I'd like to call this meeting to order Madame clerk please read the adequate notice 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 18th 2023 which was properly 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 deis and return it thereafter roll call please Mr Boyer here miss Hamlet here Mr migar here Mr palowski here Mr Smallwood here Mr bartan President Allen here okay let's do the Pledge of Allegiance uh Chief ever can you lead Personnel Z arms to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all I would like to take a moment of silence um to recognize the firefighter in planfield that passed away and our and recognize our service so if we could take a moment of silence okay thank you may firefighter Hudson rest in peace thank you okay Madame clerk please read the explanatory notices regarding close session hearings and comments a close session meeting is authorized by state statute was announced and held prior to the start of this meeting and the known items for discussion were listed on the published close session agenda please be advised that this council meeting is broadcast live on Comcast channel 36 and Verizon channel 30 and rebroadcast on Thursdays and Saturdays on httv on Comcast 36 and Verizon 33 when invited to speak please come to the Lector CLE 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 her email a copy to the city clerk's office at city clerk cityofsummit.org to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers are asked to limit their comments to approximately 3 minutes or so in length unless you are using an electronic device to follow the meeting agenda or need it for professional emergency contact purposes please turn it off thank you thank you madam clerk approval of minutes do I hear a motion to approve the organization meeting of January 3rd 2024 and regular and close session meetings of January 23rd 2024 so moved do I have a second second all in favor I I any opposed motion carries okay on to reports Madame mayor thank you um earlier today members of The Summit Police Department held a Facebook live Q&A thank you to Chief zagorski Captain Peters and detective Lieutenant Medina for participating and to everyone who submitted a question or watched the session excellent information on current and upcoming Summit police initiatives and measures to improve home security were shared I app appreciated hearing about the efforts being undertaken by police to prevent crime and C catch perpetrators and how we are working with other communities in the region and state the video is posted on the city of summit YouTube channel if you missed it and would like to view it also on YouTube My Weekly Mondays with the mayor video I provided an update on steps being taken to enhance and improve Public Safety it's also posted on the city of summit Facebook page and my mayor Elizabeth Fagan's Facebook page as well um I had the Great pleasure of attending the Chinese New Year celebration at lcj SMS put on by The Summit Chinese American Association this past weekend it was a wonderful experience um the event was uh members of The Summit Chinese American community and other residents and this weekend I will continue celebrating the year of the dragon at the summit free public library and the Summit YMCA more information is available on those events on the Y and Library websites and I encourage you all to uh join it's a really really incredible um presentation and uh cultural insight and registration is required for each of those events that's Saturday um so please visit the websites to sign up and then lastly I just want to um announce that uh the Department of Community programs is putting together and has put together the first of its kind uh Black History Month celebration on February 20th it's an all day event for children and um there will be events for seniors in the afternoon as well thank you thank you administ RoR Rogers thank you council president good evening everyone uh I'll be brief uh the bike Depot installation is underway at the train station uh near the intersection of summon Avenue and Union Place uh this is a project that has been in the works for the past several years uh and we look forward to it being completed in the next month or two uh thank you to the New Jersey bike walk Coalition uh and the summit Conservancy for Grants to support the project and the Department of Community Services for your role in project management uh when complete the bike Depot will provide covered parking for up to 30 bicycles uh more information on the project will be shared by the city over the next several weeks and then uh the Sumit free market will be open this weekend on Saturday February 10th from 8:00 a.m. to 300 p.m. at the transfer station stop by and drop off any unwanted yard sale quality items and browse other donated items it's all free uh visitors are limited to 60 Minutes at each Summit free market event res residents must have a permit to access the transfer station to attend uh permits can be purchased online through the city of Summit parking services uh cityofsummit.org and that's all I have for this evening council president thank you thank you administrator Rogers okay as the mayor mentioned February is Black History Month and it's an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the rich history and Monumental contributions of our African-Americans to our nation and Community I must say that I'm very proud to lead a community that Embraces diversity and works tirelessly to ensure that everyone regardless of race and background can Thrive we're all committed to being active participants in the journey together um toward greater understanding unity and respect for one another on that note I also wanted just recognize the summit Chinese Asian-American Community for inviting us um to the festive exciting and fun New Year's celebration every year it's become my favorite event um they have hundreds of people that go there the food is amazing and the dancing was truly um it was phenomenal so I just wanted to say thank you they rolled out the red carpet for us so we felt very special so um okay uh February is definitely a big month so um hopefully everybody will check out the uh website and on to historical minute okay so speaking of culture councilman palowski has brought back the famous Summit historical minute would you like to share the details sure um I'm looking at the library website right now once upon a time when councilman Rob Rubino served as council president he introduced The Summit his historical minute at the beginning of each council meeting to encourage awareness of our City's Rich history this feature highlights people and places in Summit researched and presented by Summit High School students and residents so we'll be post um I'm hoping that the library will start posting them again uh if anybody wants to go to the uh to the library website they can see historical minutes from 2015 through 2019 um I've been uh in touch with vice principal Aon at the high school who is going to help line up uh students to do these although we could use some resident volunteers when school's out I'm not so sure any of the students want to come in then and um uh I guess it was also too short notice for tonight because councilman Boer will be giv our historic minute thank you councilman palowski as a councilman for the city of summit it is with immense Pride that I sit here before you today and honor an individuals whose life narrative is interwoven with the fabric of our great Community today we shine a spite light excuse me spite light on a true champion a decorated soldier and a Beloved Community member David Noel Morton born and raised in Summit David's tenacity and spirit were evident from his youth as a Summit Hill topper he became the first team all State football and played in the North and South game he was also the first team All State and track where he ran the 55 meter in 4X 200 the foundation laid down in his early days and the commitment towards excellence and dedication developed over that period in January of 2001 David took a courageous and patriotic step enlisting in the US Army infantry his journey was marked by valer and steadfast pursuit of Excellence attending Airborne school and earning his Airborne Wings in 2003 David stands among us as the only living two time Purple Heart recipient from Summit a testament to his bravery and a reminder of the sacrifice made by our servicemen and women after his honorable service retiring as an enlisted Staff Sergeant David continued to serve by guiding new s soldiers as the administrative schools Sergeant his selflessness dedication has left an remarkable mark on those who had the fortune to learn from him and those of us who benefit from his unwavering commitment to community and Country David's bravery and the sacrifice that earned him not one but two purple hearts stand as a beacon of heroism he reminds us daily of the boundless power of the human spirit and excuse me in Dave's own profound words love is the greatest form of motivation a true Soldier doesn't fight out a hatred for those in front of him but out of the love for those behind him it is this sentiment that encapsulates David Morton a man who fights with love lives with honor and inspires with his very being I now ask you all to take a moment to join me in a round of applause for an amazing Hill topper and someone who I affectionately call my big brother David Morton thank you council president I'm sorry that was a little emotional for me uh after thinking about what what David went through and in Iraq and his service to this country was remarkable thank you thank you thank you very much for sharing that story and actually I didn't realize he was your big brother and actually I just want to say love is the true form of what was that line love is the true form of well he's not my big brother but figurativ fig no I know I know spirit I don't yeah um no I don't know the end of that line okay oh no you you said there love is the true form of something in your speech of what of motivation yes I'm writing that down it's important to than everybody's listening that was a test council president love love is the greatest form of motivation thank you thank you counciler okay um moving on to safety and health councilman Boer please introduce your resolution yes I would like to introduce resolution uh 10993 uh the appointment of a probationary firefighter uh Tyler kid I'd like to move this for adoption second okay great Council comments okay public comments okay uh Madame clerk roll call please Mr Boer here miss Hamlet hi Mr Miner hi Mr palowski hi Mr Mr Smallwood hi president Allen I okay motion carries uh Chief Evers and mayor Fagan please perform the swearing in moment people a app fire supporting us also a couple retired members deputy chief Don Nelson Balian Chief Joe down from Vermont and also firefighter M and also Council appreciate um the support staff operation to be appreciate support for staff that all turn one day I'm GNA actually get this right give me a couple minutes um okay so Tyler kid became a volunteer with the summit Fire Department in June of 2023 and served in the volunteer divisions chemical engine company number one Tyler has completed firefighter 1 and two he has been an active member of the chadam volunteer fire department since 2018 Tyler holds several safety certifications incident command systems 100 and 200 National Incident Management Systems hazardous materials responder level 1 and two hazardous materials operation core hazardous materials awareness vehicle rescue operational level Machinery rescue awareness Ops and Tech technician levels firefighter safety and survival rapid intervention crew op s congratulations Tyler on your appointment to Career firefighter with the summit Fire [Applause] Department chief Evers do we have anyone to take a photo I don't oh I oh there's I see you okay closer to the micophone right hand on the Bible just right on the Bible repeat after me I Tyler kid do solemnly swear I Tyler kid do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and that I will bear true faith and Allegiance and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established and to the governments established in the united states in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people I do solemnly swear I do solemnly swear that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties of the position of pro probationary firefighter of the position of probationary firefighter according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations [Applause] got yeah sorry for those who were here last time Mee also exploring brother ahead oh absolutely you want to speak oh okay we're going to take a recess for a minute just to let everybody leave the room give him a minute who wants to [Music] leave we're going to call everybody to order again okay okay all right next I'd like to welcome director Amy bear Shields and president Jim Flashman who will be giving a presentation for Summit Public Library 150th anniversary our library is a wonderful resource for kids and adults alike and has done a wonderful job evolving and Reinventing as times change thank you for both of your service and what you bring to our community we're looking forward to your presentation tonight and I thought it was really appropriate to bring back historical minute on the night that you're here so thank you come on up yeah uh good evening my name is Jim fleshman I have the privilege of being being the president of the library trustees uh as Lisa said we are celebrating our 150th anniversary we've put together a short video uh highlighting some of the key points in the library's long history and our director Amy bear Shields will'll make some very short introductory comments then we'll show you the flick hi thank you Jim uh my name is Amy be Shields I'm the director of The Summit free public library I'm honored to be before you today to present you with a brief video history of the library celebrating 150 years of informing enriching and inspiring our diverse Community I just want to say a quick word of thanks to the Friends of the library um who supported the creation of the video httv for filming the video um our library staff member Tom who wrote directed and edited the video The Summit Historical Society for helping us to find images and the all the staff at the library who work to find images and information that brought this video together so without further Ado nestled in the heart of Summit New Jersey the summit free public library has been a Cornerstone of learning inspiration and connection for the residents of this Vibrant Community for 150 years hello my name is Amy bear Shields and I am the director of The Summit free public library join us as we explore the rich history of the library and how it has grown from its humble beginnings in a rented room to the modern multifaceted institution it is today in 1873 long before Summit had a public library there was an organization of women who delighted in reading and sharing books together let's picture a meeting of the ladies book club of summit under the leaders ship of their gifted president miss Joanna Matthews an author of children's books they enjoyed keeping up with the latest novels and Classics and at one of their meetings the suggestion was made that Summit might be ready for a circulating Library a group of citizens met in December 1873 and on January 10th 1874 they formed the summit Library Association the first Board of Trustees was headed by William Z learned and included several members of The League L book club their husbands and Jonathan benell son of crane benell who originally acquired most of the property in Summit before it was founded and persuaded the Morris and Essex railroad to pass through the area the books were first kept in Dr William risk's small grain house on Springfield Avenue at that time Dr risk was the only physician in Summit the library was first open for only 2 hours each Saturday afternoon in 1878 the Library moved across the street to the new school building which later became Summit City Hall at this time responsible persons who were not stockholders were allowed to pay 15 cents a week to borrow a book in its first four years the library collected over 700 volumes the first building was completed in April 1891 this building is now home to the summit Playhouse one of the oldest continuously operating Community Theaters in the United States in 1993 the trustees announced that the library would be a free public library open to all residents and in 1901 the library became a tax supported Municipal Building operating under the New Jersey library statutes notable figures gave readings and lectures at the library including Francis Hopkinson Smith who designed the foundation of the Statue of Liberty and Henry van djk who was later United States ambassador to Luxembourg both of them were also authors who wrote dozens of short stories novels and travel logs in 1907 two of the soon sisters among the most significant political figures in China in the early 20th century came to Summit for school just across from the library at the Miss claraa Barton powin School summit's first professionally trained librarian Louise Morris said the library was evidently a great boom to the student sisters Chang langing was a great reader Ming's book selection ranged from Peter Rabbit to Dickens but cheaply she just loved to just drop in to see what I was doing in 1942 Ming then known as Madame Chang Kai Sheek first lady of the Republic of China wrote a telegram which was read at the summit dinner for United China relief stating to all good Summit people including my schoolmates at Miss popins with whom I skated picniced and cut paper dolls I sent affectionate and wistful greetings under the influence of civic-minded leaders it was decided that a larger Library should be built in a more central location the summit Homeland company representing the benel family donated a piece of land two blocks from the railroad station Andrew Carnegie offered $166,000 for a new library building which was later raised to 21,000 through one of Carnegie's personal friends Summit resident William Lyle the building dedication occurred on May 30th 19 11 the impressive interior featured a bright spacious Dome a large Central desk and book steps with tall Windows Story Hour for little children became a regular feature of the library's work a tradition which has since continued at the summit library for over a hundred years and the original plaque from the Carnegie building still stands outside the library today in the early 1960s the library faced a challenge that was was similar to the one it encountered during the construction of the Carnegie Library a lack of space to accommodate its rapidly growing collection it became evident that the summit Library needed a new home in 1961 400 dedicated towns people enrolled as members of the committee for a new suit Library this committee worked tirelessly to convince the local Council to approve a bond issue for the new library after 2 years of advocacy the council approved the bond issue on January 19th 1961 the original committee disbanded and its members formed a permanent group called friends of the summit Library construction of the new library was completed in January 1964 and the staff under the leadership of then director Miss James Scott McClure grew to 17 full-time employees the dedication ceremony took place on May 2nd 1965 with two charer blossom trees in full bloom which had grown up in front of the Carnegie Library in the following decades the summit Library became a Vibrant Community Hub hosting numerous events such as school related visits film showings magician performances preschool story hours and puppet shows patients from Overlook Hospital visited the library annually to enjoy morning coffee and view exhibits showcasing their work in arts and crafts as technology involved the library embraced new resources including microfilm readers in the 1960s computer terminals in the 1980s and eventually offering public access to the internet in the 1990s CDs and videos were added to the collection and patrons could search the card catalog by computer in 1996 under director Glenn deit there was a capital campaign to raise funds for an expansion and renovation of the library 1.3 million was raised in part with a community production of the music construction began in October of 1997 the library building reopened in March of 1999 in 2013 under director Susan peros the library embraced the digital age during her tenure the libraries expanded patrons access to ebooks e audio books and online databases and offered streaming services and virtual events the youth services room was renovated and popular new programs were added such as concerts in the Rotunda and the explore your world lecture Series in the 21st century the summit free public library has continued to innovate and expanded services collaborating with local schools businesses and organizations the library has become a hub for cultural and educational events such as art classes craft workshops author talks Lunar New Year celebrations and much more for 150 years the summit free public library has stood as a testament to the power of knowledge and the importance of community and has evolved to meet the everchanging needs of patrons the library has remained a constant source of inspiration learning and connection for generations of summit residents as we look to the Future the summit free public library will undoubtedly continue to evolve and adapt embracing new challenges and opportunities but one thing remains certain the library will have an unwavering commitment to provide the people of summit and neighboring communities with excellent resources programs services and of course books thank you for joining us on this journey through the library's history as we celebrate a cherished institution that has informed enriched and inspired the lives of so many [Applause] thank you that was fantastic um did you want to say any last words before we move on no we look forward to cting year make sure you have a library card yeah thank you now it's you've done a phenomenal job so we really appreciate it okay thank you for your presentation tonight okay um we are going to move on to public comments and and um as we begin the public comment portion of the meeting I'd like to ask when you come to the lecturn please state your name and your address to the clerk we also ask that you limit your comments to three minutes um we have a full house tonight so we're hoping that we get to everybody and everyone has the opportunity to speak public comment is a valuable opportunity for everyone um I broke the rules two weeks ago and I was engaging in conversation and public comments um that's my typical nature but it really is public comments so when you come up um if you have any questions just be sure to um email them to cityclerk cityofsummit.org and we will get back to you um so I'm going to open up public comment um please remind you to say your name your address and try to keep it around three minutes I know everybody wants to speak who's coming up first hello Council my name is Philip Angelo 104 Bolt the strol road in Summit 30-year resident and also a business owner in town I wanted to comment on the closure of Maple Street from a resident uh perspective uh I don't think it's a great idea it clogs traffic uh to main thoroughfare going through the town a lot of residents it's a hassle and it just it's just not a great idea from a business perspective being in the town for 30 years I think it's just the amount of rent that I pay from a business owner and the the square footage that I have allows me to service so many people and I have tables that I'm paying for when other business owners get that same um accommodation for no cost it just uh it's an unfair advantage to some of the other local business owners so to um satisfy a few many are suffering on a business standpoint so that's all I have to say thank you thank you good evening Carlos myia 23 Stockton Road just wanted to underscore some U some of similar points Mr Angelo made of course his being from a business owner in town has a lot of uh of credence um I have a quick statement here that I wrote good evening I'm here to ask the common Council to use common sense and vote against closing Maple Street uh and vote against closing Maple Street for obvious reasons it is nothing more than an encroachment on public space for the benefit of few businesses they get an unfair Advantage at the expense of others while increasing risks of traffic and pedestrian safety congestion on roads and sidewalks pose safety risks for both drivers and pedestrians and add barriers to emergency vehicles it is simply not worth limiting Maple Street's accessibility by making it harder to navigate the area please vote no thank you is anyone else coming up okay I assumed everyone was here hi hi um so I'm Dylan Baker 72 Dale Drive Summit New Jersey resident also business owner Summit House in Barbacoa 10 Maple Street and 395 Springfield Avenue um obviously been been very involved with the closure of Maple Street from the beginning uh during Co an incredible Lifeline to the businesses uh that operate the restaurants that operate on Maple Street um I have to say that we had a really great beta test of this closure for three years and it worked great there's been surveys that have been done over 80% approval rating of residents in town 80% approval rating for a seasonal closure um I'm here to say from a business perspective I was flat this year we don't see some huge windfall Financial windfall of the closure of Maple Street I can't speak for the other restaurants but we were dead flat this year without the closure versus the year before uh I am here as a resident and on the front lines of it to tell you I hear people every every day when's that closure coming back when can we do outdoor dining again we loved it it's so great for the town it brings everybody together it's great for the community over and over and over again you know we love doing it we love seeing everybody gathered together I'm part of the community part of the reason we started the restaurant is because we're in the community and saw a need you know I still see a need I see a need for outdoor dining in Summit a place where people can gather Maple Street has been tested it's been vetted it works it works for the police it works for the fire it works for the five restaurants operating there that are full service it doesn't work elsewhere it works on Maple Street we have a track record and I'd like you to look at the last three years do an actual survey see what the town's response is you know it's been done once it was done by another Council if you'd like to do it again I'd strongly encourage you I'm almost sure you'll come up with this same 70 80% approval rating for a seasonal closure on Maple Street thank you thank you congratulations to the new members on Council my name is carolan kleines and I live at 130 Pine Grove Avenue I am the only person in the city of summit who is who works at the intersection of Maple Street and Union Place my company which is Christie's International real estate is about 50 ft wide in their rental space and the whole front of our building is glass my personal office is just inside the lobby and I have a glass wall in front of my desk having worked there for the Last 5 Years all of these last spring and Summers we've been we've allowed um eating in the middle of the street uh except for last summer I have seen the most atrocious things happen uh this is not being uh for or against the restaurants by the way it's a question of safety for me I happen to be a realtor who's there in the office every day and I see cars going West on Union Place who try desperately to get through the little opening if you if you are acquainted with that space when the orange barricades are up there's a little space that's open for cars to go up Maple Street and to go not quite sure what it's call but there is a section between the two buildings where you can go in and park your car I happen to have a lease space there so I have seen cars desperately trying mostly I think cars don't know drivers don't know which way to go in front of my building probably twice a day which is 47 Maple Street by the way in front of my building probably twice a day there are huge trucks dropping off I'll call them Goods to the restaurants to 47 Maple which has doctors and lawyers and in fact Christies so a lot of boxes FedEx you UPS Etc are dropped off and when cars are trying to get around that intersection uh it's um uh I think it's a serious and a dangerous problem the other thing is when cars are going West on Union Place uh they go around the historic caution light and go back the other way going east on Maple Street so if you can picture what I'm talking about it is really a serious problem again I'm not against the restaurants but I will say quickly that we have two new stores on Maple Street both of which probably would welcome um uh foot traffic my company would certainly welcome foot traffic we have lob and we have um I forgotten the name of the other uh nice shop on Maple those thank you cannibal cannibal and Company and uh they would love I'm sure foot traffic we also have other shops on on Maple which would uh be restricted for fot uh foot traffic so and another the last thing to think about is of the streets which go from our Main Street springf Avenue all uh all the way up to Ashlin Road there are only two one is Maple and the other is Summit Avenue so that's my view about the danger of it and it's the it's not about the number of cars it's really that cars drivers don't know which way to to go thank you thank you council president um if I may I I know we're not going to talk back and forth but is there a possibility that we can put some of her comments into a d I think she bring brings up two important points one is uh the trucks that are putting deliveries there and as well as she presented safety concern so should we move that to a d Rosie during the meeting I think there's some important one could go to my committee and maybe one could go to safety for tonight's discussion no not for tonight but just so we have it so we mark it down your discretional y thank you okay pres go ahead do Dr requests have to put in writing or are they okay being requested during the meeting just just making sure we follow what we be requested during the meeting by a council person great thank you sorry hi my name is Bill schneller I'm the retired police chief 43 years of service with the city of summit now I'm not here to talk about outdoor dining my field was Public Safety I just can't fathom closing Maple Street and reducing a public safety option because there's only two as the lady before me pointed out Summit Avenue and Maple Street are the only ones that run from south of Broad Street into the CBD once you reduce that option you reduce the options for the police the fire and the rescue squad especially if they multiple catastrophes you just can't hypothesize that there's not going to be any problems or any catastrophes in the central business district and with that in mind how could you possibly CH close off an option to continue traffic on Maple Street it to me I would hate to think of someone getting hurt or worse because the rescue squad couldn't get into a certain spot or the fire department couldn't manipulate and the police department would have the least amount of troubles because of our equipment being smaller but it is a public safety issue and you have to realize that this is not a party animal thing this is not whether you want to eat outdoors it's whether you want to continue the safe flow of traffic in the Central Business this year thank you hi my name is Brienne Tamaro palcio I live at 84 windship Road Summit technically Berkeley Heights Township I'm a business owner in Summit um my business I wasn't planning on speaking but I feel compelled to I own number 18 Boutique at 44 Maple Street um right where we were just speaking about and I have to say from a business perspective and from a safety perspective it's been incredibly um difficult for us there are you know trucks that are parked there all day long you can't see I've almost gotten hit multiple times in the crosswalk um and I'm not even allowed to pull in front of my own store I've been now there for 10 years um in that location 7 to drop stuff off without getting a ticket but there are cars parked there all day um I have people that come in the store that ask me over and over again oh my this is such a great store how long have you been here and I'm like 10 years and they're like I've never seen this store and I'm like that's because the road was closed for so many years the last thing I would ever want to do is you know um hurt the restaurant business um I happen to be friends with both restaurants I grew up with the bichis um I'm a big fan of fiorinos and the summit house and I want everyone to win but I just don't think that it makes sense to close the street again I need people to drive by and see it my business personally has been up 100% this year that's not all related to the street being open it has a lot to do with other things we've been doing but having foot traffic and having people being able to drive down the road has been an immense help and I don't think that it makes sense to close it again um and I have to ask one last question when we move the firehouse to the new location will that make a difference you know if the route even makes sense if people can access everywhere in town if there was an emergency so I think there has to be a better solution thank you thank you Rosemary Z shike Road hundreds of people enjoy the outdoor dining on Maple Street but thousands of summit residents and taxpayers are inconvenienced I supported the closing of Maple Street to help the to help our restaurants during the pandemic but the pandemic is over the issue now is safety I'm going to repeat something I said at a previous council meeting about the summit promad on Springfield Avenue it wasn't always an open space there was a building there and that building caught on fire the fire trucks came through Maple Street to get to the front of the building on Springfield Avenue the police came through the alley on Maple Street to get to the back of the building it was retail on the ground floor and residential tenants on the second and third floor there was at least a dozen pieces of equipment including three aerial fire trucks that fought the blaze one0 had to be rescued from her third floor window after the rescue the fire went out of control and completely gutted the building's interior we pray nothing like that happens again in Summit but there are many residential tenants in our downtown this is a real safety issue that we all should be concerned about our streets are for cars and emergency vehicles not tables and parklets thank you thank you hi Bonnie Morrison 24 rotary Drive uh I'm actually doing some edits on the Fly here but uh one thing I wanted to talk about in relation to Maple Street is the whole concept of seasonal closure everybody likes to talk about how everybody agrees on seasonal closure but the one concept that we haven't gotten on that is just how much time does a seasonal closure represent uh the SDI commission survey apparently gave the following options when for closure always seasonally weekends special occasions and never no no specific dates mentioned about 80% of the respondents approved of always and seasonally but nowhere in the presentation is there an indication of what date span constitutes seasonal despite this the Consultants recommended a seasonal closure from May 1st to October 15th shortly after this presentation was made in this chamber in December 2022 then C council member now council president Allan created an informal non-scientific survey online that included date spans of potential seasonal closures 65% of the 324 respondents selected dates falling between Memorial Day and Labor Day only 8% selected the May to October time frame while 27% said never meanwhile the letter of the rest restaurants sent out this week to their patrons said that any closure less than April 15th through October 6 and A2 months would not be worth their investment in staff and equipment so while it's fair to say there is support for a seasonal closure it's clear that there is no consensus or common understanding of how long a seasonal seasonal closure would be if Council decides to pursue this the first step really should be to conduct a more meaningful survey to determine what the definition of seasonal closure is to the residents that are in favor of it if it turns out the majority chooses a summer only closure or a Dura duration less than 6 months that the restaurants say is required for them then we'll know and we can move on from this issue thank you through council president sorry uh this is a place where I would think a d may be useful requesting a survey by the city sure just discussion I don't know who what committee that would be thank you yeah absolutely probably cap I think okay safety okay safety or no the time frame would be cap yes right the safety would do um the the alleyway between that that goes to Maple come on up sorry hi Rich galupo seven Veil MyWay first I want to congratulate all the new council members nice to see everyone and in all the new faces and just again about the safety issue as retire Chief schneller said to block off Maple would really be a safety issue I know I have on vilmont way have a couple seniors alone and I know Mr Coffee at 11 uh vilmont way wanted me to bring it up that he gets so nervous just to even go go to CVS when the when the Maple Street is closed because there's so much traffic on Summit Avenue so I just want to go over what everyone said that's all thank you thank you a nice night and I forgot to ask if anybody brought a statement um you could give it to clerk litis here or email her at city clerk at city of summit.org I bought a statement okay I just put it is that more than three minutes I just put it together is that part of my three minutes yeah no it [Laughter] is it can't happen in Summit it can happen if there's outside dining on Maple Street and it can last summer a man passed out in a truck and drove into the summit house I mean Summit Diner Summit Diner I pictured that man at the beginning of Maple Street when there's dining passing out 60 M an hour to the forest it can happen don't say it can't happen it can uh you you probably have guessed I am not in favor of outside Downing on Maple Street I'm in favor of keeping it open for cars and trucks vehicular traffic I think we've heard a lot about that as Rosemary said Rosemary's aie not not this Rosemary the clerk the great clerk um the pandemic I think there was support for for for that we felt Let's help our restaurants that's over with the Pand pmic is over we had a pandemic uh opportunity because the restaurants couldn't use their their entire restaurant had to be so far apart it made sense it doesn't make any sense anymore the the Maple Street as several people have said is one of two north south major roads would you close Summit Avenue the other May Road you wouldn't because it's a County Road and the county wouldn't permit it we can't do that I I I thought there must be some Authority for this that and it there is the summit master plan IT addresses four things in the master plan that relate to Maple Street and conclude that you can't have down on a street where there should be trucks and cars number one these are objectives of the master plan to promote the free flow of traffic obviously dining six months out of the year on the one of two main arteries is not the free flow of traffic number two the channel traffic through and to Major streets right now that flow is into Maple Street this would would absolutely be a violation of this objective three to provide adequate parking and adequate loading and unloading areas do I have to say more the allall the parking would be removed there would be no loading or unloading and what where would they be on someone else's property that's running a business they would have trucks in front of a house I mean a business outside Maple Street and then bring things in another violation and the fourth one is probably the the greatest to relieve traffic congestion in the crbd to relieve traffic condition Maple Street does that and something has happened the last two years that it's made downtown more congested with all due respect to the fire department they're they're they're the best they took 200 parking spaces 200 to build the firehouse on on a parking lot that was used for non-residents I was on the parking Committee of SDI with with Steve Pari when that was planned before it was approved we went to the mayor the par the uh parking director was on medical leave what are you going to do with those 200 people they have to go back to their place of origin not so they moved into the garage that was built for residents employees and commuters Summit commuters and it's packed at quar n every day packed to relieve traffic congestion this would not relieve it this would be a tremendous substantial in increase in parking at downtown that's almost gridlock during the day I forgot to tell than my name is G waren 45 Wallace Road and my business is on Beachwood Road I forgot this to say that and to congratulate you on your elections thank you the I I'll wrap this up I'm sure more than three minutes I like outside dining but not on the second busiest Street North and South downtown thank you thank you thank you g thank you g Deja Vu uh Janie rackin 29 Maple Street uh third generation Summit resident family moved here in [Music] 1906 uh did they go to the library I remember I remember the old library I I know Jame McClure was a customer of ours but I don't know the uh the Asian ladies um I've spoken here several times before on this subject and my opinion has not changed the potential closure of Maple Street in my opinion reeks of favoritism towards restaurants is the plan meant to include all businesses on our street being able to set up tables and racks this should this could be problematic because small shops will have to bring their merchandise out and in every day and most likely have to hire more help to keep an eye on things inside and out by closing Maple Street you're putting an unbeliev an unbearable amount of traffic onto Summit Avenue which is already difficult to navigate by closing Maple Street you are limiting and hindering emergency access to our properties and pedestrians by closing Maple Street you are making it difficult ult for repair maintenance and delivery vehicles to get to us we do not all have back doors by closing Maple Street you are disturbing the peace of the residents who live there dining Outdoors may be quaint and Charming but not on the major thorough fair that Maple Street is thank you thank hi hi Michael dasta 100 uh Blackburn Road Summit um so I just came here tonight because my wife said why don't you come down they're going to talk about Maple Street you might have an interest in what they're saying so I don't own a business I don't have facts and figures no pieces of paper with a statement here just a resident who's lived in Summit for 20 years has enjoyed being downtown um glad you showed the library thing tonight because it shows how vibrant downtown can be when an unique experiences are provided downtown um closing the Street downtown makes it unique people have talked about how how vibrant summon has been over the last three years um since covid well that's because people are downtown they're sitting down they're eating and again I'm not in favor of the restaurants or whatever I just like the foot traffic as an architect an urban planner this is what most towns want to do throughout the United States the fact that we're debating this because of Public Safety this is not unsurmountable there are studies that you can do the barriers are temporary New York City closes down Time Square if there's ever been a threat about closing down a downtown environment from a public safety standpoint nothing is bigger than that one and they found a plan to figure it out traffic yes that's a concern but I don't think any of us here would want to live on a highway so why do we want to speed up traffic in our downtown I walk downtown I'm actually would like traffic to to be slower I have young kids who have almost been hit by cars so I don't want people to go any faster than they're already going today downtown um that's pretty much it again I'm not in favor of closing that street down all year round but I do think someone brought up the the idea of having a conversation about what seasonally is I I think having restaurants down there having music down there is great having foot traffic down there is great I think the Lights downtown and having people move around just makes it feel safe and more vibrant if you look around downtown there's not a single business that's got a four Le sign on it why do you think that is it's because it's vibrant that was not has not always been the case in my 20 years in Summit so thank you very much thank you hi uh my name is Bruce thuroff I own a building at 26 Maple Street um and we've owned that building and it's been in a family for probably 75 years um not sure why this issue is even on the table anymore after the West bro uh Broad Street debacle and all the problems the town had before the last in my opinion illegal closure of Maple Street um here it is again that we're sitting here and debating this thing that being said uh I understand that the council said that they looked into other street closures as well if you decide to go forward and I'm and I'm dead against it being closed at all um you should take Union Place Beachwood Summit Avenue and Maple Street and close each one on a rotating basis so each Street uh closes only o only closes once every four years and you're fair to all the other restaurant tours in town why should the street be closed down at all but if so it should only be closed from July 1st to Labor Day uh it's not it's it's and it's not the concern of anyone else who and how much a vendor has to pay for equipment uh themselves uh of outdoor furniture Etc the cost to do it's a cost to do doing business don't want to invest the dollars to do the business don't serve outside um as an alternative maybe the summit should look at the park got beautiful park over there they could build an outdoor uh food court with possibly an open air tent the restaurant tours in town could buy a food truck or have a food truck uh or they could bring their facilities uh over there on a rotating basis they they could pay a fee to use it and and it's open to everyone and we don't close any roads I mean that's a way to look at something like this they do it for the movies for for the town and and uh and shows over there well what might might as well have outdoor dining in a park too keep everybody in one same one one area be safe police are over there and we don't close the roads um the uh uh if if that were the case the town could buy the equipment tent Etc and make it available to all food Enterprises and require a general fee to cover their cost and charge it directly to the participating restaurant tours landlords landlords need need the driveby visibility for our tenants this is a mush for leasing refinancing maximizing rents and business volatility it's our investments at stake and it's not up to some third party popularity contest with people that have no stake in our investment lastly anyone associated with advancing this this agenda should consider that maybe if something happens God forbid uh and it can happen just like it did in the summit uh Diner and and different places maybe they should look at the liability themselves who who pushed this thing I mean is the council the the fire department if they approve it the police department if they approve it they say there's no problem by the way I'm not even sure if they last time it was stated that that they they just saw no problem in this did they put it in writing and and submit it I'd like to see it in writing if that's what they're going to say because we've had ex retired police officers and and and uh fire people here saying that it it's a real safety issue now I don't know how you can say it isn't so you know I'm I'm hoping that this Council finally puts an end to this or sees an alternative that's fair to everybody and seasonal Jesus April 15th I think the last one was uh until o until October 30th why don't you do a study on how many people were out there uh and on April 1st until maybe the middle of May or the or Labor uh or Memorial Day and see exactly how many people were there and how many people were in the restaurants or how many vacant seats and tables were at the restaurant because they certainly if you didn't have the outdoor uh uh uh dining they'd be inside and and and people having a fire pit in November with two chairs out on on Maple Street in front of uh uh what is it the summit so so I mean it was ridiculous when you see something like that and they're closing off a major artery where's the common sense thank you thank you I'm just going to take a quick opportunity come come um to let everybody know this is in committee um councilwoman Hamlet is looking at it in cap I'd like to have everybody come and make comments um I'm the lucky winner yeah um and I will have you give an update uh councilwoman Hamlet but absolutely hey how you doing Irwin Miller five Knob Hill Drive um I don't have a strong feeling about it but I'm Pro closure I guess I mean I'm open to other locations or whatever but this seems like it makes the most sense and attracts people outside Summit to come spend their money in Summit so let's not forget that people um and that is a goal here to attract people to spend money in Summit it also affects other businesses in town so you know I don't know the local you I can't speak to every business but I would imagine people from outside some coming to Summit to spend their money in Summit is a good thing um additionally with regard to the safety issue which is important I don't you should talk about it in the committee but you know how we close off the whole street could we just like keep like an opening in the middle or on the side that is large enough for an emergency vehicle to pass through so if there's an emergency situation that vehicle can simply pass through I think that would just be a few fewer tables you know talk to the summit guy if having few F tables would allow him to still operate if so you could still have emergency vehicles pass through and that seems like a very simple solution to the problem that people are complaining about with regard to traffic this guy brought up a great point I'm not sure why everyone wants like Fast traffic in town like then we don't want slower traffic in town so doesn't seem like such a big deal also I think we could try it for a year without the covid situation and see how it actually plays out um so I think there's a lot of reasons to try it again and do it uh with if we could do some sort of like pass through situation where an emergency vehicle could pass through which seems relatively simple to solve so if we come up with Simple Solutions and instead of fear-mongering and complaining about whatever you want to complain about I think that would be a good solution so that's it thanks is there anybody else uh hi Brandon Sternberg Ford Dale Drive I wasn't planning on speaking about um Maple street closure I didn't know this was you know a lot of um emphasis on this um but I just wanted to say I think we should really think about coming up together with a great solution I think a lot of people are attracted to Summit because of outdoor dining I absolutely love it it's what me and my wife and our friends look forward to um in the summer our friends come to Summit outdoor um for outdoor dining and I really think that we really just need to think about safety is one of probably one of the most important considerations um but there has to be a solution and I think we could try and accommodate everybody and whether it be a survey to see what broader people think um you know just across the community um I think it's a great idea um but just wanted to emphasize that you know a lot of I'm due to Summit and it's one thing that I'm absolutely love about the town um and you know it kind of sucked last year but um but yeah but just want to express my my opinion thanks thank you good evening uh Diego hick n court so a study is how corporations kill projects so basically the more we study something nothing ever happens um we have two independent surveys one from the Allen's mailing list it's famous everyone refers to it it was on your website everybody looked at your website um and it showed I I don't remember the numbers but close to 70% of the people want that to happen so regardless of the we have a small sample of our 22,000 residents here regardless of the numbers here it's what matters is what the vast majority of our population taxpaying um people want to see happen um Melbourne does it Madison Maplewood all closed down their streets last year um I saw a lot of summit residents there during the summer New York City closed down all of Broadway now you want to talk about Time Square we can talk about Time Square Broadway is a whole major Thor way as well and they were able to do it Madrid where my mom lives they they're pretty much closing down the entire center of the town uh to vehicles um regardless that that adds value because it makes for a vibr community where people can enjoy each other's company um I understand I empathize with all the concerns um but I think that ultimately we have to decide what we're going to do uh we know what the ordinance is that we need to pass I am sure the ordinance will be sent over to the do so ultimately I think that we should just go ahead and get it done we the vast majority of people in Summit myself included would like to see this happen thank you thank you hi Daniel Jackel 28 Morris Avenue roads belong to everybody they don't belong to you they don't belong to me they don't belong to anyone listening they belong collectively to everybody they don't don't belong to chromy capitalism they have a a function for social uh interaction when I go to other roads when other towns I should say I expect their roads to be open they weren't created or dedicated for special interests a business cannot say here's this publicly created and dedicated Road I just I think I can get gain an economic advantage in taking over and preempting the public purposes of it I'm going to come down to City Hall and find out what exactly I can get from them maybe I'll pay a little bit or something doesn't work that way I'm against closure at any time should be open 12 months that's what it functions as and and I have to comment about the Consultants because you hear things like there was a fire one time and Maple Street had to be accessed or you hear there could be uh a terrible emergency if Summit Avenue is closed while Maple Street for a non-emergency is also close a non-emergency you hear things you there was a a um cardiologist who wrote a letter to the Milburn tap saying uh that that some of his assistants are having a hard time G getting to the hospital at certain times because of the closure in mb you hear these things and what do you hear from the planners public spaces they they because we rely so much on the planners we go it the planners are supposed to have all the answers and of course they want Summit to close it they can go to the next town and say see what we did in Summit they're making money that's what that's what's happening they're making money so somebody brings up the point of if you close down Summit there's going to be a lot more compression of other streets and you hear these comments and what what do the planners talk about Street Furniture they come up with academic abstractions that that are injurious to the public and it reminds me so much of the pilot programs because we said to the we said to the to the planners you know with with e-commerce and the malls what what can we do to revitalize our businesses we and and they come up and they say you need Redevelopment because you're L populated state um you were densely populated state so what you need is not development but Redevelopment so they come up with pilot programs and sure enough they get some towns to do it and then then they convince how close did Summit come to giving a pilot and because other communities were doing it was it that close or was it that close and there they they will go to and as soon as they as soon as if if somebody had given a pilot they would have been right right going to other towns to convince them yeah let's give Pilots to to to all the Comm this is the way we this is the way we redevelop in New Jersey and a lot of council people will believe it members of the public will believe it just as they believe yeah we can we can Revitalize businesses in Summit and what proof did they offer their assertions and of course they can't wait to do it so they can go to the next town and make more money so not only do we have maybe just three towns or four towns that have impeded Emergency Operations that have that have um uh crony capitalism and favoritism now they have 10 communities or 20 communities they've grown so when so when Summit residents go to other towns they say gee I can't get anywhere there's so much obstruction there there are tables that are used 2% of the time because of weather and whatever all kinds of frustration from Summit residents going on the public roads those and I'll just conclude that by saying this these are public streets they should be open 12 months a year thank thank you good evening Franchesco alesi 145 Oakridge Avenue Summit New Jersey um I want to talk about something a little bit I don't want to mess up the sequence um but I just want to say public comment is for um nothing on the agenda if you if you're going to talk if you're going to reference something on the agenda yeah I want to talk about a specific ordinance but we'll do it after public comment we're almost close no problem thank youor ready to go don't leave thank you councilwoman since we're is it okay of course okay since we're still in in public comments I I did want to I think it's important to mention that we did receive emails that was from from residents who were unable to attend attend here tonight um I believe we see received close to 40 or 45 emails uh more like a 100 okay uh so we we did receive emails from residents who were unable to attend today um that were I guess a mix of four Maple street closure as well as against it um but I felt like because they're not here and I don't think it was available to the residents here I just felt like it was important to mention that it was we did receive emails uh from members of the resident uh the community that are for it and against it as well but um I didn't want to mention that yeah thank you I ask any Sor I didn't hear that he was asking if they get aggregated the emails they're public record you just have to request them through Oprah if you want to see them he doesn't want to file an Oprah request that he say he doesn't have Oprah you don't have Oprah oh go to the city website click on the Oprah icon you can request any record you want okay council president uh just because for the simple fact that we are collecting them and asking residents to provide emails um should we discuss at some point making those public so that residents don't have to do an openpr yeah um so for tonight we're going to absolutely so tonight we really um hadn't really planned on talking about Maple Street but there's a lot of energy around it and so I absolutely appreciate everybody coming I'm going to take a pause for a minute um councilwoman Hamet because so uh Mrs Toth Claire Toth um had come and requested a Dar for us to look at closing Maple Street so I think that's kind of where all this energy um started and um we kicked it over to cap so do you want to give an update sure uh good evening everyone I didn't have anything formally uh written out I because I really did want to hear uh from everybody tonight what I what I will say is we've heard from a lot of different people we've heard from residents who want Maple closed residents who don't want Maple closed business owners who want Maple open business owners who don't want Maple Street open we've heard from former public safety officials we've heard from restaurant owners we've heard from former city administrators we've heard from veterans who've spent their lives protecting our very own freedom and safety and for those of you who don't know we actually have residents who live on this street who are impacted I think what we can all agree upon after listening to all these conversations is there are a lot of residents who want outdoor dining we recognize that but the one thing nobody touched upon tonight I think everybody needs to think about this and take a pause it's February of 2024 I sat where all of you are sitting 14 months ago where where have all these comments and questions and excitement been we've had 14 months we've had 11 months since we determined that psng was closing the road correct director shreer was 11 months so we've had 11 months and now everybody's asking me to rush my director of my committee and put him at risk because the residents like outdoor dining and I get it I like outdoor dining so we heard from an architect where are you at was he here still here architect um maybe he left I think it was yes so we've heard from you we've heard from I think at 26 Maple even though you don't want Maple closed you have a lot of good ideas so I think it's really important to think about where have we all been for the last 11 months because now we have a new Firehouse we have a brand new councel who hasn't been privy to the safety studies and we want to make all of you restaurant owners successful we want that I think everybody wants that we really do I spend time today on the phone with Nancy Adams from um Summit downtown I actually called Wells Fargo to see if they would work with us and and potentially close part of the parking lot I think we all want you to be successful and we all totally well more successful sir sir you can't yell from the audience um I think our our goal is we we want to make you successful we want to make the residents happy but at the end of the day uh we have to make sure it's safe and we will put it in committee but I would I would say that I enthusiastically support all different ideas for for outdoor dining uh please continue your feedback we will put this in committee what I have asked Summit downtown to do and and council president Lisa Allen today is to re-engage the business owners the landlords and the tenants and really get buy in for this process and we will handle a committee from a safety perspective but um we can all work together and and hopefully create an environment that works for everybody I I think we all like outdoor dining and want it to work but I really wish we would have started these conversations 11 months ago we we would have been happy to look at this and really take the time and and dig deep and I even reached out to our city planner last week and I said you know what do you have for me what other options do you have um so we are proactively but I have not heard you know for any requests up until recently so um but happy to hear all your comments and thank you it's nice to see everybody come out in Bo in every different direction yeah thank you councilwoman Hamlet um so we will end up I don't want to do a ton of dialogue on this tonight because it's really about public comment um but we will be engaging with the community and um just the conversation that we had with Nancy Adams who is the executive director for um SDI we said to her like why don't we just um one day have her help us get everybody downtown who wants to have a meeting and just um be heard I think there's some business owners who love it and some who don't so how can we get everybody on board and um get the downtown engaged and and then at that point um uh cap can still simultaneously look at all the permit they can look at safety so two processes can happen in parallel but um she seemed on board with that so I think that that will be the next step but we're going to have a night where we actually have a conversation with the community this is definitely not the way to do that so in the set set it's public comment so is there anything else you want to add council president did we close public comments no okay we kind of no I was just answering questions no I got you so come on Pat Hurley 192 Ash Road in Summit um it's kind of weird being here I haven't been in council chambers now for six years it's kind of strange on this side of it I came here to talk about something else but Jamal knows what I'm going to talk about want to say anyway so I'm not even going to say it cuz he was very open but I'm not previous councilman you're not going to talk about the trust no I'm not I'm going to talk about this I had no idea this discussion was going to happen tonight that's why I'm talking during public comments awesome because I'm leaving because I'm tired okay so I'm not going to stick um road closures we actually talked about this back in 2016 I believe which was the reason why we knew Summit needed this because it was happening all over the country um the reason why we proposed that traffic caling circle which Council approve unanimously I believe it was 2016 maybe 15 Ro I'm not going to put you on the spot um the idea was that would close potentially have the option to put the infrastructure in place to seasonally close the area Beachwood Bank Street and everything because that made most sense and we had the most control over those roads um we understood there's a lot of logistical issues with businesses and all that but that was the idea Council approved that unanimously the following year it became a political football and it was highlighted as something of council's you know a responsibility and funding and all that and it died it became a political issue and then the new Council came in and it it ended so just from that perspective I think it's something you should consider Maple Street for all the reasons cited tonight especially safety doesn't make a lot of sense to anybody with respect to Time Square is the analogy I've done a lot of security work in the Time Square area I've done one Time Square the ball building itself um the ball I did a lot of work on the ball in the building I have a picture of me with the ball there's an extensive amount of very very detailed planning that goes into public safety when those roads are all closed off when Time Square was shut down uh and the city spent millions and millions on planning I was part of that for our clients so I don't think it's a fair analogy to say that well hey um Time Square does it we can do it here in Summit and there's no issues it's a completely different issue it's a you know apples to Orange comparison and U that's it that's all I wanted to say so but I would consider that area go back look at the minutes from 2016 and see what we considered then not just the or the uh the project that was approved um but just what some of the thinking was back then and what we hoped to accomplish I think we're ahead of our time don't you Kev I can't talk to you directly I'm sorry so anyway um thank you very much I have to leave um Jamal you know what I'm going to say about the other stuff anyway so and I appreciate your uh time the other day thanks thank you good evening Tony melona Maple Street property owner I too like Gil and we're well prepared oh I'm sorry I'm sorry and welcome uh new Council um and mayor thank you for your for your time and your service uh Mike Rogers of course the great Rosemary and Mr uis AKA our city solicitor um right we remember we remember that we love it um everybody said what I wanted to say legality safety and so on um one of the copies I have to council there there's 10 copies was a back and forth email chain from Lisa to myself some people on S SDI including the chairman Bob Conway uh my and Bob um Conway's reply as chairman um I asked to have a subcommittee for um SDI since really just the SDI administrator was the one calling the shots and putting the questions out for that questionnaire so of course they were a little slighted um I also looked at I I received a uh an email from Summit House Bar bcoa and of course fos telling people to come out here here to voice their opinion of how great they outdoor ding us and it is no one's taking away that I've said that um in the past but a couple things caught me um in Summit House in their email out to everybody and I'll just say uh unfortunately quote closing a street only on the weekends or while school is out school's in tables in School's Out tables out isn't viable for the restaurant Community from an investment standpoint nor would allow creating a top-notch outdoor investment so it's not worth it to have something there while school's out because most people go away and it's hot but you're still shooting for April to November I don't know how that works uh next we see that at the end of that uh email letter out to all the constituents there uh while there are other streets under consideration for possible closure only Maple Street is home to five full service restaurants that can can best I'm stressing here serve the community by offering out there dining well I don't know about you guys I don't know about the public listening in um I don't know what that percentage of people could actually afford to go to these restaurants which are fine restaurants I don't take anything away from them but they definitely definitely are in the upper ealon of prices um what really serves the best of the community 100% of the community I got it Beachwood Road do I want it on Beachwood no I don't want it on Beachwood cuz it's a legal and safety issue if that's fine great we can get candy we can get a juice we get a slice of pizza we get an ice cream we get a coffee we get donuts talk about Community we have family fund like there we bring thousands of people there that's what's best serves the community and 100% not 20 30 40% Dylan could probably tell me more um of what can really afford um these restaurants so we go over legal we go over safety what's fair I talked about this and with the city solicitor this this is a public Street all these spaces have to go out to public bid if I want to open up a new business and open up a hot dog cart I want space on Maple Street why can't I get it it's a public Street city planner I forget now a year or two years ago sat with us Dylan Baker was present also that there's going to be new rules and regulations fees and allowed space just because you're you know I'm regurgitating the same thing from a year ago if you have 600 squ ft inside you're not get 600 ft outside there's going to be fees and so on so forth uh ABC alcohol um Beverage Control 2024 this goes away so for people asking for this to be permanent this the transfer of liquor license to the street may not be here with um the uh New Jersey uh approval finally after all this has been done is it safe is it legal will the Fire and Police Department sign off and publicly speak to tell the residents that they believe we can get down Maple Street if there is an accident if there's a heart attack if there's a small fire that turns into a complete house disaster sumon Avenue is a very busy street it only gets busier when you sh when you shut down excuse me Maple Street um Carolyn the realtor Brianna who have businesses there I had a business there when they blocked off that first portion of Maple Street to go into the alley for the parking garage it was a loading nightmare they were parked in front of my business poor Brianna had the brunt of it and the kids clothing store FedEx trucks UPS unloading unloading especially for the restaurants that's a whole other thing so at the end of this all if you guys approve of this guys and gals approve of this maybe finally we could actually get something for real and no Shenanigans council president at the time thought he sent something down to the Department of Transportation we contacted them who Summit and then we had a Mia Copo Mike Rogers who said and he took it on the chin that he didn't do what he was supposed to do to get dot closing so it operated illegally as my esteemed friend and attorney Gil Orin has said we were really liable we really had our heads out there God forbid something happened this city would have been sued big time because it was never approved by do thank you thank you is there anyone else Kevin mcgo Woodland Avenue uh 113 Woodland Avenue um the only thing I think that unfortunately it seems like and I wanted to listen to everybody we put the cart way before the horse what we learned in the past with this and I don't I don't have an opinion on whether I want Maple Street open or closed I like the outdoor dining I like the restaurants but what we learned last year is that closing a road as Matt giobi said is arduous it's very difficult to close a public roadway for more than 48 hours and there's lot of reasons for that and all the safety issues and everything else needs to be taken into account are the reasons for those regulations in 2020 the governor put in an executive order that relieved us of meeting all the criteria to close a public roadway for more than 48 hours I think the vast majority of people behind me don't understand this so in 2020 we were able to close it because we didn't need to abide by the laws in 2021 we didn't need to abide by the laws that ended at the beginning of 202 22 unfortunately at the time the council and other people had made up their mind that we are going to close it so then it became how do we close it oh we just need to do this well what we did previously didn't work because the executive order was gone so then we created this ordinance and in the ordinance we made representations or you made representations of people that were here I think Lisa you apologize for it Andy and Greg and to to find to have those findings you know you needed to do a significant amount of due diligence as mat aobi said later and none of that was ever done and if anybody in here you don't even to be a lawyer if you just go look at what that ordinance said it's pretty obvious that you could not have come to those conclusions even if you did studies so it really becomes more of what can we do and not what do we want to do I would ask you before you do surveys on what everybody wants will you please figure out what's legally possible before you get everybody worlded up like they already are and that we've had for the last couple years that became a big political thing like everything else give people the full information and educate them so that we don't have this there's just constant division that's been happening over the last two years and a lot of it's been driven I think by politics and there was a lot of misinformation about a lot of different things so what I think a lot of us voted for was a change and that you transparent and that you give accurate accurate information we're not stupid and then it doesn't come down to oh they don't want that or they don't want that it's like we can't do that or we can do that if we can close Maple Street and everybody wants it great you know weigh it but I I don't know based on the work that I or the education that I put myself through last year Michael and Aaron they don't even want to speak on this I think that road is going to be legally impossible to close for more than 48 hours I I'm sorry to say that it's not that I want that I'm just saying if people are smart and there's a lot of smart people in here standing there coming at support I don't think they understand that it might not be a legal option so that's all I'm asking before you spend money on surveys waste time and get everybody in tizzy please just educate people educate yourselves if you haven't already I think a lot of you have so thank you thank you so I'm going to put you on the spot councilwoman Allen um I mean I'm I'm councilwoman Allan actually I don't want to trade Physicians with you right now um but I think in two weeks we should have that on the agenda as a Dar as an update yes and I've I've already um requested information from our city solicitor Mr giobi and he's already provided me with a lot of documents I've been in touch with the Department of Transportation as well I've been having a lot of conversations with director shreer Michael Rogers and and just about everybody so we don't know after this time then I give up but we're we're we're making a lot of Headway good I wasn't going to speak but just want to you were talking about a Dar and I don't know how to say this but since you're talking about closing one road uh Dory gagnan sorry 27 bford road um uh since you closed Maple Street before it forced uh all the cars to go to other roads um and I have a concern and it was brought up by the planner before but the intersection of DeForest and Summit Avenue making a left there right by that Summit Diner is just L now um and I'm I'm really concerned no matter what road we close or outdoor dining or not that road in that intersection is just it's really deadly now um so can we look at doing something with that intersection and also Beachwood and uh DeForest as well uh right by Bank of America there's you know there's no there's a stop sign on um uh what is that DeForest um Beachwood sorry it's late on Beachwood but but trying to cross that or sometimes make a left there in the early morning it's hard to see around cars so those two intersections so if one Road is closed it kind of pushes the traffic elsewhere and I just want to you to look think about those too um and also maybe lowering the speed limit I know we talked about safety if we could lower the speed limit in town I think it's 30 m an hour it is right I think it is if somebody could check on that um can we lower the speed limit though people were talking about it tonight um if we could put official request in I'm officially request testing that to lower it to 20 maybe uh there's no reason to speed in town people have gotten hit and killed um I would appreciate that also I have a friend who owns a restaurant in town and this is what she posted on her website at the beginning of January I'm not going to State who it is or what restaurant it is she said we're having a hard time right now and every order counts Rising food costs and inflation is hitting us hard every order counts help us pay the bills eat local so it's really important to think of all the restaurants in town um that might be struggling there's a lot of fast food chains um so I want to say to Mr Minar I had a great time with him at SDI this year we did the um the beer what was it the the beer garden garden it was like such a vibrant outdoor time people were out enjoying the day um I love outdoor riding I love outside I love being outside I walk all the time I think exploring an Avenue but seeing this post from my friend who's had a restaurant in town for over 20 years um was devastating to me because I don't want to see her go under so I think we have to really explore all the restaurants and make sure that everyone is is taken care of whether SDI brings them in and they enjoy the Beer Garden or have something in the park uh something like that so people get help and they're not going underwater so thank you thank you uh miss gagong when you said the speed limit did you mean Springfield Avenue or just town in general everywhere and a stop sign too on the that Beacon Light would be great too so people don't do illegally turns you got to have these people submit writing yeah this is too much to it's too much okay okay can you send us an email okay thank you okay do we have anyone else okay I'm losing participants so we better move on all right I'm going to close public comment all right okay we're going to move uh close public comment and we are going to move on to hold on my computer on yeah ordinances thanks for coming out everybody I'm just going to give them a second yep okay okay moving on we have two ordinances for hearing Madame clerk please read the first ordinance ordinance number 24- 3305 an ordinance to amend chapter 26 storm water management regulations of the code of the city of summit to add a new section 2616 privately owned salt storage thank you madam clerk councilwoman Hamlet I I keep calling you my name thank you council president this is ordinance number 24- 3305 this ordinance will amend chapter 26 storm water management regulations of the code city of summit to add a new section 26-16 privately owned salt storage in summary due to new state regulations the city must amend chapter 26 of the storm water management ordinance requiring the piles of salt and other solid granular deicing materials which are not stored in a permit structure be covered by tarping when not in use and secured in a way to prevent its exposure to rain snow or storm water runon the purpose of this ordinance is to prevent storage Salt and other deicing materials from being exposed to storm water this attached ordinance establishes requirements for storage of salt and other solid deicing materials on properties not owned or operated by the municipality so privately owned including residents in the city of summit to protect the environment public health safety and Welfare and to prescribe penalties for failure to comply at this time I would like to move this ordinance for hearing okay the hearing is open any Council comments no any public comments okay um we're going to close the hearing Madame clerk please read the second ordinance ordinance number 24- 3306 and ordinance amending chapter 3 police regulations of the code of the city of summit to add a new section 3-16 entitled resident protection councilman Boer council president this is ordinance 24- 3306 an ordinance amending chapter 3 police regulations of the code of the city of summit to add a new section 3-16 entitled resident protection ordinance summary this ordinance amends the supplements chapter 3 police regulations of the code of the city ofum and adds well I'm repeating that I guess um to prohibit trespassing for the purpose of committing a crime including tampering with or committing the theft or unlawful taking of a motor vehicle breaking and entering burglary burglary excuse me and home invasion uh council president the threat of auto theft and Summit has escalated Beyond mere property crimes presenting a pressing challenge to Public Safety our stolen vehicles often become instruments in violent crimes including carjackings and burglaries escalating the danger to our residents The Reckless operation of these stolen vehicles by criminals sometimes at high speeds to elude capture endangers everyone from our diligent police force to the innocent bystanders on our street alarmingly the brazenness of these criminals extends to invading the sanctity of our homes to obtain vehicle keys often or sometimes during during the time when residents are home increasing the urgency for Effective measures like the resident protection or ordinance I believe that this ordinance is a GameChanger in law enforcement it's it ensures that offenders can be charged with the related but different offenses in both state and municipal courts this dual approach means that an individual can face a range of consequences from both jurisdictions from fines community service and imprisonment depending on the severity of the offenses the requirement to appear in both courts deal with multiple legal processes and the prospect of open warrant for a failure to to appear in Municipal Court serves as a robust deterrent while also increasing public awareness about the serious nature of these crimes the commitment to Public Safety is firm in Summit where accountability for crime is a crucial and critical focus in the face of riseing Auto thefts a historically persistent issue it is essential that the community is informed about the actions being taken to address this challenge embracing Community safety and peace of mind is a fundamental right and the resident protection ordinance represents a paradigm shift in Municipal leadership it embodies our dedication to nurturing a secure and healthy environment with the local government at the helm of this critical initiative I move to move this ordinance to a hearing open the hearing second oh the hearing I second can I ask you an enormous favor um yeah the door because there's yeah thank you I got that I appreciate that Council council president uh when you when you open this to public comments could you do me a favor um I have someone here who traveled from far and I like for him to speak first because I know it's getting L okay absolutely thank you um I just I'm going to open this up for a hearing I just would like to set the tone um I know that I don't really have to say this but I'm going to say it anyway um when it comes to crime and safety emotions tend to run High uh the common Den denominator tonight is that we are all here because we care about each other and we want to keep keep each other safe it does not matter where you live in town what your background is um we really believe that everyone should feel safe living in Summit coming to Summit visiting Summit so um I'm going to ask that when we enter this dialogue tonight we be empathetic we understand um where people are coming from We're compassionate because um at the end of the day safety is a verb and we may not all land in the same place tonight but I think we want to get to the same idea this we want to get to the same place but you know how we get there sometimes um is not always easy so I just want to ask everybody to be respectful tonight okay I'm going to open it for Council comments Theodore um sorry um no council First Council I'm so sorry okay is there any Council comments I mean we can we can open it to public comment since he has to yeah I'm did not hear what you're saying I was assuming it was Council or public comment also first so yeah is it Council first well we would do Council comments but if if you know what come up no no you know do you guys this Council mine because he's traveling from Far okay fine come all right and then we'll do counsel and then public just I want to be mindful of your time thank you for coming could you state your name and where you live Theodore D I live at 343 amont Terrace L New Jersey okay um but a lot of my primary background has been in like Community justice as well as like legal resources connecting legal clients legal resources throughout Nork area and I also sit in a Public Safety Committee in Nork and something that we also noticed in Nork is that there is and it has been a problem with um burglaries with auto theft particularly when it comes like to people stealing like vehicles and this is a problem not just in Summit but it's um happening um elsewhere as well and on top of that like for someone that also off V visit Summits specifically like Overlook hospital and things of that nature I know that it is difficult for you know someone to not really have that transparency and know like they can be safe because cars are being stolen so having an ordinance that addressed that is something that's been that has interested me because I think it is important that we you know we all feel safe in the communities that we are in and if there is no deterrent then it's going to be difficult to find a reason for these people not to do it the reality is there's a lot of people specifically what we're noticing in norc is that they're at a younger demographic and unfortunately what ends up happening is that they may do just for fun they may do it for a commission of crime they may do it for a variety of different reasons but they are doing it and they don't think that there's any repercussions so like having a ordinance that kind of deters them is something that especially when people know that there's a deter they know that you know if you do come to these areas that this is what's going to happen a lot of times they're you know not going to want to do it in these areas they're not going to want to do it in Summit they know is the turn in Summit if they have to go to court not once but now twice because they have to do the state as well as like deal with these things in Summit it becomes more of a hassle so the reality is a lot of times they're going to go into different are is so that they can just find an easier way to do this find a quicker way to do it instead of having to possibly get caught and then on top of that deal with all the repercussions that's come with it um and I really do think that is important to have like deterrent as well as like public awareness because the reality is something that has caused um a decline in nor is the fact that they now know that there is deterrence and one of the things they've been doing is alerting people of the problem so that people are a little bit more um aware that this is an issue but it is and the reality is this can be something that is you know as simple as like losing your car showing you know end up crashing your car because they stole it and now they're driving at high speed and now you have to kind of maybe you have things in your vehicle that you know now they're gone as well as just like violence and like you know if you are happen to be in your car you happen to be in your house during these evasions the problems that may cause with that thank you thank [Applause] you okay I'm going to bring it back to council comments I'm sorry council president just one just one more thing uh Mr Mr jiz one one question for you um I know that in newk they're doing something in particular with the vehicles and I wanted you to uh um I want wanted you to tell the public about what what steps Nork is taking in terms of what the municipal government is doing with the vehicles um I think there were uh they were giv out something free and yes I could definitely discuss that as well um so essentially what nor is doing is they obviously identifi that there's a problem something they identified um from like through a survey was that that is particularly key is in Hyundai and it's likely because there was like a viral social media Trend where they found out that it's actually really easy to steal kid and Hyundai where they'll kind of um like using like a USB and um they'll get into the car use like USB and once they take out like something like on the bottom um when you plug in that USB it will start the vehicle now this was uh something that was a problem with like I said Kia and Hyundai so KY and Hyundai actually released like um like different pamphlets where like they'll replace it for free um it's like a software deterrent and I do I believe have Flyers with me that I can um possibly give you after as well but um basically was like a deterrent it has like a number if you call Hyundai Oria then they will be able to do that anti- theft software um for um at least for the resident was for free and then the nor was also giving out like stickers where like when you did get that they uh you put the sticker in the car so like when thieves do see it they're more likely to kind of just go around that car because it's like this is not taking too much time it no longer becomes like a one minute thing it becomes like a whole process and then like the police department was also giving out like um like locks for your steering wheel so that again when people kind of see that you know that this is more difficult than it needs to be they'll move on to other cars other areas whatever so yes thank you sir thank you okay I'm going to open it back up to council comments okay I'll start um I think that this ordinance is a good idea aidea I thought it was a good idea over a year ago uh when Jamie LaVine started talking about it and I came into Council meetings over the course of that year to ask what's happening with it uh the extra layer um and in particular uh uh councilman Boer mentioned the prospect of having a warrant um for not coming to Municipal Court is I think going to be a a powerful deterrent uh for people who want to come into Summit and commit crimes um a friend of mine uh put it pretty well so I'm going to uh repeat what she said with a any crime is with anything right there's risk and there's reward okay and right now there's a lot of reward uh to come into Summit and try to steal something steal a car break into a house and there's just not a lot of risk um what what ends up happening is uh there'll be a plea down joy riding uh Jal can speak a little more about this um but it's really it's become a slap on the rest on the rest and as uh councilman Bor also mentioned uh criminals are getting more bold they're breaking into our homes and that is just a disaster waiting to happen I mean um you know residents have run into criminals in their home um you with a crowbar maybe with worse um I thank God that nothing has um escalated beyond that yet um and I don't want it ever to so this is just another step another uh quiver in the uh um another arrow in the quiver for uh for our our police police and law enforcement and um we're going to keep working hard to do everything we can to get crime as low as possible thank you other Council comments or do you do you guys want me to kick it to public comment and then come back to you I mean I will just say that I fully support this ordinance but I'm looking forward to hearing from the public I know we had some meetings with u members of the community that I wasn't with today but I'm just looking forward to hearing from members of the community and maybe make some comments afterwards okay but I've been on this for a little while with as you said Jamie LaVine started this so we've been talking about it for a while I'll make my comments after the public comment as well it's a good idea thank you yeah same okay all right I'm gonna go ahead and open it up to public comment hi thank I appreciate the time uh Franchesco leie 145 Oakridge Avenue Summit New Jersey so um just want to talk about uh this particular ordinance I'm going to hit a couple topics so first and foremost congratulations happy to see you guys up here and um thank you uh councilman boy uh for the opportunity to speak tonight um on December 20th in the early um morning hours my home was broken into by four individuals uh in an attempt to steal keys for my cars uh they used a crowbar and were boosted up uh to break a window and gain access to my kitchen um in that short period of time alarm went off stole my briefcase big inconvenience stole my wife's wallet and we're off right so I woke up to the Sumit Police Department in my home um I was downstairs fumbling through everything trying to work through that right again the day after Christmas December 26th at 2:30 a.m. four same individuals came back broke into the front window of my home the front window not one window did they break two cuz they they were unsuccessful in the first one the immediate moment when I heard that front window open the alarm went off I ran downstairs I encountered an individual in my dining room with the hood on right attempting to gain access to my kitchen again where they perceived the keys would be to steal my Keys again right now three vehicles immediately ran off they scurried they jumped into their stolen x5m in the middle of the street playing you know fire drill running around the car and sped off okay so um was able to get some more information spoke to the detective department Summit PD has been a huge help a huge resource and it's um you know I think they they do the best to their ability on on trying to deter these crimes so um what I've done I've done an immense amount in my home security cameras updated ADT Gates everything I could in my own power and I've spent a significant amount of dollars to include hiring private counter surveillance and home security um and that's going to be a short period of time but they're there now to to maintain some some calm and some peace um I've been a resident of summit in uh since 2016 never thought uh this would be um something I would ever experience um I've reinvested in my home you know multiple times additions Etc so I was really happy about where the place I was at at this time period now I've spoken to Senator bramnick I've spoken to County prosecutor's office their police chief Barnwell their police captain web and they have a task force they have initiative um in the past there's task force that were used between union and Essex County to really deter these issues and um you know let's call them controversial measures as it Associates to dealing with stolen vehicles and dealing with these types of perpetrators but um in the conversation I had with Mr Barnwell he clearly told me um yeah this is got to fall upon the local Department right they're those tasks of the past are not going to happen they're going to do surveillance they're going to intelligence they're going to gather information and help support a further conviction maybe on the state level as some of these individuals um even knowingly maybe knowing that they're driving around a stolen vehicle and committing other crimes and in an effort to build a case allow that to happen so clearly these crimes have ES ated right um what started as lock your keys right lock your door take your keys out of your car right turned into break into your house take your keys take what we can get they want our stuff right period the end so this is this is and now we're in the midst of a mini spree which I'm sure the detective department will will get around that of you know breaking into houses while people are away and that's just in the first month of 2024 so Summit PD has been super helpful they shared with me uh something called a CFS report or a call for service report so this is just basically an Excel spreadsheet indicating what sort of calls for service come in to the summit PD 2019 42 burglary calls 2022 90 calls 2023 82 100% increase right another suspicious Vehicles 234 2019 2023 349 okay I mean that's almost a 40% increase so and last we'll look at something interesting 2019 there was two Pursuits in the city of summit most often due to a stolen vehicle stolen vehicle gets tagged officer pursues it 2023 with the current situation and the pursuit laws and the change of those laws and the sentiment of chiefs all over the state there were seven Pursuits right in the city of summit now there's some miscategorization in these Excel spreadsheets I did a cursory review I didn't have an opportunity to dig to dig deep and I'll be more than happy to be a resource to the public if anyone has any questions but clearly the these occurrences um you know and the nature of these kind crimes have become more severe right and you know the simple trespassing and property theft of open Vehicles has become full-blown felony breaking and entering into people's houses right so these policies and procedures of the past are no longer effective in deterring or stopping these individuals I I mentioned it clearly right so in 2024 we had 10 instances of burglaries breaking and entering attempts you know who's in an M3 driving attempting to get into a car all of the same text message that everyone else here gets so the solution starts with us right uh it starts with the residents starts with the public officials what is the status of the license plate recognition system that was to be installed right what is to be implemented these were to be implemented at all the access points what are the Departments police departments policies on commercial building checks neighborhood checks are there specific procedures are they calling these checkpoints in on the overnights how does the administrative supervisor confirm the patrol officers are canvasing community on overnights is it tied to mileage GPS how can we adjust scheduling to allow for Effective Patrols in these early morning hours when most of these crimes occur the cff reports show The Summit PD are out there doing their jobs answering calls maybe too much there are obvious increases in calls so how do we make more efficient use of Sumit PD's time during these critical morning hours for example how do we mitigate abandoned calls Hang-Ups why does this occur right at the rate reported thousands of hangups and abandoned calls right should we issue fines to these abandoned calls right because there's a legal requirement for police officer to attend to that call so how do we mitigate those calls I have to interrupt um can you just I know you have a speech I apologize we just have to sort of wrap it up sure problem to give everybody an at the end of the day I'm in support of the ordinance I appreciate that I appreciate everyone's time I'm not going to stop my goal is to make sure this never happens to another family in Summit ever again what happened to me and what I experienced I'm here to be an advocate I'm here to support the community and U I'm in support of the ordinance but I think at the end of the day that's a start there needs to be more done thank you thank [Applause] you if you have a speech that you want to email clerk litis could you do that okay thank you because your questions are in there hi hi uh Reverend Vernon Williams assistant pastor at Fountain Baptist Church uh here in Summit New Jersey 116 uh Glenside Avenue uh to Mayor Fagan uh council president Allen and to all of you uh council members I'm urging you to vote no uh on the resident protection ordinance as proposed and reintroduce an ordinance that does not confuse the public as to their role and is not vague in its language getting at the heart of what you are attempting to do for residence of summit our residents deserve to have an ordinance that will be an effective tool for law enforcement as well as all its citizens and visitors to the community this ordinance has real potential to do more harm and Trauma to those too often black and brown bodies who may be falsely accused by individuals who at best may have good intentions and at worst seek to uh seek to otherize uh those who uh appear to not belong in Summit rather than providing security and alleviating the trauma cause uh by these unlawful vehicle thefts and home invasions this measure threatens in a real way to add the traumatizing experience of law-abiding CI citizens and visitors to Summit by having them engaged in negative and unnecessary police interaction an unintended consequence of the ordinance that I believe has not been fully discussed or vetted beyond the opinion of those who rarely have to deal with being seen as an outsider out of place or not belonging the language in the ordinance provides the false impression that if someone sees or thinks they see individuals pulling on vehicle door handles peering into Vehicles going on the porch opening a screen door touching a door knob Etc of a vehicle or home that the person may be deemed by The Observer to not be invited on the private property can be arrested or attempted theft for attempted theft or Breakin such calls already occur and without the underlying impetus of a crime such as is actually being in the vehicle inside the home such actions would would not uh result in a crime and in the case of this ordinance would not Resort res result in the issuance of summons by the summon police department if these were the sole actions of the individual our concerns today are that residents will misconstrue this ordinance to give them the ability to to determine intent of individuals on private property whom they do not know and do not know if the purpose for which the individual is on the private property resulting in increased calls to the summit Police Department thinking the person would be arrested or for vehicle theft or home invasion when that would not be the case under this ordinance too often people of color are often seen as out of place or seen as not belonging in the community and the police are called you ask Chief sakori to address you at the last common council meeting when you introduced this ordinance and he informed you at that time and I quote that you wouldn't just charge this ordinance alone it would be in conjunction with criminal charges that pretty much mirror the ordinance uh the ordinance charges he further stated just based on one action of seeing just someone touching the door knob or going uh on onto a porch before you would charge criminally or with or with this ordinance we would not more uh we were not more than uh we were not more than just that not alone additionally Chiefs ofori informed you that so my interpretation is just the action of grabbing the handle Al with no other factors the police would not be using it to charge anybody with that thus based on what you know the chief has informed you about the vague language of pulling on door knob on pulling on uh door handles touching door handles going on porches Etc creates confusion with the public and run the high risk of increased calls to Summit police based on these loan actions that will uh amount to nothing more than nuisance calls at best and harassment and traumatizing of law-abiding citizens due to negative and unnecessary encounters with law enforcement if the real issue is that you feel uh the state is too lenient on those who steal vehicles or commit home invasions then why doesn't the ordin does not clearly de declare the common council's stated intent to augment or add to the existing County and State penalties if there's no criminal charge by the state how does this ordinance then get adjudicated and protect from Double Jeopardy why is a term like any action included when it provides extraordinary latitude from implicit or explicit bias to be an underlying reason for police calls why does the ordinance make the narrow distinction of pulling on a door handle or take any action in an attempt to open or unlock motor vehicle that the person does not own or have license or privilege to possess when this action alone would not cause the summit police to issue a summons a summons will uh summons that if issued would be issued and the individual released and not detained thus what's the purpose of this language in uh if the individual must have committed the criminal act of vehicle theft or home invasion which is already prosecut is a prosecutable offense why was it language like privilege which is in the ordinance uh known to uh which is known to connote racial and sensitivity not excluded from the ordinance we want to to to to ensure that safety is upheld but the ordinance as written I don't think will do that for you you have real concerns about how the state uh charges and that needs to be clearly spelled out in your ordinance I ask that you not approve this ordinance and come back and introduce an ordinance that gets to what you are really trying to get at thank you thank you re thank you statement oh Reverend Williams do you want to give us a statement thanks thank you thank you you Thank you Lisa glass band 42 Fernwood Road first prank I'm so sorry for what happened to you and your family and I wholeheartedly agree that more needs to be done in Summit with respect to safety but I wholeheartedly believe that this ordinance is one of the things that this Council needs to pass and needs to pass it tonight and I'm imploring you to vote in favor of it while I understand that Trenton has completely botched things your hands are not tied we can lay blame on Trenton all we want but that's not going to solve the problems here in Summit we need you as our elected local officials to act where you can and this ordinance is a step in the right direction in order to deter criminal activity in Summit I've been pushing for this ordinance actually for many many months I first raised this ordinance with count councilwoman Jamie LaVine over the summer after both marbal and Hell passed similar successful initiatives I'm happy to see it hopefully finally pass tonight and I really really hope it has unanimous support because believe it or not without it the criminals win their underworld is allowed to continue to take advantage of and prey on young impressionable youth by employing them as their pawns to carry out their crimes here in Summit we have to discourage them from coming here that's what we have to do and this ordinance does that I'd like to remind at first I'd like to thank um councilman Boer for taking such incredible quick initiative on this ordinance and I'd like to remind all the new council members that one of the main reasons why you were elected was because of your strong positions on safety and I'd like to also remind any holdouts that election season is coming and if you didn't listen to the voters in November with how important safety was to them you'll have to listen again this next November because we will respectfully find people to serve that will help keep us safe thank you thank you Miss glasband statement May oh that's okay okay hi hi Monique Taylor uh pic Avenue um so I've heard from Council president Allan you talked about peace of mind um that all residents should have folks that are coming to visit folks that live here um someone else also mentioned something about raising public awareness and education which of course is important I think that same person even talked about significant amount of due diligence that would need to be done on any of these ordinances or any of these issues the question I have and the uh commenter just spoke about it is you're basing this ordinance on the success of holmdale and Marboro but I wonder since those ordinances were just enacted in December of 2022 has anyone on this Council prior to crafting this ordinance done any research or looked at the data for where these or ordinances have been enacted and enforced anybody no has it resulted in a decrease or increase in crime has there been an increase or decrease in the police interactions with the public as a result those are the questions that we should be asking prior to rushing this vote to enact this um and I don't believe that a Year's worth of data although I do know that car thefts are down in all of New Jersey by 12% um I don't think that there should be a rush to vote on this ordinance as it currently is written and so I would ask that the council vote against it vote no because she's right November will be here soon enough and there will be others of us who will be voting to make sure that we're all safe and not just some of a certain Hue thank you thank you Miss concade do you do you want to okay State No statement yeah do you want to email a statement no okay Dennis Harry L 140 Broad Street 7 New Jersey also the pastor Wallace chap Church in suit um I believe this is the same ordinance that uh was introduced uh about two weeks ago is that correct yes and I think at that uh at the council meeting Council Mena raised some concerns about the wording in the ordinance and I think councilman Bas was going to look into that uh in terms of doing some uh changing in the wording uh and therefore I I hearing U the ordinance read again tonight I did not hear any specific changes that had been made so after listening to the very passionate comments that have been made in particular those made by Reverend Vernon Williams I'm in support of the ordinance because I think we all support um uh doing anything to help deter uh crime or particular uh maintain Public Safety but I don't not think there's a need to rush to pass this tonight based upon the fact that the ordinance is not all inclusive if in any time you are concerned about the welfare of the city you take into consideration what something will do to protect but also what it may do to harm others and I think this ordinance as it is written uh does protect and Council moner you are to be commended for what you've done to introduce it but I think it omits uh persons like myself who make be mistakenly uh looked upon or viewed by a majority of citizens as an outsider or may be just viewed as someone who is in the wrong neighborhood perpetrating something I might be a door Dash delivery person or I might be an Amazon person or I might be a UPS person I might be soliciting for the girl or boy scouts and I'm in the wrong neighborhood these are Realties so I think rather than rush to judgment why not table this to Revisited and include within that very very good ordinance language that covers everybody because as it is written right now it exceeds people some of us so you can do that because I want to be protected too and I think everyone wants to be protected but when innocent people who are mistakenly identified as perpetrators because of various reasons this flies in the face of that so I would encourage you to not vote to pass this ordinance tonight table it so that it be with the language that is inclusive that that will cover everyone in Summit thank you thank you thank you hi hello I I'm Jun kryon I'm a resident of of summit for 28 years I live at 173 Summit Avenue and I'm a member of uh Beacon Unitarian Universalist con uh congregation and uh for the past four or five years I've been a member of the in Interfaith Ministries policing committee so I've learned a lot about um about how a person who's white like I am can't really grasp the difficulty of a person who of color you know in our community which is largely white and first of all I don't think that this uh ordinance really it really repeats what is in state law so um I wonder if it is a case of Double Jeopardy and we discussed this earlier today and and uh I'm worried about that um and of course I'm really alarmed and by what I don't know where that gentleman is but U yeah you I'm sorry I don't know your name but that was the most horrible thing I ever heard of it just really terrible to have your house invaded that way it really is but what I'm concerned about is people of color going on to properties for any number of reasons and then being seen by a citizen who will call the police and put this person through uh you know a really difficult situation and I was thinking about this um you know I recently um took my check for The Luminaries to my neighbor's house and put it into their uh mailbox because I too cheap to pay a stamp and um but even as I walked onto the property I was thinking I don't know them and I'm walking up onto their porch and that makes me feel very weird but if I were a person of color I think it would make it would be really difficult and that somebody passing me by would might think that I was going to commit a crime uh and and and another thing about the ordinance is this business about turning the door you know touching the lock and everything sort of very detailed thing that can arouse fear in people in citizens about seeing their other citizens who may be doing something completely um uh innocent so I I and and and the other thing is I really would not want to see something happen like has Happ in other communities like the situation where the um first of all in Summit you can hardly see the numbers on the houses if you're actually going to go at night and try to find somebody it's really almost impossible to do it and uh this situation in uh Upstate New York where kids were driving up a driveway and uh trying to find a house and then somebody comes out and shoots and this girl was killed I mean I'm not saying that that's going to happen but a lot of times people do make mistakes and in reporting I think the police do a great a great job here but I think that really this really puts them gives them a problem so I do ask you to um to vote no on the ordinance tonight and try to see answer some of the questions about about the legitimacy of this particular ordinance thank you thank you [Applause] hi Amy deia 1 to6 Road um first of all I also want to say I'm really sorry that that happened to your family and I know it's happened to some other families here um a couple of things I'm not I I hear what everyone is saying and I think there's been a lot of really pretty healthy discussion I'm not sure that this ordinance is going to change someone's Behavior around whether or not they call the police if they see something suspicious so you know we have drilled into to our kids um what we used to we don't as much anymore but if you see something say something and I think if you see something and it looks suspicious to you someone looks like they're not just trying opening your door to bring your your door Dash but they're trying to open your door to break in um I I think there's a really big distinction there and I'm not really so sure that this ordinance is going to change what people think they see you're going to get false uh false calls regardless the other thing I would like to say is I want to look at this from a slightly different approach and two people sort of touched on it but um for starters councilman palowski talked about risk and reward when there is high reward and no risk it's really easy to do something especially when you're an impressionable um kid and we know that a lot of the the from well at least I've been understanding from what the police have said a lot of the car thieves are underage um maybe not even of age driving age so if we have high risk uh uh High reward and no risk and you've got teenagers they're going to do really dumb things but the problem is when there is no risk and there is no repercussions uh when there are no repercussions the likelihood of repeated Behavior goes up and then it gets easier and easier to commit the crime it's like you know um stealing a piece of gum the first time it gets a lot easier to steal it the next time when you're a little kid right so I I think um for the sake also of the kids that are getting roped into this this should be considered if there are no guard rails on these kids because all we do is get a slap on the wrist and we throw them back out and they repeat the same behavior the next weekend the same kids coming into the same house what are we doing for these kids that's not that's not good we should be making it a lot harder before they keep repeating this Behavior behavior and then they're of the age where they're when the repercussions are big and they're either in jail or dead so I I am in full support of this uh ordinance and I do hope you pass it tonight thank you hi good evening hi Andrew MCC I live on Park UT Terrace uh I'm a former federal and state prosecutor um so I've spent most of my career uh you know trying to stop the sort of crimes that we heard about on Oakridge which is certainly horrific um and I'm sure makes makes me angry I'm sure makes everyone in this room really angry U but I do have a number of questions opposed to you all about this ordinance as written um the first one goes back to what Chief zabowski uh zagorski said um at the last council meeting which is that this ordinance would only be charged in conjunction with criminal offenses burglary auto theft attempted crimes so the question is what what will the impact be or what is the expected impact of this ordinance uh in addition to those uh criminal charges that'll be present at the same time um the second thing is I think what I've heard a little bit is that you know the motivation for this is a belief that a municipal fine is going to deter people um from stealing cars and so the question is have you uh considered the fact that any criminal conviction in newers Jersey already comes with uh a number of monetary penalties take an auto theft uh charge $500 mandatory fee $100 mandatory violent crime compensation assessment $75 uh safe neighborhoods assessment $30 Law Enforcement Training fund fee all mandatory and in my experience as a prosecutor almost never paid um so the question on that is you know what uh what is adding a Municipal fine on top of all that uh going to do to stop people from committing crimes uh third is you know the state already has a criminal trespass law on the books that Criminal Trespass law uh you know makes it illegal to go on private property if one uh you you have notice that you're not supposed to be there either because of fencing or because of sign signage uh things like that and two you have knowledge you're not supposed to be there you are actually aware you're not supposed to be there um the the state criminal trespass law also has an exception for a reasonable belief defense that you reasonbly believe you were allowed to be there uh what's being proposed here is much broader than all of that um there's no mention of knowledge at all there's no notice requirement there's no reasonable belief defense anywhere in the in the ordinance so what we are effectively doing if this word a pass is expand the definition of trespass in Summit um so I'm wondering you know have you vetted this with criminal practitioners have you spoken to the UN County prosecutor or municipal prosecutor defense attorneys have you talked about whether it would be effective um and whether the broadness of the language could lead uh to Sweeping in unintentionally everyday conduct um and the last thing I'll say is that you know we as been me has been mentioned a large number of the people stealing cars in New Jersey are juveniles uh have you looked into whether if a an underage person is charged with this ordinance would they even be adjudicated in municipal court or would it go uh to juvenile court to Family Court as with the criminal offenses uh so if it's the latter then uh the argument about uh being adjudicated in two different places um I'm not sure carries much water um so as I mentioned you know I spent most of my career uh working on public Public Safety I've prosecuted carjackers burglars uh stolen cars uh and you know based on my experience I'm just uh I'm not sure that this ordinance is going to make us safer or have an impact on Public Safety uh but I do think there's a real risk of unintended consequences um so I hope to take these questions seriously I'll certainly be interested in speaking with anyone at Council about you know effective solutions to these difficult problems and you know thank you for listening thank [Applause] you hi hi good evening uh Diego ho Nal court and of course I think that we are having a very healthy debate but we share the overall goal of making everybody safer and I think that for that we need the right actions not just any action um and the problem with the ordinance as written has been expressed by Mr mccardy and others more eloquently than I can but it strikes me as looking at the cost benefit analysis it's all costs and no benefit what do I mean by that when you look at benefits you look at the incremental benefit of something so it appears that you cannot get a stronger sentence with this ordinance it appears it has to go through the normal channels for example for juveniles so you're not really making uh moving the needle on the benefits and has costs associated with uh potentially profiling behavior um nobody has t talked about what would happen if somebody were to be a Good Samaritan and tried to open a door because they noce a child inside of a car um or a food delivery or a person who does not speak English as a first language who may be looking for directions or maybe a housekeeper um so I actually did look at the data from hom and marber um their car thefts in 2023 are about 50% of what they were a year earlier and guess what the same thing happened in Summit so when you look at data like that first of all the data set is relatively small so the error is fairly big but when you look at that data it seems like what happened in maror Andale um was very similar to what happened here in Summit the police started working with the prosecutor's task force and doing a whole bunch of other things and even though we're not where we want to be we certainly are not where uh I'm I'm my heart goes out to you and your family and but we need to make sure we get the right ordinance because the ordinance everybody I think here wants an ordinance to pass that will actually make us safer and reduced crime uh this one I don't think the way it's written it will thank you thank [Applause] you good evening Claire to 11 Sunset Drive um and we all believe that City government's first and most important job is Public Safety we know the city of summit and all of you take this very seriously I'm not going to speak for or against the concept of a resident protection ordinance what I am going to say is that as drafted it is confusing and it has unintended consequences as council member Minar stated when the ordinance was introduced two weeks ago it's not ready for Prime Time Council should not vote in favor of it at this time first the draft ordinance refers to someone who illegally enters a car or a house as an occupant and at law occupant is understood to mean someone who has or had a right a claim to possess that car or that house someone who breaks into my car or my house is in no way the occupant um so if council is attempting to Outlaw trespass theft burglary the ordinance should either specifically Define occupant to mean the opposite of what everybody thinks it means or better yet use a more precise word second proposed section 3-16 1.3b can have some really bizarre results it criminalizes entering a home while the trespasser or burglar is still present in the house and there's no intent requirement so for example um if Mr Lessie and I also am so sorry had been out of his house when burglar broke in and then walked into his home while they were still there he would be violating this section of the ordinance and there's no interpretation needed those are the plain words of that section um third propos section 3- 2016.3 c is word for word the same section as just above 3-1 16.2 B and presumably this section criminalizes being the getaway driver who doesn't leave the car to burglarize the house um however because it is word for word the prior section it include somebody who violates um in pen a the initial burglar but doesn't include the person who enters the house subsequently if that person is illegally entering the house in subsection B so if the driver doesn't if the getaway driver doesn't get everybody who entered the house they may or may not be able to be um prosecuted under this section of the of the draft ordinance so if Council truly wants to enact an effective trespassing ordinance it should take the necessary time and write one that makes sense please go back to the drawing board thank you Miss to Claire do you want to give she already all yeah hi hi Hector rose rose CR 47 Oakland Place um yeah thanks for uh thanks for H having this discussion tonight I'm here tonight because uh you know for for for Frank uh my daughter in a Girl Scout Troop she spends tons of T tons of time at that house up on Oak Ridge so this definitely is something that hits close to home um in my background I was a military veteran and I I take I take a lot of the comments that people were making tonight about the concerns to make sure we get we get this right and to make sure we're doing this Pro properly to heart um at the same time I think that there's you know I do think that there's a real problem here um this concept that we have in the military called The udal Loop observe Orient decide act it's something from the military uh working technology these days is about making decisions quickly and understanding how those decisions are playing out taking more feedback and then adj adjusting as as we go so I think it's clear that there's a that there is a problem um I'm not I don't know if this ordinance is the perfect thing it is a local ordinance this is clearly an issue that is well that goes well beyond the confines of anything that this community has Juris jurisdiction over but you guys are here you guys have the opportunity to to do something that's why you that's why you're in the seats so I would encourage you to pass this this ordinance and take feedback trust to the Community Trust that law the law enforcement are going to take all the concerns that people have to Heart are going to give you guys feedback and if necessary adjust as we go you know the the quicker that you kind of start to see what works you make decisions you see what you see what happens I think there's the potential to find out what are what are the levers that that you can pull I'm not saying this is it but I do think that is a start it's a step step in the right direction I would urge you guys to uh to V vote Yes on the ordinance thank you thank you good evening uh Timmer day P box one in Summit um I just wanted to say congratulations to everybody uh you know who's uh up on up on days right now um I think there's this is clearly a very emotional issue on both sides been some fantastic points that people have raised in Frank I'm sorry for what's going on on your your house that's unbelievable um I I think at the end of the day though like when I look at this I think the city has voted for change and I think one of the components of change is just progressing uh and it doesn't need to be perfect right now I think that's what you have resources to you know fine-tune this um as you're pursuing it but I just want to say thank you for actually doing something because we've been the leaders in sports in this community we've been the leaders in kindness in the schools we've been the leaders in so many different places and there's there's no reason in the world why we can't be the leaders in finding a solution like this that's going to help us create more of a deterrent you know obviously being sensitive to you know other issues in the community but you know I just think this is so critical to do something because we have to create some sort of a stumbling block where people will make a second uh you know second guess at are we going to go to this community or are we going to Short Hills so with that I say thank you very much and I wish you uh good luck and and finding fine tune in this thank you thank you thank you [Applause] Joe Oliver from 121 Oak Ridge Avenue uh congratulations to you all and thank you for being here and thank you for having us um Mr palowski mentioned risk and reward I know that was mentioned earlier uh I think that's worth reiterating again uh the biggest issue is that there's no consequences currently and that's why the crime levels are up where they are and why they're getting worse we've gone from you know stealing cars from driveways to breaking in entering and having confrontation with residents and we need a step to take it to to to make to put an end to this and so I feel that this is a step in the right direction um as the person earlier also mentioned you know we we can take a step back if things are too aggressive and make a change to the ordinance at that point but having nothing in place we have nothing going for us um I'm not an expert on law but I believe that police have discretion uh the ability to govern and discipline one's activities by use of reason and prud students a public officer has discretion whenever the effective limits on his power to leave him free to make a choice among possible courses of action or inaction so if a tourist is on the you know pulls up to the wrong Rental Car on the street of summit at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and jiggles the handle something tells me they're not going to get locked up but someone's not delivering girl Scott cookies to my house at 2 o'clock in the morning either and so that's I think what the spirit of this ordinance is and where it's going and it doesn't matter you know what the race of the person is at 2:00 in the morning I can't can't see what the race of the person is and I'm still calling the police and for those of you that saw the Facebook discussion which I'm very grateful we had with the captain today um or the police the chief of police rather um he said that we don't have too many calls coming to the police department and he encouraged calls to come into the police department so I highly doubt that that this ordinance is going to greatly increase to burden the police department with uh nuisance calls that we don't need we probably need more communication if anything as a community and if this SP if that the Spurs that on then all the better um I think you know some there was also some mention of data from other towns if we're going to talk about data we need to talk about statistically significant data an N of three doesn't tell us anything so if we want to go put this ordinance in which I think we should and then look at it back at a year and look at the actual data for what it means to our town and what it means to Crime because you also can't compare when when statistics are rising that did did it did it rise proportionally or disproportionately to the other towns and what happening in another town doesn't mean it's what's happening in Summit we need to be concerned about what's happening in Summit we need to create consequences for these actions and it also comes on the prosecution of what those consequences are and if these uh minors aren't going to be prosecuted then we could go at this till 3:00 in the morning and talk about all the things that we're going to propose but if they don't get prosecuted then nothing's really going to end and so again it's consequences to ACS and and upending the risk reward cycle thank you thank you hello Vanessa feraro met to Crest AER and Summit um so as unfortunately like many people in Summit um we had an attempted car theft at our house over Labor Day weekend this wasn't in the middle of the night it was at about 1:45 in the afternoon which was sorry which was about 10 minutes prior to my three small children and their friends playing outside on my back patio which is next to my driveway they came inside and my husband's still outside with his friends and 10 minutes later three men with black masks on gloves are pulling at the car doors they look over my husband and St friends see them they're start screaming at them they run up the driveway but I cannot imagine the terror that my kids would have EXP experienced had they seen these three men wondering Mom what are they doing what am I supposed to tell my kids that are 5 years old I had friends over from out of town I had family over they were terrified for their kids can you imagine inviting people over to your home and then having this happened and then I had friends coming over later in the afternoon I had to call them and tell them hey sorry I just want to let you know make sure you're careful you lock your car someone just tried to break into our car at 1:45 in the afternoon it was traumatic and even now going out to my car which is 15 ft from my back door I'm scared at night to go out there by myself I have lights I have flood lights I have a security system I have two dogs it's terrifying and there was no question what these people were there to do they were masked they had gloves on they had hoods black everything so I'm highly supportive of this passing this thank thank [Applause] you Reverend Rod Williams Mountain Baptist Church as this is Black History Month I would simply say I would remind you that the reason you don't make laws when you're filled with emotionalism is because too many people who look like me were lynched and so as I stand before you I also say that when you're talking about human lives you owe it to yourself to try to get it perfect because not getting it perfect has tragic consequences you owe it to yourself not to decide to have military type Solutions because this is a civilian matter and so as we had our conversation earlier I thank you mayor Fagan and president Allen and councilman Bo for lisening to our concerns and not just hearing our voices as we shared information and we also appreciate the fact that you appear to acknowledge some of the problems and inaccuracies in the language contained in the present iteration one of the things that should not be lost in this is that we are not opposing the ordinance for the sake of the ordinance because all of us I think will agree that our ultimate objectives is for the safest and most sensible community that we could possibly live in and work in and visit what we are saying is that as you've heard it said the language as it currently exists does not support what's been proposed there's no language about deterrence there's no language in there that has any information regarding the statistical backdrop of what says that this is going to be effective and so what we were asking and continue to ask is that we do get it right because none of us want to see Summit painted as a town that acts on bias and emotionalism that has those kinds of tragic consequences so we just believe that asking you to do the right thing for the right reason and not the wrong thing based on Good Intentions and good ideas thank you thank [Applause] you Council my name is uh Kieran Moran I live at 38 Colt Road uh on uh the morning of May 3rd uh I was woken to our alarm uh um I went downstairs and uh went outside and uh two Mass men were in our yard one coming out of the garage we had a a minor confrontation in the front yard they uh ran out to the car and left the cost benefit analysis of this ordinance I can tell you what the costs are my three girls seeing me uh having a confrontation with mass men in our front yard at 5:00 a.m. so they'll never be the same is this ordinance perfect maybe not we need to deter crime in Summit how that happens I leave it up to you but something has to be done this confrontation could have ended a lot differently than it did they left at some point if this continues if there's no deterrence for people to come to this town and take things that's not theirs and enter people's properties and their homes something is terrible is going to happen either to the perpetrator or to the resident if the residents of summit cannnot feel safe and secure in their own homes people are going to leave the tax base is going to leave and we're going to have a bigger problem something needs to be done I hope you get it right it may not be perfect tonight but I'm in support of an ordinance that the tourist crime in town thank you thank [Applause] you all right sorry give me one second I'm just trying to not talk for too long um my name is Dr Carol Pang um uh from 234 Summit Avenue uh I'm speaking with multiple hats on tonight I'm speaking as a a mom of two Girl Scouts in town at Lincoln hover School in fourth and first grade I'm speaking as an Emergency Physician who has seen um unin uh unintended consequences of young black men especially hurt because they were mistakenly seen as someone who was dangerous and they were there um on a private property um trying to do something benign such as drop off um food drop off information to the door um I've taken care of these patients countless number of times um I'm speaking as an Asian-American and also as an American Patriot um I spoke to my concern as an Emergency Physician and taking care of many um mostly men of color that have been attacked uh inappropriately um accused inappropriately of um of of crime when they were not in a place to commit a crime they were just wearing the SK color of their skin um I'll leave it at that because it's too emotional for me um I will never forget the faces of the people that I've taken care of that are IR irrevocably changed um because of scars they did not deserve um as a Girl Scout Mom I'm scared uh we go you know we we want this to found to be a community where Girl Scouts don't and other people don't feel scared to knock on their neighbors doors I can tell you um you know since the pandemic we know I'm sure you've all seen it uh crimes against asian-americans has gone up I can't even I was looking at the numbers and trying to come with the data today but it's too emotional to even try to look at the most current data because the the crime the the violence against aan Americans is still very high and also rising and the rhetoric around us is increasing with this election coming and and the the kind of all the stuff that's going to be coming and we know it and we've looked at the data um as an Asian-American uh in town very involved I was the organizer of a rally in um on March 27th 2022 um around the Asian viol the violence against asian-americans Rising uh at that time I spoke to Chief uh balotti and he confirmed that actually there have had been reports in Summit and in definitely in Union County of increased violence against asian-americans I I doubt that number has gone down and again I think that number is going to go up in this um very heated election year with a lot of anti-chinese rhetoric uh On The Rise um you know we we are trying to make this town feels safe for asian-americans uh I was the founder of the festival that is two years running now and we're in in planning stages um for this year as well and work with Summit Recreation Center um one of the big things of that is so that people Asian-American faces here feel represented and feel safe this ordinance makes me feel very scared and very unsafe um as an American Patriot we go and we knock on doors and I bring my girls with me this thing this ordinance as it's written says if you pull a handle or turn a doorknob that can be a crime other people are going to read Beyond this and and as um Reverend Williams said you know people are going to um like I said said with the young black men that I've taken care of as a physician people are going to put different intent the whatever intent that their bias may lead them to place on people of color this affects us a lot this scares us a lot and as you know I'm going to be like when I heard about Andy being attacked that scared the hell out of me because I am going to doors knocking on doors doing my civic duty and trying to be a patriot get people out to vote and we take our girls with us and we they love it my kids are 12 10 and six years old and they go they probably have knocked on more doors and gotten more people to vote than most adults will ever in their life and do I feel scared when I take them with me yes I do I have felt scared in the last few years when we've done that but my patriotism goes beyond that and you know if we don't do things scared we won't get progress in this country and I understand that you guys are going for safety it makes me scared to hear about the in incidentes tonight I have three young girls I live right on Summit Avenue it's scary every time we see some an alarm go off on our ring but I'll tell you as a person of color every time a person of color walks on for a benign reason it creates a different kind of feel for people who they have those biases within them so please I ask you to wait table this look at the language hear the commentary from so many that have spoken tonight and please just like I can tell you I I felt very nervous this entire time hearing these comments and hearing that this more and more information about why this ordinance the way that it is written um will um will make my family feel unsafe here in Summit thank you thank you my name is Don MOS quitz I at 15 Irving Place Apartment A and uh there have been a lot of eloquent people have already spoken um I think the bottom line for me is that uh Public Safety is critical important but it's also critically important that we get this right and I feel like in the spirit of due diligence we need more information we need to understand how other towns have instituted these kinds of um ordinances and how it is and how it is uh impacted for or against what the intention was so thank you thank [Applause] you hi Michael Luke from uh nine Crest acre Court I also was a victim uh of a car theft or car robbery of my wife's car and um after hearing a lot of the story tonight I'm me I'm now in more fear than I was before tonight um I'm I'm terrified I don't know I haven't heard that yet but I've certainly some of some of you know my neighbor um I'm terrified living in Sumit right now so this isn't perfect I'm sure I'm sure there's reasons I think some of the things that were brought up uh you know there's probably certain things that can be done but anything that can be done done to move this forward and help deter future uh crimes would be helpful and um I'm in full support and hope hope the board votes uh for this ordinance thank you thank you hello irn Miller five Knob Hill Drive um I'll just say a few things um first of all for the record we also go to sleep every night worried someone's going to break into our house so a lot of people quote statistics it doesn't account for the people who go to sleep worried someone's going to break into their house it only counts the counters so statistics don't tell you everything uh first thing on process which is related to this but also relate to everything I don't know if you can do this but I really wish you would vote on this next time so like tell people it's going to happen come here debate it vote on it next time I just think that would be better um I don't know I'll formally suggest that uh couple notes one there's this uh thought that this isn't like a strong enough tool it's not going to solve the problem like yeah it's not going to solve the problem on its own obviously uh but it's one thing that you can do um but I also hope it's not the only thing you do so when you debate this I hope you just talk also about the other things that you plan to do if you plan to do other things which I do hope you plan to do because I agree I don't think this on its own is going to solve the problem so you know you can all talk about the different plans that you have in place and the police cars you plan to put out there whatever you plan to do but yes I do hope and expect that there are other things to do so that criticism of this seems unfounded uh next is this legal confusion around the wording and the language and the you know I actually agree with that I mean I hope that this was run through lawyers I'm going to assume it was but I never assume anything so I hope that you'll also share has this been run through any lawyers uh uh and they can comment on that because I know there's a lot of criticism from people that the wording is going to create problems so I hope that it doesn't um and I definitely agree with that uh the concern that uh innocent people are going to be unfairly targeted due to racism that's just insulting honestly to accuse your fellow residents of being racist like just don't even know where to go with that like please like don't just call people racist and that's why you're going to shut down this bill please it's really insulting um next this idea that this is not going to do anything it's like Trenton's fault yeah obviously it's Trenton's fault obviously it's like this is clear this is not something that's going to like solve all our problems this is one thing that we could do at the local level it will send a message to Trenton hopefully it sends a message at the national level as well that there are municipalities that are not that are going above and beyond their state policies and the national policies and are saying we're going to just do things ourselves because your Laxon crime policies and these Democrat R states are not working and they're creating real harms to everybody involved um so yeah I mean I hope you you know it's not going to solve all our problems it's a step I certainly hope and I you know I caution all my support for this bill with the hope that there has been some vetting legal vetting from a lawyer who's familiar with these rules and is going to be able to say like y we did look at that and we're not concerned that this is going to create a you know terrible unintended consequences of the courts or whatever but yeah I mean it just you know we got to these are also problems that happen to the state and so a lot of people want to like solve problems locally but turn around and go vote for Democrat policies in state federal level it's like stop doing that we got to stop those policies all across the board so thanks very much thank you [Applause] good evening uh Don Nelson 20 plan Street wasn't going to speak tonight at all but this is very interesting uh I want to thank our military member for his bright idea and I'm sure you've all done this in the military seven-step problem solving sequence I'm sure we've all done that the end of the problem solving comp uh process is to re evaluate so I'm assuming there's a a a way to reeval reevaluate this process or this ordinance once it's in place if it doesn't work or recreates more of a problem we change it we tweak it we do whatever we have to do you're all smart people I'm sure you follow this process in your own little way the bottom line is something has to be done I I am very shocked to hear of all the incidents that I've been in this town my whole life and this is Way Beyond board uh I'm goingon to be very simple if I I run a small business very small business in town when I deliver things to people's houses I don't turn the door knob I put it in a mailbox I knock did a mailbox I leave there there are um consequences to your actions at a year from now a year and a half from now let's re-evaluate this if it's past tonight see where we stand if it's a winter great if it's not we'll we'll tweak it that's all it boils down to hopefully I'm correct I might be wrong but that's my two sents thanks thank [Applause] you Kevin again 113 Woodland Avenue um I think what I heard a lot of tonight seems to be really making a mountain out of a mole hill here um I thought when this was originally discussed and Matt I believe wrote some of the ordinances for some of the other towns that had implemented this I thought the idea behind this maybe you guys can explain this afterwards to explain to people was you're really not making anything illegal that isn't already illegal and the reason it is redundant is because there right now the city is relying upon the County prosecutor to prosecute these crimes this gives us a little something that we can control ourself so when something isn't prosecuted there we can prosecute it here you're not going to be sending people to prison for 20 years um it it's it is a small incremental step that's when it was first introduced that's that's what the idea was it gives us a little bit of control it's something is it going to solve it no um but you know it's sad that it's come to local municipalities having to do this um but you see the problem around you and you need to do something and as far as people profiling people if if somebody call somebody's first of all how many people let's have a little Common Sense how many people are going to even know about this ordinance there are so few people in this town that pay attention to anything so the idea that this ordinance is going to cause somebody to call because they see a black person walking on their property is ridiculous if that person has racial biases and they they call because somebody black is delivering something in an Amazon uniform nothing is going to happen to that person you have to prove that they did this as well so the idea of somebody knocking on a door there's no even an Amazon driver there's no reason why the guy should be trying to get in the door and I would assume that there's a lot of ring footage we have that you would use to do this because again you have to prove that people did this stuff um so again this starts sounding like there's a lot of political stuff behind this I know that last year when Jamie entered this ordinance or talked about it for the first time she was very excited about it and everybody agreed look it's not going to be a silver bullet but why won't why don't we try it why don't we do it they do it in other towns sends a signal sends a message maybe it helps maybe it doesn't I don't know but then it was it ended and it we never heard why and I remember at the time asking like what happened and I didn't get answers and then finally got answers that the same group that's here tonight met with the mayor and met with the police chief and you know they objected to it and I understand their concerns on a lot of things are real but you know this I I just think the concerns that people have and voice on this are just way overblown this is I I don't think this is it's certainly whatever I mean we go back and forth on it but anyway just please tell people and also I assume that some lawyers were involved in the crafting of this and you know if this was if I assume if these laws are not constitutional or there's something with it they'll get shot to pieces if it's ever tried to be enforced um but then also that just is the reason why you're doing this just so that we can have a little bit of something to prosecute people and not be relying upon the County prosecutor to do which they're overwhelmed and how much do they actually do anyway very thanks thank [Applause] you are there any other comments okay I'm going to return it back to the council because I'm sure um I would like to bring the um chief of police up and I would also like um Council giobi to wait in um so I would like to ask if anybody has questions specifically that we could um give to the chief direct to the chief or direct to our Council um because I'd like to hear from them too because it's getting late and I just want to be mindful it's almost a o' council president just I've been chomping at the bed here okay um and I hope I uh don't fall victim to any AD homm attacks for saying this but uh first of all Andy um I apologize for you being attacked during the campaign uh but to that point I've knocked on a thousand doors I lived in Summit my entire life ran through backyards jumped over fences and not just me 17 other black young boys like myself um and even as an adult East Summit Uptown big houses small houses never had a problem with anybody maybe I'm an isolated figure I don't know okay but I am black though we can't agree on that um sort of see yeah there it is um expecting that that's deep uh so yeah so the thing is if we could talk about Bell reform and why we're here right I think Bell reform was a good thing actually it does a really good job for violent crimes problem is when we look at Auto thefts they're not viewed as violent crimes and they should be if we listen to the individuals that came up here and they were talking about people coming in their homes um people Ste in their cars while they're in their driveways with their kids watching the psychological impact on that is violent now as a former detective I know what it feels like to come face to face with a Criminal face to face with somebody with a gun a violent situation normal people don't know how that feels and can end up and resulting in a lifelong issue I mean this is real stuff now the fact is I you know I don't want to be here and I wish I wasn't here having to push this ordinance I wish it wasn't the problem but the fact is there are residents in Summit that are facing real issues now if it's not the state that's going to recognize and do something about it we as public officials need to do something about it because you elected us too and that's what I intend to do now one thing is I agree with some statements that folks have made I think this is a good starting point and I'm amable to make some changes but we're not going to sit around for a whole year and debate whether or not we should um approve this ordinance like last year where we went and debated or excuse me not us but maybe two of us um but we there was a debate for a whole year about this this ordinance and we made a change and now it seems like we're going to debate about it again no I say we passed the ordinance we take into account what the community is saying um Reverend Williams absolutely the Interfaith Council and then we can make changes but we need to start somewhere because right now we have a problem we were on channel 7 news today Summit yes so tell me we don't have a don't tell me we don't have an immediate problem now I want criminals to actually do a a cost based analysis I think somebody was up here talking about it hey should I commit crime in this town where um you know Bell reform whatever I can go to state court and I'll be on my Merry way or you know can I go to Summit and then I have to go to this court then I have to come back here I may get community service I may get fine why wow I may even get you know 90 days in jail you know what I'd rather go over there and do it that's the point Thank You council president I said enough [Applause] tonight thank you man councilman boy uh thank you councilman Boyer councilman Smallwood so I I after listening to to everyone's speak and I I really appreciate you I know it's it's getting late so um thank you for your comments I did listen to everyone and you know one of the things that that resonates with me is the fact that this isn't a magic wand this is you know the idea of this is to help deter people coming into our homes stealing key fobs and stealing our cars or even potentially even worse uh this is something that's going to probably take time it's going to take time for you know perpetrators to get caught you know and this isn't you know we have to trust in which I do trust our police officers to make the right judgment calls if someone is in fact on someone's property with the intent of breaking into your home or stealing your car I trust those police officers to utilize this ordinance and make that judgment whether or not someone is delivering gr Scout cookies campaigning or actually there to steal your car or break into your home and I I I I trust that they're going to make that those right decisions um I think we do need to start somewhere again nothing will ever be perfect and I think if we I we are all I think agreeable that if there's something that needs to be Chang changed in this ordinance at some point whether it's the language or the type of uh the type of crime that we're uh listing here if it needs to be changed I think we're all in agreement to do that our biggest concern is making sure that we're doing the right steps taking the extra layer of protection to deter criminals from coming here and one of our main concerns is protecting our our responsibility is to help try and make our our city as safe as possible in terms of you know what um someone you know Mr mgoi mentioned you know it's we're not sending people to prison for 20 years the first offense is $1,000 and we to also took into consideration for those who are unable to pay $1,000 that it's up to the judge's discretion to offer 90 90 hour up to 90 hours of community service so if a perpetrator doesn't have the ability to pay the th000 fine they can do community service so it's not just about charging $1,000 there is a there there's a risk reward component to this and the risk is you're GNA may have to do 90 hours if you can't pay the fine the second offense is $2,000 and again it's up to the judge's discretion whatever that uh that may be so um we did give this a lot of thought we did run this by our attorneys and you know I think everybody on this dis and unfortunately Greg's not here tonight and hope Greg I hope you're watching hope you feel better um but everybody on this Das had the opportunity to make comments give their opinions uh before this even came to the Das so I I I just want to say thank you very much for for all your comments and uh yeah I think we definitely gave this a lot of thought thank you thank you councilwoman haml uh thank you council president you know as elected officials we have an obligation to make really hard decisions and I will tell you that the reason we're having these discussions tonight is because it didn't come out of committee the last time it was in committee and so it's really hard to bring a community together and listen to all of these different thoughts and philosophies and feelings these are really hard conversations and they all matter you all matter but the reason we're up here is because we don't want to abdicate that responsibility of having these tough conversations we had some conversations this morning or you know our mayor did and council president Allen with some of the different leaders in the community that have some very valid concerns we can't hope that this disappears this problem is here here I heard a veteran come up today and he said you know we have a certain military mindset in the military and that's how we solve problems and then another person got up and said well we can't treat it like the military because it's a civilian um atmosphere and I'm sure Reverend hariel would agree with me that there is a certain there is a certain power in having that experience of being in the military right Reverend and and when I say that I was deployed in 9/11 overseas and there was often times where you weren't sure you were going to get it right the first time but as all of you were over here I was sending ships out to sea to keep my soldiers safe I wasn't always sure it was 100% right but I knew we had a problem and I knew we had to keep people safe and our responsibility as elected officials is to keep you safe it's my number one priority you're not going to be hearing too many pet projects out of this Council this year other than safety I look at the budget every day and I think about how we can get more police and keep you safe and when I look at all the residents tonight this is the most important priority and we are going to get this right this may not be perfect but I I believe that with the leaders that we had in the room this morning this is a really good start and I think we're all amendable to change and I thank you all for your leadership thank you for your comments but I will be supporting this [Applause] tonight thank you councilwoman Hamlet councilman Minar I can yes okay um so to everybody here tonight who talked about um experience break-ins or theft I am so sorry that you had to experience that that is a uh terrible feeling um I want you to know though that we absolutely have the same goal up here all of us on the de and that is to reduce those incidents um please understand what that means because all of us up here and all of you here and all of them watching on television right now or on YouTube they all want those reduced how you do that is extremely important very very important please know that any any person that came up here and made a comment about how this is wrong or there's something wrong with this ordinance they're not against a achieving the same goal that you are okay please know that um we have a chance to do this right and I'm afraid we're about to move forward with something that is absolutely not ready council member Boer you mentioned you are amable to some changes now is when you make those changes that's how our ordinance process works you're a new council member that's how our process works you can make a change now two weeks later we we discuss this again two weeks after that it's in place boom there's no wrong there's no um there's no mistakes in the ordinance there's no there's no lack of clarity it is in place and it's able to be used properly we can do this um at the last council meeting I made a statement at the introduction of this ordinance that laid out some problems I have with the language you've heard them all tonight from brilliant um people here and I want to I want to re reiterate some of them reiterate some of them it's overly Broad uh it has the potential to have some unintended consequences and the language uh there's some mistakes in there that need to be fixed um please know this though council members Boer and palowski I know you are well intentioned with this ordinance if my voice or the way I'm talking sounds intense it's just that I'm intense it is nothing nothing against either of you as as people or as council members it's just in this is a this is a this is an ordinance that is um that has become extremely important to me uh for more than just um the three coun the three Council meetings or the or the week and a half that you guys took to to put it into place it's been on it's been on my radar for for months maybe more than a year um so there's I provided one example via email to um council members Boer and palowski and it's a section that needs clarification it says it's violation of this ordinance for be inside a house we heard that mentioned also if another occupant committed a violation as it's currently written somebody's occupying their own home would be in violation show a a cleaning person a pet sitter that's a problem if it's insinuated in an ordinance it's a problem I also reiterated that someone entering a porch to knock on an interior door or to hand out a flyer would as written absolutely be in violation of the ordinance that is a problem the language is a problem in this ordinance council member palowski your response was to me and I'm paraphrasing here but it's pretty accurate just because the word the ordinance say that doesn't mean that's how it's going to be enforced I most certainly did not say I I paraphrase your it was such legal ease that I don't want to I don't want to burden this audience with that it was such legal Le but this is what it said paraphrase just because the words in the ordinance say that doesn't mean that's how it's going to be enforced if your response to this comment again includes anything like trust us or it will be enforced differently because of the Constitution you're really really missing the point it's legally sound is not an acceptable response to this I may not have a fancy law degree but I do have an ounce of Common Sense and that Common Sense tells me that when residents read something in their city code in their City's law they better be able to trust what they're reading that's part of transparency and right now this is simply not transparent you talk about transparency you have a chance right now to make it really happen you have a chance to do it I'm going to quote Reverend Williams statement which was fantastic here why does this ordinance not clearly state that it is meant to augment additional charges that is the main purpose of what you say this will do but it does not even say that in the Ordinance do you know how long it would take to add something like that 3 minutes I could write for you right now all the violations of this ordinance must be in commission of a car theft attempted car theft Breakin or attempted break in that's it that is the statement you need to add to the bottom of this ordinance if you're waiting for a moment to make this change uh it's right now it's not a hard decision it's an easy decision there's a middle ground here getting this right means taking the taking a beat and making this change to the original version right now you're taking an original version after everything you just heard tonight and you're putting into place that is the wrong path I urge you to rework this ordinance take the time to do this better you have the time right now I move to table this [Applause] ordinance there has to be a second to table is there a second sobody has to make second the table then we'll vote on the table so we don't just keep dialoguing no once somebody makes a motion to the table there has to be a second if there's no second the table dies motion dies okay so the mo no no one seconded to motion to table died yeah my fears came true so we know that we know the result of the vote in In fairness we haven't even heard from the police chief and Council giobi so um I I would councilman palowski would you like to I I I would like to hear from the city solicitor okay all right wow well my coughing fit is now over so so uh first off um this is an ordinance and and and frankly uh councilman miger I disagree with you I think it's very clear it said every one of this if it's you're in a house it's you're you're not licensed or privileged enter the home if you are if you if please don't interrupt please don't please don't interrupt me loaded word and you know it it's not a load word and I absolutely is I'm going to ask I'm going so don't interrupt me again please the the the the bottom line is if somebody's not licensed or invited into somebody's home and they remain they violate it same with the car so I think that what councilman Smallwood said is we trust the police in this community and in all communities to make judgment calls all day long they're making a judgment call here this gives them one more um tool to try to prevent or deter people from coming to Summit to commit crimes of breaking into people's houses to to get key fobs to steal cars and they're getting more and more I've been here since this this started and I can tell you the stories that we heard tonight are a lot more violent than we heard a couple years ago people were people's windows wen't being smashed and people going into their houses to get the keyops and it's not just here this is happening literally all over New Jersey dear friend of mine the woman dropped her husband off at the airport she drove home from nework airport pulled into her garage few minutes later she heard smashing Windows people are in her house and they stall three cars so this is not just unique to Summit it's happening all over so let's just talk about an ordinance if you this is a second reading if you amend you can't amend this now if you amend it now you have to then withdraw it have a first reading and a second reading that's not the way I would recommend doing it legally what I recommend that you guys do is this has been I was asked to do this and I didn't draft the original uh hell or marro I represent hell as their labor Council and um I know the mayor of maror so I went and got that based on um Dr lavine's request to get those ordinances so I brought you brought you that and those were those dealt with the the car theft aspect of it um my recommendation would be if we keep doing the same thing over and over again I think that's the definition of insanity if we're expecting a different result so clearly you want to get something on the books because I think we can all agree that Bell reform in New Jersey has not worked uh in terms of deterring crime it might you know be it's got there's benefits to it absolutely but it might but in terms of the rise in in carthus Etc it's it's increased so my suggestion would be that you pass an ordinance you can amend an ordinance once it's on the books so just like you said councilman vinegar what you can do very simply is if people folks from the public Council people have other suggestions bring them we'll put them in we'll change them if people don't like certain phrases we can change them once you have something you can make it better but to but right now you have nothing so I you know I think that um you know there's that all I I don't know the an acronym that the gentleman said about the military but you know it's kind of it becomes paralysis by analysis you can try to keep making things perfect the one thing that people should understand is there's a severability clause there's something in here that a judge finds uh uh unenforceable they can sever it but let's back up for a second the the police all they do is they charge people they charge so somebody steals a car or attempts to steal a car or is breaking into somebody's house to steal the key fob to steal the car and they get arrested that assumes they get arrested and deterred the the police department has the ability to level two c violations which are going to be handled down in Union County and this Municipal violation at the end of the day when you're you're ultimately going to be going before a judge so not only are you going to have a group of police officers who are trained in law you're going to have a judge who's trained to look at it so I think that the the people having fears about the Amazon driver I mean first way no Amazon drivers try to get into my house they usually drop the package off of the halfway down my driveway and then I ran it over actually once too but that's beside the point um so you know I I think that what you have is you have there's clearly a need to do something is this going to be the the the end all be all it's not will it help deter one gentleman spoke about people saying huh you know if I got a summit just there's just it's going to be more of a headache to go to Summit I'll go someplace else so um and hopefully I mean frankly somebody else made a really good comment and I think that um you know you have a lot of what's going on is these are children who are committing these crimes or young adults they're being recruited to do it because the consequences for them there aren't really any consequences and there's only it's just a matter of time before uh somebody who doesn't feel safe says you know what I'm going to take matters with my own hand I'm going to get a shotgun I'm going to get a gun that's the that's a Coming Attraction and now with with with all the gun reform that's gone on in our country getting a gun's a lot easier so I think that my recommendation would be you pass the ordinance I I am I am not a criminal attorney we've looked at it we believe it would would absolutely pass um muster but if people have other ideas bring it to the council and we can make re revisions and you can refine it and refine it and refine it and it's also something that that ordinances often get refined when they're in uh in place the police department the chief could come forward and say you know what we've been doing this I think you might want to add this or you might want to change this and then you change ordinance again it happens all the time so I think you're probably better off uh moving forward and then making revisions as opposed to trying to revise it now because if you revise it now you can't you cannot pass it you can only make they're called uh scrier errors if there's a typo or something you can correct that but anything substantive you'd have to it would kill the ordinance so those are my thoughts on this and uh you know I'm glad to you I don't take any pride in authorship you know it doesn't and and and Mr poosi your your esteemed colleague a member of the bar you looked at it other people looked at it people in my firm have looked at it we represent a lot of municipalities so we don't think there's going to be a legal problem and I think that people are are [Music] um being overly concerned where I think this is going to be something that the police it's one more tool that your police officers can use in trying to help def deter uh the thefts all right thank you Mr chobi um Chief skorski would you like to come up here and walk through the process how this would be enforced and um address any language concerns that you've heard tonight I just want to uh um start out by saying that I I respect everybody's opinion on both sides of this argument um in my opinion um this is not obviously not a perfect um uh ordinance but it I do believe it is a step in the right direction um and I can um you know giving you my word my promise tonight that the summer Police Department would uh would never use uh this ordinance to circumvent the Constitution to harass anybody to treat anybody unfairly um quite frankly I don't really see it changing the way we do uh what we're doing from what we're doing right now um as I said at the other meeting I know there were some concerns about this increasing the call volume again I didn't see that as a problem um I was of the opinion that um someone that had an implicit or explicit bias that would call the police um would call the police on somebody with or without this ordinance um you know as I indicated at the previous meeting as well um we the police wouldn't be just acting on just the one act of touching a door knob or trying a door knob we would have to take it into F you know other factors would be uh looked at um like we like we do with the with the criminal charge um so uh you know I don't think there's any room for us to abuse it not that we would um we definitely wouldn't but I I I don't see um you know any issues with it is it um someone had said Double Jeopardy does this double jeopardy that that I that I don't know that would be a question for for the attorney um I'll I'll come back to that um question for you so when is this enforcable um somebody comes on to my property and I call the the police because they are jiggling the handle what happens in that scenario we would we would respond um and we would make our own observations um uh if the person was still on the scene um you know we would uh talk to that person and try to find out um if there was any reasonable explanation why uh um that person was doing what they were doing um we would take into account if there's a vehicle that was you know waiting for him if we we're going to run the plate if it comes back stolen that's a problem obviously um if it's someone that we've um encountered before because a lot of um these individuals we have um uh encountered on on numerous um occasions there's a you know a hundred things that we would take into account um before uh you know it's not going to be just you know the the action of touching a door knob or um uh you know jiggling a door handle or or being on somebody's property okay so if someone's actually arrested for again there's like I said hundreds of things 4:00 in the morning um you're wearing a ski mask in July um you know uh these are all things that we would take into consideration obviously right so if I'm actually arrested um for a car Breakin or um going into someone's home I'm assuming some police respond you end up catching uh the individual you then take him to him or her to Union County or Essex jail well we would take him to Sumer Police Headquarters first and and I'm assuming that we would have probable cause to the charge with the 2C criminal statute so at at some of police headquarters we would go contact the prosecutor get approval for any felony indictable charges um and then in addition to those uh the charges the criminal charges we would charge with the city ordinance violation now all those charges would then be sent to the county jail I mean a County uh Court including the um city ordinance violation now you asked about Double Jeopardy I can give you the the reverse of it how we have to operate when you charge a Bo of vehicle offense or a um a city ordance violation along with felony charges um those charges go to the to the county along um Al together to package and the idea of that is they don't want somebody coming into municipal court before they go to their uh court appearance in uni County and plead guilty to uh a minor charge that that there has been problems with that where that created a situation where it was Double Jeopardy now the County charges uh uh couldn't be um uh adjudicated or prosecuted um so that's it's actually the reverse of what you're asking I don't know about coming back the other way though um that's something that you have to ask uh um you know generally it gets the the all the charges are put together because un County prosecutor but I can tell you very often and the chief can tell you with this is that just give you an example people get you pull over somebody for um a serious motor vehicle violation no insurance no license maybe they're drunk around drugs they get a whole host of tickets um and I can tell you that the attorney because the attorneys that are representing whether it's somebody that you paid for or somebody that on you as a public offender they look for ways of minimizing those charges or dismissing them and one way of minim iing that happens very often is can they plead guilty to a municipal ordinance and make these other things go away well that's now part of the package at the prosecutor's office where they can then say well this is the first offense I'm going to have you plead guilty you're going to pay the fine or you're going to do community service it give it's one more thing that the prosecut Union County and they work in conjunction with your local courts too they don't work isolated because the local judge uh that's part of the the I guess it's a shared Court here yeah shared Court works with the head municipal judge who works with the assignment judge of Union County they all work together so this isn't going to be done in like silos they're done conjunctively um but I can tell that I'm sure the chief could tell you story after story where you've dealt when you were a police officer people pleading to Municipal ordinance violations that happens a lot with like big big parties and they'll say you know what I'll plead to a noise ordinance violation I the music was on too loud not the under serving underage alcohol it was a noise ordinance that's the type of thing where this when these all get lumped together it gives people that opportunity the goal here is is that these these um folks that are doing this you know if you can get them on the right path early on that would be a benefit and and I think that's what you're trying to do here is give the police and ultimately the prosecutors whether it's at Union County and then if Union County remands it they can also it they could say we're not going to prosecute this criminally we think we have problems on the 2C but you can handle it now at the the municipal ordinance level and then it's sent back so the chief is right it never goes first to Municipal and then up if it's sent back down to Municipal and the the person doesn't show up then the judge can issue a bench warrant for that person's arrest because they have failed to appear in Municipal Court but once it goes to the county it it goes there and they control the whole thing and then it gets pieced back down to the municipality I I think the question was Sir that um and it came up I think in our meeting today if um the uh indictable charges are dismissed or they're found not guilty and then they send back that's what normally happens well if they're found not guilty and that's sent up there then that would be double jeopardy they're not guilty they didn't do it so that would be you couldn't then repr but if the indictable charges are dismissed that's not a finding and so it can proceed municipally uh and that would not be double jeopardy okay but again that's we I you know we're counting on I think we all do we live in New Jersey we all count on our our local police the County Prosecutors the federal prosecutors I mean we have there's lots of different law enforcement people that are well trained and I think we all have faith that they're doing the right thing and helping us and so again we'll defer to them and clearly judges criminal judges at the county and uh the criminal um prosecutors of the county um will look at this and and they might call up and say hey we have a suggestion make this change that's when you could amend the ordinance okay does any other council member have a um question for the chief of police no okay any final thoughts comments just again it's a small step but it's a step in the right direction do you um regularly meet with the Interfaith Council yes okay all right thank you okay okay thank you I'm actually I'm going to May no would you like something I I'll finish if you like something to say I have I I have nothing to add actually um no everything that I would have said has been said and given the late hour I'll spare you um council president yes I don't think we heard from uh councilman palowski yeah look I don't have I don't have much to add um a lot of people have said a lot of things here tonight um where's the data that'll prove that this works maybe we're going to be the ones that create it right we can be exceptional in that way um and I just I really don't see a huge downside I really don't see any downside to it all the ways that it possibly could be um implemented I don't think it will be um I think to borrow councilman Miner's phrase that our our residents and our uh our police have announced a common sense the severability Clause if there's any provision of it that's not enforcable it's not going to be enforced and we can pass this tonight take a step in the right direction maybe make our town a little safer and um we can make revisions in the in the future if we think that they're warranted and if I may add you I don't want to speak on your behalf mayor but we had a conversation today after her meeting with the Interfaith Council and even just hearing all the conversations tonight Matt if we can memorialize your comments and say one if we pass this tonight we can go back with the community with everybody we've heard from tonight and amend this ordinance at a later date but if we do nothing tonight if you do nothing tonight or you attempt to change this right there's no ordinance so you guys vote and gets voted down or if somebody amends it you can't vote on it those will be material changes but at the very next meeting in two weeks from now if the council and the mayor want to make a change based talking to the chief of the Interfaith Council you then introduce an amendment that' be a first reading and then two weeks later it'd be passed so it always takes two meetings to amend or introduce and pass or amend and pass so you know every every meeting you could keep on amending this doesn't mean it's sounds to me and I'm not sure the word privilege it does sound like that is something that is important to the community and I would be amenable to taking that out if it was something I'm absolutely amenable to taking the word privileged out if that was something that um my colleagues were you know felt was important I think there's some things that people brought up some valid points but doing nothing tonight I mean you could easily change the word privileged to um invited right and I think that would be a good idea and and that's that's an easy thing to fix but you know that's not a problem at all I mean that to me um because privileged there's a legal connotation to it it's not we're not you know when that was put in that was in I think in the home de ordinance as well so privilege there's you know you have a privilege to enter it's not a privilege based on somebody's privilege it's being an invite into somebody's home or garage or place of business but I think you could change that word but that would be an amendment and you could do that next meeting thank you thank you okay any final thoughts before we all right so I just want to thank everybody for coming tonight um it's very emotional there's a lot of trauma that's happened in this community um whether it's long-term trauma or it's um near-term trauma with the increase in burglaries um I do not want to sacrifice progress for the Perfection but I do want to recognize that the interface Council came today and had a conversation with us the mayor myself um councilman Boyer the police chief um and we understand your concerns um I don't want to gloss over the fact that there is some language in here that could be um in your you know I don't want to say misinterpreted but if you feel that it's Broad and we feel that it could be misinterpreted we are absolutely um committed to working with you and sitting down over the next two weeks and amending um the ordinance for me um I believe that you know doing nothing is not an option I don't think that whether we didn't pass it tonight or we do pass it it isn't that we aren't doing something um but I do feel like I was part of the original conversation in 2022 and we looked at that ordinance and that ordinance had read um there was much of this in it but what we did take out at the time was that um it included if you you try to um touch door not door car handles sorry it's almost midnight uh car handles on a on a public Street and I said no way right we don't want anyone feeling like if they just walk by a car downtown and accidentally get in the wrong car because most of us have almost tried to do that I don't want anybody being targeted for that so we were thoughtful there were steps that we took um and so we are trying to make this happen so I agree that a year and a half later um I wish we had more dialogue and it's it's unfortunate that it was you know today that we had our meeting um but that's okay because you know what I believe it's a start for a conversation that I haven't had with you yet and we will continue that conversation because you are a part of our community and you're important us so um I support this ordinance I recognize the concerns I would my recommendation is going to be pass it tonight and then we get busy tomorrow with the um Interfaith Council and work on the wording um because I want everybody to know one that we are absolutely serious about safety but two you know we don't want to get it wrong either so if we pass something we can work on it because we need to be sensitive to the fact that there's context that we may not have you know um considered before our conversation today so that doesn't make it a bad ordinance it just makes it imperfect and we are willing to to work with you on that so um with that I'm going to close this hearing um and I'm going to ask for a roll call vote I should read the ordinance first you should read the ordinance first okay okay Madame clerk will you please read the ordinance um I think we have to also start with the first order that we oh yeah we do for final consideration we should Madame clerk please read the original ordinance for um consideration for final consideration uh ordinance 24- 3305 an ordinance to amend chapter 26 storm water management regulations of the code of the city of summit to add a new section 26-16 privately owned salt storage Madam clerk roll call vote please no no no oh you want oh councilwoman H council president from crime to storm water uh this is ordinance 24- 3305 as Rosemary just said amending chapter 26 stor Water Management regulations of the code city of summit to add a new section 26-16 having just previously heard this hearing I'd like to move this ordinance for final consideration Madam clerk roll call second I second thank you all right Mr Boyer yes Miss Hamlet I Mr migar hi Mr palaski I Mr Smallwood I president Allen I motion passes Madam clerk please read the ordinance uh 24- 3306 in ordinance amending chapter 3 police regulations of the code of the city of summit to add a new section 3-16 entitled resident protection councilman Boer yes uh can you please read the ordinance oh for final just move it for final consideration you can move it for final consideration without saying it move in ordinance uh 24- 3306 for final consideration second thank Madame clerk roll call vote Please Mr Boyer yes Miss Hamlet I Mr migar no Mr palaski I Mr Smallwood I president Allen I motion [Applause] passes is does anybody want to take a a break okay do you want to take yeah he want okay we're going to take a five minute break better hurry yeah calling my calling our meeting back to order okay um okay Mr so council president uh given the the late hour um the council my recommendation and the council can do this is to combine the remainder of the agenda including the consent agenda uh so you combine Finance items 1 through five Capital 1 through 10 Community programs law labor one and two the ministry of policies with a consent agenda um so you need a motion in a second anybody can talk about any of the items on the agenda and then I would recommend at that point um when it's ultimately time for a vote it'd be a roll call vote for the entire combined agenda excellent and then finally the one from the floor would come after that okay okay okay thank you Mr Jobe um so I would like to combine the entire the remain of the agenda of the agenda yep may I have a motion yes so moved okay a second second wonderful does anybody want to pull out anything to discuss do you have you can just discuss it actually okay should we make changes that one we had the one changes on a word on ours is that yeah that's fine so the one change in the word just so I I just want to note you had in um it was a typographical error in I I put it over here be through one second I'll read to it was in ID number 10896 authorized execution of memorandum of agreement uh for the CDL training it should be initial CDL license not renewal so that's just a typo so we that could be fixed so that that's part of this combined agenda three council president uh 10980 there's a scrier error in one amount listed that needs to be corrected scrier error yes 10980 the emergency temporary appr Appropriations for municipal operating budget okay um the amount of uh excuse me 760,000 one Tammy do you have that number that the correct one there yes through you council president um in the last piece of that resolution um it the whole resolution refers to 760,00 in the beginning both columns add up to that for um salary wages and operating expenses to the temporary budget but inadvertently the total um was 1,250 that should be 760,00 so it's just a scrier error that we need to change for the record so instead of 7603 no it needs to be 760 300 760,00 it should not read 1 million 250 okay thank you thank you that's what I have are are there any other Council comments one more quick comment on um one that Mr Boer or council member Boer was going to introduce um so when you did you want me to just make a comment is that is that Millennium strategies yep do do you want to do I can you don't have to introduce it because we just we combined everything so um you have a question no I just going to comment on it that it's um just make a comment unless you had a comment first no just uh the only thing I was going to say is that uh I approve of this resolution um Millennium strategies brought in $3.1 Million last year so I I uh I think the 42,000 that were paying them the share is well worth it so yep and my comment was going to say that but also that it was it was about 50% more than what it was the prior year so they're doing a great job for us and I really support it I'm actually extremely excited that Andy and I agreed on something and I'm writing this down as a as a first excellent okay any further Council comments no public comments okay I to do this no no it's okay just tell us which one yeah still clar to still little 11 Sunset I was just curious about the um the Mount Laurel committee where that's coming from what what that's about sure councilwoman Hamlet sure one second uh council president while uh councilwoman Hamlet is doing that I just want to mention uh resolution 11982 which is the uh Grant permission and set forth for the conditions for the summit Area YMCA Mother's Day um as a runner I'm just you know I I just wanted to to make that public uh the Mother's Day 5K event thank you Council resident um good luck with your 5K J um uh so resident had a question about resolution 10984 and if you don't mind I'll just read the resolution um real quick if it makes any sense it's one of the one that I actually did want to introduce uh it was announced at the last council meeting the city is proactively addressing the many facets of meeting our affordable housing obligation through the formation of several committees and working groups these groups in addition to City staff and hired professionals will be working to close out our round three aable housing obligations and prepare for uh round four which commences in 2025 the mayor announced that she'll be forming an affordable housing working group to elicit ideas and expertise from the public in addition our round three court agreement requires the formation of an affordable housing committee to meet annually that committee meets on Monday February 12th at 6 pm on Zoom to review the 2023 affordable housing activities the public is welcome and details can be found online tonight to address the confidential work that the city will need to carry out to prepare for the legal and other related Mar matters during this transitional year between round three and round four a Mount Laurel subcommittee is being formed by resolution for the advice of our city city solicitor and our affordable housing uh attorneys transparency was a commitment we made when taking office and while the subcommittee will work in confidence on behalf of the city residents it will strictly be an information gathering and policy position forming group that will result in recommendations to the common Council no decisions will be made by this group behind closed doors and recommendations made by the committee to Common Council will be done publicly as part of our continued commitment to meet our affordable housing obligation and then I was going to introduce the resolution excent any further public comments okay hearing none um roll call roll call vote oh roll call Madam clerk please roll call Mr Boer yes Miss Hamlet hi Mr Miner hi Mr palasky I Mr Smallwood I president Allen I motion carries okay okay um Council we have one from the floor yep yes um I would like to introduce introduce yeah introduce uh a numberless resolution uh that I'm assuming we'll get a number eventually y um New Jersey fair housing act or FHA as it's known along with judicial precedent govern the municipal affordable housing requirements um in New Jersey one one purpose of the FHA was to ensure municipalities uh measure of autonomy or home rule and to insulate them from developers seeking Builders remedies to try to compel them to capitulate to their zoning demands Summit has demonstrated its commitment to making low income and affordable housing available in Summit for over half a century uh long before it was required by legislation and or judicial decree Summit likewise has always fulfilled its obligations under the FHA voluntarily in line with its own vision and to preserve its own history and character Summit has faced challenges um regarding the potential impact of development on our infrastructure Summit nonetheless has remained compliant with its obligations under the FHA and will continue to do so in line with its master plan uh proposed assembly bill number 4/s Senate bill number 50 will remove protections afforded to municipalities under the FHA and this will result in summit's loss of home rule and the autonomy to control its own destiny um so for for these reasons and others that are uh set forth in Greater detail in the resolution the common Council of the city of summit objects and opposes assembly bill number four Senate bill number 50 requests that the bill be tabled Rewritten and reintroduced in a way that imposes achievable obligations and facilitates the ability of municipalities to satisfy those obligations we are moving this resolution um from the floor because the legislature could vote on A4 s50 in the very near future and before our next meeting on the 20th a second okay any Council comments than you council president go ahead um this is an immensely complex issue the bill that is mentioned in this resolution is 76 pages long and is still being worked on and can and amended uh from what I understand the league of municipalities is still working on our behalf negotiating to make this bill better um to address some of the concerns mentioned in this resolution uh I do have a problem with resolutions from the floor uh it diminishes the ability of the public to review ahead of a time what we're voting on if someone was extremely passionate about affordable housing issues and wanted to come speak their mind on something like this tonight they were given very little prep time compared to a normal resolution this wasn't in the packet on Friday like the rest of the agenda for that because it's a from the floor um so a rushing a resolution like this on something of this complexity is what I have a problem with not the larger intent of the resolution there's a hierarchy of what we have to do here on Council and I value transparency and a will informed public over a rush resolution that's all may ask a question council member Minar um when we when we were discussing this resolution did you let councilwoman councilman palowski uh know of your concerns about moving a motion from the floor uh abstain you're abstaining from my question are we allowed to excuse me through council president are we allowed to pull members of the council no you don't so nobody can ask you why you voted a certain way or what you thought of that mean you can you're free to say it but if you don't want to it would be obstain say I decline the answer yeah well I answer the question with the I answered my thoughts on this this resolution and how it's I believe it's rushing to the resol rushing to rushing to pass this when the the city could have been um the the the resident should have been informed about this so we could have done something earlier I mean I can tell you this at the state level though just so folks know this is being fast-tracked like you know it's a concern a lot of municipalities are having because of the speed upon which this is U being pushed through so um it's actually I think I think there's a highlight that if you waited to your next meeting in two weeks this might be law yeah uh council president I that was going to be my my question was was there a reason why we had to FasTrack this I mean I was on the emails and stuff but it wasn't like it was um our decision to kind of do that I mean outside Council they were going to these meetings you know they're giving us advice about what's going on in the assembly and this bill that the state is going that the legislature is going to vote on is happening fast faster than our next meeting so we had to um uh vote on this well move this resolution tonight right yeah so okay thanks this Thursday February 8th at 11:00 a.m. um the assembly Appropriations is voting um and so they're moving very fast it's actually on the bill list I'm looking at it right now um A4 reforms Municipal responsibilities concerning provisions of affordable housing and it abolishes COA an appropriate $16 million so because um Trenton is fast-tracking the bill what this um resolution does is it just says that we feel that they shouldn't do that um and you know councilman migar I appreciate that we all want public comment that's always the core of what we say um because the assembly and Senate are um not giving a lot of opportunity for municipalities actually I wrote some notes um the municipalities have not had any ability to weigh in on this um the unint you know we talk about unintended consequences this bill could lead to some detrimental Financial um situations for cities if it's rushed through without proper input um we're going to be left trying to figure out how we financially um can uh pay for if we have double our housing um responsibilities and it's not that we don't want to do affordable housing we're talking about affordable housing at every turn and how um we can make sure that uh we are properly planning this year we did the U Mount Laurel committee because we are trying to plan for next year already um last year I called to have the the attorneys come into executive session for affordable housing all year long the first action I did is I had the attorneys there because I feel like it's such an important um topic and it's important for our community that you know we've been we're already focusing on it so this appears to drastically increase affordable housing obligations by potentially doubling the amount of units to be built in each new development but what it does is it shortens the length of time that we have to meet our obligations for the third round so um the leue of municipalities is um a a state organization the league of municipalities that we all go to and participate in November who um you know they're the voice of all all of our towns um would like the language regarding legal protections for municipalities to be tightened up um to Shield the municipalities for Challen Alles for the next four uh 10year fourth round currently a municipality with a court approved plan was um we had immunity till July 1st 2025 and this bill shortens that so it kind of leaves all these towns um scrambling and unguarded so just in summary the process is rushed the stakeholders weren't consulted and the unintended consequences of the financial burden and potentially straining infrastructure um really opens towns up for litigation earlier than predicted and I know that um we are not talking about the the affordable housing that we're fulfilling per se for this year what we're saying is Trenton just slow down and when we were going back and forth um councilman migar and I had reached out to everybody on this Council to get their perspective and to ask them um you know what would you like to see different because this was a N9 page resolution and and uh councilman palowski spent the time to narrow it down into a concise and um digestible two pager with input from everyone on this Council um you know and I appreciate if you don't you know we're not looking for you to say to say that we shouldn't do this um but you know just profession customarily professionally it would have been nice for you to say that you wouldn't have even voted it at all through you council president um the question the question was from both from you and from council member palowski if I had any changes to their resolution and I absolutely did and um I see that he narrowed it down hugely which was fantastic the the resolution is is worded much better than it was originally this is completely on the fact that it's a from the floor vote it does lay out um it does lay out uh our the the city's this council's opinion on that on that that bill which is humongus which we didn't have a ton of time to read by the way um and uh the fact that it's from the floor fact that it's being positioned right now is something that is urgent and absolutely critical I think is not truly as important as letting people have um letting people have um the ability to read through and be able to respond properly so the reason I'm voting against this is because it's from the floor all right I appreciate it I just want to clarify the vote in Trenton is happening before our next meeting so if we didn't introduce it from the Florida we would have no opportunity to weigh in before the vote was um voted on councilwoman Hamlet well I was just going to say you know the public should we we can absolutely Dialogue on this we can Dialogue on it till 2: a. um the facts are that we took this from a nine-page document that our legal council drafted specifically urging uh all of us up here as elected officials to scream and holler that this should not be passed next week and the reason is right is laid out exactly in this resolution and the reason why we're moving something through the floor and can have dialogue up here till 2 a.m. is because it's this important we could have easily not had done nothing but this is going to get passed more than likely and we wanted to make very sure that we have said we are against this being jammed through as as elected officials it's our duty to do that prior to the next meeting we took a nine-page document we have the most succinct pieces of this and I feel passionately about passing this tonight yeah look all I would add is and and I said it when I when I read it the reason that we are making this from the floor is because it'll be moot by the next meeting if we don't so and again you just you know all all we're doing is you're just letting your legislators know that this is not something that the way they're doing it you're opposing it you're not commenting on affordable housing it's just the rust of what they're doing right and the impact it could have on you without being thoughtful because not all towns are all different you know C certain towns have very little affordable housing ability to develop and there's other towns I'm in one right now that has a 200 acre former Toys R Us site that's going to get redeveloped so if you 200 Acres you can imagine how many houses are going to go there and this is for me and we're going to we're going to dialogue about affordable housing all year um this is really about maintaining our local control and I I don't know business administrator rers would you like to weigh in because I know that oh no I my my only statement about rushing um I think this this is the whole point of this legislation is to rush it and they were trying to jam it down the legislators vote at least to get it passed by the in the lame duck session at the end of last year um we were hoping that it would die but the public should know that the state legislature has not spent the time with getting Municipal input at all and they listen to certain professionals uh that have made the trip down to Trenton to appear before committees but this bill has not been properly vetted so the fact that they're continuing to rush this is and this uh draft resolution came I believe on Friday so this is why it was not in the packet and we had a and and councilman P's uh credit and others that weighed in on this to try to get something together to get this before you this is a policy statement from this this governing body the public should look at that legislation and contact their legislators and contact the governor if it does pass to not sign it because it is not been properly Ved it is it is going to make it much more burdensome on municipalities to to try to effectuate something that they already have problems effectuating so this is your opportunity it's i i i there are times when yes mostly everything needs to be vetted and and the public should know about it but this is something that the public and summmer residents need to know about and they need to contact their state legislators and they need to contact the governor and that's what they need at this point do because this is probably up for a vote by the end of the week yeah may ask you a question through counc what communication did we give to the public about this tonight or the prior day or the prior day yesterday or or today because I I I don't think we did any at all council president um I not debating the C look there hasn't been anything presented to the public on the about this this Pro this topic is out out there and it has been out there for many decades but this this particular legislation has been out there for not so long and it is being it has significant consequences for this municipality so we've been talking about it we've acknowledged that affordable housing in this community is important um this is something where the council is making a statement and taking a position one way or another about a state legislation that's significant your position is also important because they need to know where it goes when you send these things down the trend I'll never know and whether it will have any impact we don't know but you're making a statement to the residents of summit tonight and that's your responsibility and whether they had an opportunity or not to to to know about this you're making the statement tonight so that's what's important I have to say I thought introducing it tonight was enlightening the or you know letting the public know because nobody does know because Trenton is sneaking through a bill so I felt like tonight I mean unfortunately it's almost midnight so um if it had been 9:30 at night more people would have known and hadn't more time to respond um but we'll put it up on the website and I hope that people do um contact their legislators so go ahead councilman um for future reference weever in a position where we are under the gun and working on a resolution that we're planning to make from the floor because agendas have already been put out could any one of us have made a post this is coming come and listen I I would say that I I wouldn't I wouldn't have generally what you do is you come through the mayor's office um and the mayor's office with your public your public your uh spokesperson spokesperson could put out a post or the council president's office that's what I'd recommend you do and you could say this is a a last minute addition to the packet it's not on the packet but do it that way and generally if it's something you know that's kind of minuscule that you know oh we have to buy a you know another backo it broke last night that's different this is this is something that you going to want to blast out to the residents so that they can call their state legislatures and put pressure but even even beforehand we could have I could have asked Lisa or Andy could have asked Lisa um could you put I'm not a big fan of having individual Council people do it because then then it gets so I think you what you'd want to do is have the council president and the mayor's office talk and then they put it out on behalf of the governing body this is out there that's probably that's a good idea but again this did this came out from Le municipalities on Friday right and and it wasn't you know the easiest thing to read Nine Pages governor and those I remember I'm going to add okay if you want to say that oh yeah yeah um well you want to say it can U Mr chobe I I thought we'd add to the end of the resolution that including the district 21 Representatives we also send it to the league of municipalities the governor and the um legislators who sponsored these bills is that correct y okay I will do that you need a roll call okay wait I just want to say thank you councilman migar actually oh no voice phot work yeah you know we've never had anything from the floor um so there was a sense of urgency on this and I appreciate you bringing it up because everything is a Learning lesson and so next time we'll make sure to work with communication um to make sure that we get it out because this is an important topic so um thank you all right roll call vote Please Mr Boer yes Miss Hamlet hi Mr no Mr palowski I Mr Smallwood I president Allen I okay okay mer carries um sorry let me go back to my we you can do a motion to adjourn are yeah can we just do a motion to I had this crazy idea it's called a maybe journ wait motion to ajour okay motion to adjourn second all right motion carries all right I was like you guys aren't going to want to talk midnight no less I know --------- I think you understand should good mhm okay I'll do a little harder I'd like to call this meeting to order Madame clerk please read the adequate notice 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 18th 2023 which was properly 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 deis and return it thereafter roll call please Mr Boer here miss Hamlet here Mr migar here Mr palowski here Mr Smallwood here Mr Varan president Allen here okay let's do the Pledge of Allegiance uh Chief Evers can you lead personel arms unit States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I would like to take a moment of silence um to recognize the firefighter in planfield that passed away and our and recognize our service so if we could take a moment of silence okay thank you may firefighter Hudson rest in peace thank you okay Madame clerk please read the explanatory notices regarding close session hearings and comments a Clos session meeting as authorized by state statute was announced and held prior to the start of this meeting and the known items for discussion were listed on the publish close session agenda please be advised that this council meeting is Broad live on Comcast channel 36 and Verizon channel 30 and rebroadcast on Thursdays and Saturdays on httv on Comcast 36 and Verizon 33 one invited to speak please come to the Lector CLE 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 her email a copy to the city clerk's office at city clerk at city of of summit.org to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers are asked to limit their comments to approximately 3 minutes or so in length unless you are using an electronic device to follow the meeting agenda or need it for professional emergency contact purposes please turn it off thank you thank you madam clerk approval of minutes do I hear a motion to approve the organization meeting of January 3rd 20124 and regular and close session meetings of January 23rd 2024 so moved do I have a second second all in favor I I any opposed motion carries okay on to reports Madame mayor thank you um earlier today members of The Summit Police Department held a Facebook live Q&A thank you to Chief zagorski Captain Peters and detective Lieutenant Medina for participating and to everyone who submitted a question or watched the session excellent information on current and upcoming Summit police initiatives and measures to improve home security were shared I appreciated hearing about the efforts being undertaken by police to prevent crime and C catch perpetrators and how we are working with other communities in the region and state the video is posted on the city of summit YouTube channel if you missed it and would like to view it also on YouTube My Weekly Mondays with the mayor video I provided an update on steps being taken to enhance and improve Public Safety it's also posted on the city of summit Facebook page and my mayor Elizabeth Fagan's Facebook page as well um I had the great pleasure of attending the Chinese New Year celebration at lcj smms put on by The Summit Chinese American Association this past weekend it was a wonderful experience um the event was uh members of The Summit Chinese American community and other residents and this weekend I will continue celebrating the year of the dragon at the summit free public library and the Summit YMCA more information is available on those events on the Y and Library websites and I encourage you all to uh join it's a really really incredible um presentation and cultural insight and registration is required for each of those events that's Saturday um so please visit the website to sign up and then lastly I just want to um announce that uh the Department of Community programs is putting together and has put together the first of its kind uh Black History Month celebration on February 20th it's an all day event for children and um there will be events for seniors in the afternoon as well thank you thank you administrator Rogers thank you council president good evening everyone uh I'll be brief uh the bike Depot installation is underway at the train station uh near the intersection of summon Avenue and Union Place uh this is a project that has been in the works for the past several years uh and we look forward to it being completed in the next month or two uh thank you to the New Jersey bike walk Coalition uh and the summit Conservancy for Grants to support the project and the Department of Community Services for your role in project management uh when complete the bike Depot will provide covered parking for up to 30 bicycles uh more information on the project will be shared by the city over the next several weeks and then uh the summer free market will be open this weekend on Saturday February 10th from 8:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the transfer station stop by and drop off any unwanted yard sale quality items and browse other donated items it's all free uh visitors are limited to 60 Minutes at each Summit free market event res residents must have a permit to access the transfer station to attend uh permits can be purchased online through the city of Summit parking services cityofsummit.org and that's all I have for this evening council president thank you thank you administrator Rogers okay as the mayor mentioned February is Black History Month and it's an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the rich history and Monumental contributions of our African-Americans to our nation and Community I must say that I'm very proud to lead a community that Embraces diversity and works tirelessly to ensure that everyone regardless of race and background can Thrive we're all committed to being active participants in the journey together um toward greater understanding unity and respect for one another on that note I also want to just recognize the summit Chinese Asian-American Community for inviting us um to the festive exciting and fun New Year's celebration every year it's become my favorite event um they have hundreds of people that go there the food is amazing and the dancing was truly um it was phenomenal so I just wanted to say thank they rolled out the red carpet for us so we felt very special so um okay uh February is definitely a big month so um hopefully everybody will check out the uh website and on to historical minute okay so speaking of culture councilman palowski has brought back the famous Summit historical minute would you like to share the details counc sure um I'm looking at the library website right now once upon a time when councilman Rob r served as council president he introduced The Summit historical minute at the beginning of each council meeting to encourage awareness of our City's Rich history this feature highlights people in places in Summit researched and presented by Summit High School students and residents so we'll be post um I'm hoping that the library will start posting them again uh if anybody wants to go to the uh to the library website they can see historical minutes from 2015 through 2019 um I been uh in touch with vice principal Aaron at the high school who is going to help line up uh students to do these although we could use some resident volunteers when school's out I'm not so sure any of the students want to come in then and um uh I guess it was also too short notice for tonight because councilman Boer will be giving our historic minute thank you councilman palowski as a councilman for the city of summit it is with immense Pride that I sit here before you today and honor an individuals whose life narrative is interwoven with the fabric of our great Community today we shine a spite light excuse me spite light on a true champion a decorated soldier and a Beloved Community member David Noel Morton born and raised in Summit David's tenacity and spirit were evident from his youth as he Summit Hilltop ER he became the first team All State football and played in the North and South game he was also the first team All State in track where he ran the 55 meter in 4X 200 the foundation laid down in his early days and the commitment towards excellence and dedication developed over that period in January of 2001 David took a courageous and patriotic step enlisting in the US Army infantry his journey was marked by valer and steadfast pursuit of Excellence attending Airborne school and earning his Airborne Wings in 2003 David stands among us as the only living two-time Purple Heart recipient from Summit a testament to his bravery and a reminder of the sacrifice made by our servicemen and women after his honorable service retiring as an inlisted Staff Sergeant David continued to serve by guiding new soldiers as the administrative school's Sergeant his selflessness dedication has left an remarkable mark on those who had the fortune to learn from him and those of us who benefit from his unwavering commitment to community and Country David's bravery and the sacrifice that earned him not one but two purple hearts stand as a beacon of heroism he reminds us daily of the boundless power of the human Spirit excuse me in Dave's own profound words love is the greatest form of motivation a true Soldier doesn't fight out of hatred for those in front of him but out of the love for those behind him it is this sentiment that encapsulates David Morton a man who fights with love lives with honor and inspires with his very being I now ask you all to take a moment to join me in a round of applause for an amazing Hill topper and someone who who I affectionately call my big brother David Morton thank you council president I'm sorry that was a little emotional for me uh thinking about what what David went through in in Iraq and his service to this country was remarkable thank you thank you thank you very much for sharing that story and actually I didn't realize he was your big brother and actually I just want to say love is the true form of what was that line love is the true form of well he's not my big brother but figuratively fig brother I know spirit I know yeah um no I don't know the end of that line I'm okay oh no you you said there love is the true form of something in your speech of what of motivation I'm writing that down it's important everybody's listening that was a test council president love love is the greatest form of motivation thank you thank you counciler okay um moving on to safety and health councilman Boer please introduce your resolution yes I would like to introduce resolution uh 1099 three uh the appointment of a probationary firefighter Tyler kid I'd like to move this for adoption second okay great Council comments okay public comments okay uh Madam clerk roll call please Mr Boer here miss Hamlet hi Mr migar I Mr palowski I Mr Smallwood I president Allen I okay motion carries uh Chief Evers and mayor Fagan please perform the swearing in thank moment recognizing people in the audience appreciate the chat for supporting us also a couple retired members deputy chief Don Nelson Balian Chief Joe down from Vermont and also firefighter M and also Council appreciate um the support Staffing operation we appreciate support for Staffing so that all turn today one day I'm GNA actually get this right give me a couple minutes um okay so Tyler kid became a volunteer with the summit Fire Department in June of 2023 and served in the volunteer divisions chemical engine company number one Tyler has completed firefighter 1 and two he has been an active member of the chadam volunteer fire department since 2018 Tyler holds several safety certifications incident command systems 100 and 200 National Incident Management Systems hazardous materials responder level 1 and two hazardous materials operation Corp hazardous materials awareness vehicle rescue operational level Machinery rescue awareness Ops and Tech technician levels fire safety and survival rapid intervention crew Ops congratulations Tyler on your appointment to Career firefighter with the summit Fire [Applause] Department chief ever do we have anyone to take a photo I don't oh I oh there's I see you okay a little bit closer to the mic right hand on the B Just Right repeat after me I Tyler kid do solemnly swear I Tyler kid do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and that I will bear true faith and Allegiance and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established and to the governments established in the united states in the United States and in the states and in the state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people I do solemnly swear I do solemnly swear that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties of the position of pro probationary firefighter of the position of probationary firefighter according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me gu so help go congratulations [Applause] yeah for those who W here last time meeting we also exploring brother go ahead oh absolutely you want to speak oh okay we're going to take a recess for a minute just to let everybody leave the room give them a minute who wants to leave you can stay stay probably damy when I look at you you're supposed to smile I was like oh no yeah all right yeah I'll take that thank you I'll put it on my working chair um yeah you're just you're gonna um just yeah we're just adding um the shade tree liaison to Economic Development oh is that what we're doing oh is it already on there oh yeah yeah so we just it just um through as we do Economic Development I think it's important to kind of keep an eye on I he didn't say he wasn't I think you know what I but I met Jamelle is when you said my older brother like it just choked me out kind of like I want to so we'll change in the morning I didn't know you had an old brother all right should we you know okay we good just call everybody to order again [Music] okay we're going to call everybody to order again okay okay all right next I'd like to welcome director Amy bear Shields and president Jim Flashman who will be giving a presentation for Summit Public's Library 150th anniversary our library is a wonderful resource for kids and adults alike and has done a wonderful job evolving and Reinventing as times change thank you for both of your service and what you bring to our community we're looking forward to your presentation tonight and I thought it was really appropriate to bring back historical minute on the night that you're here so thank you come on up yeah uh good evening my name is Jim fleshman I have the privilege of being the president of the library trustees uh as Lisa said we are celebrating our 150th anniversary we've put together a short video uh highlighting some of the key points in the library's long history and our director Amy bear Shields we'll make some very short introductory comments then we'll show you the flick hi thank you Jim uh my name is Amy be Shields I'm the director of The Summit free public library I'm honored to be before you today to present you with a brief video history of the library celebrating 150 years of informing enriching and inspiring our diverse Community I just want to say a quick word of thanks to the Friends of the library um who supported the creation of the video httv for filming the video um our library staff member Tom who wrote directed and edited the video The Summit Historical Society for helping us to find images and the all the staff at the library who work to find images and information that brought this video together so without further Ado nestled in the heart of Summit New Jersey the summit free public library has been a Cornerstone of learning inspiration and connection for the residents of this Vibrant Community for 150 years hello my name is Amy bear Shields and I am the director of The Summit free public library join us as we explore the rich history of the library and how it has grown from its humble beginnings in a rented room to the modern multifaceted institution it is today in 1873 long before Summit had a public library there was an organization of women who delighted in reading and sharing books together let's picture a meeting of the ladies book club of summit under the leadership of their GI Ed president miss Joanna Matthews an author of children's books they enjoyed keeping up with the latest novels and Classics and at one of their meetings the suggestion was made that Summit might be ready for a circulating Library a group of citizens met in December 1873 and on January 10th 1874 they formed the summit Library Association the first Board of Trustees was headed by William Z learned and included several members of the ladies book club their husbands and Jonathan benell son of crane benell who originally acquired most of the property in Summit before it was founded and persuaded the Morris and Essex railroad to pass through the area the books were first kept in Dr William risk's small frame house on Springfield Avenue at that time Dr risk was the only physician in Summit the library was first open for only 2 hours each Saturday afternoon in 1878 the library moved to across the street to the new school building which later became Summit City Hall at this time responsible persons who were not stockholders were allowed to pay 15 cents a week to borrow a book in its first four years the library collected over 700 volumes the first building was completed in April 1891 this building is now home to the summit Playhouse one of the oldest continuously operating Community Theaters in the United States in 1893 the trustees announced that the library would be a free public library open to all residents and in 1901 the library became a tax supported Municipal Building operating under the New Jersey library statutes notable figures gave readings and lectures at the library including Francis Hopkinson Smith who designed the foundation of the Statue of Liberty and Henry van Dike who was later United States ambassador to Luxembourg both of them were also authors who wrote dozens of short stories novels and travel logs in 1907 two of the St sisters among the most significant political figures in China in the early 20th century came to Summit for school just across from the library at the M Clara Barton powin School summit's first professionally trained librarian Louise Morris said the library was evidently a great boom to the St sisters changling was a great reader Ming's book selection ranged from Peter rabbit to Dickens but cheaply she just loved to just drop in to see what I was doing in 1942 Ming then known as Madame Chang Kai Sheek first lady of the Republic of China wrote a telegram which was read at the summit dinner for United China relief stating to all good Summit people including my schoolmates at Miss powin with whom I skated picniced and cut paper dolls I sent affectionate and wistful greetings under the influence of civic-minded leaders it was decided that a larger Library should be built in a more central location the summit Homeland company representing the benell family donated a piece of land two blocks from the railroad station Andrew Carnegie offered $166,000 for a new library building which was later raised to 21,000 through one of Carnegie's personal friends Summit resident William Lyle the building dedication occurred on May 30th 1911 the impressive interior featured a bright spacious Dome a large Central desk and bookstacks with tall Windows Story Hour for little children became a regular feature of the library's work a tradition which has since continued at the summit library for over a 100 years and the original plaque from the Carnegie building still stands outside the library today in the early 1960s the library faced a challenge that was similar to the one it encountered during the construction of the Carnegie Library a lack of space to accommodate its rapidly growing collection it became evident that the summit Library needed a new home in 1961 400 dedicated Town's people enrolled as members of the committee for a new Summit Library this committee worked tirelessly to convince the local Council to approve a bond issue for the new library after 2 years of advocacy the council approved the bond issue on January 19th 1961 the original committee disbanded and its members formed a permanent group called friends of the summit Library construction of the new library was completed in January 1964 and the staff under the leadership of then director Miss James Scott McClure grew to 17 full-time employees the dedication ceremony took place on May 2nd 1965 with two charer blossom trees in full bloom which had grown up in front of the Carnegie Library in the following decades the summit Library became a Vibrant Community Hub hosting numerous events such as school related visits film showings magician performances preschool story hours and puppet shows patients from Overlook Hospital visited the library annually to enjoy morning coffee and view exhibits showcasing their work in arts and crafts as technology evolved the library embraced new resources in including microfilm readers in the 1960s computer terminals in the 1980s and eventually offering public access to the internet in the 1990s CDs and videos were added to the collection and patrons could search the card catalog by computer in 1996 under director Glenn deit there was a capital campaign to raise funds for an expansion and renovation of the library 1.3 million was raised in part with a community production of The Music Man construction began in October of 1997 the library building reopened in March of 1999 in 2013 under director Susan peros the library embraced the digital age during her tenure of the libraries expanded patrons access to ebooks e audio books and online databases and offered streaming services and virtual events the youth services room was renovated and popular new programs were added such as concerts in the Rotunda and the explore your world lecture Series in the 21st century the summit free public library has continued to innovate and expanded services collaborating with local schools businesses and organizations the library has become a hub for cultural and educational events such as art classes craft workshops author talks Lunar New Year celebrations and much more for 150 years the summit free public library has stood is a testament to the power of knowledge and the importance of community and has evolved to meet the Ever Changing needs of patrons the library has remained a constant source of inspiration learning and connection for generations of summit residents as we look to the Future the summit free public library will undoubtedly continue to evolve and adapt embracing new challenges and opportunities but one thing remains certain the library will have an un wavering commitment to provide the people of summit and neighboring communities with excellent resources programs services and of course books thank you for joining us on this journey through the library's history as we celebrate a cherished institution that has informed enriched and inspired the lives of so many thank you that was fantastic um did you want to say any last words before we move on no we look forward to cting make sure you have a library card yeah thank you now it's you've done a phenomenal job so we really appreciate it okay thank you for your presentation tonight okay um we are going to move on to public comments and um as we begin the public comment portion of the meeting I'd like to ask when you come to the lecturn please state your name and your address to the clerk we also ask that you limit your comments to 3 minutes um we have a full house tonight so we're hoping that we get to everybody and everyone has the opportunity to speak public comment is a valuable opportunity for everyone um I broke the rules two weeks ago and I was engaging in conversation and public comments um that's my typical nature but it really is public comments so when you come up um if you have any questions just be sure to um email them to cityclerk cityofsummit.org and we will get back to you um so I'm going to open up public comment um please remind you to say your name your address and try to keep it around three minutes I know everybody wants to speak who's coming up first hello Council my name is Philip Angelo 104 bolt theol Road in Summit 30-year resident and also a business business owner in town I wanted to comment on the closure of Maple Street from a resident uh perspective uh I don't think it's a great idea it clogs traffic uh to main thoroughfare going through the town a lot of residence it's a hassle and it just it's just not a great idea from a business perspective being in the town for 30 years I think it's just the amount of rent that I pay from a business owner and the the square footage that I have allows me to service so many people and I have tables that I'm paying for when other business owners get that same um accommodation for no cost it just uh it's an unfair advantage to some of the other local business owners so to um satisfy a few many are suffering on a business standpoint so that's all I have to say thank you thank you good evening Carlos my 23 Stockton Road just wanted to underscore some uh some of the similar points Mr Angelo made of course his being from a business owner in town has a lot of uh of credence um I have a quick statement here that I wrote good evening I'm here to ask the common Council to use common sense and vote against closing Maple Street uh and vote against closing Maple Street for obvious reasons it is nothing more than an encroachment on public space for the benefit of few businesses that get an unfair Advantage at the expense of others while increasing risks of traffic and pedestrian safety congestion on roads and sidewalks pose safety risks for both drivers and pedestrians and add barriers to emergency vehicles it is simply not worth limiting Maple Street's accessibility by making it harder to navigate the area please vote no no thank you is anyone else coming up okay I assumed everyone was here hi hi um so I'm Dylan Baker 72 Dale Drive Summit New Jersey resident also business owner Summit House in Barbacoa 10 Maple Street and 395 Springfield Avenue um obviously I've been very involved with the closure of Maple Street from the beginning uh during covid an incredible Lifeline to the businesses uh that operate the restaurants that operate on Maple Street um I have to say that we had a really great beta test of this closure for three years and it worked great there's been surveys that have been done over 80% approval rating of residents in town 80% % approval rating for a seasonal closure um I'm here to say from a business perspective I was flat this year we don't see some huge windfall Financial windfall of the closure of Maple Street I can't speak for the other restaurants but we were dead flat this year without the closure versus the year before uh I am here as a resident and on the front lines of it to tell you I hear people every day when's that closure coming back when can we do outdoor dining again we loved it it's so great for the town it brings everybody together it's great for the community over and over and over again you know we love doing it we love seeing everybody gathered together I'm part of the community part of the reason we started the restaurant is because we're in the community and saw a need you know I still see a need I see a need for outdoor dining in Summit a place where people can gather Maple Street has been tested it's been vet Ed it works it works for the police it works for the fire it works for the five restaurants operating there that are full service it doesn't work elsewhere it works on Maple Street we have a track record and I'd like you to look at the last three years do an actual survey see what the town's response is you know it's been done once it was done by another Council if you'd like to do it again I'd strongly encourage you I'm almost sure you'll come up with the same set 70 80% approval rating for a seasonal closure on Maple Street thank you thank you congratulations to the new members on Council my name is carolan Klein and I live at 130 Pine Grove Avenue I am the only person in the city of summit who is who works at the intersection of Maple Street and Union Place my company which is Christie's International real estate is about 50 ft wide in their rental space and the whole front of our building is glass my personal office is just inside the lobby and I have a glass wall in front of my desk having worked there for the Last 5 Years all of these last spring Summers we've been we've allowed um eating in the middle of the street uh except for last summer I have seen the most atrocious things happen uh this is not being uh for or against the restaurants by the way it's a question of safety for me I happen to be a realtor who's there in the office every day and I see cars going West on Union playes who try desperately to get through the little opening if you if you are acquainted with that space when the orange barricades are up there's a little space that's open for cars to go up Maple Street and to go not quite sure what it's called but there is a section between the two buildings where you can go in and park your car I happen to have a lease space there so I have seen cars desperately trying that mostly I think cars don't know drivers don't know which way to go in front of my building probably twice a day which is 47 Maple Street by the way in front of my building probably twice a day there are huge trucks dropping off I'll call them Goods to the restaurants to 47 Maple which has doctors and lawyers and in fact Christies so a lot of boxes FedEx you UPS Etc are dropped off and when cars are trying to get around that intersection uh it's um uh I think it's a serious and a dangerous problem the other thing is when cars are going West on Union Place uh they go around the historic caution light and go back the other way going east on Maple Street so if you can picture what I'm talking about it is really a serious problem again I'm not against the restaurants but I will say quickly that we have two new stores on Maple Street both of which probably would welcome um uh foot traffic my company would certainly welcome foot traffic we have lob and we have um I forgotten the name of the other uh nice shop on Maple those thank you cannibal cannibal and Company and uh they would love I'm sure foot traffic we also have other shops on on Maple which would uh be restricted for food uh foot traffic so and another the last thing to think about is of the streets which go from our Main Street Springfield Avenue or uh all the way up to Ashlin Road there are only two one is Maple and the other is Summit Avenue so that's my view about the danger of it and it's the it's not about the number of cars it's really that cars drivers don't know which way to to go thank you thank you council president um if I may I I know we're not going to talk back and forth but is there a possibility that we can put some of her comments into a Dar I think she brings up two important points one is uh the trucks that are putting deliveries there and as well as she presented safety concern so should we move that to a d Rosie during the meeting I think there's some important one can go to my committee and maybe one could go to safety for tonight's discussion no not for tonight but just so we have it so we mark it down your discretional y thank youc president go ahead do Dr requests have to be put in writing or are they okay being requested during the meeting just just making sure we follow what we they can be requested during the the meeting by a council person great thank you sorry thank you my name is Bill schneller I'm the retired police chief 43 years of service with the city of summit now I'm not here to talk about outdoor dining my field was Public Safety I just can't fathom closing Maple Street and reducing a public safety option because there's only two as the lady before me pointed out Summit Avenue and Maple Street are the only ones that run from south of Broad Street into the CBD once you reduce that option you reduce the options for the police the fire and the rescue squad especially if there's multiple catastrophes you just can't hypothesize that there's not going to be any problems or any catastrophes in the central business district and with that in mind how could you possibly CH close off an option to continue traffic on Maple Street it to me I would hate to think of someone getting hurt or worse because the rescue squad couldn't get into a certain spot or the fire department couldn't manipulate and the police department would have the least amount of troubles because of our equipment being smaller but it is a public safety issue and you have to realize that this is not a party animal thing this is not whether you want to eat outdoors it's whether you want to continue the safe flow of traffic in the central business indust here thank you hi my name is Brienne Tamaro palcio I live at 84 windship Road Summit technically Heights Township I'm a business owner in Summit um my business I wasn't planning on speaking but I feel compelled to I own number 18 Boutique at 44 Maple Street um right where we were just speaking about and I have to say from a business perspective and from a safety perspective it's been incredibly um difficult for us there are you know trucks that are parked there all day long you can't see I've almost gotten hit multiple times times in the crosswalk um and I'm not even allowed to pull in front of my own store I've been now there for 10 years um in that location 7 to drop stuff off without getting a ticket but there are cars parked there all day um I have people that come in the store that ask me over and over again oh my this is such a great store how long have you been here and I'm like 10 years and they're like I've never seen this store and I'm like that's because the road was closed for so many years the last thing I would ever want to do is you know um hurt the restaurant business um I happen to be friends with both restaurants I grew up with the bis um I'm a big fan of fiorinos and the summit house and I want everyone to win but I just don't think that it makes sense to close the street again I need people to drive by and see it my business personally has been up 100% this year that's not all related to the street being open it has a lot to do with other things we've been doing but having foot traffic and having people being able to drive down the road has been an immense help and I don't think that it makes sense to close it again um and I have to ask one last question when we move the firehouse to the new location will that make a difference you know if the route even makes sense if people can access everywhere in town if there was an emergency so I think there has to be a better solution thank you thank you Rosemary Z shike Road hundreds of people enjoy the outdoor dining on Maple Street but thousands of summit residents and taxpayers are inconvenienced I supported the closing of Maple Street to help the to help help our restaurants during the pandemic but the pandemic is over the issue now is safety I'm going to repeat something I said at a previous council meeting about the summit prominade on Springfield Avenue it wasn't always an open space there was a building there and that building caught on fire the fire trucks came through Maple Street to get to the front of the building on Springfield Avenue the police came through the alley on Maple Street to get to the back of the building it was retail on the ground floor and residential tenants on the second and third floor there was at least a dozen pieces of equipment including three aerial fire trucks that fought the blaze one tenant had had to be rescued from her third floor window after the rescue the fire went out of control and completely gutted the building's interior we pray nothing like that happens again in Summit but there are many residential tenants in our downtown this is a real safety issue that we all should be concerned about our streets are for cars and emergency vehicles not tables and parklets thank you thank you hi Bonnie Morrison 24 rotary Drive uh I'm actually doing some edits on the Fly here but uh one thing I wanted to talk about in relation to Maple Street is the whole concept of seasonal clo closure everybody likes to talk about how everybody agrees on seasonal closure but the one concept that we haven't gotten on that is just how much time does a seasonal closure represent uh the SDI commission survey apparently gave the following options when for closure always seasonally weekends special occasions and never no no specific dates mentioned about 80% of the respondents approved of always and seasonally but nowhere in the presentation is there an indication of what date span constitutes seasonal despite this the Consultants recommended a seasonal closure from May 1st to October 15th shortly after this presentation was made in this chamber in December 2022 then council member now council president Allan created an informal non-scientific survey online that included date spans of potential seasonal closures 65% of the 324 respondents selected dates falling between Memorial Day and Labor Day only 8% selected the May to October time frame while 27% said never meanwhile the letter the restaurant sent out this week to their patrons said that any closure less than April 15th through October 6 and 12 months would not be worth their investment in staff and equipment so while it's fair to say there is support for a seasonal closure it's clear that there is no consensus or common understanding of how long a seasonal seasonal closure would be if Council decides to pursue this the first step really should be to conduct a more meaningful survey to determine what the definition of seasonal closure is to the residents that are in favor of it if it turns out the majority chooses a summer only closure or a Dura duration less than 6 months that the restaurants say is required for them then we'll know and we can move on from this issue thank you three council president sorry uh this is a place I would think a d may be useful requesting a survey by the city sure just discussion I don't know who what committee that would be thank you yeah absolutely probably cap I think yeah safety okay safety or no the time frame would be cap yes right the safety would do um the the alleyway between the that goes to Maple come on up sorry hi Rich gupo s Veil mway first I want to congratulate all the new council members nice to see everyone and in all the new faces and just again about the safety issue as retired Chief Schnell said to block off Maple would really be a safety issue I know I have on Veil Mount way have a couple seniors alone and I know Mr Coffee at 11 uh vilmont way wanted me to bring it up that he gets so nervous just to even go to CVS when the when the Maple Street is closed because there's so much traffic on Summit Avenue so I just want to go over what everyone said that's all thank you thank you a nice night and I forgot to ask if anybody brought a statement um you could give it to clerk lies here or email her at cityclerk cityofsummit.org I bought a statement okay I just put it is that more than three minutes I just put it together is that part of my three minutes yeah no it [Laughter] is it can't happen in Summit it can happen if there's outside dining on Maple Street and it can last summer a man passed out in a truck and drove into the summit house I mean Summit Diner Summit Diner I pictured that man at the beginning of Maple Street when there's dining passing out 60 M an hour to the forest it can happen don't say it can't happen it can uh you you probably have guessed I am not in favor of outside Downing on Maple Street I'm in favor favor of keeping it open for cars and trucks vehicular traffic I think we've heard a lot about that and as Rosemary said Rosemary's aie not not this Rosemary the clerk the great clerk um the pandemic I think there was support for for for that we felt Let's help our restaurants that's over with the pandemic is over we had a pandemic uh opportunity because the restaurants couldn't use their their entire restaurant had to be so far apart it made sense it doesn't make any sense anymore the the Maple Street as several people have said is one of two north south major roads would you close Summit Avenue the other major road you wouldn't because it's a County Road and the county wouldn't permit it we can't do that I I I thought there must be some Authority for this that and it there is the summit master plan IT addresses four things in the master plan that relate to Maple Street and conclude that you can't have dowy on a street where there should be trucks and cars number one these are objectives of the master plan to promote the free flow of traffic obviously dining six months out of the year on the one of two main arteries is not the free flow of traffic number two the channel traffic through and to Major streets right now that flow is into Maple Street this would would absolutely be a violation of this objective three to provide adequate parking and adequate loading and unloading areas do I have to say more if allall the parking would be removed there would be no loading or unloading and what where would they be on someone else's property that's running a business they would have trucks in front of a house I mean a business outside Maple Street and then bring things in another violation and the fourth one is probably the the greatest to relieve traffic congestion in the crbd to relieve traffic condition Maple Street does that and something has happened the last two years that it's made downtown more congested with all due respect to the fire department they're they're they're the best they took 200 parking spaces 200 to build the firehouse on a on a parking lot that was used for non-residents I was on the parking committee I with with Steve Pari when that was planned before it was approved we went to the mayor the part the uh parking director was on medical leave what are you going to do with those 200 people they have to go back to their place of origin not so they moved into the garage that was built for residents employees and commuters Summit commuters and it's packed at quarter and nine every every day packed to relieve traffic congestion this would not relieve it this would be a tremendous substantial in increase in parking at downtown that's almost gridlock during the day I forgot to tell than my name is G waren 45 Wallace Road and my business is on Beachwood Road I forgot to say that and to congratulate you on your elections thank you the I I'll wrap this up I'm sure more than three minutes I like outside dining but not on the second busiest Street North and South downtown thank you thank you thank you thank you g Deja Vu uh Janie rackin 29 Maple Street uh third generation Summit resident family moved here in [Music] 1906 uh did they go to the library I remember I remember the old library I I know Jane McClure was a customer of ours but I don't know the uh the Asian ladies um I've spoken here several times before on this subject and my opinion has not changed the potential closure of Maple Street in my opinion reeks of favoritism towards restaurants is the plan meant to include all businesses on our street being able to set up tables and racks this should this could be problematic because small shops will have to bring their merchand merise out and in every day and most likely have to hire more help to keep an eye on things inside and out by closing Maple Street you're putting an unbeliev an unbearable amount of traffic onto Summit Avenue which is already difficult to navigate by closing Maple Street you are limiting and hindering emergency access to our properties and pedestrians by closing Maple Street you are making it difficult for rep maintenance and delivery vehicles to get to us we do not all have back doors by closing Maple Street you are disturbing the peace of the residents who live there dining Outdoors may be quaint and Charming but not on the major thorough fair that Maple Street is thank you thank you hi hi Michael dasta 100 uh Blackburn Road Summit um so I just came here tonight because my wife said why don't you come down they're going to talk about Maple Street you might have an interest in what they're saying so I don't own a business I don't have facts and figures no pieces of paper with a statement here just a resident who's lived in Summit for 20 years has enjoyed being downtown um glad you showed the library thing tonight because it shows how vibrant downtown can be when unique experiences are provided downtown um closing the Street downtown makes it unique people have talked about how how vibrant summon has been over the last three years um since Co well that's because people are downtown they're sitting down they're eating and again I'm not in favor of the restaurants or whatever I just like the foot traffic as an architect an urban planner this is what most towns want to do throughout the United States the fact that we're debating this because of Public Safety this is not unsurmountable there are studies that you can do the barriers are temporary New York City closes down Time Square if there's ever been a threat about closing down a downtown environment from a public safety standpoint nothing is bigger than that one and they found a plan to figure it out traffic yes that's a concern but I don't think any of us here would want to live on a highway so why do we want to speed up traffic in our downtown I walk downtown I'm actually would like traffic to be slower I have young kids who have almost been hit by cars so I don't want people to go any faster than they're already going today downtown um that's pretty much it again I'm not in favor of closing that street down all year round but I do think someone brought up the the idea of having a conversation about what seasonally is I I think having restaurants down there having music down there is great having foot traffic down there is great I think the Lights downtown and having people move around just makes it feel safe and more vibrant if you look around downtown there's not a single business that's got a For Lease sign on it why do you think that is it's because it's vibrant that was not has not always been the case in my 20 years in Summit so thank you very much thank you hi uh my name is Bruce thuroff I own a building at 26 Maple Street um and we've owned that building and it's been in a family for probably 75 years um not sure why this issue is even on the table anymore after the West BR uh Broad Street debacle and all the problems the town had before the last in my opinion illegal closure of Maple Street um here it is again that we're sitting here and debating this thing that being said uh I understand that the council said that they looked into other street closures as well if you decide to go forward and I'm and I'm dead against it being closed at all um you should take Union Place Beachwood Summit Avenue and Maple Street and close each one on a rotating basis so each Street uh closes only o only closes one every four years and you're fair to all the other restaurant tours in town why should the street be closed down at all but if so it should only be closed from July 1st to Labor Day uh it's not it's it's and it's not the concern of anyone else who and how much a vendor has to pay for equipment uh themselves uh of outdoor furniture Etc the cost of do it's a cost of doing business don't want to invest the dollars to do the business don't serve outside um as an alternative maybe the summit should look at the park got beautiful park over there they could build an outdoor uh food court with possibly an open air tent the restaurant tours in town could buy a food truck or have a food truck uh or they could bring their facilities uh over there on a rotating basis they could pay a Fe to use it and and it's open to everyone and we don't close any roads I mean that's a way to look at something like this they do it for the movies for for the town and and uh and shows over there well what my might as well have outdoor dining in a park too keep everybody in one same one one area be safe police are over there and we don't close the roads um the uh if if that were the case the town could buy the equipment tent Etc and make it available to all food Enterprises and require a general fee to cover their cost and charge it directly to the participating restaurant tours landlords landlords need need the driveby visibility for our tenants this is a mush for leasing refinancing maximizing rents and business volatility it's our investments at stake and it's not up to some third-party popularity contest with people that have no stake in our investment lastly anyone associated with advancing this this agenda should consider that maybe if something happens God forbid uh and it can happen just like it did in the summit uh Diner and and different places maybe they should look at the liability themselves who who pushed this thing I mean is the council the the fire department if they approve it the police department if they approve it they say there's no problem by the way I'm not even sure if they last time it was stated that that they they just saw no problem in this did they put it in writing and and submit it I'd like to see it in writing if that's what they're going to say because we've had ex retired police officers and and and uh fire people here saying that it it's a real safety issue now I don't know how you can say it isn't so you know I'm I'm hoping that this Council finally puts an end to this or sees an alternative that's fair to everybody and seasonal Jesus April 15th I think the last one was uh until o until October 30th why don't you do a study on how many people were out there uh and on April 1st until maybe the middle of May or the or labor or Memorial Day and see exactly how many people were there and how many people were in the restaurants or how many vacant seats and tables were at the restaurant because they certainly if you didn't have the outdoor uh uh uh dining they'd be inside and and and people having a fire pit in November with two chairs out on on Maple Street in front of uh uh what is it the summit so I mean it was ridiculous when you see something like that and they're closing off a major artery where's the common sense thank you thank you I'm just going to take a quick opportunity come come um to let everybody know this is in committee um councilwoman Hamlet is looking at it in cap I'd like to have everybody come and make comments um I'm the lucky winner yeah um and I will have you give an update uh councilwoman Hamlet but absolutely hey how you doing Irwin Miller five Knob Hill Drive um I don't have a strong feeling about it but I'm Pro closure I guess I mean I'm open to other locations or whatever but this seems like it makes the most sense and attracts people outside Summit to come spend their money in Summit so let's not forget that people um and that is a goal here to attract people to spend money in Summit it also affects other businesses in town so you know I don't know the local you I can't speak to every business but I would imagine people from outside Summit coming to SU to spend their money in Summit is a good thing um additionally with regard to the safety issue which is important I don't you should talk about it in the committee but you know how we close off the whole street could we just like keep like an opening in the middle or on the side that is large enough for an emergency vehicle to pass through so if there's an emergency situation that vehicle can simply pass through I think that would just be a few fewer tables you know talk to the summit guy if having a few fewer tables would allow him to still operate if so you could still have emergency vehicles pass through and that seems like a very simple solution to the problem that people are complaining about with regard to traffic this guy brought up a great point I'm not sure why everyone wants like Fast traffic in town like then we don't want slower traffic in town so doesn't seem like such a big deal also I think we could try it for a year without the co situation and see how it actually plays out um so I think there's a lot of reasons to try it again and do it uh with if we could do some sort of like pass through situation where an emergency vehicle could pass through which seems relatively simple to solve so if we come up with Simple Solutions and instead of fear mongering and complaining about whatever you want to complain about I think that would be a good solution so that's it thanks is there anybody else uh hi Brandon Sternberg Ford Dale Drive I wasn't planning on speaking about um Maple street closure I didn't know this was you know a lot of um emphasis on this um but I just wanted to say I think we should really think about coming up together with a great solution I think a lot of people are attracted to Summit because of outdoor dining I absolutely love it it's what me and my wife and our friends look forward to um in the summer our friends come to Summit to outdoor um for outdoor dining and I really think what we really just need to think about safety is one of probably one of the most important considerations um but there has to be a solution and I think we could try and accommodate everybody and whether it be a survey to see what broader people think um you know just across the community um I think it's a great idea um but just wanted to emphasize that you know a lot of I'm due to Summit and it's one thing that I'm absolutely love about the town um and you know it kind of sucked last year but um but yeah but just want to express my my opinion thanks thank you good evening uh Diego hi n court so a study is how Corporation skill projects so basically the more we study something nothing ever happens um we have two independent surveys one from Lis Allen's mailing list it's famous everyone refers to it it was on your website everybody looked at your website um and it showed I I don't remember the numbers but close to 70% of the people want that to happen so regardless of the we have a small sample of the r 22,000 residents here regardless of the numbers here it's what matters is what the vast majority of our population taxpaying um people want to see happen um Melbourne does it Madison Maplewood W all closed down their streets last year um I saw a lot of summit residents there during the summer New York City closed down all of Broadway now you want to talk about Time Square we can talk about Time Square Broadway is a whole major Thor way as well and they were able to do it Madrid where my mom lives they they're pretty much closing down the entire center of the town uh to vehicles um regardless that that adds value value because it makes for a viant community where people can enjoy each other's company um I understand I empathize with all the concerns um but I think that ultimately we have to decide what we're going to do uh we know what the ordinance is that we need to pass I am sure the ordinance will be sent over to the do so ultimately I think that we should just go ahead and get it done we the vast majority of people in Summit myself included would like to see this happen thank you thank you hi Daniel Jackel 28 Morris Avenue roads belong to everybody they don't belong to you they don't belong to me they don't belong to anyone listening they belong collectively to everybody they don't belong to chrony capitalism they have a a function for social interaction when I go to other roads when other towns I should say I expect their roads to be open they weren't created or dedicated for special interests a business cannot say here's this publicly created and dedicated Road I just I think I can get gain an economic advantage in taking over and preempting the public purposes of it I'm going to come down to City Hall and find out what exactly I can get from them maybe I'll pay a little bit or something doesn't work that way I'm against closure at any time should be open 12 months that's what it functions as and and I have to comment about the Consultants because you hear things like there was a fire one time and Maple Street had to be accessed or you hear there could be a terrible emergency if summ Avenue is closed while Maple Street for a non-emergency is also closed a non-emergency you hear things you there was a a um cardiologist who wrote a letter to the Milburn tap saying uh that that some of his assistants are having a hard time G getting to the hospital at certain times because of the closure in mb you hear these things and what do you hear from the planners public spaces they they because we rely so much on the planners we C it the planners are supposed to have all the answers and of course they want Summit to close it they can go to the next town and say see what we did in Summit they're making money that's what that's what's happening they're making money so somebody brings up the point of if you close down Summit there's going to be a lot more compression of other streets and you hear these comments and what the planners talk about Street Furniture they come up with academic abstractions that that are injurious to the public and it reminds me so much of the pilot programs because we said to the we said to the to the planners you know with with e-commerce and the malls what what can we do to revitalize our businesses we and and they come up and they say you need Redevelopment because you're densely populated uned State um you were densely populated state so what you need is not development but Redevelopment so they come up with pilot programs and sure enough they get some towns to do it and then then they convince how close did Summit come to giving a pilot and because other communities were doing it was it that close or was it that close and there they they will go to and as soon as that as soon as if if somebody had given a pilot they would have been right right going to other towns to convince them he let's give Pilots to to to all the Comm this is the way we this is the way we redevelop in New Jersey and a lot of council people will believe it members of the public will believe it just as they believe yeah we can we can Revitalize businesses in Summit and what proof did they offer their assertions and of course they can't wait to do it so they can go to the next town and make more money so not only do we have maybe just three towns or four towns that have impeded Emergency Operations that have that have um uh crony capitalism and favoritism now they have 10 communities or 20 communities they've grown so when so when Summit residents go to other towns they say gee I can't get anywhere there's so much obstruction there there are tables that are used 2% of the time because of weather and whatever all kinds of frustration from Summit residents going on the public road those and I'll just conclude that by saying this these are public streets they should be open 12 months a year thank thank you good evening Franchesco alesi 145 Oakridge Avenue Summit New Jersey um I want to talk about something a little bit I don't want to mess up the sequence um but I just want to say public comment is for um nothing on the agenda if you if you're going to talk if you're going to reference something on the agenda yeah I want to talk about a specific ordinance but uh we do it after public comment we're we're almost closed no problem thank youor about ready to go don't leave thank you councilwoman since we're is it okay of course okay since we're still in in public comments I I did want to I think it's important to mention that we did receive emails that was from residents who were unable to attend here tonight um I believe we see received close to 40 or 45 emails uh more like a 100 okay uh so we we did receive emails from residents who were unable to attend today um that were I guess a mix of four Maple street closure as well as against it um but I felt like because they're not here and I don't think it was available to the residents here I just felt like it was important to mention that it was we did receive emails uh from members of the resident uh the community that are for it and against it as well but um I didn't want to mention that yeah thank you can I ask if those get aggregated any Sor sorry I didn't hear that he was asking if they get aggregated the emails they're public record you just have to request them through Oprah if you want to see them he doesn't want to file an Oprah request he doesn't have Oprah you don't have Oprah oh go to the city website click on the Oprah icon you can request any record you want okay council president uh just because for the simple fact that we are collecting them and asking residents to provide emails um should we discuss at some point making those public so that residents don't have to do an open yeah um so for tonight we're GNA absolutely so tonight we really um hadn't really planned on talking about Maple Street but there's a lot of energy around it and so I absolutely appreciate everybody coming I'm going to take a pause for a minute um councilwoman Hamet because so uh Mrs Toth Claire Toth um had come and requested a Dar for us to look at closing Maple Street so I think that's kind of where all this energy um started and um we kicked it over to cap so do you want to give an update sure uh good evening everyone I didn't have anything formally uh written out I because I really did want to hear uh from everybody tonight what I what I will say is we've heard from a lot of different people we've heard from residents who want Maple closed residents who don't want Maple closed business owners who want Maple open business owners who don't want Maple Street open we've heard from former public safety officials we've heard from restaurant owners we've heard from former city administrators we've heard from veterans who've spent their lives protecting our very own freedom and safety and for those of you who don't know we actually have residents who live on this street who are impacted I think what we can all agree upon after listening to all these conversations is there are a lot of residents who want outdoor dining we recognize that but the one thing nobody touched upon tonight I think everybody needs to think about this and take a pause it's February of 2024 I sat where all of you are sitting 14 months ago where where of all these comments and questions and excitement been we've had 14 months we've had 11 months since we determined that psng was closing the road correct director shreer was 11 months so we've had 11 months and now everybody's asking me to rush my director of my committee and put him at risk because the residents like outdoor dining and I get it I like outdoor dining so we heard from an architect where are you at was he here still here architect um maybe he left I think it was yes so we've heard from you we've heard from Bruce I think at 20 6 Maple even though you don't want Maple clothed you have a lot of good ideas so I think it's really important to think about where have we all been for the last 11 months because now we have a new Firehouse we have a brand new counsel who hasn't been privy to the safety studies and we want to make all of you restaurant owners successful we want that I think everybody wants that we really do I spent time today on the phone with Nancy Adams from um Summit downtown I actually called Wells Fargo to see if they would work with us and and potentially close part of the parking lot I think we all want you to be successful and we all totally one more successful sir sir you can't yell from the audience um I think our our goal is we we want to make you successful we want to make the residents happy but at the end of the day uh we have to make sure it's safe and we will put it in committee but I would I would say that I enthusiastically support all different ideas for for outdoor dining uh please continue your feedback we will put this in committee what I have asked Summit downtown town to do and and council president Lisa Allen today is to re-engage the business owners the landlords and the tenants and really get buy in for this process and we will handle a committee from a safety perspective but um we can all work together and and hopefully create an environment that works for everybody I I think we all like outdoor dining and want it to work but I really wish we would have started these conversations 11 months ago we we would have been happy to look at this and really take the time and and dig deep and I even reached out to our city planner last week and I said you know what do you have for me what other options do you have um so we are proactively but I have not heard you know for any requests up until recently so um but happy to hear all your comments and thank you it's nice to see everybody come out in Bo in every different direction yeah thank you councilwoman Hamlet um so we will end up I don't want to do a ton of dialogue on this tonight because it's really about public comment um but we will be engaging with the community and um just the conversation that we had with Nancy Adams who is the executive director for um SDI we said to we like why don't we just um one day have her help us get everybody downtown who wants to have a meeting and just um be heard I think there's some business owners who love it and some who don't so how can we get everybody on board and um get the downtown engaged and and then at that point um uh cap can still simultaneously look at all the permit they can look at safety so two processes can happen in parallel but um she seemed on board with that so I think that that will be the next step but we're going to have a night where we actually have a conversation with the community this is definitely not the way to do that so in the set set it's public comment so is there anything else you want to add council president did we close public comments no okay we kind of no I was just answering questions no I got you so come on Pat Hurley 192 Ash Road in Summit um it's kind of weird being here I haven't been in council chambers now for six years it's kind of strange on this side of it I came here to talk about something else but Jamal knows what I'm going to talk about want to say anyway so I'm not even going to say it because he was very open to it but I'm not previous councilman you're not going to talk about the no I'm not I'm going to talk about this I had no idea this discussion was going to happen tonight that's why I'm talking during public comments awesome because I'm leaving because I'm tired okay so I'm not going to stick um road closures we actually talked about this back in 2016 I believe which was the reason why we knew Summit needed this because it was happening all over the country um the reason why we proposed that traffic in circle which Council approve unanimously I believe it was 2016 maybe 15 Ro I going to put you on the spot um the idea was it would close potentially have the option to put the infrastructure in place to seasonally close the area Beachwood Bank Street and everything because that made the most sense and we had the most control over those roads um we understood there's a lot of logistical issues with businesses and all that but that was the idea Council approved that unanimously the following year it became a political football and it was highlighted as something of council's you know irresponsibility and funding and all that and it died it became a political issue and then the new Council came in and it it ended so just from that perspective I think it's something you should consider Maple Street for all the reasons cited tonight especially safety doesn't make a lot of sense to anybody with respect to Time Squares the analogy I've done a lot of security work in the Times Square area I've done one Time Square the ball building itself um the ball I did a lot of work on the ball in the building I have a picture of me with the ball there's an extensive amount a very very detailed planning that goes into public safety when those roads are all closed off when Time Square was shut down uh in the the city spent millions and millions on planning I was part of that for our clients so I don't think it's a fair analogy to say that well hey um Time Square does it we can do it here in Summit and there's no issues it's a completely different issue it's a you know apples orange comparison and U that's it that's all I wanted to say so but I would consider that area go back look at the minutes from 2016 and see what we considered then not just the or the uh the project that was approved um but just what some of the thinking was back then and what we hoped to accomplish I think we're ahead of our time don't you Kev I can't talk to you directly I'm sorry so anyway um thank you very much I have to leave um Jamal you know what I'm going to say about the other stuff anyway so gotta and I appreciate your uh time the other day thanks thank you good evening Tony melona Maple Street property owner I too like Gil and we're well prepared I'm sorry I'm sorry welcome uh new Council um and mayor thank you for your for your time and your service uh Mike Rogers of course the great Rosemary and Mr uis AKA our city solicitor um right we remember we remember that we love it um everybody said what I wanted to say legality safety and so on um one of the copies I have to council there there's 10 copies was a back and forth email chain from Lisa to myself some people on S SDI including the chairman Bob Conway uh my reply and Bob um Conway's reply as chairman um I asked to have a subcommittee for um SDI since really just the SDI administrator was the one calling the shots and putting the questions out for that questionnaire so of course they were a little slighted um I also looked at I I received a uh an email from Summit House Bar bcoa and of course fiorinos telling people to come out here to voice their opinion how great the outoor ding us and it is no one's taking away that I've said that um in the past but a couple things caught me um in Summit House in their email outs everybody and I'll just say uh unfortunately quote closing a street only on the weekends or while school is out school's in tables in schools out tables out isn't viable for the restaurant Community from an investment standpoint nor would allow creating a top-notch outdoor investment so it's not worth it to have something there while school's out because most people go away and it's hot but you're still shooting for April to November I don't know how that works uh next we see that at the end of that uh email letter out to all the constituents there uh while there are other streets under consideration for possible closure only Maple Street is home to five full service restaurants that can best I'm stressing here serve the community by offering out there dining well I don't know about you guys I don't know about the public listening in uh I don't know what that percentage of people could actually afford to go to these restaurants which are fine restaurants I don't take anything away from them but they definitely definitely are in the upper echelon of prices um what really serves the best of the community 100% of the community I got it Beachwood Road do I want it on Beachwood no I don't want it on Beachwood cuz it's a legal and safety issue if that's fine great we can we can get candy we can get a juice we get a slice of pizza we get an ice cream we get a coffee we get donuts talk about Community we have family fund like there we bring thousands of people there that's what best serves the community and 100% not 20 30 40% Dylan could probably tell me more um of what can really afford um these restaurants so we go over legal we go over safety what's fair I talked about this and with the city solicitor this is a public Street all these spaces have to go out to public bid if I want to open up a new business and open up a hot dog cart I want space on Maple Street why can't I get it it's a public Street city planner I forget now a year or two years ago sat with us Dylan Baker was present also that there's going to be new rules and regulations fees and allowed space just because you're you know I'm regurgitating the same thing from a year ago if you have 600 squ F feet inside you're not getting 600 ft outside there's going to be fees and so on so forth uh ABC alcohol um Beverage Control 2024 this goes away so for people asking for this to be permanent this the transfer of liquor license to the street may not be here with um the uh New Jersey uh approval finally after all this has been done is it safe is it legal will the Fire and Police Department sign off and publicly speak to tell the residents that they believe we can get down Maple Street if there is an accident if there's a heart attack if there's a small fire that turns into a complete house disaster summan Avenue is a very busy street it only gets busier when you sh when you shut down excuse me Maple Street um Carolyn the realtor Brianna who have businesses there I had a business there when they blocked off that first portion of Maple Street to go into the alley for the parking garage it was a loading nightmare may they were parked in front of my business poor Brianna had the brunt of it and the uh kids clothing store FedEx trucks UPS unloading unloading especially for the restaurants that's a whole other thing so at the end of this all if you guys approve of this guys and gals approve of this maybe finally we could actually get something for real and no Shenanigans council president at the time thought he sent something down to Department of transportation we contacted them who Summit and then we had a Mia Copo Mike Rogers who said and he took it on the chin that he didn't do what he was supposed to do to get dot closing so it operated illegally as my esteemed friend and attorney Gil Orin had said we were really liable we really had our heads out there God forbid something happen this city would have been sued big time because it was never approved by do thank you thank you is there anyone else Kevin MGO Woodland Avenue uh 113 Woodland Avenue um the only thing I think that unfortunately it seems like and I wanted to listen everybody we put the cart way before the horse what we learned in the past with this and I don't I don't have an opinion on whether I want Maple Street open or closed I like the outdoor dining I like the restaurants but what we learned last year is that closing a road as Matt giobi said is arduous it's very difficult to close a public roadway for more than 48 hours and there's a lot of reasons for that and all the safety issues and everything else needs to be taken into account are the reasons for those regulations in 2020 the governor put in an executive order that relieved us of meeting all the criteria to close a public roadway for more than 48 hours I think the vast majority of people behind me don't understand this so in 2020 we were able to close it because we didn't need to abide by the laws in 2021 we didn't need to abide by the laws that ended at the beginning of 2022 and unfortunately at the time the council and other people had made up their mind that we are going to close it so then it became how do we close it oh we just need to do this well what we did previously didn't work because the executive order was gone so then we created this ordinance and in the ordinance we made representations or you made representations the people that were here I think Lisa you apologize for it Andy and Greg and to to find to have those findings you know you needed to do a significant amount of due diligence as Matt G aobi said later and none of that was ever done and if anybody in here you don't need to be a lawyer if you just go look at what that ordinance said it's pretty obvious that you could not have come to those conclusions even if you did studies so it really becomes more of what can we do and not what do we want to do I would ask you before you do surveys on what everybody wants will you please figure out what's legally possible before before you get everybody worlded up like they already are and that we've had for the last couple years that became a big political thing like everything else give people the full information and educate them so that we don't have this there's just constant division that's been happening over the last two years and a lot of it's been driven I think by politics and there was a lot of misinformation about a lot of different things so what I think a lot of us voted for was a change and that you are transparent and then you give accurate accurate information we're not stupid and then it doesn't come down to oh they don't want that or they don't want that it's like we can't do that or we can do that if we can close Maple Street and everybody wants it great you know weigh it but I I don't know based on the work that I or the education that I put myself through last year Michael and Aaron they don't even want to speak on this I think that road is going to be legally impossible to close for more than 48 hours I I'm sorry to say that it's not that I want that I'm just saying if people are smart and there's a lot of smart people in here standing there coming at support I don't think they understand that it might not be a legal option so that's all I'm asking before you spend money on surveys waste time and get everybody into tizzy please just educate people educate yourselves if you haven't already I think a lot of you have so thank you thank you so I'm going to put you on the spot Council M Allen um I mean I'm I'm Council woman Allen I don't want to trade Physicians with you right now um but I think in two weeks we should have that on the agenda as a Dar as an update yes and I've I've already um requested information from our city solicitor Mr giobi and he's already provided me with a lot of documents I've been in touch with the Department of Transportation as well I've been having a lot of conversations with director shreer Michael Rogers and and just about everybody so we don't know after this time than I give up but we're we're we're making a lot of Headway good I wasn't going to speak but just want to you were talking about a Dar and I don't know how to say this but since you're talking about closing one road uh Dory gagnan sorry 27 Bedford Road um uh since you closed Maple Street before it forced uh all the cars to go to other roads um and I have a concern and it was brought up by the planner before but the intersection of DeForest and Summit Avenue making a left there right by that Summit Diner is Just Deadly now um and I'm I'm really concerned no matter what road we close or outdoor dining or not that road and that intersection is just it's really deadly now um so can we look at doing something with that intersection and also Beachwood and uh DeForest as well uh right by Bank of America there's you know there's no there's a stop sign on um uh what is that DeForest um Beachwood sorry it's late on Beachwood but trying to cross that or sometimes make a left there in the early morning it's hard to see around cars so those two intersections so if one Road is closed it kind of pushes the traffic elsewhere and I just want to you to look think about those too um and also maybe lowering the speed limit I know we talked about safety if we could lower the speed limit in town I think it's 30 m an hour it is right I think it is if somebody could check on that um can we lower the speed limit though people were talking about it tonight um if we could put official request in I'm officially requesting that to lower it to 20 maybe uh there's no reason to speed in town people have gotten hit and killed um I would appreciate that also I have a friend who owns a restaurant in town and this is what she posted on her website at the beginning of January I'm not going to State who it is or what restaurant it is she said we're having a hard time right now and every order counts Rising food costs and inflation is hitting us hard every order counts help us pay the bills eat local so it's really important to think of all the restaurants in town um that might be struggling there's a lot of fast food Change um so I want to say to Mr migar I had a great time with him at SDI this year we did the um the beer what was it the the beer garden garden it was like such a vibrant outdoor time people were out enjoying the day um I love outdoor riding I love outside I love being outside I walk all the time I think exploring an Avenue but seeing this post from my friend who's had a restaurant in town for over 20 years um was devastating to me because I don't want to see her go under so I think we have to really explore all the restaurants and make sure that everyone is is taking care of whether SDI brings them in and they enjoy the Beer Garden or have something in the park uh something like that so people get help and they're not going underwater so thank you thank you uh miss gagong when you said the speed limit did you mean Springfield Avenue or just town in general everywhere and a stop sign too on the that Beacon Light would be great too so people don't do illegal turns you got to have these people submit writing yeah this is too much to it's too much okay okay can you send us an email okay thank you okay do we have anyone else okay I'm losing participants so we better move on all right I'm going to close public comment all right okay we're going to move uh close public comment and we are going going to move on to hold on my computer on yeah ordinances thanks for coming out everybody I'm just going to give them a second yep okay okay moving on we have two ordinances for hearing Madame clerk please read the first ordinance ordinance number 24- 3305 an ordinance to amend chapter 26 storm water management regulations of the code of the city of summit to add a new section 26-16 privately owned salt storage thank you madam clerk councilwoman Hamlet oh I keep calling you my name thank you council president this is ordinance number 24- 3305 this ordinance will amend chapter 26 storm water management regulations of the code city of summit to add a new section 26-16 privately owned salt storage in summary due to new state regulations the city must amend chapter 26 of the storm water management ordinance requiring the piles of salt and other solid granular deicing materials which are not stored in a permit structure be covered by tarping when not in use and secured in a way to prevent its exposure to rain snow or storm water runon the purpose of this ordinance is to prevent storage Salt and other deicing materials from being exposed to storm water this attached ordinance establishes requirements for storage of salt and other solid deicing materials on properties not owned or operated by the municipality so privately owned including residents in the city of summit to protect the environment public health safety and Welfare and to prescribe penalties for failure to comply at this time I would like to move this ordinance for hearing okay the hearing is open any Council comments any public comments okay um we're going to close the hearing Madam clerk please read the second ordinance ordinance number 24- 3306 an ordinance amending chapter 3 police regulations of the code of the city of summit to add a new Section 3 -16 entitled resident protection councilman Boer council president this is ordinance 24- 3306 an ordinance amending chapter 3 police regulations of the code of the city of summit to add a new section 3-16 entitled resident protection ordinance summary this ordinance amends the supplements chapter 3 police regulations of the code of the city of summit and adds well I'm repeating that I guess um to prohibit trespassing for the purpose of committing a crime including tempering with or committing the theft or unlawful taking of a motor vehicle breaking and entering burglary burglary excuse me in home invasion uh council president the threat of auto theft and Summit has escalated Beyond mere property crimes presenting a pressing challenge to Public Safety our stolen vehicles often become instruments in violent crimes including carjackings and burglaries escalating the danger to our residents The Reckless operation of these stolen vehicles by criminals sometimes at high speeds to elude capture endangers everyone from our diligent police police force to the innocent bystanders on our street alarmingly the brazenness of these criminals extends to invading the sanctity of our homes to obtain vehicle keys often or sometimes during during the time when residents are home increasing the urgency for Effective measures like the resident protection ordinance I believe that this ordinance is a GameChanger in law enforcement it's it ensures that offenders can be charged with the related but different offenses in both state and municipal courts this dual approach means that an individual can face a range of consequences from both jurisdictions from fines community service and imprisonment depending on the severity of the offenses the requirement to appear in both courts deal with multiple legal processes and the prospect of open warrant for a failure to re to appear in Municipal Court serves as a robust deterrent while also increasing public awareness about the serious nature of these crimes the commitment to Public Safety is firm and Summit where accountability for crime is a crucial and critical Focus in the face of riseing Auto thefts a historically persistent issue it is essential that the community is informed about the actions being taken to address this challenge embracing Community safety and peace of mind is a fundamental right and the resident protection ordinance represents a paradigm shift in Municipal leadership it embodies our dedication to nurturing a secure and healthy environment with the local government at the helm of this critical initiative I move to move this ordinance to a hearing open the hearing second oh the hearing I second can I ask you an enormous favor um yeah the door because it there's yeah thank you I got that I appreciate that Council council president uh when you when you open this to public comments could you do me a favor um I have someone here who traveled from far and I like for him to speak first because I know it's getting late okay absolutely thank you um I just I'm going to open this up for hearing I just would like to set the tone um I know that I don't really have to say this but I'm going to say it anyway um when it comes to crime and safety emotions tend to run High uh the common Den denominator tonight is that we are all here because we care about each other and we want to keep keep each other safe it does not matter where you live in town what your background is um we really believe that everyone should feel safe living in Summit coming to Summit visiting Summit so um I'm going to ask that when we enter this dialogue tonight we be empathetic we understand um where people are coming from We're compassionate because um at the end of the day safety is a verb and we may not all land in the same place tonight but I think we want to get to the same idea this we want to get to the same place but you know how we get there sometimes um is not always easy so I just want to ask everybody to be respectful tonight okay I'm going to open it for Council comments Theodor oh I'm sorry um no council First Council I'm so sorry okay is is there any Council comments I mean we can we can open it to public comment since he Hasa yeah I'm did not hear what you're say I was assuming it was Council or public comment also first so yeah is it Council first well we would do Council comments but if if you know what come up no no you know do you guys this Council mine because he's traveling from Far okay fine come all right and then we'll do councel and then public just I want to be mindful of your time thank you for coming could you st your name and where you live Theodore dust I live at 343 am monteras L new Jersey okay um but a lot of my primary background has been in like Community justice as well as like legal resources connecting legal clients legal resources throughout Nork area and I also sit in a Public Safety Committee in Nork and something that we also noticed in nework is that there is and is has been a problem with um burglaries with auto theft particularly when it comes like to people stealing like vehicles and this is a problem not just in Summit but it's um happening um elsewhere as well and on top of that like for someone that also often V visits Summit specifically like Overlook hospital and things of that nature I know that it is difficult for you know someone to not really have that transparency to know like they can be safe because cars are being stolen so having an ordinance that addressed that is something that's been that has interested me because I think it is important that we you know we all feel safe in the communities that we are in and if there is no deterrent then it's going to be difficult to find a reason for these people not to do it the reality is there's a lot of people specifically where we're know inor is that they're at a younger demographic and unfortunately what ends up happening is that they may do it just for fun they may do it for a commission of crime they may do it for a variety of different reasons but they are doing it and they don't think that there's any repercussions so like having a ordinance that kind of deters them is something that especially when people know that there's a det return they know that you know if you do come to these areas that this is what's going to happen a lot of times they're you know not going to want to do it in these areas they're not going to want to do it in Summit they know is deter in Summit if they have to go to court not once but now twice because they have to do the state as well as like deal with these things in Summit it becomes more of a hassle so the reality is a lot of times they're going to go into different areas so that they can just find an easier way to do this find a quicker way to do it instead of having to possibly get caught and then on top of that deal with all the repercussions that's come with it um and I really do think that is important to have like deterrent as well as like public awareness because the reality is something that has caused um a decline in nor is the fact that they now know that there is deterrence and one of the things they've been doing is alerting people of the problem so that people are a little bit more um aware that this is an issue but it is and the reality is this can be something that is you know as simple as like losing your car someone you know end up crashing in your car because they stole it and now they're driving at high speed and now you have to kind of maybe you have things in your vehicle that you know now they're gone as well as just like violence and like you know if you are happen to be in your car you happen to be in your house during these evasions the problems that may cause with that thank you thank [Applause] you okay I'm going to bring it back to council comments I'm sorry council president just just one more thing uh Mr Mr jiz one one question for you um I know that in Nork they're doing something in particular with the vehicles and I wanted you to uh um I want I wanted you to tell the public about what what steps Nork is taking in terms of what the municipal government is doing with the vehicles um I think there were uh they were giving out something free and yes I could definitely discuss that as well um so essentially what nor is doing is they obviously identifi that there's a problem something they identified um from like through a survey was that it was part particularly Kia and Hyundai and it's likely because there was like a viral social media Trend where they found out that it's actually really easy to steal Kia and Hyundai where they'll kind of um like using like a USB and um they'll get into the car use like USB and once they take out like something like on the bottom um when you plug in that USB it will start the vehicle now this was uh something that was a problem with like I said Kia and Hyundai so Kia and Hyundai actually released like um like different pamphlets where like they'll replace it for free um it's like a software deterrent and do I believe have Flyers with me that I can um possibly give you after as well but um basically was like a deterrent it has like a number if you call Hyundai or kia then they will be able to do that anti- theft software um for um at least for the residen for free and then norc was also giving out like stickers where like when you did get that they uh you put the stick in the car so like when thieves do see it they're more likely to kind of just go around that car because it's like this is not taking to much time it no longer becomes like a one minute thing it becomes like a whole process and then like the police department was also giving out like um like locks for your steering wheel so that again when people kind of see that you know that this is more difficult than it needs to be they'll move on to other cars other areas whatever so yes thank you sir thank you okay I'm going to open it back up to council comments okay I'll start um I think that this ordinance is a good idea thought it was a good idea over a year ago uh when Jamie LaVine started talking about it and I came into Council meetings over the course of that year to ask what's happening with it uh the extra layer um and in particular uh uh councilman Boer mentioned the prospect of having a warrant um for not coming to Municipal Court is I think going to be a a powerful deterrent uh for people who want to come into Summit and commit crimes um a friend of mine uh put it pretty well so I'm going to uh repeat what she said with a any crime is with anything right there's risk and there's reward okay and right now there's a lot of reward uh to come into Summit and try to steal something steal a car break into a house and there's just not a lot of risk um what what ends up happening is uh there'll be a plea down joy riding uh Jamal can speak a little more about this um but it's really it's become a slap on the rest on the rest and as uh councilman Bor also mentioned uh criminals are getting more bold they're breaking into our homes and that is just a disaster waiting to happen I mean um you know residents have run into criminals in their home um you with a crowbar maybe with worse um I thank God that nothing has um escalated beyond that yet um and I don't want it ever too so this is just another step another uh quiver in the uh um another arrow in the quiver for uh for our our police and law enforcement ment and um we're going to keep working hard to do everything we can to get crime as low as possible thank you other Council comments or do you do you guys want me to kick it to public comment and then come back to you I mean I would just say that I fully support this ordinance but I'm looking forward to hearing from the public I know we had some meetings with u members of the community that I wasn't with today but I'm just looking forward to hearing from members of the community and maybe make some comments afterwards okay but I've been on this for a little while with as you said Jamie LaVine started this so we've been talking about it for a while I'll make my comments after the qu comment as well it's a good idea thank you yeah same okay all right I'm gonna go ahead and open it up to public comment hi than thank I appreciate the time uh Franchesco leie 145 Oakridge Avenue Summit New Jersey so um just want to talk about uh this particular ordinance I'm going to hit a couple topics so first and foremost congratulations happy to see you guys up here and um thank you uh councilman boy for the opportunity to speak tonight um on December 20th in the early um morning hours my home was broken into by four individuals uh in an attempt to steal keys for my cars uh they used a crowbar and were boosted up uh to break a window and gain access to my kitchen um in that short period of time alarm went off stole my briefcase big inconvenience stole my wife's wallet and we're off right so I woke up to the Sumit Police Department in my home um I was downstairs fumbling through everything trying to work through that right again the day after Christmas December 26th at 2:30 a.m. four same individuals came back broken into the front window of my home the front window not one window did they break two cuz they they were unsuccessful in the first one the immediate moment when I heard that front window open the alarm went off I ran downstairs I encountered an individual in my dining room with the hood on right attempting to gain access to my kitchen again where they perceived the keys would be to steal my keys again right now three vehicles immediately ran off they scurried they jumped into their stolen x5m in the middle of the street playing you know fire drill running around the car and sped off okay so um was able to get some more information spoke to the detective department Sumit PD has been a huge help a huge resource and it's um you know I think they they do the best to their ability on on trying to deter these crimes so um what I've done I've done an immense amount in my home security cameras updated ADT Gates everything I could in my own power and I've spent a significant amount of dollars to include hiring private counter surveillance and home security um and that's going to be a short period of time but they're there now to to maintain some some commment and peace um I've been a resident of summit in uh since 2016 never thought uh this would be um something I would ever experience um I've reinvested in my home you know multiple times additions Etc so I was really happy about where the place it was at at this time period now I've spoken to Senator bramnick I've spoken to County prosecutor's office their police chief Barnwell their police Captain web and they have a task force they have initiative um in the past there's task force that were used between union and Essex County to really deter these issues and um you know let's call them controversial measures as it Associates to dealing with stolen vehicles and dealing with these types of perpetrators but um in the conversation I had with Mr Barnwell he clearly told me um yeah this has got to fall upon the local Department right they're those tasks of the past are not going to happen they're going to do surveillance they're going to intelligence they're going to gather information and help support a further conviction maybe on the state level of some of these individuals um even knowingly maybe knowing that they're driving around a stolen vehicle and committing other crimes in in an effort to build a case allow that to happen so clearly these crimes have escalated right um what started is lock your keys right lock your door take your keys out of your car right turned into break into your house take your keys take what we can get they want our stuff right period the end so this is this is and now we're in the midst of a mini spree which I'm sure the detective department will will get around that of you know breaking into houses while people are away and that's just in the first month of 2024 so Summit PD has been super helpful they shared with me uh something called the CFS report or a call for service report so this is just basically an Excel spreadsheet indicating what sort of calls for service come in to the summit PD 2019 42 burglary calls 2022 90 calls 2023 82 100% increase right another suspicious Vehicles 234 2019 2023 349 okay I mean that's almost a 40% increase so and last we'll look at something interesting 2019 there was two Pursuits in the city of summit most often due to stolen vehicle stolen vehicle gets tagged officer pursues it 2023 with the current situation and the pursuit laws in the of those laws and the sentiment of chiefs all over the state there were seven Pursuits right in the city of summit now there's some miscategorization in these Excel spreadsheets I did a cursory review I didn't have an opportunity to dig to dig deep and I'll be more than happy to be a resource to the public if anyone has any questions but clearly the these occurrences um you know and the nature of these kind crimes have become more severe right and you know the simple trespassing and property theft of open Vehicles has become full-blown felony breaking and entering into people's houses right so these policies and procedures of the past are no longer effective in deterring or stopping these individuals I I mentioned it clearly right so in 2024 we had 10 instances of burglaries breaking and entering attempts you know who's in an M3 driving attempting to get into a car all of the same text message that everyone else here gets so the solution starts with us right uh it starts with the residents starts with the public officials what is the status of the license plate recognition system that was to be installed right what is to be implemented these were to be implemented at all the access points what are the Departments police departments policies on commercial building checks neighborhood checks are there specific procedures are they calling these checkpoints in on the overnights how does the administrative supervisor confirm the patrol officers are canvasing community on overnights is it tied to mileage GPS how can we adjust scheduling to allow for Effective Patrols in these early morning hours when most of these crimes occur the cff reports show The Summit PD are out there doing their jobs answering calls maybe too much there are obvious increases in calls so how do we make more efficient use of summit PD's time during these critical morning hours for example how do we mitigate abandoned calls Hang-Ups why does this occur right at the rate reported thousands of hangups and abandoned calls right should we issue fines to these abandoned calls right because there's a legal requirement for police officer to attend to that call so how do we mitigate those calls I have to interrupt um can you just I know you have a speech I apologize we just have to sort of wrap it up sure problem to give everybody an at the end of the day I'm in support of the ordinance I appreciate that I appreciate everyone's time I'm not going to stop my goal is to make sure this never happens to another family in Summit ever again what happened to me and what I experienced I'm here to be an advocate I'm here to support the community and U I'm in support of the ordinance but I think at the end of the day that's a start there needs to be more done thank you thank [Applause] you if you have a speech that you want to email clerk litis could you do that okay thank you because your questions are in there hi hi uh Reverend Vernon Williams assistant pastor at Fountain Baptist Church uh here in Summit New Jersey 116 uh Glenside Avenue uh to May Fagan uh council president uh Allen and to all of you uh council members I'm urging you to vote no uh on the resident protection ordinance as proposed and reintroduce an ordinance that does not confuse the public as to their role and is not vague in its language getting at the heart of what you are attempting to do for residents of summit our residents deserve to have an ordinance that will be an effective tool for law enforcement as well as all its citizens and visitors to the community this ordinance has real potential to do more torm and Trauma to those too often black and brown bodies who may be falsely accused by individuals who at best may have good intentions and at worst seek to uh seek to otherize uh those who uh appear to not belong in Summit rather than providing security and alleviating the trauma caused uh by these unlawful vehicle thefts and home invasions this measure threatens in a real way to add the traumatizing experience of law-abiding CI citizens and visitors to Summit by having them engaged in negative and unnecessary police interaction an unintended consequence of the ordinance that I believe has not been fully discussed or vetted beyond the opinion of those who rarely have to deal with being seen as an outsider out of place or not belonging the language in the ordinance provides the false impression that if someone sees or thinks they see individuals pulling on vehicle door handles peering into Vehicles going on a porch opening a screen door touching a door knob Etc of a vehicle or home that the person may be deemed by The Observer to not be invited on the private property can be arrested or attempted theft for attempted theft or Breakin such calls already occur and without the underlying impetus of a crime such as actually being in the vehicle inside the home such actions would would not uh result in a crime and in the case of this ordinance would not Resort res result in the issuance of a summons by the summon police department if these were the sole actions of the individual our concerns today are that residents will misconstrue this ordinance to give them the ability to to determine intent of individuals on private property whom they do not know and do not know if the purpose for which the individual is on the private property resulting in increased calls to the summit Police Department thinking the person would be arrested or for vehicle theft or home invasion when that would not be the case under this ordinance too often people of color are often seen as out of place or seen as not belonging in the community and the police are called you ask Chief zorski to address you at the last common council meeting when you introduced this ordinance and he informed at that time and I quote that you wouldn't just charge this ordinance alone it would be in conjunction with criminal charges that pretty much mirror the ordinance uh the ordinance charges he further stated just based on one action of seeing just someone touching the door knob or going uh on onto a porch before you would charge criminally or with or with this ordinance we would not more uh we would not more than uh we were not more than just that not alone additionally Chief zorski informed you that so my interpretation is just the action of grabbing the handle alone with no other factors the police would not be using it to charge anybody with that thus based on what you know the chief has informed you about the vague language of pulling on door knob on pulling on uh door handles touching door handles going going on porches Etc creates confusion with the public and run the high risk of increased calls to Summit police based on these loan actions that will uh amount to nothing more than nuisance calls at best and harassment and traumatizing of law-abiding citizens due to negative and unnecessary encounters with law enforcement if the real issue is that you feel uh the state is too lenient on those who steal vehicles or commit home invasions then why doesn't the ordinance not clearly de declare the common council's stated intent to augment or add to the existing County and State penalties if there's no criminal charge by the state how does this ordinance then get adjudicated and protect from Double Jeopardy why is a term like any action included when it provides extraordinary latitude from implicit or explicit bias to be an underlying reason for police calls why does the ordinance make the narrow distinction of pulling on a door handle or take any action in an attempt to open or unlock motor vehicle that the person does not own or have license or privilege to possess when this action alone would not cause the summit police to issue a summons a summons will uh summons that if issued would be issued and the individual released and not detained thus what's the purpose of this language in uh if the individual must have committed the criminal act of vehicle theft or home invasion which is already prosecut is a prosecutable offense why was it language like privilege which is in the ordinance uh known to uh which is known to connote racial and sensitivity not excluded from the ordinance we want to to to to ensure that safety is upheld but the ordinance as written I don't think will do that for you you have real concerns about how the state uh charges and that needs to be clearly spelled out in your ordinance I ask that you not approve this ordinance and come back and introduce an ordinance that gets to what you are really trying to get at thank you thank you R thank you statement oh Reverend Williams do you want to give us a statement thanks thank you thank you Pastor Thank you Lisa glass band 42 Fernwood Road first Frank I'm so sorry for what happened to you and your family and I wholeheartedly agree that more needs to be done in Summit with respect to safety but I wholeheartedly believe that this ordinance is one of the things that this Council needs to pass and needs to pass it tonight and I'm imploring you to vote in favor of it while I understand that Trenton has completely botched things your hands are not tied we can lay blame on Trenton all we want but that's not going to solve the problems here in Summit we need you as our elected local officials to act where you can and this ordinance is a step in the right direction in order to deter criminal activity in Summit I've been pushing for this ordinance actually for many many months I first raised this ordinance with councilwoman Jamie LaVine over the summer after both marbal and Hell passed similar successful initiatives I'm happy to see it hopefully finally pass tonight and I really really hope it has unanimous support because believe it or not without it the criminals win their underworld is allowed to continue to take advantage of and prey on young impressionable youth by employing them as their Pawns to carry out their crimes here in Summit we have to discourage them from coming here that's what we have to do and this ordinance does that I'd like to remind first I'd like to thank um councilman Boer for taking such incredible quick initiative on this ordinance and I'd like to remind all the new council members that one of the main reasons why you were elected was because of your strong positions on safety and I'd like to also remind any holdouts that ction season is coming and if you didn't listen to the voters in November with how important safety was to them you'll have to listen again this next November because we will respectfully find people to serve that will help keep us safe thank you thank you Miss glass ban statement May oh that's okay okay hi hi Monique Taylor uh pic Avenue um so I've heard from Council president Allan you talked about peace of mind um that all residents should have folks that are coming to visit folks that live here um someone else also mentioned something about raising public awareness and education which of course is important I think that same person even talked about significant amount of due diligence that would need to be done on any of these ordinances or any of these issues the question I have and the uh commenter just spoke about it is you're basing this ordinance on the success of holmdale and Marboro but I wonder since those ordinances were just enacted in December of 2022 has anyone on this Council prior to crafting this ordinance done any research or looked at the data for where these or ordinances have been enacted and enforced anybody no has it resulted in a decrease or increase in crime has there been an increase or decrease in the police interactions with the public as a result those are the questions that we should be asking prior to rushing this vote to enact this um and I don't believe that a Year's worth of data although I do know that car thefts are down in all of New Jersey by 12% um I don't think that there should be a rush to vote on this ordinance as it currently is written and so I would ask that the council vote against it vote no because she's right November will be here soon enough and there will be others of us who will be voting to make sure that we're all safe and not just some of a certain Hue thank you thank you Miss conade do you do you want to okay State No statement yeah do you want to email a statement no good Dennis and Harry L 140 Broad Street Su New Jersey also the pastor Wallace Chapel Church in Summit um I believe this is the same ordinance that was introduced uh about two weeks ago is that correct yes and I think at that uh at the council meeting Council Mena raised some concerns about the wording in the ordinance and I think councilman wellas was going to look into that uh in terms of doing some uh changing in the wording uh and therefore I I hearing U the ordinance read again tonight I did not hear any specific changes that had been made so after listening to the very passionate comments that have been made in particular those made by Reverend Vernon Williams I'm in support of the ordinance because because I think we all support um uh doing anything to help deter uh crime or particular uh maintain Public Safety but I don't not think there's a need to rush to pass this tonight based upon the fact that the ordinance is not all inclusive if in any time you are concerned about the welfare of the city you take into consideration what something will do to protect but also what it may do to harm others and I think this ordinance as it is written uh does protect and Council moner you are to be commended for what you've done to introduce it but I think it omits uh persons like myself who may be mistakenly uh looked upon as viewed by by a majority of citizens as an outsider or may be just viewed as someone who is in their wrong neighborhood perpetrating something I might be a door Dash delivery person or I might be an Amazon person or I might be a UPS person I might be soliciting for the girl or boy scouts and I'm in the wrong neighborhood these are realities so I think rather than rush to judgment why not table this to revisit visited and include within that very very good ordinance the language that covers everybody because as it is written right now it exceeds people some of us so you can do that because I want to be protected too and I think everyone wants to be protected but when innocent people who are mistakenly identified as perpetrators because of various reasons this flies in the face of that so I would encourage you to not vote to pass this ordinance tonight table it so that it be with the language that is inclusive that that will cover everyone in Summit thank you thank you thank hi hello I I'm Jan kryon I'm a resident of summit for 8 years I live at 173 Summit Avenue and I'm a member of Beacon Unitarian Universalist uh congregation and uh for the past four or five years I've been a member of the in Interfaith Ministries policing committee so I've learned a lot about um about how a person who's white like I am can't really grasp the difficulty of a person who of color you know in our community which is largely white and first of all I don't think that this uh ordinance really it really repeats what is in state law so um I wonder if it is a case of Double Jeopardy and we discussed this earlier today and and uh I'm worried about that um and of course I'm really alarmed and by what I don't know where that gentleman is but U yeah you I'm sorry I don't know your name but that was the most horrible thing I ever heard of it just really terrible to have your house invaded that way it really is but what I'm concerned about is people of color going onto properties for any number of reasons and then being seen by a citizen who will call the police and put this person through uh you know a really difficult situation and I was thinking about this um you know I recently um took my check for The Luminaries to my neighbors house and put it into their uh mailbox because I too cheap to pay a stamp and um but I even as I walked onto the property I was thinking I don't know them and I'm walking up onto their porch and that makes me feel very weird but if I were a person of color I think it would make it would be really difficult and that somebody passing me by would might think that I was going to commit a crime uh and and and another thing about the ordinance is this business about turning the door you know touching the lock and everything sort of very detailed thing that can arouse fear in people in citizens about seeing their other citizens who may be doing something completely um uh innocent so I I and and and the other thing is I really would not want to see something happen like has happened in other communi ities like the situation where the um first of all in Summit you can hardly see the numbers on the houses if you're actually going to go at night and try to find somebody it's really almost impossible to do it and uh this situation in uh Upstate New York where kids were driving up a driveway and uh trying to find a house and then somebody comes out and shoots and this girl was killed I mean I'm not saying that that's going to happen but a lot of times people do make mistakes and in reporting I think the police do a great a great job here but I think that really this really puts them gives them a problem so I do ask you to um to vote no on the ordinance tonight and try to see answer some of the questions about about the legitimacy of this particular ordinance thank you thank you hi Amy decibio 1 to6 Road um first of all I also want to say I'm really sorry that that happened to your family and I know it's happened to some other families here um a couple of things I'm not I I hear what everyone is saying and I think there's been a lot of really pretty healthy discussion I'm not sure that this ordinance is going to change someone's Behavior around whether or not they call the police if they see something suspicious so you know we have drilled into our kids um what we used to we don't as much anymore but if you see something say something and I think if you see something and it looks suspicious to you someone looks like they're not just trying opening your door to bring your your door Dash but they're trying to open your door to break in um I I think there's a really big distinction there and I'm not really so sure that this ordinance is going to change what people think they see you're going to get false uh false calls regardless the other thing I would like to say is I want to look at this from a slightly different approach and two people sort of touched on it but um for starters councilman palowski talked about risk and reward when there is high reward and no risk it's really easy to do something especially when you're an impressionable um kid and we know that a lot of the the from well at least I've been understanding from what the police have said a lot of the car thieves are underage um maybe not even of age driving age so if we have high risk uh uh High reward and no risk and you've got teenagers they're going to do really dumb things but the problem is when there is no risk and there is no repercussions uh when there are no repercussions the likelihood of repeated Behavior goes up and then it gets easier and easier to commit the crime it's like you know um stealing a piece of gum the first time it gets a lot easier to steal it the next time when you're a little kid right so I I think um for the sake also of the kids that are getting roped into this this should be considered if there are no guard rails on these kids because all we do is get a slap on the wrist and we throw them back out and they repeat the same behavior the next weekend the same kids coming into the same house what are we doing for these kids that's not that's not good we should be making it a lot harder before they keep repeating this behavior and then there of the age where they're when the repercussions are big and they're either in jail or dead so I I am in full support of this uh ordinance and I do hope you pass it tonight thank you hi good evening hi Andrew MCC I live on Park UT Terrace uh I'm a former federal and state prosecutor um so I've spent most of my career uh you know trying to stop the sort of crimes that we we heard about on Oakridge which is certainly horrific um and I'm sure makes makes me angry I'm sure makes everyone in this room really angry U but I do have a number of questions opposed to you all about this ordinance as written um the first one goes back to what Chief zabowski uh zagorski said um at the last council meeting which is that this ordinance would only be charged in conjunction with criminal offenses burglary auto theft attempted crimes so the question is what what will the impact be or what is the expected impact of this ordinance uh in addition to those uh criminal charges that'll be present at the same time um the second thing is I think what I've heard a little bit is that you know the motivation for this is a belief that a municipal fine is going to deter people um from stealing cars and so the question is have you uh considered the fact that any criminal conviction in New Jersey already comes with uh a number of monetary penalties take an auto theft uh charge $500 mandatory fee $100 mandatory violent crime compensation assessment $75 uh safe neighborhoods assessment $30 Law Enforcement Training fund fee all mandatory and in my experience as a prosecutor almost never paid um so the question on that is you know what uh what is adding a municipal f on top of all that going to do to stop people from committing crimes uh third is you know the state already has a criminal trespass law on the books that Criminal Trespass law uh you know makes it illegal to go on a private property if one uh you you have notice that you're not supposed to be there either because of fencing or because of science signage uh things like that and two you have knowledge you're not supposed to be there you are actually aware you're not supposed to be there um the state criminal trespass law also has an exception for a reasonable belief defense that you reasonably believe you were allowed to be there uh what's being proposed here is much broader than all of that um there's no mention of knowledge at all there's no notice requirement there's no reasonable belief defense anywhere in the in the ordinance so what we are effectively doing if this word a pass is expand the definition of trespass in some um so I'm wondering you know have you vetted this with criminal practitioners have you spoken to the UN County prosecutor or municipal prosecutor defense attorneys have you talked about whether it would be effective um and whether the broadness of the language could lead uh to Sweeping in unintentionally everyday conduct um and the last thing I'll say is that you know we as been has been mentioned a large number of the people stealing cars in New Jersey are juveniles uh have you looked into whether if a an underage person is charged with this ordinance would they even be adjudicated in municipal court or would it go uh to juvenile court to Family Court as with the criminal offenses uh so if it's the latter then uh the argument about uh being adjudicated in two different places um I'm not sure carries much water um so as I mentioned you know I spent most of my career uh working on Public Safety I've prosecuted carjackers burglars uh stolen cars uh and you know based on my experience I'm just uh I'm not sure that this ordinance is going to make us safer or have an impact on Public Safety uh but I do think there's a real risk of unintended consequences um so I hope to take these questions seriously I certainly be interested in speaking with anyone on councel about you know effective solutions to these difficult problems and you know thank you for listening thank thank [Applause] you hi hi good evening uh Diego ho n Aral court and of course I think that we are having a very healthy debate but we share the overall goal of making everybody safer and I think that for that we need the right actions not just any action um and the problem with the ordinance as written has been expressed by Mr mcer and others more eloquently than I can but it strikes me as looking at the cost benefit analysis it's all costs and no benefit what do I mean by that when you look at benefits you look at the incremental benefit of something so it appears that you cannot get a stronger sentence with this ordinance it appears it has has to go through the normal channels for example for juveniles so you're not really making uh moving the needle on the benefits and has costs associated with uh potentially profiling behavior um nobody has talked about what would happen if somebody were to be a Good Samaritan and tried to open a door because they know there's a child inside of a car um or a food delivery or a person who does not speak English as a first language who may be looking for directions or maybe a housekeeper um so I actually did look at the data from hom and marber um their car thefts in 2023 are about 50% of what they were a year earlier and guess what the same thing happened in Summit so when you look at data like that first of all the data set is relatively small so the error is fairly big but when you look at that data it seems like what happened in maror Andale um was very similar to what happened here in Summit the police started working with the prosecu task force and doing a whole bunch of other things and even though we're not where we want to be we certainly are not where uh I'm I'm my heart goes out to you and your family and but we need to make sure we get the right ordinance because the ordinance everybody I think here wants an ordinance to pass that will actually make us safer and Ed crime uh this one I don't think the way it's written it will thank you thank [Applause] you good evening Claire to 11 Sunset Drive um and we all believe that City government's first and most important job is Public Safety we know the city of summit and all of you take this very seriously I'm not going to speak for or against the concept of a resident protection ordinance what I am going to say is that as drafted it is confusing and it has unintended consequences as council member Minar stated when the ordinance was introduced two weeks ago it's not ready for Prime Time Council should not vote in favor of it at this time first the draft ordinance refers to someone who illegally enters a car or a house as an occupant and at law occupant is understood to mean someone who has or had a right a claim to possess that car or that house someone who breaks into my car or my house is in no way the occupant um so if council is attempting to Outlaw trespass theft burglary the ordinance should either specifically Define occupant to mean the opposite of what everybody thinks it means or better yet use a more precise word second proposed section 3-16 3B can have some really bizarre results it criminalizes entering a home while the trespasser or burglar is still present in the house and there's no intent requirement so for example um if Mr alessie and I also am so sorry had been out of his house when burglar broke in and then walked into his home while they were still there he would be violating this section of the ordinance and there's no interpret a needed those are the plain words of that section um third propose section 3-16 point3 C is word for word the same section as just above 3-16 point2 B and presumably this section criminalizes being the getaway driver who doesn't leave the car to burglarize the house um however because it is word for word the prior section it includes somebody who violates um in peren a the initial burglar but doesn't include the person who enters the house subsequently if that person is illegally entering the house in subsection B so if the driver doesn't if the getaway driver doesn't get everybody who entered the house they may or may not be able to be um prosecuted under this section of the of the draft ordinance so if Council truly wants to enact an effective trespassing ordinance it should take the necessary time and write one that makes sense please go back to the drawing board thank you Miss to Claire do you want to give she already typo and all yeah hi hi Hector rose rose CR 47 Oakland Place um yeah thanks for uh thanks for H having this discussion tonight I'm here tonight because uh you know for for for Frank my daughter's in a Girl Scout troop she spends tons of T tons of time at that house up on Oakridge so this definitely is something that hits close to home um in my background I was a military veteran and I I take I take a lot of the comments that people are making tonight about the concerns to make sure we get we get this right and to make sure we're doing this Pro properly to heart um at the same time I think that there's you know I do think that there's a real problem here um this concept that we have in the military called the UDA Loop observe Orient decide act it's something from the military uh working technology these days is about making decisions quickly and then understanding how those decisions are playing out taking more feedback and then adj adjusting as as we go so I think it's clear that there's a that there's a problem um I'm not I don't know if this ordinance is the perfect thing it is a local ordinance this is clearly an issue that is well that goes well beyond the confines of anything that this community has jur jurisdiction over but you guys are here you guys have the opportunity to to do something that's why you that's why you're in these seats so I would encourage you to pass this this ordinance and take feedback trust to the Community Trust that law the law enforcement are going to take all the concerns that people have to Heart are going to give you guys feedback and if necessary adjust as we go you know the the quicker that you kind of start to see what works you make decisions you see what you see what happens I think there's the potential to find out what are what are the levers that that you can pull I'm not saying this is it but I do think that it is start it's a step step in the right direction I would urge you guys to uh to vote vote Yes on the ordinance thank you thank you good evening uh Timmer day P box one in Summit um I just wanted to say congratulations to everybody uh you know who's uh up on up on the days right now um I think there's this is clearly a very emotional issue on both sides been some fantastic points that people have raised and Frank I'm sorry for what's going on in your in your house that's unbelievable um I I think at the end of the day though like when I look at this I think the city has voted for change and I think one of the components of change is just progressing uh and it doesn't need to be perfect right now I think that's what you have resources to you know fine-tune this um as you're pursuing it but I just want to say thank you for actually doing something because we've been the leaders in sports in this community we've been the leaders in kindness in the schools we've been the leaders in so many different places and there's there's no reason the world why we can't be the leaders in finding a solution like this that's going to help us create more of a deterrent you know obviously being sensitive to you know other issues in the community but you know I just think this is so critical to do something because we have to create some sort of a stumbling block where people will make a second uh you know second guess at are we going to go to this community or are we going to Short Hills so with that I say thank you very much and I wish you uh good luck and and finding fine tune in this thank you thank you thank you Joe Oliver from 121 Oak Ridge Avenue uh congratulations to you all and thank you for being here and thank you for having us um Mr palowski mentioned risk and reward I know that was mentioned earlier uh I think that's worth reiterating again uh the biggest issue is that there's no consequences currently and that's why the crime levels are up where they are and why they're getting worse we've gone from you know stealing cars from driveways to breaking in entering and having confront with residents and we need a step to take it to to to make to put an end to this and so I feel that this is a step in the right direction um as the person earlier also mentioned you know we we can take a step back if things are too aggressive and make a change to the ordinance at that point but having nothing in place we have nothing going for us um I'm not an expert on law but I believe that police have discretion uh the ability to govern and disciplin one's activities by use of reason and prudence public officer has discretion whenever the effective limits on his power to leave him free to make a choice among possible courses of action or inaction so if a tourist is on the you know pulls up to the wrong Rental Car on the street of summit at 2:00 in the afternoon and jiggles the handle something tells me they're not going to get locked up but someone's not delivering Girl Scout cookies to my house at 2 o'clock in the morning either and so that's I think what the spirit of this ordinance is and where it's going and it doesn't matter you know what the race of the person is at 2:00 in the morning I can't see what the race of the person is and I'm still calling the police and for those of you that saw the Facebook discussion which I'm very grateful we had with the captain today um or the police the chief of police rather um he said that we don't have too many calls coming into the police department and he encouraged calls to come into the police department so I highly doubt that that this ordinance is going to greatly increase to burden the police department with uh nuisance calls that we don't need we probably need more communication if anything as a community and if this SP if that this Spurs that on then all the better um I think you know some there was also some mention of data from other towns if we're going to talk about data we need to talk about statistically significant data an N of three doesn't tell us anything so if we want to go put this ordinance in which I think we should and then look at it back at a year and look at the actual data for what it means to our town and what it means to Crime because you also can't compare when when statistics are rising that did did it did it rise proportionately or disproportionately to the other towns and what happening in another town doesn't mean it's what's happening in Summit we need to be concerned about what's happening in Summit we need to create consequences for these actions and it also comes on the prosecution of what those consequences are and if these uh minors aren't going to be prosecuted then we could go with this till 3:00 in the morning and talk about all the things that we're going to propose but if they don't get prosecuted then nothing's really going to end and so again it's consequences to ACS and and upending the risk reward cycle thank you thank you hello Vanessa feraro met to Crest daker and Summit um so as unfortunately like many people in Summit um we had an attempted car theft at our house over Labor Day weekend this wasn't in the middle of the night it was at about 1:45 in the afternoon which was sorry which was about 10 minutes prior to my three small children and their friends playing outside on my back patio which is next to my driveway they came inside and my husband's still outside with his friends and 10 minutes later three men with black masks on gloves are pulling at the car doors they look over my husband and St friends see them they start screaming at them they run up the driveway but I cannot imagine the terror that my kids would have experienced had they seen these three men wondering Mom what are they doing what am I supposed to tell my kids that are 5 years old I had friends over from out of town I had family over they were terrified for their kids can you imagine inviting people over to your home and then having this happen and then I had friends coming over later in the afternoon I had to call them and tell them hey sorry I just want to let you know make sure you're careful you lock your car someone just tried to break into our car at 1:45 in the afternoon it was traumatic and even now going out to my car which is 15 ft from my back door I'm scared at night to go there by myself I have lights I have flood lights I have a security system I have two dogs it's terrifying and there was no question what these people were there to do they were masked they had gloves on they had hoods black everything so I'm highly supportive of this passing this than thank [Applause] you Reverend Rod Williams Mountain Baptist Church as this is Black History Month I would simply say I would remind you that the reason you don't make laws when you're filled with emotionalism is because too many people who look like me were lynched and so as I stand before you I also say that when you're talking about human lives you owe it to yourself to try to get it perfect because not getting it perfect has tragic consequences you owe it to yourselves not to decide to have military type Solutions because this is a civilian matter and so as we had our conversation earlier I thank you mayor Fagan and president Allen and councilman Bo for listening to our concerns and not just hearing our voices as we shared information and we also appreciate the fact that you appear to acknowledge some of the problems and inaccuracies in the language contained in the present iteration one one of the things that should not be lost in this is that we are not opposing the ordinance for the sake of the ordinance because all of us I think will agree that our ultimate objectiv is for the safest and most sensible community that we could possibly live in and work in and visit what we are saying is that as you've heard it said the language as it currently exists does not support what's been proposed there's no language about deterrence there's no language in there that has any information regarding the statistical backdrop of what says that this is going to be effective and so what we were asking and continue to ask is that we do get it right because none of us want to see Summit painted as a town that acts on bias and emotionalism that has those kinds of tragic consequences so we just believe that we're asking you to do the right thing for the right reason and not the wrong thing based on Good Intentions and good ideas thank you thank [Applause] you Council my name is uh Kieran Moran I live at 38 Colt Road uh on uh the morning of May 3rd uh I was woken to our alarm um I went downstairs and uh went outside and uh two Mass men were in our yard one coming out of the garage we had a a minor confrontation in the front yard they uh ran out to the car and left the cost benefit analysis of this ordinance I can tell you what the costs are my three girls seeing me uh having a confrontation with mass men in our front yard at 5:00 a.m. so they'll never be the same is this ordinance perfect maybe not we need to deter crime and Summit how that happens I leave it up to you but something has to be done this confrontation could have ended a lot differently than it did they left at some point if this continues if there's no deterrence for people to come to this town and take things that's not theirs and enter people's properties and their homes something is terrible is going to happen either to the perpetrator or to the resident if the residents of summit cannot feel safe and secure in their own homes people are going to leave the tax base is going to leave and we're going to have a bigger problem something needs to be done I hope you get it right it may not be perfect tonight but I'm in support of an ordinance that deter crime in town thank you thank [Applause] you all right sorry give me one second I'm just trying to not talk for too long um my name is Dr Carol Pang um uh from 234 Summit Avenue uh I'm speaking with multiple hats on tonight I'm speaking as a a mom of two Girl Scouts in town at Lincoln harbard School in fourth and first grade I'm speaking as an Emergency Physician who has seen um un uh unintended consequences of young black men especially hurt because they were mistakenly seen as someone who was dangerous and they were there um on a private property um trying to do something benign such as drop off um food drop off information to the door um I've taken care of these patients countless number of times um I'm speaking as an Asian-American and also as an American Patriot um I spoke to my concern as an Emergency Physician and taking care of many um mostly men of color that have been attacked uh inappropriately um accused inappropriately of um of of crime when they were not in a place to to commit a crime they were just wearing the SK color of their skin um I'll leave it at that because it's too emotional for me um I will never forget the faces of the people that I've taken care of that are IR irrevocably changed um because of scars they did not deserve um as a Girl Scout Mom I'm scared uh we go you know we we want this town to be a community where Girl Scouts don't and other people don't feel scared to knock on their neighbors doors I can tell you um you know since the pandemic we know I'm sure you've all seen it uh it crimes against asian-americans has gone up I can't even I was looking at the numbers and trying to come with the data today but it's too emotional to even try to look at the most current data because the the crime the the violence against aan Americans is still very high and also rising and the rhetoric around us is increasing with this election coming and and the the kind of all the stuff that's going to be coming and we know it and we've looked at the data um as an Asian-American uh in town very involved I was the organizer of a rally in um on March 27th 2022 um around the Asian viol the violence against asian-americans Rising uh at that time I spoke to Chief uh balotti and he confirmed that actually there have had been reports in Summit and in definitely in Union County of increased violence against asian-americans I I doubt that number has gone down and again I think that number is going to go up in this um very heated election year with a lot of anti-chinese rhetoric uh on the eyes um you know we we are trying to make this town feel safe for asian-americans uh I was the founder of the festival that is two years running now and we're in in planning stages um for this year as well and work with Summit Recreation Center um one of the big things of that is so that people Asian-American faces here feel represented and feel safe this ordinance makes me feel very scared and very unsafe um as an American Patriot we go and we knock on doors and I bring my girls with me this thing this ordinance as it's written says if you pull a handle or turn a doorknob that can be a crime other people are going to read Beyond this and and as um rever Williams said you know people are going to um like I said with the young black men that I've taken care of as a physician people are going to put different intent the whatever intent that their bias may lead them to place on people of color this affects us a lot this scares us a lot and as you know I'm going to be like when I heard about Andy being attacked that scared the hell out of me because I am going to doors knocking on doors doing my civic duty and trying try to be a patriot get people out to vote and we take our girls with us and we they love it my kids are 12 10 and 6 years old and they go they probably have knocked on more doors and gotten more people to vote than most adults will ever in their life and do I feel scared when I take them with me yes I do I have felt scared in the last few years when we've done that but my patriotism goes beyond that and you know if we don't do things scared we won't get progress in this country and I understand that you guys are going for safety it makes me scared to hear about the in incidences tonight I have three young girls I live right on Summit Avenue it's scary every time we see some an alarm go off on our ring but I'll tell you as a person of color every time a person of color walks on for a benign reason it creates a different kind of feel for people who may have those biases within them so please I ask you to wait table this look at the language hear the commentary from so many that have spoken tonight and please just like I can tell you I I felt very nervous this entire time hearing these comments and hearing that this more and more information about why this ordinance the way that it is written um will um will make my family feel unsafe here in Summit thank you thank you my name is Don MOS quitz I'm at 15 Irving Place Apartment A and uh there have been a lot of eloquent people have already spoken um I think the bottom line for me is that uh Public Safety is critical the important but it's also critically important that we get this right and I feel like in the spirit of due diligence we need more information we need to understand how other towns have instituted these kinds of um ordinances and how it is and how it is uh impacted for or against what the intention was so thank you thank [Applause] you hi Michael Luke from uh 9 Crest acre Court I also was a victim uh of a car theft or car robbery of my wife's car and um after hearing a lot of the stories tonight I'm I'm now in more fear than I was before tonight um I'm I'm terrified I don't know I haven't heard that yet but I've certainly some of some of you know my neighbor um I'm terrified living in Summit right now so this isn't perfect I'm sure I'm sure there's reasons I think some of the things that were brought up uh you know there's probably certain things that can be done but anything that can be done to move this forward and help deter future uh crimes would be helpful and um I'm in full support and hope hope the board votes uh for this ordinance thank you thank you hello Irwin Miller five Knob Hill Drive um I'll just say a few things um first of all for the record we ALS so go to sleep every night worried someone's going to break into our house so a lot of people quote statistics it doesn't account for the people who go to sleep worried someone's going to break into their house it only counts the counter so statistics don't tell you everything uh first thing on process which is related to this but also related to everything I don't know if you can do this but I really wish you would vote on this next time so like tell people it's going to happen come here debate it vote on it next time I just think that would be better um I don't know how formally suggest that uh couple notes one there's this uh thought that this isn't like a strong enough tool it's not going to solve the problem like yeah it's not going to solve the problem on its own obviously uh but it's one thing that you can do um but I also hope it's not the only thing you do so when you debate this I hope you just talk also about the other things that you plan to do if you plan to do other things which I do hope you plan to do because I agree I don't think this on its own is going to solve the problem so you know you can all talk about the different plans that you have in place and the police cars you plan to put out there whatever you plan to do but yes I do hope and expect that there are other things to do so that criticism of this seems unfounded uh next is this legal confusion around the wording and the language and the th you know I actually agree with that I mean I hope that this was run through lawyers I'm going to assume it was but I never assume anything so I hope that you'll also share has has been run through any lawyers uh and can comment on that because I know there's a lot of criticism from people that the wording is going to create problems so I hope that it doesn't um and I definitely agree with that uh the concern that uh innocent people are going to be unfairly targeted due to racism that's just insulting honestly to accuse your fellow residents of being racist like I just don't even know where to go with that like please like don't just call people racist and that's why you're going to shut down the this bill please it's really insulting um next this idea that this is not going to do anything it's like Trenton's fault yeah obviously it's Trenton's fault obviously it's like this is clear this is not something that's going to like solve all our problems this is one thing that we could do at the local level it will send a message to Trenton hopefully it sends a message at the national level as well that there are municipalities that are not that are going above and beyond their state policies and the national policies and are saying we're going to just do things ourselves because your Laxon crime policies and these Democrat R states are not working and they're creating real harms to everybody involved um so yeah I mean I hope you you know it's not going to solve all our problems it's a step I certainly hope and I you know I caution all my support for this bill with the hope that there has been some vetting legal vetting from a lawyer who's familiar with these rules it's going to be able to say like yep we did look at that and we're not concerned that this is going to create a you know terrible unintended consequences of the courts or whatever but yeah I mean it just you know we got to these are also problems that happen to the state and so a lot of people want to like solve problems locally but turn around and go vote for Democrat policies in state federal level it's like stop doing that we got to stop this policies all across the board so thanks very much thank you [Applause] good evening uh Don Nelson 20 plan Street wasn't going to speak tonight at all but this is very interesting uh I want to thank our military member for his bright idea and I'm sure you've all done this in the military seven-step problem solving sequence I'm sure we've all done that the end of the problem solving comp uh process is to reevaluate so I'm assuming there's a a a way to reeval re-evaluate this process or this ordinance once it's in place if it doesn't work or recreates more of a problem we change it we tweak it we do whatever we have to do you're all smart people I'm sure you followed this process in your own little way the bottom line is something has to be done I I am very shocked to hear of all the incidents that I've been in this town my whole life and this is Way Beyond board uh I'm going to be very simple if I I run a small business very small business in town when I deliver things to people's houses I don't turn the door knob I put it in a mailbox I knock did a mailbox I leave there there are um consequences to your actions at a year from now a year and a half from now let's re-evaluate this if it's past tonight see where we stand if it's a winter great if it's not we'll we'll tweak it that's all it boils down to hopefully I'm correct I might be wrong but that's my two sents thanks thank [Applause] you Kevin again 113 Woodland Avenue um I think what I heard a lot of tonight seems to be really making a mountain out of a molehill here um I thought when this was originally discussed and Matt I believe wrote some of the ordinances for some of the other towns that had implemented this I thought the idea behind this maybe you guys can explain this afterwards to explain to people was you're really not making anything illegal that isn't already illegal and the reason it is redundant is because there right now the city is relying upon the County prosecutor to prosecute these crimes this gives us a little something that we can control oursel so when something isn't prosecuted there we can prose uted here you're not going to be sending people to prison for 20 years um it it's it is a small incremental step that's when it was first introduced that's that's what the idea was it gives us a little bit of control it's something is it going to solve it no um but you know it's sad that it's come to local municipalities having to do this um but you see the problem around you and you need to do something and as far as people profiling people if somebody somebody's first of all how many people let's have a little Common Sense how many people are going to even know about this ordinance there are so few people in this down to pay attention to anything so the idea that this ordinance is going to cause somebody to call because they see a black person walking on their property is ridiculous if that person has racial biases and they they call because somebody black is delivering something in an Amazon uniform nothing is going to happen to that person you have have to prove that they did this as well so the idea of somebody knocking on a door there's no even an Amazon driver there's no reason why the guy should be trying to get in the door and I would assume that there's a lot of ring footage we have that you would use to do this because again you have to prove that people did this stuff um so again this starts sounding like there's a lot of political stuff behind this I know that last year when Jamie entered this ordinance or talked about it for the first time she was very excited about it and everybody agreed look it's not going to be a silver bullet but why won't why don't we try it why don't we do it they do it in other towns sends a signal sends a message maybe it helps maybe it doesn't I don't know but then it was it ended and it we never heard why and I remember at the time asking like what happened and I didn't get answers and then finally got answers that the same group that's here tonight met with the mayor and met with the police chief and you know they objected to it and I understand their concerns on a lot of things are real but you know this I I just think the concerns that people have and voice on this are just way overblown this is I I don't think this is it's certainly whatever I mean we go back and forth on it but anyway just please tell people and also I assume that some lawyers were involved in the crafting of this and you know if this was if I assume if these laws are not con stitutional or there's something with it they'll get shot to pieces if it's ever tried to be enforced um but then also that just is the reason why you're doing this just so that we can have a little bit of something to prosecute people and not be relying upon the County prosecutor to do which they're overwhelmed and how much do they actually do anyway thanks thank [Applause] you are there any other comments okay I'm going to return it back to the council because I'm sure um I would like to bring the um chief of police up and I would also like um Council giobi to wait in um so I would like to ask if anybody has questions specifically that we could um give to the chief direct to the chief or direct to our Council um because I'd like to hear from them too because it's getting late and I just want to be mindful it's almost 11 o'clock council president just I've been chomping at the bit here okay um and I hope I uh don't fall victim to any AD hominum attacks for saying this but uh first of all Andy um I apologize for you being attacked during the campaign uh but to that point I've knocked on a thousand doors I lived in Summit my entire life ran through backyards jumped over fences and not just me 17 other black young boys like myself um and even as an adult East Summit Uptown big houses small houses never had a problem with anybody maybe I'm an isolated figure I don't know okay but I am black though we can agree on that um sort of see yeah there it is um expecting that that's deep uh so yeah so the thing is if we could talk about Bell reform and why we're here right I think Bell reform was a good thing actually it does a really good job for violent crimes problem is when we look at Auto thefts they're not viewed as violent crimes and they should be if we listen to the individuals that came up here and they were talking about people coming in their homes um people still in their cars whether they're in their driveways with their kids watching the psychological impact on that is violent now as a former detective I know what it feels like to come face to face with a Criminal face to face with somebody with a gun a violent situation normal people don't know how that feels and can end up in resulting in a lifelong issue I mean this is real stuff now the fact is I you know I don't want to be here and I wish I wasn't here having to push this ordinance I wish it wasn't the problem but the fact is there are residents in Summit that are facing real issues now if it's not the state that's going to recognize and do something about it we as public officials need to do something about it because you elected us too and that's what I intend to do now one thing is I agree with some statements that folks have made I think this is a good starting point and I'm amable to make some changes but we're not going to sit around for a whole year and debate whether or not we should um approve this ordinance like last year where we went and debated or excuse me not us but maybe two of us two of you um um but where there was a debate for a whole year about this this ordinance and we made a change and now it seems like we're going to debate about it again no I say we passed the ordinance we take into account what the community is saying um Reverend Williams absolutely the Interfaith Council and then we can make changes but we need to start somewhere because right now we have a problem we were on channel 7 news today Summit yes so tell me we don't have a don't tell me we don't have an immediate problem now I want criminals to actually do a a cost based analysis I think somebody was up here talking about it hey should I commit crime in this town where um you know Bell reform whatever I can go to state court and I'll be on my Merry way or you know can I go to Summit and then I have to go to this court then I have to come back here I may get community service I may get fine wow I may and get you know 90 days in jail you know what I'd rather go over there and do it that's the point Thank You council president I said enough [Applause] tonight thank you man councilman boy uh thank you councilman Boyer councilman Smallwood so I I after listening to to everyone's speak and I I really appreciate you staying I know it's it's getting late so um thank you for your comments I did listen to everyone and you know one of the things that that resonates with me is the fact that this isn't a magic wand this is you know the idea of this is to help deter people coming into our homes stealing key fobs and stealing our cars or even potentially even worse uh this is something that's going to probably take time it's going to take time for you know perpetrators to get caught you know and this isn't you know we have to trust in which I do trust our police officers to make the right judgment calls if someone is in fact on someone's property with the intent of breaking into your home or stealing your car I trust those police officers to utilize this ordinance and make that judgment whether or not someone is delivering Girl Scout cookies campaigning or actually there to steal your car or break into your home and I I I I trust that they're going to make that those right decisions um I think we do need to start somewhere again nothing will ever be perfect and I think if we I we are all I think agreeable that if there's something that needs to be changed in this ordinates at some point whether it's the language or the type of uh the type of crime that we're uh listing here if it needs to be changed I think we're all in agreement to do that our biggest concern is making sure that we're doing the right steps taking the extra layer of protection to deter criminals from coming here and one one of our main concerns is protecting our our responsibility is to help try and make our our city as safe as possible in terms of you know what um someone you know Mr mgoi mentioned you know it's we're not sending people to prison for 20 years the first offense is $1,000 and we to also took into consideration for those who are unable to pay $1,000 that it's up to the judge's discretion to offer 90 90 hour up to to 90 hours of community service so if a perpetrator doesn't have the ability to pay the th000 fine they can do community service so it's not just about charging $1,000 there is a there there's a risk reward component to this and the risk is you're going to may have to do 90 hours if you can't pay the fine the second offense is $2,000 and again it's up to the judge's discretion whatever that uh that may be so um we did give this a lot of thought we did run this by our attorneys and you know I think everybody on this dis and unfortunately Greg's not here tonight and I hope Greg I hope you're watching I hope you feel better um but everybody on this Das had the opportunity to make comments give their opinions uh before this even came to the dis so I I I just want to say thank you very much for for all your comments and uh yeah I think we definitely gave this a lot of thought thank you thank you councilwoman ham uh thank you council president you know as elected officials we have an obligation to make really hard decisions and I will tell you that the reason we're having these discussions tonight is because it didn't come out of committee the last time it was in committee and so it's really hard to bring a community together and listen to all of these different thoughts and philosophies and feelings these are really hard conversations and they all matter you all matter but the reason we're up here is because we don't want to abdicate that responsibility of having these tough conversations we had some conversations this morning or you know our mayor did and council president Allen with some of the different leaders in the community that have some very valid concerns we can't hope that this disappears this problem is here I heard a veteran come up today and he said you know we have a certain military mindset in the military and that's how we solve problems and then another person got up and said well we can't treat it like the military because it's a civilian um atmosphere and I'm sure Reverend harriel would agree with me that there is a certain there is a certain power in having that experience of being in the military right Reverend and and when I say that I was deployed in 9/11 overseas and there was often times where you weren't sure you were going to get it right the first time but as all of you were over here I was sending ships out to sea to keep my soldiers safe I wasn't always sure it was 100% right but I knew we had a problem and I knew we had to keep people safe and our responsibility as elected officials is to keep you safe it's my number one priority you're not going to be hearing too many pet projects out of this Council this year other than safety I look at the budget every day and I think about how we can get more police and keep you safe and when I look at all the residents tonight this is the most important priority and we are going to get this right this may not be perfect but I I believe that with the leaders that we had in the room this morning this is a really good start and I think we're all amendable to change and I thank you all for your leadership thank you for your comments but I will be supporting this [Applause] tonight thank you councilwoman Hamlet councilman Minar I can yes okay um so to everybody here tonight who talked about um experience break-ins or theft I am so sorry that you had to experience that that is a uh terrible feeling um I want you to know though that we absolutely have the same goal up here all of us on the de and that is to reduce those incidents um please understand what that means cuz all of us up here and all of you here and all of them watching on television right now or on YouTube they all want those reduced how you do that is extremely important very very important please know that any any person that came up here and made a comment about how this is wrong or there's something wrong with this ordinance they're not against achieving the same goal that you are okay please know that um we have a chance to do this right and I'm afraid we're about to move forward with something that is absolutely not ready council member Boer you mentioned you are amable to some changes now is when you make those changes that's how our ordinance process works you're a new council member that's how our process works you can make a change now two weeks later we we discuss this again two weeks after that it's in place boom there's no wrong there's no um there's no mistakes in the ordinance there's no there's no lack of clarity it is in place and it's able to be used properly we can do this um at the last council meeting I made a statement at the introduction of this ordinance that laid out some problems I have with the language you've heard them all tonight from brilliant um people here and I want to I want to re reiterate some of them reiterate some of them it's overly broad um it has the potential to have some unintended consequences and the language uh there's some mistakes in there that need to be fixed um please know this though council members Boer and palowski I know you are well intentioned with this ordinance if my voice or the way I'm talking sounds intense it's just that I'm intense it is nothing nothing against either of you as as people or as council members it's just in this is a this is a this is an ordinance that is um that has become extremely important to me uh for more than just um the three coun the three Council meetings or the or the week and a half that you guys took to to put it into place it's been on it's been on my radar for for months maybe more than a year um so there's I provided one example via email to um council members Boer and palowski and it's a section that needs clarification it says it's violation of this ordinance for a person to be inside a house we heard that mentioned also if another occupant committed a violation as it's currently written somebody's occupying their own home would be in violation show a a cleaning person a pet sitter that's a problem if it's insinuated in an ordinance it's a problem I also reiterated that someone entering a porch to knock on an interior door or to hand out a flyer would as written absolutely be in violation of the ordinance that is a problem the language is a problem in this ordinance Council palowski your response was to me and I'm paraphrasing here but it's pretty accurate just because the word the ordinance say that doesn't mean that's how it's going to be enforced I most certainly did not say I I paraphrase your it was such legal that I don't want to I don't want to burden this audience with that it was such legal e but this is what it said paraphrase just because the words in the ordinance say that doesn't mean that's how it's going to be enforced if your response to this comment again includes anything like trust us or it will be enforced differently because of the Constitution you're really really missing the point it's legally sound is not an acceptable response to this I may not have a fancy law degree but I do have an ounce of Common Sense and that Common Sense tells me that when residents read something in their city code in their City's law they better be able to trust what they're reading that's part of transparency and right now this is simply not transparent you talk about transparency you have a chance right now to make it really happen you have a chance to do it I'm going to quote Reverend Williams statement which was fantastic here why does this ordinance not clearly state that it is meant to augment additional charges that is the main purpose of what you say this will do but it does not even say that in the Ordinance do you know how long it would take to add something like that 3 minutes I could write it for you right now all the violations of this ordinance must be in commission of a car theft attempted car theft Breakin or attempted break in that's it that is the statement you need to add to the bottom of this ordinance if you're waiting for a moment to make this change uh it's right now it's not a hard decision it's an easy decision there's a middle ground here getting this right means taking the taking a beat and making this change to the original version right now you're taking an original version after everything you just heard tonight and you're putting it into place that is the wrong path I urge you to rework this ordinance take the time to do this better you have the time right now I move to table this [Applause] ordinance there has to be a second to table is there a second sobody to make second the table then we'll vote on the table so we don't just keep dialoging no once makes a motion to the table there has to be a second if there's no second the table dies motion dies okay so the mo no no one seconded motion to the table died yeah my fears came true so we know we know the result of the vote in In fairness we haven't even heard from the police chief and Council giobi so um I I would councilman palowski would you like to I I I would like to hear from the city solicitor okay all right wow well my coughing fit is now over so uh first off um this is an ordinance and and and frankly uh Council miger I disagree with you I think it's very clear it said every one of this if it's you're in a house it's you're you're not licensed or privileged enter the home if you are if you if please don't interrupt please don't please interrupt me loaded word and you know it it's not a load word and I absolutely is I'm going to ask I'm going to ask again please the the the the bottom line is if somebody's not licensed or invited into somebody's home and they remain they violate it same with the car so I think that what councilman Smallwood said is we trust the police in this community and in all communities to make judgment calls all day long they're making a judgment call here this gives them one more um tool to try to prevent or deter people from coming to Summit to commit crimes of breaking into people's houses to to get key fobs to Steel cars and they're getting more and more I've been here since this this started and I can tell you the stories that we heard tonight are a lot more violent than we heard a couple years ago people were people's windows wen't being smashed and people going into their houses to get the keyops and it's not just here this is happening literally all over New Jersey dear friend of mine the woman dropped her husband off at the airport she drove home from Nork Airport pulled into her garage a few minutes later she heard smashing Windows people are in her house and they stall three cars so this is not just unique to Summit it's happening all over so let's just talk about an ordinance if you this is a second reading if you amend you can't amend this now if you amend it now you have to then withdraw it have a first reading and a second reading that's not the way I would recommend doing it legally what I recommend that you guys do is this has been I was asked to do this and I didn't draft the original uh hell or marbor I represent hell as their labor Council and um I know the mayor of marbor so I went and got that based on um Dr lavine's request to get those ordinances so I brought you brought you that and those were those dealt with the the car theft aspect of it um my recommendation would be if we keep doing the same thing over and over again I think that's the definition of insanity if we're expecting a different result so clearly you want to get something on the books because I think we can all agree that Bell reform in New Jersey has not worked uh in terms of deterring crime it might you know be it's got there's benefits to it absolutely but it might but in terms of the rise in in carthus ETC it's it's increased so my suggestion would be that you pass an ordinance you can amend an ordinance once it's on the books so just like you said councilman vinegar what you can do very simply is if people folks from the public Council people have other suggestions bring them we'll put them in we'll change them if people don't like certain phrases we can change them once you have something you can make it better but to but right now you you have nothing so I you know I think that um you know there's that all I I don't know the anacron that the gentleman said about the military but you know it's kind of it becomes paralysis by analysis you can try to keep making things perfect the one thing that people should understand is there's a severability clause there's something in here that a judge finds uh unenforcable they can sever it but let's back up for a second the the police all they do is they charge people they charge so somebody steals a car or attempts to steal a car or is breaking into somebody's house to steal the key fob to steal the car and they get arrested that's assumes they get arrested and deterred the the police department has the ability to level two c violations which are going to be handled down in yion county and this Municipal violation at the end of the day when you're you're ultimately going to be going before a judge so not only are you going to have a a group of police police officers who are trained in law you're going to have a judge who's trained to look at it so I think that the the people having fears about the Amazon driver I mean first way no Amazon drivers try to get into my house they usually drop the package off halfway down my driveway and then I ran it over actually once too but that's beside the point um so you know I I think that what you have is you have there's clearly a need to do something is this going to be the the the end all be all it's not will it help deter one gentleman spoke about people saying huh you know if I go to Summit just there's just it's going to be more of a headache to go to Summit I'll go someplace else so um and hopefully you mean frankly somebody else made a really good comment and I think that um you know you have a lot of what's going on is these are children who are committing these crimes or young adults they're being recruited to do it because the consequences for them there aren't really any consequences and there's only it's just a matter of time before uh somebody who doesn't feel safe says you know what I'm going to take matters with my own hand I'm going to get a shotgun I'm going to get a gun that's the that's a Coming Attraction and now with with with all the gun reform that's gone on in our country getting a gun's a lot easier so I think that my recommendation would be you pass the ordinance I I am I am not a criminal attorney we've looked at it we believe it would would absolutely pass um muster but if people have other ideas bring it to the council and we can make re revisions and you can refine it and refine it and refine it and it's also something that that ordinances often get refined when they're in uh in place the police department the chief could come forward and say you know what we've been doing this I think you might want to add this or you might want to change this and then you change ordinance again it happens all the time so I think you're probably better off uh moving forward and then making revisions as opposed to trying to revise it now because if you revise it now you can't you cannot pass it you can only make they're called uh scrier errors if there's a typo or something you can correct that but anything substantive you'd have to it would kill the ordinance so those are my thoughts on this and uh you know I'm glad to you I don't take any pride in authorship you know it doesn't and and and Mr poosi your your esteemed colleague a member of the bar you looked at it other people looked at it people in my firm have looked at it we represent a lot of municipalities so we don't think there's going to be a legal problem and I think that people are are [Music] um being overly concerned where I think this is going to be something that the police it's one more tool that your police officers can use in trying to help def deter uh the thefts all right thank you Mr chobi um Chief zorski would you like to come up here and walk through the process how this would be enforced and um address any language concerns that you've heard tonight I just want to uh um start out by saying that I I respect everybody's opinion on both sides of this argument um in my opinion um this is not obviously not a perfect um uh ordinance but it I do believe it is a step in the right direction um and I can um you know giving you my word my promise tonight that the summer Police Department would uh would never use uh this ordinance to circumvent the Constitution to harass anybody to treat anybody unfairly um quite frankly I don't really see it changing the way we do uh what we're doing from what we're doing right now um as I said at the other meeting I know there were some concerns about this increasing the call volume again I didn't see that as a problem um I was of the opinion that um someone that had an implicit or explicit bias that would call the police um would call the police on somebody with or without this ordinance um you know as I indicated at the previous meeting as well um we the police wouldn't be just acting on just the one act of touching a door knob or trying a door knob we would have to take it to F you know other factors would be uh looked at um like we like we do with a with a criminal charge um so uh you know I don't think there's any room for us to abuse it not that we would um we definitely wouldn't but I I I don't see um you know any issues with it is it um someone had said Double Jeopardy does this double jeopardy that that I that I don't know that would be a question for for the attorney um I'll I'll come back to that um question for you so when is this enforceable um somebody comes on to my property and I call the the police because they are jiggling the handle what happens in that scenario we would we would respond um and we would make our own observations um uh would if the person was still on the scene um you know we would uh talk to that person and try to find out um if there was any reasonable explanation why uh um that person was doing what they were doing um we would take into count if there's a vehicle that was you know waiting for him if we we're going to run the plate if it comes back stolen that's a problem obviously um if it's someone that we've um encountered before because a lot of um these individuals we have um uh encountered on on numerous um occasions there's a you know a hundred things that we would take into account um before uh you know it's not going to be just you know the the action of touching a door knob or um uh you know jiggling a door handle or or being on somebody's property okay so if someone's actually arrested for again there's like I said hundreds of things 4:00 in the morning um you're wearing a ski mask in July um you know uh these are all things that we would take into consideration obviously right so if I'm actually arrested um for a car Breakin or um going into someone's home I'm assuming some police respond you end up catching uh the individual you then take take him to him or her to Union County or Essex jail well we would take him to Sumer Police Headquarters first and and I'm assuming that we would have probable cause to the charge with the 2C criminal statute so at at some of police headquarters we would go contact the prosecutor get approval for any felony indictable charges um and then in addition to those uh the charges the criminal charges we would charge with the city ordinance violation now all those charges would then be sent to the county jail I mean a County Court including the um city ordinance violation now you asked about Double Jeopardy I can give you the the reverse of it how we have to operate when you charge a Bo of vehicle offense or a um a city woodness violation along with felony charges um those charges go to the to the county along um Al together to package and the idea of that is they don't want somebody coming into municipal court before they go to their uh court appearance in uni County and plead guilty to a minor charge that there has been problems with that where that created a situation where it was Double Jeopardy now the County charges uh uh couldn't be um uh adjudicated or prosecuted um so that's it's actually the reverse of what you're asking I don't know about coming back the other way though um that's something that you have to ask uh um you know generally it gets the the all the charges are put together goes to Union County prosecutor but I can tell you very often and the chief can tell you with this is that uh just give you an example people get you pull over somebody for um a serious motor vehicle violation no insurance no license maybe they're drunk around drugs they get a whole host of tickets um and I can tell you that the attorney because the attorneys that are representing whether it's somebody that you paid for or somebody that's assigned you as a public offender they look for ways of minimizing those charges or dismissing them and one way of minimizing it happens very often is can they plead guilty to a municipal ordinance and make these other things go away well that's now part of the package at the prosecutor's office where they can then say well this is the first offense I'm going to have you plead guilty you're going to pay the fine or you're going to do community service it G it's one more thing that the prosecut Union County and they work in conjunction with your local courts too they don't work isolated because the local judge uh it's part of the I guess it's a shared Court here yeah shared Court works with the head municipal judge who works with the assignment judge of Union County they all work together so this isn't going to be done in like silos they're done conjunctively um but I can tell that I'm sure the chief could tell you story after story where you've dealt when you were a police officer people pleading to Municipal ordinance violations that happens a lot with like big big parties and they'll say you know what I'll plead to a noise ordinance violation I the music was on too loud not the under serving underage alcohol it was a noise ordinance that's the type of thing where this when these all get lumped together it gives people that opportunity the goal here is is that these these um folks that are doing this you know if you can get them on the right path early on that would be a benefit and and I think that's what you're trying to do here is give the police and ultimately the prosecutors whether it's at Union County and then if Union County remands it they can also remand it they can could say we're not going to prosecute this criminally we think we have problems on the 2C but you can handle it now at the the municipal ordance level and then it's sent back so the chief is right it never goes first to Municipal and then up if it's sent back down to Municipal and the the person doesn't show up then the judge can issue a bench warrant for that person's arrest because they have failed to appear a municipal court but once it goes to the county it it goes there and they control the whole thing and then it gets pieced back down to the municipality I I think the question was Sir that um and it came up I think in our meeting today if um the uh indictable charges are dismissed or they're found not guilty and then they send back that's what normally happens well if they're found not guilty and that's sent up there then that would be double jeopardy they're not guilty they didn't do it so that would be you couldn't then repr but if the indictable charges are dismissed that's not a finding and so it can proceed municipally uh and that would not be double jeopardy okay but again that's we I you know we're counting on I think we all do we live in New Jersey we all count on our our local police the County Prosecutors the federal prosecutors I mean we have there's lots of different law enforcement people that are well trained and I think we all have faith that they're doing the right thing and helping us and so again we'll defer to them and clearly judges criminal judges at the county and uh the criminal um prosecut at the county um will look at this and and they might call up and say hey we have a suggestion make this change that's when you could amend the ordinance okay does any other council member have a um question for the chief of police no okay any final thoughts comments just again it's a small step but it's a step in the right direction do you um regularly meet with the Interfaith Council yes okay all right thank you okay okay thank you I'm actually I'm going to Mayor no would you like something I I'll finish if you like something to say I have I I have nothing to add actually um no everything that I would have said has been said and given the late hour I'll spare you um council president yes I don't think we heard from uh councilman palowski yeah look I don't have I don't have much to add um a lot of people have said a lot of things here tonight um where's the data that'll prove that this works maybe we're going to be the ones that create it right we can be exceptional in that way um and I just I really don't see a huge downside I really don't see any downside to it all the ways that it possibly could be um implemented I don't think it will be um I think to borrow councilman Miner's phrase that our our residents and our uh our police have announced Common Sense the severability Clause if there's any provision of it that's not enforcable it's not going to be enforced and we can pass this tonight take a step in the right direction maybe make our town a little safer and um we can make revisions in the in the future if we think that they're warranted and if I may add you know I want to speak on your behalf mayor but we had a conversation today after her meeting with the Interfaith Council and even just hearing all the conversations tonight Matt if we can memorialize your comments and say one if we pass this tonight we can go back with the community with everybody we've heard from tonight and amend this ordinance at a later date but if we do nothing tonight if you do nothing tonight or you attempt to change this right there's no ordinance so you guys vote and gets voted down or if somebody amends it you can't vote on it those will be material changes but at the very next meeting in two weeks from now if the council and the mayor want to make a change based talking to the chief of the Interfaith Council you then introduce an amendment that'd be a first reading and then two weeks later it' be passed so it always takes two meetings to amend or introduce and pass or amend in pass so you know every every meeting you could keep on amending this does it mean it sounds to me in I'm not sure the word privilege it does sound like that is something that is important to the community and I would be amendable to taking that out if it was something I'm absolutely amendable to taking the word privileged out if that was something that um my colleagues were you know felt was important I think there's some things that people brought up some valid points but doing nothing tonight I mean you could easily change the word privileged to um invited right and I think that would be a good idea and that's that's an easy thing to fix but you know that's not a problem at all I mean that to me um because privileged there's a legal connotation to it it's not we're not you know when that was put in that was in I think in the home deal ordinance as well so privilege there's you know you have a privilege to enter it's not a privilege based on somebody's privilege it's being an invite into somebody's home or garage or place of business but I think you could change that word but that would be an amendment and you could do that next meeting thank you thank you okay any final thoughts before we all right so I just want to thank everybody for coming tonight um it's very emotional there's a lot of trauma that's happened in this community um whether it's long-term trauma or it's um near-term trauma with the increase in burglaries um I do not want to sacrifice progress for the Perfection but I do want to recognize that the Interfaith Council came today and had a conversation with us the mayor myself um councilman Boyer the police chief um and we understand your concerns um I don't want to gloss over the fact that there is some language in here that could be um in your you know I don't want to say misinterpreted but if you feel that it's Broad and we feel that it could be misinterpreted we are absolutely um committed to working with you and sitting down over the next two weeks and amending um the ordinance for me um I believe that you know doing nothing is not an option I don't think that whether we didn't pass it tonight or we do pass it it isn't that we aren't doing something um but I do feel like I was part of the original conversation in 2022 and we looked at that ordinance and that ordinance had read um there was much of this in it but what we did take out at the time was that um it included if you you try to um touch door KN door car handles sorry it's almost midnight uh car handles on a on a public Street and I said no way right we don't want anyone feeling like if they just walk by a car downtown and accidentally get in the wrong car because most of us have almost tried to do that I don't want anybody being targeted for that so we were thoughtful there were steps that we took um and so we are trying to make this happen so I agree that a year and a half later um I wish we had more dialogue and it's it's unfortunate that it was you know today that we had our meeting um but that's okay because you know what I believe it's a start for a a conversation that I haven't had with you yet and we will continue that conversation because you are a part of our community and you're important to us so um I support this ordinance I recognize the concerns I would my recommend ation is going to be pass it tonight and then we get busy tomorrow with the um Interfaith Council and work on the wording um because I want everybody to know one that we are absolutely serious about safety but two you know we don't want to get it wrong either so if we pass something we can work on it because we need to be sensitive to the fact that there's context that we may not have you know um considered before our conversation today so that doesn't make it a bad ordinance it just makes it imperfect and we're willing to to work with you on that so um with that I'm going to close this hearing um and I'm going to ask for a roll call vote I should read the ordinance you should read the ordinance first okay okay Madam clerk will you please read the ordinance um I think we have to also start with the first ordinance that we oh yeah we do for final consideration we should Madame clerk please read the original ordinance for um consideration for final consideration uh ordinance 24- 3305 an ordinance to amend chapter 26 stormw Water Management regulations of the code of the city of summit to add a new section 26-16 privately owned salt storage Madam clerk roll call vote please no no no oh you want oh I'm sorry Council H council president from crime to storm water uh this is ordinance 24- 3305 as Rosemary just said amending chapter 26 stor Water Management regulations of the code city of summit to add a new section 26-16 having just previously uh heard this hearing I'd like to move this ordinance for final consideration Madame clerk roll call second I second thank you all right Mr Boer yes Miss Hamlet I Mr migar hi Mr palaski hi Mr Smallwood I president Allen I motion passes Madame clerk please read the ordinance uh 24- 3306 in ordinance amending chapter 3 police regulations of the code of the city of summit to add a new section 3-16 entitled resident protection councilman Boer yes uh can you please read the ordinance oh for final consideration just move it for final consideration you can move it for final consideration without saying it move in ordinance uh 24-33 06 for final consideration second thank you Madame clerk roll call vote Please Mr Boyer yes Miss Hamlet I Mr migar no Mr palaski I Mr Smallwood I president Allen I motion [Applause] passes is does anybody want to take a a break okay do you want to yeah he want okay we're gonna take a five minute break better hurry yeah all right me I have including and we do a roll call vote because there are three that need that's why we cover all our bases okay I'm going to ask everybody to please come back and have a seat we're going to make this quick yeah calling my calling our meeting back to order okay um okay so Mr jaob so council president uh given the the late hour um the council my recommendation and the council can do this is to combine the remainder of the agenda including the consent agenda uh so you combine Finance items 1 through five Capital 1 through 10 Community programs law labor one and two the missry of policies with a consent agenda um so you need a motion in a second anybody can talk about any the items on the agenda and then I would recommend at that point um when it's ultimately time for a vote it'd be a roll call vote for the entire combined agenda excellent and then finally the one from the floor would come after that okay okay okay thank you Mr jobi um so I would like to combine the entire the remain of the agenda the agenda yep may I have a motion yes so moved okay a second second wonderful does anybody want to pull out anything to discuss you have to you can just discuss it actually okay should we make changes that one we we had the one change is on a word on ours is that yeah that's fine so the one change in the word just so I I just want to note you had in um it was a typographical error in second I put it over here bar through one second I'll read to you it was in ID number 10896 authorized execution of memorandum agreement uh for the CDL training it should be initial CDL license not renewal so that's just a typo so we that could be fixed so that that's part of this combined agenda three council president uh 10980 there's a scrier error in one amount listed that needs to be corrected SC error yes 10980 the emergency temporary appr Appropriations for municipal operating budget okay um the amount of uh excuse me 760,000 one Tammy do you have that number that the correct one there yes through you council president um in the last piece of that resolution um it the whole resolution refers to 760,00 in the beginning both columns add up to that for um salary wages and operating expenses to the temporary budget but inadvertently the total um was 1,250 that should be 7 6,300 so it's just a scrier eror that we need to change for the record so instead of 7603 no it needs to be 760 300 70,3 it should not read 1,250 okay thank you thank you that's what I have are there any other Council comments one more quick comment on um one that Mr Boer or council member Boer was going to introduce um so when you did you want me just is that is that Millennium strategies yep do do you want to do I can you don't have to introduce it because we just we combined everything so um you have a question no I was just going to comment on it that it's um make a comment unless you had a comment first no just uh the only thing I was going to say is that uh I approve of this resolution um Millennium strategies brought in $3.1 Million last year so I I uh I think the 42,000 that we're paying them this year is well worth it so yep and my comment was going to say that but also that it is it was about 50% more than what it was the prior year so they're doing a great job for us and I really support it I'm actually extremely excited that Andy and I agreed on something and I'm writing this down as a as a first excellent okay any further Council comments no public comments okay goad to do this no no it's okay just tell us which one yeah still CLA to still at 11 Sunset I was just curious about the um the Mount Laurel committee where that's coming from what what that's about sure councilwoman Hamlet sure one second uh council president while uh councilwoman Hamlet is doing that I just want to mention uh resolution 10982 which is the uh Grant permission and set forth for the condition for the summit Area YMCA Mother's Day um as a runner I'm just you know I I just wanted to to make that public uh the Mother's Day 5K event thank you council president um good luck with your 5K Jam um uh so resent had a question about resolution 10984 and if you don't mind I'll just read the resolution um real quick if it makes any sense this one of the one that I actually did want to introduce it was announced at the last council meeting the city is proactively addressing the many facets of meeting our affordable housing obligation through the formation of several committees and working groups these groups in addition to City staff and hired professionals we'll be working to close out our round three affordable housing obligations and prepare for uh round four which commences in 2025 the mayor announced that she'll be forming an affordable housing working group to elicit ideas and expertise from the public in addition our round three court agreement requires the formation of an affordable housing committee to meet annually that committee meets on Monday February 12th at 6 p.m. on Zoom to review the 2023 affordable housing activities the public is welcome and details can be found online tonight to address the confidential work that the city will need to carry out to prepare for the legal and other related M matters during this transitional year between round three and round four a Mount Laurel subcommittee is being formed by resolution for the advice of our city city solicitor and our affordable housing uh attorneys transparency was a commitment we made when taking office and while the subcommittee will work in confidence on behalf of the city residents it will strictly be an information gathering and policy position forming group that will result in recommendations to the common Council no decisions will be made by this group behind closed doors and recommendations made by the committee to Common Council will be done publicly as part of our continued commitment to meet our affordable housing obligation and then I was going to introduce the resolution ex any further public comments okay hearing none um roll call roll call V oh roll call Madam clerk please roll call Mr Boer yes Miss Hamlet hi Mr Minar hi Mr palowski hi Mr Smallwood hi president Allen I motion carries okay um Council we have one from the floor y yes um I would like to introduce introduce yeah introduce uh a numberless resolution uh that I'm assuming we'll get a number eventually y um New Jersey fair housing act or FHA as it's known along with judicial precedent governed the municipal affordable housing requirements um in New Jersey one one purpose of the FHA was to ensure municipalities uh measure of autonomy or home rule and to insulate them from developers seeking Builders remedies to try to compel them to capitulate to their zoning demands Summit has demonstrated its commitment to making lowincome and affordable housing available in Summit for over half a century uh long before it was required by legislation and or judicial decree Summit likewise has always fulfilled its obligations under the FHA voluntarily in with its own vision and to preserve its own history and character Summit has faced challenges um regarding the potential impact of development on our infrastructure Summit nonetheless has remained compliant with its obligations under the FHA and will continue to do so in line with its master plan uh proposed assembly bill number 4S Senate bill number 50 will remove protections afforded to municipalities ities under the FHA and this will result in summit's loss of home rule and the autonomy to control its own destiny um so for for these reasons and others that are uh set forth in Greater detail in the resolution the common Council of the city of summit objects and opposes assembly bill number four Senate bill number 50 requests that the bill be tabled Rewritten and reintroduced in a way that imposes achievable obligations and facilitates the ability of municipalities to satisfy those obligations we are moving this resolution um from the floor because the legislature could vote on a4s 50 in the very near future and before our next meeting on the 20th a second okay okay any Council comments three council president go ahead um this is an immensely complex issue the bill that is mentioned in this resolution is 76 pages long and is still being worked on and can and amended uh from what I understand the league of municipalities is still working on our behalf negotiating to make this bill better um to address some of the concerns mentioned in this resolution uh I do have a problem with resolutions from the floor uh it diminishes the ability of the public to review ahead of time what we're voting on if someone was extremely passionate about affordable housing issues and wanted to come speak their mind on something like this tonight they were given very little prep time compared to a normal res resolution this wasn't in the packet on Friday like the rest of the agenda for that because it's a from the floor um so a rushing a resolution like this on something of this complexity is what I have a problem with not the larger intent of the resolution there's a hierarchy of what we have to do here on Council and I value transparency and it will inform public over a rush resolution that's all may ask a question council member Miner um when we when we were discussing this resolution ution did you let councilwoman councilman palowski uh know of your concerns about moving a motion from the floor uh abstain you're abstaining from my question are we allowed to excuse me three council president are we allowed to PLL members of the council no you know so nobody can ask you why you voted a certain way or what you thought of that I mean you can you're free to say it but if you don't want to it would be stage I decline to answer yeah well I answer the question with the I answered my thoughts on this this resolution and how it's I believe it's rushing to the res rushing to rushing to pass this when the the city could have been um the the the residents should have been informed about this so we could have done something earlier I mean I can tell you this at the state level though just so folks know this is being fast-tracked like you know it's a concern a lot of mpali are having because of the speed upon which this is U being pushed through so um it's actually I think I think there's a highlight that if you waited to your next meeting in two weeks just right people yeah uh council president I that was going to be my my question was was there a reason why we had to FasTrack this I mean I was on the emails and stuff but it wasn't like it was um our decision to kind of do that I mean outside Council they were going to these meetings you know they're giving us advice about what's going on in the assembly and this bill that the state is going that the legislature is going to vote on is happening fast faster than our next meeting so we had to um uh vote on this well move this resolution tonight right yeah so this this Thursday February 8th at 11:00 a.m. um the assembly Appropriations is voting um and so they're moving very fast it's actually on the bill list I'm looking at it right right now um A4 reforms Municipal responsibilities concerning provisions of affordable housing and it abolishes COA and appropriate $16 million so because um Trenton is fast-tracking the bill what this um resolution does is it just says that we feel that they shouldn't do that um and you know councilman migar I appreciate that we all want public comment that's always the core of what we say um because the assembly and Senate are um not giving a lot of opportunity for municipalities actually I wrote some notes um the municipalities have not had any ability to weigh in on this um the unint you know we talk about unintended consequences this bill could lead to some detrimental Financial um situations for cities if it's rushed through without proper input um we're going to be left trying to figure out how we financially um can uh pay for if we have double our housing um responsibilities and it's not that we don't want to do affordable housing we're talking about affordable housing at every turn and how um we can make sure that uh we are properly planning this year we did the U Mount Laurel committee because we are trying to plan for next year already um last year I called to have the the attorneys come into executive session for affordable housing all year long the first action I did is I had the attorneys there because I feel like it's such an important um topic and it's important for our community that you know we've been we're already focusing on it so this appears to drastically increase affordable housing obligations by potentially doubling the amount of units to be built in each new development but what it does is it shortens the length of time that we have to meet our obligations for the third round so um the league of municipalities is um a a state organization the league of municipalities that we all go to and participate in November who um you know they're the voice of all all of our towns um would like the language regarding legal protections for municipalities to be tightened up um to Shield the municipalities for challenges for the next four uh 10year fourth round currently a municipality with a court approved plan was um we had immunity till July 1st 2025 and this bill shortens that so it kind of leaves all these towns um scrambling it and unguarded so just in summary the process is rushed the stakeholders weren't consulted and the unintended consequences of the financial burden and potentially straining infrastructure um really opens towns up for litigation earlier than predicted and I know that um we are not talking about the the affordable housing that we're fulfilling per se for this year what we're saying is Trenton just slow down and when we were going back and forth um councilman migar and I had reached out to everybody on this Council to get their perspective and to ask them um you know what would you like to see different because this was a nine page resolution and uh councilman palowski spent the time to narrow it down into a concise and um digestible two-pager with input from everyone on this count um you know and I appreciate if you don't you know we're not looking for you to say to say that we shouldn't do this um but you know just profession customarily professionally it would have been nice for you to say that you wouldn't have even voted it at all through council president um the question the question was from both from you and from council member palowski if I had any changes to the resolution and I absolutely did and um I see that he narrowed it down hugely which which was fantastic the the resolution is is worded much better than it was originally this is completely on the fact that it's a from the floor vote it does lay out um it does lay out uh our the the cities this council's opinion on that on that that bill which is humongous which we didn't have a ton of time to read by the way um and uh the fact that it's from the floor fact that it's being positioned right now is something that is urgent and absolutely critical I think is not truly as important as letting people have um letting people have um the ability to read through and be able to respond properly so the reason I'm voting against this is because it's from the floor all right I appreciate it I just want to clarify the vote in Trenton is happening before our next meeting so if we didn't introduce it from the floor tonight we would have no opportunity to weigh in before the vote was um voted on councilwoman Hamlet well I was just going to say you know the public should we we can absolutely die Dialogue on this we can Dialogue on it till 2: a.m. um the facts are that we took this from a 9-page document that our legal council drafted specifically urging uh all of us up here as elected officials to scream and holler that this should not be passed next week and the reason is right is laid out exactly in this resolution and the reason why we're moving something through the floor and can have dialogue up here till 2 a.m. is because it's this important we could have easily not had done nothing but this is going to get passed more than likely and we wanted to make very sure that we have said we are against this being jammed through as as elected officials it's our duty to do that prior to the next meeting we took a nine-page document we have the most succinct pieces of this and I feel passionately about passing this tonight yeah look all I would add is and and I said it when I when I read it the reason that we are making this from the floor is because it'll be moot by the next meeting if we don't so and again you just you know all all we're doing is you're just letting your legislators know that this is not something that the way they're doing it you're opposing it you're not commenting on affordable housing it's just the rust of what they're doing right and the impact it could have on you without being thoughtful because all towns are all different you know C certain towns have very little affordable housing ability to develop and there's other towns I'm in one right now that has a 200 acre former Toys R Us site it's going to get redeveloped so if you have 200 Acres you can imagine how many houses are going to go there and this is for me and we're going to we're going to dialogue about affordable housing all year um this this is really about maintaining our local control and I I don't know business administrator rers would you like to weigh in because I know that oh no I my my only statement about rushing um I think this this is the whole point of this legislation is to rush it and they were trying to jam it down the legislator's vote at least to get it passed by the in the lame duck session at the end of last year um we were hoping that it would die but the public should know that the State Legislature has not spent the time with getting Municipal input at all and they listen to certain professionals uh that have made the trip down to Trenton to appear before committees but this bill has not been properly vetted so the fact that they're continuing to rush this is and this a draft resolution came I believe on Friday so this is why it was not in the packet and we had a and and councilman P's uh credit and others that weighed in on this to try to get something together to get this before you this is a policy statement from this this governing body the public should look at that legislation and contact their legislators and contact the governor if it does pass to not sign it because it is not been properly vetted it is it is going to make it much more burdensome on municipalities to to try to effectuate something that they already have problems effectuating so this is your opportunity it's i i i there are times when yes mostly everything needs to be vetted and and the public should know about it but this is something that the public and Summit residents need to know about and they need to contact their state legislators and they need to contact the governor and that's what they need at this point do because this is probably up for a vote by the end of the week yeah may ask a question three counc what communication did we give to the public about this tonight or the prior day or the prior day yesterday or today because I I I don't think we did any at all council president um I'm not debating the coun look there hasn't been anything presented to the public on the about this this Pro this topic is out there and has been out there for many decades but this this particular legislation has been out there for not so long and it is being it has significant consequences for this municipality so we've been talking about it we've acknowledged that affordable housing in this community is important um this is something where the council is making a statement and taking a position one way or another about a state legislation that's significant your position is also important because they need to know where it goes when you send these things down to Trend I'll never know and the whether it will have any impact we don't know but you're making a statement to the residents of summit tonight and that's your responsibility and whether they had an opportunity or not to to to know about this you're making the statement tonight so that's what's important I have to say I thought introducing it tonight was enlightening the or you know letting the public know because nobody does know because Trenton is sneaking through a bill so I felt like tonight I mean unfortunately it's almost midnight so um if it had been 9:30 at night more people would have known and had more time to respond um but we'll put it up on the website and I hope that people do um contact their legislators so go ahead councilman um for future reference whoever in a position where we are under the gun and working on a resolution that we're planning to make from the floor because agendas have already been put out could any one of us have made a post this is coming come and listen I I would say that I I wouldn't I wouldn't have generally what you do is you come through the mayor's office um and the mayor's office with your public your public your uh spokesperson spokesperson could put out a post or the council president's office that's what I'd recommend you do and you could say this is aate a last minute addition to the packet it's not on the packet but do it that way and generally if it's something you know that's kind of minuscule that you know oh we have to buy a you know another backo it broke last night that's different this is this is something that you going to want to blast out to the residents so that they can call the state legislator and put pressure but even even beforehand we could have I could have asked Lisa or Andy could have asked Lisa um could you put something I'm not a big fan of having individual Council people do it because then then it get so I think you what you'd want to do is have the council president and the mayor's office talk and then they put it out on behalf of the governing body this is out there that's probably that's a good idea but again this did this was came out from Le municipalities on Friday right and and it wasn't you know the easiest thing to read came Nine Pages govern and those spons I remember i'mna add you want to say that oh yeah yeah um well you want to say yeah you can U Mr jaob I I thought we'd add to the end of the resolution that including the district 21 Representatives we also send it to the league of municipalities the governor and the um legislators who sponsored these bills is that correct y okay I will do that you need a roll call okay wait I just want to say thank you councilman migar actually oh no voice phot work yeah you know we've never had anything from the floor um so there was a sense of urgency on this and I appre appreciate you bringing it up because everything is a Learning lesson and so next time we'll make sure to work with communication um to make sure that we get it out because this is an important topic so um thank you all right roll call vote Please Mr Boer yes Miss Hamlet I Mr miger no Mr palasi I Mr Smallwood I president Allen I okay okay motion carries um Sor let go back to my where we at here you could do a motion to a journ are yeah can we just do a motion to this I have this crazy idea it's called maybe Jour wait motion to adjourn okay motion to adjourn second all right thank you motion carries all right I was like you guys aren't going to want to talk midnight no less I know