[Music] all rise for the pledge to pledge algi to the of the United States of America and to for it stands Nation God indivisible withy and Justice we all remain standing for just a brief moment of silence for those who are serving us here in Brook notice requirements of the open public meeting have been satisfied concerning this meeting the home and the Star Ledger both published a notice on March uh 5th 2024 was posted on bulletin board should be so noted in the minutes of this meeting and the theed uh advis both public bodies were to meet roll call councilman Bower here councilwoman De Jesus here councilman faraka councilwoman mlla here councilwoman man here councilman Patel councilman small vice president Spiller here and president Anderson here uh Mr Steve Freeman is the president of the board if you can for the record just uh identify the five elect officials that are here sure Steve Freeman president uh we have Roy San Clair vice president of the board we have we have Ron lazowski treasure we have Tom Carlin secretary and we have Financial secretary Scott Smith so all board members are present and we do have our chief of our department Ryan moo thank you well thank you very much for being here today um this is uh an unusual meeting for us we haven't had one of these in a very long time um I want to open this up to our Council mates uh to ask if any of them have any questions um I will start and uh begin and just um one I want to thank you uh for providing uh your budget and your audit uh to the council for review so that we could um come to something that is amicable on both sides uh regarding uh the um fire budget and something that's also um reasonable for our um our constituents in is um so I'll open it up Council vice president thank you council president kerson um I just want to say one thing I want to thank the Isen Board of Isen District 11 Board of fire Commissioners presented a sound budget um to the residents of the uh fire district what a lot of residents aren't aware probably what a lot of people aren't aware unless they're in the fire service is water is not free and what I mean by that is you see hydrant and you see the linear square footage of the piping underground the fire district has to pay for that the board of fire Commissioners obviously that equates to the residents uh while the districts are mandated to the 2% cap M6 water through approval of the BPU um they're not so if all of a sudden after 5 years they approved for a 19% increase that doesn't mean anything in the fire district world you still have to maintain within your 2% cap and I don't really think the residents understand I mean I looked real quick out of a 1.5 proposed taxation budget to District uh the residents it's 250,000 proposed for water usage it's almost 20% U Mr Mitch and I our district I think it's 30 going to be $360,000 so you try to do the best you can I honestly do believe they did along with every other District not to compare apples to oranges but uh just put that on record because not a lot of people you see a lot of hydrants but you don't know what goes into it somebody's got to pay for it so thank you thank you Council moli no I'm fine thank you Council Mian thank you councilman B yes just re reate what councilman Spiller said being the fire service myself and looking at the budget they put out a sound budget for the district unfortunately maybe the residents didn't read it properly and like I said they don't understand how this budget is made I think you guys did a great job and thank you for your service to the uh District 11 and residence of Island in that part of the town and uh like I said we we looked over your ORD all look good so unfortunately maybe they didn't read it properly and hopefully you know maybe next year just get the word out a little better thank you Cil deis um just thank you for the job that you do we appreciate all of our firehouses in Woodbridge Township and this is just an example of how Municipal and the fire Commissioners work together to provide a service for residents cuz I think we're all here because we want to provide the best service to our Woodbridge Township residents again thank you thank you so much we also uh want to acknowledge that uh the budget failed by one vote um so uh in these times of uh with fire districts um it we want to always encourage um our residents to get out and vote um and uh with there are times with lower voter turnout um where this can happen this hasn't happened in a long time um but I do want to thank uh my Council mates for helping review some of the line items so that the overall um Capital outlay um could be reduced um there was a um an agreement with uh all all of us as a consensus um that uh there would be a few light items and we've uh conferred uh amongst our group and if we have an agreement and you the um uh council's good with that we would then want to have a a resolution that would be dated for tomorrow Mr MIT would date it today but dated today uh for the proposals um and we just want to make sure that um if you have any comments with any of the um uh any or any questions at this point anyone from your from your department if you have any comments or questions I think what we did go through we looked at it pretty closely and looking what we spend like last year on things and the last few years on the audit these are things we can you know you know it might you know that we have kind of surplus and other lines that if we had to move something later it's doable so we could live with what we have here and we truly appreciate that with uh knowing your department and knowing how well and efficient that you've worked over the years um being able uh that you're able to to work with a few things uh that we can reduce uh for this year eliminate for this year and perhaps plan out for next year um that's all we can ask as a council um we we don't like to uh be in this position uh but um when we are uh it's nice that we can sit down with our um our fire departments and make sure that we we have a suitable budget uh for them to move forward and take care of the Town provide the safety for the for the district that they've done thank you very much okay so at this point we should entertain a motion to open the comments to the public if anybody have any comment besides of the board okay motion second all in favor I I I opposed is there anybody from the public that has any comment he no comment can I get a motion that the public comment portion be closed motion second all favor I I oppos guys have it Mr President I know that you said you have a consensus last you're welome to move forward with that yes so if we could as you mentioned um have a resolution for today uh that we can have prepared for tomorrow uh we'll get that out so that the uh public is aware of uh the decision that's been made so the the resolution would actually indicate the amount to be raised by taxation that was defeated by the voters was 1.5 $1,510 85 uh you have a consensus to make a cut of $40,000 from the amount to be raised by taxation of which $25,000 is to come from the future Capital outlay uh the other line items as you deem necessary and I know that you've communicated back and forth this just some areas you can look at uh so with that said then uh we'll need a vote tonight to approve the $40,000 reduction which then tomorrow I would certify to the tax assessor um $1,470,000 is the amount to be raised for taxation this year okay Mr Mitch do we know how that will impact the um the uh voter in District 11 I had conversation with their accountant and the accountant's numbers uh as proposed initially was going to be about a $13 plus tax incre inrease uh an annual and then uh now it'll be down to about $4 with that $40,000 cup okay all right so can I get a motion to approve the resolution then motion second questions or comments from the council all in favor I I oppos just want to check you're good good yes thank okay good a motion to adjourn motion second yeah