um red bank has not done public comments during uh reorg but I know there's been some interest I know Ben was really uh interested for onean to having public comments so I'd like to make a motion um to open up the floor for public comments on agenda items only oh I'll make that motion mayor can I have a second I'll second all in favor hi hi okay so residents uh a for agenda items public floor is open for public comment yes Alan Hill 64 McLaren Street um thank you mayor it may not be traditional but it's actually a legal requirement to have a public uh comments and questions just to remind you um there's just two matters I really want to raise um and one concerns the uh the historical historic reservation commission which I notice has been reinstated uh despite at your last at the last meeting the mayor and Council you said there wasn't you hadn't decided a way to actually reinstate it and it was actually waiting for advice from the the historic reservations um attorney as to um the scope with the which the uh commission would be brought back but I noticed that you've actually made Seven recommendations for people to join the U historic preservation uh commission and I wonder One does that mean that people whose membership from last year now carries over into this year plus these seven people and and how were those seven people selected since I recall everybody made a big us last year about uh you inviting applications to join commissions and committees I just wondered how these people had materialized I mean I I for one don't know who they are but uh I wonder how you do thank you so your your first question was um just repeat again you had two question you actually dissolved dissolved the the historic yes yeah these are yeah those members are no longer so the commission now only consists of those seven people that you've nominated nobody carries over correct correct yes and how were those people nominated um most of them were um volunteers on the initial round that we when we had asked for volunteers um a few people I knew and I had spoken to directly um traditionally and or not traditionally I think legally the HPC appointments are uh at the mayor's pleasure um so some of those people I knew were uh concerned and had expressed interest and so uh I chose to appoint them thank you you're welcome and then as far as the the other half is again we just ran out of time with the year I believe Christina by the next meeting are we going to be introducing yeah yeah I think we were satisfied that we'd be able to have the ordinance at our next full meeting of course for comment um so just really excited to to have these folks actually appointed I think we wanted to you know show that yes we are um solidifying our intent to move forward with this commission get them started on the right foot and frankly we wanted them to be able to celebrate with the other appointments as well thank you so but it will be only be constrained to seven members actually no the the new um currently the the the way the ordinance read or the the the bylaws of the committee was five members and two alternates uh we're going to be expanding it to seven members and two alternates so there were two other members that will be added once we go ahead and uh introduce the new ordinance and my second point is there's U the appointment of a lot of commissions this year and committees I noticed several of them or at least a few of them don't have any obligation to produce um agendas minutes or even reports of their meetings not even meeting time so far as I I'm aware I refer in particular to the um the Emergency Management commission which um I have no idea I don't think anybody else has the um the bylaws under which which it's run and how it reports and how any civilian oversight is made on it similarly the uh police department which which at the moment hasn't produced a report in public for for years as far as I know and I just wonder how that sits with uh this Council that was elected on a really a platform of accountability transparency and uh really making open government thank you thank you yeah uh definitely on the list to uh keep improving the communication and um I would love to be having all of our committees giving um monthly reports or you know reports on their meetings um I believe OEM is a state that's State and count yeah that's a state and County one but yeah absolutely I agree we'd love I'd love to see um some more steady Improvement in uh in reporting for the boards and commissions and committees he thank you thank you anyone else have any comments on agenda items no anyone online J hand ra no raise hands no okay so can I have a uh did you want to Bar were you gonna raise your oh right right and we close yeah second can I have have a second all in favor I all right um next Up's our resolutions and appointments we have a few uh adjustments and Corrections so um most of these we're going to do on the consent agenda um for 24 uh-2 resolution authorizing the order of a fair and open contract for Professional Services can I have a motion to add penon engineering to the pool I'll make a motion I have a second I'll second all in favor I I okay um on 2403 resolution confirming Council committees and leis on appointments for 2024 um under the Red Bank Emergency Management committee can I have a motion to um add or to replace um former administrator Darren McConnell with current manager Jim Gant I'll make that motion have a second second all in favor all right um so then I think other than the um the board and committee appointments which I'd like to read out I'm going to make a motion uh can I have a motion to um approve 24-1 through 24-15 with the exception of 24-5 on the consent agenda can you read out 01 Sal let me let me let me oh I'm sorry yes that one yeah so I let's do that one first um 24-1 um okay oh yeah can I have a motion to approve 24 -1 which is a resolution elected deputy mayor for 2024 so moved can I have a second second all in favor therefore be it resolved that the governing body of the Bor Red Bank Kate Triano member of the council is elected Deputy Mayor y thank you you're welcome let's let's you know this will be easier let's do let me let's read through 24-5 because we have some appointments some new appointments some existing reappointments um and I'm just going to read through all the names that should take about five minutes uh for the Animal Welfare committee we are appointing Francis calra Paul CTO and Kendall Murphy for the environmental commission um the appointments are Roy Meyer Dan denell Johnson and Alex Schroeder um Alex schroer is the alternate I'm sorry and Kendall Murphy's the alternate on the Animal Welfare committee for the environmental commission Green Team we have Louisa Salis Elena bisin Chuck Honeywell e pam MacArthur Eric wus Terence Walton and Oscar selinus hey Terence look at you um historic preservation commission right now we have uh Lewis Al Marini marjerie cavaliere Liam Collins Gary Safar and Paul cagno our alternates are Karen schmelz and Doug Miller planning board of adjustments uh gregster the mayor's alternate we have Tommy wilsh council member bonat Takis and Megan Massie our alternate number two is Brian parnagian Zoning Board of adjustments we have Paul tagno and our alternates are Amanda deris and Jee harwitz Parks and Recreation committee Julie Flores Castillo and Richard how do you say Richie's last name was was Richard guash for the library board uh James White Community engagement Equity committee we have Jane Meyer Michelle gella and Paul sais shade tree committee Boris Kaufman Debbie marks and our alternate is Bridget McCarthy the red leveling board inz nric and Gail solar and for the Housing Authority um we have uh Melissa Moore is a new appointment and DM Jones as a reappointment and finally for the River Center we are appointing uh as the mayor's representative Jared Patrick Anthony Euro so can I have a motion to approve uh resolution number 24-5 confirming board and committee appointments from 2024 so moved a second second all in favor I I we can do on consent agenda can I have a motion to approve resolution 24-02 through 24-15 with the exception of 24-5 so move I have a second second all in favor I I all right we are rolling here um before I make any remarks um does anyone else have anything they'd like to say yes I just wanted to thank Christenson for her service to the housing authority and uh I wish her well and Red Bank and members of the housing authority and the residents of the housing author do appreciate your service very much and thank you all right anyone else I've got one thing yeah go ahead dve yesterday was my last day as captain of The Hook and Ladder but I want to congratulate council person Triano who has entered the officer line over Westside hose as a second Lieutenant so I don't want to let the occasion pass that it's a considerable three-year commitment for anyone's an officer's line a Chief's line and you said that earlier so I want to congratulate the uh the young lady down at the other end thank you Captain Captain anyone else got something really quick um today is a really ceremonial day across the state of New Jersey we're not the only people holding a reorg and since we had our special election in July um or well our swearing in July um but there's other places celebrating today and I just wanted to congratulate two friends of mine I wanted to congratulate the new mayor of Atlantic Highlands Lor enlightener and uh councilwoman Dina gun in mawan um I don't think it can be stated enough that there are people not just in Red Bank but everywhere that are serving extremely hard every single day wonderful public servants um and we talk to them and we try to get resources from those other people um to run Red Bank better so today's a ceremonial day congratulations to all the Chiefs that are getting sworn in um everywhere today for their fire departments thanks well good afternoon everyone it's happy New Year thank you for being here today um I thought I would just take a few minutes to reflect on 2023 and where I see us going in 2024 as you know the voters of Red Bank voted to change both the way we hold elections as the way as well as the way we run our government so in the first six months of our first term together um we've updated municipal code to be in compliance with our new form of government we've moved the date of our elections from May to November so that more people will participate in our democ we have appointed the Cannabis review board and awarded one cultivator cultivator license and three retail cannabis licenses not four not five three like on the maintenance side of things we have resurfaced the bball court at East Side park as well as the tennis courts tennis courts have also been restriped so there are now both tennis and pickle ball courts available we've also installed new Decking at Riverside Gardens Park starting on the West Side we've begun to replace all of the lead water lines in the burrow at no cost to homeowners in an effort to be transparent and responsive both myself and the council have instituted weekly open Office hours we have met with dozens of residents in person and have actively engaged and responded to a myriad of issues for example parking of commercial trailers all over town specifically on the West Side after hearing numerous complaints about this the council passed an ordinance Banning unhitched trailers from burrow streets um so democracy is working here in Red Bank if you guys have an issue if you have a question call us up schedule come to our office hours we will do our best to remedy the issue um we're listening and we want to help the health and well-being of our residence as a priority for this Council this year we kicked off the Maris Wellness campaign with a community event at St Anthony's we gave away 150 turkeys and dozens of winter coats we offered free flu and covid vaccines thank you Laura so many of our Community Partners showed up and participated and let everyone know about all the services that are available here in Red Bank and the surrounding communities in addition to the mayor's Wellness campaign we held the first burough press conference highlighting so many of the services available here in Red Bank including the first women's warming Center thanks to the work of Deputy Mayor Triana we have contracted with pulse a social worker program that works hand inand with our Police Department to identify situations that would best be handled by existing Social Service services and I have to take a moment here to mention the amazing work of our Police Department I meant to do this back when it happened and I just dropped the ball on it so um back in October or November John I'm not sure which uh Redman green released body cam footage from July of the Police Department responding to a call in which a suspect was wielding a knife officers tayor JIS recognized the suspect and along with officer Jonathan bisban detective Sean H Shield they began to deescalate the situation officer Chris wies and Sergeant George traviso also responded to the call the Officers were incredibly patient with the suspect and treated him so respectfully after 40 minutes he voluntarily surrendered so proud of these officers and grateful to know that they're there every day uh looking out for our community if you haven't watch the video well worth it it's amazing so so true um but most importantly out of all this stuff this year we hired our new um burrow manager Jim G will be responsible for day-to-day business in the burrow uh the role of manager is essential to this new form of government we are blessed to have such a capable um manager to lead us in 2024 and so what can we expect for 2024 for starters we will finally Begin work on Marine Park any day now we'll have our final approval from the D to Begin work on Marine park it was damaged years ago during Sandy in 2019 the burrow approved a plan for marine park so our initial permit was only to convert the old tennis courts to parking I was recently informed that we can amend the permit to include the graening in of most of the existing parking lot so hopefully in the spring we'll be moving the parking over to the tennis courts and Greening in almost that entire parking area now uh we're going to keep some parking for the existing businesses down there um but this is going to be amazing we're going to have this massive Green Space along the river for community events we'll be doing concerts down there just a place to go have a picnic on the river um we've we've we've we've always had a problem in Red Bank of fully utilizing our Riverfront so hopefully this will go a long way to fixing that we've also begun plans to finally rebuild the DPW turns as you know that facility is a mess employees have been working out trailers for over 20 years we were forced to spend money this year just to shore up the existing structures so um this year we will hopefully begin a full rebuild we've already instructed the engineers to start making plans for the property um this is a top priority for us and we also got some good news regarding the DPW on December 19th I received a text from Governor Murphy that Redbank is receiving $2.4 million from the regional greenhouse gas initi greenhouse gas initiative auctions to purchase six Electric commercial vehicles and six charging stations for the burrow and to do that six of our older vehicles will be destroyed and replaced by electric vehicles we don't want them on the road anymore um so that that's great news I mentioned the lead pipe replacement program earlier uh we found in 2023 when we started that we needed to replace a lot more lead pipes than previously estimated uh originally we had a loan from the I bank for $3.6 million that had 50% principal forgiveness we've increased that loan to 8.8 million of which 6.3 is at 50% principal forgiveness we're hoping to be completing lead pipe Replacements on the entire West Side this year we're also going to test pit the entire East side this year so we know exactly what we need to replace going forward um finally this Council plans to rededicate ourselves to implementing complete streets in Red Bank as I know it's a passionate for a lot of us as long as it is applicable any new Street improvements will be done in accordance with our complete Street policies we love having a walkable bikable town so we'll do all we can to make it even more so so obviously we're going to have to borrow a good chunk of money to complete these projects that are long overdue the good news is our current debt service is extremely low and we also have uh additional revenue streams coming in 2024 we've been collecting developer fees which are helping to improve our infrastructure we anticipate a healthy Revenue streamers our cannabis businesses open up this year and our parking Revenue which hit an all-time high in 2022 was even higher in 2023 we believe that Trend will continue into 2024 I'm incredibly optimistic about the future of Red Bank and let me take a moment now to thank our First Responders for their time less efforts on our behalf thank you to our borrow employees for being the glue that holds us together I want to thank all of our volunteers both newly appointed and those ending their terms for their dedication to the burrow if all of us work together councel employees volunteers residents there's no end to what we can do here for our amazing little town so again if you have a question or a concern reach out to me or the council we will do what we can to help or we will direct you to the proper department on behalf of myself the the deputy mayor and the entire governing body we want to wish you and your loved ones a happy New Year and let's see what we can accomplish together in 2024 let's go I have motion to time a second second all in favor 30 minutes baby happy New Year everyone no fluff all stuff you said no fluff all stuff love it name