Mayor and Council - Regular Meeting

Adequate notice of this special meeting of the Mayor and Council was sent to the Asbury Park Press and the CoStar official newspapers and notice of this meeting was posted on the Borough's website and on the bulletin board of the Municipal Building. Roll call. Councilwoman Donovan? Here. Council President Kinney? Here. Councilman de Blasio? Here. Councilman Maroney?

Here.

Good evening everyone. Can we all please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge 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.

And if we could please stay standing for our troops, their families, and all our first responders for a moment of silence. Thank you. All right. So, anything crazy happen in town in the last three or four days? I mean, my gosh, this inter-American is like back to my fire. But I do want to say that, you know, we as a town are so blessed to have our amazing department heads. So, thank God for Tina, Chief Scott, I mean, we had power outages, and bridges, and trees, and thank God for DPW, and Billy, and your whole crew for all the cleanup.

And, I mean.

Kevin Crew, and Harry Harsin up at the beach, moving people around, away from the bird's nest, and away from all the fireworks, and the EMS. I don't even know how many heat stroke calls, probably. I mean, so thank God we have fire. I think everybody's okay. Kevin, you want to talk about that real quick? There was a couple guys that got injured in a fire in Spring Lake.

Yeah, we had, before that night, unfortunately I was out of town, so no help at all. But they ran about 15 calls to the department, and one of those calls was a mutually called for a structure fire in Spring Lake. A couple members, there was an issue where some metal came off the house, came into contact with both the ladder truck and the electrical lines, so the line became energized, a couple of guys got shot, went to the hospital, they're fine, everybody's back, everybody's healthy, but yeah, that was kind of a crazy night. I was watching it come in from where it was, and it was unbelievable.

So, you know, and then we had to cancel the fireworks, as you know, so thank you so much for the fire department. We had to cancel the fireworks, and we will have that rescheduled. So we do not, unfortunately, have a date yet, But we plan on doing that. That was one of my least favorite interim mayor things that I could do, was canceling fireworks. The 250th anniversary of that country. So we got 15 in and I worked together to come up with that decision and it was the best one. The fireworks that you did see, if anybody did see them, were actually damaged fireworks that could not be transported, so they had to be lit off. So I think there was a little bit of a show up there. I missed it, because I was like, I'm not bad. So there was a little bit of a show. So those who did get to see it, good for you. I heard it was pretty good. So thank you so much to all our departments. We have an amazing town at Belmar. So a couple other things I just want to talk about. There were two resolutions that we did put on the agenda for this special meeting. These are two professional positions that we are going to fill. So both of them are going to be interim positions. So we hired an interim business administrator who is going to be consulting with us to help find a permanent VA position, permanent business administrator for the town. Same with the CFO. The CFO is also an interim consultant CFO Both of these gentlemen have decades long experience in both business administration and CFO. They're gonna help us get Belmar fiscally on track and help find us a permanent, perfect CFO for Belmar. So those were the two resolutions that were on tonight. I want everyone to know though that both of these individuals were completely vetted by all of us up here. We all met with them, we interviewed them. And we didn't want to do this quickly. We wanted to do it right. So that's why we're going with the consulting avenue right now until we find the right people for the job for Belmar. So we all met with them separately so that we could come up with the resolutions that we came with tonight so that we could put them on the agenda for tonight so we can hit the ground running after this evening's vote. So I just want everyone to know these were also, we were bipartisan. Even decisions, we all consulted with each other. There was no politics involved in this whatsoever. So I'm really proud of what we did tonight. I want to thank you guys so much for all your extra time and effort and energy so that we can do this the right way for Belmar. And two other quick things I just want to note. This tomorrow night is the two lifeguard tournaments. The junior guards tournament is in Spring Lake, but the Belmar lifeguard tournament is tomorrow night, 6 o'clock, 10th Ave Beach. There's nine other beach towns coming. So let's get out and support Harry Varson and all our lifeguards up at the beach tomorrow night. If you can make it, please do. I'm going to be up there. And then on Wednesday night, 6 p.m., we are doing a reading of the Declaration of Independence. So we will all be taking a part of the declaration. There's going to be some residents to come help us read the declaration in Piano Plaza, 6 o'clock Wednesday night. So please come to that soon. All right. Anything else, guys, that we want to talk about? Anything else for workshop? No?

Well, we do have something else for workshop.

Any other gabbing before we get to that? Okay. Okay. I received an email from the Belmar Democratic Committee. Given the resignation of Mayor Gerald Bucklefusco, they are proposing three nominees to select from, Caitlin Donovan, Barry Lubin, and Johanna Roper Robinson.

I would like to nominate Caitlin Donovan.

Second.

Are there any other nominations? OK. Councilman Donovan? Yes. Councilman de Blasio? Yes. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Yes. Councilman Maroney?

Yes. And Council President Kinney? Yes.

Thank you.

I, Caitlin Donovan, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. And to the governments. And to the governments. Established in the United States. Established in the United States. And in this state. And in this state. Under the authority of the people. Under the authority of the people. And that I will faithfully. And that I will faithfully. Impartially. Impartially. And justly perform. And justly perform. All the duties as mayor. All the duties as mayor. To the best of my ability. To the best of my ability. So help me God. So help me God.

Congratulations.

I just want to say thank you. First, to my family here, thank you. It's been a rough month. We've had a lot of countless hours, and every single one of you has been amazing. Thank you, also, very importantly, to the three people I share this day with. It took a lot of faith and confidence of me to make that vote, and thank you. Thank you to the Belmar Democratic Committee. Thank you for your support tonight and for asking me to run four years ago. Thank you. And thank you to each and every one of you who showed up here tonight. You love this town, and you're here. And if anything that we've learned over the last few years, whether it was through Verizon, through Silver Lake, and through so many other moments, large and small, is that there is no limit to what the people of Belmar can accomplish when we work together and we show up. There is so much more to do. Oh, do we want to take a photo? We should take a photo. Yeah, we should take a photo. I got the good camera. I'll send it to you guys. No charge, no charge.

Two mayors in one night. Go ahead.

and i will submit my letter for our uh dining on the council seat in the morning table um i want to say one other thank you too much is that i want to say thank you to the one on my right here uh who was the best summer dinner of five days that we've ever seen

Yes, if anyone would like to make a comment or ask a question on one of the resolutions on the agenda, please step forward, state your name and address.

Thank you. Hi. Why did the mayor

Thank you for your question. I believe he outlined that in his statement and here and in his written remarks. He was advised by his doctor to resign.

He had to resign right away because it seems like, I don't know, there's a huge upheaval now. I'm feeling very, you know, kind of frustrated by everybody. It seems like the whole team kind of resigned with no CFO, we have no

I know that there's been a lot of public anxiety about the turnover here in Borough Hall, but I have to underscore what Council President Kinney said earlier, is that I think the team up here has provided that stability and that we have selected professionals going forward who will not only help lead the borough, but put it into a much better place than it was before. Is there anyone else?

No, just to remember this is only for the resolutions, this public session.

Can I have a motion to close the public session?

Motion. Second. All in favor? Aye.

Can I have a motion to approve resolution 2026-142, resolution hiring Joseph Aruni as interim borough administrator? Motion. Second. Councilman McKinney? Yes. Councilman de Blasio? Yes. Councilman Maroney? Yes. Mayor Donovan? Yes. Next we have resolution 2026-143, 43 resolution authorizing a professional services agreement with MJB Associates Consulting LLC for interim financial management consultant services. Do we have a motion to adopt this resolution?

Motion. Second.

Council McKinney? Yes. Councilman De Blasio? Yes. Councilman Maroney? Yes. Mayor Donovan? Yes. Okay, now we have the regular public session. If anyone is going to speak, please remember to state your name and address first.

Good.

I just want to say, Councilman Kinney, you're going to go down in history. Congratulations, Councilman Donovan. And I am truly looking forward to seeing the four of you working together for many years to come. Thank you.

Barry Luman, 15th Avenue. Ditto. It's so nice to see all of you together, and hopefully it just keeps flowing. Thank you.

Okay, seeing no other comments, can I have a motion to close the public session and adjourn the meeting? Motion. Second. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Thank you.

How are you? Good, how are you? All well, all well.

Thank you. Fun time, right?