right good let me know when we're rolling Judy could you just PR record on that see this one right yep to the right y okay I hear it I think we're good to go good evening everyone tonight is the regular session of the mayor and council meeting for Wednesday February 28th 2024 this meeting is also being conducted telephonically the dial dialing number is 425 436 6365 the access code is 213 563 pound sign the meeting may also be viewed on the Ramsey YouTube channel that you can find on the burrow website may we have roll call please mayor Dylan is not here councilwoman cusk here councilman gutwetter here councilman kilman here councilman Papo here councilwoman poppy here councilwoman Woods here let stand for the fat flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all at this time I'd like to pause for a moment I want to acknowledge the passing of former Ramsey Mayor John skuro who died on February 25th John a former Ramsey Resident was a Ramsey councilman for nine years and then served as Ramsay's mayor for four terms from 1987 to 2002 in recognition of his service to our community I would like us to have a moment of silence from mayor scuro thank you the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of all citizens to have advanced notice of and to attend all meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting the public is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act notice of this meeting of the mayor and councel was published in the Bergen Record and the Ridgewood news on February January 19th 2020 may we have approval of minutes please yes council president kilman this is the councilwoman husk and I would like to make a motion to approve the minutes from 14th February 2024 please okay and I will second that are there any comments on the minutes George not hearing any I will move on yes councilman GW yes councilman kilman yes councilman Papo yes councilwoman poppy yes councilwoman Woods yes thank you may we have approval of the communications yes council president kilman um i' like to make a motion that the communications on tonight's agenda be received and filed do we have a second council president kilman this is councilwoman husk and I second thank you are there any comments on the communications I would like to make one comment uh during Mr Bose's presentation he will be addressing some of the specific points that were brought in by the communications by certain residents any other comments not seeing any may we have roll call please councilwoman cusk yes councilman gut wer yes councilman kilman yes councilman Papo yes councilwoman poppy yes councilwoman Woods yes thank you public comment anyone wishing to address the governing body please give your name spelling the last name and your address please speak in an audible tone and address your comments to the chair there will be a five minute time limit per speaker unless reduced because of the volume of business on the agenda please know public Comon is your time out of respect and fairness to all there will be no interruptions or questions answered during your time no time shall be seated to anyone else and no time shall be saved for later use any responses may be given during the governing body's comments later in the meeting or as directed by the chair the buau clerk is the official timekeeper at this time um there is not seeing anyone here in the audience is there anyone on the phone line who would like to make public comment yes George can you hear me yes we can b u m i l l e r Ramy New Jersey I have two comments first I've sent suggestions and comments to the mayor and counsel most recently starting in last AUST in October a response was provided but did not include the suggestions from orders the suggestions were aimed at improving Communications between resident and the bureau to make it easier for the governing body and the bur the suggestions have all been in writing I note that the Republican website putting Ramy first States our commitment to you and then uh one of the items under that is listen to and treat all residents with respect and dignity please provide a respon to the August suggestions and also for those more recently provided and not covered by the October response second the buau has posted on the website a folder covering the new firehouse and related facilities but the only document is the initial review of facilities listing their problems there is another contract in progress but the contract itself would also provide information for the residents but the only justification for construction is the item that's posted the other related contracts and reports should be posted there thank you thank you Mr Bill Miller um let let me just make one comment first of all thank you for paying attention to what goes on in the bureau and we have received your Communications and we thank you for that um during Bureau administrator Mr Bruce Bose's comments he will be addressing some of your points specifically thank you do we have anyone else on the line who would like to make public comment and I will ask second time third time anyone who would like to make comments during public hearing not hearing any we will close public comment and move on um we don't have any final consideration of ordinances there are no appointments for this evening so we'll move specifically to the consent resolutions councilman GW uh thank you council president kilman be it resolved that resolution 059 2024 through and including 063 2024 having been considered by the governing body of the burough of Ramsey B are hereby passed and approved there are no special permits or block party requests this evening I will second that thank you do we have a roll call please councilwoman cusk yes councilman gutwetter yes councilman kilman yes councilman Papo yes councilwoman poppy yes councilwoman Woods yes thank you at this time we have a special presentation the introduction of the 2024 Municipal budget by Mr Bruce Bose uh thank you council president uh this will be the presentation uh for the municipal budget for 2024 just before we start I'll just talk about little timing quick uh here February 28 this mayor and council meeting will be the budget presentation and introduction uh the budget will then be um voted on for introduction uh there will be a then an advertisement of the budget and a public hearing scheduled for the March 27th meeting uh on the budget with a subsequent vote on adoption of the ipal budget so going into the budget presentation which is posted on the website um both in the transparency burough documents section as well as on the front page um there's a a link to a number of budget docu has the budget document itself as well as the budget presentation and the userfriendly budget will be posted there as well and also in the transparency section an overview of the 2024 budget the 2024 Municipal budget continues to face the similar economic challenges that all households and businesses are facing with everyone experiencing the inflationary cost of operations in our economy as well as a high interest rate environment so that transcends through the burough budget as well our 2024 appropriation levels for salaries and operating expenses collectively are increasing by 1.94% from 2023 budget levels and make up about 2third of the total budget the Burrow's 2024 budget is compliant with the New Jersey state appropriation cap and a [Music] 625,000 as has been discussed over the last year or more in 2024 the burrow will be finalizing plans going out to bid for a new fire department heavy rescue and OEM Station House on isav to account for down payment on that Capital project as well as other improvements the capital investment lines of the budget have been increased by $515,000 or just over 50% for those line items the Burrow's debt levels the 2024 budget includes principal pay down of debt of 1.2 million with approximately 50% of it coming from Grants that the burough sought out and received for these needed improvements mitigating the cost to Residents Ramsay's Municipal debt levels remain as one of the lowest among the 13 Northwest Berger municipalities and under 10% of what the state allows for a community of our size this strong low leveraged financial position leaves Ramsey in position to utilize the long-term debt markets for large Capital infrastructure projects as we previously talked about the burrow property tax assessment revaluation the burough received notice from the Bergen County Board of Taxation that the burrow must perform a townwide property tax revaluation which will start in 2024 with an anticipated completion for the 2025 final certified tax rates and summer of 2025 to the increases in the real estate market over half the Bergen County towns have received the same order if the town is not have not concluded a full revaluation in the last few years they've been ordered to do a reval part of this cost is factored into the 2024 budget the municipal tax rate as indicated earlier inflation and certain operating expenses have impacted the budget and in addition the capital investment as we have noted in long-term infrastructure projects which will benefit the town for years to come the combination of these operating costs and capital Investments have the burough 2024 budget with a collective Municipal tax rting increase of 3.96% the budget's compliant with the New Jersey state tax levy cap and it's approximately $640,000 below the tax levy cap the breakdown of your Municipal property tax bill or your Total Property Tax Bill 68.1% uh in 2023 went to the schools and the Board of Education 20.3% to the municipal component 10.2% to the county and 1.4% uh to the mandated uh Library contribution historical data in the breakdown of the property tax rate and the increases of the four components the Board of Education Municipal components make up collectively just under 90% of the property tax rate with the Board of Education receiving as just noted just under 70% and the burrow around 20% the remainder made up of County taxes and the St statutory funding of the library for the last seven years through 2023 the average annual Municipal increase has been 2.5% Board of Education increases have averaged 2.76% over the last seven years and the Burrow's total property tax rate increase combining all components over the same time period of seven years has averaged 2.61% and looking at the breakdown of where the 2023 property tax dollars went the average residential home had a property tax assess value in 2023 of $33,900 was $1 14,591 for every $100,000 a property assess value in 2023 the Board of Education received $863 for the School portion the burrow received $555 for municipal Services looking at a summary of the 2020 four budget um as we talked about with the tax rate you'll see um if you go through the detailed mine items in the budget the local Revenue this year is up approximately $300,000 there's some increase in interest income from deposits uh which is similar to what you'll see on the appropriation side where we see increases in interest expense uh there is a line item in the budget that offsets it has both revenue and ex Appropriations directly offsetting each other so no impact to taxes which are items uh with some grants that were received which have no tax impact that had a decrease but those grants typically come in during the year and then get entered into the budget as a chapter 159 exception during the year um so that by the end of the year will'll kind of balance out um in terms of the salary wages other expenses we talked about the general increases there and the increase in the capital investment was the largest line increase going forward as well as there has been budgeted funds for the special emergency authorization for the first year payment of the tax revaluation of 150,000 um just going quickly through the components of the revenue um current ta taxes make up about 7 23% of the revenue with the other local Revenue state aid and Grant reimbursements as well as utilization of surplus making up their balance of that and looking at the Appropriations uh between salary and wages employee health insurance make up about 40 uh 4% of the budget with the other operating expenses of the other departments another 30% um bringing to account for for about 75% of it there are statutory expenditures uh that make up another 10% and then they have capital investment debt uh and the reserve for uncollected taxes and going through the uh Municipal tax levy calculation as we said last year's budgeted tax rate for the municipal portion was 0.555 this year it's 0.577 uh with a net value taxable for 20 24 of three um billion 536 618 and $300 the um for a 100,000 every the increase is a183 per uh per month for the municipal portion for every $100,000 of assess value which on the average home of 533,000 equates to $9 .77 monthly or $117 annually if you compare where Ramsay's Municipal tax rates uh are relative to the other towns in Bergen County um in looking at the Bergen County 2023 abstract of ratables Ramsey's Municipal tax rate is the 12th lowest of the 70 towns in Bergen County approximately 26% below the county average of the 11 towns with lower Municipal tax rates eight of them have significantly higher average residential Assessments in Two Towns MAA and East Rutherford have significantly larger commercial areas while Ramsay's the 12th lowest for municipal portion the overall rate um including all four components is the 46 lowest and 99.4% above the county average this is due to the fact while the municipal portion is about 20% 26% lower than County average the School portion is about 36 30% above County average and breaking that down further into the towns uh nearby in the Northwest Bergen County uh of the 13 towns Ramsay's effective Municipal tax rate in Northwest Bergen County ranked seventh and again however six of the seven towns lower have either significantly higher average residential assessments or MAA significantly higher commercial area and since property tax revenue is calculated as the rate times a property's assessed value a town with higher assessed values can generate the same revenue from a property even with a lower rate uh moving on and kind of breaking the the tax rate down in comparisons to other municipalities a little further Ramsey's Municipal tax component of total property taxes is the seventh lowest of the 70 towns in buron County so the ranking on the that we talked about on the prior slides just looks at a comparison of rates this ranking illustrates how much of a resident's property tax tax dollars actually go to Municipal Services versus the other tax components of the school County and Library as shown Ramsay has one of the lowest tax levies for municipal Services relative to to the total property tax levy of any community in Bergen County with 90% of towns sending a higher percentage of their tax dollars to Municipal Services than Ramsey does in terms of percentage of residents tax dollars to go into schools Ramsay's in the highest 10% of the Bergen County municipality municipalities 65th highest of the 70 with 68% of property tax dollars going to the Board of Education moving on to the Burrow's debt position and looking at historically uh the debt back in 201819 we completed some significant capital investment projects which will benefit Ramsey for many years to come with long useful life assets this borrowing allowed the cost to be more accurate repaid over an asset's useful life in 2023 the burrow paid down 1.3 million of debt but then borrowed 2.6 million for net increase last year's borrowing included funding for roads sidewalks DPW hoist truck and preliminary cost for the future Firehouse Rescue Squad and OEM Station House this year 1.2 million of principal is budgeted for pay down the burrow will be utilizing approximately 574 th000 in revenues from Grants the bur Act ly sought out applied for and received mitigating the taxpayer cost of these projects in looking at the burrow debt compared to the other Northwest Bergen municipalities um using the last information that's currently available for all North Northwest Bergen towns verus 2022 uh for most towns uh Ramsey franklen Lakes Oakland Saddle River and whiteoff had updated uh their information on their website to the year end 2023 Ramsay's the fourth lowest of the 13 towns in total amount of Municipal debt as a percentage of the equalized valuation basis which kind of equates towns of different sizes um in taking that uh ranking the state allows up to 3.5% net debt as a percentage of equalized valuation Ramsay at year end 2023 is at 0.31% or less than one1 of what the state limit is for debt uh moving on to burough Surplus in terms of the utilization and regeneration of surplus in the 2023 Municipal budget we began the year with a surplus of 4.2 million there was 2.7 million utilized in the municipal budget for 2023 so the balance remaining prior to the year-end regeneration of surplus in 2023 was 1.5 million uh during the 2020 year end actual budget results that that moved money to Surplus were 2023 the excess budget revenue and miscellaneous Revenue that was not anticipated in the 23 budget the 2023 tax received in excess of the budget and collection Reserve 2022 unspent appropriation reserves 2023 canceled Appropriations and any other year-end changes in non-budget acrel interfund accounts so the 2023 Surplus regenerated through financial results of 2023 year were approximately $2,780 so the yearend Surplus balance for 2023 was 4,286 217 or an increase of approximately $85,000 from the beginning of the year or fair or basically stable from uh the beginning of the year through 2023 for the 2024 Municipal budget uh we are utilizing the same amount of surplus the 2,695 uh that we used in last year's budget which will leave us in similar position with about 1.6 million in Surplus prior to any year-end regeneration Surplus utilized as an additional Revenue item as I mentioned adding to the other local Revenue items in reducing the amount needed to be raised from property taxes this usage then reduces the burrow Surplus balance the Regeneration or replenishment of surplus Ur occurs through the actual Financial results with any Revenue that exceeds that budgeted and spending of budgeted amounts replenish Surplus one year after being reserved so the year end 2023 unspent balances will be uh will move into Surplus at the end of next year or this current year rather uh looking at a a longer term comparison of the Burrow's uh Surplus or fund balance it's it's been pretty steady over the last uh 8 to 10 years it was as I mentioned about 85,000 more in 2023 at the end of the year than when it started the year but it's been pretty flat and for 2024 we're utilizing the same amount in the current budget as mentioned comparing that usage of surplus and surplus balance um to other Northwest Bergen towns Ramsey's right in the middle um if you look at the northwest Berg and towns based on the percentage of surplus utilization applied to the revenue side of the budget Ramsay's near the middle ranking six of the 13 towns and how it utilize how much Surplus it utilizes in its budget so just bringing this back and kind of uh touching back on some of the points in this um presentation Ramsey ranks in the lowest tier of Municipal tax rates in Bergen County with the 12th lowest of 70 municipalities with a municipal tax rate and the seventh lowest share of all 70 towns of tax dollars going to Municipal Services both of these figures are more than 25% the below the countywide average Ramsey maintains favorable ranking for municipal tax rates debt and surplus levels with other Northwest Bergen municipalities the 2024 budget continues to pay down Municipal debt while addressing necessary Capital infrastructure Investments and positions ramsy well for future use of long-term debt markets for large infrastructure projects the 2024 budget complies with both the New Jersey state Appropriations cap as well as the New Jersey state tax levy cap and it meets the objectives of adopting a responsible budget in today's inflationary economy while continuing to provide a high level of service to taxpayers and incorporating increased capital investment for necessary projects with long-term Community benefits and that's my presentation council president thank you Mr Bose I know that several of us have met with with you um already on certain aspects of the budget are there any other comments at this time at this moment um not that you can't reserve comments later with Mr Bose but anything that stands out for you not seeing any other not seeing any we will move into the consent resolution you got to do the budget resol oh yeah that's what I mean the budget resolution we already did the consent yeah the budget resolution for the 2024 Municipal budget uh thank you council president kilman uh this is the 2024 Municipal budget of the burough of Ramsey for for year 2024 be resolved that the following statements of Revenue and appropriation shall constitute the approved Municipal budget for the year 2024 on the current fund under General Appropriations Appropriations within the Caps Municipal purposes 23,4 192,25 Appropriations excluded from caps Municipal purposes 4,837 21341 reserve for uncollected taxes $1 million that brings us to gen total General appropriations of 29,32 678410 m457 3544 the amount to be raised by taxes for support of Municipal budget on the local tax for municipal purposes 20, 46,2 18821 the minimum Library tax is 1,466 3616 the total to be raised by taxes 2,872 32437 the water sewer Utility Fund the Appropriations is 8,495 z0000 and utility revenues is 8,495 the swing pool Utility Fund appropriation $975,000 and utility revenues $975,000 that concludes the resolution for tonight do we have a second I'll second that thank you councilman can we have a roll call please Council councilwoman cusk yes councilman GW yes councilman kilman yes councilman Papo yes councilwoman poppy yes councilwoman Woods yes thank you we'll now move on to committee and liaison reports first up finance and administration councilman Michael GW uh thank you council president I just want to again thank and acknowledge U all the efforts of B administrator Vose and uh CFL bot and um compiling all the information to um for tonight's budget presentation I thank them for all their efforts uh for my report for this evening uh for the library board uh the HVAC renovation project is back on track after supplier delays and should be completed in April with limited disruptions and service although main event space is closed till this is completed uh over 200 people attended the Lunar New Year cele earlier this month and was very well received in the Community Center upcoming events include NJ maker day for stem projects and activities on March 16th at noon and Rams Li Lamy Library Con on May 18th at 12: noon uh for the rec commission the spring Easter egg hunt and breakfast with Easter Bunny is March 23rd partnering with the Ramsey fire department for this event and is from 9: to 11:00 a.m. basketball and wrestling are winding up their seasons in March March volleyball clinic will start on March 16th the adult softball leagues for men and women has ongoing registration and April is planned for opening day U summer day camp at Finch Park registration is underway and there are job opportunities the Home Run Derby is scheduled for Saturday June 15th spring field reservations and assignments are underway as spring is a busy season with soccer lacrosse baseball softball and field hockey spring ice hockey for mites and squirts ages are also underway check the websites for the various sports for there for more information the farmers market is open from Sundays 10:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. through April upcoming events include Touch a Truck on March 24th a secondhand toy drive on April 7th and Ramsey Garden Club P plan sale on May 5th stop by and visit the vendors thank you thank you councilman Public Safety that is my report I also want to thank um burough administrator Bruce Jose and our CFO Denise Balada um balancing the past the present and the future of any municipality is no easy task it takes uh due diligence a little bit of magic and a heck of a lot of knowhow into uh the world of finance and they do a masterful job so thank you for that um I have a couple of reports um first I want to talk about about the Emergency Services complex we have been providing regular updates on the progress of the new fire department rescue squad and OEM station house project that will replace the 70-year-old outdated structure on South Island Road the goal of this Capital project is to build a First Rate Emergency Services complex that will serve Ramsay for many generations to come on February 6th at 7:30 members of the Ramsey Emergency Services complex development committee the Kos engineering firm and thata architects gave an informative presentation regarding the current thinking and development designed to the ramsy planning board the planning board offered some constructive input which will incorporate which they will incorporate into the development plan we have set up a page on the BR website for this project under Community heading on the landing page and has featured in the left column sidebar the folder is titled fire rescue OEM building project where anyone who is interested can find the plans and pertinent information as it is completed to be clear this doesn't mean that things won't change over time as the Committees do their work and if issues arise but this information will provide insight into this Planning and Development phase as best as we can provide when ready we will set a date for this same group to present to the up or present the updated Services complex development design plan to the mayor and Council that will be open to the public and there'll be more to come on this in the weeks ahead regarding deer population management uh as I had mentioned before in past mayor and Council meetings mayor Dylan has regularly brought this topic up to other mayor mayoral meetings in Bergen County it is a sensitive topic and the voices of many residents throughout the county have grown increasingly concerned requesting municipalities to implement an effective deer management process to protect home ornamentation gardens fear of diseases carried by ticks deer overcrowding sickness and disease and there are reports of deer unafraid of humans becoming antagonistic to people and dogs on a home homeowner's property to that end mayor Dylan has asked me to assist Dr Chris hos from the Ramsey Board of Health who is spearheading this effort with the D of developing a feasible approach that we could commence as early as Autumn as you might imagine there are many moving parts to this plan Dr H and I recently met with Pete Graziano who was a life member and safety and education chairman for United bow Hunters of New Jersey he has developed programs over the past 15 years to help manage deer populations for other areas in New Jersey along with mayor Dylan burough administrator Bruce Vose Ramsey police chief Brian Lyman and others we are gathering information from other municipalities on the pros and cons of their programs and their thinking not to mention that we will again be reaching out to the New Jersey Department of Fish and Wildlife for their latest data on best approaches to deal with de overpopulation there will be more to come on this topic as we learn more and evaluate all the information with a goal of developing a workable solution and um I jeez I forgot one item in my folder I know that Dr tartini from the Board of Health will be doing a presentation in early next week next Thursday next Thursday on um tickborne illnesses and prevention it'll be at 7:00 and it will be at the community center and I highly recommend he is very knowledable in this area and um a valuable member and actually the um chairman of the board of health in Ramsey that concludes my report um moving on to building Planning and Zoning councilwoman Jane Woods thank you council president kilman a um short report I would like to thank our dedicated fin team including councilman gutwetter burough CFO bada and burough administrator Bose and anyone else that contributed to the 20224 budget process I'm always so proud to share with my real estate clients how well our town is run if they're trying to decide between urg and County towns I always bring up our budget and um how well we manage it uh the design review board met Tuesday February 27th two applications were approved one for Macy's and Interstate opening around May and Super Cuts is replacing the salon near TJ Maxx the next meeting will be Tuesday March 26th the senior trustee board uh next meeting will be March 14th and the Zoning Board of adjustment meeting was Wednesday February 21st and heard A Long application that will be carried the zoning board will next meet on Wednesday March 20th thank you thank you councilwoman Woods utilities buildings and grounds councilwoman Judy cusin thank you council president kilman I would also like to thank bough administrator Bruce Vose and CFO Denise bolada I really thank you for your dedication and for your diligence in our budget I'm happy to be a resident of Ramsey this is Council woman Huset's report 28 February 24 this report will provide an update regarding our planning board shade tree Commission and Board of Public Works the planning board last met um in February the meeting on the 20th of February was postponed the next time the board will meet is 5th of March 2024 our shade tree commission met on February 15 the next meeting will be 21 March 2024 please note there's information on our bureau's website regarding our shade tree commission regarding our Board of Public Works it last met on the 26th of February 202 the next meeting is the 18th of March 2024 Pur and poly fluorinated substances posos are a group of chemicals used to make fluoropolymer Coatings and products that resist heat oil stains grease and water there will be new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency for posos and drinking water in preparation of the EPA finalizing these posos regulation s h2m our consultant has begun reviewing treatment alternatives for the bur's Water Systems h2m have collected water samples at all of our wells and these samples will be evaluated for treatment of posos h2m will use the water quality data to review alternatives for treatment and will work to size treatment systems and prepare some conceptual floor plans for treatment facilities please note that the EPA has not yet issued revised posos water quality limits the work that we're doing is anticipation is an anticipation of these changes regarding the lead service line replacement project our Board of Public Works continues planning regarding nj's lead service line replacement legislation this project requires that all lead service lines served by the water system be replaced by the year 2031 the lead service line replacement program Phase 2 h2m our consultant is working with our Ramsey Board of Public Works for the next phase of the Burrow's replacement program this will include test pit excavation and replacement of discovered lead service lines to be performed in the spring and summer of 2024 thank you very much council president kman thank you councilwoman now we'll move on to public and governmental relations Council Sarah fiser po thank you council president the Ramsey Chamber of Commerce held a networking event tonight and I was there before this meeting it was very well attended and I got to meet with a lot of our local small business owners and large business owners as well um a reminder that the um ramsy Journal submissions are due no later then March 8th on Monday the Ramsey Municipal Alliance met member National speaker Steven Hill will present at Smith Middle School on May 8th and Ramsey High School on April 5th um he is in recovery and a well-known National speaker and he's been doing a great job in our schools so we are grateful for him setting up regular programming with them the lead was ins game is slated for March 8th um which will be uh held at the high school this year the meet the police drug takeback event will be held on June 9th at the Ramy ramsy Farmers Market Gizmo D robot will be in attendance to interact with the crowd and teach us about healthy habits the pool commission met on February 21st and voted on the membership rates for 2024 the individual family and outof town early bird rates will remain the same as the 2023 regular rate but we will see a slight increase after early bird registration closes of about $25 the senior rate and swim team plan will remain the same as 2023 as will the cost to add additional family members to the plan and that concludes my report thank you councilwoman moving on to health education and Social Services councilman Glenn Papo thank you council president kilman um I too want to thank uh bur administrator Jose and staff on the budget presentation um I know it's a lot of work and a lot of detail so thank you for providing that to us uh for R uh they had a very successful Valentine's Day dance on 216 at the Nights of Columbus uh thank you for every everyone who assisted in the event basketball continues uh this Saturday at hubard school uh at 1 pm and the next R event uh is Art night which is scheduled for March 13th at the Ramsey Community Center at 7 p.m. for environmental uh we completed the setup of our compost food scrap program which is now at the DPW site uh thank you to our administrator Rose and Tom Lanning for their assistance and helping out neighborhood compost will be the vendor and has installed a 264 gallon toter for 30 ramsy residents that families will begin to recycle their food scraps uh for recycling Ramsey uh cleanup day is scheduled for April 6th uh from 10:00 a to 2: PM with the rain date of April 7th Flyers have been posted at the the event on the Environmental web page um the second chance plastic toy drive is scheduled for April 7th at the farmers market from 9: till noon thereafter they'll have to bring those donations to Falon recycling center for the Board of Ed we had a meeting on uh February 15th where Christa Christino and Kayla Gales were recognized as hubard educators of the year uh the winners are nominated by uh their colleagues and the staff that has a voting process to go through and both were recognized at that at that meeting the Board of Ed welcomed a class of 2037 and I just wanted that to sink in WoW 2037 and they had the t-shirts for it so it was pretty impressive to hear that the new Auditorium is uh is complete uh and is very very nice if you haven't seen it please step over to the high school and see it's a very very nice Auditorium that they they re furbished um happy to hear that there will will be uh a new curriculum for the auto shop and the robotics if you remember they kind of postponed the auto shop uh last year uh and the school will begin that probably in the year 2526 BMW will assist the auto shop and has help to partner with uh the school for that uh also the media media uh class will be new uh the New Media Center has been completed and that will start in 2526 as well uh and the Board of Ed does have a special meeting uh that they had last night in regard to their um their njsba uh conferences a train so and that's all concludes my report for tonight thank you councilman Papa council president just Mr Papo just on um the basketball it's at dater and it's at 1:30 for for the challengers I don't I think they change that so um I think there is a conflict with uh wreck basketball playoffs or something like that so I think it might be switching over to hubard because they I saw that with Ken that they they put that through so just make note thank you y myemail did anyone receive a direct report from mayor Dylan no she is away with family so we will move on to our burough administrator Mr Bruce Jose uh thank you council president few things for my report regarding agenda items and some other things resolution 62 on the agenda this resolution allows the burrow to assume responsibility to perform a self-examination of its 2024 Municipal budget which is normally granted jurisdiction to the state director of the division of local government services this responsibility is granted by the state to permit municipalities to perform a self-exam provided that they determine the municipality is in sound financial condition every third year though regardless of a municipality Financial condition the state will perform an examination rather than municipality so this is the second year of self exam so next year we will be under um exam by the state resolution 63 is authorizing extension of the Burrow's outdoor dining terms the bu's outdoor dining period by ordinance is April 15th to November 1st over the last few years the burough has extended this period to start earlier and end on December 31st this resolution authorizes the 2024 outdoor dining period to begin March 1st through December 31st provide extended time to our local restaurants um I would speak about uh ordinance 3 of 2024 this is an order ordinance authorizing a special emergency appropriation the amount of 430,000 for the preparation and execution of a complete revaluation of real property in the burough the county of Bergen Board of Taxation on February 7th 2024 issued an orders to the burough of Ramsey to undertake a program of revaluation of all real property within the burough of Ramsey the bur's met with appraisal Systems Inc an experienced firm in this area to perform this work appraisal systems has many Municipal clients in northern New Jersey and successfully for performed these services for Ramsay during our last property revaluation this ordinance will allow the burrow to finance this appropriation Al over multiple Municipal budget years with at least oneth of the amount in each Year's budget rather than have the entire expenditure in a single budget year a little further information on the Burrow's property tax revaluation um as mentioned the County Board of Taxation issued this order for Ramsey to perform a burough Wide Property revaluation this is done when a municipality's townwide valuation drops below an 85% threshold to the current market pricing given the Market's upward movement in many of the property segments in the burrow and across the county almost half of the 70 Burton County towns have received this same order from the county to be implemented honor October 1st or from of 2025 for the tax year 2026 the buau has met with appraisal systems as mentioned one of the leading companies in this field and had performed the last revaluation for Ramsey which started in 2014 and was implemented in 2016 given as I mentioned that almost half the county needs to perform this same work and there are limited firms with the experience and capability to do this the Bros is looking to move forward immediately with starting this mandated process we're introducing the ordinance tonight to authorize the framework to fund the cost of the burough wide revaluation of a 5-year budget period a property tax revaluation is a quote net neutral overall tax impact to the burrow the new property valuations will create a new net value taxable for the burrow as a whole and the property tax rate will be adjusted down by the same percentage as the net value taxable goes up this produces the same tax when multiplying the new higher net value taxable for the entire town times the new lower tax rate while this is a net neutral as a whole for the burrow individual properties will see different impacts to their property taxes with some increasing some decreasing and some saying basically the same as all properties are adjusted to the current market values as mentioned we have the ordinance on the agenda for tonight for the multi-year funding of the revaluation at the next mayor and council meeting that ordinance will have public hearing and vote on adoption at this March 13th meeting of the mayor and Council we will also have a resolution to define the budget repayment over the five years as well as a resolution to authorize a contract with appraisal Systems Inc to perform the mandated property revaluation the other thing I would just like to comment as as mentioned earlier in the meeting is on some of the communications suggestions that we've received from residents I'll go through the um suggestions volume 16 which included suggestion 32 regarding styrofoam recycling the burough had reviewed and is not providing a collectionary for styrofoam at this time we also reviewed a shared service with Ridgewood as they did purchase a densifier however they were at capacity with contracts probably six months ago when it was discussed in a Northwest Burg administrator meeting suggestions volume 18 including suggestions 34 about missing agendas and minutes they've been posted and completed suggestions volume 19 which included suggestion 35 and suggestion 36 on the the voting system is not determined by the buau but rather implemented by the county the meeting comments from bur officials that were mentioned in the communication involved the procedures introduced in the new system from the county that was in place in the June primary and then in the November general election to our knowledge nothing has changed with the V also in that suggestion was regarding the change in volume setting for our audio recordings nothing that we are aware of has changed on our side in the recording of our audio suggestions volume number 20 including suggestion 37 and suggestion 38 the burrow will be adding documents to the fire rescue OEM building project and will viiew potential modifications to the submit a concern which deals with Road repair however to note this page on submitting a concern already does include links to burrow departments for communications and concerns as well and direct email links to many of those departments suggestions volume 21 including a comment number three and a suggestion number 39 I apologize that my previous comments did not address back to the first in this series as mentioned in that thing of August 3rd the burrow will review one single email address for the items going to the mayor and Council that is then forwarded to all governing body members currently it seems to work as is with all email addresses on the website and items can be directed to anyone by clicking a link uh suggestions volume number 22 which included suggestion 37u which was an update to Prior suggestion 37 as I just mentioned earlier uh with the original suggestion number 37 we've posted additional documents to the web page regarding the fire rescue OEM station house today we posted the documents from the planning Board review Hearing in including the documents with uh preliminary drawings on the buildings and that and we will review additional do documents to be posted as we move forward in the coming days and weeks thank you council president thank you thank you Mr Vose counselor do you have anything thank you sir miss bendian anything no thank [Music] you um we have introduction of ordinances at this time ordinance 02 2024 Mr gutwetter uh thank you council president kman uh this is the introduction of ordinance 02 2024 be resolved that ordinance entitled ordinance to proed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap Bank pass the first reading by title and that set ordinance be further considered for final passage and adoption at a regular meeting of the mayor and Council to be held on the 13th day of March 2024 7M prevailing time or soon after as the matter can be reached at the municipal building in SB and be it further resolved that the burrow clerk B and she hereby is instructed to publish in an official newspaper of the burrow in the manner provided by law a copy of said ordinance together with notice of introduction thereof and notice when the same will be considered for final passage and adoption thank you may I have a second I'd like to second that may we have roll call please councilwoman cusk yes councilman gutwetter yes councilman kilman yes councilman Papo yes councilwoman poppy yes councilwoman Woods yes thank you ordinance 03224 again I just want to go back on first ordinance comments if I can sure uh this proforma or this is a proor or standard ordinance municipalities across New Jersey adopt each year ahead of adopting the municipal budget the state allows municipality if they adopt this ordinance to potentially increase their budget Appropriations within cap by up to 3.5% from the PRI Year's budget Appropriations this does not impact the tax levy cap of 2% it deals with Appropriations line items under the state Municipal cap and allows flexibility if in a given C year certain line items need to be increased above the appropriation cap while Ramsey may not utilize this flexibility there's no harm in adopting the ordinance and any amount under the revised allowable level a town level a town will be banked for potential use in future Years thank you thank you councilman ordinance 03 2024 once again councilman last time tonight thank you once again this is the introduction of ordinance 03224 be resolved that an ordinance entitled an ordinance authorizing a special emergency appropriation in the amount of $430,000 for the preparation execution of a complete revaluation of the real property for the use of the local assessor in the burrow of Ramsey County of Bergen and state of nerses pass the first reading by title and that set ordinance be further considered for final passes and adoption at a regular meeting of the mayor and councel to be held on the 13th day of March 2024 7 p.m. prevailing time or as soon after as a matter can be reached at the municipal building in said burrow and he had further resolved that the burrow clerk be and she hereby instructed to publish an official newspaper of the burrow in a manner provided by law a copy of said ordinance together with notice of introduction thereof and notice when the same will be considered for final passage and adopted thank you councilman do we have a second i' would like to second that any comments on that ordinance uh no uh th administrator Bose commented on it in his report thank you councilman May a roll call please councilwoman cusic yes councilman gutwetter yes councilman kilman yes councilman Papo yes councilwoman poppy yes councilwoman Woods yes thank you do we have any unfinished business any new business not hearing any do we have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn so was second I'll second all in favor I I thank you good night everyone 79