##VIDEO ID:wdgT6DKTkRw## a [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good evening everyone thank you for joining us uh to out our uh October 8th council meeting uh we are going to begin with our uh consent agenda um is the clerk on the zoom Mr Fagan uh for those of you that are joining virtually um and those in in person our clerk is joining us via Zoom tonight uh she will still perform all of her normal duties with the exception of keeping the time Mr smdo you will be doing that for us uh Madam clerk can you hear us Madam clerk can you hear us we'll give her another shot you're muted Madam clerk are you able to fulfill the dude you have the the on the front page I'm sorry the com confence agenda I said consent agenda I say I inan conference agenda I'm sorry Start Madam clerk uh alert Mr Fagan or Mr Fagan alert us when she's unmuted uh Mr smdo um please open the meeting this is to inform the general public that this is the meeting is being held in compliance with Section Five of the open public meetings act chapter 231 Public Law 1975 the annual notice was mailed to The Star Ledger filed in the Township's clerk's office on November 21st 2023 and published in the West Orange Chronicle on November 30th 2023 in all matters not provided in subsection um with this a statement of the Quorum and except upon consent of the council president each person addressing the council pursuant to the sub subsection shall be required to limit his or her remarks to five minutes and shall not no at no time engage in any personally offensive or abusive remarks the chair shall shall call any speaker to order who violates any provisions of the rule thank you uh thank you Mr smdo uh give us the roll call I can do it councilwoman celino present councilwoman gber Michael present councilwoman Scara present councilwoman Williams present and I am present as well mayor McCartney all right uh first item on our agenda tonight is the swearing in of our newest West Orange police officers um Madame mayor thank you council president Council colleagues we are here tonight to honor and recognize and welcome and thank our new uh police recruits it's nice to see all the family here we have yeah we have a Bible yep have a Bible you all at once okay we can do usually say pictures yeah I don't know are you gonna do them all at the same time I think that's no let's get their names heard and give them a yeah and the other police officers here Mr Fagan can you provide the mayor with a microphone yes we have a short agenda thank you and then repeat after me I state your name I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States states and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith I true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States states and in this state and St under the authority of the people under the authority of I do further solemnly swear I do further Solly swear that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of the office of Officer all the duties of the office of offic according to the best of my ability according to the best my ab so help me God so help me God pictures yeah right repeat after me I state your name I Nicholas Christopher Jr do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States I will support the contition of United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and Constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and Allegiance I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the and to the governments established in the United States the government established in the United States and in this state and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of people I do further solemnly swear I further that I will faithfully fath impartially and justly perform all of the duties of the office all duties of the office according to the best of my ability according to the best so help me God so help [Music] I know I I do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and in this state under the authority of the people I do further solemnly swear that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of the office according to the best of my ability so help me [Music] i staing i t Martinez you solemnly swear you solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith that I and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and to the governments established to the governments EST in the United States and in this state under the authority of the people I do further solemnly swear that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of the office according to the best of my ability so help me God everybody look to slide overose f do they want to take pictures with their families congratulations need hopefully in the in and hour that was a good part of the night start off on a good note that's it let's keep it going hot in is it hot in here because I'm never hot I'm very comfortable yeah me too yeah no let's not get crazy now get cool at night now mam clerk are you able to hear us or yes I I can hear you now thank you uh thank you okay we've got you no pressure p no pressure we do have uh a presentation from the kianis international okay uh so is Mr Gray we do you had something Madam mayor yeah he called me and let me know he'd be a few minutes late what we can do is have our uh liaison announcements now and and then come back to Mr Gray and thewes uh when we're done uh let's begin um with councilwoman Celina sure um not ready yet but I'll I'll go for it uh just another great weekend in West Orange a lot of great events love this time of year um we had on um this weekend uh the our firefighters had their open house which was great weather Great crowds and we got to thank them the kids all had a great time on a this this Sunday um Council did a nice job on on your your walk that was very nice got a chance to pop in there for a few minutes and um we had two ribbon cuting last weekend and this weekend last weekend um our first cannabis uh retail had opened up on a Prospect Avenue uh pure natural Vibes and um was very happy to see them come through the process with all how long and tedious it was and um so that was a nice event and uh Saturday morning we have a beautiful um uh gown store on Main Street now home handmade hand uh gowns right on a ybo uh formal wear beautiful store all handmade and we're really really excited for for them to be successful here in the township so um that's it from my report thank you thank you council president thank you councilwoman councilwoman G Michael good evening everyone to those Z and council chambers and to those zo you online um regarding my uh Le on announcements the open space commission is meeting tomorrow evening at 7 pm here in town Council um not Town Council excuse me in the west AR municipal building in room 109 and the uh West pedestrian safety Advisory board has canceled October's meeting due to the holidays so we will reconvene in November and that concludes my announcements thank you council president thank you councilwoman councilwoman Scara great um our seniors continue to amaze me I want to thank Laura van djk and Michael fonzo for providing the bus for the seniors to go to OAC for Motown it was an event that no one should have missed I am going to figure out how to promote it more in the schools next year but our seniors led the way as the bus driver got a little a little bit lost they led him right up Eagle Rock Avenue where to go and when we got there and we were they were going to put some seats for us in the back they went right up to the front they were so excited to be there we a couple of us actually got up on the Dance Floor the seniors led the way to the dance floor and actually got about 4050 people throughout the course of the night dancing and I have to say our little couple from the degnan house who were on their monthly date were the first up there dancing and it was the most heartfelt thing to see and it's a thing I think as a council woman that brings me the most joy to be able to have us give that opportunity to our seniors to get out of the house and really socialize so um I want to thank everybody who's involved in the mayor too for everybody's been going above and beyond the seniors are also going to be going to our Council Forum on Sunday if there's any seniors who want to join us they can contact Laura van djk for myself uh it's very Civic engagement is very very important it's one of our um uh parts of livability of our livability for seniors and we they are very very excited many of them who come have been coming regularly are joining us for that and we're also going to be taking them to see the community band at Liberty Middle School on October 30th at 7:30 so anyone interested in that reach out to Laura van djk we're really excited about it as well our environmental commission met and we continue to move on to work on a number of environmental issues the uh most emminent one that I am working on right now is storm water management we had a storm water management ordinance and um have gotten some expert advice and assistance from a um Jessica Pearson who was here at our last meeting she has helped made a lot of suggestions to help us make our storm water management one that has a little bit more teeth and I will be routing that around to the environmental commission and to my colleagues so that we can all see what we can do because obviously everyone knows the flooding in our town is something that we have to take very seriously uh our Economic Development commission too continues to brainstorm and work on measures to make our downtown the best it could be and that's about it thank you councilwoman councilwoman Williams thank you council president so I would like to start off by uh sharing that our historic preservation commission meeting is scheduled for tomorrow 7 pm. on Zoom um our historic preservation commission will be listening to the black inventures Hall of Fame uh Museum group they will be doing a brief presentation on what they are proposing for the property at Mayfair Farms as you know or maybe if you don't know um they are currently under contract with the purchase of that property to create this uh black inventors Hall of Fame Museum um and so there are uh there is an intent to keep the footprint of the original Mayfair Farms um building and then add on an an and even discussions of keeping the barn and maybe preserving that completely intact um and SE seeking a historical designation for that uh piece of the property so if you're interested in hearing more about the museum um it is the link is on so in our on our website um and please feel free to join that is an open public meeting our Arts Council um in conjunction with wsip um will be hosting on next Monday the 14th which is indigen indigenous people's day a movie at 100 PM called dying to vot um it is free and open to the public and if you are interested uh believe the link is also on the township website or if not on the township website certainly on the Arts Council website so that you can register to participate again it's free um but registration is um requested but again pop in if you happen to find yourself available on that day um and lastly want to just take an opportunity to thank um our Township our Police Department our all of our Public Works uh Department um our health department and especially the Edison police department all of the partici participants volunteers and sponsors um for our fifth wac 5K um we could not have asked for a more beautiful and perfect day to highlight mental health and wellness and suicide prevention uh so thank you thank you thank you for those who came out to continue supporting and advocating for this critical uh issue in our mental health and and and health um Department it was just very well attended um and we just had a ball um so thank you thank you thank you thank you uh I think that will be it for me thank you councilwoman um so the planning board will meet on next Wednesday night the 9th it's a virtual planning board meeting uh we will be discussing multiple applications including 410 main um I had an opportunity to visit uh one of the contractors for joint meeting joint meeting for those that don't know is our Sewer Commission essentially it's h 14 municipalities that work together to handle sanitary sewer uh we have a major FEMA flood mitigation project and wanted to really understand how um that project is being managed and where the efficiencies are and what the best practices are with the nine figure project uh because each of our tax dollars uh in West Orange go to pay for it uh in that particular project 90% of it is reimbursed by grants uh but still it is uh quite a large project so even our portion um is a sizable number um so we visited with aneli and Deo who um are handling the actual construction for that project I'm happy to answering for any questions you guys may have uh and for those of you that are in the public that would like to know more about that uh let us know and the reason it was timely today uh is because of all of the storms that are going through Florida uh this project was done in response to superstorm Sandy uh to make our sanitary sewer system more resilient uh in you know cases of those kinds of floods and hurricanes um so I'm happy to report we are moving along very well um and do expect that project to be done on time um and around budget uh for those of you that have done any construction you know prices have gone up and they continue to go up consistently so uh but it is being very very well managed and I'm happy to report that um I think that's it for me I don't think we had anything on the insurance commission uh this month um I think that's going to do it for my aison announcements I do see uh both Mr Gray and Quan's uh representative here I'm going to ask Mr Gray if he wouldn't mind making his uh presentation at this time you can approach uh the microphone to my right uh please introduce yourself and uh share the good news well good evening ladies and gentlemen uh my name is Michael Gray and I'm the senior Outreach advisor for the new US senator George homing and I'm here today um to just let you know about some of the services that we provide that could be of benefit to the residents and also the member of the counil and the mayor uh many of you know me to be uh uh the district director to the late of Congressman Donald mping Jr um and we have worked in the community for for several years so uh number one our Washington DC office deals with like legislative issues if you have issues with bills and resolution you can come back to Washington DC office but if you have issues with constituent Services meaning casework there are lots of things that our office do that member of the community you don't know about uh number one immigration we help with immigration casework and many immigration case work for example like family based petition uh filing for for mothers fing for fathers fing for children fing for brothers and sisters uh attending student visa uh navigating to the state department when it comes to either refugees or political Asylum uh that L of constituent that are have issue with their passport we can help you with your passport issue either helping you to get like a same day passport appointment or we can do the best we can through the Congressional resources to expedite the process there are lots of people that have issue with internal revenue sometimes people fall short and uh part of the uh part of the responsibility of the Congressional office or the Senate Office is to serve as a Lon between V various uh executive agency so if you had issue with the IRS we can serve as a lers on in talking them to to resolve know some of the issue that that you may have issue about veterans um we all know that our veterans work hard uh to keep us safe every every day and every night uh but sometimes they say challenges in terms of their benefits and uh so you can call our office and we can help you to navigate through the process and move the uh process in a very seamless fashion I know there are many times like municipalities like this great uh Township sometimes you apply for various federal grants so one of the the thing the senator does is that we give you like a letter of support to add on your Grant application and that can increase the chances of you getting a grant so please uh please use us um I want to let you know that you are not alone and uh Senator helming is a very responsive um member of Senate and that is why he wants to bring the government to the people and that is why I am here I also have some privacy waiver uh that will allow us to contact any federal Agency on your behalf maybe the only branch of government that we cannot really contact as a court system because we don't really have jurisdiction we don't have that attorney to contact the court system so um or maybe you want to visit the White House you can contact us when we can help you plan a trip to the White House or maybe like a Capital Tour um we have a issue with like medic Medicare uh housing issues some people are late on your mortgage payment and there are ways that we can uh contact the agency to help so I just like to just leave you a few numbers that you can call because I don't want to take all your time um so our Jersey City the number is 973 645 3030 973 645 3030 our barington office number is uh 856 757 5335 856 757 5335 and of course um we have to watching the DC office which is the number is 202 224 4714 22224 4744 and uh just in case you want to contact UM contact the the office you can go to the website because it's a very integrated website please go to hel Helman hme y. senate.gov hme y.s. go so in closing I just want to let you know that although Senator Helman has been in in the senate for a short period of time but he's been working on various issues using his um leverage on the various committee that he served uh the finance committee and the and the Foreign Relations Committee to um to support initiative that uh benefit people in the United States and most especially people in the West Orange so I just want to say thank you for your time and your attention so I'm willing to answer any question you may have in terms of the services that we can help with in terms of helping this great Township of West Orange thank you very much sir thank you colleagues any questions for Mr Gray before he goes no all right thank you very much sir it says senior advisor it's not specifically General no no so I mean I mean senior sta so you know [Music] you know thank you again sir uh the quanis so council president colleagues uh last week the executive board members from the Kanis um of West essic approached and they want to resurrect the chapter here in West Orange Co kind of off things um I know that we have a lot of new families in town we have a lot of you said there are already members that were West Orange um members from the Kanas so I thought it would be a good idea for you to come and recruit people this is Jessica almea um and I guess other people if you're going to come and speak and uh tell us more about kuas thank you thank you mayor and thank you Council for having me here this evening um as the mayor stated my name is Jessica Almeida I am the lieutenant governor for the West the Essex County guanas clubs so far right now we have eight and we're hoping by the end of the month we'll have nine when we reach harder West Orange um if you don't know about Kanas it is a community service organization and our emphasis is on children our motto is changing the world one community and one one child at a time when I was in high school I was a member of Key Club which there used to be a very active Key Club at the West Orange High School and I used to work with the Key Club members at West Orange so when I went up through Key Club and we have a college Club as well and became a Kanani and I was very surprised to find out that there was no longer a key Club at West Orange High School and there was no longer a quanas club in West Orange when I became lieutenant governor um I made it one of my goals to bring that back to make sure that the people in this community get the ability to become enriched by kuas and have the children get the opportunities that kuas gives to them in particular Kanas sponsors we call them service leadership programs in the elementary schools it's for we call them K kids um they work on instilling the love of community service and servant leadership in in children who are in elementary school they carry it through to Builder club and in Builder Club they take that love of community service and they add the leadership aspect to it so start growing leaders in sixth to 8th grade then in high school you have Key Club and Key Club is amazing it's a international organization the children that and students that are in Key Club get like myself when I was in high school get to travel throughout the country um they can go to International conventions leadership con leadership um conferences throughout the United States it was a life-changing experience and I really hope to bring that back here to West Orange so that the children at West Orange High School can take advantage of it so what Kanas is all about is service so service to your community and service to the children of your community now I'm here with two members from the Cadwell West Essex Club I have Anthony Thomas who is a West AR resident and Bill Edge who is also a kananian from my um my home Club um by having Kanas in your community you'll have the chance to give back in so many ways whether it be supporting local food drives building playgrounds for disabled students for offering scholarships and raising money the these are all things that will make a huge difference in the West Orange Community and in New Jersey alone quanan have been involved in countless projects that improve Education Health and Community Development as well as your own personal growth just the experience you get from being a quanan it's it's an amazing group and an amazing organization um I did want to make sure that everybody here knew that we were going to be in the neighborhood in the next few weeks be reaching out to community leaders to people who we think would make a great quanan um I know Anthony has some of these I'm going to pass these out to anybody just is Kanas is coming to our community we've identified you know certain people business people um Community leaders Educators um and we're going to be sending these postcards to them and on the back it says to learn more about Kanas join join NJ ku. org and there it'll give you a um application you can fill out to get more information and we're more than happy to meet with you by virtual meeting by phone or even in person in the next few weeks then we hope to organize um Club here in town hall on October 24th at 6:30 p.m. so we're hoping that we're able to get at least 40 members in the community we have some members from the club that you know had had been here um pre-co and we're really looking forward to bringing that back and having a flourishing Club here that's going to support all the youth leadership initiatives that does each and every day so in closing Kus is more than volunteering it's about being an active member in your community growth and creating a brighter future for all the children that we have here in West Orange so if you're looking this is my sales pitch if you're looking for a great way to make a real difference in West Orange while growing personally and professionally quanas is the perfect opportunity for that so we on behalf of the quanas club of quo West Essex who is going to be your sponsor Club um we invite you to join us in West Orange an even better place to live um by bringing quanas back here to your community very nice okay here I'll I'll make sure let me change the slide okay chair proba like an hour [Music] ah yeah we're gonna get the regular meetings started Madam clerk are you still there yes sir all right thank everyone for joining us during our conference agenda as the hour is now 10 after 7 we're going to get started with our regular meeting Madame clerk this is to inform the general public that this meeting is being held in compliance with Section Five of the open public meeting meetings act chapter 231 Public Law 1975 the annual notice was emailed to The Star Ledger and filed in the township clerk's office on November 21st 2023 and published in the West Orange Chronicle on November 30th 2023 councilwoman castelino present councilwoman gber Michael present councilwoman Scarpa present councilwoman Williams present council president Rutherford here mayor McCartney will everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all the council is now on their public meeting thank you we're going to begin with public comment uh we're going to invite anyone in council chambers only uh that would like to speak uh you may do so by approaching the microphone in front of me we ask that you give us your name um and street address uh you will have five minutes to address us the zoom participants will not be able to speak uh and so before we call on the public we're going to have uh Mr Fagan and Mr pesi uh give their public comment to start us off Mr Fagan uh thank you council president um such as technology uh council president uh October is a breast cancer awareness month and um we kicked off Breast Cancer Awareness Month uh last week we had a group everything else can wait there were the pink Warriors their message is all about this to uh place on uh steps Town Hall here and they were this was one of 21 stops throughout New Jersey and their message is uh a very poignant message everything else can wait uh uh the implication being to find the time to uh uh get uh managram and early detection which is the key to beating uh breast cancer of course October is National Domestic Violence awareness month and um the D DV awareness Ness .org uh is the national Resource Center on domestic violence and to those means uh on uh Wednesday November 2nd um perhaps a little premature because we're still in October but there's going to be an event at the West Orange public library and I have this up here because you have to call to register a space is limited it's a program in her shoes and uh it's specifically addresses uh the issue of domestic violence and uh certainly uh after October comes November you don't need me to tell you that uh but West Orange uh leaf collection procedure uh for 20124 has been posted at West orange.org and I gave uh all the council members and I have them on the podium here uh the schedule uh so that there's no confusion and also on our website uh Mr py sent us the schedule for Essex County uh this schedule is specifically if you uh live on a town ship road if you live on a County Road the schedule is slightly different and that information is posted on our website uh council president this is kind of an odd message here but just bear with me it's a segue in 1860 it took 10 days for a message to go from the East to the west and in 2024 it takes about three seconds for an incident to go to a local West Orange Facebook group and I use this as a segue because although posting in Facebook group can be beneficial and informative that uh report incidences to the West Orange Police Department just don't post it to your Facebook group of course there's a number for non-emergencies and all emergencies reporting it to the West Orange Police department has its uh benefits because they can direct patrols to that area and it establishes a record for uh anything that might be going on so uh while I as I said it's um beneficial uh please um report it to the West Orange Police Department uh this uh well Saturday October 12th there's a coffee with a cop but this is kind of a special program it's faith and blue it's a partnership between law enforcement and clergy and of course the goal is to better relations uh better community relations with the police force and this event is happening uh from 11:00 a.m. to 2 p.m at 563 Northfield Avenue Dunkin Donuts uh speaking of our West Orange Police Department uh detective um bunk solved a case that usually doesn't get solved and that's cyber crime in this case there was a resident that was um scammed out of and it's hard to believe almost $400,000 because he thought uh they thought they were dealing with a real person on the end of the computer but thanks to the diligent work of detective Funk he was able to track it down and that person is now incarcerated in the essis County Jail uh we have the dwali festival coming up on Sunday October 13th and um there's going to be high energy performances our artisian vendors and delicious South as South Asian Cuisine and if you have any questions the email Contra uh contact is UAV Westar gmail.com uh of course uh next week we have a celebration for Italian heritage month that will be taking place on the steps of town hall here at 6: pm on Tuesday October 15 uh and to our Jewish friends and neighbors have a meaningful Feast y kapor begins at Sunset I believe on Friday um the uh activity report for uh the fire department nothing really changes here the numbers fluctuate up and down in these specific categories uh the overall calls are down uh in as of um in September I guess that's a good thing uh speaking of our th Department we have CPR certification course I should point out that this is only for West orangen residents this is October 22nd class size is limited to 20 people and only two individuals per household the contact information is here but it's also available on our website and as uh councilwoman Casino mentioned this past Sunday was the very popular annual open house at the fire department uh it's an opportunity for the community to come out for the kids to come out and be kids and play with the fire equipment just like real firemen the uh theme this year was smoke detectors save lives uh smoke alarms make them work for you and uh there was a poster contest contest and a chief fako told me that it was very difficult decision this year because there were a lot of great entries this is the second and third place entry Froman Leanna Jones and M Mala Fitz key but the first place prize goes to Anna 's and she won a bicycle and uh you can see her her uh entry there on the left very colorful P up uh poster uh your number one defense and of course she's so she's referring to smoke detectors which was the theme of the poster com contest uh speaking of bikes um perhaps you've noticed an increase to motorized bikes in motor scooters on our road in addition to the bicyclists uh I I spoke to uh deputy chief Kier about this and he says yes it's true and the laws have not yet caught up with the motorized bikes and I want to show you an incident here that I actually captur uh captured on my dash cam and uh this is very important uh to uh to to raise awareness this and show you the potential dangers that not only to the bicycles but to our motorists and uh you can see this bicyclist just pull out here this is going to play in a loop I'm coming up Eagle Rock Avenue and that's Blackburn terce and the bicyclist on a motorized bike just pulls out into traffic uh didn't look didn't stop had no intention of stopping and uh he's very lucky that he didn't get hit or caused an accident so I I want to raise there is a stop sign there and the bicyclist is obl oated to uh to follow all the rules of the road so so uh as a matter of bicycle awareness uh bicyclist should yield the pedestrians obey all signs be visible at night wear a bike helmet and ride in the same direction as traffic flow of course Common Sense has to Prevail in all circumstances uh there are uh going to be inspectors performing outfall inspections uh through the month of October during regular business hours now this doesn't apply to all properties it only applies to properties where there's a some sort of storm pipe emptying into a river uh so if you see unexp unexpected individuals roaming on your property they are their legitimately legitimately rep uh performing inspections uh also there's an event we have a lot going on here also uh Wednesday October 16th navigating Medicare uh West Public Library 10 Rooney Circle please call the Department of Senior Services uh to sign up or for more questions and this information is on our website uh finally uh I found it very surprising that the public uh we are going to spend over $3 billion on Halloween costumes so uh this that's three billion with a B uh that's a staggering number so uh I have this up on the we site uh along with some other uh tips for keeping Halloween uh Halloween safety tips at West orange.org and uh as you know there is no Public public comment from the zoom audience so you can contact all count Township council members via email at Council weststar.org uh thank you very much council president I probably went a little overtime here but there a lot going on and some very important announcements uh once again thank you thank you Mr Fagan Mr P Pugi apologize hi Anthony pesi representing County Executive Joe de fenzo just want to go over some upcoming events uh first of all on Friday October 18th at Presby Gardens in Upper Montclair is our Gardens of glow and that's where we have um we reach out to local high schools and ask students to uh carve paint or decorate uh pumpkins and then we line the Gardens at the Presby Gardens with with that it's a great way to enjoy the gardens offseason uh then on Saturday uh October 19th uh from 99 to 3 is the computer recycling event thank you Joe for putting that up that's at our Public Works facility in Cedar Grove um anything electronic can be recycled on that day uh also on October 19th in branchbrook park at 10:00 a.m. is the first of our three strut your mut uh K9 costume parades uh the next two are the following weekend on October 26th uh 9:00 am in Brookdale Park in Bloomfield and Montclair and then 1:00 at Grover Cleveland Park in uh Codwell essexfells um Joe had mentioned uh Halloween and trick-or-treating a great place to trick-or-treat is turtleback Zoo uh and that is on October 31st from 5: to 9: it's our annual Halloween Howen U and that's uh there's a $3 admission for Zoological Society members and a $5 general admission and then finally uh our household haard waste uh recycling day was pushed back just because of scheduling usually it's the first weekend in October uh this year it's now November 9th uh and that's 8:30 to 4 uh and again that's at our uh Public Works facility in Cedar Grove all of that is on our ite which is essexcounty nj.org thank you very much yeah thank you Mr pogi we will now open public comment to those in the gallery again it is only for those in person those joining by Zoom uh are not able to participate in public comment please state your name Danel hello Daniel emis 23 Lyndon Avenue West Orange New Jersey good evening before I even begin I just wanted to say that my verbiage of what I wanted to use is obviously appropriate and I appreciate the Preamble but at no time am I here to berate bad mouth or talk down to anyone I've already filed my federal litigation against the parties involved and everyone in this Council knows exactly who I am Miss Williams and I have exchanged several emails she has not responded to a single one of them and although I'm personally very offended I'm not here to discuss that when I'm here to discuss is a there are children in the audience I have two children myself they're eight and 10 so it's very important you understand that the words that I was going to use are completely different so if you like football this a complete audible as you can see there's absolutely no paperwork in front of me other than the lawsuit that I've already filed I speak with conviction I speak from the heart I do not stutter and I do not practice my words because I do not need to I do not lie I have no motivation to lie you are neither a judge nor lawyers nor have any policing Powers whatsoever you represent the city of West Orange and its constituents so it's very important you understand why I'm here it is my opinion that you have all suppressed a very very strong concerted effort for me to root out the cancer that is known as X I do not mention names right now because there are children in the audience and it'll be a disparaging comment but the attorney Richard Tran is at the core of the issue I have lost over $20 million when I stood before you over a year ago ago I was not arrested but two weeks after the town meeting that I had I was improperly arrested on my property by Chief Abbott and the rest of the police officers those charges were not only dismissed but miss Resnik who has absolutely zero zero criminal history even though I have been arrested when I was younger for selling marijuana so an argument could be made that hey man this guy has a history even though it was 20 years ago and it was marijuana but I'm very honest I Not only was I arrested on my own property charges was were later dismissed and what's even worse is the only reason why my house was stolen from me is because Chief Abbott himself showed up and illegally evicted a man and a 2-year-old child all these videos are currently on YouTube I only have 2 minutes and 41 seconds left which means that I will use every one of these seconds to explain to you who I am my name is Daniel M Reeses I personally took down Senator Menendez via order from Judge Sherwood 30 years of corruption were eliminated by one man that is me you're welcome it is disgusting what this city as well as this state has turned into how little any of you care about the actual problems that are plaguing I watched you clap and applaud a bunch of random things that would have happened no matter what you guys did four officers sat right here took an oath to defend the US Constitution how dare in front of my eyes you administer an oath to officers that ripped me from my own property in handcuffs as well as my assistant without any due process whatsoever on my own property furthermore the chief of police himself showed up and made sure that his officers acted like goons show me one person to stand up to refute my words and I will show you a liar I will also show you 45 body camera images videos that support everything that I say and you have a very serious problem on your hands I have 1 minute and 30 seconds left I expect to be on the agenda for the next meeting on the 8th I expect it to be a cordial meeting I expect everyone in the town to be fully aware the media has suppressed this lawsuit because of the power of the mayor the chief of police and a completely completely corrupt attorney when instill his own son who's 21 years old you have Christian Garo working as an attorney on a Case christiano's son works for Richard Tran the nepotism and the disgusting nature of what this town has tolerated corruption is not some abstract one minute remaining I understand it's not an abstract disease corruption exists not in a vacuum but inside of human beings tolerated this councilor has turned a blind eye like you councilman who seem to be bored and not even paying attention to what I'm saying do do do me and my children losing a home do I bore you right now with my 40 seconds left because clearly what is your name sir my name is Pete SM I'm not a council person Sir with all due respect my assistant's going to get every single well we already have them and I will continue to send emails and by federal litigation I I swear to you on my honor it is much easier to take your head and put it right through that wall than to stop me my name is Dan Reeses I ran the Written House trial I am non- col graduate please put one plus one together on December 5th once a new president is sworn in this game is over I will see you next month on the 8th have a nice day thank you sir we we appreciate your passion um is there anyone else that would like to address the council or we we comment at the end sir so you're welcome to stick around and wait for the response it depends on how many people are going to comment so when everyone's done commenting then each of us will take a turn responding thank you good evening West Orange Council council president to the mayor um my name is Marilyn Rutherford I am a resident of West Orange I stand today to address the administration pertaining to the upcoming local election and those that were placed on the ballot I'm Amazed Amed at how the more things change the more they remain the same over the past month I REM remist on the past um beginning with 1964 um the voting rights in 1965 Bloody Sunday and 1966 when my husband Homer rord had to flee from the clu clocks clan in Americus Georgia um for registering citizens to vote many of you may be thinking that events that took place then do not happen today well believe it or not I'm here to tell you that in my opinion and it's only my opinion they do it may be time to review the Civil Rights Act signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and you will also uh see in the Constitution uh where president Johnson referenced that we believe that all men are created equal yet in my opinion many are denied equal treatment even today in 2024 I'm sure most of you remember or have heard about the Voting Rights Act when it was signed into law uh this was as a result of Bloody Sunday when John Lewis and many other civil rights leaders um and everyday citizens were marching for their right to vote to only get to the end of the bridge and being met by Alabama State Police that turned dogs loose and used water hoses on the marches that was more than 40 years ago in 1966 my husband having returned from serving his country for four years in the United States Navy participated in registering citizens to vote they no longer had to pay a poll tax if you all know your history you know prior to the Voting Rights Act in order to uh uh vote you had to pay a poll tax or you had to guess how many jelly beans were in a jar that was BEC because of the uh Voting Rights Act we no longer have to do that today a group of Cl CLS clan members was threatened to kill my husband if he did not stop his father was fired from his job um he would not quit a group of clansmen went to his home they lived in the country in the South and he was threatened they threaten that they would burn down their homes if he did not stop they also threatened to kill him and and promised that in the upcoming week he would be killed and if you know your history you know that they didn't make Idol threats in that day it was then that his parents convict him to uh flee to State and he moved to our great state of New Jersey now back to my opening statement the more we think things have changed the more we see that they have remained the same my husband a past Pastor for 44 years moderator Emeritus for Christian Fellowship Baptist Association p president of state of New Jersey NAACP for many terms past president 18 years of the Irvington NAACP an outstanding leader in the africanamerican community has always fought for the rights of all people regardless of race or ethnicity and always tried to widen the opportun for all people he believes and expresses that we are our brothers keep and must never compromise Justice never compromise hope and never compromise peace I'm disappointed that the council president and let me just pause for one second because he didn't know I was coming and he certainly didn't know that I had a statement to make I'm disappointed that the council president Bill Rutherford will not be on the ballot because of a technicality according to the town clerk I say all this um I say say all of this one sure way to know that you're doing the right thing is by the reaction of others as long as you go along with the status quo as long as you don't ruffle feathers as long as you do uh not acknowledge and speak out against inequities and injustices you can be a part of the good old boys club it is my belief that when and taking place it is your responsibility to speak up and speak out when you don't you become a part of the problem and not the solution I had two more uh little short paragraphs but since my time is up I will pause but I I do say to West Orange that um it is time for West Orange to be inclusive of everyone not just a few thank you thank you thank you Mom anyone else would like to give public [Music] comment good evening Joe kovak gra viiew Avenue this is the hardest act I've ever had to follow so please cut me some slack no true words were spoken about downtown Redevelopment than at the last council meeting when councilwoman Scarpa said quote we all love the idea of having the film studio in our downtown we all would love to see it happen however any business person and there are many of us knows that the devil is in the details of any business deal if you include his details millions of dollars at stake and at risk to Residents than I agree we are indeed faced with the opportunity downtown that if successful will likely Revitalize that area and boost the township but we are also faced with the potential for a project that does not relize those expectations and instead becomes another multi-million dollar Millstone on our downtown and our residents both property owners and renters does anyone remember the promises that downtown Redevelopment phase one was to bring if so then why are we now hearing the same things being said about phase two this is about a fully informed decision on behalf of residents and about using the same decision- making process we all use what are the benefits and costs what are the pros and cons what's the risk reward ratio every time any of us sees a menu a computer a car a house anything we value of value that that we want we figure out the risk whether the risk is worth the reward if the potential benefit is worth the cost do I have the resources and what happens if I'm Incorrect and things go wrong I and a few others have asked many hard and legitimate questions at recent Council meetings about this project and the Redevelopment agreement that was approved three to2 at the last council meeting most of those questions have gone unanswered or half anwered at the last council meeting I printed my questions and handed them to council members again most questions were not addressed or only somewhat addressed the lack of transparency is Crystal Clear I filed an open public records act request for the appraisals for the deal's two multi-million dollar properties I've been told twice this requires multiple weeks of extensions despite the fact that two of the council members have said the appraisals actually exist and should be made public but what the lack of transparency really means is that the council majority has left it unclear to Residents why they voted in favor of this deal relative to the true ultimate multi-million dollar costs and risk we will bear if things go wrong just a few of the outstanding questions how many millions are we losing by agreeing to accept 10.8 million for a property we paid 122.5 million for only two years ago and this price does not even include the value of 25 Lakeside housing the public works and animal shelter facilities which has a market value of millions of two where are these two facilities going to relocate and who is going to pay for that prism offered in 2017 to pay more than $9 million just for 25 Lakeside three where is the environmental report that at least one council member touted as finally quantifying the environmental remediation required in this area and justifying the town taking back the financial responsibility for the cleanup from the redeveloper four exactly how much external funding of this first $5 million of what is now our remediation cost actually exists and what is its status and degree of certainty is there any timetable for how long remediation will take five the agreement brings us even closer to granting a payment in Le of taxes known as a pilot which is a poor substitute for the 30-year property tax abatement that would occur it will cost taxpayers millions of dollars in foregone future Revenue before the redeveloper is finally required to pay at the same tax rate as the rest of us why are we all agree to this event when we uh haven't even done a cost benefit analysis any of you who voted for the deal please answer these questions with specificity you should know the answers if you made a fully informed decision why can't we know we're the only ones we're the ones that are already bearing the cost of the Township's purchase of 55 Lakeside and its elimination of more than $300,000 an annual property taxes now well over $600,000 lost so far and Counting these are our resources and we are the ones who are already obligated to begin bearing the cost our municipal government is not a casino our Municipal services do not include real estate speculation it's one thing to want a shiny Bobble under the Christmas tree with the lights blinking in the fresh snow outside it's quite another thing to make Provisions in case the Bobble costs more than our net worth loses its value or heaven forbid the Christmas tree goes up and Flames all shivering outside we have the right as residents I just have two more sentences please we have the right as residents to know what the mayor and Council majority are getting us into in addition to the potential benefits we deserve to also know the cost and risks thank you good evening evening my name is Joyce Ruden Woodland Avenue three years ago almost to the day 45 families in West Orange lost their homes forever bad things happened but this was something that was foreseen it was warned against it was preventable when you take down an old growth forest with over a thousand trees and you put in artificial turf which does not absorb water what do you expect is going to happen the township Bears responsibility for the tragedy that happened to the 45 families who lost their homes forever two of whom are with me tonight this is one family right over here Christine catalino and her two young daughters Who Bore The Who Bore the the expense of the upheaval tonight you have a resolution before you that is giving you back $135,000 from the landlord of rulin to the township ostensibly to repay you for the um Hotel fees that the town paid for that they promised to pay to help the residents who were evicted from their homes first of all this seems like a pittance from the landlord and it makes me wonder what other deal is lurking behind this agreement is there some other deal be between the township and the property owner why such a small settlement but that aside there's some irony here Richard Tran who helped push this settlement through also made money from the township suing ranelin to to um get this settlement this settlement should go to the victims the people who were hurt by this upheaval which West Orange is partly responsible for I'd like to introduce you to Christine Christine is a resident and I'd like to ask if I could have a little bit more time because Christine is up here with her children and needs to tell her story um Christine grew up in West Orange she lived in West Orange her entire life and she raised her two little girls here she had a very happy life in West Orange in the apartment in Rono Lyn it was a very special Community it was like no other place really in West Orange it's a U-shaped Community where the neighbors each knew each other there were barbecues neighbors helped each others with their dogs with their children's watching each other it was a multi-generational community really really very special and I'm very sad that I didn't really get to know the community until after this happened on October uh uh in in August Ida happened the the residents of the township were told that they could stay in their apartment a few weeks later the landlord uh hired an engineering company on October 8th and was told that the the mountain behind them was unsafe on October 11th in the middle of the night this family was awoken and told that their lives were forever changed Christin before you stop is that the limit of your public comment uh Miss R can you give us your public comment and then we can she can have her five minutes the rest of my my public comment is I appreciate that the township put out money for these residents they were promised money until they were promised housing until they were fully rehoused and then the township backed away in December they said sorry we're done paying for you you've got a few weeks to get out and find some other housing my ask for this council is that the money that you will be receiving from this settlement go to the victims not back into the coffers of West Orange start yep start thank you m good evening my name is Christine Catalano I'm here with my two daughters gabri and gaan um Gabrielle's 13 and gian's nine um I've lived in West Orange for the past 45 years on um October I believe it was October 11th our lives were ruined um midnight Township came in and told us we all to evacuate they did give us alternate housings at hotels uh here locally which we went to um um I had to fight because I I had two young kids um I asked for a kitchen um so we didn't have to buy out every day um it was a very hard it was a hard couple months um W orange did give me a kitchen um we stayed at the residence in um until December came like Joyce said and we were evacuated we not evacuated but we we were asked kindly to leave at that point I still hadn't found housing I was assigned um a councilwoman Michelle Castle know I spoke to her once on the phone she promised to call me back she you never called me back um I never heard back from you um I was on Housing section 8 um Pete I dealt with you as of April I was discharged because I could not find anything within the cap that the state allowed uh because the rents were so High um I was at a loss with two little kids and nobody there to help um we are asking West Orange to help us not only my family but there were other victims in this there were other families that suffered people that from small kids to elderly people who have not survived didn't even survive to this day um we lost a lot I lost a community I lost um friends I've had to recently move out of West Orange because I can't afford West Orange prices are astronomical um I don't know the money should I believe should go to the victims and we are asking you West Orange to please help the victims here um we did nothing wrong if it was up to me I'd still be in West Orange I love West Orange I feel like we were wrong and there should be compensation to all of us thank you thank you very much anyone else for public comment like to comment my name is uh Christopher Banks I'm sorry Christopher Christopher Bank you know me very well Mr ruford as half of the council does I believe theing Council sure like this is that good okay perfect yeah I'm actually here on behalf of my mom uh I was living with her at 275 Northfield and uh she was actually the primary tenant so she can elaborate and articulate uh some of the things that uh uh basically are were going on at that time and she has a English speaking problem which I know you can use an interpreter for but i' rather just be here because I was actually there at the uh uh the event so to speak that event was life altering as Christine had pointed out with her and her entire family joyar it was life altering there are some people that were tenants friends that are no longer here there are pets that are no longer here there are lives that have been destroyed first of all I saw and and this was just like out of the blue that there was a resolution between Ron J and apartments or whatever his owning entities are and the township of West Orange for those proceeds my question is is what's the consideration for the proceeds do you know that there is an active pending litigation case against not only the landlord and the landlord entities but the town as well even though you have certain immunities and you know our our attorneys who are representing you know my mother and you know the other tenants are looking into other ways to pierce that Veil right and we're also uh taking action against SE hle so I don't know how you can come to an agreements when there is active pending litigation I could only imagine as the structure still stands there to this very day as deteriorated property two years it has been sitting there and I am sure with my limited knowledge base that there are active violations that the town has been putting on that property not only to mention that this year New Jersey specifically required New Jersey risk flood notice they just enacted that this year you want to know why it's to protect obviously insurance companies in FEMA from filing insurance claims such as this and they made it the responsibility of the landlord not the tenant so what I'm trying to say is that there are laws that have been enacted by this very own State and have been influenced by FEMA because in order for the flood notice you have to actually go on FEMA's website to see if you're in with flood plane Zone but we know things about climate can change I get it like everything that happened with elen but this this very situation could have been stopped by simply building a retaining wall I can go to any Structural Engineering Company in the tri-state area and I can literally they can literally go back and see why there should have been an elevating wall to protect the rock slope from even sliding now would it have made a difference the force of that whatever the case is of all the Limestone some surface but the fact of the matter is that there was not an attempt while under the under the landlord's ownership of the property owners's ownership a care a duty to even put that wall up to protect its own tenants and that to me is failure you're making an agreement with failure you have one minute remaining I don't need the minute that's all I have to say Banks well it's on understood um you're welcome to join us at the microphone anyways um good evening um I'm Christine catalano's daughter I'm Gabrielle um so in regards to the situation that happened um two years ago where we had to get evacuated I just want to say that going back to that moment um it was really horrific for me because not only did that incident cause me to have to move and leave on my my friends but I have never seen my mom in this predicament and for you guys to all sit up here nonchalantly and watch her cry and Shake not only this is a man right here who is put behind bars you guys you specifically I'm sorry I'm I'm sorry I'm sorry for being disrespectful I with all due respect you put a Man Behind Bars you also evicted this man out of his house too and so for me to watch um and listen as a 13-year-old girl who all of you are well over for my age and understand everything that's going on is actually um concerning to me um I know my mom called you and and for her to say that you never reached back to her and for you to say yes you did I I I go I go I'm on my mom's phone 247 she has to ask me for a back I have never seen I have never seen your name pop up on her screen but um I'm getting off topic sorry but um I just want to say like one one moment Mr re um it's just crazy to me it's just um it baffles me to see that um a council meeting be so nonchalant towards citizens in their Town that's all I have to say any anyone else want to participate in public comment Robert last name rashkis r a s h KES address 35 Oak Crest Road and I noticed that the the new signs in the back parking lot that say Municipal Employee parking only permit required and my question is uh after hours if the visitors spots are filled up is it okay for the public to park in the back parking lot when attending a meeting like the town council meeting thank you thank you Mr ashid anyone [Music] else seeing none public comment is now closed want to thank all of you for joining us during public comment um going to go in reverse order uh we're going to start with councilwoman Williams thank you uh good evening West Orange thank you for your public comment for those who came into council chambers thank you Mr Fagan Mr py always for your timely updates uh I'm sorry Mr Reese's this is pending litigation you indicated that it's Federal litigation um but litigation regardless we are not to comment on active litigation with the municipality so I apologize I have no comment yeah I'm speaking I'm speaking if I I didn't interrupt you sir so please don't interrupt so Mr Reus just for a moment so so so the way this works is we give public comment to those that are in the gallery when public comment is closed then we respond um that response is not to get another response from the public it is merely to put on the record what our position are to the extent that uh what our positions are to the extent that we have one I do understand um your passion sir uh I I understand a little bit about your case um so I I I do get it I don't want you to feel like we're being punitive to you but we do have to maintain a level of decum in here so at this point it's our time to respond to the public um and then if there's anything further I'm happy to give you my phone number and my email uh and we can discuss this you know to the extent that I'm allowed so unfortunately it can actually yeah it's yes yes and this is this is a back and for sir sir sir sir one second Mr Moon sir this is exactly what we're trying to avoid void thank you unfortunately for those that don't know um we are allowed to lie people lie in this chamber have lied in this chamber and likely will again it is horrible it is it is Despicable it is not what people put us up here to do however it is not illegal and it is permissible uh as distasteful and wrong as it is uh Council woman thank you um thank you U Miss Rutherford for your comments as well um Mr kovak as far as the downtown Redevelopment is concerned phase one you mentioned in prism I do recall your advocacy for many many years um that uh the former redeveloper was not meeting your expectations and that should they should be removed it may not have been at the pace that you sought um but ultimately uh that Redevelopment uh partner was dismissed and we moved on trying to identify some additional improvements um for the Town Corridor um you have asked a myriad of questions the responses have been provided to you um by the administration and some of those U responses by some of the professionals who were actually in here when we made that vote um I'm sorry that they weren't satisfactory to you um but you know the administration is here and they certainly um can respond if they so desire you also mentioned about a pilot um and we have not identified a pilot it's optional for them to come back um and ask for a pilot um so I just take exception with the fact that you're putting out information that it's completely misinformation um in addition to a pilot there's not you you made an assumption that it would be a 30-year pilot Pilots don't have to be a 30-year time period Pilots can be one year they can be five years they can be 10 years whatever is uh the agreement between those two parties and then you also mentioned 55 Lakeside Avenue um we know that there's a tremendous amount of contamination where we are proposing this Redevelopment project um this contamination has been in existence for many many years you talked about where the funding is going to come from um it was very clear at the last meeting that we're seeking funding to do the cleanup so again none of this is going to be certain until the funds have been allocated applied for and then allocated um but what's interesting to me is the fact that no one is mentioning that that cleanup is the responsibility of West Orange and if we don't have a partner that's willing to go in with us and help us do that cleanup then it is going to be on the the burden on the taxpayers on our residents um so again it's just making sure when we make statements we make accurate statements we give complete information and not the information that is going to taint or lean towards one way so again just asking that when you ask these questions of us um that you also State the complete questions or the complete information and not all of it um as far as ran Jolan is concerned again that is on our agenda and I will debate that issue or discuss that issue further um when it does come up on the agenda um we also talked about uh parking spaces in the rear again to the administration but I can't imagine that they would enforce parking uh in the evening hours in the parking lot when there is an event here in town hall that just doesn't make sense and I understand your concern in making sure um not to get ticketed but I I just can't even imagine that that would be something that would be considered especially if there's an event here and I I think that addresses um most of the comments if I miss someone's comments um again I I apologize but it should be on the agenda and we will get to it at the appropriate time council president that completes my comments thank you thank you councilwoman councilwoman Scarpa thank you um Daniel um thank you for coming and enlightening us we have been given guidance that this is under litigation and we cannot discuss it but thank you for coming and I see your passion sir please please yeah please no no that time has passed thank you councilwoman okay um Marilyn Rutherford wow um I just can't thank you enough for your wonderful history lesson and um the important message that you've conveyed to us I hear you and I will definitely think about your words as we move forward uh thank you so much um Mr kovak thank you for always keeping us honest um you are right um that those of us who are astute business people who understand commercial real estate development really have an obligation to pay more attention to what we're doing um transparency continues to be an issue um you're right the appraisals should be available to you immediately and as I had mentioned the language in the contract was something that I had a problem with surrounding the pilots it puts us in a very poor position to negotiate a pilot so thank you for bringing those issues to the Forefront and I hope you will continue you to make the public aware um you're an invaluable resource uh Joyce thank you so much for bringing Christine uh catalana and her beautiful children Gabriel I am heartbroken you know I was one of the people over a decade who was concerned about that development who uh understands the issues with the turf and the trees being decimated and that's why I promise you I am going to advocate so hard for a stormwater ordinance that will have teeth it's why I brought Jessica Pearson here to our last meeting she is on the planning board in Verona and is very self-taught expert this area I have been learning a lot about it and working with her now for several weeks and I will be routing around to a number of people you and our Green West Orange and my Council colleagues the work that we've done to help people understand the importance how this ordinance is going to affect the lives of all of our residents we all get flooded around here in West orange we're a Town Township of Hills and Valleys and thank you so much for bringing your story to us because we all need to hear it over and over again I worked with another um another Resident for over six months whose neighbor just put up a fence improperly and didn't do the proper storm water the stop proper storm water management and their basement flooded every single time it this is a problem that our residents need to understand we need to educate them we can't cut down trees and decimate forests and we can't do construction projects without doing our due diligence and doing them properly and I promise you I will really work to get make sure this is right um Charles Banks very you're very eloquent um thank you for coming here and supporting your mother um I learned a lot just now listening to you a lot that I didn't know and it's so important that members of the public come and Enlighten us so thank you and I will do whatever I can that's better thank you no no sir sir at some point right like this is now the fourth or fifth time I'm going to ask the officer to remove you if you continue to to to address us that time has passed I don't want to do it I don't want to do it but we don't allow we this back and forth that is not what this meeting is for we have been able to have a short agenda tonight we have an opportunity to handle the work and we're going to handle the work that is one of the issues each of us is going to address it but we cannot have the back and forth thank you 973 I'll give it to you now oh okay um thank you Council Miss SC uh councilwoman gabber Michael good evening everyone um thank you all for coming out tonight and for your sharing your voice and your comments um Mr races I want to thank you for your commentary and sharing your side with us um you know we received an email from our Township attorney that um no member of the council or the township or representative of the township should respond because pending litigation while I can't comment on that I am sympathetic towards you and your family and I'm sorry that you guys lost your home thank you um Mrs Rutherford uh thank you for coming here tonight and you know sharing what you shared with us um I'm also disheartened by what happened and you know I hope that justice prevails um Mr Co kovak thank you for your advocacy you know I hope that the administration is able to answer all of your questions and regarding the downtown deal um you know you know my sentiments regarding this um I've been very vocal about it and at this point I you know I will believe it when I see it um you know last year I had issues with how uh this company came about the contract itself um which I went through in detail and changed a few things um with the support of my colleagues and you know I I don't like the Clause of the pilot in there um you know we keep talking about how they gave us $200,000 and how we'll get another $200,000 where you know since we purchased that property we've lost over $300,000 in tax revenue and you know if we didn't purchase it we wouldn't have been responsible for uh cleanup um because prism I believe would have been responsible for the cleanup of that property um Mr rashkis uh I will defer to the administration but I believe uh the parking is available to Residents after work hours um Mrs Ruden Mrs karano Mr Banks Gabby uh thank you guys for sharing your story with us um while I was not on the council when this happened I am very sympathetic my heart goes out to you and and all the residents who are displaced um you know I do have questions regarding this resolution um regarding the money you know where where is it going um is it going back into the sunshine fund you know I think we need a full understanding and accounting um and what about the FEMA money that we received did they refund the money back into the sunshine fund what happened with that um I would love to see proof before we vote on it um so I'm going to ask I know I have more questions that we uh pull this um and if the money didn't come from the sunshine fund to pay for the shelter then where did it come from did it come from the taxpayer dollars then that's the case then we the people have a right to know because it was over because a lot of people have reached out to me about this and um you know it was over 300,000 that was spent and if it did come from taxpayer dollars then the Town Council at the time should have voted for and approve the expenditure you know the people want transparency and you know again these are the questions I have based on what others have have told me have asked me um they want transparency about where the money come from came from where it's going to and we just want to make sure the process followed correctly and also what is the plan to replenish it I mean you know we're having these storms more often now like look what's happening around the country so I mean do we have an emergency fund set aside for emergency issues going forward and what's considered a normal amount for the sunshine fund you know is there anything in there now um and so those those are my questions that that's it thank you councilwoman councilwoman C thank you yeah thank you council president um okay Mr reei I see you're you're taping for him no that's okay you know thank you for coming in um these situations are tough because we cannot discuss them um when there's litigation I appreciate your story and I feel your passion but the administration's going to have to address it and so I'm sorry that disappoint you but that's just just a fact that it's part of our job same thing Mrs uh for thank you as well for coming in your good mom um and I really appreciate this the story and and sharing your your husband's plate from years ago and uh I did not know that and it's very very tough to hear so um it is a tough situation and um you know I wish you and your family well Mr kovak um okay you know we sat together on the council for quite a few years and and I appreciate your passion back then in regards to the Redevelopment and going back to um prism and we we you know I'm going to Echo some of my colleagues uh comments in regards to um some of the advocating you did for prism and when they W getting their housing project done they were slay to get beautiful town homes built back there as you all there was environmental issues and so therefore they did not get built you also know that U Mr Hanley who you worked with in the past um who is handles the financing and will work out the pilot for us when there um we start to have those conversations if we have those conversations with these Redevelopment projects it's all about the financials and how they work so we're not there yet number one number two there will be some ask of the township and benefit that we will ask for in order um to initiate a pilot and again for the public sake and transparency those conversations we are not there yet we're not that we're not there in that part of the process so a lot of these questions can't be asked and answered yet this is a purchase agreement we're not closing yet there's more discussion to come and I sure our new Chief Financial Officer will give a very thoughtful presentation uh when the time comes and um and the mayor's right here so you know that obviously will be done uh in the future but we're not there yet the uh the developer who is doing the buildout for Lionsgate in norc uh has a a great reputation he's also extending 1.5 million in a interest free loan to the township to start the process with the environmentals which is very important and uh those financials will be worked out at the closing um we anticipate receiving up to $5 million and if we need more mayor has already applied for some other funding Brownfield funding so we anticipate that the environmentals all are covered but let's start with where we were going with this purchase in the beginning we were going to uh the developer was coming in to buy all the properties and cover all of the purchas uh properties that we had purchased um uh two years ago and the council decided as a whole I did not support that to divide the transaction into pieces and now we do not have the second piece of this transaction we do not have a buyer for um we had some interest but it wasn't it wasn't beneficial to the Township so therefore we haven't moved on that we felt I felt as I'm not going to speak for my other two colleagues who supported the project felt that this project would be beneficial to the downtown um I abstained um the at at the um first read of the uh resolution because I wanted to have more dialogue with the attorney to uh have some additional pieces uh put into the contract and then I was satisfied and moved forward so um as far as your questions and answer period um we're not there yet with all the cost uh analysis that you're looking for at this time um but we will be there soon and I'm looking forward to that conversation we'll also receiveing the taxes are being covered $200,000 a year um well 200 we received 400,000 so far from the developer and and let's not forget we are making a bond payment and therefore we need to get these properties off back on our tax rols okay now the tough part of the night and Christina I'm really really sorry I I really we talked I remember speaking with you this whole incident was horrible when it happened it was absolutely horrible horrifying I remember how upset you were and you're you're daughters are beautiful and and Gabrielle you did a great job up here speaking I know that was hard to do and you did a wonderful job I know it's frustrating it looks like we don't care but we have to sit here and hold a quorum and and wait for everyone to go and that's when we come back and respond so I know it looks like we don't care but believe me when your mom spoke and I'm looking at her now crying it it breaks our heart so of course we care at that time you know let's forget you know just to go back um you know the in Florida that apartment building collapsed and killed all those people and thank God here lives were saved and I remember having a conversation with you about things and and you have your beautiful children and and moving on um I I apologize I don't mean to insult you I thought we spoke after that I know Laura van djk we were signed five people and we were working with five other you know I had four other situations and you know we make calls we make calls to all our contacts that we could think of in different apartment complexes single family homes I mean we spent a lot a lot of time trying to place place everyone and again it was something that we all wanted to do who was on the council at that time because we felt for you so we try to break out all the stops I remember uh behind me on on Susan Court there was an apartment available I'm not sure if you were the one or would have to go back but we were just trying to get folks and I know it was hard because you had um um you know your your rent was reasonable there you know you were there a long time so we know how Rec control works and and now we see that in the township now people are hurting because you know the new apartments are the thing to go to and they're extremely expensive and even the affordables aren't affordable it's it's crazy the the way that people are buying up even you know invest of buy buying up two families homes and making a fortune and I really felt bad and I remember speaking with the school district and trying to place all the children to stay on the school roles even if they did move out of town to complete their school year because we didn't want kids to switch school we did not want you to leave your school and and I had a conversation at the time Cheryl Butler from the district was working on it so a lot of calls were made and I know Laura Van Dyke was spent I mean she worked day and night and she tried to you know and again I'm not going to say what I donated and and what not because I'm not that type of person I was taught you do something for someone you you keep it to yourself but you know a lot of efforts went on in the town for resources um and I you know I'm sorry that you had to leave in December I know we did have folks that stayed longer in some cases if I remember and again I I shouldn't talk because I don't want to quote myself because I I I remember it just it seemed longer than just that time frame and and but the town we had no problem there was conversation we did have some kind of vote I can't remember it but I know we did have conversation mayor paresi reached out to everyone this was totally transparent I have to give kudos two councilwoman M two brown she went above and beyond working really hard for everyone and at that time in my life I didn't have that much time to to dedicate to because I was going through some health procedures and some had other personal issues and only spent x amount of time but um yeah I'm really sorry about all this and you know of course if we could work something out but that money was taxpayer money with this is about tonight with the resolution was money that got extended out from the taxpayers money and then it was coming back to us to put back to the taxpayers now whether we decide to designate that somewhere else again we have we have attorney here tonight and there's conversations but we have to accept the settlement tonight and so that's something that we you know we could we could let the attorney speak to later um we did get briefed at our last close session because this this was litigation um that was settled and um we were glad to get monies recouped from what we you know extended out and so FEMA covered x amount and then the um the landlord I believe covered the rest of it but not all of it I think the township still out about what $155,000 this is the settlement yeah the settlement right aren't we still out $15,000 the demand in the litigation with 155 s yeah and and we did have conversation uh in close in regards to um you know because I knew the money came from the sunshine fund um people were very generous at that time because we're coming right off of covid and then we still had a lot of Co cases but um I'm really sorry for all the families I I mean it's I know it's been tough on all of you and uh I feel bad I'm sorry I wish you would have reached out to me again we wrapped everything up with Laura I'm not going to throw it her away but I know you know we were told when everybody was secured and and had housing so I apologize if you know the communication wasn't there on my end and I dropped the ball I'm really really sorry but we all did what we could for everybody at that time so I and I'll talk to you tomorrow if you want to call me but I'm sorry I just want to apologize to your daughters as well thank you council president thank you councilwoman um as always Mr pesi and Mr Fagan thank you for your information Community updates um Mr reesus um I um I am pleased that you were able to provide public comment tonight um because it is an active um matter of litigation we are not allowed to to comment um I will note that multiple residents raised an issue with Mr trink and so I will address Mr trink without addressing you directly um to my mother first of all I love you um I am if for those that don't know I well I am very proud to be u a son of both my mother and my father they have been on the front lines of fighting for justice in uh New Jersey uh since before I was born uh and that is the type of family that I come from uh I am a pastor that was raised in the black Baptist Church and um a member of the clergy um not just in Essex County but in New Jersey uh I grew up in that environment I was nurtured in that environment uh and it has allowed me to withstand enormous pressure and horrific disgusting despicable politics uh and do it with a level of um confidence and Grace at least I believe um it is it is not lost on me uh first off I wanted to say to West Orange I could not keep my mother from talking if I wanted to um I come from a family that uh certainly respects our elders um and and to this day um you know I am her son so uh even if I had known there's literally nothing I could have done about it um but I do thank you for your tenacity for for your Insight and for your advocacy uh on all of these other issues including this one um and this is also a matter of litigation and I will say uh what what I've been dealing with civil so far um I've been uh I've not been successful yet but I believe this is election fraud and I will not stop until I get Justice For What is being done and I want to say to West Orange I want to say to West Orange um there anyone can speculate as to why I am not on the ballot but I I will just give you a history lesson uh it's completely unrelated um I can't connect those dots but I can walk down the last two years um two years ago when Mr trank's contract came up for Renewal it failed it failed in a two- two tie and council president Williams from this seat immediately after the last vote said mayor in our form of government she was sitting right over there you are allowed to break the tie what is your vote and the mayor voted after having been a council member for more than 20 years and having never had a mayor vote in a council proceeding before and the and the contract was awarded to him over protest two days later we received a letter stating that we had to resend or maybe it was three days to resend that resolution that awarded Mr Tran's private Law Firm a contract and had to vote again and when we voted again that contract then failed for a second time in a 3-2 vote now any honorable mayor would have a conversation with their Township attorney and say until this matter is clarified until your firm has a contract transition your cases maybe I can convince them to allow your firm to do work for the township maybe they will appreciate the quality of work that you have provided may maybe there's something legally we can do to challenge their vote but the Town Council voted and that vote for your contract failed and a leader would have done that but that wasn't done what was done was a complete ignoring of the will of the council and I want to sidebar for a second because that's not the only time a vote of This Town Council has been ignored we debated over multiple meetings whether or not to change a resolution that allowed the zoning board chair to remain in his office as chair not as a member of the zoning board but as the chair of the zoning board for more than two consecutive terms and that vote failed and that vote failed two years ago and the zoning board chair is still there we when you appointed Mr abbit as your inim business administrator the law says he serves in that capacity for 60 days to allow you time to find a new one should you choose and it is not a constitutionally required position so we could go without a ba I wouldn't advise it but it wouldn't violate the law and here we are two years later almost or over a year later and he's still serving in that position so Mr trink serving without a contract is not unusual for West Orange unfortunately so we started pulling his bills for those that don't know after Mr Tren continued to operate in the same exact capacity as he had before we took the vote and his contract failed we decided we were going to pull his bills and we did we pulled his bills which meant the CFO at that time was not allowed to pay Mr Tran's firm and he paid him anyway and you can shake your head no man but the individual that sent me the email with the receipts with the checks and the invoices is in the chamber tonight when that was raised as an issue that Mr Tran was being paid without Council approval by a CFO who had $100,000 written into his contract that we could not claw back when he no longer did the work to earn that 100,000 60 from uh being the ba and 40 from the shared services agreement with Dober and there are other issues with that as well when we raised that as an issue then we were sued and the request of the Court which is incredulous to me the request of the Court was to compel the Town Council to award a contract to Mr Tran's firm and resend the resolution of no support I just want to say and I I find it interesting that resolution does not supersede state law state law local public contracts law says no municipality can use the service of a Professional Services award under a Professional Services award in this case a law firm without a contract now there are exceptions if you have a qualified purchasing agent you can go up to about $44,000 worth of work once you reach 44,000 that work has to stop that is the state law whether the resolution gets rescinded or not it does not supersede state law and what this judge has required this Council to do is violate the law because he still does not have a contract he has not been present a contract has not been presented to this Council because it would fail today and the only reason the only reason he is allowed to get paid today is he is using the law to break the law now that's one of many and I can go on for another 30 minutes but we recently just awarded a new Garbage Contract and after much debate a question was asked of the attorney one of the particulars about the contract and the attorney Mr Jenaro at the time was sitting I believe in Mr dinc seat or maybe Mr moons he was sitting over there he was not allowed to answer and the question was why and what was said to us at that time was well we have special counsel for the Garbage Contract the next question was why and the answer to that question provided by Mr rabbit was that there is a conflict of interest between the township attorney and the company that was awarded the contract that was news all five of us said it was news at that time one of us has since had her recollection refreshed but four of us were unaware that there was a conflict of interest between the township attorney and the the company that was awarded the Garbage Contract and that required us to then go into executive session and discuss what remedies do we have as a Town Council now that we are made aware of a conflict of interest and between that moment and the time we had executive session we found out there was a second conflict of interest with that same Township attorney he has a contract with the person who wrote the RFP for the Garbage Contract and he also has a contract with the company that was awarded the business now if nothing is wrong with that it certainly gives the appearance of impropriety and it it it certainly lends credence to our concerns for hiring his private firm to do work to me that would be too much if it was my mother whom I love and respect dearly if it was her firm I would ask her to step down because that is the right thing to do it's not about me it's not about her it's about the 50,000 people that call West Orange home and pay their property taxes here patronize these businesses go to these schools and there are other issues now all of us took an oath to uphold the state constitution we administered that same oath to four brand new police officers tonight and I hope they do not take from our example how to uphold that oath because we are violating that oath tonight on our bills list our bills for the train sadiki firm and they still don't have a contract so what if we're dissatisfied with their service what if they went rogue what if something was what if all of the partners weren't boiled in a scandal we have no mechanism to even get out of the contract because there is no contract and and I I am I'm amazed I'm amazed at how people can think that that is not a big deal the gaslighting that goes on in this town is Elite level so after having said all of that obviously I'm disappointed and obviously you're not and that's okay I'm not worried about what happens with this particular civil matter what I think people should be worried about are criminal Ms now I want to go back to some other things that my mother said I'm disappointed that I'm not on on the ballot either you know how I'm handling that um but one thing she mentioned was how my father came to New Jersey um what she did not mention is she when he was State president of the NAACP that is when the judge decided the case and put the consent order on West Orange which forced us to integrate our Police Department in the 1990s now and I may he rest in peace Denzel mccluer I believe uh was the first or the second uh police officer hired in West Orange I could be wrong but I think he was first or second and um and my father made sure that that lawsuit got over the line and there were powerful interests on the other side of that it wasn't just West Orange there were powerful interests throughout the state of New Jersey on the other side of that argument and not one time did he Buckle backtrack or waiver now I point that out because I want you all to know that is exactly how I am and I am not going to stop now I'm sure my attorney would not be happy how much I have elaborated in this public session but that's all right he and I will deal with that Mr kovak I will answer your questions at least the ones that I've written down I've answered them before I will answer them again I hope this is the last time that I have to answer these questions uh in any development there's a potential for success and a potential for failure that's just the nature of the business um what I have been intentional about in all of these meetings is making sure that certain things happen a certain way when my presence when my influence was attempted to be undermined I put a stop to it immediately and I made sure that the interests of the residents were represented in each one of those meetings I took that responsibility I'm not saying no one else did I'm talking about myself I made sure the interests of the residents were represented in each one of those meetings you've asked about how many millions will we lose by selling this for 10.8 million compared to the 12 million we purchased it for so there is an answer to that the answer is zero we're not going to lose any Millions right based on your own calculus and this is based on the purchase price we're not selling all of the property that we purchased for the 12 million to this particular developer there's almost three acres that are left outside of this sale and when we sell that property we will sell it at a price that gets us back to 12 million now that doesn't mean that doesn't mean we won't lose money our first deal involved no payment from the interim developer to the township for the rights to develop so we went over a year without any payments that's 300,000 in tax revenue that we lost when we had the opportunity to entertain a new developer one of the first things they said without prompting which is what got my ear and made me feel like I should listen to these guys prior to that I wouldn't and I'll get back to that in a second was that they were willing to pay us upfront $400,000 that's $400,000 to replace the Lost tax revenue on that property for the year or so that they are inum redeveloper I I thought that was a show of good faith and I thought that was a good deal for the town it alleviated the loss we had from the property taxes now my colleague is right when she says we separated those other three acres we absolutely did I made the recommendation I made that recommendation after speaking to two of my colleagues who were Nos and I made that recommendation and others in an attempt to get them to be a yes because when you have a developer willing willing to spend nine figures they don't want to do it in an unstable political environment so in the spirit of compromise I wasn't pleased with how we got to that point either but let's parcel out this piece and we'll get it right from this point forward at least with regard to the RFP now on that RFP and I will say this again I've said it before councilwoman scarper gber Michael and myself have been imploring the mayor to put out an RFP since February of 202 on 2023 put out an RFP in March of 2023 I met with the economic development committee and they agreed unanimously none of whom are my appointees to recommend that we put out an RFP I told the mayor directly on multiple occasions mayor if you don't put out an RFP it's going to be hard to get this deal done and I was ignored and then we're presented with an opportunity and this is a tough vote there are many that support me that don't want me to vote for it but after looking at the impact of this project on our Main Street Corridor it is the best opportunity for West Orange and in spite of the politics of which I am the target I still supported it not because it's good for for me and certainly not because it's good for the mayor but because it's good for West Orange why five to 600 permanent jobs many many more thousands and tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue from taxes even with a pilot than we would have otherwise the opportunity to have the remediation cost taken care of by someone other than West St residential property tax payers and that is going to measure in the many millions of dollars and I would not have voted for that if I was not convinced that we would that not just that we had applied for the grant money but that we will receive the grant money to clean up that that site as well as all of the ancillary benefits to the infrastructure downtown whether it's parking traffic uh lighting sidewalks the opportunity to have the second part of that development provide the type of retail spaces that we need downtown this is our last best chance to renovate our Main Street and while C cinoman celino and I don't agree on some things we certainly do agree on this our Main Street businesses need it they have been waiting for us to do something transformative like this for over 20 years it is it is the best deal given all of the different Dynamics and the last thing I'll say is because it is a movie studio there are tax credits available from the state that make this project more profitable for them which means whenever we get to a pilot less burden is on the township because they're getting so much in in tax credits from the state now I disagree with councilwoman Scara when she says the language regarding the pilot puts us in a poor position to negotiate it does not it does not affect our position to negotiate a pilot will be negotiated based on the merits and then it will be presented to the Town Council at that time and I understand that there are some that don't believe that I get it because you don't trust this Administration I don't either but you do have to trust someone and at least for me as long as I'm in the room it's going to be fair so the Town Council will then vote on it and it will take three votes to pass it Township will have an opportunity the weigh in whether they like it or not and the council will take that under advisement when the council votes at that time but none of that has been done yet and nothing that's in this agreement limits that negotiation at all um I already addressed why I support this project in comparison to the risk uh where will DPW and the animal shelter relocate that is a very good question and we don't have an answer to that and that's a disappointment too we've been asking when Mr gross was the CFO where are we goingon to put DPW like let's not wait until we get to that moment and we need it to make a decision under duress when time is working against us it's an administrative function Council can't do that just for the record in case it was unclear before the town has not taken back the cost of remediation now is there a timetable for cleanup if there is I'm not aware of it but I don't expect it to be short I do expect that type of cleanup to take multiple years um we did not lose 600,000 in in taxes we lost 300,000 for the first year and now we've been paid 400,000 for the second I hope that answers your questions Mr kovak uh Miss Ruden I do want to thank you for your continued advocacy and involvement in all of these issues in town my heart goes out to to Gabrielle you certainly did an outstanding job I don't know what your future holds but um you're an outstanding public speaker um and I do expect to to see you speaking publicly you know at some point down the road whether it's in the near future or or far it is clear you have what it takes to address a crowd um your courage and your conviction and your confidence uh is to be applauded and so I I I think this was an opportunity to put that on display in real time uh without being prepared and without being nervous about it thinking about it beforehand just getting up and doing it and you did a phenomenal job Mom you should be proud as well and I know you are um uh but to to Christopher uh or Mr Banks and and and and to you um uh Miss Catal Catalano uh we certainly do um sympathize with you um I do believe there is a lawsuit I'm not sure if the township is still named in that lawsuit or not um but I do believe there's a lawsuit we we can't just do that we can't just take money from one pot and put it to another um and but I I do sympathize with you and and I will say you know I think and and again I've been advised to be very careful in in how I address this public publicly because it is a matter of pending litigation um but I have said before um we were warned about what could happen if certain precautions were not taken um and so I'm disappointed that those War warnings weren't heed um I do have some additional questions on the resolution I'm going to discuss those at that time um but that entire thing was a fiasco I will give credit where it is due um although the response to having the residents evacuate I felt could have been handled better um immediately stepping up and providing housing and food and additional resources for all of those residents even for a limited period of time I thought was a great gesture on on the part of the township again that was not a council function that was a mayor function function but the council did approve uh some payments and I can't recall exactly what they were we'll get into that when we get to the to the resolution um uh but we we approved those you know way after the initial event at the initial event um you know Provisions were made at least that night and for the next several months to move but you do highlight an issue we don't have enough affordable housing in West Orange now it's not just West Orange it's everywhere but um we certainly do have an enormous number of affordable housing units uh that need to be built here to make the township more affordable and I think there's a way to do it um that's part of what I'm trying to accomplish on this Main Street project too um so you know there's very limited things that I can say about that because there is litigation but I do want you to know that that you do find a sympathetic ear and for both of you I'm happy to give you my contact information so that we can discuss this matter when we're not in a public s setting and some folks will say well that's behind closed doors no no sir you can't sorry no no you can't I'm sorry you cannot I can't I'm sorry you can't I I hear you I you can you're welcome to share it with them um but I'm happy to give you my contact information as well my parents are right behind you they can give it to you uh Joyce Ruden has it as well she can give it to you uh for both of you uh so that we can discuss this matter further where I don't have to worry about it being in a recorded session and showing up in a lawsuit somewhere um and Miss uh Miss Ruden you asked a question it make it begs the question what other deal is Mr Tran involved in with regard to this particular issue well I don't know the answer to that I don't know if there's another deal but I would certainly like to know um I think everything else was covered um Mr rabbit do you want to address the uh parking issue L tonight can you refresh my memory what the parking issue is uh are we are reinforcing parking uh permit parking in the no no no the public is welcome to parking those spots after hour okay it looks like the mayor would like to respond I'm G to ask that you uh pause and allow her to respond unless you have another question I thank you once publicly for your vote on the downtown thank you again for explaining your reasons why you voted on the downtown oh I'm saying that I thank council president for his vote on the downtown when he initially voted and I thanked him again when the vote passed um I wanted to explain I came to the council I came to the economic development commission the reason we did not submit that RFP at that time was because we had a developer offering us $40 million for that project before it was bifurcated into two separate things so that's why the RFP never went out and I wanted to say God bless your mom and dad because each one of the cases that you just mentioned my lawsuit against the Town Council the zoning chair and the admission on your admission on the B it have each been decided by the court and the fact that you made reference to your dad being a fighter I see that because you are ignoring each one of those decisions and have filed appeals on them so all the best to you but I just wanted to say that the court made the decisions for the township well since we're talking about that uh with regard to the ballot issue the court has decided on a procedural basis not on the facts of the matter now I'm going to stop there because I don't want to jeopardize my own self but with regard to your lawsuit against us the judge hasn't decided she's given inim relief right and judge decided that Mr Tran has the responsibility of the law director and all challenging him as law director this is about his private firm having a contract that is what you asked the judge to compel us to award and the judge has not decided that and then you went four months without paying him for services that were rendered and he was paid and he shouldn't have rendered those services but he was still paid yeah any further debate Mr rabbit I have no comment on it uh you already commented on the parks I mean on the parking yeah all right I think that's the only other issue for the administration anything else colleagues before I close our response to the public all right uh Madam clerk are you still with us I am I just want to remind everybody to please speak into your microphones because it's very hard to hear now I'm on the opposite side so now I understand what people are talking about um okay consent agenda approval of minutes of previous meeting public meeting September 24th 2024 report of Township officers none reading of petitions and Communications and bids none uh Bill list thank youill um I had I just had one question sure um I under the uh mayor s uh salaries and wages there's overtime I had never seen that before and I just wanted to know what that overtime was for her assistant is that her assistant because the mayor doesn't get overtime so I just was wondering what it was councilwoman Council woman um what we found when we were working on payroll 21 uh was that there were two employees that have been Mis classified misallocated to the mayor's line item those employees belong in the retired citizens program so what you're seeing in that hourly and that overtime section of the payroll 20 which is on the bill list are actually to those two employees that belong in the retired citizens program so we've now reclassified those employees to to yeah uh reclassify those employees to be correctly allocated to their home department and in the next bill list you're going to see an adjustment uh because we're going to take payrolls 1 through 20 and correct uh correctly allocate what we have already paid out to that retired citizens program so you'll see a negative on the mayor's line item in that hourly and overtime section and you'll see a larger uh expenditure in that retired citizens program and that's that reallocation thank you for clarifying that there's been a lot of unusual Accounting in the past and thank you for cleaning it up and I'm sure we're gonna have no problem moving forward and Mr dnac I want to thank you as well so I know this is something that I also mentioned to you right before the meeting started so thank you for find that answer out for us I said I was like we should start with this yesterday so yes then like I said it's two employees that they work in the retired citizens program they're not doing work for the mayor's office it's just when they were set up they were incorrectly allocated to that department thank you thank you so much Madam clerk okay resolutions are any resolutions being pulled this evening yes um this is Council and G Michel want to poll resolution 288 please okay are any others being pulled colleagues questions regarding 292 t uh councilwoman Williams for with questions um I'm I'm yeah I'm I'm pulling that I may want to vote no so I'm actually just gonna pull it I don't yeah so I'm going to pull that 292 okay uh anything else uh colleagues on the resolutions no I just had a question on 292 okay so I move for the consent agenda second all in favor I I any opposed the consent agenda is implemented um resolution asked earlier my response to public comment so where is this money going is it going back into the sunshine fund um what happened to the FEMA money that we received did it go back into the sunshine fund and um I because both of the resolutions that P are specifically related the resolution of litigations if we're going to discuss this I I believe it's best interest to do it second session wait wait wait the reason why I asked is because residents have asked us and I don't think there's anything wrong with these questions these are just I'm just asking what happened with the FEMA money you know did it go back into the sunshine you answer the question on feema and this money where is it going okay so as you as again I know believe but you you were brief on the litigation um basically with recovering fund expended by F I don't know the exact breakdown of what the fund some a bu came out of the sunshine fund I don't know sure cover all the expenses I don't think so my understanding is that there's only $50,000 in the sunshine fund and we spent over 300,000 so then female money that came in was basically to the Delta was the 155 that's why the litigation the settlement basically is to fill that Gap in 135 out of correct but will that money go into the sunshine fund that is the question because no that's the well that's this is these are questions that I have um and you know because people are asking for transparency about where the money came from before the 300,000 when it first happened to pay for the hotels and then where is this going into um also how much is in the sunshine shine fund currently um is there a plan to replenish it and again if we were to have such an emergency like that you know because there are a lot of trees being cut and things a lot of development happening in town um you know like what do we have going forward to cover Us in the fund you know and what's considered a normal amount to have after this situation uh Council woman I'll start with uh what was expended for from the mayor sunshine sunshine fund I I went back and and looked at the history going back to 2021 when this this event happened October 2021 I believe um and it does not look like really much came out of the mayor Sunshine fun in in terms of you said the 300K that we spent on hotels and and and Personnel overtime and all that um so if we were looking at it from an accounting perspective you know money would not go back into the sunshine fund because you know all I can see is about $450 in in reimbursement came out of sunshine fund um as far as where the the initial expenditures were charged I I need some time to to dig into uh the records and see exactly the accounts they came out of I will say from a general accounting um rule with reimbursements such as FEMA if you get the money back in the year that it happens um that money should go back into the line item that it came out of as a as a reimbursement if you get the money in you know a year or two afterwards the money is usually put in as what we call Mna miscellaneous Revenue not anticipated because the budget year that it would go back against is closed out so what it essentially goes back into is is the general fund it goes back into the fund balance is as a surplus item can we put it in the sunshine fund and inent because you're saying only $450 were expended so if there's 50,000 then could we then put this money into Sunshine fund so I I I would say no because the sunshine fund was set up with a dedication by Ryder with very specific reasons for revenue and reasons for dispersements um when that account was set up application would have been made to the state of New Jersey Division of local government services and that you know there was an application that went along and we would have said what we would do with that money and where that money would be coming from so you know without seeing the application I'm going to seriously doubt that the state of New Jersey would allow uh a settlement especially when expenditures didn't come out of that fund to go into that that trust account um you know dlgs would advise that money needs to go into the miscellaneous Revenue not anticipated flow back into the the Township's current fund fund balance well thank you for explaining that and what about the last part of my question in terms of um do we have emergency fund money set aside for Urgent matters going forward and what would be considered a normal amount for a sunshine fund so well not every municipality has a sunshine fund you know what municipalities typically have to cover large environments uh events or you sometimes situations like this is what they call the storm recovery trust it used to be called the snow recovery uh the snow uh fund and the state of New Jersey has since given it a more general term storm recovery um I'd have to check and see what we have in in there but you can use that money for these you know a snow event a hurricane or something like this where you have this natural disaster um and you can carry that money throughout the years similar to the sunshine fund so where's our budgets you know normally lapse after a year that that storm recovery can stay on the books at infin item until you use it and you can build it back up at the end of the year by say taking money from you know a DPW other expense line item and moving that money over into that trust for the proverbial rainy day uh you know I I don't think there's ever really been guidance on what's a percentage of your total budget you should keep in your storm recovery trust um so it's something to look at from the perspective of like maybe you're looking at 15% of your total DPW budget or you look at you know what is the cost of a snow event like a major snow event 12 Ines or so like you know what is that cost out to be and then you can say maybe we keep one or two events sort of in in the back pocket in in the storm recovery trust so I think it's a good conversation to have uh and some good analysis to do um as far as this the sunshine fund I think it's there's something about $28,000 or so in in there right now um from a un audited Financial perspective we combine all of our donations um but I think the last time I looked it was some somewhere around 28,00 that we have in there right now so someone and again I don't have facts why I'm asking said that there was 50,000 in there so where did I I think that's all of our donations together it's about 50,000 yeah because we have other donation trust sub accounts um you know and that's probably totaling around that $50,000 number well thank you for explaining I can provide the council an accounting of that sunshine fund going back to 2021 I'd be happy to provide that um and you know I'll go through the uh the business administrator to provide that thank you and I just want to comment on the sunshine fund so traditionally um the funds were always used um through uh Laura van dijk's Department uh uh with the mayor's discretion in regards to those in need in the community and whether it's Thanksgiving time uh holidays um you know toy drives and whatnot but also it's it's dependent on donations that are given so when Co hit um people were very generous in donating to the fund and they were able to build it back up to a significant amount and um so when this event occurred you know I thought more was depleted but I guess not so they I do remember there is a record I recall from um when we voted on the Monies to spend I mean mayor py was very very proactive and very upfront on how he wanted to handle this emergency situation and so I look forward to that information as well thank you you welcome thank you councilwoman um I just want to say for the record it was my understanding both at that time and until tonight that the sunshine fund was the source of funds for um the the the relief for the Ron Jolan families um that was my understanding I know we voted on something it's going back three years so I can't remember what it was but uh the language that was used certainly initially and for some period of time and I actually I think even when um the residents were asked to vacate the various hotels it was because the sunshine fund was depleting now I'm going go back or have somebody help me go back and look at those Council meetings to see uh or maybe it was at the um uh the the meeting we had at the Wilshire gr I can't remember which one it was but I do remember someone saying uh the reason we had to you know stop paying for residents to stay in these hotels was because the sunshine fund was depleted and if what you're saying is true Mr DAC and I have no reason to doubt you I just want to be very clear is not to throw any doubt or aspersion on you at all uh but that is um if only $450 was used out of that Sunshine fund that's news to me and so yes I do want an accounting for that I also want the accounting for all the other monies that were spent you know the source of funds um for the Ron Jolan um the families that were affected by that that Landslide and you know in that accounting let I would like to know the balance is you know post dispersement um you know on a running basis um yeah that's that's that's news to me and it certainly doesn't bode well for you know trusting some of the stuff that goes on when we find out stuff like this at least that I've been believing now for three years um so it is it is challenging um all right but I interrupted you I'm sorry you had did you have any other questions for Rono so Council do you want to make a motion that we um revisit this in executive session yes I do thank you I'll second that motion wait before we do that um sorry is there a time constraint that we're working with is it is it beyond the the next council meeting I can't hear Mr Moon so you got get any microphone there are multiple um so as mentioned by Mr Banks earlier today there is a litigation involving tenants as well as litigation that the towns initiated um so the the matter the resolution of this is part of again it sort of it goes they're tied together so that's kind of I can't really go into specifics some of it is liation strategy some of it is work product stuff some of it is it was such a time time constraint that we may need to have a special meeting prior to our regular Council this is something I could discuss in exactly session I explain why wait but I have a question about that I thought we weren't allowed to go into executive session because it has to be advertised there was this big can't do that tonight yeah there was a big stink in the last meeting you know about putting things on the agenda the proper way so I don't think we can go to Executive session remember that's why we couldn't last no we could vote the you didn't want to go in because you you want to keep it a such a way well it's not so time let me let me let me ask Madam clerk yes are there notice required for executive session well yeah there you know you have to put it on the uh you have to yes you have to notify as to why you're going in uh specifically and all of that what was stated in the last meeting was that per our ordinance we're not allowed to um add anything to the agenda or something to that effect that Mr Jenaro said and that was the reason why we were unable to go into executive session I thought we could vote on that though we had four votes that's how we've always done it and that's what was said last time that we weren't allowed to do it because it was during the live meeting and it wasn't advertised and all of that so I I don't know I I you know the legal department has to look over the ordinance and let us know Mr Moon if you if you don't mind take a quick look at that again I wasn't at the last meeting so I don't know what Orin well I think it was two meetings before because we did have the executive session on for last meeting it was the session before that yeah I think at least my recollection and again it could be flawed I think there are notice requirements for executive session that preclude us we could vote on it tonight but then it would just be on the next meeting and it would take four votes to get it on the next meeting then the clerk would have uh opportunity to I think you need four three from the floor you need four excuse me I always thought it was Personnel like if it was Personnel because you have to notify the the stff r notice yeah right that's R but he this is pending litigation so I mean that's one of the legitimate reasons to have executive session and I is the notice 48 Hours Madam clerk yes that's so again we're talking about notice under the public meetings Act well do we have to notice when we have can we give us your legal opinion about being able to go into executive session Mee you have to give notice for agenda items however like the spe open meeting specifically has Provisions fors regarding discussions regarding pending litigation Personnel M with that so as far as under the open public meetings act you are allowed to go into executive session you vote to go into executive session tonight s now if there's a reference to West Thorn ordinance about updating the agenda my understanding was always that those again I gotta look at the ordinance to find the exact language but that matter should be added to the agenda Beyond because we have the ordinance about Wednesday deadlines for materials my understanding was that was always able to be sort of superseded by either um Council president's consent who running the agenda as well as what the challenges that ad V together all right so your position is different than what we were told last week I'm just saying it's all right know what the question public meetings act answer is yes if there's a specific concern about an ordinance someone needs to tell me what ordinance we concerned about well you're the attorney so you're gonna have to tell us okay I don't see a concern with it now if you were telling me that there is something specific that Mr darl told you I would like to know what that was it might be in chapter three rules of the council chapter three is the rule of the council and how the council operat all right so so um my I'm I'm sure you're not going to be able to answer my questions on um 292 without executive session that's so no if we can go into executive session without violating anything tonight I'm happy to do it 288 I believe right well 288 and 292 are both um oh you wanted on both okay of them are litigation okay simar to mine answered the these questions are G to I mean I'm happy to ask them I don't think they can answer them why wouldn't you want to talk to the attorney and close about litigation I this is the trouble I I have all the time understanding you know I I get the transparency but you could phrase what you want to phrase well can be said in public afterwards it's not like we're not going to discuss it if we can discuss it but you know council members need Clarity on before they could vote and if that's the whole idea of having the attorney at the council meeting so you have that privilege I understand I asked my questions they were able to be answered I don't know what his answers his questions are in an effort not to violate anything I'm asking him can he ask his questions and if he can't answer them he can say he won't answer them and maybe in two weeks we can go to Executive session about it but we need to get work for 292 anyway I'm talking yeah we got 292 again I thought it was 288 that was time sensitive is 292 also time sensitive can you clarify I misunder actually yeah I well again I don't I'm not familiar with 292 I know 292 is actually probably more time sensitive than because um there's trial date in place that's I didn't hear you could you see trial date there's a trial there's a trial date and that's more time sensitive as what Mr Mo was saying is go ahead I've always believed that we could not we you could vote to go into executive session for something that's on the agenda under the opma because of there certain exemptions that Mr Moon laid out um again I don't remember this I know this was contested and I'm not trying to say anybody did anything nefarious I Mr um jaro may have given different direction he may it may have been a different reason he did that I I don't know but I believe you can go into executive session to discuss these issues and it is addressing an item that is on the agenda which was noticed right so it's not like we're going to Executive sessions to discuss something else completely and that may have been been the confusion that may have been what happened last time I don't recall the specifics of last time so I don't know that was last what was it last what we talk about Redevelopment that was on that was on the agenda no that was on the agenda you just didn't vote for me to talk to that was a different situ well we couldn't have that wasn't that you wanted to go an executive session but that was on the agenda you just no no no no that was a different meeting and because Council Williams wasn't here you wanted to go in an executive session and couldn't because we said we didn't notice it properly and then the next meeting we did go into executive session you asked to go into executive session and we were told that we couldn't yeah so all right so to end the debate um because I think those are two both of those things happen those are two separate meetings um the meeting where you went to the party we were going to go into executive session I refused to do it because we wouldn't have had three votes no matter what we decided in executive session the meeting after that is the one where Mr Jenaro gave us some guidance that none of us recall clearly right now but if the advice of council is we can go into executive session mad um Council I'd like to make a motion to go well we already have a motion in a second I just need to take a vote um okay so councilwoman celino uh yes please councilwoman gber Michael I mean I honestly I mean I understand the sentiments is going into executive session I just don't feel comfortable because it wasn't advertised based on what you're told and I feel like now we're changing things to make it more convenient so I'm going to have to say no we have to remain consistent coun woman Scarpa yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Rutherford yes okay the motion carries all right so we'll be an executive on 288 and 292 okay yeah we might as well allow people to leave um Madam clerk can we do ordinances on second and final sure um all right 2872 24 Bond ordinance providing for Road sidewalk and Sewer improvements buying in the township of West Orange appropriating $2 million there for and authorizing issuance of uh, 94,000 bonds or notes of the township to finance the part of the cost thereof is there a motion to introduce on second and final second councilwoman uh I'm sorry councilwoman celino yes councilwoman gber Michel yes councilwoman Scarpa yes yes councilwoman Williams she stepped out oh sorry I wasn't looking council president Rutherford yes okay uh public hearing we're going to open public comment on 2872-20 anyone in Council Chambers wishing to comment on that ordinance now is your time please approach the microphone seeing none public comment is now closed want Before we or Madam clerk if we were to further amend um if we were to further amend 2872 well first off is director of DPW on so I'm going to need her an executive as well for my questions in ex s yeah she's GNA have to go on speaker um if we if we were to amend the language here how would that affect this would it have to go back to First it depends what you meant right Min it's a subsid change yeah so I want to add some language um to require that um the contractor sorry require that the contractor honor our tree ordinance I know that may sound trivial to some but that has to be bit so so what what because I I asked her about another street that didn't get bit out yet about the trees and so when these streets are priced out the tree replacement and whatever is needed for that gets bid and administration jump in if Miss speaking this contractor won't be the same contractor that we do any tree removal anyway the our Forester and our engineer would decide what trees need to be removed and then one of the tree contractors would remove it so that's not what that's so I want to make sure that in the curb uh in the installation of the curb and the sidewalk that we honor the tree ordinance to the letter or we've had this in other spaces where it was not honored and I want to make sure we honor it here and I want to make it I want I want the language to be clear in the ordinance so that no one is there's no ambiguity it has to be honored but that's on us that's on the it's on the yeah yeah it's not on the council members no no I'm sorry not on us but on the township right so I'm trying to make sure that the township honors it because I was at Lincoln Avenue myself four times we had agreement to save seven of the 11 trees on that street and only one is still there and that one is coming down but that's on for Township has not right so I want to make sure the Forester can't go and do that again here so council president we could get the director on but I believe in speaking with her today that this is just the money to to do the project that has been bit out yeah and this is time sensor we need to get this done by next month within like days now this if you recall this is the one we brought on back either in July or August then we we it was actually in August and we had the meeting that was canceled and then the next meeting we had an issue with it where we had we voted it down and then we had to reintroduce so this is the second go around for this particular ordinance and this is this is more about us getting the money for this particular project up in that area so it's awarded by the do so we can continue with this project and that's that whole area that floods up the hill so in regards these again this Colonial Woods um is H I think Hun's on there yeah and well there's two separate we received two Awards this is the phase first one from 2022 I believe it was and then the other one was awarded the next year so we're we're this whole Project's encompassing that whole area in a two-phase project over over two separate ws and I believe this is the first one so we could ask the director to get on to confirm that if you'd like but I just to make sure but this is time sensitive more than is anything else I I hear you Mr smeraldo and and my issue is trusting that it'll actually be honored right and I'm sure you can understand my hesitancy to trust performance well we could ask the director because I I believe this is just so we can float this Bond it's not the bid itself but we can ask director she to answer that I would imagine that maybe that language needs to be in the selected contractors whoever the contractor is she's on he has maybe that's where this language needs to be put in say say that again I missed some of that whoever the contractor is that's doing it's not on the contractor it's on us not you're talking Road Improvement is not the person that takes the trees the trees were taken down at the direction of the township yes Mr Kip determined those trees were not viable you may dispute that I wasn't there but that's what he took pictures of and gave to the cion and that's what his determination is his initial determination was different I I saw that and I don't know why I can't explain that he could sign off on that and I know so director are you on yes I am good evening council president and council members good evening director I am interested in making sure that when this road work is done that any that the trees are protected in accordance with our newly updated tree ordinance now uh I'm being asked to trust that that's going to happen and I'm not willing to just telling you straight up so cuz we you were there and those trees are no longer there and you and I both walked that I think we walked it twice together I only that once and like our business administrator have said our Forester is the one who actually assess the trees on site along the road projects and makes a decision at which tree is viable or not I will tell you that I provided Mr Kip a set of the plans for this project which is the Colonial Woods Carlson Road and Colin Drive Street improvements which is a DOT funded project or partially funded by Dot and he assessed the trees I could ask him again to go assess them again in accordance with the current Tre ordinance since where the job was under design the ordinance was not in place and this is a grant that was awarded in 20 in 2022 I believe so director what you may recall and and I I visited the site twice with Mr Kip I may have misspoke about visiting twice with you but I do know that I saw you on site uh at least once but I yeah and I think it was Mr K was more than twice but that's neither here nor there he agreed and he spoke in council chambers to this effect spoke to the administration from what I'm told um about methods that would protect the roots and the and the trunk of the tree um particularly with regard to the sidewalk um he had a bunch of different Technologies he sent an email I forwarded it to my colleagues of what those different products are and then also with regard to the curb there were things that could be done and have been done in other parts of town um old Indian way is one of them where we have modified the curb to accommodate the tree I want to make sure that that is done here now I'm willing to vote no unless I am certain uh and I want my colleagues to know that I am sure um I'm not willing to just trust that it's going to be done so what given the time time constraints that you're working under and the desire that I have just articulated to you what is the best course of action to ensure that the roots and the trunk of the trees are um treated with a level of care uh that the design utilizes methods that will protect them what is the best meth what is your recommendation for what we should do to ensure that before we go forward I would recommend honestly that either Mr Kip myself as well as any other member of the council it needs be as well as the administration we could walk the street before we actually go into construction the project will not go into construction until next year um and we could take a look at ways that done I obviously will refer to Mr Kip and he is the professional in this matter and this is his expertise not mine but um I'm willing to do what it needs to be done in order to uh to save the trees now if Mr Kip does make an assessment that the tree is not viable and it is a safety hazard to the public it will be Mr Skip's decision to say whether or not the tree stays or not since it is not I'm not an expert when it comes to a tree hav root Rod or what percentage of it it might be damaged Madame director in the last um develop the last street repaving that we did Mr Kip made several recommendations to save trees and then ultimately they were not saved so if you're asking us to rely on um Mr Kip I Mr Kip made those recommendations and they not on Mr Kip during the assessment that he did last year actually said that the treats were not viable why did he say otherwise after the fact I cannot answer that question that would be a question that Mr kid will have to answer himself um please reach out to Mr Kip get him on Mr Kip said they were viable before the fact and then it was they were taken down after the fact and I don't know if Mr Kip weighed in and said they were no longer viable but I do know Mr Kip said they were viable because he he did it with me there yes he did with you there prior to that Mr kib went to the site himself last year and he made an assessment on the trees and provided that list of the trees that were called to be removed on the plans based on his professional assessment of each one of the trees within the row program all right thank you director that thank you Miss corbella so so my recommendation and listen it's been a tough year with the trees and I could see Mr Kip I mean I don't want to use his name on on on the air but you know we put pressure on you know you you went out there and you did you know which I commend you for just going out there and walking with them and then he made him change his mind on certain things I didn't make him change his M pressure is put on Personnel go back so let me just be clear listen listen I am not I'm not saying it in a negative way what I'm trying to say is I commend you that you went out there to get to advocate for the trees what I think what could prevent this in the future is if we let the forest make the recommendation obviously he knows by now or anyone that's going to be hired in that chair knows how important that we want trees save as things get bid moving forward as um if there's other methods that could be utilized I had asked the engineer you know obviously these the money is bit out years past with the projects that you're seeing now we need to have the money in these proposals now than later so if there are other methods that are a little more expensive to keep the tree it should be noted the end of the day if the Forester went out does the assessment and signs off on the assessment and then it's documented and that helps out the engineer it helps out us so we know what we're facing so I I you know we we lot a lot was done with that tree ordinance and I see other towns they replace their trees the problem we're having is we're not replacing our trees the way we should um Mr leapor went out and he he did a good job he wanted to you know put a lot of trees on the record I think a couple hundred of them why the projects didn't get done I don't know it's disappointing it's frustrating and this is why we lost the public trust so we have to move forward I don't want to get in a situation where we have another employee and have two employees go at it with each other on on television I don't think it's fair to either one of them I think we need to have a system in place that the that assessment is made and you know it we we go over it before and it's explained before the contractor even gets there thank you you thank you councilwoman I just want to be clear I didn't apply pressure to Mr kit no no and I I didn't mean to I didn't but again you you but again we all do this when we all go into when we don't go through the proper procedures to to talk to Administration and they if they want to connect us with the directors and we all do that I do that like because you know they feel I think you know not willingly we do it but you know of course they we put them on the spot because we're advocating for the residents I just want to be clear for the record I did not apply pressure to Mr Kip um I asked questions and Mr Kip answered those questions and Mr Kip was the one advocating for the saving of several of those treats so I don't know what happened between that meeting and today um one second one second Mr smdo councilwoman Williams and scarp thank you thank you council president I just wanted to also remind the public for the record that um Mr Kip and I can speak to experience because I did have him check a tree in my backyard uh for viability there are tools that he used to identify the viability of the tree I don't know whether it was something that took a plug out but I know that there was something that he used um and then I want to say that even when I had the tree on Watch and asked him to come out um in less than a year um the tree was decimated I don't know exactly why but when he came and then I had to call him back the tree was totally destroyed at the base it wasn't something that was recognizable uh to me from the from the eye uh and then he identified that the tree needed to be removed and we had a storm and within two weeks the tree fell in my backyard onto my property as well as damaging my property and my neighbor's property um I just want to remind us that we can look at trees and we can think that they're viable and they are not there's internal rot internal root uh damage so many different things that truly the professional has to identify it's not the first fallen tree at a property that I've owned in West Orange um so again I look at trees and I think the tree is fine it has green leaves on it the tree that fell in my backyard had green leaves on it it looked healthy it was the leaves were there it was just it was it was it was damaged it was just nonviable and then the tree fell so I just want to again reiterate to the public that we are so protective of our tree canopy indeed I am um but at the end of the day we we are just Layman and we do not have the expertise to look at a tree and identify whether or not it is viable so I just wanted to put that on the record for us to recall as we're continuing to have this ongoing debate about our tree canopy thank you councilwoman we do have a responsibility to look at the processes and we need to get to the root cause of why our sidewalks work are not being done according to these more viable procedures that preserves the trees thank you councilwoman I I will also add for the record I didn't tell Mr kit which trees were viable or not I didn't so all right we we voted to go oh no I'm sorry we're on on ordinance I just wanted to add real quick to to maybe give some assurances to the council um this is the money we need to as to piggyback off Council woman celino's point before we're going to cons we're going to secure this money if if this is passed we have to go out to bid you have to award that bid once we go to it so I think if you're looking for us to make give you insurances we would have to give that to you before you actually approve the bid so and I and and the director's on here she can correct me if I'm wrong but we can make sure that those insurances happened but I can't stress enough how much we need this money to get to that point because if we don't get the money then we can't then we got to tell our neighborhoods that we're not going to be fixing the roads and and we so and we want to do in the best way we can that that area the history of that area has been that that that area used to flood years ago we had to put a new infrastructure back in the 70s I remember watching as a kid uh the fire department rowing people out of there because it was flooded there's no basement this system was put in as a result this system's antiquated it's failing and it's falling apart and it's impacting our residents so we can work with the director to make sure that whatever we present to you is what you request with it and that and that's that's the assurance that I can give you from the administration I'll behave the administration that if well we need to have this money so come out I'm sorry when is that bid I that is a question for the director I I don't know I can't answer that question for you that was my initial request could we do that at the bidding process because the person who's I understood you yeah and that's what I was saying and I'm not clear as to whether these are going to be bid or whether they've already been bid prior and we it's going to be bid yes they're supposed to but they haven't um director can you tell us what your time expectations are with regard to um issuing this bid just for the record the project has already been bid and as a matter of fact the council awarded resolution on the last meeting oh that was that one yeah that was the two that we had to go and do this on first reading first and then approve that one yes this is the NJ doot grant money which is approximately close to $580,000 worth of grants for which I am asking that the the council considers voting on this Bond ordinance on second reading so that we can proceed with the paperwork for NJ doot so that we don't lose the grant with regards to the trees the contractor will not remove any trees unless it is approved by our Forester and our Forester will meet with the contractor if there are other viable ways to go around the trees it will be and if the tree is viable we will do every effort during the construction process to save the tree now if Mr Kip if in Mr Kip's professional opinion the tree is not viable then the tree might have to be removed if it could be if it actually is a hazard to public welfare and safety yes councilman director I want to make sure that I'm clear um if Mr Kip makes a determination that a tree is viable then I think you should not override that decision um overdrive Mr Kip's decisions as a matter of fact and said it's very clear for everyone even to our residents who are listening to this recording in the meeting Mr Kips is given a set of plans a preliminary set of plans even before the project goes out to bid and it's typically done at least six months to a year in advance Mr kid goes out there by himself and makes an assessment of each one of the trees with the set of plants he makes notes he comes back into the office and he makes a list of every single one of the trees on the sizes the type and also the various um how would I say this observations that he makes about the trees and he lets me know which trees are viable and which ones are not do you recall that day that we were on Lincoln Avenue where the trees that were marked to be saved were still taken down there was one conversation that uh you had with a resident regarding and this was you and I was standing right there you had the conversation with the resident regarding his curb and you convinced him to take the tree down which still was not in accordance with our ordinance and that's something that I saw and was present for myself which is why it is hard for me to to trust that the ordinance will be honored going forward so look I don't I we've had enough of the back and the forth um I think we're just unduly delaying this we have a tree ordinance that ordinance is to be honored we spoke earlier about the will of the council being ignored this is not one of those things that can be ignored it took over a year to pass that ordinance it took a lot of compromise and Sacrifice from the five of us to get to that point a lot of community engagement and we got a tree ordinance that we can be proud of that will help us regrow our canopy but not if it is ignored so the expectation and you know I don't know what can be done if it is ignored again um but I know I will be doing something if it is ignored again I don't know what I can do I will figure out what I can do but that tree ordinance is not to be ignored Council no I was just going to say that since that ordinance has been passed any new applications to remove trees whether it's from the town or a resident or a business on any property in town everyone should be following that tree ordinance period so councilwoman and and my question is if we do decide to take something down then who puts money in that tree fund does the town then put money in the tree fund I mean I don't I don't understand so if I can get some clarification on that no would you wouldn't go in the tree fund but you do have a line item that you authorized for two or 300,000 if you remember what that was you just SP about what a yeah it was I think 300,000 for for trees yeah yeah now the problem with that is the budget was passed so late in the year I don't know that we're going to get these planted because the other problem we'd have to bid that out or something that council president so we have $300,000 that we just approved in the budget and we can't carry over funding from year to year is there a possibility that we can make that purchase and it has to go to bid and it has to fall within the planting season which that window we've already passed that window you can't take delivery later we can't delay delivery I should have a greenhouse to go by you can't take delivery of the trees you're Contracting to have the trees planted we have no place to you know what I mean they they what I'm saying is could we could we place an order for trees today I'm not I know it's not legally possible today it's you know it's night time the for the sake of the argument could we place an order for trees for sake of argument tomorrow with the expectation that those trees would be delivered in the spring exactly I don't believe so but I'll refer to our CFO so if we were able to incur the liability in in the current year um we might be able to do that uh but again we'd have to incur that liability we'd have to place that order in 202 for to use that 2024 money so that's the question that I had asked and if we are able to do that so that we don't lose the 300,000 in Surplus um I would like to make a motion that we move forward with that recommendation have we have to B that out though we understand we we understand but I mean mons to get the trees in hand my motion is that if we have the capacity to place the order and have the order delivered in 2 for the spring Del uh spring planting season that we expend those funds for the purchase and delivery come at a later date I agree and I second that motion I think that's a wonderful out of thebox idea plant trades and not was1 and then we'll be sure to have planted in the I don't believe you need a motion for that we just right the money is already budg you have to bid on for us to vote right the r we don't have to B that you to bid out first yeah you you'd vote on the award okay I I didn't know if we we'd have to see it first like we have with some of the other ones okay no so so it's now you know October whatever 9th what is today 8th October 8th is there still enough time no to get it ordered yeah yeah before the end of the year we yeah you have to put the bid first we order got a bid we receive right but I mean you've got to have a bid period so you got to give 30 days or 45 days we should have enough time we have time for the bid okay so that that is what the council is asking you to do there's actually one Co-op what we said it was one Co-op yeah I can't recall the co-op um you know but our DPW director point us in that direction but yeah with the well Co that's what I'm asking yeah so we would have to take delivery in 2025 you know we we would put put the bid out there and and and work with the vendor and the hope is yes we can place that order you know with obviously paying them in 2025 when we take the delivery no do we need to do we need to pay them in 2024 we're not pay them but as long as we we C the liability we've placed an order we have a PO and it's it's struck against the 2024 budget and we're okay okay thank you so we know what the pricing would be through a co-op right so can we still put it out to bit anyway just to see who bites of course yeah we always have that option yes yeah because we have time yeah we want to get the best bang for our B in two weeks next week why not don't it open La all right so I think I think you you're we're clear we certainly do want you to do that I don't think that's your function Mr dinc but Mr rabbit um thank you very much we've been discussing it I I didn't mean to give the impression it can't be done and we just weren't real sure about whether it could be done thank you it can it certainly will thank you very much sir um so Madam I will entertain a motion on 2872 so move is there a second second okay uh C councilwoman castelino yeah yes councilwoman gber Michael Yes councilwoman Scara yes councilwoman Williams yes council president retherford yes the motion carries thank you 2873 okay 2873 24 an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 7 traffic subsection 7-14 2A parking prohibited on certain streets During certain hours of certain days of the revised General ordinances of West Orange is there a motion to inter I move for introduction on second and final reading okay councilwoman castelino yes councilwoman gber Michael councilwoman SCPA councilwoman Williams yes council president Rutherford yes the motion carries public hearing we're going to open up public comment on 2873 if there's anyone in the gallery that would like to comment now is your opport Unity seeing none public comment is now closed okay any discussion at the council no any questions no no motion I move to I move to AC adopt second okay Council councilwoman celino yes councilwoman gber Michel yes councilwoman SC councilwoman Williams yes council president retherford yes okay the motion carries 2874-20 an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 7 traffic subsection 7- 26.1 bus stop 7-10 point2 stopping or standing prohibited during certain hours on certain day streets on certain days and 7-1 14.2 a parking prohibited on certain streets During certain hours of certain days of the revised General ordinances of West Orange is there move introduction on First on second and final reading okay thank you councilwoman celino yes councilwoman gber Michael councilwoman SC councilwoman Williams yes council president Rutherford yes okay public hearing public comment is now open for 2874-20 anyone in the gallery wishing to comment you may do so seeing none public comment is now closed there a motion I move for adoption on second and final reading okay thank you councilwoman celino yes councilwoman gber Michael Yes councilwoman SCPA councilwoman Williams yes council president Rutherford yes the motion carries 2875 d24 and ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 7 traffic subsection 7- 32.2 restricted parking zones of the revised General ordinances of West Orange I move for introduction on second and final reading councilwoman celino yes councilwoman gber councilwoman SC councilwoman Williams yes council president Rutherford yes okay public hearing we now open public comment for 2874 five five sorry 2875 seeing none public comment is now closed okay is there a motion to approve on I move for adoption on second and final second thank you councilwoman castelino yes councilwoman gber Michael Yes councilwoman Scarpa councilwoman Williams yes council president Rutherford yes the motion carries ordinances on first reading an ordinance I'm sorry 2876 d24 an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 7 traffic subsection 7-1 14.6 winter parking restrictions of the revised General ordinances of West Orange is there a motion to introduce on first reading move make a motion second councilwoman castelino yes councilwoman gber Michael Yes councilwoman Scarpa councilwoman Williams yes council president Rutherford yes the motion carries 2877 d24 was removed by Administration 2878 d24 and ordinance amending and supplement in chapter 25 of the revised General ordinances of the township of West Orange Banning popup parties is there a motion to introduce on first reading so move second councilwoman celino yes councilwoman gber Michael Yes councilwoman SCPA councilwoman Williams no council president Rutherford no no you said yeah my vote is no okay thank you councilwoman celino has a question and then and councilwoman gber Michel yeah I don't know how much could talk to him much in litigation with some uh residents but so I'm a little disappointed it doesn't have full support uh for this this has been an ongoing issue and a major major quality of life issue for uh multiple neighborhoods in the township and chief can you please share with the public why this is before us this evening well as you articulated we've had a a number of uh places around the township that have uh really diminish the quality of life for the residents in the surrounding neighborhoods so I won't go into any these places by uh by name and then we've also had popup parties that people are using their residents um which is more particular to this we've had a uh people using their residence as these same typ of nightclubs uh pools Foods bottle service dancers DJs um it's quite the event so we have nothing really on the books to deal with that and this will allow us to deal with that and and and this has been you know abuse of alcohol um there's been parking issues litter I mean they're just a major like people coming in and disrespecting neighborhoods uh two summers ago we had um the soccer tournaments down on wock Avenue I mean this helps our police officers um been able to to break these kind of situations up and people are profiting from this right and they're profiting they're profiting off their homes they're they're residents they're not filing um they're not filing uh what's the uh not even no not even special events they're really a b they're running businesses out of their home homes no liquor license yeah the liquor license like they're making money off of liquor you know people are seeing the recycling um it's just a nightmare so I you need to revisit this it's on first reading I hope you change your mind for second reading because there are people that their summers are ruined they can't even go out enjoy their backyards because people are that disrespectful with these kind of parties you you buy a home here in West orang it's to live in not to make money off of in a residential neighborhood you want to do that you go byy a brick and mortar Club somewhere where it doesn't interfere with uh in the middle of neighborhoods and and you have you have that there and so that you know I feel strong about this I I hope I hope you change your mind by second reading I'm not sure we want it in the in the uh brick of mortar clubs either that's why I started out that yeah I'd like to thank so thank you uh council president um so I hear where you're coming from councilman Cina as well as uh Chief abbit I've seen those emails uh believe it or not I had one day uh been stuck trying to get to someone's house as a result of one of these parties um but this is where I eror on the side of caution um I don't know that I'm fully supportive of this because a can we get sued you know are we opening oursel up for litigation with something like this if it's someone's home if they're entitled to throw a party um my biggest fear is that we're opening the township up for litigation and you know I would like to hear from from the attorneys regarding so the the way that the the way the ordinance are drafted is obviously pop term pop-up parties is defined as the commercial Endeavor aspect of it it's the fact that they're basically charging tickets or admission and that's what we're talking about so like residential use typic like if you want to have a graduation party you're not generally charging people at the door to come that's not true that's not true people charge for graduation parties they do some people do they do to help cover the cost you never so so this is why I ask these questions because then there should be a special permit for that well then maybe that's the way we go but just to band all popup parties because we've had a few bad bad actors is not fair to the rest of the 50,000 residents who live in this town and I am the mother of a child who had a graduation party she did not charge for it but she certainly had friends in her graduation class that did and it may be something as nominal as $5 or $10 but it's to help these kids cover the cost of food and so in a bigger setting the violations that you all are speaking about is a completely different level of a popup party but I am absolutely not not willing to penalize children teens or any other resident who just casually wants to do this so we have to look at this from the least of them to the worst of them and at some point come in the middle if we want to re-identify how we classify this party situation when they're just making an income then that's something we we should do but absolutely I cannot support penalizing these young people do this on a regular basis and they're not doing it for profit they're just doing it to cover the cost and some of these kids are doing it sensibly and and the adults for that matter you may go to an adult party and there may be a $10 fee because they have entertainment or special entertainment but again if we want to regulate the severity of the popup parties that's one thing and let's do that but not penalize everyone in the town for doing something that should be okay if I want to have a party at my house I I don't want you coming to tell me I can't have a party at my house even if I charge a nominal fee but that's not what this says this is a commercial aspect this is commercial every week commercial one at a time I agree with councilwoman Williams like how do you define a commercial aspect because it people is it is it you know if you have more than 30 people 50 people I mean understand 100 people I mean I you know the instance I talked about when I was driving trying to get to uh someone's house I mean there were like over under cars right like that's you know so what's considered commercial and then now we're micro regulating it they're advertising taking credit cards you know I mean yeah it's a business different I hear you but we just we have to be fair to all the residents listen and and and again like councilman Williams stated there's a few bad apples Bad actors it's not fair to penalize um you know everyone I can't support this respectfully governing is not easy and if you're declining to pass this ordinance I'm not declining to pass the the the the purpose and intent I understand I just don't like the language the way we have it so I would like for our Administration and legal department to come back and give us an explanation of what commercialization is so if we want to Define that and disordinate like we do when we talk about cannabis or anything else then we can certainly do that but not just a broad band because your interpretation of what commercialization is might not be the same as someone else's and then and then My worry is what if someone does throw something small and charges help cover costs now you have a neighbor or someone who doesn't like their neighbor who's doing this and now they're calling the cops and constantly calling the cops on them it just opens up the a Pandora's Box that I think we need to be really careful about okay so this is what this says I mean I don't know how more carefully well let me let me let me weigh in uh Chief yeah um so if you look at the section that says popup parties that's what I'm looking um at that bottom line says or gathering and where the guests are subject to payment for tickets wristbands or other mode of entry into the residenc um so I'm aware of some of the infractions that you have had to deal with right and the one on wat young that was just mentioned a moment ago um I don't think they had uh advertisement from how much it cost up front I mean they just had a regular weekly people are come in and they're selling alcohol and there are no there's no credit card charges there's no cash charges but that was something that I found uh um overwhelm was a problem multiple neighbors complained to me about that particular issue and and we raised it as an issue and eventually we dealt with it but we dealt with it without this ordinance we dealt with it based on noise we dealt with it based on number of people there public intoxication um and some other infractions that you know could be uh levied against people that committed them um there was another one that was relatively high-profile last summer not 24 but 23 and um I know that they advertised it um it was a child who was doing it at their parents house I mean the child still live there now the if if we were to do this if and I I've got my my daughters are angels they would never do anything like this here's your mind both but God forbid if they did and you know I'm away for the weekend I come back home I've got a ton of fines and infractions and other things that I have to deal with and on top of disciplining my child and the child may even be in adult I just think it's I understand the intent and I do recognize there is a Nuance um I do recognize there is a nuisance and I do recognize residents are concerned about some of them I also recognize that some of the things that are concerned are misunderstandings some of them aren't and I don't want to have an ordinance that sweeps all of them into the same category you know some people have wristbands to identify who can drink and who can't drink and they're not charging some people have parties and they bring your own bottle and then they don't charge but essentially if you know if I bring a $50 bottle I pay $50 to go to the to the event and I didn't pay in cash but I you know I spent 50 bucks to go so I I just don't think it covers what we're trying I don't want the law of unintended consequences to catch us with this and those things generally happen in the summertime um I do think we have some time to kind of deliberate over the best way to approach it it may be banning popups you know I noticed that you know there were exclusions for Charities and for political fundraisers I'm sure that certain residents would take exception to that too why are you able to charge for a party Mr elected official and I'm not right you can do it at your at your house and in charge and I can't do it at mine in charge you know I so I just think and that's this is not to be critical this is just to say if we can take some time wrong Tre it's not it's fine with me if you don't want to pass it I don't I'm not the I'm not the one that's gonna be at the microphone pass on first reading but it's going to I I think it's going to be subject to some Amendment um and it may end up being reintroduced on first but just to to have it out in public yes Council hold on she had the we pass it and then if it becomes a problem where innocent kids who are having parties are having a problem we can amend it I mean this is really to deal with a real problem and I I think it's a very serious problem people are having they're they're losing quality of life in their homes we have constant abusers that not it's not just a a week you know this isn't it's not a once in a while a kid having a graduation party address the ordinance so that we are able to strictly identify that violated send it back to Legal then do the next week or so is provide some edits we'll send it to you uh to the administration legal will look at it and try and incorporate it if they are substantive then we'll and they get approved at our next meeting then we'll reintroduce on first we this isn't time sensitive so we we do have time with people with shuttle buses parking in lots and you know shipping people to their houses Happ that happens and that's to my point that happens with the cool kids Foundation when they have a big party in lell and park it is organized the people take out a permit the you don't have to take out a permit because there's nothing that says I can't you if I have a relationship with a parking lot owner well they would be exempt because that's a charity and they are 501c3 okay so maybe that's a poor example but there have been other parties that I've been to In lwell part but people wouldn't necessarily know either like how would you know then you got to call the cops and then you got to disrupt the party to find out right if it's a 501c3 or not to that point this is why I'm not comfortable with this ordinance in its current form I understand the the severity of the quality of life issues that are being impacted by the people who are violating and not using common sense and prophetis in the House Parties I get that yeah but this is not the way to do it and and until we work on the language so colleagues I'm going to ask so that we can end this debate and have a opportunity to go home at a relatively decent hour um that we submit any edits updates omissions uh additions to the administration you know over the next week or so so that they can be presented to us to be voted on at our next meeting all of those amendments can be presented to be voted on and should they be deemed to be substantive then we would reintroduce that first reading either at that time or the following meeting question I don't think we should submit the edits I think legal should have an understanding of what we're looking for now with the administration they should go do their part and send us something pull this and send us something well I mean I'm happy to send some edits um yeah I think you should send the edits Mr Jenaro is not here to actually weigh in so specific concern obviously you know this is a legislative body as well so thank you we'll send we'll send edits thank you send all right uh is that our last ordinance it is um pinning matters new matters Council discussion where are we with the forensic audit was there was a Revis version with your edits so circulated and we're waiting to final I haven't heard I haven't seen anything circulated with any revisions they they sent it I I've actually responded to it again tonight saying council members have had enough time to review it what I my edits were to limit the scope so if the council was and willing to agree on a much larger scope which would cost a lot more money um limiting the scope will cost us limiting the scope will cost us less money um I I I mean all of those things I haven't added anything to it i' I've I took away two whole sets [Music] and I narrowed down the scope in a few other sections uh I think we need to get it out yeah last refle yes sir okay so and I responded that I was fine with that so I guess we're just waiting for other Council Coles I'm fine can can you just ask dangero to recirculate so it's the top of everyone's email inbox well you just got veral from I've got I'm fine with it okay again no you yeah we're good so we've just given we're putting this out thank you very much all right everybody's good with that we're all good with it thank you very much anything else uh pinning matters new matters yeah I do CCB um that's right oh yeah ccrb I notic there are three resumés here instead of two names that we see um yeah the two the one is fromont the mayor's appointment I gave you that for informational purposes okay that does not require a vote okay correct that means we still have one opening you have two candidates right yeah I propose Lewis Abrams he's got a very extensive resume and I think he's a exceptional candidate like your support I have a question what is the makeup of the board is it is it a diverse board do we have so I think diversity is really important in this makeup of this board um I think we have two Cynthia uh is on there Cynthia who Bailey baile is she able to be on there uh yeah why not retired retired yeah yeah she's retired like there might be a cut off but she's well beyond that okay um she she's on she's been she was approved by resolution I believe um so two African-Americans there there's Rabbi Tobin there's if you give me a minute I'll because I think that's really important in Us in the because they're both I looked over both resumes and they're both great uh candidates but I think did I just looked it up is really point do we have a Latino or Latina on the board I don't think so we don't have I don't think we have a Hispanic person on the board I I don't think so either we attempted to put um someone on who was the mother of a police officer in town that's right and she was Hispanic I mean I had committed to counil woman a while back before we in before well he was un uh he wasn't eligible at the time but I then I I already I think we should look at someone's qualifications yes I think they're both qualified all I'm saying is that just remember the makeup of this town we have a huge Hispanic population I never forget the makeup okay good B ran Woodley yes B ran Woodley Cynthia Bailey Maria ver stepped down and I think she was the only other Hispanic representation right now and then you have three rabbis right isn't there three rabbis on them three RAB there's three rabbis on them at least two at least two say [Music] I I think I think that's you gotta find it I'm sorry Pastor Adam stepped down when he ran for us you have Rabbi Tobin you have R Reverend Zack dton and Pastor William Charles um this woman that the mayor just put up is is her her for I think she's put put her up for chair I'm not certain on that yes that is true okay so so that's your four from the mayor and then your two are Shan Woodley and C um so you have one opening and that's for the father you decide right so there there are no Hispanics and that is a qualification it is it does go to representation it is not as if this individual doesn't uh isn't an accomplished West Orange resident and was in uh and was presented before I'd like to us to stay away from politicians and put residents who on on these disagree so I'm going to ask my colleagues to support Mr harryel modavar who was put in long before Mr Abrams who is a almost 30-year resident of this town who has raised his children uh in the in the public school system who has volunteered in multiple ways over many years um most I think effectively with soccer programs I think one of or both of his daughters played soccer um and he is someone who has the pulse of the Hispanic uh Community as well and I think it's important for that almost 30% of our town or 24 25% of our town uh to have some representation uh on that board uh and I think actually it is more important to have Hispanic representation on that board than just about anybody else given all of the issues uh that they face with regard to um immigration I would agree which is why I had actually put Maria Vera put up because I I concern that we should have you know Spanish rep person rep representing but I just feel that Lewis Abrams resume is far superior and I think he's a better candidate and I really don't think we should have politicians on these boards I think we should have regular res you recommended Maria ver who's on the board of a but she wasn't she was she was okay so I I hear both sides of the AR doent and you know listen both both I offer a motion that we approve Harry Al modar to the ccrb is there a second second Madam clerk hold on one sec uh councilwoman celino so no disrespect to him but uh no I made a commit fire commitment councilwoman gber Michael Yes councilwoman Scarpa no councilwoman Williams no council president Rutherford yes okay so the motion fails uh okay so what about the next candidate Lewis Abrams is there a motion to approve him yes I'd like to make a motion to approve I'm going to second that okay and just want to say too the the it's not even just the commitment it's the backgrounds with substance abuse and the social work aspect I think is important on this is about reviewing police officers I mean I would hope and expect that we don't have police officers abusing their Authority because they're high on substances no well you know they identify certain or sex yeah all right well right I mean like that just okay I'm not going to compete with two people I think they're both outstanding I made a commment so that's it this isn't like a competition between two yes councilwoman celino yes forgot councilwoman gber Michael no councilwoman Scarpa yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Rutherford no okay the motion carries all right is that the last piece of business for new business matters any of that no the red L I do have one yeah I do have one thing um I know that we did pull 2877 on the the ordinance for the um permit of the quick Ser um however I feel very strongly that any ordinances were given should be given to us with a Redline copy I know that has been procedure in the past I don't know why it's not given to us that way I think it's very disrespectful it's it's cumbersome for us any ordinance we get we should get a redlined version and I'd like to amend um chapter three rules of the council in that in that regard I'd like legal to put that any ordinances given to the council should be given in the redline copy councilwoman that ordinance was redlined there was one section added I explained that and it was it was red lined okay but I would like that to be I'd like it I like it in writing and I'd like it in chapter three so that moving forward because it hasn't always been I didn't see it red line but even if it is now I still want I did I did answer you and I did explain but I want to ensure that continues to happen with every ordinance that were given in the future so I want to make a motion right now to um make sure chapter three is I think that's procedure with Madame clerk she I mean when she gets all these to put on the agenda she she could it could be put in the chapter three and then we're assured that we will get it and I I second that I und understand where you're coming from hold on one sec okay councilwoman castelino sure yes councilwoman gber Michael Yes councilwoman Scarpa yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Rutherford yes I mean think that's what we do now but sure we we do and also I just want to say that sometimes ordinances don't have red lines so you have to also keep that in mind they just don't exist yeah may ask her a question sure thank you madam clerk um my question is if there I know sometimes when you print the copies it's very hard to detect that it is Red Line um is it possible and I'm asking this procedurally so when we get when we get our packet on Thursdays then it's uploaded onto the website on Friday correct but when you upload onto the website you can upload in color correct yes I've done that so the challeng is is that you are not providing us with a color copy so it's very difficult for us to identify in black and white sometimes what is and is not redlined is there any possibility of us getting color copies so that we can identify the red lines um it would take uh a lot more time for me to make those copies because the The copier I have in my office is industrial it's quick you know I get a lot of materials from all different departments department heads whatever um I mean it's not impossible it would just take a lot more time to get it done that way I mean if if the if the ordinances are your concern and you wanted those copies redlined um yeah that could be done I think she wants everything resolutions and ordinances well what what would be redlined in a resolution you're right no you're right I mean that be idea but it's good enough for the it's nothing that's going to be red in a res but if you could if you could please provide us with color copies so I mean I literally just got a color copier in my office this week then that is so much of a perfect situation that the says Revis with the big red there you go there you go so if you could just if you could do that for us that would be so helpful it would make our jobs easier it would be a we would be able to immediately identify whatever changes and we wouldn't have to have this debate okay resolutions that have um been amended yeah so but it's okay for those of few it's not a big deal thank you madam clerk you're very welcome anything else I moved to adjourn anything else are you going to Executive session move toour but we're not coming back from so there's nothing else we do have recess recess Karen you got this yes so you're you're going You're recessing and then you're going into executive session and then you're going to come back so and I guess we'll call you when we get into ex no we're going to the bullpen she doesn't feel well so I'll take care of the two yes thank you Mr smdo iate that thank you so much back go to Executive session on the two on the two resolutions and then we're going to um yes uh can we stay here can you just mute everything can you mute everything clear the courtroom clear the council chambers if you're going to stay in there but you can mute us so that you don't have to we still I'm not sure if there's we get so so no we stay if you guys want to um is this this I don't know how long this is going to take uh we're going to recess and going to Executive session if you want to stick around for the last two ordinances which both deal with litigation one of which is clearly important to you sir um there's a conference room right here to the right you come out of the council chambers you make a right and make a left it's the first door on your right uh you guys can just hang out until we're done we'll send the police officer to get you uh when the executive session is done thank you very much can you show them where they uh yes no you can come back did we take a motion on um recessing yeah let's just the other turn off what was your question Madam clerk I wanted to know if we actually took a vote on recessing and going into executive session I don't recall that we did all in favores okay thank you I appreciate it put on mute nobody else can I'm confused are you stay here stay here put us on mute okay you announce ex session uh thank you West Dar for joining us we are going into executive session right now we will be back thank you Mr Fagan welcome back West Orange we are now back in our regular meeting we have two more items to vote on [Music] um both of which apparently are time sensitive um Mr clerk 288 matter 288 resolution authorized and settlement of the township West orangs versus Ronan Real by I move to accept approve second may I um have a comment do you need it before the vote Yes you need to comment before the vote Yes I didn't respond to this publicly that's F okay sure thank you um so we are currently voting on the uh Ron Jin settlement and I did not make comments because I said I would uh keep my comments to when we actually did the vote um in addition to all of my colleagues uh comments I am in um complete agreement with them this was absolutely a devastation devastating life altering event um if we had the capacity to do any more as a community absolutely we would um but that as was mentioned These funds are a settlement from taxpayer dollars and those taxpayer dollars have to go back um from the settlement um so we we are deeply moved impacted um but we do have certain guidelines and restrictions that we have to obey so thank you all right call for the vote call for the vote so councilwoman castelino yes councilwoman gber Michael Yes councilwoman Scara yes Council uh wman Williams yes council president rord yes motion carries uh on 292 I want to offer a motion if we table this when is it trial date oh good question I think no no public comment we could talk to you after that we're going to be done with the meeting we could talk to you it's only few minutes left yeah sorry sir and you're the only one in here too so is incomplete [Music] 288 we have exib yeah we have it should be online right it's exhibit online or is it because it's pending litigation that it's not online yeah I don't think they post it to appr yeah but we have it so I think it gets posted after we vote on [Music] it no we do have it we have it because it's no no no because it's pending litigation it doesn't come to the public until ons it's posted on the website it's right here on the website yeah see we have it the agenda online right here all right okay did we vote link to oh no now we're on the next one 292 what was the question 292 your question is on when is the um are you on the website you found it for be to baby you got till we get the answer so we mean yeah I agree I just want to make sure that it doesn't yeah supp calendar right I mean honestly are you even you're if we were to table it and it did pose an issue we can you request an emergency Zoom session and we can just that or requested the court res scheduled so the court so the court was advised Mark speaking of the microphone sorry sorry um so the the the the hearing was scheduled for 25th basically we told the court of the pending settlement and basically that would so I guess we would have to advise them that the matter was not adopted and they would again they would reschedule the plan hearing so because this is because it's not like it's it's a it's essentially like um chance like a like a red action so they're trying to compel so it's not like a trial trial it would be the court basically and our next yeah we're asking for two weeks essentially no it's not two weeks the next council meeting is October 29th I was the 22nd no 29th I don't know why but so yeah I don't I don't know when the court would be so the problem is I so the the the the hearing was scheduled for the 25th it was kicked because of this it was scheduled for what day the 25th September September 25th so obviously it was kicked because the court knew that we had ative settlement in place we tell them that the settlement has not been accepted pass they'll just scheduled for next all right and so I if it ends up posing an issue let us KN and if we have to schedule a special meeting by Zoom then we will I have some concerns I'd like to table this until there at least some of the structural challenges that I have and you know I know we're in public session now um at least I have an understanding of the right way to proceed uh so I'm going to offer a motion to T 292 I second Council celino yes Council mg Michael Yes councilwoman Scarpa yes councilwoman Williams yes council president yes okay um so the motion so that concludes that all we need is a motion to adjourn I move to a journ hi all right thank you guys for sticking around so long we're out before midnight thank you Mr Fagan thank you sir for sticking around thank you West Orange have a great night