okay good evening evening in compliance with the open public meetings law I wish to state that on February 9th 2024 the notice of this meeting of the Upper Township committee was posted on the official Township Bulet board and the Upper Township website emailed to the atantic City Press the Ocean City senal Ledger The Herald times and file with the Township Clerk tonight's meeting is being video recorded up until the Clos session portion of this meeting and will be available on the Upper Township website I hereby direct that this announcement may be part of the minutes of this meeting would you please rise for the F FL United States of America to [Music] theice thank you uh the RO Please Mr Corson Mrs Hayes Mr nappen here Mr Panos here mayor Newman here all members are present your pleasure on a minutes make a motion we approve the regular CL session minutes from January 22nd 2024 second please Mr Corson yes Mrs Hayes Mr nappin yes Mr Panos yes mayor Newman yes motion carried okay before we do govering reports we're will to change the order a little bit and do the presentation for all this because I know you guys got by a lot of homework done and we uh uh want you to uh uh so I will I'll have the deputy mayor hand out call your names come up here we to line up up here nice and me with the tall guys in the back the seven graders in the front little less uh I'll read the uh resolution for you as quickly as I can whereas the upper toship you varsity football team had an outstanding 2023 football season becoming the 2023 Cape Atlantic Junior Football League champions and whereas the upper toship Indians vars football team has successfully completed their 2023 Cape Atlantic Junior Football League season with a record of 10 wins and zero losses whereas on November 25th the Upper Township Indians participated in the cape Atlantic Junior Football League Championship Game held in Northfield winning the final champ game against the Brigantine Rams with a score of 24 to nothing whereas it is appropriate on behalf of the citizens of Upper Township we recognize and congratulate the following players Johnny claybar come on up when I quote your name Andrew z z sorry William perard Coley zoo is that how you said that sorry good sure AR Xavier mower Jackson you guys know Anthony Lio I know that one that's good Kate Snider Ryan Hitman Bobby danowski Tommy Christopher Jackson Becker Adonis bullet Dominic John endicot Caesar Rodriguez Mason vwn Jake candelero Chris robine Isaac Ray Cooper right Rich sorry Sebastian Barnhart Sean Palmer Trent aelo Alex Christensen colum Higgins Jeremy Kayo Shane SP and we also wish to extend this recognition and thanks to those who have generously and given their personal time and service to coach this team they being and head coach Tony gy assistant coaches JJ claybar Chris robine Michael picott John vaugh art mowler Greg Mori and be it resolved Ray nor and be it resolved by the township committee on behalf of the citizens of Upper Township to extend the 2023 varsity team congratulations on becoming the 2023 Cape Atlantic Junior Football League champions and to each of our heartfelt thanks and for their generous donation of their time and service to the young people of this community blah blah blah and is you guys take the picture we can just stand here that work why we come a little closer um some of you are aware but not all of you as of last Friday the new lights ofwell field are officially up and operational so our Recreation leader and your team mom have sort of coordinated if you guys can head over to the field they like to give you a little preview so you see what it looks like get a couple pictures for you guys right congratulations guys [Applause] [Music] ready next year what know where you're going hey [Applause] B [Applause] all there you go there you got okay now we can move on um and we can start with the reported governing body of Members Mark panst uh thank you mayor uh just a quick update I know we're going to hit on the beach update uh when we get over to engineering but just some of the work that the Public Works guys have been doing over there he spent a lot quite quite a bit of time over there this past month um installing the sand fence uh except from Williams to Whit witer uh Walters helped us out with that particular uh installation there the Crossovers that Vincent to come Sith suar and Sherman have been extended in gravel installed I know there was some uh comments circulating out there about the you know they use that clay material at Orange sand and apparently that's uh the Army Court engineer specs that out so Army Court of engineer New Jersey d That's a standard material up and down the New Jersey coast so it's not a you know it's not us being cheaper anything like that it's just that that's what we have to put on there um I know Public Works was all busy looks like helping out with our with our our Co-op agreement with the schools cleaning up some of the leaves I guess that are still floating around on the school districts theyve been helping them out maintenance of the vehicles uh has been ongoing never never ending so I know that uh with our past winter storms that we had uh quite a few two two or three weeks ago uh we're still fixing some stuff for from that um also it it is kind of interesting to see um I think I'm trying to pull it up here the the amount of warnings that we're giv um out of I'm going to say maybe two or three dozen warnings that were given out and no no summonses were issued so you know they're doing the uh the non- heavy-handed approach to trying to get a lot of these code violations up the park so neighbors can be friendly with other neighbors and we can go on with wife but other than that that's all I have so thank you oh good evening everyone um this a fun fact the number I just saw this morning 16.1 million people called out of work today um Super Bowl Monday so thank you to my colleagues for being here we were here for the budget Workshop I was teaching this morning thank you guys for coming out tonight uh and also it's cool to celebrate a great football team after I'm an Eagles fan so last night was a tough watch for me for the Super Bowl so get celebrate Super Bowl Saturday um on the animal control front all I have tonight on Saturday February 24th we're be holding a free rabies clinic 1: to 3 p.m. rain or shine located 73 hope Corson Road in seille the last Clinic we had we had some bad weather so if you weren't able to make it out to that one please make it out to this one and if you need any further information we'll post that online that's all I have good so as I touched on it um like to public park that project is finished I'd like to thank our superintendent of Public Public Works our deput superintendent our head of buildings and grounds our engineering everybody that was involved in this process um this is a project that creates my time committee and it's required a lot of um restructuring and and reallocation to make it happen um it's totally unplanned that it happened to be Super Bowl Monday and day that we were having the football team here that you know we were able to announce it but it's really they're really they came out great they were really beautiful um energy efficient LED lights that we were talking in our budget for shop earlier you should be able to operate that about 25% of the cost of what we were using to operate the lights there um additionally because they're so much more Hightech we have the opportunity to um make them brighter make them darker isolate each pole so we could provide like some additional lighting for the park fored Security even when football's not there um there's a lot of potential that we're pretty excited about thing is too that could be turned on they don't take hours it was that was a big issue for those of you who aren't familiar with football was waiting for those lights to come on and if someone turned them off by accident you had to wait at least 15 minutes before you to try it again so so it's nice to be able to flip the switch and have light um on a less successful front our senior center hbac continues to be taged um we're now running into again issues with heads um fortunately we do have backup heat for the winter months but because of what we went through over the summer um if you look at your consent agenda item number 29 that is anation our gr to replace the H Center so that we can just move past this finally that is all I have thank you thank you Mr um obviously we had a budget Workshop our budget will be introduced to our next meeting we anticipate as it stands right now A 1.4 tax increase which is minimal to I think $300,000 home I think what was5 yeah $42 and Gary I'm sure hopefully we have more people here maybe when you get to your report you can elaborate and go through that slide real quick absolutely but we anticipate introducing our budget in our next meeting which 30 days later we will have our final adoption so like we're on track for getting done on I thank you um we have uh just I have one thing for tonight um the just just want to REM everybody that the upper count prescy Squad is having their flower sale um Ro sale so I the look at this I made my uh my pick up today so almost setor and hopefully um have a chance to go so that's all I have um let's see let's go we move on to board of governing oh we did that already administrator overview uh before I go into your overview real quick I just want to reach out to my employee and the staff and the collaboration and the cooperation that we had so this is a free week budget there's 50 items that are going to be on a consent agenda for one consent so for three weeks the clerk's office was able to put this budget this uh agenda together and within one second you'll going to wipe it all out without acknowledging what the work probably a good thing we had the consent take about an hour to go so the um the other thing I want to um and I'm going to do it next meeting but I I want to bring attention to what the deputy mayor um brought attention to was the grants that we have active and now we're going to go over uh the active active grants that we have and it's just been a fantastic um four pack of the offices working together again the clerk's office the CFO the engineers and triad uh have all been um and I'm kind of the project manager putting it together but they are doing the nuts and Hol you're going to see some great uh great submissions from from from the team so real quick uh the 2024 budget uh again the the goal was stability and stability uh through involvement management and advice of our our uh professionals equal success and that's kind of what that is what we've achieved through this this budget this year cooperation consolidation and collaboration is what I keep pounding the drum with uh exactly what I just said with with with what the clerk's office does by cfmo the engineering all of the Public Works everybody that has part putting this uh this budget together uh we continue to steal uh massive amounts of money from public works because they keep continue to stay within their budgets and we appreciate so so expected this year again that we will be moving money out of your budget in November and th uh employee Partnerships was the uh the cooperation between um reduction of uh Health costs shared services hiring practices and everyone kind of doing double duty within the township uh it is again a $300,000 increase I use round numbers so five or more Let It sore four or less let it rest 288 something or other but close enough to 300 what is it 299 299 I was close but 300,000 or 1.4 um the majority of that increase will go towards paying Debt Service down our employee obligations uh for for the township increased so health benefits increased carrying costs increased all the pension costs increased so Penny's worth about a buck 90 1.42 is what it actually says in our budget U document average home we used at a 300,000 um like chair Vic said it's just an easy number to extrapolate and to double as far as to come up with what your value of your home can we just because we had a question here at the bud Workshop that is your tax assessment not your real estate assessment right so look at your tax to see what it is there's confusion about that correct don't get thee get yourself all upset for no reason so the drum roll please comes to $42 a year as far as what will increase uh in a totality it's 355 per month on a $300,000 home that's a Starbucks correct cheer come other other unique numbers the township collects $41 million in total col collections throughout the for the county the open space Library School Upper Township receives 5 million of that 41 million about 13% schools about 71% counties about 16% and the township is about 133% of the entire pie for every thousand in taxes paid Upper Township gets about a buck 20 and my fuzzy math slide is because every likes to play percentages here you can see two identical amount changes of one 100 the new amounts 101 that's a 1% change but when you put a six to seven that's a one amount change but it's a 16.7% change so if you want to play this the game you can always make things look the way you want to make it look that's the show your honor thank Ju Just real quick about the consent agenda go ahead I know you said it's a it's a three- week you know work in progress but it is a lot yeah Joanne doesn't just give it to us like tonight this is a process that she gives through throughout the week so yeah so never stop yeah we we don't just see them tonight either like we get them ahead of time to be able to see and and we have their to it pull something it's a live document and I just want to bring accolades where accolades and it doesn't so she's already working on and tomorrow if she hasn't already today started on next and she has to get the the one everything that you signed today get scanned in and then send out so it's just so she keeps us in the know that's I like this P like okay here it is Fray there now the time but thank you thank you okay uh D I have nothing thank you though you've done enough already moo uh just one thing mayor um as a result of some discussions in the uh Mount Laurel committee meeting it became apparent that a lot of the the checklists that are currently in the zoning ordinances are not being followed exactly and I think based on the transition from Paul to the system that's now a lot of stuff stuff has kind of fell fallen through the cracks uh so I prepared a memo and Joan will circulate it to the committee uh after this meeting and it's basically going to back to the ordinance making sure those checklists are followed all the items required are submitted or waivers are requested I know Ryan has a a suggestion on fees and escros because all this work that is needed for an application gets passed on to the applicant through escros so I think it kind of goes hand inand so I I would suggest that uh that the committee take a look at that and and and if anybody has questions just to reach out but I think the ordinances are are good at first we thought maybe the there weren't the appropriate checklist in accordance with the municipal B use law but everything is good from an ordinance standpoint just a matter of getting back to it and following it I know we had some conversations about that at the planning board meeting last week and their solic I think was going to reach out to try and connect with those of you to make sure everybody was on the same page yes okay uh it that's it yes uh I just have one thing this evening and we have two employees from our construction and zoning office requesting to go to um take two more zoning classes um there both classes are held in May um and it would be a cost of um about $1,800 to send both of them to these two classes to finish up those zoning classes so just need permission because the cost and the L of I'd like to make that for motion that we approve this continued education or for our employees it makes them a better second call the RO Please Mr Corson Mrs Hayes Mr nappen Mr Panos mayor Newman yes motion carried okay also on that I I'd like to add because I forgot to bring this up I also have a request for uh division of EMS employee to go to a mass casualty class we want the Tactical emergency casual care uh and that that uh to apply that as well and I'd like to make that in a form of a motion Mr Corson Mrs Hayes Mr nappen Mr Panos yes mayor Newman yes motion carried thank you that's all thank you okay Ryan I have a thank you Mr Mayor I have a few updates to go over um first one the paving program uh so essentially that's project to handle Mill and overlay of various roads throughout the township I attended a site meeting with Paving Plus in public works last week to really finalize the scope of work um we actually received an updated quote from Paving plus this afternoon Barbara and I will be reviewing over the next couple of days and then passing it to the committee for review and approval um so we could start that work as soon as possible um so that's Paving program second one would be uh the route Cedar Swamp Creek Bridge um so that's really a DOT project to replace the bridge on Route 50 that project is currently in the design phase and has not been sent out to bid yet construction for that bit Bridge replacement is starting or anticipated to start in 2025 um what you see out there today is Lane shifts for essentially pothole repairs on the bridge and adjacent roads um so that's kind of a separate project and the bridge replacement is further out and and just just so everybody's aware that's the bridge between 610 and Tyler right yes yep exactly all right next up is the beach re nment project um really as Curtis indicated earlier beachville portion is completed or sorry Mark indicated um Public Works has now started the installation the Crossovers and they need a about 3 to four weeks until that's completed um and all crossovers are installed um and as Deputy Mayor indicated a lot better than I can I believe on callwell Park earlier um construction has been completed I understand you had a final walk through on Friday um and really the last IEM is for Public Works to handle some grass restoration over the next few weeks and may showing us the pictures from the field you can those too I would love to see how that turned out um and then really the last one is the Strath Mir pump project uh the one action item there is we received a request for extension from JF Kylie um they have a deadline of sometime in March to complete the work where the project is at now uh I would be comfortable recommending an extension uh really to Before Memorial Day so 517 uh of this year for them to complete the work do that yeah so essentially requesting a motion from you guys obviously originally I mean that project was been kicked around for a while they wanted to do it in the middle of summer last year obviously labor we can't do exactly so that's why we were giving them a deadline of uh May 17th to complete that work I just stressed I mean probably I would say we get too close in the B I would say noek yeah eend understood is this there first request for extension it is their second request for extension and just and and the request is because the scope and the design has changed so it's not they're ready to go they're not ready I will make that in form of motion we Grant the extension second Mr Corson yes Mrs Hayes Mr nappen Mr Panos yes mayor Newman yes motion carried okay anything else no that's all I have for tonight okay thank you thank you back to uh okay we have the consent agenda all consent agenda items listed below are routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion if the mayor or any Committee Member wishes a particular agenda item to be considered separately it will be removed from the consent agenda and acted on separately approve ite would you call Ro Please Mr Corson yes Mrs Hayes yes Mr nappin yes Mr Panos yes mayor Newman yes motion carried we have under resolutions to be acted on separately declaring the gypsy moth of public nuisance and public hearing okay um how how do we we do this do we have a motion to declare a public nuisance and then have the hearing I think have the hearing first what's that the hearing first okay so does anybody here uh would like to speak on declaring the giy moth a public nuisance this is a requirement for us to uh uh get the grant money that uh is going to be part of this program we have to do this every year anybody here for the Gypsy Moth public hearing hearing none we'll close the public portion of that hearing of the public hearing portion of the Gypsy moth and we'll entertain a motion declaring a nuisance I'll make a motion that we declare jsy M publics Mr Corson yes Mrs Hayes Mr nappen firm yes Mr Panos yes mayor Newman yes motion carried number 30 7 approving the application of the marora Volunteer Fire Company for Highway coin drops we approve the moot resolution second please call the RO Mr Corson yes Mrs Hayes Mr nappen Mr Panos yes mayor Newman under due business we have the Parish of St Maximillian Colby requests use of strair beach for an Easter Sunrise Mass on March 31st 2024 motion approve this is for which fece uh 1500 or Williams they asked for Williams but they're willing to move if it's not available you need be clarified right now we have a beach but it did work out well at 1400 they're willing to move if that's not okay Mo a second we please uh Mr Corson yes s ha Mr nappen Mr Panos mayor Newman yes motion carried 39 Shore Women's Club requests use of the Opera Community Center for Bingo ba 568 and raffle ra 569 on April 13th 2024 approve second R Mr Corson yes Mrs Hayes Mr nappen Mr Panos yes mayor nman yes motion carried 40 Parish of St maximilan Colby request to hold a raffle ra 570 at 200 tuckaho Road marmura on August 14th 2024 motion approve second call R Please Mr Corson yes Mrs Hayes Mr nappen Mr Panos yes may Newman yes motion carried 41 Ocean City crew boosters request use of the Upper Township community center for a bingo ba 571 and Raffles ra 572 and 573 on March 2nd 20124 second please Mr Corson yes Mrs Hayes Mr nappin yes Mr Panos yes mayor Newman yes motion Carri 42 ocean C oce City Theater boosters request use to the Upper Township community center for a fundraising event on April 20th 2024 Mo second all please Mr Corson yes Mrs Hayes Mr nappen Mr Panos mayor Newman yes motion carried and then 43 fee ordinance revisions uh this is what you about yes yes we uh essentially provided some recommendations for fee revisions based on a review of surrounding municipalities as well as uh the municipal land use law um so our recommendations were for increases on these fees for uh Street opening permits bulkhead permits the subdivision and site plan applications the associated inspection fees for those applications and then dumpster permits um based off the memo dated February 1 that was sent over to Gary um do you want me to walk elab per yeah so right now I mean we're recommending a application fee of $50 for dumpster permit application uh right now the current fee is $1 per uh day uh if you're at a 20 foot length um okay yeah so it's ually dropping off dumpsters at single family homes in the driveway we have that as a $1 fee uh per day uh in the winter and fall months and then in the summer that fee is escalated uh depending on how many days you have it out there in the length of the dumpster our recommendation is just to change that to a flat $50 fee for every dumpster permit application just due to the of the view time it's very similar for each dumpster permit when our dump I mean you talk about thumpster Perman applications have seen in the past and it's actually gotten better yeah some municipalities have covered at night for not using I think it's part of our inspection process I think he improved a little bit but a lot of these doctors don't seem to be covered and that's a problem okay yeah so that's something we could certainly add the Enforcement issue and I think it's covering in the driveway or covered in the street cover completely just cover and the other issue I what would be the reasoning if it's in your own property cover Because unless you own the next 100 acres of rent you know I me people put insulation and stuff in fense blowout and it's it's not so much as bad as in the street is where the problem arise but it's got to be you know yeah I think it's a little overreach person the other issue I have it's not it's not an overreach Ian there's no h i mean there's no Hazard they're covered in the street because it gets in in the way of a car or you know it causes an issue if it blows into your neighbor's yard you go over and you pick it up or your neighbor comes over and yells at you I don't think we need a a government oversight to say cover your dump Serv it's in the back of your house well that's nobody's going if you don't want to cover it in the back in house that's fine I don't care that's not the issue but the issue is but we can't enforce it though that's what I'm saying that's that's I'm against the enforcement of covering a dumpster in your backyard will not any dumpers in the backyard that's the problem I mean when you get some of these places in smaller more where they are put the front on remot and they're not covered it's a problem and again we can delineate an island Community versus Mainland well it's mainly issue too I mean I I have seen doctors on the mainland that have become an issue I mean do are they all covered all the time right now we have there's or right now to cover do this ordinance that this Fe ordinance specifically are we talking about um penalties and that kind of things this ordinance or is this just the fee to change just application fees and esorts I have one question um I'm sorry I just have one question for Ryan on the on the C variances yeah is that a per variance fee in escrow or is it for the first one because I mean if you come in with 10 variances it could be pretty costly so so the idea there is uh essentially per uh application not for the multiple C variances if you needed four on a separate application if you have a c variance or D variance it would come with an Associated application fee and Es grow fee so that that is the intention we should probably clarify that you it should it should be clear and so I've seen some municipalities they have a set fee and that's grow for the first C variants and then each additional one is that a lower fee because it it creates a lot more work for the reviewer and therefore more expense for for the township and again these are recommendations so if that is something we want to add we could certainly do so an initial fee for each variance and then as Tony was indicating an additional this this uh report that you did has it been circulated to Gary uh I believe I can certainly circulate it to Gary and the committee after this meeting okay then that that's what we'll do and then Tony will clean it up and we can take a look at it and from there I don't think there's a need to discuss it I didn't I don't look like I should but that's fine very very yes thank you but if we we share it on our email it might be this is true this is true okay continue um under unfinished business we have Aaron Sean request to purchase Township property block 329 Lots 1 through 4 and 8 and block 332 Lots 26 and 30 uh Tony Mr mono I'm sorry what is uh I mean this was is this the one Joan that was previously approved and want to add another property to it I I think you can do this by motion if if it's acceptable and all the procedures required will be followed as in the original resolution okay I'd like to make that motion call the RO Please Mr coron yes Mrs haes Mr nein yes Mr Panos yes mayor Newman yes motion carried Mo billsby move all claims sub for payment meting be approved and then inated full minutes of this meeting second the RO Please Mr Corson yes Mrs Hayes Mr nappin yes Mr Panos yes mayor Newman yes motion carried okay uh now open uh the meeting to the public anybody for the public would like to comment to the C committee govern body liby could you call up to the podium and state your name hi liby shuck uh seille New Jersey um I read in the Herold that um this might be a zoning issue so I won't go along because I heard what I was going to say but I heard that uh they're going to there's a proposed um a hotel and apartments that are um going for a variance um right north of cedar Square on Roe 9 so I don't know if this is a zoning issue or something I think that was withdra or Ted no it was T it's going to be table to another time but I didn't know it's it's matter in front of the zoning board right now so allow to comment but can I speak to the zoning board about that okay so just write him an email or whatever okay well you really need to go to the hearing and when when will that be it it'll be it'll be March 7th I think was when it was Ted so okay so just go that here with my questions don't wor ahead of time then yeah go there has questions and the app will be there to there is and the applicant has there's a plan in town hall and the zoning department if you'd like to see a copy of the proposed plan I'm sure it's available which is obviously they haven't made the application yet it's a proposed plan and they have been tabled because they want to change it so it's probably not the final plan but it'll give you an verb ey view of what's there okay well I I'll write a email to the Zone board as well but I'll I'll show you want if you want to send it to the administrator can send it to me and I'll make sure it gets to the secretary if you want to just send it to administrator whomever do you have an email address administrator okay at uper Township spelt out.com all right great thank you and give me a call in the morning if you don't get it and or the email and I'll make sure we make a connection and our website also if you go on the to website I believe there's a one click to get the address okay great thank yeah the only point is written comments if it's a substantive comment regarding the application really cannot be considered by the board if you're not there to to present it to the board because the applicant needs to be able to to ask questions about it so oh yeah definitely so written comments will not yeah I didn't know whether I should present the the comments beforeand in a letter or present at that meeting so I thought beforehand it' be good so they can just think about what is on my mind yeah both ways both both ways are good but just don't depend on one yeah oh no no definitely I'm going to go to both but thank you that's it thank you thank anybody else under would like to speak to the coun committee or anything hearing none I will close the public portion of the meeting and entertain a motion to go into close session offered hopefully by Mr commit [Music] Mark I hereby move that a resolution be incorporated into the minutes authorizing the township committee to enter into executive session for the following matters the open public meeting act number one personnel number two contract negotiation JP ban Bridge appraisal appraisal of services three contract negotiation GMS law in rem for closure matters four contract negotiation Parker McKay Bond Council five contract negotiation Frank El conr Cado special legal councel six contract negotiation Consulting and Municipal Engineers LC s attorney C priv swer I'm also including in my motion the estimated time and the circumstances under which the discussion conducted in closed session can be disclosed to the public as follows a is anticipated the matters discussed in close session may be disclosed to the public upon determination of the township committee that the public interest will no longer be served by such confidentiality B with respect to employment and Personnel matters such as discussion will be made public if and when formal action is taken for any individuals involved consent that it can be made C with respect to contract negotiation such bers would made public land negotiations ceased and there is no longer a reason for confidentiality second Mr Corson Mrs Hayes Mr nappin Mr Panos mayor Newman yes motion carried --------- dated on February 9th 2024 the notice of this meeting of the Upper Township committee was posted on the official Township Bon board the Upper Township website emailed to the Atlantic City Press the Ocean City cental Ledger the hural times and follow with the Township Clerk tonight's meeting is being video recorded up until the Clos session P portion of this meeting and will be available on the Upper Township website I hereby direct that this announcement be made parts of the minutes of this meeting uh so we're going to go ahead and start with the um uh budget workshop and um I guess we'll turn it over to um Gary to to uh what's that oh yeah let's do a roll call I'm sorry could you do a roll call Mr here yeah here all right Gary that's again near and dear to my heart is the is the nuts and bolts of the municipality municipality runs on money municipality runs on Buzz municipality runs on fixed budgets uh so through all the U conversations that we had through through the involvement of this committee uh you know I was honored and I'm always impressed as to the level of interest and to the cooperation and to the U to the overall oh sorry I knew have the flag the overall end result of what the budget is and so arm and I start high uh and we start uh through this particular scenario that we use right so we're all searching for stability and to get the the stability and to get that success of that stability it's involvement and the involvement is all the committee the involvement is of our cfmo our involvement is our auditor uh our department heads and the employees uh the management of that is through myself and through the middle management and through the upper management of getting it to you to your vision to what's acceptable as far as Public Safety as far as what growth is community involvement Community uh projects and then of course the advice one thing that this committee again it does very well is listen to the advice of its experts and you all have the ability to U digest it you ask very poignant questions uh the meetings are sometimes in great depth and but at the end of the day the result is Success again cooperation consolidation collaboration is what we strive for and that's with keeping once the departments set their budgets we keep them within their budgets the employee Partnerships again this year we're able to get 99% fer was that around 98% of everyone to go to the uh more advantageous um Health Plan Health Care grew again the the choice of a of the health insurance was it it was a wasn't a double digit growth but what was it again 7 7% on top of last year's double digit growth and uh through the through the uh um the creation of the Martian cleanning group and the consolidation group we were able to uh get Buy in from the employees and so with that with that buy in we also share in in those successes shared service agreements we have shared service agreements now with Ocean City Corbin City uh and those continue to grow we have and our court system so we have numerous um share servic agreements the hiring practices we are uh reducing starting pay increasing steps uh compensating uh for longevity or for for retention and for uh um Recruitment and again the double duty is is that we ask a tremendous amount of um uh different tasks from our employers and our employees so this is it right so the budget is increasing around 300 Grand or or 1.4 cents so again not to get into the nuts and bolts of the actual true true numbers and bar likes to hold me with the true numbers so I threw my little caveats up there five or more Let It sore four or less let it rest it's about 288,000 is that what it is 289 is the average one no 2 our budget increase oh 288 it it's it's it's just under 300 so I round 299 and it's 1.42 cents or 1.44 cents where is that going it's going to pay your debt service down so one of the things that we did and one of the things that you have been doing is staying on the auditor plan paying down your debt service of keeping um keeping the the eye on the capital project bonds and so you're bonding for projects you're bonding for for roads and Community projects and infrastructure projects and you're paying down the go debt services and so barara can can back me up here on the the necessity and the and the the value of doing that is because one um we get to borrow well it keeps it keeps everything stable think about it at in your at your home budget you know if you all of a sudden went out and had to replace appliances and buy a new car and and fix your roof and do all those things all at once it's a little more costly than if you spread those C spread those expenses out so that's really what we try to do here as well just keep a keep a record of our Capital needs and spread that out and so one of the things I look at is is why some of the happen and why did you get into some of the problems that you have and it's not just your municipality so everybody wants a z00 z but at the end of the day everything increases and so it's just like your home budget right so if you're going to not if you're not going to reduce your services and you're not going to ruce your boy base and you're not going to take any more Revenue well something's going to have a deficiency at the very end and So eventually you're going to catch up to what barber just said everything is broke everything needs fixing like like that Bob Dyan of the everything is broken so everything and you have to pay for it and so what you should have been doing on your capital and paying debt Services employee obligations now all of a sudden you're looking at a 10cent increase and and a 15 cent increase because you didn't have your increases each year to keep up with government growth you're doing a balancing act and this budget shows that you're doing a balancing act what last year we were almost doubling and and going into this year are uh mission was to cut it in half but continue to keep stability and that's what this budget did so you we kept the employee obligations and we kept down debt Services again I want to remember that 70% of your operating budget is employee based so penny is $190,000 there's the actual number it's 1 Point uh 1.42 cents average home is about $300,000 and for the for the year in total for upper only that's the increase so each household has got a $42 increase that's an average if 300,000 a $300,000,000 yes yeah and you're a gym teacher right pretty good so uh so yes so exactly correct uh chair the uh the increase would be double that if for 600,000 house incrementally going up the scale but the average is three on a $300,000 home is what we used is the $355 so then through through the uh through the budget workshops that we had with Leon and everybody had attended I pulled out some pretty good uh just some good rationalization and good insight into the totality of our budget and so the city of of excuse me the township of upper receives around 133% of the 41 million that we collect right so Upper Township is basically a collection agency we collect $41 million in tax revenues through the various uh school taxes and open space taxes County taxes and Upper Township receives only 5 million of that particular amount that's about 133% for those who like percentages another way of putting it is for every ,000 in total taxes paid Upper Township gets about 20 school is 71% of that 41 million county is 16% of that 41 million and we are 133% of that 41 for those who like to play percentage games I always like this one here I call it Fuzzy Math right would you rather have 10% of a dollar or 10% of a million bucks still 10% right so think wisely on which one you want and you can see here I use uh 100 to 101 amount change is 1% and then I use from six to seven amount change was only one but that's a 16% difference you can play the game all you want relative to percentages so this budget has what we need to operate the municipality for the year will stick within that budget this budget also is going to include um another Capital Bond and then once we're done with that Capital Bond we'll have that at a different presentation we'll probably go out for for finance this budget also includes items that will not be repeating themselves next year so this is a cleanup uh budget so we have um um several items in there that will not be recurring including Debt Service of next year right so next year you're going to take a break because we're going to package all those bonds up and we're going to go for long-term fly a and there's other issues in here that we cleaned up that needed to be paid that will not be recovering next year let let me just clarify we still will have to pay debt service next year we won't be paying temporary Debt Service we'll be paying permanent Debt Service she yeah she always corrects me she takes my phone but uh trust and verify right so you want to trust and verify and that's what between myself um Barbara and Leon all three of us continually go back over the numbers and um that's that's that's where you're at this year so um um like like to say a couple things first before we if anybody obviously anybody else has to say yeah yeah so I I just uh have uh in actually enjoyed this portion of it um better than and I think C can relate this years ago on our previous lifeit we would just be handed this budget and we go over it at this meeting line by line which which we should and we do we had this we've had this booklet for quite some time however what we have started in the past two or three years or whatever it was is going over and each of us sitting down with CFO the auditor and business administration we have to go separately we don't want to VI Sunshine rules which we did uh some the earlier part of this month or the last mon I want to thank everybody for doing that it takes time above and beyond and it and and getting one of the things that came out of one of the meetings that were there and I happened to be S I sat in with Mark on with his meeting I think Kim and Curtis did it and then Vic was a solo one of the things committee M Panos came up with is that's is why we have professionals because Liam was extremely professional explained everything he could go through things right there change it if you wanted it see how it worked that that is really really kind of amazing and his guidance over this has been been pretty good as well as far bar GS over the years and I think the key key word up there we're talking about is stability we want it stable we don't want to be a roller coaster of you know I got to have a zero well a zero don't work two years down the room when you you trying to play and catch up you know the things you got to do just as you explained you know we got buy trash truck cave roads do what you do what we have to do to to to keep govern so that's what I want to say I mean it was I think like Kim and I sat down it was very productive the proposed budget has everything everybody wants in there every Department right now it's in there we Kim and I said Dan they stared at 2.8% or 2.8 cents we got cut it in half and didn't affect what everybody wanted could we get it to zero yeah we could get this Europe but where's that going to put us next year to we're going to be putting in a hole I mean it's not good business so I mean when when everything like insurance goes up 7% everything goes up fuel went up every I mean I I can't think of anything that didn't go up in the last year to raise our budget $300,000 on what's our spend 14 million 15 million we're 16 or 17 million excuse me 16 or 17 million 16 or 17 million to go up $ 300,000 on a $16 million budget to and still be able to accomplish goals that's that's the we've accomplished a lot of goals I mean we we truly have it I think it's a it's has commit to our employees and barber and Gary the work they put in and our professionals I mean I think it's a a solid budget I'm sure there's going to be some questions I'm sure that's a 5.64 cur this year for those who want to play the percentage game so sorry on the 11% Mr S I know they'll have we're saving you some we're saving you some ink though I mean the number is small this year so we're actually but it's a loan our Municipal budget what we raise with taxes is relatively low I mean was our rement tax dep for mil 5 million five yeah like 5 5 one of the few municipalities you're operating milon that's what I was going to say when you when you talk to Leon he has the expertise of looking at all other municipalities were not operating in a vacuum so you see what some other townships are up against and compar to them we're doing very well I mean we were Frugal last year we we had our Surplus grew yes we've used some of our Surplus to bring our budget down I mean but not too much of it it's going to cause a surprise correct yeah I me it's percentage wise got to be because the interest rates were high we make good income on our money but we all know if you look at long-term or CDs for example 3 month CD they'll give you four and a half 5% 6 month CD they're going to give you less your CD are going to give you 3.3% or 3.5% so the banking industry is even before casting interest rates going down and I think that goes I mean the feds are telling us it is but I mean I don't want to trust them and that goes back to what you were saying U relative to capitalize on Surplus this year because you have a great we we've increased because of our interest rates and we were able to grow substantially our Surplus because of those but what you said Kurt is you don't want to exhaust your Surplus because next year those rates might not be there and then how do you make up for that difference now you're chasing yourself again we can't exhaust our Surplus correct and we need that for for bonding power we need that for offsets so um going back to what the chair Vic said um Leon is impressive because he gets to change those numbers in real time and so if you want a three cent tax hike here's what it looks like you want zero this is what it looks like this goes down that goes up this goes down so you know having that Leon who was just a master at the U advice at the numbers is super super helpful you know and and Leon is great he's a he's a great part of that that puzzle that team right that we always talk about but you know don't sell yourself short either you have you know yourself and Barbera that are also a part of that team that that you know also have have worked tirelessly to get this done I I thank both you guys for that you know ultimately I think we all agree up here that the responsibility we owe to the taxpayers and something that we we've done I think in the past two years are getting the right people in the right areas and something to be said for our department heads too because every department head put your proposed budget together and they were very cogn of it they they watchful and alert on their spending and I don't think we have Way full depart no not at all I think they're very good at anticipating needs too right so they're looking when they're looking at their budget in oot oober they have to anticipate what they're going to need next October right so when they're looking at it across the board they're putting together numbers that they think are feasible to meet the needs of the department the needs of the township and I think they do a really nice job at that so I'm really appreciate they did a pretty good job this year Well Deputy Mayor you make a good point because it is real time right so we're looking at things real time and they are able to make those uh recommendations and it's the involvement of the board and I don't want to give the compliments back and forth but more it's it's what you and the mayor said it's understanding your responsibility to explain what you're doing and having a deep understanding of how the budget works and being able to set that Vision realistically um you know some of the things some of the mistakes that you're correcting from the past ills are visions that were not funded properly not you no you're right not well you know you're going to hear you're going to hear the engineering report tonight and some of those projects were pushed to the Finish Line because the because the vision was set properly it was funded properly and then manag properly relative to get it so I mean we just finished up a project in Recreation the lighting the lightings have been on the agenda for 10 years kicked down the road bonded numerous times never pulled the trigger on now obviously the 10 years the cost escalate well and truthfully so that's was going to be my governing body before that they're they running they're up and running they look fantastic um and because of the technology involved them we're going to be able to decrease cost with them I mean we're going to be able to operate those lights on about 25% of what we've been paying for decades right for lighting so maybe it's a good thing they weren't done 10 years ago yeah you never you can always make lemon out alone but it's yeah I mean it's we've gotten a lot of projects done and I think this committee has done it St job and I just think it's it's a good CH budget as just Cas I I would like to add too about the department um you said the Departments put their budgets together and they don't necessarily they put it together they have to kind of look in a crystal ball and see what what they what might might come up um and sometimes you know we have shortfalls but a lot of times the Departments don't spend all of their budget which that eventually goes into Surplus so the Departments put their budgets together but expenses aren't needed it's not it's still manag it well budget and snow in public works is a perfect example we budget for salt every year Well if we don't have a snowstorm we don't use sow so that money rolls over but not wood right happen the prior I have seen this I've seen this in Prior years where we got tanks with snow and we're scrambling to BU so right I mean it's just it happens you're asking the tough questions and it's refreshing because you don't stop asking until you get the answers that you want and it may not be what you hear but then you have all the information in front of you then you can start to retool the ask and the vision and it's just it just worked this year was just a successful year relative to budget processes workshops and sit down I don't want to put the chair Vic on the spot but he is the new guy right so he got he comes in as watch doog or he comes in as the guy that's really going to open up the books to find out if the administrator went to the casino in the back of we're all watch those right but you know from what he you know the questions that he asked in the meetings and you know his his support of the budget I think that that speaks I think that speaks volumes as well I'm hoping that he not to land Bas call me I did not know I mean could we get this to a zero yeah we could get this to a zero but we're going to hurt next year and we're going to cut goods and services yeah and and Debt Service and Debt Service yeah you can cut it down pay it next year y so any questions or do you want me to pull I mean Le's not here tonight but we can definitely have whatever all right I will open it up to the public if the public has any questions about any specifics uh we'd be happy to answer them if you can um so that that you know specifics when I say it's going to be a generalization of specifics because we can't dive down into everything we you know we're not obviously not sure but we do have a budget budget form here come on up Barbara yeah you got to be on the record you got to be on the record yes I'm not a numers person by of the imagination bar um so looking at the slides Gary it said that um so the the taxes at upper town should col collect for Upper Township is 5 million correct okay and 70% we collect 41 million yes but the total it goes you can use for upper town yeah it's a five yes so 70% of that is employee based obligation pretty much normal amount is that is that unusually high is that average I'm not I don't know it's average it's an average yeah my we were able to do um through this process is sort of look at how we're performing compared to similar municipalities in the area um even if you remove you know the cost of a police force which we don't have we're still well below most of the other budgets believe I don't I'm not these are just like me looking and just you know okay basic kind of questions and so employee obligation that's health benefits salaries does that c also pions Jeff legal fees as well legal fees fight yeah I mean you can you can kind of morph it into special litigation if I got a bigger case or that type of stuff or are last few years our legal fees have allity yeah which is we had some employee issues out there that we got cleaned up and we we actually that's one of our ultimate Savings in this budget was our bline item for Legal Services got cut so were there any cuts to the budget at all in any areas at all legal services perfect I set you right up anything I mean anything else that so can I ask a answer your question with a question sure I don't do you know do you know of anything that has gone down in price no let me know no I'm just you know I'm just yes the short answerers I've been through this there was a couple departments that actually because we reduce Workforce in some departments and repurpose people's jobs and s people there is a couple departments that actually went down okay remember last year you were like consolidating and doing part-time curious the shared services agreement have come into play there was a lot of that as well the courts I believe went down salour and wages that was one um we got a new employe the tax collector's office or tax assessor's office went down okay that's I find that interesting I just the number that dumped out to me is like obviously the local purpose tax the municipal tax that's what you have over and that's the 5 million correct and that 70% I don't know that that's what I wanted to know whether or not like so that of that 5 million 70% is going to employees so you can never get sued by that's like a normal that's an average typical you can never get sued by a trash truck and you know a lot of this stuff I mean insurance cost I mean we were very lucky our employees worked with us we we went up 7% on our health insurance this year they somewhere else that only went up 7% That's it's I'm really not that a numbers person so I mean I look at this with really basic eyes I'm sure other people that you know the numbers are the thing are going to look at it Gary and like you said there's fuzzy ma or whatever I just looked at it just based upon your slides and um that was basically the question I just and that that that's why what what we said at the beginning was you let professionals do that number guy I'm not feeling guy out there that feels it in the in the workforce as a homeowner resident that that I do I know you know you're paying you know I went to the grocery School Dam I paid 70 bucks for three things I'm like what is that on here I I give you another industry standard uh for every dollar you pay in salary you're probably paying a dollar to keep that employee on a civil service side and it's a125 to $150 on a police and fire side so if you're paying a police officer uh you know 100 Grand a year you're really paying him 225 to keep them I mean it's the cost of employees you have every fic tax and you have every taxes the workers comp the insurance the pension there a lot of cost involv yeah having employees at one point in my life you understand you know the cost it's um I appreciate that so I just so in 2023 it was 11 are the local Municipal tax went up 11.07% and then sorry about that and 5.64 564 okay it's much better than 1498 well but but the 14.98% too the I is there a house assessed in the Upper Township for 300,000 at this point I mean is that the Aver tax assessment not tax ass okay and that's the average tax tax assessment okay assessment that's why the big three we just multiply it up now the average cost of a home and opport ship I just saw one that was sold it was on the market for three days and it sold for 435 or something like that I mean it's insane well good for us I mean I'm sure it was assessed below 200 200 range once the budget is completely uh approved there is a chart in the actual Municipal budget that'll show you what the uh assessments are perhaps okay the budget friendly thing that you post all right appreciate that's all I really have just um at our next meeting we're going to introduce our budget this tonight or no next next week and then we will have it available for the public to to review and we're going to have the public hearing and final adoption probably a month later all you could ask for Community input appreciate it thank you thank you both anybody else from the public Chris Chris Bill Bill Ronda all right uh unless anybody else has any other comments I think we'll go ahead and close this portion of the meeting we'll we'll um uh go from uh uh we'll take a little break obviously till the start of the 6:30 meeting can I have a motion to adjourn please motion to adjourn would you call the rooll Please Mr yes yes yes