good evening everyone tonight's a special night we're honoring uh one of Cal's one of one of the Great sons of cille so with that I'm going to ask everyone to stand while the American Legion escorts this son of sarraille to the podium Larry you would lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all almighty God grant us the wisdom to make those decisions that are in the best interest of all of 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 Serv as men and women now guarding the gates of Freedom statement of uh everyone can can sit if they'd like take notice at this regular agenda meeting of the mayor and Burl Council being held on this 29th day of April 2024 has been posted and advertised in accordance with the open public meeting act chapter 231 Public Law 1975 roll call Council person's Bala here polii an NOA here Roberts here sinari here zabowski here very quickly done approval of the prior minutes I make motion to approve the minutes as listed on item two is there a motion I make the motion second is there a second roll call Council persons Roberts yes Vala yes kisi sorry he's not here an NOA yes sari yes zabowski yes okay with the council please come up for the railing what's that yes let's leave this here okay so Department Commander it is our honor that you are a resident of Sarah proclamation of the burrow of sville whereas Larry Bishop a dedicated resident of sville New Jersey has exemplified unwavering commitment and service to his community and Country and whereas at the 104th Convention of the American Legion held in Wildwood New Jersey on June 9th 2023 Commander Bishop was duly elected as the esteemed New Jersey state Commander a position of great honor and responsib ability and whereas Commander Bishop's profound dedication to his nation is showcased through his Valiant service in the United States Army where he served with distinction from April 24th 1969 to April 23rd 1971 including at Fort Meers Virginia and Fort toen New York and whereas with an illustrious 35-year membership at seral American Legion Post 211 Commander Bishop Bishop has consistently demonstrated leadership and commitment to the welfare of veterans holding various sustained positions such as post Commander County Commander Department executive committee man and Department Vice commander and whereas Commander's Bishop steadfast advocacy for veterans is encapsulated by his poignant model for the coming year veterans were here for you reflects his unwavering dedication to the well-being and support of those who have served our nation now therefore I Kennedy O'Brien mayor of sville New Jersey to hereby extend praise and appreciation to Commander Larry Bishops on behalf of the borrow and Council in honor of his exceptional service leadership and dedication to his fellow veterans and community you so much Larry I've known you a very long time and it has always been my privilege and my honor to call you friend thank you I thank Burl Council for this unbelievable word thank you so much thank you apprciate it Council if you would go ahead go ahead fon than than you wait a minute we're not done embarrassing you Donna you're the council president if you'd like to say a few words well um I've known you for quite some time now um at the American Legion you do great work there and you have always been a great leader very generous with your time and um commitment to everyone in the community and and um you are someone who I would like to emulate more as a leader and I want to thank you for what you do just just um just by being you is a model for all of us thank you Dan I just like to thank you for your service and your continued service because you're still serving us every day in any capacity you can thanks thank you y I just want to Echo the same sentiments you know uh on behalf of the mayor and the burough thank you so much for who you are your service and even what how that represents for us as a people it definitely speaks towards long longevity our mayor was mentioning years that uh go even beyond my own parents you know so I just want to say thank you again even for who you are your longevity and using that to represent who we are as a people to push us forward thank you again thank you thank you man uh and and I don't know if everybody also knows that Larry was inducted into the several war memorial high school hall of fame last Saturday night as well so the rec so so the recognition from your community is CommunityWide and I just want to personally thank you when I was Chief and we had uh we had concerns or you had concerns we walked we saw we talked and we got everything uh straightened out you are a wonderful Steward for the American Legion uh and you are very well earned all the awards you're getting tonight good job well done same thing Lara like I told you before I'm very very proud of you I know you for over 40 years and you're always impressed with all your stories and just love talking to you and thank you again congratulations by great job true role model so thank you for your service thank you thank you with that we will stand here well the H guard for scort Bishop by the way gentlemen thank you for yeah okay just need a motion to accept that Proclamation make a motion to accept the proclamation second Council person's Roberts yes Bala yes kisi yes anoa yes sari yes zabowski yes then the second proclamation of the evening whereas the annual distribution of Buddy poies by the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States has been officially recognized and endorsed by government leaders since 1922 and whereas VFW buddy poppies are assembled by disabled veterans and the proceeds of this worthy fundraising campaign are used exclusively for the benefits of disabled and needy veterans and the widows and Orphans of deceased veterans and whereas the basic purpose of the annual distribution of Buddy poppies by the veterans of follow of Foreign Wars is eloquent quently L reflected in the desire to honor the dead by helping the living now therefore I Kennedy O'Brien mayor of the burrow of seral to hereby urge citizens of this community to recognize the merits of this cause by contributing generously to its support to the purchase of Buddy poppies on the day set aside for the distribution of these symbols of appreciation for the sacrifices of our honored dead I urge Ur all patriotic citizens to wear B buddy poppy as mute evidence of our gratitude to the men and women of this country who have risked their lives in defense of the freedom which we continue to enjoy as American citizens in witness thereof I have caused this proclamation to be issued and the official seal of the borrow duly effect fix this 29th day of April so everyone when you see veterans selling the poppies on the way into shoppr or the way into a number of shops uh your participation is a way that we we honor them so I urge everyone motion to accept that Proclamation make a motion to accept the proclamation thank roll call Council person's Roberts yes Bala yes kisi yes NOA yes sinari yes zabowski the next Proclamation we have is whereas Developmental and intellectual disabilities manif manifest during the formative years of life before the age of 22 and our lifelong in duration resulting in the continuing need for a variety of services designed to support full inclusion in community life whereas it is estimated that approximately 2% of the United States population has an intellectual or developmental disability which trans to approximately 178,000 children and adults in New Jersey and the Ark middlex County alone serves 333 individuals and their families and whereas the arc middle sex county has worked collaboratively with individuals with Developmental and intellectual disabilities their families organizations coalitions state and local agencies and whereas the arc middle sex county has valued and promoted effective Partnerships between Community Partners volunteers staff and leaderships at all levels and whereas the arc middle sex county is guided in the belief that all people with intellectual and or developmental disabilities are defined by their own strengths abilities and inherent value not by their disability and are entitled to the respect dignity Safety and Security accorded to other members of society and are equal before the law whereas the arc middlex county has articulated a positive vision for the future of people with Developmental and or intellectual disabilities and has catalyzed public and private support in the realization of that Vision by its unwavering commitment to its individuals families Community leadership staff and volunteers and whereas in 75 years the ark middle sex county has led in the area providing support care and opportunity with integrity and accountability that reflects quality and excellence in all its work now therefore it beat resolved that the buau of seral does hereby recognize the ark middlex County and celebrating 75 years of outstanding and dedicated contributions in caregiving and support to empower individuals with Developmental and or intellectual disabilities and their families to live their lives to the fullest that make a motion to accept the proclamation second Council person's Roberts yes fala polii yes an NOA yes sinari yes zabowski yes okay you want to hand microphone okay so right now we are going to have a presentation by the seral economic and Redevelopment Agency on pilot programs how they work what they are about and following that presentation I will have a a public comment portion which will be limited to uh five minutes and I would ask that that PE people uh if they have comments please just get up once because we we we're here to do the business of the burrow it's not a question and answer if if you do have questions we have set up in the in in the burrow um people that will answer questions you call them uh and and they will if they don't have the answer immediately they will get the answer and get back to you um so this is more about learning understanding feel free read a comment uh if you have additional questions because it could go on it's just we're here to do the business of the burrow uh and it's not an educational uh classroom on um tonight so with that uh I'm going to ask I'm going to turn it over to the uh uh director of the seral economic and Redevelopment agency Haman shua good evening mayor and Council um I want to thank you for allowing us to uh talk make this presentation in front of you um before I start I I think the pit I just want to tell pit is that um Steve gillo our commissioner is going to lead the the uh start and then I will be doing a presentation on General pilot and then Brian Mor is our U penix advisor financial advisor will be talking about specifically about the uh treml Crow pilot uh Arsenal project uh before I do that I want to recognize uh the S uh the Sarah team um you have a councilman John jabowski who is a chairman councilwoman Donna Roberts is also commissioner commissioner Steve gillo uh we have uh Brian Morris our financial advisor we have our attorney Mike Baker and we have um I guess everybody knows Dave Samuel he's our uh engineer and our institutional knowledge he I think he's with Sarah from the start to today and anything we know we can go back to him and ask him a question so that's the Sarah team present tonight uh and I'm going to turn it over to um Steve to kick it off thank you Steve before you start would you would you just give a a brief recap of your credentials please sure I I have the best job in politics I'm a former councilman um I served three years with uh with none of you except you mayor um which goes to your uh your unending commitment to the town um over the last four years I've owned my own Economic Development uh Small Business Development vment consulting firm and I was lucky enough to have you uh appoint me with the advice and consent of course of your council members uh to serve on Sarah and I was elected by my colleagues to serve as the vice chairman um and so I'm I'm beginning my first year and uh it's been thoroughly what's that there oh they're broken we'll see we'll see what we can do it's live TV there you go thank you Jessica so uh I've been involved in in Economic Development and Community planning for the last 15 years I have a master's degree in the field um and I'm thrilled to be back on Sarah after a number of years away and uh very excited to be doing some of the the very important work of the burrow as we see an enormous amount of Development coming down um this is this is Expert T uh testimony not opinion I I would hope to say so yes yes that's very good um so before Mr sha who took my entire first page of introductions um you can restart that no no not not for these folks I'm not gonna waste their time um so I want to at least give everyone on the day an understanding of what Sarah the sbal economic Redevelopment agency is and does and um the process and the role of why we are here tonight so Sarah was formed in 1997 and operates pursu into the New Jersey local Redevelopment and Housing law unlike other land use boards and commissions such as the zoning board or the planning board we are an independent not for-profit agency there are nine Commissioners appointed by the governing body and Sarah has the authority to participate in various uh aspects of an area's Redevelopment plan this includes reviewing and recommending agreements for payments in Li of taxes or pilots and the but the final decision on a pilot does remain solely within the discretion of the burough Council in 2024 Sarah's taken the direction from the mayor to begin working in a more holistic manner to advance modern Economic Development policies for the town this includes visioning workshops to improve the downtown managing the various Redevelopment projects in a more connected Manner and judiciously and critically assessing pilot applications the project that that we're going to discuss this evening the Arsenal like most large development projects has been subject to significant comments from the public and tonight is an opportunity to present how we have all arrived at this point and what the benefits of a pilot will be now I'll invite Hua to discuss the pilot agreement in general and then I'll speak a little bit more about the project in specifics thank you Steve um again um mayor and Council thank you um as as Steve alluded to that there are some there are comments received by the uh Sarah as well as the council who has shared with me uh and so I want to I'm going to hope that this presentation eventually will clarify some of the concern so uh things we have heard pilot is illegal pilot is detrimental under pilot agreement developer does not pay any tax even I remember something coming in today that he doesn't pay first five years tax uh again we hope that this presentation combined will clear up some of those concern before I start uh I want to tell the council mayor and Council that pilot is a rare tool in a toolbox for municipality provide provided by state since under State Statute Municipal municipality cannot generate revenue from any other tax there is no you cannot enter into business rare public private partnership there are very rare that allows you to you know and so one of the one of the development tools that is provided to you as a as as municipality is the process of Redevelopment which ultimately you know results in providing an assistance first SL okay overview uh a payment in Li of tax is an amount that property owner pays to the township pursuant to the financial agreement instead of paying taxes conventionally and what is what does mean conventionally is that you get your traditionally bill in June for four quarter of tax payment that is based on the assess value assigned by your tax tax assessor and then your tax collector calculates uh ultimately calculates the amount of taxes on each property based on assess value of individual property it's each entity municipality School County uh open space there there are uh they set the tax rate it all goes to the county county puts together what's called table of aggregate and comes up with the gross tax uh for the town and that's collector then colle you know distribute that among each property owner that's a conventional tax in in very quick explanation next slide purpose of pilot pilot can be used to undertake Redevelopment projects or Municipal sponsor affordable housing project generally we get involved uh Rita and Sarah gets involved in in Project particularly Redevelopment project where property is blighted property has been uh uh vacant for years uh there are environmental issue Etc uh and mostly Sarah has and any Redevelopment agency throughout the state gets involved in commercial development Redevelopment projects are frequently unable to attract private investment without assistant from local government entity in the form pilot agreements or in some cases a bond financing the combination of risk associated with the Redevelopment projects and uncertainty on of conventional tax taxes makes a marginal project projects difficult to finance any developers that's going to invest $100 million $200 million in in Redevelopment of a location uh he he obviously need outside financing and so they need help in making sure that their risk is limited future risk is limited so pilot is helpful Pilots can also be used on a short-term basis to facilitate improvements to existing buildings in order to ease an impact of new taxes resulting from the Improvement this is primarily used in a residential area for Improvement for example downtown Improvement but generally our purpose of pilot the sah gets involved is the Redevelopment of commercial project like Arsenal like what's going on at Riverton next slide okay um Municipal benefits pilot incentives and are many municipal benefits are allowed for project not otherwise financially feasible it's not something that municipality will undertake such project you know because it requires a large sum of money uh and we're not going to be going out and taxing people up front for a future benefit promote Redevelopment of area which which need it can provide greater Revenue to the municipality than conventional taxes in some cases that is true um you know many of redelman um places has very low tax currently with the pilot and with the Redevelopment process uh they get improvements and they come back on the tax rule uh even as a pilot which is a tax they come back on a tax rule potential to negotiate better public improvements uh you will see in letter in in facts of treml crow development uh there is constant negotiation about them uh improving Road cleaning up the the environmentally problem land um what are developers benefit can be less than a conventional tax in in most cases that that is true more stability and certainly more stability and certain certainity than conventional tax conv conventional tax is subject to change with the tax rate with the pilot you create for next 30 Years a program amortization and amount of tax they're going to pay so they know for next 30 years they're going to what tax they expect from this project what are the mutual benefit pilot can support both the Project's Financial feasibility and the municipality tax revenue Stream So financially make it visible and a town start getting a revenue Market based taxation if the market is stronger than expected municipality share in the market upside because pilot are collected based on annual gross revenue so if Market is good and they generate more Revenue then they have to pay more in tax because the calculus of pilot and Brian will be he's the best explaining that where you will see that there's a percentage of that revenue is calculated ultimately um percentage of annual gross revenue grows over time lower during stabilization early on supporting project feasibility so that's the benefit to the developers because you get some incentive up front you get stability and he can carry the project because any new project any new business you know in the beginning you know there's always slow less revenue and know as it grows they get they get stabilized their cost get stabilized they have a better profitability ongoing transparency this is critical any any entity that gets pilot they have to annually provide audit financial statements to the town and they have to prove their revenue project achieves our red uh the project achieves Area Redevelopment goals so we finally with the you know rment process and ultimately pilot giving pilot incentive we do achieve the rment go goals of the area now obviously everybody knows treml Crow was built on a former hercula site that has an environmental concern common misconception pilot is illegal pilot program is approved and I Steve spoke about it earlier uh by the state statute njsa 48 col2 and it is one of the rare tool in toolbox to help municipality stabilize tax and increase development I explained the toolbox but I'll tell you there's you know state looks at municipality as a stepchild they don't want anything they want to take away everything I can give you examples number of different examples but it it just one quickly comes to my mind is that if you recall uh we all pay today we pay energy tax on our utility bill at one time it was known as a franchise and gross receipt tax on your bill from public service jcpnl it was added and collected by utility company and they would distribute based on the the line and the facility in the town s was beneficial was getting a lot of money because of the power plant that jcpnl has here that's money was directly given to town State decided no no no we're going to collect all and we're going to redistribute to the town very soon they started siphoning money out of it they started taking small percentage it grew to now they have a biggest share of the French the energy tax receip and we're getting you know we're getting very little the other incentive were taken away because they could not take energy tax receipt from us because his buil built in basically is a con constitutionally built in so they couldn't take it away so they took it away all other grants that they used to provide financial assistance they pretty much took it away from minan so that's why I'm saying and I think State recently started looking at Pilot they want to take it away from you pilot reduces tax revenue to other taxing agency Board of Education County um under the law and I think this is a critical because I have heard this the school will not get tax and you know and it is true partially but in reality under the law Board of Education still guesss the the same amount of tax it receives on the current currently on the land tax so I believe in currently the school is getting about $200,000 on a Hercules land tax they're going to continue to that and increase based on the overall tax rate of the board of education so they're not losing anything it is also important to know that this project will not generate any cost to municipality I mean to board of education or to the school there are no children going from this uh warehousing project to uh Board of Education or to school so they have no cost increased their revenue is stable there's nothing changeed they're going to continue to get that and I want to tell you something different which is not an it's an Unwritten Rule and I have spoken to number of business administrator from Board of educ ations and basically the trend is that no matter what you do no matter what Board of Education uh Revenue grows from local tax they're going to have to continue to increase state is forcing them to Inc Levy Board of Education at least 2% to continue the state aid and still they lower the state aid that's going on around the state because state was for a long time didn't have enough funds and so they were low lowering the the funding to school so you know that that's myth that if we they get more money here they're they're going to lower the tax I don't believe that's going to happen and this is Unwritten tool there is no nobody's writing you go ask the state legislature Senator assembly men they're going to they're not going to tell you you go ask State bureaucrat they're not going to tell you that's you know but that's happening in a practical since Pilots are generally offered to commercial development there is no cost increase to board of education and I cover that and and commercial property does not generate any new student scope under the law pilot guarantees 5% of pilot payment to County what is annual service charge an annual service charge or known as ASC is a statut term for pilot under the long-term tax exemptions law again I want to emphasize that under the pilot it is not a taxfree they still have to pay money to municipality annual service charges are critical tool in the municipal toolkit to effectuate Redevelopment of underutilized and unproductive properties since n since 1992 annual service charge have been used Statewide to factu billions of dollars worth of Redevelopment projects an annual service charge replaces the conventional tax conventional tax on improvements and in the case of residential project may replace the conventional tax on land but for the annual service charge the rment project would not be built as designed by the developer and approved by the municipality there is a control in a Redevelopment process how a project is built who is eligible for pilot pilot is generally offered to commercial project except in case of affortable housing pro project that are guaranteed pilot under the law so in housing is the affordable housing project that are mandated for municipality to create to receive a pilot under the law a Redevelopment redeveloper must form an urban renewal entity it's called Ur this type of entity entity has to be reviewed and approved by the state so they are state approved uh companies the amount of profit a UR can make is restricted by law they cannot just make unlimited profit and this is one one of the very important Ur cannot file tax appeals on property or project while paying annual service charge in conventional tax commercial entity if the market collapse you've seen that in 2008 they can file tax appeal and you will be responsible paying thousands if not millions of dollars back in you know tax appeal refunds a developer building a portable housing may be eligible for pilot under the housing mortgage and financing agency law a property owner may be eligible for short-term pilot in the a in area of need of rehab if the municipality has enacted a program number eight we're not I'm not going to elaborate we were not uh what is the financial agreement a financial agreement is an agreement between the municipality and Ur that memorialize the terms of an ASC granted to ur on approved project that's an agreement that will spell out all the benefit and you'll you'll hear that under the treml crow what they have agreed and what they're going to provide uh a financial agreement includes following the amount of ASC to be paid annually limitation of prop on profits on Ur requirement that Ur submit annual audit to municipality here is another uh disclosure requirement Municipal charge of annual administrative fee in case of Sarah Sarah gets the fee for the operation of sah how are pilot calculated and I think the I'm just going to read to that but I think Brian can elaborate better on that or Steve can under the long-term exemption law the project must pay at least 10% of annual gross revenue or 2% of total project cost so it starts at 10% minimum but it can be more and I think in this case Brian is more correct yeah 95% of the pilot goes to municipality and 5% to the county Pilots have maximum term of 30 years from completion of or 35 years from execution of finan cial agreement or 50 years if two or more sequential project are undertaken but right now currently the treml crow pilot is 30 years I think mayor and Council that concludes my portion Steve well I'm onu before we move on if you would State your professional credentials and experience both in Municipal finance and in Redevelopment yes mayor um I've been in municipal government in a financial area for 43 years uh many of you don't know I think councilman Bala is where where it some of you know I was a I was in a position of controller in for sville in 1987 I'm a resident of sville since 1986 uh and and you know like I said at 43 years in in financial Administration I have served as a business business administrator in in a large municipality and I'm also serve as a Chief Financial Officer and administrator in a Redevelopment agency in another municipality before I retire last year thank you and who is next I'm going to lead off from Mr Morris um now that we've established what pilots are in generality we're going to talk specifically about the Arsenal project or traml Crow you'll hear both terms used interchangeably um so the initial Redevelopment plan for this site was approved by the burough Council in 2017 and there have been a number of different actions taken by the council regarding the project since then in November 2021 Sarah approved the resolution recommending that the council approve the pilot and as of today the pilot agreement with the developer has not been approved or put into effect by the burough Council that is why we're here this evening that being said there were few items the council should be aware of before Mr Morris's presentation we understand and appreciate that this project has been controversial but in the end the benefits will outweigh the challenges in fact a cooperative and productive relationship with the burrow via a pilot will only enhance future financial and development opportunities at the site phase one of the project is complete and ready for occupancy The Current financial model for the project depends on the burrow agreeing to the pilot that Mr Morris will describe in DET detail there's an anticipated second phase which will include a roadway to alleviate truck congestion and will positively benefit residents infrastructure and the environment the discussion tonight though is focused on the pilot for phase one only the Pilot's Financial benefits for the burrow will significantly exceed what the normal tax revenue would produce as described by Mr shop it is scheduled for 30 years which includes an annual land tax payment based on a conventional assessment value Val today approximately $390,000 and an additional pilot payment structure which is calculated on an annual basis starting in year 1 this is projected to be $1.7 million today and subject to increase based on occupancy and project value finally let me make this clear as well the current tax percentage collected from this property for the school system will remain unchanged and there will be zero cost increase to the school system because this is a commercial development not residential as Mr Shaw noted 95% of the revenues generated via this pilot will be used to invest in Municipal services such as Public Safety roads Public Works parks and other infrastructure this includes an additional $1 million upfront lump sum payment upfront lump sum payment at the execution of the final agreement that you're considering which will be used for Community facility improvements Additionally the project will pay 2.5% of their total tax assessment towards the Burrow's affordable housing trust fund fund with that I'll now invite Mr Morris to speak about the financial details of the arrangement thank you um thank you mayor and Council for having me uh this evening uh my name is Brian Morris uh with Phoenix advisers uh we are the buroughs municipal advisor uh we work with a number of entities uh throughout the state Municipal uh County uh what have you uh we specialize in uh financial consulting uh assistance with uh Municipal Bond debt issuance as well as Redevelopment our firm's been in existence for about 20 years and all the principles of the firm have significantly more experience on that in the municipal space uh so we were engaged uh by the Buu and agency to review the developers pilot proposal uh prepare an independent financial review of the project analyze the impact to the buau and help negotiate favorable financial terms uh in the financial agreement that you have that you're considering uh so as mentioned the project is a non-residential commercial warehouse Redevelopment on Callahan Boulevard and the Hercules Redevelopment area total cost of the project is $220 million uh this is the first phase of a larger uh development uh known as the Arsenal Trade Center to be constructed on the full 500 acre parcel uh this 73 acre section uh was underutilized and currently generates only 390,000 in total taxes which are split between the burough at 28% the county at 16% and the school at 56% as was noted before that translates in dollars to roughly 110,000 to the burrow um about 62,000 to the county and 220,000 to the schoool district District uh the project will include three Warehouse buildings totaling nearly 1.1 million square fet of Class A industrial space warehouse space um and the developer as mentioned by amanu uh is investing nearly $20 million in on-site infrastructure including environmental cleanup utility upgrades intersection and Road improvements uh and solar uh efficiencies uh with respect to the proposed pilot as was mentioned it's for a term of 30 years and it's based on the greater of three calculations uh when we negotiate these on behalf of our clients uh we try to appro um Institute a three-prong approach here to make sure that the burough is protected both on the downside if the developers revenues are not quite as high as expected also on the upside so that the burough shares in the success if the project does even better than anticipated and also per the statute phase in a percentage of conventional taxes over time so the three uh calculations are based on a percent of their annual gross revenue which Reigns from 11% in year 1 up to 16% in year 30 uh generally increasing by 1% every five years as hamu mentioned the statute calls for a minimum of 10% of annual gross revenue the second calculation is $1.95 per leasable square foot escalating at 3% per year as I mentioned this is an important metric because if revenues are less than expense uh Le less than expected or the property uh does not fully lease up uh that serves as a valuable minimum threshold for the burrow and then finally uh the pilot is subject to Conventional tax phasins ranging from 20% to 80% that are instituted over the 30-year term so again as was mentioned just to reiterate under the pilot the burough school district and County still receive the land tax uh payments that are about 390,000 per year uh split just like any uh conventional tax would be and then the pilot is on the Improvement portion of which 95% goes to the burrow and 5% to the county in addition just to stress uh we negotiated a $1 million uh lump upfront sum to be paid to the burrow uh for various uh facility improvements uh this slide shows a sample cash flow of the pilot revenue for year one and then also for the 30-year total um so as you can see uh the annual service charge as Manu explained is $2.1 million the bir is also entitled to a 2% administrative fee uh 5% of the pilot must be paid to the county per state statute and then uh the entities are entitled to that land tax credit since they're also getting paid the land taxes separately that says 405 as opposed to 390 just because it's escalated to project year 1 uh so that results in a 1.65 million payment to the burrow and of course as I mentioned the burough would still collect it share of the land taxes which is about 115,000 for a total uh net revenue of $ 1.76 million in year one those figures all increase over the 30-year period as I mentioned based on those three calculations so in total the net revenue projected to the buau over this agreement is nearly $100 million which is orders of magnitude higher than the burough would currently collect from the site in its current condition condition um again just to stress um if the developers Revenue since it's based on the revenue one of the calculations if it increases Beyond these expectations the burrow would share in that success and the pilot would be increased um and then the again just to reiterate the pilot is just on the Improvement portion which goes 95% to the burrow and uh the land taxes are still paid currently as they currently are being paid so no taxing unit today would receive less than they're receiving prior to the pilot um so overall um the revenu is are significantly in excess six times what the property is currently generating and over 15 times what the burrow alone receives from the property um we had a lengthy negotiation with the developer um they came in with a lower offer through multiple rounds of negotiation we increased the revenue to what you see today um overall more than a $15 million increase uh in the revenue um from their initial offer in addition to that1 million upfront payment um so I can pause there if would like to have any closing remarks or any questions this is I just want to add one thing interesting about the treml CR project so I have a copy of uh an email communication between your tax assessor and your uh and the trlc folks and there was a partial assessment established in 2023 and when you and extended to the full assessment this is unusual so bear with me it looks like that gross tax under conventional tax is about 1 .5 million as Brian indicated under the pilot we're almost getting a $1.8 million so under this particular negotiation it seems to me the conventional tax is lower than a pilot uh agreement now why I say that with a caution because this is unusual it's not the case in most you know situation but it is in this situation and I think even Brian indicated to me early on and I believe the uh he had commitment from uh treml crow that they will stay with the convention uh the pilot agreement and pay the higher amount there there when you conclude here there are several other people that I've asked to give testimony so I will bring them up they're not here to comment they're here to give they give testimony um so when it's appropriate no okay if you'd put the do we have a yeah microphone up there Don if you would come forward Don y yes your brother was done you're Ed where do you want me mayor right here at the podium and and again if you would state your name and and where you're from and your your uh working credentials please yeah I'm Edward sofield I'm from the middle County Building Trades I'm here to represent thousands of Building Trades workers and their families my credentials are chairman of the Executive Board of ibw 50 years experience with the ibw uh State I have 18 teaching certificates I have a master's degrees from ruers I represent the Building Trades I'm here to talk about this pilot project please okay you need to speak uh okay that's better thank you yes okay uh I'm gonna get right to the heart of this thing here this is a 30-year deal they're talking about it's only one project for three warehouses it's going to be all Union Building Trades it's going to supply jobs for the people in sville and middle sex County that need the to work and their families if you vote Yes for this $54 million of extra tax revenue will go to the town uh uh burrow of Cel $54 million no matter how you vote the $390 Million worth of money that they talked about on the land tax is always going to be there it's always going to go to the Board of Education it's always going to go to the county and it's always going to go to the uh Board of sville nothing changes with the tax rate for land value however with this additional Redevelopment you're going to pick up $54 Million worth of money in taxes that's going to go for improvements and lower taxes for the people in sville I've been I've been in construction 50 years I was at Dupont in Hercules with 100 electricians 100 plumbers supporting their families there is nothing now but three warehouses in sville in the other towns of Woodbridge where I come from Perth Amboy and New Brunswick and and uh Carter red we're going crazy we're buying land and Woodbridge for $11 million we're selling it to the Morris company for $54 million and then we're getting donations for for $10 million worth of land so we could Revitalize School four and five in avanel we're going to revitalize those schools with money from this pilot project the people in sville need jobs when I grew up sville was where I made most of my money Hercules Dupont titanium and Pigman the C1 powerhouse it's not there anymore it's not there you guys need to get on a bandwagon and get this thing started so we can reviz sville okay I got a couple notes here this is undeveloped Wasteland we're talking about like I said the county the school board and sah will pick up uh $339,000 worth of taxes if you implement this and say yes you're going to pick up 54 million right away if you don't say yes you lose the 54 million it's not there it's gone the people need the 54 million and they need the jobs and the construction workers need the jobs and we need to move on um I want to talk about a job in a job in Woodbridge we had a job where we had these professional protesters coming to the town and try to tell us how we're going to run our town sville or Woodbridge or pero and no bronck we had a Powerhouse job that was going to provide jobs for 10,000 people it was going to be a three-year project we were going to revitalize the most toxic waste site Ina in casby and build a Powerhouse so you guys could have all a 90 90 99% efficient Revitalize the electricity so that you guys could have green energy all over the place and shut down a bad power plant it was a no down it was a there was no downside to it like I see there's no downside to this project there is no downside seral needs to live they need to move on uh what else could I say well there's a lot of stuff I could say here about this but uh what else could I say uh move move move yeah we're building all kinds of facilities all over the state especially in New Brunswick pertho and woodge please sville get on the stick okay that's all I'm say thank you thank you Don thank you Bob Davis Bob if you'd come up please good evening everyone my name is Bob Davis I'm a resident of CBO for 40 some odd years um as far as this pilot program goes uh I represent 6 to 8,000 members the operating engineers and we cover the whole state of New Jersey I deal with these pilot programs and other municipalities and this is how the the municipality grow there's no downside to this you just heard all the numbers it's the reality and what the Ser could turn into if we use this it'll be amazing so it's really simple the numbers don't lie it'll put residents I have three of my members in the back of the room right now that live in Cal one of them worked on the project okay and we spend our money in Cal and that's what it's all about it's for the people of seral and it'll do a good thing for us thank you Bob gentlemen in the back I know you did you want to make a comment because it okay all right with that hamu are there other people giving testimony for Sarah about a pilot okay okay well we can have comments it's it's not a Q&A portion so uh I'm going to go ladies first um any comments from the ladies all right yes ma'am please come up you state your name and address please Evelyn Smith 124 Kendall Drive um first of all uh the thing about how there was a you know no bad thing that came out of this 7,000 plus trees were cut down do you know what trees do they give us oxygen okay they give us shade they give us protection from high winds like we've been having recently that people are having branches come off their trees because the winds are so bad because all of these trees are being taken down they also give places for animals to live and animals are kind of important you know without them if if we treated animals the way if we treated people the way we treat animals people would be very upset okay because we treat animals like crap um excuse me uh the other thing is related to trees why is it that every single piece of land in our town has to be cleared and built on what is wrong with trees what is wrong with leaving areas of forest they're beneficial to us they're beneficial to animals they're beneficial to people they are beneficial to the air quality this is ridiculous this whole I'm I'm against this whole s thing because all it is is let's find something that we can cut down some trees and put something else up and that's you know that's not what a small Town's supposed to be and we are still a small town okay we are supposed to be a residential area a suburban area where people come and they raise families and they have places where they can go hiking in the woods they can play sports but we're tearing all of them down and putting up buildings pave paradise put up a parking lot okay I I I think it's ridiculous that that every place that we have an open space if even if it's not actually open it's full trees so it's not open you know um that we have to build on why why who's getting all that money from that huh who's getting that cuz somebody's getting the money for selling off our land yeah come on up Demi okay hello everyone demitra Wagner 7 Roma Street I'm also your saal GOP committee woman in District 1 I would just like to make a comment um I love animals too and I love trees but I find it ironic that someone who supports the murder of children in the womb um cares about wild animals um I'm all about the Earth I'm all excuse me you had your five minutes and now I'm talking you know this is a democracy even though you might not think it is thank you very much you they'll either order or I'll clear the room I have every right I will clear the room I will clear the room evely minutes would you like my five minutes too Demi would you Demi thank you I would like to say that I do support this because I moved here and bought a house in 1997 my taxes were 1,700 now they're almost nine my husband and I do not intend to retire in saal we're not sure what we're going to go what where we're going to go what we're going to do but I was conceived here in Jersey and I wanted to lay my bones in Jersey but I cannot do that in a blue State okay I will probably be forced to move to Pennsylvania where my daughter and my son-in-law are going to be reciting as they are closing a home okay and like Murphy said if you don't if New Jersey's too expensive don't let the door hit you with the good Lord split you okay but I love the people of sville and I'm proud to be a resident of sville and I want to retire here in sville I don't want to move because I can't live here because it's a blue State okay and this is basic economics it's basic math and I love trees just like the next person and I love animals like the next person but we cannot dictate what people do with their private property okay just like no one can come and dictate how many plants or what plants I can put on my uh and and so forth okay and I do agree with this lady that we are building left and right in seral and sometimes I feel like it's going to turn into the Jetson and someone's going to build on top of me someday and I I do agree when I moved here in 95 I mean it's just insane but what can you do about it you can't stop people from developing land that they own it's just a normal fact of life do I think it's overcrowded yes do I think there's a lot of traffic yes but we need real solutions and not fantasy opinions thank you and God bless you thank you deimy okay uh this is this is the the public portion uh the attorney said you forgot to say that mayor this is the public portion Jim well wait a minute let me see if the ladies are done are there yes ma'am just to make sure that that was clear so anybody who wants to comment on this ordinance this is your opportunity to do that there be public there'll be a public session for other topics later in the meeting but if you want to comment on this ordinance before it's voted on now is time to do that ma'am if you'd state your name and address please sure good evening uh Sharon Wells 11 Hendricks Court what 11 Hendricks Court Hendricks Court um so I was just wondering and I know you can't answer the questions I just want to put them out there and see if maybe comments okay I understand um so I understand that there's supposed to be an audit yearly and that is how they determine how much money the town gets um so who's going to ensure that that is done and what do what is the recourse if they don't Supply their financial records okay um so the area was for a pilot is supposed to be determined blighted or underdeveloped or whatever um so that area I'm assuming was determined to be that how did we try to get anyone to buy it under normal circumstances as opposed to just going pilot I know you can't answer I'm just coms um and was it a thing where the current I'm I'm I wasn't clear is the current occup the is it the same company that developed the first building and if it is did they do a pilot program for that that's what the ordinance is tonight so that it's the same company got it okay thank you thank you wait a minute are there any other ladies who would like to speak Mary Mary Noak one scholar drive it's taller than I remembered um um I'm not up here to uh knock Pilots I believe in Pilots I knew it can do a lot for the town and also we're not the town is not developing it this this Pro these this property doesn't belong to us if we could have bought it you know but that was never going to happen I voted no on this pilot back in October I want to State my reason it had nothing to do with do I honestly I think in the long run this is going to be great for the entire town including the school board um I wish this wasn't 30 years maybe 20 years would probably be a little better my main opposition to this is an application should be presented to the council now when I I was on Sarah I voted that this should come to the council I was in favor of it but at no time after that did the town receive an application it wasn't until a year and a half after so supposedly the application was sent to the town asking for this that they questioned whatever happened to it this is a multibillion dollar Corporation and it took them a year and a half to question I never saw the application as a council person the past mayor never saw the application the uh clerks in the clerk's office never saw this application did not sign for this application it was supposed to have been signed for when it was received in the town that didn't happen so to me this was did not follow the proper procedure where the application should have been sent before they ever went vertical they continued to build and never questioned why the council was not addressing this application had they done that we might have been able to you know save a lot of problems because this should technically should have been granted this should have been reviewed this should have been granted two years ago and in the meantime have we gotten any taxes other than the property taxes if they don't have a pilot and they've been building and there's buildings out there have those buildings been taxed the past two years because I know there were buildings there prior that were being taxed and the school board was getting a percentage of that tax on those buildings when they tore them down that stopped so in effect the School Board is actually getting less I do believe in the long run this is going to be good I I know this is probably going to pass I don't agree with it I don't think it's right but at the same time maybe you could consider a shorter term maybe you know 20 years instead of 30 and then we we could review you know we can review it and extend it at any time thank you are there any other any other ladies any other ladies all right Jim you had your hand up thank you mayor Jim Robinson square and Parlin first want a clarification mayor when they made a presentation it was a presentation on pilots in general this is not on the agenda the first item on the agenda is the cable TV there was no motion on this pilot so I don't know how this is the public hearing on the traml crow pilot I took notes I a lot of people obviously knew that they were making a presentation tonight a general presentation I took notes on that but I also have some notes on the Pyro so I want to clarify that how can this be a public hearing on the ordinance that I'm going to suggest that what you do is make the public hearing on Sarah's presentation which is what the mayor said originally and that's okay that's what I'm prepared to speak to Okay because we can't ask questions um I'm going to make statements and if they are incorrect and I just jotted these down in the back while they were speaking on the back piece of paper here if they're incorrect somebody can correct me but and I'm talking about the improvements not the land the land $400,000 that's bittens don't want to talk about this um but the town as a whole over 30 years the town meaning the Board of Education and the burrow will get millions less and I just did a quick calculation on what hamu said and I think that comes to about 200 that comes to about $24 million less for the Board of Education over 30 years that's the first thing requiring them to pay into the affordable housing trust fund they have to do that regardless of a pilot we passed that a few years ago because of the uh debacle with the affordable housing so everybody has to do that if I'm incorrect please correct me if School taxes go up those paying the school property taxes will pay the increase those with a pilot will not and that will include the veterans that you honored earlier tonight that will include the seniors that are here in the audience they will pay more the people paying the pilot will not many Pilots give 25% of the pilot money or money towns give 25% of the pilot money to the Board of Education the this pilot plan gives zero to the Board of Education this cheats our children our future that we talked about Pilots are almost always granted before a project is constructed if I'm in correct there somebody correct me but I've done some research on this as you know I agree Pilots are an effective way to attract development to a town the development that a town wants that otherwise would not come to the town as you know mayor I sell commercial real estate I probably get four calls a week from developers who want to construct warehouses you don't have to offer a pilot to bring in a warehouse you offer Pilots when you want to clean up the NL site when you want to clean up the site on Journey Mill Road that would never be developed when you want something that will benefit the town not something that's going to just knock down 7500 trees and bring hundreds of tractor trailers to town this is already built I support what the gentleman said about bringing construction union construction jobs to cille we did that we did that these are built that's why Pilots are granted before a project is built not only are they built treml Crow got their funding they had a bank that said yeah this project will work you can do this Mr mey in October of 2023 came to this very Podium this very microphone and said those projects are built if we don't get the pilot we will live with it and he was right they don't need the pilot for this project our former tax sucessor who wrote that email he opposed this pilot he made it known in conversations he didn't think this was a good deal for a town this is a guy that served the town loyally for 40 some years that you lorded a few months ago when he retired he opposed this pilot he didn't oppose all Pilots he doesn't oppose pilots in general neither do I as Mrs Novak said some Pilots are a good thing when you have a situation where but for a pilot something that is necessary won't be built then you should have a pilot these are built those men and women got the jobs they're standing already and lastly I just find it unusual this was defeated in October of 2023 we are in Court the burrow attorney is in court defending the denial of the pilot and the mayor issues a letter saying he supports pilot and the interesting thing about that letter I don't know who wrote that letter but they used a template I guess because it said they intend to build three warehouses well that's the template you would use normally because normally those letters are written before warehouses are built these are built they don't need the pilot I appreciate the jobs but they're built they're going to open those jobs are going to be there truckers are going to drive there folks are going to staff those warehouses those jobs will be there because they're already built they have signed up they're advertising they're looking for tenants so it's not a question of denying jobs it's a question of denying $24 million to the Board of Education that's what it's a question of thank you very much okay yes Mike pinkowitz 32 Becker Drive last time I was up here I spoke my piece about Pilots using Red Oak as an example three things that I pointed out last time numbers don't lie Pilots don't have to be 30 years and pilot should not equal profit so first question and I think I may have the answer to this or the first comment the financial documents in the pilot agreements show year one of the pilot as 2022 I would think since this resolution and this ordinance coming forward in 2024 that that application should have been updated with to start with financials beginning in 2024 now right from the agreement it says that the property land and improvements 4,750 th000 so I use that number as a basis for a lot of calculations and I've had a copy of this since April 16th when Zach was kind enough to email it to me didn't answer any of my other questions but that's okay based off of the percentages from my tax bill this property should be paying $2.2 million in taxes but their pilot payment in year one is 1.6 million that is a difference of $567,000 I don't understand how we're being told that the payment is more than what taxes would be I that doesn't make any sense based off of those numbers that's 74.8 n% that's lower than the 85% that was lauded during conversations with Kennedy and that number goes down year after year the pilot payments go only go up 2.5% year year and this is right from the financial document based from 2010 average property tax increase on my house was 3.12% there's a gap so what does that mean that means by year 20 instead of being at 85% you're going to be at 66% by year 30 they're only paying 63% the numbers are going the wrong way numbers don't lie also according to the documents based off of the payments the payment schedule the the payments listed in the documents they're saying that in year 16 of the agreement this complex will be profitable why are we giving them a 30-year pilot Pilots should not equal profit some of you looked at me funny when I made that statement last time but here we are a company like TRL Crow had a revenue that had a revenue of $840 million in 20123 if there is any operating loss on a property they're taking that as a write off they're not losing money if they don't get this pilot there is no pain that tax savings equates to less than one tenth of a percent of their pilot this is not going to make or break them but getting back to the school issue Year One based off of the numbers and what they're paying 1. 1233 million does not go to the schools I'm not talking about the little piece from the land tax that we're already getting I'm talking specifically about this pilot payment and as was pointed out the school budget is going to continue to increase there is a bill going through sen that came out of Senate committee in the state this week that school tax funding may not be if this passes into law the 2% cap is gone if a district has lost more has lost funding at any time over the last five years State funding they can then increase school taxes at will no referendum 99.9% that may not have anything to do with this decision but you need to be conscious of this because as the school budget goes up if the pilot is not contributing to school payments if prop like this if we don't get ratables this is not a rable if we don't get ratables in town who covers that difference when the school budget goes up tax players like me one one minute Mike okay I'm going to use that minute then I would like to ask the question uh because this was one of my questions to the town attorney since we are basing all of our growth off of Woodbridge and you were advised Woodbridge I'd like to point out when Woodbridge has a second reading for an ordinance like this the 5minute limit is suspended questions are asked and answered if we are not doing that I'd like to know specifically what ordinance is forbiding it thank you for your time thank you anyone else uh Ken yeah thank you mayor kenel sheski 108 North Edward Street uh I want to compliment the people who made the presentation uh tonight from Sarah and those others uh to me it was probably the one of the greatest marketing presentations since the greatest marketing people the Tobacco Company who got everybody smoking from the 50s to the '90s so it was a really good presentation uh and I like the way we throw all these numbers out and expect the public to have be able to make an opinion uh right before you vote tonight that seems a little bit silly to me where were all these numbers before and and and how many bites at the apple does traml Crow get for a pilot I sat here when when this governing body rejected a pilot last year for them well do this go on if they reject it tonight they try another 3 months from now another 6 months from now look there are many people in this town that think that a tax break to a multi-billion dollar Corporation it's basically a Robin Hood in Reverse it's stealing from the poor the poor taxpayers Sero and giving the money to a multibillion doll Corporation and it's fine for some people to come from other towns and talk about things but I I can Trump most of them because I was born and raised in this town so there aren't too many more people that uh can tell me about what's gone on in cille there's not too many more people can tell me about how governing bodies run because I sat on the middle sex County Utilities Authority as a commissioner for 5 years very trying time not from their fault because the federal government had banned ocean dumping of sludge so bad that grandchildren couldn't even visit their grandparents in Melrose because they got sick going from the car to their house uh so it was a trying time nobody ever no one ever there tried and I would have screamed if they did this said oh no you can't ask any questions like the policy that we decided on here six or eight weeks ago I I attended probably 25 Freeholder meetings fighting the mass bur incinerator uh very contentious great people from cille uh Julian kaic uh Vivian aeso but both people are passed on Susan blumi from Oldbridge we went there meeting after meeting you know what they treated when we walked in you could see their heads Dro when they saw us but they treated us with respect and nobody said oh oh no we don't answer questions so we're living in a municipality here where all of a sudden all of a sudden it's we don't answer questions I don't know of any other place that's done that and and I don't know I don't know who decided that here our out of town attorney mayor was it you who said for 20 years I only voted in there's a tithe I never heard a vote of these people on on this thing about they don't answer questions so I'd like to know about that you know when when Warren Harding president died and Calvin Calvin kulich the vice president became president he never talked much and they named him silent Cal uh I I think it might be time to start calling our Council people silent silent Cal because they sit up here they're elected by the people and you can't stop them from speaking and they should be speaking on behalf of the residents of this town so let me tell you something else before I I know I have to sit down the mayor used to call a police up here to set us down I if he still does but I don't I don't want the police I actually love the police coming because they're protecting me some screw ball could come in here and attack me I remember the years where Carterette the mayor used to jump over the rail and start fighting with people in the audience so I I'm not against the police coming but I am certainly against people who are here to for the for business of the burel and who aren't disrupting who aren't out of line to have the police come and escort them to their seat what a town we're living in and again nobody can tell me because I've been here for over 80 years going to tell me what goes on in Woodbridge or what goes on in other town let me tell you some of the towns that are fighting Pilots West Windsor Franklin Hillsboro Piscataway Robinsville Phil Berg uh they're fighting Pilots they're fighting Mega warehouses thank you Ken let me just finish mayor for another minute you let you let these other people go on and on only things that you like that you here thank you Ken yeah that you only let people who thank you Ken thank you Bill uh thank you Mayor Bill Henry um Orchard Street um I'm reading my comments tonight because I want to be as accurate as possible from what has happened in the past during the October 10th meeting this pilot was turn defeated 5 to zero with one exstension council member Roberts abstained from the vote because she wanted the public to have to see the confidential unredacted pilot report which still we haven't seen yet and have the an informal public discussion she was concerned that the public did not have the opportunity to Bo voice their opinion she and she abstained from the vote council member zabowski said the pilot did not meet the criteria for one uh the pilot the property does not need any help and was very markable right from the beginning he agreed with the council council member Roberts and said our Comm has a right to know the facts but in this case it's obvious and he voted no he also stated that he appreciated the council for denying the pilot after the vote Joe cups our tax assessor thanked the council for denying it and said that this property did not meet need a pilot he wrote many letters to the council saying the reasons why he said when he looked at the redacted report he was able to make some observations first he was concerned um that he that he as a tax accessor received the redacted report what they are and he said what are they trying to hide second he was able to verify that the land assessments were close to what he thought the three warehouses um would be assessed at but I mean the land assessment was um close to what it should be assessed at but he said the three warehouses were assessed at using equalized numbers he said the asset value could be as low as 40% of what it should be as an example he looked at a county report using the equalized formula and when he brought it to the County's attention they had a quick fix and the assessment went up by more than two and a half times third he said the report needed substantial changes um under a pilot as we spoke about the school system receives no money except for what the property taxes bring in this could be tens of millions of dollars to the school system in serville I have a report showing that the school mathematics score is 16.3% below the state average I mean well below the state average it's at 16.3% and the English score is 54.3% just meeting the state average ask yourself who needs the money more the a multi-billion dollar Corporation or the children and taxpayers are seral they increase they can increase their rents and to their tenants and lose no money last year I introduced myself to Andrew Millie VP of the company and he told me that he did not care if he got the pilot ask yourself another question why is the pilot brought up again when it was voted down 5-0 with one exstension is the mayor doing a multi-million dollar favor for a company hopefully we can take the council's president's word and have the confidential unredacted report released to the public and have an informed open discussion also i' suggest that having the pilot report redone not using equalized numbers one last thing the mayor runs the meetings and gets the information the council controls the meetings you can vote right now to end the meeting right now the mayor can't and um so make sure that you understand what you're voting on and you have the correct information don't let the mayor silence you you have the right to answer our questions and don't don't say that you don't you don't have that right and just do what's best for seral and not for big multi-billion dollar corporations thank you are there any other questions any rather any other comments other yes sir if you'd state your name in the street you live on please Jer R 96 North Edward Street um I had a lot to say but actually Jim and I think Mike kind of said a lot of what I was going to say but my real concern is about the school system saying that the board of vet is not going to lose money uh because the the land tax is going to be the same is true but they're not going to get anything on the Improv improvements and just being conservative it's it's at least a million dollars a year and it's going to go up every year and I don't know if anyone has noticed or not but there's a lot of new apartments being built in sville which means a lot of kids which means more teachers maybe a new school Sy new school and um I think what's going to happen is our taxes are going to go up even though it looks like a good deal for the town because they're getting 95% of the revenue but I think in the long run it's it's a bad deal for the town so I know Mr Mayor you go to the bomber football games I see you there you're a big supporter of the of of the schools and I think that the right thing to do is to vote no thank you are there any other comments Bel uh Bob Bob Duffy 111 Meritt Avenue uh my comment is I'm a little skeptical on this whole process like the other gentlemen say there was a vote and I was here and it was knocked down but if you look around I'm talking to the council mayor if you look around and drive around everywhere you see your Warehouse there's a major road right there okay number two they they put it in a center of a town the company number three they went to the county first and the county referred them down here we had this problem for a couple years ago with someone that passed away and now we're back in that same Groove and I don't think it's on I'll give you I've been a a ret fired Teamster I was a truck driver 18wheeler local driver for 32 years I've been in so many warehouses it's ridiculous there is no way that this Warehouse where they are are going to make money unless they charge a lot of money because the trucking getting in and coming out is going to take time and if you notice around town the county spend is spending a lot of money to accommodate this company they they're putting an extra Lane on the bridge on route nine they widen Bard Town Avenue and Cheesequake I'm telling you once the trucking companies find out they can't go in and pick up a load and get out in 20 minutes they ain't going to go there anymore because they get they don't get paid sitting in traffic so there's an it's skeptical to me why this company is pushing so hard for this pilot thank you Council thank you you are there any other comments yes Bob Bob Igan 43 Elizabeth Street the gentleman talked about union jobs and that well I can probably guarantee you there won't be a union job in those warehouses and they'll probably only pay a couple of dollars if you're lucky over minimum wage for one thing one thing I I don't I don't get why it's coming back again they sign on a Billboards coming into seral say where the Dead comes back to life again I it was turned down what brings it back to life again after it was turned down by the former Council and that's about all I have to say thank you bum are there any other comments yes sir who's phone uh Steve levenson 5 Telegraph lean and I just kind of wrote some things down and um from if I heard him correctly he said the conventional tax would be $1.5 million in year one after the improvements and yet in year one the town's going to get 1.7 million so it's actually better for the town to have the pilot in year one and he also pointed out that the school will still get its fair share but if the conventional tax is 1.5 million School portion will go up to $840,000 so you take out the 220,000 they're paying that means the school is losing $620,000 a year for every year of this pilot you times that by 30 that's $1,600,000 that the school is losing and yes if these numbers are correct and accurate it's not money the Burrow's losing because the burrow is getting that money if the 1.7 and the 1.5 are accurate so if the Barrow is getting it and keeping it in the school is not getting it and then if the if the school property taxes need to go up is the borrow willing to give some of this money to the school to not raise our School portion of our property taxes because if these numbers are right burrow is getting it already they shouldn't come back to me and ask me to give more because you're already getting the money that was just my observation thank you Steve are there any other any other comments D you you made your comments no you got to come up come on up come on up joh you gave testimony now you now you're giving your comment thank you thank you uh the fellow just was up here just said that the these three new ware houses would not be uh union jobs I want to correct it because the last three jobs in Hercules d where 100% Union 100% uh pla project labor agreements that we ensure the people in the community get the jobs and we did it there and there's going to be a project labor agreement on those three jobs and number two if you don't go for this motion and say yes the town the people of cille will lose $54 million I don't care about any of these figures they're talking about the board and the county the board and the county and and the and the S borrow of sville is going to get their school school money and there's going to be $54 Million worth of money for for improvements in Ser which includes the roads the water system which is a catastrophe right now it has to be addressed right away and this is only a start Pilots are great like everybody kind of said they're great and they got they can't be misused you know for the benefit of the people you got to have a start here you got to start you got to have some construction in SVO we're doing it all through the county you got to start here if you don't believe you're going to lose 54 billion if you don't believe you're going to lose 50 more billion dollar ask the business administrator and he'll tell you the cold facts that if you don't say yes the town people lose $54 million and you lose the jobs and you lose the chance to move forward at saille and bring this back I come from the middle sex Building Trades in 1920 and 1930 1920 1930 this was the cille Building Trades because we had all the work here we were between Perth Amboy and New Brunswick and River everything was here it all died let's bring it back okay are there any other any other comments any let let me clarify this Bob any other new comments all right come on up B I don't I don't want to get into a debate yeah we need building here we need good industry we don't need thousands of trucks rolling down our streets every day like the anticipated motion is going to be you're a good ba for your industry but take it somewhere else okay are there any other new comments that being said I'll entertain a motion close a public portion make a motion well so so so we we've had all the comments everyone has opportunity to speak on this matter so now the the question would be to what you know to the extent that the council um you know makes a has either discussion or makes a motion uh on whether or not to you know to consider this then you could do that excuse me that's not the process the process is the ordinance is introduced and then there is a public he was a public portion on the presentation made by Sarah so so let me be clear first of all sir and the first thing on the agenda television so let me be very clear first of all this is not a debate between you and me okay cly because I know how we've done things to to be clear to the do things in Bridgewater where they answer question clear to the to the council the the the item currently on the agenda is listed second given the extent that you've just had an extensive discussion on the topic you certainly could switch topics and then come back to this but given the fact that I think most of the public is here for this topic it would seem to make sense that if you want to take it uh take this issue now you can to also be clear uh we announced very clearly before that anybody who was going to make comments that was the public opportunity to do so there is no requirement to reopen to have the same discussion that we just had to which everybody in the room had had an opportunity to speak on the topic which was announced so uh that is you know you could do it again if you want to there's nothing that stops you from doing it but I'm telling you is that it was announced to the public everyone in the room had an opportunity to speak on the issue of the um of the Redevelopment but not on ordinance the the um so that's you know that's where you're at process what we're doing right now as the next step motion just for well there there's no there's no yeah so there's no action to take on the presentation the presentation was simply a presentation it was giving you information the information that was provided was for purposes of informing the public and the council with regard to the ordinance which is ordinance 24 uh 2024 motion specifically for the old business ordinance right correct which is which would be to uh well the motion could either be to approve or deny the ordinance what I'm telling you is if you want to open it again there's nothing that stops you corre continue whatever whatever whatever this is did motion to adopt an ordinance or not is that is how it's supposed to work yeah so you have you have a motion to adopt the ordinance um and presumbly there's a motion in a second there'd be discussion amongst the council um and then presumably vote so procedurally we could not motioning then what next else well if there's if there's if no councilman uh or council person makes a motion on the ordinance then there's no action to to take it would it just there'd be no action on it um it is listed for you know for final action tonight so you know presumably you could do nothing you could make a motion to table it you can make a motion to adopt and you can make a motion to to uh you know to vote it down um that's up to that's up to the council so at this point in order to discuss it for the council should we close the public session and then have the discussion then I move that we close the public session is there a second I second it roll call Roberts yes or what just to close close the public fala yes polii yes anoa yes sinari yes zabowski yeah so at this point should we discuss whether this was sufficient for the public portion for the ordinance yeah listen it's to the council what I'm telling you if you want to just reopen it and and have everybody give comments again you can do that it's not um I'm just commenting and saying that we announced earlier we made sure everybody in the room had an opportunity but if we're if it's going to be you know if we're going to spend more time debating the public comment you can reopen it again if that's if that makes the council more comfortable that's not a problem either for my colleagues here on the council o over my my time as mayor again an example is tonight I had the American Legion uh give an honor guard entrance uh for uh Larry Bishop uh because they asked me if he could do the salute to the flag nowhere on this agenda is that listed but it's something that that you need to stay flexible to Larry came forward we then did the the and the and the honor guard stayed here uh we then did approval of the prior minutes and then we did the the presentation of the Proclamation uh because we had uh a lawyer an engineer a Financial Consultant we we had the whole staff here for Sarah we had other people uh from the trade unions giving testimony in the past I would I would jump them ahead so that they could do their portion and then go on with their with their evenings so we've been at this a good hour and a quarter let's say um on this one topic uh to to do it to get the same questions I I I don't see the benefit of it the thing that I look at with a pilot is for years and years we rais taxes enough to meet our labor obligations most of the municipal budget is labor and labor goes up contractually we raise we raise taxes to meet that obligation we have a shortage of money for projects such as when I was elected at the turn of the century we had a budget for roads of around $2 million which if we only Mill and paved we got somewhere between 10 and 15 roads done and in the in the in the next 20 years uh we didn't we have done a terrible job on the roads uh and anyone that drives around anyone I I get that's probably the largest complaint I get um and and we need a new source of Revenue to address that uh the other thing is the the I I told this to somebody the other day if anyone my age is in the car when I drive by Hercules when I drive by this project they absolutely hate it I'm 70 years old so anybody in the baby boomer boomer generation hates the change they hate that the trees came down they hate this they hate that they don't look at this is contaminated property we could have never bought that in a million years something was going to be done with that property this gave us a modum of control now if I ask anybody with a family who's 40 or 50 years old they love it they love the change they love the look of the new sville so old people don't like it old people don't like it young people like it and I hear that when when people come up that being said this is a stream of Revenue which allows us to do projects that we could nor that we have not been able to normally do on our normal taxes as far as the schools go I've had discussions W with mayor McCormack I have listen there's no secret that we're doing Pilots I was at the uh Hall of Fame dinner the other night the Board of Education was there I am a very accessible mayor and I and I keep waiting for the phone to ring uh and and uh from the Board of Education and it still hasn't rung yet that being said I'm absolutely and the and the governing bodies absolutely open to discussion with the Board of Education it's not our intent to uh to uh leave them out in the cold but if nobody calls nobody calls and I'm not chasing them they they they need to they need to show the respect to the governing body you know for I'm just not going to chase him I refuse to do that so I want to thank amanu Dave Samuels our attorney our our financial advisor I want to thank Don and Bob Davis for giving us their perspective uh what what a lot of people don't realize is real estates is is a risky business and and only foolish people think when I've asked people around the state including the state level uh what happens if you don't give a pilot and from Mayors on down uh they say well you're probably not going to get the project or you'll get a much lesser project so I came here in 1987 just before that at shift change you had 3,000 people work working down there and you would have the traffic of thousands of cars and and from what I was told it it was it was a challenge to get them in and to get them out so the fact that we we haven't had that kind of employment over the course of my tenure as mayor I have met with a plant manager here at Dupont and I said it would be really great if we could get a couple more jobs because you're an excellent employer excellent wages excellent benefits and he said dupon has has said they will never invest another manufacturing Dollar in the state of New Jersey that being said you must adapt to the times right now warehousing is one of the key things because of the port of Elizabeth uh that being said I if if if it isn't profitable we will get lesser projects uh right now we have a first class we have a worldclass project we have other people coming here and if you think that saille has some magic that people are going to pay any amount of money and because they have a lot they've been very success ful that somehow they owe a free lunch to the old people of sville I think you're grossly mistaken I really do uh they don't and they're not going to buy you one so I think you need to start getting realistic anybody at my age you know we had our shot I'm getting this ready for the for the 40 year olds and the 50y olds and the 30 year olds that are starting their families that are coming here and the down so that they have these streams of Revenue so that they can fix the roads they we're we're we're beginning to have difficulty uh with with our we own our own water department we own the raw material the processing and the distribution and that's going to need we're either going to pay more in a water rate and Sewer rate or we're we're going to start doing Pilots which I've been advised by mayor McCormick many times that this can pay for a lot of that Bill your brother has Pilots over in in South Amboy that he's very happy with um so you know those that don't want change will vote against it those who say change is needed change is natural and change is appropriate um we'll vote for it and if you understand that this is a new source of Revenue where we can improve our infrastructure improve our our water our sewer our Recreation we can most certainly uh work with the schools on on their stuff but again the schools have to get off their ass and they have to pick up the phone it's it's it's kind of a coarse way to put it but I've been waiting for them uh to call not because I'm going to make them feel funny about it but they have to make the first step I I'm not I'm not running to them with a bag of money you know I think that's very foolish uh so as for to my councel this is about the future of sville you have you you could build a a cheap crappy Warehouse or you could build one that's going to attract a worldclass tenant and you're going to need to make concessions hey you know what Evelyn when you you better behave yourself you better behave yourself the other thing is when this thing failed the Democratic party was run by a guy who was on his way to prison so let's not forget that this wasn't like paana was running the Democratic party and running SVO this was a really bad guy who was going to prison and he influenced a lot of what happened here in sville I don't like talking ill of the dead but he was terrible for sville he was terrible for the Redevelopment he used to go around with his hand out and he did Terrible Things to our town so he's G so it's one of the reasons Iran was to get rid of him and his cronies and everything that he stood for because he certainly didn't stand for the people of zille he stood for himself that being said I would ask that the governing body look at this as a as a progressive step into the future uh to to our burrow and and that Pilots will provide these streams of Revenue where a unless you're going to raise taxes significantly to pay for a lot of New Roads new water infrastructure uh we have no other place to get it but taxation you can get it from Pilots which won't show up in taxation and Demming it will it will relatively stabilize your taxes and everybody else here or at some point when the when the when the when we we begin to have serious problems with our water infrastructure um we'll have to raise the rates or raise the taxes something's got to pay for it um and this is what we hope will begin to pay for it so that's my that's my input on on this ordinance see mayor if you don't mind um I appreciate a lot of your your thoughts and sentiments uh towards this matter and topic and creating the privilege and and the platform for us to get more insight get more details from some of the ities and agencies that that speak upon this uh you spoke about a lot of generations as well maybe I might come from a different perspective I think in general many people many of us uh don't claim to be the experts towards Pilots towards these topics no matter how long the presentations are no matter how much information we get I think most people look towards the professionals right those who are qualified you even went to an extent of making sure that everyone that spoke uh gives levels of validation before they can speak speak towards this issue and this topic from the buau council perspective uh for those who represent the people of sville when we have our professional speak towards this more specifically our our tax assessor we have folks from Sarah saying that there was a good relationship they refer to even emails but we all know uh in fact they even went as far as saying that typically they don't even reach any type of financial agreement outside of conventional taxes without the input from tax professionals and the leading experts on these topics all the tax but if you if if you don't mind if you don't mind esteem mayor you know I'm not sure if Sarah has a tax professional but usually there's some type of professional uh to speak towards this before a financial agreement is put in place I'm saying that in our situation uh our tax professional has spoken towards this uh our our leading professionals have spoken towards this and I think that their Viewpoint is consistent with that of our residents right which is that in fact he even had to beg to even be a part of the full scope of the Financial agreement and the negotiations thereof the the issue so far is that there are traffic concerns from our residents I know that this is a huge uh concern for you as you ran on that for your reelection I know that there are environmental concerns I'm I'm just talking about from even for my generation right Young Folks I come across from the environmental commission many other many other uh backgrounds within our town within our buau they speak towards these things even though we have trade professionals and folks have had the priv of working with like lik of Mr Davis they say there's no downside there's there's no negatives but I'm hearing from my residents that there are right so I'm not saying it to insult anyone I'm just saying that there are still uh pressing issues that our residents feel right and I think that's the reason why besides the school that's the reason why uh we should still wait further to get more leading experts opin more leading expert opinion to say this is the right way to go not necessarily from a mayor or from a mayor outside or a council member who is not really trained in this matter and I mean that with with with with respect to you but so far so good we haven't really had that from someone who represents the burough Council that we've paid that we hired to say what is your leading opinion on this for our benefit you know our tax Professor our tax Professor has not quite done that I know you're about to speak towards that if I can get some additional Insight from you on that specifically in terms of the tax assessor's role in this matter it's not his role it was never his role so we have a it was his opinion it was his opinion but that's a professional op opinion would you say your opinion we we my opinion on taxes is a little bit different from a tax assess opinion tax I expect you to vote no on this so do what I expect you to do yeah uh I I app I appreciate I I appreciate your expectation towards me uh I can have expectations towards you you have expectations towards me I think that's a universal standard so I understand that um but that's not really why I'm here right it's not really to do what you're you expect me to do I'm here really to understand the views of the people and see how I can represent that the best way possible are you living in town because my understanding that they found you living in New York okay and I I uh I appreciate I appreciate that sentiment in that topic and those who who found me I think that that is a conversation that you should continue with them Dan uh and when it comes to voting again typically there's supposed to be a motion to you know P thein forward the discussion right so that's why I'm discussing I don't think I've offended anyone with how I noted in the record D thank you sir there's an item out there that I don't know any I can't hear there's item out there that I don't know if anyone knows about we're not voting yet we're discussing go ahead Dan the warehouses are partially assessed at 16, 32,000 we introduced a budget of with a 3.9 Cent increase that has that 16320 in it if we approve this ordinance that 1632 should disappear from our valuation and our tax rate will probably double to 7.8 or something like that but I mean I would say we should at least table this until we find what what's happens with that 16 million told $30,000 at the very least Donna I was sitting on Council when this came up for that vote that people talk about that vote was simply to introduce at that time the council who was sitting here decided that the public was not prepared to make a decision or see the negotiations so I abstained um I think that we did a great job job the presentations really did lay a foundation for how Pilots really work what they do um and how we've worked with developers and that piece of property was in need of Redevelopment um I think we've gone more than over our our requirements and informing the public on what this is all about we wanted to make sure we reached out we had the right professionals here they spent their time their talent and they're sitting here in the unair conditioned room with the rest of us waving fans like an Old Courthouse I think we have all the information we need to make an informed and positive decision for Sall thank you uh Mike well after hearing what was presented tonight you know I'm confident that we can do this okay so the numbers are out everything's explained I see no problem with this we need to progress ahead thank you joh thank you mayor and first I do uh appreciate uh those that came from the community tonight and those that have also emailed us your responses and your comments were greatly appreciated um and and as well Christian yours as well I did initially vote no on this project um I didn't have all the full information that would could be available in order to make a conscious and good decision uh for the uh benefit of the burrow I spent a lot of time uh working with our professionals trying to educate myself and understand the process better and I think I have and I by no means am I an expert and I'm not telling you I am what I am though is a council person who's elected to support our community as whole and do what I think is appropriate for that Community to move forward and to make sure that it is a successful Community not simply for the new families but also for our seniors and for everybody else that's here already we have a lot of issues that we have to overcome and the opportunity of a pilot in this particular case does work well for those projects that we are trying to get done the roads that aren't paved and Roads that have holes and it also works for the park that need to be repaired and they need to be refreshed and they need to be need to be make better including Bailey Park where we're getting a contribution to be able to Res suain and refresh that Park which is necessary I'm not going to tell you that I have every answer because I don't have every answer but I will tell you that I've with taking the time to be able to consciously look at this and understand it and weigh the benefits I see the benefits for what we can do for our community moving forward and it is POS positive not going to say every every every pilot is good and I understand the process was convoluted it was it was and and I can't apologize for that because I wasn't part of the convoluted process but we are trying to make the process better so everybody does understand it you may still not agree with it but you'll understand it as to where we're coming from and then you can make a conscientious decision whether it's good or bad and I hope today was a first step in doing that I hope we presented ourselves well and that's the reason why I've have changed my mind and why I believe to go forward with this pilot is the proper thing to do Dany good a good evening when I started this uh another chapter of my life being a councilman in cille a lot of changes that happened throughout my years of growing up and everything else I wasn't happy with all of them uh Parkway entrance Parkway exits it changed traffic dramatically in Cal this is going to change TR dram dramatically in Cal there's supposed to be another road that I was told that's going to go from Cheesequake area to Journey Mill I don't know what happened to that that's one of my big things is the traffic but I want to take seral into the future and that's one of the things I campaigned under that I want s I'm the third generation seral and I'm my kids and and are still going to be here I have properties in Cal and we're going to be here for another hundred years which we are already so now not every decision that we make as the council is going to be supported by everybody in this room but I'm I'm going with the best for the long term of seral and I'm voting for it okay with that I'll entertain a motion so can we need to introduce go ahead ordinance number 20-24 ordinance of the burrow of sville County of middlex New Jersey authorizing the execution of a financial agreement by and between the burrow and parland section 1 urban renewal LLC pursuant to the long-term tax exemption law njsa 42-1 ET sec I'll entertain a motion you go ahead public hearing on this ordinance I move the public hearing be closed and the ordinance adopted on second and final reading and advertised according to law is there a second is there a second roll call Council persons Roberts yes Bala no KUSI yes anoa no sinari yes zabowski yes passes public hearing on ordinance number 9-24 and ordinance granting Municipal consent for the renewal of a cable television franchise for the operation of a cable television system Sy within the burrow of sville New Jersey to CSC T tkr LLC doing business as cable vision of ridan Valley this time I'm going to open the public portion to comments on this ordinance are there any they have wait what's that got to be quiet because the not gonna wait wait until the people leave Sor the the the audio won't pick it up just stay there for a minute till B whoever is leaving now now go ahead thank you mayor Jim Robinson parland New Jersey and one of the reasons I'm going to speak on this ordinance but I'm going to talk generally about one of the reasons it's important that we have real public hearings a few years ago you may remember this mayor we lost a very expensive case quiet mayor go Evelyn you either keep quiet or I'll have you you'll have to leave the room we lost the case cost us 1.3 million to lose and as a result of losing that case 1.7 million square feet of warehouses are being built on Main Street and the reason I don't know if you looked at that case counselor a lot of burough attorneys have the reason we lost that case was the judge called the mayor's public hearing process quote a sham hey officers take these ladies out please they're obnoxious and they're disturbing the meeting and I don't want us to get embroiled in another one 1.3 million case because we had a public hearing that was a sham but what we just had on that ordinance was not a public hearing on the ordinance the document that was presented doesn't mention the word treml crow in that document once that was a general presentation on Pilots one by the way which Karen Bailey biebert and Tom Pando worked on three years ago you might remember that Karen came up and said we're gonna have this Tom and I have been working on this we're going to have this presentation um and finally it came about right in time for this but that was a general presentation on Pilots not a public hearing on the ordinance and if this is challenged that may be one of the reasons because that was another sham okay but I do want to talk about the cable TV um uh and for the record I just want to say this it expired in 2016 no question and when questions were asked the other day people up here said' well we weren't around in 2016 we don't know what happened the mayor you were around in 2016 you were working on building apartments back then I guess so this thing is we're now just getting around to it but for the record because there I understand there's going to be an appeal there was no 45 day notice there was no 15-day notice and there was no notice whatsoever that people could submit their comments and writing and the pamphlet that I referred to you at the last meeting counselor talked about all those things even had the sample Public Notices that talk about how you can submit your comments and writing so when you have a a public hearing on a Friday during Passover people might want to submit their comments in writing I think how many people showed up mayor you weren't here I shouldn't ask you uh John you four four people showed up on on a topic like that M Mr Duffy's holding up four fingers okay thank you Mr Duffy John I sent a note to you and I appre apprciate that you got some extras in there I sent a note to you that Dr lbby told me the board of education has no current agreement with cable vision and as all the cable in their classrooms have been gone for a long time some of the principles still do have working boxes the the state statute and that ordinance provides that the schools can be added to that list and I would ask that that be done you added the park to the list can we add the schools to that list I know you don't answer questions but they're not on there I looked before I asked the question I looked before I sent the note to I I forwarded you this email John uh my conversation with with Dr Labby I do want to correct something though that and also the veterans were here earlier I asked if we could have free cable TV at the veterans organizations I don't know if that's permissible got no answer to that no response but I think those heroes are entitled to that I do want to correct one thing that the woman from cable vision said um when she was here on Friday she said the statute does not allow a reduction for senior citizens njsa 48 col 5 A-1 11.1 112 allows for reduced or discounted rates to the elderly Andor disabled to be offered the legislature found that cable vision is a principal source of recreation entertainment and that a public need exists which makes the provision of reduced and discounted rates till the elderly a public necessity that would promote their Health and Welfare I'm sorry that that wasn't that that wasn't explored and five minutes exactly thank you are there any other comments St yes hi Steve levenson five Telegraph lean I was actually here Friday night and I brought up section 13 in this ordinance local office agent back in 1996 I was actually on what we had at the time was a cable sa saal television Advisory Board I was on that board for over 10 years and I served for the chairman and then one year the Democrats won Council and didn't reappoint anybody the mayor asked to be reappointed on January 1 and lo and behold uh I was no longer on the cable uh cable Advisory Board and I believe shortly after that it got disbanded but one of the things we actually fought for back in 1996 was to have a local office within the burrow of CBO and we had that put into the franchise agreement back then with tkr and I've have noticed that it is not in this one it just says a local office and I understand why it says a local office is because cable vision just signed a new lease in Gateway and they're moving their office out of erston Road and Washington Road uh where shoppr is and they're moving in into Gateway and gate way as we all know is not in sville so that's why it has to be changed I request that this not be approved as written and go back to them and have them change it and let's have a definition of what local office is what is a local office is it 5 miles away from cille is it 10 miles away is Piscataway a local office they have offices on Centennial Road am I going to have to drive all the way out up on 287 and rush hour or traffic to go change my box when you know my town fought for and got a local office within the burrow and now just through simple whatever it it's gone and now our residents going to be inconvenienced so that's my big issue to go back to some of Mr Robinson's com comments cable vision only offers free basic cable to us they don't any offer us anything other than free basic and cable vision did I can't say if they do anymore offer senior discounts but it was only to Residents that only had cable once you tied in your phone and your internet they didn't give discounts anymore so I don't know anybody that probably just has cable and is just getting a senior discount you also had to every year sign a letter to tkr letting them know that you were still alive and that you didn't die and somebody was in your house getting a discount they weren't entitled to anymore that was something we fought and we never got them to do away with so every year the seniors had to go down to wherever their office was fill out another Form and hand it in to get the discount we were never able to get them to give the discount on the bundled product um and I doubt we will at this point with this a lot of this is set by Statute I understand that and there's a lot of things that we just have to kind of agree with but we fought for the local office and I recommend rejecting this now and going back and getting a better definition of what local is so it's clear uh if in the future they decide to close the Gateway um store and move it somewhere else we're not going to be inconvenient thank you thank you Steve Steve would you would you be interested in Reviving the cable TV board I would I don't know well if there's a need yeah but I don't know if there's a need a a lot of our complaints now come up to the mic see all right like I said I'm out of I've been out of the loop for probably 10 years or so uh probably more than 10 years at this point um a lot of the problem is the internet and the cable are actually technically considered different by vpu and even though we're getting we're getting the service from the same company there's different rules that apply to it so yes under the cable board we had our rights and we had our things and and we used to take the complaint and we used to contact tkr and they had to respond to us and then we had to respond to the this the resident the problem was when internet started coming in a lot of the complaints we started getting about internet we had no recourse under because it followed different rules and different regulations and that the laws might have caught up with cable now at this point because internet is somewhat of a utility now it's a necessity not not a luxury but at the time it was considered a luxury so BPU wasn't getting involved in any internet disputes or disclaimers and we couldn't do anything for the residents of cbble on their internet issues we could only address their cable issues I don't know if we're still having the issues that we had back then but if the residents feel that they are then yes I I'd be something willing I to do again I'll be in touch all right thank you Steve K kenel sheski 108 North Edward Street I have concern about the same item and the gentleman just spoke about section 13 with the local office uh this looks like another example of big business and corporations taking things from the people of Sero and this governing body sitting here and folding their hands and doing nothing about it where is a local office as the gentleman just said he made all the right comments I mean is it in a treeold is it brunwick pisc out away oh they wait a minute they they took a lease in s Woods that doesn't seem too bad right it doesn't seem too bad until the 65 trucks an hours start coming from the warehouses remember 65 trucks an hour I was here I was here one the testimony at the planning board and I'm going to speak about that the next time the shame that goes on in a barel yeah how how easy is it going to get be to get to s Woods when there's 65 trucks an hour coming out of those warehouses and you know if you if you watch the people here that uh that always look busy when people come to the microphone with good questions they're the ones that can't face the public they all a sudden get busy watch them you see them right now the other question I have is uh how is Ern road going to be uh there's an application before the planning board uh right now for a a a pretty big religious operation what impact is that going to have on ernston road so if you say oh well ernston Road or s Woods isn't too far with the traffic on eron road it could be very far and letting them take this office out of cille and having nothing we have nothing a local office what does that mean who negotiated this who negotiated this here oh I forgot you don't answer questions I forgot you don't answer questions uh uh less than 6 months ago you said uh we here's our campaign prise to promote transparency that puts an end to corruption and self-dealing but now you don't answer questions if that isn't a shame and most people most people in this town would have to say they were lies told to the Pres serle thank you are there any other yes ma'am oh Timmy demitra Wagner again s Roman Street um my mom just passed away unfortunately on April 14th 3 months before my daughter's due date um she's been living with me for a couple months we just had to give up her apartment um that was scheduled a scheduled move and she lived in Gillette Manor on 650 Washington Road and they have a contract um we all know it's a HUD building and now it's a mix of Hud and Section 8 and it's mandatory that they have to have cable whether they want it or not and it's a discounted rate I mean I think it's a discounted rate my mom only had basic cable cuz she didn't really watch television that much um so she had to have it um I don't know if it was discounted maybe that's what they're talking about as far as senior discounts you know we have the Gillette Towers we have the Gillette Manor and now we're going to have all these affordable houses I don't know if that's going to fall under it but we live in a republic and we have our we vote through a democratic process I mean to force companies to give discounts I mean we only have one company and no one's going to come and buy that cable at Cable's prices and everyone says that cable right now is a luxury I mean maybe if you have cable phone internet you need it because my mother couldn't afford on a senior you know salary to have Verizon cuz it's so expensive so she had to have via talk which is a voice over internet phone company um and she needed to have the internet in addition to the mandatory cable that she has because it was contracted many many years ago I mean television is a luxury yeah of course it gives our seniors time to pass and watch and know what was going on and so forth and of course it's great but you know since when did you know we had B sick needs in this country we need water right we need warmth in the winter we need cool in the summer you know I'm sorry but like you know having HBO and it's great to watch HBO if you like it or watching the Yankees and all that and I understand in this economy under you know the blue Administration it's really hard to afford things and also going back to my husband is a professional truck driver okay when we go to the supermarket we all remember during covid when the shells were empty without truckers You' be homeless hungry and naked every little thing on this God Green Earth from a PIN to a tree goes on a tree a truck okay and I get very upset because as a truck driver you know I hear jokes about oh your husband's just a dumb truck driver what is he know okay he's an essential worker and he keeps this country and this world running okay and he keeps this economy going when you're when you don't have milk and eggs on your shelf and you don't have toilet pap paper and you don't have meat and your refrigerator's empty what do you say where where are the truckers where are the warehouses where are the corporations where are the farmers this is what America makes America grow we have China buying our Farms we have China buying our corporations China owns America okay we need to get back to Made in America CA was known for bricks what are we known for Now can anyone say that yes trucks cause traffic yes okay but at the end of the day you have food on your table you have clothes on your back all right and that's what makes America move truckers all over the world and all over the country and please ratables make money houses do not they put burdens on our town they put burdens on our taxpayers through schools okay but we can't stop them because they're private property and we live in a republic and in a democracy we don't live in a communist country where we can dictate what people will do with their private property so I know that people like to come up and I love this gentleman that's reminds me of Jimmy Stewart and I love Jim because he really cares and he has good intentions okay but please don't make this meeting a Jerry Springer episode okay I want to be proud to be a seral resident I'm proud to be a Comm committee woman in my district one for the GOP and I have seen that lately this me this meeting has turned into a Jerry Springer episode with people yelling and screaming and calling people names and not even allowing people to finish speaking up here please if you're going to come up here have some common sense and have some respect for your sayable residents whether they're Democrats whether they're Republicans or Independents whether they even Vote or not whether they have a step foot at a meeting what if a person is watching tonight and they're like I don't want to watch the zoo show thank you thank you Jimmy are there any other comments Bob Bob Egan 43 Elizabeth Street needless to say I'm disappointed in some of the people up on the board today you made this pilot you made it sound like if we didn't get this pilot we're not going to have any the comments about the cable vision this is cable vision I'm sorry okay cable vision there wasn't I don't remember uh a public announcement of it being on Friday I would have gone to it it was supposed to be on a Saturday from what I remember so I don't know what happened you have the barel blast you can when it does come out maybe you could put the meetings on the blast to let people know when they're going to be I don't go on Facebook so if they put it on Facebook it does it could I could die there I don't have any social media at all so if you put it on an announcement like you do with the roads and that maybe people would know thank you thanks Bob are there any other comments being no other comments I'll entertain a motion to close a public portion I make motion to close the public is there a second and adopt the is there a second for a second can I Mr Mayor can I make two comments to one to Mr elesy and one to Mr Robinson you can yeah we have to close the public first okay that's all I'll second it the motion was put up I'll second it well no we we we could only close the public if you want to make comments so we we'll we'll we'll close the public just close the public Donna yes all right so the motion is to close the public that's the motion Donna that is the motion is there a second to close the public second roll call Council persons Roberts yes Bala yes poliy yes manoha yes sinari yes zabowski yes okay uh comments from the council sash yeah the first thing Mr oleski I feel the cable vision moved out of the shopright Plaza bottom Line's got to be profit and expenses to run that size building in that size area uh we think I think there's got to be a number that I can call to find out to speak to somebody why the that building left and moved to Oldbridge uh but I feel it's got to be money everything resolves around money if they're paying 2,000 a month in shoppr versus they're paying 1,500 in Oldbridge Gateway that's where they're going uh it's it's not as local as it was before but I don't I just d Road during the day today I went to go to some place up the road and it wasn't really that bad but yes you're right when the traffic comes then the other one is to Mr Robinson as far as the vfw's and the American Legions and other clubs that are having a Wi-Fi or cable if there's a liquor license involved with that I don't feel that anybody's going to be getting free cable or any WiFi for Freight but I will look into that and see if I can give you a correct answer on that is there any other discussion amongst the council yeah actually the schools are in there they're not listed on the addendum but they are in actually in the contract itself and uh Marilyn Davis confirmed that to be the case on Friday night as well so I'm not really sure why it isn't in the addendum probably because they were specifically identified but those other areas which are usually our First Responders our uh first aid build or first aid buildings or fire departments and the Public Works buildings they probably had to be spelled out app that might be listed but according to Dr lby John I can't I can't allow the the dialogue thank yeah and and I just have a procedural question for uh for Council uh I would like to see this move forward this evening but Steve did raise a very good point on Friday about the definition and Marilyn did bring is going was was to bring it back because she acknowledged the fact that we probably should massage that language to make it more specific is there a way that we can adopt the ordinance subject to that being uh resolved or do we have to table and and I'll defer to you on anything but it is a very important issue and and it should we should have more specific language I mean even the representative from Altis men and if we could how specific are we talking here just fire well keep in mind that there's an awful lot of areas and ways in which these companies now allow customers to contact them right but and I think Steve had a very good idea when you said it could be something as simple as being the sville uh saille South Amway Oldbridge Area Regional area but something that specif specified that was more of a radius throughout our residents can get to and that seemed very logical uh from that standpoint but you know John what one of the things we did was we moved the water department down to the water treatment plant whereas it used to be people would come here to B Hall and they'd pay their their tax bill get their dog license and pay their water bill uh a decision was made that it made more sense to put it all Under One Roof at at the um at at the water treatment plan that that being said I'm not I'm not a fan of the cable company um I think Steve hit it right on the head there it's a commodity now it's not what it was you know back in in the late the late 80s no the late 90s uh I remember Ed rap was the first chairman and Eddie was Eddie was a devoted Public Service a and um it was a tough job it was a really tough job but it was new and there were an awful lot of complaints and a lot of nights this room would fill up with people complaining about uh discrepancies in their cable bill and and and and the relative service that being said it it's now nothing it's like it's just it's a commodity um so I don't think the levels of ser I mean they never gave great service uh and I don't think anything has changed there um but it when you get one bid which is all you ever get on on the on from the cable companies um and they have the legal right to default to what the state government says they can default to uh and then they say listen you can negotiate all you want but anything over a certain amount is we're just going to jack up your rates so it becomes a zero sum game it is a commodity and and um but I still think we need a uh we need someone with Steve with your with your character and your skill set uh to advise us on it so please please consider it and um because you you most certainly have the institutional experience with them uh and and and you you could make an informed opinion and transfer that to the governing body on how to deal with it you know assisting mayor in addition to that I think councilman zabowski was uh speaking towards the language especially the word local and I think he was referring a question to you know just for additional professional expertise from our from our counselor here and I wanted to know if there'll be additional feedback on that for the sake of clarity sure so just from a standpoint you on that point I think there's two options that the council has so because this has been um already noticed if you were to you could amend it but um there's two issues with that so one I think you have to amend it and we have to Ren notice it for purposes of you know you're making a substantive potentially substantive change to the to the ordinance so one option would be You Mend it tonight to language that you want um uh which might be a little hard to do kind of on the fly but you could do it and ren notice it um option uh two would be to table final action tonight for purposes of putting together some language that then the you know the council could consider amending at the next meeting which would probably mean that we're two more meetings entally to um to approve it because we'd amend it at the next one and then approve at at another one um on top certainly let's say theoretically you said well we want to Workshop it right now get language we like and and amend it you could theoretically do that um but obviously until there's a conversation with cable company we don't know what they're willing to agree to so I would suggest that if you're going to change that language I think the more efficient way would be to if you if that's critical enough to the council I think the better way to do it would be to table it uh allow there to be some discussion with the cable company over what we think the definition of local should be and to what extent that they're willing to agree additional language um and then you come back and amend it or not amend it and vote on it as is at the next meeting I understand option two but let's say hypothetically we spend on option one right because councilman zarowski was I think if I'm not mistaken he said just to add a bit more Nuance which is maybe extend the language to uh a few region Regional towns right maybe if you add Sero old I'm not sure the specifics of what he said but it didn't seem too much of a change in the Nuance of the language right now no doubt the cable company might look at it differently and it might be a big deal to them but let's just say assuming it wasn't that you know the language you know the Nuance of the language wasn't that much of a difference and we're able to determine this immediately right could we not go with option one would that not be the recommended route well so you could you could um amend it so you could say theoretically you can make a motion that says local mean sville Oldbridge you know let's say towns bordering sville okay um you could you could amend it um when it comes to ordinances uh the general rule is you know you can change language that's not Subs without having to have a new public hearing this to in my opinion is a little bit borderline because it has been a discussion point which makes me um if there hadn't been so much discussion on this issue I would probably feel a little more comfortable saying yeah you can probably just do it it's not that big a deal but this has been a discussion point so I think from a public standpoint if you're going to amend it to say local means sville Oldbridge you know whatever towns you want want to put in there I think we'd have to amend it tonight one of the things everybody's got to consider so if we get no complaints moving the water department out to the water treatment plant so if if if all of a sudden we we we Define what local is which is in the boundary and borders of of the cille tax map and they choose to put it by Dave's Hot Dogs Out in out in Morgan that certainly that certainly convenient for the people in Morgan it's certainly not convenient for anybody else but it it complies with the boundaries and borders of the cval tax man if it's up in the center most of the Town goes up there to buy something at some time and how often do you actually go to the cable company in person other rather than making a phone call or or sending an email or going online so you know one of the things I find you can you can take any issue any ordinance and and there are people that just can't get enough data because quite frankly what I always found they had difficulty making decisions I don't find it I mean I live in in in Woodside which is which is you know right off of ernston Road and uh it's a long walk to uh cable vision's new place but um you know for me it's it's not a problem shapr right wasn't a problem problem uh Dave by Dave's hot dog that would be a pain in to neck but they would be in compliance uh the other thing is we don't know uh you know they did make the comment to US during during the discussions that you know a any you know you it's like I used to say to people particularly in Laurel Park they say you know we'd like sidewalks I said I get you I get your valet parking but you got to pay for it and that's what nobody's getting you know so we could ask them to put you know six offices in the burrow of sville uh and and they might say okay and then all of our cable rates go up we may or may not notice it they they may be able under state law what they what they did say is listen we can just default to what the state says we get and and just be done with this we're we're we're trying to be we're trying to accommodate Steve the the the problem isn't oldridge the problem is a year from now when that leas is up and they want to put it in sat okay and the other problem is under the old rules if you didn't have a new negotiation BPU would Implement your current imp your current agreement would stay they would just default and your current agreement would continue so if that was the case and that's probably what's been happening since 2016 when this one expired they had to keep it in they had to keep what what based on your year Decades of experience what's your opinion on this on my opinion I don't trust them I don't wait wait nobody trusts the cable company my opinion is without defining local a year from now they can put that damn office wherever the hell they Dam so let me let me go wait wait Steve do what do you recommend I recommend I would recommend you vote no on if you can't amend it well we can table it but how do we Define local or table it table it and go and she was I was here Friday and she was willing to go back and discuss it with her hire UPS so it wasn't even something that's your wait a minute that's your recommendation yeah I would based on 20 years experience with the cable company and I would follow up with her based on Friday and say has this what do you think clarifi deis so I I think one of the things also that we have is we have a 10-year franchise agreement and typically commercial leases are minimum 5 years so we have definitely at least a fiveyear guaranteed local and then um most likely they have a 10year lease so we have it's not going to happen in one year and um would would you be adamantly opposed to tabling it and and we'll we'll B I'm going on what Steve Steve's experience uh which is considerable and well In fairness I haven't dealt with the cable with them at the level you're on the hook now um would you be okay with it I I would uh be happy to do what's in the best interest I'm kind of like torn so I can I can go either way okay Christian tabling okay tabling the only trouble is orridge is a big town so I'm afraid throw orridge in the mix I'd rather to see maybe if think going to change locations they have to come here and ask for permission so we could okay the new position Mike okay to table joh yes right okay motion to table then you're gonna be in on this right so how do we how do we do this yeah so we just just call for somebody makes a motion to table we'll have a vote on that and then we'll you know we'll go back mayor get some language would you make the motion please make the motion I'll second the motion all right roll call Council person's Bala yes kisi yes anoa yes Roberts yes sinari yes zabowski yes new business appointments okay uh I'd like to on Sarah I'd like to make an appointment for a five-year term on for Robert dewise is there a motion I think is that the only well no I have some more on Cultural Arts uh for onee term uh Bernardine leeski Christopher cunio and Gregory cunio those three people and for uh special counsel other matters The Firm they were with us for a couple years otoul scrio there a motion I make a motion to accept the um not nominations I always get this wrong appointments appointments there second second roll call Roberts yes Bala yes polii yes an NOA yes sinari yes zabowski yes if I could just make one comment in terms of the uh there was comments raised uh with regard to the public portion on the uh the ordinance on the um pilot program I just want to I know I said this before but just to make sure that it's clear on the record that uh when the discussion began on that I made an announcement to the room that said anybody who wants to comment on the ordinance this was your chance to do so I made sure that the room understood and everybody in the room was given an opportunity to speak I think at least one or two people spoke twice um so for purposes of just making sure the record is clear uh we announced that it was to speak on the ordinance the presentation included details of the specifics of this financial agreement it wasn't simply on Pilots there was lots of discussion with regard to this particular deal uh and uh at the end of before closing the public portion there was nobody else who had indicated desire to speak and the public portion was closed so just want to make sure that that is clear on the record for new business Jessica ordinance 21-24 and ordinance supplementing and amending ordinance number 40-23 fixing the salaries of certain burrow officials officers and employees for the years 2023 to 2027 move the ordinance be approved on first reading advertised according to law and a public hearing be held on 5132 24 second roll call Council person's Bala yes kisi yes anoa yes Roberts yes sari yes zabowski open uh this time I'm going to open the public portion on on the consent agenda are there any comments Jim all right being no comments I entertain a motion make a motion to close the public hear and adopt adopt the um resolutions on roll call vote action roll call Council persons Roberts yes fala yes kisi yes an NOA yes sinari yes spri yes a motion to accept the correspondence as listed make a motion to accept the correspondence as listed second roll call Council person's Roberts yes fala yes kisi yes NOA yes sari yes zabowski yes okay uh mayor and Council reports administ the hour is getting late so unless you guys got something pressing progress is acceptable uh administration of Finance councilman Bala thank you mayor uh just ba forist we got a grant for sidewalks at Kennedy Park and then progress progress what's that thing progress thank you planning and zoning councilman zabowski uh thank you mayor uh I did want to congratulate you on receiving an award from the from the AFL CIO on the Hubert Humphrey friends of Labor Awards I think that was very special for you uh beyond that uh our Board of adjust approved three applications since last meeting the planning board has a meeting coming up May 1st that the location has changed from the I'm sorry from the B the loc planning board has its next meeting May 1st it is not being held in Council chamber it's going to be held at the adult Active Adult Center same time uh and then finally uh Sarah met last week at Thursday and we had a first Workshop meeting of the uh of the year uh it was uh it was run by our vice chairperson Steve G uh and the topic was the downtown area uh it was just a very preliminary discussion to kind of uh initiate uh thoughts about our downtown area and we hope to have additional discussion as we move forward and otherwise progress thank you mayor anything else thank you Public Safety councilman and all thank you C mayor uh no additional uh comments towards the committies progress progress okay Public Works councilman kesy a couple updates from the from the superintendent George gin that the um May 1st uh is the opening for the community Garden the pickle ball courts will be ready by Saturday May 4th the paper shred was a a big success very well attended uh the first street sweeping is almost complete this month so as a matter of fact I came down my street this morning um then uh they're prepping Main Street for the Memorial Day parade and the rabies clinic is May 4th over at the um Public Works main office progress thank you Recreation councilman sonari uh first thing is Saturday's the big day for the kids we have the annual fishing tournament at Kennedy Park uh there's quite a few of us going to be there to help insist on that one uh last Saturday we also had on the human relations end of it we had a bias presentation by Juan Rodriguez used to be a former detective in Cal it was a very interesting seminar that he presented other than that progress thank you water and sewer Environmental council president Roberts thank you mayor I do have a few things and once again congratulations on the recognition by the AFL CIO welld deserved great group of people um I do want to State when is the best time to plant a tree first answer is 20 years ago the next answer is today um having said that I want to congratulate the um shade tree commission and seral for being recognized as Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation they're doing a great job with all the things that we're hearing about land being trees being taken down we are putting them back up again and doing a great job so we're we're going to go with today being the best day to plant trees also with um water hydron flushing is almost complete and um Earth Day there were over a hundred people there great turnout at Kennedy Park and um most impressive from what I've heard the family volunteers that are going there just to teach their children how to take care of the environment and what we have here and of course the Boy Scouts Girl Scouts police Cadets um and and other family volunteers were there the paper shred I understand had three truck full so very successful event and April was the environmental shoutouts for business so we want to shout out for what people are doing good now because we've had the history and now we're keeping an eye on things so we have chemor company CMC steel Dupont specialty Red Oak power Riverton sabert psng Quick Check shoppr Starland Ballroom Wawa Family Dollar Domino's Pizza Lockwood boat and ronies all who comply with and follow all D guidelines in serville as great Partners in our town progress mayor thank you okay we'll go to a general discussion request received from the owner of Garden State Delhi to amend his Peddler's license to allow the food trailer to be open from 6 am to 2 am on Thursday to Saturday at River Road I I do not feel comfortable with that 2 amm um timeline because um the park is closed prior to that at 11: so um does anyone else have any comments about 2 am I just don't think that that's the right time you know what I wouldn't mind running this I'm not I'm comfortable with dawn to dusk okay I'm not I'm not comfortable with the evening hours um only because I I I don't want that Park becoming a hangout um and I don't want it becoming last call uh I would make a recommendation that we run it we send it over to PD and and have them weigh in on this because if it does become a problem they're the guys that are going to have to uh answer the calls and I'm just not looking for that great product great guys but um you know it's a far distance to have an all night stand um in a public park what is what are their current hours till I'd have to pull the okay that's okay to dust park hours I believe are on the signs Dorn to dust an hour after dust all right let's take a look at that that's I have to see what the current one yeah and mayor just CL we're going to put this to the police department for their feedback yeah I'm going to refer to the police dep again let's see what they say because they're the guys that have to answer the PO okay uh coin toss uh received from the following OLV Nights of Columbus for May 11th and 12th and seral Boy Scout Troop 97 for September 28th and 29 any any objection next item letter received from president Park Fire Company accepting Anthony Pasqual as a Cadet member at their March 4th 2024 meeting any objection next item authorization to enter into a shared services agreement with the East brunso Police Department to use the Burrow's range as a weapons qualification training and practice facility for police officers of the East Brunswick Police Department any objection next item approval of closeout change order number three for preferred mechanical for the several Public Safety HVAC in the amount of $2,951 which increases the contract amount so 1,699 589 rection next item authorization to accept the work closing the contract and issuing F final payment in the amount of $84,999 45 to Preferred mechanical authorization to extend groundskeeping contracts with CR landscaping and customer care services for one add one additional one-year term and increasing the contract rate for Cris Landscaping to $1,397 objection on the on two and three next item authorization to award a contract to Tom's Ford for the provision of OEM parts and service through Source well contract in an estimated amount of 100,000 any objection next item authorization to award a contractor to warer Electric Supply in the amount of $8,499 for lighting equipment through Bergen County cooperative purchasing contract objection next item authorization to award a fair a non-fair and open contract to allamerican Ford for the purchase of 1224 Ford Ranger in an estimated amount of 43,800 any objection and S okay business administrator authorization to promote Noah to water treatment operator unlicensed in the wood and SE Department effective May the 1st any objection next item authorization to transfer Jennifer duko from Principal payroll clerk to keyboarding clerk 3 in the office on Aging retroactive the April 15th any objection next item authorization to promote Beth magnan from clerk one to principal playr clerk in the finance department retroactive the February 20th 2024 right bu authorization to appoint Evan zargo as laborer one in the water and sore Department effective May the 1st any objection next item authorization to appoint Peter margle is laborer one in water and store Department effective June 1st any objection uh cfo's report Denise Mr Mayor thank you thank you burrow Engineers report J Cornell thank you mayor two items first is roadway Improvement projects the council's been questioning various road projects which contracts have been awarded what's pending so I provided you with two reports one is a summary of the road projects that have been authorized based on your bond ordinance last year summarizes the contracts you've been awarded and also the projects that are being designed second attachment is a copy of the roads that are recommended by your public works department to be done this year once you adopt your capital budget so that way you have a chance to look at those in advance me favor and post those uh on on the Bal website and put a slot in there for comments thank you mayor second item let's see how that comes back okay second item is a resolution approving a change order for French Street Albert Street no increase to the contract amount just allows us to pay the contractor for extra work that was requested by the water department that's all I have thank you borrow attorneys no report okay this time I'm going to open the public portion a five minute limitation for comments on any and all issues Jim thank you mayor Jim Robinson parel Parlin I appreciate that uh the ordinance was tabled as long as you're trying to define local maybe you can take that opportunity to uh look at the provision I stated where the statute allows reduction in fees for senior citizens and those who are disabled I think that would uh be now has to be um initiated by the company but I think if you tell them this was tabled that they just might want to bring that up and initiate it and I would uh request on behalf of the seniors which I'm one of the mayor is too that that you do that I'm going to talk about the pilot I just want to say this um I objected to the way that was done that's not the way public hearings have ever been conducted in 40 Years of coming here the was no in uh motion made to introduce it it violated the council rules it violated Robert's Rules you allowed residents to speak before you allow or non-residents to speak before you allowed residents to speak and residents could only speak one time on that which is not the way we conduct public hearings on on um ordinances so I'll go through very quickly because I don't want to repeat I wish this pilot Bill provided for the connecta road called for in the master plan now when we need it but it doesn't I wish it did something about maybe the school bus depot or the Public Works garage over there um doesn't do that a little bit more creative negotiating might have done that treml Crow we know gave $100,000 to midd sex County College I wish they would give some money to the serval school system because the serval school system is going to lose I don't know there various numbers but upwards of 202 million over the next 30 Years um I wish now there are a whole bunch of things but I'm going to I'm going to try and go quickly um I wish you did a lot of things better on this the traml attorney Laurel Meers in an email to Mike Baker said I was advised that they are doing some additional things to benefit the community which I think others would love to know about I guess there's that million dollars for biley park that's a nice thing is there anything else that's less than one year savings for them so that's a good tradeoff give a million dollars to do that and save you 30 million over the course of the is there anything else finally Miss Myers shaml Crow's attorney wrotes writes in her email to Mike Baker I hope there is also recognition for the union labor which we agreed to so apparently getting the union labor in there was part of this pilot deal so that was a wonderful tradeoff we got a wonderful yubert Humphrey award and all it did is cost the school system about 2030 million so um it's interesting I I think what is on everybody's mind is what role that secret 77,000 dark money fund played in this if any but we'll never know but the transparency team can clear that up you can release the donors so that we will know if there is a connection because this just doesn't smell right everybody in town knows this doesn't smell right I could be totally wrong it could be legitimate reason you want to cheat our schools and our kids at a millions of dollars and give it to a multi-billion dollar company I can't think of one but there could be reasons stash I've known you since we were kids I don't think there's a dishonest dishonest bone in your body I truly mean that Chief you were an intern for me in the state house I supported you for the school board on the zoning board as a zoning officer I thought you were a great chief I have no reason to question anything Mike I told you how moved I was by your personal story I have the greatest respect for you but you hitched Your Wagon to a mayor who believes in secret dark money committees that will forever taint every decision you make this is the first time you talked about Mr Pando who I fought from the day he came to power we never had those secret committees ever before with Pando or any other leader on either side but now we have them so if some of us draw a connection between that secret cash that bankroll your campaign the transparency team's campaign and the vote you take like this one forgive us forgive us for drawing that connection but you can clear that up make us proud let us know the facts tell us who contributed and let us know that it did hopefully didn't impact any decision you make okay I yield my 10 seconds are there any other Mary Mary Novak one Scarlet Drive I know I'm not supposed to ask any questions but are we still looking at possibly declaring the firehouse our first B Hall in uh we did we get a report back from the engineer I think it was a month ago a month go it up uh we have we haven't had the inspection done okay well hopefully we'll still be considering that it's really important to protect our history and I really would respectfully request mayor that you let people start to ask questions particularly stuff that you readily have the answers you know I set up a whole I'm setting up a whole system to ask questions this is just to do the business business of the burrow to move it along you know nobody sits up here so that can come up and take punches at you there were nine or 10 people tonight that were against the pilot we get an average of 11 people that watch this meeting so there are 45,000 people in cille I know and you know what I I have to assume since we get a a viewership of of 11 and we get nine people that that were were orchestrated to come out to object to the pilot is my humble opinion um everybody else is really quite content and the fact that the younger people really like what's going on with with the Redevelopment and the older people don't like it I go you know it's a generational change mayor I'm not talking about the pilot in particular I'm talking about like two meetings ago there were people here that just want there was some weird thing show up I have a whole thing questions people to to ask questions during the week this isn't the place to get into Q&A and to get into fights and to have Dopey people come up who have no life who and this is their time to be on cable TV May I know that I'm just asking you know sell's been around a hundred years and people always been allowed to ask questions thank you mayor thanks Mary Ken kenel Shas 108 North Edward Street um try to be brief in view of the hour here and I know one of the missions of this governing body is uh they're rated on how quickly they can get the meeting over not uh how much business of the Barrow they get done and get done properly but um getting to the C uh office um I would be very one of the things that makes the office that they've given up or giving up at uh shoppr shopping center that's the center of town that's convenient pretty much for everybody I'm not big on cable I it's not my bag but I've been there four or five times to exchange faulty equipment and whatnot and it's always been busy when I was there I was never there when nobody showed up so to take and move that as I said no it's not that far away right now but what's the protection we have of them a 10year lease ask Lowe's ask Lowe's on Route nine about 10year lease how long was Lowe's there they didn't they worry about a 10year lease they were gone so these big companies lease doesn't doesn't matter to them you can't go on that and as far as putting in neighboring towns albd ald is a big town I mean hbd is uh 45 square miles so that really doesn't do any good but uh to to let the cable company do something and this is big business I mean I appreciate the comments or at least some of the council people are are are speaking up and thank God I appreciate that but you know I don't think your role is to look out for the financial uh uh concerns of of the people who doing business Your Role should be to fincial concerns your constituents in the Burrows so that's all I have to say about the cable I think we've we've exhausted that as far as uh what happened with the pilot uh you know let me just ask a question about this road uh uh that they're going going to put through supposedly the journey Mill Road um and I'm sure that will certainly help the people in Laurel Park and and some of those areas but so they cut through where are those trucks going to go when they get to Journey Mill Road nobody's been able to give me an answer on where are the trucks go okay do they make a left and go down to bord toown Avenue Bordentown Avenue is a very busy road all the time I'm retired I have a lot of appointments around and and I I don't try to travel at 8:00 in the morning be ridiculous or 4:30 in the afternoon you know I make appointments for 9:30 10:00 or 2 o'clock in the afternoon bord toown Avenue is a busy road I mean what are all these trucks on bord toown Avenue where are they going to go through Main Street and South River I think that's a County Road or they going to go on on MacArthur and and run down Main Street and to the Main Street Extension I'm not so sure how much that helped somebody whoever it's been a long night but who said are you they going to be able to lease these places uh and be profitable if if if the tenants require a building the size of what's already been built out it's it's just not logical that it will work the only thing in my mind that will work and I have a little background is because I I managed a a warehouse a big Distribution Center not nearly as big as the mega warehouses but I was on committees to site warehouses for our multinational company and we use shamc there's nothing wrong with shamc there there're are great they're a great multinational company but you know and there's nothing wrong with trying to develop a tax base nobody say against that but you've got to do something within the confines of what we can have the only thing I if I was on a committee to locate in there it' be a long long deal to get me a long sell to get me to go in there the only thing I ever heard that would possibly make sense is what the business administrator told us and it's office months ago when he said talking about cutting a road through from bord toown Avenue to Route 9 if they did that that would be a possibility but you know we we're to set then thank you are there any other comments Yes dear good evening everyone my name's Adeline barelli I live can't hear you an oh okay my name's Adeline barelli I live at 92 kulage Avenue in Parlin New Jersey um the um the lady over there that was talking about the firehouse for Reen renovating it I I I'm a New Yorker and I'm living here in Jersey about 5 years now in Stanton Island they have the houses that are like a 100 years old and they have a park where they have houses on them and people are allowed to live in them and these people don't pay rent or you know or they don't pay like taxes on the house and the agreement is is that while these people are living in these houses they have to keep up the houses and if these houses are 100 years old they have to keep up the way the house was 100 years ago so that's where their money is going and during the year like Christmas time and around Easter time these houses are open and they charge people to come in and these people walk around the house and that's how they get also money to fix up where they live and maybe they you know they could do that with the firehouse and and certain places that are um that have history in them and do it that way challenge with the firehouse is it's going to take my the the the rough estimates it's going to take $2 million to bring it to code wow and that's the it's the same thing with a Catholic School you close a Catholic parochial school you keep it closed for a year you'll never reopen it because the money that it takes to bring it to code is is fantastic I you know I get that but I mean it is a suggestion and I understand I appreciate that I mean I understand if a place is just so bad that you can't fix it you know you have to sometimes just leave it alone but um if it can you know but not just that place but there's other places too that that could happen and like we have a park in in Staten Island that there's about six or seven houses and those people have to mow the lawn and take care of the area around there and it looks really great you know so it's just a suggestion but thank you everyone have a blessed evening welcome to Ser thank you any other comments Bob Bob Egan 43 Elizabeth Street I thank people when things are done right like I did a while back about the police and EMS I want to thank the road department because of the work being done on our street it's been two cycles that our recycles weren't picked up I called up and they responded they got the recycle people to come out on a Saturday unfortunately some people dragged it in but everything was overflowing already but they took care of it so I just wanted to put a shout out to them for helping out and as far as the pilot I don't get it okay you get a windfall but they were going to pay taxes anyway so you budget the money you know I you have you'll be getting money so I don't know what the importance of the pilot was JY demitra Wagner again S M Street um Chris I was just talking to this wonderful lady um and she made a suggestion like I don't know like I forget about Direct TV um maybe that's cheaper cuz they are competitors I I mean satellite I mean that's another way you can watch television right I mean it's not just cable I my husband and I we had cable internet because we can't afford cable um regular cable because like we're middle class people and we I have four part-time jobs and he works six days a week so we switched to Verizon um and like my sister-in-law lives with us and she has um she watches television through the internet and it's so much cheaper like she has YouTube television there's so many options out there I think maybe you know Jim and maybe like someone representing the seniors or someone representing the veterans or people with low income low incomes or low-income housing whatever like let's go out and tell them about these other options like God you don't just to have have to have cable vision like you could have you know internet television or you could actually go up on your roof the oldfashioned way like I did when I first BST my house and I put an antenna on my roof and then you get this little inverter box and it you get free television I mean I know we went from analog to digital but you can still watch television the free way when I was little we watched TV for free and I understand that there's games and you have to have internet if you want to watch games and hey you want to watch the Yankees you're going to have to pay for it you want to watch these uh you know you know whatever Hollywood movies you're going to have to pay for it it's just simple things like you have Verizon TV internet television please let's just spread the word there's other ways to watch television and be entertained and during Cabin Fever in the winter let's get this word out let's let's educate our seniors let's educate our veterans or people in low-income housing that there's so many other ways to watch television and come on like I try to save money everywhere okay I go to stop and shop and I get $30 off every time I go to the pump I get 20 gallons I get $30 let me tell you I'm a coupon queen and I'm the gas point Queen at Stop and Shop so if anyone is interested hey I'm a committee woman in district one but I'll help anyone in any District Chris just suggested it and I'm just bringing it up here you want to save money call demitro Wagner text me whatever I'll try to help people as much as I can like I said I have four part-time jobs I'm not a caretaker anymore but I still have to take care of my husband and my household my pets and pay the taxes and the internet bill so thank you and God bless you and I think this is the latest we've stayed so we did pretty good it used to be 12:30 midnight so thank you are there any other comments being no other comments I'll entertain a motion to close the public portion I make a motion to close public roll call I okay MO motion to adjourn motion to adjourn and um Demetra I'm so sorry for your loss too is there a second second second favor I oppos thank you everyone