##VIDEO ID:8Gou66K-fEI## [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e e e e e e good evening everybody please join me in a pledge of [Music] allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which it stands one nation under God indivisible with Li and Jud [Music] this meeting is convened in accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings Act of New Jersey let the official minutes reflect that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by publishing a notice in the Asbury Park Press on Thursday January 4th 2024 the Press of the Atlantic City and the Star Ledger and also forwarded to the Tom River Times Tom r patch and wobm news on Tuesday January 2nd 2024 and thereafter posting same on the town hall bulleon board for such notices and filing same with the Township Clerk pursuant to a resolution adopted by the township Council on Tuesday January 1st 2024 the meeting dates have also been posted on the township web page councilman zosi here council member lamb appearing by phone here councilman lman councilman ion here councilman quinis here Council vice president OU here council president colan here moving on to item number five the approval of the minutes move the minute your microphone on motion made by councilwoman OU seconded by councilman lman councilwoman Al tool L yes no to move the minutes yes yes yes councilman lman yes councilman josi yes councilman lamb yes councilman nerson yes councilman quinis yes Council Vice of council president Coleman yes there are no honor resolutions or presentations tonight we're moving on to item number seven it's a final reading excuse me we're I just have something to read now inad very tical or anything like that all right president recognizes Dave thank you um I just want to mention somebody's name one of Palms River's residents that competed in the par Olympics this past August and her name is Christy Raley Crossley she lives here in Tom's River uh very long time and I just want to read what she won in the Olympics okay um August uh 29th uh she won a silver silver metal and the 50 m uh freestyle uh the 3rd um the 100 in the back Strokes he won the gold medal in that September the 4th the 100 uh freestyle she won the silver medal September the 6 the 100 butterfly she won another gold medal um September the 7th in the 4x4 100 uh meday the relay they won the bronze medal so so um if at the next meeting or two if if we could do a proclamation for this young woman it would be this was given to me by someone in the audience and I thank him so much for following through with that and our meeting in Al Lowe's parking lot so okay thank you Mr rodri thank you than president thank you we should also um council president uh observe a moment of silence for Michael Warren was a longtime firefighter in Pleasant planes and Community servant and um he's just a a great man if we could do that I'd appreciate that ABS great can we celebrate a moment of silence at this time thank you Steve okay moving on to item number seven it's a final reading ordinance of the to town ordinance of the township Council of the township of Toms River Ocean County New Jersey amending and supplementing section 47779 schedule 21 speed limits of chapter 477 vehicles and traffic of the Township Code reducing the speed limit on Silverton Road between New Hampshire Avenue and Todd Road from 40 m hour to 25 mil hour to promote enhanced vehicular and pedestrian safety this is the final reading second motion was moved by yes since it's a second reading is there anyone in the public who would like to comment on this ordinance seeing No Hands the motion was made and seconded call for the vote all in favor I I I okay and I believe the motion if we're going to yeah and it was made by councilman lman seconded by councilman iers councilman lman yes councilman Iverson yes councilman zosi yes councilman lamb yeah uh councilman quinlisk yes Council vice president OU yes council president Coleman yes we're moving on to the consent agenda all matters listed under the item consent agenda will be enacted by one Motion in the form listed below there will be no separate discussion of these items if discussion is desired on on any item that item will be considered separately um do anybody in the public have any resolutions they' like to have on voted separately M as in Mary anything else seeing No Hands Council have any uh discussion any of the resolutions M as well sorry M as well this m was said Jim you right m m yeah that's M like marry I think that's the only one so far that was cited correct anyone else on the council I'll third thank you you're welcome motion to move the consent agenda motion was made by councilman Iverson second in by I'm sorry gentleman Council lman councilman lman councilman iers to approve yes this is to approve the balance of the consent agenda councilman Iverson yes councilman lman yes councilman Sosi yes councilman lamb yes councilman quinis yes Council vice president OU yes council president Coleman yes okay okay have a discussion on resolution M Jim public no this is this is resolution the public does not comment on the resolution Jim I'm sorry all right yeah I have concerns with this one I'm afraid it's going to allow uh you know theoretically blank checks to be written to certain uh professionals without the council approval um and uh I I I don't know that I've gotten a clear enough answer as to what it actually entails the exact OPP ites that I don't think you have your microphone the U maximum amount um for each vendor can't exceed um the line item appropriation uh that's in the budget so it actually does the exact opposite of that um we are doing this because November's coming up and as you know once November is here things can move around budget freezing the individual uh contractor to the amount or to the to their contracted amount or to the budget amount because there's two separate things to the to the budgeted amount so in other words for legal all legal services can't exceed the line item budget uh that um those are appropriated but with that same example aren't don't we have contracted amounts for certain items so we said we approve somebody for 4 $1,000 but yet we may have a million dollar legal budget does that $400,000 contract amount now get negated because you can go up to that million without uh without uh challenging that without without going to council I think the feeling was was that the amount should be reflected then not to exceed amount um it would be more appropriate for that amount to be the budgeted amount but this doesn't say the individual it makes sure that certain say the total budget amount for legal using that as a million doll Nothing Stops that contracted amount from getting to that million not all one theoretically one one counselor could get that whole hund million dollars no no the thing the thing is Jim not every Professional Services I'm sorry not every Professional Services contractor has a has a a not to exceed Clause correct so that like for example um you're sitting next to um Mr MC and he doesn't he doesn't have a not to exceed to clause on his contract this establishes one on him he can't exceed what we've budgeted for him if he does he would need your approval then we would need to come back to council so anybody who doesn't have a cap we were we were told you we're supposed to now have is that correct Mr MC we're supposed to have caps now this blanket caps everybody in establish as a cap that's correct but that's for the whole budgeted amount of a department not the contract amount PE different Services have different line items in the budget so it's not like everything is all together I understand that again if we go back to the attorney no offense attorney I've tried to explain to you as best I could I you know we talked about this and you didn't ask any of these questioning the individual cap on their contract the administration does right and currently if you seed that do you need somebody's authority to do that or do you just get in order for the contri to pay the bill of that exceeds a budget a budgeted amount and a contract amount they would have to come back to council for Amendment firms it firms things up to be in compliance with the without us having to go through all these different contracts and figure out who who was giving caps and who wasn't so it basically establishes one in one shot for everybody on a resolution to be in compliance so hopefully that explains it a little better and there were multiple contracts last year in 2023 that unfortunately didn't have not to exceed amounts this addresses that cont according to this turn microphone on most contracts have a not toed certain amount not to exceed but there are others that have for each contract that they have they have a certain it may not be the cap but it may be a certain contract value in order to exceed that you need a modification to it a formal agreement to go over that you wouldn't extend a contract without somebody knowing about it but this if I read it correctly says the amount budgeted for the respective line item not there not to exceed amounts this they're doing it all in one rather than having numerous different ones that they're doing if I could perhaps maybe I can answer this question for you better councilman um when the tatb appoints to Professionals for the year you designate appropriate professionals and various Engineers Architects lawyers Etc um but those professionals then are assigned work by Administration this ensures that all of that work does not exceed the budgeted amount which the council has approved um and cannot exceed that amount going forward and they would have to come back for an amended budget item either moving transfer monies um or see Council approval for an amendment to that but again does it allow one vendor to get a bigger chunk of that budget line item the as of now it wouldn't make any difference one whether this is adopted or not one vendor could get all of the work one vendor and even if they have a vendors even if they have a cap very few of the professional contracts have caps in fact I don't think anything differ they're restricted by the budgeted amount in the town budget and one more this applies this applies to all the professionals all departments well you wanted to are you talking about actual Township employees or you this only applies to outside I know the the the the vendors for each of those departments that come in if their contract is deemed a professional service contract yes okay thank you anyone else call vote okay we're going to make a vote on this item yes motion was made by councilman lman I'll second it seconded by council president Coleman councilman lman yes council president Coleman yes councilman zosi no councilman lamb I mean the statute's crystal clear if you read the statute Jim it's Crystal Clear I vote Yes uh councilman Iverson G to abstain councilman quinis no council vice president OU yes coun uh and that's it council president Coleman yeah moving on to uh reports any questions on the building department reports any other questions on the reports motion to move the reports second I'm asking for a motion oh motion to moove reports I'm sorry okay thank you Council uh motion was made by councilman ion second seconded by councilman lman lman councilman Iverson yes councilman lman yes councilman zosi yes councilman lamb yes uh councilman quinis yes Council vice president OU yes council president Coleman yes moving on to the approval of the bills have a motion I I have a question go ahead the uh $300,000 pay over to dog from current can anybody explain what that is that's number 04921 what's the amount we don't have 300,000 who is it for our purchasing agent is is on vacation right now yeah what is the bill payable to the vendor who's the vendor Dave Township Tom it just it just says Township Tom's River pay over to dog from current pay over to dog from well let's pull it off and figure out what it is and we'll ask the purchasing agent when she comes back from vacation well which item is that on can we hold that one back then because we going be paying $300,000 motion to pull it he just oh okay yeah I'll make a motion to pull that temporarily that motion to pull that what's the item number 24- 04921 04921 thank you so there's a motion to pull that from the agenda there's been a second so motion to pull off the agenda bill number 24-4 921 was made by councilman nerson second by councilman lman seconded by councilman lman you doing all in favor all in favor I I okay Mo do we have a motion for the rest of the bills make a motion to move the rest of the bills motion was made by councilman nerson seconded by Council vice president OU councilman Iverson yes Council vice president OU yes councilman Sosi yes councilman lamb I just need to uh abstain from the following bills bill number 24- 04660 bill number 24-4 [Music] 4979 bill number 24-5 135 and obstain from Bill number 24- 04982 and yes B okay councilman lman yes councilman quinis I'm gonna say no council president Coleman Yes except for um bill number 241 974 for preferred Behavioral Health all right moving on to elected officials comments all right uh we'll start with the young lady at the end miss Lynn I don't know if your microphone's on nothing okay move on to councilman josi okay um first I want to say uh thank you to councilman lamb and Mr rodri for taking care of the uh I still call it the Joey Harrison Surf Club in Bley Beach the parking lot looks great so um we got to do the the the corners up there um with the pavement um by next year and um and I was thinking because that parking lot's not being in use uh maybe next year we can make some signs for the uh the lifeguards and the the block house and um so they could park their cars there and they could possibly free up uh like 24 spots because I know they get there early and they take the best spots so that's just a thought on that um and I also would like to know the progress on the township parking lot here behind us uh what's going on with the repairs um also with uh bay Lee you know uh the siding job was uh great but there's other things that still have to be done to the building there and um and I I know the Shogun he he pays a lot of money for rent and uh and we profit off that so if we could get on that and then I want to thank the um the Toms River Police Department uh they posted uh keep kids alive you know Drive 25 signs uh and uh board four off Brookside Drive so thank you very much they keep them up about a week or two and then they move them to a different area in Tom's River so if you feel your neighborhood your street needs these signs uh just call the police department and they'll make uh uh Arrangements um then I I wanted to ask about the um the standing on the grant for the Field of Dreams um is anything going on with that okay I I he's a good guy uh Chris Kane and uh they did a wonderful job on there so I don't know where that stands okay um also I want to know on the soccer fields with konopka uh they made a presentation here uh at the end of the year um what's going on with that okay and um and I never got the lawsuit list from Peter I did uh meet with him and um and he told me that uh he would work on it and uh I still haven't heard anything yet on that be in your email box if you check your Township email box okay that's a very good point which I don't check I don't use my phone or the computer and you know how to get to me we had this discussion before just call me up or get a hold of me and I would gladly come down in five minutes and get it okay but you're 100% right okay but everybody here knows I don't use my computer or the Township phone for various reasons um so um in W four off Wi your drive we have two beaches down there and um and one beach still has the porter party okay so it almost floated away this past weekend so um that is off Keats Avenue so if we could get that taken away in the next week or two and um and and they desperately both beaches need to be cleaned up after this storm so but uh most of the residents residents were happy uh with the overall police presence and and taking care of the facilities and getting rid of the garbage but the one beach needs new parking lot lines and and that's the furthest East um um and um and I think that's about it and and I wish we had that uh Bill grant for $5.6 million to address the flooding downtown Tom's River because uh we're going to be stuck with it for the the rest of our lives so thank you thank you council president thank you Dave uh councilman nson I just want to thank everybody for showing up you know people could be sitting on their couch right now and uh everybody takes the time to drive down here and and participate and uh see what goes on with their town so thank you councilman Lin I like to thank the township for some recent discussions about some lighting over at the baseball field that the kids are very appreciative of the fact that the township is going to take over the course of the lighting there like they did to the other stuff so other than that everything's fine thank you councilman quinley all right we'll give it a shot councilman lamb are you uh ready to go yeah sorry council president I just want to thank my colleagues on the governing body and the administration for selecting Lieutenant Peter suac as our next chief of police and Lieutenant guy mayor being slated for promotion of Captain I look forward to new Patrol officers and additional promotions in the coming months for far too long the majority on Council and administration were subjected by the minority of false accusations that we were somehow anti- police this baseless propaganda was alarming with over 22 years of law enforcement in the fire service our Township is in great hands with tier sundack leing thank you council president thank you councilman lamb okay councilman quiny okay um I first want to congratulate apparently Chief sundek and uh and Captain um um sorry mayor um was sorry what's his name mayor um and the other officers that are going to move up from Sergeant to lieutenants and the the additional five police officers that the the mayor is finally uh uh going to approve supposedly going to approve I do want to uh caveat this Chief and the captain that uh the the previous Chief was uh stated that the position was just a figurehead and that our captains were unnecessarily and Ne unnecessarily and only reported to the chief so uh I really don't know how anybody could be real happy right now um and to take credit for it is is alarming it's bizarre that you spent months destroying a police department and then you want to come in like a Conquering Hero to rebuild it in your own likeness uh it's a little a little disturbing but I do want to congratulate those guys I want to give them the fair Shake I do support the police department uh wholeheartedly obviously I think most of you know my position with the police department just uh very bizarre that we spent somebody spent months to ruin this and now they're trying to make it seem like this is the best thing um also I want to remind everybody that uh this upcoming month there's going to be a lot of holidays a lot of Jewish holidays especially in the North End um you're going to see a lot of pedestrian traffic uh please be mindful of it it's getting darker earlier they have several holidays during the next couple of weeks uh keep this in mind as as it's been recently reported that Tom rers had uh one of the communities with the highest pedestrian fatalities uh something like 16 people died walking around Tom's River in the last year which is higher than any other thing in Mammoth and Ocean County by almost double although a lot of them were on Route 37 just be mindful that there's going to be a lot more people walking at night right now um um and then uh I I'm deeply Disturbed at the actions of this governing body last week when or last meeting when uh it was announced somewhat pathetically that the person has been running our sensory trailer for the last eight years or nine years or longer was suddenly no longer in a position to do anything with the sensory trailer even though she's been trying for the last nine months to uh to get it uh get Council to approve its use um and then to take that completely away from her when not only is she uh active with the sentury trailer she's the one that actually donated it that was total heartlessness and then the fact that you advertised that the centry trailer is going to be at a downtown event and it's presented by May rodri was disgusting so everybody [Applause] everybody other than that have a great weekend um at this time I have no comments mayor R yes our administrative committee recently completed the interview process and I'm proud to announce that the committee has decided to name Lieutenant uh Pete sandak our next chief of police chief sandak has demonstrated exceptional leadership integrity and dedication to Public Service throughout his career his proactive approach to Community Police ing has not only improved the safety of our neighborhoods but has also built a stronger more trusting relationship between the police force and the residents of Tom's River his commitment to Excellence is evidence in the numerous initiatives he has led which have contributed to the reduction of crime and enhance the quality of life for Citizens we are also proud to announce that Lieutenant guy May will be promoted to the rank of Captain Captain mayor as second in command is another step forward for our community his Innovative Str strategies combined with a deep understanding of the challenges and needs in Tom's River make him the ideal candidate to assist Chief Sak and leaning our police force into the future I would like to uh excuse me under under the combined leadership of Chief sundek and Captain mayor I am confident that we will see improvements in law enforcement practices fostering a safer and more orderly Community for all I would like to close by acknowledging that all six lieutenants who applied were exemplary candidates with strong leadership qualities and distinguished careers it is clear to me that the TS of police department is in good hands I have authorized our chief to move forward with promoting to backfill the three lieutenants that will result from these promotions and the upcoming retirement of Lieutenant bonsky I have also authorized Chief sandak to backfill three new sergeants who will be moving up additionally we will be moving forward with hiring five new police officers to replace the three officers who are being promoted to Sergeant and to replace the two officers who just retired thank you um before we get into public comments before I open the floor I've been accused almost every meeting of not taking control of the meeting that it's my meeting guess what folks I'm going to take control he told me it's my meeting here's how we're going to do it person coming to the microphone is going to get three minutes uninterrupted by anybody me Council mayor nobody you get three solid minutes to do your thing if if the uh group out there decides for some reason to clap for five minutes uh that person's going to lose their three minutes so let the person speak uninterrupted and remember it's comments we're not going to get into this question and answer period which always turns out to be a problem and as I've said before you know what nobody wins an argument if you really have a question it's your responsibility to make an appointment to come down here and discuss it with somebody you don't need to get on stage we would like to work things out so if you really have a question that needs an answer please make an appointment come downtown and talk to us all right also when I after the speaker finishes I will then turn to the council and the mayor and ask them if they have any comments they would like to make relative to the last speaker they are also going to be held to the five to five to the thre minute maximum that's it clear that's going to be fair to everybody everybody's going to get the same amount of time and again this is is a time for comments all right and again if you have questions there's another way of getting those questions answered so when you come to the microphone make sure your statements are in the form of a comment clear thank you all right at this time I'm going to open the floor to public comment and please be in line so that we can call on you appropriately and remember your name your address and your town please okay and be clear speak yes please speak well into the microphone so that we can properly record you thank you so much absolutely my name is Dan Valentine sir sir you have to address me absolutely okay thank you Dan Valentine 660 Huckleberry Lane Tom's River lifelong resident of Tom's River um I have been working with folks that are in need people that are homeless for the last eight years or so I've worked with our different code blue sites I've worked with a number of different nonprofits and this is a humongous need that thankfully we've been able to meet to a huge extent here in Tom's River helping thousands of people eight years ago or so we didn't have something like a code blue site where we could tell people hey here is a safe place where you can go if you need a place to stay overnight eight years ago we had to say uh sorry I don't know go to AC go to New York we don't know what we're going to do for you but thankfully we have had code blue sites here uh the and thankfully we've had Partnerships with a lot of different nonprofits local churches that have been able to work together to help people in need and the challenge is that the uh the most recent Administration this current Administration has not been as friendly to the home homeless folks and the nonprofits that are trying to help them uh we have a lot of people that want to work to help people in need uh that we want to work together we want to have different code blue sites uh however it's been more of a challenge with the current administ ation with the current comments that mayor Rodrick has made as well as the the actions to shut to close the doors to Riverwood and to try to keep our Ministries away from helping people in need here in downtown Toms River uh so I want to say that we support having these code blue sites and I want to invite mayor rrick I want to invite the entire Council to our current code blue site that's at Refuge House of Prayer on Route 166 in Toms River you're invited come check it out and when code blue starts in November come meet the people these are Toms R residents that are in need that are receiving help people getting into rehabs people finding long-term housing through this and uh secondly just uh allow us as the nonprofits and the churches to work together to help people in need we're not asking for the uh Township to do a bunch to uh we are right here we want to help our neighbors in need let us help people in need we care about our homeless Neighbors [Applause] sir hold up please any follow-up comments by the council or mayor I'll I'll save I'll save it for the end if that's okay and I'll talk a little bit about what we're doing to get people into housing that's fine mayor thank you yes sir now you're on thank you good evening Council mayor my name is Gregory Andrew from the Silverton section of Tom's River I'm the founder of the page portraits of the Jersey Shore and a former former homeless person I'm here to comment on an article that came out this past weekend the Towns River Times reported that 434 people in Ocean County were experiencing homelessness in Ocean County in January of this past year Tom's River reported 48% of the County's homeless population 108 of the total number of households in Ocean County cited domestic violence as a significant factor contributing to their homelessness Stephanie faan writes in the Toms River Times Tom's River mayor Daniel rogi has said Tom's River will no longer be a depository for the Count's homeless the prior Administration allowed a homeless Camp to grow and fester my Administration is working on a plan to clear out the camp just believe brought nearly 300 homeless people into Toms River from all over Mammoth and Ocean County last year which just believe has completely said that has not the case if the liberal liberal good doers I'm sorry I got that wrong if the liberal do gooders why do they have to be liberal on the County Board of Commissioners move forward on this we will take act legal action against them and just believe mayor rodri this is a scathing report on a Town leader who is entrusted to do the right thing for all of Tom's River this includes our homeless you call these people festering what is Oxford Dictionary's definition of the word festering it is an adjective to describe a wound or a sore forming pus or a food that is offensive to the senses are victims of domestic violence offensive to you as a festering problem that you need to get out of Tom's River mayor how about those who are homeless because they lost their job or had a serious accident or home mentally wrecked because of War do you need to sue to keep them out of your town these are the people you are vilifying and ostracizing Sir these are the people you're calling festering problems that are offensive to you sir with all due respect and I do respect you the only thing offensive about the incredibly unfortunate homeless crisis in Tom's River are the people who are in power that can do something to help but are instead doing all they can to treat them like disposable garbage again to use your exact phrase something festering as in wounds is supposed to be helped looked after healed not something we're ever supposed to deliberately cause more harm to you are closing the homeless Camp to in Tom's river and have shut down the town's biggest cold blue shelter in Riverwood Park the very places that were helping the people who need it the most are being shut down and shut out by the person who can help them the most you I am a praying man mayor and my Lord and Savior Jesus tells me to pray for all people Mr rodri you at the top of my prayer list because you can make a difference in the Lives who are most vulnerable sir that's I will pray for you just as I finished praying for the homeless sir excuse me that's your three minutes thank [Applause] you any comments by the council or mayor at this time well I would I would just like to point out that one part in this that um in that statement that uh is true is that we have been working with the DCA they are now according to the DCA census they although they are doing a new count they had 166 people living in the woods the police are in the woods often they're called regularly uh n can uh there's a lot of folks that are overdosing on drugs it is not safe to sleep intense over the winter in the middle of the woods the folks who are in the camp uh have been brought in from all over they're not from Tom's River there are a few people from Tom's River but for the most part they've been brought in from all over over the DCA and I and my Administration have been working together and we have a plan and we've secured I think it was approximately $3 to4 million to put these folks in housing for one year uh and I went I my Administration went before our our affordable housing Council went before the special Master on Wednesday which is today uh to suggest a plan uh that we came up with we have U about 9 million doar in an affordable housing trust fund uh this fund has never been spent it's money that is collected anytime someone builds a home anytime someone builds any kind of development they have to pay a tax uh you're supposed to have an affordable housing trust fund spending plan uh which the township doesn't have but it hasn't spent any of this money in an unbelievable amount of time uh if we don't spend it uh the state will seize it all uh next year uh so I asked our affordable housing Council to go before the special Master on affordable housing which is sort of like a judge to ask if we could use this money I've also been on the phone with the DCA director uh Miss Suarez about using this money because they have the authority to allow us to use this money and what what I would like to do is get everybody out of the woods and into housing into to hotels through the winter while the DCA works with these folks to put them in permanent housing and as far as the comment on festering it is a wound when people are living in the woods defecating in giant holes injecting themselves with Heroin it is a wound and it needs to be healed it needs to be fixed it's not a political issue you know it is a human issue as far as the warming shelters concerned um there are varying numbers uh from some of these providers they ranged from about 189 I heard 264 and I heard 288 these are the three numbers that I've heard from the provider himself as far as individuals Unique Individuals who spent the night in Riverwood excuse me mayor mayor that's 3 minutes you can finish you'll get another chance okay thank you um Ken gogin a fellowship court and Tom drier um first off council president thank you for the new rules that you have today um also I'm also here to address the homeless issue that we do have um again uh kind of um coming off of the previous comments again uh there was a lot of talk about how the homeless were dispensed in Tom's River but the thing is I've never seen evidence of that where is the evidence that these guys were just dropped off in the middle of the woods one that's first thing two a lot of them are Tom River residents I because I know a lot of them I know many of them that have passed away unfortunately I had a friend from high school who passed away just last week and I will say that you know mayor rodri is right is that a lot of these folks do have uh drug problems but they need help and that's what just believe did when just believe was in Tom's River they were helping those who are less fortunate who are going through these issues now the winter is coming it's going to be October next week and we need a plan now to help these folks get them into the warming centers because right now I'm not hearing anything about what the actual plan is once they are out of the woods you know we're here I'm hearing hotels but what it's going to it's going to come up quickly more faster than we think and that's my comments thank you council president if I could just finish thank you yes go ahead mayor just like to finish by saying if we continue to bring people in while we're trying to put people into housing it's a complicating Factor so we are going to put these people in housing but if Toms is going to pay for 160 people to be in housing we can't afford to have folks being brought continually to Tom's River again the camp didn't exist several years ago it took some time to grow it's going to take some time to whittle away and to get people into housing and it's not appropriate for Tom's River to continue to have to absorb the County's homeless so uh as far as shutting just believe down is concerned we never shut them down um they left or were supposed to leave according to their contract in March as far as the numbers after hearing the numbers and after seeing the camps and after having all these discussions no I cannot in good conscious allow another warming shelter to operate in Toms River because what's going to happen is the providers are going to continue to bring people in from elsewhere where there is no shelter and then the people are here in the day and they don't go back and they get picked up by another individual who's means well you know and brought to the camp but what we need to do is we need to get the people in the camp into housing get them to help the DCA will get them assistance if they have narcotics problems assistance if they have psychiatric issues assistance if they have any kind of health issues but in order to do that we need to get them out of the woods and we don't only need to do it for them we need to do it for the safety of the entire community and um again this is shouldn't be a political issue it's just a human issue uh that's what we've been working on we haven't been very public about it but it's been going on for about months now thank you I have nothing further go ahead Dave yes but I'll direct it to you but you can hear me Mr Roger okay so um he's saying two different things here that he wants to help the people get housing but he doesn't mention where they're going to go and then secondly he mentions that he doesn't to have any more warming centers or to help supposedly people are coming in so I I don't I'm not following you sir uh not not at all would you like me to jump in or can I just make one can I make one statement I've been sort of sure absolutely Dave the only thing that seems clear to me that there's there's a problem with who are we serving are we serving Tom's River homeless are we serving the homeless from anywhere in the state of New Jersey and I think that's what has to be determined because if we don't kind of get a hold on it it's obviously that if we become known as the center where homeless can come and by the way Neptune just closed their Camp um we will continually be overrun by homeless that actually in some cases we shouldn't be responsible for I feel bad for anybody who's homeless but we need to reservice the residents of Tom's River homeless and the ones that are lucky enough to have homes and I think that's that's the real issue could I could I answer your question no Dave so we the the DCA uh is paying for and and put on loan to us a woman named Pam Baker her and her organization were described as special forces for the homeless we also met with so she's working to get people into home into housing she's been identifying and I believe she said two she's gotten two hotels now that don't have any significant occupancy who are willing to to take people we're working on getting the money as it's a Hipp violation no we we I'm sorry about a HIPPA it's it's a hippo violation to tell um anyone where the these residents are going okay well the hang hang on da Dave Dave I just want to want Dave I want to do one question at a time and Mr Coleman I know you you you can you I so the freeholders we met with the Freeholder board as far as the location of the warming shelter there are 33 towns in this municipality Tom server stepped up I believe it was in 2019 or with a warming shelter 208 2019 2018 and we've had one and been the only one in the county operating for I guess 6 years now and we have now 160 some odd people living in the woods I think it's time that the county utilize a building in another neighborhood in another town while we work to get these people into housing otherwise the and and this woman Pam had talked about it we put two three people into housing and they bring in two three four more people into the camp that can't continue and people shouldn't be living out in the cold but Tom River cannot afford to place all of the County's homeless and that's my position uh and I believe that's going to be the position of the majority of the folks in town who are who are reasonable okay thank you um sir you're on uh Thomas Miller Tom's River uh 08753 527 Eagle Point Drive uh I just have a brief statement uh a couple months ago I stood here as I was presented as an official Eagle Scout of Tom's River since then I've closely been watching the discourse that's been going on in our community and these meetings and to say I'm disgusted is nothing more than an understatement the actions of this Council have brought active harm to our town and go against the good of our people in the history of this town we've never seen the this many problems started in such a short amount of time and it's beyond despicable we when we elected the council we entrusted them with the responsibility to listen to lead and to serve the best interest of every resident in the this community we place our trust in their hands believing that they will uphold our values and Promises they campaigned on the very values that unite us and drive us forward however since being elected by in by us they've actively engaged in doing the opposite of the people's best interest whether it's the broken promises the lack of transparency or the growing disconnect between the mayor's office and the people who live in breathe in this town is clear that something has gone terribly wrong decisions that are affect our schools are businesses our safety and our future have been made without consulting the people most impacted instead of progress we've witnessed stagnation too often we've been left in the dark feeling unheard and disregarded what's worse we've seen opportunities for positive change squandered and buried the challenges we face as a community require a leader who is present who listens and takes meaningful action yet time and time again our mayor and his Council are engaged in belittling our people and doing what's best for their own personal power I stand here not just to voice my disappointment but to remind us all of that leadership uh is earned through service trust and action and when that leadership fails it is up to us the people to demand better to speak out to hold those uh in promises accountable and to ensure that our voices are heard our town deserves better than empty promises unmet expectations that we are currently facing we deserve a mayor who values integ Integrity who's committed to making our town Thrive and who understands the that leadership is about serving every one of us I stand before us today to uh ask all of you to channel that disappointment into actions let's raise our voices ask the hard questions and demand that leadership in our TR or demand the leadership in our town that we truly deserve thank you [Applause] okay um you're finished sir uh any comments by the council I'd like to make a comment go ahead Tom I'd just like to commend Mr Miller for the courage to get up here and make such po poignant statement anyone else on the council or mayor I'd like to ask him if he could be my speech [Applause] writer okay Sarah you're on Sarah if you pick out the microphone a little bit so you're kind of tall you could take it take it out of the yeah hold it up your mouth there you go the problems with being tall John susage finally Drive um I just want to call back to the marizon words a little bit ago about it not being safe to stay intense over winter um I completely agree and that is why these code blue shelters are so important Additionally the affordable housing and the code blue shelters this isn't a or situation we can do both uh we don't we can work towards affordable housing while having the code blue shelters um as far as the the drug problem in the homelessness community that is a real issue but fixing it is not going to be shutting down the code blue shelters is shutting down any one of the number of pain management centers up and down 37 um and furthermore I'd also like to somewhat change and challenge that idea of a drug addicted person as someone who's unhoused last week I'm involved in um my church's Interfaith program and I got the opportunity to get to know um a single mother named Deborah she wakes up every day and drives all the way to eaten toown she is a male person and an employee of our federal government and she is homeless she has a daughter named lyanna in second grade and I don't think that they deserve to sleep in the cold [Applause] do any any followup comments by the mayor or the council I'd like to just follow up with a question myself why does it why is it that Tom River has to be the place why can't the county use one of its other buildings in another town if Toms over has been the location for the last six or seven years why can't we try to clear out the camp and get people into housing without having to have more people brought into our town why does it have to be Tom's River what's wrong with the county with 33 municipalities doing it somewhere else that this year is there a problem with that what would what fundament why do was have to be in Toms why can't it be in another town can you explain to me why that is no no it's not passing the buck it's uh excuse me excuse me this is not an answer question to answer time so no I actually would like you did but I would I would like an answer what I'm what I'm trying to say is May May mayor please okay then you know what I think I've made my point I think you've made your point Tom Zer doesn't have to constantly be the location where people are brought who are homeless we need to clean up the camp and the freeholders need to decide on a different place this year we had a great conversation I spoke to several of the freeholders three uh they don't support the idea this year because they understand the situation we're dealing with and I think when the people know about it the and what the people have read it's pretty clear we cannot continue to bring people here until we take care of the problem we already have and it's a very big County and they have a tremendous amount of resources they could try a different location this year and give us some time we've been on the front lines of this from the very beginning okay thank you by the way if you're going to speak please get in line so I can kind of get a gauge on how long we're going to be here thank you all right sir Scott susich Burman Avenue Tom's River I think what the mayor fails to understand is the extent of homelessness and the different categories of homelessness it's not a one-time thing you can't take 160 people out of the woods put them in into hotels which go go to Seaside and see how many hotels are left to take them and it sounds like we're not even going to take them there we're going to take them to AC we're going to take them to Trenton or wherever we're going to get them get them out of here um it's not a onetime thing you take 160 people and you find them homes you're going to have 160 people right here from this County that are experiencing homelessness the cost of housing the the wage Factor makes it so that people are one check away from being homeless you don't have to be addicted you don't have to have mental illness to experience homelessness and to take the humanitarian aspect of keeping somebody warm in the winter time and in September mean address the issue in April or May it's September as the gentleman said it's going to start being down into the 30s next month last year on my way to church for two weeks I saw a pile of something by ked's Funeral Home turned out it wasn't a pile of something it was a human being in a sleeping bag I went to the police department on on Bay Avenue found an officer and I said please tell this guy about code blue you know what two weeks later I'm reading in the paper where just believe is taking this guy who is a vet that served our country and has patched him up has got him into the code blue warming Center and is trying to get him back on his feet and I think the man is doing very well they're not all addicts they're not all experiencing mental illness there are people that have fallen on hard times and it is unconscionable to take code blue away do what you need to do with the camp I understand there's all sorts of hygiene issues and everything else I get that but to take code blue away at this time of year is unconscionable we we're not taking it away we're asking the county to open it in a different building this year hang on N wait a minute hold on hold on I have control of the meeting we just went off we just went off course here I want you to finish your speech and then mayor you can follow up go ahead very quickly that's nimi not in my backyard nobody wants anything in their backyard but you know what homeless people can't be just taken out and dropped off out in the middle of nowhere in a little teeny town with no Resources with no walkable place to go buy food with no place to find clean water that just doesn't work that just simply doesn't work and so to pick everybody up and just to take them and scatter them get them out of this town if you think they're not coming back that's crazy I'm done okay um council president go ahead mayor so again the DCA is placing anyone who wants housing into housing I I I began this conversation by saying that there was close to $4 million for permanent housing I've already stated that everyone will be placed in hotels temporarily while they are getting housing so they will be in a warm place so anybody who wants to be in a warm place will have access to that and as far as other homeless in other areas being brought into Tom's River at this point in time while we're trying to Place 160 people it is completely illogical it makes no sense and the idea that an enormous County would have to put it here I know there are a lot of folks here who who care about the homeless okay but Tom ofer residents are not going to want to be the focus of all the County's homelessness while we're taking care of this as far as nimia is concerned no one said we were scattering them we were talking about placing them in a hotel for several months while they got the attention that they needed and while they were placed in housing so that they don't have to be in the woods in a tent but if this town spends millions of dollars to put people in hotels okay I will fight like hell to make sure that people aren't loading the town up with more of the Count's homeless while the toms are taxpayers are flipping the bill they need to use a different building this year this is plain simple honest to God the way things should be they need to find a different location this year the the fact that that residents of this town have to pay for this is the result of all of these activities for years and we need a reprieve so that we can take care of the homeless that are now here Tom rer did not have 166 homeless people they were brought here they need to be placed and while they're being placed we cannot continue to bring more people here they can open it in one of the other 30 excuse me people listen I made I made listen sir do you want to leave sir do you want to leave then be quiet be quiet folks you have to have respect on both sides of the aisle if you don't want your people to be interrupted then you don't interrupt the mayor or the counsel when they're I'm Sirah would you move that young lady in the white sweater she's been making comments All Night Long I'd like her to remove officer please remove the lady in the white sweater now do you want to be removed also sir go remove him also at what point does this become harassing our citizens you're out of control do you want to be removed you're out of control no you're out of control you are I have told you nobody's going to be interrupted and I mean that I no he has not we have folks just stop just stop let's get back under control here this is ridiculous Steve have we been stting starting the clock every time I'm asking excuse me folks can I talk to somebody else without being interrupted thank you Steve have we been starting the clock yes we missed it once we missed it once you missed it once okay please don't miss it again all right yes it's on video that's very good sir thank you all right sir you are on name address Brian B2 Consulting Group man Alvin I'll use my five seconds here to say that every time the mayor did speak they did not start the clock now the reason I'm here today is to provide you with actual factual information information that came from the administration through public form and I'm going to give you the cold hard facts that came from you guys from the town clerk's office so the number one is the cost for the animal shelter cost $1 million a year and I quote qu the township does not have $1 million a year to run an animal shelter the county will run it better for free let's look at the actual numbers since we bring up numbers 2017 $5,850 2019 $587,500 5243 21 5169 22 48 6,29 23 895,000 dollars and all of that includes the cost of your employees salaries so that is not the cost of running the shelter number two of me getting to it a Academy September 6 20124 at Ocean County Superior Court Mr Pascarella confirmed under sworn St statement and penalty of perjury that the current use of a third party animal control which is confirmed as a Academy and built under the parent company of Western Industries North LLC since the governing body did not approve the use of this third party and it was tabled on March 27th the 24 will the administration Mr rodri and Mr solanis confirm here today that they authorize an indiv idual or Corporation to operate within the township of Toms River in an official capacity as an animal control officer and in doing so acted outside of the scope of their legal authority pursuant to njsa 4191 1516b njsa 4191 1516 as defined in New Jersey revised statutes 40a call 2-2 additionally violating Tom's River Municipal ordinance 40-10 D now the last thing I have to bring to you is the fact that Ocean or the statement that ocean county is going to provide you with free services if that's the case you're the only Township in Ocean County that's Pro being provided with free services let's look at your current shared service agreement with Ocean County that was filed January 1 of 2020 stray and take call cost $55 disposal 32 sorry your time is up Sir your time is up thank you any comment relative to the last speaker by Council or mayor hearing none ma'am you're on yes my name is Elizabeth Deca I live live at 1940 Cherryville Court Green Brier Woodlands first before I say anything I'd like to ask the mayor not or any of the councilmen not to look at your cell phones because that's unprofessional thank you Mr rodri my glasses on um you should be slightly embarrassed by your behavior you were voted as mayor of this town to keep it as great or better than it was before you got elected but you've done just the opposite this town is very large it's over 990,000 people in 44 Miles Square um but it always felt like a small town I've lived here for over 30 years I've been in Greenbrier Woodlands for seven but I've lived in Tom town for 30 years I've also worked for the town so I know a lot of the streets um it seems like you're working as a full-time teacher which makes you a part-time mayor and that's a little disheartening because there's a lot of things that have to be done now one of the things I did want to bring up that I don't have written down is is that you're talking about the homeless coming into Tom's River Tom's River is the county seat so what you need to do is you need to talk to the other mayors of the county of Tom's River of of Ocean County and get something straightened out so that these people do have the services that they need they don't they need a warming station they don't need to sleep in the woods if they're you're saying all this money is to get them into hotels is it throughout ocean county is it in Tom's river that money is not being spent by Tom's River if it's from the DCA um okay so some of the things that I wanted to talk about you removed three captains or did not rehire three captains after three captains retired um town of this size with 160 officers needs more than one Captain yes we have lieutenants and we have Sergeants but we do need the captains um again now you fired the media liaison for the police department who was doing a wonderful job she worked for many years she kept everybody on on track we knew when everything was going on we had the police come in and speak to us at Greenbrier Woodlands which is a senior community if you don't know um and we're and we appreciated that they came in and they explained a lot of things to people who don't get on the computer who are not in social media they brought things into us so we knew what was going on the other thing was is you Clos the animal shelter no reason for the animal shelter to be closed no reason for it to all the animals to be left there was no no nothing in place at that time you had nothing signed you discussed it but it was not signed um padlocking the warming shelter it was it was known and you knew about it that they used it for a monthly meeting and to to to store their supplies they used it my time is up I'm sorry any comments relative to the last speaker hearing none we move on Sir Carlos Amar winam so last three weeks ago my neighbor 80y old lady with a mental health daughter of 40 years old got evicted I asked everyone for help I even went to my building and told him that I feel this lady's going to do something bad when Sergeant arrived at the I had my neighbor call me when the sheriff was going to evict the lady thank God he did that we found over eight knives around the house scissors taken apart because she was varca in the house ready to do something bad this young lady is not her fault that she's mentally ill it's not because of drugs Unfortunately they were evicted and they are right now living in Walmart parking lot I've been going over there to give them a little bit of money that I have and to jump their car every other morning now I am from this town guys you guys only know me for 11 months that this town the low Community knows me for a Lifetime by putting homeless in a hotel we just created an environment for more drugs and more drugs I do understand we cannot take people from all the town I agree we got to take care of our town first we got to hold all the town responsible we could chargeing for for people that come to our town but we got we cannot kick these people out and we cannot put in just in hotel by doing that we just created a bigger problem we need to be able to help them get out of the situation that they on guys you guys got to go and walk These Streets back here they all back there in Southtown Trevor I I go back there by the bridge we have a a whole bunch of families back there and they all from to rivor or Lakewood I went to school with them some of you guys might know them as neighbors I understand it's all about saving money and I agreed but it's cold tonight if you guys go by the park they freezing outside right now while we over here okay and then we're going home to a cozy warm house guys we need to work together let's stop wasting time them plus you guys united we could have a very strong team I keep telling you guys all year round we haven't done nothing but keep arguing and wasting our time and it's your time that you guys wasting mayor I have a plan where we could put all these homeless into and put them to work and clean them but it would take all of you guys to walk these streets and understand that these people just need help a motivation and by us just kicking them out they will be back they're going to keep doing their crime and they're going to keep doing their drugs by putting in a hotel any hotel you put them in here they're going to be infected with drugs I know that remember guys I'm a retired Hustler of t r New Jersey I know all the bad drugs and we need help any comments by councilor or mayor well I would just like to say Carlos uh I saw you on Monday here at the Republican Club meeting and uh you didn't tell me about this homeless person that needed help had you told me about it or if you connect me with them I'll make sure they get housing and as far as this Hotel situation everybody keeps going back to hotel and talking about dispersing and that's that's not what we're talking about what we're talking about is hotels for an extended period of time as long as they need for the DCA to place them in permanent housing and we're working on getting the money for that it is the right thing to do um it is not about dispersing but while we're doing that we can't continue to bring people here from other communities I make a comment go ahead Mr coun it's my understanding that we move these people into these hotels that they're not just being placed there and forgotten their county is going to be providing services for them they're going to be finding drug counseling for them they're going to be providing cleaning up necessary that they're going to be having medical checkups and there's more involved than just the throwing them into a hotel the county is going to be doing that DCA DCA DCA through the county though right that they're going to be getting Medical Services it's not just putting them in a hotel somebody will be working working with them in order to get them back on their feet that's the way it was explained to me thank you yes ma'am Angie Felton 24 Woodbine Lan Toms River New Jersey now what I'm going to say some people's not going to like it but it is true that when you do have people living in the woods and they know that they're going to get help they do bring peoples in from other place I can I lived in Lakewood for 30 years and everybody knows about all those people live that in the woods and Lakewood and what people was saying if you come to Lakewood you won't have anything to worry about and that's what they was doing bringing peoples in so they do do that and what I'm going to say there are peop that do want help and there are people that don't want help as they say you can lead them to the lead them to the well but you can't make them drink water and when they got all those peop out of Lakewood they bought them they gave them houses they gave them vouchers fun them places to stay 50% of the ones that they hope are right back living homeless today so if someone help you you got to want to be helped I'm not I'm not saying that you know forget about the homes but you can only help peop if they want to be helped and as the mayor said he's right people will bring peoples down to Tom's River in that wood area and said if you stay there they're going to help you and it's not right for one town to have to take care of the whole Jersey it's not fair everyone should be in this together that's all I got to say council president I would just like to add something go ahead mayor uh the woman who just got up and spoke talked about the Lakewood camp and how they Place folks in housing I actually early on uh Mr solanis and I and Mr Pascarella met with uh Mr Brigham who ran the camp camp at Lakewood Who currently um provides a lot of assistance and I guess you could say runs the the camp that's here today and he had told me that uh they placed 60 individuals from that camp into permanent housing and after a year only three were left um so it is most unfortunate that a lot lot of folks do wind up back on the street but I still think we should try so um thank you yes ma'am hi uh I'm Lissa tozik I'm so sorry I did not know I was going to be speaking today so it's on my phone I hope that's okay um so I think it takes a lot of Courage for everybody here who has spoken up to you guys today um let alone the last woman who just spoke against or not against but in front of you guys going against what the rest of her peers are also feeling but something she said of the 50% of them returning means that 50% are not and I understand the concept of working to do things and working to put them in hotels and honestly I don't know what DCA is but we're working toward that uh but the thing is that what happens until the hotels as my father-in-law said we're doing this very close to Winter um and they the clock is running out they don't get to be in here for three minutes saying their peace because they probably don't know this is happening right now um and as far as they them it's us you just had a couple of people speak who said that they've been members of the homeless communities they've had drug problems I've had some mental problems of you know something I could if I were not as lucky as I am today I could be on that street but you know what I'm standing here and I'm speaking to you guys and you can keep say saying them until it happens to you it's somebody else's fault it's somebody else not having the drive to do something about their situation or not wanting to be helped until it happens to you I don't know if any of you guys have ever been depressed but when that happens to you you feel like everything is happening to you and it takes a community of people pulling you up and I just need to say the homeless from another area is a wild concept seeing as they do not have a home seeing as they do not have another area there is no other area for them to belong to they're our problem because they're in our city and they're not a problem they're people and I also second what my fiance said about if you really wanted to worry about the drug problem in Tom's River you would reduce the pain management clinics any comment from the council or mayor I just would just uh the DCA people up on Council here we start to use these acronyms and you know they're it's the Department of Community Affairs it's the State Department of Community Affairs they're the folks who give out all the money and and and uh see that all these programs are uh actuated if you will thank you yes ma'am uh hi uh Julie adamc 69 Cedar Grove Road Toms River um I wanted to talk about the animal shelter for a minute um I happened to attend the Board of Health meeting on the county basis this morning and it was announced in the meeting that there is no signed deal that has been passed that was sent over by the township and also um uh that they would be needing to see a certification of the funds that are available so obviously there's no construction going on because there is no deal um I asked uh during the public comment how long uh if it if the news uh paper clippings that I've read over the summer were accurate that it would be about an a a year that it would be closed and they confirmed that that would be the case it would be it could be as little as nine months and it could be one year or one plus years so uh the shelter is going to be close for an extended period of time um let's just take a look I just used a a uh a figure of 500,000 um as a guesstimate uh from various sources that I've read with the cost of the shelter we have 35,1 166 households in uh Toms River so that comes out out to $14.2 for per year that comes to basically $1 a year and we got a lot of services from the animal control and the animal shelter for that $1 a year uh a month um now as a result of decimating animal control and having no shelter we've we have chaos we have police that are off the patrol beat looking for Animals transporting animals anal to shelters uh we have um feral the feral population um exploding uh the lowcost Spay and Neuter Clinic in Toms River on fiser Boulevard only has two traps to lend out and when I was there recently a someone came in I don't know where they live but they came in asking if they could borrow a trap only one they said no because they had the two traps they had were um already out so I would say to the public um if you happen to have a uh have a heart trap that you are have no use for uh or you feel like donating your money uh to a good cause um speak to the east coast spay neuter on uh Fisher Boulevard in Tom off Fisher Boulevard in Tom's river and maybe you could uh donate to have a heart trap uh private citizens have now taken over um the responsibilities because we have only one animal control officer and they couldn't possibly cover 44 square miles by themselves um as far as thank you Council mayor uh the shared services agreement is complete uh Mr mcgucken has has given that to us as far as the extended period of time uh had had all of this not taken place it would have been done already but you're they would not have moved forward with all of the proceedings that had occurred uh including injunctions and all these other things it doesn't mean there's not a deal actually many of you were there at the County Board of Health when they voted in favor of the lease uh their attorney who's uh Senator Hol sapple uh wrote helped helped write the shared services agreement with Mr mcgucken so there is an agreement uh as far as the renovations are concerned they have to be done to bring it up this coders or in regard to State Statute and that will be done uh but how long that will take however long it takes it would have taken six or eight months less had we moved forward sooner uh that's all I have thank you yes sir Phil brilliant 79 Holly TR Lane thank you council president Coleman uh going to spin to a different topic um I'm very happy to hear that we have some movement in our police department and uh it's unfortunate it had to come uh you know after the resignation of our chief um but I do want to throw out there because it does interest me that our Township Code 50-2 B States and this is at no disrespect to Lieutenant sunduk the chief of police shall have served at least one year in time grade as Captain so by my reading and I'm not an attorney don't play with on TV struggled a bit last week but um you know he was not Captain he's now moved from Lieutenant to Chief and I just wonder how we have bypassed our code thank you very much if you like if you'd like I can answer that excuse me uh any comment by Council so both both men were mayor yes both men were PR voted uh in a power DMS to Captain uh we are U looking into and I've of course um made lieutenant Sak uh acting Chief or Captain Sak acting Chief he's acting Chief and we're exploring uh what the legal Avenues are uh through Labor Council so uh no no Captain is currently there there is no Captain so you can't have a captain for a year so we're looking at how how we're going to approach this but uh it'll be done thank you yes sir uh didn't didn't oh excuse me but didn't the letter read that you promoted him to Chief not to Captain he was interviewed by the committee and the committee decided that he would be our next chief I stand by that decision of the committee and I no in a power DMs I don't know if you know what that is but that's like for payroll I do thank you very much okay so in the power DMS he was made a captain he's being paid as a captain and we are looking into what we need to do with regard to the ordinance so the letter that you sent out making him Chief is not that he's no he's the acting Chief Sir acting Chief not yes curious yes okay yes sir I thought I thought you were happy with Lieutenant Sak I'm lost all right let's you rolling that back now excuse me excuse me we have a speaker at the microphone sir you're up good evening council president and Council my name is Kevin gagen my address is protected by Daniel's law I represent silver in first aid Squad all the members passed and president of that organization over two months ago mayor Rodrick shut down s first aid squad for nothing more than political retaliation revenge and maliciousness not expecting the public backlash he orchestrated the story that there's possible Financial irregularities that may be criminal in nature that he's turned over to Ocean County prosecutor's office two months later nobody from the prosecutor's office came to us I self-reported that to the New Jersey State Attorney General's office the mayor's allegation I've contacted them both weekly still no one has come then or now because no investigation exists I then filed an opener request to the township for all email supporting documentation correspondence and documents involving 7 first aid Squad from this Township to Ocean County prosecutor's office much to my surprise not really I received from the clerk through the portal an email stating this email is to notify you that your request was no such record exists your record has been closed so one of two things must be true either a no documents exist because there is no criminal activity to turn over to the prosecutor's office or the clerk was given poor legal advice from the town attorney Pascarella to answer that way in which case now that there are legal legal ethical issues the town has or should I say more ethical issues this only validates my claim that stopping the dispatch of sodum first aid was done out of political retal ation and maliciousness and I use that word specifically because the mayor counsil members can be sued personally if they use their official position maliciously or in bad faith Council you have been lied to by the mayor on this issue out of maliciousness you are no longer indemnified the mayor will say he has doubled the number of ambulances on the road since last year under Mo Hill but notice he does not give a number he can't give a specific number because he doesn't know what that is if that number is truly doubled why on Sat Saturday of Labor Day weekend where there only three ambulances available when normally with Silverton in service there would be four the only thing that has more than doubled if not quadrupled is the cost to the taxpayers of that program it has gone from over $1 million in cost if this was a true year it would be over $4 million in cost and the Barrier Island still has no ambulance 247 as he has told the people this is like Camden County Schools throwing good money after bad at a failing program that uh just throwing money at it will not solve the problem it's time to privatize it it's kind of funny we're talking about homelessness tonight because your homes are up for grabs with this you may find yourself homelessness are you paying attention Miss o tool that includes you as well have a good night any comment by Council or mayor hearing none we'll move on ma'am please come forward I think we've had more people join the line Lori Harwell 605 Vision Avenue Tom's River New Jersey good evening ladies and gentlemen um I want to I was going to ask a question but I can't ask a question so I'm going to revisit a question that Mr kinsli had about the uh contracts and I'll use his figures I believed he he mentioned if someone had a contract for an outside contract for $400,000 but the uh ceiling was a million does that mean that that contractor could go over what his original contract was and I kept waiting for that answer but it wasn't happening now uh councilman lamb said on the on the telephone that um or whatever it is that uh it the was crystal clear to him well Mr kinsel's question was crystal clear to me but all the other stuff sounded like a lot of divish I have no idea what I'd like to know is or what I'll tell you is is what I understand or what I understood is if there's contractors and they bid on jobs and one man one contractor gets it because he bid 400,000 while the others bid five six or seven then ma'am I might be able to clear this up for you just real quick professional service contracts aren't subject to public bidding laws just so that you know I don't know what that means I'm going to tell you because I can't ask a question I'm going to tell you what I understood that his question was not answered that was my question also that if say three people three companies bid and the lowest bid gets it but once that bidder gets in and he gets the contract for the lowest amount this is what I understand that company could go way over up until whatever the ceiling was that's what I understood and I understood that because that's all the gibberish I heard and his question was never answered okay can I answer your question absolutely council president can I answer your question are we going to do questions yeah no I just want to answer that so that all the public understands for example U Mr M one second mayor clock thank you go ahead no so Mr mcgucken is a Professional Services contractor uh as Mr Pascarella said those contracts are not bid Professional Services are sort of open-ended they're just appointed so what this does is it puts a cap that they cannot exceed and that cap would be whatever we budgeted for so it's not like a road or uh a construction project where people come in with a bid and and they have a number uh lawyers and Engineers are typically in pools and typically there is no cap on what they can charge and now they require some sort of uh cap so what we did is blanketly put a cap on everything at whatever the dollar amount is available uh because it so that this way it can't exceed the budget and so that we're in compliance with the law but typically Professional Services contractors do not have uh caps as I said uh Mr mcgucken didn't have a cap on his Engineers don't have them on theirs so now that there's a there is a limit on what what could happen otherwise you could typically you could potentially spend more than you actually have does that make sense I'll make a comment so what I understand now is certain jobs are contracted jobs and they bid did but other positions the uh say the agencies for professional uh people what I understand is they have to be interviewed and then the government the governing body will decide on which uh company like say a legal company which legal um agency is going to get the job based on like an interview like a job interview that's what I'm understanding right right right there's usually a pool so we have like nine engineers in the pool we have like eight or nine attorneys in different areas and this makes it that you cannot go beyond what's budgeted otherwise without it uh we could owe more money than we have an align item and then and you'd have to move money around um and now they require some sort of not to exceed amount on everything they I at least that's way the way it was explained to me uh but in the past we had no not to exceed amount on any Professional Service is not on the engineering pools not on the legal pool so uh I guess this puts one on there in one shot that's the way I understood it I think Mr P has a statement thank you very no that was really it just that Prof for to appoint Professional Service uh contractors you're not bound by who the lowest bidder is so you keep saying contractors though so it's my understanding that when I say contractor I mean anyone who's Contracting with the township Law Firm an engineering firm anyone who falls under Professional Services planning Services anything along those lines here's the that's time is up thank you yes sir good evening good evening mayor and Council Robert banini 1039 Bell Street um I see that we had an ordinance passed tonight for a road uh reduction in speed limit on um I think it was on Silverton Road or silver yes I'd like to see if there's a possibility that you can look into on Indian Hill Road from Bay Avenue to Cedar GR one it's the school season starting that area there um is walking distance for a lot of the kids there and years ago that they turned around took Brookside and they corrected that so people couldn't cut through there now what happens everybody comes flying down Indian Hill Road they race that yellow light when it changes and they go flying through there and there's no way in the world that that should be 40 or I mean they just fly through the yellow and some people coming from the mall instead of going up to Cedar Grove and turn it right they cut through that and zigzag through there so I would like for you to at least take a a real good effort in looking into that because that's going there's a lot of accidents that's happened in the past and one of the things that sooner or later someone's going to get killed there I mean we just talked about people getting killed by pedestrians I mean a lot of people on cell phones on bicycles that's one intersection I would really like you guys all look at and the other thing just for a little clarification um being working in government I know a little bit about contract law um even with Professional Services when you give that out okay there's a difference for professionals engineering ing um law firms and this and that they go with RFQ for qualifications you guys appoint them and that's fine but we still get a proposal so we know where the money is going and how much it's going to it's not an open end or it says not to exceed but we get a proposal so we know what the project is what we're doing and how much it's going to be because if you don't have a proposal or not to exceed the sky's a limit it's like me going to your house and I know you got $100,000 but I'm going say I'm going to do your roof and I don't give you proposal you don't know if there's wood damage or this I want to make sure everything is pointed out so when it gets done I got everything there because if not they're going to charge you for that say oh we forgot this we forgot that so make sure for the betterment of the taxpayers that even if you have Professional Services that you get a proposal so it's in black and white that's all I could say thank you B from bayay to where from Bay too it's just a little hook Bay to C Grove yeah I'm familiar with that it goes right through the neighborhood there right okay yes sir good evening good evening everyone my name is Martin taylor9 Street New Jersey um I actually have a pulse on or displacement here and sorry yes I actually have a post on our displacement problem that we have here in to D I'm hearing recently now we have $9 million to spend not sure close to it close not sure yet we're trying to get approval we're trying to get approval but my concern is simple this is like the third time that we jumped over to homeless people displaced people that are actually trying to get Services they're finding that if they stay in the tent cities if they stay there long enough the council will just step up and get them hotels I have people right here that right here in our area right here by the library been out here for months they're still living in the streets when are we going to put them in a hotel room they would they would give the same opportunity but they're not because they got to go through the process and we're taking a tent sitting here bring them bring them to me you know I can bring them here right now right now but you know secondly drugs are not just a displacement problem for mental health we have this throughout the city throughout the town throughout the country to focus our mentioned just saying that these people have drug problems and mental issues is wrong it's discriminatory all right I know everyone wants to frown upon that but we have a drug problem it has nothing to do with them being displaced we have a mental issue problem it has nothing to do with them being displaced it's already there it's in the schools all right they have homes they have issues we need to start addressing this and I know we do not want to take care of everyone's problem but we're not taking the time time to solve that how are we how are we going to solve that we are we're going to solve it no what you're going to do now let's not have a discussion please finish sir so the way so the plan with that because I know where the plan came from is getting them all in one place and then figuring out which township that they actually came from and then asking that Township to take care of their homeless their displacement I know you're saying no and that won't work but it will Tom's River is the county seat a lot of times we get this this place people from the county jail why are they here they have nowhere to go we get them dropped off they're in our programs that are here then they get kicked out of the programs and then yes they are from out of state but we take them in from out of states to use our programs here what happens when they come out of state K gets kicked out of that program they are now our problem if we're not going to send them back what are we going to do about that thank you any comment by Council or mayor I'd like to make go ahead George I don't think there's anybody in this room who's more familiar with this type of subject than I am I have a younger brother many years ago was drug addicted he got help many different times there was a a point in time when you could help him and then there's another point in time in which he rejected all the help you can never satisfy the needs of individual people uniformly my brother's ashes are in my dining room right now and I can tell you truly it breaks my heart to think about it but nobody should be without help and I tried many times my family tried many times you're just not going to solve the problem for every one of these people all at one time my ashes are there I I'll deal with it all the time every time I walk down the stairs I say hi Bobby I'm telling you it's not an easy subject to address but we are trying to address it it's no good to put somebody in a hotel room and forget about them it's no good to put them in a hotel room way out of town where they can't get to anybody that they even know these people will be given help from the DCA and through the county and through the money that we have that's available to address this situation we don't want to see them just sitting in a hotel room like a fungus it's not good for them it's not good for the town it's not good for the Neighbors it's not good for anybody it doesn't help anybody we will do the best we can to get them off the street get them into a housing and get them the help that they need I agree it's a problem but we are doing the best we can right now thank you yes sir hi I'm Bob Watson I live at 102 messenger street I was hoping I was going to be be the last one so this we could leave on a positive note but doesn't look like that's going to happen anyway um I think I probably represent the majority of people in the town who vote not the few that come here but the majority and I support the position that the mayor and the council have taken to take care of our own people first I don't care about somebody who's homeless and rck I'm sorry let them take care of them I want to take care of people who live in Tom's River I'm not interested in others for those who would like to do it fine take them into their home the challenge that the that you the council most members of the council and the mayor have had is that you're working for Tom's River you're not working for this particular comp component or that particular component or another particular component I commend what the mayor and the council majority have been able to do I think this letter that came out is pretty self-explanatory this is the one that came out with the taxes and it indicates just what has been accomplished you're never going to get 100% but I'll take the 90 and for those who smirk who think it's a joke who've always been against the council to begin with too bad join another town but I support the mayor and I support the majority of the council members for what they've been they have accomplished and to put up with the abuse boy you should get medals that's all I got to [Applause] say any follow up by the mayor or Council yeah go ahead Mr Peter yeah so much for uh I'm glad you didn't get to go last because that certainly was not ending on a positive note uh for you I I read most of that letter and 90% of that is is lies or misinformation and if you want some facts on it please contact me and I'll I'll help uh help you get a better understanding of it all right and as far as taking care of just just Tom's River residents it's not going to happen we're the county seat people need Services these people come from all different kinds of all different towns because it's close to the county resources that we have okay and then Mr Mayor I'm real happy You' finally taken some positive action with the homeless and I want I'm curious as to your timeline because after you code close code blue then all of a sudden you're a homeless to the hero hero to the homeless I don't get it I I'd really have to question your timeline to see when you contact the DCA and start rolling all these things I hope hope you did beforehand but your tactics again were horrible closing code blue and then doing something you should have started the conversation first and one of the steps is we hope to have this closed by just like with the animal shelter I hope to have it I hope to have the services moved over and the shelter closed by this date not let's close it and then figure out a plan B Co Blue's not around right now council president okay next two minutes two minutes got it council president though I believe I get an opportunity to respond go ahead uh on so Jim you you said we closed code blue it was the middle of the summer I don't know what you're talking about code blue is opened only until March no one closed code blue the question here is are we going to allow a countywide code blue Center in Tom's River while we already have 160 people living in the camp and if you say that you're in favor of that thank you for going on the record because I guarantee you the voters and taxpayers in this community do not support that idea thank you for going on the record Mr quinis yes sir all right uh Brian B2 consulter group uh since we're going to get back to facts let's get back to facts get back to numbers the animal shelter at Ocean County the cost for a stray intake $55 disposal of deceased bodies $32 quarantine $150 Mr Pascarella I could hear it's my time thank you very much quarantine is $150 for 10 days plus four days every additional dog surrender $65 cat surrender $45 seized animals is a $25 administ administrative fee plus $155 per day per animal R rabies specimen is $50 per animal notice of writing fee whatever that might be is $7 so tell me if I'm wrong you're not going to answer me but there is no active shared service agreement you have a proposal in front of the county that might be signed in the future but it's not active right now that's the difference so because it's not active right now the township is paying for services so that's number one number two previous statements have been made in regards to the condition of the shelter this is the vph1 form this is straight off the State website the shelter gets it yearly it's your annual inspection report I thoroughly enjoy reading over these once my op request gets submitted over to me with all these documents for the last decade the next thing since the mayor brought it up is the conditions of the kennels runs however you want to call it it's the same thing they his statement is that they're improper well let's read from the actual code since he brings up what the code says primary enclosure shall be structurally sound and maintaining good repair so as to one contain the animal two protect animal from injury keep Predators out and enable animals to remain dry and clean permit animal convenient access to food and water as required in these rules provide sufficient space for each animal per the code finished any comment by the mayor or counsel I just have a comment after every meeting when you speak sir in all due respect you're not a resident of Tom's River I know you don't come up you're done my turn you're not a resident of Tom's River we know that you wanted your company to take over the dog shelter because you could make lots of money doing that but it's very obvious that you really are not interested don't get up I'm not going to recognize you sir I'm sorry you're done you got your five minutes you're done okay I get a chance to speak for a couple of minutes myself without interruption thank you so yes I am and that's it okay go ahead Julie you're up uh Julie adamc um I I wanted to just bring up again I brought this up at uh the August meeting but I'm concerned about the Tom's River parking garage uh apparently there was an that accident I was informed there was an accident um one that metal grate is sticking out of the uh building uh the white pickup that's parked sideways with the wooden horses flanking it uh behind that is uh all the extens of damage on the inside uh it just seems like that problem uh has not been addressed and uh nor has the routine maintenance uh and other deterioration that was already identified by other engineering companies during the prior Administration plus the current one so that's something that needs to be taken care of second I wanted to just talk about the Silverton first aid for a minute um there's over 10,000 residents in Silverton it's a very very congested area uh in Holiday City at Silverton there's over 900 homes in one phase and 600 homes in another and they were making over 3,00 calls a year um there is um so much congestion so many accidents in that area that you need to have ready access to first aid and I'm just surprised that the residents of Holiday City at Silverton who are 55 and older who would be the bulk of the residents using those Services would be just accepting that they have they have uh uh less Services now than they had before the Silverton first aid Squad was um uh closed um in comparison orley beach has about 1,600 full-time uh residents except for during the Prime season when that escalates but um they supposedly got Services time is up thank you let me take can I can I just go ahead I would mayor few councilman Lin like to speak first sure thank you in regards to the accident that happened in the parking lot the parking lot is in danger of not losing anything that piece of guide rail that's hanging there is not hanging it's actually embedded in the concrete it's just been moved out we have an insurance issue that's being taken care of as soon as the insurance issue is straightened out somebody will be back in there to replace the concrete encasement and the guide rail back where it belongs but it is not a safety hazard right now it is not anywhere near able to fall out because it's embedded in concrete so it's just a matter of Aesthetics right now as soon as the insurance situation is taken care of it'll be fixed the insurance company is the person who had the accident and that's the only way that we can justify going back and replacing it is once we get the liability issue taken care of so it's not a structural issue at all it's just an aesthetic issue right now it's not going to fall down and hit anybody under any circumstance the rest of it is under a right now we're doing a a reassessment of what needs to be done in there but there's nothing in that garage right now that is structurally a problem that's going to fall down or hurt anybody it's all Aesthetics the concrete has to be replaced in some areas because it's spalled away but that's a common thing with concrete in structures like that concrete as soon as water gets in it it expands and contracts and it does create a weakness in it so when it's done they go back with a pneumatically applied mortar which replaces the concrete and then and it's painted and sealed so that's being investigated right now for a repair estimate contract on that it's not a structural issue with that the entire garage over there the uh the other matter is a legal situation and we can't make comments on it at this point what I would like to comment on is EMTs in the letter that went around in the tax letter uh I talked about how we hired 19 additional EMTs we've actually added another nine we have 28 EMTs now there are six ambulances on the road during the day and they have uh schedules that that spread out I guess 9 to9 10 to 10 and 11 to 11 I think there's an 8 to8 truck um we have more ambulance coverage than we ever had before and uh I've been advised that our response time is falling as far as uh coverage in on the Northern end of town all of the ambulances are spread throughout the town in different zones um and when Silverton EMS uh was answering calls they weren't answering calls in Silverton they were answering calls all over the town in some cases they were answering calls up on the Barrier Island they were answering all over uh they were running one rig um so we have far more rigs on the road right now than we ever had before and as I said we've hired 28 EMTs 28 okay thank you um I'm sure people have noticed the rigs have been on the road I sure have and I've been all through Toms River looking at different situations and I was pleased to see the rigs out there and also noticed that there are two people in the front of the rig so they seem to be pretty well staffed um I think it's kind of cool seeing the rigs driving around in different parts of Tom they were ready to service the community so job well done uh yes ma'am oh by the way after um the young lady in line I can't really see you you'll be the last speaker of the evening ma'am okay thank you go ahead hi an land do 9 St Lawrence Avenue um I don't know about anybody else in this room but when that young man the eagle ma'am could you please address me when that eagle I am thank you that eagle scout got out got up to speak the age of my granddaughter that you I don't even know how you guys lay your head on the pillow at night a child a young man with with that was just honored in this room a few weeks ago he he's seeing what's happening in this town it's sad I just that's all I want to say I just don't even know how you could lay your head on the pillow any followup comments from committee or mayor no no okay Sirah you're on hello everyone I'm Paul stenzel Jr I reside at 1091 Shanks Line Road New Jersey a proud teacher at tomber High School North for 21 years now I'm coming from back to school night okay you can't hear me can you hear me now okay um I want to talk about the animal shelter I do it is near and dear to my heart always will be I was a volunteer there I spent most Saturday mornings caring for the cats in that shelter I'm disgusted by this idea that the shelter was dirty that it was full and on camped I didn't see really I'm sorry but I didn't see anybody up here ever at the shelter when I was there ever um some of you may be able to count on one hand the number of times you were actually in that shelter and to think that I busted my butt volunteering Saturday mornings giving hours of my time to make sure those animals were cared for that the the uh enclosures they were in were clean that they had clean healthy food you didn't even know the animals that were there did you know Slater that was his home you took him away from his home it was the only thing he knew did you know RT he lived there he died there he died because he had kidney disease and we went into the pandemic and we couldn't take care of them you know these were animals that we love we want to give them hope we want to take care of them but shutting it down for political reasons you go against the very Foundation of this entire country factions are not supposed to happen read The Federalist Papers it warns us against entering into divisive factions that's what this country has now The Federalist Papers warned us against devolving into exactly what happened to British Parliament why did we win the revolution why did we win because Parliament could not agree on anything thing they were dividing themselves that's exactly what's happening here and everyone is suffering so I don't know what the answer is for the record Mr Coleman it's not a dog shelter it's an Animal Facility you said dog shelter I apologize so thank you and uh I just really hope that shelter gets back up and running because it's a big void in my life that that uh I want back any followup comments you're on ma'am s is from Rand messenger street I was sitting in the audience um listening to the comments being made about the homelessness the animal shelter and it struck me very hard there's no Humanity from this area there's none get rid of everything that has no home make it somebody else's problem don't help them because ultimately you are shipping them out you ship the animals out of the animal shelter to the county you're shipping people now like they're feral animals to different parts of wherever you're going to send them and it's disturbing and the thing that disturbs me most of all is that I was made a mockery of in this room by this mayor and a councilman who's no who's not here right now because I rent so if they're mocking me for being a renter not knowing my life story not knowing what I was going through and now you're going to ship people like their items out of here you have proven time and time again you have no humanity and this just repeats that over and over and over again it's disturbing it's sad and the the constant lies and Bs and the the filibustering every time something comes up shut up we don't want to hear the same story all the time come up with a solution fix it be part of the solution stop being part of the [Applause] problem like to have a motion to close the public Mr Lan motion was made by councilman lman is that a second byoun all in favor I motion to adjourn someone has to make it I'm sorry motion to Tom okay all in say that councilman Quin made it and councilman nerson second it counc made it n Council I seconded could you I would like i' would like to have individual vote taken on that please to adjourn yes okay sure um count the motion was made by councilman quinis seconded by councilman ion councilman quinlisk yes councilman Iverson yes councilman zosi make sure everyone takes the bill list off the table here before you go read what's in there what's being paid for who's getting the money please take it I vote Yes Council lamb he I think he's disconnected councilman lman yes uh Council vice president OU yes council president Coleman yes so moved thanku here that's it folks amuck