##VIDEO ID:J3OHBotkFrE## you ready you know of Christians coming Mary we don't know of Christians coming do you want to sit up here okay okay okay all right good evening everyone I'm going to call the meeting to order with a short prayer and a salute to our flag almighty God grant us the wisdom to make those decisions that are in the best interest of all our residents May the heavenly father of us all bless those who have given the ultimate sacrifice and service to our nation and may He watch over and protect our service men and women now guarding the gates of Freedom salute to our flag I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all Jessica uh statement of publication please take notice that this regular agenda meeting of the mayor and burrow Council being held on this 12th day of November 2024 has been posted and advertised in accordance with open public meetings act chapter 231 Public Law 1975 roll call council person Bala here polii here no NOA Roberts here sinari here Browski okay uh council president you have before um first I I move the following minutes of the mayor and Council be approved on roll call vote subject to correction if necessary the regular and agenda meeting second Council persons Roberts yes ala yes poliy yes sinari yes next item uh mayor we received the results of the referendum and I make a motion to direct the business administrator to engage special counsel to advise us on the best process to move forward to preserve the firehouse there second second roll call council person Roberts yes valala for the council to look at the best way to to direct the business administrator um have you looked at some of the ordinances that have come around vote no on this okay col C yesari yes and because we did um listen to what people had said about other things I do want to make a motion to adjust our time that we use from three minutes back to five minutes so I want to U make a motion to re amend that ordinance at this point there a second yes roll call person's Roberts yes kisi yes missa yes sinari yes title the ordinance change chre because that you could do an ordinance instruction on reading by title and then then you can do a resolution WRA up we have two meetings left in the year so I mean I'll allow five minutes going but if you did need the the ordinance that we were updating it's 29-24 okay thank you okay thank you okay with that uh we have um executive session with the attorney yep let me that's to discuss uh the board of litigation in an O matter uh whereas Section 8 of the open Public public meetings act chapter 231 Public Law 1975 permits the exclusion of the public from a meeting in certain circumstances and whereas this public body is of the opinion that such circumstances presently exist now therefore it be resolved by the mayor and bur Council of the bur of saal County of middlex state of New Jersey as follows the public portion of this meeting is hereby adjourned in order that the governing body may meet and close private session for approximately 20 to 30 minutes to discuss the following matters litigation following the conclusion of said Clos session the governing body shall reconvene the open portion of this public meeting to consider any other matters which may be properly brought before it at this time the nature and content of the discussion which occurs in closed session shall be made public at such time as the need for non-disclosure no longer exists this resolution shall take effect immediately your a motion make a motion is there a second roll call Council persons Roberts Bala kisi yes Denari yes very I make a motion to return to open second Council person's Roberts yes fala yes polii yes narski yes public hearing on the following ordinance ordinance number 46-24 ordinance amending construction fee scheduled for the burrow of SVO County of middle sex this time uh are there any uh comment on this ordinance there being no comments I'll entertain a motion Council move the public hearing be closed the ordance adopted on second final reading and advertises according to law second Council person's Bala yes poliy yes Roberts sinari yes public hearing on ordinance number 47-24 bur of saille County of middle sex ordinance regarding late fees for Motel licenses at this time I'm going to entertain any comment on ordinance 47 com I move the public hearing be closed the ordiance adopted on second and final reading and advertis according to law second Council person's Bala yes polii yes Roberts yes sinari yes public hearing on ordinance 48-24 burrow of saal County of middlex ordinance accepting deed of easement dedication from Parlin Executive Center LLC over a portion of block 30 lot 1.01 this time I'm G to open up the public portion for any comments on this ordinance are there any any no comments councilman Balon I move the public hearing be closed the ordance adopted on second final reading and advertised according to law second Council person's Bala yes Lei yes Roberts yes sinari yes public hearing on ordinance 49-24 burrow of seral County of middle sex ordinance repealing ordinances section 2-54 A titled regulations on contributions due to the preemption provisions of the elections transparency ACT public law 2023 Chapter 30 this time I'm going to open the public portion uh Jim thank you mayor Jim Robinson from Parlin I'm glad that it appears on some things you've either seen the light or felt the heat if you only had listened 10 months ago um things would be a lot better but I want to talk about the play the payto playay ordinance um we all know that the mayor has an $85,000 dark money committee donors are not disclosed and a chairman of that committee from South Jersey is the mayor's Chief of Staff he was recently appointed the deputy executive director of Sarah the group that makes recommendations on Pilots tax giveaways for wealthy companies now there's a potential conflict there that's obvious and the opportunity for corruption is not difficult to imagine I checked and nothing prohibits the mayor from voluntarily releasing the names of those who contributed to that secret 85 $5,000 committee mayor you stash John Mike you all ran last year on transparency and I would urge you to release those names and not use that fund to re REM to raise money to bankrol Future campaigns and as we saw on Tuesday all of that money really didn't help much and it it probably hurt and if none of the contributions are associated with builders none are associated with Pilots none are associated with people who have gotten appointments or jobs or favorable land use decisions or favors that will reassure the public who have obviously have concerns about the way things have been running in town and I think the ordinance the existing ordinance or a new ordinance should contain a provision that says that no one who sits on the council where the major boards such as the planning board Sarah the own board of adjustment or no one who can grant favors or has a high ranking position in administration or on Sarah should be associated with a fund that raises any disclosed or dark money to bankroll campaigns that would assure the public that everything is above board that corruption is not just something you put on a mail or paid for ironically by a secret committee but something there but there's a real real concern about preventing corruption and I ask you to please restore the Public's Faith with respect to what goes on in town and as I was coming in I was reminded of the story of one former mayor John McCormack sat where you now sit Kennedy and he had a dentist and he probably won't like me telling this story but he doesn't like a lot of what he hears at these meetings so we'll just chalk it up as one other thing he had a dentist who came before a l use Sport and the dentist was denied so he changed dentists he didn't say see my chief of staff who's also my political fundraiser he didn't say Pony up to this secret fund he didn't talk to any of the board members and say hey this is my dentist give the guy a break he didn't say a thing dentist was denied the mayor was embarrassed and he strange dentists you know what and that people had faith in government because that's the way he behaved as mayor and I think mayor I would suggest that you take a lesson from that thank you very much I move the public hearing be closed the ordinance adopt I'm sorry I'm sorry sorry sorry yes and I move the public hearing be closed the ordinance adopted on second and final reading and advertised according to law and um mayor if I may can I ask our attorney to explain that the state statute overrides anything we have oh we need to we need to there second second no yes yes some towns like had local Oran not consistent were were this does REM now def and by also books followup question could we codify the state's rules and put them in our code that we couldn't we couldn't do that know that way yes tonight I would like to to the human Relations Committee uh term Anthony is there a motion on this is there second second Council person's Vala yeah kisi yes Roberts yes sinari yes okay resolutions yep it's open to the public yeah this time I'm going to open to the public for comments on resolutions thank you mayor my comments on Resolute Jim Robinson Parlin on resolutions have to do mostly with the bill list well no I'm sorry there's a resolution 69 $5,000 for improvements to Cheesequake Road we just spent a lot of money on Cheesequake Road or the is the wareh are the warehouses paying for this is this connected to the warehouses or the tremendous amount of truck traffic we'll have there as a result of those warehouses oh I'm sorry that's a question mayor the the we're making a lot of progress tonight mayor the burrow received a grant of approximately $400,000 for improvements to Cheesequake Road it's going to extend from the warehouse site going toward Bown Avenue they're not paying for it okay thank you very much on the bill list I saw that there's this month we're paying $45,000 to jcpnl that's for a lot of bills a lot of things but you know street lights have been out for a year we pay them an awful lot of money if I had a vendor that I paid $45,000 to a month and I had an issue I would do what I had to to resolve that issue is and it's not not just a matter of convenience it's a matter of safety and I hope my comments are moot because of that executive session but I want to talk about legal bills for a moment because the legal bills on the bus depot are piling up and we're paying both sides as we know mayor you said more than once that you had no interest in settling or assisting the Board of Education with this we know you have a personal issue with the board but it's time to put that aside the council is supposed to set policy the mayor's job under the statute is to carry out those policies a one-man show with the mayor calling all the shots and the taxpayers is paying all the bills just isn't working Tuesday's election showed that the people aren't happy with that Arrangement the council the council needs to do its job they have to set policy they have to find a way to settle this suit by locating the Depot in an appropriate area and end the money bleed the two members of the council are former members of the Board of Education councilman Bala who's been on the right side of this issue since day one when you were on the school board and you continue to be on the right side and John zabowski who's interestingly enough whose campaigned for the Board of Education I ran many years ago so you two guys have an interest in this because your your connection to the board mayor you've had your fun you made your point on Tuesday the people made their point maybe you won't do this but I would ask the councel I would urge the councel do your jobs and resolve this I hope I hope that's what you were talking about in executive session I hope you have found a way to resolve this for the benefit of the people and the taxpayers and the students because we are all we're one Community we're all in this together thank you can you use the microphone please on sure it's on um just uh mayor as a quick comment um obviously I'm not going to discuss what was discussed in close session um but just a reminder for the public that we continue to review both litigation and resolution strategies at all times with all of our litigation um but and just as a reminder that this is one where we are the defendant which means um and it's not just a money issue it's also a specific performance issue so um it's well there may be various ways of potentially resolving the litigation it's not as simple as somebody sues us for you know $100,000 and we pay them $100,000 and it goes away it's h more complicated but um but we continue to look uh at all both defending the litigation and but also uh solutions to resolving it are there any other comments Anthony thank you mayor um I sat on the planning board that was part of the application the capital review of the bus depot and the reasons that I took a stand against the bus depot being placed where it was were because residents had approached us and had concerns that there had not been an environmental study done no no worries um residents had brought forward concerns in that planning board meeting that there had not been an environmental study done there had not been a traffic study done and in the survey that was sent out to all burough residents the two issues that residents identified that impacted them most greatly were the environment and traffic so because of those reasons I asked the superintendent to come back to the drawing board and on the strength of a thousand wrin votes in a losing campaign for Board of Education I did hear with frequency residents want this resolved and so I just want to bring that voice to this day specifically um I do also have a question if council president Roberts is able to have a bit of a back and forth um this is just about uh the recreation Improvement Grant um I know that we canel a teen night earlier in the year and there were issues about charging kids to participate and I feel like I remember hearing that the recreation budget had not increased for a while that they were working with the same amount of money year-over-year um so I don't know if this de is able to consider increasing the amount of budget that is allocated to the recreation department my son has certainly been a beneficiary of a lot of really good programs coming out of that department so I don't know if there's an opportunity for additional funding to be spent for recreation uh we're starting to formulate the budget we're cognizant of the fact that there's been an expansion of recreational activities we plan more for next year and there will have to be an equivalent increase in the rec budget as to what that will be it's too early in the budget process to do but we plan to expand programs uh considerably moving into next year okay so there is a commitment at least to increasing okay all right that's all I have thank you thank you are there other comments no other comments I'll entertain a motion and a public make motion to close the public portion I move the public hearing be closed and the consent agenda resolution be approved on roll call vote second second roll counc person Robert yes on 20 202 4248 the add Alex spill abstain on and yes on everything else alisi yes tarski yes motion to accept the correspondence as make a motion to receive second second all in favor I'm G to do a roll call Council person's Roberts yes fala yes kisi yes sinari yes reports mayor I'm going to discuss I have a another public so Mr Javari will be here to get you to the rest of the meeting so good Lu go easy on them guys please that's it okay mayor and Council reports administration of finance and and Dan if you just go right into Planning and Zoning thank you mayor I just want to thank Denise for her service to the buau and congratulate Danielle for her promotion and other than that whe they're working on the budget well starting to work on the budget and the finance and administration offices uh other than that progress mayor and then on Planning and Zoning uh the next planning board meeting is December 4th I believe and progress um Mike yeah so for um Public Safety and Public Works um progress on both by the way your guys did a very nice job yes they did thank you Recreation councilman sari Recreation Department winding down the only we have left is par lights holiday par that's be 12 6m down Main Street 30th Department I want to thank all the MERS of the recreation department they really put a lot of time in personally and it's a really good group of the directors than good charge thank you okay uh water sewer and environmental council president thank you mayor um I attended the environmental meeting recently it was a very productive meeting of wonderful group of people to work with um they have a lot of ideas the garden went very well all year um I do want to say that there was an event for flags for Heroes the day before Veterans Day that was well attended um the problem they had is that they were successful so um that's a good problem to have so next year hopefully it will be bigger and I want to thank councilman kesy for all the work he did with the um Rotary Club who sponsored that it was a very very nice event and well attended um and I just want to let everyone know the holidays are coming up the next meeting that we have here I will not be in attendance I will be on the phone um I not believe you need me to create a quorum um so I'm claiming I'm going to be off everyone else has to be here um progress mayor thank you uh under my report seral lost a favorite son this past Monday Mike Samuel he was one of the most decent men I had ever met he he was a loving father uh a terrific husband he volunteered tirelessly and endlessly at St Sans he was just one of those people that makes one of those Lasting Impressions in your life and Mike we will you will be sorely missed um you were well liked well respected for your time here on Earth and I know the good Lord has you busy at work already up there um and you you were just wonder hell of a man it'll be a long time before I meet a man of your caliber and character so if if everyone would if if I'd ask you to join me in a moment of silence for Mike Samuels um just one of the Great sons of srao thank you okay General discussion items Jessica application for a personto person transfer for the following um PRC PCL number 1219 33- 52009 from janve MAA to Bombay Suites located at 99 roote 9 Parlin all reports and paperwork have been filed okay um authorization for the tax collected to refund 2023 and 2024 taxes and cancel all subsequently bill taxes due to 100% disabled veteran tax exemption covering block 435.214 Merit AB in the amount of $1 14,651 73 next item authorization to renew Reliance Insurance Group as our insurance broker for health services for the year 2025 next item authorization to execute a contract renewal with North American Insurance Management Corp to serve as risk management consultants for the year 2025 anything else um authorization to award a contract to Continental fire and safety for extrication equipment through NJ State contract in an amount not to exceed $1,546 and10 next item authorization to renew a contract for animal control services with Associated Humane Society and the burrow for January 2025 through December 31st 2025 in the amount of 105,000 next item uh authorization to advertise for bids for a pole barn at the seral Active Adult Center next item and the last item is authorization to award a non-fair and open contractor contract to JP gager Inc for sewer grinder an amount not to exceed $ 35,37 thank you uh business administrator authorization to promote Danielle myana to CFO on the finance department effective December 1st 2024 than authorization to appoint Michelle Dunn as for DM dispatcher in the police department effective November 16th 2024 you cfo's report budget transfer resolution Mr Mayor thank you anything else Denise okay uh burrow Engineers report thank you mayor three items this evening first is the well maintenance that's the Burrow's annual contract we're receiving bids this coming Thursday if everything's in order need a resolution awarding the contract at the next meeting second IEM Morgan and water Improvement projects been completed recommending a closeout change order which is going to be a net reduction of in excess of $100,000 that need a resolution to approve that close out and then finally the bord toown Avenue Water and Sewer project the do is uh going to do improvements to board in 10 Avenue near Eugene Boulevard that's going to require some work to our burrow Water and Sewer lines so there's an agreement that allows them to reimburse the burrow for this work so just a resolution authorizing the execution of that agreement that's all I have mayor thank you attorney's report nothing nothing further this time with that I'll open the public portion for comments Frank Frank too with 32 Canal Street uh I was going to say what you said mayor about Mike uh Samuels he was hell of a guy and he's going to be missed so thank you for bringing that up a man like that this is true y there's not many of us around um I want to thank oh first of all yesterday at the Museum we had I think it was yesterday um Lan h and a seral hero we had a zoom meeting with him he was in Pennsylvania we were at the Museum we zoomed it uh he gave a story about his life it's it's amazing what this man did and we were there in July I could mention and we're going to have our video we got to clean up our video uh but we're going to have it out there to get the full story he was he was a hell of a guy World War II from Ser lived on Henry Street I'd like to thank council president robberts for uh recommending special counsel uh to save the firehouse uh would you be kind to introduce and uh designation tonight to local Historic Landmark that's correct Frank I said I said we were looking into it and we don't have the authority to do that yet okay just asking uh we look the seral hisorical say looks forward to working with you guys and see what we can do I think we put our heads together and I think we do something really cool but thank you for bringing that up and um Happy Thanksgiving thank you thank you Ken thank you mayor kenel sheski first of all I'd like to congratulate uh councilwoman elect uh Mary Novak uh and councilman sonari uh on their Victory uh last week uh and Mary Novak was the I might note was the high vote getter um so good job and and thank you um to say I'm overwhelmed uh tonight would be an understatement um hearing uh talk about going back to a a five minute public portion uh or public time limit uh uh meetings uh it's a step in the right direction I especially like to congratulate uh councilman Bala and councilman an NOA because they never agreed to that in the first place but no mistake about it I'm not taking away from anyone else because learning from your mistakes is a very important thing so with that I I extend congratulations to everyone especially to to those two gentlemen um let let talk a little about the the firehouse uh the mayor put communication out and said uh uh you know how ridiculous it was for millions of taxpayers dollars uh to be used uh on an unused unwanted Firehouse uh since the referendum won by a 2 to1 March and I don't think the public felt that way uh the only ones probably uh were disappointed in that was the mayor and and probably the deel developers because I think the residents of town they value the historic aspect of their community and not only those that were lifelong residents like myself there were too many positive votes for just that there were plenty of positive votes from people that probably haven't been in town all that long so I think that's a that's another valuable lesson that's learned and and this historic designation I'm not quite sure why it can't be done tonight uh and the idea I hope this is just not some more bureaucratic nonsense to come up with some other kind of a scheme but all we need is historic designation for this firehouse and I the idea that grants aren't available like the mayor said oh that's I don't want put words in his mouth but oh he he condemned that idea I think people like Frank and are and some of these people from the Historic Society have done one hell of a job for Sero in that I think it's something we can be proud of and I think they know what they're talking about would certainly take their word for it more than I would take the word of a politician um the other thing that uh just quickly I I know my time is up the other thing I'd say while you're restoring things please take a look at Zoom meetings because you're hurting people who can't get to these meetings a former councilman draw stood up here and said that was a mistake to take those away he said even himself from injuries during his service and sometimes he can't make this meeting so please look at restoring Zoom meetings while you're restoring things that were rather foolish I would like to say as far as Mike Samuel uh I didn't have the pleasure of knowing him very well I met him a couple of times but uh I agree with everything said and certainly extend condolences to his family for tragically what happened and I can tell you something else if this continues to restore things that were taken away you might not even see me coming at meetings anymore so I'm sure that'll make everybody smile thank you very much Jim thank you mayor Jim Robinson Parlin mayor I I agree with your comments your very nice comments on um Mike Samuel and I too extend my condolences um I came here tonight because I wanted to congratulate my friend stash on his his uh very strong second place finished Tuesday um as you all know anybody who looked at the results there was a republican tsunami in cbal except for the O'Brien team the that the mayor worked so hard to elect and the firehouse referendum that he worked so hard to defeat and stash you and I had this discussion um if you're going to be on a team be on the people's team be on the taxpayers team be on the no dark Money Team be on the Free Speech team be on the answer question team those are the winning teams those are the teams the people of sville want you to be on and I hope this election sent a message about to whom you owe your loyalty it's not to an a I'm sorry to it's not to an Ayatollah it's to the people and they spoke clearly and the ironic thing is you know if Christian and no no disrespect to anybody but if Christian had run he probably would have won he probably would have won because he embodies those principles you know I was at this very wonderful um uh ceremony yesterday and one of the people there said to me if you go to the meeting tell them when the Devils the Giants and the Jets lose they fire their coach and I thought that was pretty pretty intuitive of the person um but this is a good time to remind you what a weak mayor strong Council form of government is it means the council is in charge the council sets policy the council adopts the ordinances that Council settles lawsuits the council decides on historic designations the mayor's job according to statute is to Faithfully carry out the policies and ordinance ordinances that the council adopts and the council can and in fact did delegate many of the executive responsibilities to the administrator and just read the statute all executive responsibilities not specifically given to the mayor by law remain with a councel I assume a lot of you were going down to League municipalities next week just ask them what is the the role of the mayor in a burrow form of government it won't be a long answer it won't take a long time for that discussion the mayor presides over meetings votes in case of a tie and most appointments require Council approval strong councel weak mayor that's the law in a burrow and mayor I applaud uh I applaud your election statement calling for bipartisanship Mary Novak received 9,471 votes Tuesday more than any of you sitting up here the last time you ran mayor you got under 5,300 votes the only thing that outpull Mary was the firehouse which got an amazing 10,667 votes and I have a great idea to promote the bipartisanship you speak of Mayor as the high vote getter in the spirit of bipartisanship and transparency this Council should elect Mary the council president in 2025 five that would show that you are sincere in your comments about transparency and bipartisanship and I also want to congratulate the historical society and the voters the Historical Society put forth a well- researched fact-based argument and voters recognized that the sad irony is that why they didn't while they didn't ask for a dime because of that referendum 66% of the people said yeah let's spend the $3 million to preserve it I think the expression for what you did you councilman Bal or in OHA but the rest did is you were too cute by half and if you don't do the designation so they can get grants it could cost us that $3 million so I wasn't really impressed with that motion in the beginning because it signaled to me you didn't do what they asked for you didn't designate or make a motion to designate it historical you made a motion to have the administrator talk to the attorney about finding ways to do something we know how to do it it Tuesday taught us anything it's people don't like the games that we're playing so do the right thing give them the historic designation they are the experts if you followed any of the things that they did they know what they're talking about they know what has to be done they made the contacts for the grants they can do this that's what they asked for in the beginning and had we done this when they asked for it months ago who knows where we would have been we know this we wouldn't have paid $27,000 in burrow tax pair of money for the engineering study a grant could have covered that so let's do what what they asked for once you made some inroads tonight listening to the people on some things I even got a question answered believe it or not let's not stop now okay let's do what they asked for they know more about this than any anybody else and you know and maybe at least have the attorney talk to them the attorney was supposed to talk to them in drawing that referendum that never happened okay so you've come this far tonight you're making some progress I want to have faith that this is sincere work with the Historical Society don't try and form a commission to to go around them to circumvent them you don't need the attorney to research that they've done the research they know what has to be done please you saw the vote you saw what the people want do what the people want thank you very much for your time are there any other comments stff Bob Duffy 111 Meritt Avenue uh first place uh I have a comment but I want to say I'm not against any organization collecting money okay uh I spoke to the county on your toying course at ernston and Washington Road that you just did I think two meetings ago on the 23rd and 24th of November the county got back to me and said they never never issued a permit for saral ever and if they did w issue a permit a police officer has to be on site present this is what they told me head a transportation okay do I do I have to go down do I have to go down to county and get paperwork and bring it up okay all right I'm only going by what they told me we've been doing this for a lot of years and and the process is you you first get the county and then you bring it to the burrow okay on the 203 so the clerk is saying that they did get letters it's not from the Department of Transportation it's um Public Works they approve them okay that's the process okay I I spoke to secretary to secretary and then the gentleman from transportation that handles the permits called me and told me that they never issued one over the year I'm just saying it's a liability thing you have it in the office yeah okay we we have we have we have the permission from the county so they followed the process the permission was granted by the county and then a week or two on the 23rd and 24th okayed approval from the Department of public works that's who approves the coin toss okay I'll I'm only going by no no that's the process we followed for decades well if he did why did they come back and said they never did can't can't answer that's a different department that spoke with if I don't know the answer to that question they give approvals from the from the public works department from the county public works okay I well I spoke to several secretary and then finally the head of TR Transportation call me back and I'm just looking at a liability I understand thing because the people we have an influx of uh people in our country that never had drivers license and drivers you know someone's going to get hurt and and that's a busy corner now you know what I mean I mean 10 years ago was not bad now it's tremendous so I'm just looking out for my tax dollars I have a can I ask Jay a question go ahead Jay that that uh Road uh Cheesequake Road that's being done was that on the list of roads to be done I know you have a list of roads that are priority in the township this was a subject of a a Grant application to burrow made to the do typically requests heavily traveled roads when they issue grants that's why cheesecake Road was selected by the public works department okay so all the other roads in cille the township Street roads not commercial roads uh there's a list you have with the priorities so this Cheesequake was it on that list well the public works department selects the roads that are made that we make Grant applications for as well as what the ordinance covers Cheesequake Road was in a prior ordinance adopted a couple years ago for funding thank you mayor thanks appreciate it are there any other comments Mary Mary nobec one scholet drive um beautiful words about Michael Samuels what I what I always remember about him is that man always was running around he was always sweaty but he always had a smile on his face no matter how hard he worked he always had a smile and he will be sadly missed by the entire town and Denise I just wanted to say how great it was working with you and I'm only sad that I won't get to do that again before you retire but please enjoy your retirement and I you know that's all thank you thank you Mary are there any other comments Anthony thank you mayor um I want to start this evening just by thanking our veterans yesterday's service was beautiful uh it was the first Veterans Day celebration that my son has been able to be part of that I felt it was appropriate at his age to be a part of um yesterday was amazing with the exception of uh the the gunfire that he was not expecting which elicited a very loud exploitive from my eight-year-old and a moment of silence uh which has become a funny moment in our family at this point um I did also want to share uh on the record that their the middle sex County Office of Workforce and career development is going to be hosting a job fair called the thank you for your service job fair for veterans specifically um so it is to assist with veterans and their families as they transition to civilian careers to find a position that they can continue to grow and evolve in that will be held November 13th from 10:00 a.m. to 1: p.m. at the YMCA at the Piscataway Community Center 520 hos Lane they are encouraging Advanced uh registration is that POS that we can put that on a bur website or instructor I'll send it to you yeah right after this that would be great thank you um mayor back in in June you and I had a conversation um privately and and publicly um this month is Veterans Day uh and I would love for the council to consider declaring November officially veterans remembrance month as a burrow to issue either as a proclamation or uh to consider some sort of an established recurring yearly celebration where we can continue to come out and honor the service of our men and women who have served um the other thing that I wanted to talk about and I'm I'm grateful for the service of of councilman Bala um and certainly of councilman anoa I wanted to speak specifically I was glad to see Mary uh returned to the council I was glad to see stash uh reelected um but we are losing someone who cared greatly about the community in councilman an NOA I've been to plenty of these meetings I don't ever remember a former council president rolling their eyes At The Mention Of Another councilman um when I went to councilwoman Jim for's memorial service at Epic Church uh I saw councilman an NOA speak with a an incredible amount of Courage about councilwoman jime 4 and I noticed everybody who who shook that councilman's hand that night and I noticed who did not as we enter into a new phase of our Council um I want to encourage our Council to embrace the next session with the same Spirit of bipartisanship that I saw Mary Embrace Christian Embrace um when mayor Kilpatrick was was on the deas I think that her mayorship was strengthened by strong Republicans I do I I think they weren't afraid to have debates out loud that were sometimes messy that were sometimes I'll just say messy um but those debates happened and I think that Democrats strengthen the opinions of Republicans and vice versa I would encourage the the new Council to continue to move forward in that same Spirit of bipartisanship we have one Democrat who is going to be on that burrow Council but our residents spoke and they sent one Republican and one Democrat I am hopeful that when my 8-year-old continues to watch and be involved that he sees people who are willing to do as the Historical Society did Embrace good work from all people not just some people no matter what their political leadings may be to work towards the better of the buau and to accomplish specific goals that are important to our residents so it's it is my hope to see an a return to a bit more bipartisanship thank you okay are there any other comments being no other comments I'll entertain a motion to close the public portion make a motion to close the public is there a second roll call all in favor okay before we go to adjournment a couple of things uh my relationship with the board of education is um when I became mayor in 2000 um I made an arrangement with the with the board of education at the time which was you have a lot of work to do with the Board of Education I have a lot of work to do with the burrow uh as best we can uh we'll each take care of our responsibilities as far as the bus depot when when um I was not I was off from 2000 to 2024 and this is what I call inheritances when you become a mayor you inherit certain things and I inherited the bus depot this is something the board of education has to work on I'm not a a fell who hides out uh I'm pretty visible around town I go to the football games I go to the functions at the high school uh I I am open to anybody at any time um so that being said I'm not criticizing the board of education but I'm certainly available the members of the governing body are available the ba is available when they're ready when they have a a solution that they want to bring to us that's fine we're ready but um I don't know the direction that that they're going in because I'm in charge of the borrow issue issues they're in charge of the Schoolboard issues so when they're ready they will contact probably my uh Glenn and and then we'll sit down and and we'll try to get this stuff uh we we'll try to see what kind of help we can be to them uh second thing anybody that feels that I am doing something illegal I strongly urge you to go to the prosecutor I have been sitting up here for 21 years uh and if you think that I am taking uh number one you're you're incredibly wrong but I would I would say go to the go to the prosecutor and and share you know bear your soul to them and and and then it will take the course that it takes um as there there was a tremendous amount of misinformation uh as far as the the building next door The Old Firehouse as far as I know there were never any developers uh I I don't remember one and in this term as mayor when somebody wants to do something they come to my office and they make an appointment and and we have a discussion um I I have not had one discussion for anybody that wants to re redo um the firehouse not one there has been no inquiries that have come to me from anyone other than the Historical Society about the uh the the the old the 1909 building so that was really horrific misinformation um that being said uh I do my best uh my wife was my chief of well my wife did all my um customer service work for 20 years and um the reason I I did not run uh in 2020 was my wife fell ill and my place was by her side it was a decision I have no problem making I would make the same decision again she's well uh but she's just not up to doing the customer service the email address for the mayor of sville has been from the beginning of email in the borrow mayoral.com for whatever reason when my stay walked in uh in January there were 6,000 6,000 unopened unresponded to emails from the residents of sville that is why I have I have a staff because coming out of a successful business of 35 years it's all about customer service when I talk to people about uh around downtown it's customer service that's what they want what what I was trying to avoid in looking over the public meetings that had been going on for the previous four years where there were just people that would get up and talk add him an item about nothing accomplish nothing and the meetings would go to 11:00 which was silly and nonproductive we're here to run a service business whether it's picking up the garbage plowing the snow picking up the leaves we have 70 Parks small medium and large we have a free public library we have 247 police fire in first aid that is the business that we're in providing those services so what we did do was when the Historical Society came to us and we said well we'll put it on a referendum we'll see what the people want to do with their money which is exactly what we did and people said we want to spend the money on the building okay there it's it's a complete and total lion fabrication that there was a builder or we had plans to turn that into anything now for since since in the 1990s it was determined that we needed a new Public Works garage and we have been toying around with that for 24 years that is something that has always been on the on the the drawing board and Mary you know that from 2020 1999 uh we have been trying to do a new Public Works garage for a quarter of a century that is our interest the firehouse was just here it's in disrepair it's going to cost a lot of money but the people want to spend it which was why we put it on a referendum what do you want us to do with your money do you want to put it here and they said yeah we want to put it we want you to invest money there okay we'll do that uh and that's what we're going to do so that being said uh I will uh ask for a motion for adjournment I make a motion to adjourn is there a second all in favor I opposed okay thank you everyone