on room sir yeah was at Smith last night I brought this book which has all the page numbers on this is thank you I literally home and organized every and did you put all your new sheets good for you except I didn't print out the one that change that okay oh you can hear us oh you can hear us talking okay I'd like to call the March second um budget heing to order start with the flag scoop pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repu for it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for [Music] all is it this hit your mic moment of silence to remember the service and sacrifices of the armed service members who protect our nation and the First Responders who protect our neighborhoods thank you clerk please take the RO councilman friedlander here councilwoman noon here councilman Brooks here councilman sacket here councilwoman Brooks here councilman Quinn here councilman voitovich here vice president salberg here president critz here adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the Daily Record in the Star Ledger the official newspapers for the township of Rockaway notice was posted on the official bullettin Boards of Rockaway Township the township website and notice was filed in the office of the Township Clerk um before we get to the um open to the public I just wanted to thank everybody for coming on a on a Saturday thank you to the administration for doing the work to put this budget together and thank you to the council for doing your due diligence ahead of time we're going to start with the open to the public portion uh today we are going to allow five minutes um per person uh when I call your name please come up front state your name and address for the record um as just a reminder you know this is uh to address the council um most likely it will not be you know if you have questions if it's something we can't answer uh then we will and uh it's to address the council as a whole Tom Campbell how you doing so I'm Tom Campbell I live on 32 charlottesburg Road and um my question was basically that uh last summer charlottesburg Road was put on the town website for I guess pavement or you know to be paved I guess um it was on the website for the summer then it never happened then I went to the DPW and I talked to them and they said well mainly because I guess there was some engineering and they just couldn't get get to it and whatever so uh this year I wanted to get a little ahead of it to make sure I knew you know is it going to happen this year do we know anything about that or is that something you're prepared to address right now or if you don't I'm prepared so the uh charlottesburg Road needs some additional drainage work done on it and then the paved portion of Charlesburg Road will be mil and paved and what about the dirt portion it's to be uh covered with chip seal mhm has that been done before is it the first time for that or it's going to be the the first time for that roadway um the Remy for that road okay yeah because I know for many many years it's been you know men machine and materials up there and you know yeah so so it'll be done differently I guess this time then and that's flated for this year yes great all right thank you you're welcome is there anybody who did not sign on the sheet that wishes to speak good morning I'm F Palma I live in s bernna roads W to New Jersey yeah hi good morning all I just have a few questions for all of you I don't know um how to mention I just like um ask um why is the website is no updated and rock away so it's like some meetings they have the dates but it's no times like for example today's meeting there was no time um and I you know you had to call it's like more um chaos for with the residents we want to attend to these kind of meetings and then um um what is the best way for me especially to contact you each of you when I have like you know uh points abuse or concerns or opinions cuz I email you guys um most of you I don't know each of you but most of you email you and I don't know how I the best ways to contact I don't know if the emails works or or is the phone that I can call or I I don't know how to contact so that's the questions that I would like to ask a few people yeah answer me um but most of them not and uh uh you know like I say and then um in what is the best way for me to communicate with you guys are my elected officials you know and um another thing is from my understanding um uh my representative um which is do Brooks I think I didn't even know until lifei now um uh should be able to uh be discussed the cost any analyst and and and funding things on the ice rinks as part of the recreation area so I email you also but I'm sure you guys busy and sure this is just a part-time job I'm sorry I tried to bother each of you that's all okay um to answer your three questions did I I did see the date on there and especially when the agenda was sent out the date was also listed on there um but I will make sure that that we communicated maybe in additional places um as far as contacting I was saying the time yeah it was on there um it's a copy of our agenda also has it's the time at the top um as far as contacting us you know it's it's email is really the best speaking for myself but again like you said keep in mind I I did get your email yesterday um I did not have time to respond to it yet I mean but again I mean I know we speak all the time I know you know whether it be here or not my first email I'm being EMA since last year so for so many things so but I understand and then as far as the wreck area Administration is constantly looking at different options for that I just to have IDE understanding when we're ready to unveil it no I don't know just come with something tell me something got it thank you is there anybody else from the public that wishes to speak that did not get the opportunity okay oh sorry Donna marce zinski one Lake Shore Drive um one of the things that I've noticed with the updating of the websites there's a couple of websites such as the library that still shows the old mayor so we're kind of confused because we don't even know you know like some of the websites just are really behind yeah exactly all right that's all okay thanks we'll take a look at that Paul sorry yeah I mean that that is a daily yeah requirement and I believe the librarian was told to I mean he was told to correct it my understanding it was corrected we'll take a look with all the pages that we have it's possible that something was mixed but we'll fix it wasn't correct okay we'll we'll fix it anybody else from the public okay uh we're going to move on to a presentation uh by our auditor Ray Arelli Jr from [Music] this so good morning everybody um every year I come to this meeting to try and give you a recap of how the prior year closed out uh so this year's no difference uh we're going to look at 2023 to see how everything closed out so you can know where you're going as you look at the 2024 budget so I'm going to start in the current fund which is the general op operations of the township um and so I always like to talk about the uh fund balance because it's the the most accurate indicator of the financial health of the U of the current fund which is your your general operating fund so at at 1123 at the start of 2023 the fund balance was 7,2 54,000 in the 2023 budget uh we used 4,844 th000 as a draw down of our own fund balance to balance the budget and then what was regenerated during the year was 4,980 th000 so the ending fund balance is 7, 390,000 and so if my math is correct that's a fund balance growth of about 136,000 so going in the right direction growth in the fund balance good economic indicator um you know what I always look at is the fund balance as a percentage of your operations so at 7,390 ,000 uh that 16% of the operation is held in in your fund balance so uh a rating agency would look at a town like Rockaway Township and want to see that in the 15 to 20% range so at 16% good good Financial Health you're in a range of where you should be um for in terms of your fund balance um so you know a little bit of the reasoning why uh the fund balance is strong the Financial Health is strong um very good tax collection rate in uh in 2023 at 99.11% so I took a look back that's the first time the tax collection rate uh has gone over 99% the last three years it's hovered just below 99% uh but above 99% so that good tax collection helps regenerate your fund balance uh and then the biggest thing was the interest on investments and across all the towns that I work with interest on investment ments skyrocketed during 2023 uh a couple of reasons obviously interest rates uh were increased during 2023 but also everyone's cash flow is pretty strong right now there's still a lot of Grant funds flowing into a lot of municipalities um you know the ARP funding came in but a lot of uh other outside agencies got ARP funding and are flowing that money through to you so there's a lot of grant funding coming in which improves your cash flow so you have a lot of cash on hand you have a high interest rate and um you know obviously you're going to collect a lot of interest uh when that happens so those two things combined were we're part of the reason for uh the strong uh you know Financial picture at the end of the year um the other thing I like to talk about is the reserve for tax appeals so over the years you know there has always been a good long-term plan through the budget process in Rockway Township but something that always plagued us was uh tax appeals so the reserve for tax appeals is very strong right now there's a number of appeals out there obviously uh what's going on in commercial real estate um is going to hit everybody uh but particularly anybody with a lot of commercial real estate such as Rockway Township is going to be hit by that so we want to be prepared for that and see that Reserve uh to be strong and it is uh a little interesting uh Rockaway Township fact you have a SE District that operates within your current fund um so that s District is uh has a good strong fund balance as well the the the sewer district is funded by a separate rate that's assessed to people who used um the sanitary sewer uh that rate structure is pretty good right now and the fund balance uh looks very stable at the uh at the current time so then moving on to a separate fund which is the trust fund this these are funds that are operated for uh a specific purpose so any money that's collected is deposited into the trust fund that money can only be used for that specific trust um so those all operated normally during the year you have two reserves in there that um you know help for for future issues and emergent issues and that's uh storm recovery and then the accumulated sick and vacation Reserve both very strong as well there's good reserves in there adequate for any liabilities or emergent need that might come up uh moving to the capital account this is where all your capital projects are accounted for uh continued a good Capital program uh began work on several new projects uh no new debt was authorized in 2023 but kept the same amount of capital projects going so each year you try and design a certain amount of capital to be done that same amount of capital projects was done but no new debt issued so a lot more funding going into your capital projects as part of a very long-term plan to bring stability to the budget uh and not uh enter into just so much debt so great great long-term plan there um lastly we'll talk about the water utility so the water utility uh has its own separate operating fund and own separate Capital fund so I just went through the general operations in capital in the water utility it has its own self-liquidating operating fund that is uh similar to the Sewer District except it's completely outside the current fund uh and that's funded by its own uh rate and uh similar to the S District uh the utility rate uh seems very appropriate right now there was a little bit of fund balance growth so you started the year at 2,67 and ended the year at 2,240 um the main reason for that growth is the interest for the water utility because it's its own separate fund stays in the water utility so same thing there the rate structure is very appropriate it's a very balanced budget but the uh interest on investment caused a little bit of an increase in the fund balance similarly there there's good strong fund balance to support that operation um so uh overall the water utility and the capital fund um you know are operating how they should the rate structure is good um and and the fund balance is strong so just to give you uh an overall of the financial picture and what I see um you know the economy uh I think tends to baffle even economists at this point uh you know inflation was 4% last year I feel like I've told every municipality that I go to economists are predicting we're going into a recession this year we need to be prepared for that I've been saying that for two years so as the as the economy continues to grow and obviously people still can afford to pay their taxes you have a good collection rate those are the types of things that see your financials do well as well so at this point I think we're in a great place the fund balance being above 15% um is is a good indicator that there's Financial strength um you know and going back to the interest that's the main story that the High collection of interest is going to keep um you know your your financial picture strong uh they have not predicted or they they say maybe 75 basis points reduction in uh interest rates by the end of the year you're still going to have strong interest collections the cash flow is still good so I think I I would see another good year in 2024 um we'll see what happens the economists have been wrong before so um any questions on anything I went over about 2023 at this point good so I'll just touch very briefly on uh the budget that I've reviewed which is has been presented to you I'm going to give you kind of a high level overview um the Administration has done a good job of holding the line on expenditures like I said so we went 8% 4% on inflation and uh you know know to try and hold expenditures uh to a lower level I I think is is a great accomplishment and then those strong revenues I talked about uh mainly the interest are going to absorb some of those increase in costs that that just are necessary to uh run the township so uh you know I always look at the budget as a long-term plan we don't want a budget for just this year it is still a good long-term plan um and and most importantly it has a0 percent tax increase to the average homeowner which really means there's a 0 per increase to to to the homeowners of Rockaway Township at this point so it's a good budget good long-term plan um and has a zero increase I you know I think that's a that's a great accomplishment by the administration for what they've been able to put together just to clarify it the 0 perent inreased on the on the municipal portion Municipal portion yes what you I always talk about what you control right happens at County and what happens at the school districts uh are out of your control but what what you can put forward is on the municipal portion so that's my presentation unless any questions on anything right yeah your father used to be Mr gloom and doom um so it's gloom and doom outside but we're doing pretty good according to what you're saying but I'm looking at just like you I'm looking for a fiveyear pattern I've always done that being here on the council um moving forward seeing that most of our big developments are pretty much built out uh we will be collecting through 2024 and uh 2025 should be the end of that buildout uh what is your opinion on you know where are we going and also I received the letter that we're doing a full assessment of the town in 2024 uh taxwise in fact the guy came to my house to look at my house and my neighbors already I got the letter yesterday and he showed up yesterday so it was quite interesting but um I just want to know uh what we're doing and why we're doing the full assessment at this time because we us usually do 25% or less and uh we take the average and keep it flowing is it because the real estate market I know it's hit the bottom but the commercial end of it is still a problem because State funding is based on residential and they've never changed that even though we've argued it but they've never changed it so and I know a lot of our Council here is new I've been here a long time so I understand that I wanted your take on that too thanks yeah I can answer if you want yeah so so what what happens in Rockaway township is you have a continual reassessment of the town so every single year um the the assessors look at every single house and try and and try and bring it to uh 100% the most accurate what in their mind what is the most accurate value for that house and then so that's done every single year 100% of the town is assessed out of value then what they do is 25% of the town is actually audited and they go out and look at 25% of the town to see you know what the houses look like and see that their assessment is accurate so that every four years the entire town has been come has been looked at by by the assessors to make sure that the value of that property is accurate so every single year a new assessed value but only 25% are actually looked at to make sure that that the assessment is accurate every four years the whole town is is reassessed most towns go 20 to 25 years without an assessment I think it's very important for Rockway Township because of of the mall specifically but a lot of the commercial values to have that looked at more often than every 20 to 25 years it certainly helps and has helped with uh the number of tax appeals because you're ensuring that every single property is accurately assessed every four years so that's a huge part of it as far as the the buildout of um new housing and all that you know that continually helps uh absorb the cost of an increase in budget so when a uh new property owner comes in they're paying more ta you know they're paying taxes this year that they weren't paying last year so the piie starts to get a little bit bigger and those those ratables absorb some of the cost so as that comes off they're not going to be able to absorb as much of the cost um I still think you know the budget is put together with a long-term plan in mind and so you have to do what's necessarily on the expenditure side to make sure that the town is run the way you want to see it be run and you know if people can absorb the cost they can absorb the cost um you know that that's where I see as far as new ratables coming in it's been very helpful over a number of years as it falls off you know I don't think we've been overly relying on that that all of a sudden there's going to be a sharp increase in taxes because there's no no new rbl coming it's always been a good very good long-term plan to ensure there's not a huge Spike when something unexpected happens correct thank you yeah I wanted that on the record so the residents understand what we're doing here thank you anything else okay all right moving on we are there are there are 13 tabs that are non-negotiables things you know uh pre-approved contracts things like that so I'm going to start with those 13 together we can get those all the do you just when you name the tabs can you just say the pages yes okay um so I make a motion to approve T four pages 54 to 62 uh counc just I have a question on that council president before we um sorry about that um if we took a look at page 54 uh subac account 96 for example um the GIF which I know we said it's set but it's a little odd when you look at page um 55 for example it's requested 60231 on 54 but when you go to 55 on the same account it says 560 so there's a little bit of a difference there of uh $442,000 so before we go and approve I just want to know like is there a typo there could we can we put it back to 560 no I'm sorry I'm sorry let me to the front page is the accurate page that second page it should be 632 631 in total okay I'm sorry thank you and then also real quick on page 58 as well um I know last year with the group insurance we did adopt 8 point about 8.6 million and um expended is only 6.4 million so we're again asking for 8.6 million that's a $2.2 million that we didn't use last year there correct are there are outstanding you have to remember when you're looking at this it says it's through 1231 but there are expenses that come through in the following year because it is a two-year budget cycle so in January there there are B that are charged against the 23 budget thank you for clarifying and also just on page 60 as well with the health benefit waiver yes we adopted 65,000 we''ve used 64 and now we're asking for 78 with really no a lot of information there are again these are individual people so I couldn't List names and who is actually waving sure there are more and more people are electing to go on either their spouse's benefits so they're they're waving the the benefits with the town that's actually saving us money because they get a waiver of 5,000 whereas if we had covered their family benefits it would have been closer to say 30,000 okay that's the reason for the increase thank you for clarifying thank you Council pres also just to clarify any time we do not spend the proposed amount that money is not lost no it either is going to go into fund balance to regenerate or it will go into the trusts that we that we spoke about earlier with r we're just covering ourselves and if we don't use it we yeah we keep it you don't lose it okay no it's never lost it's either like I said either in fund balance or like anything we don't spend for example in the snow removal it goes into the storm it goes back into right okay um section seven councilman section seven pages 125 to 127 section 10 page 163 section 11 pages 165 and66 section 12 Pages 167 to 177 section 13 page 179 section 14 pages 180 to 184 section 15 page 186 section 16 Pages 188 to 212 section 18 Pages 221 to 229 section 19 page 231 section 20 Page 233 and section 22 page 242 so just to summarize I'm making a motion to approve sections four with the correction noted on page 55 section 7 section 10 section 11 section 12 section 13 section 14 section 15 section 16 section 18 section 19 Section 20 section 22 can I have a second second clerk please take the RO councilman friedlander yes councilwoman noon yes councilman Brooks yes councilman sacket yes councilwoman Brooks yes councilman Quinn yes councilman voitovich yes vice president salberg yes president critz yes that's nine yeses motion passes we're going to move on to tab one um the other small change uh Council I'd like to um just Implement is as we do changes in a tab just let me know I'll keep a running list of what we're going to do and then they'll like to make one motion for the tab all right just to summarize everything okay uh tab one I need Council discussion yes council president uh tab one page uh 22 um two subs on there uh sub account 28 as well as sub um 50 9 UM taking a look at the prior history and requests for example subcount 28 last year we adopted $56,000 um in 21 we used 35 22 we used 25 we adopted 56 we used 18 we're recommended we're this being requested 57 this year and I'd like to make them um I like to lower that to $25,000 as well as under which I do both the same time or uh yeah I just you know what let's do one at a time I just want to make sure that there's nothing that we're missing I'd like to make a comment on that so all all of these is your mic on I'm sorry p a little bit closer these fees associated with information technology are contracts that the township currently has all of these fees are required to have so we can properly safeguard our it system a lot of these are firewalls antivirus and various other uh protections both for the police department and uh Administration some of these other contractual fees so you may have you may know that we did go out for an RFP for competitive Contracting for IT services this year so this budget reflects the change in that that award so what we're doing is prior to that competitive contract this Township did not have a holistic approach with regard to its management of I it so it was separate we had a separate backup for 40,000 and that we had a separate backup for all of these other items you see here so the awarde was granted was uh provided with the ability to look at our entire it infrastructure as a whole piece backup and what is needed in terms of day-to-day operations and what we're required to have for backup for any kind of disaster recovery and in this way we're not having multiple vendors doing that so you're seeing a bit of a crossover in this budget but these numbers in this budget are needed right now in order to ensure this transition and Safeguard the firewall and protection of our it system from a Cyber attack thank you and I appreciate that but we were told this last year as well so it seems like we're told this stuff and I don't know it's not being spent the money's going back into balances so we we we're told this and it's still the same so I'm still going to stick with it you know obviously the council could decide what they want to do I'm one person but I'm still going to stick with that to lower that to 25,000 as well is there something well you you said a couple times um M coarelli that this was contracted yeah this is so there there already a standing contract on this I'm sorry is there already a standing contract on this absolutely $72,000 and it's a five-year contract that will escalate each year so um if you will see let me see where the in the fact that there is a contract what negative actions would there be by 75,000 has been put in for the negative impact is we would not be able to pay our vendor so I I wasn't uh councilman sack I wasn't here last year I don't know what explanation was provided but uh when I came here it was important that we had a holistic approach to our it functionality and it was important to go out for an RFP to ensure that employees were given the opportunity to have a direct contact with it as well as at an upper level of myself and the PD to be be able to coordinate backups uh malware prote they do uh penetration testing to the server uh there's a lot that goes on to this and and public entities are a prime source for a Cyber attack as a result of all the information out there so we're very public so anybody can take our website and you've experienced this in emails where you'll get an email from the mayor and it looks authentic it's because these criminals are very smart and they're able to take public data and make it look like I'm asking you for information and whatnot all of these things in here are contractual and to safeguard this Township I I'm respectfully requesting that these numbers remain as is would it make sense to say that if we reduce this amount it would result in US defaulting on the contract and thus losing it protection yes okay well that would be I assume for uh sub account 29 for the contractural F but the professional fees is that tied in as well she so this is uh these fees here now keep in mind we're in a transition right now so we're going to work I'm going to work together with the it so some of these fees may not be in the budget next year based on how we're how we're diagramming our it infrastructure but right now we can't just drop everything it's just important that these stay right where they are I'm respectfully requesting that Mr Quint under the holistic uh approach Paula um do we have also in included the library the police I know the police fire water department under this cyber security firm yes because I know each one was doing their own thing so the library typically uh uses a system a system wi I don't know what this Library uses they use a buckle system I don't know what you know Rockway Township does that's run through the state but anything respective of communic with the library falls under the Township's it as well as the police department thank you councilman um I did also have this on my list of notes to talk about Sub sub account 28 um I don't I don't think we should reduce it by as much as councilman sacka is requesting but since we didn't expend all of the monies in the past couple of years is there any wiggle room in that account but the the thing is is again it's a contracted amount so even if you reduce it $1,000 we would be in the fault of the contract and lose it protection you know what I'm saying isn't in 29 contract it would fall [Music] 29 item 29 is for the actual Services of our it provider part of those Services were required to put in safeguards the infrastructure and Hardware to safeguard our our it we have to pay for those things those are not going to be paid for by a vendor so and and also keep in mind you know the PD uh requires a tremendous amount of storage for their camera uh camera footage uh police camera footage this is not a a simple reduction question this is a multi-layer situation that at this point in time I do not recommend cutting this part of the budget so I'd like to comment on the fact that I think this part of the budget buget is actually one of the most important um increases that I noticed primarily because I recall last January we all if everyone remembers the uh password debacle right everyone's password had to be changed it became a whole to-do I'm an extremely tech-savvy individual I'm on the phone with Mr Dyer on a Saturday at 11:00 a.m. because I'm trying to get in there's this secret thing and it was all because someone was trying to get into our server um the fact that the Township didn't have the ability at the time to pick up the phone and call an IT company very nice individual by the way he was lovely um but it really wasn't his particular um we weren in't his you know corporate account if you will he was kind of a oneman show it was concerning at least to me for the specific fact of not my emails per se but our police department and with the addition of body cameras and the increase of for example example we have Phase 2 $75,000 for additional cameras at Peterson where is all of that going this is really important stuff so to upgrade our it and our infrastructure which I'm sure it's still going to need work unfortunately um I really think that at the end of the day the recommendation here is extremely appropriate Council one more question and they are also doing offsite storage correct yes we do onsite so the system is backed up once it's backed up it's removed off of uh connection to the server so there is no in in the instance of a malware attack that backup is safeguarded and I also would like to note you'll see Aon here $45,000 um I have discontinued the contract with them however again during transition I cannot just cut the backups for this Township off so you're going to see a reduction in that next year so you're looking at numbers that are in transition it's not money that is being wasted or unexpended it's money that is required to be in here for backup so that when uh we transition the new it folks have just now transitioned backups and until those are tested properly I'm not letting go of the backup we had in place I this this account to this protects the residents right residents pay their taxes online put their information banking information so it's protecting the residents as well correct we absolutely we carry personally identifying information we have account numbers we have employee databases we can be exposed to something and and I and I sound very passionate I've been through a Cyber attack it is very serious and and it is something that uh we don't want to ever have to happen uh it it's it it's it's just uh something to safeguard our personally identifying information this municipality has a the history of every vendor their their uh employer ID numbers uh employee Social Security numbers um it's it's very critical that we ensure our backups are proper and that we have a proper professional looking at our whole system and that our available to us when we need them okay Council yeah now I appreciate it like I said I'm I'm just pointing out I've been through a lot of these every time we get the same thing which is and year new but it was said last year and it was never used so I'm going to I'm going to withdraw it you know because you're very passionate about it I appreciate that yes but let's use the money let's let's protect the residents like you're saying let let's let's do it instead of spend you know budgeting it and then not doing it let's do it and and just to State guys this is exactly why we're here I think it's a great question and I think it's great to get the information out there you know um all well again we may not agree on that one thing but you know an informed decision is the best decision so thank you for that any other discussion on Tab one yes yes the sub account 59 with the computer equipment just as as you see as well looking at history we did a huge overhaul on in 2021 um spent a lot of money in 21 125 ,000 22 we spent 25 we budgeted in 23 35 because it was supposed to be an increase we spent 3500 as well we're asking for 355,000 again um so I was looking to reduce it um down to 10,000 but if you can have an explanation I'd love to hear it sure absolutely uh that line item is to ensure that uh anything that comes up we have budgeted money to deal with it right now the current it vendor did a full evaluation of our system there are switches there are backups that not are not done correctly there's thing there have been identified corrective actions that need to be taken I respectfully request next year we can have another conversation with regard to because this vendor will have been here for almost a full year but at this point in time I I I I I just respectfully request that the it budget remain the same until such time we are able to look at almost a full year as to the work I think you're going to be happy next year and and this this is recorded So I you know I'm not you know I'm not making anything up to get us through this line item right so I think you'll be very happy with this vendor I've worked with them before um I I I think we're I know I I don't want to use the word think I know we are on the right path and I respectfully request that line item remain as is and I appreciate that uh but just like the one resident was saying before you know we're talking about our it and everything you know how our website is needs a lot of work and and I talked to the mayor about it he agrees you know not speaking out of line but uh yeah it needs a lot of works I'm hoping with these upgrades this stuff gets fixed for the residents absolutely appreciate it thank you it's not a very intuitive yeah uh website I'm going to say so yes so we're gonna nice we're to get on that okay anything else for tab one I just have I and it's not it's not a big amount of money but I was wondering the same thing as councilman sacket on sub account 41 on page 11 it it's not a lot of money but again we don't exp we don't expend what we request for you so it's a small account but you know what if I could just make a a uh an overall comment and I and I first of all I highly respect the fact that uh and the public doesn't know the kind of questions I received from all of you so I I very much respect the time that you took to go through this budget a budget is a projection as to what our expenses we anticipate our expenses to be it is not an exact science um if we fall short of our budget we're dealing with a real situation because the state of New Jersey will come in and say why can't Rockaway properly anticipate or project anticipated in expenses so I just I I just want you to keep in mind you know we're not we we you know it is it is a projection not an exact number because we don't know what's going to happen we don't know if we're going to need to take on more employees we have no control over the state of New Jersey requiring mandates that are unfunded we're dealing with a lead inspection unfunded we're dealing with a lot of unfunded mandates and by the way they're not giving us money for staff they're telling Rockaway Township and every municipality New Jersey you're going to have to make due and I hope you have it in your budget to take care of these mandates which of which we don't even get warning of so I just I you know and I and I just because you know a and you do you look you say well there's you know no money here you know it's about looking at over the course of the Year where have we've been and I appreciate councilman sacka you're right it's important to look back we look back we look forward so I'm sorry I just wanted to say that if you don't mind councilwoman noon what was the question and what department is that not a lot but I was just curious you know page 11 do you have a motion on that or just a question okay anything else on Tab one exor page 33 page 33 wait okay oh oh sorry so so executive uh expending what page are you on MAR conferen conferences oh how come I reduced it no oh I actually reduced the adopted budget by $1,000 sub account 41 oh we only SP so the thing is is that um part of my job requires me to to go to conferences and whatnot I was only here for 3 months okay so I can't speak to uh the other nine months that took place here but for me uh I reduced it because I I am not a member of icma in addition to the fact that I focus on the education that I'm required to have uh I'm also a qualified purchasing agent so I need to keep up on those certifications as well as I go to um yes and that that's administrative staff too so and and that's also Brian other administrative staff it's important and I believe in it and I have spoken everyone here education's key you know the more the more that our staff knows how to do things and and be more efficient theoretically that equates to saving dollars less frustration better communication so I believe in that and I hope you guys too think Council yes councilman thank you council president uh page 33 under the um sub account 29 and sub uh 110 as well with the contractual fees for a potential um fees associated with the litigation and investigation matters and um once again yeah i' like to look back at Trends and uh and um the trends as as well uh 21 70,000 22 25,000 we do adopted $100,000 in 23 and we used 20,000 and we're they're asking for $100,000 again and I think that should be lower to $25,000 unless there's something I'm missing you know we do have a town attorney I know sometimes with certain matters we just approved at the last meeting um $150,000 to handle um potential Bank issue um which wasn't in the budget as well exactly that's exactly the account that's going to be charged see again we don't know what lies ahead and and we don't want to ever be in a position that if we need to protect the township and its residents that we don't have budgeted dollars to do that so these are contractual fees uh when we go through even even just going through a special Council like we had discussed at the council meeting uh we we don't our general attorneys do not have the expertise in bankruptcy court so we have to pay for that um there are other fees like uh us you just don't know what's going to come back the township has five unions you don't know what grievances what protections what what representation the township will need what lies ahead maybe I need someone special to review a contract that is out of the purview of our general counsel which I understand you know same thing but on on at our council meeting on Tuesday that wasn't in our budget and we did have the money it's not like we didn't have it um so I just still think that this $100,000 is quite a bit but it came it came out of or is going to come out of this fund yeah so like that case know we did we're going to have an extra 80,000 right no but this and correct me if I'm wrong the ongoing litigation will be charged to that 100,000 this and the reserve for tax appeals as well so what we approve what was in the reserve for tax appeals sorry do you have a quick idea how much money we have there's there's a lot in reserve for tax appeals but the potential is you know Millions you need to protect yourself I still still think it's uh quite a bit you know just looking at it but based on what we heard on Tuesday is it possible that our upcoming fees are going to exceed this uh yes they will so it's already spent and please keep in mind it's it's it's not just that it's also a resolution that uh councilman qu spoke about last week that you'll be passing hopefully you'll be passing Tuesday which really we need to do that in order to keep our appeal case going even the next line too under other fees similar situation we spent nothing so far this year on that um and uh we budgeted 30 we're asking for 30 again our history same thing it's lower so I don't know I just still think we can you know should be able to lower some fees you know I'm here here to try to lower some fees to save the resident some money and just getting shot down so um I just think we should you know there's some opportunities not everywhere there's not everywhere to save money there's not but these are some of the stuff that's really sticking out I don't go after looking at stuff for $50 here and there I look at some fees I look at history and I see where we can try to save some money and uh you know that's what I'm trying to do do right just just for the record you're not getting shot down you're more than welcome to make a motion appreciate that no I appreciate it and just to be clear every council member up here would love you know we are still delivering you know as written a zero increased budget you know and every Council because we all pay taxes here too so I again you're I don't want to stand in your way if you do want to make a motion yeah I'm going to make that motion for 29 to lower it up to $225,000 okay hang on a second 20 do you want to bring it down to 25 yeah yes please which account I'm sorry uh sub account 29 29 from 100,000 to 25,000 yes do you you need a second uh no I I I'd like to do these um we'll get all of the Motions together and then run through them you want to do okay so I'm sorry so so let's do it this way so councilman um you can make your move council president I just if I can interject for one moment um and and and and I again I appreciate the fact that that uh you are focused on making sure that we're spending dollars you know these are abstract Services you don't know what's going to hit this Township when and how you need to have money in the budget in order to account for that if we don't have money in the budget it's taking away from another account because because Lisa will have to transfer money to cover the overall control total of an account this is a sub account if we don't have the money we're going to have to take from another account in a transfer can I add to that as well you're looking at from 21 22 and 23 we all I hope most of us remember what was going on in 2019 and 18 that was my comment right um okay and and just a a a technical note when we make a motion and I'd like this recorded um I'd like to add the verbiage onto every motion if there's a reduction to reduce the like dollar amount to offset the same dollar amount in the 2024 Revenue line item interest on investment line correct so what'll happen is I if you make a motion I'll pause for a second I want to make sure that we record that and make that part of the motion okay I'm sorry um so go ahead councilman make your motion uh page excuse me page 33 uh contractual fees sub 29 Mak a motion to lower to $25,000 a reduction of $75,000 thank you okay and to also reduce um $75,000 to offset $75,000 in a 2024 Revenue line interest on investments do we have a second I'll second that cler please take the role councilman freedlander so we're voting on reduction reduction yes councilwoman noon no councilman Brooks no councilman sacket yes councilwoman Brooks no councilman Quinn at this time I have to vote no councilman voitovich no vice president salberg no president Gritz no that is two yeses uh seven NOS the motion does not pass council president I also like to make a motion on the sub account 110 to lower that from 30,000 to 10,000 and also to reduce by $20,000 and offset $220,000 to 2024 Revenue line on Emissions on invest um do I need to repeat that every time or can can I give a standing say standing's good not not that I don't like to hear myself speak say ditto I'll say ditto dit okay again I'm sorry before that motion is made can can we just what is under this other can you just explain a little bit on page 34 it's the sub count list yeah it has a details on 34 so if this Township needs special Council for I'm sorry there you asking me no there's a motion on the floor so there's no discussion yeah I understand it but there's a motion so uh do we have a second the motion was to reduce from uh 30 to 10 30,000 to 10,000 I'll second clerk please take the role councilman freed lender yes for the reduction councilman Manon no councilman Brooks no no councilman sackin yes councilman Brooks no councilman Quinn at this time I have to vote no councilman voitovich no vice president salberg no president critz no that's two yeses five NOS motion does not carry seven seven seven that's what I said it was [Music] inflation any other discussion on Tab one no but can I ask a question council president yes um in order for uh a point to be obtained for towards people's taxes how much would need to be uh there we go 547 thank you councilman s 527 358 can you be more specific 527 358 got it right here right that's one point that's why okay um the only thing I have is just a a comment and request I really like to start a a fact finding or or estimates on um bringing us into the century and digitizing all of our records the amount that we could probably save on binders with more than offset any of the it concerns that councilman sack has um I would I would really like I think it's time that we start looking into digitizing everything the construction department is pretty well digitized yeah well even things like I've seen the mayor signing POS and again his carpal tunnel surgery would cost more than being able he has allowed electronic signatur yes so i' I'd like to start looking into that council president I did hand in they did the administration did ask us for to hand in some old binders as well to cycle I did and I did bring one in I did bring bring a binder in to try to offset expenses we save I appreciate that we did save tens of dollars yes thank you I turned two in so I got rid of okay I'd like to make a motion to pass tab one I'll second it clerk please take the rooll councilman friedlander yes councilwoman noon yes councilman Brooks yes councilman sacket no councilman Brooks yes councilman Quinn yes councilman voitovich yes vice president salberg yes president critz yes that I'm sorry Council miss freedlander you voted yes yes okay so that's eight yeses one no motion carries moving on to tab two is there any discussion no yes Council council president um page 50 uh under the um 50 tab three oh excuse me I'm the three I have nothing sorry rraw that any other discussion on tab two okay I'd like to make a motion to pass tab two as written I'll second it cler please take the rooll councilman friedlander yes councilman new yes councilman Brooks yes councilman sacket yes councilman Brooks yes councilman Quinn yes councilman voitov yes vice president salberg yes president critz yes that's nine yes's motion passes okay tab three councel thank you council president uh on page 50 under construction oh okay you had that too um we had a um and I won't mention any names but um there's an opening under um Plumbing subcode official mechanical inspector e as well as a vacant zoning officer f as well couple of salaries in there um equ you know equaling 87,7 se3 and I know we had bumped up a zoning officer to more hours which is great I know we talked about last year I think Howard council president brought up a uh a full-time zoning officer as well um just trying to figure out what the the the opening with the one um looking at the salaries from the prior year 47,000 to 75,000 is this person is this potential candidate going to be having extra responsibilities or what are we going to be doing on that one and then as well as the zoning officer f is that going to be needed now with the more responsibilities on the D thank you thank you councilman s the uh Plumbing subcode official the township entered into a shared services agreement with Dover so that added additional hours to this position equating for that dollar amount will there be additional there will be money coming back in off Revenue so it's it's an offsetting revenue of $31,100 I believe so then do we not need them the zoning officer F okay so uh if let's go to zoning so right now the township currently has a part-time zoning code enforcement officer uh this is a big municipality there's a lot going on and it is recommended that we have more eyes on the municipality to ensure that uh residents for their own safety are getting a proper permitting and making sure that property maintenance is up to code uh no resident should have to live next to somebody with with uh four broken down cars on their front lawn having this additional person will allow the municipality to this individual is uh budgeted for that amount of money equals 480 hours okay so um and that's at the higher range of hourly salary I'm looking at could be a little more we can get a little more hours out of that depending on who applies for the job and the level of experience that they're bringing to the table but it is important that this mun municipality ensure that our codes are adhered to and that uh residents can live safely next to their neighbors without issues and without having to deal with somebody who doesn't mow their lawn somebody who has standing tires on their lawn can I interrupt you for one second yes I just believe me and everybody understands the job duties I'm looking more towards the scale of the work needed versus the staff that we have oh so do you think and again I don't want can I hijack posted though is like this job has for years this has to be authorized by this has to be adopted in the budget so is this a new position this is not yes this is not a budgeted position I cannot fill this without your au so it's a new position right and again I I called for a full-time associate two years ago and I don't see in here and we approved a full-time zoning officer which I desperately think we need may I jump in here okay uh yes what Paula indicated is correct except for that we do have a fulltime zoning officer and a part-time zoning officer that increase is an increase in hours um of that one uh part-time uh uh zoning officer so we do have one full-time zoning officer as well as a part-time um I will tell you the demand out there both for zoning permit RW of and approval of zoning or denial of zoning permits and the property maintenance or the zoning enforcement does require in size of so just to summarize as someone who is a direct you know end user you you're happy with the one full-timer and one part-timer and an additional part an additional part so the uh subcode official is the fulltime okay again we receive a lot of property maintenance I would ask court whether or not they've seen additional zoning summons since you guys supported this line item last year so okay councilman Quinn I'm sorry are you done Council councilman Quinn yeah if uh the property maintenance ordinance gets enforced this guy will be very busy uh this is what I've been pushing for because I get complaints from all over town that people are storing cars and things that they should not be putting in uh front of their yard it brings the property value down to your neighbors and the town so uh I agree this should be a a full-time position and I'm glad we're putting more hours in thank you all right so in total we have one full-timer two part- timers correct and that is that is sufficient that's if this budget gets passed and that's sufficient in your estimate I we could always use more but but I appreciate the support that you've provided in zoning to bring us up on par with other municipalities do and do we have weekend coverage that's what I was um yes we do there it's not regular hours but if need be um the staff is the weekend have okay good all right any other discussion on tab three okay I'd like to make a motion to pass tab three as written I'll second clerk please take the r councilman frander yes councilwoman noon yes councilman Brooks yes councilman sacket yes councilman Brooks yes councilman Quinn yes councilman voitovich yes vice president salberg yes president Chris yes that's nine yeses motion passes Tab four moving right along Tab four is done see how fast we're moving excellent job Council tab five uh police department is there anybody representing up front please come take the hot seat oh I post any discussion on Tab five while the captain uh Chief makes his way up here yeah council president just one item um I know I just going through I believe we have one current vacancy um from the resignation in um uh October 23 from from the academy it looks like there's one resonations I just want to check the numbers with the chief um to see you know if the numbers if if that's only just one I don't know if there's any more and uh one recruit is on back in October okay so we're just vacant we're one one Officer Down correct okay not counting the future retirements this year okay how many of those he didn't hear you Council Brooks is wondering how many of those Chief uh two that we know of one officer is already putting his papers the other one is uh you know say he's going to put them in but it's not you know officially all for re and and chief um would do we usually just hire like with the new recruits want or we do like usually like three four at a clip once again it depends upon promotions retirements okay any additional Personnel that the council might be gracious enough to uh grant us I believe in the in the budget we have three spot slotted yeah three patrolman if I could just add to what the chief's saying too right as we see the further development um of pond VI and more residents are population increasing um you know I'm sure you've all seen the different crimes that are occurring in our our Township now um you know those are all things that we consider with thechief in terms of the Staffing um and and I think the chief would agree there's nothing more important than the patrol officers out in the field field um you know going out and monitoring and ensuring our Public Safety thank you so based on what you just said mayor and and uh the chief too you know Pond View the crime is up there's uh a lot of training that's going to be mandated by the Attorney General right with the new licensing bill correct I've uh provided the business administrative with some free training opportunities that were available and the response was that you guys don't have enough manpower to send guys to training right so don't you think we should maybe add more officers to our department so we could have officers that are trained I would assume that would cost uh reduce the overtime cost right social Center Officers Training and kind of before Forward Thinking when this yep licensing Bild that's coming down the pipe you know there's going to be mandated training that these officers going to have to go to correct uh to have enough coverage correct and it will be ongoing because once their license they have to stay license and the the thing is the way the licensing works is that onethird of the department has to be relicensed every year everyone in the police department now as of January 1st was issued a license a third of the department is going to be due for Renewal which includes the mandatory training by December 31st of this year the year after that 2025 another third of the department will become due for relicensing mandating them to attend the uh training then after that in 2026 the last third of the police department will have to go for relicensing once again attending the mandatory training That's not including any additional training that the department might feel they might need such as community policing or D or lead or anything like that so that's my question I mean we had 37 police officers and I'm just talking about Rank and file last year you're agreeing with the fact that we should have more hopefully sa on overtime and all that why didn't you include that in the budget this year to add more officers because uh we didn't to discuss the Personnel matters okay at the budget session okay did you have a motion uh is there going to be more discussion no as far as well as far as actual police officers I would like to make a mo Mo to add two more police officers to uh to the budget plus the V position three well that's already budgeted for the vacant correct so well right now there's 37 there's three in the budget and the councilman is making a motion to add two more which I would like to Second and we and we do have a Academy class coming in July I believe but we correct in Mor County it's also understanding that even though we're going to be adding some money to the budget for police officers and I think everybody's okay with spending money on that there would be an expected drop in our expenditures on overtime correct not enough to cover it but certainly that would help correct and also don't forget if we can get the officers into the July class in Morris County the cost for sending an officer to moris county is only $500 you send them to training outside of the county it's several thousand dollars more okay so there there there's a motion on the floor okay and this is Page uh 66 there's a motion on the Flor can't we talk first I'm sorry can you withdraw your motion so we can have some other discussion go ahead withdraw I'll withdraw the motion okay we need because I did kick Howard he just doesn't listen what the question I have Chief is so we have first things first we have enough all the cap Lieutenant sergeants and detectives are full right this is the first budget where we have everyone slated in those slots there's no vacancies the one thing I would request would be an additional Sergeant as we had last year so that each one of the patrol ships could have two Road supervisors two Sant to so you would like to increase that to nine I would like to increase the sergeant to nine okay so we currently have eight full correct there those positions are correct that's one detective sergeant and the Seven Patrol sergeant I would like to have eight Patrol sergeants so we'd get the supervision of two sergeants on every shift the important thing to remember is with all these younger officers you know they're inexperienced they need the guidance and coaching from you know the sergeants who of course have a little bit more experience a little bit of knowledge well that's that's been a discussion you and I have had for several years even when we get to even when we get to the lieutenant right we only have three shouldn't we have one per shift I like to have four in that I've been I've been saying that for years but some people thought it was for benefit every guys let's s down I'm next after her actually Mary's next but anyway so okay aside from your addition that was part of you set me up Look At That Knocking him down Chief um but then that's a waterfall effect right because obviously we're going to have people move up the line backfill right so our 37 officers currently that you currently have already budgeted because that's what we approved for last year right you're requesting it to stay the same councilman Lovich would like to make it 39 out of those 37 how many actual vacancies are there currently one so then we would move up to what four vacancies and you think 39 additional would be increas if we add his increase that would be four vacancies correct no four because we already have one he wants to add three that oh just two no two be three oh I'm like an even numbers girl9 thought there was three vacan pretty additional to the two that two were suggested I thought that you know we were looking at three was right in it's five it's just five right correct so we currently have the five vacancies okay so that being said we would then have to potentially back like the waterfall effect to pull in that extra Sergeant okay that's what those were my questions just in relation to actual Personnel currently and lieutenant and well Personnel we call them actual Personnel currently in the police department that's vacant and currently there that's what I needed clarification on thank you counil yes I'm Mar go I just had a question where are we currently with the mall I know we were back and forth with the mall we patrolled it then we didn't Patrol it and then then we Patrol so where are we at with that I mean still Patrol it it's considered be part of District 2 you know we do have an agreement where the mole is paying us for the supplemental Police Services which they they understand that we're over there patrolling you know as we normally would with any section of District Two or any other of the complexes you know into the township and once again these additional Personnel will help us because don't forget Pon viw is a part of District to which I can see eventually becoming its own District only because we have such a high volume and it's not like these you know it's not like uh you know they're all P coal some of them are very serious incidents we're going over there domestic violences I explained we had the one guy that was uh in charge of the street gangs down in Newark the DEA came up and blew the door off his hinges and went in and dragged him out he had an AK-47 $100,000 in cash and two kilos of cocaine so it's not like you know it's a non-serious incidence that's why you know Pond View is become you know major area for us for police services so with the mall it's not slated that you have to have an officer there no okay that was subsidized we we provide supplemental Police Service of course if they have something going on like you know the Easter Bunny or a concert or something we'll assign additional officers over there but they we also you know urge them to hire them on the side for our third party details that's like when they had the uh you know the sports convention over there they hired it to officers to provide security for that you know these different things that are a little bit unusual same thing with the circuses that if you drive through the mall you'll see these big huge uh circus tents up we encourage you know either the mall or the circuses themselves to hire the officers third party so that they're not depleting the township resources councilman Freer yeah Fier question Chief okay we promote patrolman to Sergeant correct okay you have X amount of new recruits want to add more so you lose one through promotion correct you are you comfortable with the numbers that are there now the three plus yeah and if we get the additional lieutenant and the sergeant like I said the main thing for new officers don't forget they're coming out of Police Academy exactly they have like the basics they have to get you know uh field trained and you're not comfortable as a new officer until you get like a year or two underneath your belt that's why the importance is for having the Frontline supervision specifically thege out there going ons with you okay this is a domes this is what you do what even more important when you get back to headquarters you know you have a domestic the desk in front of you looks like what I have here yeah okay you have to do this don't forget you have to call that one you have to give this referral same thing with the well that's why I said that because when you promote obviously the that police officer you lose that space correct same thing from a sergeant to Lieutenant you lose sergeant replacing an experienced officer with who's hopefully moving up to spread his knowledge throughout the squad with a an experience officer right out of the academy that's why we field train him it's also important to uh ensure that you know he gets to follow coaching and direction right from a more experienced officer you know until he's comfortable you know on his own feet handling these calls well I just want to make sure that the patrol issue is covered correctly in the town correct you have the supervision correctly controlled for the town so on the patrol division is like the backbone of the police Deport they're the ones that are out interacting with everyone whether they're doing traffic enforcement or you know doing community policing with the you know the children or as we've seen you know we have participate in palal the Easter Festival that's coming up you know any praise or anything that's going on it's important to that these officers know how to you know present themselves and be as knowledgeable as possible when they're serving the people in the township well Safety First correct right thank thank you okay would you like to sorry 73 vehicle purchase so it said you requested I don't know how many but they reduced your request to two vehicles correct what was originally requested we requested three three okay now with the if potential right what a hypothetical Paul's motion um would that have to be increased again or could you still go with just the two well initially we could go with that but don't forget it's going to take about a year for the officer first of all it's going to take a year to get these vehicles I just want to make sure we have enough cars potentially in a perfect scenario right we have like w everyone wants to work here yeah I mean we have enough cars yeah tell that's my question you understood my question also it's still early for me and don't forget we also so we didn't put the uh you know the owners on decisions we also use the APR funds to buy you know a number I believe it was six Patrol vehicles for the Department okay new vehicles and then also you have those sleo Vehicles so that's par those are those five uh five used those are specifically for the school district the schools and in the could we use those vehicles if we needed them correct perfect but just remember that those are older vehicles that are coming to that are maintenance intense because they're older yeah right and we cover all that maintenance the school district doesn't subsidize any of it no and they what what do they subsidize they pay those officers they pay the officers but they don't subsidize the maintenance of the vehicles I mean initially with the agreement you know I asked for the vehicles the maintenance and money for training and what we got was the uh well maybe we should go back and renegotiate the maintenance you know anybody on the board of it maybe I do you care to uh bring this home councilman yes yes ID like to make a motion to increase the number of offices from 37 to 39 so the amount for that would be two addition two additional positions at 51610 is that correct Miss coarelli on p66 uh yes yes yes 51 10 that's what I wrote down now does that include the lieutenant and Sergeant or no that's patrolman just Patrol one at a time so we're doing one motion at a time for each category yeah we're going to do I think that these certainly um okay these uh necessitate doing separate 103 to20 no we're adding two the motion on the floor is to add two patrolmen and I second that at 51610 at 51610 each and that's your total you total of 103 220 clerk please take the role and that too councilman Fred lender yes councilwoman noon yes councilman Brooks yes councilman sacket yes councilwoman Brooks yes councilman Quinn yes councilman voitovich yes vice president salberg no it was no okay president crits yes that's eight yeses one no the motion passes all right any other discussion on chab that passed um okay who somebody want to make that motion I'll make the motion to add the Sergeant is there a second there is no second second now this why I said is there a second I'll second okay and the cost for an extra Sergeant I would believe that would be at a sergeant one so that would be 14229 that's going to be the difference from the officer to the sergeant right not the full bud you have to add the full position you're not subtracting the patrolman okay so it's going to cost 142 294 yes on a side note do I have to have police experience to get a job as a sergeant talk talk to the chief got a question yes why why do you have to add the whole salary if you're promoting that's it's an additional it's a it's a it's a roster spot you have to fund the roster SP you choose then not to back because then you can back fill because that roster spot is open right okay so there is a motion and there is a second um to add one Sergeant at a cost of 142 294 please what's up wouldn't it just be adding a patrolman's position plus the cost increase from a p because the patrolman roster spot would remain open you don't lose a roster spot by them moving up you have to fund them both no I know but that would only be the 51,000 because then you would move a patrolman to Sergeant and then hire another patrolman to fill that spot that's not how it works though we're hiring we're creating another sergeant position so you'll go from eight to n but you have to fully fund that position without retracting another position going make a motion okay so the motion is on the floor there's no further discussion on this there's a motion on the floor to increase one Sergeant at a cost of 142 294 there is a second clerk please take the role councilman freed ler yes councilwoman noon yes councilman Brooks yes but I'm still baffled on the money councilman sack Baff noted no councilwoman Brooks yes yes councilman Quinn yes councilman voitovich yes vice president salberg no president crits yes that's seven yeses two NOS motion passed any other discussion yes I'd like to make a motion to add a lieutenant to the roster that's 163 to 31 yes do we have a second okay there is no second we will not take that one up discussion council president yes uh since the increase of these officers would decrease hopefully the amount of overtime because that was the process MH are we able to decrease the projected overtime to offset the cost of the new officers I I don't want to speak for them but the bringing the officers on to the point would take almost a year yeah so this would really it would be in subsequent years yeah okay that's fine okay that's why I asked great question yes okay um any other discussion on Police Department not discussing Capital at this time right correct okay capital is Page 20 uh 244 just a quick note on Capital if I may the um the capital with the exception of a of a fire aerial fire truck is all from old ordinances that are being reappropriated just like we did last year so there's no additional debt being issued it's just moving it from an old ordinance to to a current ordinance I I I do want to finish up with the police department is there anything else uh yes yes sir in the white yeah Mr uh president I just like to point out the salary for the chief of police still at 165 515 we can't not we cannot discuss individual yes I just that's a violation of State Statute again I would refer that I I wish we could deal with individual salaries and things like that but the fact of the matter is we cannot we can do positions and open positions but not individual any other police discussion Chief thank you thank you Mr hunson Council thank you thank you thank you Chief Captain you're going to rewrite your roster right now oh yeah okay any discussion on fire yes can I have one second pleas you may have two seconds Council my t five we didn't approve tab five we're going through each section of tap five tab five is a pretty big section with tab council president five tab five thank You tab five and just a note after tab five we're going to take a 15minute break thank you minut yes is while miss noon back to my note about digiti we are tab five talking about the fire department like I'm on page 80 SE I'm sorry fire department there's some smoke coming out of her ears right now that did you have anything you want to say before we started with questions uh no no thank you for getting Gathering us on a Saturday all right well miss n does does anybody else have any discussion on t five for fire yes Miss no um I just was curious on fire hydrant rentals we rent from Dober and we rent uh page 97 thank you so we rent from Denville and we rent from Dober but we also have burrow water so I was wondering I just wanted an explanation on the fire hydrant rentals and why we rent some and don't rent suon I don't know if that's in my purview um it's part of the water utility Al just whisper to the an I was answering it's like a it's like a congressional hearing there you know what I can answer that question so there are areas of the municipality that are not serviced by Rockway Township they're serviced by Dover um I believe there're Southwest moris areas what Who services this so so we rent we pay for the fire hydrants in those districts in which we do not supply the water okay but the but the Burrow's not on here and we get water from the burrow that's my curiosity in Birchwood there's a lot of hydrant yeah we pay the directly okay okay so the hydrants are not ours we we like rent them okay okay any other questions for fire okay any other questions for tab five okay um I just again and from the whole councel thank you to our emergency services for you know reflecting very well upon the community uh okay I'd like to make a motion to to um approve section five with the changes that were previously noted I'll second clerk please take the RO councilman friedlander yes councilwoman noon yes councilman Brooks yes councilman sacket yes councilwoman Brooks yes councilman Quinn yes councilman voy toic yes vice president salberg yes president Chris yes it's nine yeses motion passed uh at this point let's take a 15minute break we will come back here at 10 of 11 e we go all right folks we're going to get started again Mr no you want to take the hot seat all right okay we are moving on to tab six and I'd like to open up for discussion council president page uh 101 with the uh labor one on the bottom um vacant and laborer one um is that is that a new hire because seems like with the labor On's I it's a little confusing because there's a lot of movement in there but um to proper staff it um Al is it two labor ones needed or three how how many are needed for for roads so it's one labor one possession needed so page just um Mr second 101 is for the road correct labor correct so so we yeah well just because it just says like for example like um uh I see like four in there if you look up page 100 yeah the the the current uh vacant position is there one labor one possession but you have four total four total labor is correct you have three existing and you're looking for one more yeah so that's that's a new position left oh someone left this is they're not additional VES that are already budgeted I I saw it on the sign out on the that yeah I was is that that's posted yeah on the sign you think and it's just like I noticed there's there's a lot of movement in there a lot specific reason like are we not paying enough it's you know or I don't know just just kind of Wonder the Department of Public Works has been the most fluid I've ever seen in 25 years within the last three to four years so there there's constant with retirees coming in and out and then uh people are just moving on uh within going to other other s other private uh entities Etc so there just seems to be a lot of movement in general thank you go ahead okay so right on this list you show people active lab on yeah so the uh hit your microphone sorry you have four active uh labor ones hired right now then you're asking for the vacancy so you're looking for five no there's one of them that if you look on page 101 in the gray there's it's three Act of one vacant just uh one just resigned yeah you got let's say I'm looking for his name well we we don't want to discuss there is no name because it's right above summer maintenance towards the bottom yeah I'm seeing a Reser that's what I'm looking at right he just resigned in February which opens up the vac but he's oh he's had four in 2023 we approved four he's had four and now he's just but there is still four without the without that vacant yes there is there's three active and one vacant I got one two oh because one switched to sew so you don't count them they're not in this department but you have to reflect the last three years 2024 column right okay so you got to get it back magnifying glass D councilman freed land rer are you making a motion I'm looking above my glasses not below okay uh who else had a question did you have I'm good okay okay other discussion for tab six I'd like to make a motion to adopt tab six as written I'll second clerk please take the rooll councilman freed Lander yes councilwoman noon yes councilman Brooks yes councilman sacket yes councilman Brooks yes councilman Quinn yes councilman voitovich yes vice president salberg yes president critz yes that's nine yeses motion passes thank you Mr enough moving on to tab eight Mr Tabit you're you're good all right any discussion on Tab eight tab eight yeah yeah council president I'm pretty sure I saw this in one of the emails but I just want to clarify on page 130 um Mr tavit um the vacant e public health nurse full-time to parttime um why are we not keeping if times is because we had some money from a previous Grant just a little clarification on it I I'll let Mr tabin answer further but I'll just say first right so um you know from my perspective the community nursing has changed a little bit we do have a position that's doing a lot of Outreach today and that that full-time position has been unstaffed for a period of time and we haven't seen a drop in the services we haven't um not been able to meet our shared services obligations so from my perspective it seemed prudent um that a part-time position would be adequate but I'll let especially in light I would think also I don't want to speak for you but I mean less Demand with obviously is that we come out of the covid era there's less of attention go ahead yeah um I'll Reserve detail unless there are specific questions from the deis but um I will say it wasn't my decision per se but I I had healthy conversation with our business administrator and I think we both have an interest in realizing efficiencies and and being as realistic as possible about what we need versus what we want and I think this is something that we can manage and I would defer to to Paula for any additional comments on that so um just by doing so we are saving about $225,000 something in that area yes okay thank you yeah right other discussion on Tab 8 I'd like to make a motion T eight we're now we're now recycling on there I see page 136 but it's recycling that's okay you can add we're do all T eight okay so uh page 136 seems like with the the recycling um as well we've had quite a vacancies for a while um it looks like just looking at the book um two two vacancies on top just um one just said vacant looks like uh no no one's been in this position for two years for 84484 uh vacant repair one looks like no one's been in that position for three years I'll let you let me just finish clarify 7326 and then also um going down someone there was a resignation a a few weeks ago uh labor one 47 840 but it looks like there's someone in there so yeah if you can clarify those three because there are three vac and two of them are vacant for quite some time I'm G to say the this P this book would have been like three pages long because there's so much in and out in and out with this department so there this it's very possible that these um on the bottom that last vacancy was probably filled and then vacant and then filled and then vacant within 23 cuz it it's there's so much turnaround in that in that department certain reason once again it's you again it's the same reason I I before now have you H have those two top positions they've been vacant two years and three years we have three vacancies right now within within the recycling division one uh the top position is being back filled currently someone's training for that position okay the other two we have uh Letters Out for for possible hirers okay so okay so possible hes for repairer one and the other laborer one correct okay so those will be filled yeah hopefully hope hopefully okay thank you for clarification appreciate it other discussion tab eight I'd like to make a motion hold on my question is not necessarily specific to Tabby but it's just a wondering I now have based upon councilman sackett's comments about the turnover so do we a lot for training current staff members to allow them to move up within the Rings and then you know give them um whether it's a stien or so we do encourage monily so possibly the turnover if you will could just potentially be people starting here and then slowly moving their way and it's a slow process to move the L success perfect thank you how sorry hang up Council microphone have has there any been any active uh training because if it's like uh coun mck said it's been a couple years for the equipment operator and labor three I currently have one going into that position he just said oh I didn't yeah yeah yeah councilman Quin yeah um when we do uh the internal training and have them go for their certificates uh do we tie anything to it like a a year because I know in Industry if I went for a new certificate that I would have to give a year because otherwise because I'm pay they're paying for my education they want me to stay and at least give them time to do it so you bring up a very good point councilman Quinn and I have been speaking to Al about it it's about putting and the thing is is that the CBA is to identify the terms and conditions of employment and it really needs to be integrated in there that if we're going to invest in a CDL they're to be in this Township for three year years or else they're going to have to pay back that training um so that's something that uh Alan I Al immediately brought to my attention uh because what happens is in these positions a lot of these folks will get the training and then skip to another town gettinger maybe they're getting a higher pay or maybe they believe they're going to get whatever the case is uh you know we're in we invest in our people and we expect them to invest in this Township is really what what it comes down to So currently we don't have that on the books we don't but can we approve that on the books working that is definitely something we working on Al actually has the framework I mean Al wrote it and sent it to me however it it needs to be uh included into the CBA yeah and and just to add right from my perspective that would be for anybody you know that's getting continuing education if they're getting their masters and we're helping pay for it you know but we we need to open the contracts or we need to renegotiate that absolutely good great points okay anything else tab okay I'd like to make a motion that pass have eight as written second clerk please take the role councilman fried lender yes councilwoman noon yes councilman Brooks yes councilman sacket yes councilwoman Brooks yes councilman Quinn yes councilman voitovich yes vice president salberg yes president Gritz yes it's nine yeses motion passes opening up tab nine for discussion the AL you can leave council president yes thank you uh yeah we're on page 146 um last year we approved as a council a community services director which was never filled yep and and this year we are adding a community events coordinator as well as a clerk one so adding two new employees with two new benefits and all that big picture stuff um and I just uh I would think with the if we had appointed someone the community service director this person could do the responsibilities of the community events coordinator as well as clerk one um so so yeah I'm s good are you done I am done thank you okay I'll speak to that so um as in last year right I you know we that position was created a long time ago for a certain individual that worked here based on their far-reaching responsibilities within Recreation and health um I as I stated last year do not believe believe in our structure and what we do that there's a need for that position I didn't believe it last year and that's why it was in the budget last year and I think the council added it back in um so in terms of the new positions um the the um One new position um the uh what you what do we call the events coordinator um that's a to me a a a very important position um and I'll I'll get into in a lot of detail for you so that the Public's aware and you're all aware so number one and it even came up earlier today um the website our Facebook page our calendars I you know in the past two years I can't tell you how many messages probably people within Town Hall have gotten from me because the calendar is not up to date something's missing I don't like you know I think our Facebook page can you or our uh website can use a lot of improvement to make it more accessible to more people more user friendly this position would be responsible for that um the other piece to it is right we you know I think for a community our size we should be doing more community events we should be doing um you know we're going to be doing a 5K race uh National light out we should be doing things like that Pro in my opinion in the community our size on almost monthly basis um but the people that are in the building today have day jobs you know they can't they don't have the time and the bandwidth based on all the responsibilities they have to coordinate events like that and those events take a lot of time they it's a certain skill set um so you know one of the things I've heard from many of you from many of our residence is there should be more events in Rockway to get people out get people together doing things and so that's a big part of that position is making sure you know our website that we're that we're marketing thing and and by the way a lot of other towns don't have this type position they Outsource it to a third party but I want you know my vision would be to have somebody here with that experience um working with our people because you know you have to coordinate you know any type of event police fire Health um and I think having somebody here um to do that is very important in terms of the clerk one I think you know one of the reasons we put the main reason we put that in there is that that if you come here during the day or you know you see it during the day that area over here in in health and Recreation is is is one of the most visible to our residents I mean you have a lot of people going to construction for permits and contractors you have people maybe going to the clerk for things and tax accessor but you have people here to sign their kids up for summer camp to get Pond badges to register their dogs and we know how people feel about their their pets and all that right so it's a very visible area and again being able to possibly add another resource there um if we were going to be um you know have an extra resource there I think it would benefit that it's a again it's it's a lot of residents go there um and and for specific things that are you know involving their children or their pets and so that was my thought process of that but the community event coordinators to me uh very important position that I think would be um more serviced to have that position versus having a uh Community Services director so that's my explanation got council president like to make a motion to uh cut clerk one I will second that okay one second sorry qu no wait we already did a motion yes we're there's a motion on the floor I'm just making some notes here okay pull your motion we have a motion in a second to cut clerk one yeah a quick thing okay I I'll pull it real quick so Council Brooks could have a little discussion thank you yeah so um just at a curiosity so I I understand what councilman sacket is looking and what Joe just said um is there a possibility of combining some of these other roles to that position to make it more more valuable to us for example the summer playground director at 12,800 could that be a responsibility that's being taken over by one of these positions to make them viable well I'll let Mr Dyer get into it further but based on my experience I you know I don't think so um I I I would rather you know if if that's the case I'd rather get rid of the clerk one is the part-time or the I'm sorry the full-time clerk one position I think um you know the the you see these positions for um lifeguards for swim instructors Wades like they're very specific um the playground director is a very they it's a very important job for summer camps and we're actually looking and and Dave you know want to do more with our summer camps this year and a little I understood that that's why I was saying you know it could be something that is like almost becomes a fulltime that's what I was looking at Joe is is it one of those things that it's a really beyond the part-time realm yeah and should it be something that is covered over the whole year and not just that that summer right so that's what I was looking at it is you know if it moved to that other position was covered by that clerk one you know maybe then maybe it's worth it maybe it's worth it right to keep the clerk one and and have them do the role of the director that that that's where I councilman Brooks though could the summer M the uh summer playground director couldn't that fall under the Community defense coordinator position no no just ask I can kind of add to the summer playground director even though you're thinking summer we've already given her an offer letter for 2024 and we're sitting down in a meeting with her March 12th to get the ball rolling but what you're saying councilman Brooks is if you almost basically eliminated that position but made that the clerk one position type deal that's what he's saying so not just for the summer but a full-time position isn't that two different skill sets huh you might it might that it's tough to I mean I don't know I'm just asking well just ask it it's a good point but I right and I think too isn't it it's we normally for that summer position is normally a teacher that we get that's offer right we have an excellent individual now but you'd have to budget that position to get a quality person right and I'm only looking at it in the future if we ever do some of the things that we've talked about we're going to need some full-time staff in order to maintain you know oversight of maybe a recreational facility yeah following year may that's something we can start right so maybe maybe we look into that but okay that's all all right and just for the record you're you're looking to eliminate one position and create two positions for $45,000 less by not renewing the community services director we Yeah by not renewing them and bringing in these two other associates for $45,000 less yep okay yep but good you make your motion again Mr yes thank you I'll still make the motion to pull the clerk one 39,2 to second okay clerk please take the rooll councilman freedlander yes councilwoman noon yes councilman Brooks yes councilman sacket yes councilwoman Brooks no councilman Quinn yes councilman voitovich yes vice president salberg yes president crits no that seven yeses two NOS that motion passes yep any other discussions on Tab nine president CR are we offsetting that with Revenue the cut I'm Sor yes I that was my standing the ditto the the ditto so again I I I I made the comment earlier that for all for all reductions we are going to reduce a like amount in the uh to offset the 2024 Revenue line item interest on investment or do you want to offset it with the increase you just made to police yes it's up it's up to you is that something I need to declare now or is that something that it's either we approve it with the ditto or we just approve it with the cut which is more advantageous for us ditto the ditto and that's what we're gonna do honestly the ditto okay so that's what we're gonna do okay I dit that council president thank you for the ditto uh page page 153 uh parks and playgrounds just talk like we talked a little about recycling um with the labor one looks like we're adding a labor one because it looks like you have two laborer twos and we normally would have two labor ones but now looks like a third labor one I just I just a little clarification on that Al should stay up there just sit there my other microphone um the the park positioned as is open as someone had left the department that is not a new creation that is just backfilling a position that is currently open within the division so there once that's filled there'll be just two laborer ones correct okay so okay that's looked like that's a Sol up okay just want to clarify that so two labor ones thank you how much overlap is done between departments so for example if you're missing a labor one here is is do you get coverage from another side is it is it really demand of full-time where maybe you could have a more higher skilled guy that can maybe go over a few dep departments I'm just asking well again what we try and do is we try and train in-house um you know there are individuals that are partent their skills are partent to each division um when there is uh enough or I shouldn't say enough people but if there are absentees sickness vacation or whatever um there's fluidity within the Department okay of transferring Personnel around all right so you have similar as a as like a I don't want to say it but an issue with the water utility um you know if there's more trucks needed more Personnel needed roads or recycling division employees will backfill that slot fill that correct all right so provide aidid it's good I like that all right so on page 149 and 151 which is I'm looking at sub account 250 the special events which we approved 22,000 last year uh there was only 13586 63 expended um I'm under the impression that that goes into the trust fund the balance of that correct okay so I'm looking to um I'd like to make what first I want to ask what was what was not expended what how much was left how much how much was left but what but anything that was incurred after this December 31st she still could be billing against the 2023 budget correct right yeah but I don't think anything for that would be I think balance done in special events as of now is $88,500 and we're looking to do more this year right you're looking to do the national out um but we still didn't expend and it goes into the trust so the TR yes for for those specific purposes all right so I would like to make a motion to cut that uh down to 20,000 from 22,000 I think it says 317 yeah you want to cut from 317 to 20 yes yeah because they only expended 13 before that motion want make sure you understand special I wonder what's okay before we make that motion can we can we get an update how much money is currently in the fund yeah yeah no no overall in the trust you're talking about yes we have 160,000 160,000 thank you but but that's not just for events corre right so that's the whole you know one of the things that uh the mayor and I did speak about is Rockaway day bringing back an annual Rockaway day and it's about building the budget up so that we can effectuate that uh we'd like to State an annual day for October 4th Rockway Township we got mix upu with a burrow Township day Rock Township Township R day so and that would include fireworks and and a fireworks display is 20 will probably be about $24,000 next year um it's just about now sometimes the budget is your building because you're planning on what you plan on effectuating without hitting the taxpayers next year with that additional amount of money in the budget so the budget allowed for this input and I would recommend just you know keeping it there so that we can do the events we need to get together with a 911 ceremony Veterans Day ceremonies there's many things that we could do we should I would recommend that we start to participate in okay which is why we put in a special events coordinator a couple minutes ago that's that's exctly we don't want to put in a special events coordinator not a budget the other thing I would like to add is I would also uh Envision in speaking with the mayor uh because he he asked me Paulie you know what we need to provide you know we're responsible for the health safety well-being this is the well-being part and a lot of a lot of people in these Economic Times don't have necess necessarily the ex extra income and uh if we have the provision to provide and coordinate bus trips to Atlantic City to Broadway plays to sporting events uh not that we would pay for that but we can coordinate that and perhaps offset some of that cost that burden and this way residents can sign up and they can go and enjoy these events they don't have to right you know be burdened okay okay and you have a motion the last time we did have Rockway tantri day the fireworks if I remember correct were actually included into the uh cost where it didn't actually cost us anything yeah 201 19 we we did hire someone to do well we didn't hire them someone did it and included everything and we got a cut at the end so we didn't pay for them we're looking for Rockaway day not to charge the r Town Rockaway Township day the goal is for the next Rockaway Township day to do it all inh housee so the residents aren't paying get in which they did the residents end5 right they ended up paying for the fireworks true course okay guys we do have a motion on the floor one question yes we didn't hit 151 151 is a is a are The Ledger entries for page 149 well was this done before because the requested amount was 22,000 that was less right and then it was recommended to bring up to 317 they added the $9,700 right after the fact right and because we have a special bench coordin and they didn't expend the they added in the National out it wasn't in their original right okay so miss noon made the motion do we have a second we do not have a second so we will not be taking that up anything else for tab nine um so on page 155 and this is probably for Al because it's parks and Rex um Dave what are you doing we I Dave get out of so um and this is kind of like a side note in the generalization of the weed controls all of your chemicals so we now have a water committee and all of these things and we've had residents come to our meetings with concerns about the use of chemicals and then you know having a negative impact on our water bodies are any of these chemicals or are we looking into other chemicals non-chemical we try to use not the ones that are are advertised as as the H so like phosphorus is one of the biggest issues which fertilizers then put into our water bodies I know Ryan's really proud of me back there I see you Ryan um those are the types of things that we continue to look at and then also potentially to decrease fertilizers on our fields and things of that we try to yes perfect thank you okay I just know the organic Mr Brook you good I thought you were gonna say something all right anything else for tab nine okay I'd like uh we did have that one change the um the uh on H 146 uh I make a motion to approve tab nine with the one change that was noted with the ditto comment clerk please take the role councilman Fred ler yes councilwoman noon yes councilman Brooks yes councilman sacket yes councilwoman Brooks yes councilman Quinn yes councilman voitovich yes vice president salberg yes president Chris yes that's nine yeses motion passes moving all the way up to tab 17 opening discussion on Tab 17 uh yes council president page uh shoot 216 yes uh looking at the sub account 208 um the fees again um 171 we budgeted they used 12 they requested 20 they was then recommended 7 191 um 21 about 6,000 was spent 22 7,000 this year 12 um I'm just making I'm going to make a motion to lower that to 12,100 can I'm sorry but before we do that yeah can we just have some discussion before the motion thank you yeah so um I'm sure as you guys know we took on the services share service agreement with Rockway burrow Rockway burrow is a huge Spanish speaking population and the interpreting fees in there are are going to be 17 that's why I requested 20 to be honest with you because it's a huge Spanish speaking portion and the interpreting is $500 to $600 a session are we reimbursed from that through from the borrow since we take that on we are not it's part of the agreement we're getting it in there somewhere it's not costing us money to do it okay Mr Quinn yes part of this contracts for all of these subcontracts that we have with the Court are they paying for our police or are they supplying police as representatives of their Court the their police coverage is not in the contract so Rockway Township is suppos so we're picking the tab up part of the tab security the security for the judge and everybody in the room and so the monies that they're paying were eating being at that in housee with the police yes and no we would need them here police would be here anyway we need them here anyway yeah but physically they're in the building but physically they wouldn't be in court unless it was our court they would have to cover our court sessions corre matter what and we we we we roll it into one session they don't have a separate session just for themselves Lisa how much uh money are we collecting from uh Rockway burough then for just to give the residents an idea think 85 yeah okay so okay so then the up upcoming fees is definitely highly upset thank you and to Mr uh Quinn's Point that's something we would definitely look at um I I I forget when we the the contract in 2025 when it you know matures we'll when we go to renew the contract with the burrow obviously you know it's a learning process so you know we just entered this into them so we would want to talk about that yep yep I'd probably want to incorporate the translation fees into the contract that if we need if it's costing us more for police I want to build that into the contract but so yeah great points Richard the uh with the uh the trans how how much generally is the uh for the translator how much are the fees it's it's it ends up being roughly between $500 and $600 a month wow it's it's with the whole with well with virtual court now yeah you need to have a virtual interpreter in your session and that tripled the cost W so are you comfortable then you actually now just think about it so it's funny well no just because you did you did ask 20,000 so that's why I want to bring it up like what happens if we run short there you know talked about that 177,000 will my guess is we'll be right there at the end of the year that's why I requested 20 to be safe uh we do bring an in-person interpreter once a month and we do virtual for every one one every other session but it's it's our biggest expense by far thank you CC Rich knows how to negotiate he wanted 17 but he asked for 20 he know what he's doing yeah that's okay I like the clarification thank you right thank you anything else on Tab 17 okay I'd like to make a motion to adopt tab 17 as written I'll second it CL please take the role councilman freedlander yes councilwoman noon yes councilman Brooks yes councilman sacket yes councilwoman Brooks yes councilman Quinn yes councilman voitovich yes vice president salberg yes president crits yes it's nine yes as motion passes Thank You tab 21 water any discussion I know we've had a lot of yes Council presid thank you yeah there's a lot of vacancies um page 236 um I'll start with 236 um looks like we currently for almost actually nine months now we have a uh super water sewer superintendent vacancy we have a assistant now we have a retiree from 21 water repair sewer repair super supervisor vacancy we have a heavy equipment operator vacancy labor one vacancy that looks like it's been vacant for two years just just from one reading this I know there's a lot of movement Parts like you said um and then also looking at the water super superintendent since it's vacant um we had approved last year 123,000 and now it's being bumped up to 130 um if you can discuss those four items yeah the uh the the vacancy for the labor position has been filled already okay okay that's labor one yes so there is a vacancy built within the uh ser U ility budget for when Pond View is taken over by Rockaway Township when there two sewage pump stations come online that's a vacancy that you're probably looking at but as far as being staffed currently we're fully staffed with laborers within the water utility but division okay okay the heavy equipment operator um is is built within uh the division um pending on uh potential retirement of two employees one employee is currently working on of title uh I viewed it myself it is no sense in changing someone's title if they're just looking to retire anyhow to go through the rigar civil service so that's that's within there now um we are currently looking for an interviewing uh potential people for superintendent and assistant or supervisor um the licenses that go along with that are very difficult to obtain D is that enough money then what was that is that enough money budgeted for it then it's it's it's adequate enough I I don't necessarily in correct it's not necessarily about the budget it's about the talent pool that's out there that that can meet the needs of that position yeah and and the and we did interview for the sewer superintendent and these jobs are are going for quite a bit of money no I understand that's what I'm saying in other words by the time this budget passes we didn't pay for a salary of five months if you consider that right so this is the balance of the salary and we're looking at hiring a superintendent it's been it the pool of of people available uh it's a basically supply and demand uh there's a great demand and a low Supply and these folks are generating High salaries uh for this municipality it was determined that 130 uh would be a fair salary I mean there is some flexibility in terms of who the what the Water supervisor ends up paying we could up that a bit but I will say for water superintendent the range is probably more like 130 to 140 if not more this is what the market is demanding right now okay um your water utility [Music] requires oversight Capital oversight of of of employees and the Water supervisor position is also essential um and then the assistant water though it seems like you're bringing that down then because it was 85 and now it's saying 80 well that was for an assistant that was once the position was an assistant water superintendent uh we don't need an assistant water superintendent we needed a Water supervisor which would lower that salary that salary range is probably from 70 to 80 to get somebody who has begun the licensing process but we don't we don't have any candidates currently for that either no we've been interviewing since I've gotten here oh wow it's it's just they're tough tough positions uh anything to do with a sewer or water it's supplying demand and and and unfortunately a lot of the people that did this are retired you know we get the list from the DP we have a list Dennis got a list from the DP every single person certified in the state of New Jersey and when you look at the year that they were certified 1975 I'm pretty sure they're not coming to rock away yeah okay you know so it it's been a challenge but we're not we're not giving up you know we're g we'll find that we're going to find the right fit for this town right any other PL should we give you more money we give you more money to make that more enticing to get somebody but but like she said this is all five months have already passed or three months have already passed so this would be enough we would be okay to be competitive and and please be mindful of the fact that this is a utility this is separate from the current fund we would also need to change self liquidating utility and I think Lisa can confirm it generates a pretty good fund balance we we couldn't do this without changing the range in a separate ordinance anyway we would have to do that first before we do right say that again like the I don't know what you call it where the you do a pay range salary yes you would have to do that first before you do those okay all right let's just say hypothetically something in two months we find a great candidate we need $10,000 more dollars is that something we can adopt as an ordinance during so we can change it during the year through an or what the range is but if it's we could 130 can it okay so we could yes Mr Clint how about uh do we do incentives for our guys to keep going to get shs so that they can move up in the ranks yeah we do okay we do it takes it takes quite a while to get your your test for your license and then there's a Time Gap that you need to actually be within that license range in order to take your next exam at Brian he started when he was 10 well his hair is was long enough yeah is it true that he swam here today Mr Freelander yeah not mentioning names asking I'm oh sorry the people in the department that have been here a while that are uh sewer repair repairers too with yeah with a salary higher than a person that you're asking to be the supervisor have they uh you're talking about promotions and qualifications have they and offer that position to move up and then hire a sewer repairer two at the lower position I mean if you look at the numbers here does that make sense that the person that's going to be the supervisor is making a lot less than the people that are working for the department so so we've interviewed inous for these positions as well um what we're currently looking for in a supervisor nobody in our current utility is licensed um to fulfill that role the experience yes in the field 100% um we have interviewed with in the utility for that um and we have had spoken to other candidates within our utility um and they have not wanted that but to his point if let's say you promoted them they're already making more than that position would allow for but you can't promote them without them having the certifications yeah but if they did get the certifications let's say they had their certifications and you wanted to Pro them today you couldn't because the promotable position is less than they're making yeah because you have to be mindful to we're looking at the old salary ordinance stuff so to his point is that enough do we need to increase that line we have for the supervisor come on Ryan come on Down's cations are coming L we're going to be um implementing treatment with those regulations currently I don't alreadying up to kind of put these treats in place when those treatments go into place your go so you're a higher guys areas possible with these new coming into play you could possibly LEL is level so you guys currently are treating water for about 20,000 people lot of people so I just wanted to at least say that just to maybe I know something to think about because you know the higher Lev class are enate people they not require to get these class you know these want to be a three you're well no that's based off what your town classification is tell right now the other two are probably have to get treated as well just looking at water you know just something to think about I meic higher skill so would it be worth Miss P to take a look maybe we don't take action on it today but take a look at the salary range and then reassess what we would allow for a salary in the future can we take that up at a at a subsequent sure council meeting is that acceptable to everybody right for superintendent the supervisors like all of them not just that one we should take a look at the department as a whole we can but like what Paula was saying is these are vacant and they've been vacant for three months they're probably going to be vacant for at least another month or two so I think the budget is sufficient as it stands but then we have to pay them next year we have to look at next so then we would have to adjust right there's enough money for us to go to the point is so here here's the question so there's one position that is open for a supervisor that we have 880,000 for if you had a stellard candidate that came in looking for 90 would we be able to hire them this budget would absorb it we would be able to hire them okay understood so was there a motion in there from anybody I no okay good page 237 oh never mind go ahead uh uh sub account 31 uh looks like Allan Dennis had put in requested $40,000 and then it was raised recommended excuse me uh $50,000 and I looked looked at the details on it and said uh chlorine tabs and testing and additional chemicals just for Pond View um so I just want to ask Alan Dennis like you got you guys were good with 40 and then no we we had originally spoken about going off of the uh what was used in the last couple of years reducing it possibly or keeping it at 40 but looking forward and and as Ryan just spoke about more treatment coming in Forth we we thought maybe would better go the other way with it so 50,000 would would be appropriate is any money coming from PM view to to offset that currently we don't own and operate pond so that that's a cost for the future for us so we have to um they're they're probably about I don't know three quarters of the way done with Pond View it'll probably be about another two years before we absorb anything with them um but not just Pond View treatment it it's other additional costs with our treatment as well that that could go up um and what supply chain Logistics right now chemicals everything is kind of going up as well I don't know if anybody has a pool but like last year year and a half ago the trying to get chlorine was like you know I could have sold it on the black market right all water um so we have to adjust for all that thank you just again just for the record um page 237 um section uh 028 just for the record the the um necessity for the increase uh request of 30 and recommended to 150,000 uh so without us having a superintendent and a supervisor without licensing I don't currently hold those licenses uh we have to have a license operator um as well so that's why that contractual budget is going so if we do hire the supervisor this cost goes away it's just one liner or the other it's not doubled up okay good any other discussion you raising your hand you have something over it I gu uh okay I'd like to make a motion to adopt uh section 21 as written oh second cler please take the Rong councilman freed lender yes councilwoman noon yes councilman Brooks yes councilman sackin yes councilwoman Brooks yes councilman Quinn yes councilman voitovich yes vice president salberg yes president critz yes it's nine yeses motion passes okay guys are we ready for tab 23 this is my favorite T I know all right let's open up discussion on 23 that's not me uh open space was part of the uh is non-negotiable was part of what we passed earlier that was tab 22 my book they me a wrong book 23 we're going to open up a commission to take a look at that we're on to the capital Improvement tab 23 your book's wrong my book must must have been Mr it was his defective my recycled one was from 200 was from 20188 just to clarify okay um let's talk about the capital uh it's page 244 correct no nothing what it is Miss Brooks yeah so in October we get to go see all the fire trucks and all the equipment and all the awesome stuff um and for the past two inspections I've gone to the Birchwood fire department and I see a jaws of life being stuck to a fire truck with bungee cords is there in this budget proper repairs and clamps for that fire truck uh there's there's money in there for vehicle maintenance and and if there's a device that's not properly mounted on the vehicle to secure the equipment that would be absorbed in the vehicle maintenance line of the operating money there is a requesting Capital to replace 10 um the rescue vehicle out of Birchwood but that's a future project um Chief yeah we what we requested we would be able to get CLS so in October when I come and sit in your fire truck and ask to drive it again that is no longer going to be held on by bungs she likes doing the siren can I get a confirmation I'll pay for the clamps thank you'll be duct tap listen you guys take such amazing care of this equipment and the trucks and the machines and everything so when I see that I know it has to kill you guys because you put so much Blood Sweat and Tears literally um into the trucks so you know two years in a row it was just a little upsetting not on you guys but if someone can you know I'm sure we got a welder somewhere my up yes all very good um this is one that I know that I've talked about over the years you could tell me I'm crazy but we have $20,000 in for computers and networking by the time we pay off the the the the money the computer would be gone 15 years later right so why can't we use that money you know the computer stuff in your budgets and not put it as capital i i that's always cons I just don't understand that we just so it keeps it out of the current fund when it's a capital it doesn't no I I understand that but a capital you pay over length amount of time right I mean you're not paying well right now this Capital as Lisa had mentioned all the capital except for the request for the aerial truck is already been authorized oh so this is the one I argued about a couple years ago and I lost about computer I don't get it I I wouldn't it's like buying a laptop laptops are extinct it's more like a a server you know what I mean it's like so we put 20,000 in budget every year in the capital budget so over time we may have I don't know after five years we have we have $100,000 so we could purchase a for example a server something more substantial than just a laptop okay all right because I don't yeah that's okay very good and the last one I had for this was uh Mount Hill Pond improvements um I was is that is that something new for this year speak on that um we've been tucking away uh M Pond improvements that well are you under engineering or yes yes Parks and Recreation services Senior Services that's related to the rehabilitation of the d uh no this one's fencing volleyball court picnic tables yes that's for uh we're looking into getting a new volleyball net looking to get new fencing um um improvements basically yes all right well um so I'm just going to go on a little tangent here nothing big um so those of us who are Mount hopers and have been around Mount H hope and you guys all love the F house right we have very limited parking over at the FAS house right and right as we're it's very not really safe to kind of get to the fish house um Mount hop Pond is pretty much directly across from the F house and very close to the church that we're looking to maybe do something with in the future for the Historical Society correct and we're also looking to do the dam which is basically the pathway from Mount hopan to that location so my thought process is if we consider parking for the F house and those things at Maho Pond that would fall into the category of the historical restoration of of that area correct so what I'm thinking is maybe we look to put one of the uh one of those um bathrooms like they have concession stands that they have at parks lake that is you know kind of a drop in we spend a lot of money on like the uh the Porta crap or potty sorry that's my construction guy coming out of me is that for like a minute a minute I know I'm sorry I'm sorry um so I mean I know back in the day there used to be bathrooms up at Mount hopon um and there was actually a uh you know it was a big thing out there we used to actually it was before my time but um working there but my whole thing is maybe we turn that into a huge historical type of situation where you can go park there you could walk we could have maybe along the pathway different things you know talking about the area most people don't know where the M shaft is actually in the lake you know in the pond right that's where it came from you know so I'm just maybe we tie that all into something and maybe we increase the fee for the picnic tables and stuff to in order to get one of those bathroom situations and and then maybe look in the future of tying in the parking and and everything to that area this I mean it sounds like a again I'm not speaking for you guys I mean it sounds like a great proposal I don't know if it's something that we would fund right now well I I think right it that's a great vision I agree with you right that's something we definitely want to do the church the only barriers going to be with that is that the county the count no I understand that but that's half of the things that we have a problem with of tying that whole thing together I think it's a fantastic idea not something we probably do this year um but I think it's something that you know Mr Dy and the administration could start talking about we Loop you into it you know what what what would be the vision and then come up with numbers for that and then maybe next year start um endeavoring that but I do like the idea of putting in a bathroom this year yeah it's a great idea so I'm wondering if we could maybe up that I don't know what the cost for one of those drop in situations is but so I I don't know who can speak to what it would cost to put in one of those bathrooms m ronte is that something um if yeah if I may there I I can simply speak I can't speak to the structure but there'd have to be a septic system to accommodate and there's there's formulas within seven title seven chapter nine about what would be required but probably a minimum of 15K maybe as much as 25k for a suitable septic system couldn't that shed has Plumbing pipes in it so in the back far Corner in the back parking lot it's where they store the equipment right um there is there was Plumbing up there it looks like there was Plumbing there at one point in time it may not be real Plumbing it could be for a septic but was it Plumbing in or Plumbing out listen I'm not an expert I just know there were pipes that looked like maybe there was some sort of toilet I don't know it's a little bit of scary Shack but to to councilman Brooks's point I do think at one point in time from what I hear from some of the um older generation they did a lot of things up there and there's electric and there's a lot more up there from the past that we actually don't use today which is ironic right and I was going to piggyback on we have a lot of cameras but we have No cameras in the parking lots and things at up there at Mount H Pond and I know after hours can become problematic so so adding some money to that pot I think let's take care of his do it together well Mr North you have any knowledge of these things yeah so I I think what you're referring to as far as the plumbing goes to at the base of the plumbing um it it's it is this is historical Plumbing um this this relates you forget I'm from W 6 I'm very familiar withal this relates to the valve pit at the bottom of the dam which the mine used to draft water from the pond um and I think that plumbing is all what what you see there is is some ancient water system that is taken from the pond itself no no no Al this is in the if you go to the top by the parking area that's correct yeah this is all the same where the used to be back in the this is all the same area yeah the Egyptians built it fantas to my to my to my knowledge there is no or was no well on the property this was all taken from the pond so is do you want to I would like to explore it maybe put some money towards it because I think it would be something so what would be miss fronte or or what would be required to start the process of investigating a bathroom facility I believe the sewer stops at Hope off of the firehouse just system sewer he's he's sneaking would this be a gravity fed line or would we need a pump station no it's gravity fed but can we do a self-contain where would just I mean we flush it that would have to be a septic system like I said 15 to 30k yeah that's cheaper than send in all the way down the hill um you could do a feasibility study too so that kind of like takes into account like what you're trying to accomplish that's ask you have to sub it at an engineer assuming but I just want like if you want if you want to explore that that's something that you could do end at the firehouse right what is a feasibility study cost we did one for the denvil interconnect recently um I off hand I don't really remember what it was what we cover uh our feasibility study was 15 grand 13 to 15,000 yeah so maybe 20 grand better you're better just to put the seic in yeah all right but how would you like to account for that if the gentleman is going to make a motion how would you like how would you like to account for that in the budget Paula little bit more so with respect to the budget right now the current capital and I don't know the state if we added that if we would now have to add that to our additional authorized debt I don't know because we repurposed a bunch of already funded projects if we're adding new debt now we're going to incre we're going to we're adding new debts with project so could we re let's say and I don't know the procedures could reopen the water and sewer Tab and then put that into that division put in a feasibility study into the water and sewer we could absorb the 20,000 in the sewer the sewer Reserve in the sewer Reserve not in the capital so if we want to do something like that we can make a motion to make a motion no because that's just a that's a reserve that's already established so we don't need to do anything for that not for the 20,000 study for the study now but realistically we wouldn't be doing it this summer anyway we would do the study this year and then we could talk about it in the yeah we could it in the head that's fine yeah I have no problem with that like I said I I look at the budget and to be honest I didn't get excited about anything for the for the community I'm being honest I'm not going to lie good so so the the goal would be right do a feasibility study come up with a plan for all the improvements the whole um and then come up next year with the budget and put it out there for you all the reviews yep okay also oh sorry like like councilman Brooks is saying with maybe we'll as well checking the possible grants available for this well it would because it would fall under her possible historical because we're tying it into a hole that's why I do you have any historical bathroom money M times because I'm across the street the Historical Society has already reached out and we're still we need help from the town because I've questioned that church forever I mean if you walk that property and you look at that building it's a shame because the longer it stays like that you could end up taking a bulldozzer and leveling it you as far as parking that property across if it was cleaned out and the county does what it's supposed to do with that building there's plenty of parking there that can accommodate that little section with mount with Mount hopea what you plan on you know with the pond it would be a great area for everything so we got to push as the town to get with the county and say you know blank or get off you well I think the County's been killing us in those parts in terms of EX exactly everything that we used to have as a kid growing up here we had we had the golf course we could go to we had the craigm we can go to we had all these things we go to we don't own anymore and they're not even here so kind of you see the advertis what what the grant money is going to at different C towns but this is uh you know it took a long time to get the heating vent we get in the bathroom in the fort f house finally I mean it's a NeverEnding process but we got to push the county for that church if you want to expand like you said with parking and everything else it's important okay Miss n yes keeping with the Mount Hope um and just listening and I think it's all important but um I'm hearing bathrooms and I'm hearing cameras I I think the camera should be the first step because for years I've been hearing about problems at night no at night um up at Mount home it'll be part of it'll be part of that stud okay good um okay further discussion on Capital okay mic micophone microphone it's it's on no it's been on just turned it on oh you did I thought I was laughing enough I'm sorry uh what's what's going on with Peterson Field as far as the improvements I mean yeah the upper with the ball fields I mean so we're still um in an evaluation process there's some new things that have come up um there's potential for the town to acquire Norway field so that's building into the decision making process in terms of what's next and what we're doing I would expect in the next three to four months wants to have really an outline because it's more than just Peterson it's a strategic overview of all of our fields and and how are we making improvements to all our fields and those things so and that takes time so it's working with Mr Dyer um with Mr fronte Mr Noth and and the W programs to really determine where our real needs are I don't just want to throw money in the Peterson to to because you know that's where we want to build something I I really think we need to be looking at Recreation holistically and including our lakes and water bodies and walking trails and things like that and that's what we're in the process of doing and I really do in the next you know two two to four months hope to have something to show the council but in in this um budget there's there's nothing in there right now well that's it so in other words what we planned on last year with the cutting of the trees up in Peterson up on the top level with the two bull fields was was squashed right now that was done right can you maybe someone can clarify what the turf replacement is yeah I'm just estimating the 10year life expectancy of that turf field they said it's going to last about 10 years it's the actual turf field not the grass field correct we're just planning for eventual replacement down the road you got it okay and then can you also just give me a little more explanation on exactly what phase two of the cameras looks like because you know I want like 164 Captain Sher wants 264 um yes well right now obviously there's cameras there um and we want to expand it I mean it's the next level will be going up closer to U the middle parking lot and the upper parking lot yep I still I still didn't get an answer about the trees that were supposed to be cut last year and the upper parking lot for the two new bull fields that we already well he said that there that's going to be part of assessing when basically do an assessment of the field and necessary um space so did that money go I don't think the intent of cutting the trees down was just to start building something correct yeah I mean the trees have to stay before we even begin to start uh you know it's part of the when we start breaking ground you have to leave the trees up until we start breaking ground the money actually Manny the money we allocated last year was for designed to be put together is what we is what the money was allocated wasn't for actually cutting the trees down it was for physically actually having a plan from an architect or an engineer to present to us for this year I thought we were my impression was the year before when they were doing the tur we already did that you know with the cutting the plans were to be cut the trees yes but somebody else that isn't here now didn't do that so we made a point last year to member I gave her the stern uh and we put money aside because she didn't do it so that's why want yes so we're supposed to be it should have been done but Paula has only been here for two months that person didn't do it again yeah so so we still have that money then I would assume unless Joe you didn't we didn't spend the money should stop that the only trees that were cut so far was when the initial uh tfield was put in for the spoil pile to put up on top also also for the mayor one fast I don't know if uh the count complete council is aware of nor you know the lodge what's going on because I know from the beginning and you so um Norbu Lodge owns Norway field um um and they are um looking to possibly have the township acquire that field so our our soccer program uses those fields a lot right so if you know we don't acquire it what does that mean so we're again it's something that builds into the evaluation of everything um so see I don't remember uh because we got to remember they got lighting there the the the dugouts and every you know all set up if if if you're if we're going to acquire that we're going to have to Turf it just because of the because of the water issues that are there you're going to have to Turf that field other I don't know if we'll be able to right is that Highlands or part of it yeah so that's again it's a big yeah you know and that's down the road but that's another option you can't afford to lose those fields too so know you know okay M noon yeah um just I know we bu Parks Leake is is both the Rockaway Township and the burrow so and I know we've done a lot with the bridge and and I see the the paving of the Walk of the path which is great um is there anything because I don't even think the fountain works over there is there any any plans or any future plans for the water yeah the water fountain is is Rockway Burrows I could ask I thought the fountain was ours no that's on the bur side drinking no no I think oh oh in the middle of the lake yeah that was joint between the township and and the burrow and that's it still doesn't work correct we're not voting yet M hold on I have a thing to add Brooks has something you know what doug um so this is not in the budget this is just something that I've been meaning to bring up and it's something to think about I think Al is the one that would maybe wanted or not want it but you know we want it in Word six so we have a street sweeper and one of the additions to our little fun Fleet could potentially be a leave pick upper you know those trucks that come and they suck the leaves up yeah so I would like you to potentially look into that for future Maybe the the issue with with that he always an issue is the the maintenance that goes along with it the cost of that and then where we deposit the picked up leaves we are our compost area is restricted to approximately two acres out of that Green Acres uh area located on where does the yard waste currently go when it's bagged when it when it is bagged yeah so currently you come around they pick up our bagged waste that is collected by Waste Management so we contract that out contract that out correct so if if you do have a high interest in that and you want us to we can explore going to Wharton they have one and seeing if they'd be interested in doing a shment with us okay we could look I mean I'm pretty sure they have so we could we could expl multiple ones because they collect they collect Town wi well I'm not going to ask for sewers but board six would like a lead pick her uper with with with with towns that that do collect Leaf um there there is a uh uh a mandatory amount of time that the has put down that leaves cannot be on the street for I believe it is 5 to 10 days the towns that do collect leaves that's all that they're doing DPW shuts down there's nothing else they're doing except for collecting leaves roadsides from October to well into February on on the on on the on the uh you know size of the Town not Le but we can I could explore we'll explore it and then at least we have an answer to come back to thank you council president real quick on the Mari brought up the paving of Park Lake path 132 670 are we splitting that with the burrow we only Paving our that for our half there was there was talks Paving of half Park Lake path yeah okay so clar there were there were talks prior to uh Miss karelli coming on board with the burrow um that intent is is got some room in there the burrow is looking at replacing the lighting and the benches also so before all of before we start running and Milling around and and then we're going to attack projects afterwards we're looking to get the smaller projects in first and then do the walking path so there may be additional monies needed that that that talk has kind of EVD flow our side will look really nice and theirs will need to be paved yeah okay what about that sealed chip can't get a truck on there right drive that the ground L it can but there's so many deficiencies with the path itself that it needs to be rehabed from the ground up literally you've converted me into a seal chip pan that's why I'm just okay anything else for tab for the capital tab tab 23 sorry yeah under the police department Rachel was increasing the vehicles I believe no I was just ask oh asking yes I was just asking well um then I would ask to put a uh pickup truck like they had currently have into this because uh the Patrol department uses that pickup truck with the barriers and everything else um they would also need to get a second one to uh because the mileage on that is going higher so my request would be uh it's around fully Decked Out is 83 grand for a police department pickup truck for that type of truck that's a utility truck for the RO the uh police department Pat controll division would they and I'm just asking the question if it's if it's to- do items like barricades and things like that does it need to be decked out as a police vehicle I saw I I can't find it now there was another vehicle there was a brand new vehicle that I think was in capital here that was being a tand truck no it wasn't a T truck it was a pickup truck um oh in park Rick where truck it with PL and lify like is that something that we could cross reference and use should I mean I just asking the question I mean 80 something, for another police vehicle they did not ask for it in a budget I don't know if it's as necessary if we're just doing it for barriers and such yeah have purchase of uh Parks division pickup truck with plow and liftgate if you want to make a motion make a motion I'm just saying is it I'll make the motion to add that to uh that because I think it's a necessary evil that has to be done that's fine so you're making a motion to add 83 $33,000 to that budget line for the vehicle they asked for three they got two for the police department Capital bu corre and that will bring us back up to the three that we initially ask for do we have a second I'll second cler please take the r councilman fre freedlander no council woman noon yes C counc Brooks departed councilman sacket no councilwoman Brooks no councilman Quinn yes councilman voitovich no vice president salberg no president critz no that's two yeses and six NOS motion does not carry any other discussion okay uh I'd like to make a motion to approve tab 23 as written I'll second clerk please take the R3 councilman friedlander yes Council councilwoman noon yes councilman sacket yes councilwoman Brooks yes councilman Quinn yes councilman voitovich yes vice president Berg yes president critz yes that's eight yes's motion carries uh folks that concludes our we did T 24 was part of the um is he left he left mayor too bad that's the or chart we approved that um guys listen that concludes the hearing I want to thank everybody again for the you know tremendous amount of work that they put in I want to thank councel for doing your due diligence and bringing up some very good points today and our next meeting will be on March 12th is the um is the goal to introduce on March 12th yeah that's the goal yeah okay awesome get work start nice awesome job