Council - Regular Meeting

I like to call this February 9th council meeting to order. Everybody, please stand for a moment of silence. Please salute the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Roll call, please. Mr. Peasant [clears throat] here. Miss Cullen

here. Miss Rodriguez, uh, she just text me say she has heater problems at home. Uh, Mr. Cousins here. Miss Figerero here. Mr. Johnson here. Mr. Krochi here. Mr. Teachers here.

Okay. Uh, I don't think we have anybody in the public again tonight, so there will be no public participation. So, we do have uh, Mr. Pezy here tonight to do a presentation on uh a program that we've been discussing with him and he agreed to carry a ball with this which we appreciate. So why don't you uh do whatever you want to do and do you need that board from outside or does Matt have it on TV? He has it on TV. He has it on TV. Yeah.

I'm going to turn around so I can see it. Well, good evening. Uh, it's good to be here again. I appreciate appreciate the time and it it really won't be long. Um,

Raph and I have talked for a while about the best way to communicate with the public that to to give them a more indepth understanding of various things that the bureau does. Okay? Uh, you guys vote on something, you might talk about it for five minutes or so at the council meeting to explain what the motion's about. And sometimes citizens might like more information. And uh so we we we talked about that and we talked about a newsletter, but I think we're living in an age where people prefer to see and hear things rather than uh rather than read them. Maybe that's unfortunate, but I think it's the reality. So uh we came up with the idea of having creating we actually we created a a logo called uh the burrow in brief and what it's intended to do is provide maybe 10 minute 8 8 minutes to 15 minutes no certainly no more than that uh short explanations zeroing in on a specific thing you're doing. All right so let me let me just play this for you and uh you'll get a better idea. Welcome to the burrow in brief, a new program designed to keep residents informed and connected to what's happening in our burrow. I'm Bill Peza, and along with burrow officials and other community leaders, I'll be sharing updates on the initiatives, projects, and decisions shaping our community. Each episode focuses on one topic and breaks down the what, the why, and the impact, all in about 10 minutes. It's clear, it's focused, and it respects your time. No nonsense, no partisanship, just useful, straightforward information connecting residents to their government. You'll find the Burrow in brief on the Burrow channel, the Burrow website, and across social media.

See, Kurt, that wasn't 45. Uh, so that's it. That's the little promo we have to roll out to explain to the to the residents what we will be doing. Uh that will loop on the burrow channel for a while so they they get a feel for that. And then um I've already I've already had a session with Brian Johnson on recreation, specifically recreational basketball because it's basketball season. Uh, I also spent we we did one the other day with Jim Pokeriak on u the RFP that the burrows be going to be entertaining for Elman Chestnut which you got a little we got a little bit more in depth with that one because it's a more complicated concept but that's the kind of things we'll be doing uh as you tell me what you want to have covered that's what we'll develop. Uh the uh the tapings are done by uh 1681 digital media and uh that's it. I'd rather answer your questions. Oh, and it'll be shown on on the burrow channel and then they'll be housed or or archived on the burrow website and uh people can then look at past episodes or whatever topic they want. Right.

So, what I think we spoke about, we're trying to to put out there is there's so many things in town that is being accomplished and like Brian runs a basketball program. It's outstanding program, 160 kids involved and by him just saying coming here talking about it once in a you don't get the impact on what's really what he's doing. I mean, how hard he's working for this program and how much time he's putting into this program. And it's like that with everybody when I'm trying to push things into like Greg Lorraine, you know, Louis, everybody's got a job up here to do and I think they're doing and when I approached Bill, he said, I don't even want anything. I mean, it's we I really appreciate you doing this for nothing because I know how much time it's going to take. It's not just you see a six or eight minute video. it's setting it up and meeting with the people and interviewing people. So again, you know, thank you very much for putting the time into this and I think it's going to be a great way to, you know, move forward and [clears throat] like you said, people watch this stuff on social media.

Yeah. So, and and uh and I also we talked about I think that this will be shown with no comments because the sad part is as hard as he's working you know somebody's going to have something to say. So, it's better just put your message out there and again if somebody has something to say we're here every month. You don't never see anybody in the audience that come here and say anything. things. Well, there's plenty of outlets for people to express themselves, but but on this one, we just want it to be standalone. Here's the content and take from it what you would.

I think Ralph was alluding to a little bit of what I was going to ask you. Um, what is it not? So, I, you know, I'm sure there's going to be a lot of people that see this and see the traction that it gets and may want to utilize it. So, what who what will it be and what won't it be? What it will be is specific information about specific burrow programs. That's that's for sure. And then there are some that are certainly I think when historic crystal day is coming I can see having u you know the women the people who [clears throat] are running the day on for a short interview to highlight all the things but that's that's what it will be. And uh we can huddle up now and then decide if we want to expand it. Uh but we do one guest at a time. There's reasons for that. The biggest reason is so that we can capture it on the film the way we want to capture it. Maybe once in a while there'll be a situation where we'll have more than one guest and we have to work out the logistics of that

and we're hoping it can run every two maybe 3 weeks a new a new show. Yeah. We prefer to say periodic rather than lock ourselves into a particular because might not happen that way. Right. I tell you what you see Brian Johnson on camera. It's just, you know, he just he just we discovered what his real talent is, you know, did a good job. It was fun. Any questions for Bill? No, but this sounds wonderful. Thank you for doing Who made the logo? Pardon me. Who made the logo? It's nice. Uh, I do. With some help from a guy named Al. [laughter]

Um, yeah. Uh, so it'll be I think it's going to improve as it goes along. You see the first one and then you get the kinks out, you do the second one, a couple more kinks and each one is going to get better. Um, but again, you give me the topics and I'll do them. Unless I don't want to, then I won't do that. Thanks. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. So, so with that, and we were we talked a little bit earlier, is that we're very close to unveiling a whole new program throughout town for a lot of different projects. Uh Kurt, maybe a week or two, we should be ready. We've been working on this for almost two years, so I think we're very close. This will give you an overview of different projects, uh things that we talked about we want to accomplish moving forward. So, it's going to be a nice program. We're going to invite the public. Anybody public comment? We'll get a date. Uh trying to think. I don't know if we can get it this month. It's only the 9th. Think we might be able to hit the last week or how about the first week of March?

Should work.

All right. All right. We'll get the word out someway. we meet March 2nd. So maybe we can meet that, you know, the 5th or something like that. But I think council it's going to be a really nice presentation. Okay. Jeff, you want to talk about executive session? The council met in executive session for approximately 45 minutes today uh to discuss primarily the negotiations with the police on a new collective bargaining agreement. We are very very close. So hopefully with some few tweaks we'll be ready in the near future to approve a new police contract for 5 years. Other than that, that was the extent of our conversation.

Okay. Uh Lorraine, you have anything? I just want to thank again the burough crew for their tireless efforts um and going out and continuing to move snow and uh with the help and some help from my brother-in-law as well, Fred Cullen. So, I really appreciate it. That's all I have. Great.

I just want to say uh first of all, thank you, Mr. Dylan, for being so responsive. Um, the Scarrow is usually a very good organization and um, for the most part, I think overall we're pretty happy with them. Um, but there are pe a few people around town, particularly this last um, this last trash cycle uh, Monroe Street, uh, who were not picked up and um, unfortunately Lorraine and I were having a tough time communicating with those residents because we weren't getting answers from Mascara. Mr. Dylan was certainly trying his best. Um, and so I just want to say to the people of Monroe Street, we are as uh frustrated and annoyed with that situation as you are. Uh, as it stands right now, the plan is to pick up the trash tomorrow. Uh, if you are on Monroe Street and you notice [cough and laughter] that the trash has not been picked up um by the by, you know, maybe an hour or two after when it usually is, please feel free to reach out to us or Mr. Dylan to let us know so we can figure out why that route was getting missed and why we weren't getting answers as to why it wasn't picked up. That's all.

I mean, if your trash hasn't been picked up on any street, you should notify the bur as soon as possible. Don't wait until after we're out of here and then we can't do anything. If you can call us early enough, we they Mascara has a supervisor in town all day long while they're picking up trash to respond to any kind of complaints. Something had to happen unfortunate today because they emergency. Am I right, Jim? No matter when you call this guy, we all have his cell phone. He answers. So, who knows what could

could have happened. So, let's give him the benefit of the doubt. But like Greg said, if it's not picked up tomorrow, we really need to know as soon as possible. Brian, you have anything?

Uh, I just want to say for like the residents in like the North or around town, just be patient with Pico. Like they were out like I think it was Friday night and they worked all night and I heard them. They were right behind my house. But with the events that happen like at Silver Lake, just be patient with them. Um, actually I just want to um thank the burrow guys for all their uh hard work in removing the snow. Um, and that's it.

Louie, I just want to make mention of this. I kind of almost hate to do it, but I want to People are putting their chairs and their lawn furniture and whatever else out on the streets. It's not allowable. And it's at one point at some point we're going to have to either go around and pick them up and dispose of them or throw them in somebody's yard. But it's not it's not a good thing. It's not fair to anybody else on the block. I know when you dig yourself out, you feel that that's your space, but for that space to have to sit empty all day long while you're at work. That's not fair to the rest of the rest of people [clears throat] on that block. And actually, I saw one of them get hit by a a snow plow. It was a projectile gone down Rackless Street. Luckily, it didn't hit anybody's car. Um, so please have a little, you know, little courtesy and I I know it's a tough situation. It's the only time I've ever argued with a neighbor is over parking in the snow and and I regret it, [clears throat] you know, cuz it didn't do anybody any good. So, please, let's let's take this stuff off the street. Plus, the burough guys can actually start to move some of these bigger chunks that are along the side if if the cars aren't there. So everybody be patient because it doesn't look like it's going to warm up for another week yet. So but that's all I have. Thank you.

Um same thing. Um just uh to the residents of of of the town. Um, I know we all appreciate the patience with snow removal and parking and pico and all that and and and it takes it takes community to come together to to just get through this and just in in mind thy neighbor um in terms of the plowing and the the the shoveling out of spots and things of that nature. just just be mindful of each other and just just remember who we are and and um exercise patience and that's all I had. Right.

Uh just a question for Mr. Garton if you could check. Is [clears throat] there any provision in the code for the burough manager to take administrative action against a member of the police department without first consulting with the mayor? Um, I don't know. I'd be happy to discuss it in private since it's a personal issue. Okay. I will inquire, but Mr. Mayor, what's your phone number? And I'll be happy to call you. Okay, I'll give it to you. Okay, that works. Well, is there any I'd rather answer that.

I mean, I don't know. I want to get a little more detail first. know administrative action would not be something within the perview of the manager because obviously if it's disciplinarian uh it would come through the burrow eventually but it would not be unowed by the man I know what we're talking about so I don't want to be presump so once we find out we could publicly address that yeah we'll find out okay I don't think I know what we're talking about either what's that Jim I don't think I know what we're talking about either to any action against the police officers. Is that what I heard? Yeah, I'd be happy to discuss with you in private since it's personnel issue.

Well, do you want to call recess? We finish the meeting and we'll talk after the meeting after this meeting. You sure? Yeah. All right, Chief. I don't have the motion. Hey, Jay. [clears throat and cough]

Yeah, I have a couple things. Um, I spoke last week about fire hydrants being shoveled out. Fire department's still actively working on it. Uh, if you have a hydrant on your block and it is buried, please help us help you by digging it out. The other night we had a call and our firefighters need to hook up to a hydrant and they were hitting the ice and snow with shovels and sledgehammers trying to dig the hydrant out. If that would have been a structure fire, we would have had at least a 10-minute delay in getting uh hooked up to the hirement. So, if you could help us out, it would be much appreciated. Our guys have been out six, seven times. They're trying to get as many as possible, but uh if you can help us, uh please help us. Uh the fire department responded to a gas leak incident today on Swain Street. Um we worked together with the police department was there. We ended up evacuating nine houses. Um, they were sheltered in Google Hos's uh, Regency room while we could mitigate the issue. Um, no injuries or any of that, but we were there for about 3 hours this afternoon. Uh, and I'm working with Ray from L and I uh, on a couple of things behind the scenes. That's all I have.

Thank you. I know my street had a gas leak. They dug it up, finally fixed it, repaved the street. Then Aqua come in. They had a water problem. So they dug up the whole street. They just [snorts] repaved it. And now two days ago, Pico's out there with the gas coming. They're digging it up again. So the street's going to be paved three times. And it's it's ridiculous. But what do you want to do? Uh Jim, you have anything? No. Jeff, anything else? I've already discussed it. All right. so we can get into our regular meetings. So, number two on the agenda. [clears throat]

President, I'd like to make a motion to accept the council meeting minutes for December 15th, 2025, January 5th, 2026, and January 12th, 2026. Uh to accept the treasures report for December of 2025, to accept the police chief report for January of 2026. to accept the fire chief report for January of 2026. To accept the inspection report for January of 2026. To accept the public works report for January of 2026. To accept the hard report for January of 2026. To accept Gilmore report dated February 2026 for January 2026 work. And to accept 1927 Ahern's Fox Restoration Committee annual report to Bristol Barrel Council ending in 2025.

Second by Miss Colin. Questions or comments? All those in favor? I oppose. Number three. Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion to approve granting an honorable disability discharge to Dean Johnson pursuant to section 21 of the police tenure act 3PS section 8121 in the burough's uniform pension plan. Second by Mr. Contro. Any questions or comments? All right, Joe. I just want to take a second to thank Officer Johnson for his 19 years of service here in Bristol Burrow and wish him and his family well moving forward. Um, that's all. Thank you. Anybody else? Mr. President, can I comment on that?

Sure. I'm just with with the the unfortunate uh loss of uh Officer Johnson, that's going to put us below below [clears throat] the 10 uh man power minimum of the contract. Is there any consideration to bringing back uh our furled officer, Officer Depalo, who was uh one of the most active officers at the time when he was furo was not furled. He was laid off. There's a distinction.

Okay. Now, so we're involved now in the midst of a new collective bargain agreement. So the 108 the 10 man minimum may not be applicable going forward. Okay. Thank you. Excuse me as Cole keeps coming back. Any other questions or comments? All those in favor number four. Number five. I'm sorry. Mr. Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion to terminate the heart and lung benefit payment to Dean Johnson for the reasons noted in the prior motion.

Second by Miss Colum. Questions or comments? All those in favor? I number five. Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion in the hiring of Brian Mars as Burough's part-time recreation director at $30 per hour. Second by Mr. Secretroy. Questions or comments? Uh, I would just like to um say that uh Brian's excited to get to work. Um, and he will be starting on Friday. Um, he'll be starting on Friday. And um, you know, what we're talking about generally is going to be about $240 a week for someone that's very qualified to do the job. So, I think we're we're lucky to have him and excited to get get to work.

Any other questions or comments? All those in favor? Oppos? to make a motion to second my