##VIDEO ID:iKD-wb67Ndg## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e everybody here I'm sorry for starting a little bit late uh this evening Welcome to our last council meeting of 20124 thank you for uh for uh coming um at this time Madam clerk would you please read the adequate notice of compliance statement adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the city clerk's office in preparation of the Council annual meeting notice dated December 19th 2023 which was properly dist distributed and posted per statutory requirements please be advised that 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 hearing assistance please obtain the system at the DAT and return it thereafter thank you very much uh roll call please Mr Boer pres Miss Hamlet here Mr migar here Mr palowski here Mr Smallwood here Mr Varan present president McAn present all right at this time um we have our Pledge of Allegiance we got a special evening uh tonight as is the last uh council meeting of a couple of our members and uh so I thought it was appropriate to call on Miss Megan bartan to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance you're right that is my fault aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all nice work dear all right um at this time Madam clerk would you please read the explanatory note regarding closed session a closed session meeting as authorized by state statute was announced and held prior to to the start of this meeting and the known items for discussion were listed on the publish close session agenda please be advised that Council meetings are broadcast live on Comcast channel 36 and Verizon channel 30 and rebroadcast on Thursdays and Saturdays on httv on Comcast channel 36 and Verizon 33 when invited to speak please come to the lecturn clearly state your name and 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 at cityofsummit.org to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers speakers shall limit their comments to 3 minutes unless you are using an electronic device to follow the meeting agenda or needed for professional emergency contact purposes please turn it off thank you uh thank you very much um at this time do I have a motion to approve the closed session and regular meeting uh notes of December 3rd 2024 so moved second all in favor I opposed okay that uh motion carries um may also have a uh uh a motion to approve the Clos special closed session meeting of December 11 2024 so move second all in favor I I opposed motion carries and last but not least a motion to approve the capital budget Workshop uh me minutes of December 11th 2024 so moved second all in favor I I opposed motion carries uh council president I was not there so I guess whatever that would be abstain oruse recuse thank you all right awesome um all right at this time we're on our reports section of our meeting um we're going to start off as always with our esteemed mayor mayor Fagen thank you council president um so first I'm going to start with a drone update because I know it's on everybody's Minds um I attended at at a briefing I attended yesterday online uh provided by the White House the FAA the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security I received an update on the Drone concerns in New Jersey they asked asked that hobbyists not fly to drones or try to track things they see in the air as that's more confusing and adds to the number of reports they're receiving um they also asked that people don't try to shoot down anything they believe to be a drone or aim lasers at any aircraft because some of the reports have turned out to be manned aircraft and a laser to the eyes of the pilot could be harmful to their vision and or cause a crash they also stated that they have used geospatial overlaying to vet the over 5,000 reports they have received and they've not found anything anomalous on over civilian airspace um and finally the FBI in Newark um the field office in Newark said they'll be posting information to help residents differentiate between manned aircrafts and drones or unmanned aircrafts um I haven't seen that yet when we see that we'll we can post that link um I did submit a few questions through our uh executive director of the uh New Jersey League of M municipalities um because he's our he was my conduit um and because they ran out of time for questions um so I'm awaiting the answers to those questions and I will certainly share any new information that I receive um the 2025 organization meeting of common Council will be held on Tuesday January 7th at 7:30 here in council chambers we will be swearing in our new council members recognizing our retiring council members and City volunteers and I will provide my state of the city address members of the public are invited to attend the meeting and the reception which which will be held in the main lobby outside council chambers at 7:00 p.m. before the meeting if you'd like to attend the reception please RSVP by December 26th to city clerk cityofsummit.org um for the maybe playground transformation project we have an opportunity for the community to help fund the maybe playground transformation project which will be summit's first fully Ada accessible and sensory friendly playground and include an intergenerational Park to serve the needs of all community members through grants we have about half of the funding needed for it and as an additional fundraiser the Department of Community programs is providing an opportunity for residents to donate a bench or game table or purchase an inscribed brick paver those who want to donate can register online via the Civic recre portal call The Summit Department of Community programs to pay over the phone or visit the community center in person uh congregation or Shalom will host the annual manora lighting ceremony on Sunday December 29th at 6 p.m. on the Village Green members of the public are invited to attend and lastly with this being our last meeting of the year I wanted to wish everyone happy holidays I hope everyone has a happy and healthy rest of 2024 and a wonderful holiday season and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again in the new year at the organizational meeting thank you awesome thank you very much um all right at this time uh our acting City administrator Miss Baldwin you have any comments thank you council president good evening everyone um there's a few changes in the schedule for the holidays here at City Hall city offices will close at 12: pm on December 24th and will be closed on December 25th and January 1st the transfer station will also close at noon on December 24th and will be closed on December 25th as well the 25th and the 1st of January are also parking holidays and Summit so enjoy shopping and parking free there is no rec Ling collection on Christmas and New Year's Day and all following collections for those weeks will be pushed to the next day there is no change to trash collection on Christmas and New Year's and full details for all the city scheduled changes and closures for the upcoming holidays are available on the homepage of the city website um additionally for those who were not able to attend our capital budget Workshop um there will be a preliminary capital budget presentation um document posted to our website um that will be posted tomorrow um I appreciate everybody's patience we had to work out a couple glitches with the new software so what you will see in this document is that it looks very different from previous documents for our capital budget Workshop um there is a a very detailed section it goes over 300 pages so if you wanted to look at every single project in detail Future Past and Present you can I don't know that everybody wants to do that but I'd say focus on the 2025 projects um as I stated in the capital Workshop this will be an interactive document which I think is really exciting for residents as they toggle around and click on things they'll be able to see more details that function um will be enacted when we have completed the capital plan right now it is a preliminary plan everything was presented by the department heads and their recommendations that will be tweaked over the next uh few weeks and once it's finalized as a plan that will go into our budget then you'll see the interactive option but all of the details are there if you choose to peruse in that document and that will come tomorrow um lastly um many of you may have gotten a nixel and for those who didn't uh Bristol Meer squib will be performing boiler testing at the 556 Morris Avenue location during daytime hours um for the remainder of the week so you can expect to see Steam in the area there's no cause for alarm um the police department did put out the nixel and they are aware of this and with that I just like to wish everybody happy and healthy holidays to all those who live work and play in Summit thank you thank you very much all right um council president uh reports I just have a couple of things uh one I um as people are aware who tuned in uh we've been actively looking for a new city administrator over the last couple of months um we've conducted a process where um we had almost almost 20 uh resumés that we saw we narrowed it down we conducted a uh pretty intense interviews with um a handful of these people where we had every elected official incoming elected officials department heads all vetting uh various candidates and we got together and we realized the best candidate was sitting across the table from us um and uh we collectively it uh I don't know how spontaneous it was it was pretty spontaneous um that uh we came to the realization that our best candidate to uh manage the city uh for us uh is Tammy Baldwin um [Applause] and Tammy uh has had experience in that role in the past um she is also our Chief Financial Officer and uh some of the people who are applying uh mentioned her name as the best Chief Financial Officer in the state of New Jersey so we're super super super uh lucky to have her there uh as well uh Tammy's going to continue in that role uh as the CFO um because we are as most people do know uh uh getting into the budget in the first quarter but officially at the reorg meeting uh Tammy will also be appointed as the uh new business administrator for the city of summit and we couldn't be more proud of her thank you thank you Tammy um the only other thing in my Council report is uh we are getting swinging into the holidays uh do the right thing call an Uber don't get behind the wheel okay so um have a happy and fun holiday with your family and your friends and enjoy it but enjoy it safely and that is my report okay um all right so we're uh we're going on uh at this stage we have our historical minute councilman palowski thank you uh tonight we uh welcome Keith michas he is a summit resident with a keen interest in summit's history and its future and he fittingly has been waiting two weeks to tell us about the history of Twin Maples also known as the fort nightly Club thank you good evening mayor Fagan Town Council and all in attendance it is an honor to present the S Summit historical minute tonight my name is Keith michas I am a resident of summit for three years volunteer in service through St Teresa of alelo church the Knights of Columbus the Elk's homeless veterans initiative and Grace I am a card carrying member of the summit public library and a member of the Historical Society the topic for tonight is the Twin Maples estate owned and operated by the fort nightly Club these are two separate entities and I'll speak to them separately so part one Twin Maples estate which you see on the screen up here this is Twin Maples they're located down on Springfield Avenue just before you go down the hill it is a Union County 4 Century site circa 1900 the land was sold to James Foley a prominent New York attorney who commissioned architect Alfred Norris to build Twin Maples Mr Foley and his wife Carolyn Davis occupied the house until his death in 1916 and in 1908 construction on the house was completed in 1918 it was then sold to Mr and Mrs Frederick and Collins Frederick Collins was president of James E Warden company steamship agents and Brokers and was known in downtown Manhattan as the sugar King for bringing sugar as cargo from the Caribbean Collins had one child Lydia and conducted a lively household entertaining extensively until Frederick's death in 1947 at the age of 90 the house gained its historical status in 1996 and is listed on the New Jersey and National registers of historic places so part two the fort nightly club which owns Twin Maples in 1949 the Twin Maples estate was sold to the Fort nightly club for 27 ,000 the fort nightly is a woman's organization dedicated to community service and Outreach in 1893 the fort nightly Club was formed by the wife of summit's first mayor they had met on a fortnite that's every 14 nights or every two weeks they meet uh the members are a diverse group of professional women stay-at-home moms and retirees who share a commitment to volunteerism and community service they have a rich history of car charitable contributions community service and support of the Arts a small sampling includes in 1897 they donated horse trows in the Great Depression they set up a sewing room and donated 3,000 garments to those in need they sponsored the first Visiting Nurse here to Summit created the Art Foundation a precursor to the summit Art Association bu built the first playground in Summit and built the first playground the club's dedication to the community continues they now award scholarships offer knitting courses learning to play maong and outings to the paper moot Playhouse um they offer many volunteer opportunities and are accepting new members and so together the space is available now for events receptions and Memorial services at other times ballroom dance of New Jersey utilizes the space for dance lessons and you can see the websites for Twin Maples the fort nightly or ballroom dance New Jersey if you want more information in closing thank you very very much for the opportunity to speak tonight in particular Heather Alto president of the fort nightly Club Lori da from both of Fort nightly and the summit Historical Society Abby Brady from the summit free public library and Sergey and Olga from ballroom dance New Jersey good night May this holiday season bring peace health and prosperity to you all thank you thank you thank [Applause] you you just make sure the clerk gets your uh prepared uh statement thank you follow all right awesome thank you all right um today we do have a presentation um uh Chief sagorski is going to give us an update on kind of yearend uh statistics on Public Safety in our Fair City so time Chief I'd be lying if I didn't say um at the beginning of 2024 I didn't have on my my bingo card councilman mckernan here being a councilman and the council president and Tammy Baldwin our city administrator but it's a pleasant uh surprise and we're in great hands that's I'm just going to say that good luck you council president uh thank you for the opportunity to present um this year's year- end report for 2024 I'll be providing an overview of the crime Trends in our community um I'll be highlighting areas where we've uh improved and I'll also um highlight some of the areas um or Identify some of the uh challenges we continue to face now do I have control at this is that on you got to look at the side there make sure it's on I'll just let you do it okay I'll help you out just let me know when to advance we'll start out um with our calls for service in uh 2024 these are calls for service and officer initiated activity before I begin uh the entire present it's important to uh point out that this is um 2024 obviously isn't over yet um we still have two weeks to go these 24 uh 2024 stats are up into from January up until um December 12 so um at the end of this year in January I'll post the updated um statistics on on our website as always so our calls for service in 2024 and office inititive activities are 49 , 620 um we're on Pace to uh get to about 50,000 calls by the end of the year calls with service and uh activities um that would be a slight reduction from the previous year uh when we had 53,9 calls and activities you can go to the next one when be okay the first um area we're going to look at is violent crime a violent crime uh in the UCR it consists of um murder rape robbery and aggravated assault uh historically uh Summit has consistently experienced very low violent crime it's you know one of the things that makes Summit such a nice place uh to live work and uh sh um and visit um we normally average between 8 uh and to 12 total um violent crimes annually the highest number of violent uh crimes ever reported was in 1994 that was 22 and the lowest uh was three reported in 2019 as you see we have a total in 2024 of 14 this is an increase of three from the previous year and um uh an increase of seven from 2022 um this is something that we'll keep an eye on it's uh something it's not of great concern because this uh violent crime because we get so little of it um it's a very small sample size so um we do we we have experience throughout my career where we'll go up by three or four from the previous year but that you normally um levels out the following year but again it's something that we'll keep an eye on we go to the next one property crime um in the UCR the property crime consists of burglary larsy which is theft and motor vehicle theft this is um the area that uh is has has been you know pretty much a great concern to a lot of the residents especially over the last 3 to four years where we've experienced um uh a significant amount of stolen vehicles um residential burglaries and um uh attempts to enter Vehicles as you see in um 2024 I'm I'm I'm going to jump down to the motor vehicle theft on the bottom first we're at 11 that's a reduction of uh three from the previous year and it's a 15 um U reduction from the year before that this is uh you know this continues to be a trend uh that started back in um 2022 we had um before that we had 21 I mean 31 stolen vehicles in 2021 and um you know we we attacked that pretty aggressively and over the last three years we're able to significantly knock that down to the to the 11 that we're at right now um that I'm going to jump up to the burglary at 17 this is a a significant reduction from 2020 3 when we had 39 in 2023 uh one of the consequences of us doing so well at the stolen vehicles where people um you know our aggressive approach to policing and uh the residents um uh Buy in where they were uh keeping locking their vehicles and keeping their taking their key fobs out there was an unintended consequence of some of these um car thieves uh breaking off and um uh uh being a little more aggressive and uh breaking into home homes to um to steal the key fobs uh that accounted for about eight of those burglaries also too in 2023 we uh Summit like uh a lot of towns in the metro area experienced a number of uh residential burglaries committed by um these South American burglary Crews um that accounted for about like uh close to8 to 10 of those burglaries and there was a significant uh increase in um in uh what do you call it um commercial burglaries but in 2020 uh 2024 we were able to uh use some of the um aggressive patrolling uh uh uh tactics that we used to uh you know combat the um stolen car uh epidemic and that resulted in a significant uh decline again from 39 in 2023 to 17 in 2024 the one area where we're up in 2020 um 2024 is largely in thefts uh we have uh president we have 131 we're on Pace we'll probably get about at the end of this end of the month up to about 135 so we're going to have about uh 6 to 10 more than we had last year um which is interesting because um with the reduction in the in in the B the burglaries and the reduction in the motor vehicle thefts and is also a significant reduction in attempts to enter Vehicles which is not listed on uh in the UCR um you know one would think that the um the larity and thefts would be lower but um obviously they're not a lot of the larity and thefts they account for um anywhere from you know shoplifting um uh small amounts uh to um first uh second degree thefts where large amount uh the value was very high you can go to the next one so in 2024 the total crime index index that's the total of um property crimes and um violent crimes is 173 that's a reduction of 20 off the index from uh 2023 when we had a a total of 193 and a significant reduction from 2022 when we had 208 the uh crime index is what's used to um to uh what you call calculate uh crime rates go to next one with a great deal of our attention focused over the last couple years on combatting uh uh com combating the spike in the car thefts and burglaries uh we we we weren't in the position some of police department to consistently devote the necessary time and resources to effectively address uh some of the other concerns of the community specifically um uh traffic violations aggressive driving um speeding and um uh pedestrian safety also uh uh of concern to the community is the uh um the illegal parking that um especially in in our Central business district um but with uh in 2024 with the reductions in uh burglaries that I just pointed out before and a reduction in stolen cars that I just pointed out on on a previous slide and um and in no small part to the um Council approving two additional officers adding to our um Staffing uh we were able to um start to uh attack these problems more aggressively and as you can see I can't even see from that distance but I'm going to have to look on this in 2024 we conducted a total of um 6, 640 motor vehicle stops up from 6,347 in 2023 and up significantly from 2022 that uh of 6,000 and 31 stops in 2024 we uh to date we've issued 1,00 um 880 moving uh VI uh summonses we've issued and that is a um improvement from 2023 when we issued 1,624 and um a pretty significant improvement from 2022 when we issued uh 1,736 parking summonses we made a big Improvement there um again this is something that we get we get a lot of complaints on uh we we uh issued 3,596 uh parking summonses this is almost double what we did uh last year and a significantly uh much uh increase from the uh 2022 in 2024 that that gives us a total of 5,476 summonses um as opposed to uh 3,416 summonses total summons issued in 2023 okay well not only in in the the area of um traffic enforcement and parking enforcement uh there's other concerns of the public that we were able to address that we weren't able to address because our Focus was on the stolen cars and the residential burglaries and that's in the area of um Quality quality of life enforcement um especially in the center of our town in and around the train station you want to the next you going to see some you know a pretty uh significant uh difference from 2024 to 2023 and 2022 quality of life um uh enforcement these consist of viol um violations such as open containers of alcohol uh disorderly conduct you know which sometimes encompasses smoking in restricted areas of the train station and outside the train station uh uh panhandling uh urinating and public littering um and uh offenses like that in 2024 we issued a total of 110 uh city ordinance summonses that is a uh that's was almost triple what we issued in 2023 what we issued a total of 30 and we just blew away by almost a 100 what we issued in 2022 uh when we issued 11 I'll explain why that um is up there in a second um this year I guess it was sometime in about um February or March the uh uh the council passed a uh ordinance the resident protection ordinance and um I know there was some concern uh from the public with the the passing of that ordinance where they felt that uh it was possibly going to lead to um implicit by uh lead to Residents calling the police um on people because of you know their because of their race as I indicated when this um when this ordinance was being debated that um I acknowledged that implicit bias is in fact a problem um and it's something that we have to be careful and it's something that we have to watch and it's something that could uh affect um when somebody calls the police when they see something but it's something that I that I really didn't believe um would affect would be affected by this ordinance in my opinion and you know I still hold this opinion um is that if if someone you know with with implicit bias was going to call the police based on somebody's race uh this this ordinance uh wouldn't add to uh add to that person calling these people would call regardless of whether that ordinance was in place or not um just to give you an indication uh this is a um a graph showing suspicious person suspicious vehicle and suspicious activity calls that we've received from 2020 um the ordinance was didn't go into effect until 20 uh 3 months into 2023 and as you see each year um those calls uh increase slightly to significantly from 588 in 2020 to 617 in 2021 to 716 in 2022 to 751 in 2023 now following the passing of the ordinance um the uh the number of these type of calls went up by almost 30 but again it's consistent with the um uh the increase that we had prior to the ordinance uh being um voted on also uh another way of um of uh you know to see if um if people were you know uh where implicit bias may have been affected when people called the police uh because of this ordinance uh if you go to the next slide it shows um our Internal Affairs racial profiling complaints and then with that we received we haven't received any in 2024 since that ordin has been passed um we we don't get a lot of these to begin with um but we got one in 2023 uh two in 20 uh three in 2022 two in 2021 and uh two in 2020 but again uh done in 2024 since this ordinance uh was passed we've um uh issued City wooden and summonses um eight uh for eight incidents uh it's not it wasn't eight um suspects it was four suspects um but they broke into you know each each broke into two cars I think that's it for the slides that's it Y in closing I want to um thank the uh members of the uh sum Police Department for their hard work and dedication I also extend gratitude to the mayor and Council and the community for their ongoing support uh together we can continue making Summit safe place to live work and visit are there any questions questions from Council I'll I'll save my comments for the end end you know but I don't I don't have any questions I just wanted to say Chief um great job this year um thank you for encouraging the police force The Hires that you've recently had um I just thought that overall um you've done a really good job summonses traffic stops um burglaries car thefts uh you know the totality of everything um spot on thank you three council president yes please the the parking um summonses first of all thank you for this this is very very informative the parking summonses did that have anything to do with um can you explain who issued the tickets for those is that parking is is that the police comination that is just statistics for the uh sworn police officers parking uh they probably blew that right out of the water the number I wrote I figured they did I I was I was expecting to see that I would actually love to see that number too but thank you very much yes councilman Smallwood thank you council president uh Chief thank you very much for for that I think you guys uh you and your Police Department have done a wonderful job this year um and I know that we hired two new officers that uh have been training for probably majority of the year uh and looking forward to to them um you know getting acclimated to our town and learning all the streets names I was talking to one of them at an event and he goes I'm almost there I'm like you know I kind of threw I kind of threw him a curveball and asked him like where a certain Street was and he was like uh so I'm like all right you're almost there um you know that's to interrupt you that's something that uh you know we have to deal with you when I first started they would quiz you uh you know on uh your knowledge of the city uh but like everybody else there's a Reliance now on on GPS uh when they get the call they get directions to the call right on the computer screen um so um you know that that's a that's a dying art but we're you know we we we want them to brush up on that for sure yeah he was definitely determined to learn where all the street it's a tough town to learn CU I when I first came here I was terrified because the streets they don't run like city streets normally do like east to west north to south I went on Colt road for the first time and I I didn't know what to think when I made six lefts and a right and I was still on Colt Road um um this is an interesting uh well I actually gave him Bob's number Bob's street address so um so thank you for that I I do have a question about the um the lony is there a de determination of a certain dollar amount that can that constitutes larsy or is it theft or the grading of Larsen Larsen is a theft of anything with any type of monetary value um you know disi persons is $250 and under and then you had the fourth degrees don't make me go into all of these because it's been a long time since I charge people but um it goes from then from 250 to um uh gosh I think a thousand and then to third degree and then to second degree okay but based on monetary value so what I'm just curious is the the majority of the the L is is it from homes from individuals on the street or is it from downtown businesses when you say homes um the only larsy that would anything taken out of a home that would be considered a larsy um would be like um if uh you know a family member took it or somebody that worked in the house took it when you um like say for example when there's a burglary when somebody breaks into a house and they steal um something from the house if we arrest that person they'll be charged with um burglary and they'll be charged with the larsy the theft but for the UCR purposes what um the only thing that's um um uh tabulated is the most serious offense and that would be the burglary so when you see the Larsen up there that is just um you know just a theft no the crime again if a robber is committed you know someone has does a normal robbery and he steal money that's a robbery and a theft that person could be charged with however for reporting purposes it would be reported as the robbery not the U the lar and and I don't mean to get granular on this but is it something you know like um you know my my son stole $100 for my wallet or something like that I mean but I guess I'm trying to figure out is out of 131 where are the majority of these coming from is is it you know down you know most of them are the petty Larsen the disol persones offenses um they're not the um the indictable offenses that's the fourth degrees and up um you know Petty shoplifting um also what counts as Larson um we had um when you have someone that tries to enter a vehicle and they don't steal anything that would go down as a large because it was an attempt to steal something um so they're they're included in there as well okay great thank you um yeah I'm I'm glad councilman migar actually asked about the parking uh are most of these parking violations uh at night people walking you know parking on the street or they um yeah you know a lot of the violations they start probably like during a lunch hour then it might uh you know uh calm down a little bit and then when school gets out you know things pick up this in the center of town and then at night it it is just off the hook um you know starting at like uh 4:00 up until like 8:00 um it's like you know we use the you know the analogy it's like uh you know trying to shovel snow in a blizzard um you know we we wrote double what we wrote last year but we still have a lot of work to do um you know up there if you ask anybody in this room they they probably think we didn't even put a dent in that even though you know we showed that we put a big dent in it but what they see out there it hasn't really affected anything so we have a lot of work to do yet okay great thank you very much Chief I appreciate it yes uh councilwoman Hamlet uh thank you Chief zagorski I think those numbers are pretty impressive and and the enforcement so kudos to you I think we always try to defend you on Facebook when they say it's the wild west and Summit and we're not um enforcing and you know we might be known as the council that uh enforces the most but I think that's that's okay for now um I think the one thing that I'd like to ask for 2025 and you know hopefully we can work in safety is how do we show to the residents that we're working on an active campaign of enforcement so to give you an example um I spent a lot of time with the crossing guards on canu Brook Parkway and then I'll resent will ask us to put up a speed study there and Aaron will come up with the number of cars and the the amount of speed that they're going but how do we actually show results and change Behavior so you know we put up the sign and then 2 Days Later do we enforce enforce enforce because I feel like in there's certain towns where once you start enforcing on a campaign or on a street you you start changing the behavior and everybody knows when you go down that street if you're going two miles over you're going to get a ticket so like how how does that happen or can we look to do that I know we're we're doing it a lot but if there's a specific area of a neighborhood that has concerns can we um can we show some results in that area and I just want to say thank you for all your hard work yeah I mean that we have um that's something that we could put out through our through the the new public relations office or right um sure but you know that it's it's it's a constant thing really uh you know you can go like like you said for a few you know few days to a week and and people get the message and they're like I got to slow down but then you have to you know almost like you know get that uh that flu vaccine again you know and and and condition people to um you can blame me and then I won't get reelected but I think it's important to make sure that we enforce so these kids don't get run over um sure I really do council president yes please Council Boyer you know I uh Chief I I think it it's important for you to explain to the public like what goes into a campaign we've had conversations about a uh speeding campaign right like real strict enforcement for a duration of a period right we talked at length about that can you tell the public what goes into preparation and even Financial preparation that needs to happen and the bandwidth bandwidth so we he talked about doing a campaign to enforce speeding right um for a period of time a week two weeks month and during that conversation you brought up some some points some valid points especially during transitions with uh the bandwidth in our Police Department right you need a certain number of police officers that are on duty during that time there's overtime uh that's involved can you do you want to explain what goes into um uh this type of enforcement this type of campaign possibly something that Council uh woman ham is talking about you're talking about the initiative that we were talking like in addition to what we're doing now that's correct yes um that's something I'm really not prepared to to get into right now but um no I I I'm G have to that's fine so pass on that one okay I I'll expand on that for a second and hopefully this is something that we can do in 2025 to answer your question uh councilwoman Hamlet um the idea was to do a a speeding campaign right because speeding enforcement is is very important we you know we get complaints all the time whether it's on Blackburn division whatever and we've been looking to do this for a while however um there's a lot that that goes into this as the mayor probably can contest and I think when we when we when we have the the relevant bandwidth and everything that you know we we can actually do this I think it's something that I look forward to because speeding is a problem in the city so uh yes please Madame mayor I do want to just so that people are clear there are two separate things one is what we are doing currently um if we get a complaint or concern repetitively um our PD will go out and you know spend a couple of days but what I think what councilman Boer is um recommending what we've talked about is actually something a little bit more global a little bit more consistent and it's a much bigger animal um so I just want to say kudos to the police department for actually responding to the concerns and they are doing that which is evidenced by the summonses that have been issued and so forth um but I think we are you know interested in in making this a much bigger um campaign with uh you know signage that says listen you slow down here's your warning um and making it sort of a blanket over the city I think that's something that we're we're working towards but in the meantime it's not as if we're not enforcing and we're not addressing the concerns we certainly are and and we've done a lot over the past year um to to address that and that was a mayor bailing me out because like a deer owe drink in headlights when he ask me that question what she said um and then I actually have a question for you I just wanted to clarify um go back to U violent crimes because that always gets my hair on the back of my neck up a little bit um we talk about sort of where those kind of take place what's typically we see can you expand on that just a little bit well this year for example um with the violent crime we had um 14 what had a significant impact on that number was we uh there were eight uh reported rapes that were actually attempted rapes now those are serious crimes I'm not uh downplaying that one bit um but uh I think three to four of those eight uh took place in the um in a uh um a recovery uh you know facility um for substance abuse um not that that's okay but my point that I'm trying to make is and I'll make it for all eight attempts uh these were these are attempts where the um offender uh knows uh the victim uh they're not um stranger um type thing so they're they're you know they're isolated basically again I'm not I'm not uh you know uh saying that it's okay or that you know it's just that that's something that you could be reassured by thank you I just have one question Chief and I'll wrap up with comments after everyone else but um can you just explain a little bit about how you integrate um technology I know there was a lot of talk about you know technical fencing and things like but at least tracking cars and I know a lot of um uh you know uh auto theft was led by people coming to town in stolen cars and and what I I know don't give away the the secrets but how have you integrated that technology um res and and uh is that something that you think you can be expanded upon or is it something that you're pretty comfortable with the level of tech that you have at the moment well when we uh first when started uh seeing a spike in stolen cars um I became acting Chief in 2022 and you know the council and the mayor then were very um responsive they wanted to give they said they want to give me whatever I need um to help uh combat this and what we proposed was um uh installing that g a Geo fence in Summit with um license plate readers where we want to install them at every entrance and um exit point in town um license plate readers um they're not you know a ma a Magic Bullet a solution but they uh they they they do help in in this endeavor um you know when the car has been reported stolen um before they enter town with the license plate leaders readers it will give us an alert to let let us know that that that car is in town and when that happens late at night in a town like ours to get a heads up like that um and then to point to a certain area where we could just you know do veral units on it you know that's quite an advantage um and um we uh also um uh in 2022 got those um license plate readers installed in all of our radio cars too uh uh Council approved uh you know a um funding for that um the um the license plate readers back in 2022 we did it with a a two-face Capital project um where half the town was going to get done in 2023 which happened and then in this past year uh this this this Council passed uh the uh second part of that where the the rest of the town was completed so right now um we are in a good place with the LPR readers now um we would like to expand with that um where you could actually you know we have it um lprs coming in and leaving town um know we like to get lprs also you you know throughout the town this way you could identify exact you know even pinpoint even closer um you know where some of these uh cars are or where they've been uh you know also we want to improve our camera technology uh we we do have some cameras in the center of our town but they're you know presently outdated and uh we want to um uh to to approve that as well thank you councilman palowski I'll be brief just want to thank you and the entire force for all of your hard and good work we really appreciate it okay other comments Boyer you want to make one no I'll be all right I'm I'll I'll wrap up then uh with a comment um again thank you Chief to you and all um the other police officers here in Summit um I know one of the biggest or a key role of government is safety it's one of the first things that government is there to do is to keep the citizens safe and you guys are the tip of the spear so to speak um in doing that so I appreciate all the hard work that you do and all your officers do so thank you um you know I've kind of just sort of parachuted in here a few months ago um but as a non-elected or a as a private citizen it's one thing that I notic you know things had changed and what I would talk to my friends or people there people were concerned that there was a rising tide of particularly home burglaries like we've kind of I'd hate to say it gr numb to the um uh to the the car theft issue and I'm glad that people are reacting now and changing their behavior and and that's helping curb that um but what was disturbing is just this idea that there was not much we could do about burglaries oh New Jersey you know we live in it's it's happening everywhere I think I heard that comment multiple times and I I really do applaud this Council for saying no we do not need to accept that we can do something about this we at least we're going to try and um and I think the ordinance you guys passed earlier in the year um you know you send a signal that no it is not okay to come to our town and break into our homes and we are going to do something about it and I I I'm very happy to see the statistics that you showed about um you know um you you mentioned is is there bias issues with that I'm glad to see that that really hasn't happened um so there you know I and I get there people with legitimate fears around that and those fears should be addressed and I'm glad the data shows that at least from that at least for now those fears haven't come to fruition but we have seen a drop in burglaries and that's great um and again we should be happy about that and I and I know just I'm glad I see it in statistics because I know anecdotally I don't get told these things anymore you know you used to hear about one or two every weekend and that doesn't happen now so again congratulations Chief I know we have you know one burglar is too much and we want to keep doing this but um I I applaud you and your officers for doing a great job thank thank for your support if I could just close with we are you know uh trending a good place with burglaries and stolen cars we've come a long way um but I I really caution everybody to be still be vigilant we um just the other I guess it was over the weekend we had an attempt over near the Beacon Hill Club uh the vehicle our LPR hit on that uh they were able to get out of town unfortunately um but that vehicle was used in a um attempt to enter in occupied dwelling in in Milburn Short Hills um that same evening so this is still happening um so we have to be vigilant you know this this is not something this is going to be an ongoing thing unfortunately it's a world we live in um but we are trending in the right direction we're are and we are in a pretty good place that I'm real happy about that thank you council president real quick I'm sorry on chief on on that note how do we compare to other towns I remember in a previous uh a previous council meeting you had said that in you know in Summit yeah we're trending in the right direction um and we're doing a lot better than other towns right so what's your your your estimation on that well I to do a comparison that would be kind of hard and I you know I wouldn't want to say we're doing a lot better than other towns what I will say is and what I said at the last meeting was that um you know we we we're we're showing you know our efforts have resulted in a reduction and but these things are still occurring around us um not to say that other towns aren't doing a good job I'm just pointing out that they they haven't packed up and gone to another state or something this is happening still it's happening around us we we have just been fortunate that the efforts that we've uh made um you know have you know resulted in positive results very good Chief thank you thank you thank you for your service I appreciate it thank you all right thank you Chief all right um we're going to get into our resolution section of our uh our meeting at the moment um and we're going to start with uh Finance Council councilman Minar Finance number one thank you council president this is number I think 11643 transfer of Appropriations uh and this resolution authorizes the intra budget transfer of Appropriations from accounts with a surplus to those that are over this is a regular currence in the last two months and first three months of a fiscal year of our fiscal year and this uh particular set of transfers totals $120,000 I moved to adop this resolution I second any comments from the public comments from Council all right I believe we need to take a roll call on this Madam clerk Mr Boer hi Miss Hamlet hi Mr migar hi Mr palowski I Mr Smallwood I Mr Varan I council president McAn I motion carries all right uh Finance number two councilman migar thank you council president this is number 11662 and this is a request by Hometown television to modify the agreement with the city from 25% of franchise fees paid to httv to a flat payment in the amount of $84,000 I do need to mention that this is equivalent to 31.25% of the franchise fees and would equal a 20% increase in the cost of these Services um I need to request on behalf of this Council some additional information and the information I'm requesting here will allow us to do a reasonable level of due diligence on this request which right now I do not think is possible um the city needs to treat this like any other service agreement or contract we scrutinize these things um pretty well so I want you to think back on the multiple times this year where we authorize the renewal or extension of a contract where the the fee remained completely flat upon renewal and we still discussed rightfully so the idea of reviewing all contracts every 2 to three years and and actually going out to bid for those Services provided this is exactly that situation an existing agreement with a request for a 20% increase in fees so here is what I'm requesting um this additional money would bring this share of franchise fees from 25% to 31.25% with subscriptions cable subscriptions dropping this percentage will continue to rise to the mid-30s and 40s if we see a similar decrease in subscriptions in just a couple or few years this is a declining Revenue source for the city as well which would normally go into our general fund and so we must know the plan for future years right now as this resolution is written we do not know that plan there is no information in the in the packet that speaks to this to allow this Council to do due diligence and to treat this like any other service agreement or contract U the second is that it's it was also floated to me the idea that uh in a finance meeting that this additional money is required in order to modify htvs business model in light of the decline in cable TV subscriptions um we need to know what this proposed change is and we need to know how we can measure the success of this increase um in fees right now we do not see any viewership numbers other than the number of subscribers uh which is on the decline so this is another area where there is no information in the packet that would allow us uh the council to do our due diligence and to treat this like any other service agreement or contract so I'm asking my colleagues up here to think about my requests for more information which I think are reasonable and have precedent even in the last two or three meetings here on De and I'm asking my colleagues to recognize that we do not have the information right now in front of us that we would normally have to treat this like any other service agreement or contract uh and because of this request for information uh upon which to make our informed decision up here I move to table this resolution I'll second that are those a motion to table um guess we can vote on the table um all in fa so if you vote in favor you are tabling it if you so You' say I if you vote nay that means you will not table the resolution and the resolution would come we need a second um it would become up for up for up for discuss further discussion so all in favor of tbling the motion I all opposed n i i who was I no no n all the rest nay yes two eyes two eyes and the two eyes and one a all right so uh the the motion to table uh does not pass do I have a second to U bring this resolution to the floor he he didn't make a motion to uh adopt the resolution so you need a motion all right so we need a motion to bring this to the floor motion to bring this resolution to the floor I have a second second okay all right uh comments from the public all right comments from Council sure we're we're not talking about uh J&J Consultants somewhere down the street right we're talking about Hometown TV I still remember my own interview in 1995 Hometown television is a I mean it is it is it is Summit this is not like some random organization um they're requesting an additional $6,890 but maybe you know if that's correct or not I think so thank you um to reach a total of 84k in 2024 now this is not Perpetual this is just for this year right we're this is not a 20-year contract this is just for this fiscal okay great um in light of the factors of of declining subscription services and the changing landscape in media uh it's clear that httv will need to adapt and innovate to remain relevant and providing them with a year to strategize and reinvent themselves would not only be fair but also a prudent approach HTT TV's board is fully aware of the declining revenue from franchise fees and is actively working to diversify their funding sources I've had the opportunity to hear some promising ideas as Council Aon to httv they understand that the $84,000 rate would be a fixed funding level moving forward wouldn't be would not be a fixed funding level moving forward with no additional increases from the City anticipated again this is Hometown television this is a staple in our city they record our meetings they record us right now they've been doing this for decades this is not just some Fly by Night operation this is this is Summit and if we're sitting here debating on whether or not to give them $166,000 so that they can continue their operations for another year I don't know I I I'm glad that this wasn't tabled um I just want to thank the other council members who are in support of this I think it's the right thing to do I think it's The Prudent approach I think giving them the opportunity uh to find additional Revenue sources is just it's just right so thank you council president comments from Council councilman Smallwood yes thank you council president um I I just have a question are our Council meetings required to be recorded no not by law not by law no okay however we do this because obviously we have 22 almost 23,000 residents in our town that certainly can't fit into this room um this gives us the ability to reach a much larger audience for our Council meetings I believe they also record our zoning board our planning board is there any other boards that I'm missing here I don't think so um which are extremely important to our residents as well um you know and not to get ahead of ourselves but I mean I'm I'm looking at our agenda and you know we're asking $75,000 for this $75,000 for this in terms of engineering companies and maybe we need them maybe we don't but you know this is a a service that is allowing our residents to watch our meetings um there are several residents that you know more than several that can't make our meetings uh I think this is an invaluable um service that we can provide to our our residents and you know this is a $16,000 increase from last year uh it is a one-year contract to be honest with you I I don't know how else we would be able to record these meetings uh if it weren't for HomeTown TV um you know they they provide an invaluable service and for $166,000 if this is something that in an increase of $16,000 you know I I think if this is something we that we that important to to Really delve into it should have been brought up much earlier than this meeting uh to find other Alternatives uh not just simply asking what the viewership is uh you know you can log into YouTube TV to figure out how many people have viewed our Council meetings by the time I get home there's usually about you know four you know three to three to 500 people have already viewed our meetings uh on YouTube uh you know unfortunately yes I do go home and watch our Council meetings afterwards um sadly but uh yeah I I I I'm going to wholeheartedly approve this because I think you know if we wanted to to do some research to find out what other opportunities are out there for recording our meetings uh you know this meeting zoning and and planning board then you know this is something that you know we should have done our homework ahead of time and and requested that that information sooner so I will I will be voting in favor of this other comments councilman Varan thank you council president so folks might not realize there's a real live person behind us over there uh who's responsible for yeah there you go hi Jay thank you I want to start by saying I love Hometown TV I love everybody that works there uh and especially because he has the power to give me a bad camera angle right now uh but uh this agreement that we have with them 25% of the cable franchise fees was established last time you were Council president in 2015 uh cable franchise fees have been on the decline every single year since 2017 it went up very briefly from 16 to 17 and down every single year since that httv has known it Council has known it httv is supposed to provide coverage for the things that are most important for the city like Council meetings like debates like the budget Workshop the budget workshop last week was $800 would have been $800 for us to do that meeting which then we decided wasn't worth doing so the council the public doesn't get to see it the debate was also $800 which the political parties paid for they're they're essentially nickel and diming here but it brings us back to the bigger issue which is people aren't watching cable they're cutting the court right and so this is an agreement where everybody knew what the agreement was it's 25 % and the franchise fee is variable even before people started cutting the cord nobody could tell us ratings for HomeTown TV anybody can go look up the YouTube see how many people are watching on YouTube but you could just stream that on your phone somebody sitting here in the audience could do that but the ratings from programs we've never been able to see so nobody stopping Hometown TV from going and trying to raise money people people can donate to Hometown tv nobody stopping them from applying for Grants essentially though what we're doing here is we're giving away $116,000 tax dollars so that a totally unknown number of people can watch the most important topics to the community which may not even include things that they want to see like the budget Workshop or like the debate simply because it seems like they asked for it so did anybody my question is tell any of the other nonprofit organizations in town that we'd be handing out $116,000 to anybody that asked and why is it that what Hometown TV is doing is more important than what the first aid Squad is doing or Grace or Sage or the summit Education Foundation and I'll close by saying I think it sets a terrible precedent that any organization can just come and ask for money at the end of the year and without any criteria one way or the other we're just going to say okay sure so I'll leave it there Mr Council we close public comments I'm sorry okay councilwoman Hamlet um I'd like to I'm not sure council president I mean you make the rules and run the meeting but I think it would be um wise if Mr shudo wanted to come up and and comment it's such an important issue that we might be able to make an exception um what I will say is Rosie you can correct me if I'm wrong but I think we've had 26 zoning board meetings 26 planning board meetings approximately 26 Council meetings zoning board meetings planning board meetings have at least two three sometimes four applications last night's zoning board meeting tonight's Tuesday was till 11:00 or so at night um there's a lot of really important conversations and discussions and applications on the table the other thing I'll mention is from what I understand Rosie we can't have a simultaneous council meeting and Zoning meeting correct upstairs zoning not broadcast live not broadcast live so there are some challenges and some things we we need to to change I'm going to read a quick article from uh the tap into back in 21 said the council chambers's AV Equipment is 10 to 15 years old now we've since REM me a lot of that um which generates more and more service calls each year cobbled together from various suppliers it often requires multiple vendors to be involved in those service calls city clerk said during the pandemic people found it convenient to attend Council meetings via Zoom when the city went back in person meetings residents expressed interest in continuing virtual access there will be an updated system that is compatible with htvs equipment to continue cable TV broadcasts of the meetings so I guess my point is we've we've known a lot of these technical challenges for a long time and we've Greg and Andy I think we've always just disagreed on giving them a little bit more money as the cable franchise fees um have come down but I think the most important thing um when I speak to Residents it's the elderly resident who might not have internet internet access um there's an article and I wish I could get the the whole article um and I'll beb be super quick uh 87-year-old Doris is cut out from the outside world not because of her remote house her death of her husband or her failing Health but because she is unable to use the internet in a world that is increasingly digital routine essentials from paying bills to booking a vaccine require hours on the phone or simply impossible without a computer or a mobile Doris's isolation was sealed she's missed calls from Friends Hospital appointments dentist appointments and probably many other things we don't know about says her neighbor for most people the loss of a pH number would be an inconvenience for Doris it is nothing short of a disaster because she relies entirely on her landline for contact with the outside world Doris's story reflects the challenges facing Millions across the country as during the pandemic more and more services moved ex exclusively online telecom's regulator ofcom estimate estimates that 6% of households do not have the internet and 14% of adults only access it rarely While most While most are aged over 64 11% of poorer households are offline and I'm not sure how accurate that article is but I think everybody gets my point and I can appreciate that you do not want to support this resolution because we've had these conversations for a very long time uh but I would like to give httv the opportunity to fundraise we believe in them and I I know there's many human beings that work behind there and a lot of times we do have technical challenges so we could certainly put a video camera there but I think our city clerk would probably tell you that they are helping us a lot and the technical challenges uh that we have on a daily basis they're very helpful and we find them very very valuable so I'm pleased to support this I saw a couple of nods on from the Das if you do want to come up and and give a comment I think there's enough people had raised issues on what you guys were thinking so I think it's probably appropriate John Cudo uh 386 hard Shore and drive Short Hills uh I am the President of Hometown television httv and U you know I certainly want to uh say there are many layers to what has happened with the cable cord cutting that has taken place but you know it's interesting um we kind of reinvented ourselves a few years ago and that's where we went to the httv name because we're more than just the television we're basically a production facility and you know it's interesting though our fee has certainly dropped down from this C our work certainly hasn't it's picked up and you know uh councilman vardan I do want to let you know that um we do not have a requirement to do the debate we do not have a requirement to do to host a forum uh you know for an issue in town we choose to get involved because we were asked to do it and we're a neutral party and the city comes first and we're more than the city and as councilwoman Hamlet just said I I think a large part of our Market is the elderly I'm going to say the senior citizen because they don't have access to the computers and sometimes they can't get out you know uh we do a lot for the city as uh councilman smallen just mentioned but you know we also provide other information to the city we cover merchants in town we promote the downtown we do the car shows we handle the concerts in the park many many many different venues we are much more than just providing information to the community from Council and planning um we were honored a few months ago you see the type of work we do with interns students we've had many Summit students who are in college who do an internship and they've moved on to whether it be ESPN CNBC CNN Fox they've been promoted through the opportunity to learn how to work with production through this great organization and again that's something that I think so much should be very proud of um we do a lot of fundraising not only do we have a fundraising drive going now with that many citizens contribute too but we've applied for Grants we've received grants from Central Presbyterian Church over the year Summit Foundation uh Union County and we will continue to do that and as councilman Boer certainly alluded to right now we are working with something on a very large scale that I really don't want to disclose but hopefully that will materialize as we move forward with national networks to become a venue for them to possibly doing do a little production out of our studio and we would get a very very nice supplement to our budget with that so are there any questions that anybody would have about Hometown TV that You' like to ask me please councilman maner thank you thank you so much John for answering these questions um uh can you tell me the percentage of funding for your organization that comes from the board and it may not be off the top of your head if you don't know that hear about it later Frank I'm going to say about 8 to 10% about 10% yeah 10 to 12% from the board what is the plan for retooling and do you think that one year of funding is enough for actually retooling and re re doing the the the model for httv and I'm saying that because I am worried about um I'm worried that it won't be enough that's my main concern that it won't be enough to actually retool because it seems like a heavy lift to do that um well I think we're in the process of analyzing the retooling I don't know how much retooling we really need to do to be honest with you you know I mean listen and you know Greg to your point here it isn't that we just came to you at the end of the year looking for this funding we've talked about this funding going back to the finance committee you know earlier actually late last year and um you know we will find find a way to make it you know but we certainly could use the support from the city because as mentioned you know our workload hasn't cut down because the court has cut down in fact it's probably picked up over the last three or four years and I don't think $6,000 is going to break this town or this budget you know uh we have given and we have some tremendous people in this community who are on our board it's a great representation of the city of summit so again if there's any other questions I'm here to answer them council president I just want to clarify because I heard one year funding I just want to be clear that this isn't one year funding this is our our agreement is still a percentage of the cable fees this is a oneoff uh for this year to get the number to 87,000 that's what this is8 I think 84 I'm sorry next year it would revert back to um 25 % of the cable fee that the city brings in just want to be clear about that we're not talking about funding for 2025 we're talking about a supplement of 16 for 24 plus for 24 yes okay through you council president I also want to be clear before I spoke up on Thursday this or this resolution was for Perpetual increase to 84,000 they had the word annually in it until I spoke up in finance committee and had it removed this was going to be every year and I think that is probably what we should anticipate uh in future years we need to know the plan for future years as well Andy Andy excuse me look let's have a debate here from this I just mentioned though uh yeah no I I get it I I understand council president you we didn't request that yeah I understand so there was a it was fixed I mean that's out of bounds we're not even talking about that that's not on the table right completely in bounds excuse me well I mean it's completely in Bound but that's not what we're voting on correct right that's right it's also good to know thank you for updating that okay any other questions or comments yeah councilwoman hand I mean I immediately agreed that that wasn't what was supposed to be in the resolution as well and passed it to um council president yeah um so real real quickly yes please counc just to back up again I don't think anybody has said they don't really value the work that Hometown TV does just want to reiterate that of course we do I think the supporters of this resolution want to make it seem like this is an existential crisis for HomeTown TV but you just confirmed that it isn't you can find the $16,000 that you need if we didn't fund it now from the city right and I think the the when it comes down to it we just don't know what Hometown TV is going to do with the money and I think that it's completely irresponsible of this Council to say go ahead sure whatever we don't do that for anything anything ever we don't have a memo we don't have a budget we don't have anything about this so that's where I'll leave it thank you um any other comments what we do we we we submit an annual report to the city every year showing our expenses it's not in the packet we don't have anything in the packet I mean we're talking about we and we've known this is coming nine years we've known I think I think I think the council president with if I can defend the council president he's had a pretty busy week and a lot involved with his family so I think you should give him a little bit of a break here no you don't I don't need a break um look I I'll are there any kind of comments I have a couple councilman ask so um hi Mom pops my wonderful wife who watches all these meetings back home along with as some of us have said already um a lot of folks who who are not so tech-savvy um HTV it's a institution and I'm favor of helping them out so that they can get through this year I would encourage all of our local businesses um uh to advertise on httv and I'd also encourage all of our residents who enjoy watching these Council meetings to make a donation I assume you accept those right I like the second request better than the first because we're not allowed to advertise I wish we could no all right well that would end httv Greg if we advertise so yeah and I mean look httv they they in they they did interviews with us they uh they filmed our candidate statements so they could be broadcast to the community and I just you know I just want to give a little anecdote you know during the pandemic and I know I mentioned this when I was at the finance committee we were contacted by um a couple of the congregations uh in Summit and the surrounding area to put out their masses their service whatever which we did and we had so many people respond because it was a crisis situation they had an opportunity to to go to their service by watching on httv or Hometown television which otherwise wouldn't have been able to be a situation for them during that pandemic and you know we've always been there during the crisis during the hurricane you know the the mayor came and it was a conduit it to during Hurricane Sandy to to reach the public to inform them about what's happening and remember it's not only just on the television it's the ability to do the production from there you have your link you have your social media you have your other access points to communication and I have to tell you I think there are very few towns cities townships in the state of New Jersey that have a viable station like we do at the numbers that we run at you want to go down the Woodbridge and see a budget of $350 to $400,000 coming from the community Community you'll see a station you want to go to Princeton maybe Montclair and that's about it you know I live in Milbourne it's black it's dark people are very very upset and you know it's something about having this is you know people talk about the citizens talk about transparency everybody wants transparency you can't get any more transparent than what you people do every single month a couple times a month on every level so that is my position uh we would greatly appreciate it I will tell you we will be around next year we will be around the following year with or without this $166,000 that I promise but I will tell you this it'd be an injustice if we didn't get it thank you thank you um all right I'm going to wrap up just I have one quick question John you probably can answer this um the 84,000 you I know this is the request so it's an ADD additional 16,000 where' that number come from well I mean Frank we were at 83,000 previously over the years and with the cutting of the cord it was reduced down to 67,000 and we were running and we were certainly hoping to hit the 83 to help us make it over the home right that's what that's what I thought so so in past years that's kind of been where the number was I think the high Watermark when year was it was in the 90ss 87 maybe yeah yeah okay thank you um yeah I've kind of scratched my head around this and struggled a little bit about this because you know when we did do this as councilman bartan he's got a great memory we'll miss that um uh he's young yeah um we did come up with this idea to to link it to the cable fee and it made sense because that was at the time how the majority of people kind of act accessed the the programming you know even back then YouTube wasn't what it was today um things have changed dynamically um and uh and people are getting rid of cable but I I do think that councilman councilwoman Hamlet made a very key distinction because my 24y old kid doesn't have cable but my 84 yearold Dad does and he's not getting rid of it um that's how he gets his information okay so I think while cable um boxes are disappearing in our town for a an important constituency in our community take it away this is what we have and I I feel kind of responsible around around that I I do understand that I I know we talked about this now I'm dating myself seven or eight years ago um and we all thought oh we could get a high school kid to come with a video camera and put it up here and his hand would be shaking but we could get that out on social media somehow and but it's everyone's like not an option because the people we want to have access to is one isn't going to look at it that way and to John your point the production value what the other things you can do with it just isn't there now I I thought long and hard about whether this is something that we should look at like clearly maybe there there is a breakage um in tying this to the cable fee and it's clear that this this number is going to continue to go down um I wouldn't want to be a shareholder in Comcast but um it it's but the service that gets provided isn't changing and if in a lot of ways the quality and what they do has just gotten better um so I think there's a disconnect there that we need to Grapple with um I think this is a much longer conversation that we should have a this discussion in finance around our budget process in conjunction with httv around what a number might be um I know that some people have said why don't we bid this out like everything else and and I'm open to listening to any of these types of of things I I I think for what we get for what they do I'd be surprised if we could get a um like a contract with a a provider that would do all the things that we do but we don't know we don't know um and so maybe that is a thing that we should explore and um I'm sure that these guys would do well around that but but these are all discussions I think that we we need to have and really drill down because I I'm not I'm not I you know I don't want to do this every year right this is kind of silly we need to have a uh system in place where your Revenue you understand what your Revenue stream is we understand what we're paying and we understand the services that we're getting in return for that can I can I just say one thing too you know and and Greg I wish we could you know have some kind of rating system to see what how many eyeballs are on us the only way we can tell is if somebody says hey I saw that show or whatever and it does happen but you know um one of the reasons why the quality has improved so much is because technolog is Advanced and with that we've had to keep up with it so there's always Acquisitions of different types of equipment that is very expensive and you know we do all sorts of things to try to get that that's where a lot of the grant money comes from but we also you know need the supplements and that's where we're at so unless there's another question I'm going to sit down please now I can't not Council or former council president margerie Fox knows the rule so I can't tell her she can't speak so you come on up come on thank you council president members of council um Margery Fox 32 rotary Drive um so I'm just a little bit disturbed by seeing the this process I want to preface this by saying that I think that um Hometown TV does a great job and um what I'm concerned about is that the six years I was on Council every year we had this conversation about funding Hometown TV and it's the same conversation now I'm betting it also happened at the beginning of the year I'm not privy to that but I'm betting that Finance had this conversation sometime early in the year and when the 24 budget was being discussed and that I think the fact that this is coming in the December meeting the second meeting in December is problematic at best and there's nothing in the packet in terms of background information for every year we have the same request for an additional amount to bring it up to 84,000 has been asked for and the um and my my recollection is we have said no we want to see a proposal for what you're going to do how you're going to retool and I'm not sure that's ever been presented and then the process has gotten worse because public comment period closed and then you allowed um you know Mr Cudo to come up here and speak then you allowed him to have a back and forth and to to have a dialogue that doesn't happen with anyone else I think this is a broken process I think you know I think it's it's a process that should happen it there should be a discussion there s should be review but I think this needs to go back to a committee and back to a discussion where background information is collected where we have all the information about what Hometown TV has done and it's been and it should be properly noticed and put on the um the agenda with with all the background information for the public to see and to understand what's being offered I I think it's very Cavalier to just say oh it's just $166,000 because it's going to set a precedent I think this should be put to to bed once and for all but um this is not the meeting to do it I would urge you to table it thank you thank you any other comments from the public okay you know their comments Let's uh um have a vote all in favor I opposed nay n motion carries all right uh Finance number three councilman Minar thank you council president this is number 1167 one uh and this resolution adds 35,000 to the 2024 Legal Services contract awarded to the law firm of clear giobi Alfieri and Jacobs this will increase the total contract to 285,000 for 2024 for additional Legal Services provided this year I move to adopt this resolution I second comments from the public comments from Council yes councilman Smallwood thank you council president uh Mr Jobe could you please provide the services that you lay out the services you provide for us I'm kidding other comments from Council um I'll just make one speaking with our um soon to be um business administrator City administrator and I I did say because I look at every single bill that comes through the city pretty much um as everyone knows and I said I said you know this one's this one's a hefty one and and the one thing we discussed was Matt thank you for stepping up as we were in between um City administrator um you really took on a an extra role and we looked to you for guidance on a daily basis in the last 90 days until we got uh Mike back up here so we know you've been filling a huge role um for us so thank you thank you very much other comments yes councilman Bart I I uh have appreciated working with you these many years Matt thank you um I I think it should just be said that professional service contracts shouldn't be uh for any organization the way that we deal with uh staff vacancies um I also will say that I think it's extremely important especially when it comes to attorneys and our professionals that there be a centralized process through the council president through the office of the city administrator so that you don't have nine people eight people all calling our professionals and racking up bills it's important that every member of council knows that and that every member of council has access to the same information that everybody else has thank you other comments all right all in favor I opposed motion carries uh Finance number four councilman minegar thank you council president this is number 11658 per closed session this resolution authorizes the payout of acude time for a public works employee who is retiring in January I move to adopt this resolution a second comments from the public any comments from Council all in favor I I opposed motion carries all right moving along uh we're going to administrative policies and Community Services number one councilman Varan thank you council president this is resolution number 11668 uh this resolution authorizes an amendment to the Personnel policy specifically related to paid holidays for City staff Summit seeks to be competitive with other municipalities in order to attract and retain top talent a recent survey of nearby municipalities conducted by our excellent HR leader Megan champney found Summit way behind other municipalities when it came to the number of paid holidays for City staff uh this resolution seeks to remedy that situation by expanding the number of paid holidays from 13 to 15 uh the addition of two floating holidays one designated by city hall and one selected by the employee uh will show City staff uh they are appreciated and I move to adopt this resolution second comments from the public comments from Council all right all in favor I I opposed motion carries all right uh administrative policies and Community Services number two councilman V thank you council president this is resolution ution number 11666 uh this resolution appoints a new Chief Communications officer for our closed session discussion I move to adopt this resolution and welcome Jenny Hoff to City Hall I move to adopt this resolution second comments from the public comments from Council council president yes councilman Boer Miss off welcome um I you know I I I think this city is uh I I think this city is privileged to have you um you you interviewed well I mean uh CNN MSNBC NBC affiliate award-winning journalist um when we interviewed you I know that you used to work in Texas at city bave and did a uh column called The Beehive I thought that was hilarious I probably got that wrong though but I just think that you bring um and an energy and um a a strategic messaging um your Public Relation skills uh digital media which we need for our website uh how what you did in Texas to bring here I think it's it's truly needed I know the residents want some improvements there in Communications and how we do certain things um so I'm excited to have you welcome welcome to our long meetings at night and everything else so welcome other comments Madam mayor um I just want to say welcome and um Jenny has already hit the ground running um I feel like we're very fortunate to have her here um moved here in August from Texas and found her way to City Hall very quickly um it was a chance meeting but um very very pleased that you applied and won the bid and I'm looking forward to working with you so welcome you councilwoman Hamlet uh Jenny welcome we're so excited to have you uh thank you for coming tonight and uh if you have any questions obviously let us know I did want to take a moment to um Megan trendell if she's watching I did want to thank Megan um I think she deserves probably a round of applause because she was probably um just I mean she was just a very competent uh second in command and and she Rose to being first in command so I just want to say thank you to Megan and give her a round of applause if that's okay other comments just want to point out that Jenny uh you're a hill topper now so I just want to Hill topper all right um no I I also want to Echo all the comments Jenny welcome this is great that you're here very excited um to watch your work your magic around our communication strategy um we have a lot to communicate and um I'm looking forward to uh seeing the ways we can reach people who don't aren't always plugged in to what's going on in our town you know when I talk to people they're like what what are you doing huh the the vast majority of people don't come to Council meetings they they do watch snippets on YouTube or HDTV um but a lot of the larger issues um it it we have to be very proactive in trying to uh reach the public and I'm excited for you to be here to help us do that so welcome okay um all right all in favor I I opposed motion carries welcome Jenny all right uh safety and health number one councilman Boer thank you council president this is resolution ID number 11635 amending the contract with axan uh Enterprises Police Department body warn cameras uh on June 24th 2024 the city uh approved ordinance 24 3320 adding two sworn officers to our Police Department this expansion provided or required additional data storage and licenses for the body born cameras uh about 3 months ago uh the the company notified the department the police department that the previous free community request feature offered during covid now carries a cost this feature enables officers to send civilians a secure link via text or email allowing them to upload digital evidence directly to evidence.com while maintaining the chain of custody the the service cost will cost $6,599 96 for the remaining three years of the contract I move this for uh I move this resolution for approval second comments from the public have comments from Council quick one yes please councilman art two two quick things uh I think what this company is doing here doesn't make a lot of sense uh I'm of course going to support this resolution because we need this but companies that host these kinds of services do not have to charge user fees it it's essentially going to be the same operating cost for them to have 47 officers for us or 49 officers for us right so but okay we need it the second part of it is that that uh service that they offer to be able to text a resident and they can upload the evidence their ring camera footage whatever it is securely to a website is extremely important and they're basically price gouging they're basically saying holding us hostage here saying you you take away that service that then is not fair to the residents or to the police or pay $166,000 and of course we're going to pay it but again I I don't think it's right I'm going to support it but I just needed to make that point Thank You other comments council president I I I think councilman Varan makes a makes a great Point here and uh in the future we need to we really need to look at this I mean they offered something during covid-19 um it's a seems like a data storage issue possibly but you know is it cloud storage or you know I mean it it does seem really uh something that we need to look at and talk to the police department and see what else is out there however um I agree with councilman Varan that these body warn cameras are needed so this is something that we we definitely have to do um but yeah we should definitely look in this I I agree councilman bortan councilwoman Hamlet okay councilman Vartan now you have me interested because I I I have some questions as well I think now um so it sounds like we got involved in this contract in 22 and I guess my question is why did we do a 5-year contract and can can we get out of it now if that if you think that's what makes sense well I and who are the who are the other like we go to bid for this I don't I don't know that we need to get out of it I think at the time obviously there was no charge for this service and now they're saying there is a charge well no it said over five over it said in said the financial obligation for the city over a 5-year period so from 2022 total 24339 resulting in an annual payment of $ 48,6 to be paid from the police department's operating budget each November to date The Summit police department has made the first two payments so 22 and 23 and the third payment for 24 is currently in the process of being made so it sounds as though the only thing that has changed in this is the body cameras for the two additional officers correct and and the and the storage fees for uh uploading the evidence to evidence.com got it okay I think is the main Pro that's the bigger deal that's the bigger deal yeah okay other comments yeah I mean storage does cost money um I don't know whether this you know they we we have a contract we need to do this um it's it actually is the right thing to do in case there's any issues um you know I support our officers with cameras and but video is hard to store takes up a lot of space and these things are always running um so it it there is I would assume there are some costs um it is what it is yes Council so um do we actually know if there's no additional cost for adding these two I mean I know councilman Varon just said there's essentially no additional cost on their price gouging us but no yeah there is a cost for Li data storage cost money yeah okay we're talking about two different two separate things two different things right first yeah yeah so you you have the licensing fees for the two additional officers right and then you have the storage fee that just kind of right came out this we're not doing this anymore we we did it uh during covid as a as a convenience but now we're not doing it you have to pay for this so and I think that is that's the issue yeah right this you know well but but is it right like are there other companies out there could we do better someplace else um yeah I think that's something that standard maybe it's a good deal I don't even know it yeah so all right uh other comments all right all in favor I opposed motion carries all right I know um councilman Boer you had a motion you wanted to make council president I have a time sensitive resolution to introduce from the floor concerning a uh Fire Department vacan uh we were we were just notified of a firefighter's retirement filling this vacancy quickly is crucial to ensure Public Safety and maintain appropriate Staffing levels in the department I moved to adopt a resolution declaring a vacancy in the fire department for one probationary firefighter as well due to the impending retirement and requests to hire um a volunteer firefighter as a probationary firefighter so just just so just to be clear let me back up so the first request um is to fill a vacancy all right so let's let's vote on that one first okay okay so um there's a motion from the floor to declare a vacancy for the fire department for one probationary firefighter do I hear a second second all right are there comments from the public comments from Council all in favor I I opposed all right so that motion carries Council Bo you had another motion you wanted to bring thank you council president so the second motion is uh I want to um I want to adopt a resolution declaring or um yeah requesting the hiring of a volunteer firefighter as a probationary firefighter okay um so he's made a motion from the floor to appoint a probation firefighter do I have a second second all right uh comments from Council or I'm sorry comments from the public first comments from Council through council president yes please is this I know that the first one did not have any possible paperwork is there anything to look at for the second one should we in in in terms of the the firefighter we are hiring right you're okay so you're you're moving someone from someone probationary sorry volunteer to probationary yes and that that uh that volunteer firefighter has been interviewed and they were on the list so they were kind of next up in line great pass all tests and I know do you want to add anything to that Chief yes we went through the process a few months ago we uh just hard free farm and this is a candidate that was first on the list he's next up he's already been beted through the process a couple weeks ago so he's all ready to go so he's set to go so thank you thank you comments from Council again sorry so the probationary person went to fill the vacancy that you just I'm sorry talked about did I'm just clarifying did the probationary person go to fill the vacancy that was the first it's fa go through it that he will be moved from the voluntary division who become a prary fireman to fill in the void of the fire naring perfect great thank you thank you other comments all right all all in favor I I opposed all right motion carries okay uh we're moving along to capital projects and Community Services councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president I think I have about 13 of these so bear with me um this is resolution 11545 uh whereas the city appoints an administrative agent responsible for administrating summit's affordable housing program duties include but are not limited to affordability controls and the affirmative marketing plan all of which are overseen by the city's appointed Municipal housing liaison and whereas the city's Municipal housing liaison recommends the reappointment of luckington advisers as the city's administrative agent I'd like to move this resolution second comments from the public we have any comments from Council just a quick one I want to say that per um we rely on Mark on almost on a daily basis and he's probably one of uh the smartest individuals in the business so we're really lucky to have him and um we're very excited to reappoint him especially as we go into the uh fourth round and and and find uh the most appropriate affordable housing for um for everybody so great thank you other comments all right all in favor I opposed motion carries all right uh capital projects and Community Services number two councilwoman Hamlet thank you council president this is resolution 11670 this resolution supporting the amendment of the fair housing act as proposed by the New Jersey Institute of local government attorneys I would like to move this resolution second and comments from the public comments from Council three council president yes please Council migar so the last time we had a resolution that was similar to this kind of making a statement about a state uh uh recommendation to the state about Flor housing we made some language choices um that I think were were wise within that resolution so we were able to remove some language that was problematic um I suggested that we remove some uh laughably biased language in there and it was it was uh it was was okayed by the people that were doing that um in the case of this resolution there is a statement in here that is quote turning the Garden State into the garden apartment State uh I think that falls into this category we don't need puns to make our point with this but more importantly we have residents who live in apartments I'm one of them it includes and we includes people who who live in Garden Apartments in Summit people on Morris Avenue New England Avenue Springfield Avenue this uh kind of language is completely unnecessary to get the point of this resolution across the use of language has been a problem for Summit in the past as well when it comes to affordable housing um but I am going to vote for this because it U because um I think despite the language that is unnecessary there's a chance that this will help Summit by getting us a more attainable number of affordable housing units which could result in the faster completion of actual physical housing units for people who to live in and it will be less likely to be ground to a halt by opposition or lawsuits and instead could be more likely to result in people's lives being improved so that's it thank you councilwoman Hamlet um yes Council MRA thank you for your comments but I don't see that quote in the resolution I know that was in Jeff's memo what's that third paragraph in the resolution third line mm oh okay perfect thank you got it okay well I guess we can have um Jeff San discuss that I didn't see it in there but the point yeah M Mr seran want to comment on that my name is Josan I had a hand in drafting the uh Foundation of this resolution I think it's absolutely true that uh the legislation is causing overdevelopment but if you were to strike that it would still make the same point point which is to say that what the problem is with the existing legislation is it create it causes overdevelopment you know you know you already had overdevelopment pressures from prior laws this puts it overdevelopment on steroids it was a turn of a phrase that I thought made a point wasn't intended to insult anyone it was intended to make it tangible to uh to people that don't live breathe and sleep this but if you strike it it still makes the same Point through you council president yes please thank you can we is there a way to propose that this be adopted as amended you can make a motion to amend the resolution can do it right now okay I would like to thank okay do I have a second second okay um all in favor so we your your uh proposal councilman migar is to just strike from thereby turning into turning our Garden State into the Garden State Department and so the the resolution read it forces municipalities to overdevelop comma and it places the cost of the obligation on the shoulders of taxpayers Etc yes thank you okay council president yes counc um since this is in my committee I would just like uh to ask uh Jeff seran to give a just a brief overview especially for the public so that they can understand exactly what we're talking about when we went to the New Jersey League of municipalities uh we listened to Mr shenan and his partner Ed buac and it was definitely one of the rooms that you could not get into that day um because so many municipalities are interested in taking this resolution and sending it to the legislature um so that our so that our voices can be heard and and Jee you can give a brief update if you don't mind council president council president before we let ask councilman Boer to speak first before we do that we're talking about striking the sentence right exctly okay so um the Striking the entire sentence no no just just the the thing that we'd be striking is thereby turning our guard Garden State into the garden apartment state so it would be 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 nine 10 words cuz there was some good stuff at the end yeah it's just those 10 words all right all in favor of striking those 10 words I have I have a question this is not going to prevent us from approving this resolu I mean I would defer to our lawyer in in then pass it as amended perfect okay okay um all in favor I opposed okay so we're striking those 10 words okay um Perfect all right um now you need a motion to approve right now uh M councilman minegar could you make a new motion to approve the amended resolution please Oria yeah oh oh I'm sorry it's uh councilwoman Hamlet sorry like to make a new motion do I have to say the whole thing again no okay thanks uh as amended as like make a motion to approve this as amended awesome do we have a second second thank you all right um yeah i' I'd also like to hear um our Council uh just to give a brief overview of the uh the resolution okay the uh Fair Housing Act was amended in March um the ACT uh generates extremely high obligations much like the law that existed uh in 1985 before the Fair Housing Act was signed into law and the the ACT uh one of the the one of the main reasons why the numbers were so big and so untethered from reality is because they didn't relate to the actual amount of development that was happening in our state so the whole idea behind the legislation that um that the instit what the the origin of the legislation is the in Institute looked at the amended Fair Housing Act from March and like municipalities throughout the state said you know this is really a problem affordable housing is a good thing but it needs to be uh within reason it needs to be uh much more uh temperate and so they created a subcommittee to you know what can we do to address this legislation I was on that committee at buac my partner was on that committee and we recommend the committee recommended an amendment to the fair housing act that there would still be a a lot of obligation there'd still be a lot of affordable housing but it would be Tethered to reality uh and it would uh hopefully facilitate more voluntary compliance because municipalities would have more achievable goals so um the the Institute uh voted in favor of supporting the legislation and then sent it to all the municip IP alties in the State uh and it also sent out a chart showing what the numbers would be if your obligation was based on uh on the on the new formula than as compared to the existing formula and and that's where we got to where we are and then they sent around a draft resolution because a lot of municipalities wanted to express their support for it and to facilitate their ability that you could take the form tailor it to your town and uh express your support for the legislation great thank you council president yes councilman I'll give you my three thoughts here number one uh I don't think it's clear uh why we're in such a rush to do this um and therefore I don't know whether there was enough time for this community that clearly has many affordable housing Advocates uh and this is an important topic I don't think there's enough time for the community to truly understand and consider what we're doing here second I think the actions taken by this Council throughout the year have painted a gigantic bullseye on our back uh if we pass this resolution we don't yet know if there are any potential repercussions uh but third however what the njga is proposing is 59 units compared to 350 units and that's better so I am going to support the resol solution thank you thank you already had them other comments councilwoman Hamlet um I'd like to ask just Mr giobi your involvement with the I know you teach for ruers for this institute and our city planner um our city planning attorney is also one of the uh well respected attorneys on this board but can you just give a little bit of background about this board and your involvement in it as well well I J ruer is on a different through through ruter on labor law the The Institute their course you teach through their course I I teach with number of these members I do labor law but it's a um The Institute of local government uh attorneys and I I I speak at the league of municipalities on this as well is made up of attorneys in all facets that represent municipal government it's as I said being a municipal attorney uh in a lot of ways it's being a jackal trades master of none U because there's so many different facets to Municipal law um Mr seran is probably the foremost expert on affordable housing in the state and this is something that every municipality is grappling with um and so they go to the reserves of all these attorneys that are dealing with this issue throughout the state um in different you know ruralities Suburban municipalities Urban municipalities and how to how to Grapple with it and I think that what they've done is they've looked at the number of housing starts cosos that have been issued just for building in the state and they're tying it to that because affordable housing as you know generally is a 20% set aside so for every five homes built one of them has to be affordable and I think that that's what this is doing and this and what you're getting is you're getting literally the best affordable housing attorneys in the state who have worked on this and now bringing it to the legislature and hopefully getting some relief so that the growth is sustainable I mean I have another town right now that has huge burdens and that one of their big problems is they don't have water capacity they literally don't have any more water capacity but they have to build so then what do you do you have to put in bigger sewer lines that's a huge expense so I think that this is something that a lot of mpali are going to be passing this to to have the legislature um you know a act on it so that we don't have you know for the last 10 years from 2015 to now towns have spent tens of millions of dollars litigating affordable housing this will gives a little bit more clarity and actually I think baa a relief to taxpayers not having to spend uh money litigating these issues as opposed to having a road map is very clear to follow thank you other comments from Council I mean yes Council woman the real quick comment I would say Greg is as far as educating the public on this we've spent months talking about this whether it's at the league or on Zoom meetings and it's our job as elected officials to educate ourselves and make the right decision when things are our short notice and I think that this is going to do um this is certainly going to benefit the city of summit and it's it's certainly just a recommendation uh we're not making any changes but it's you know when you look at the methodology and and Jee when you look at the entire um piece of the pod uh that I think you said the entire pie was just way off and and our slice of the pie is represented um by a disproportionate number and share so we could talk about this all day but um I I fully support this resolution yes Council coun I think largely we agree right it's it's there's 550 municipalities in New Jersey nobody's nobody's saying to us you absolutely have to be the tip of this Speer one of the first 30 or 40 even 50 municipalities to do this but again we're in agreement that in principle it probably is a better approach to the legislation and I'm going to support it so thank you yeah I I'll just wrap up like I I fully support the legislation as well because I think you used uh Mr sereni and used a word reality like the the the legislation that got passed last March it's La La Land I mean it just is and you put a Target on my back whatever you want to say it it just is I mean think about this they said we need to have 345 was our Our obligation 345 right 359 3 359 most uh building now is is rental so 15% is Affordable so divide that by 15% that means developers would have to come to our town and build 2,393 units over the next 10 years to get 359 or whatever that number was just to put that in perspective the building that was proposed for Broad Street West that the council the couple of councils ago fought and fought and fought for finally the uh the the residents went crazy and it got pulled that was 144 unit building it was massive the entire uh Community uh came out well not always I'm exaggerating but a huge portion of the community came out and get so he divide that number by 144 let's see I do that one more time 359 he's a history teacher y I used to be a finance guy um divided by 144 that is 16.6 of the Broad Street West monstrosity that was proposed to get to 359 affordable housing units that's the number that's how the math works so tell me where you're going to put 16 of those things in Summit over the next 10 years it's La La Land when they throw these numbers out it just makes no sense Summit has supported affordable housing for 50 years we've been way out in front of the curve uh before it was even mandated we were doing it in Summit we should be proud of what we do I'm all for affordable housing I want more affordable housing in Summit but I don't want 16.6 of those buildings built in Summit because they can't build them you know what they were the next proposal would be how about you build eight and you double the height of them maybe you can fit those in or maybe you build four and you quadruple the height that's where this would go this is insanity what they've come up with here and you just have to put it in perspective of what we just fought for two years ago to get taken off the table we have to get sanity brought back into the process and I think this legislation does a really good job of that because to you um someone mentioned if it doesn't we are going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in our in legal fees fighting this because we can't do what they're asking us to do and that money should go to be promoting affordable housing instead of paying lawyers and consultants and planners and all these other people who dirty secret that's why this legislation got passed there are a huge Lobby in New Jersey they make a killing off of stupid laws like this that municipalities have to fight and we should stop with return some ity to the process let's get affordable housing that is manageable and I I commend Mr cenan for bringing this to us and I think this is great and it should go to not just the legislature but to the governor as well okay that's my comments com we had them already got to get not on this motion we did we opened up with it on the amended motion but not on this motion all right come on up make our meeting what constitutes name and oh excuse me Henry Bassman 18 Harley Road what constitutes uh sensible affordable housing is subjective what's objective is that housing is becoming a real emergency in this country we've seen articles in the New York Times about Boomerang children we've seen that three F three generation families are increasing we've seen that people are having trouble meeting their rent that's one of the things that Donald Trump got elected on and we see that in this town in just a few years two bedroom apartments went from $2,000 to $3,000 now we as far as I know have not met our Mount Laurel obligation and that's been going on for many years years right it's not an obligation it's a goal Mr Bassman we have a 50 unit goal and we're well on our way to meeting that goal so if you're going to use the language use the correct language well as far as I know we haven't had any new Mount Laurel affordable housing built in many years you mentioned and eight units or 12 units is not going to satisfy the need now I'm not arguing against this resolution but what I'm saying is if you want to talk about reasonableness talk about the needs of the people in the community who can't afford reasonable housing and then look at how we're going to house these people private Equity is buying up homes and rest and and and rental units and using Al algorithmic pricing to raise their prices as high as they possibly can and this is a trend that is continuing home ownership is going down and rental costs are going up we need to provide for people to have a place to live thank you well I would agree with that um we no one's against affordable housing up here so and that's not what this resolution is about it's about realistic goals that we can meet as a community that we've been committed to for decades and that's not changing with promoting this resolution council president yes counciler just a thought you know because we're talking about things we need to do what we really need to do is we need rehabilitation in our current affordable housing here in Summit Weaver Street Glennwood VA Gala why can't we focus on that no one talks about that but we always focus on building new building more and then when you build new and more the folks that are in Weaver Glennwood they're still there looking out of the windows at the new apartments next door where other people are living in while they're still in these areas that need to be rehabilitated so I just want to point that out because nobody talks about that I respond to that you still have a rehab obligation so whatever your plan's going to be in round four you are going to be doing rehab that's going to be a component of it what this resolution is all about is a new construction component the round four component and it's actually it's just a piece of the round four component because you have obligations from one two three and now they're rounding on round four all this does is make that round four based in reality you still have you still have a rehab obligation and you still have a lot of obligation from the prior RS completely understand but that the comment um where we were going was not really about the letter that we sending out it was just about when we're talking about the obligations to our current resident our current housing stock and what we should be doing and by the way um I know you've been involved in this and you discussions or trying to be um for a whole year I've been trying to get the Summit Housing Authority in the city to talk about Rehabilitation right for the residents for some reason unbeknownst to me it doesn't happen but that's a whole different conversation and you know what they're going to have a reorganization tomorrow and I'm hoping that with the cooperation of new leadership at the helm we can get the Summit Housing Authority into the city so that we could help them with different things like elevators mole problems Windows floors couldn't agree with you more councilman palowski so couldn't agree with you more Henry we need to provide more affordable housing for the people in our community we provide a ton of affordable housing for the people in our community but it doesn't count towards these state mandat and I think maybe we should consider a resolution petitioning the state legislature to um to change the rules a little bit we have 195 low-income housing units in this city Each of which except for the fact that they're reserve for Summit citizens right people in our community except for that fact they would count as affordable housing Overlook Hospital has housing I don't know dozens hundreds of units that are would be considered affordable except for the fact that they're reserved for for um for people who work in our community um I I talked to Mr seran the other day and I said you know we have $2 million in our affordable housing fund is that right something like that and we're allowed to use that uh to help the um uh the folks at uh at Glennwood and vetto Gallow and and Weaver Street and they need it right they need it when I I remember when Jamal and I were um were campaigning and we were talking about this problem uh being criticized on social media you don't know what you're talking about there's already $2 million worth of Grants or something like that where where is it it never happened right and we can't just spend this $2 million because we need it for lawyers because people want us to build highrises here and completely change the complexion of this town it's not right and I think we need to seriously consider talking to fair share there aren't there aren't any other towns like Summit in this regard I don't think or very few okay that have hundreds and hundreds of affordable units that don't count towards some you know uh number that somebody made up in Trenton and I think that we what I suggested was we should go to go to fair share and say listen this is the situation here let's re let's completely renovate all of these affordable units that we already have you're going to count them you're going to let them use them for us and you let and you let us off the hook for round for and it'll be it'll be better and it will help more people okay and it will waste less money on lawyers and everything else that we have to spend in circling and time at these meetings it's enough already I'm tired of it that's it Madam mayor sure um Henry you made a point about um home ownership versus rental and I want to I want to go to that because that's one of my sort of beefs about this legislation is it's not really encouraging um home home ownership and I think that you're right because we need to help people build equity um so I think it's really important that that's something also that our legislators should really be considering when they're talking about our numbers and what we're supposed to be doing around affordable housing comment councilwoman Hamil um I said this at a Mount Laurel committee meeting a couple of weeks ago but actually probably 14 days ago or 10 days ago I had spent some time at our summon housing authority and as much as um you know our new director is doing a great job and she's just getting you know getting there and getting getting organized uh she's only been there a little while she's doing a great job but to go in as an elected official and continue to see the conditions that uh the residents are living in is is infuriating so when you talk to us about overdeveloping and and the amount of proposals that we're getting from developers to to overdevelop your community you would be shocked and so sometimes I I get emotional around it because when I go into I spent almost entire weekend in a few different houses it it it's really upsetting to see the conditions in which our own residents are living in and you know it's Jamal what I would say at that reorganization meeting is they've got two options they can take the Aspire money and do rehab or they can and and remove the residency requirement or we can rehab as much as we can for them but something has to be done for those residents I know this has nothing to do with this resolution but something has to be done we have to move in in some sort of Direction with those residents all right um it about this resolution I think it has everything resolution because we're hamstrung and and getting if this resolution can help the legislation get through we'll be less hamstrung and we'll be able to help more people all right uh all in favor I I opposed motion carries all right uh capital projects Community Services number three councilwoman Hamlet uh council president can can I ask to move one up so that our um Marcos rosi can get out of here yes okay and I if my daughter's watching you just can stop calling me because I can't answer right now um just in case you're watching thank you httv um but I can no longer answer my phone and I don't know how to turn off my Apple watch so it won't stop ringing um okay so this is resolution 11659 thanks Jee thank you Jee uh this is resolution 11659 this is number four this is number four yes um this resolution um five bids were received and opened on Tuesday November 19th at 11:00 a.m. in the council chambers for the summit Golf Course foot bridges project the submitted lowest responsible bidder with CMS construction of 521 North Avenue planfield New Jersey in the amount of$ 334,000 2246 uh CMS construction has completed various Capital Improvement projects for the city in a satisfactory manner including the dam at the golf course and additional positive feedback from their references I would like to move this resolution second comments from the public any comments from Council council president yes please councilman thank you very much council president um so this is uh long awaited uh I think the first time that Department of Community programs actually had asked for this or put this on the budget was in 2019 uh these are two bridges that I think would uh increasingly make our Golf Course or Municipal municipal course much safer safer for the the residents that that play there uh one Bridge would prevent the current currently there is no Bridge from the parking deck or parking lot to cross over the the creek um so they have to walk out to River Road and then back down into the the golf course itself so this is going to give the opportunity for them to cross over from the directly from the parking lot without have without having to walk into the street the second bridge is from the the clubhouse to the first T which is a relatively steep um walkway down uh and it's you know I'm actually really surprised that no one has actually fallen and had had any injuries so far so but you know this is a preventative me measure to uh to get this and to basically provide a lot more safety for our residents who use our Municipal Golf Course and I'll be fully supportive of this thank you coms can I will say this I wasn't necessarily happy about the price uh but looking at the the bids um yeah they all they all can't all four of them can't be wrong so at least we went with the the least expensive so um I will support this other comments from Council all in favor wait wait oh go councilman palow I'm sorry Mark I'm I'm in favor of the inner bridge for sure but the Outer Bridge I'm just not so sure we need and it does have a hefty price tag and I understand it's a safety issue because we don't folks want we don't want folks walking um that close to River Road when they're speeding cars going by but I think we did talk about this a while back and there have been zero incidents there in the 60 plus years that the uh the municipal golf course has been there and I wonder if if we pass this tonight maybe we could simultaneously think about an alternative solution to that second bridge um while working on the first one um I think one of the things that I had suggested way back when were um you know you see I I I work in Newark and um along the streets in nework are these giant of concrete that would stop a tank um you know could we put some of those go up could we add an entrance you know there and maybe move the te um to the other side of uh of where the bridges um put some fencing up to be safer I get it you know and I want it to be safe but um that's my reservation other comments all right all in favor public comments public comments we had public comments not going crazy didn't I I'm not reopening that was a oneoff I'm sorry Diego we can't do this every night it's it's 10 o'clock we had you had a opportunity to comment when the resolution was introduced okay we're we're going to move on all right uh all in favor I I opposed nay all right motion carries okay so now we're going back to uh capital projects and Community Services number three okay thank you council president this is 11660 11660 yes uh this resolution in accordance with the city treasure certification of availability of funds a copy of which is here is attached and made part of this resolution pursuant to the Bergen County cooperative contract number 24-21 a purchase order in the amount of 73,4 be issued to Rapid pump and meter service I'd like to move this resolution second all right uh comments from the public all right comments from Council I just have one council president um please can you please just confirm um Tammy Miss Baldwin on in the memo section it says it's coming from 2023 sewer capital I think the account the account numbers reflect properly uh it's double 0 a18 uh I think the memo just just that I think it's just the the language in the memo that's wrong but the numbers seem to match but if you could just confirm that tomorrow other comments from Council might just make one comment um we need pumps for to move the stuff that goes through our sewer lines you don't want your pumps not working it you will get some phone calls from the residents if that's the case um so I heartily support this resolution um all in favor I I opposed motion carries all right um Council Hamlet would be adverse to bundling 5 six 7 and 8 no thank you how about nine and 10 uh you want to throw those in there too yes okay is that okay yep that's fine and 11 how about 11 as well I can't do wait yes sorry 11 okay so we're going to bundle 5 through 11 okay okay so Progressive Insurance here okay so council president this is how much do you want me to say here all of it just say various engineering and planning Services okay all right so I'll just say that so council president this is ID 11650 11649 11647 11646 11653 11652 uh 11651 and 116 sorry never mind that's it um so this is for various Professional Services uh for the 2020 five um authorizations I would like to move these resolutions second thank you comments from the public comments from Council yes councilman palowski so um it's my understanding that uh this is a is is a bundle of um of resolutions authorizing services from various uh different vendors and I know know that we are planning to put out rfps um for different things um and that some of these are necessary now uh in case we need certain Services we have to have already authorized um the city to pay for them but it's also my understanding that these are not to exceed and so that if for example we think we can do better on one of these next week we could ask for more uh proposals and wouldn't necessarily have to use all or any of them over the course of the next year we just have the ability to do that and so I'm going to support this and I'm going to vote for it but I would like to to continue you know looking at Alternatives and and find ways to spend money and we're not going to be on the hook for anything and if we need something we'll be able to get it and so I think we need to do that uh to keep the city city moving but that's my comment Mr sh you want to confirm that to you council president yes council member palowski is correct this is just providing us with a tool to utilize Professional Services throughout the year it does not guarantee we'll we'll use all of it or any of it you know I could just for example we had a contract um last year with a firm for $100,000 we lose we used almost none of it so uh we also at any time could go solicit proposals following uh qpa and purchasing guidelines to get someone who's not on this list but this just has um provides with the ability to use people on the ready or Professional Services so we don't have to go through the soliciting quotes uh and even bringing each item to council to expedite some of the projects thank you the last is my favorite part other comments from Council yes councilwoman ham I completely agree with um with councilman palowski I think as we have a new business administrator um we did not have a lot of time as a council to look at these uh rfps in fact we should all be looking at all of these rfps takes a long time time I spent today most of my day in the mayor's office with binders spread out all over the place um and it's certainly not that I don't respect the opinion of our of our staff but it's important to get recommendations from Consultants um that is aligned with what our project goals are so I look forward to to Tammy and director shreer um just taking another look at this so that we're all on the same page you know I'm not sure if we need to give Remington Vernick $250,000 let's take another look and let's see where we can cut costs in our operating uh and just take another whack at this I think there's a few we don't need to but there's a couple in here where I just I'm doing it only because we have to do it for to get some projects done initially but I really would say um once you get through budget season we we take a realist 30,000 foot view of of what we're using and as uh director shreer is reorganizing his Department that'll be become apparent I think thank you other comments I'll hold back but I you know I please do don't let it all out I want to I want to clarify a couple of things right a we're not not giving um Remington $250,000 B um the rfps to look at uh we're not giving any money so what rfps are you know they're they're limited or P's to look at right so like I mean when we get there right and assigning these task so for example the saltbrook right last year right that that would come out of this bucket of money right hey Aaron need to look at the salt Brook because there's a home that's fallen into the salt Brook can we get some Engineers out of there right this these Professional Services would then be provided for that correct yes through you council president so this is the pool of candidates we have to to rapidly go out so if one of them came back with a price that was you know over $6,600 or certain thresholds now they can't just go out because we might have to get to additional quotes we have to get three quotes we might have to actually bid it depending on what the dollar value is with these in place we have someone onp speed we could just send out now we also look at each price they give us so just because they're on call they could say it's you know $250,000 just to show up at a meeting we we wouldn't do that then the engineering division would say absolutely not then we'd get a or go to one of the other ones on the list but yes thank you for clarifying I just wanted to make that point that this is not like a blanket okay all right other comments all right all in favor I I opposed all right motion carries all right we're down to uh uh caps number 12 councilwoman Hamlet okay sorry it's uh staff assistant to sorry one second okay sorry uh yes thank you council president this is ID 11664 which will as discussed in close session declare a vacancy Department of community services staff assistant to um I'd like to move this resolution second comments from the public comments from Council so just for further information this was for our wonderful employee Augusto who was the staff assistant too and now he is the interim assistant DCS director is that right did I get that right it's a mouthful correct yes so that is what this is for um all right all in favor opposed motion carries all right last one caps number 13 councilwoman Hamlet ID 11642 this declares a vacancy Department of Community Services Division of Public Works Sanitation unit part-time sanitation collector I would like to move this resolution second comments from the public comments from Council all right all in favor I I I opposed motion carries all right we're on to our consent agenda um at this time do I have a motion to approve the con consent agenda um as presented so moved second comments from the public comments from Council um councilwoman Hamlet I just wanted to make a note Tammy which one were we looking at before over payment of taxes when the overpayment of taxes and I I just spoke with um councilman migar we just need to check on those numbers for that one I think they're right but Andy and I were just sort of discussing it the numbers just I need to understand the numbers and I'm not understanding the numbers y number 11656 yeah but I don't think it's anything that we're going to accomplish tonight so I think we can pass it as long as it's correct as I think the numbers are correct right Tammy Dre you council president I rely on our tax collector who has I don't know 14 years experience in doing a job and is also a CPA um I believe that the overpayment is on 2024 and what somebody may have been looking at was the 2025 amount and that was per state court assessment there was a change in the assessment so it change the amount of taxes too so I'm I'm good with passing the consent agenda we just have I just want to just double check that tomorrow and if it's I think it's fine council president um yes councilman boy I'm so sorry I want to say something something to Aaron and during Council comments so um I just wanted him to hang out just for a couple more minutes hopefully we can get this consent agenda passed if councilwoman Hamlet doesn't have any more questions I'm just kidding I'm just kidding I'm all right um all in favor I I opposed consent agenda passes all right um are councilman boy are you saying you'd like to make a comment now in front of public comments when no uh public comments that's right I'm sorry I'm sorry public you go first right um I know Aaron you want to get out of here right I just wanted to make a quick comment and just say during during this week councilwoman Hamlet had an idea about putting Christmas trees up on Weaver and Glennwood and the mayor was supportive of that and I thought that was excellent to bring in the Christmas cheer I called you you and you said what do I need to do right and you made it happen I was down there the other day in both locations took some photos of the of the the Christmas trees and everything and I just wanted to I just wanted to thank you for make for making that happen and you even said to me that maybe we can have AA tradition of the kids putting ornaments on it every year and then collecting them and stuff and I just thought that was a I thought it was a great a great idea a great thing to do um so I just wanted to thank you you thank you brother thank you all right you guys want to take off take off thank you all right thanks for staying so late um okay we're at our public comment uh section of meeting if there's any uh person from the public who'd like to comment on something that was not on the agenda tonight now is your opportunity no public comments everybody out sleep [Music] good evening Marjorie Fox 32 rotary Drive I just wanted to say a brief thank you to uh council member Varan former council president Varan and uh council member minegar um I had the privilege of serving with both of these gentlemen and these are true Hill Toppers these are people who have real heart and they care about the community and I just you know I think someone is really really fortunate to have had both of them on Council and they will be missed um both of them have you know do their homework they know what's going on they're both are experts at the budget which has been really really helpful um the other thing though is that they are people who care about Summit residents Greg was a champion for um for uh the paid internship program because he Rec recognizes that a lot of students can't afford to take a free summer internship they need to be paid in order to to get that work experience and that's opened up our internship program to people who maybe don't have the you know the ability to take that unpaid job so I think that's been something really important um Andy took on the um the ADA Compliant playground with the music and the it's this is the first fully compliant play ground and Andy was a champion for that and brought in families with special needs children and special needs Educators to you know to to weigh in and to advocate for this and I you know and we are very very thankful to him for doing that so I just wanted to say thank you to both these gentlemen and um best of luck in your future endeavors thank you uh I'm Barbara Von clemer at from 156 Colonial Road and I would just like to underline uh marjorie's comments about councilman Von and councilman Minar uh in particular my family was represented by Andy minegar in Ward one and I uh I feel that this is our one chance to thank you for your commitment to your role on Council and to Summit you've worked hard respectfully with honesty and patience and advanced skills for the tasks on the Committees all the way from parking to community services and especially Finance I've been proud during these years to be be represented by your talent coming right from our own immediate neighborhood but if you lived in another part of w one or in W two I would be equally proud um because you're generous with your time and attention councilman Miner some other group or population or cause will find you and uh they will also be very lucky and grateful for now thank you again and uh may you you and Sarah enjoy a bright and Breezy happy holiday very soon thank you other comments from the public very nice all right going close our public comment section of the meeting today Council comments councilman plow thank you uh I just wanted to thank Greg and Andy both for their service to Summit uh it may seem to the regulars in the gallery here and uh the gigantic number of people watching at home on HT TV that we don't agree on anything but in reality we do agree on most things and um you know every disagreement that we've had forces us to think through our ideas make them better all to the benefit of the town and I think we've done that over the course of this year so uh and we really came together down the stretch of 2024 to hire the best CFO in the state to also be RBA um but uh you know even though it may not have always seem so I really did enjoy working with you guys and uh I thank you again for your service you other comments councilwoman Hamlet uh I just wanted to say um a thank you to Greg and Andy uh as guess I've been on Council the longest with with the three of us that started with the you know and marjerie was was on as well um but I just want to say thank you so much Greg you're definitely always you you literally the funniest person no matter no matter if we're in an argument or Fagan May the mayor may have uh taken a second at that but I think uh you have a you have a funny way or great way of making uh moments a little bit lighter even when we do disagree and I can appreciate that because I don't have a funny bone in my body so um thank you for see there you go um I know you and you and the mayor are buying for the uh the the funniest uh up here but uh thank you for all your work on the ambulance Squad um that is certainly something that that we're all proud of for you uh not only um it's a lot of work up here it's it's literally a full-time job and Greg has a full-time job um I think we're at the capital budget meeting and I said something to him afterwards and the next day he said well I had to drive to Boston I said oh my gosh you had to drive to Boston after that um so you know he he's certainly dedicated and um he takes very detailed notes and prepares very well so I I've certainly learned a lot about um taking notes I know Rosemary shaking her head because she knows how organized he was um but to councilman palowski um Point uh we we agree a lot more than we we disagree um Andy thank you so much for all your hard work I don't think we had any disagreements on uh on parking and and Recreation while we were um up on the de because we TP we really got along very well in committee um and then Bob goes and votes against our bridges tonight um I remember a recent experience that I had with Andy it was literally last week or two weeks ago and I said Andy I don't think we should be paying for Zoom anymore I think we should move everybody to teams and you could see the staff getting really nervous and we know we're going to take Zoom away and then Andy followed up without me even asking and he created a very detailed plan of how we can move away um from uh zoom and and onto teams and he showed our CFO how to do everything and and then apparently I asked him to be on the technology committee but we didn't have a spot so um you know but thank you for your for your passion and uh and all your hard work I've really enjoyed working with you a spot you could had a spot but thank you for all your hard work I genuinely enjoyed working with you both and and thank you for all you've done for Summit thank you thank you other comments J yeah so um quick story Andy uh several months ago and I'm not ashamed to say this so several months ago uh when we first got up here Andy saw me struggling right because I was like um I want to I want to adopt an ordinance or a resolution like so Andy comes up to me about a week later finally he says listen um somebody gave me this you know when I first started and I think he gave the same thing to De he says this is the format of asking for asking to adopt a resolution and um moving for an ordinance and making a motion and everything and I mean that that was that's just the kind of guy he is that was priceless and you know what I will I will never um forget that because I still use it today so thank you and you know you you were you a Class Act um Mr Varan here uh uh Mr Varan is uh a very very intelligent um human being and um I respect him a lot uh you know listen between Facebooks and parties you're Republican I'm a different whatever all of that other stuff you know um you you and and especially like in my in my line of business or whatever you tend to respect the craft of people you know and I sit next to him you know we talk in emails or whatever and I I respect this guy I respect what he does he's been doing it for a while he's very good at what he does I listen to him I'm like some after some meetings I go home and I'm like he man he got that off that was pretty that was pretty good that was a you know just the way you move man I you know I I uh I respect you and I want to thank both of you for your service this is this is as a for a volunteer job this is a tough job I mean this is not easy you know representing this small town of 21,000 residents so um thank both of you I I really from the bottom of my heart thank you thank you sir thank youate coun Smallwood thank you council president uh first I want to start off with this um if you recognize this the number on the bottom is not my cell phone so if you would like to get this termination if You' like to have this stop being delivered to your home the number is 1 800 376 6222 um you know I I know a lot of times uh people will find these in their bushes and for some reason it always comes out on Wednesdays when it rains and uh it's wet and it's really it's it's not even even newsletter it's just really just coupons uh however I've I've gotten several complaints about this being delivered to their home and they would like for it to stop so I would like to ask if if you would like this to be to stop being delivered to your home please call the number um as I mentioned 800 376 6222 uh and then please email the city clerk as I correct Rosie email the city clerk and let her know that you have called to terminate your um delivery and that way there's a record from the city clerk's office um and won't be my phone number anymore so with that being said Greg is this is this my three [Laughter] thoughts first Tammy congratulations on becoming our new ba it's welld deserved Andy uh it's been a pleasure working with you on the Department of Community programs and uh and parking uh I thought we worked really well together we had had some great times during our committee meetings and it was you really made it enjoyable and as you know councilwoman uh Hamlet mentioned this is a full-time job so I know that you are you do have a full-time job as well and uh it does it takes a a lot of work and a lot of preparation and I really enjoyed our our committee meetings so I wish you all the best third but not last Greg thank you for your service I uh I I I really do you know we don't agree on a lot of things but I do enjoy having a beer with you um where we do agree a lot of things and uh you know I I will certainly try to do it justice and continue your legacy with my three thoughts thank so thank you thank you Madam Mary you want to go I would like to save my thoughts for the um rior meeting because I do know that we will honor you then and I would like to do justice to both of your service so I will hold my thoughts thank you and it's 10:30 you're welc council president just one thing I wanted to um say that to both of these gentlemen um however I do have a couple of things to to say though please say um I want to say my last thoughts about uh the job that the police department has has done this year on crime um Total Property crime down 12.6% burglaries decrease 56% motor vehicle thefts 21 vehicle entry attempts Dro 67.1% uh the number of ordinance um excuse me the number of summonses issued surged 60 .3% alcohol open containers um the the level the level of commitment this year in terms of enforcing the law and not to mention the resident protection ordinance which there was eight summonses issued I know our uh municipal judge and said that this was a this was a great thing you know prosecutors are using it as a as a bargaining tool bringing uh folks back down to Municipal so that they can be dealt with in our courts which was the point of it um this number the um vehicle entry attempts that's 67.1% that is a huge huge number um what an amazing job the summit police department has done uh but also I want to thank our mayor and the initiative that she has been driving because this uh quality of life this quality of life stuff this 60% increase in the in the number of summonses for urinating public and drinking in public all of this stuff when you're walking your kids to you know get a slice of pizza you know when you're when you're playing ball in the park you know and and these and people are drinking beers in the park and you know having a good old time not tolerated anymore it's not you know this is a different this is a different environment and we are going to keep pushing this with policy with support of our Police Department um we're getting back to where we need to be of course nothing is perfect you know there crime will always exist but it is top priority here um the next thing I will say is over over the weekend I did post something about the Drone the reason being is I you know I sat on this for like two weeks I was hoping it would shake out you know I'm like this drone thing is probably an anomaly it ain't going anywhere I mean it's it probably go somewhere but then you know the 30 40 calls that I've gotten from residents uh made it an issue because when residents are scared when they're nervous about things um their issues are my issues and then I started thinking about the hospital in the helipad we had one incident in Branchburg New Jersey where a Medevac helicopter was not able to land and pick someone up that was critically injured in a in a in a traffic um accident because of drones so that was a problem made me think about Overlook hospital and what we're doing there so I went the police chief because I sent out a couple of letters and one was to um Stephanie Schwarz uh at Overlook hospital to see what we're doing to um monitor detect what's going on with our metac helicopters is that will it is there anything that we have to be concerned about with these drones um Hey listen a 1% chance of a helicopter not being able to land because of a drone or a drone hitting a helicopter that's enough for me it only has to happen once catastrophic right so i' like our our fire chief to actually talk about um drones the helicopter landing at Overlook if you could just take two minutes to just talk about that Chief sure than you coun president yeah I'll let just tell you our experience um I think it's about nine or 10 years old the helipad fireart is very instrumental in designing it as far as with Public Safety involved we put a lot of precautionary S in Place G the weather crash and there also a lot of procedures in place that over hospital has so just for instance if there is is an inbound helicopter coming in before the drones became an issue the noral procedure that they would send up a staff member that's trained go to the helipad and make sure there's no obstacles make sure that the flight PL is clear before the helicopter land that'll give the clearance to land with the Drone activity they just reissued their um awareness of it that you know beware of drone so but it's always been very um safe to go up there with with the any obstacle but with the drones being around now there extra precautions that obstacles take it to make sure that that is clear if in fact there is an issue with the Drone or any obstacles they could you divert to another hospital that can take in a medc helicopter so they've always done a great job with it like I said with the Drone it's another layer of awareness that they're issuing for the team saf the team at the hospital so we're very confident that you know anything come goes up over there there have a good good group of people in place at the hospital that can very very easily you know take care of any issue that that come around thank you Chief I think that's great information for the public to know that um we have somebody that goes up there looks to see if the the skies are clear from any interference and you know if there is they're diverted to to another location you know I I I think that's that was one of my uh main concerns lastly um got to say for you know our federal government our FBI Homeland Security to claim that you know these drones are not nefarious while um admitting that they have no idea of who what when why and how is utterly ridiculous um you just can't expect the American people to accept this extreme contradiction and I just want to thank our mayor for being on that White House call and I'm sure they said the same thing uh they normally say which is um it's okay but we don't know what they are so I think that's absolutely absurd so thank you thank you your comments all right I will wrap up when I would just Andy you want to I'm sorry may I oh oh yeah you want to you first let me go first cuz I want to thank um but I I will say I just do agree with councilman boer's assessment around this drone thing um what is what is sad is seems like people in Authority don't trust the people they govern um with information uh you know we talk a lot up here about transparency try to provide the reasons we're doing things what's happening in the city because it's important because we respect the people in Summit their intelligence they're smart they deserve the information so they can have an opinion about it we see all too often the higher up in government you go the less and less and less they seem to respect our intelligence to be able to deal with things I don't know what is going on with drones um I have no idea um but the this has been going on for four weeks and no one can tell you anything about them but they always say don't worry it's fine it just is in congruous um so I I do agree with councilman boy I wish they would do better um we deserve better um and then I just want to wrap up my what saying to to thank first councilman migar um I I'm G to admit I did not know you that well Andy when I showed up here in September I think we had spoken maybe two or three times um that was it uh so I really had no no idea what to expect um and I popped in on uh finance committee and I was blown away with your your seriousness your attitude you're willing to engage with people around numbers and I so respect the your work ethic and what you brought to the table every day you care it just comes through and um and and you're here for the right reasons you you can tell you love the community you want to give back and I've really really enjoyed are was it four months that we've been working together so um you know I I feel like I've made a friend um and I'm so looking forward to seeing you uh when you're off counsel I'll be off counsel soon too so uh we can get together and uh and again I just want to say thank you for your service um it was and it was great to work with you then Mr Varan I've known you for a little longer uh so um Greg joined uh Council when I think I was in my fifth year maybe sixth year on Council and he was the Energizer Bunny he was the Newbie who was going to change everything and he kept that energy going it wasn't just like you know we're going to change the world and then you kind of hit reality um you know he was a hill topper from the day he was born uh he brought that that love of the city uh to Summit uh to the council um and he was young a lot younger than me uh but I could tell like again he he was doing it for the right reasons and it was so refreshing to see a different perspective uh than uh people you know in the with older kids or what have you he had a different perspective on what it was like to live in Summit and what Summit could be and he showed it every day um and I really really respected that and uh I loved working with him um we agreed on 99% of everything we disagreed on a couple of things and that's fine human beings disagree but we would have scotches together and I always enjoyed that um so um I'm going to miss you uh I really am and I look forward to seeing what you do next I know you'll be around so you know you always can call me anytime you want and uh I um and good luck with your next stage of your life thank you thank you thank you and that's my comments so other comments for you council president uh thank you very much to the residents of summit and I've always wanted to do this I think the timing is correct to look right at that camera um it has been an honor to serve in this role and to be your representative on common Council I thank you for putting your faith in me to represent you to the to the best of my ability and it was a pleasure to me meet so many of you over the course of these three years to my Council colleagues and mayor and those former council members and mayor who were up here uh in the last couple years as well it was a pleasure serving alongside you um you all have your unique strengths and energies and beliefs um and priorities and I am a better person and a better citizen for having been a part of this diverse group of leaders and the city is better for it as well uh now at the end of the my time on Council I do look forward to spending more time with my friends family my wife Sarah who has been endlessly supportive of my time up here and understanding of all that comes with it um but I want to quickly talk generally about some leaders I've met in my role as a member of common Council that have inspired me and so many others I can't name all of them all these great people but without the opportunity to serve on this Council I would never have been able to interact with so many pillars of this community people who act on a daily basis out of selflessness and service who are either driven or compelled or maybe called to make others lives better those are the leaders who have completely changed my perception of what a member of a community can be this path the path this city takes into the future will be determined by those who lead and by those who participate make their voices heard heard in some capacity and make positive change happen if you are driven compelled called to action like those amazing leaders all around us or if you're just bored I encourage you to engage in this community's important issues it's problems that are there for all of us to solve together and it's celebrations as well participate in your local government either as an elected official or as a volunteer on a city board or committee or simply act as a or or simply as an informed resident or give your energy to an organization and Summit or start your own because of an unmet need and make other people's lives better thank you suit thank you [Applause] [Applause] does anyone else like to make a council comment I'll make a I'll make it uh councilman Von I'll get us home by 11:30 how's that thank you council president this is my final business meeting after six years in office I'd like to share some thoughts about my experience this amazing City and where we go from here I was born in Summit and for the first 10 years of my life our family lived in an apartment on the first floor at 19 Ashwood F my grandparents lived right next door my mother and father worked hard to be able to stay in Summit they wanted my sister Jenna and me to go to the schools to learn and to grow in this great Community growing up in Summit we learned from family teachers coaches pastors and other role models to believe if we had the opportunity to help others then we have an obligation to do so I was raised to believe that if I worked hard was honest and treated everyone with respect that I could be successful the education we received in Summit was invaluable I was the first in my family to graduate from college where I met the love of my life Megan my sister Jenna graduated the next year and is now a teacher in Springfield I landed a good job in sales Megan and I moved back to an apartment in Summit all the while I served 12 years as a volunteer on the first aid Squad when I first ran for Council I lost by nine votes I wished our new council members luck and offered to help in any way I could after a short while I was encouraged to try and run again so I was honored to then be elected and reelected to represent these people and this place I love so much and though we don't keep records on Agee it appears that I was the youngest council president in Summit history uh in his 1910 speech citizenship in a republic Theodore Roosevelt said the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood who strives valiantly who HS who comes short again and again but who does actually strive to do the Deeds who knows the great enthusiast M the great devotions who spends himself in a worthy cause so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid Souls who neither know Victory nor defeat these words have guided me throughout my time on councel I'm proud of what we've accomplished sometimes through success sometimes through failure but always while striving valiantly service on Council has provided me with an infinite variety of teachable moments and I learned from them all I'm proud of supporting our police and firefighters of investing in the tools technology and training that our police need to keep us safe and to finally build the new headquarters our brave firefighters deserve I'm proud of the actions we took during the pandemic to save lives keep businesses afloat and ensure our community could Thrive initiatives like outdoor dining on Maple Street sidewalk sales and a vaccine clinic that administered over 50,000 doses exemplified summit's resilience and Innovation during that most serious crisis I'm proud of the work on making us fiscally responsible and trying to keep taxes in check from securing millions in Grants for infrastructure projects to maintaining our AAA Bond rating to cutting costs like removing the gates in the DeForest parking lots that saved $750,000 I'm proud of all the many ways that we celebrated the proven richness of diversity worked to improve upon the quality of life and created opportunities for our young people by finally paying our interns at City Hall none of these things could have been done without our outstanding City staff those here and those who are no longer here but whose good work leaves a proud Legacy community volunteers all those who are elected to lead and every member of the community who engaged passionately and respectfully in the process of government and I could not have been part of it without the support of my wife my family and my friends thank you everyone these accomplishments were vital because the truth is there are so many people in Summit just like my grandparents who want to retire here to stay close to their family there are so many people just like my parents working hard to provide for their children there are so many people just like Megan and me who want to start their lives together and maybe begin a family here there are so many people who if given the chance would contribute and make this flourishing and welcoming City even more so so that brings me to where we go from here we need to decide whether to make the promise of summit more exclusive like a country club or more achievable and accessible for all of us I want to make the promise of summit more achievable so I think there are three things we need to do first we as a community must demand a list of clear priorities from our government our leaders must ensure these priorities reflect not only the needs of those with money or access to people with power our leaders must recognize the need to clearly outline values and balance varying points of view second the community must demand greater fiscal responsibility the economic reality for so many people in this community is that a $100 tax increase is extremely impactful our leaders must set clear targets and hold our staff and professionals accountable to them third Community must demand honesty and transparency from our leaders about where they stand there are those who argue argue local government should avoid engaging in National issues but Federal policies on the economy Health Care education the environment immigration civil rights and drones profoundly affect our residents our leaders must recognize that there is an obligation to protect our neighbors even when it's uncomfortable or not politically expedient summit's best days lie ahead but they are not guaranteed it will take all of us engaged citizens and dedicated leaders working together to ensure that we continue to thrive we must elect leaders who align with our values who listen and who are unafraid to act decisively and boldly it has been the honor of my life to represent the people of this incredible Community who understand the power of our voice and the value of our vote thank you very very much [Applause] all right well said both of you uh with that I think we're going to wrap it up so moved uh do I have a do I have a second second all right uh all in favor I opposed we are adjourned have a merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone for