##VIDEO ID:wsdoszQB1GI## alance 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 Mr here Mr Franco here and Mr I am here in compliance with the open public meetings act chapter 231 Public Law 1975 the N requirements have been satisfied as to the time place and date of holding said meeting by posting notice on the bulleon board here in burough Hall and by mailing and emailing same to the heral of Kate M County on October 4th 2023 and the Press of Atlantic City on December 13th 2023 in the event of an emergency your emergency exit is the door that you came in our front left your back right or just by the American flag uh our front right uh your front left um just want to do a sound check with our audio in the back we have ual okay uh we are being shown here live today here on the bur's Facebook Channel and also the YouTube channel uh if you're watching the meeting remotely and you want to ask a question uh you're more than welcome to use the dial in conference line uh that number is 888 363 4734 and when prompted you're going to enter the access code 969 9020 filed by the pound or the hashtag T if you happen to watch this meeting uh in the recorded version uh you can uh email our clerk at clerk west.org with any questions or you may phone her at 69729 804 Madam clerk I believe we have two ordinances yes sir to adopt today uh Mr Mayor can you move your microphone a little closer thank you the first is ordinance 1434 regarding um restricted parking for persons with disabilities motions that ordinance number 1434 be placed on second reading and final passage by title only second that has been moved and seconded that ordinance number 1434 be placed on second and final reading by title only roll call Mr shiff yes Mr Franco yes Mr Caba yes ordinance 1434 reads as follows an ordinance of the buau of Wildwood Crest amending and supplementing section 79- 32.3 schedule I restricted parking zones for persons with disabilities of the code of the burrow of Wildwood Crest motion that a public hearing now be held on ordinance number 1434 second has been moved in seconded that a public hearing on ordinance number 1434 now be held roll call Mr Schiff yes Mr Franco yes and Mr cabara yes floor is open for public comment with with respect to ordinance number 1434 handicap parking spaces Sor anybody here in the audience anybody on the conference line have any public comment on ordinance number 1434 hearing none motion at a public hearing on ordinance number 1434 now be closed second it is been moved and seconded that the public hearing on ordinance number 1434 now be closed roll call Mr shiff yes Mr Franco yes Mr Caba yes motion that ordinance number 1434 be passed on second and final read reading and adverti according to law second it has been moved in second that ordinance number 1434 be passed on second and final reading and advertised according to law roll call Mr shiff yes Mr Franco yes Mr Caba yes next we have ordinance 1435 regarding a bond ordinance motion that ordinance number 1435 be placed on second reading and final passage by title only second that it has been moved in second that ordance number 1435 be placed on second and Final reading by title only roll call Mr Schiff yes Mr Franco yes Mr cabara yes ordinance 1435 reads as follows a bond ordinance providing for the acquisition of new equipment by the Bureau of Wildwood Crest in the county of Cape May New Jersey appropriating 700,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of 665,000 bonds or notes of the burrow for financing such appropriation motion that a public hearing now be held on ordinance number 1435 second it has been moved in second that a public hearing on ordinance number 1435 now be held roll call Mr shiff yes Mr Franco yes Mr cabera yes floor is open for public comment on ordinance number 1435 the bond ordinance anybody here in the [Music] audience anybody on the conference line have any public comments on ordinance number 1435 okay hearing none motion to have public hearing on ordinance number 1435 now closed second is been moved and second that the public hearing on ordance number 1435 now be closed roll call Mr shiff yes Mr Franco yes Mr cabara yes motion that ordinance number 1435 be passed on second and final reading and advertised according to law second it has been moved and second that ordance number 1435 be passed on second and final reading and advertised according to law roll call Mr yes Mr Franco yes Mr Caba yes thank you Trish you are very welcome uh okay following the ordinances we're going to move forward with the uh the GIF presentation uh with us here today we have Paul M Miola uh the uh from the from the GIF and also Casey burner as our racek manager so Paul the floor is all yours Casey the floor is all thank you Mr Mayor members of the burough Council joining me is Paul mayola from the ACM JF um pration Casey I'm sorry to interrupt start over thank you Mr Mayor members of the burough Council uh joining me is Paul myola from the Atlanta County Municipal joint Insurance Fund uh in preparation for upcoming renewal he's prepared a presentation uh outlining the health of the GIF and where uh the burough Wild Crest stands Paul well good morning and thank you for giving me some time on your agenda today uh again my name is Paul myol I served as executive director of the uh Atlanta County Municipal joint Insurance Fund since its formation in 1987 until I passed the torch to another Paul Paul Forenza uh about three years ago and I retired a year and a half ago but um I'm back to see old friends and uh and kind of update some of the members on what's going on with the joint Insurance Fund so I understand that each have a copy of my presentation in front of you and I want to thank Trish for having that all ready for everyone and if we just flip over to page two I'll put my glasses on so I can read what I'm looking at here um you know we've we've got some new challenges in the insurance industry and I know Casey can attest to this as well uh there's a there's a very strong hardening of the reinsurance market uh increasing premiums especially in the area of property insurance I'll talk about that in a minute but uh here we've seen a 46% increase in the reinsurance for property uh coverage uh medical cost inflation has also taken its toll uh we've seen a 99.3% increase in uh medical costs in the past three years I think you've seen this reflected in your health benefits I think the uh the New Jersey State Health uh health benefits plan has gone up some 177% in the coming year uh wage Replacements under workers compensation they've increased so all this really does have a uh place to some pressure on the GIF budget along with some of the recent statutory changes and Regulatory changes covid-19 hit us pretty hard um the legislature stated under workers compensation that uh any first responder that contracted covid was deemed to have contracted it on the job regardless of where they may have um gotten the uh the contact with Co that's cost $25 million around the state and workers compensation costs here in the local joint Insurance Fund about $25 million of our comp cost have come from that another area that started to uh to rear its head is work comp reopener employees have up to two years from the date of their last medical treatment to reopen a workers's compensation claim we've started to see a lot more of that than usual over the past few years and uh again that's cost the GS about $1 145 million around the state here alone almost $27 million in our joint Insurance Fund B basically petitioners attorneys will set a diary they'll have that employee go back in be reexamined uh prior to the 2-year uh date it keeps their claim open and again just adds to what workers compensation cost and then finally the pension offset another $13 million and costs locally about $5 million where um total permanent disabilities used to be offset by the pension uh State Pension Plan through Purge and now the workers compensation has to pay first for that so again very Hefty cost to the gifs and then of course there's the social inflation um especially against our police officers the allegations of excessive force have become um more and more it's become more difficult to defend uh here in New Jersey alone we've seen almost $88 million in claims against police officers uh fortunately not so much here in South Jersey but still it's a tough environment to take these cases to court so again these really uh do have an impact on our local budget just turning to page three this Worldwide Insurance crisis you know this is not just New Jersey you see the wildfires out west uh you know Casey can tell you that just in the traditional Insurance Market we're seeing the pressure here if you've looked at your homeowners premiums your automobile premiums if you own a business you've probably seen that with your own premiums there uh our reinsurance costs are driving about 30% of our budget and it affects all lines of coverage it's not just the property but also the liability the Cyber and the workers compensation so turning to the next page page four uh the insurance Market this property insurance market right now um it's it's really in in bad shape and I think that again I keep referring to Casey because he deals with this on a day-by-day basis trying to get homeowners insurance for people uh down here at the shore um and you know a lot of this has to do with the global warming the increasing natural disasters just look at the Hurricanes the floods the things that are hitting down south right now um the fire's out west uh this last year alone we set a record with 28 separate 1 billion property loss events putting tremendous pressure again on This Global reinsurance Market that Tri trickles down and since Co we've seen a big increase in cost of materials and labor you see that in building costs right here down the Jersey Shore and auto repair costs um that's no surprise you've seen how long it takes to get parts nowadays the increased cost of Labor I'm going to talk about that a little bit too uh Coastal exposures you know something we're dealing with right here very very difficult to get that uh coverage for uh properties located along the coast whether it's uh the Gulf Coast or the Jersey coast um really does have a big impact on us we're very fortunate that the reinsurance that we purchased bundles together all of New Jersey uh municipalities that are in The Joint Insurance Fund and that gives us more leverage just a quick story when we started the GIF back back in 1987 I remember uh in December of ' 86 as we were finalizing the reinsurance plans for the jip we had a meeting up in Mars County um it was in Handover Township and the reinsurance company said you know we're not so sure we want the shore towns we're concerned about the uh the Windstorm and the flooding exposure and Joe Giorgio who was the administrator in Handover Township at the time way up in North Jersey said you take all of us or you take none of us and that really has been I think what's kept the G strong over all these years and that's I think what's helped us uh get the coverage that you need down here um in South Jersey so um again we've seen all these things hit us and uh it's made it very difficult to get coverage for um Coastal risks flipping over to the next page page six I just like to show you a little graphic here as to what impact our reinsurance does have on our total budget you'll see it's about 30% and again this is where the covid climate change Employment Practices police liability the pension offset and the reinsurance really do kick in to drive our budget ever ever higher flipping over to the next page you'll see a pie chart here I like to show this because I'd like to demonstrate the efficiency with which your joint Insurance Fund operates we're running on less than 10 cents on the dollar that's accounting for claims Administration uh Actuarial Services loss control and Safety Services our offices services so I think we run a pretty lean budget when you when you see that we operate on less than 10 cents on the dollar there are are other joint Insurance funds around the state and actually nationally and we look at their operating ratios that are well in excess of 20% so I think we're doing a good job there and then on page eight um I like to tell you about how strong our bottom line is it's good to know that your joint Insurance Fund is financially strong we carry a surplus of 13.6 million uh over $46 million of cash on hand we've returned earned over 53 almost $54 million in dividends to members this is money that would have been insurance company profits if we weren't a jointure of municipalities we released over two million just about $2 million in dividends this past year your dividend was about 7% of your annual premiums and subreg that's where somebody injures one of our employees or damages some of our property we go after them we collect over a half a million dollars a year that offsets our budget um in those your dividends alone uh $1.34 million uh here to Wildwood Crest including the 7% $43,000 you received this year flipping over to page nine I like to talk about the fact that you do need to take a look at joint Insurance funds balance sheets uh competing joint Insurance funds have balance sheets that include excess recoverables that means they think that they're going to collect back from their reinsurers but they're carrying these for 10 and 12 years and there's no chance that money is coming back you won't find that on our balance sheet uh they discount the reserves saying we're going to make 5 or 6% interest on the money set aside to pay claims which again is is unrealistic High administrative fees I've mentioned history of supplemental assessments there is one joint Insurance Fund not affiliated with the mail right now that's gone back to its members and is asking for an additional $23 million because they failed to carry enough money in their budget to pay their claims so uh we've never had that happen in our GIF and uh again these other gifs do not return Surplus so you want to make sure that you are with somebody that's got that Financial stability and again on page 10 uh the value proposition of the joint Insurance Fund our safety and risk management training and resources the New Jersey environmental joint Insurance Fund the Employment Practices liability and public officials liability program to reduce claims the eppl helpline where you can pick up the phone you can talk to Dave DSE on our nickel you've got an employee that comes comes in wants an accommodation under the um Americans with Disabilities Act you know you can you can consult on that cyber risk support I'm going to talk about that more in a minute and the claims management programs that we have in place to try and control our claims cost all of these programs are driven by the membership themselves coming up and saying why aren't we doing this what can we do to address these types of um risks that we're facing next page page 11 I talk about our training programs this comes with your membership in the gif uh last year we did manager and supervisory training about 700 managers and supervisors we talk about their role and the responsibilities as supervisors we talk about Employment Practices liability sexual harassment hostile work environment things that they need to be aware of that these things should not be tolerated in the workplace we also did separate training for your police Command Staff we trained over 480 officers this past year we also do specialized training for your rank and file employees the online elected officials training and a special program for your land use board and then the safety side of the equation where we have the on-site loss control visits we don't just come down and count fire extinguishers but we have a staff that meets with your supervisors to talk about holding safety committee meetings um wearing safety equipment and those things that help make sure your employees get home safely at the end of the day we do Regional safety training around k m County there's numerous safety bulletins messages that go out theel safety Institute with the online training and last year alone we saw a 9% increase in that training trying to create that culture of safety the next slide I think is very very interesting is something our safety director started keeping track of about four years ago and it shows a correlation between the number of training episodes that occur within the Mel system and the Lost Time accident frequency which is a workers compensation claim that was serious enough that employee is out of work for a period of time and you can see the direct correlation the more trained TR that is conducted the more safety awareness our employees have the lower the workers compensation uh rate goes so uh we think that's a real benefit of being in the program and then on page 13 I talk about risk management which I say is a Step Beyond safety we talk about the Tulip coverage that is somebody wants to come in and use your facility uh you want to make sure that your taxpayers aren't paying the burden if they have a uh an unfortunate incident that causes injury to someone that that uh resident can go online they can get a million dollar liability coverage for less than $100 a year depending on what type of event they're having that automatically names Wildwood Crest as an additional insured and gives you that Certificate of Insurance for your protection uh we also just updated the Certificate of Insurance guidelines they show if you know you've got somebody coming in to do work for um for Wildwood Crest uh establishes different types of limits that you should be looking for Casey I know is a big help with that um helps review contracts to make sure that uh the indemnification Agreements are not in favor of the contractor but that they are protecting Wildwood Crest and your taxpayers and again uh we have model agreements on our website for that as well and then the New Jersey environmental risk management fund you're now a member of that which protects Wildwood Crest against the uh the midnight dumper um if there are any hazards that are uncovered in your Public Works Yard let's say there's a spill these folks get right out there they will interface with the the D should it be necessary and provide uh coverage for you should that be required the regulatory guidelines that they provide on their website and through various um notices that they send out to the members are very very helpful in that regard and then page F uh 15 the Cyber risk management fund uh few years ago we started to see the cost of cyber Insurance escalate and uh so we decided to do a in-house review of the claims that we were having on a Statewide basis and decided that we could do it a lot better and less expensively if we took the risk inhouse and created the New Jersey cyber risk management fund and basically the way the program works is everybody pays the same premium you know based on your employee count and and your risk in your particular Town um but the way the program works is it encourages you to improve your risk management profile file so if you are not in compliance with the risk management program you're going to have a hefty deductible should you have a claim uh $50,000 plus $60,000 uh co- Insurance over the next $300,000 now with basic security that cuts down to $35,000 that would be simple password protection uh computer backups things like that moving to intermediate security that deductible drops even further to $20,000 and if you have the full boat of security measures you pay zero should you have a claim and we think that's a much better way to deal with this risk than simply bumping people's premiums and making it less affordable we also have a technology res Services director Jerry Caruso who comes out works with your it people to make sure you're coming in compliance with the risk management programs claims management you know we we can't prevent every claim from occurring so we do try to manage those claims when they do occur uh we want to make sure that your employees are getting the best possible medical treatment uh we also encourage the use of transitional Duty which I know is adopted here in Wildwood Crest that means uh doctor says an employee can come back to work um but you know just like Duty for the next three weeks till I see that employee again allows them to ease back into the workplace in a productive role reduces overtime for other people that have to fill in and it also cuts down on payments for disability workers compensation and and also your overtime cost uh the Atlantic GIF does a great job with that using over 70% of our transitional Duty days and that has saved an estimated $636,000 by accommodating those employees so again please continue to support that program Managed Care Program we have a network within a network of specialized providers that uh understand workers compensation and occupational injuries uh because we feed that Network we're getting discounts on medical cost of up to 70% and then our defense panel right here in South Jersey they know the local venue they know the plest bar and I think they do a good job in uh defending you should you be sued for uh alleged um injuries to members of the public and finally make strong use of title 59 defenses one of the things that we make sure that all of our members have is a torque claim notice questionnaire adopted by uh ordinance uh you have that adopted so that when somebody wants to sue a municipality they have to jump through certain hoops and many times we've been asked to take copies of that presented to the court to make sure that uh plainist attorney is cooperating with those that program page 17 another area I started to see an increase in cost about four years ago was in auto repairs auto repair costs I talked to the fellow that does our Auto damage appraisals and his name is Leo PTI I said Leo how come we're starting to see this bump in cost and he said well there's a couple of things happening out there he said that um body shops have this little technique that they'll sometimes use where they'll say um you know here's an $88,000 estimate to repair your car and when it's all done they say oh we found hidden damage there's a supplemental for $4,000 and uh so we set some standards in place including the fact that you can't just present us with a supplemental bill at the end of a a repair job we need to know in advance if there's going to be additional work done so that we can reinspect uh we also um started a program where uh we're asking our towns why are you storing your vehicle and getting storage charges at The Body Shop waiting for parts to come in when you can keep them over here and we won't pay storage charges so another area we've cut down on and um same thing with upfitting on police vehicles why not use the state contract instead of having the body shop do it and price it up by 25% so these are some of the areas as well as others that we're doing to try and reduce those auto repair costs and we've done a good job with that so coming down the home stretch here just want to let you you know we're flexible we're efficient we listen to our members it is a member-driven organization uh Connie participates in the GIF meeting she sits on committees as your fund commissioner uh we're always looking for feedback from our members one example is you know when Co hit we went to Virtual meetings uh after you know we came out of that we started to have inperson meetings and some of the members said you know it's tough for me to get out to get to the meetings can we do a hybrid and so we did adopt that hybrid schedule and that's just recent example of what we've been doing and the same thing with the safety uh with the excuse me um the safety programs the trainings and the elected officials training a lot of that's being done online now and that helps keep your staff in town uh rather than traveling out to do training so as a governing body here um you folks set policy you folks set the tone for the rest of the uh burrow of while we Crest we ask you to continue to support the programs you're doing a great job with the transitional Duty your employ employes do participate in the safety training the cyber security awareness initiatives and I know that again I keep bringing Casey and he's a very involved Risk Management Consultant but he also helps with the Cyber area and our law enforcement Risk Management Services to make sure that should your officers uh should there be allegations made against your officers that the documentation in your police agency are up to date so we can do a great job of defending them as well so I want to thank you for having me here this morning uh you folks have been a great member of the GIF and looking forward to your renewal be happy to answer any questions at this time sure govering body any questions for Paul no thank you Paul Casey thank you public have any questions while we have Paul here did you just refresh my memory what is reinsurance and reinsurers yes um basically insurance companies have to protect themselves from catastrophic losses let's say hurricane hits it might be beyond the insurance company's ability to pay so what they do is they buy re it's called reinsurance which is a worldwide Market of of insurance companies that specialize in this area so we do the same thing here we want to make sure that there's not a run on the bank in the GIF should we have a very big claim come in uh let's say several employees injured in a in a single accident um or a very big judgment on a lawsuit so that's where the reinsurance will kick in after we we paid the first half a million dollar of the claim or the uh first $100,000 of the um of a property loss what's above our self-insured detetion y within theil so it protects us basically from a run on the bank so to speak anybody else any questions okay hearing none uh so Madam clerk I believe uh resolution number three is with respect to the presentation we just that is correct so do we want to move we want to do that now then we can excuse Paul if he wants to I have them numbered already Mr Mayor so it'll only take me a minute if I can just go through the normal way you got it that's not a problem okay we ready for that yep okay so we have the resolutions the first is authorizing fireworks display at Sea fa far's celebration on Saturday September 21st 2024 a motion second it has been moved and seconded that the forgoing resolution should be adopted roll call Mr shiff yes Mr Franco yes Mr Caba yes next is authorizing refund of Mercantile license and tourism fees to Kristen Mary motion second has been moved in second that the forgoing resolution be adopted roll call Mr shiff yes Mr Franco yes Mr Caba yes okay now we have it authorizing the execution of a contract renewing membership in the Atlantic County Municipal joint Insurance Fund a motion it I'll second it has been moved and seconded that the forgoing resolution be adopted roll call Mr shiff yes Mr Franco yes Mr Caba yes and thank you Paul Casey and and to all of our staff that touches the I know it's a it's a it's a job for sure and I all the years I've been here I've never had any issues whatsoever personally so good job everybody are you staying Casey yes okay okay next we have authorizing increase of contract in the amount of $110,000 to Michael a jinc of sarinsky Hollenbeck for COA related matters for calendar year 2024 motion second has been moved and seconded that the forgoing resolution be adopted roll call Mr shiff yes Mr Franco yes Mr Caba yes next is authorizing refund of property taxes or utilities over payment made payable to coure logic motion second it's been moved and seconded that the forgoing resolution be adopted roll call Mr shiff yes Mr Franco yes Mr Caba yes next is waving all fees required by application to TJ hunt Memorial Foundation 5K 1 mile foot race on November 28th 2024 from 8:00 a.m. to 11 amm motion I'll second has been moved and seconded that the forgoing resolution be adopted roll call Mr shiff yes Mr Franco yes Mr Caba yes next is authorizing Award of emergency contract to anzelone electric company for emergency electric work to beach Patrol building in accordance with njsa 4A colon 11-6 motion second it has been moved and seconded that the forgoing resolution be adopted roll call Mr shiff yes Mr Franco quick question on this one um mark this is is not a change order right this is built into so so if his price is X x is being deducted from the STA contract okay so yes not an increase do you foresee any more change orders after this after moving forward no no so what we have is what we have correct okay uh yes just I second thank you and Mr caber yes next is accepting the drive sober or get pulled over Grant from the New Jersey Division highway traffic safety from August 16th to September 2nd 2024 in the amount of $2,100 and authorizing the Chief Financial Officer to pay the flat rate per hour to law enforcement motion second it's been moved and seconded that the foregoing resolution be adopted roll call Mr Schiff yes Mr Franco yes Mr Caba yes lastly is authorizing Amendment to the 2024 Municipal budget to account for additional funding from the New Jersey Division of highway traffic safety mobilization for the 2020 4 drive sober or get pulled over Statewide Labor Day Crackdown Grant motion second it has been moved and seconded that the forging resolution be adopted roll call Mr Schiff yes Mr Franco yes and Mr Caba yes I have a question about Bill so um we've been with Atlantic City Electric and I think I have it out a year uh um list of street light outages that the chief provided last year I set email just this morning to get an updated list we had as of last year about 68 lights out so I don't know if Chief can get me an updated list on that soon um because I've been asking for uh a street light to be fixed since March and that's 5 months from now they have not yet fixed it so um I know we had an emergency yesterday at Atlanta I think they fixed that that problem yes yeah so um I'm concerned that we're getting bills uh and we're not getting things fixed I don't have a problem signing this bill but if this continues I'm not signing anymore at land city electric bills so um I don't know how you guys feel about that one but I think if if we have 68 lights I I do like to get an updated list so if you don't mind Chief or whoever has that access so that's my thoughts on that one when you're saying lights we're talking about the stre street light stre okay cuz just wanted to make that I have a list here from it's an old list though yeah there's I know there's one specific to Buttercup in park that was reported in June maybe even earlier than that and that is waiting a special part that I that I'm aware of other than that of the other 67 or however many it is now I'm not sure the one on Atlanta yesterday was more specific to the pole itself not the light the pole was deteriorated at the top so I believe police police secured the area lantic C Electric came over and work through the evening to replace the top of the poll and the Transformer as well so that issue has been resolved I and I will say to to our our Municipal contact Rony town has been very communicative through through that part of the process but I'm not sure I think I think the street lights is a different division but she could probably get the information that commissioner FR is looking for the the request wasn't for two weeks ago it was five months ago so I think it's not reasonable yep no no I agree motion to all bills properly authorized as submitted be paid second it has been moved and seconded that all bills properly authorized as submitted be paid roll call Mr Schiff yes Mr Franco yes and Mr Caba yes okay under our correspondence nothing listed under the discussion items uh so we have some new business so frat houses so um and I apologize for that language but we we'll call it what it is so when I think of frat houses I just want everyone to think of it in ter terms of rental rental occupancy issues uh and I I have it in my mind broken down into two two areas one is with respect to those who rent their vacation homes out and the other one is with respect to employee housing um the vacation homes I I uh we've been we've been hearing some concerns uh from residents and neighbors that there are properties that are renting through third-party um websites or however through the owner or however that may be um where they're bringing tons of carss eating up a lot of the uh the parking spaces on the residential streets um there's some safety and some security issues that were were shared with respect to the employee housing and when I say employee housing I'm specifically mentioning the J1 students who come here overseas to support our local businesses employment um um opportunity so um there my understanding is there there there are rooms that are being rented out that normally sleep 2 to 4: perhaps there's more than there could be like up to 6: to 8 um sometimes there's no air conditioning especially the last two weeks we've had hot and humid temperatures so I'm concerned with how these students that are coming in overseas or anywhere are being you know treated in terms of their housing uh I think there's some safety concerns and I know there's some pice gouging going on as well so um I just don't want wild crft to be known for taking advantage of seasonal workers especially J wants that pay a lot of money um to get here to support our local businesses so that said um I would like to ask the governing body and the burrow and all the all of our all of our uh officials to weigh in on some ordinance changes that will tighten up uh and clean up some of the some of the issues that we're dealing with and I I think we're too late for this year but I think if we start working on it now we can start uh having a have a good plan in for enforcement for before summer next year would be any issue on my end I know mine either okay uh and I know so I know there's some uh there's different entities that will have to touch it I know fire safety or the housing will have to touch it um I know that our solicitor gunis has already did some some initial work but we'll wait for him to I guess drive that bus as to what we need to do if everybody's going a couple recommendations to you there short so I guess what we could do is get our housing official together fire inspection and whoever else mer yeah there's a couple there's a couple it crosses a couple departments so uh I don't necessarily need to be involved in that but if you want me to I'm happy to it's again it touches uh couple department so I think you know Rong between Ron and Connie you guys need to drive that bus us to holding the meetings and getting whoever needs to be in there to uh to a i' would like to get something you know in the books at least the the folks who are renting this year the landlords they need to know that there's going to be changes for next year because we can't continue that this go in the way that it is agreed I'll place it under old business yes ma'am I'll call it rental occupancy issues instead of Fred houses sure all right thank you everybody all right that brings us to uh old business um I don't know if there's anything here to report I'll just touch on everything here real quick I have one on the first one mind so for the lightning detection system uh we got a proposal back and it came in at 93,000 give or take North or South I can't remember uh so we come to about 31,000 per Community to set this system up now what we're really discussing is when I first came with the system we were talking about the beacons outside the sound off remember that and uh there seem to be a little bit of push back which I can understand so this system is the same system without the beacons no sound but it would detect into the beach Patrol building so it would give uh the chiefs of each town the same information and the same understanding it's time to clear the beach so it' be like an internal system that would happen uh for us all which seem to be the recommendation of the other two Commissioners uh and myself that they like that idea so it's just not the beach Patrol Chiefs calling off $200,000 200,000 people off the beach it gives them a better understanding and a stronger uh vision of what's coming toward us in the way of storms so it's under right now we're just still discussing it no move okay yeah I had sent some internal comments or that we would like I'd like to get some answers to but I don't actually didn't bring in front of so I I'll recirculate that to everybody so we can get some uh questions answer I I'll keep an open I personally keep an open mind to it just have some additional questions and absolutely go from there agree I have to dive some numbers and see good J well the big thing that I'm real I'm I'm happy with is the other two communities were want to work together as a group and we're still looking for grant money so w was in charge of finding grant money for us so that's where we're starting and we'll see where we finish up but I appreciate the support since we had the GIF does GIF have anything weighed on that the only uh recommendations that we had um you know more rely on um just defending the buau in the event of of an incident and if the if the system doesn't work properly which really align with uh proper signage outlining the system what it's used for and incorporating um the procedures use of the equipment and evacuation procedures into an ordinance to help defend the buau in the event of a claim well we'll definitely incorporate you yeah thanks case on spot yeah no problem uh okay uh artificial grasses under the planning Board review I believe that's listed on their agenda for this evening it is y so we'll here the responsible planning board uh the U 5year plan uh uh that is being developed by Triad 250th birthday committee again I'll reiterate if there's any interest from the public or uh anyone has any ideas we would like to get a committee appointed uh to celebrate the nation's 250th birthday in 2026 so there's some time and some budgeting and some planning for that uh craft mytical app is a 2025 item old tourism building use and the Historical Museum also uh uh in plans for 2025 appros amendment to time limit parking I know that there's still some uh work that needs to be done between uh the chief and Ron on that one I know specifically there's some New Jersey Avenue changes and some other changes to uh time limit parking uh concession agreement hotels uh Z beach chairs is on hold traffic cing I believe the uh the the Grant application uh from K's engineer hearing is uh I think they received everything that they needed to move forward on that back Beach excavation is on hold pending the de and the Army Core Dune uh dring anything new on that since uh two weeks ago no not on my end nothing need to report New Jersey a Avenue infrastructure pre- County that's the budgeting item for next year Public Works we receive confirmation that uh they're looking to start that project materials have been ordered uh it'll be in September at some point so it's Public Works roof scoop Tower basketball roof and the tennis and pickle ball bathrooms roof will all receive the blue metal roof uh Bas side outfalls capacity ball cares and replacement we are out the bid bid opening when is the bid opening August 28th 11m August 28th okay and we have a robust response so far okay I'll put Washington C Beach House balls in capacity nothing uh we didn't hear anything bad from our grant writer on that too I did follow up with him he has not heard anything yet okay all right that brings us to uh a round of public comments we'll start with anybody here in the audience we do not need your address just your name and please come on up to the podium going up clever noin I am the person who coined the phrase frat house so I take responsibility for that I missed your first name I'm sorry Claire CLA so I live next to a frat house and I am thrilled that you have heard me Mr Mayor you have really heard me because I didn't expect to come to this meeting with any kind of action but I see there's going to be action let me also say that I think the police in this town are wonderful they respond to everything I call about and uh I I'm very grateful that they do that um Brian has been wonderful about the garbage and so I have no complaints about garbage anymore because Brian has evidently solved the problem um my issue in speaking today is that we do already have ordinances on the books about over occupancy and as I've said to you many times I believe the the the problem is over occupancy we have ordinances on the books that aren't enforced so I know that you're going to get together you're going to provide more ordinances but you also have to consider how you're going to enforce them police have often come to my house and said they can't enforce over occupancy because they can't walk into the house I just I can't believe that there's no way to enforce certain things secondly I believe that the cars that are parked illegally around that house which are numerous and I've sent you numerous pictures I believe those cars should be ticketed what happens when the group in that house realizes there's no consequences is they move the car the when the police come and then they put it right back where the car was illegally parked the the position I'm in is that I can call the police I say five times a day I don't want to do that I don't want to be the police for my area I just don't want to do that so I would really suggest that maybe there be some new policies about police spontaneous ly ticketing illegal cars I'm walking around this my neighborhood all the time I have a dog I do not see a problem with illegally parked cars in this town which is why I don't understand when the police are patrolling they can't just see an illegally parked car and ticket that car I just don't I don't get that because the kids who are in that house you know one car checks in they Park illegally the next car checks in hours later they they Park illegally it's a constant ongoing problem with illegal parking I guess that's all I have to say is that I'm ready to put my house on the market because I can't live next to the frat house it's that bad um the I've said to you there's issues about the after promp check-ins at 2 am where the kids are walking around the streets emptying their cars you know Mr seryan is at home 2 hours away sleeping but I'm not allowed to sleep and I just I find it unbearable that there's there's no enforcement of some of these ordinances you have the ordinances on the books about occupancy limits he wants to collect his ,000 a night he packs them in there whether they're kids or families and he's getting his thousand a night that's all I have to say thank you thank you CLA Chief did you yeah I'm sorry I I understand what you're saying I I would like to answer that but I think it's better coming from the chief of police oh all right so in in response to the um the illegally parked vehicles of course we respond whenever we get uh a phone call but we also do uh several a day I mean I I don't have the numbers in front of me but we're constantly looking for IL legally parked vehicles and doing self initiated uh response to that and riding tickets and moving vehicles that are illegally parked as far as going in and Counting the number of people inside of a dwelling um those people um under the United States Constitution have an expectation of privacy that we cannot just walk into the house and start counting how many people are inside that home so I mean I I understand you're having a difficult time and we've done everything in our power at this time and we're going to uh move forward uh with discussions with the governing body about how how we can easil more easily enforce some of the issues that you're discussing um and it's not something that's going to happen overnight um but you do have to understand a lot of these vacation homes they're they're packing the homes and everybody's driving cars it's not like it used to be back um when I was a child when you would all pile into the family station wagon and drive down with luggage bouncing all over the place everybody drives their own cars and that is a problem that we're having in town but it's not really something that we can regulate so sure sure I'm an assistant property manager for um Casa damichi who we have very highend prop properties in Wildwood and we take our responsibility to the neighborhood very seriously and we actually have rules for our guests WE Post those rules we told we tell them if they don't follow the rules they're going to be evicted at their own cost so what I'm trying to say here is that really the enforcement has to come down to the property owner I I realize that you can do certain things but if the property owner isn't Cooperative it's not not going to happen so you need to be perhaps think about enforcement in terms of how can we get Property Owners to be more responsible um I know there's Animal House ordinances in some towns I know there's lots of creative ways to make owners responsible our house happens to be next to the mayor of Wildwood so that's you know we have to be good thanks on to that also um we we do have uh similar ordinances here in Wildwood Crest um in in order to uh move forward with with um summonsing somebody for uh that specific ordinance we have to as a police department or as uh code enforcement respond to that property and find violations and document those violations issue summonses unfortunately when we're responding to this specific house in question there haven't been violations uh that our officers have seen and it has not R risen to the level that we can move forward with the uh Rowdy house violation at this point question so one incident last year there were 25 kids playing wall in the street and the police came and the police said everyone who's registered in this house please go into the and 25 kids went into the house is that not an Evidence of violation would you consider evidence of a violation video cameras on my house watching 25 kids pour out of the house on checkout day from you know a video feed from 12: Midnight to the next morning is that evidence of overnight guest I mean how how do you get evidence how do you I will do whatever you say in order to get evidence of this over occupancy problem I will spend money on cameras well I rather than going back and forth here in the meeting I think it's maybe better that we have a discussion outside the meeting and we can uh talk about how we can move forward to get you some kind of relief here um I think if I can I think it's safe to say I think the burough wants to do whatever it can do legally and that's that's the point of going back to the table so to speak and reviewing the ordinances and pulling in all the there different departments that that uh touches this um I think I don't think there's nobody here or anywhere that doesn't agree with you it's just how do we go about getting it to the finish line so just have to give the police department more teeth so we can go in yes and do it legally they're wonderful they're wonderful but I do understand that they have their their limits I do get that part and I'm just like frustated understood thank you okay any more public [Music] comments hi I'm Mike Marino and uh I had a question about the uh Beach Patrol building uh came up tonight because of additional funding electrical I guess the change order so I'm wondering is it is it fully operational to today um what was the initial cost the final cost and impact the taxpayers if we have more change orders to come and how would the bill be paid there a lot of questions there that last one was not a change or that right not a change so right now we don't have a CO for our building okay uh right now I think the last Parts maybe you could talk about a little bit more Mark yeah so um as previously mentioned that emergency work for ANS alone is not a change order okay it was done in lie of um I believe that the Electric's going to be turned on shortly and that's going to put the bur in position to get a TCO while the burough works on a final punch list with the contractor I believe we were shooting for trying to get a TCO by the end of next week just so you're clear uh when speak speaking the Buddy Johnson who's our chief we're not going to move into that building until maybe September after the guards are gone okay to give you a date right in there only because it's just we're in the midst of the season and it's a lot to do so he wants to get comfortable with the comfortable with the building and then we'll move forward we'll be functional for next summer okay yeah I was just worried more of uh additional cost understood so um I think we all are okay and I didn't and I didn't see it on Old business so I considered it old business because it's not done actually to add to that commissioner this um this action with that emergency contract actually uh had the bur was able to avoid a good 20 something, to get the project completed okay that's all thank you thank you anybody else public comments good morning my name is Fred metler 109 East Stanton Road wild request here um I think you all know that I've been involved in the dredging of sunset Lake for the last 10 years and uh but that's not the reason why I'm here but it sunset lake is part of the subject um we've noticed that there are two new AIDS of navigation that were installed in Sunset Lake over the last I don't know when they were put in but we noticed them over the last couple weeks and they are marked no watercraft um and there's confusion out there on exactly why they're there I had an informal meeting with the mayor the other day asking him a question about that and his um he stated that those buys were put in there to keep watercraft from coming into the kayak ramp and that makes sense but where the buoys are now they're not even even close to the kayak ramp there one buy is probably about 700 ft South I'm sorry west of the kayak ramp and the other one is about 500 ft north of the kayak ramp so any boats that are out there they're not going to see those bues to stop them from going into the kayak ramp and it's causing confusion because people don't know why they're there so the other day I took my wife out in our boat just to anchor down on the south end to have lunch and four boats came up to me and said what are these bues for and I gave them your explanation so if they are in fact there for the kayak ramp and should be placed in front of the kayak ramp and I'm saying not right up against it but maybe 50 ft off of it maybe on either side I'd like to volunteer my services with my boat and maybe somebody from the public works department to go out and relocate them so I have an update since we last talked okay so I I don't believe public works or anybody from the burrow was the ones that installed those buoys someone said a barge yes so not so what cuz I when you had asked me when I when I when you had asked me the question in the hallway um I had already sent the work order into public works to put that in motion following my conversation with Chief Lloyd so we wanted to make sure that we had it in the queue to get it done I assumed they worked faster than than uh than I expected and and they had it in there so I had said it it was but it was not the burrow Wild Crest that set those buies in so is a oh they're not no is not so we don't know who who uh who put those buies in there cheap so uh we have uh the police department has been in contact with the uh State Police Marine unit um since our last conversation uh they may have uh done that but from uh our initial conversation uh it was my understanding that they weren't going to play sat any buoy so may have been the uh State Police Marine unit so we'll reach out to them and confirm that before we move anything because I don't want to move anything that the Marine unit put out there um but we'll if we'll confirm with them that it uh either was or was not them and if it was them we'll see if we can move them closer to the uh kayak launch so there's not confusion in the lake area that's interesting because it's it's it's I was that was going to be my next question who's going to police this you know I mean if somebody if if you don't want watercraft someplace and watercraft will continue doing it who's going to be the you know the authority to to police it so kind of kind of makes sense that that state police would be the ones that put they're official buoys I mean they are you know um but I just didn't we didn't everybody's asking you know they they don't want to get in trouble so so it's not the burrow we we we we're not sure we think it may be the state police if it is we're going to see if we can get them moved if if we need your assistance then we can reach out but I think uh I think as we mentioned I think you know we don't want we want these buoys to be I'm going to say 20 to 30 feet off the base of the kayak launch not couple hundred feet that's the confusion you know it makes sense I know you're having problems with watercraft going into that kayak ramp we see it all the time and we're scared to death that there's people in the water on the on the paddle boards and everything else but you know right now people I mean that's a that's a that end of the lake is where everybody goes to Anchor to sit out there and enjoy the lake it's the deepest part of the lake it's you know we can't anchor anywhere else so not to be able to go there was confusing to a lot of people was on Facebook and everything else so we didn't know how to answer it so if it's on Facebook it must be true okay again awful you know once you find out you know who put them there and what they're going to do with it then if you need any help I'm glad to offer respect to you I I'd like to run it with the the chief and then him get that back to you perfect with the answers and then we can do what we do perfect s I'm curious if this has anything to do with lower Township because a portion of that well one bil is in W Crest when the other Billy is in what lower Township I don't believe so but I can reach out to them I can also reach out to do and see if there's they know anything I doubt they will but I can reach out sure I'll do that toight why would the this St might be stupid question why would the state Polie put bues in the waters of while will crest without letting you know well we had requested it CU reest okay that makes sense some buoys to prevent uh the watercraft from coming into the kayak launch okay for for that reason okay good that makes sense then okay good they they you asked them and they did it they just didn't put it there used to be one there before which they placed right and then that one disappeared so then we had reached out and said hey can you least add at least one but if not two and I think that might be what it is but we're going to find out okay we have a billy out in front of the yacht club just to keep the boats away from the swimming and just my recommendation those billies will not last forever out there we have to take ours in every winter or else it's gone the next year you know from the storm or something like that so okay thank you you got it that's right anybody else public comments anybody on the conference line have any public comments before we head into uh brief commissioner comments then we have a closed session on the on the agenda conference line okay there's none we'll move right to commissioner commas before we go into Clos session I'm okay for mayor there sen we have I'd like to uh say last night was uh really a great night for our town the uh National Night Out please put on a a great presentation out there with the help of fire EMTs uh Public Works and uh it was that was probably the biggest one I've seen would you say Fred yes absolutely I know you guys are cooking a heck of a lot of hambur hot dogs out there and a lot of food going out and the kids were having fun 2000 hotg is that what it was wow and I believe those hot dogs were donated by Dave Bannon so it it was just a great night for all thank you okay anybody else sure all right I'm good we're going to take a three minute recess we'll clear the room read theing exive inance with the provisions that open public specifically njsa 10 42 regard to three items colle baring agreement terms and conditions with regard to health insurance coverage cont negations second aded