Township Council - Regular Meeting

My cousin got one of those.

It's like a, what do you call it, like a merle? Yeah. Kind of a merle. It has like big blue eyes.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the September 14, 2026 public council meeting for the Township of Cedar Grove. Madam Clerk, roll call, please.

Councilwoman Meaghan? Here. Councilwoman Peterson? Is absent. Councilwoman Skavage? Here. Deputy Mayor Zazali? Here. Mayor Messary?

Here. Please stand for applies. and justice for all. Adequate notice of this meeting was duly provided to the Verona State Bureau of Times and the Star-Ledger by email and published in the annual schedule of meetings on December 18, 2025, filed with the Township Clerk, posted on the Public Bulletin Board in the Municipal Building Lobby in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act. Item two on the agenda. If anybody from the public would like to speak on any item on the agenda. Seeing none, I'll close that portion of the meeting. Item 3A, introduction of ordinance. To consider introduction of pending capital ordinance number 26-979, capital ordinance number 26972, providing funding for various water utility improvements for the Township of Cedar Grove, appropriating $520,000 for such purpose. Is there a motion?

I move for the introduction of pending capital ordinance number 26-979 to be published on the township's official website as a pending capital ordinance with a public hearing scheduled for October 5th, 2026.

Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Mayor, can I speak on this briefly? Yes. I was going to say, any discussion?

Through you, Mayor, this is an ordinance amending the purpose of Section 1 of Ordinance 26972. Ordinance 26972 was introduced and adopted at the time we did our municipal budget. We used $520,000 in fund balance from the water utility to provide for capital projects, including improvements to the water utility plant and the Monroe Street water main replacement. We did open bids, and the Monroe Street water main replacement exceeded the appropriation line. That's a separate agenda item I will speak to tonight. But what we're proposing in this ordinance amendment is to amend the purpose to allow for the design of the new water main on Cedar Grove Parkway. As the council is aware, there have been numerous water main breaks on Cedar Grove Parkway. So the goal is that by amending this ordinance at our next council meeting, we will be able to award a design proposal to design the water main on Cedar Grove Parkway. And then in the next year, either bond or use capital fund balance to fund both projects, hopefully going out to bid at the same time. We're very close to it in an attempt to drive the price of the project down.

Second. Roll call, please.

Councilwoman Meager? Yes. Councilwoman Scavage? Yes. Deputy Mayor Zazali? Yes.

Mayor Messary? Yes. Item 4A, to consider adoption of pending ordinance number 26978, stormwater control ordinance. This requires a public hearing, so we're going to open this to the public. Anyone wants to be heard on this ordinance? Seeing none, we'll close that portion of the meeting. We'll start with discussion first.

Thank you, Mayor. This is just, as I indicated in our last meeting, a required adoption of a new standard for stormwater control to comply with the state of New Jersey's MS4 stormwater permitting regulations. requirements the key changes in this ordinance include updating stormwater design runoff groundwater recharge and water quality requirements expanded requirements for the redevelopment and motor vehicle surfaces basically where you change oil on a car or perform any type of work on a vehicle new climate change and flood resilience considerations and updated NJDEP standards and best management practices it is required that municipalities adopt this before January 20, 2027. This ordinance will also require a review from the Essex County folks, as well as approval from the DEP before it becomes effective. And we just want to remind the public, this is a state-mandated update. It's not simply a local council change.

And opening today gives us enough time where we get all the approvals?

Adopting today will give us plenty of time to have the county opine and the state opine if there are any changes, but we use their form template. It doesn't mean that they won't change something, but typical New Jersey for you. Okay, great.

Any other questions, discussion? Is there a motion?

I move for the adoption of pending ordinance number 26-978 to be published on the township's official Internet website as a past ordinance and take effect as prescribed by law.

Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Roll call, please.

Councilwoman Mika? Yes. Councilwoman Scavage? Yes. Deputy Mayor Zazali? Yes. Mayor Mysterio?

Yes. Thank you. Item 5. 5A, approval of minutes. To consider approval of regular meeting minutes dated August 17, 2026. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? A roll call, please.

Councilwoman Miga? Yes. Councilwoman Skabage? Abstain. Deputy Mayor Zazali? Yes. Mayor Messary? Yes. Thank you.

Okay, item six, reports of the township officials, starting with our township manager. Good evening, Mr. Zichelli.

Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, Council. A few brief items to report on. I do want to report that we had a very successful town-wide garage sale this past Saturday. There were over, at the time I prepared this report, 135 registered homes. I do believe that that number increased from the time I prepared this report to the time the garage sale occurred. Really positive event, really good weather. Just another great thing that the township has sponsored this past year. I want to put a few dates on everybody's calendars. The Real Panthers Wear Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Walk, this is the 12th annual breast cancer walk that the township is hosting, will be held on Thursday, October 15th at Panther Park from 6 to 8 p.m. That's Thursday, October 15th at Panther Park from 6 to 8 p.m. Sponsorship letters are out there. If anybody's interested in sponsoring the walk, please contact the Recreation Department. I also want to advise the council that on this Saturday at 10 a.m., the Friends of the Cedar Grove Library will be unveiling Phase 1 of the Pave the Way initiative in support of renovations of the Children's Library. All residents are encouraged to attend, see the project, and meet the new library director, Rochelle DeFrank, as well as the new library staff. Rochelle has done a great job. at hiring staff the library is now fully staffed with full-time and part-time employees it's a great opportunity for the community to come and meet the new folks working there before i comment on the 9-11 ceremony i know i will reserve those for the rest of the council we were all there as a really moving ceremony and just one project update i want to share the community park upper playground is completed it was awarded at the last council meeting was awarded to rubber recycle through the morris county cooperative pricing pricing council we did that work in just over a week the 65 000 project was paid as part of the council's 2026 capital planning a new fence was installed all new playground surfaces so this year both playgrounds were restored at community park and finally i don't have a date locked down yet but we are in talks with the mobile dmv unit to come in october to serve our residents obviously we will occurs. Excellent. Great. Thank you.

Do you want me to go through the consent agenda now or do you want me to wait? You can do it now. Okay. Thanks.

Just on the consent agenda, I'm going to start with 7C. 7C, 7D, and 7E all relate to one particular project at 615 Pompton Avenue. 7C is a resolution increasing a professional service contract with suburban consulting engineers for construction, oversight, and management This is in the amount of $10,000. Increasing this professional service contract is so that as we award the bid tonight for the 200-foot bank stabilization project, the engineers will be out there to ensure that the wall is built according to the plans and specifications. Agenda item 7D is authorizing the execution of an agreement between the township and the property owner at 615 Pompton Avenue. The agreement covers a multitude of things including access to the area as well as a settlement and release of claims by the property owner against the township. Item 7E. 7E is an award of a bid on August 13, 2026. At 10 a.m., the Township received and opened sealed competitive bids for bid number OTE 2026-04 for the Peckman River Retaining Wall Riverbank Stabilization Project at 615 Pompton Avenue. This bid requires the installation of a 200-linear-foot-by-16-foot-tall bin block retaining wall along the bank of the Peckman River to address erosion and potential and eventual structural integrity issues. After review by the Township Engineer, QPA, and Attorney, the lowest responsible bid was determined to be ADP Group Incorporated of Patterson, New Jersey, in an amount not to exceed $495,940.00. Should this bid be awarded, the Township is planning to host a pre-construction meeting this Friday with the property owner and the contractor to work towards scheduling and finishing the stabilization work. This, as I indicated, bid is a part of the other two resolutions, the increase in the construction oversight as well as the access and settlement agreement for 615 Pompton Avenue. Any questions on this one before I continue? Item 7F, I alluded to it before when we introduced the new capital ordinance for the water utility. Item 7F is a rejection of the Monroe Street water main bids on August 6, 2026. The township opened sealed competitive bids for 202603, which is the installation of a water main on Monroe Street. The lowest bid came from John Garcia Construction Company in the amount not to exceed $990,657. This amount substantially exceeded the township's budgeted appropriation and therefore may be rejected pursuant to NJSA 40A-11-13.2B. The township has already reviewed these plans to see if there are any modifications or changes that can be made for us to go out and re-bid it, hopefully in conjunction with another project to drive the price down, and also during the new budget year so we can either bond anticipation notes for it or increase our capital improvement fund from fund balance in the water utility. This is pretty common. I'm seeing this on a lot of bids and projects. The cost of fuel, everything is rising. And at the time we prepared the budget, fuel costs weren't what they were, as were the costs of everything else. So this is pretty common. Next item to discuss is 7G, the release of a maintenance bond for the Coptic Church on Woodstone Drive. This work has been completed for over two years now, and the engineer has inspected the work and reviewed it. She's determined that the work is satisfactory and that the maintenance bond in the amount of $40,406.25 can be returned to the property owner. 7H is an insertion of special revenue. The township received a $10,000 grant from the NJDEP to offset some stormwater costs. So as the council adopted the stormwater ordinance tonight, that's part of our MS4 permitting process. We're going to use this $10,000 to offset the cost of all the MS4 permitting, the ordinance cost, anything associated with that. So as soon as this is inserted into our budget, we will actually attach it right to the capital ordinance providing for the MS4 permitting. Item 7I. This is a really good change order. This resolution is authorizing a decrease in the contract amount of $32,085.72, which is 9.44% of total contract value, reflecting a new contract price of $307,656.68 for the paving of Rockledge Place and Reservoir Place. The reason the contract is decreasing by $32,085.72 is due to an air void penalty assessed to the contractor. This resolution also authorizes the township to make the initial payment application number one in the amount of $284,394.88. And I do want to remind the public and the council that we did receive a NJDOT grant for this project. So with the change order, we're well below the amount of the grant that we received, which means we can use the difference to help offset the engineering costs. 7J is a resolution authorizing tax exemption for 195 Stevens Avenue, Block 360, Lot 9, due to permanently and totally disabled veteran status. authorizing the cancellation of $6,544.32 in 2026 taxes, a refund of $2,901.05 for 2026 taxes, and cancellation of the 2027 tax billing in the amount of $6,319.26. And finally, 7K is the appointment of Cedar Grove Fire Captain Zachary Lynch as one of the Deputy Emergency Management Coordinators for our Office of Emergency Management. Any questions, I'm happy to speak on any of these items.

Thank you, Mrs. Gill. Okay. Good evening, Madam Clerk.

Good evening, Mayor, members of council. I'd just like to report that there's a special school board election tomorrow, September 15th, from 6 to 8. All polling locations will be open. If there are any questions, anyone can feel free to call my office. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Logana. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I do not have a full report this evening. Thank you.

All right, Council reports. I'm going to start to my left this time. I'm going to throw you off. Okay, all right. Councilwoman Skavage, good evening.

Good evening. I'm sure I'm going to say what a lot of you are going to say up here about our ceremony on Friday. The police and the firefighters did a really beautiful job during the 9-11 remembrance. It was the 25th anniversary. We had a wonderful turnout. There was a lot of members of the community in addition to the entire population of Cedar Grove High School. And one thing that I like to notice every year, I mean, obviously we want to thank our fire department for their tremendous work and the police and the Um, all of the first responders who came the ambulance and rescue squad. Um, but something that strikes me every year is the respect of the students. They, they stood there for, you know, nearly 40 minutes in, in absolute silence. And I, it, that, that part was always very, um, moving to me. Um, and I, I just, I, I'm very proud of the work our township does. I know our fire department took over this memorial six years ago, they said. Um, and it's really a special thing we do here as a community. So I just wanted to acknowledge that. Um, and then just one, one quick question for you, Mr. Kelly. Um, we had another pretty gnarly storm, um, and didn't hear of any issues. And, uh, I know you, you always are fantastic about sharing. news with us about any potential problems in town with flooding? Were we unscathed this weekend?

Through you, Mayor, as the saying goes, no news is good news. There was a little bit of quick flash flooding on certain streets, but we had DPW in yesterday. Just on standby, if there was an issue, they went out and cleaned catch basins with the exception of some folks who may have had some hydrostatic pressure rising from the ground of their property. Our rivers were fine. Our engineer did get the cameras installed by NJIT at no cost to the township. These have proved to be incredibly helpful for myself, for our police department, the engineer, DPW, and OEM. I could sign in remotely from my computer, which is what I was doing, checking flood levels. And thankfully, the Taylor's Brook stabilization held up just fine. We did receive a lot of rain in a little bit of time, but for the most part, we fared much better than some of our neighbors.

Perfect. Thank you. That's tremendous work from you, your team, and the DPW. So thank you for that. And that's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll come back to you. Okay. We'll go to my right now. Ladies first. Councilwoman Amiga.

Good evening, everyone. I just wanted to also chime in about the 9-11 event that we went to. Very respectfully done. Very well attended. I think the students did an excellent job behavior wise but also speaking as did you thank you you're very well behaved to thank you so much we have to speak to you and and just so everybody knows we will never see the road will never forget they will never forget and a special thank you to our fire department I got several comments about the garage sale as well everyone was very very thankful that we continued to do so I don't know how many years this is that it's been for I think it will continue on, I would venture to guess. And also, I have a little report from the Historical Society that on the 19th, which is this coming Saturday, there was an appraisal day from 11 to 3. You could buy tickets online. You could buy tickets at the door if you prefer. On the 23rd, there was a... presentation called Mrs. Bennett Follows the Army at 730 at the Cedar Grove Public Library. And also on October 3rd from 10 to 4, there's their annual pumpkin and apple sale up at Morgan's Farm. It's only one day this year. Normally it was two, but it's only one day this year. And that's it for me. Thank you. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor? Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, everybody. I also just wanted to mention that the September 11th ceremony, it was very well done. We appreciate the fire department and the police department and the students who participated in that, put all that together and the effort that was behind it. It was very well done. Thank you for doing that. It's very important that they keep up that tradition. So thank you. And Mr. Zichelli, I had a question for you. I had a resident contact me, and I saw something in an email also regarding shredding in the town. Could you tell me? I think we were waiting on an answer, but I don't know if you...

Through you, Mayor, I haven't seen it sent out from the fire department yet, but I do believe, let me just pull my calendar up, that the seat of our fire department sent our company. I'm trying to get the date right. Sorry. I believe it's October 10th. will be hosting their shredding event outside of Town Hall. This is at no charge, but it would be nice if the residents were to do a little donation. This is not something that the township sponsors. Rather, this is something that the fire department does as a fundraiser mechanism. It will be Saturday, October 10th from 8 a.m. to 12 noon. That's Saturday, October 10th from 8 a.m. to 12 noon right outside here at Town Hall. As soon as I get the official flyer from our fire department, obviously the township will share it in our email blast. I'll put it in my memo, and it'll be on social media as well.

Okay. Thank you.

That's it, Mary. Thank you. So it's always difficult when we all attend one event because then we all speak about it. Being last, there's not much I can add to it. But again, we thank our volunteer fire department for doing such a great job for the 25th anniversary. And we remember every year, and I mentioned it in my speech and I posted about it, we lost two residents from Cedar Grove that day, Jack Eichler and Norman Rosenhaupt. So it's something to see when the students who weren't born, they're learning about 9-11 in books, that they mention their names every year and they do their bios. So, I mean, it means a lot. I'm sure it means a lot to their families and it means a lot to us who, you know, who are Cedar Grove. so I'm happy to see that this is continuing and I am very proud of what the high school students did that day and they did a beautiful job the choir the speeches and of course how the fire department handled it so thank you to everybody who participated and thank you to everybody in the community who came out you know to support as well so the other item I have is we do have a public meeting for the regional flood board it's this Friday right September 18 18th and it's at 9 a.m. that's corrected today right it's 9 a.m. and that's going to be at the Woodland Park Municipal Council chambers so everybody's welcome from the public this is the regional flood board we go over topics concerning not just our community but also the surrounding community so everybody is welcome for that that's all I have moving on to the consent agenda do I have a motion for consent items a through K so moved

Second.

Can I roll call?

Councilwoman Meaghan? Yes. Councilwoman Scavage? Yes. Deputy Mayor Zazali? Yes. Mayor Masseri?

Yes. Item 8. Approval of bills. Madam Clerk.

Thank you, sir. Be it resolved by the Township of Cedar Grove, County of Essex, New Jersey, that the summary of bills having been audited and found to be correct are hereby ordered paid in the aggregated amount of $1,190,985.04. Thank you. Do we have a motion to approve?

So moved. Second.

Second.

Roll call.

Councilwoman Miga. Yes. Councilwoman Scavage? Yes. Deputy Mayor Zazali? Yes. Mayor Mysterio?

Yes. Thank you. Item 9, new business. I don't have anything for new business. Does anybody have anything? No. Moving on to 10, public comment. This portion of the meeting is open to the public on any item on or off the agenda.

Good evening, council members. Charles Stavico, 111 Holly Lane. As mentioned in our township clerk's report, tomorrow is an important election that has drawn a lot of attention from the standpoint from the Board of Education. At this point, the only voice who I have heard from have been the elected officials from the Board of Ed. The other elected officials, our council members have been relatively quiet publicly on this issue. And quite honestly, I think that's concerning as a resident. I've elected or helped elect a board of ed and members of the town council. And I've put you in that position because I feel we've entrusted you to do the financial affairs as well as the well-being of the township in your best interest. And when one party of elected officials is out vocally through material and handouts and so on. As I understood, they should. They were elected for that and they felt they've done that, but we have yet to hear from our other elected officials. So tonight, I would like to ask each of you individually whether you feel that the referendum is a go, a no-go, or you will put no comment at this point for the minutes of this meeting. Mayor, I'll start with you.

Thank you, Mr. Vico. And you came to meet me at my Meet the Mayors, so you did ask me the same question there, and I'm going to give you the same answer. This is a Board of Ed referendum. Obviously, as a resident of town, a member of the council, it's an important election, as you say. But it's not a township council bond referendum, right? This is the Board of Ed. And while members of the council have met individually with the superintendent and the Board of Ed during the process, we believe the decision belongs to the Cedar Grove taxpayers. That's why it's a referendum. For that reason, I'm not going to comment on it.

So it's no comment from your position?

Yeah, I'm not going to comment on it. I encourage what I do say. because I've had several people from the public approach me and had questions and some of it was they thought a, you know, a no show is a no vote and that's not accurate, you know, and I hope that that's been cleared up with some of the publications. I definitely encourage all the residents to go out and vote whether you support the referendum or not.

Deputy May, could we ask you whether you are in favor, opposed or offer no comment for the for the record?

Well, I feel that this type of vote, this is a decision for the people, for the residents to make. And you said we were elected. And you rely on us and put your trust in us, and we appreciate that, so thank you. But you're putting your trust in me to make a decision for you. This vote is not a decision for you. This is a decision by you. This is a decision by the people. That's fine. I understand, sir. I would say no comment.

Council Member Nagy?

I feel the same way. I think it's a decision that the people out there should make, and I will not say what I will do one way or another, especially being a former important member, but I do firmly believe people need to go out and vote and let their vote be heard and let their vote be counted. I mean, it's what we do, right?

Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilwoman Skavich?

I have nothing to add.

Excuse me?

I have nothing to add to what my colleagues said. Okay.

Thank you. At least it's on the record that basically there was a vote that. I would just like to reiterate the fact that You're not going to influence my vote. You may help support my vote in terms of how I've looked at the scenario as such. You are closer to this than any resident in town from the standpoint of the financial affairs of this township and the entrustment that we've put in each of you should balance that out. You are our spokespersons. You are our... our eyes and ears. The fact that you met with the Board of Ed on December 22nd in an executive session and discussed this and then approved the minutes of that meeting in February without release I think was a bad idea on your part. It should have been released to us. We should have at least had the benefit of knowing what was discussed between the Board of Ed and our town council in that executive session meeting. Why it was kept a secret at this point, I wish I knew. But it would have helped, I think, everyone that's going to vote tomorrow. And they're going to vote as they see fit, just as I will. But I think your point or the points that were made at that meeting that you probably could have articulated even such publicly were helped. And I find that concerning to me. As a taxpayer, as a resident, I find that disturbing.

Well, I can answer that. Sure. With counsel's assistance. The reason that that's an executive session and they haven't been released because they were – Well, I don't want to speak for council, is it? Because of...

There was contract negotiation ongoing regarding a specific project, or a specific part of that project. Mayor and council, I don't think that that is any longer a need to keep executive, and you can release the minutes if you'd like.

I have no objection to doing it, but we do everything properly with... That's not something that you think is in that... It sounds like you believe that we're discussing the referendum, but it was more... Oh, I think you were discussing items pertaining to the referendum, yes.

It was a very specific element. Were there not suggestions offered at that meeting that would assist the Board of Ed in any way, shape, or form?

Mayor, I can answer this. So the minutes I would imagine will be released. If I recall correctly, the substance of the matter was contract negotiation, wherein the Board of Education was seeking some type of assistance from the township in an attempt to advance understanding certain components of the referendum. Obviously, nothing material has come from that because any action that would have followed would have had to occur in a public meeting. So to the extent that the request through a contract negotiation required any type of affirmative action on behalf of the governing body, It's my position that the Council didn't take any affirmative action on that. We've heard the Board of Education's request, and frankly, nothing else came from that. I don't know if, Council, you want to add on top of that, but that was the substance of the negotiation.

Again, not knowing the minutes, I have to take your word, which I do, but it would have been helpful if we would have the opportunity to see that there was nothing beyond what has just been represented as part of that meeting. I think in my position, as you've just indicated, I took the position that there was dialogue back and forth of suggestions, comments, opinions related to the direction that the Board of Ed was going in and that the board, our town council, excuse me, would have perhaps offered some additional guidance. Let's face it, whatever happens tomorrow, The blowback somehow will wind up here. Whether positive, negative, whatever, it ends up here. Town residents are going to come in here and either say, you screwed our school system or you raised our taxes too high. Yes, the Board of Ed did it, but it always winds up here. You people face the music.

And I wanted to comment on that last comment. It's something you said earlier, if I may. Sure. We have no more information than you do on that. That's where you're mistaken. I mean, we know what the amount of the taxes are, the impact on the taxes. That's public. That's been provided based on an average assessment. But we don't know. This is a Board of Ed referendum. Whatever work they did, you know, going to those public meetings, you know, I'm not going to put you on the spot. I don't know if you went or not. I did not, no.

to the board of ed meetings but those questions are for them we don't know anything more than the public does i mean that's if i could just piggyback on that mayor you know to the extent that um the referendum is a question the public is is voting on you know it's been my experience during this process that we the township has sought not to intervene or influence the procedures or processes that the board of education is or is not doing as frustrating as that may be especially somebody who works very diligently to keep our budget in line and our taxes low um you know route 23 bifurcates us and I use that as an analogy in more ways than one, I can't speak to, and I certainly, through the mayor and the council, do not believe the council can speak to their public education component, and I don't mean that in terms of the educational sense of the classroom, I mean in terms of getting out the vote on the referendum. To the mayor's point, we've asked questions the same way I'm sure members of the public have asked questions, and at least my individual knowledge as the township manager is not any greater or any less than yours as a member of the resident. In fact, I'm sure some residents have more knowledge on it than I even do by going to the forums and the other events that they've had.

I accept your explanation from that standpoint, but it is frustrating. As a resident who has children, grown children, in the education field, education is always near and dear to me, and I never want to see a child be deprived of that education and so on. But aspects of the plan go beyond just education. They go into opening schools that have been closed for a period of time. And the dollars involved are rather significant, and the impact of the property taxes is also rather significant to many of us of the senior community who are on fixed incomes and so on. For that reason, I would have welcomed some input from the elected officials. beyond the Board of Ed's elected officials. There should have been a balance of conversations between all of those parties who have been elected by the citizens of this town to give us an opportunity to see both sides of it, or maybe one side. Maybe everyone's in favor of the Board of Ed's position. I don't know that. It would have been nice to kind of hear it,

but we avoid mr. Davico I have I have two kids in the school district I just want to answer you because I feel like I didn't give you a fair answer before I have two kids in the school district I'm the only one up here who does I think yes it would be incredibly inappropriate for for me to comment publicly I however I would be happy to talk to you privately and off the record if you wanted to have a conversation but I you know it's it's not something that we can comment on. We have a very clear delineation.

But I don't see the delineation that stops you from commenting. There's nothing that precludes them from publicly voicing your opinion. Your opinion. I didn't say that the town council had to come out with something.

Respectfully, they're both, and I don't want to talk out of turn here for members of the council, they wear both hats as a private citizen of this town and an elected official. So if they've chosen, as they've indicated to you, they don't believe it's appropriate for them to sit on this dais and tell you one way or another how they feel because it might influence people one way or another. They're saying it's the township's decision. How they vote, and I'm sure they're all going to vote, is a different matter. They're voting as private citizens, not as elected officials. It's a very different situation.

I understand the delineation. I tried to separate it from the question that if I would ask town council how you feel, I didn't. I asked individually how they feel.

Right, but they're sitting on this day, in all fairness.

So walk away from the dais and end it.

That's fine. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Navigo. Thank you. Sorry, I didn't want to speak at a turn.

No, thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, we'll close that portion of the meeting. Item 11, the next meeting is the staff meeting, which is scheduled for September 28, 2026, 7 p.m. in council chambers.

Mayor, could I just briefly on that?

Yes.

Because of the holiday... We are meeting the following Monday immediately after that. For a public meeting? For the October public meeting? Yes. October 5th. October 5th meeting. We are going back to the first Monday, third Monday schedule. Just because Labor Day was last week, the schedule got askew a little bit in September. Okay.

Thank you. All right. We don't have an executive session tonight. Item 13, adjournment. Is there a motion? Is there a second? Second. Roll call.

Councilwoman Amiga? Yes. Councilwoman Scavage? Yes. Deputy Mayor Zazali? Yes. Mayor Masir?

Yes.