##VIDEO ID:tZvxF6hjTrU## you're live a little less than a minute okay good this special meeting is called in order with the open public meetings law in accordance with chapter 231 of the public laws of 197 75 notice was provided to the curry news and stall Ledger of this meeting of January 14th of 2025 it was also placed on the Burrow's website and a copy of this notice was also placed on the Bolton burrow Hall the notice identified exactly what would occur today um in the in both newspapers and a copy of this not is available to the public and a copy of this statement shall be included in the minutes of this meeting mayor Brian Gallagher here councilwoman Teresa Bonner here councilman Andre Cony here councilman Glen Den here councilman Randy pittz here councilwoman Gina straic here okay councilman Roger V here okay uh please stand for the salute to the flag I pledge 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 okay uh for those members of the public that are here um there is going to be we I will open up for the uh for the public session but just to kind of give you a a landscape of what uh is happening tonight um we will be adjourning immediately after the public session into executive session um obviously uh the state has prescribed a new method for affordable housing uh the burrow is working towards compliance with uh with the affordable housing uh as it as it has been laid out and we need to adjourn into executive session to uh to to discuss um how our uh how the burrow will meet those requirements uh and that is our job uh tonight I will open it up for the public you can comment on affordable housing or anything else pertaining to the burrow that you so desire um we will then go into executive session we will have our executive session when we come out we will come out and we will adjourn the meeting meeting there will be no action taken by the burrow uh when we come out of executive session um this is really just an executive session meeting but any public meeting that the governing body has we have to have a public session component to it so um so at this point I will ask uh for a motion for to open up the public session so moved second discussion roll call council members Teresa bonor yes Andrew KY yes Glenn Z yes Randy pittz yes Gina straic yes Roger ver yes okay public session is now open if you do have a public comment please state your name and address for the record and please address your comments to me and step up to the microphone uh hi my name is uh Ben Parker current address 38 East Cliff Street Somerville New Jersey uh formerly of 12 putam Street Somerville New Jersey uh recently moved out of my parents place I am a lifelong resident of Somerville New Jersey uh Somerville high school class of 2013 and I recognize a few people here as uh parents of some of my old classmates um I just want to say that as someone who has spent time apartment hunting uh in this region um yeah I fully am in support of affordable housing as well as low income housing I've got friends who still work for the school system and one of them recently moved out of his parents he told me he is moving uh somewhere a lot more distance than I was expecting um when I asked him why he said that he could not afford to live in town this guy trust me he gives his life to the school system to this community trust me he doesn't have time in his life for anything else I've tried to get him to talk about that um and the fact that he can't afford to live here just doesn't seem right to me mathematically socially Justice wise anything um and you know we're also trying to become a dining Community people want to come here to you know experience dining well for that we're going to need uh Cooks waiters bus boys all sorts of lowincome jobs um we can save a hell of a lot on parking if we can let them live within walking distance uh I know it's been great for me living within walking distance of downtown summerill um so yeah I think that this is absolutely something this town should pursue not only affordable but lowincome housing for this community thank you thank you thank you for your comments any other public comment hi uh Larry dropkin 20-year resident of Somerville Second Street I'd like to point out here that um four years ago this Council uh wrote a memo uh in regards to January 6th I believe it was unanimous and your memo said um January 6 was an Insurrection and we stand in solidarity uh against this attack on Democracy um you you you made zero uh declaration or memo after black lives matter and George Floyd in 20120 when they burned this country to the ground your silence was deafening you made zero declaration against that the people have rendered their verdict as to what they thought of January 6th I wanted to come make this comment tonight because we have a new Administration and we have a new mayor that's all I got for you thank you thank you thank you for your comments any other public comments yes hi Selen Greaves 97 East Spring Street um I just wanted to also um speak in support of a real robust um movement forward with affordable housing and low-income housing in our town um and I also wanted to um highlight um with this meeting with other um current meetings I know for example um two weeks ago there was um some comments being made about um shall we say like keyboard Warriors and one of the one of the continuing issues that I see is with um accessibility of these meetings um and so both the um the notice that happens with them um with um the availability of um minutes so that people who are not able to physically make it to the meetings um being able to stay um both informed and involved um which I think is everybody's um you know everyone's goal as a town so thank you very much thank you appreciate and um thank you for your resolution four years ago on January 6 any other public comment hearing n I'll ask for a motion to close the public session so move second discussion roll call council members Teresa boner yes Andrew KY yes Glen Den yes Randy pittz yes Gus staic yes Roger verm yes all right public session is now closed um we know that there was some difficulty last year uh in terms of the minutes uh that has been cleared up uh for the most part you may have errant meetings here and there where the minutes may take a little B bit longer um as as they are uh prepared um but uh but I think you've seen I think we've all seen a drastic improvement uh in in the uh supplying of the minutes in the accessibility of them um in regards to um the comment of keyboard Warriors that was my comment um and and the reason I made that was because there is a great effort uh by some to to engage the burrow through uh derogatory comments on social media and and my position and what I've said to everybody is I have there there are so many good Volunteers in this town and I appreciate all of you coming out we may not agree on everything but I appreciate you coming out and if we had if the folks took the time away from their social media uh uh pushing buttons and actually raised their hand and said let me help out on a committee let me come to a meeting let me do something good for my burrow instead of trying to figure out what somebody else is doing wrong for their burrow and that's what I mean by keyboard worri and and it's not intended to be derogatory it's intended to be a challenge because I want people to be involved and and some don't believe that but I do um so that was my comment I take full ownership of it and I firmly believe it if they would put down their phones for a little while and engage go to an environmental commission event um uh go to a recreation program and volunteer to be a coach volunteer to be a ref um you have people in this audience that have been volunteering for how many years art 50 50 years and and that's what I mean by it I think it's time for people to to to stop critiquing and and really you know start helping and and I think we'd all be a much better spot you have uh seven people up here all from different backgrounds uh and we've everybody here has raise their hand to do something a little bit more and I I I LW everybody for that and it's good we we run on volunteerism and if people uh would step forward and volunteer um and maybe be a part of some of those programs that um that need help we'd all be much better so um that's that's where I'm at you may agree with it you may not agree with it but uh but I think it's uh there's nothing better than being a part of your community a good part of your community so um with that I will ask for a motion on 037 to enter into executive session so moved second discussion roll call council members Teresa bonor yes Andrew Cony yes Glenn Den yes Randy pittz yes Gina traic yes Roger ver yes okay and again I just want to reiterate uh we will go into executive session now uh when we come out uh we there will be no action taken we will just adjourn the meeting and the meeting will be over at that point so thank you all for coming and and for the purpose of streaming streaming will actually be cut off now it it just won't uh right the meeting will basically be adjourned okay thank you