##VIDEO ID:0RXBVygaFdw## evening all this meeting has been called to order this is the city of Pleasantville uh reorganization meeting today's date is January the 13th 2025 we will start off with the sunshine statement this meeting has been duly advertised in the City newspaper and conformance with the open public meeting and otherwise known as the sunshine Mall can we please stand for invocation and remain standing for the FL States of America it stands Nation Ro Paul Fe here Thomas presona pres obis baray pres bis pres six in attendance for the record Miss gray will be uh here late she's called in traffic next we will have a motion to adjourn a sundai motion second all in favor next is nominations for city council president or now we will open up nominations are there any I need a motion I know call Thomas second second second is second second come on are there any other nominations seeing none I need a motion to close move close close Bettis second spe all in favor all right first is resolution number one is a resolution of port and call um resolution number one a resolution app Point caller Thomas as council president for the city of Pleasantville for year 2025 I need a motion motion motion second second roll call fear upate kimona yes over spe yes or clay yes btis yes Thomas yes resolution approved next we will swear in is call Thomas please come forward repeat after me I st your name I Carla Thomas doly swear or confirm do solemnly swear and confirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution in the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and Allegiance and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Saint to the Saint and the government and the government establish in the United States established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and I will Faithfully I will faithfully and partially and partially and justly and justly per all the duties perform all the duties of the office of council president of the office of council president for the city of pleasant for the city of pleas to the best of to the best of my so God help me guys thank you congratulations council president thank you thanks to all my colleagues for having PA once again so we're at number two mayor your message good evening everyone I'd like to start by wishing everyone a happy healthy New Year and be safe and um also ask everyone to pray for La for the fires and everything that everyone has own for I thank everyone that had the confidence in me to vote me in as mayor for a second ter I promise that I'm a mayor for everyone whether you voted for me or not and me along the city council are going to do our best to make sure that can make that Pleasant Bill a better place for the resident congratulations to car Thomas for being reelected and the new Council people John P in the first Bo and Andre Bray in the second Bo and we look forward to working with you also thank you to the professionals and all the board members that uh for 2025 we look forward to working with each other we suffered a loss this year with James hubard and former councilman Gus Haron and I ask that you hold their hold them in your prayer they were two valuable residents to our city and I think all the employees that work with for us that you too are valuable we can't do this without you appreciate it and it doesn't go unnoticed you're the ones that keeps things going in the city and we couldn't do it without you a good example of this is a snowstorm that we just had January 6 we hadn't had a snowstorm in about 3 years a lot of our DPW are newer employees along with being short staff but I received about six calls of gratitude for the good good job that they did clearing the streets and that's important to me because I certainly hear the bad call so for someone to take time out to call when we're doing good means a lot and I did pass it on to the department there's been a lot of changes in 2024 and to say that is an understatement there's been major Personnel changes due to the many retirements and we were in the process of rebuilding on January 1st going with the retirements captain born house retired 28 years of service May 1st 2024 James Williams retired for 26 years of service our Police Chief Fire Chiefs Scott TR all retired 25 excuse me for 25 years of service May 1st 2024 and James hton DPW retired June 1st 2024 after 36 years of service July 31st Linda Payton retired after 25 years of service as our business administrator and Barry Moody our Chief Financial Officer retired September 30th with 11 years of service Kevin Kane construction code official retired July 31st with 24 years of service Doug rad retired October 31st from DPW with 25 years of service you think that's enough there's more Bridget Muno Horn uh from the police department our evidence clerk retired January 1st after 14 years of service Steven sample retired December 31st our police officer uh with 25 years of service I say thank you to all the retirees for the service that they've given to the city over the years and we wish them a long happy healthy retirement unfortunately the experience goes with them Pleasantville police department currently has 100% Sal for homicide they handled 51,69256 life skills with Atlantic prevention at Middle School in South excuse me Pleasant bille Middle School winter wonderland Future Leaders anti-bullying classes I want to know excuse me I want everyone to know that our community park is not abandoned I've been getting that call a lot as far as what we're doing with the park it does look like it's abandoned there was a d issue and once it was Abad and the approvals came back it was too cold to resume the work when the Mark for this year so until spring that's the way it has to look it's scheduled for completion in 2025 so please be patient a little longer we're all anxiously waiting our tax sale for 2024 was held December 19th starting in November we were at 1,278 Parcels 43 more than in 2023 in the end collection rate was down to 5 54 which was 62 more than 2023 99.18% that is 27 more than 2023 the total of the sale was 1,614 93120 much of this was due to our tax clerk Naomi logo mailing letters to the homeowners as reminders we want everyone to be able to pay their taxes and keep their property and to know that if you call upon Hard Times Arrangements can be made we still remain in a strong financial standing for credit rating at va2 Pleasantville fire department has seven new firefighters an $85,000 American rescue recovery Grant was awarded to the department for PP personal protective equipment providing a Cutting Edge resources to safeguard our firefighters Beyond emergency response the fire department actively engages with the residents through fire safety education coats for kids shot with a hero open house driving Santa around town Christmas toy giveaways the mamogram van and training and many other supporting many other community supporting events for awareness and ensuring safety the zoning board approved fun City's trampoline park all the permits have been issued and the park is on scheduled to open in Fall of 2025 Peters Ben way has been completed which is a housing development of California Avenue and all the homes have been sold ideal Academy received a land approval for the second floor of the school as well as approval to begin classroom only instruction for CBL training K development excuse me project which is going to be a lumber uh a lumber business at um I can getet the address it's on New Road and Ridgewood Avenue which is where it's located and that was approved that's going to be a nice addition to that Big Empty lot that's sitting there now I look forward to R development of our city we are in such need of rable the Redevelopment plan for town houses on Brighton Avenue would reviewed and recommend ations were sent to council many of the residents complaints are about our city being so dark at night so we had an audit done to upgrade our lighting the city along with Atlantic Electric will be moving forward once we obtain the funding in the meantime Atlantic Electric senior manag Senior Management is asking that anyone that sees the light out to get the poll number and call it in ex ex me and I realized that you won't get out of your car at night and do that so if you just go back the next day and take a picture of it and mail it to us or call it in whatever it is that you have to do but that will take care of the problem until we're able to um get the lighting upgrade the lighting in the city with LED hopefully in the recreation department we now have a girls softball team it's been many years since a younger teams have been playing organized ball at Max Manning and it feels good seeing action utilized in the fields uh senior citizens annual Christmas party at Spring flame continue to be a success and enjoyed by many we still have the fitness during the week and the dance classes would sooth and reading the week excuse me and occasionally movie days we have and bingo all activities are free to any Resident in the city 60 and over the Coalition for a safe Community is an organization that is made up of many resources ranging from attorney general prosecutor attorneys hospitals colleges uh Nami schools and uh expungements Atlantic Prevention Services and many more the mission is to promote health and Public Safety in the community so when we're the recipients of the grants donations it's all very specific to give our Our Youth and residents and alternative to violence and some of the other unhealthy choices in life the Coalition has donated equipment to our boxing program and the recreation center is looking to host boxing events in the future last summer CS the Coalition for State Community also started a fishing program for the male youth this year we plan to expand and include a program for the young ladies they also hold a Teen Summit every year with 10 area high schools and that's really nice because they get together and they have it and we usually have it at one of the colleges and they realize that as different as you think you we are we're all the same you know so it's it's a just a nice group that get together and they stay in touch afterward all St and public works with the retaining wall and the trees that have been removed the Gazebo has been painted there's a new fence mute take it and the bus terminal has been power washed all the improvements are funded by NP neighborhood preservation program provides a much cleaner look and better security for the commuters other UE projects were the fireworks the holiday lights the electric trash truck and Main Street demolition with animal control the supervisor of Public Works and staff is proud achieving a full step for the animal control the unit has become certified Animal Control they have become a certified Animal control officer of the many calls that there was Cat 250 233 dogs resulting in impoundment animal toal offic are scar so this is significant accompl this is a significant accomplishment it's such a savings to the city for us to be able to handle our own P for by UE um three new street sweepers were delivered January 3rd to boost our City's maintenance e efforts the sewer department also has a new van to be able to handle their um 24/7 sewer related issues efficiently they did have band but it was in such such bad shape so for us to be able to get this and them to be able to continue with their work is good and we did rebuild our Sewer Department after losing some of after losing it a few years ago our grant writer Jim Vella has saved us millions of dollars and is constantly seeking more besides being there for those in time of need our Chapin continue to assist with the monthly food drives in the city trunk streat and winter wonderland I invite everyone to attend the ward meeting Community meetings every Tuesday and Thursday at 5:30 in the library every Tuesday and thir uh second Tuesday of the month excuse me in the Pleasantville Library the meetings are informal and it's an opportunity to hear and be heard once again I say thank you for listening we hear you as well Happy New Year to everyone be safe and may God bless us all mayor before we move forward um can you just put on a record and um the name of the police officer that's detailing tonight's meeting resolution number two appoint president prot open up Nom open nominations I nominate councilman o second nominations are close or any other nominations see none nominations are closed May I have a motion to close nomination n all in favor I no call okay so that's resolution number two according Charles Overby as Pro for the city of Pleasantville I need a motion motion obain come yes Obby yes foran yes Bettis yes Thomas yes resolution approved congratulations C thank congratulations thank resolution number three appoint council person to the planning board any nominations I'll nominate Jo B any other nomin nominations I have a motion for Mr John motion second second R call obain kimona yes OB yes no ftis yes Thomas yes resolution approved resolution four a resolution approving and schedule for meetings for city council for year 2025 I move second motion I mean roll call please obain Kona yes oasp yes barlan yes P th yes resolution approved resolution five a resolution designating official newspapers for the city for year 2025 may I have a motion motion may I have a second second roll call Kona yes Obby yes yes Edis yes Thomas yes resolution all right let direct reflect that Elsa woman gray is here ma' we have resolution six on your p number yes great thank you ma' resolution number six a resolution designa the cash management plan for year 2025 may have a motion motion second may have a second second roll call obain kimona yes oasby yes Paran yes btis yes gray yes Thomas yes resolution approved resolution seven a resolution poting Joanne peoples line hits and Hilson Casco as members of the senior citizens advis board may have a motion may have second second roll call Kona yes speak yes or clang yes yes gray yes Thomas yes resolution approved resolution a a resolution for in Gary Fields tra Barnes Caesar Sanchez and Victor koner as members of the economic development tourism and special event advisory committee may I have a motion motion may have second second R call Fe obain kimona yes yes yes vtis yes gray yes Thomas yes resolution resolution n the resolution appointing rosin K as member of the Pleasantville Housing Authority may have a motion motion may have a secondo abstain kimona yes oasby yes oray yes btis yes gray yes Thomas yes resolution approved resolution 10 a resolution appointed Dwayne carington DARS Rell Norman Dennis and Corin Brown as members of the Zoning Board of adjustment may I have a motion may I have a second roll call pain kimona yes Obby yes or clay yes btis yes gr yes Thomas yes okay is any of those people names I called here okay would you like to address yourself um my name is Karen Brown thank you for appointing me thank you welcome thank you for congratulations resolution 11 app point in daor rice Biv as members of the Pleasantville green team may I have a motion motion may I have a second second obain hon yes yes yes ftis yes gray yes Thomas yes resolution approved is Miss uh B rice R Okay resolution 12 we're appointing the resolution appointing John Diego Esquire Juan Gonzalez Gary Phil Hassan Kirk Pastor Dennis Mor pastor Kevin Raglin Patricia Royal an Smith Vernon Walker will Ward and John D as members of the pville community police Advisory Board may have a motion motion may have a second BR Pam obain kimona yes oy yes car clay yes btis yes gray yes Thomas yes resolution approved anyone here is there thank you congratulations congratulations congratulations thank you for your service resolution 13 the resolution Appo floor ruling as tax search Searcher for the year 2025 motion motion was that okay obain kabona yes o yes or CL yes btis yes gray yes Thomas yes thank you m drumman thank you resolution 14 a resolution for Roman for floor Roman as sew clerk for year 2025 may I have a motion motion may I have a second obain kimona yes o yes foray yes fetis yes gray yes Thomas yes resolution approved resolution 15 the resolution of Kenyon new as to the position of interim City administrator for the city of pleas may have a motion motion may I have a second question I have a question does that also include the Chief Financial Officer not ACC to no it does not okay thank B upate kimona yes Obby yes oray yes btis yes gray yes Thomas yes resolution approved resolution 16 a resolution authorizing emergency repairs for a collapse sore line on each Greenville Avenue into the marsh Waters I have a motion Mo second have second second pona yes o yes or clay yes btis yes gray yes Thomas yes resolution approved resolution said 17 creating a current account temporary budget for year 2025 may have a motion move may have a second second roll call upate kimona yes o yes for clan yes btis yes gray yes Thomas yes resolution approved resolution 18 creating a s utility temporary budget for year 2025 may have a motion motion may have a second second roain Kona yes obis yesl yes vtis yes sir gray yes Thomas yes resolution appr we have announcements of the mayor's planning board appointments that would be dor rice Bivens John Sanders cynia dowy Leonia Richardson and Shannon Phillips is any of those people here thank you thank you thank you thank you may Ward thank you appoint than you I look forward to working with the board and the city thank you I think you'll be ni we need that's acknowledgement the so 21 is employee of Year Awards now the person that dis avoided crime I'm going to make sure were there in the room the decision the decision going toward this award was since stepping into that role this person has not missed a step they take their work very seriously and completes the task at any given time they take on the task of correcting and completing reports on high in high regard and it shows in the quality of their reports they are meticulously thorough knowledgeable in regards to reviewing C uh crash reports I'm trying to do this she doesn't they don't know about it I said she so I'm just trying to do it without them knowing this person is reliable and dependable to say the least they can be relied upon to respond to calls in a timely manner take initial reports instead of assigning them and always conducting a thorough initial investigation her experience as a detective within this department lends to their ability to teach them members how to teach the members how to conduct thorough investigations they are willing to stay late to complete any task assigned and takes pride in and everything they touch uh this person leads from the front as an and is an excellent representation of the police department in this city and the person that nominated them said that they would like to nominate them and there's no one that they could think would be better at this time than Sergeant Oris I tried to do that without you know they said they know did you have an idea not really oh okay congratulations congratulations so you have PL and it reads as follows the city of fenville feel the energy the city of fville 2024 employee of the Year Award presented to Sergeant Ash arelis in recognition of your exemplary performance and exceptional contributions sign mayor gdm board say you get this I'll give you the box and you get $100 well to be employee of the year is not something I expected and I'm very honored to be here and I want to say thank you to my um Command Staff for allowing me to be who I am and for their um giving me the opportunity to be the person that I am today so thank you so before we start on public for um do we have any of our professionals here this evening if if you are can you please stand to some I want to say welcome back and to the others I want to say welcome we look forward to working with you all once again and to the new ones welcome to the team stand we need you all to introduce yourselves please Scot from Bowman and Company with the city's outside auditing firm wish everyone a Happy New Year thank the mayor and Council for the opportunity to continue to serve the city and we look forward to working together for the successful 2025 thank you Lena fton Atlantic associate insurance agency and I like to say thank you and happy New Year to everyone thank you very much Jordan Rizzo with CME uh city engineer thank you again for uh the appointment again this year and we look forward to all you great opportunities for this year there's a lot of exciting projects that we're working on and we're excited to see them through the end thank you good evening my name is Crystal Holmes Buie and I'm with Michael a Armstrong and Associates and we've had the pleasure to serve the uh city of Pleasantville over the last year as the Redevelopment attorney and we're looking forward to the many exciting projects that we're working on in the coming year it's really been a real pleasure working with everyone thank you Glenda from Performance Marketing uh thank you for choosing us yet again to uh serve the marketing needs of the city and we look forward to having another successful year uh ricketti um Redevelopment consultant for the city I really appreciate your support happy New Year and I I really look forward to some of the things we're working on this year thank you last but not least our solicitor thank you madam president and Council mayor to the audience thank you so much for trusting in me and asking me to return this year um I as you know I graduated from Pleasantville High School 1980 um came down here from North Jersey was a transplant never fully left because my father was here so I take great pride in the work that we will be doing here and I have a commitment to help move the city forward in whatever legal capacity I can thank you do we have any um elected officials here Mor C is out there can you please stand and introduce yourself please morning C County Commissioner I just want to thank Council and the mayor for all you do for the citizens it's a lot of hard work so thank you for everything you do for the citizens for presv and all the best to everyone in 202 anyone else elected official all right thank you next we have public portion we have David Callaway please your name for record dway good evening everyone and happy New Year I want to start off first congratulating the mayor on her election and the two new council members wish you all the best um Madam solicitor I have a question okay when isn't there um if you're abstaining shouldn't it be because you have a conflict well there's no particular legal Reason by which a council person or any individual who sits in a body that votes must abstain it can be for conflicting purposes it can be for their own internal reasons that they don't believe that they should cast a vote but they're not required to explain it if they had an actual conflict where it was family they would be required to explain it but short of that they can abstain simply because they don't want to vote I'm AC yeah so even it's you have a conflict or you just don't want to vote you don't want to cast the vot either way and that's within their perview and that's correct they don't have to explain it unless it's a conflict where it's something that they have a vested interest in a monetary interest a business interest or it's a family member then they're required to put it on the record but if they feel that they can't cast the vote yay or nay either way then they have the right or the option to obain go you because it's upsetting to me as the taxpayer resent in this town for someone to come in stain on every vote it's a slap in the face to everyone in here either have the gut to say yes or no is that simple that's all I have to say about that part um U mayor Ward I have a question um last year I believe the city voted was a resolution that was voted on as far as sharing the um asphalt machine I don't know if it was Atlantic City or the county was the city for the I say okay I was just trying to find out have we utilized that at all here in playville yet no we have not it took a while for the machine come in and I'm really not even sure we didn't get another word on it so I'm not even sure that it's um there or that they're utilizing would that would fall under Public Works it would but they wouldn't know until we okay that's all I want to know if it was being utilized okay okay all right thank next we have Pete callway I have a question well you have problem I see a problem developing in some of the uh socalled paper streets everyone's wear paper Streetsville I have one where I live behind me and it's becoming a problem because cars are always parked there they mangle there they drink there and the biggest problem they deal drugs back there and I have grandkids back there and from last year 24 it's been a lot of other kids who live around there now so my thing is why should we let this get any further when you have drugs involved you always got a weapon some way and I don't want anybody my grandkid or any other kids to get shot up because of some bad drug deal cops come by there 11: 11:30 at night when everybody's home but during the day and early evening I never see any at all and that goes on winter spring summer and fall are they there during the day or at night the people that are hanging out sometimes yeah but is it day or night both oh oh both and I just want to bring to your ATT and have it on record if there is a bad problem like I said with the shootings everybody knows where there's drugs there's guns M Mr not behind our house I if um if you could stay afterward you could talk to um the mayor and just let her know the location oh okay that's fine with you m yeah next we have Veron Walker evening everyone congratulations award council president welcome um and everyone here it's beautiful to um to be able to stand in 2025 a lot of people not standing today but it's a blessing of each and everyone to maintain this beautiful birath of life so we be thankful for that I just wanted to come up to to um to thank the uh city council good people on the board U Mr Bettis is a wealth of knowledge one of my mentors and has a lot to offer the community we have a lot of wisdom up hereo um Mr ens be um president Thomas because 2025 is a very serious different Year all the the decisions that are made have to be timely and well thought out because we can't afford we have no room for error because we in we live in very serious times and we Mak an error we may not be able to recruit like we did in the past so as city council you are charged with some heavy heavy decisions in the coming year and ongoing that we have to be Unified and have the the web with all to really be successful um in making our decisions another point I want to make um CC president I seen on the news I think it was the Philadelphia city where they had a timer connected to the big screen TV and it showed three minutes and count down and was counting down so there's no discrepancy if your time is up or time is not up your brother my last point I haven't been to City Council in a long time but I I watched it online I was very kind of disturbed with the situation with the police chief and I know that in the past I work with Chief Riggins Chief Valor Chief Williams they made big strides and helping the the city police department come a long way and I was disturbed because that one in inent could took us back to zero so I haven't really delved into it too much but I was kind of disturbed um when I initially read the story so hopefully that comes and goes and we get back to where we need to be but our time is down so may have a motion to close public portion all in favor mayor you have anything no I just again want to wish everyone a Happy New Year thank you for coming out tonight and I do look forward to 20125 and just just being productive and good things happening have a good evening anyone from town soon I just wanted to um wish everyone a Happy New Year and apologize for uh being late you know life life and and um I had something very important that I needed to uh take care of so I do apologize and I will try my best to be on time on out good evening everybody I want to wish everybody Happy New Year I want to mention uh about public works I was out there you guys were doing a heck of a job and I was very proud of the way y was working out there thank you there removing the snow thank you everybody have a blessed one and a happy New Year first I want to say good evening to everyone happy New Year certainly we want to commend uh did on public works that did a fantastic job I believe the Public Works superintendent is in the room and if he just stay be recognized good to see uh brother Walker long time my friend and uh also to the professionals missa she still here she just left she years ago uh through the professional it just happens that I I have uh either had or I have a relationship with just about everybody that was mentioned uh passing and the president it's good to see uh how wise our council president has been and mayor in uh in selecting these professions um I I look forward to working with all of you and the community at large so if there's uh any anything my phone number is available in the book I believe still if they if you have a book but when they when they put that issue those books I take one and put put them anyway uh you don't have time yeah you thank you very much for your your confidence that uh I may be able to bring some assistance to our mayor and council members and of course Miss Cosby nice to have you anyone else can oh yes uh thank you fille uh I heard the previous speaker who spoke about 2025 being a special year and I want to join you to reecho that because we have too many challenges unusual challenges coming to confront Us in pleasentville and throughout the whole global war and I'm urging us to work together to collaborate that means you the community can draw our attention to what you know we don't know all if you draw our attention we are here to work for you the only way we can suceed is to work together as members of blessing then we can cross the virus thank you all and have a Happy New Year so happy New Year to you all thanks once again to my colleagues for voting me back in as president welcome all the professionals um um and thanks for the elected officials for being here and thanks once again for miss Karen and and whoever else is here um just coming here to you know help the community and to be um a voice in the community because that's what we need um other than that I don't have anything else hopefully um Mr Walker you coming to the meetings and continue on giving us a tap on the shoulder like councilman barley said if it's something out there that need our attention please let us know so I want with that being said good evening everyone and have a great night I have a motion to adjourn motion second all in favor y