I think we only need what 2 three four five is that correct councilman scuro yes uh we have six candidates yes there's five openings so I suggest I guess we we will have to do these in uh one by one okay council president yes may I make a motion to bring up a candidate to be voted on sure I'm with anything that's public I'd like to make a motion to vote on the candidacy of Mr William Benz for the open space we have wellz okay type off yeah it wasn't typed in yeah it wasn't typed in okay so I thought we had six but there's only room for five so that means naturally one person well no they have me listed as a representative on top got it okay clear on that yeah sorry about that no don't be sorry we he put a letter okay let's take this since there's six candidates we only have five we'll take them one at a time okay resident uh Stacy Evans for one-year term motion second any discussion here no discussion roll call on that name please councilman CLK yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president paace yes council president Marino yes hey president Justin Henry two years term need a motion so moveed second okay R call please councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scbo yes Council vice president BS yes council president Marino yes Laura flowers to your ter so moved second R call councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president Paul yes president Marino yes Recreation advisory rep suaza so moov second roll call councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president Pais yes council president Marino yes okay the alternate Andre Manning so moov second roll call councilman Clark yeah councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president Pauls yes council president Marino yes and that fills that the open space correct councilman scar that fills it yeah 2 3 four five okay moving on the Motions Elizabeth pound gas waiver for 792 Mill Street and 955 M Street you need a motion so move second roll call please councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scuro yes Council vice president paace yes council president Marino yes Grace Lutheran Church yard H permit permit waiver so move second hold call please who second did I'm sorry I did oh were calling for a councilman Clark yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman scbo yes Council vice president Paul yes council president Marino yes public petitions quick question to council did you read the names of the appointments for the recreation Bo cuz the public can't never saw who they are for the record yes okay give me one minute please I'll read them thank you John turnball Tim Z Danielle thinking Ted Z that's who Miss print Justin Branch J Pierce Kelly leer Jen paus Chris Philip philippy J barns Matthew scur from the town alternate suaz sorry and Davis again I have um a question about Oprah requests um back on April 11th which we'll say the 12th because it was at night I submitted a very specific op request to get a response back that said this request seeks information or ask questions and does not identify specific government records as such your request is invalid and is denied I responded back that I thought it was specific what I wanted and we're here at April 24th and I still don't have a response is this going to be standard Practice coming out of the municipal building because this is like the second or third time this has happened I I mean I'll show the oppr request it's very specific what I asked I couldn't be any more specific so why do is it me or is this just going to be standard practice do you mind reading it sure I said I would like to request the following what is the total paid to the staff that worked at the pool last summer what was the date the pool open last summer what was the date the pool closed last summer what were the Daily Times the pool was open how many days a week was the pool open those are invalid um they have to reference a existing piece of material if that piece of material doesn't exist then we can't fulfill the open request how can we not know how much we spent to staff the pool last year well we can't it's in the budget but one document doesn't um exist that just has that so then how do I get that information you can look up last year because an answer to was not even was not even offered open request you you don't answer questions you only provide specific you have to name a specific document so if you wanted something regarding expenditures for a certain Department you probably would want to ask for um the expenditures regarding the pool that that in my reply back I I said I thought I was specific and I'd like to know what the inome and expense report for the 2023 season of the pool bus well so again you have to specify the document well how am I supposed to know what the document is you got to do your research you got so somebody wait wait a second I understand what you're saying because can I ask Mr Merlo for that information I'm a records custodian so I know exactly what you're saying you know this is this is the problem with Oprah okay there's there's some legislation on the table now to um limit over um some of it's good some of it's bad um again you know we as records custodians um and I hope I'm not out of line speaking on this am I you're assistant titty attorney so we're not mind readers and again if you look at what is in the Oprah requirements you're asking questions questions are not a valid over you have to specify the exact document you're looking for okay and I get that but I didn't want a document that said Johnny Smith made $2,000 working as a lifeguard at the pool that's not what I wanted I wanted an overall figure so if it's not through an Oprah how am I as a resident when there's no clear definition of any of this on the website to direct you where to go how am I am I allowed to email Mr Merlo and say how much did we spend to run the pool last year that's not my decision but that's what I'm saying as a resident how are you the website is not very na navigable the the website is horrendous it's been horrendous for for years it's it's actually in the budget document the the current budget of what we spent last year 24 there's a column for 23 y okay see you gave me more information than anybody else did thank you Mr Marlo Joe again is that your last name Jo minor no I met again oh yeah yeah uh when I hit when I get hit with that I go to the librari and the Librarians are marvelous people we have Librarians again they they they'll carry you through doing any that kind of question um little I uh strongly took a different view than the attorney who spoke uh in description of the selection of this uh investigator a what 4H award Planning Group uh I don't know who selected him and it was uh I I don't don't know if it was with in or within the rules uh that he spoke in defense of this uh somebody maybe somebody chose him they did it in good faith and I spoke from the contents of the document here that this was a bad investigation I happen to have seen it differently than two of the council members uh I saw as prejudicial in a different direction okay but the presentation of that material by the attorney I think should have been I don't know spoken by somebody else not the attorney uh okay I didn't like it I said I didn't like it that's good enough um and I forgot the other little nothing detail that I had to say thank you all very much thank you J anyone else that amobile again um yeah I just wanted to I mean on the taxes I don't know exactly what this time is for but this came to my head so I figured I would say it I have a a building last year I know we have the 11% coming up I have a building taxes were six grand last year they came I've renovated it I've made it you know nice looking for the city those taxes went from 6 grand to 15 grand and uh and yeah so I pay right around 70 grand a year to the town and I'm happy to do it I'm I'm well 60 65 6750 to the town across all my properties and uh I happy to pay those taxes to the town um if that money is going towards things that you guys got to do what you got to do but I I'd love to see like our streets get cleaner I know I've talked to you Mr Mayor about getting that path like done on the on the backside I know you guys are working on grants for that and that would be amazing but to see this area cleaned up uh you know I pick up trash every single day I go on long walks and uh picking up stuff so I'd love to see you know that money go towards this town getting cleaned up and uh this is my first time at uh the town council meeting it seems like I don't know some of the people at this table aren't all friends and we don't have to be friends with everyone but um I think when there's a bit of a a bit of an issue maybe between some people you can't fully talk issues out um and talk about them openly and I I love uh how president the councilman president has been um operating this tonight and being very open and you know putting uh his character on the line here so um that was just my two cents coming up here and uh yeah appreciate the work I know you guys do is hard and uh yeah I'm I'm here for the town here for the town to grow so appreciate you guys and and hope we can do that together thank you thank you com sunore such by Fairview Hypes it's been a we while since I've been here um but it was a very worthwhile cause that brought me you receiving right now 174 signed letters from residents in Philipsburg addressed to each of you as council members as well as the mayor each of the residents who signed these letters want you to know you have violated their trust in the town government of Philipsburg the trust was violated because the town government totally ignored the 2013 master plan reexamination report in the wildest stretch of the imagination the rezoning of the Peron Howard Street property from Riverside residential to Industrial comes nowhere near the spirit nor the intent of that report the master plan is your guide when you do your zoning in town if you think about drastically deviating from the master plan such has been done with the resoning of the Peron Howard Street property to Industrial then there should have been a redo of the master plan beforehand or minimally a new reexamination of the master plan with public participation this was not done prior prior to the resoning of the Peron Howard Street property to Industrial when reading the 2013 master plan reexamination report there is future planning detailed in this report specifically from Howard Street area along with the residential area from the abandoned northp Southern Railway right away up through South Main Street the report also addresses the small STP of light industrial that exists where the section of town called G Town used to exist I'm now going to pause this mini history lesson so my husband can take over thank you thank you uh David morset five Fairview Heights fburg New Jersey the master plan does not call for increasing Industrial zoning in the area of the residential area of the flats in fact the master plan says that the area from South Main Street through Howard Street following mcken Street should be broken down into three districts recreational Heritage recreational residential and Riverside commercial the 2013 master plan reexamination ation report also says quote The i1 Light industrial Zone should be rezoned to encourage or accommodate uses that would complement the surrounding residential neighborhoods new and old and the riverfront Heritage trail system and the overall Riverfront revitalization effort most of the residents in Philipsburg at least all of the doors we knock on do not want a warehouse in downtown fisberg on the Peron Howard Street property the residents want you to either resend ordinance 2022-2023 ordinance 2022-2023 D30 let me be clear my wife and I are proud to be the individuals who have signed the retainer for that lawsuit additionally we are proud to fight for the people of filisur we are also proud of the many people who have supported us and also the organizations such as the Delaware rivere keeper organization the New Jersey Highlands Coalition excuse me three minutes and the philis birur Riverview organization and the citizens of the sustainable development thank you thank you anyone else okay See's move on to council open time councilman CLK yes thank you my first announcement I'd like to share out information um with the passing of Reverend Bill slack there will be a memorial service being held Saturday uh April 27th uh at 1 p.m. at the River of Life church located at 445 South Main Street um it was public on Facebook and I wanted to share that for anyone that wanted to go and pay their respects or their final respects um in the same vein I also wanted to offer my condolences uh to Congressman Donald P Jr's family um as many folks know he just recently passed away today he was a con a congressman from New Jersey that represented uh our state's 10th congressional district though not directly our representative I felt it was appropriate to still offer my condolences for the record um he did a lot of great work down in Washington DC I had the opportunity to meet him once um and he was just a magnificent person so passed at the age of 65 um after a cardiac Cardiac Arrest episode uh next um f you Center uh they have their 7 7 my tongue is dry at this point 7 70th anniversary celebration that there we go being held Thursday May 2nd at 5:30 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. they're giving taes the facility I would highly recommend as many people know that the F Youth Center is a pillar of our community and a source of recreation for the children children so please feel free to visit uh bring children there get them more exposed to Recreation our town and make it more of a valuable resource or a well-known resource um and then waren County NAACP annual SC scholarship Gala I just wanted to report back on this so both Council councilman Kennedy and myself uh attended Saturday evening last Saturday evening uh $20,000 worth of college scholarships were awarded that evening to high school students and some actually in college at the moment I wanted to congratulate two uh three Philipsburg high school students that were actually honored and received um Awards in the amount of $2,500 $3,000 and $3,000 so congratulations Leah Margaret and Britney Philipsburg Zone um thank you and we are so proud of what they've achieved um that's really all I have to report out but I think just wanted to share one thing I take this Warehouse very seriously um I voted against ordinance 20223 um that's I believe this was the ordinance that we faced uh last year so I just wanted to put that on the record so where I do appreciate this large notes um I would very much appreciate to speak with the people in person if they have any questions or comments or concerns um that I would love to hear so thank you counc yes I want to mention uh Pastor slack also um I got to know I got to know Pastor slack when he was the uh president of the Phils Downtown Association excuse me and uh I got to know him even better when I was volunteering at the uh food pantry at the river of black church I had great discussions with them and joke joked with them uh I don't think there was a more giving person to be found anywhere um when I was going through my cancer ordeal last year I got constant emails from him asking about my well-being and how I was doing when when he had his own health issues that he was facing and that's just the kind of person he was and um I'm going to miss him uh other than that uh this past Saturday we had the community day of action sponsored by Norwest cap where we cleaned up the downtown area we had I don't know exactly how many people quite a few that volunteered to clean up down there and it was worthwhile event and I also want to thank uh Alex abara who's over here for his organization cleaning up delare River Park and Es skate park in general and everything looks much better down there and um on Sunday we had the Earth Day combined Earth Day Festival and the opening of the far philp farmers market and I have to say um it was very well attended a lot of vendors as a matter of fact uh we broke the record for attendance we had officially 497 visitors to the philb farmers market for the opening day so uh from now until late October when we're outside I uh invite everyone to attend it's every Sunday from 10: to 2: and uh it's uh a great Gathering Place for everyone thank you here's the breaking 500 yeah we get there okay thank you councilman SC yes I would look to extend my condolences to the slack family um and all his friends and all the people that he's touched in this town um it's going to be a sad loss for our community um also want to continue prayers for a youngster in town uh his name is Jackson he needs all the prayers he can get at this moment um to whatever affiliation you pray to please put out there um some prayers for this um young boy he's uh fighting a battle that is very tough battle right now and we're working on trying to get him to Disney uh World um so let's try to do that as a community if you can donate whether it's $2 $5 to that cause um let's try to do that and make this kid's wish come true um it's important their family has live their lifelong residence here um it's important to support people um especially children in need of these situations that's going on um and I just wanted to uh touch base with everyone and say I did uh I did write around with uh Matt null today to look at um the Green Street property uh where the playground in the field is as you know there's old tennis courts that look like an eyesore um and we're looking into now that we have the rec advisory and open space committees um voted on tonight by Council um we can look forward uh with these committies and with the administration what areas we can improve with the open space money that we have here in town that the uh Community has contributed through the tax over the years um so those are positive things um we're also looking at a park a pocket park for toddlers in the Hill Crest area I know that there's been a um a lot of comments from the that area of town they don't have anything for their children there there's a lot of CH uh younger children in that area um you know we do have beautiful Parks over here but um it would be nice for them to have something walking distance of their homes when everyone else sort of has Parks designated in their areas as well so uh these are positive things looking forward I think uh we all up here are looking forward to as well so thank you thank you Council Council vice president yeah my condolances to the slack family and friends as well um it's very sad when you lose someone from your community um and thank you councilman scuro for mentioning Jackson uh it's you know so important for this little boy to get something of joy for as long as he can um so yeah if you can donate it greatly appreciate it and um this Saturday uh the Sand Bar in collaboration with third and Fairy Street is having the Whiskey Jam with well it's Duan Rivers Whiskey Jam from 12 to6 so if you can attend I think you know the weather's supposed to be nice get out there you know know see all the vendors that they're going to have over on uh Larry Holmes Drive uh there's going to be food and several different bands yeah blue grass for once thank you thank i' like to thank the audience tonight I expected a little bit more rowdyism so I really appreciate that you acted like adults you know it's good it's good that you can have a conversation you can hear both sides and you know act like an adult don't act like kids got a lot of kids that we uh my condolences to the pastor's family as well and councilman gr I'm glad you're finally getting something over here in the Hill Crest area for those little kids there are a lot of young families over there and it's about time the town starts moving there also I might like to make this suggestion Mercer Street and South Main Street park when you do your open space and Recreation a lot of little kids here try to put up a fence the other location North Main Street I can't get that clean up we have a lot of little kids down there the third one uh see if you can get some cameras whatever up at the Del River Park and uh if we can get cameras at every Park would be okay and with that I wish everybody say trip home and that's it for us do we have executive sessions we do have a mayor you want to talk to Executive exective session that's what he asking we do have need we do have need for a brief executive session regarding contractual matters won't take more than five minutes probably hey that added one to the last one you yes I'll add that we'll under the radar in terms of time um so that's the motion motion to do an executive so moves second roll call councilman Clark oh yes councilman Kennedy yes councilman sco yes Council Vice council president