going to call to regular meeting to order require requirements of the Sunshine Law have been met from burlingon County Times on January 7 2024 and electronic newus was given to the njac 5 39- 1.5 we will now start with the pet allegiance 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 we will now have a moment of silence roll call Lady woman Berkeley presid committee man Carr here committee woman Mungo committee woman Wright pres mayor Henley present also present Township solicitor Township administrator Deputy Administrator Police Chief Fire EMS Chief we now get into the workshop part two 2024 annual Municipal budget right Township of West Hampton proposed budget recap calendar year 2024 March 19 2024 budget recap calendar year 2024 budget timeline budget Workshop March 19th at 6: p.m. budget introduction April 2nd at 700 p.m. budget public hearing and adoption May 7th at 7 p.m. proposed budget 14, 464 365 2023 adopted budget 14, 5,599 increase over 20 23 $48,750 revenues 5,226 652 construction fees are down from 2023 EMS fees down from 2023 court fees and federal and state aid funding capital see read a total or read the whole slide you can just let them know that the capital um Improvement projects that we have for the 2024 budget are for the police department okay the vehicle the aqua test right so um as Wendy stated already Patrol Durango with upfitting 110,000 ala test is 22830 Public Works facilities improvements 70,000 leaf vacuum uh SL truck 560,000 the totor bins 200,000 fire and EMS equipment 67,000 Tech upgrades 14,35 uh PPE $50,000 for a total of $1,940 1,135 and down payment of 5% would equal $547 675 property tax levy operating expenditures increased by 6.7% local tax rate equals 79 it's an increase of 065 deferral of school tax is in the amount of 435,000 it's an average residential taxpayer increase of $156 a year per household that concludes the slide presentation any questions from the committee members how does the increase go along with the cap of 3% we speaking about the tax levy cap are you talking about the incaps 3% which 3% the cap the cap of 3% we're not allowed to increase it more than 3% right two not 3% 2 another so you're talking about the tax levy cap yes we're actually allowed to increase over the 3.5 or 3% of the tax levy because we have banked cap from previous years that we never utilized okay thank you um second question I we pay a lot we we take out a lot of bonds each year and I've noticed that this year we're still taking out more bonds that we will be taking out than what we're paying off from previous bonds and I just know that that gives me concern um and I guess Public Works is concerning me with $560,000 I did talk to Chris and get us take on this um but I'm wondering have we really decided to go with the the new kinds of bins for trash or are we still up at discussing that everything that's listed on this budget is up for discussion until the committee has decided to vote upon it we have decided to go with that kind of Bin no no no what she's saying is that it's hard to hear her no no no that's okay what she's saying is is that this is all up for discussion like we're not voting on it tonight this is just a proposal what they would need now we can we can meet to adjust what we want to adjust take off or talk about it but this is pretty much the proposal of what was asked for right and then what it would take to to honor all those things at want okay then we'll be discussing whether we need this or not this is a Christmas list thank you any other questions from the committee now we can open it for public comment that's okay you don't have to comment come on Gary talking L of thing correct so these the items that we list in the capital Improvement fund are items that are necessary for us to be able to conduct the business that we need to conduct for the residents and unfortunately they are very high price tags so we have to bond for them um they're also Capital items so they have a shelf life of over 5 years which is allowable for a large purchase to be outside of the incap uh purchases on the regular budget so essentially what we're asking for is for items that we are going to need to go forward with the services that we need to offer to the residents so for example these totor bins that are in question when we reached out for pricing for these bins we always select the lowest price that we receive that goes goes on this Capital request so we're not asking for the most expensive bins we're asking for the least expensive bins and as I stated in the last budget Workshop the reason that we're going to purchase these totor bins is because we're about to go out for bid for trash collection services and if we do not allow for full automation of trash collection it's going to either decrease the amount of bids that we receive back and essentially lock us into another bad contract or it could end up costing us a lot more money depending on the the bids that we do received back from other companies Wendy do you think I didn't mean to jump in on your question Gary but Wendy do you think that getting the beds will increase the amount of um bids that we get yes cuz last time we only got two bids one was like not fully automated 3.7 million so you think it'll increase the bids yes we were told Last Time by Pro who handles our bid process for us for waste collection that the reason we only got two bids was because we we aren't fully automated that we would receive more bid responses if we had gone to full automation the reason is it saves the trash companies more money to have less people in the truck to have to collect whereas you'd normally have to have three people on a manual collection truck one more question so also do you think that we'll get lower B bids I mean I don't know you may not know that but if we get more bids because trash went up by about what 2 million dollar I think I think trash collection as a whole is going to increase across the board um you're going to start seeing you're going to start seeing a lot more of an you're going to start seeing a larger increase in the pricing for trash collection all altogether it really isn't going to make that much of a Dent to go to a full automation I think these days because everyone has inflated their costs so highly I think that yes if we have full automation we will receive more bids from different companies but I can't tell you what that pricing is going to look like until we start getting those bids back Chris can I say one thing I Pro just real quick yep so then I would think that the benefit of getting the toades I think we're at $193,000 something like that something like that yeah the benefit I would think benefit then is is that we'd have more options because I don't think there's anyone who's been in love with our trash collection thus far including I just seen like a bunch of trash on the ground they didn't even pick up guess they knocked something over but I've seen a lot of complaints so where we're going with this is is it have more options and maybe get a better trash collection company versus the one that we've had right is what I'm thinking is that's why we would need the Toots that is correct corre okay I'm sorry Chris so actually I just sat in on a uh so I just sat in on a seminar today about uh Sal waste question um right off the top you're losing 50% of your potential uh hit by sticking uh question um as far as costs are concerned and this isn't a solid number but they threw out there it's approximately $15 uh per household per month for collection um the previous TR collection is doing it manually currently is like 14 change um they you can you can predict almost possibly a 50% increase manual collection so it'll go up from 3.8 million with man yes with the automated collection it should stay pretty much where we are now maybe a slight increase so we're not saving any money by going to automated yes you are we are yes you are because ultimately if you go out with a manual collection you will see an increase and you un automated would stay at $15 stay pretty now this isn't a solid number because we have number back this is one of the numbers that they kind of threw at us you're looking at approximately $15 per household have you talked to other um townships and asked how the public likes having this one box that gets picked up I've heard Willingboro and Burlington have concerns because people who usually had three or four trash cans can only now have one big one and they can't have a second one you're getting trash can twice the size though you're getting a trash can twice the size right but if you're used to having three or four trash cans that's not going to help you well I'll say this I did hear that willing bro had an issue the residents had an issue there with the big trash cans but I don't think that this is just my two sets I don't think that people will rather pay more for a trash company that's not going to be very itive that you're not going to be happy with and substitute for you know what I mean maybe less trash and they do also have the option to dump the trash up here if they if they have extra trash correct notr not currently but we might look at I reached out to the company they should be getting back so maybe that could be an option if C if people customers if residents have more trash but I personally I don't want to pay more money for mediocre service the more the more options that we have you know the more options that we have to choose from um and you know residents may may may have may have to be transparent and delivering that information because everyone complained about the price of trash right right but maybe there's an option that they could buy another trash can for 20 $25 that would make those people who have a lot of trash happy what do you mean so mayor if I can so one thing is um about 10 years ago when I was working in Cherry Hill we went through this transition and the feedback from the community was generally positive one is it a lot of the feedback was aesthetically it's better um instead of having large piles of trash out of the curb you have uniformity in the trash bins secondly have all the trash bins have lids um so you don't have garbage overflowing you have less that's missing the trash truck and falling on the streets um the largest concern that I recall from that was with people that the trash bins were too large um so they were having issues bringing it to the out to the curb um that was accommodated by the by the companies that time um they have smaller bins that they can provide to households that don't need the larger bin uh to make it easier to bring back and forth it is also on Wheels making it easier to to go back and forth um so and also what I have seen in other towns is allowing for an extra bin uh there's usually a fee associated with it uh one to pay for the bin and also for the additional trash pickup which goes towards your your tonnage as well we requested from trash Pro to include that specification in the bids for a second bin to be present anything committee Berkley nothing so what we're going to ask of the committee is that you give us a direction for the budget so that when we are at the next meeting we can introduce the budget which budgets are resolutions they are not ordinances so I even though I am saying the word introduce you will be voting on the budget at the next meeting the second meeting in May is a public hearing and it is also a second budget reading but you would have already voted on the budget document in the first meeting so Onex um just so I understand the full definition aex expenditure so for example here's with this I know we've discussed this occasionally is for the township to sort of undertake the duty to maintain the mares part of the developments I know where I live there's two of them is damaged and it does need to Beed beyond that I don't know who responsible but it may make sense um for the township to sort of responsibility that necess FS could that fense I don't believe that actually fits into a capital um expense no um but that is actually something that's on our radar to have accomplished this year is to I believe the committee has requested to have a sign committee a neighborhood sign committee so that we can undertake the uh project of replacing all the neighborhood signs that have dilapidated in the last few years um we can use a number of different funding sources for a project like that including Community Development funds that come from Pilot programs which we still have a balance of in one of our pilot programs so it's something that's on our radar but unfortunately it doesn't count for a capital expense um under the budget and just to kind ofense on the I I think there is a sort of a a health and safety aspect of the crash as well that factors into your decision um I I think it's healthier and safer to have the to there people that just put out trash any old way unfortunately F waste that's un we know against and it also could help mitigate when people dis of they're not supposed to does they're not supposed to do so maybe it's a Shar responsibility obviously citizen we here but to help you make the right decision I think that uming in the health safety aspect also my only question is I just bought a trash can for $135 what am I going to do with that want buy it Chris you have about a year before this is going to come into effect do we have anything else so committee members do we have your approval to move forward with the budget as presented to you over the last two meetings what you have committee members approval the move forward with the budget that's what she said vot so this isn't this won't be a vote uh on it it's just a informal kind of straw pole if there are any changes you'd like to see or anything that you'd like to be worked on by the administration prior to introduction of the budget if not uh the budget as summarized to you is what's going to be introduced at the next meeting I have no major problems with the budget I would like the Public Works budget to be re talked about um it was hard last week to listen to the um the video and the discussion of the truck that's $560,000 I know that we need to need new a new Leaf act but when I was doing research there's many different prices of leaf back trucks and this one is used for sewer and water and oil droppings and and things like townships that have sewer and water and they use it for many different things and I think we could get a truck just for leaves at a much lower rate so if I could just point out procedurally this is the budget this is your setting the you're what will be introduced at the next meeting and then later adopted it's just setting aside a line item in the budget to do it um once the actual purchase of the truck the bid specs will be developed or a off of State contract or a consortion but some some way of purchasing it through local public contracts law and that's where the actual specific vehicle will be chosen uh and that will be put before the the the committee to approve a contract and approve the purchase of that item that is true but this also affects the taxes that we have to collect and and also in the past I've this is my third time I've said things like this and then I was told well you approved it in the budget so we can spend that money so you asked if I had any questions no if if Chris stop me if I I'll try and summarize what you said last uh last meeting um was that what was damaged was a toweh um leback uh and what C's plan was to replace that was a multi-purpose vehicle that can be used as a m as a leaf V for leaf season but additionally can uh have a dump attachment have a plow attachment and be used basically year round for many different purposes uh so yes it is quite a bit more expensive than uh the leaf back that was damaged but it will better serve serve the town with the many different purposes and the many different attachments that uh he's looking to acquire that's fine my question is do we need we just bought a dump truck last year for $250,000 how many of these big trucks do we need and you asked my opinion and that's my opinion I just think $560,000 is a lot I know we talked um this truckling so couldn't we buy something like the dump truck that cost half as much dump truck cost no no no something similar to the size of the dump truck for a leac uh it wouldn't it wouldn't perform because of the weight see the truck there specifically spec out for the weight ra thank you for your opinion okay I'm fine this moving forward so what we will do is we will prepare the budget document for the next meeting April 2nd and at that meeting you will be voting on the budget document uh just keep in mind that although it is a two-part process it is a resolution not an ordinance so once you vote it is done fair enough so it is 6:27 and we do not have to resume the regular meeting until 700 p.m. did you want to take a break what's our other option to finish and wrap it up no we have to wait till 7 okay then sound like a question mark after the break period yeah okay we'll now take a break thank you are live welcome back we are now going to start a presentation for Fire EMS department and police department they have yes right so um not really going to talk about the uh budget tonight because obviously we already went through that part of it um but I was asked this year to um complete a year end report something that Westampton police has never had in the past um I was was a goal of mine uh when I was a lieutenant kind I started working on it so I kind of threw this together with in the last week or so so um what you were emailed is pretty much our um report for the year I was just going to clean up a little bit more before I actually to publish it um out to the public via the website and our Facebook page but um I kind of like just highlighted some of the events alious that was the new chief that took over in um September of this year uh worked within um confines of the budget I thought um our department um did really well this year uh we were able to add a lot of new officers um in 2023 obviously we had a few retirements two retirements um administrative staff is still staffed by myself and two lieutenants um I in included in this report our organizational principles and values uh most of it could also be found on the township website um our department highlights uh this is something I was striving to improve uh especially our Community engagement um and interactions with the schools um so in the beginning of 2023 I was approached by a man um named Alex man who um 22-year old male from Pennsylvania suburbs um suffers from autism and as murders and he came and he asked if he could come to our police station just for a tour so we thought about it I said yeah I guess that' be a good idea and he said listen when I come out I'm going to talk to you about um police emergency service is dealing with um people that either have autism or on the asger Spectrum um very important to me I have a son who is on that same Spectrum so I did a little research about Alex found out that he had been to like about 280 departments at the time so we had him come to West Hampton um he met with um a few of the guys that were working that day pictures we provided him like a customized uniform that he wore he talked a little bit to the officers and he gave us a good Insight of um our officer dealing with people on the autism in the asbg Spectrum uh especially because in West Hampton a lot of people don't realize we do have a large population um of people that are under that um uh Spectrum even with the special services schools and everything like that so in the future uh we're going to invite them back um to teach a like a like a half an hour block um once we do our um departmental trainings during the year so and pretty much since then he's been to now like almost 400 department so it's pretty interesting story if you Google his name Alex man on YouTube Facebook uh he's been all over the tri-state area uh doing these uh visits um our female officers um the unsung hero sometimes of the department uh led by Linda chaal they uh she joined the National Women's Law Enforcement uh Community through New Jersey chapter um so something she was passionate about and now she has our other female officers Officer lores and officer Moran um they're all going to attend the conference again this this year uh we did several career days um either at rcbc local Rowan at the r Rowan campus down glassbar we did one up at Ruckers University all in an effort to um entice our increment efforts and hire new police officers uh we had many events at the special services school we proudly brought back the police trading cards uh which was a pretty good hit and now I have to hurry up and get some new ones in for all the new officers we hired so we're going to add our new five or six officers uh anyone that was promoted after the fact so we're going to re-release that to the public and the children uh in the uh upcoming weeks here um we worked with Alex of Lemonade Stand we had a successful bring your kid to workday partner with the fire department and um our public works department uh so we're doing that again that's going to be another big event here in the next few weeks uh we take pride we have the bur County Falling Officers Memorial Service uh it'll be in May of this year but since it does fall Westampton Township and is held at our fire academy and our jurisdiction um I myself I'm on the committee this year uh so we'll make sure we have that date for you by next uh meeting that you can push that date out to the public which we think is important community events continued we did slurpie with the cop we did coffee with the cop 7-Eleven partnered with us they gave us all kinds of free coupons pretzels hot dogs You Name It We uh pushed it out as much as we could to the children uh we did a Westampton fire police uh Middle School volleyball game that was pretty um successful uh I took over his chief very first event I did right before school started out off we did a end of the summer ice pops cops where we went around a few areas in town and had Ace pops with the kids um one thing that keeps getting mentioned to me is my officers taking the time to fill in at the crossing guard position so everyone knows in Westampton we only have one crossing guard spot in our whole jurisdiction um right in front of Holly Hills on the corner of Ogden and Lambert uh usually staff uh we have obviously our long-term uh crossing guard passed away a few years ago um so so and trying to fill that spot it's been very tough um you know it's only like two two shifts a day each shift's like 20 30 minutes long so you know I had to have the allstar fill and they they be continue to do it and the families and the um the feedback I get from them they love it the guys young guys are out there they're out there crossing with the kids they're giving high fives you know the everyone uh loves it um career moves in the department we had one officer attend the command the leadership program S Davis he U graduated from that myself I completed the 9mon uh CPM program in the fall we uh partnered with the rec department did the trunk Retreat events um I believe we also did one over at uh special service in school how they happenings we did a successful coat drive um I had some assistance from the mayor's contacts and he uh gen generously donated a lot of codes for that um Chief Santa may have made an appearance in the building and then we also took part in the tree lighting ceremony uh in Westampton um now like I said this is first time I did this and I realized I missed some stuff so I had to go back uh we did our first annual youth Police Academy which was a hit uh we're already scheduling the second one uh it's going to be posted very soon and then we're also going to do an adult Police Academy um that is in the works as well but we're going to open it up to the public like a few nights probably like um like a week night for like two or three hours and we're going to run that over like a one or two month period so that's something that uh we're getting ready to push out as well National gu out is always a success we're grateful to be back at the um ecit uh in the years past for Co kind of made it small kind of losing that flavor so we went back to BCIT where we're welcomed and we have the room um to expand on that again this year I included in there all the ERS that work um the different squads that we have in in the town we have four different squads and a squad usually comp complies of a sergeant and three patrolman we have two canines now um detective Bureau staff by three individuals one supervisor um highlighting our departmental meeting and awards um I just went over there basically said what officers received one Awards our officer serve the year last year was Tyler Morrison our new officer will be uh next week uh is our department meeting on the 26th so I'll be happy to share that in my next monthly report uh what officers um receive what award for the year 2023 given out in 24 uh Troy green we work with Troy green if a lot of people don't know who Troy green is uh he's a great guy in the in in our neighborhood of lumber where he lives uh he has a group called return to kindness we worked with Troy in a lot of Endeavors over the years um I first got involved with Troy many years ago when Sean Cullen had passed away New Jersey state trooper K line Duty me and him helped develop and um put out the Cullen Cruiser that we had um in his honor um the chief Awards last year were patrolman robam and patrolman uh marado and then there's some also more departmental awards for anything that we deemed like the top DUI arrest officer in the department U any of our detectives that work on these complex cases um we had some offers involved in a barricade subject um as well uh we obious had promotions last year Lieutenant Shalo right at the techically the end of 2022 into 23 uh she was promoted Lieutenant she's the second female officer ever to hold this position in our department Sergeant wey was subordinated to the rank of Sergeant um also Sergeant Redfield he uh got sworn as a detective sergeant in late September I myself was also sworn as the new chief we say goodbye to some friendly faces Sergeant gleon retired with 25 years of service uh retirement of Chief an also in September and then our hiring of our new officers like I talked about uh patrolman Sweeney uh in March of 23 patrolman wh house April 23 patrolman Jimenez May of 23 uh patrolman Council in late May early June of 23 and pman raos uh rounded out our hiring for last year in September of 23 bre said K9 unit went through some leaps and downs last year we still have patrolman chalice and his K9 blue uh we have K9 in the making we we at this time obviously isuse K9 Betty uh with patrolman Woods she's our new addition to the force and I can successfully say she's had now two collars as far as catching criminals and she's had one successful track in finding a missing person so we're we're proud about that and uh look forward to more things in memory of we did lose a one of our retired officers John pulk he did pass away last year uh and we honored him and we were happy to participate in his um Service uh we still have one SRO officer showman Michelle Moran she's stationed at the BCIT campus where she um does day-to-day SRO activities up there then then usually in the summertime I use her to do most of my community service Outreach community service policing and everything that goes with that some goals for 2024 real quick um we're going to have an extensive review of our written directives um it's time they need to be updated and everything like that so myself and the lieutenants will be working on that uh streamlining our digital evidence management system this was part of my CPM uh Capstone project uh it was brought the light in January especially when we had a flood in our basement that the police station we had a extensive damage to the evidence room had to be gutted and redone so we are still in the process of um making most of our evidence digital off and having a um inventory um that's more streamlined for us to um keep track of everything we've had in the department over the years um more Hands-On training days we've already did two days um a year and my goal is to make that four days a year maybe have some active shooter training in our place of worship and our warehouses since we do have stantial amount of warehouses in our jurisdiction my last goal is going to be a for historical documentation of our Police Department um on the last of uh the the oldtimers I guess I can say now so a lot of the history is going out the window as far as what our department how was created the alers that serve so I'm going to actually work on that it's going to be one of my projects um related to the college classes I'm taking um to uh organize our historical information of our department and there will be um some reorganization of the rank structure U as well the last part of um my yearly um report is found on the website already it's our Internal Affairs and our Professional Standards report I'm required by law every uh January they post that anyway on our website that lists all Internal Affairs completes that the off that my officers investigate um how they're handled any discipline that's given out uh part of that is a major discipline report that the Attorney General also advises us that we have to post um I'm happy to say there's not any officers on that um L um most of our Internal Affairs issues are minor in nature but you can also see that report um that's posted online and the last part of the report that's really posted is um I just put on there show the reports that we have to do so I think we're up to like about almost 20 reports now between myself and lieutenants that we have to do send into the state of New Jersey attorney general's office County prosecutor's office um other outside agencies um was the hiring report so the hiring report is very detailed you see it it's about 24 pages long includes anybody that comes in the door wants to apply for West and we give an application out to it tracks where they went in the process if they just dropped out they weren't show interest or anything like that so I thought it was really important to the public and uh this is my first like I said time doing the yearly report I saw some ideas from other towns and I can only grow on it from here so I hope uh the public uh enjoys it once it's uh printed in out for the public any questions I noticed that you recognize a lot of people's achievements of your officers but uh I just want to say congratulations to passing the CPM course as well thank congratulations um our report uh was published today on Facebook and Instagram it's also on the Township's website um for your viewing pleasure um first I just want to go over our mission our vision and our values our mission is to protect life and property by providing the highest level of service to the community our vision is to raise the standard of community service by honoring honoring tradition professionalism and customer service will create leaders through training education and strong ethic values and our values are character integrity and accountability which you'll see written on all the fire trucks and ambulances and there it's the firehouse and we try to live by them um as much as we can in 2023 uh we completed the following accomplishments um we transitioned to a new software that was purchased by the county that uh required us to move to um the old system we had been using is was almost 20 years old so we were pretty comfortable with that system so there was a large learning curve in the new software and took some time to get um used to that um we receiv received federal funds for the purchasing of PPE uh we purchased and installed new uh gear lockers to maximize space within the Kamp Firehouse we purchased and issued new um RTF uh equipment for active shooter incidents this is essentially ballistic um ballistic type vests um for our firefighters and EMTs to wear to go in alongside with the police department if there's an active shooter in the school so that way we can get um the patients out as quickly as possible um even if there's still a threat within the school uh we purchased and issued new policy software to reduce liabilities um we uh conducted our pre-build conference for the new ladder truck um that was approved a year and a half ago we sold the old ladder truck for $300,000 to a broker um and has since been I believe resold to another department they reached out to me and asked me what was wrong with it and I said no comment and uh that problem has moved on uh we did the pre-build conference for two ambulances um just to review of sort of the state of how things are so backed up uh the first ambulance was approved in 2021 I believe and is expected to be delivered in June of this year so we're still seeing a two to threee timeline on purchasing of these types of of equipment with that we also sold the two obsolete ambulances that they're going to replace and they will be um officially sold uh when the new ambulances come so we have an agreement with the seller that they're not going to take uh ownership of the ambulances till we get the the the new ambulances uh we completed a required Medicare ground ambulance data collection which was um not fun uh we reduced one the job injuries by 25% over 2021 and 2022 and we hired three additional full-time employees in 2023 we faced the following challenges we had multiple full-time employees out for exter perod at for an extended period of time at the same time for various reasons uh with the lack of a ladder truck uh it's become difficult to sort of handle certain calls within the township because of that and then one of our biggest problems is multiple calls of service at one time what that means is the pent goes off for a call and before that call is over another call goes out or a third call goes out and we just don't have the people or the equipment to stay up with that constant call Value um everything for whatever reason happens in threes so as soon as the first call goes out within 10 minutes I'm guaranteed to have a second call and within 10 minutes of that I'll have a third call and then it'll be quiet for 3 hours and then we we start it all over again in 2024 we have the following goals set um we're going to continue to apply for additional Federal funding um on that note uh we received 72 $72,000 last week um in a Federal grant for equipment and PPE and we also were notified that we got a million grant for um Renovations and or construction of a new Firehouse we had applied for 7 million and only got 1 million um so it's something uh so now we just got to figure out how we're going to spend that and we'll figure that out in the future um months um another thing we're looking to accomplish is settle the current firefighters contract uh reset expectations for all employees which we already did we met um individually with uh my lieutenant tenants and let them know what my expectations were and also what their expectations are of the firefighters that work under them and we sort of did a hard reset to make sure that we're doing what we're supposed to do um 100% of the time uh increased daing Staffing when appropriate improve fire code enforcement by better communication and keeping on schedule so we are required by law to inspect every business um within the township and what we have found is mostly because of having multiple full-time employees out at different times the fire code enforcement sort of takes the back seat because of the number one call the number one uh priority is answering the call so we're trying to frontload as many inspections at the front of the Year while we have full Staffing and sort of knock out as many as we can um so we've been working on that uh we continue to reduce on the job injuries uh we're also looking to review and reduce record retention we have files that are 30 40 50 years that we didn't know if we could get rid of or not um we've been working with Wendy to uh properly dispose of them legally so that way we can sort of free up some floud space uh increase our cyber security through upgrades in hardware and policies uh continue to reduce the exposure of on the job injuries and uh also create a new 5-year strategic plan for uh 2024 and 20 through 2028 with input from our members Township officials and residents in 2023 we we responded to 4383 incidents this is a decrease of 557 calls over 2020 2022 a lot of this has to do with better code enforcement better fire sorry better fire code enforcement and also essentially telling our neighbors we're not doing it for free anymore so there's been some changes in where we go and how we go so that's um helped that however at the same time our call volume in town has increased so although our overall call volume is down our in town call volume is up of those 4383 calls 70% of them are ems responses 10% are accidents and 20% are uh fire fire calls we responded under staff 32% of the time what that means is that the fire truck had three or less people on it and we missed 4% of our incidents uh total and our busiest day of the week is Monday so just a quick snapshot of of the calls themselves about 2300 the 4,000 calls are in Westampton and then the rest of them are uh spread out amongst East Hampton uh Mount Holly and West and uh Willingboro with the majority of them in 2023 we responded to 17 overdoses 37 cardiac arrests 32 traumas nine car fires 32 dwelling fires we extricated patients from 21 vehicle accidents and we responded to three hazardous materials calls the department completed 6,220 hours of training um each shift is required to train at least once a day in some way shape or form and this number I can tell you is very grossly um under of what it is because I know that we're not the best at putting in the training reports every day so again one of those back to the resetting the expectation is making sure that this stuff is documented um all the time the fire prevention Bureau like I said they're required to do inspections did 364 fire code inspections um we did 155 home resale smoke alarm inspections uh 23 fire investigations and9 code enforcement complaints um we do handle the code enforcement portion for the town like I said there's 129 code enforcement issues that were addressed that is all I have unless there's any questions or thank you thank you committee members I just want to let you know that both of the annual reports were posted on the Township's website so they are able to be viewed by the public and the committee thank you approval of minutes March 5th 2024 regular meeting minutes do we have a motion I make a motion to approve second any discussion roll call perkl abstain Carr yes Wright yes mayor Henley yes motion carries 301 now open a meeting for public comment uh on agenda items only please remember to state your name and address for the record remember this is for comment only I'm mayor Henley I would like to invite our construction official Ray hu up to the microphone so that he can go over with the committee and the residents the construction report and if there's any questions excuse me good evening ladies and gentlemen good evening um I understand that you're asking me and you had some questions concerning to report that it went out and um I'm here to answer the questions I mean it's very simple report sorry I like one of the things that was brought up and I listened to your minutes to see what was going on the U Resident was questioning some of our fees and everything one of them was the administrative fee how come we have zero administrative fees thinging well the way the fees are set up in the state of New Jersey if you have your own in-house inspectors as Westampton does is has a shared service agreement with hesport you can't charge those administrative fees what happens is when you hire a third party you have then the right to charge an administrative fee to cover the costs that are associated with that third party inspection so West Hampton should almost always have a zero on these line items you know you're not going to see something unless you decide to go third party but then of course that changes you have to pass the ordinance etc etc uh another question was how come the fire department can have um fire codes and we show uh have no zero fire Cod we show plan review on that well the fire department and I'm sure you agree and my department are two different things scheduled by two different codes they're under the uniform fire code we're under What's called the uniform construction code which basically says we have to do a b c and d I truly do not know how they handle their fee schedule but it's a little bit different than mine and we don't get involved in that we do cooperate with each other what got to go and we have uh CCO inspections etc etc we do cooperate with them but as far as the fee schedule breakdown I have no knowledge of that whatsoever I wouldn't even be able to answer that question I know a question was risen that um we see on here that we had three CCO inspections and that our fee schedule says that we charge $150 but we charge 500 but the reason for that is we have $150 for as the gentleman said R3 um inspections R4 and R5 however when we get into commercial sites we charge $200 the report that was issued to you show two residential which would equal $300 and one commercial which was $200 which comes up to the $500 that was charged uh another question was brought up was on the um certificate of occupancies we show we have like 27 CEOs um I'm sorry certificate of approvals and only one C well without going into a lot of detail because I know you're busy um a certificate of approval is something that's issued for non occupancies decks heaters uh basements stuff like that a CO which is a certificate of occupancy is a new structure that's never been installed before such as an part um in addition um new house stuff like that where that issue has never been occupied before now you issue a CO otherwise you get what's called certificate of approval okay um and I believe that was majority of them I mean I looked at most of it um and they were think and and I agree with the gentleman that this is a complicated form and unless you're use this thing you're not you may not understand it the question was well can we adjust this the state of New Jersey establishes these forms we have to abide by these forms you're not permitted and I'm sure the fire department would agree to say well I want my own form and the state looks very unhappy on that they want us to use what forms they got now as always we're here to help explain that to yourself resident the administrator whatever it may be and I'm always at your disposal to do that but we have to continue with these forms that are they can be complicated if you don't know how it works with cosos Casa certificate of occupancies permits who if USC does and what the UCC does I agree there are confusion but other than that you know we have to go by them I won't get too much more deeper out be here all night I get Talking you can't shut me up questions uh there was one more question I think about the pools who is in charge of the Year inspection of correct thank you yeah what happens is the state passed probably about 12 years ago there was a lot of unfortunate incidents where children were hurt in pools and everything and they say okay now on commercial pools only you have to get an annual inspection that annual inspection must occur yearly now what happens it's their responsibility like the hotels or any a how the township does I just did a Township pool recently um and what happens if they don't do it when the county comes by to give their certificate to open if they don't see the sticker from our department they do not allow them to open until they get it so yes we do make inspections on commercial pools only not on residential and we hopefully never will because that would be a nightmare you know I think the ordinance May read or be vague as to the type of pool possibly well we on on WE issue permits for pools residential pools now not commercial why commercial pools we have a fee that's under the uniform construction code that's a basic fee that goes out for your electric you're Plumbing You're Building end and that now when it comes to the annual pool inspection that's a totally different Fe that must be done annually I appreciate it thank you I'm clear you brought that up I forgot all about the pools I know you're super busy too I appreciate you you have some well just on that the way I read the is was a an annual and I believe it was to examine the uh electric components that go into the INR swimming pool or a pool of some sort and it's an annual Fe and it's PID there's there's a cost that's associated with that so I guess I was trying to figure out if that was the responsibility of the construction office uh or you know the electrical sub Cod person that yeah you're correct it is an annual fee you're correct in the fact that it is an inspection of the electrical systems now that includes the bond in the electric everything that concerns that pool for life safety issues um it is controlled by I'm also the electrical sub code so I have a couple extra hats so yes we go out we check the bond we check that and every five years they have to give us a certification from electrical contractor said that he checked every point on there and it addition to what we do or we're not allowed to issue it but it's only for commercial folks than God it's not residential that doesn't apply no it does not there is a separate National electrical code nf70 um regulates the installation of uh residential pools for the electrical system the building in plumbing it regulates all that all good thank you sir thank you is there any other question you have while I'm here you got you got me said the certificate ofy construction correct ctif all there one of those apartments you got your apartments and then you got your H uh DR Horton is building the townhouse is over the apartment just completed their last building of inspections for them so basically they're done with the exception of one thing their pool's not open that'll happen sometime in the spring so yes there's a certificate of occupancy that's in every one of them now the tow houses are the same thing we do an inspection once inspections have been completed and all the outside information has been given Township County uh soils conservation when all that is done and the township engineer says to me okay you can issue a CO then we issue cosos on them at that point in time pardon me that is something that we do under rental we go out and that's your CCO will come into place okay we don't get inv and the fire department is involved with that too so you'll see both of us going out there for that I mean I don't exactly know what they D is but basically smoke detectors fire extinguisher means of vress you know generally and then we check it to make sure that there's nothing that's going to be um harmful to the occupant whatever it may be I'm here if you got more questions thy sub we would do an inspection which is happening right now a lot of the town houses that are getting built they're being purchased and then out so they're getting inspected by the Construction office and then we're inspecting them before anybody moves in almost a second time um because they're they weren't they weren't being out the owner was taking it we wouldn't be involved the same going to happen with Department as they change over we're going to do an inspection of each of them now see basically on the apartments we wouldn't get involved with a reinspection on everything that is up to UFC care of all that we don't get involved with that at all it's just be you burdensome on everybody I appr thank you thank you thank you MRC you're always welcome to stop in my office if you have questions hey that's what they pay me for uh close for public comment all in favor I resolution 46-24 payment of vouchers this resolution approves the payment of voucher bills through 35 2024 do we have a motion per move second any discussion Roll Call Berkley yes car yes wght yes mayor Henley yes motion carries score zero consent agenda resolution resolution is note consent agenda items are required to be retained and will be enacted with one single motion any items requiring expenditure are supported by the certification of availability of funds any items requiring discussion will be removed from the consent agenda I will ask for 47-24 to be removed Mr Mayor I make a motion for 4124 48 24 49 24 502 24 to be approved second any discussion roll call what what are we roll calling consent agenda minus 47 this consent agenda minus 47-24 the cisal services is that what that is yes okay it's hard for me to hear oh no no no words I'm sorry okay is that any better uh so uh roll call Berkeley yes Carr yes Wright yes mayor Henley yes motion carries 4 Z 47-24 uh resolution on awarding contract Professional Services Mr Mayor I'd like to make a motion for 47-24 I nominate smithbridge hi or who Smith Bridge s Smith Bridge Okay um I'm I'm concerned about that because they are in Maple Shade they have one m and if they take on our prosecution uh they do criminal defense work and in bonon County if you are a prosecutor you cannot do any Defense work in that county so that's what I when I gave this form to you I looked them all up and that's where I said that um I don't know if they're willing to not do um other Defense work in Burlington County to be our prosecutor uh I defer to our attorney generally speaking um responses RFP is one of one of the um elements of it is a uh conflict of interest uh that by applying your saying that you have no conflict of interest uh any attorney that's going to do pro prosecution work is aware of the state law that prohibits doing any criminal defense work within the county um so I'm confident that I they're aware of this prohibition and are willing to take it on any other issues commit One Berkeley no I but that was my concern about this uh the other there's two others that are just too far away and there's another one that um kgm um has already just taken on two new townships in in Burlington County and I was told by one of them that they're already overwhelmed so it looks like this is probably Smith bridge is probably the only one that that would be acceptable and able to take on the job if they wanted and honestly I believe our judg has worked with them before so you know you want to try to keep things smooth and consistent especially because we're in the middle of the year so the fact that the judg has worked with them before I think makes it a marriage and you know obviously if it doesn't work out next year we get a fresh reappointment for that situation anyway so that's kind of the way I looked at it so do we amend this this resolution to add smithbridge as our prosecutor no because there was no prosecutor mentioned in this uh resolution so the motion that's pending is only made the motion what OD made the motion for Smith Bridge oh I didn't yeah that's okay we need a second do we have a second that's that's the amendment to the resolution yes ma'am okay I'm sorry like I said I can't no there's no the worse can't hear right any discussion well we had discussion roll call Berkeley yes car yes right yes mayor Henley yes motion carries 4 Z we now open the meeting for public comment please remember to state your name and address for the record remember this is for comment only you have your hand up so G barar 138 Winstead um well done with the budget Workshop I really appreciate that I learn every time I come to that so you know keep up the the good work um just on that I know that I've been seeing in the Press about reduced state aid to everyone in our in our state so I don't know maybe the legislature will decide that uh they want to increase state aid so I got fingers crossed for that and um I know that everyone's working hard on additional uh grant money for the fire station so so Craig it made me think there I read this interesting article about windir fire station in beautiful Edmonton Canada that may be a trip we need to take because apparently this is state-ofthe-art and it's kind of the gold standard for fire stations throughout all of Canada and there's two kind of unique architectural aspects of that fire station apparently they don't have roller doors they have bfold doors that apparently open up a lot faster which I knew nothing about and then also in terms of the aesthetic for the fire uh Personnel that that kind of live I guess at the station it it has a very zen-like atmosphere to kind of c and keep everybody uh you know in the right frame of mind so I encourage you to take a look at that station maybe we can do a video Zoom call with uh some of our friends in Canada on that um I did take a quick skim of the police report but Craig I didn't get a chance to look at yours but well done on the police report for your history project I don't know maybe you should contact someone in uh BSA Boy Scouts might be a nice service project that they could get involved with so that could maybe extra pair of hands for you there so just something for you to think about um I stopped over at the Walgreens they're closing as you know to say goodbye to some of the workers over there and I guess it just kind of came to my mind thinking about that is do we do we get notified when these retailers are closing in our Township at all no there's nothing we can do to kind of figure out if there's a state local or County effort to kind of see if the retailer might change their mind before they leave the township just something to think about in the future I'm sorry I'm just going to give me one oh you want to go get it I'm sorry I apologize all right um so that was just that and then also um do you maybe the staff Wendy I guess do you get the minutes from the various HOAs or condo associate they don't send them to you the only reason I'm bringing that up is I happen to look at the minutes from the November uh condo board at Westampton courts and what caught my eye in there was that apparently our Township was invoiced according to them for $32,000 for snow and lighting and then there was some sort of dispute where the township said well no it's not really 32 it's around 3,200 they didn't understand the contract so they were quote their attorney was in touch with the township so I was kind of curious what are we being invoiced for but you know if you want to help everyone understand what that is all about but I think just for you know other purposes it might be helpful if you were officially cced on all of those various you know minutes that those boards and associations have in the township that could give you greater insight into the needs of the community I just happen to spot it when I walk past their Clubhouse so um thanks everybody thank you gar motion to close V com comment all in favor I dat to remember next Township meeting will be April 2nd at 700 p.m. the histor commission May 27th at 7:00 p.m. M development will be April 3rd at 7:00 p.m. Recreation committee meeting will be April 10th at 7:00 p.m. and the Easter egg hunt will be March 23rd at 9:30 p.m. thank you um any committee leaon reports or comments I'd like to congratulate the especially our Chiefs who gave such a wonderful report at the end of the year you're certainly doing a lot and uh Craig to say that we asked for 7 million and only got 1 million is is not a disappointment I would love to get a million dollars in the mail um and I'm sure you'll be able to use that to to improve the the firehouse but all of professionals are just doing such a great job I I really appreciate you all thank you I Echo those comments thank you to the Chiefs thank you to uh HHO and the director of Public Works as well thank you um saying my you know of the same support oh thank you we had a a movie day timbu had a movie day we had you know support from the police and the fire um and for everything for most of the things that they do the police and fire support and they never disappoint I mean you ask them for one thing and they do two things so you know aside from fighting crime and putting out fires they really do care about supporting their community and uh and I couldn't ask for a better fire police department and it never changes I mean I don't know what'll happen when Craig retires but I can tell you from when I've been here when Ida retired to an retired and you know hopefully maybe someday I'll be around long enough where uh Chief Ferguson retired but it never changes so um that goes that that shows that you have great they have great leadership and they've been coached by great leaders and you know I'm I'm sure there'll be continuous see the coach the people coming up to be great leaders as well so thank you for that I appreciate uh Bob I appreciate Chris and the residents Ray not the resident Ray but Ray coming out well as residents and um and Wendy I will always say there's there's probably not a harder workking person and show business in Wendy um no matter what goes on she always makes sure that she shows up uh and delivers the best product she can so you know that's much appreciated with that being said we have a motion to adjourn it second roll call Bley yes car yes right yeah May Henley yes thank how you do