welcome everyone I'd like to call this meeting to order uh Madame Deputy clerk please read the adequate notice compliance statement adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the city clerk's office in the preparation of the Council annual meeting notice dated December 18th 2023 which was probably distributed and posted per per statutory requirements please be advised that the fire exits are to my right your left and at the back of the room the city has a listening system to assist the hearing impaired if anyone needs assistance please obtain the system at the deis and return it thereafter excellent thank you roll call please Mr Boyer here miss Hamlet here Mr migar here Mr palowski Mr Smallwood here Mr Varan present council president Allen here okay Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the unit States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all Madame Deputy clerk please read the explanatory notices regarding hearings comments and close sessions a Clos session meeting as authorized by state statute was announced and held prior to the start of this meeting and the note items for discussion were listed on the published Clos session agenda please be advised that Council meetings are broadcast live on on Comcast channel 36 and Verizon channel 30 and rebroadcast on Thursdays and Saturdays on httv on Comcast 36 and Verizon 33 when invited to speak please come to the Lecter clearly state your name your home address spell your last name and speak into the podium microphone so that your comments can be understood by all and properly recorded whenever an audience or council member reads from a prepared statement please give or email a copy to the city clerk's office at city clerk cityofsummit.org to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers shall limit their comments to 3 minutes unless you are using electronic device to follow the meeting agenda or needed for professional emergency contact purposes please turn it off thank you thank you okay do I have a motion to approve the minutes uh the regular and close session meeting minutes of March 5th 2024 so moved do I have a second second all in favor I I any opposed motion carries okay on to reports Madame mayor thank you okay sorry quick question did you just approve the regular minutes and the close session minutes yep that was the regular and close session um minutes of March 5th okay yep got it thank you as okay the first day of the 2024 Summit Farmers Market is Sunday April 28th the farmers market is held weekly on Sundays from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the park and shop shop lot on the corner of Woodland and the Forest View more information about the market uh at uh Summit downtown. org this coming Sunday from 4:00 to 6:00 pm please join us for the Department of Community programs openhouse at the community center this is an excellent opportunity to learn about current future programs events and initiatives that are hosted by the DCP and for you to share your ideas I hope to see you there then next Tuesday April 9th is the public safety openhouse at the Summit Community Center beginning at 6 p.m. to honor local to honor local government week there will be displays from City departments for viewing before presentations from police and fire at 7 p.m. there will also be an opportunity for questions from the audience if you can't join us then the session will be recorded and shared on the city YouTube channel and website more information on the evening is available at city of.org thank you to everyone who submitted photos for our local government week photo contest Summit Through Your Eyes we're thrilled with the response from the community and cannot wait to share the photos you submitted the winners of the contest will be announced next Monday April 8th by email and then displayed at the public safety Forum yet another reason to come join us um lastly residents have asked for updates about the current fire house property in 7 Cedar Street the city is diligently evaluating how to best accomplish all of the goals for those properties including getting highest and best use and also affordable housing for the community um we're getting close closer to sharing next steps and we hope to to be able to share those soon um one of the goals for that location is to accommodate affordable housing our Mount Laurel committee has had multiple meetings and we're trying to reschedule our next meeting for an earlier date as we've already made made substantial progress and we're focused on responsibly closing round three we expect that the committee will have recommendations very soon thank you thank you okay um I love that uh we have local government week coming up next week and there were several photos that were submitted which is exciting because I don't know if we had any last year so hopefully it'll get everybody excited to submit more pictures um for next round uh summit's annual Earth a cleanup is on Saturday April 13th from 9: to 12:00 a.m. um p.m. visit cityofsummit.org to view additional event information including how to volunteer as a group or obtain community service hours for p participating in the cleanup thank you to all the environmental groups in Summit especially the summit environmental commission the summit recycling advisory committee for leading the this effort this year and it's always wonderful to see so many young people families Faith groups and organizations who work together to make Summit Sparkle and make it brighter and cleaner um at the next free market we will also be um having it on Saturday April 13th from 8:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the municipal transfer station it is another way for residents to make a positive environmental impact and share a lot of great items with our neighbors thank you to all the volunteers who make these events possible particularly the many Summit High School students who staff it for more information on the summit free market it's available at city of summit.org um also the city of summit website gets a free refresh every um 4 years as part of its contract with the Civic plus website provider while much of the site layout Remains the Same the homepage does have some new navigation and content that is organized by the items people search for most often on the site the goal of the research um of the refresh is to keep the city site upto-date with industry best practices and more effectively connect citizens with the information they need these changes will take place tomorrow at noon and I look forward to the update to hearing what you think about it so I got a chance to look at it to today it is um like she said it's it just feels new and when you scroll over it things are alphabetized and easy to find so I'm excited for everybody to see it um and you noticed that the um the resolution from the floor there's a copy up front so just want to say we are doing a resolution from the floor tonight okay um on to presentations what everybody's been waiting for is the budget you're up City administrator Rogers all right okay yep so this is our 2024 Municipal operating budget presentation yeah you have three minutes all right I'm all set all right before before I start I think we should put these oh yes for the total budget experience we just got these close session thank you Nicole and mayor you have okay I'm here I'm want to make sure you're ready not that you can see anything these things anyway I'm going to take this off here all right turn it on turn all right and let's see Direction I guess okay perfect all right well good evening everyone first I want to just uh I want to thank the mayor and Council for all of your time and effort during this budget process I know for four of you it was sort of a fire hose of information that you received uh in your depart uh respective committees as well as the finance committee uh and capital projects committee that uh had to deal with it a lot in the in the first few months of this year um so I want to thank you for the time and feedback that uh we received and and helping us put this together as well as uh the department heads for all the work you guys have done uh since back in August which I'll give run through a timeline for the public uh really appreciate everything that we've went through I know it's just a lot of time and effort that goes into this process and I want to most especially thank our esteem CFO that's sitting up here um she's a great collaborator we've been work we worked on I guess about five budgets now uh four or five budgets and uh there's just an an exhaustive amount of work that goes into this uh this budget document uh we we tend to do a little bit more than what I'd say 99% of the municipalities do in any given year for their uh for their elected officials as well as the public and that's really why we why I set out to do this years ago and I uh continue to do so um but this presentation will just give you a very broad overview uh if you really want to D dive uh into this uh material I highly suggest you uh uh go on our website should be up by tomorrow I know it will be up by tomorrow the budget report document which some of the council has which is somewhere around here um it's a pretty big budget uh binder that I give out all the elected officials so this is just the overview and then we'll be up to the council to present on so thank you everyone and also I have to thank my staff who does a lot of editing and and and work on this effort that's Amy Karen Megan trendell and Megan champney so and I'll start the presentation so this is just uh I'll give you this is what we're running through this uh during this presentation timeline goals uh giving you the financial uh high level Financial outcome um and then getting into to I'll I'll talk a little bit about tax base and then how it's impacting our budget in a positive way this year and then I'll get into uh just a brief overview of revenues Appropriations and uh a little bit about debt and that really ties into the capital budget discussion and this is a timeline we start and by the end of August we're uh we're instructing the uh department heads to and the Chiefs to get into starting their operating Capital budgets uh we go through this process and uh usually we get Tammy and I get our submissions by the end of October and then uh the department heads they're instructed to go into their committees and talk about um go over just again it's a preliminary discussions that they're getting into their operating in capital then we have our preliminary capital budget presentation in December of every year and that just gives you know an opportunity for for the department heads to engage the elected officials and anyone from the public that comes uh to kind of get a sense of what our our budget our project needs are uh in the upcoming year uh it's it's sort of I know some people refer to as a wish list but a lot of this is uh a lot of what we're presenting are are becoming more and more needs because we are deferring a lot of projects um we had to uh and I'll get into this a little bit more um but it's it's becoming more and more um uh a need than it is a a want and then it's January this is when we really starting earning with uh the finance finance and capital budget committees uh department heads come in before the finance committee go over their operating budgets they're still continuing to engage in the uh with the capital projects committee on their Capital respective Capital budgets and then we get the chairs of the finance and cap and capital projects committees together along with myself and um and the CFO and and and typically it's the uh community services and Community programs directors that are coming in because they have the largest Capital uh budget and we come up and we there's a lot of every year it's getting harder and harder and there's a lot of tough decisions that we have to make to decide which projects actually do make the the this year's capital budget and then we are at this point April 2nd and I'm presenting and hopefully the council will introduce the budget tonight we'll start this process and we have to at least be out there for 20 before we can your microphone yeah I think your mic went out um can you hear me now yeah okay I might have hit it but I think the batter's good or nope that's there's extra batteries right near your spot just INE good idea there's extra batteries here okay he okay yeah okay all right so we're uh we this will be out for 28 days and uh May 7th right now is the projected public hearing U for this uh for this budget so goals I'm just going to quickly go through the goals we have goals uh we have uh in our budget binder we have uh goals which list under each respective goal uh strategic objectives some key actions it's not exhaustive we just this okay better yeah perfect okay good so I'm just going to quickly go through the the first goal is financial related starts with this budget it's a financial plan uh and then our capital budget that that certainly goes to our debt management and and then certainly our our main goal is always to preserve our AAA status with all the credit rating agencies that are out there the three main ones our second goal has to do with just everything everybody's heard of generative Ai and you're seeing more of you know what we have existing our technology platforms are are integrating that in into their their platforms we're starting to just try to understand just AI in general like everybody else is and how it's going to influence uh Municipal Service delivery so we're really trying to just get a better understanding we're developing trying we will be developing policy around that the state has taken sort of the governor through an executive order has um has taken a lead on that and we were trying to follow some of that as a responsible government and and what will guide us in the future um and and right now we're just looking at existing platforms and seeing how can we can improve workflow how we can use use just all the data that we have and have uh you know comp sort of the complex systems we have and how to improve that uh our service delivery and that's the main goal so we're we're that's that's now our our goal part of our goals and then next is just we're the mayor has has started a wellness program as well as the council is uh is committed to improving uh the employee uh sort of benefits and we're looking at different options on how we can um better retain and and certainly uh recruit the best that are out there for to work in our organization so it's sort of just it's a health me you know physical mental uh uh goals that we have within this uh wellness program for both the mayor as well as the uh council's commitment what we're doing for employees fourth is um is just look it's our it's our affordable housing obligations it's our existing housing uh that we have for our public here our senior citizens and our other residents in town um helping each other we need we have our our certainly our settlement and what we have to do for our third round obligations we are now still trying to understand and we still will wait await what uh is going to be our our obligations for fourth round so there's a lot around that's with our Mount Laurel uh subcommittee that was formed uh earlier this year and we're working at making sure we are making every effort to accomplish our third round um obligations as well as what we we we need to prepare for for our fourth round so that's our fourth uh that's our Focus this year and our fifth goal is is really just about public safety and what we're doing um in in law enforcement uh implementing Advanced Technologies for uh to help us do what we do best I think in this community as well as you know for our employees and and just training effort so and there's just many aspects to safety that that are uh under the skull and this is just every this is your capital budget what we're doing for our roads our sidewalks our playgrounds our Fields uh that's that goes to that goal our and then the next one is about our communication improving our community engagement with our residents um and City Hall um and we right now we're looking at platforms new platforms for our community uh Community engagement surveys and other types of uh purposes which for which we uh believe that this new system system and we're evaluating different platforms right now on how we can um we can just better communicate and and the interaction between us and then uh lastly it's just um it's look we have a diverse Community we're always trying to you know we're creating new cultural events through our through our community programs Department um and there's just a recognition of that so we have a lot of actions we take during the year and this sort of just goes to this last goal and now let's get into uh what challenges we face this year uh last year was much greater in the appropriation section uh this year still uh still a challenge and this kind of lays it out but Revenue Lo Revenue loss uh was an issue for us this year and almost 1.2 million uh just with two two is well it's a few different reserves that we we were losing with which goes to that $429,000 but the big one was with the um with our settlement agreement with Overlook Hospital uh that ended at the end of last year and so we knew going into this year that was going to be somewhat of a loss but we also knew that back in 20121 there was a law that was passed around this that they call a community service and I'll get into this a little more it's called the community service service law and that's going to that will help offset some of this law so I I'll get into that a little bit later and then on the appropriation side we have uh we had some just salary and wage typical salary and wage increases other expense which I will go in Greater detail later and then just in our uh General this is a little unusual general liability workers comp seeing an 18% increase this year this is well above average what we typically see and then healthc care and pension increases so this is what we uh we were confronted with and crafting our buzet this year so this is just a broad overview this is what we're looking at with our Municipal budget when I refer to the general fund which is going to be the bulk of what I talk about is going to be around just the general fund Municipal budget and then getting to the capital budget I'll I'll go into a little bit with the sewer and parking after the slide and we're looking at a 3.8% increase in our budget Capital we for the last two years we kept our Capital budgets to a minimum around $2 million which is historically very low uh we needed to do it for really Debt Service reasons so that gave us a chance and I'll get into The Debt Service and and how that's helped uh later in this presentation uh but that's why you see it it doubling more than doubling this year we have a lot of capital project needs so for the sewer utility uh you're seeing you know operations and a lot of that is joint meeting that's what uh where ultimately our waste goes and it is uh multiple municipalities that belong to the Joint meeting there was um I believe about 12% increase there few hundred, uh that's really the large bulk of of this and then there's a some Debt Service that increased by 100 so that's the bulk of the the increase there with those two items uh Capital um it's down from last year and I'll explain a little bit uh later on what happened there and then um with parking that's again there's a lot of we're getting hit with a lot of transaction new transaction higher transaction fees more use of it creates more transaction fees so there's uh an increase in our budget for those for that reason um um and then some some Capital costs that we're funding through the operating budget so this is just the overall Financial total for all three uh the municipal budget your your taxes fund the municipal budget the sewer and parking or user fee based but this is the overall just to give you a sense it's a little under 7% so for the general fund which I'll be talking about for the rest of the presentation this is just a top two uh bullet points are Revenue based so your non-t tax revenue your local Revenue your Enterprise funds contributions and grants that make up that number slightly up there was a lot of loss in those but we're still up uh slightly 26,000 and then our Municipal tax this is your Levy and this is what we have to raise to balance our budget so this gets done through your tax rate and I'll go into it and I'm showing 5% here but it's not nearly as bad and I'll explain why in a few slides and then you have your uh we get into our salary and wage and Department that's your Municipal operations uh which I showed in the previous slide and then our debt which is a big deal last year we were looking at a million dollar increase this year it's down 18,000 and that really has a lot to do with certainly scheduled debt that was going down but holding our existing or the last two Capital budgets to a a bare minimum by my standards um and that's gave us a chance to kind of just contain our debt over this year and and right now next year um and I'll go I'll illustrate this a little bit better later but this is a big deal and uh Healthcare and pension so I've been showing this slide for the last few years and it just gives you some historical perspective on our tax base uh and it really comprises of about six categories classifications as they call them um what happened here and I think I was trying to illustrate something a few years ago and it had a lot to do with the industrial number um but even in the residential as of 2015 where it was about 25 $2.5 billion um we in this next slide I will show you for this year just in a eight-year uh time period why this matters that industrial number even though at 219 million in 2015 dropped as is 151 million in in 2021 and was there for a couple years at that at that amount this year going into this year we're up at 196 million and what what happened well that was the Bristol Myers scrib and all the work that was going on there and that was almost about a $46 million increase that we realized in a new assessment value and on the commercial that's been pretty steady but just the residential over 8-year period over $210 million that it is grown and just to go back in a 5-year period between 2010 and 2015 it didn't raise that much about 22 million and in the last eight years it's up 210 million so there's been obviously the real estate market has Summit has had great uh you know valuation increases here and that's good for all of you Property Owners um but this is what's reflected in our in in our tax base so year-over-year change for our tax base was 80 almost $82 million and that is significant as you can see The Last 5 Years 5year uh increase 221 million which is fantastic um but this that's represented in that uh beige area there um but why does that matter well it matters for this reason so what this increase is now generating will generate this year is approximately $3.5 million in new total tax revenue of which the municipal ion is close to about 741 th000 what that does is it reduces that 5% you saw in the levy that 1.46 million reduces that tax rate increase by two cents that's what that that the impact is there so that's why instead of it being 94 cents of an increase it's only going to be about a 2cent increase this year over last year and then the overall growth of the tax base is also it helping the other levies with these other rates and that's why you're only seeing about little about 3.7% or 3.7 C increase year-over-year I'll get into the levies later you'll see a slide just for to put it into numbers this just gives you the percentage of how uh the tax rate has broken up the total tax rate and our Municipal portion is 21% and what that means means is that for every tax dollar build and and collected that we only retain 21 cents for our Municipal services and to fund our Municipal budget so uh there was about a $4,000 increase here with the average residential uh assessment value from 23 to 24 so we take that that average assessment and this is how we sort of just jux suppose year-over-year change and that's about $163 that will increase if your your assessed valuation is and it's assessed not market value assessed um of which this uh is $92 is uh the municipal portion of this it's about 56% of the 163 estimated uh total property tax increase this just shows over the last 11 years what the municipal tax rate has been and you average it out not that I like doing public math but it's about a cent little under a cent over 11 years so not not bad I think it's uh it's been I think we've done a pretty good job with uh our fiduciary responsibilities to uh just minimize tax burden I think today nj.com had a had an article posted and they always do it around this time March but I think I saw something today on nj.com and they write about the highest tax values in the state of New Jersey and they will show you every tax uh this is pre this will be the previous year so 2023 they're writing about who has the highest taxes in every County that's the highest and lows and unfortunately when you're looking at it through an assessed value and what that what that ultimately means in total tax dollars Summit tends to be the top it's not an apple to Apples comparison this is where I think they're getting it wrong you have to the equalization ratio gives you an Apples to Apples of all the all the municipalities in the state of New Jersey and what that is you're talking about market value and what that means and this is why it's more important this is why we show this effective tax rate um example because it completely reverses this isn't Magic this is what it is when you're looking at it and you're trying to talk about how communities match up but you need to to include the equalization ratio to give you talk about it from a market value standpoint and when you do that Summit has the lowest taxes in in Union County so on to general fund revenues um the fund balance next slide we'll illustrate a little bit more about that um you're just seeing the changes of year-over-year in each Revenue category uh state aid was up but that was uh we received about 157,000 after the budget actually the state budget was passed last year they were dulling out more state aid but we had to put in reserve so this is what we're using this year that's why it's increasing a little bit more than typical uh grants are down but it's not it's we'll I can guarantee you we'll see more grant money uh pop up in the realiz value last year we could we actually rece a we were awarded and received 654 th000 at the time the budget was introduced um we realized $2.1 million in Grant revenues last year we're at about 137 now that's why that's what we can show what you'll see throughout the years the council will entertain what we call chapter 159 resolutions and that is when you are you receive another award after the budget is adopted and you include that in the budget we can spend on those so that's what you'll see uh throughout the year um Enterprise funds and I'll show you what happens there and why there's that increase and then it just goes out and then the debt obligation we're a type one school district we actually pay the school district's debt so we are we take that off their Levy before we give them what they need for their budget and that's what that number is and that's going up and then the library tax that's also a pass through for us and we um we have to show it in our Municipal budget so the the fund balance we I'd have to say I went back about 20 years and this is the highest our fund balance was at the end of last year uh really fantastic uh we are using a little bit more this year 170,000 but just relative to what we used last year it's 10% lower than what we used at what we had available um and but we still are left with $ 3.47 million in fund balance which is the highest it's been in a couple of decades so on to the local revenue and Enterprise zon so Enterprise fund rather interest on investments I think everybody knows you're earning more money on anything in your bank accounts your savings accounts uh we earn I don't know I think it's probably around 4% that's the going rate of what our funds are our accounts uh we took in about $1.2 Million last year which was almost a million dollars more than what he had anticipated so we can realistically given where the where rates are still and we'll can probably continue they may change a little bit at the end we're not sure what's going to happen nobody does uh but we are only anticipating about $950,000 uh we could have gone up to 1.2 but I don't think that was a responsible way to handle that because things could change rates could change we could be earning Less on our money so we're taking a little more conservative approach but still significant increase uh in our local Revenue municipal court fees have gotten back up to what was a typical year pre pandemic and then the decreases this goes to to what I spoke about before our seven-year agreement with the hospital ended at the end of last year we collected about $556 million over the seven years so that was a big Revenue contribution uh we uh now you're going to see over in the Enterprise R funds that's where we are showing what the law now generates from that what they call a bed tax but it's really a community service law and that's what that 522,000 is now just uh we have to put it under the prise fund contribution section and then just uh Parking Services they are much fi their Financial Health is is much improved uh we're still seeing even improvements year this year in Revenue intake than we did last year so we're definitely getting back up to pre-pandemic levels we were the parking services utility was really on life support uh in 2020 21 like most if not all parking U util utilities or authorities we literally shut down for four months we were not taking any Revenue uh it depleted all of our fund balance we now are slowly built it up and they are at a point where we were taking in about 800,000 from the parking utility back in 2019 um that's how healthy they were and we went to zero for a number of years so it did hurt our our our uh our Municipal budget but now we're able to take a little bit more they are definitely in a healthier position they have a over a million dollarss uh fund balance again uh and then just on the decrease side that was the remaining portion of the ARP monies that uh we had from uh 2020 2021 we had or actually 2122 and we still had a little bit left over last year but we had to use it last year and then General Capital Surplus were just relying Less on so these are the levies uh that uh School District a little different from what you if you're looking at the school budget presentation they they they have two years that they go over their school year goes from June to uh September to June and over we operate on a calendar year budget cycle so it's just we have to take half a one year and half of the other so that's why those numbers don't always line up with what they're showing as their Levy needs and then uh county is going up there at least the executive budget was 1.75 but it gets a little more complicated because you have to look at the equal ization numbers for all the 21 municipalities and then it's a percentage of that number and that's how you can kind of calculate what it is and it it's pretty much the same as last year it's about like 99.27% of the total Levy amount uh and then the library and the school Deb and we are under the 2% property tax levy we have the formula that's in our the state for Budget that's uh uh on our website as well as in our uh our budget report gives you a little bit more understanding and detail just for education purposes but we are under the 2% property tax Lev cap now going to on the appropriation side uh with the 50 how it's broken up there's three categories here our Municipal operations our other Appropriations and our reserve for uncollected taxes and those are just what what uh what it consists of in each category so for municipal operations um I just try to give you some highlights of what what what what's changing here in each what what just to give you understanding of the increases in each in each um Department General government that's uh mainly due to litigation that we're in uh over Broad Street that I'm uh that we had to budget just litigation costs as well as in our technology area uh in public safety it's a lot with salary and wage police um mainly fire is down I think overall um so it's mainly in the in the police department in our community services there's our we are our recycling collection uh contract is up in uh the end of uh it's July 1st it expires so we're going out to bid again we're anticipating at least we anticipating about 168 Mill uh 168 $168,000 increase that's what we've budget uh uh additional funds and then there's other uh sanitation vehicles that are just aging and that we need more maintenance of our disposal uh fees down at the transfer station are increasing those are the general three categories probably comprise a good deal of what's uh changing in community services normal salary wage increases that are accounted for uh and then in insurance it's the general liability and workers comp 18% increase very unusual we're looking usually at about 5% increase that that accounts for about $210,000 of that number and then we have the Health and Care Health Care that's going up over 7% again um not loving what I'm hearing about the State Health Benefit Plan going into next year they're looking at another double digigit increase I think we just have to look at some Alternatives this year and see if it works for us but that also requires a dis an overall discussion with our Collective negotiating units and uh um but we're definitely going to be looking at that and then uh pensions uh not that it's insignificant but much lower than it was last year um last year was about uh about a $500,000 increase and then just uh other Appropriations uh that side uh grants again that's you'll see that number increase this is just where we are right uh today and then Capital Improvements are capital budget is is more than doubling this is what this that's our 5% uh down payment in the Capital Improvements uh line Debt Service going down that's good and then the other two numbers uh Debt Service is the school and then deferred charge there's just um just some assessment debt that we had to put in there that that that's the majority of that 110 into a reserve and for the other Appropriations cap we're under again uh which we typically are this is going to take a little explaining so I'm just gonna take my time here so Municipal Personnel okay so when we are showing the numbers so for example 2023 um show it at the time we're introducing the budget and that's what it was things a lot of things happen throughout the year people retire people resign we hire people it changes but there were some say numerical changes here that have to explain and it goes back to the sort of latter part of last year going into 2024 so I want you to just look at the 2023 side and what I'm talking about net impact it plays into the 10 number that you're seeing as an increase so Administration we've had a long-term employee that's been classified as a temporary part-time we have now put her as a permanent parttime so that's the one parttime increase there in the fire department for many years we had a a we had a lieutenant who also served as a sub fire sub code official in the building department we used to reflect that in our Personnel numbers as a 0.5 FTE in Fire and and a 05 in our UCC budget so just so you understand when you're looking at past numbers that's what it was person retired we hired a new firefighter so that really is just a wash from a full-time p uh full FTE uh perspective now when you go into the uccc we hired a part-time fire sub code official but now we had a lead inspector that uh that we hired mid to I think it was in the summer last year as a part-time so we then realized we had a a significant need in our code inspector area so we made that lead inspector Le inspector code inspector as a full-time person so the two-part times canceled out so that's your one full-time and your one part part-time increase in 2023 in 2024 so we're adding and I'm just going to try to run through this and explain how we get to the net for full-time for part time there's a new full-time facilities manager that we through many discussions that we had with with Council and assessing the Department of Community Services which is our largest Department there's a lot of a lot of activity going on a lot of Demands that we have a lot of Mand just mandates that we have in in the community service area we have over $40 million worth of facilities in the city city assets we have not had one person designated for taking care of just designated role for facilities matter any private organization of that size would have somebody managing their facilities like that of that sort of uh level we need a full-time facilities manager so that's one added position then we had a two two part-time uh positions one is filled one is vacant and then this year last year rather we really evaluated our sanitation area and the per DMS for some years worked and they then really stopped working no commitment there's a last minute Callins it just wasn't working for either party we made the position part-time three three positions part-time for that reason and it's working out great so that's three parttime so that's right now you have five part-time but we removed one out out of the one maintenance worker that was part-time so that's our net four part-time we have two new police officers that are in the budget vacant and that's your three and then going to sewer we have a part-time but we also are taking a part-time staff assistant and making them full-time so the part-timers uh are are negate each other and we have that fourth full-time if you're a little confused just spend a little time you'll get it but that's iied I'm just trying to give you a basic understanding of what happened here why you're seeing this type of increase in in the personel Staffing salary and wages uh makes up about 32% of our total Appropriations number in our Municipal budget uh this includes all temporary seasonal and overtime and you just broken out by the utilities and our uccc code which is a dedicated trust it's funded fully by their fees the two utilities are are user fee based does not impact your Municipal budget and your taxes we show them as all all the employees that work in these uh utilities and in the UCC they are part of our staff so they they even though they're they're just funded differently that's all so other expenses uh you have your salary and wage if you look at our budget our salary and wage is one subsection and then our other department other expenses is what we call it um is just what it what it means and that's that's that's the 677000 a large part is at 168 there's um as I said earlier there's there's maintenance fe uh or sanitation vehicles are uh there's um part of this other expenses even just the fire engine that we're leasing it's about 86,000 I I think this this coming year uh for lease payment and uh there's just a number of others I go list them all the major ones in our budget report and those are the three line items in what they're the the Train the disposal charges are a million dollars the recycling curbsides which is about a million dollars we're uh we're we're projecting that's going to be that's at least we still have to go to bid but that's what we're anticipating as an increase and then the fire OE uh total overline is is uh this the third largest and then the litigation costs that I had explained earlier for the professional contract lines and then just uh other decreases in some of the other our tax appeals and our planning Services Health Care uh the gross number is 4.9 million and you see the breakout for medical dental it's about 7.4% increase uh some of it's offset by employee contributions uh then there's how we divy it up into the the utilities and um Library those those are actually the library for healthcare they're under our plan so we um we assess them a certain uh dollar amount for them to pay uh and then just what we we have a large in Self Insurance Fund that we're offsetting some of this increase and then the ultimate uh for our budget purpose this year the net impact is about 150,000 and here's p it it's historically over the last as I show since 2015 which we're averaging about 6% increases this this is low this year and you know that's an actual formula that the state they give us our number yes salary wage numbers it's a two-year lagging period so we're we're reflecting two years behind with our salary wage numbers but it's also returned on the on the funds the Pension funds and that plays into it and what ultimately our share which we fund % of a lot of what you hear about what's not funded or unfunded is the state responsibilities and that their big chunk of it is the Teachers Fund and then Debt Service down this year which is fantastic uh and I think we've we've sort of plateaued in our Debt Service uh and you can see just right now with our scheduled Bond payments they're going down significantly over the next few years but I'll get a little bit more of how that maybe off offset by just Capital project needs and thatb we have new debt that we'll have to take on and then this gives you a real high level statutorily you're allowed to go up to 3.5% of your Equalization value what that means is any given year you you're taking your assess valuation whatever your ratio is your Equalization ratio and you get a number that's over $9 million for the city of summit this year takes a threeyear average and that's your $8.4 billion we are well under what we could statuto borrow we would never I mean just borrowing any catastrophe would ever have to go anywhere near that but we are uh it's about 21% of the overall um debt number of that 294 million you see there and then that 75 is really your net debt to your Equalization so this just gives you a historical perspective of what we've paid out actual debt principle we've paid off over these years and what we took on as new debt and capital budgets and you can what I stated earlier with the 22 23e budgets where we took in we we were paying out more than half or around half than what we were taking on a new debt and that was critical to why we've sort of stabilized our our debt uh situation this year we had to we just had some big years and that really is just you know two new facilities we built uh over the years and and our Community Center and our fire department so getting into the capital budget so we started I think if anybody was uh or anyone's looked at the preliminary capital budget we were at a $12.7 Million number uh where we are presenting a capital budget at $6.7 billion 4 million in the general fund and then you see the amounts for sewer and parking just gives you the breakdown uh not nothing changed for fire and police in what they presented in December uh community services that started at about 4 million that went down and then Community programs that was over 2 million and that's down to 710 and then parking and Sewer which I'll get into more of these in the coming slides fire departments just it's a lot of Gear replacement new equipment uh radio it stuff for our new fire depart uh headquarters and this is just exactly what was shown a private pre a fire prevention vehicle that's pretty much reached this useful life in our Police Department this is again the same hasn't changed and you kind of see some some of the pictures here with the uh the speed radar mounted signs that you'll see under uh speed limit signs uh there's the number I don't recall the exact number of those what we be looking at but we should be able to get a good number for 25,00 ,000 uh and then body armor replacement for 15 officers that need need to replace their body armor uh we we need to seriously upgrade and improve our security our camera system security system in the in City Hall and the police department and then the license plate uh the lprs as they refer to the cameras the Geo fencing that you may hear uh I think we're looking at six locations 12 cameras uh that just is a continuation of what we funded last year in our capital budget so we're really trying to build that out for uh for more or less just anything that's happening that we can identify what we perceive and it has a lot to do with vehicles but anything that's going on that we need some intelligence uh and and just some some video uh evidence of what's going on and and and being able to just get to what's get to the people that are un fortunately taking cars uh and that's some of what we do but any other crime that's committed in the city limits um we we can use those for Community Services uh we're down to this 2.6 so you can kind of read this again there's we have a capital budget that details uh what what our each Capital project is within each area from Road improvements Sy and water to traffic uh safety enhancement programs and so forth uh I highlight this with the grants because of the this would be a $2.7 Million number but we have received and have been awarded 1.25 million in Grants for the road Improvement projects that you see up here there three projects it's Cano Brook Mount Vernon Division I think might be the other one vehicle equipment this is just the number of trucks uh that are definitely beyond their ual life and uh we have pushed it off and we are at this point we need this these new uh vehicles and equipment and then this just gets to uh some of our other projects within for buildings and our transfer station um also Ashwood Court where we're doing some restoration work down there um and then our Broad Street we this is the firehouse and you know depending on still we need to decommission the fuel tank once the fire operat are moved to the other side of broad uh but that that's what these numbers and it's so just building upgrades and uh maintenance work and then Community programs here are the three areas of funding I think you could probably read that there aren't tatlock lights on here so that's probably a good news for a lot of people um this is just Ada uh some safety things things that we have to address down at the golf course so some bridges Park Park parking lot improvements and then the the upper tatlock playground that's really 50% of what we're estimating to upgrade that playground and we'll have the other half uh next year's capital budget and then just normally with Park Furnishings that we need just the wear and tear on our Park uh just our benches and then on to the seral utility this just basic infrastructure work Capital project that we're we're always trying to keep a pretty large city asset um keeping things flowing and uh and that goes to our pump stations which are critical it feeds into the joint meeting sewer uh Mains and then Parking Services uh a lot of complaints in the kot about space size so we're you know we got a some estimate on what it could do to sort of widen these spaces could lose more spaces we'll still continue to evaluate this we had to allocate some money for that and then just uh some sidewalk uh railing repair we have to do over by the Broad Street Garage this is the rest of the six-year plan we are satutory obligated to put together this is the five years and this is relevant for really the next slide that I'll show you and what it could impact uh future Debt Service obligations uh look we have a lot of projects that we continue to defer um not saying all of them uh rise to a high level but we are uh we just make these tough decisions with our capital budget every year and uh they sort of just get pushed into other years uh some are are just you know they're some of it's just useful life and they're just planned in that particular year and then the the pp column is just perspective projects which is always there's never never ending uh um number of projects we have to do for community services so but this is relevant for this slide um this year 2024 our debt service payments $6.5 million what that blue portion of the bar graph represents is just if you are the just the capital budget numbers in 2024 is relevant because that represents what we'll be paying if we take which we will be taking out a note to fund it a 12-month note interest what we have to pay for that that's represents next year's blue section but if you're doing that $10 million capital budget next year then you see the impact in 2026 and 2027 and then when you start to get into a third year of a note and you're paying principal that's where you see it grow even more fortunately in that red column those long-term debt obligations are significantly decreasing and that's what I was showing earlier and how in I believe 2027 is dropping by over $900,000 so this is help helping and as you can see it is not these dramatic increases we were showing several years ago but but that was a result of minimizing our capital budget numbers uh but now we're at sort of just in a plateau but we H we we will have to make very difficult decisions we I don't I would not recommend taking on all of that um all of those projects next year and the year after we just have to keep this uh just managed well but it is in a a much better picture than what we were showing years ago and how steep those increases would be in our debt our annual Debt Service obligations and this just the last slide just highlighting a you point about our general uh our fund balance liquidity uh and uh our Municipal tax levy this year but but because of the $82 million of new tax-based growth and what that the impact it has on a new tax revenue and and ultimately our tax rate and what that's generating and that leads to our 2cent increases that we're projecting for our Municipal tax rate this year and of which you know you'll see it with the average assessed residential assessed value uh residential home um which is about $92 of that 163 and that is it hopefully that wasn't too overwhelming but if you were wearing those glasses nobody would have saw you falling asleep so I tried to warn you anyway that's City Rogers um this is just the introduction so I just want to make sure there's no comments from Council any comments from Council are we going to get the comment when we introduce it in a minute yeah but I didn't know if you guys okay all right then we'll move on all right uh let's see on to resolutions um councilman Miner thank you council president this is number 11091 uh Miss Hamlet has asked if uh we're entertaining public comment first or if this comes first no no this is an introduction the you mean with the from the presentation no no I was talking about that I'm just making sure we're not ski I'm just making sure we're going to have public comment when he introduces the resolution um go sure thank you council president this is number 11091 and this resolution introduces the 2024 Municipal parking and Sewer operating budgets and establishes a hearing date which will be Tuesday May 7th at 7:30 p.m. here in the council chambers thank you to my Council colleagues and our mayor who serve on the finance committee with me City administrator Rogers and CFO Tammy Baldwin and their staffs and every everyone in the city in this in City Hall for their work that went into this uh summit's Municipal budget plus the library make up about 23% of your total tax bill summ at schools make up about 52% and about 25% going to Union County so while this budget is uh this document is pretty huge you'll see tomorrow on the website uh it is well worth your time so please take a thorough look and ask questions again your uh the hearing on this is May 7th at 7:30 p.m. this year's Municipal tax rate increase is about 2% this increase comes at a time when Union County is also raising taxes for the first time in several years a 1.75% increase and Summit schools is increasing their budget by 2.95 6% higher than their cap this budget is a shared product of the finance committee it does a lot of good things improvements infrastructure roads and crosswalks equipment for police and fire and much needed playground improvements uh there were some things that we disagreed on in the committee when I ask about the potential for a city tax uh increase of significantly less than 2% I was told that those days are over which is concerning uh because we are seeing that ever increasing Reliance on the residential portion of our tax base I am also concerned about our City's long-term affordability we increase the number of full-time employees this year by four which you can absolutely do when needed but we have to recognize that this comes with additional pension obligations which won't show up until two years from now health insurance increases and other costs that all add up to millions of dollars over the next decade now I was also assured that um attrition people retiring or leaving will continue to happen giving us flexibility in the future but in order for us to take strategic advantage of attrition we need a plan in place we need to make our city more efficient and to be ready to use attrition when we are able I encourage us to complete a city-wide analysis of our business processes to assess what we do on a daily basis at the department level and to use the results of that analysis to help us plan to take advantage of future attrition strategically over time if there are o if there are areas where we can be more efficient we need to jump on those if there are ways to change how we operate for the sake of the residents who are feeling the effects of how expensive it is to live here we need to make those changes this budget um uh I was so when during budget discussions I was told that the days of 2% or under 2% tax increases are over and I heard something similar with regard to the school's budget and that's a concern those of us who are feeling the cost of living increases in the city I hear you these things all emphasize the need to make our city operate more efficiently and for us to plan ahead for how we take advantage of attrition over time and we need to begin that today I move to introduce this resolution a second okay thank you um Council comments sure I'll make a comment yeah thank you uh people who know me know I like to comment on the budget um thanks to all those involved uh in crafting the budget thank you for the presentation just now Michael uh last year as you emphasized we had an exceptionally difficult uh budget year the trifecto of challenges uh we faced in 2023 were huge increases in debt pension obligations and health care costs uh the value of all property uh within the city of su grew by about 34.7 million doll last year producing 314,000 in tax revenue which was not nearly enough to offset those costs uh that situation forced us to make incredibly difficult choices and ultimately an increase in taxes was unavoidable uh in stark contrast from the city's perspective this year is much Rosier debt obligations actually went down growth of healthcare and pension costs are minuscule by comparison to last year uh while the total value of property in suit grew by an amazing $ 81.9 million uh producing $714,000 in additional tax revenue I know we're going to have a budget hearing uh I'm hopeful that we're going to have a lot more more discussion uh I don't think I'm the first one to deliver this news but Summit is extremely expensive uh it costs so much to live here the prices of uh rent groceries Child Care Health Care and commuting are all going up plus school and County taxes are going up significantly as well so my gut reaction when I went through my binder this weekend gly uh was to Simply ask is it really necessary to be raising taxes this much um between now and the hearing I want to better understand uh what difficult decisions were made where are the trade-offs what criteria was used to justify what's in the budget I'm curious about those questions especially as related to the increase in staff and the capital budget which of course is more than double what it was last year every tax dollar needs to be uh spent responsibly and with a great deal of scrutiny so I look forward to digging into this even further on behalf of the taxpayers we serve and thank you very much thank you m councilman thank you councilman anybody else no sure uh Greg thank you for your comments uh I I I agree that I'm looking forward to continued discussions uhu Michael the one thing that sticks out on me uh sticks out here for me is and maybe not the most important but is the number for the grants um it's a lot lower than it was at this point last year um I I would ask that every committee take a hard look at what your committee is asking and projecting for uh for grants for for 20 20 24 I think it's really important because that is one thing we can control uh I noticed specifically tonight there's three or four that are on that list that we can add very quickly but um this isn't something that's that we should go along and look at next month or the following month this is something that we need to identify by the next meeting what we are going after uh it's my recommendation that every committee look at that in the next seven days I think it's imperative uh we pay Millennium a lot of money uh to the tune of$ 3500 almost $4,000 a month uh we should put them to work and and we should get a lot more grants because that number is is very low and how long do we have before we adopt the budget Michael till May 7th right so I think it's it's a number that's strikingly low and I know it does change um but I think that's something we can all control is there any comments on why it's so dramatically lower it it's just when Awards come in whatever we're awarded a grant and at this point it's a little bit lower uh we we might even have a couple right now but it it's it's just timing it's also you could get a big Grant in the beginning of the year and that's why it was so I don't remember what we received at the beginning of last year um I I'm not as concerned as councilwoman Hammet about it um but I do believe that the committee should continue evaluate every Grant opportunity which is provided by Millennium on a sometimes daily basis or whatever is coming available so we're continually always look at these grants and whatever projects we do have we do pursue uh a respective grant for it so whatever qualifies and my only other comment would be that as a committee we worked I think it was every Thursday at 4:00 and and it is exhausting and I thank um Tammy and her staff and Michael uh all of you for putting forth so much effort and just for the community's perspective we spend a lot of time going over the numbers um but we don't have a lot of input prior to this adoption on on Michael's vision for the city um so I do think that you know over the next couple of weeks and months that we can actually have some of those discussions and and obviously support Michael and his team and in all the work that they have they have put together for the city so thank you all for all your work all right well I would like to say thank you this was um quite a I can't say it Michael said it um effort and a couple things I agree sumit's very expensive I actually think New Jersey in general has gotten very expensive we've almost doubled our budget in New Jersey um so it is hard to um make difficult decisions in newe Jersey or in Summit um so we certainly really went through with a fine Co um to I can't talk tonight A Fine cone tooth comb oh my goodness a fine tooth comb um and one thing I did learn is that we are really a lean city um when it comes to employees so of course we always want to cut back where we can but um I found that we probably have a lot more work on our plates than we did 10 years ago with unfunded mandates I think it would be a really interesting exercise to understand the type of unfunded mandates that get placed on people's desks where we don't really see the cost of that so whether it's hiring employees for lead inspections whether it's starting to create reports for storm water management um all really important things but they don't they're not tangible and visible to the everyday so I think the workload behind the scenes that we don't see as Citizens has increased exponentially so I just want to say I think that the staff that we have does a great job with the work that we do so um but we definitely need to dig in and with that I'd like to ask if there's any public comments no okay um on this resolution not there oh not yet okay all right no worries um all right roll call please y Mr Boer yay Miss Hamlet I Mr Minar hi Mr palowski Mr Smallwood I Mr Varan I council president Allen I okay motion carries okay um councilman miger next resolution thank you council president this is number 11092 and this resolution introduces the 2024 special Improvement District budget and establishes a hearing date which will be Tuesday May 7th at 7:30 here are the the council chambers the special improvement district is better known as Summits downtown taxes levied from Summits retail business district are managed by Summit downtown Incorporated sdi's budget is used to promote downtown businesses and this budget will be available on the website as well tomorrow um I move to adopt this resolution a second okay thank you Council comments public comments okay roll call vote Please Mr Boyer yes Miss Hamlet hi Mr migar hi Mr palowski Mr Smallwood hi Mr Varan hi council president Allen hi okay motion carries okay we're going to move on to public comments and we are going to welcome comments from any member of the public about issues not on tonight's agenda whenever an audience member reads from a prepared statement please provide a copy to the city clerk at cityclerk cityofsummit.org to help facilitate an orderly meeting and permit all be heard please speak once and limit your comments to 3 minutes uh additionally we need you to state your name and your home address please and if you are speaking speaking on behalf of a group please um still give us your home address but also let us know which group you are representing okay public comments is open good evening my name is Jean kryon c r i c h t o n and I have lived at 173 Summit Avenue for the past 29 years I'm speaking tonight in favor of At Home in Summit of which I am a member we are a nonpartisan group of summit residents who have joined together to advocate for affordable housing options in our city excuse me right now I'm sure we're all aware of the need for affordable housing here and in most of New Jersey especially for low and middle income residents some of these folks could be our own sons and daughters for some of you it could be your parents we are asking the council and the community to support a plan by a local nonprofit the summit affordable housing Corporation to build an affordable apartment building on the site of the current Summit Firehouse the 42 unit building would have four stories with a majority of two bedroom apartments that would be 25 also nine three bedroom units and eight with one bedroom parking is included households who could qualify include Summit police officers firefighters teachers healthcare workers and staff of downtown stores and restaurants it could also include longtime residents who have downsized or have been displaced from rental apartments due to property sales and rent increases the phrase affordable housing scares some of us but it's important to remember that this housing will be occupied by hardworking people people who will contribute to our community the city council will select the Builder and will control the entire process with the help of our affordable housing Corporation there will be full transparency on development fees and financing you can see the proposal at our website aome andumm it.org it is financially sound the project will utilize State funds and it will built be built with limited cost to Summit residents now naturally the residents will utilize the roads schools and other public services just as the rest of us do but I was talking about the um the cost of the building Summit has a proud history of developing stable and affordable homes for people who would otherwise be priced out of our City's housing market I urge the council and the community to move ahead with this proposal it makes a lot of sense it's the right thing to do and there are many people in Summit including me who want to see this happen so thank you thank you Jean thank you okay yep hello oh hold on hold on one second thank you it's okay okay state your name your home address and we'll time we'll do with timer for three minutes Anita Musa 18 Orchard Street mu Z yka so I spoke last year and I wanted to know um is there any followup on the traffic conditions on Orchard and Brian Park as you already know the Brian Park has been made a oneway street which is such an inconvenience to people like myself who spend now additional time coming and going into the my driveway the traffic in Orchard is really Relentless it's especially during the morning and afternoon hours there's a lot of people coming through and I am trying to find out if Brian Park are you guys going to revisit the issue with the Brian Park or is that going to be permanent is that going to be one-way Street going forward that's all I have per you know Anita will you can we have your um is that a statement just so we have it oh no no okay do you know what just really quickly um can you email us at um the city clerk at cityofsummit.org about what I just said yeah yeah just so we follow up we don't want to lose understood okay very good thank you good evening I'm Claire to at 11 Sunset Drive parking it's a topic that's been discussed and debated for years here in Summit and it sometimes feels like a one-step forward two-step back situation and for good reason we've got an award-winning downtown with many wonderful shops and restaurants and lots of of people driving in to patronize them we've got nine in in neighborhood schools several apartment and condo complexes a few great little satellite business districts all nestled in just a few square miles in recent years City departments have created comprehensive plans including for streets for sidewalks and for Parks I'd love to see Sumit create one for parking a few months ago Council addressed parking concerns raised by residents on boar Avenue and tonight you'll be addressing concerns raised by residents on Blackburn Road rather than these one-offs I suggest the parking services committee look holistically at parking throughout the city for example residents near the Ashwood Avenue business district where there are no time limits on parking find employees on parking on their streets all day long occasionally blocking driveways and parking too close to the intersections residents of the apartment buildings on Locust Street where there's inadequate tenant parking are limited to 2hour parking during the day and understandably some find that impossible to comply with Even in our downtown where Summit is focused most of its parking resources and attention there are opportunities to improve specifically there seems to be no parking enforcement after about 5 or 6: p.m. we can all testify to bad parking Behavior after hours there's double parking illegal parking and so on WE register our cars using license plate numbers so we can go into the transfer station we pay for parking downtown based on license plate numbers so if we undertook a comprehensive parking study perhaps we'd find that instituting tailored parking rules based on license plate numbers for both neighborhood residents and non-residents would ease much of the burden no doubt other opportunities exist I know we've got many smart creative people who' love to get to work on finding them so in closing I suggest the community programs and parking service committee get the ball rolling on this much needed Improvement for our community thank you thank you and I be mailed this to Rosie we have a very polite audience tonight everybody's raising their hand before they come up thank you that that was an accident uh Daniel Jackel JX l28 moris Avenue I wanted to talk about what Anita Musa is talking about because I think there's a difference between uh creating a one-way street because there's a traffic safety necessity and converting a two-way public Street into a one uh by simply throwing it on to other adjacent streets and Neighbors which I think has been done for with Brian Parkway near the area that I'm talking about uh there are some traffic safety Necessities in one oneway streets example Springfield Avenue between Broad and Morris there is a convergence of the uh Huntley Tavern and uh Car Wash and the veterinarian so and it's wide and the the uh uh some of the visibility is constricted as you have the curve so you have the one way on Springfield makes sense Orchard Street you have one way uh between Broad Street and Morris you have because you have the church uh parking lot exit and also if for any reason there was a backup of at Orchard because you didn't have two lanes going toward Springfield it would go all the way back and you would be affecting Broad Street which would be a catastrophe and then finally Denman place is another example that's one way because you have the convergence of Park Avenue um and Broad Street and you just can't have people going west it's it's not safe that's not the case with with Bryant Parkway the the ostensible reason for making it one way was that cars are going on an average 5 miles over the speed limit uh there are less some left turns that are difficult they on Bryan Parkway but if you take the whole area of Broad and Morris and all the intersecting streets and cut through streets there are plenty of left turns that are very difficult uh so if if if you would if you ask yourself okay where where are the cars now that are that are that can't go on Bryan Parkway what is basically going to happen uh and the way I see it you going to have cars that that are going on up Springfield Avenue they're just going to continue on Morris which adds to Morris for the for the people getting off of 24 or 124 either one they're either going to go down middle to uh Morris now to Orchard or they're going to continue on Broad Street cut through either Chapel Street or Springfield to get to Morris and then cut through Morris or I think a lot of people will go simply go down Broad Street make the left on the origin and already I see sorry already I see that they are that that's what's happening you so a lot of going to origin and I I think one I just want just very quickly very we just have to we are a strict three minutes I'm so S I think the re ordinance should be repealed and you should be looking at the the impact of the whole na thank you noted thank you okay who's next you coming up hi Tara come on hi um Tara gagano six ASA Court um so you all of you know me um I've been here I feel like I've kind of been in the land of Forgotten um kind of needed to show my face again I'm glad to see that um we're on the capital budget as of this time but I want to read something that was introduced tonight that kind of just doesn't sit well with me um so I believe it's goal number five enhance the quality of life for All City All City residents creating a safe and welcoming environment for current and future Generations that is not what I have lived for the past six years that is not what I currently live um the message that has been sent to my family my now deceased parents as well as my 5 and three-year-old daughters is we don't matter um that the affordable housing um Habitat for Humanity families matter um and I've received messages online about how they're blaming me the residents that are moving in for certain things um which is is already creating a contentious relationship I don't understand what's taking so long I understand government works slow okay um my homeowner's insurance is still in question um regarding my wall okay the half-ass wall that Habitat for Humanity put back and never asked me about it I still have drainage issues coming through and over the wall um I mean let's face it what was approved was illegal um and we all know this but at the end of the day um what's really concerning is future Generations my my kids this has been their whole life um and this is what they've lived and this is not the message that I think that we as a community should be sending um and my kids do matter um and that's why I'm here again because um my kids shouldn't have to live with a fence in the front of their house because my homeowners insurance is an issue um I also have questions about the sidewalk I wonder if the city taxpayers understand and know that they are paying for a private walkway um that they cannot use okay um that is a private walkway there is no trespassing throughout that that that Community right there that has been built it's very clear that nobody is to enter that Community it's gated off in the front it's gated it's gated off with a A Sign no trespassing um but yet there is a walkway in front of my house that was never there before that was created created specifically for that Community okay so now if I have two kids and bought a house on Morris Avenue my kids would have to walk around the corner okay they would not be able to walk through the community and access that walkway which taxpayers are paying for thank you thank you call yeah yeah okay Joselyn Modesto 61 Butler Parkway with the proposed lighting of tatlock fields the already overburdened tatlock and Washington communities are being asked to Bear more than their fair share for the sports programs in Summit why is the Washington Community being tapped on the shoulder again to step up for the entire Sports Community when others have failed to do their Equitable part Washington and tatlock Fields were once grass fields beginning in 2004 both Fields were converted to Turk over considerable objections from the tatlock community it deserves to be repeated here that a commitment was made to Residents not to add lights at the tatlock fields the upper field at the high school also in Washington District was turfed and lit with Stadium lights now the lower high school field is being converted to Turf all these fields get considerably more usage than the other fields in town because they are turfed now the town wants to add even more prolonged usage by lighting them all the grass field at Franklin was slated to be turfed at the same time as the tatlock fields but that never happened the Board of Education admin office says there are no plans to Turf the fields at the middle school even though they are scheduled to undergo Renovations later this year when we asked the DCP about turfing Memorial's grass fields we were told the neighbors there would have a fit when someone asked the DCP about lining the memorial tennis courts for pickle ball she was told within 14 minutes that they would need resident feedback for that just to be clear 14 minutes for the town to express concern over the memorial residents experiencing the same noise that the tatlock community faces every day we were advised that the possibility for lights at the memorial tennis courts was raised about 15 years ago but City officials felt lights would upset residents on Ashland and the idea was dropped there was talk in 2007 about tripping fields at Wilson but that plan was abandoned when neighbors there made their disapproval known all these examples highlight the consideration for other neighborhoods concerns and the desire to preserve other neighborhoods green spaces and peace and quiet they also illustrate that the tatlock and Washington communities are being bullied into taking on a disproportionate amount of the sports commitments for the town right now all the tatlock community has left are a uslim hours each evening of peace and tranquility and the fact that it is up for debate whether we are entitled to that is shocking by all standards it would be unjust and unfair for this Council DCP or the sports Community to ask us to give up that little bit of Serenity that is left the tatlock community already does far more than its Equitable share thank you very much Michelle cinon 67 Butler Parkway um I just wanted to respond to a few things that happened at the last council meeting um Mr Guida said at the last meeting that the Washington Community has not been approached and told they need to fund raise for the for the playground this is true we haven't been approached yet at the capital budget Workshop meeting meeting in December of 2023 when Mr ozarowski got to the bottom of slide 28 where it says winter of 20124 will engage Washington PTA that is when he told the room that they would ask the PTO to help fund raise for the playground which is a public playground I was in the room when he said this as was Mr Guida and most of the people on the de the playground at Washington has been falling apart for years and I contacted DCP in April of 2021 about this if it's truly Priority One then fully fund it this is a public playground that is open to everyone and serves every child in Summit don't make them wait any longer we were also accused of spreading misinformation a couple of weeks ago everything that we post on our website is either backed up by documentation or it was something that was said at a meeting I attended if there is something that is inaccurate please show us where we are wrong and we will remove it I had a question too I was confused because this slide it says it says that the um there was going to be $500,000 for the tatlock playground and the total cost is 1.3 million and now tonight the slide said $250,000 and next year the rest of it would be funded but if it's another $250,000 next year we're still short is that right we know oh just keep going on your we we can answer it with the okay oh yeah I was gonna say can we keep the slide too just so that yeah through Council comments thank you this hi good evening I'll let take go work the clock um some neighbors who oppos the temporary closure of Maple have argued that the temporary closure is illegal based on the minutes and discussion during the May 2nd 2023 council meeting it would appear that that is incorrect during that meeting council member minegar asked city solicitor Jacobi quote did common council did anything illegal in closing Maple Street in 2022 end quote to which Mr jacobe responded and I quote common council's job is to pass an ordinance the ordinance that you pass is virtually identical to the ordinance that Melbourne passed that was approved by do so for anyone to say that the ordinance is illegal well if it was illegal why was it approved by do the ordinance in Melbourne that doesn't make sense do approved it in fact do invites the city that is Summit in the August 2nd email Melbourne did it you could do it the same way so clearly do thinks that the ordinance and methodology Works end quote a few weeks ago when asked whether the temporary closure is legal director shreer referenced a memorandum written by Mr Jacobi in February 2023 that describes at least two methods to legally affect such a temporary closure I oate this document but the city who is a solicitor's client refused to share it on the grounds that it is attorney client privileged our neighbors who don't want to close down Maple have every every right to their opinion but not to their own facts for this reason it is in the public interest to put to rest the issue of the legality of a temporary closure at Maple Street given that it is legal to Temporary close Maple this Council should follow the collective choice of the public who have supported a seasonal closure by upwards of 70 thou 70% in two surveys one done by council president Allen I urge our council president and our mayor to release the document to the public which as clients they're allowed to do thank you very much anyone else okay we're going to close public comment and I just want to see if there's any comments from Council council president yeah the just the last thing I wasn't aware of that document are we able to um take are we able to get that document the from Jobe and get it oh I'm sorry what's that no the docu yeah I guess you sent one to to to Mr shreer I was just not aware of that particular document you guys can look at it but it's attorney client privilege it's not a public record but who so but attorney C page does allow the mayor or the president council president to allow that be the mayor and and and council members can look at it it was addressed to um Mr shreer over two years ago okay I guess my main question is can we share it and you to the public you cannot share it with the public the answer to that is absolutely not okay Andy's are you asking if we can wave the privilege for that specific document yes well I I don't I don't recommend that and I'll tell you why because you asked me to give you legal opinions all the time I can tell you what my legal opinion was generally it's to follow the law and the memo says what the law is and that you have to follow it but to wave up privilege is a very serious thing and and what it does is that it's going to you're going to now have myself and Ron and everyone else in my firm who writes legal opinions to be very careful about what we put in a memo legally with Pros cons Etc and giving you guys guidance because if you're going to release to the public I have to sanitize it that's the reality legal the reason you have attorney client privileged is that you you're not only giving legal advice you're giving direction right and so I would strongly urge you not to wave privilege and then one more question are we allowed to speak during or is is the public allowed to speak during um DS in in Council um because we had last time it was mentioned and I think it came from you Mr jobi that it was illegal to speak public comment on DS and it came when when we were discussing uh mbel street closure at the end of it was like 11:30 the end of a meeting I don't recall saying that okay if you have public comment you're you have your three minutes you can speak okay so I don't think that there's I never said things is illegal about somebody speaking no I think the D is we don't open it up to public comment because it's for the ability to for Council to have an open dialogue in front of the public that that's my understanding yeah I don't think you do the people have the right to speak during the open public portion session that you just went through right if you have a d Dr is is really it's a EST to do something in the future so you're you're I don't even know what the AR stands for we call discussion action referral but the council president can do what the council president can do whatever you want though right by you it could your prerogative is to open it up for public comment if you want right well there no there's no but there's been no action on it so a discussion action referral is you know I want to refer some matter to law and labor or I want to refer some matter to Public Safety to look into it study it and report back back to the council so people can have that discussion on any item at during the public comment there's nothing that you guys have to taken action on you're asking your colleagues and the different folks in administration to look at something come up with whether it's a requires a resolution an ordinance a study whatever that is they report back that'd be the more appropriate time to have a discussion because a d is just really more of a concept okay an idea so I think it's better to how the Dr have it uh flushed out and then when it comes back to the council that's when you would have you know but people can speak on any item I mean very often you guys hear a public comment and that generates your idea to have a Dar I know that the councilwoman Hamil saw that a couple times where somebody has spoken they said you know what I think that would be good to refer it to this committee can we Rosie can you do a Dar so that we can get that going so that's really why you have the public comment CU it often you might not be aware of something going on in a given neighborhood or a given part of the city the public comment then will spur Dar for you as Council people to take action okay thank you and just to clar clarify because um councilwoman LaVine I think either I'm trying to remember if you were president or if um councilwoman Fox was president but there was Jamie put councilwoman uh LaVine had put it on the agenda as a Dar and I don't believe we open open it up to public she wanted to be able to talk about what the status was and that Dar allowed for us as a council to deliberate publicly because we cannot deliberate behind closed doors on topics like this so I don't think you got it was yeah I I think you you certainly could though right I I think the suggestion was that we couldn't open it up to public comment but I think we certainly could if we wanted to I I I think there's very little as council president you can't do right like to just this is your meeting you know you I think if you wanted to have public comment you could allow it I I don't but I was that the question I don't know where I don't know where this conversation started actually yeah yeah well and I just want to be clear that if we have a Dar does it have to be consistent so if we want to have a Dar just to have a dialogue for the council can we say this for this meeting we're just having a council Dialogue on Dr but if we want to put a different Dr D on the agenda two weeks later and say we want it to be Council and Community is that allowable because you don't want to get yourself into trouble when you're being inconsistent so I think we need to get an actual answer on if we can change it from meeting to meeting topic to topic um so I'd say you can as council president I just want to make sure some people might come up and say otherwise council president I just have a question yeah if you go back to the last meeting we specifically talked about this at Hour 3 minute 45 you specifically say are there any additional comments thank you director Sher okay and I believe you asked whether or not you do public comment for DS or it's just councel at that point there was an answer given so we should look back to the advice that was given at the last meeting and provide an answer I can tell you what it is sorry is it was that no you can't have a discussion because that's illegal okay so that's so let's just let's just hold off our council president receives advice from our city solicitor okay wait just to clarify I would love to get in writing if a Dr is illegal to discuss from public but I want to be very clear that our council president asked the question to allow the public to comment and ask questions in that meeting at hour three I say anything was illegal if you can't have you can't just blurt out and start speaking if it's not during public comment so if the council president wanted to allow somebody to speak that's her prerogative to do but my my recommendation is is that that's not the time to speak so but again I I have a phone people can call me I I don't know why this is happening here on a day as quite frankly this kind of feels like a little ambushing so I think that the probably sorry are we allowed to have comments from the audience is another question like coun do we have a question counciler just let him finish and you can come back I'll come back don't don't please don't com from the so if you if somebody has an issue that something's going to come up I don't know why I'm being asked tonight at 9:15 when the last meeting was two weeks ago people could call me you could ask Mr Rogers Mr Rogers could call me I do I am very very available and I can tell you that anytime any council member calls me I take their call or I get back to him so if if there's something that that I said I don't remember it to be quite honest because i' probably go to you know four meetings a week so two weeks ago that if that was when was this allegedly occurred hour three minute 45 council president Allen asked I'm not sure what your response was Matt to be honest but I what I do know is she she specifically opened it up to the council and she also asked if she should engage the public at that time and if I said I don't think if my recognation was no it's the same recation I'm giving tonight I don't think it's something it's a Dar nothing's there's no action you're going to study it you may or may not take action so but I I you know I I I would ask that all of you if you have a question about something I said and did ask me and then I can look at it I just don't recall that at all saying something is illegal if somebody gets up or wants to speak when it's not public portion I will shut them down because this is your meeting and there's got to be some order and the order that takes place is because you have a designated public comment session I've already said you guys are very generous because you ask people comments on different resolutions Etc but DARS there's no need to have a comment on a Dar okay thank you Mr jacobe um I I would say just to emphasize the point councilman migar if there was something you were concerned about um I'm always here to answer the question okay okay um I do wanted I wanted to follow up on the tatlock playground question um councilman migar actually Michael or Michael um the 250 so I'm versus so I don't want to get this wrong but yeah thank you so there was a request for $500,000 for upper tatlock playground we reduced it we did something similar to what we did with maybe we split it over two years to fund not to say that was going to be the entire amount that they believe is an estimated cost for the total project um there's grants that we pursue there are other things so I think that's the thought that's why we split it in half if there's a greater number there then monies either have to be through grants or additional funds have to be allocated in the capital budget that's the answer I have okay thank you okay um are there any other Council through you council president Council bo uh I just wanted to um address the resident at 118 Orchard um if you can give me a call I mean every safety meeting we deal with at least 20 uh 25 you know parking issues traffic issues uh things dealing with you know stop signs overnight parking I mean it's something that we do on a on a regular basis um yeah if we could holistically you know take care of the whole city um yeah that would be great I don't know if that would be feasible but please reach out to me give me a call um we are eager to look at Solutions especially for traffic issues uh and in the event that um nothing happened on Bryant Parkway but at least we could work uh to mitigate your issues on Orchard I used to live on Orchard and Yale so I'm very familiar with the with the area and the cut throughs that happen as well so if you can reach out I'd appreciate that um the other thing is the um the No Parking Enforcement after 5:00 p.m. uh we'll definitely look into that issue I know that's been uh something that has come up a lot and we've talked talked about that in our safety meeting as well and I had a couple of uh remedies for that and I'm still working with the chief to on on those stickers you know so um but I I think that brings up a good point too which is uh um needing more police right so you know you can enact any uh type of you know speed limits you can decrease it by 5 miles an hour um you can put up any no parking signs that you want if you don't have enforcement then nothing's going to happen so uh this is another indication of why the city actually needs more officers uh in addition to the uptaken crime that we've already seen so I just wanted to make those two points council president that's it thanks thank you thank you councilman boy actually and I just connected the two of you through the city um email so you're already connected thank councilman veran I'm thinking about so there was a specific yes or no question asked there about whether or not we're reconsidering the Brant Parkway one way and I would just want to go on record as early as possible to say I do not think that's a good idea unless we have some extremely compelling uh traffic evidence or something that it's that it's extremely detrimental to the traffic flow the only feedback I have heard has been extremely positive from residents in the neighborhood about that one way being there and again just a reminder that this was about Speed cars were going very fast it was about the quantity of cars which is over 3,000 a day and it was about safety both of people driving and people walking on by the park so I I you know I think we need to keep that there and evaluate you know whether we really have a detrimental problem with much more time so that's my position on that thank you right thank you okay we're going to move on to sorry I have some comments sure oh sure go ahead thank you uh I just wanted to address a couple of I guess a couple of the comments uh number one I just want to make sure that we're very clear in regards to any uh development that we we would um provide in the city and that it would not ever be specifically for Summit residents uh any development we have a responsibility and a requirement to to affirmatively Market all of those units so I just wanted to educate the public if you have any questions all the information is on our website about how we affirmatively Market any units in case there is any confusion over that uh Mrs Gagliano I you're number one on my on my radar screen and I will tell you that Mr palowski uh sent some very compassionate emails this this weekend on your behalf I think Mr Rogers and uh we all got them and we are we are listening we you're our priority and I drove by the other day and I'm I'm sorry that that you're living in these conditions and we'll make it right as far as it's in our budget and we will fix everything we need to do um regarding uh regarding Orchard and Brian Parkway I certainly wished we would have had taken a little more time to look at the out outlying streets and I'd like to look at that again uh I agree with Greg that you know we have to take a balanced approach towards this but I have to to see both sides and see that data um I'll look at those traffic study that was done and when it was done the last time I I forget the exact dates but I would like to take another look at that data um resident C Michelle camelon I actually have to agree in I struggle with not fully funding some of these playgrounds and when I look at um maybe playground I think it's taken a long time I think it's a good point I think it's something that we should think about going for forward a lot of these playgrounds are they're costing millions of dollars and when we look at you know 250 here 250 there it's it's something that I I've struggled with since I started Council um I think we should we should talk about it I'm not saying that either one of us is right but I think it's a really valid point um maybe we should commit to a smaller project that we can fund sooner I'm not sure what the answer is but I appreciate the comment and thank you um the last comment that I wanted to make was uh I'm going to comment about our planning board meeting last week but we approved through a consistency review the turf at lower tatlock and if you watch that meeting you'll look very specifically at how I held or how we held our Board of AD accountable is there conduit well maybe there's conduit for low voltage liting no what exactly specifically conduit is there going to be um we actually put specific conditions in the resolution at the end of the meeting saying that if there were to ever be lighting the residents within 200 yards would have to be noticed that's barely that's almost unheard of um so you coming to our Council meetings it's resonating in our planning board meetings we set seven or eight conditions specifically around lighting storm water management um now this is a consistency review so they aren't required but we sent a very strong message at the planning board last weekend last week um and then for as regarding Maple Street I would suggest that you take a look at City administrator Rogers uh comments last uh at that meeting uh saying that he wants to make it very clear he didn't support it he wouldn't recommend this Council even consider it and then furthermore uh when our city engineer simply could not sign the street closure from New Jersey Department of Transportation it is very specifically clear on our guidance in that meeting and our recommendation from the committee thank you thank you um I do want to recognize terara I am so sorry I did not even realize I thought we were moving along in in a great place so my apologies your kids have ma'am you can't you can't you can't talk all right um affirmative marketing I just wanted to make sure that you were talking about when you build affordable housing um that we have to pull from a region right okay sorry it wasn't clear yep no that's okay so I just want to clear make clear what affirmative marketing is is that if you build um affordable housing that means that um individuals from all in a region which is Essex um Morris Union and I believe Somerset um Mr Rogers region two region two okay and so when you uh anybody in that region can go on they fill out paperwork to um try to get into your affordable housing and then it's not necessarily in line you're the first one in line you actually get pulled by a lottery so in terms of affordable housing it's uncontrollable who actually goes in there it's just you get on a list you come come from a region and you get pulled through a lottery so just wanted to make sure that that's what you are yes okay all right cuz not everybody knows the terminology I just that's okay um Maple Street just to confirm we did not Mr Rogers we did not get a permit correct when previously for Maple Street just just because it got brought up pleas be specific of what you're asking um previously when we were doing map when uh Maple Street was closed back in 2022 2022 did we get a permit no we did not get approval from do thank you that's just I need to make that clear thank you and is there any can we go back to that for just one second please listen so yeah wait wait I'm sorry hold on I'm not finished okay we will come back to you sure and um just to be clear Mr Rogers what is your percept um what is your opinion on Maple Street for 2024 you said the last I'm not going to reread just want to make sure very clearly I do not recommend to this Council that we close Maple Street for the many reasons I stated there are just there's problems with property owners retailers that have to be considered there are a number of things and quite frankly all the work that the city engineer laid out of what we'd have to do to properly comply with the law cannot be done this year so I'm recommending that I mean the topic again continues to be as we go into April now and it's not it's not going to get us to change our position at least in terms l so I council president all due respect the topic keeps coming up my position hasn't changed nor has it changed for the city engineer okay okay councilman Varan yeah I completely respect that position and I think that that's great but Council runs the city right Michael does not set the Strategic direction for the city council and the mayor do that right so we can very easily have said getting Maple Street closed is a priority for us and directed City staff to tell us how they would go about getting that done it wasn't that it can't be done it's that it's that it wasn't prioritized by this Council that's the difference that we're talking about here it made the city a destination it was great for business all the surveys that we have have overwhelming support for it 80 out of the 90 emails that we got are supportive of it we just need to be clear with the community what we're doing up here right this is not this is not us saying it can't be done that's hiding behind City staff we should not do that we should just be upfront with the community if we don't want to get it done we should just be clear and upfront with our position so anyway I've been upfront with my position that is I think it should be closed seasonally because it was excellent thank you okay councilwoman Hamlet and then you know what what I will say is I'd love to share the the caps uh agenda with all of you that's the the committee that basically the largest committee that has all the infrastructure that's it's Council councilman vtan and and myself we turn that into a six or seven page document and the reason it's six or seven pages is because we have that much going on in the city we have residents calling us at all hours of the day and they are our priority their houses are flooding there have parking concerns they have safety concerns that is the number one priority for me as a council member I can't speak for anybody else up here when my city engineer says he cannot sign off on the paperwork and my city administrator who's in charge of the staff who's managing all of these problems it becomes very specifically clear that if it was legal and we could do it and it didn't take up in a ton of Staff resources it would be a priority but that is not the case and quite honestly councilman veran we have way too much work to do within committee that is not being addressed right now okay okay councilman Boer uh through you council president uh first real quick um uh no one's hiding behind anybody um say and do whatever I feel so I just want to point that out um if you're if you're you know speak for yourself right um don't pay to Broad brush um the other thing is I just want to flip back to to Tara and I apologize because I had a note here uh and and councilman palowski has been sending out emails all the time and he's been on top of it and I want to point a question to administrator Rogers um do you have some type of timeline where we could um provide some type of um um assistance to to Tara she's been dealing with this for several years now is there a rush we can put on it I know that uh we just had the the budget come out but is there anything that we can do that it won't take until September um to fix for property it comes down to a pure funding uh issue and we don't have the the sufficient funds to allocate towards that project we have to fund it we have to get through the the budget process we have to fund it through a bond authorization which follows the budget if there's any way to expedite this it will run parallel tracks to bid the project uh and and time it with when we have available funds we will act as quickly as we can I can't give you a date specific on it at this time administrator Rogers are is there uh some type of um some type of funding that we we put away I mean not not necessarily emergency funding but uh some type of funding that we have in our in our coffers that we can replace once the budget is comes out where we can done once the budget comes out that we can replace it it comes down to approval of the budget and then we have to still go out to bid so that's a process I will confer with the city engineer on it if there's any way we can expedite this we will okay because I'm thinking that maybe perhaps there's some type of uh emergency funding that this Council can approve or something like that it doesn't rise to that it it it's just a question of how we can get this out to bid and what ultimately comes back because we don't know what what that's going to come back as and then we will have to evaluate funding at that point thank you okay uh councilman miger thank you council president so a question about uh Maple Street um um there was I know there's a there's a there's an issue with the amount of time time commitment on the on the DCS staff I wanted to ask if we could prioritize this for next year I know we've missed this year um it just seems like an entire year ahead of time would be a really good way to approach something that we have limited staff resources on and if that's not possible then we can eliminate staff staff um you know you know the congestion of of work required by staff as one of the reasons that we're that we're not doing Maple Street that's that's my main request I think we should we should consider it for next year okay I just want to say I'm gonna kick it back to councilwoman hamlock she's chair of cap but we will be starting our master plan process so that will be um the whole placemaking planning process will be a part of that and that's what I was going to say um council president thank you uh councilman minegar Michael I believe you've already directed baren to look at some basic placemaking um I don't want to speak for you but but specifically we really are talking about this as a placem opportunity and it may not be Maple Street it may be a different street right I don't know exactly I think it's a it's a broader look uh on on you're talking about a street closure it shouldn't be taken lightly it was it was absolutely necessary during the pandemic it it was a great thing like I I anybody who knows me and how long I've been working here and and the the projects I have proposed over the years I'm fully supportive of ideas like this Maple Street given all of what we heard from the public I know there's support but there's opposition I think the council has to consider that and then there's things that we have to follow from from uh engineering just it's the statute it's what we have to abide by and the city engineer there's time there's resour Financial Resources yes is it something we can look at for next year I don't think it's just Maple I think you look at it as a whole and where something where a closure would make sense because it's not just about closing a street for for restaurants it's about where you're going to set up a place for all of the city to enjoy that's what it should be about that's a planning process and that's what I recommend the council consider over the next year if you're going to do that thank you I know the public would love to hear a timeline on all of this even if it's stretched out for a year um just to hear an update periodically on how the placemaking is happening when they've decided when this group is decided what what it could possibly be what location just to hear an update on that periodically be very important it's not cheap to go through that exercise so that is a whole other funding thing which really is going to come next year because it's not in this year's budget council president what are the opportunities to put some tables at like the Village Green you know a in a temporary fashion or where the where outside of marag gos is that something that that our committee could look into do just to Ian I'm sure we we have a lot of space on the green is that that we going deliver food there is that would that be make people would that be something that people would be interested in I guess that would be my question that I can start asking residents that I can't answer yeah okay all right I'd like to move on is there any other comments before I move on okay great let me just open this up again um all right so we we are going to go on to we're going to close that part of our portion of our meeting were you going to uh talk about the protection ordinance or you going to do that later okay I thought you're going to have the chief well there's not really I mean there's not really an update other than the so the resident well I'll just say it um the resident protection ordinance is that what you're talking about yeah and the and the and the arrest that happened and the summons that was given out and I thought the the chief was going to um talk about that and okay um so yeah I we could do that but that's Council comments although do you want the chief to just say something on the resident protection okay go ahead Council I'm sorry I thought it was going to happen first instead of last well yeah it's not on the agenda it's not on the agenda so I would I won't bring him up but if you just want to say 10 30 seconds go ahead no I mean we could okay oh Council comment fine all right all right um okay ordinances for hearing ordinance 24- 3310 an ordinance amending the code chapter 7 traffic section 7- 8.7 parking prohibited at all times on certain streets okay councilman Boer council president this is ordinance ID number uh 24 3310 prohibiting uh parking on Blackburn Road this ordinance formally amends chapter 7 traffic section 7- 8.7 parking prohibited at all times to prohibit the parking on the east side of Blackburn Road between Prospect Street in Locust Avenue specifically no person shall Park a vehicle at any time upon any of the following describ streets or parts of streets uh name of Street Side location is Blackburn Riv Road East to a point 210 ft north of Prospect Street it's not the entire Street uh I move to open this ordinance for a final hearing second oh yeah good all right the hearing is open Council comments yeah uh thank you council president so um this is all wrapped up with the four-way stop that's there on the corner which began uh with W back in 2019 I was chair of safety and he identified that as an area that could use a four-way stop so I don't remember uh further parking restrictions ever being part of the discussions with him at that time um but just in literally like the last day I got a couple questions from residents um that I do think are worth asking so I do apologize for not reaching out earlier uh but number one is what's the what's the history of of this request like did it come from a specific resident did it come from uh the police department did it come from Council um and then second is uh Beyond just it being in the agenda did we do any additional notification to Residents in the area um and then and then my third thing is less of a question which is shouldn't we be a little bit worried that this is precedent setting and that and that lots of people have visibility issues around their driveway and aren't we going to just be doing parking restrictions on every street around town you know for the next however many agendas so anyway those are my those are my three things okay council president no uh so my understanding is that the uh the lieutenant went out uh our engineer went out uh they looked at the site uh and this particular resident brought this up because he has a special needs um child and the visibility is very very poor and they all agreed that this is the right approach to take um do you I can I can probably oh yeah go you go ahead I I this started uh back in 2023 and I don't want to um I don't want to correct you because you're you're you're you're on the right track as far as the history but um there was a resident at 77 Prospect who sent an email in December of 2023 um I think that was the first the first email yes sorry there might have been there might have been that's okay so there was there was a few probably before councilman Boyer's uh tenure but uh this resident had expressed some concerns that as he was pulling out of his driveway he could not see because of all the cars that were parked um 50 ft from the stop sign to his driveway so we have spent extensive time uh Chief sagorski and his team as well as our city engineer uh I'm 99% sure we did notify the residents U because I remember having seeing an email if I'm wrong I I I apologize but uh there is a very specific safety concern and it is um for that Resident who is backing out in um Council menart tan it actually I don't believe it really has too much to do with the four-way stop that I was opposed to because I was afraid that all of the traffic uh was going to be held up so that's actually not the issue it's it's it's really the overload of cars from um oakl that are parking within that specific um so much to my dismay it had nothing really to do with the four-way stop it just sort of more traffic from Oak and and we've actually I forget Chief if we've engaged okol but aren't there some discussions councilman Boer regarding okol and and freeing up that parking lot that house some spaces in that house that houses the ool parking so that's going to eliminate there's a house that houses oakal staff and there is a resolution out there I believe that we they could only Park two or three cars there we're looking at amending that resolution to put more cars on that on that property as to alleviate more of those concerns do you remember that and yeah it's through parking through parking right um I it's it's it's in progress yeah okay sorry it's a roundabout way okay just to correct the record it um I don't know if I misspoke but um that resident there was a special needs right yeah okay so I wanted to make sure that I had that right well I mean let's I don't want to get into too many specific details but the um the the that issue really arose from the four-way stop so that issue was was the bus picked the child up from the front yes and so that was actually impacting the front of the property the bus was was being the bus would have there'd be four cars parked and the bus would have nowhere to stop so the child couldn't get onto the bus and that's one of the reasons why I was opposed to the four-way stop this situation is on the other side of the property and is caused because of the oakal traffic so it's a very complicated web uh and actually Ralph called me last week unfortunately his mother just died so I just want to say a note of condolences um to Ralph and what I told him is he said do you think there's going to be a ton of residents that come up and complain and I said you know I haven't heard anything uh but I do know there's a lot of support as far as you know the safety of pulling out of your driveway and he said that the no parking signs have made a huge difference so I thank the staff for um your continued engagement on that so there's temporary no parking up there now there was yes just because it was such a safety hazard yes okay and just um the no parking is only in front of his house if I'm if I understand that correctly it's so close to the um stop sign that it's only his yard it's not it's not any other built in to a stop sign what is it 50 ft of no parking with a stop sign and four stop signs and then and then okay so then this is an additional now Council ver I don't know if initially the no parking signs extended further because I had a conversation with former Chief W about the complaint that we were extending it to Locust and I kind of agreed at the end of the day I think we all agreed that it was beyond that would have not made sense but the first 200 ft made sense okay so all right sounds good I think everybody's a winner in this one but if anybody wants to complain just let us know sure okay thank you that was that was my those are my things okay and I I will say the stop sign it has made the area actually really much safer so my my 17-year-old I because I was a Critic I didn't really want to block the driveway but I will tell you Zach came home one day and said you know it's so much easier to pull out on Prospect Street and black r road so I think it's important that when we do good work you should know it all right all right um okay public comments council president I'm sorry I just want to mention to uh reiterate councilman Metar that we did get I did get the resolution um about the the house that oakn currently owns that is used for administrative staff and there is currently an ordinance where it's only allowed to use two two cars uh so that's something that I think that we'll talk in in parking and uh see what we can do to help out oakn and their at least their staff for parking their cars there great thank you okay anyone else no okay um public comments no okay we're going to close the hearing Madame Deputy clerk please read the next ordinance ordinance 24- 3311 an ordinance amending the code chapter 4 General licensing section 4-1 establish General regulations sub section 4- 20.3 regulating of sidewalk cafes permit required and appendix a schedule of fees contained in the revised General ordinances of the city of summit great councilman Smallwood uh this is ordinance ID number 243 d24 d331 the city code sets forth the fee structure for sidewalk cafes in two places uh appendix a fee schedule of the city code chapter four of the city code we recently learned that the chapter 4 needs updating so that the two are consistent this is an ordinance to amend chapter 4 subsection 4-20 do3 fee scheduled to match that of the appendix a I move to adopt this ordinance I second okay the hearing is open Council comments public comments okay we're going to close the hearing ordinances for final consideration Madam clerk Deputy clerk ordinance 24- 3310 an ordinance amending the code chapter 7 traffic section 7-8 point7 parking prohibited at all times on certain streets councilman Boer thank you council president having closed the hearing uh just a moment ago I move this ordinance for final adoption okay roll call vote please oh sorry you need a second second oh I'll second it wait you have to pick one so sorry wait I'm seconding it because um for councilman a small one tonight or would you like to Second it councilman vinegar I don't mind go ahead Andy will second got all right fighting roll call vote Please Mr Boer yay Miss Hamlet hi Mr migar hi Mr palowski Mr Smallwood I Mr Varan I council president Allen I motion carries okay Deputy Madam clerk next ordinance please ordinance 24- 3311 an ordinance amending the code chapter 4 General licensing section d section 4-1 establish General regulations subsection 4-23 regulating of sidewalk cafes permit required and appendix a schedule of fees contained in the revised General ordinances of the city of summit councilman Smallwood thank you council president having just heard the uh debate and comments uh of the this ordinance I move to have this ordinance for final consideration okay I second roll call vote Please Mr Boer yay Miss Hamlet I Mr migar hi Mr palowski Mr Smallwood hi Mr Varan hi council president Al all right motion carries on to resolutions Finance our finance resolutions councilman miger thank you council president this is number 11 11173 and this resolution authorizes emergency temporary Appropriations for the municipal operating budget the statutory language required in a resolution like this uses the word emergency but this is a regular occurrence not an emergency these temporary Appropriations are to help fund City operating expenses and payroll expenses until we have adopted our 2024 Budget on what date Tuesday May 7th at 7:30 p.m. I move to adopt this resolution second second okay Council comments no okay public comments no all right um roll call vote Please Mr Boyer I miss Hamlet hi Mr migar hi Mr palowski Mr Smallwood hi Mr Varan hi council president Allen I motion carries uh councilman minegar thank you council president this is number 1175 and this resolution authorizes emergency temporary Appropriations for the sewer utility budget once again still uses the word emergency it's a regular occurrence um this is for this will be uh this is to fund City operating excuse me sewer utility operating expenses um and payroll expenses until we've adopted that res that budget on May 7th I move to adopt this resolution second Council comments public comments okay roll call vote Please Mr Boer I miss Hamlet I Mr Minar hi Mr palowski Mr Smallwood hi Mr Varan hi council president Allen I motion carries uh councilman Miner your third thank you council president this is number 11174 and this resolution authorizes same authoriz uh authorizes emergency temporary Appropriations for the parking utility budget um still emergency it's a regular occurrence um it funds the uh parking utility operating expenses and payroll expenses until we've adopted the budget budget I move to adopt this resolution second okay Council comments public comments all right roll call vote Please Mr Boyer I miss Hamlet I Mr migar hi Mr palowski Mr Smallwood hi Mr Varan hi council president Allen I motion carries and councilman minegar your fourth um from the floor resolution please thank you council president I do have this uh per close session discussion we are declaring a vacancy in the finance department the position of senior payroll clerk effective April 15 uh 2024 I move to adopt this resolution second okay Council comments no I would like to say that we need to find this position quickly so all right public comment all right um roll call vote please or all in favor I I I I any opposed motion carries okay um capital projects councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president this is resolution ID 11136 approval to submit a Grant application for funding from the FY 2024 Local transportation projects fund grant program and execute a grant contract with the New Jersey Department of Transportation for the Springfield Avenue Improvement project this sidewalk is on the South Side of Springfield Avenue from Kings to Pine grve Avenue I would like to move to adopt this resolution second okay Council comments public comments okay all in favor I I any opposed all right motion carries wait what is going on here we're all taking each other seconds it's like a fun game we're playing and it's not even that late this is a really early night for us okay councilwoman Hamlet you're second actually if it's okay council president uh councilman migar is so kind to introduce this one since he did the the work and vetted this this wonderful volunteer absolutely thank you council president this is number11 93 and this resolution per close session discussion is to appoint a new member of the park line steering committee that member is Mr Phil tein the resident representative on the committee uh Phil lives near the park line Looks forward to helping with the next phase of that great project I move to adopt this resolution I enthusiastically second okay Council comments I just like to say thank you to councilman miger for speaking to this volunteer some of us don't always have the time but we trust your judgment and a wonderful person okay public comment great um all in favor I any opposed motion carries all right on to law and labor um councilman Smallwood is you're doing okay this is ID number 11188 uh this is regarding the uh vacancy in the rent commission uh having recently exp or excuse me recently expanded the rent commission to add two alternate members and having recently received an acceptable appointment from mayor Fagan um there is a an application application from Eric uh diazo uh who is a wonderful Barista at Gregory's coffee coffee and I moved to adopt this resolution making Eric daaz diazo uh second alternate on the rent commission and I second Council comments I want to welcome Eric to this board um public comments okay all in favor any opposed motion carries uh safety and health councilman Boer thank you council president this is ID number 1178 this resolution amends Professional Services agreement in excess of $17,500 for the new Fire uh house headquarters architectural Design Services phase four additional fees not to exceed 8,359 12 uh this is for project management fees uh I move to adopt this resolution second perfect Council comments okay sorry I have a couple on this one I called Chief Evers today um I do have some concerns I spoke with the chief today about the substantial completion date for the firehouse and I don't know if the chief might be able to come up and just say a few words but um my my questions I guess Chief which we talked about it sounds as though the substantial completion date would be at the end of May um my concern conerns or I guess my one question to you is how much are we withholding from Brahma within each billing period And I believe the the number is 2% my question regarding this is do we need to withhold more or do we need because I'm afraid obviously the city is not should not be held accountable for this project going over the time right that's that's specifically brahma's responsibility so the architect acts as the GC obviously for for those of you who don't know that correct Council council president can I do you mind because I've had we have we had conversations in committee about this and maybe I can NOP um just let her finish her questions and then yeah that's okay that's right um so my questions were just and and um council member I can direct them to you as well I just my questions are really specifically should we be withholding more and what happens after June if this project goes three to four months longer um and what contingencies have we put in place okay president um yes so um we can't really with whole there's a when when you go to the bid there's a pay application agreement with the contractor along the meet those milestones we continue to pay those pay applications every time we do a pay application we do withhold 2% of that money for and and the product May to the completed properly so um we do have a final payment due so at the end of the project Upon Our satisfaction and completion the final payments due as far as any money that's been held to the pay applications at that time that's the time we would you know go out through any kind of money that's owed the city but um we we can't just hold money for them long they meeting the intent of the pay applications right now that that makes the product continue that make it closer to completion and then at at the during the time in place for that right now it's not really the time to hold anything back no that I don't think I don't think we can legally wise but during the time at the end of the project where we can you know talk about what what city is we are taking documentation on what extra expenses the city is incurring and at some time uh we'll you know approach bra they haven't put on notice they are exercise there are some Clauses in the contract is safe for liquidated damages that we put them on notice that we we're going exercise that at the end of the project um sorry second question was M helmet U the I guess the other question another question I have so this is for phase four and the initial amount for phase four was is it 300,000 for phase four well there's for for this specific 80,000 359 but that's what we're asking for extra but that this the phase four initial contract with this architect was yeah it was yeah it was around $300,000 I can go back and look at original contract so we gave them another 120,000 last June yeah right so now this is 80 so I guess my question to the Smart Finance people is that over the threshold of what would normally be allowed or is that fine because when I look at it from a big number I don't think to really the allowable threshold all in the city as long as the council approved the extension of their services that's not over a threshold there no threshold there's there's a change orders that exceed 20% of a bid threshold these are Professional Services and and these are frankly the people that are holding Brahma accountable to make sure it gets done timely or not timely more not as delayed as it's as it's been I mean there are some um issues with with the pandemic and supply chain but we do have Clauses in the contract and we can discuss your retainage you've you've been retained 2% of every payment correct that's correct y so we do have retainage that we can then uh look at when we go after them for delay claims but 2% of 880,000 isn't very much no no 2% of I mean 2% of% contct the entire contract the entire contract contract right appliation but in this specific it would be 2% of 80,000 but the I think the total the total contract is 16 million well their contract is 15 yeah our budget is 16 million their contract of warat was 15 two SE aren't we paying two separate entities we're paying Brahma and we're paying Willcox but they're two separate yeah they're two separate that's my question they're two separate we're retaining we're it's there we're comparing apples and oranges in my opinion we're withholding I just want to understand the apple and the orange there's difference between so the withholding of the 15 million 2% of the 15 million paid to Brahma is a roughly $300,000 withholding so you withhold those funds to scw up things uh in the city's favor for example having if if the delays cause us to incur more professional expenses with the Willcox the architect that would be something that we could use to offset there's also liquidated damage clause in the contract that if they go beyond a certain date for substantial completion we can get fees for that as well okay and just to clarify um the architect firm is not the general contractor they're two different two different firms lame is our our architect and our project manager that's what I mean sorry that's distinction the contractor is Brahma and that's a difference so lame is the architect and project management are the costs that we're incurring additionally because of this DeLay So this is what's happening sorry architectural related yeah the other question you asked about if it goes to say it goes beyond du there is a set fee that product manag C charges per month so if we did go beyond say end of May then we would have to the monthly charge the the product management team charges us so that would just be extended at some point we come back in front the council and do the same thing we're doing tonight but okay we don't Envision that but there so there the monthly schedule fee set up going beyond the scope of the contract with L Cox this is due to the delay and we will hold the contractor responsible for these additional costs yeah you are keeping track of all the expenses out of pocket occurring at some point we all our group meets and discuss the strategy wise you know I can say brahmer hasn't put on notice so they're well aware of it and at some point we'll you know make sure that we exercise that we put them on notice multiple times years M years but I communicate with their counsel yeah and we we meet every week every two weeks formally and it's always top it's on our agenda looking to damage Clause so they're well aware of it so okay thank you thanks Chief councilman Boer do you have anything I was just GNA I was just going to make the point that this is it's not the uh the project manager's um delay it's not their fault um you know they're providing a service and you know we have to we have to pay them and it's very beneficial to keep them going because they're the ones that keep the project going keep the the construction company accountable for their actions and they scheduling and money spent so that kind of think so and I I agree I just want to make sure that Brahma is responsible for for paying them if if they're over end the day it's on brah they the contractor we awarded a bit to barama and I say we're keeping track of everything so we'll make sure that we stay on top of it City City's best interest thank you Chief great thank you any other Council comments no okay public comment thank you Chief all right all in favor I any opposed motion carries all right um councilman Boer your second resolution thank you council president uh this is ID number 11176 and this is a resolution to declare uh vacancies in the fire of department and fill those vacancies with two probationary firefighters as per closed session uh I mve this to resolution um just really quickly I just want to also just announce that uh there were two firefighters who are retiring uh 26-year veteran Gabe ionella and firefighter Lon Mullen a 29-year veteran of the summit fire department and these are the positions that we are replacing and I just want to wish them both good luck in their retirement I second excellent okay Council comments 26 and 29 years that's incredible yeah yeah uh it it's a testament to the environment that you guys have created at the fire department so thank you for your service and everyone for their service okay um public comments all right all in favor I any opposed motion carries all right we're going to move on to the consent agenda at this time we're going to vote on the uh we're going to vote on the consent agenda do I have a motion to approve so moved second second great um does anyone want to discuss any resolutions pull anything out very quickly council president just number one there 10953 um the fees for operating and maintaining the sanitary sewer system so the joint meeting uh is one of the oldest examples of uh shared Serv Services uh in the state um and despite uh significant increases uh this year this is still an extremely extremely competitive rate uh for the sewer fee so I just want to point that out uh thank City staff uh thanks Aaron um just wanted to put that out there thank you great thank you okay anyone else all right public comment all right all in favor any opposed motion carries and on to council comments anybody Council comments counc just real I appreciate not I actually appreciate not bundling the whole agenda because I know we're it's within reasonable time even on those late days this kind of discussion on these things is really is really important to get the idea of like how much we're spending on things that kind of discussion it's very very valuable so I like to see that sure good okay I just want to give a quick update I know I've spoken a lot tonight but very quick as the planning board Le on I just wanted to give a quick update from the planning board I did some of it in public comments uh the planning board discussed and adopted the rules for the board's operation we spent the first three uh three months really scrutinizing the the the board rules and making them much more specific uh kudos to everyone on the planning board for spending so much time discussing the importance of what we call conditions on applications and how to enforce them uh overall the rules were adopted with the proposed changes uh also every year the zoning board sends the planning board reviews of matters that have come before them that suggest the drro might need updating or demonstrating problems that aren't working the planning board chair recommended we establish a drro revision committee to solicit input from stakeholders and make recommendations for updates to the drro the three members of this committee are Jennifer Alvarez uh Steve spur and Paul forelli the committee will provide recommendations to the council and the in the coming months and this is specifically important because we're going to be taking a lot of Christa Anderson's knowledge and really fine-tuning that drro which is going to be crucial uh with her leaving the city uh third Burgess and Associates as well as our planning attorney provided an update at that meeting it's on YouTube for the fourth round of affordable housing and then finally I provided uh in my Council comments the turf project that was approved through a consistency review so if you'd like to see my see the comments and the conditions that we put on the board of ed that were very specific to storm water management for the residents in there uh trees fencing and overall uh lighting uh it was a very important meeting so I urge all of you to watch it I think that is all I have but thank you thank you for all the city staff okay great Council comments council president uh in just 12 weeks since this governing body passed an ordinance that we've already seen an action with the issuance of the first summons for violation uh the resident protection ordinance uh demonstrates the effectiveness of the proactive governance and the commitment to our Administration to enforce measures that prioritize the Safety and Security of our residents the alarming surge in property crimes over the past few years with motor vehicle thefts up by 117% and residential burglaries up by 126% underscores the urgency of our actions furthermore our commitment to enhancing safety doesn't end here as evidence by our budget allocation this council is dedicated to making substantial investments in bolstering the security measures of our residents uh I'd like to extend my sincere gratitude to Mayor Fagan and the council president Allen and councilman palowski whose leadership and support Have Been instrumental in driving these initiatives forward additionally I want to thank our residents and the police chief and the summit Police Department for their steadfast backing of these efforts to combat crime thank you thank you I just want to uh thank uh Michael for the uh the presentation tonight and also councilman migar as well as uh councilwoman Hamlet I know putting together that budget of the last uh three months has has been extraordinary and uh it's a lot of work so thank you very much for all your time and uh look forward to uh the hearing on May 7th thank you for staying awake excellent okay is there anybody else councilman Varan no no okay all right then can I have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second second all right all in favor I I any opposed motion carries