##VIDEO ID:wmBrpzWL7sw## e e e e e e e [Music] I'd like to call the meeting to order uh can we please start with the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with Li and all we please have a 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 cler can we have the RO councilwoman Freelander here councilwoman n here coun councilman Brooks here councilman sacket here councilwoman Brooks here councilman Quinn here councilman voy toic here Council vice president salberg here council president Morrison adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the Daily Record and the Star Ledger the official newspapers for the township of Rockaway notice was uh posted on the official bulletin board of Rockaway Township Township website and notice was filed in the office of the Township Clerk um I would like to make a motion for the approval of the minutes so moved second second coer please please take the role councilman Freelander yes councilwoman n yes councilman Brooks obstain councilman sacket yes councilwoman Brooks yes councilman Quinn yes councilman V toic yes Council vice president salber yes that's seven yeses one abstention motion passes all right uh Mr Mayor thank you Council vice president excuse my back again so um couple things to do tonight that would be fun to start off the meeting with one is to honor somebody who served our community um for a long time and served our country also so Mr Washington can you come on up here so for those you don't know this is Dave Washington I know it's Dave Washington because it says a proclamation I only know him as Mr Washington from planning board meetings so um Dave has been on the planning board since 1969 probably before a lot of the people were born here you were on a planning board so um I I you know besides that he's a he's a military veteran he served our community for many years and um you know this is going to be his last year in the planning board he has uh personal matters take care of so I wanted to honor him with a proclamation so Dave I'm going to read this whereas service to community which benefits the common good is necessary and honorable for over half a century David Washington has committed himself to the service of the residents of the township of Rockway whereas after serving our country in the Navy and before becoming a licensed architect in 19755 David wasain joined the rocker Township planning board in 1969 whereas over the past 55 years the Dave Washington has volunteered his time and energy to Township through his own service on the planning board all while operating his own architectural firm therefore now I Joe Jackson Mayor of the township of Rockway do hereby share a heartfelt appreciation and congratulations to David Washington for his 55 years of Stellar service and extraordinary contributions to the community I call upon citizens of the township Rockway to wish him good health and happiness in his life that he shares with his wife of almost 60 years Alice his son and daughter-in-law and his two grand children so thanks Dave for all you [Applause] do thank you yeah you're welcome and then Chief you want to come up um we get the four new officers to come up here um so it it's always uh you know as our town continues to grow um and so so does our police force for Public Safety it's great when you have you know three of these new officers actually grew up in Rockway um and and that's a great story right they live they were born here they grew up here and now they're police officers here protecting our community so Chief I'll turn over to you well I would just like to introduce for the first time our recent graduates from the police academy Branda D Toronto congratulations on a job well done [Applause] so we we like to welcome to the Rockway Township Police Department uh and now they're on to their next phase uh their field training uh so congratulations and we all wish you [Applause] well thank you C all right next we have open to the public I would like to read a statement first uh before opening the public portion of this meeting meeting I want to remind everyone of the rules that apply to everyone who wants to address the council any member of the public wishing to address the council will have 3 minutes to do so while an extension of time may be requested it should not be assumed that an extension of time will be granted while addressing the council members of the public may not address or question any individual council member if anyone addressing the council violates these rules our conducts themselves inappropri inappropriately their speaking opportunity will be terminated and they will be instructed to return to their seat or refuse to comply will result in removal from the room members of the public in attendance may not make comments from the audience without recognition by the chair persons doing so will be subject to removal from the room as Council vice president I have tremendous respect for my fellow council members and the public who take the time and effort to attend Council meetings these rules are necessary to protect and respect but also to permit the council to do its business in an orderly and professional manner ahead Mr Tucker Kelly and if you could please state your name and address uh it's Tucker Kelly uh 16 Megan root and Council vice president just to make sure that some of the statements that you made uh can't Trump title 10 under the opal public meeting act so I just want to make sure that we're clear on that that we don't violate anybody's rights and constitutional rights as well especially First Amendment uh if any of you remember on the 12th of November I had come here and I had some uh massive concerns about uh Council man Doug Brooks participating in the chicken ordinance while he's actually operating like a poultry farm at his house over around 554 Mount hob bav and at that particular time there was a lot of issues that were raised there were some photos there were some documentation and now researching even more documents through state county and local it shows that not only has Mr Brooks violated local ordinances that we had and participated un unethically into these ordinances concerning the chickens and poultry he also has uh gone beyond with Building without any permits approvals zoning approvals engineering approvals and even having stop work orders from The Soil Conservation District dealing with his property 554 Mount Hope Avenue now Mr Brooks is a licensed architect in the state of New Jersey he's also a director of construction in clean vapor llc and he's a council member and he was a coach I will ask that again you do direct your questions towards the council and counil Council vice president and and any time that you take it from me I would hope that I would get it back um but with that we now have Mr Brooks having uh his family and other members living in this house without any temporary cosos not any permanent cosos k i i do respect your time but I do ask that you do respect the wishes of the council to direct the whole Council and not I am directing to the whole Council I'm not looking at Mr Brooks uh directly I'm looking at you is there another way that you wanted me to look at the council well not look but address okay do you want me to pan left and right in order to address the coun not necessary okay just if you could please again if I could have my time back that You' taken to me Mr Kelly I really don't think your matters have any any bearing of any business you're actually interrupting me in my time no I think that you would be in conf your brother-in-law in regards to the ISS Mr Kelly you like to come to meetings you like to disrupt business if you have a problem with concern Brooks being recognized interrupt me while I have my time now she was not recognized but also I would ask you to respect the wishes to address questions regarding the entire Council and not identify I'm not asking any questions I'm only making statements I can't question you as you won't answer anything that I have so what we have here though in regards to these issues AO would this be considered a violation of the statement that we laid excuse me let okay very good thank you proceed again if I could have my time that you taken for your time I appreciate it so with all this being said we now have the depart Department of Community Affairs and Regulatory Affairs that are involved we have a transfer of this because of conflict with our current construction official because of the statutes that we have under 523 4.5 J with the uniform construction code but more concerning of this is that Mr Brooks's property which is an 8-bedroom home just under 4500 square fet just under three and a half acres is actually at a less assessment than some of you that have half the size of the home and a minimize of the amount of acreage that are there so like Mr woic you have one acre on your house you pay the same amount of taxes and you're under 3,000 square feet then Mr Brooks was something almost 4,500 Square F feet he's got an expansion on the pool he's got a pool house that he created out of a detached garage with facilities and living capabilities and I'm just wondering what is this Council doing see at one time this Council try to make a motion to create an investigatory committee to look into another council member receiving his own email on his personal email but I don't see this Council exercising the right under the Faulkner act you know under 469a 37.1 or 37 to create an investigatory committee to see why council member Brooks who's also a licensed architect in the state of New Jersey has not had any approvals any inspections working without permits not up ating permits avoiding tax assessors to come into the home basically because of the incorrect assessments that we have going on the rest of the taxpayers are paying the burden of him not paying his fair burden of share of of taxes like the rest of you are those who don't rent so what I'm saying is what is the council going to do I would I would request from the floor that you make a motion there's a second to the motion to investigate the practices that council member Doug Brooks is doing on that property violating zoning engineering and construction codes and ordinances within Rockway Township and mind you because of Mr Brooks this Township is also being sued for lying for allowing a sexual predator in his baseball program that molested a 15-year-old boy so there's a lot of things that we have going on here and all of you I mean Mrs Brooks right here is is actually sticking up for her brother-in-law and she probably swam in that same pool without any permits or use the elevator that he installed in his own house did you enjoy that elevator ride council president so with that I look forward to your motion to make that investigatory committee thank you is there anyone in the public uh that would also like to speak seeing none let's move move on to consent agenda Council vice president appropriate just to declare the public session closed this very good thank you open to the public uh speaking is closed thank you Mr Yano uh for the consent agenda uh we have items r- 24212 through r-4 uh d224 and r24 d226 uh can I have a motion so moved second cler please take a roll councilman Freelander yes councilwoman noon yes councilman Brooks yes councilman sacket yes councilwoman Brooks yes councilman Quinn yes councilman voy toich yes Council vice president sber yes that's 8 Z motion passes leave now uh we're going to be going into a closed session so can I have a motion uh to go into close session I'll make the motion would you do we want to do reports first yeah I think so that that works yep get that out so we can get these F get these folks home that's that's perfectly fine I'll start to my right um again please uh limit to five minutes uh councilman Quinn thank you um all right so the planning board we have a meeting Monday night so uh we'll see how that goes David will be there and uh the rec committee has been working its due diligence on trying to come up with a a plan for all of the different programs to have a boiler plate so that uh the township attorney and administration will look at it if it give it its blessing it will become part and parcel so that this way the rec department uh will have a boiler plate that they could work off of uh for all the various teams and programs following that um we had the Santa Claus come to town at the Gazebo on the fire truck that was fun the kids all loved it we had a great time um this this Thursday is the football dinner for the Rockets our kids that are graduating out of the program and will be going to the high school the boys and the girls I wish them all the luck in the world and hope to have a safe and happy high school program and seeing this is our last meeting before Christmas I wish everybody Merry Christmas happy Hanukkah happy K Quanza to all thank you uh councilman sacket just this question real quick uh was Mr Morrison okay I didn't receive any email or anything just making sure he's okay he's perfectly fine thank you I was surprised when I came here so thank you um just uh just uh want to wish everyone a happy holiday season thank you councilman Brooks thank you Council vice president uh first off I just uh want to say uh yesterday attended the uh Copeland uh uh band concert uh had a great time uh kids are very talented and it's a good thing that we continue to have the Arts in our school uh secondly just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah and a great New Year see you guys on the 7th thank you councilman voitovich yes I would like to uh thank Mr Washington for his service and like like the mayor said I am one of those people that wasn't even a thought uh for another decade after you joined the uh the board uh congratulations to our for our new officers um you know thanks to the administration because obviously the council approves the budget for expanding Public Safety and uh to see the administration act on it and followed through and you know act on a budget that we approved it's great to see and um that's it uh Merry Christmas and happy New Year thank you councilwoman Brooks um just want to remind everyone tomorrow evening at 7:30 in the Copeland cafeteria is the last Board of Ed meeting for the year and also um it was awesome to see that they finally had a ribbon cutting for the veteran Center over at County College of Morris if anyone's not aware what the uh the area that they've designated over there is doing it's really uh it's designed to provide the dedicated space for veterans across the Veterans Affair educational benefits academic Career Services counseling services and they'll also connect our veterans with County state and federal resources right there on campus so it's a really nice addition to not only the County College of Morris but Morris County um and just wish everyone happy holidays thank you councilwoman noon uh yes I'm just did to uh Mr Quinn's statement about Santa coming that was always fun that's always a fun time looking forward to the uh manora laning ceremony um and I we do not yet I think um but every happy holidays Merry Christmas Happy New Year and see you next year councilman freedlander thank you counil uh council president for tonight uh I just want to say uh I was at the Historical uh we had a historical meeting and the discussed was the mines and the railroads in Rockaway township going back to the beginning and it it's amazing what this town has as far as the history uh the library had its meeting uh of the month and they talked about uh applying for a a grant for the hiberia branch which is historical building and uh you could see if you go by uh they cleaned up the front repaved uh the parking lot and we got a couple more spots for people to park uh the other committees uh didn't meet yet so that'll be in January um there was one one other thing I had but you know what let's wait on that just uh have yourself a a Merry Christmas a Hanukkah a New Year enjoy with your family because I for one that could say uh it's very precious and you never know what can happen to somebody so take care thank you uh Mr Yano thank you Council vice president uh no report per se uh good congratulations to Mr Washington for his service on the planning board for all those years uh Merry Christmas happy Hanukkah happy New Year to everybody but I'll probably see you anyway mayor Jackson thank you Council vice president um few things thank you again Mr Washington I think uh you probably hear that a lot tonight and you'll probably hear it on Mon we gotta Jack we gotta have cookies or something right at the meeting on Monday we got to do something for you Mr Washington but appreciate your years of service and everything you've done um it better not be 40 years old though um the leion on the 30th had pictures with Santa to raise some money it was very good um the heroes for helpers event at Target and I hope the chief talks about a little bit was a great event um probably had over I think there were at least a dozen police officers helping the pal Challenger shop um they all and it was a great partnership with Target I think they each had a $100 gift card um and it was just a really special evening um again the the tree lighting I think went off U without a hitch but I will say it's nice when you show up there and the entire Command Staff for the police department's there showing their support um it's it's really uh nice to see um on the seventh Manny and I did a ribbon cutting with treasures remembered um really cool shop little I you call a boutique Manny maybe or something like that like she yeah yeah it's it's just a small shop but she does a lot of craft things and all that um and with that said I'll I'll read about um Dave uh Dyer connected with her so um her name is Dena um Dena grew up in hathorne New Jersey um earned her BFA in wood turning and sculpture from William Patterson University her creative Journey began as a wood turner and later as a model maker for a lamp manufacturer um her passion for sculpting truly came alive when she created a personalized cross in memory of her father that single heartfelt project marked the beginning of treasured embraced what starts a small Endeavor creating custom crosses to create special events um quickly grew eventually she established a kiosk in the Rockway mall where she spent the past five years expanding her offerings and connecting to a larger audience her product line has evolved from personalized crosses to laser engrav gifts home decor and peral merchandise today with the opening of the storefront treasure embrac Dina remains dedicated to offering me meaningful high quality items that celebrate life's milestones and bring joy to customers she's excited about the new chapter building relationships within the community and collaborating other local businesses to grow and Thrive um you can visit our Facebook site to see more about Treasures remembered and find out more about Dina um Saturday there was a vendor fair Pon view um this past Saturday I think it was on the 8th um I also want I think I mentioned it last meeme I'll just read this um uh Sue Gabe from our rec department was not was uh uh recognized as the 2024 Municipal Alliance volunteer of the year um for um our our MAAC so uh for Rockway Township Mack so Susan Gabe has been dedicated member of Rocket Township municipal Alliance for five years and currently serving as Miss Alliance chairperson she has assisted and expanded all Alliance programs that serve senior citizens building a strong relationship with the seniors of Rockway Township as the chairperson she supervised the completion of all Grant paper work while leading the alliance and balancing professional and personal responsibilities Susan gabes commitment to the health of Rockway Township maker deserving recipient of the Morris County Municipal Alliance volunteer of the Year award um and in terms of uh the monor ceremony I'll let uh when we get the Mr Dyer I'll let him speak to it so I'll turn it over to you okay thank you mayor uh Miss PA Mary yes thank you um the uh the note sale that I reported on last uh council meeting is scheduled SCH to close this Thursday um I'm asking the council members and anyone who happens to have a budget book from last year that you would like to recycle I would appreciate it if you would bring them to maybe the next council meeting or two um if you want to keep it that's fine but I just if you're if you're looking to let it be recycled I appreciate it if you could turn it in um other than that I just want to wish everyone a happy holiday season thank you thank you Miss R yes um first thank you Mr Washington for your service it is a volunteer position so thank you for coming out every Monday once a month away from your family uh you will be missed and uh your colorful comments to developers will be missed um just update on a couple of projects uh working with DPW and Municipal and our utilities on uh the improvements to Reservoir Road you'll see that New Jersey natural gas is getting in there ahead of our improvements so thank you for your patience as their they have their detours so Reservoir Road working also with DPW and utilities on their new utility building at 17 old Middletown working through the numerous submitt um to get that building built um working also with DPW and utilities parks and wreck um on improvements to Peterson so you should start to see those as well but first is going to be um improvements to Richard Street over over in Birchwood so and that's it thank you Mr tet oh yes thank you Council vice president just really quickly uh we had two uh successful flu clinics for residents recently also had two cold but well attended rabies clinics the most recent of which was Saturday three days ago um and uh just wanted to mention that we have more flu vaccine if any residents are interested they can reach out to our nurse Morin Weller U and uh can make an appointment and come in at their convenience for a shot and happy holidays to the governing body and to the public thank you Chief Sher thank you Mr Washington it's been a pleasure thank you very much for the time that we served together on the planning board uh although I was not there for 40 years so but thank you uh as the uh police department had the wonderful opportunity to participate in the heroes and helpers so we had many of our officers attend over which was support supported by uh Target uh it was a well attended event uh there was nothing more joyful than the happiness and joy that it brought with all of the children uh to be able to do that shopping who doesn't like presents right so that was exciting uh the officers enjoyed it we also had the opportunity to to uh stop in at the tree lighting ceremony and Santa uh we will be attending uh over the weekend we have another Shop with a cop event being held uh at Walmart this weekend so we look forward to doing that as far as the production from the police department this month we had 368 calls to service Andor incidents that were recorded 79 motor vehicle crashes 392 Motor Vehicle encounters 10 domestic violence incidents 130 medical fire Andor 911 calls two DWIs 64 alarm responses four community policing events 1 1679 residential commercial and school property checks 12 assist other agencies and officers issued 263 motor vehicle summonses for the month of November everybody enjoy your holidays thank you thank you Mr Dyer good evening I'm hoping to have a date for the uh monora lighting here shortly and I'll I'll get an email out to everybody um but I also wanted to again the mayor touched on it congratulate Sue Gabe on uh volunteer of the year um you know Sue Gabe there's a lot of special people that work in this building um and uh sugab is is number one uh we all know it in this building um she's professional hardworking kind-hearted I can't think of anyone else where all 26,000 residents sooner or later are going to run across sug gate um Rec Recreation sports summer camp Mount hole Pond dialer ride senior group meetings senior exercise gazebo concert series Meals on Wheels um pet licensing um takes care of the lobby which even takes care of when you lose your dollar bill in the vending machine so I just want to congratulate her once again she is you know they say Duncan um America runs on Duncan Rockway runs on Gabe so I'm proud to work with her and uh just want to congratulate her again that's it thank you Mr coward no report just merry Christmas happy New Year and happy all all holidays all right thank you everyone so now we are going to uh go into a close session uh so me please have a motion so move second clerk please take a rooll councilman Freelander yes councilwoman noon yes councilman Brooks yes councilman sacket yes councilwoman Brooks yes councilman Quinn yes councilman V toic yes Council vice president salber yes that's eight yeses uh motion is approved uh we shouldn't be more than a half hour if it should take any longer we'll be sure to notify the public thank you e e e e e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] scpt that's because I'm not yeah are we all present all right um I'd like to make a motion uh to come out of close session I have that motion I'll second it cler please uh read the role councilman Freelander yes councilwoman noon yes councilman Brooks yes councilman sacket yes councilwoman Brooks yes councilman Quinn yes councilman V toic yes Council vice president salberg yes that's eight yeses motion passes all right I'd like to uh make a motion uh to adjourn our meeting so move second and a motion by consensus all in favor say I I hi right thank you good evening happy holidays you too J thank you hey guys