anybody bring their packet I didn't yeah I didn't bring my packet thank Sor oh is that the I have the is that the most recent one I have the one that came but yeah somebody was saying oh let's make it at 1 o00 good evening this is the Village Council special public meeting the date is March 5th 2024 the time is 8:05 p.m. adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by a posting on the bulletin board in Village Hall by mail to the Ridgewood news the record and by submission to all persons entitled the same as provided by law of a schedule including the date and time of this meeting roll call deputy mayor here council member Reynolds here council member whites here council member windrad here and mayor ranas here will you all please join us in a salute to our flag IED Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all and let's go right to public comment anyone Tim I don't know if that's on could you just check to make sure NOP no we go and if you could speak into the mic [Music] is it okay yeah it's good so you can my name is Tim Graham I'm a resident of Ridgewood 377 beverage Road that's the permanent address now living temporarily on Robert Street anyway I was here last week merely to congratulate the manager the council and everyone for the Speedy uh dismantling and removal of the barn uh at Hackle I think it's and I'm also very excited about what I hear is Loom are coming in the pipeline for that um it I've witnessed uh so many um mostly kids and others coming to the fields there to to play and I think they also deserve a nice play place to go uh you know when they need to so I think that that's a great decision and I think we all uh as a resident I would like to see us do everything we can to support increased availability of athletic and Recreation space um and also I'm not an expert on any of it I just know our kids deserve as much as we can give them in terms of the future they have gone through an awful lot with the pandemic uh with various cutbacks in so many aspects of uh whether it be schools or other things but I think it's exciting that you know that this council is investing in our future in and with this in mind um I'm also excited about the Prospect of the lights at Veterans Field and anywhere else you want to put them uh I think I I heard um last week the manager talking about the absence of any lighted fields in Ridgewood uh for softball or baseball yeah it's incredible that we live in this beautiful wonderful place and don't have that and their technology exists to make these lights unobtrusive uh to uh surrounding residents and I fully support that and I think the majority of people in Ridge would do so I don't I just think it's important that we invest in the kids in the future thank you Tim thank you so much for your thoughtful and sincere comments um I I will tell you that um this entire Council supports uh investing in our Parks um they are one of the jewels uh of our wonderful Village it's great and I think it's good I know nothing here is easy but uh I think a lot of people who are mostly Su I don't know that I would be speaking about this if I hadn't been a long time resident big fan of everything that goes on in except the things that were cited about negative things that went on out there in the I think meeting de don't Rec thank you Tim does anybody have any comments to make no do we have anyone on uh hybrid access no then seeing no one we will close public comment and go to our regular agenda Keith mayor thank you very much um tonight we are going to attempt to finalize our 2024 budget process uh there were a few hold over items um that we asked until Finance was able to complete all of the year-end calculations that are necessary to put this ensuing budget together um pleased to say that 90 to 95% of those actions have um been accomplished up down in the finance department and um tonight we're going to start with Bob and he's going to review with you current fund revenues and surplus across all funds and then we'll scale back we'll Circle back for the final budget review so Bob you want to handle items A and B on tonight's agenda sure let's do this backwards let's start with Surplus so the second handout I put on your desk is a summary of surpluses and a comparison yep got it um over the last 10 years or so showing what Surplus balance is available the amount that was used utilized in each annual budget so under general fund first page we have approximately $7.8 million of surplus and we're proposing to use $5.5 million this year what operating fund we have 12 A5 million million with the anticipation of using 3.6 uh next page parking operating we have about 950,000 of which we would use 222 General Capital fund a million of which we would use a million in the general fund budget page three shows water capital of 1 point one little over a million dollars of which uh there is no plan to use any of it this year and parking Capital has about $1,000 of which um will stay where it is so the first hand that I gave you was the current fund revenues ni see if you have any questions on this oh I'm sorry any questions on Surplus any questions on Surplus fund balances um I'm sorry might I forgot to turn I forgot to turn my phone off I heard a beep I want to go shut it off and I see help there is no Zoom access tonight so Dylan um it appears that somebody's trying to speak and can't get on there's no Zoom access to tonight's budget meeting okay if you're missing listening out there there's a separate link to the budget meeting don't go on to the Village council meeting okay K did I miss the vote you did but there is public comment at the end of the meeting and unfortunately just because the way we're structured it may seem like an easy thing to reopen public comment but it is not you didn't miss any vote you just miss he yep yep yep thank you very much you you can email all of us or if you don't have all our emails you can email Keith and then by law he can email all if there is somebody on Zoom do we want to reopen public comment I'm not that maybe an opportunity take me minutes I'm just trying to be Equitable and fair if there was a reason people we still be in public well let's here let's let's see if someone comes on to public comment in a moment can mayor through you Dylan can we ask you that if someone does raise their hand there that you just alert us so we don't hold ourselves up fair enough thank you that okay sure all right any questions on Surplus fund balance okay moving right along Bob the words right out of my mouth so the first hand that I gave you was the current fund revenues and that shows what we're anticipating to use in this year's budget compared to what we had in last year's budget and what we actually realized um as you're all aware um we're limited to what we can anticipate in this year's budget to what we received last year so if you went through here you'll see for the most part um that there slight differences um for example Recreation fees and permits there's still some money that has to be allocated to the current fund to realize so that's the reason for that number being higher than actual so there's a couple of those in here um but for the most part the local revenues are about a million dollars over what we had last year and that's uh the benefit of interest on investments so and Bob sorry to ask so as I read this so essentially what you're saying is we are budgeting assuming all our numbers came in right on point we'll have an extra $5 million at the end of the year and you're saying that from last year we're using some of the money from last year in this year's budget is that right so Surplus you're allowed to take whatever you have in the prior year as long as it's cash okay so of our $7 million or $7.8 million we have over $5 million of cash Surplus that we're allowed to anticipate to reduce taxation right and then we're anticipating another $5 million surplus for this year which obviously then would be available for next year again assuming it actually materializes right that's the concept of replacing that Surplus right the thing is is that you can't and unless you have some sort of well documented backup as a reason to anticipate revenues you can't anticipate more for this budget than you received in the prior budget just to be clear and it looks like you're you're anticipating a $5 million surplus which is more than we've put in for Surplus over the last several years it looks like right so on average we bring in 4 and a half $5 million of surplus um we had a bad covid year MH so other than that we're pretty consistent as to how what what we turn over um that's having a stable tax rate a lot of factors go into it so yes the anticipation is that it's going to match at least the $5 million okay so I I'll give you a good example so on the first page I think it's the fifth one up from the bottom um ambulance Billings right so we're applying five we're introducing at 520 we budgeted last year for 404 the actual last year was 521 however we know based on our last council meeting that that number is likely to go up but we can't anticipate more than the 520 because we only received 521 last year but the likelihood based on that memorandum that the council reviewed at the work session is that we'll see a higher Revenue stream from ambulance billing in 24 than we did in 23 and we're still anticipating a surplus even if we didn't have that that's on average higher than we've seen the last exctly that that was just a good example of a place where we probably will see more Revenue coming in this year but we can't anticipate it because we're handicapped based on what we re I'm T you guys softball on this one got it got it yeah yes it was a good thing don't make it too easy there Council no no I know you didn't expect it but I thought I thought not a chance so I mean this may move to a work session but where are we with the uncirculated liquor license because the contribution from ABC like licenses is here and we have one that's not in circulation still so again this is only based upon what we collected there is no if someone could could document the value of what that license or or what we would collect on that license again I don't know what the but they still they they still pay their their renewal fee even if they're not so that's probably in here so they're still they're still they're still um filling out a renewal application and submitting it to Heather's office with the with the respective fees at at the same value Heather is the so the uncirculated one is still the same value on the yeah the renewal fee is the same whether they're a pocket licens which means they're not being used or if they're Act license same fee so on the on the next page we have uh state aid which were limited what we can take in um even though we took in more this year in a which goes into miscellaneous Revenue not anticipated we're limited to What's um in this this amount this has been consistent over the years we have a new Revenue item 58,60 which is the shared service agreement with Mawa for the health officer and again this is prated over 11 months um because I think it was signed February 1st um public and private revenues there is nothing in here because um we haven't finalized the paperwork that's needed on the revenues and it's an offset to the Appropriations so there's no impact either way so um that's why that you'll see nothing in 24 and this is where presumably for 2022 and 2021 would have seen that Co money that went away right the legislative piece you would had it that a million a year I think it was a million three each year two years so on the last page these are what we call One-Shot Capital items um the big change here is in the capital fund balance the ability to um anticipate a million dollars which were premiums that we received during the note sales I I think I told you last week we were doing Debt Service this is to offset the increase in the interest that we're paying on um our notes and as you come down there are various items here that um for example uh 5% of the water utility that's by Statute we're allowed to take to bring into the general fund um debt Services down again that was a premium not a premium but a calculation that we have accumulated over the last several years that we anticipated last year year 245 is the new amount for this year um so all of said and done the we come up with an amount that has to be utilized to balance our budget so in our first pass of Appropriations we were at $64 million that number that you see for total G General revenues so the difference between that and what we're actually calculating to receive for all these Revenue items is 43 million6 which is $5 million higher than we had the year before so Keith I didn't know if you want to start the process could I ask could I ask one question sure so we have the Cellular Tower is the cellular on this speak to the we have the Cellular Tower here the the new towers that are placed on here is that going to be Revenue generating as well and is that somewhere else yeah so we have cellular towels all all we have the water which has on the so anything that's here that would be ours okay so shouldn't that be because of what we just did a little higher anticipated again we can't do it because of the past history unless I can document if I had a contract or an agreement that gives me X number of dollars that I'm guaranteed for the year I might have ability to move it in again this is all up to Trenton this is no that that's fine I mean do we have we did have I don't I'd have to look at the contract documents to see if there's any growth built in there I would I would assume that there is not and that's why we're able to anticipate we anticipated at 200,000 in 23 we realized 19288 so we're anticipating 192 in 2024 water's a separate I got it sep animal but I'm like not wrong to say like in my heart I'm anticipating that to be for example if we had if yeah if it's going to be if it was $50,000 more for 24 than it was in 23 and we had a contract that was signed that said that then he could anticipated so the anticipation has to be foundational I get it it either supported it either has to be supported or it has to be based on the prior years collections got it all right all right any questions on um Surplus or current fund okay um if we want to move to the multi-page document that outlines all the budget the budget summary so you'll see in the long column on the right hand side of the page um there are notes yes this yes thank you yep the one that's marked 3524 in the upper leftand corner starts with the First Column as a marked Appropriations yep got it okay um so Bob and I are going to walk through um what the cuts were that we have made um since the time of our first budget meeting um keep in mind that in addition to these public meetings where each of the department directors have come in and presented their requests to the Village Council we have been meeting during the workday with Department directors and Department supervisors to prioritize their needs as well um in talking through a lot of these issues where there were questions um at the budget hearings the next day we would do a deeper dive with the directors um to get a full understanding of what needs were versus wants um and I think we've effectively been able to reduce um some of the requests that were made through further discussion so Bob do you want to work our way down the list here sure um so the First Column if you look at the last page the total is the $64 Million number that I just pointed out to you on the revenue side the amount to be raised by the the total overall budget the phase two calculation in the next column was the first pass that we met we attempted to go through to make some reductions based upon listening to what council had to say revisiting with the department heads as to um what movement they can make and then the third the phase three was additional cuts when we still were not getting to where we wanted to be and then after that we took a 10% cut on OE which is the percent reduction column all these Cuts have been discussed with the Department directors they're all aware of what the needs are and and that they need to be flexible in some of their requests um do you want me to go Department by Department I think we can just um go to the ones where there are specific notes okay um and if people have if council members have questionss along the way you know feel free to chime in and ask and we'll try to shed some light on the uh the decision-making process that we went through here and just for the people who are listening in the public OE means um other expenses right yeah correct either e other expenses or operating expenses it's so what supports the daily operations exclusive of salaries and wages so on on a couple of these I'm going to speak in general because I don't have this I didn't put the specific account to the side so for example on on Village manager there was some events or something that we had put in there for 9500 that we removed and then we took 10% reduction off the OE uh which brought it down to the new amount um for management information systems what page are you on I'm on the first page first page just going going down that wide column there right to the right of okay we good um uh it so Dylan and I sat down and we went back and forth with the amounts that he had from contractual um I cut $137,000 out of it then after having conversations with him we fine-tuned that to put $85,000 back into that account to make sure that we could meet our contractual requests Financial Administration I started by taking out the eping system and I said you know what that's going to help reduce some of the time that our administration's is going to be involved in an overview oversight on timekeeping so let's put this back in and I'll just do my 10% cut um other expenses for tax assessment we had a $75,000 Reserve in there we took that out and then took the 10% cut off of that and and I just want to point out at this this juncture we we talked about wanting to restore some of the things that existed prior to last year's tough budget year what we've learned during this process is that we can't just restore them in the first budget cycle after that so this is a good example of something that I think next year we would like to try to get back to restoring but in an effort to try to get us to where we're comfortable presenting this budget to the Village Council we felt it best not to restore that $75,000 um in anticipation of any type of settlement for tax appeals so I just want to be clear and I'll I'll probably point a few more of those out as we go through this list um but again the objective was to restore the cut to 22 levels we're going to come up a little short I'm being able to do that this year go ahead bu so the next um village attorney we had uh we went back and talked to Matt Rogers looked at the amounts that we had in there for various um categories labor attorney things of that nature um made some modifications and removed 57 ,000 off of uh what we had appropriated in there for Engineering Services Services went back and did another allocation for the amount of time that uh Chris's Department spends on capital projects so we're able to come up with another $100,000 that could be allocated to Capital right and and the justification there was two additional sidewalk projects that we had not discussed when we started the capital budget when we started the budget process for operating now we feel comfortable putting a little bit more to capital for Engineering Services in light of Clinton Avenue and East Glen both being proposed as additional work efforts this year planning board um had a conversation with uh Chris regarding cuts that we can make uh to the amounts that we have in there so effectively we took $40,000 out of the OE um down under insurance proceeds um I'm sorry other insurance we went and looked at the pension Social Security and uh health insurance premiums and determined that when we went for direct costs we were paying current was paying water share and water should should pick up that portion of it so we we went employee by employee developed the amounts that would we would be taking out so this $300,000 will be directly charged on the water side um once I finalized my conversation with Rich calby but he's aware that it's and I met with Rich today we talk that through um when we receive our health insurance our health benefit um bill it doesn't delineate between who's a water employee and who's a village employee so here we've gone back we've done our due diligence and we're going to make sure moving forward that all the water employees are build to the water utility and that all Village employees are build to the operating budget for the village so we'll have that in we'll have that committed to by the time we're prepared to introduce the budget we'll present that to water so they can make the adjustments in their budget and then we'll move forward from there have we ever done that before not to my knowledge if I'm not mistaken long time ago right and and there's an administrative mechanism Deputy Mayor that's going to have to be put in place that when we on board a water employee that in finance that's then allocated to be built back to to water for that health insurance plan correct and and that's something that really should be allocated to the water department because the water department really has a different set of uh people paying for them um so that should really be spread out amongst the four towns right it's a different customer base right and you know water has a separate operation separate utility they serve three other communities Beyond Ridgewood so we just need to make sure that the accounting on this is set up in a way that the water utility is paying for all water employee expenses and the village is paying for village employes now for past years should we be recouping that amount because Ridgewood has been footing the bill for the Water Company's health insurance and we shouldn't be we shouldn't have been correct I think that's a bigger conversation um I think that we need to today was the first conversation with Rich cby about this particular issue um so I think we need to go back and see what that looks like I think we definitely need to go back and look at that and also the ruling uh in the lawsuit may have some bearing on this right yeah I mean I I like it it's like classic shop floor accounting of burdening it's it's great I think it's excellent I mean it it it will increase the rate build back to us we do use just so you know for like Parks we ask them for GIS so I'm assuming that rate will now go up right we'd have to look at it okay I think it's great next one is uh police department so we modifi the need for the number of officers that we're bringing on board this year uh this has been a moving Target for the last month or so um I think we got it down to three on board and one more coming on board before the end of the year um in addition we scrubbed the uh termination pay we looked in to see what we had in our termination PID insurance and we can move some money out of the appropriation and have the termination pay charged directly to the insurance um we had a um I know there's been conversations with the Board of Ed about the officers that are going to be over there so there's some movement in here I don't think that's been completely finalized but for now we're going with what we we know um and the timing so um so just on that the police chief and I need to have a meeting with um the superintendent of schools to get some final understanding of how the school budget is going to proceed with this request for three special three officers uh one at the high school and two at each of theid one at each of the Middle School schools um one of the effects that we have to vet out here is currently we receive $100,000 from The Ridgewood Board of Education to compensate and offset the salary for the school resource officer if they forego the school resource officer program which again I don't have any confirmation that this is the direction they're going in but in a wh if situation if they do we're going to lose that $100,000 in Revenue yet have to pay for three special police officers so we have to fix figure out what that construct of that agreement looks like moving forward um and we're hopeful to do that in the next few days um before we introduce and then we'll have a better understanding of how that program is going to move forward has the Board of Education made a final decision on this yet I have not heard from uh the leadership at the school board on this particular topic um the last conversation the chief and I had were that we were going to try to propose the startup costs in this Budget on the village side but we haven't really received any maybe the chief has I have not received any uh confirmation of how the board's going to move forward good thanks and the fire department we adjusted for the headcount that they will have on board and allocated the pay for 10 months as to when they become effective and also adjusted uh some of their overtime and again these are talk to John judge and he's he's well aware of you know agreeing to what these are Under Public Works for streets basically the offset is the uh 10% cut in the uh other expenses the Central Garage um we moved out $170,000 that they had budgeted for the repair of police vehicles which has never before been in any budget so we reduced that to reality and then took their 10% um traffic and signal uh we took out some overtime and um also some trying to remember what the account number is here um I think we reduced some chemicals that were um or gasoline usage for their department and um some overtime or part-timer that was in SS and wages uh recycling the uh we're using $75,000 that's in the trust for recycling to reduce the other other expenses um Solid Waste I initially took out the half year for um retiring the um the trucks releases um and then I said NOP we're uh the impact of that would be much greater if I do that so I put it back in so the vehicle rentals are in there for the uh full year which is an anomaly and will be something uh presumably that'll come out of next year's budget but because of the incredible backlog in trying to secure Recycling and sanitation trucks doing the uh lease agreement which will turn into a buy um get us two more trucks first on the lease then on the buy program um that will come out of next year's budget so you know that that's this is an anomaly but it's something that we need to do in order to maintain the requisite Fleet to collect uh Solid Waste here in the village uh yard waste we eliminated a part-timer um they had it budgeted last year did not use it so we took that out um Property Maintenance trying to think the 31750 I think there's overtime in there um no I'm sorry wrong line other expenses 31750 I think we looked we went back and looked at the allocation by um Department by building and then we made a determination after talking to um Rich tton that we could reduce this by um specific charge of 31750 um health services that by the grant that Health Services is uh an increase for uh our participation of Mawa which will be is offset by revenue on the other side uh Animal Control we remove the an uh animal canvas what oh animal canvas dog the dog the dog sensus the dog where we have people go knock on doors to see if people dogs are license it's Insidious I tell you that's for cats too right or is it just for dogs uh I think it is for cats but it works really well with dogs because when you ring the doorbell of someone who you think does not have a who doesn't have a dog license the dog barks and I I think it violates the dog's Fifth Amendment rights it's just but that's just me parks so Parks parks department um we had adjustments there for um a maintenance worker and a part-time for enforcement which we removed I just want to know above that the um the master Library employee um so we're going to move that to part-time status rather than fund it for full-time status which also takes away the health benefit plan so um you know we we made a commitment in tandem with the Board of Education to implement Master Library there is not the capacity staff-wise currently at the stable to be able to sustain that um so we're going to start with a part-time person to do that and we'll see how that position evolves over time is that person on board no we no we'd have if if the budget gets adopted we'd have to recruit somebody for that position we we did just utilize an intern to start it so the Board of Ed bought this software that for the general user requesting allocations of public space it needs to be the same so we bought it and the startup is a lot for the Board of Ed um and it's been a lot for us but our intern helped with the on board I think they had as of last month a thousand requests for space you know we have a lot so this will help with the scheduling but it's not going live until May somebody told me well it's it's live within the communities right now for the spring group so for example if you're on the fields committee and you're doing a request for baseball they are populating they've gone through training but not for fall or no no well they don't have the I mean the funny story because I'll tell you this um it wasn't us either basketball we were like oh basketball did such a great job I was like Yay basketball and then you know basketball was planning for next year and basketball went in and booked every basketball court for every minute of every day and boxed out volleyball and all these other sports so we were giving basketball all like a whole shout out that they were the first and they were the best and then we realized they just booked everything so it was it was kind of funny and they were great Sports about it and it was funny because no one was relying on it we had a full year so we're moving to spring now and then we'll deal with the summer we're going in smaller chunks because the more prepared people could kind of run the table and plan too far out and and and that is a joke Peter Thomas we were very grateful you were the first one because I'm having trouble booking for the tour of the high school for my 50th reunion yeah all right uh there's Parks so under um parks and wreck and Gren as well as project Pride um these were specific areas that we talked to Nancy about that she was willing to uh give up I'm sorry I don't have the exact um spec I don't have the specific um names for them in my my code here um the next one is utility expenses uh talking to Chris we were able to reduce 154,00 from what he felt our needs were and then in addition um we took money out that uh again with Chris's agreement um bought us down another 10% off of what the anticipation was with the reduction of fuel prices right now going down um we're sort of you know leveling this thing off under water pollution control uh again specifics to Chris I I apologize I do not have that in front of me but it was $122,000 that uh he gave up and then we came back and we had another $4,000 modification for um uh some addition for changing that number that we talked about late I'm sorry I'm I'm rambling with this one um basically it's a 118 $1,000 change to uh the OE for initial pass uccc we took we took out new hires initially and then we came back and put um another part-timer in to satisfy um Tony's need for an electoral inspector and then we modified the overtime to be consistent with what they had last year and what we've discovered in that line item is we we we feel we do need some support in the electrical subcat area um I don't know that we needed 100 1,550 hours a year um so and again that's it's sort of like pool work depending on how many inspections they have they come in we use them for that time period so we figure a $20,000 increase to that uh can add some capacity for an additional inspector um it just won't be at at Double the cost that it was originally proposed so Keith I I was waiting so I saw there was a sheet on this at the end I was going to specifically ask about new hires so it sounds like you're starting to go into it but um I will way but that's definitely something I wanted to cover yeah the two the two headcount increases the only two headcount increases that we honored was the master library and that went from part time full-time to part-time at the at the record department and the um and then the 20 thou the $440,000 down to $20,000 for some capacity for electrical sub code so in other words we went from I think it was 10 new employees we were discussing we have we have we have an employee count sheet so I'm going to wait to get to the to that piece to talk about great and and I just want to make sure that with that ing the trees the tree sheriff is no longer yeah had to I mean they're going to yell at me if I don't acknowledge it so I mean it's unfortunate next year and and again you know just because that position is removed does not mean that we don't have an obligation to sit with current staff and see what capacity is to perform some of the functions that the shade tree commission and that two of the council members have brought to my attention when it comes to to tree re enforcement and things of that nature so just because the position's going by the wayside doesn't mean that the functions of what we want to accomplish there need to go by the wayside as well and and our ordinance is going to take a little time too so we'll be okay we'll be okay don't worry everything's going to be okay it's going to be just fine so on the next page um after doing some high level calculations on salary negotiation cost for the year we put $52,000 back in there and then the last adjustment is under Employee Retirement System $100,000 which again is water direct charges for um their employees so when we come down to the end starting with the 64 million that we with the requests from all the department heads we trimmed out a total of $2.8 million to get down to a budget of 61 million 285 and what was our total budget last year 585 587 it's um I'll I'll get it for you 584 thanks and do you know the total of the contractual increases you know things that we have no so we're we're control over we're there's a few there's a few points in that question um first we have a contract that expired at the end of last year with our 13 supervisors um we are probably 7 5% of the way completed with that contract I'd say we probably have two more meetings before we can put it to bed so to speak um so we have a ballpark on where the negotiations are in that sense um and then we have two contracts that expire at the end of this year which won't hit this budget but will hit next year's budget and that's the white collar and the blue collar which we'll be negotiating later on this year um what I can tell you is that we do have um maybe a half dozen maybe eight outstanding Personnel issues um that I would not sit and discuss with the Union until we had a signed contract um which now blue and white are both signed uh the prior contract so um and we do have um a handful of employees who may be considered to be um working out of title um meaning they're doing more work than their job description reflects um so we put some dollars aside to try to make some adjustments as we we negotiate through some of those Personnel issues with the unions still it's a good question um of the 3 million or so more we're spending how much of that is due to contractual obligations because everybody gets a raise puring to a contract right and that's us our business oh I mean you know I we can we can calculate that out for you but you know you have anywhere between one and a half to three I think is the high uh percent on the public safety side so we can we can when we do the presentation you know we can quantify what those contractual obligations equate to because I think that's a good question in terms of okay we're obligated to pay a certain amount more every year by contract right because cost of living get that and the question is how much above that are we spending um it doesn't S I suspect it's not going to be a huge number if it's only three million more I mean I mean and even Beyond just the contractual obligations on the salaries and wages you know I think the increase to health benefits this year a lot better than last year year at 22% but you're still talking between a 7 and 8% increase just on the just on the State Health state health benefits plan I would like if we could calculate it even yeah what we'll what we'll do um Evan is we'll when we put the presentation together I I quickly looked at prior your presentations I may modify that when we do the introduction but what we'll do is we'll do the highlights for the major increase in costs um I can almost guarantee you that a lot of them are out of our control right that's what we're trying to get for example whatever the State Health Benefit St heit bill is whatever the Pion bill is the Pion bill is whatever the uh whatever the disposal fees and the Tipping fees are for solid waste is what they are it's not something that we have the luxury of negotiating in any of those situations and I think that's going to be a really important point for the citizens to understand I mean I would love to tell everyone in Ridgewood hey we're going to keep FL taxes completely flat it's not realistic right right so I want to be able to say we were obligated for X we only spent this much more than x and here's what you got for your money so I think that would be an important uh metric to have for the formal presentation yeah and what we'll do is we'll we'll take the top 10 or 12 you know major impacts to the budget and we'll we'll quantify them and we'll show folks you know where where their money is going right and and how that money is being spent and again what I what I can tell you without having those numbers uh calculated out in front of me the great majority of them are going to be things that are out of our control and that's it's where we're handing a bill and we're told to pay it and it's not something that we get to negotiate or banter about whether or not uh you know it's uh it's warranted and I think Evan's point is very well taken that in in looking at the total budget and whatever the increas is that having this set aside puts everything into perspective sure absolutely all right are we ready to move on to the next spreadsheet all right so the next single Spa a single page spreadsheet with the the yellow Banners at the top and the bottom um I'm gonna have Bob explain each of the uh The Columns and then we'll talk about the uh the bottom line here so proposed my starting point to get the 64 mil just use the microphone please just have to turn it I apologize so my starting point the first line the yellow is um my initial pass at coming up with a tax rate so Surplus million Revenue anticipated 126 the appropriation 7479 amount to be raised by taxation 46 million of which 2.7 is Library the balance is Municipal to the right of that I I calculated the tax rate for the library and for the municipal I compared it to the 20 20 the 2023 tax rate for Library this is a 75% increase for municipal it was 12.9% tax increase so what I want to say is that was our starting point when all of the requests were made back in the fall um and we asked all the department heads Department directors to come in um with their requests for 2024 once Bob collected all that data and inut it into uh into his Finance system that put out a 12.89% increase in the municipal budget we've worked from that point back in September and October to this point that we've gotten to tonight and he'll walk you through the numbers at the bottom of the sheet so the scrub that we did which I talked to you I just walked you through the the changes those are all the negative numbers you see under the Appropriations so the 10% cut the phase three adjustments phase two um salary and wage and Oe to move this back down to an acceptable tax rate I went back to the revenues anticipated and took interest on investments higher based upon what we collected I'm allowed to do that so I brought it up to almost the full amount so that 33,500 represents the increase to revenue anticipated which reduces the municipal tax rate you see the column there then I looked at parking I had $500,000 of cash Surplus in parking I verified with our Auditors that we are allowed to use that based upon statute I believe it's um it's in 4A I can get you the exact title but I can use that Surplus over here to help reduce taxation so that's another reduction of $300,000 then I said okay I I still have some room to play with current font Sur plus so I decided I'm going to use another half a million dollar to bring that to $5.5 million so as you look across the bottom you'll see what the adjustments will be to the total budget that we would present to you and it now presents it brings it down to a tax increase of 2.74% so that's all the cuts that we currently have put into place that we went through with you tonight um that's using some of our Revenue sources the good news is our Surplus is up going into this uh as you saw from the the first spreadsheet uh our Surplus is up going into this budget cycle um there are some there are some issues that we're working through um on projecting the tax impact um of Valley Hospital moving to pamis um we don't have confirmed answers on What that process looks like going from the um State Statute supported pilot program which is that Valley pays on a per bed tax currently um once the hospital moves to pramis on April 14th um that form of Taxation will likely change uh we have our tax assessor Bill Palumbo and our village attorney uh working through that um it's possible that we are one of one of the first in the state to go through this process since Governor Murphy signed that per bed tax into um so we'll have more about that as we uh as we pursue some answers from the state and Keith I'm sorry I I I know this is like the big moment but can I just talk to you a little bit about the staff I did want to talk about that sure if you if you want to uh pull out the uh the next spreading and and I do this is million itations for youra thank you I before we get the staff is great thank you thank you and this is just such a better feeling than year where we started even higher and the iterations just never got as low as they should have been so I just want to pause sorry and I also want to say symbolically my house address is 274 and I always bet it get such a good number and so um I I know it's a lot of work for all of you guys and for Olivia who's not here and what's missing in all the BS is that these iterations are huge and we are very grateful that you did them and they kept getting lower well to to that point I I think we also have to thank the department directors for buying into this realizing there's some sacrifices that they have to make and still function Through The Years so thank you to them and and the process with the year was projected out is so great like so great and being new and I think Evan's gonna say this is so much better than last year I mean I feel so much more informed I feel like I could see the cuts so much clearer and it wasn't as complicated andk welcome do you want to walk through the Staffing yeah I mean just very high level I think we were at 10 when we last met what are we down to now so so let's just we're going to put water aside for a second because they operate at a separate utility right um in my department and I'll just run through this real quick um that was a replacement um for the um for the assistant to the Village manager um moving that over to um to the director of communications position uh so that's a that's a replacement um in the clerk's office um the staff count is actually down one from what was proposed back in uh 2023 um Finance stays the same right yes um assessment stays the same engineering stays the same land use board stays the same uh the building department that's where we're going to reduce the capacity for an additional electrical subcode official down from $40,000 to $20,000 so you will have a part-time headcount increase of one I'm okay with that one y okay all right um the police department um police and fire I'm good right police and fire you're good easy um let me see am I talking here no increase there no increase there that's a replacement um the um OEM we um we created a second Deputy OEM position so fire and uh police were both represented under jemy talking you're you're talking you're talking a few thousand dollars it's not right part it's part time well it's it's a full-time employee Lieutenant Chuck and chief judge are the two deputies they get a very very minimal stien to to serve in that second position gotcha all right um fire department you said you were good with um Public Works um we're actually down one right and we we eliminated the labor from um eliminated the um person in parking and traffic right there was one increase last year this year there were none um recycling was one for one replacement sanitation would have been a uh two Replacements um division of Health division of Health was a grant funded position so that has no impact on the budget okay all right um division of recreation part-time position uh for the master Library employee um Municipal Court will be a replacement um water pollution is a replacement and that's it so it's two two part-time positions electrical subcode official electrical subcode official and um part-time clerical person for master library and record so we're keeping a flat head count but adding two part- timr one of which was electrical and one was second that's correct and actually if you if you really want right if you really want to drill down we're still down people in the police department it's not our it's not a lack of desire to fill those positions it's a it's a recruitment issue but if you went by total organization head count councilman you'd be down still because we're we're just not at PACE with replacing these police officers until candidates become available this to me was um again I know I I I was very worked up over this I think initially even in the last past I think we had like a net new like 10 I think it was corre um I'm very pleased to hear this um that this this sounds right and in fact you lost a position well you went down a position in which department I believe you said the clerk's Department I think the was it the clerk's Department yeah there was an there was an additional position that was proposed in 23 again I I can't speak to the history there um but if if you look at if you look at last year compared to this year you're you're down one so and you picked up so you you went down a position and you picked up two part- timers correct you will if that's the direction we go in based on what's proposed tonight yes so I mean if if you count two part-timers as one full-timer I mean just rough and dirty you are actually flat in not non police and fire and then if you a in police and fire and it was not our intent we are we are then and I just and I just want and I just want to stress with those police positions we're maintaining the head count in our in the roster but we're only budgeting for who we are going to need to pay based on the chief's recommendation for the end of the year so I don't want the public to have a perception that we have four funded police positions in the budget but we're not hiring anybody for them that's not the case the budgeting is pro-rated but the headcount stays on the roster so that next next year when we go into needing to hire more police which we will those those positions are reflected on this year that's great right but non-public safety we are even yes again lost one position or went down one position picked up two part- timers so that's great I'm call have ofar situation elri right I'm sorry I I can't hear you Siobhan no no it's on you just need so it's really not a two part-timers it's part and a quarter because the electrical hours were presented as part-time for the year it was like a thousand something and we've taken that below so I'm assuming it's quarter roughly give her a takee okay but it's not full half right so that's I kind of have a problem with that because I think we get so many complaints on the building department not being able to go out and inspect in a timely manner so it wasn't just the it was the electrical it's the electrical position request went down and he didn't have the I I hear you on the building department but he didn't have the demonstrated hours for the full request was like 1,000 in change and he the request the request for the for the additional electrical subcode official was part-time working 1,550 hours that was what we would have budgeted for and then the second request out of the building department was for a part-time clerical person which was cut so wait it was a clerical position was there were two positions y both part-time right electrical subcode official not to exceed 1550 hours and a part-time clerical person right so in just in in terms of inspections we did pick up a part-time a halftime basically um but not as much as he was he was asking for 1,500 hours and how many we bu 1550 for all of our part-timers that doesn't mean that they're utilized for all, 1550 hours but we budget for, 1550 hours okay so the electrical inspector we're going to hire is for what it'll be less than the, 1550 but it'll it'll be $20,000 worth of part-time electrical inspections okay I can't I could quantify that into hours but I don't have that 750 to 800 from the the calculation backwards but we've increased the inspection staff if if if this goes through and this person is tired part- time you would have increased the inspection staff that's correct we he wanted right y except for the clar probably not as many hours but yes there's still be capacity I'm surprised he didn't ask for more seriously I mean I that's the thing I hear so many complaints on you know called for an inspection it's supposed to be 72 hours I believe is the the rule and it's like uh can't get anyone out there for two weeks but it's it's just electrical inspection so no I'm not talking just I'm talking all INSP inspections but Tony so this is the whole thing so because I too have you know want to streamline the process Tony didn't come and request improvements or efficiencies in headcounts in inspection he expressly asked for increased headcount in electrical inspection and so when we pressed him he said because the hours were like 1,500 is he said he didn't have as much of a demonstrated need for that so this quarter times's great because it's additional electrical inspection but I don't think you have an across theboard inspector do you I mean someone who can no they no they're all they're all specialized I mean you have a construction official you have building subcode official you have Plumbing subcode fire sub code electrical sub code so he's actually getting a response to his like Express wish to increase electric right additional like 800 but still the department you can't call there and get a phone answered agreed but no that's that's that I think that's more of a management issue that's a larger that's a much larger issue and we've had that problem in that department for a very very long time and and as Keith saying it's a management issue I don't believe that that has anything to do with the number so we hired another you know part-time office person you don't think it would yeah I mean I that was the argument he made I didn't find that one very persuasive we shouldn't have to hire somebody to answer a phone um and I know he made the argument that well people breaks their attention span they have to get up and when somebody shows up to the front again I didn't find that so meaningful that I'm willing to add our to our headcount pay benefits have somebody else on the payroll for that to your point it's a management issue people just need to be responsive to the public and answer the phone and get their work done we can chew you know chew G and walk at the same time here I think that this is a larger question that we have to look at after we finish the budget because I think that that's a systemic issue okay um with that going back to um I guess the 2.74 and and and Siobhan's comments I want to Echo them um this was a much much much better process than last year um I appreciate you guys didn't come in with a high number and then we go back and forth and when we wind up somewhere in the middle you you didn't play that game this year um I'm you know I looked it up before I got here rate of inflation right now is over 3% um so you guys are coming in at 2.74 um I have a whole page full of highlights of things this budget does um to me the biggest improvements we've made are first of all the syncing fund that we're going to be funding um for the fire for the fire truck back we're paying into the maple field uh syncing fund to make sure that councils in the future don't get stuck with a huge one-time bill um the long-term planning that shoban mentioned that you all instituted is a it's just the way budgeting should be done all the capital projects that just did not get done in the last couple of years that just amazes me uh both East and Glenn GL sidewalks getting East and and West Glenn sidewalks getting done Clinton sidewalks getting done um you know lights for vet field getting done we left $2 million for repaving that's getting done two uh new fire trucks that's getting done uh four new cops two new firefighters are being funded that's getting done um this budget I you know I was I looked at some of the numbers before this is the lowest budget increase um since 2020 which is amazing considering in 21 and 2022 you had $1.3 million in covid and you still couldn't get it down to the what we what we're proposing here so I I think I can say with all honesty that nobody's been as tough as you guys on you guys as I have during this process this is what why I'm here this is believe it or not this is my favorite part of serving on the council um and I I can't uh I really can't find fault in what you're doing here I'm sure we can go line by line and find some minor issues but considering we're coming in a lower percentage than previous councils did without the benefit of the covid money getting all these capital projects done all these improvements done while at the same time doing long-term planning this is what right looks like so thank you guys I just have a couple questions I I do think 2021 wasn't the budget increased 1.99% no it it actually it was and that was a year that we got $1.3 million in CID funds okay it was I don't respect may I think year 2021 was 4. no 4.3 2020 Paul first year was 1.99 Paul did not come on in 2021 until the fall I believe then it was 2022 so I I have the history this this last year was 4.8 22 was 2.9 21 was 4.3 and 2020 was 2.2 I remember sitting here and Paul would not go through with the budget until we got it under two we got it to 1.99 that was 2022 I'm sure that was absolutely my recollection M too um perhaps it perhaps the numbers shifted along the way but that was that was what was voted on unanimously but again we had a lot of money coming in yeah from the federal government this at without augmented funds and and let's you know we can go back and forth and you know wanted to correct the record that without augmented funds and with as Evan said with all of these projects fire trucks recycling trucks sidewalks all sort of foot bridge I left that one out trees trees 2.74 um I am I am very pleased on behalf of our residents and I just want to say you know as Bob and I bonded over this process since October you know the one thing that we were not willing to sacrifice was Public Safety and you know when we say when we use the term Public Safety we automatically think of cops and firefighters and EMTs and all that but I I think what I've learned in my eight months here is that Ridgewood looks at Public Safety in a m from a much broader lens so while we are trying to replace vacancies in the police department and today we've replaced two vacancies in the fire department um in addition to the fact that there're you know taking on the EMT responsibility um but these were just replacement positions in the fire department when you really drill into the capital budget you know you have the West Glenn sidewalks the East Glenn sidewalks which was literally an add-on in the last 10 days the Clinton Avenue sidewalks with the various meetings that we've had with the residents and the parents in in that area um you have multiple OEM purchases which I forwarded out the justification for those those capital projects from Jeremy kimman earlier today um and we're in the process and we're going to have to Pivot to this strongly going into 2025 is we are going to need to focus on our communication system and our interoperability of our police officers our firefighters our EMTs being able to communicate not only with each other but with surrounding towns and other emergency agencies um and that is going to be a big part of what we talk about when we move to Capital in 2025 so it's heartening to me that some of these let's call them Legacy projects um such as the bridge such as the sidewalks that we're able to to be able to move forward with them this year because next year I really believe the focus is going to be on Communications and beyond that I think we're going to have to add some Focus to um the maintenance and upgrades of the the water pollution control facility because while it's not the sexiest thing that we do in municipal government it's awfully important because when it doesn't work we're all going to get we're all going to get phone calls about what that means so I think those are two of our main focuses going into Capital next year but it's good that we'll get some of these Legacy Pro projects which are centered around Public Safety and the ability for people uh to to uh walk safely throughout the community and make it pedestrian friendly um I think the capital budget which we'll pivot to now certainly achieves a lot of what the council's looking to do I just have one last question so Bob on the last page where we were talking about operating requests and you showed how you brought it down which is fabulous under parking Surplus you took out you said you had 500,000 and you took out 300,000,000 okay you kept 200,000 in Surplus for parking emergencies like I mean no in the parking budget I needed $200,000 to balance that budget oh okay so that's left me so you used the 500 this was free this was this was available Surplus as opposed to allocated Surplus and then in the additional Surplus did you use all of the additional Surplus that you had where are we what line I'm sorry uh the same page on the bottom it was additional Surplus 500,000 so the 500,000 is out of the general fund right and I thought the general fund where was it okay Park I'll back up I'm sorry 300,000 is from parking I had 500 available I needed 200 to balance my parking budgets that left me with 300 that I could use here okay okay right next question so the next question is on the additional Surplus which you took out 500,000 and are you am I looking at the right thing the Surplus uh balance in the general fund we had 7.8 million yes and you utilize 5.5 so we still have 2.3 so I can only utilize cash Surplus so in that 7.8 maybe deferred charges special emergencies that are still in existence that that contribute to the Surplus balance but they're not cash Surplus okay so bottom line the remaining Surplus that says 2.3 really isn't cash 2.3 that we could use correct okay that answers my question thank you um any other questions on operating budget all right so just to um wrap this up are we comfortable moving towards populating the state budget document uh so that we can move towards introduction on the 13th does anybody have any objection to these numbers this budget no nope I I just have I mean I know tomorrow night we're going to get a presentation on the lights on the Tabernacle project you know I don't know enough about that so let let me say this and I I I said this to the mayor this afternoon because I sound like a broken record but I think I think we should look at the capital budget and the operating budget as two separate work efforts okay the only thing that we need to do to be able to execute the capital budget regardless of what the projects are is to have the 5% down payment included in the operating budget and our goal number is always about 7.5 million when we get into this I'll talk about how it really is probably below 7.5 million even though that's not what the bottom line reflects um but as long as Bob has allocated the 5% which he has in the operating budget we have flexibility to move around what we do with capital and it does not necessarily have to parallel the introduction of the budget although that's been tradition here in Bridgewood but that there's no requirement of that so we can modify and move around numbers in capital after the presentation tomorrow night but as long as we have that 5% allocation in the operating budget we can move forward with with with introducing the 2024 Municipal budget okay so I'm fine good good okay all right let's move to Capital and we tried to make this as simple as possible because we were ruffling through a lot of packets of paper in the past so we abbreviated this to a cheat sheet as I would call it just look at it in comparison the top we're down to one page this is very exciting um the top the top of it reflects um the yellow items which have already been introduced and adopted by the council so that's $2 million for the pay for the annual Paving program 950 for what we're now calling Glen sidewalks we'll come back to that 515 for Kingsbridge and 437 750 for the for the rearload Packer so if you go back up to the 950 okay um and Chris is going to talk more about this tomorrow night however the county of Bergen has indicated to our engineering department that they are not going to allow us to build retaining walls in the county right of way when we construct these sidewalks so without the ability to build the retaining walls that is going to affect the bottom line cost of this project so in talking to Chris today and and Bob actually had this conversation um we've sort of lowered what the allocation would be for West Glenn to 750 and that frees up the $200,000 to do East Glenn within the bond ordinance that's already been introduced and adopted so I think we can check those both off the list um with regard to Kingsbridge I want to just mention that as it was presented at the last council meeting by council member winegrad there is that $100,000 that was from a prior Bond ordinance before my arrival here for Kingsbridge that we confirmed has not been expended so we have capacity in from that project to reallocate that to a different section of the bond ordinance as well so that'll come back as we move down the list um we' removed the building department SUV um from those dollars which were 45,000 we've added we've essentially transferred it uh to make it $50,000 for the Clinton Avenue sidewalk project which I'll get to when we get to the bottom but additional bandwidth for Clinton Avenue would be 50,000 um then all of these other items have not changed from the $80,000 for the air packs of fire down to the $65,000 for uh sludge pumps few points of interest okay the fuel tanks where we're allocating 250 proposed there is uh $748,000 that's in approved Capital that 250 will bridge the gap for what they need to actually replace those fuel tanks over at the fleet division so that will get this project underway this year portable radios um we have the $60,000 we have another 45 in capital that'll be able to to purchase the radios um for the for OEM for what uh Jeremy's needs are at this time with regard to Veterans Field lighting well there's $700,000 reflected in the request um I want to stress that we are in the process of drafting a letter that will be sent to Bergen County before the April 1st deadline we are going to request a grant from Bergen County through the open space trust fund um while there's no guarantees what we will get I will tell you that the high watermark for um Grant awards for projects like this last year was around $200,000 um to communities all throughout Bergen County um so we're hopeful that we would receive that amount through this application um and that would come down off of the $700,000 which we would not have to assume in Debt Service uh we also have a meeting that Nana is in the process of confirming with psng um on field lighting programs they have incentive programs um rebate programs which would further reduce the cost off of the $700,000 and then finally uh we're in discussions with some of the Youth Sports organizations who would benefit from these lights um who have indicated that they would like to put some skin in the game and contribute uh to the cost of the of the lighting project so when you see $700,000 I want to stress that we're not going to realize in all likelihood there's no guarantees in life but in all likelihood we're not going to realize $700,000 in debt service by investing in retrofitting the musco lights on Veterans Field fingers crossed true but all all very optimistic all right um the vehicles for the police department to bridge the gap on Capital uh to close out the uh the the um rotation of police vehicles at $66,000 um there is open Capital as reflected in that column on the right um we talked about the EV Ford and the charging station last year um so the bottom line when it comes to um to the capital requests for 2024 comes out to 7, 83750 but again with those numbers taken off especially for the field lighting program that number will in all likelihood uh be south of 7.5 million which is our Target bonding number on an annual basis Clinton Avenue which is a standalone below that um the revised numbers as was uh relate to me um after Thursday night's meeting with engineering and the residents and the parents who are interested in this um comes out to 300,000 so what we've been able to do is we'll be able to move some of that money from the allocation from kingsb as I mentioned earlier we have about 150 in old capital for sidewalk projects that weren't expended we have to kind of string those together uh but we'll have those dollars available and then the $50,000 from the building department vehicle shift to the sidewalk projects brings us to the $300,000 that we need to commence the one side of Clinton Avenue thank you so we've we've arrived at everything I think that's been requested and no phone calls tomorrow morning on any new projects stuff we forgot to ask for that we never want in oh I remember one thing if council member Reynolds comes up with another sidewalk project they have to say no it's something I requested already can I have a motion for Jour no it the motorcycle the 15th the what the motorcycle did we forget about that no so I the chief is working on that um I actually believe that we may have enough in police vehicles with this to be able to do that but we didn't add it as a separate okay just one question do you do you really think you should be riding a motorcycle at this stage of your life I just okay just check I was recomending side just in case you want to participate I like that side car so mayor I don't know if there's any further discussion but I think in talking to all five of you um you know individually over the last few weeks you know I think that we've been able to deliver um a capital budget for 202 4 that meets the the needs of the Departments that meets the needs of the Village Council and that certainly meets the needs of the residents here in the village absolutely I think we're good any other comments or questions about the budget just thanks again yeah okay so so are we authorized to prepare for introduction of the budget on the 13th and then in addition to that we will also introduce a capital ordinance as it's been reflected in the document the cheat sheet that we just shared with you tonight you are okay that's all we have and with that ask one question about lorine this is more a question well I think time frame wise everything's going to go together at this point so I I don't think there's any even with the with the the way the meeting schedule is uh structured I don't think there's any way to expedite it faster than this would be to begin with good and with that that I will go back to public comment yeah I'm just seeing seeing no one in the audience we will check our hybrid access Dylan I have three people on but they're not raising their hand I'm not sure well then they're just watching no we got we got we got to raise here we go uh first person is Susan Susan you're up um hi um can you hear me we can all right hi thank you um yeah you had trouble with the zoom earlier but um in the E on the agenda did not list the link so please state your name and address okay um Susan Ruan 705 Kingsbridge Lane um I just have a few comments and thank you for the budget I just want to confirm that Kingsbridge Lane will be done I mean the the foot bridge will be done I seem a little paranoid but there seems to be a lot of projects on the agenda through you mayor uh Susan the bond ordinance for Kingsbridge has already been adopted by the council and we are waiting for the final proposal from the bridge engineer in order for our engineering department to move forward with this project but the council's done everything okay I there seems to be so many projects that um you know maybe I feel a little paranoid because we've been screaming about this bridge for years and Susan we have we have actually we um leapfrogged um Kingsbridge lane bridge repair over the budget process this year so we introduced that ordinance while other projects will go through the traditional uh capital budget process bonding ordinance but so that's already on its way yeah okay yeah it was just I mean I know when the spring comes that foot bridge is being used and we used to watch the track team um utilize the bridge I've seen the track team run the highway because the foot Bridge has been closed so I mean it's just I want to make sure that foot bridge is open just for the safety of so many children that actually use it James I'm on the phone um and also I just W to um this is this is just um I just want to confirm will there be people going out to look at animals to see if animals are going I couldn't figure out if that um to see if people have actually I mean I have two dogs I bought licenses Etc but I do think that that is important to make sure every one does not to um because there has been quite a few Facebook posts where dogs have bit in either other dogs or humans and no one could find the dog that that bit people so I do think it's important to make sure people do register their dogs um and stuff so I hope that I mean it seems really mean and um invasive but you know just to protect the people in the village I think that is important um and that's pretty much I do have questions in regard to Saddle River which I did email Keith in regards to but I'll um bring that up tomorrow all right thank you thank you Susan Dylan anyone else one I have one person that's dialed in I'm going to call them minute they're not raising their hand though so so just in case then uh 5617 but they have not raised their hands they've dialed in a lot of people a lot of people dial in actually yeah and and normally when I have the laptop Oh no I got one other raised hand hold on one second this person is not talking that's how they watch it okay uh Leo Ruan please unmute hi good evening leoan 705 Kingsbridge Lane um yeah I just wanted to call in and thank you for uh getting the bridge on budger thank you so much thank you Leo anyone else Dylan that's it and with that I'm going to close public comment um did we want to respond to the dog tracker poll person was that it's been removed it's been so right right now it's right now it's been removed um again the department directors who were asking to make these Cuts have made them in let's say the last three or four work days um that money is going to be cut from the introduced budget however there is always the possibility that we might be able to use utilize some grant funding um or see if there's other sources of revenue that Dawn could be able to use to perform that task and that is a discussion that as we get through the introduction of the budget that we'll have with all the directors um they do have the ability within their operating expenses to to shift some dollars around to to reset priorities moving forward and we'll certainly have that question with uh with the health director at the appropriate time great any other questions or comments before we adjourn no motion for adjournment so moved second all in favor I I I