Township Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. I will now call this chamber to order. Will everyone please rise if you can. We pledge allegiance to our flag and the United States of America. Remain standing for a moment of personal reflection. I pledge algiance 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. Thank you. Township clerk, will you please call roll and read our statement of adequate notice? Councilman Bahal here. Councilman Wendell here. Councilwoman Winston here. Councilwoman Zimbiki here. And Council President Makavoy here. Also present. Mayor Brad Cohen here. Administrator Joseph Kascula here. And Township Attorney Anthony Aayakoka here. Adequate notice of this this meeting has been provided as required under chapter 231 public law 1975 by specifying the time, date, location, and to the extent known the agenda by posting a copy on the bulletin board located in the main lobby of the East Brunswick Municipal Building, providing a copy to the Home News Tribune and the Asbury Park Press newspapers, posting a copy on the township's website, and by filing a copy in the Office of the Township Clerk, which will be entered into the minutes. Thank you, council. You have before you resolution 25-1 191, adopting our meeting minutes from our May 12th, 2025 meeting. May I have a motion to accept?

Second and a second. Thank you. Is there a need for correction or clarification on these minutes? Seeing none, roll call, please. Councilman Bhal, yes. Councilman Wendell, yes. Councilwoman Winston, yes. Councilwoman Zimbiki, yes. And Council President Makavoy, yes. Council, we have a proclamation from the mayor's office regarding the 50th anniversary of the Department of Aging. I will engage the proclamation, and if there are any members in the audience this evening, please join me at the podium. [Music] [Music] Good evening. I got a cold hand. I don't know why. Well, thank you. proclamation. Whereas in 1975, the first commission on aging and senior citizen drop-in center was established by the township of East Brunswick. And whereas the department of aging has had many homes starting with the Nativity Lutheran Church, the East Brunswick Public Library, and for the past 41 years, the current senior center building. And whereas the mission and the focus of the Department of Aging, regardless of its location or how it was identified, has remained committed to fostering independence, promoting health and wellness, educating and advocating for mature residents and their families. And

whereas the Department on Aging continues to work tirelessly striving to make an impact on enhancing the lives of older adults and their families for the past 50 years through innovative programs, activities, and social services. And whereas through continuous generosity of the friends of the East Brunswick Senior Center and local community community business partners who have provided the funding to support this golden anniversary celebration and whereas the Township of East Brunswick is worthy of celebrating this proud moment to be commended for having the vision of supporting older adult residents in East Brunswick. for over 50 plus years now. Therefore, it be proclaimed that I, Mayor Brad J. Conn, Mayor of the Township of East Brunswick, wish the East Brunswick Department of Aging a 50th anniversary celebration, and it continued in all of their success. Given under my hand and the great seal of the town of East Brunswick, this the 29th day of May in the year of 2025, the honorable mayor Brad J. phone. [Applause] Thank you so much, Council President, other members of council, Mayor Cohen and Joe. I just want to say thank you so much for your continuous support. And I'd also like to thank all those that have come before us because they too help lay the foundation and provide programs and services, you know, throughout the years. Uh it is an honor and privilege to serve as the current director of department on aging. And I would also like to recognize our assistant director and senior meals coordinator and our Medicare SHIP counselor uh Judy Ryan who's also with

us this evening. And again, it is really truly an honor and privilege uh to be able to serve in this position. The older adult population is the most um significant population right now. It is growing. We actually have over 11,000 um individuals that are turning 65 in the country every day as of this year. And in the year 2050 um that population will constitute about 20% of the entire population. And our numbers today actually reflect that. We saw our highest number of new members join the center as of last year um over 300. And uh we are actually on target to probably um surpass that this year. We have an average of about 150 elders that come into the center on a daily basis and that does not include individuals that are calling for additional social services and programs um that we are able to offer throughout the department. So, as you can see, uh this is there is a need for continued services for this population and I would be remiss if I did not say thank you to the dedicated and compassionate staff that show up every single day. Um this is not done, this is a partnership and it could not be done without everyone. Also, our volunteers. Um, we have literally hundreds of volunteers and they too deserve kudos and appreciation and it really is amazing 50 years and I it's hard to imagine. Um, but I'm so happy that we're able to have the support of all of you, our residents, because we are here to serve those 60 and over and their families and we will continue to do so with love and compassion and loyalty. And again, I thank you so much for this. On behalf of myself and our, believe it or not, we have about 7,000

registered participants in our database and we have over 2,000 that are actually active members. So again, this would not be possible without all of your support and uh we are very much looking forward to our big celebration tomorrow as well as throughout the remainder of the year. So thank you again. Before you go, Mayor Con. Yeah, I think that u everybody here at the Deis has spent some time over at the center and I I almost feel that it shouldn't just be called a senior center. It's it is a active vital part of the community with people who are overwhelmingly engaged in the township and really do care. I know that there's been times that people will say, "Oh, the seniors, they don't they don't have kids in the school anymore. They don't care about that. They only That's actually not true. If you speak to most of the people there, they are absolutely loyal to this township. If they weren't, they wouldn't have stayed here. Many have left. They could have done that. They've chosen to stay here. And so, they do care about our kids and they do care about our schools and they do care about what goes on in town. And every time we have meetings or public uh town halls or opportunities to interact, I they're always um curious and they come in big numbers uh to show that that that population matters. If you look at the programs that are going on, I sometimes think I don't know if I would be able to keep up with some of them. Uh it's really amazing. I think we've also learned over the years in the 50 years that there's now a segmenting of the uh senior or the older population because people live longer. And so if they're

living longer, you have those that are more active seniors and those that as they get older can't do as much. But older, that's a bar that keeps moving forward. It's not uncommon any longer to hear people living to 100. That's not an anomaly. It happens more frequently than you think. So, we have to be able to cater to all of those groups and we do. And I think that's why you're seeing the growth besides just the demographic change because they see value in what you're we're we're all providing here. And um and I agree. I think that in large part if you speak speak to anybody that has gone to our um facility, they don't stop talking about the staff and about how engaged they are and and and and enthusiastic they they make them want to keep coming back and you it's hard to put a price on that. So, I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart and I think I speak for everybody um that uh that you're providing an incredible service for such a valuable part of our community. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Anyone else from I I've spent time there as you know and I just want to add very quickly you make you make the center feel like a family. you make everyone feel welcome that they're part that they're connected and part of the family. And I think that's that's why you have so many people who keep coming back every day because it's it's home for many of them. They feel at home and anyone who goes in there feels that too. So kudos because that's hard to do and you do it every day and it's amazing. Thank you. Well, I will say um with we worked with EBTV who I cannot say enough about Anthony Anthony and his team and we put together an incredible uh 50th anniversary video which is going to actually be debuted tomorrow at our

celebratory lunchon and that will be made available for everyone to see. And you will see that progression and how we have changed and we have to you know um because people are living longer like you said and more healthfully and that's one thing that you know we really are proud of that we were able to meet the needs of this everchanging um you know these ever changing population. So um and their families too. So you will see that and I I think you're going to hear a lot about extended family and home and uh not just from the staff but from some of our participants and get to see that rich history and again that wouldn't be h possible without the support of all of you and those that be came before you because we continue to grow on that great foundation. So, thank you so much, [Applause] council. We have three ordinances for a second reading and public hearing. First up, ordinance 25 hyphen 21. Uh, will the township clerk please read? bond ordinance providing for various capital school capital improvements in and by the township of East Brunswick, County of Middle Sex, State of New Jersey, pursuant to a shared services agreement with the East Brunswick Board of Education appropriating 11,515,789 therefore and authorizing the issuance of 10,940,000 in bonds or notes of the township. ship to finance part of the cost thereof. May I have a motion to accept? So moved. A second. Second. Thank you. Now open this matter to the public. Is there any need for public comment? That we'll close the public portion.

Roll call, please. No. Would you open it to the council, please? I did. You didn't open to the council for discussion? Is there a need for public comment? Well, we're not public. No, I was talking No, I'm talking about council discussion. Oh, sure. Yeah, sure. Before we I just want I I just want to state for the record um that we have been kicking this around for couple of months now, maybe more. Um, and last meeting I agreed to support it and I'm still in support of it, but with all the turmoil within the board of ed uh with resignations from board of ed members and resignations from our um our uh superintendent. It calls into question where this ends up because these improvements are not going to get done this year. This 11 million500,000 worth of improvements that we are going to be bonding for is not going to get done this year. Um, it calls into concern for me that the next superintendent could be stepping into something of an additional budget crisis with this 11,500,000 which we've discussed with the board of ed, we've discussed with Mr. Bleski and and the chairman of the board and and they gave us more clarity on it and and and I still do support it, but but you know, it still leaves me questioning whether all of these improvements are emergent and need to be

done. And don't get me wrong, as was said to us, Mayor, myself, and uh Chairman Makavoy, um they're going to bond for this money whether we allow them to do it or not, whether we borrow it on our rates or not, which we get better rates. Um, we're only at this point doing a service to the taxpayer by allowing them to bond at a lower interest rate. I still want to say that I don't support this this level of of repairs and and and some of the capital expenditures such as a new scoreboard or something of that nature that needs to be done that is called out as emergent. Um, I just I don't see it that way. But I will support it tonight because I think it's in the best interest of the taxpayer. And in addition to that, I this this is coupled with a shared services agreement for busing for our our camps. And I don't want to put our uh camps in a position at such a late date to find a a busing contractor that can service our camps in such a short period of time. I would urge this governing body next year not to bulk the two together. the bond ordinance and bonding for them, which we do every year, should be separate from the busing ordinance. And I don't think that they should be linked. But I will support this tonight. And that's all that's all I wanted to say. Roll call,

please. Council member Hall, yes. Councilman Wendell, yes. Councilwoman Winston, abstain. Councilwoman Zimbicki, yes. And Council President Makavoy, yes. County clerk, will you please read uh ordinance 25-y 22? An ordinance of the township of East Brunswick, County of Middle Sex, State of New Jersey, amended chapter 209, section 65 entitled schedule 27, midblock crossings of the code of the township of East Brunswick to add a midblock crosswalk designation on Kingswood Boulevard. Motion approved. Second. Second. I'll now open this matter to the public. Is there a need for public comment? I don't see any hands. There is no need for public comment. I'll close the public portion. Council, any comments? Nothing there. Roll call, please. Council member Hall, yes. Councilman Wendell, yes. Councilwoman Winston, yes. Councilwoman Zimbicki, yes. And Council President Makavoy, yes. And our third ordinance, uh, ordinance 25 hyphen 23. Township clerk, would you please read? An ordinance of the township of East Brunswick, County of Middle Sex, state of New Jersey, amending chapter 228 zoning to add regulations for feather flag signs to the township code of the township of East Brunswick. May I have a motion? So move to accept. Second. Second. I'll now open this matter to the public. If there is a need for the public to comment. I don't see any hands for the public. I'll close the public portion. Comment from town council. Nothing new. We've discussed this already. Roll call, please. Council member Bhal. Yes. Councilman Wendell? Yes. Councilwoman Winston? Yes.

Councilwoman Zimbicki? Yes. And Council President Mackoy? Yes. And uh to our uh to our guests from the senior, don't feel you have to stay for the excitement of of you're more than welcome. More than welcome. There's always something going on here, but I just didn't didn't want want you to know that you would not be embarrassing us or yourselves. At this time, we'll continue our meeting with our mayor's report. Mayor Con. Thank you, Council President. A couple of items. one, there was supposed to have been on the agenda for this evening, a contract with Black Bear doing business as Proskate, which is the company that was going to come in and operate most of the hockey and ice skating um operations for the rink. We've been working on that contract. It's an important one. It's one that really has a lot of detail, and we really didn't want to rush it. We actually, I think at this point, are pretty much done with it, but that was today. which would have meant that to get it on the agenda, we'd have to bring to you today a contract that's pretty significant and ask you to read through that and be able to vote on that today, which is unreasonable. So, we will pass that out as soon as we're pretty much certain that we're we're done. And we're pretty much there for you all to review so that that could be on the agenda for the next council meeting at the uh state level. Uh, I was on the, as many of you know, I'm on the, uh, board of directors for the League of Municipalities. So, we meet every other week and get updates on what's going on at the state and federal level. The state budget, as most of you know, is due by July. Uh and it looks like that because of the uncertainty surrounding the federal budget with the big beautiful bill which is big and it is a

bill. It's just not beautiful. Um with that um because it in would involve significant cuts to programs that affect us here in New Jersey. The state is already telling people to expect that while they'll get a budget passed in July, they're reserving the right to open it up again in September because if there are significant changes, they may need to make changes to the state budget which could trickle itself down to to ours as well. So, we all need to be aware that that could happen. the uh addition. While there's a lot of things that are being cut that are are significant, but one issue that affects many of us that live in high tax states such as New Jersey that I actually think is a benefit is the salt tax deduction, which is now going to go from $20,000 to $40,000 for those that are married and file jointly and make under $500,000 a year. So that is an improvement for those that are paying higher taxes and really we're not seeing a benefit uh in terms of being able to deduct that from your taxes on the uh uh federal level. I mean that I'm sorry also on the state level. I spoke last time about the massive increase in the state health benefits. It's expected that for this year 2026 that they're already working on it's a 25 to 30% increase in the rates. What's starting to happen and finally they coined the term that we've been using now for a couple years. the program is on a death spiral because what's happening is that those towns or counties that have decent enough experience rating or are large enough to get out of the state health benefit plan

are doing that and what's left in the state health benefit plan are those people that can't get out. So they are the most um costly. So they expect that for 2027 the cost increase will be 50% increase and by 2028 a 60% increase which really is the beginning of a death spiral to the health benefits and it calls into question doing something fundamental to change how state health benefits work because it's going to become defunct if they have to go through and put through rate increases like that. It's just unaffordable. So, um, that's what's going on there. In terms of looking at the Doge effect of cutting Medicaid, which is the big one, 90% of our Medicaid money in New Jersey comes from the federal government. With the cuts that they're proposing, they expect conservatively that that would amount to a $3.6 6 million um increase to the New Jersey state budget just to make up for that um reduction and it will affect over 300,000 New Jersey residents. So these are massive changes that are going to affect real people who have and are in the greatest need and it will cause has to cause um an increase in taxes because if they're not if we're not getting from the federal government and now have to make it up in state taxes, either they're going to cut everything else or they're just going to have to raise taxes. There's nobody's printing money here. So it is a um a dismal type of look and one that is uncertain. So feel um uh but the fact that our budget which we passed and we could high-five how great we're in in terms of a position

could change if the state has to open up its budget and and reallocate. So that is my report. Thank you. Our business administrator, Mr. Crusculo. Uh just one item. The mayor mentioned the contract for Proskate Black Bear. I just I would be be remiss if I didn't thank uh Anthony Aakoka, our steam attorney, Mike Rynner, and Keith Kip. We we were working on this up until 8:30 last night with calls going back and forth and emails and so on. So, just really a a thank you to to Mike uh Keith and and Anthony um for trying to get this to the finish line and we will have it ready for you on the next agenda as Anthony has told me. Thank you. We we will get that a week or so beforehand. We're going to give you plenty of time. Okay. Thank you. We're hoping by Monday, Tuesday, I'll be able to get you out. Yeah. Our township attorney, Mr. Aya Coker. Thank you, Joe, for the kind words. Appreciate it. Um, one item on the agenda is ordinance uh number 25-24. It's for first reading. It's regarding um amending chapter 135 article um 9 health spas and related uses. Chapter 28 uh 228 a revised ordinance was circulated and I just want to just point out that there were um two changes made. Uh one with regard to the um annual uh registration in section 135-64 the word um annual was changed to initial. So, there's going to be an initial application fee um for this. And the second change was in section 135-662 in subsections B and C. Um public hearings has been changed to

hearings. So, those are the two changes that are in the revised ordinance first reading for this evening. And I would just like to point out that the second reading will be on uh June 23rd at council chambers at 7:30 p.m. U for this ordinance. All right. Thank you. And and council president, the major change to that's going on with this, if you recall over the years when there's been violations that we had scheduled hearings at the council meetings um to adjunicate it. So, we've modeled uh with Anthony and Joe and Mike Baker's help, we modeled after a couple communities in the state to adjunicate these without exposing our undercover detectives and police officers for their safety. Uh it's a great idea. A lot of the model ordinances that we looked at were held as, you know, record-breaking. Uh uh one is the Edison one where they recovered uh somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 and something thousands stuffed in a teddy bear and they were able to take that and several vehicles and a piece of another piece of property. So, it's kind of modeled after that. And we think uh you know, you'll see other towns uh doing this as well. And we appreciate the support actually from the police department, a lot of input from them, a lot of input from uh our legal team to to make it right because I want to make sure we we protect our our detectives uh that do this dangerous work. So, thank you very much. our township clerk, Miss Lawful. Uh just a quick report on our upcoming primary election. Uh the 2025 primary election will be held on Tuesday, June 10th. Um for those who are not able to vote on election day, June 10th, um early vowen will begin next week,

Tuesday, June 3rd, and will continue until Sunday, June 8th. Um, early vowen will be held at the community arts center. Um, and the polls will be open from 10:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. And on Sunday, the polls will be open from 10:00 a.m. through 6:00 p.m. Uh, for those who will be voting by mail, uh, there are three ways to return your mail and ballot. As a friendly reminder, you can submit your ballot using the US Postal Service of no cost to you whatsoever. You can also drop it off at the board of elections located at 26B Kennedy Boulevard here in East Brunswick or conveniently utilize our ballot dropbox which is located within our m municipal complex by our municipal court and our police station parking lot. And that is all that I have to report. I do hope that everyone go out and vote for this coming 2025 primary election. Thank you. Council members, any committee or board reports? Councilwoman Zambbecki, please. Thank you. The park and Rex report is for the month of April and May. I'm going to give you the highlights because we were there for hours. There's a lot happening in that department. Um over a 100red trees were planted in the spring. 100 more will be planted in the fall. Um Dumbachbox has been stocked and ready for the fishing derby that'll be coming up in two weeks. Um the Daisy Tricky tray reported over $46,000 was raised that night. So that's amazing, right? Um there were three new shade structures, 30 by30 structures that were funded through a block grant. One is at the Daisy building. The other is in by Centennial Park, and the other is to replace the failing um structure at the EBBL uh baseball complex.

Summer hiring is going well. As of last week, 115 lifeguards were hired for Crystal Springs. Although that seems like a large number, we are still not up to the numbers that we were prior to CO, which is um making the decision to close the um Crystal Springs at 6 p.m. and not keep the hours extended for this year again. Um, day camp registration is up. So, if you're interested in registering, you better get on that. Last year, we had 770 full-time participants and already we're at 817. So, that's quite an improvement. Um, the playground equipment at Country Lane um park will be installed in June and July um which is something that we voted on here at the council. So, that's that will be taking place. And May 30th, which is tomorrow, the EBA Youth Sports Day is something that was put together to give all the children in East Brunswick a chance to test out a sport to see if there's something that they might be interested in that they've never thought about. And that will be at Heavenly Farms from 6 PM to 900 pm. And uh football, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, tennis, cricket, basketball, rugby, cheer, and wrestling will be present for that test run. That's my report. Thank you. We can now move on to our public portion of the meeting. Miss Lawler, will you please read our public comment statement? The public comment portion of our meeting is to allow the public to bring to the council's attention their concerns or comments. In accordance with NJSA 10 col4-12A and the East Brunswick rules of council, the council asked the public to limit their comments to 5 minutes or less. At the conclusion of the

statements or questions from a member of the public, the council president at his discretion may choose to respond or not respond. Yes. I'm sorry. I'm Anyone wishing to address the council president, please? [Music] The famous go first battle. Okay, Dr. Ga, thank you very much. Hi. Um, what do I have to say? My Oh, my name Ganja and I'm from Burkshshire Way, East Brunswick. Um, let me just pull up my speech here real quick. But, um, I missed the mayor's town hall meeting last Thursday. Sorry for that. Um, but I know some of my friends did attend. Um, I had a couple of things that I think are relevant, you know, for my concerns as a as a resident here. Um, universal prek. I think that needs to come to this town. It's in a lot of the surrounding towns and we pay a lot and I think um prek education is so important. So I think that's our town taking a I think I believe it's just filling out federal uh it's to basically get a federal grant. So whatever needs to be done in order to obtain that we should definitely do that. Um like I said all the towns around us have done it. I think even like towns like smaller towns like South River may have done it and things like that. So uh no reason why East Brunswick shouldn't have universal prek at this point. Um, and you know, education is just such a cornerstone of this town, this town. Um, so that was my my major concern actually is when I hear things like the budget cuts to music programs, um, arts, sports, I think it's all unacceptable. I think we need to protect all of these programs. Um, many of us, we live here only for these for that reason. Um, so I think we anytime I hear that, I I know it's not going well. Uh we need to make sure we protect all of those programs. And

um I recently attended the funeral of um uh Mr. Broadman uh Alan Broadman and uh he was our one of our my entire family. He's one of uh he he actually taught me and all my sisters in class, model UN IP uh government civics classes in the in the high school. So he's going to be uh sorely missed. Um, and then, uh, East Brunswick Public Library. I think that's such an asset of our township and needs to be we need new toys. From what I understand, a lot of parents have complained to me about toys in the, um, they need to be upgraded in the in the library. Some of us have, some of us go to other libraries because they like the play areas better or the book selections. So I'm just giving the feedback that uh library needs as much funding and support as possible because I think the vast majority of the residents here do use the library and even people around you know East Brunswick is very famous for its library. Uh the senior center I know is such an asset to um the residents here and has it's a staple of our community. So uh anything to support the programming there as well I think that can be improved. Um, I've heard of better senior center programming from these are from my I get this information from my from some of the elders in my family that live even in other neighbor neighboring places. Um, I think just learning from it's not that anything's better or worse. It's just learning from each other and different experiences. Um, uh, other concerns I guess like you know even little things like the butterfly park which we love. Uh, porta potty needs to be cleaned up that I've heard of. [Music] Um the um I'm going to try to get to the today's day 600 of the genocide in Palestine. So that's kind of what my major thing I wanted to come and talk about today was um that 600 days of you know living without shelter. I think um they say

that a human being cannot survive 24 hours without shelter. So how they've done it for 600 days um it's beyond comprehension. um all the things that we take for granted every single day like our food, water, medicine, access to doctors, access to our jobs, education, money. Um they've all been deprived, electricity. Um they're being starved, I think over two months now of of blockade. Um there's a lot of talk about ceasefire going on right now between Trump and whatnot. are trying to have uh American mercenaries on the ground there to deliver aid, which is totally unethical and against international law because there's laws of neutrality in humanitarian aid. You cannot weaponize humanitarian aid. So, Israel and US cannot be the ones to be in charge of humanitarian aid. And all of the major humanitarian aid um organizations have agreed on that that they do not support the US plans to do that and to weaponize human aid. Um yeah. So, so I'm also here, you know, in honor of Thomas who's still in jail. That's one of our comrades here in New Jersey and uh was part of the Rucker Four. Uh four students were recently arrested on Rucker's campus. They were protesting peacefully using their first amendment rights of uh protected free speech in a public place on Rucker's campus and it was outside of the hell because um Congressman Josh Godheimer was speaking there um and promoting you know Israel. So there was the the protest was very much targeted just at that at a protest against the genocide. It was not against any students or anything having to do with uh hell even or anything like that. So they decided to keep that you know on Rucker's campus. Uh 5 minutes. How about a 15 second round? Sure. I'll just wrap

it up. So um just you know we're seeing that crumbling right now. Freedom of speech under Trump especially. Um we very much oppose all the ICE raids that are happening. Um and uh you know support Rosaraka, Mayor Ros Baraka from Newark who's also running for governor who got arrested trying to oppose the Delaney Hall opening in Newark. Uh we very much support that. So thank you very much. Anyone else wishing to take the please take the microphone. Nal. Um, so I I am here to talk about the sister city agreement that's already long due to be broken down. But before I do that, I do want to talk about the parks. I think Miss Zimbicki spoke about some things that we are doing at the park. The situation in in East Punic Park is honestly not that good. Uh, the fountains in Bicental Parks are not working. There's no bathroom in Butterfly Park. There's no fountain in Butterfly Park. uh even the swings and everything is not as good. Uh I take my kids to Highland Park if I have to take them because the parks are much better than East Brunswick which is high tech paying town than Highland Park. Anyway, um I also want to talk about the main thing which is that yesterday marked 600 days since the beginning of the ongoing holocaust in in in Gaza. uh 600 days of unimaginable suffering for the Palestinian people who were already living under a harsh, illegal, and inhumane Israeli occupation long before October 2023. Since then, we have witnessed what can only be described as a campaign of systematic ethnic cleansing with repeated and deliberate attacks on civilians, especially children. Attacks that constitute crimes against humanity. Israel has been bombing Gaza for 600 days, targeting

densely populated areas, including refugee camps. Most recently, it has used 2,000 pound US-made bombs in these attacks. Bombs so destructive that they have resulted in people being burned alive. Let that sink in. People, children, and families burned alive in refugee camps. and the whole world saw those videos. The horror doesn't stop there. Israel is also actively starving displaced uh Palestinians living in tents, blocking the entry of critical aid, including baby formula. This level of cru of cruelty is staggering. For decades, Palestinians have been dehumanized and were called human animals. But what has become clear is that many of the accusations made by Israeli leadership are in fact confessions. And now the world is watching who the real human animals are. So I asked this council, why the silence? Why does the photo celebrating a sister city relationship with Yavn in Israel still hang outside the the city hall of East Brunswick? Is is it because Palestinians don't look like most of you? Is it because they don't have white skin and blonde hair and blue eyes? I can't help but believe that if a white population were being wiped out by people of color, your outrage and your actions would look very different. It may not come naturally to you to empathize with people who don't look like you. But empathy and ethics are not optional in your role. They are essential. And if there is any sense of justice or morality guiding your decisions, then the very least this council can do is to break the sister city relationship with Yamn. There will

come a time and mark my words when this atrocity will be condemned globally. Films will be made, apologies will be issued and Israeli war crimes will be put on trial and world will see. But it will be too late for this council to say that they stood on the right side of the history. I urge you do the right thing now. End the sister city agreement with Yn. Thank you so much. Does anyone else wish to address the council president? Gentleman in the back. Mr. Mayor, town council, Mr. President, um I heard some good news before I was on Truth Social that Israel agreed to a ceasefire. So that's I think is good news. All right. Uh the other thing I want to bring up, I hear the the mall is going to be redoing the mall. I saw that come up too. So what are they going to build on top of it? New stores? Do you know? No, it's slow. It's a slow but sure process, but exactly. You're hearing about it, but that's about as far as I can take it. It says due for major renovations is what I read. Yeah. All right. Um, PSCG, I was speaking to them yesterday. They're going to raise their electric rates by 16 and a half% I think July they said. That's that's quite a bit of jump. And uh I think the wind farms may be going back into play. also nuclear energy. Uh what I'm hearing that'll be good to lower the prices and u okay as far as the real ID licenses what happens if is it still going on or is it extended or that one that one I don't

know Mr. Chris Gula, have you heard anything? Yeah, you still need a real ID, but there is a way if you need to fly, there's certain documents you could bring to the airport in order to get on an airplane. That check-in process, they they're telling people to get there, you know, almost 2 hours in advance of their flight so they can check all those documents. But yes, Real ID is alive and well. Um, you can use a bas a passport to fly. That's a form of a real ID. So, people didn't realize that they didn't need that if they have the passport. Like myself, I have a passport card as well, so I don't have to carry the big book, but there's a laminated card you can get. Mainly, it's for driving to Canada or Mexico. But if you're in continental United States or US territory, like if you're going on a cruise to Bermuda, that's valid. So there's other means but you should just check with the DMV. They are doing mobile stations. There is times coming up at slots coming up at the the centers but it is important that people get it. You had four years to get it and now it went into effect and people still don't have them. I think four years is a long time. Thank you Mr. Chriscula. You're welcome. Well I'm I spoke to a lawyer friend of mine today. He's going to try to fix the problem with my wife has because the birth certificate don't match her name when she's using. So now she's going to have to once it's all resolved to uh I guess go down and get one. Could you still get one in the motor vehicle by just going down? That's my question. Yeah. Get you have to make an appointment. Make an appointment for real. All right. And um what do you call it? the corner of my block a couple weeks ago, Deerfield Racetrack in Somerville, there was a accident, a volunteer fire firefighter got killed.

Uh that that intersection is very bad. All right. Um I myself yesterday was making a right-hand turn on the green light and the left left of me. The guy was passing the red light. I actually had to stop dead. So that's a bad corner all around. So, if anything could be done with uh look into it, it's just a terrible street there. And uh actually all Summer Hill Road is they push on the left, they push on the right. So, drive with caution. Well, drive with caution. Yeah, exactly. That's it. That's the answer. I would have definitely got hit if I didn't stop. So, I'm just All right. And that that pole on Gordon and Summer Hill never got touched. It's still sticking out like this. It's been ponded to the utility company checked by our OEM director. They know about it. All right, that that's all. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Anyone else wishing to address the council president? Seeing none, we'll close the public portion. Uh we will now move on to our consent agenda matters in of the meeting. Uh, township clerk, could you please read our consent agenda statement? Resolution 25-192 through resolution 25-201. The following items are considered routine and non-controversial items by the township council and will be enacted upon by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a council member so requests in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda to be discussed and voted on following the approval of the remaining items listed on the consent agenda. Is there a need to separate any of these resolutions? Council com. Sure you may. Here's a uh resolution 25192 calling for the restoration of

energy taxes to municipalities. I know that I've spoken many times on this one. The uh state as it's approaching um municipalities as it's approaching the state budget time wants to make sure that we get as many townships as possible to sign on to a resolution um requesting that the towns be given back their money, which we all know what energy tax receipts are our money. Uh and which has not been restored to the townships nearly to the degree that they should be. And um I know budgets are strained, but it does look like barring a change in September, barring it that that our that the revenues for the state should go up somewhere between 1 and 1/2 to 3 and 1/2% depending upon which budget office is giving you the numbers. So there is going to be some increased revenue from what figures look like right now. and we just want to make sure that we have as many townships as possible um signing on to making sure that we're uh taken care of with being able to restore money that's always been ours. May I have a motion to approve resolution 25-1 192 through 25- 20? So move second. Second. Roll call, please. Council member Hall, yes. Councilman Wendell, yes. Councilwoman Winston, yes. Councilwoman Zimbicki, yes. Council President Mackoy. Yes. Council, we have one ordinance for introduction with a scheduled hearing date of June 29th. No, June 23rd. 23rd. Your your packet says June 9th, I do believe. June 3rd. The packet does say June 9th, but it's the second reading is being adjourned to June 23rd. So we can publish the uh we're all good on that.

Uh township clerk, can you read that please? An ordinance of the township of East Brunswick, county of Middle Sex, state of New Jersey, amending chapter 135, article 9, health spa and related issues, and chapter 228 zoning of the township code. I have a motion to accept. So move. Second. Second. Uh Mr. Cruscula, any clarification or we good? Now, this is the one we talked about before. Recommended by the police department. Thank you. Roll call, please. Council member Hall, yes. Councilman Wendell, yes. Councilwoman Winston, yes. Yes. Sorry. Councilwoman, yes. And Council President Makavoy, yes. That was funny. And it was in unison. For the good of the cause. I have, please. I just wanted to point out the consent agenda. The last two items show more grants coming in. Well done. Right. Thank you. Uh, Hardy, congratulations to Dr. Doctor. Go ahead. Dr. Wendell, I like that one. Wow. Where did that one come from? He'll take it. You know, um, proud year for me, uh, springtime with with the, uh, high school lacrosse team, um, with both my boys being the varsity and JV coaches. And I'd like to congratulate that team in coming in second in the GMC Conference and uh you know making it to the state tournament. They lost today to Hillsboro in the state tournament, but you know they haven't been in the state tournament in about six, seven years from what I'm told, you know, and they haven't come in second in the GMC's in probably eight or nine years. So you know, good year for them. There you go. And a proud father. Yeah, very proud father and and I'd like to at a at a at a subsequent meeting um ideally recognize some of the players on that team because some of them have

reached some pretty high standards um and received accolades such as all-ameans and you know things such as that. So you know love to recognize them at at a meeting here. Got it. Uh, heartiest congratulations to our very own Mayor Brad Conn on his newly elected position as a New Jersey state committee representative from Middle Sex County for the Democratic Party. Um, those in favor, right, those in favor of a German, please signify with an I. I. The eyes. Have a good night. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music]