##VIDEO ID:WqVkpNl_AZk## [Music] jie truck Retreat again oh wait a minute we're about to start the meeting we're now calling regular meeting order is now 601 requirement of Sunshine Law been met the meeting was advertised in BR County Times on January 7 2024 electronic notice was given to the njac 5 39- 1.5 we will now start with the budget Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation godible liy and [Music] Justice we will now have a moment of silence roll call committee woman Berkeley presid committee man Carr committee woman present committee woman right mayor Henley present also present Township solicitor Township administrators Court Deputy Township administer police chief resolution 1015 2024 resolution resolution authorized in the Tas committee and support staff to meet in private session and authorizing the exclusion of the public from that portion of the meeting dealing with specific issue requiring non-public discussion attorney client privilege Personnel all in favor I we're going are we going to say here or going all right you're live so all in favor to reopen the meeting so we now have a presentation from har andberg Insurance that's going to talk about the separation from the shbp great thank thank you for having me here tonight uh my name is Joe mad I'm with the hardenberg insurance group and I guess the first piece of uh information I'm going to provide is kind of go through the process that we went through how we got to where we are and then please feel free to ask as many questions as you need to to uh fully understand everything so basically what happens uh we're the broker right now on the prescription plan and the dental plan for the township and and we talked to the administration office we knew that you were with the state health benefits plan for the medical coverage so the way it works with the state uh there's not a ton of alternatives for folks that are in the state health benefits plan because you have an equal to or better provision uh you also uh need to get competitive rates so on and so forth right so what we do as a broker is we work with the health insurance fund now the health insurance fund is made up of seven seven different funds in the state of New Jersey there's three up in North Jersey there's one near Trenton there's the South Jersey Group which is burington camon Gloucester County that's the hip that we're talking about today there's also a coastal uh two Co two Coastal hips as well so the hip's been around I think since 1992 I do have a flyer there that tells you how many how long they've been in business that kind of thing but it's an alternative for local municipalities Bur townships to the state health benefits plan now how do you get a quote how's that process work so you can get your claims experien from the state every two years free of charge if you try to get it in between that two-year period the state charges $22,000 for your experience your experience we we had actually gotten it in the past uh it wasn't that great so we really didn't do anything with the experience uh this past uh I guess couple months ago we did get the experience back from the state it's free the administration office said it can't hurt the look let's check it out so we got the experience it was favorable we send that into the health insurance fund they come back with a proposal to us and they say hey here's here's your proposal to deliver to Westampton uh luckily for us or actually happily for us it was about a 3% savings to your current rates so when I say the current rates I mean the 1124 rates okay not not the 25 rates so it's a 3% savings to your current rates and you don't are you're not going to well if you move you wouldn't be subject to the 11 125 Reno with the state which is I think almost 15% on the medical 16.4 16.4 on the medical So that obviously is an incentive so the next thing with the hiff is they issue their proposals on an equal to or better basis meaning that they're going to dupc at the state plans um one of the handouts I gave you kind of listed the five actually there's 1 two 3 four there five plans that your folks are enrolled in and you can see the first plan is the direct 10 down at the bottom you see there's 34 people on that plan there's 14 in the Horizon HMO 10 four in the 15 one in the uh direct 2019 and five with the Omnia plan so what the if does is is they gave us a quote to match those plan designs so if it's a $10 co-pay with the Horizon direct 10 you have a $10 co-pay with the plan from the he okay the one big difference So the plan designs are the same but the big difference is Network okay the state has Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield as its network of providers the hip uses Etna okay National access with Etna National providers so that's that's the one big difference is just the network of providers but they do give you an equal to a letter Wendy has the equal to a letter equal to or better letter uh in her possession that's included with the proposal uh one of the things that the municipalities look for is stability okay so why why the hiff the hiff has run consistently better than the state and if you look at that one F over the last five years on the medical side uh it's been an average increase of 5% uh over that I'm sorry of 1% over that 5year period so it's it's a it's a positive because you want you want to avoid any big fluctuations right uh two years ago when the state went up 23% 24% I was getting a ton of people asking me can you quote can you get quotes can you get quotes so um I think what people are realizing or what municipalities are realizing is hey take a shot let's see if there's an alternative that looks attractive to us if we can get in so one of the things I didn't mention to you is that if your experience is not favorable when we send everything into the health insurance fund we I don't get a quote we they declined a quote okay which means is you don't have an opportunity to even look at it okay so if you think about it the the health insurance fund is basically being very very very selective about who they let in okay so who who comes into this fund you see there's 52 municipalities that are part of the Southern New Jersey Health Insurance Fund okay uh probably 3 years ago that was around 32 so it's been growing because of what's happening with the state so if you kind of think about it uh an know further down the line the way I look at it as groups come out of the state they're the favorable groups right so who's left so the groups that probably aren't running that well so my point being that I think in the long term I don't know if there's going to be any relief coming that I guess that's my point with the state is that as the good groups or I shouldn't say the good groups as the groups that have favorable experience find an alternative the other ones that are left you know they they don't have an option so they're they're stuck there and that's why you're seeing these big increases over the last three years with the state um let me think what else I can tell you oh oh uh with the health insurance fund the executive committee is run by all the local municipalities so it's folks like yourselves each local each of the 52 groups has a fund commissioner the fun commissioner can be on the executive committee they can go to meetings uh typically they send me but um you know you can be as involved or uninvolved as you want and the good thing with that is the executive committee of the Southern New Jersey hiff they're the ones that make all the decisions okay so the hiff doesn't really make a decision it's that executive committee okay now when you come in with your if you were to come in with your five plans that we duplicate you have complete flexibility meaning if you want to look at another plan a different option just the the hip can quote that for you and quote rat for you you can change your plan design um you've got a ton of flexibility with the state the way it is right now they could come out tomorrow and say hey guess what the direct 10 is gone the HMO 10 is gone uh maybe four years ago they basically said no more atna so it was all Horizon Blue Crosser Shield last January they said okay we're let this back so you know my point being that um you just don't know what's going to happen with the state at at any time as far as the plan design goes and my guess is there they're going to be looking for ways to cut cost so there's going to be some changes coming with the different programs that they offer um let me think what else uh oh you need to provide the state with 60 days notice in order to leave and I've already expressed everything to the Health Insurance Fund about that so that when you give that notice that's the 60-day notice that you would need as well to join the health insurance fund the enrollment process is relatively simple I say that but there's always an issue here and there but it's a census enrollment so what that means is they take a spreadsheet everybody's name address date of birth socials all that stuff it gets uploaded into the EOS system so it's a pretty quick process as far as the actual implementation goes um and we're here to assist with all that as well um another another function that I like to promote anyway is that in addition to um you know you're going to have you would have ethnic coverage on the medical side but you also have my firm my agency as your support group so all of your employees can call us they can help we can help them with claim issues we can help them with ID cards anything that they need um so that that's pretty much like a quick snapshot of it I know I probably went way too fast but if you want to hit me with some questions we can kind of go from there yes like a couple of decades ago it used to be if you were in a private plan not the state plan you the municipal or school had to pay to the state for those people who when they got their pension went into the state health benefits plan will we have to put some of our money towards the state health benefits plan to cover our retirees when they turn 65 Okay so two two things with the retirees you don't currently have any retire coverage for nonp police and fire okay so if you're a Township employee and you retire you don't have any retiring benefits but they have a pension okay but we're talking about health insurance yeah and three well three my pension that's where I get state health benefits plan p uh medical plans okay that that's different with with said through the schools oh I'm sorry I the school's part I apologize uh yeah this doesn't apply to this okay m one of the questions that I address with with Joe is we have some people who retired and then looking at their current how they how they're currently getting medical coverage and if this affects them um other the people who are retired that would try to get would have some type of medical coverage through us it was one person and that person will save money they won't lose any benefits so so excellent point so we went back to the state and this happens with literally almost every municipality there's people that are on a plan and nobody knows because somebody might have retired 20 years ago and you have new Administration nobody knows anything so you guys don't have any retirees besides the police and the fire but we went to the state because we were like hey you don't want any surprises let's let's see what's going on so our contacts came back to us I had given them a list of of names there was only one that person's on a self-pay basis okay so what that means is they're not on a Westampton invoice they're they're not literally on any of your records so they literally when they retired they went to the state and said hey I want to get benefits through you the state said okay you can you have to pay us directly now matter a loss as to why they can't stay with the state but the state says no if the group moves then that person has to move now with the health insurance fund we're able that person happens to be in an HMO plan so like that HMO 10 plan to get that same plan so we know in advanced that we need to set that up for one person so we will so that's how we would address that now Joe I have a question can we proactive and reach out to that person versus having them reach out to us to say Hey listen can we AB yeah I mean typically the the biggest hurdle that we have is that nobody knows how to get in touch with these people um because they don't you know they're they're not here so it's like all right what's their email what's their phone I'm pretty sure somebody up here one of us had to yeah yeah and that's fine we we be happy to do that um and actually you know full transparency for me your group is like fantastic for me because there's no retirees typically I have to deal with like a whole list of retirees and there's all kinds of mailings that go out and information about the retiree benefits um so it's a lot of uh leg work on our part with no retirees it's no big deal and while we're on retirees just to mention the police in the fire the chapter 330 folks um when they move to if if you guys put the hift plan in place when they move and let's say it's January 1st and then somebody decides to retire next November uh next November when they retire they go back to the state under chapter 330 so there's no no Gap in coverage no loss there or anything like that so it's seamless also some of the numbers we went over today I believe that this plan saves the township 3% correct um where we're paying roughly 1, 6,000 change a year this is after the deduction of the employees if I'm not mistaken so 3% roughly saves us $332,000 now 32 ,000 is isn't a lot when it comes to to the budget the issue is going to be or not the issue but where the real statement comes into play in 2025 we have a letter from the state saying that they're going to increase the the uh the the the insurance here 16.4% which is you know approximately $164,000 so then you would add the $32,000 of the savings to that which is a t typically are approximately two cents toward our budget um two cents toward our budget is what 200 $117,000 Cent so but what I'm saying is just approximately $200,000 that can be reallocated into some different things whether it be police or fire or public works or whatever that can be reallocated to where the people that work for our town don't lose any money and the people who have gracefully retire from our town don't lose any any benefits as well so that's just some of the things that I've looked up and research um I think I've been pretty transparent in what my concerns were when we tabled this two weeks ago um as far as what I was concerned about what kind of knowledge that I needed to get so I don't know what anyone else has to help inform us as far as what the savings look like or how it could be beneficial to us or if it's not beneficial at all and to be able to present that to the committee where you know where where we can go another direction or or or not so that's just my well I say two cents two cents that's not good employees change I'm sorry if someone says I have an HMO HMO now I want to change to something else yes or it's automatically going to stay in what so so we we would normally move them to the plan that they're inlo in now unless they tell us they want to go into a different CL you're going to give them a week's notice and say oh absolutely yep yep absolutely my last question sure tonight we're supposed to pass a motion to give the state 60 days notice okay last meeting I said when are we going to go to approve a plan I don't want to tell them stoping without telling someone what we're St yes in case something happen so why can't we I was told we don't vote to approve a plan well we well you would be basic if you approve the hiff plan you are tell you are saying no approvement in motion there's just approvement to drop so what happens is there's resolutions that get passed so you have to put the resolution in place um there's a letter of intent there's there's like three forms there's a letter of intent that says hey we're intending to go to the Health Insurance Fund there's um a termination notice that get sent to the state that would have to be done by uh November 1st obviously if you want to do January 1 uh and then the other two resolutions uh I'll get over to Wendy as well one is um an agreement to join and the other one is to appoint a fund commissioner but we have only one meeting in November and I'm so afraid that 60 days is going to come and all of a sudden we don't have everyone signed up for a plan we can order a special we can have a special meeting if that comes into play and that's what I've seen people do like other towns you understand oh I do absolutely and that's what I've seen other towns do is they're like hey if we just have to get something approved real quick we'll cost a special meeting on another day to get that through the system um and to your point point there was another um thing that I thought of or another item I thought of when you were talking about the budget and everything else and one of the nice things about the health insurance fund is uh the opportunity for the entities to uh to earn dividends okay and the way that that works is the health insurance fund runs and it's like okay here's here's our here's our cash here's our claims here's our Surplus okay every entity that processes claims and does that stuff they have to have a certain amount of dollars in the Surplus okay once that Surplus gets over a certain point the executive committee for the for the southern New Jersey hiff will look at it and say hey uh we're doing really well so we're going to issue uh dividend back to the participating municipalities which is that's probably that's part of my job or something it's like just yeah exactly thank you it's perfect that's exactly the same way um so that that's actually another I don't know if you want to call it an incentive but it's another reason uh that it it helps fiscally for the uh for the township well the other thing that I asked that you answered right before I came up here is that so we're looking at you stated well you stated a few years back the state increased by 23% and it's going to increase by 16.4% in 2025 if we now go with this new process right this new program then what do we have ini insurance that they won't then turn around and increase by 30% the next year and we were better off staying with the state I believe that you had yeah so the average increase over the last five years has been single digits uh what I can tell you is that they do everything they can to keep it reasonable and if you remember what I was saying before the whole program is made up of the towns so everybody's got a vested interest in it and it's it's a a pretty crazy process to try and get you know the budget through but there's a lot of back and forth trying to get to an appropriate level with the renewal process and we're not locked in we can leave any time oh yeah perfect yes another good point so uh I guess two two things really so what I can tell you is the hith increase for 2025 so like if for the for the groups that are on that list the medical side is 3.4 this year the prescription got hit pretty good it's I think 26% on the prescription the good thing for you guys is you don't you're not part of that your your prescription is carved out through penit card so you don't have to worry about that but the point was that the medical is again running really well and if you look at the last I think it's the last three years uh oh am I in trouble no means we got to get out of here not the last everybody's falling asleep that's what it means the last 3 years um the the the claim uh per employee from month claim number has gone down for the last 3 years which is great so it's Trend I guess my point is it's TR trending in the right direction to to your question so um can you speak more on the providers I know you said that obviously the providers from Horizon over that they're not mutually exclusive so how many of our members can stay with their current provider so it's almost impossible to tell cuz you don't know who who and you know I always tell people whenever there's a meeting I'm like you know 90% s you're going to be thrilled because your provider takes Etna right or is part of the Etna network if you're the one person that has a person that doesn't take Etna you're probably not too thrilled right but I always say to them like look I you know I went through it with you know my my doctor resigned so I didn't have an option I had to change anyway so it's like you know what are you going to do and then when you when it gets to The Specialist and stuff like that no some people really do research and stuff but like I I really wouldn't know you know what your nose and throat to go to her a knee specialist or anything so I'm going to rely on my primary fil me that and they're they're going to they're going to put you through the program based on the network doctors but but yeah there's going to be there's probably going to be a little bit of disruption but I think in the long run that's very rarely been an issue let's put it that way I can't recall it really coming up all that much and just so you know like the process you know is like I I think I mentioned earlier it's pretty seamless but we're there to assist when we don't have our head in the sand where we figure that you everything is going to go perfect for everybody we're there to help and the big thing is if something gets messed up or it's not correct we'll make sure that it gets fixed can you sa us on our our prescription plan too well you know what the prescription did pretty well this year now the prescription uh removed in in July so that actually went pretty well I think you guys read like 11 11% I think something someone that no maybe even a little bit lower I they all kind of blend together after a while but uh but yeah no it's um I think it's a it's a good opportunity and if you have additional questions you know you can email me call me I'd be happy to where if you need me to come back to I can do that did you give the resolutions to Wendy so we can pass the uh yeah I think I did I give them to you maybe not so the resolution that's on the agenda is just to separate from the shbp for I do not yet have the other resolutions that you spoke of tonight I might have them with me hold on if I don't have them I can email to you lot Joe you can just email them to we have F yeah I [Music] think we did the intent so just these two one is to join the other is to okay okay thank you anybody have any other questions thank you Jo thank you thank you very much so now we will move on to approval of minutes October 1st 2024 regular meeting minutes to have a motion Berkeley move second any discussion roll call Berkeley yes car yes yes right yes mayor Henley yes motion passes 5 Department reports construction tax collector Court Public Works police department now open a meeting to public comment on agenda items only please remember to state your name and address for the record remember this is for comment only with no comments uh we will now close to the public all in favor I I'm so cold I can't even turn the page resolutions 135-24 payment of vouchers this resolution approves the payment of bills through 10:15 2024 do we have a motion make a motion second any discussion yes mayor I have some concerns um if you look at the recreation uh Recreation bills there's some Recreation bills that I don't understand why they're for recreation instead of open space such as cleaning supplies and toilet paper um there is um something about um the surf you know feel it doing the surf I can't find it now surf reimbursement n Sams um there's something about the surf surf groomer Turf groomer for $300 why is Turf groomer not under open space instead of recreation some of these things Recreation is for the activities that the recreation department does the field and all the things taken care of it it should come under um open space and we already took 30,000 out of open space for an employee to work on open space and apparently the new person and Recreation also is supposed to work on open space but his his um salary is not coming partially out of open space it's all coming out of recreation and the recreation budget is just dwindling down and soon we're going to have nothing so there's things that I believe should not be coming out of recreation that should be coming out of O open space so I am that's why I'm concerned thank you would agree we need better stship it's page nine and 10 what you say what you say commit M car sounds like uh we need to closely look at the spending of our department and the the allocations of the those funds my comment would be so the fields that are in the rec department they're run by the rec department they are run by the rec department but the rec department also gets income or makes money from those fields no are the activities on the fields yes they also the rec department the one field that's getting replaced the Rec Rec Department negotiated to deal through PDA to do that deal correct and the rec Department's not paying for that so pda's PDA is paying for it right and PDA paid for the other Turf so if PDA paid for the turf and owned it and and you know and bought it why are we paying for a Turf replacement or whatever now at a rec department but the direct Department uses the turf right I mean I understand I understand like I feel like it's 6 and one a half doesn't the other um because it all comes from either one line or the other and I think it's our responsibility not to let the rec department run out of money because you can transfer the money from open space into the rec trust at any time if I'm not mistaken if you look right under that there's bills that says um open space land field paint so field paint was taken out of O's face not where did they paint did they paint the church or did they paint and I'm not debating you I don't I don't really know why it's pull from one versus the other I just don't know if it's I mean I know that the Sam's thing is to put money in put the food back into the snack shop that comes out of the snack shop right right so I know that that should come out of wreck because wreck gets paid they make money from the snack shop right it doesn't say where it just says field paint various colors $1,056 does the direct Department know anything about the bill no they don't know what their Department's paying no they don't they don't know why that was coming out of open space and other things were coming out of uh Rec Department uh the rec department did not have any idea why this Turf bill came out of the rec Department the turf room or the F it says now I lost it again that's okay take your time turf turf groomer it's the first it's up right below Recreation adult soft softball Central Jersey equipment Turf groomer and I don't know where Chris did you guys select CH turf gromer or did the rec department select Turf gromor so the talking about part um it's probably just allocated out of account I'm not really sure something ask repl time field so it does go to the r [Music] Fields but we don't we don't charge the police department or the fire department for the toilet paper why are we charging the rec department they do yes they do what he just shook his head yes they do they do yeah please okay and cleaning supplies right well I think that that's the bathrooms down at the fields that they're probably talking about right I just think there's that we should check a little and make a definite where things come out of and where they go I mean I think that's the communication between the administration and the recut Department know yep okay I tried to get information and so I didn't come here without any you know any blank information no worries roll call Berkeley no car yes yes right yes mayor Henley yes motion passes 41 consent agenda resolution resolution note consent agenda items are considered to be routined and will be enacted with one single motion any items required in expenditure are supported by certification of availability of funds any items requiring discussion will be removed from the consent agenda do we have a motion Mr Mayor for a through C i' like to remove d do we have a second second any discussion roll call Berkeley yes car yes yes right yes mayor Henley yes motion passes 5 do you have a motion for d 138-40 call Berkeley yes car abstain yes right yes mayor henryy yes Mr Mayor I'm sorry can I make a request that we have a meeting on the 29th of October to pass resolutions to approve a new uh medical plan Mr may can I say we finish this motion I'm sorry I thought it was done I thought we voted we will now open meeting for public comment I'm sorry can we can we call the vot please can we call the vote yeah uh we did he abstained we did not call the vote motion passes 401 okay we will now open a meeting for public comment please remember to state your name and address for the record reminder this is for common only it is not intended as a question answer just talk about that okay but I thought we can't make motions after the last public comment that's what I was told before well you just no we okay ma'am can you just just stay right there I just want to make sure n's good what did you want to do I said I wanted to make a motion to have a meeting on the 29th the medical PL October plan yes because it's the fourth it we still have two more it's two Thursdays from today but don't we have a meeting we have a meeting on the 12th of of November November yeah we can meet on the 12th and that will give us enough that will give us six weeks enough time yeah don't the TR give us if not we can call a special meeting but that's what I was going to have a special meeting on the 29th well I think you got to let everybody we can communicate because I you got to let everybody see what they're doing okay that's fair enough like I don't disagree with you I think that we can have a special meeting but I don't know that we can call it right now I'm sorry ma'am after you are you ready yes ma'am uh I'm Desiree canilla I live at 45 dude um was here last time and I I'm talking about the homeless shelter again and uh the questions that I had uh the last time I was here nobody seemed to have any contact with the county and didn't have any information on the project I did my own research between there and today and I found the uh Grant application which apparently was approved the loan agreement which is attached here and the project schedule and the application so I know I realize that Westampton has absolutely no knowledge of this we are in month number five of the 12- month plan and um I checked the county records um nobody from West Hampton has been to a County Commissioners meeting in a year so I need to know what was done with West Hampton because they have no record of that I am going to the County Commissioners meeting I would like an actual answer to my questions I want to know who they emailed the answers or not responded I emailed the county as well I don't take kindly to elected officials not getting back to me but I really concerned that Westampton has no voice with the county the fact that nobody in a year could pull any of these documents to see what is being built on something is a large scale project we are literally at month number five we are at the architectural planning evaluations renderings and utility connections that is where we are today and that's really what the answers that I would like to email to me of what was done because the county has completely ignored Westampton and I really would like an answer to why Westampton does not have a voice at the county level because I I I I mean I'm I'm I'm actually flored by what I found in my research over the last week so I don't understand how this committee could not find out any information any year if anybody would like to see the renderings the plans or the actual contract I would like to know if the county solicitor or anybody has sent any type of a letter over to them asking for anything I don't know if you follow Facebook but I put some of the architectural drawings on Facebook for the public to know and told them to come to a meeting to ask questions well and I I don't really follow Facebook because a lot of people literally just put a bunch of stuff out there I went to the Commissioners websites I went to their meetings nobody goes to any of these meetings and you're talking about a 60 person homeless shelter that is in stage five of being developed in this town I don't know do they need permits from Westampton has that been done has anybody looked into anything they own the land they don't need a permit from us so I own my land but I need a permit to build something they don't but they're using the permit for the land they I think I believe that Bob said the last time you were here that if we even told them no they would still be able to say okay thanks but we're building it yeah there there nobody knows anything about the time frame on this what this has been over a year this is astonishing to me that nobody here knows anything about this enormous project and the the weight that is going to fall on this Township I I mean I talked at length last time about what a homeless shelter means to this area and I know nobody else has worked next to a home shelter that I have I see it every day of what goes on and how it goes out into the community and the weight and the bearing that it has on the people's lives where they live is there a difference between an emergency shelter and a homeless shelter there's you I'm asking I don't no I am telling you you can fancy it up any way you want but the homeless shelter is going to be open to anybody that needs assistance and I understand and I am not against people getting assistance and care but the brunt of this is going to be po war on West Hampton and more importantly I live in tfield I live across street I am aware of all the people and including the gentleman CU I was up there the other day when he was getting arrested again about everybody having the issue you're talking about every town busting in their homeless to this small area nobody is taking this serious you just don't understand what the brunt is this is going to be so this is the question I asked before it may literally I'm relying on your professionalism with this where else would it go if the Human Service building is right there and you have homeless your your ZIP code is the fourth largest homeless population in Burlington County where else would you want it to go I'm not saying I agree I'm asking the question I think that's like for a decision for any of us that's up to the county but it's up to the Westampton residents to at least push back with the county like I I agree I I live on Brighton Road right behind there so I think that's what she's asking is for us to just have a voice to say we want more like what is this going to look like what is the impact on our community on our police on on this on that so I don't think that we would go to the county and they have to ask us where else does it go that's up to them we're just saying we don't want maybe what I'm saying is that the Human Services building is right there I know that so we I will ask you not my decision that's all we're saying it's not our decision and they would have to we're just saying we're trying to say it can there be somewhere else maybe they need to go back to the drawing board and let them look because we're telling them we don't want but I don't think they've considered Westampton as what are they going to do you're it's a 90-day shelter do you think that that the people 60 people are going to get drug addiction counseling you're going to get mental health assistance going to get a job and going to get a home in 90 days if they they let them out in there they're only going to they're only going to squat here my understanding is to be to be honest I have asked some questions about it and to be honest my understandings is that they have programs that they have to attend every day for those 60 days my my other understanding is that you have 25 00 approximately 2 200 homeless people who come to that building already now like that happens already right now and they don't really have the area in which to help them now again I'm not saying that I agree I'm just Gathering the information of what's going on with it if 2500 people go there all 2500 don't stay in West Hampton 2500 people coming to the Human Services building who need assistance with with now it's we fix that it's 2500 that they service so some are repeat people they're not all different people it there there is going to be such an influx that you're going to be here I'm going to say if this we're at number five s months from now you're all going to be sitting here how many more police you need how many more ambulances you need how much more that you need because this is far beyond what this you're talking about saving $200,000 on your medical you're you're that's not going to touch the amount of resources the Westampton is going to need to put that in there there just it's not going to happen people are going to really need to I I'm more upset that there's no voice apparently the the Board of Commissioners have completely ignored this Council ignored them I remember when I vote but you know I'm one of the very few people who actually checked things I don't do Democrat I don't do Republican I check to see who does what and when but this Council has been completely ignored and I don't I'm going to the commissioner's meeting and I'm sure I'll be ignored there as well because this is a done deal it's getting built and the only decision that I have to make with my family and my neighbors is whether or not I'm staying and I got to tell you I am really I've started looking for homes because I know what this means I know what it means because I work there I work it I see it I know what it means and I told you this before when I come home I want peace and there's not going to be peace if you have that many times that I have to see the police handling the situations with the few heless that we have in the city imagine all of the people from these towns because the police are going to be like oh we got a building for you drive them right over to Westampton and right in there and when that 90 days is up and people are are not going to be in there they're going to be right here doing what they did popping up pence in the various uh open area spaces that are in tarnsfield because it's right there I see the people that walk through there for the majority they don't bother me there's a few people that say a few things they want some money but you're talking on a small scale now you're talking about bringing in every Town's homeless because that is what each mayor in that town is going to do is give them a free ride over to that building and that becomes West Hampton's problem and you can you don't have to agree with me but you're all going to be sitting here a year from now and you're going to be like what just happened and your budget you you think a couple $1,000 is going to do it the county is not going to pinch him for this cuz I can tell you right now that the Sheriff's Department's not going to be having a little substation over here with the police cuz they're going to wash their hands of it during the day because they're not there at night I don't have I haven't seen a sheriff's car except at that building maybe once in the in the 17 years I've lived here so I have to make a decision the Human Services building no no outside of the Human Services building if you think the sheriff's going to be helping out with the people that are pushed out into the community for protection that's not going to happen our Westampton police are the only ones that I see in the local area that I mean at the Human Service building there's the sheriff but other than that you don't see them that building shuts and they're out the door so I mean I obviously some other people want to talk about this but I am just so concerned that there is no voice in the county and we've just been dumped on thank you thank you ma'am hi my name is Audrey I live at 36 over Road right across the street my concern is about the same thing um we're seeing it I go to the library we have hammocks they've been there since before spring they're not looking for help I don't think she's there all the time I go to the library every hour and she's swinging there she's sleeping right now there um we have another guy that's over there also we have the gentleman that's been at the Family Dollar Store um I don't know how else to ask you this I know Nancy's posted on Facebook a lot of people don't read Facebook they don't read next door neighbor because it turns into everything else but what we need it for is there any way you can send out like they did with warehouses to kind of make people aware of this I've talked to hundreds of Neighbors at the fire prevention nobody seem to even know about this nobody is being aware of anything that's happening except for there's they're asking the cop what do we do with the the guy the homeless what do we do with him the guy that was leaving behind that building in that little shed area he was there for 2 three years I don't even know if he's still there D listen I don't what I'm saying is you got a family that you got more than one family that lives in the woods behind back I have I've had people in my pool taking a bath at my pool uh I mean I don't know what else to say we I want to call for something like this but that's what it's going to come down to and then when there is an emergency they're going to be doing what they need to do with these homeless people and not taking care of something else so I believe like along with I'm sorry ma'am I missed your name but blame it on my head not my heart but I believe that you guys can go to the county meeting and ask some of these questions because some of the questions that I have asked is that some of these things that we're talking about that going to fix it there like it kind of gets the the information where we have we can't pretend like we don't have a homeless problem right now absolutely we do in the winter time I've seen they had people that plugged in over at the library stay to stay warm at the library right over there right they had people who cut off sections under the uh the the over there by the the amphitheater right where they have it where it's like their apartment you have the families that live in the woods and I'm sure nobody a lot of people here don't even know behind the Human Services building there's more than one family that lives back there Craig can see Craig can talk a test along with the guy that's living under the the the part of the the Family Dollar along with the people who stay and come in and out of the W day to use the bathroom and sometimes just hang in there and scares the customers or scares the people who are working there right so I think that they think that this helps that problem I understand what you're saying that you're that just you believe more homeless people are going to come in I think they believe that it helps the problem that we already have because we've been trying to fix the problem for 3 to four years I know that everyone's been living here it's easy for me to say cuz I live across town but trust me across town we have our own problems because that W over there you have people that come from a different part of the area that stand out and harass people I called the police on someone harassing one of the ladies that were working through the window at the WWA but I think what what our concerns are is we do all everybody has them okay you go into Burlington they have them you go to willing they have them believe me I've been in all these places but once the Hub is open all those people are going to come here whether there's a bed there or there's not they're going to be waiting for one our kids come home a lot of our kids are latch key kids I got a granddaughter that wants to ride a bike I can't let her go by that wall W with that guy there some days he's good if he has a bottle of wine or something he's mean and nasty I can't let her ride her bike there and I don't disagree with you when I talk to when I talk to fer our chief of police what did you say she said the same thing I don't feel good let my kids ride their bike there he has kids I had his kids in my school man ride their bike there now I can't I can't my daughter ride my granddaughter ride her right now they don't want you don't want them riding their bike there are you around the corner are you at so and so's house okay I'm waiting out front here you and GAA scream is that a life they can't play basketball I mean there's not a lot lot of kids outside don't get me wrong but the ones that are outside want to play yeah but what what I'm explaining is that they and the stops are right there to ma' they can't ride their bikes now I'm not saying that I please if I disagree with you I would say tell you I'm not shy about saying how I feel if I believe something I'm not saying I disagree with you I'm saying that we've had the same problem right I for four or five years how do we fix it like i' I've talked how many times have I talked to you he's not the first Chief I've talked to about no but how do I make my name without your help do I have to make flyers and get and go door to door like I did to get public service to get gas in my house and then to do the Sharky when we had the Sharky pool hall I was very involved in all that fighting for that I was hoping I never had to do that again right okay I've been in here since 1986 and I just see it going back downhill again and we fought so hard the people in this community fought so hard but most of those people that fought have now moved they have moved whether they couldn't afford their homes anymore or they got older and they moveed to a cheaper residence area okay we have to make these younger people with children fight for what they want and nobody knows nobody's here they just think their voice isn't heard how can I get whether it's you guys or the people that are running for election to get the word out that this is coming and we need to wake up is it that me or is it going to be you guys because I'll go knocked on every single door I don't have a problem with that so is that what it's going to be it's going to be us against your help you're not against us we live here too but how do we get everybody involved in this is what I'm ask I mean when we had Sharky's pool hall you probably were not here I probably was oh you talking about over there about this STP mall with the Wawa right there at the Wawa was said the other end okay we fought it this building was not big enough for that meeting people were outside the doorways fighting it so what happened are they here no I don't I they're not here no more they got an extension to stay open until 2:00 nobody went people said nobody's going to go they didn't make money they moved we need to fight we need to wake up this Township and I was hoping that you guys would be the backbone to do this but I'm going to be knocking on doors tomorrow saying that there's a county meeting on what the 23rd get your butts out there and Nancy you know me I will I was County meetings are the second and fourth Wednesdays the white one second and fourth Wednesdays are the county meetings okay thank you and unfortunately I did write a letter to the uh director of the what they call them Commissioners and remind her that she had promised to have a meeting with residents of Wis Campton before this came and asked when is she going to have it and asked her to get in touch with the administration to come up with a date so I said we had um residents that were very upset had a lot of questions that we couldn't answer and only you can answer so we need you to come to a Mee it's going to get slid out of the table do it did it get answered every one of us knows that did it get answered no no and Mount Holly is not aware half the people in Mount Holly are not aware because I was talking about most of those people I another function I was at and the people in Willingboro are just find me know about this but now to be fair so this is something that we talked about last meeting Nancy sent the email to the director and the director responded and said she would get back to Nancy with dates did she yes yes you respond to me she you're on you're on the email yes sir she said I will give back she's like thank you for your response and I will get back to you with some open Deeds I did not see any email from her you would you forward to me uh you're on the email yes I can forward it to you she's on the email as well maybe we can have a notice of the resident saying come to a tea party like we did to the school oh I have no ma'am I have no issue with when when the director commissioner comes here it can be standing room only like I don't have an issue that's my job to make everybody aware that she's com I didn't say that she didn't she didn't say when she was coming here I didn't give anybody a free job but but fair enough whoever you want to speak to you should speak to as far as your neighbors yes was speak you always say that but um I appreciate uh everyone's participation the Gary barar 138 Winstead so I used to go to the uh County Commissioners meetings and frankly I had kind of discouraged too so I sort of stopped going but um I I did raise with the Commissioners in public comment um to see if Westampton could get some sort of special status as the host Township for many of the facilities and buildings Etc they kind of I think sort of gave it a half second thought and then obviously no traction on that now I may be right I may be wrong I'm not 100% certain on this so I think Bob and Wendy are probably a decent size enough Brain Trust to figure this out but um to kind of speak to this lady's uh issue two things number one I think in 2025 when you all reorg you definitely appoint an elected official to be an official representative that physically attends the meetings uh at the County Commissioners Lumberton does it they have their person on their accounting committee do it I suggested before that I think that portfolio really should belong with the deputy mayor but that's just me suggesting that and obviously we we'll wait till the reort so that's something for you all to think about but but my my other point is that you know it is hard right we don't necessarily have a pure voice there at the County Commissioners but they do operate by bylaws and so here's what I'm going to suggest now I haven't read their bylaws in a little while but if I do remember correctly check me if I'm wrong there is a mechanism in the bylaws for us or whomever an individual potentially an entire Community to force an immediate vote by the County Commissioners on a specific action we want them to take um if I remember Wendy it's you you got to go to the bylaws it's on their website um it's probably like on the last it's probably towards the very end of the entire booklet of bylaws and the actually detail the mechanism to do that so I could be right could be wrong I'm not certain but that may be something we could do is if we wanted to sort of get them to take action to at least recognize us as a the host Township with a voice but we don't have a veto I'm guessing right so that would formalize it and maybe improve the lines of communication so if they're slow walking a response or they're just unwilling or unable for whatever reason look let's let's use the bylaws that's my suggestion thanks car 472 West Country Club Drive I was sitting back there and I was listening to the comments that were being made with regard to the homeless shelter or emergency shelter and I'm looking through my notes and it's some of the same comments that were made meetings prior thoughts came to mind that basically said you do nothing you get nothing as well as quality of life within West ampton New Jersey is going to put us in a position of being not in a place that we want to be not being a city of choice that would attract businesses that will attract new homeowners it will basically put us in a situation that's going to force an exodus we know there's a problem as we teach our children if there is a problem you try to seek out a solution we don't want to find ourselves a year from now sitting back talking about crime talking about incidences that have happened to hear that we can't have our own children ride their bikes to the WWA that they've been riding to for the last two or three years is a shame that's a shame and if we are not in a position to be able to do something about the shelter we can at least be in a position to partner with the people that are forcing this shelter in that particular situation so they can at least provide us with answers to the questions that we have additional police additional fire additional ambulances all of these things none of us want to be in a position where we go to a wahah or go to the businesses in this area and are afraid to get out of our car or can't send our child to the store because you know you want to put a a GPS on them because you don't know what's going to happen we are in control of our destiny in terms of what we do about it I would feel so much better if we were in a position that we said we had meetings we tried we fought it this is what the plan is this is what they're going to do and we need more answers in terms of what's supposed to happen um the young lady here was able to find out some really really critical information as to what the plan is what it looks like all of those other kind of things but I think the township has so many questions that we don't have answers to in terms of what Supportive Services will we be afforded as the host town for this and ladies and gentlemen are we too late to to stop this we don't know we have a a homeless problem within our own Township is this something that's going to add to it or is going to be something that's going to uh help those individuals we don't know but I think at this particular juncture it behooves all of us to make sure we do our due diligence to finding out what is this supposed to happen what the time frame is what the assistance that could happen um having someone like we said come to the meeting so that Community can ask questions um but until then we're just sitting by and letting something happen and it appears to a lot of citizens that nothing's being done um I know you guys are doing things behind the scenes but in terms of combating what we already have going on in terms of the homeless population we need to do a little bit more about that thank you Gail some people don't know but last year in 20023 I went to the county the county commissioner meetings unfortunately this year the meetings are in the 2 and fourth Wednesday and I have committee meetings on the 2nd and fourth Wednesday uh but even last year they were talking about the shelter and I brought up one what are you going to do when we send our ambulance five times a day to the shelter they said you live in West Hampton it's in Westampton that's your problem quote quote quote same with police you are in Westampton that's what your services is and I counted up the number of buildings on Woodland Road from one end to the other that is only owned by the county and I said you can't even pave Woodlane Road for all your County employees that you do for Westampton and I said we need you to reimburse us for all of our services and they they literally said that's your problem and it really irritated me it really got me mad so you're right we're trying to get answers and their attitude is we don't have to do it so we're not going to do it and all I can say is election day is coming for the county and the state and the national and the local but they're they're not giving in unless you get a 100 people going to a meeting and causing ER rugus be here they don't need to be here CU we can't do it we I understand that here and oh we need people to go to the County Commissioners meeting so is public comment still open yes I'm responding to ma'am if you're going to address the committee can you come up to the podium just that way the microphones pick it up in on the the transcript with no other comment motion uh all in favor to close I I dates to remember next Township meeting is November 12th at 7:00 p.m. Land Development board meeting is November 6 at 7 p.m. historic commission is November 27th at 7:00 p.m. Recreation committee meeting Mee November 13th at 700 p.m. annual tree lighting ceremony at the firehouse December 5th at 600 p.m. any committee liais on comments we have a um HPC meeting in October mayor you said November that's what it says here I know I'm just letting you know and also is in October what date is it uh the 4th Wednesday in October um trunk Retreat is on October 26th uh rain date is October 27th anybody can come with their kids dress up have fun it's a wonderful wonderful time um also I will write another letter to uh the director of the Commissioners and uh talk again about coming to the meeting I might even call the direct the uh administrator so thank you for coming tonight um I also want to thank the residents for coming and um bringing your concerns to us I think it's always good conversation um I also wanted to thank um fire and police for the National Night Out I was not actually physically over there but I was watching from my deck the helicopter and all and I've heard great things and it's all great things so um thank you for always hosting and doing a great job getting the community out with that anyone else so thank you for everyone who came out um I I really do appreciate everything everyone says even though you know we talk and we can go back and forth with different opinions it's still a learning for me like I think I said this before man' when you were here you know more about you don't maybe you don't know more about this current situation but you know more about those type of shelters than I do and I just wanted to express what my concern is now my concern is is like I told you last week I sat in the WWA parking lot I talked to the Wawa manager I got their I got the district manager's phone number got the strip manager's phone number I saw the homeless person walk into the other store after leaving one store and the cops early came earlier took him out and he came back I called our chief of police and asked him for his help so it's not that I haven't been involved I have been involved but I just when I ask people how it's going to work and I talk about the circumstances that we're confronted with now my question is is this going to help or hurt and then when they give their opinion they well I think this is going to help because it'll help with this it help with that you guys have a homeless issue right now okay but what about the other people that's coming in here like what's there so some of the things that I'm talking to is because I've asked questions about you know what's the Shel what's the shelter look like what are they going to do how is this helping people and then getting some answers that way but I don't beud anyone who's in search of different answers or who or is in search of you know uncovering some different things that are that's helpful to our neighborhood and our area so I just want to make that that part clear um and then recognizing and reaching out to our to our County Commissioners right and letting them know that these things are important Nancy doesn't have to be the only one that sends an email like there's emails that can be sent to to any other the Commissioners honestly so uh with with your concerns if you feel like you're not able to get in touch with them or or get your voices heard at the meetings you can always send them emails um with that be oh thank you for to as as well to our professionals who make time to come out tonight and be able to discuss and be able to you know chime in with some of the things that we may not know about in town to be a to help us out so with that being said mayor yes I believe we all would like to congratulate Mrs Janelle Jenkins on her recent uh marriage thank you very proud congratulations congratulations uh do we have a motion for adjournment so move Berkeley second any discussion roll call Berkeley yes Caro yes right yes mayor Henley yes right let's pass this 5 changes to Jenkins huh tell him to change it to J oh I didn't really change it yet