Council - Regular Meeting

We are calling this meeting of the Hackinack City Council to order. It is Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026. It's 5:32 p.m. If uh you can read the notice, please. This meeting is being held in accordance with the open public meeting act NJSA10 col4-6 notice of which was sent to the record and the star ledger and was posted on the municipal bulletin board. Thank you. Roll call please. Mayor Gaines here. Deputy Mayor Tumi here. Councilman Carol. Councilwoman Clark Collins here. Councilman Diaz here. We have a quorum.

Thank you. If everyone can please rise to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. If I can have a motion to approve the minutes of the February 17th, 2026 regular meeting. I'll offer. I'll second. All in favor?

I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you. Okay. I need a motion for a resolution to go into executive session to discuss ongoing litigation matters involving attorney client privilege matters involving the purchase, lease, or acquisition of real property and/or any pending or anticipated litigation or contract negotiations. Can I have a motion, please? I'll offer. Second. All in favor? I.

Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. We will aim to be out around 6:30. Everyone just sit tight. Thank you so much. Coming soon to Hackinack.

Our Black History Month lunchon has been rescheduled to Friday, March. friends and family for delicious food and a sense of community from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Hackinack Recreation Center. It's free to attend, but a ticket is required. Seating is limited to 200 guests, ages 18 and up, first come, first served. Tickets are available now at the recreation center. For more information, call 2016468042.

Have you signed up for our Nixl alerts yet? Nixel keeps you up to date by text and email with instant updates from our office of emergency management so you can get important information when it matters most. Get alerts about severe weather, emergency situations, road closures, severe traffic, criminal activity, and local events. Signing up is quick and easy. Text 0761 to 88877. That's 076128887777. Don't wait. Sign up for NIXL alerts today and stay connected to what's happening in Hackinack. Honor a veteran in your life through the city of Hackinack's hometown heroes veterans banner display program. Submit their name and photo to be featured on a banner along Main Street. Register online at hackansac.rectesk.com reces.com or sign up in person at the city manager's office. For more information, email veteranbanner@hackansack.org. Stay informed and connected with everything happening in the city of Hackinack by subscribing to the Hackinack weekly newsletter. Each week, you'll get the latest updates on city services, events, important announcements, and more delivered right to your inbox. Signing up is quick and easy. Just visit the city website to join. And if you have something to share, the newsletter includes a community bulletin for local announcements and events. Send your submissions to news@ hackansac.org.

coming soon to Hackinack. Coming soon to Hackinack. Our Black History Month lunchon has been rescheduled to Friday, March 6th. Join friends and family for delicious food and a sense of community from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Hackinack Recreation Center. It's free to attend, but a ticket is required. Seating is limited to 200 guests, ages 18 and up. First come, first served. Tickets are available now at the recreation center. For more information, call 2016468042. Have you signed up for our NIXL alerts yet? Nixel keeps you up to date by text and email with instant updates from our office of emergency management so you can get important information when it matters most. Get alerts about severe weather, emergency situations, road closures, severe traffic, criminal activity, and local events. Signing up is quick and easy. Text 0761 to888777. That's 0761 to888777. Don't wait. Sign up for Nixl alerts today and stay connected to what's happening in Hackinack. Honor a veteran in your life through the city of

Hackinack's hometown heroes veterans banner display program. Submit their name and photo to be featured on a banner along Main Street. Register online at hackansack.recdesk.com or sign up in person at the city manager's office. For more information, email veteranbanner@hackansack.org. Stay informed and connected with everything happening in the city of Hackinack by subscribing to the Hackinack weekly newsletter. Each week you'll get the latest updates on city services, events, important announcements, and more delivered right to your inbox. Signing up is quick and easy. Just visit the city website to join. And if you have something to share, the newsletter includes a community bulletin for local announcements and events. Send your submissions to news@hackansack.org.

Coming soon to Hackinack. Our Black History Month lunchon has been rescheduled to Friday, March 6th. Join friends and family for delicious food and a sense of community from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Hackinack Recreation Center. It's free to attend, but a ticket is required. Seating is limited to 200 guests, ages 18 and up. First come, first served. Tickets are available now at the recreation center. For more information, call 2016468042. Have you signed up for our NIXL alerts yet? NIXL keeps you up to date by text and email with instant updates from our office of emergency management so you can get important information when it matters most. Get alerts about severe weather, emergency situations, road closures, severe traffic, criminal activity, and local events. Signing up is quick and easy. Text 0761 to88877. That's 076128887777. Don't wait. Sign up for Nixl Alerts today and stay connected to what's happening in Hackinack. Honor a veteran in your life through the city of Hackinack's hometown heroes veterans banner display program. Submit their name and photo to be featured on a banner along Main Street. Register online at hackansack.recdesk.com reces.com or sign up in person at the city manager's office. For more information, email veteranbanner@hackansack.org. Stay informed and connected with everything happening in the city of Hackinack by subscribing to the Hackinack weekly newsletter. Each week, you'll get the latest updates on city services, events, important

announcements, and more delivered right to your inbox. Signing up is quick and easy. Just visit the city website to join. And if you have something to share, the newsletter includes a community bulletin for local announcements and events. Send your submissions to news@hackansack.org.

coming soon to Hackinack. Our Black History Month lunchon has been rescheduled to Friday, March 6th. Join friends and family for delicious food and a sense of community from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Hackinack Recreation Center. It's free to attend, but a ticket is required. Seating is limited to 200 guests, ages 18 and up. First come, first served. Tickets are available now at the recreation center. For more information, call 2016468042. Have you signed up for our NIXL alerts yet? NIXL keeps you up to date by text and email with instant updates from our office of emergency management so you can get important information when it matters most. Get alerts about severe weather, emergency situations, road closures, severe traffic, criminal activity, and local events. Signing up is quick and easy. Text 0761 to88877. That's 076128887777. Don't wait. Sign up for Nixl Alerts today and stay connected to what's happening in Hackinack. Honor a veteran in your life through the city of Hackinack's hometown heroes veterans banner display program. Submit their name and photo to be featured on a banner along Main Street. Register online at hackansack.recdesk.com reces.com or sign up in person at the city manager's office. For more information, email veteranbanner@hackansack.org. Stay informed and connected with everything happening in the city of Hackinack by subscribing to the Hackinack weekly newsletter. Each week, you'll get the latest updates on city services, events, important

announcements, and more delivered right to your inbox. Signing up is quick and easy. Just visit the city website to join. And if you have something to share, the newsletter includes a community bulletin for local announcements and events. Send your submissions to news@hackansack.org.

It is 6:38. We are out of executive session. There are no proclamations for tonight, but we do have a presentation by Solar Landscape. I'm going to ask for them to come forward. Thank you. I had some pictures to show you, mayor, but I can just pass some things out if that's easier for everyone. We'll see.

Okay, we're good. Oops. Always a problem when an old guy and a computer interact. You're doing great so far. Thank you, Mayor.

Um, Mayor Gaines and members of the city council, appreciate the opportunity to uh chat with you tonight. Tell you a little bit about the work that we're doing in collaboration with other municipal leaders to help educate residents about a New Jersey energy assistance program that not everyone has had the opportunity to find out about. It's called Community Solar. And what it does is it allows residents to get the benefits of solar energy, that is the discounts, the the cost savings at a time when they need it most, um, without ever needing a solar panel put on their property with no cost to get in, with no cost to get out, with no fees at all. And the current savings for residents in Bergen County with our projects are 31% and those savings are guaranteed for 20 years. So that's kind of our jumping off point. We've done this educational outreach with Mayor McCormack from Woodbridge, Mayor Yoshi from Edison, Mayor Baraka did two letters to his residents just to let them know about it. From Newark, Mayor Seiya uh of Patterson, Mayor Laura, and this this education continues to be ongoing. So, I just want to kind of walk you through it. I know we're limited time. Um I did give everyone some things in writing, but really the genesis of this is 20% increases from PSCG. I'm sure you've heard from residents. Um we hear it a lot when we're doing our our educational presentations. It's a concern. This state energy assistance program was approved in 2018 with the Clean Energy Act of 2018 by the New Jersey State Legislature, but it really only began to take off recently because projects had to be built and the solar panels had to be installed and then the projects had to be energized. The idea of the program is what if there is a way that we can deliver reduction in energy cost guaranteed basis to New Jersey residents while at the same time replacing dirty energy with clean with clean energy. Um having access for anyone even renters, high-rise retirees can enroll and benefit from community solar. And then what if there's also a way our company happens to do a lot of workforce

development across the state uh um state and actually the country where we're actually training and and employing people to do um solar ed solar installation which is kind of a wonderful part of what we're doing. Um it is a state program so you can read about it on the department of uh community affairs website. You can also read about it on the board of public utilities website. It is known as an energy assistance program although it is available to anyone. We'll talk a little bit more about them. This is just a picture of the first two projects that were ever energized in New Jersey. Uh Governor Murphy cut the ribbon on these projects back in 2001. These projects power 1,200 New Jersey homes and apartments again without anyone having to install a solar panel on their property. The way that this works, and if you kind of get this, you kind of get the whole u point of this. Uh, I had the opportunity to meet with Deputy Mayor Tumi and Councilwoman uh Clark Collins and and just kind of go through this and uh kind of a light bulb goes off when you understand it. So, we are a solar developer. We build, own and operate these projects on large logistics centers. Think about a prologus project or or like public storage or something like that. We put our panels up there. We own and and operate them. We send the electricity to PSEG. Residents go online. They put in their name. They put in their PSEG utility number. We look at how much energy usage they have during the course of any given year. We determine how many of those panels are going to be dedicated to their home and then the electricity is delivered right to their home. Right on their PSEG bill, they start to seek discounted bill credits and for every bit of solar electricity that we make for them that offsets their regular electricity that they're getting from PSENG, they save 31%. The nice thing that the state did is that they they ensured and they required that 51% of the electricity that we make on every one of these projects that we're building across the state of New Jersey has to go to low to moderate income households. They also, these are state rules, not so landscape rules, ensure that there's no cost for residents to enroll. No cost. They can

leave at any time. No additional fees, no additional charges. they just see the discounts appear on their bill when their project is energized and they start receiving these uh solar credits. And most importantly, I think for our residents is that they stay with PSENG. Everything appears right on their PSEG bill. If they have a problem, something's not working, they have a question, PSEG is is uh the company that they call. So really very little changes. They pay the same way they always paid. These are where our projects are located across the state of New Jersey. Um not all of these are built. Some of these will be built and energized. Those are the ones that Hackinack residents would enroll in. There's 347 total. These projects that we're already building and will build will power 80,000 homes. Uh and the the new governor, one of the first things that she did is she mandated that the board of bulk utilities start moving forward on 3,000 additional megawatts of community solar across New Jersey. So there's a huge commitment to this across the state. So the question is why why why as a municipal body are you just finding out about this and did you did you not know more and and the reason is simple. The state just moved recently to consolidated billing. So it used to be when we did this residents would get two bills. They'd get a bill from PSCG for delivering their electricity and they would get a bill from us for the electricity that they were use using. Residents didn't like that. Our municipal leaders didn't like that. We lobbied with the board of public utilities and now everything is right on the PSEG JCPNL or ACE bill which is wonderful for residents. The second is utilitywide access. If I'm a Hackinac resident, as long as the project is built in PSEG territory, I can enroll in it and get a spot and start saving. Another important part is these rate increases. Our municipal leaders are saying, "What can we do to help our residents?" And then higher discounts. 31% is meaningful. When these projects first came out back in 2021, they were 10% and 15%. Now the discounts for PSCG are 31%.

And then the last is just the educational outreach that we're doing. We're doing more and more of this now that we have this consolidated billing. This is just some of the work that we've done. This is Patrice Lowitz, my colleague behind me. There she is with with Mayor Baraka. Um that's uh Mayor McCormack on the right. That's me doing a senior info session which we work with the municipal body to find out where we should be doing these info sessions. We did one yesterday. Where were we yesterday's? Saddle Brook.

Saddle Brook Sadd Saddle Brook um uh senior center with about 100 people and there's mayor say as well. So the idea is this is an important program. It's guaranteed by the state. It's an incredible program. How do we get this out? and we do it with through a letter which we'll give you a copy of the the letter that we recommend that our other um townships have used which has worked extremely well. Um you have some numbers in front of you about the municipal outreach that we've done. But just to give you an idea, it's actually over 1500 residents have enrolled so far with that 31% discount rate which saves them $600 a year on average. Actually a little bit more. That's the annual cost savings. Two letters from the mayor and that's the 20-year cost savings. These projects are guaranteed. These rates are guaranteed for 20 years. That's the agreement that we enter into with the commercial real estate owner. We put the solar up on their roof and we lock in with them for 20 years that that the solar panels would be up there. They have to be okay. These are the uh income limits which I can actually email these to you as well. And when someone enrolls, it takes about five minutes for them to enroll. They will self selfattest whether or not they qualify as low income. There's no credit checks on this. If they say they're low income, they're low-inccome. Those are the limits right there for Bergen County. And if they don't qualify for those income limits, if they're using any qualifying programs like Medicaid or LIE HEAP or something, they automatically qualify as low-income resident. Although again, anyone can do this. The weight list for our low-inccome is less than it is for a non-low income. We call them RESI. Um, we give all residents a phone number to call. It doesn't go anywhere but to my office, to the team that works for me that they speak directly with people. We have all of our people that speak with our residents are bilingual, some in some cases triilingual. Um, and they have a customer portal that they log into when they enroll. It lets them know when their project will be energized and gives them constant updates every single month with a newsletter while they're waiting. That is essentially it. My company is

doing about 70% of the projects in New Jersey. 26 projects were energized last year. 25 of them were built by Sur Landscape, my company. So, we're getting these projects up and operational. We're vertically integrated. We have our own construction team. So when we do that training, we add people to that team as we continue to grow. We're about 400 people now. A lot of most of that growth is due to this community solar program which is actually happening across the country. So I thank you for the opportunity to tell a little bit more about it and I hope you will consider mayor sending this educational letter out at our expense and and uh just to let the residents know that this program is available. Thank you. I have a quick question before you go.

Can you just um and I know you mentioned it a few times, but Can you just explain a little bit about the savings that are locked in for 20 years? Is that is that a 20-year relationship that you have with the panels on roofs and that that agreement is for 20 years and people will see savings or is it that the first discounted amount that they see it's always that percentage for the next 20 years?

Great question. So the 20 years has to do with the the term of the lease agreement that we set we we we sign with the commercial real estate owner. Solar panels have a useful life of 35 and 40 years today. So the likelihood is we will continue to enter into five-year agreements and keep those panels up. But if for some reason the commercial real estator wanted them off, then residents would no longer be getting a discount from that project that would no longer be operational. But the 31% mayor simply means this. If I make a $100 worth of solar electricity on the on the the panels on that roof, that off-site roof that gets put onto your bill, you will see a $100 credit. 31% off that you pay $69 where you otherwise would have paid 100. There's a sample bill if you just want to take a quick look at it. So, this is a kind of a sizable bill. This is $542. This is an actual PSEG bill. I know that because it's Patrice's who's sitting behind me. Um, so this is what she paid for delivery and then what she paid for supply for the electricity itself. And then right on her bill on page four, well the the actual amount she saved is on right on page one, but on page four it breaks it down. It says there's a total community uh solar credit. Remember she used $540. We made $517 worth of electricity for her that year or that month rather. She gets 31% off of that 517. So, she saves $160 for that month. Here's the cool thing that I didn't realize when this happened. There will be times during the summer when we're making more electricity than residents use. When that happens, that electricity is banked and it shows right up on their PSAG bill. So, during rainy times or winter months when we're not making as much, we always want to offset as much of that bill as they can. They'll just borrow from the bank to always try to get close to 100% as we can.

Thank you for that. My pleasure, Mayor. Anyone else have any questions? Yes, I have a question. First, thank you for being here with us tonight. Thank you, Councilman. Um, thank you. Um, you mentioned the fact that part of your staff uh is bilingual, some of them even triilingual. Yes. Uh, but for those who decide to go to the web page, do you have the translator? Yes. That could show automatically, you know. Great question. Some people like me, I prefer to read.

Yeah. So, um, when we enter into an agreement with a municipal body to do the education process, we set up a specific website that's dedicated to them. So, when they go on when they go on, they'll use a promo code that's associated with Hackinac. Right at the top, if they want it Spanish, everything is in Spanish. They can click there. We have videos in Spanish. We have when people they call, they'll speak to people in Spanish. And to your point, every bit of the enrollment process, including any form that they sign, etc., is all in Spanish. Thank you. And I don't I didn't mean Spanish in particular. Yeah, we we actually we've done

Yeah, we have a toggle, so there's way more than just Spanish that that's on there. Allison, I don't want to put you on the spot, but you you have this, correct? Yes, I do. All right. And it's similar. My bill is similar to hers. Okay. And it's working out for you. Yeah. Okay, that's it. It literally cost you nothing. It's like the greatest find I found out there. Okay. Thanks. There we go. Thank you so much. All very, very much. Appreciate it. Thank you.

All right. Um, moving on to reports and presentations from professionals and department heads. Um, I'm going to ask I'm going to fit into this portion. I'm going to ask for uh Wendy, our affordable housing attorney, to just speak to some of the resolutions that we have on the docket for tonight that speak to affordable housing. Um, if you can take a few moments. Thank you. Good to see you.

Thank you for having me back. So on your agenda for tonight, you have the second reading of the ordinance we spoke about two weeks ago, which is really just uh an update to make sure that the city is compliant with the new regulations that were passed to implement the affordable housing. Uh by way of background, the fair housing act was amended back in 2024 and became effective in 2025. And along with that, there was the mandate for the uniform affordability controls to also be updated as well as a new section which is in the administrative code 599 which affects your development fees and uh trust fund. Um so that is on for second reading. Again, it's not really changing so much as it is updating all of the references to be in accordance with the new reference points and the laws and the regulations. Also on your agenda are a couple of resolutions that deal with the implementation of affordable housing itself. So also needed because of the new updates in the uh regulations and in the statutes, but you have your resolution adopting your affirmative marketing plan. Um, for the benefit of the public, when you have a affordable housing trust fund, there is a certain percentage of monies that are set aside for what's um, I'm sorry, the affirmative marketing is is the how you market the units for people to move into as well as their rehabilitation. How you would get the known for the the public of what is available. Um, the marketing plan itself will denote which community groups get notified. Um, it requires you to notify all of the county libraries within the four counties of Payic, Sussex, Berg, and Hudson, which is region one that Hackinac is located in. Um, and also would set forth where it

would get published, what if you'd use radio, newspaper, print, digital, etc. All of that goes into the affirmative marketing plan. If a new unit opens up or that doesn't have the um a wait list for it yet, new construction, what happens is they would engage an administrative agent. The administrative agent would follow these marketing plans to make sure at least 120 days before a co that it gets out there, people hear about it, applications are accepted, those applications go into a group, random lottery assigns number and that's how people then would get the benefit of entering into an affordable and restricted unit. Um, that is the affirmative marketing plan. the affordability assistance plan, which is where I started erroneously. That is a portion of money from your trust fund that is utilized specifically to help with affordability issues. So, it could be somebody falls behind in rent. You would have the ability to assist with a one-time payment. Um, some affordability assistance could be moving costs for people that get a new unit. They may not be able to be able to pay for the full cost of a moving van, etc. It could give that kind of help. Um, all of those are set forth within the affordability plan and uh I believe you have 30% of your trust fund reserve for that. Additionally, there is the affordable housing rehabilitation manual. It is just as it sounds. Even though it's dense when you read it, it sets forth all of the guidelines for how rehabilitation is done, what the administrative agent has to do to income qualify someone. Um it is both for owner occupied and rentals and it is adopted by resolution. So again this is kind of a cyclical item and now that we're in in the round four all of these manuals have

to get readopted and updated and submitted to the court on or before March 15th. And I believe there's one more which is the actual spending plan. This is where you project out based on past revenues of development of um both residential and non-residential development. When you're collecting those fees, you extrapolate it out 10 years, but you're also committing for certain projects within the next four years, including the affordability assistance um and any other rehabilitation projects, etc. Generally speaking, you do need to reserve a certain amount for rehabilitation, even if you wanted to create new units. There's still an amount that is reserved for folks that may be able to utilize a rehabilitation program. And that is probably most of what you're doing tonight. And I thank you for for putting this on and for uh keeping compliant with your affordable housing mount Laurel obligations. You you all should be really lauded for it. Any questions?

Okay, thank you so much. Okay, thank you.

All right, so sorry about that. Um, moving on to here. Moving on to our city manager report.

Good evening everyone. Just a couple quick updates. Uh, our Black History Lunchon that was uh rescheduled from the uh weather events last week is uh scheduled for this Friday, March 6th, at the rec center. It's from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Admission is free, 18 years and older. Uh it's a great event. Uh you can visit the rec department's website or give them a call for for your tickets. Um, Hackpack has a bunch of programming going on in March. So, visit the Hackpack website and uh, catch up on what they have showing down there. Uh, quickly just like to thank all the residents that did um, utilize the parking garages during the snowstorms. Uh, those that did, it helped our our road crews out tremendously. And lastly, with some luck with the weather and the asphalt manufacturers, we'll have some uh, crews out this weekend starting to fill potholes. So, if anybody has potholes to report, there's an app for you to do that on our website as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving on to public comment on agenda items only, I'm seeing some new faces in the audience today. So, just to um make clear for everyone, if there is an item on the agenda that you would like to speak to, please clearly state your name and municipality when you come forward. state which agenda item you are commenting on. Um you can direct your comments to me. If I have to reroute your comments or questions, I will do that. And you can um we ask that you limit your comments to three minutes. I will keep time for you. Um when your time is up, I will respectfully ask for you to bring your point to a close and I ask that you don't make it awkward and just respectfully do that. So um with that, I need a motion to open to the public on agenda items only. A second.

All in favor? I I Any opposed? Any abstensions? Any member of the public wanting to speak on any agenda item?

Sorry, need that life. Okay. Hi. Good morning. Good evening. actually um my name is Darling Bod and I'm here as an advocate today. Tonight I want to speak about two issues which was affordability and darling where are you from? What do you mean where state you're a municipal? I'm I'm a I'm a resident here. Yeah.

And um living the American dream. I own a house here too. Um, so I want to speak about affordability housing and the demolition of the YMCA because they're both um do connect to each other. Who is the city building for? We see so many new developments happening around the city and the fact that the YMCA is no longer there. I grew up as an inner city and and YMCA was really close to my heart. And when I moved to Hackinack, I saw that it was being knocked down. Now, when it comes to affordability, what is the city doing for that? I do want to speak about a real issue here. Um, Georgina, can you stand for a second? She's my cousin. She's a single mother, 41-year-old woman who works full-time as an LPN at a local hospital, which mean that takes care of the vulnerable population. She cannot afford living in Hackintock anymore. The average price is at least $2,000 for a bedroom apartment. If a person is making 30 $40,000 a year before taxes, we're talking about basic things, math, arithmetic, which mean if you look at it, how expensive it is. We cannot afford people living in poverty like that. But my issue is that it's not affordability. Affordability is that is not sustainable. is not sustainable and we know because

of history we know that empires do collapse. So we cannot keep going up and up and where is the little people middle class people lower middle class it's it's we have too much imbalance. So now that moving forward, right, we don't want to talk about the previous administration because that's like talking about an ex that doesn't want to get out of your life. So moving forward, what is this city going to do for my cousin to be approved to an apartment where she can raise her child and have to and doesn't have to start living paycheck to paycheck. And the other one, YMCA, YMCA. So, apparently I was told that the kids here in Hackinack can go to Milford, New Milford. Uh, that's the the YMCA. Now, I put it on my GPS. It's 9 minute driving and 15-minute walk. What about the cannot get there? What about if the kids don't have a a mode of transportation? What about if the parents doesn't have money to pay for their gas? So, we need one here in Hackinack. So, I think you can ask those developers if they want to bring their business here. They have to invest also in the YMCA at their cost, but also that doesn't give them right to own it. The city owns it. So I think that the city need to start thinking about who they building for the growth is now process. The real process is balance inclusion and also that really people can stay here and a and

afford to live here. Many of those individuals in those brand new places this is just a stop for them. I know at least five of them, they don't see their uh city hacking site in their long-term city. So, but they can't afford that. That's new money. This is all money. So, thank you so much. Thank you, D. Thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else for agenda items, please? Hello, my name is Carlo Morelishi. I'm a resident of Hackinac. Been here for 5 years now. And um I attended one of these meetings two years ago and it's about affordable housing that I want to talk about. Um I saw the progress. socalled all this new development and um I'm saying well certainly there's got to be some Mount Laurel obligations there's got to be a nice 10% uh of those houses are going to be for affordable living and I'm reaching out and I can't get an answer finally I got a hold of a gentleman Albert Dib and we were corresponding and he told me uh no Carl we have no affordable housing units in any of those new projects you see around town those projects have contributed towards an affordable housing trust fund which will be used to fund construction of affordable housing units in the future. Sounds good. We are at least two years out from completion of one of those projects. So that was two years ago. So we're two years later now. Where's that project? So I came to the meeting to find out more about where this trust fund is. And I'm saying my god, all that development, there must be a nice little kitty there. And I asked that question to the council and uh Deputy Mayor Kestrino answered my question. Now maybe I got it wrong. Maybe I didn't hear well. I said, "How much do you have in that trust fund?" And she said, "About $4 million." And I just $4 million. I didn't say I was okay. Now maybe it was $40 million.

I maybe one of you can, you know, tell me. I don't know. But $4 million, all that development, what are you going to do with $4 million? Buy carpeting. I I know. So, long and short of it, uh I want to stay here in Hackinack. I like Hackin Sack. I just as the young lady said a moment ago, I'm not going to be able to uh you know, stay in this town much longer if if things don't change. You guys got to do something. Imagine how many people could be living in those units now if that 10% thing was was going on. So, whoever made that deal, and I know it wasn't you guys, what a bad deal because we could have people living there right now, but other powers uh decided to go a different route. So, yes, the question is, what are you going to do for us? Please do something. I want to stick around here. It's a nice town. Hackinack's all right. I thank you all for

Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wish to speak to an agenda item? Okay, we'll hold responses until a little bit later in the meeting, but I'm sure there'll be things to say. Um, with that, I need a motion to close to the public on agenda items. I'll make a motion. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay, moving on to new business. Uh, resolution 75-26.

Resolution 75-26 is for final adoption of ordinance 04-2026, an ordinance amending chapter 45A affordable housing part two general legislation of the code of the city of Hackinack to address the requirements of the fair share housing act as amended and the uniform housing affordability controls as amended regarding compliance with the city's affordable housing obligations. This ordinance has been published according to law and now calls for a public hearing. Thank you. Um I need a motion to open to the public for comment on this resolution and this resolution only. I'll make a motion. Second.

All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Any member of the public wishing to speak on this ordinance and this ordinance only? Seeing none, motion to close to the public. Alert. A second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion to adopt resolution 75-26. I'll make a motion. Second. Uh, roll call, please. Deputy Mayor Tumi. Yes. Councilwoman Clark Collins. Yes. Council Councilman Diaz. Yes. Mayor Gaines. Yes. Mo

uh be it resolved by the city council of the city of Hackinac, county of Bergen, and the state of New Jersey that ordinance number 4-2026 has passed its second and final reading and is hereby adopted. Thank you. Moving on to the consent agenda. Um if you like to.

The following items are considered to be routine in nature and will be enacted in one motion. Any items requiring expenditure are supported by a certification of availability of funds. Any item requiring discussion will be removed from the consent agenda and consent agenda items will be reflected in full in the minutes including any exceptions and/or additions. The consent agenda includes resolution 76-26, resolution authorizing payment of bills. Resolution 77-26, resolution authorizing tax refunds. Resolution 78-26, resolution authorizing a transfer of the 2025 budget appropriations. Resolution 79-26, resolution authorizing raffle licenses. Resolution 80-26, resolution adopting the affordable housing affirmative marketing plan for the city of Hackinac. Resolution 81-26, resolution adopting the affordability housing assistance program manual for the city of Hackinack. Resolution 82-26, resolution adopting the affordable housing rehabilitation manual for the city of Hackinac. And finally, resolution 83-26, resolution adopting the fourth round affordable housing spending plan.

Thank you. Um, can I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda? I make a motion. Second. Uh, roll call, please. Deputy Mayor Tumi. Yes. Councilwoman Clark Collins. Yes. Councilman Diaz, yes. Mayor Gaines, yes. Consent agenda passes.

Thank you. All right, moving on to public comment. This is our our open gym public comment. Uh any member of the public who uh would like to speak again, you have three minutes. Please direct your comments to me and when you come up to state your name and um whatever city you live in. Um if I can have a motion to open to the public. I'll make a motion. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Please.

Thank you every Thank you everybody. Um, I'll put this on. All right. Hello council. Hello Mayor Gaines. Again, my name is Colin Debro and I am a Hackinack resident. I reside at 403 Prospect Avenue, apartment 13B. I spoke on February 17th and submitted written documentation requesting that our building be considered for inclusion in the residential parking permit under section 170-7 71E. Um, I have since reviewed the meeting minutes and I've printed them as well from the city council meeting on December 7th of 2021 in which um 406 Prospect Avenue, which is the apartment building that is directly across the street from mine, uh, was granted eligibility under ordinance 57-2021 due to limited on-site parking and reliance on street parking. Um, last time I was here and spoke, I I brought to your attention that our building faces the same conditions. And as previously submitted, I've identified um what I believe to be a minimum of 27 resident vehicles which currently rely on street parking uh due to limited on-site availability. Um, I am respectfully requesting clarification on the process and timeline for reviewing our building's eligibility under the same framework that applied to 406 Prospect Avenue. Um, if there are any additional steps required of residents, I would be uh appreciative of your guidance and expertise. Thank you for your time.

Can I have your name? Can I have your name one more time? My name is Colin Dibbro. Colin. Okay, Colin. Don't disappear. I'm going to ask for the city manager to speak to that after public comments, but we'll address that. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you,

Rich Serbo, Spring Valley Avenue. You know, there were a few things uh tonight that I'm I'm confused. Okay, I'm easily confused and I'm not afraid to admit that and I hope everyone that is confused will admit to it, too. Okay. Now, the agenda uh that you're saying uh that we should comment on any um agenda item. Where is the agenda? Where is the agenda? We used to hand it out. They used to hand it out. What? You're trying to save paper. What is it? The the agendas are well the agenda is on the screen. It's also available online, but if you want a printed out copy, we can. They're also open.

Okay. So, we were supposed to read the agenda before we got here. Is that what you're trying to say? Well, they're posted 48 hours in advance.

All right. This is is uh I guess this is uh community college or something. Okay. Okay. Now, the the thing with the um with the solar uh fella um community solar that he's saying we're going to draw from a a bank of of solar power somehow. Now don't forget for 10 years the state had sent out or they these salespeople invoked the name of the state selling solar to people. Okay, it's a scam. There's a lot of scams. There's companies that went out of business. They came up here from Cherry Hill. You got to look into this. It's it's crazy. Be careful. I don't know about this community thing, uh, but you know, I had a a company that, uh, scammed me, okay? It was called, um, Green, uh, solar or no, uh, it was from Cherry Hill. And they put, uh, panels on my roof. Okay. They weren't supposed to be on this on my house. They did nothing. Okay. So, I had them disconnected. And now they're saying u that you owe for those panels. You you owe us money for those panels. I swear they will never get that money. Please trees. Trust me. Okay. Other things uh the um the snow. We had a rough time with snow. Wow. This past uh uh uh storm was even worse than that first one, I think. Wow. And I was I sent some emails out. I hope everybody got them. Mr. uh Freeman, I sent one to and it was just I couldn't get out of my driveway for two

days. Okay. Uh but I I I'm glad you showed some humility. I I was so happy to see that someone was going to apologize for the snow cleanup. It It was fantastic. I I was ready to praise you all over the city, but it came down to the fact that you were going to blame somebody. Okay. It was it was a beautiful idea to apologize to the people of Hackinack, but then you decided to blame the previous administration. Okay. Now, that's happened before, too. It's about that time, but you can you're up your point.

Okay. So that's in character because you've blamed the previous administration for more than just the snow. There were several things, the the the development, the uh the this, the taxes, everything. So I I'm I hope you can clear that up. I was I was so happy that you uh apologized and then you let me down. I I feel let down now. So Okay. So, thank you very much. Anytime.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh, Danny Ferretti. Um, just like to take a couple minutes, which is some of you may know who I am, some may not. Uh, my family's been in the city of Hackinack since 1899. My grandfather started the juvenile division in Hackinack. I'm third generation business owner in Hackinack. We uh we own trucking, sanitation, um snow removal, and we've been based on Union Street since the early 40s. Um I talked to some of the city employees during the last snowstorm in regards to the snow removal. I left a couple messages for the city manager. Unfortunately, I know you were probably occupied. you didn't get a chance to get back to me, but my company's snowplow um industrial terminals from Boston down to Philadelphia and we offered the city, you know, an opportunity for us to come in and help you out if needed. Not an obligation, just an offer. Um, but we have probably around 250 hall trucks hauling snow and probably over 20 to 30 different pieces of equipment for moving snow just on snow removal sites. Um, and we do sites that are in upwards of 3 to 400 acres outside of our regular trucking and sanitation duties. Um, I think the city of Hackinack didn't fall short as far as the determinations of what you made. The storm was historic. Obviously, the staff that you had out there, the DPW, those guys were doing the best they could. I think where you fell short is the uh the equipment in the city is antiquated. You know, we go from the city of Hackinack, and I'm sure some of you guys have been here a long time. I know I've been here a long time. You know, from what the city was in 1984 to what the city is in 2026, a whole

different animal. You got 20,000 more people in here. Where you used to have two family homes, you got fivetory buildings. You're a mini hoboken. Well, none of the infrastructure as far as the DPW equipment has been updated. I think you know, you used to have auctions once a year, get rid of the old stuff, get the new stuff. That hasn't happened in a couple years. And I think when you're trying to operate something of this magnitude, and I can speak on that because my family has history of operating largecale trucking and sanitation operations, you know, um you got to be ready for something like this. And you know, the last three years, four years, snow hasn't been what you expected to be. Two inches, yeah, we can handle it. Three inches, yeah, not a problem. Two feet of snow, yeah, it's a problem. you know, now we got problem. So, I think that being a new mayor and council, and again, I'm not speaking on the old mayor and council. I think, you know, everybody has a new vision, right? You guys are sitting on this board. You should know who I am. I should know who you are. I think you should take a little bit of what I'm giving you as my expertise because I open up, you know, terminals that are responsible for billions and billions of dollars worth of freight, international freight, and I do it at my direction. I'm the owner. I call the shots and we make it happen. With that being said, I brought some cards tonight after the meeting. I'm going to leave you guys some cards. Any questions you have, I'll be happy to answer. I'm not soliciting work. There's 20 viable contractors in the city other than us that are rooted here that have been here their whole lives that can do the job. Some of my friends, some of my competitors. But with that being said, when you guys are in a position like that, phone call should be going to us to guys who are spending tax money in the city. You know, I know over the years my commercial properties in here,

we've spent millions of dollars in tax dollars to this city. So, when you guys are in a position where we have to be on the news and you guys are in a position where everybody's going, "What do we do next?" The call should be going out like they did years ago to local contractors to get us in to support the city versus pulling money out of a storm fund racing down buying new equipment that you're not facilitated to operate in the first place. Spend that money where you're going to get the service done. And you know, I opened up Sorry, Danny. I don't I don't want to cut you off, but we're a little we're

No, I'll I'll step down. But, you know, we opened up moving over a million and a half yards of snow in 3 days, you know, so I think that's that speaks for itself. But at the end of the meeting, I'll leave my information. We'll go from there. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening. Marty Smith, Prospect Avenue. Good evening.

I'm a member of the Hackardsack Condo Co-op Advisory Board. At the January meeting of the council, our advisory board asked if the council would consider passing an ordinance making it a traffic violation for a pedestrian to talk or text on a cell phone while crossing a street. At that meeting, we also said that dozens and dozens of other cities across the country have already adopted this type of resolution, seeing very positive results in the lowering of pedestrian accidents. Can you tell me if the council has considered this and if you've come to any decision? I'm

going to let you continue. I don't know if you have more things. Sorry, I don't know if you have more things. Uh we'll respond after all the comments are done.

Okay. Next item I have is I'd like to thank Mr. Freeman for following up on what we were discussing concerning the reduction of the speed limit on Summit Avenue between Spring Valley Avenue and Payic Street. Uh we are of the opinion that that section of the street although it is a county road for some reason is under city jurisdiction. With Mr. Freeman's help I received a call about a week after the January council meeting from a captain from the city traffic department. We spoke for between 10 and 15 minutes. I laid out all the parameters to him and he said that he would make further inquiries of the Bergen County traffic department to find out if in fact that section of Summit Avenue is under jurisdiction of the city and therefore is required to have a 25 mph speed limit. So I haven't heard anything in addition. I don't know if Mr. Freeman has heard from the Hackardsack traffic department, but hopefully some progress will be made, but thanks for reaching out to the Hackardsack traffic department. The third item I have is again at the January meeting, we requested that designated crosswalks be installed at the intersection of Anderson Street and Union Street, which is a dangerous intersection because of the curvature of Anderson Street at that point. and that there also are bus stops at those locations on the north and south side of Anderson Street. I don't know if the city has decided to go forward with this

project or not and if you have whether or not you have set a date for the project to be done. Sorry, I'm gonna ask the manager to address a portion of your comments, but we'll make comments after all the public comments. After sorry, once all the public comments are done, I'm going to ask the manager to address both you and um Colin, I think was his name. Uh yep. So, I'm going to give the manager some time to respond to some of these comments. Thank you. Can I come up here?

Good evening. Good evening.

I'm not here with any complaint. Uh my name is Milan. I'm with at 16 Avenue in Hakasak here. I'm here with my friend Alonso which I think the whole Hakasak knows him. We are involved in soccer. We in Haken Sak. We have a team over 50 and we are already here for about how many about 10 years or so. Played at Johnson Park and uh supporting the soccer all our lives and uh we see the field or dome that we are a little bit familiar with it and a little bit know what's going on now. And that's why I'm here to uh put a presentation that we play soccer at so far which is in cold New Jersey. Now it's very hard to get a feel to play indoor soccer and that's practically all year round. Same things in at uh Waldvic also teneck P all around. We play all around we travel so we know how it is. I just want to say for the field I know many people said we should build the schools priority to the field and everything else. Hakasaki is growing the population. There is more kids. There is more adults want a field. We have a Johnson Park as a field now. One field is just about not enough. Before we had a grass field across. So there's one field indoors. As I said, it's big demand. So he has my recommendation from experience. That's booked all year around. It's a win-win situation in all these places. They've been here for 30 40 years. As I said in Wolvvic, Tene Sofi used to be before Sofi something else called but they've been there for over 30 years. So I just want to bring it to your attention. It's needed in Hackinac. It's a win-win situation. I

know it's expensive. I've been as a design even from original design. I know it's expensive and everything else but if you can work on it, put it through it will be a win-win situation. Thank you. Thank you sir. Thank you. Thank you.

Just wanted to say hi.

Hello. Uh I'm a Hackers resident, too. Uh I live at 473 Washington Avenue. Uh number one, uh I saw this snowstorm. Uh I think in my street, in my area, they did a great job. And I I guess I want to congratulate the the people here. And the other thing is when you guys have uh time I guess can you that street now is all crack and that's a school zone and uh I guess uh put that new tar in that street in Jackson Avenue school that area in Washington Avenue and that's it and the dump that I my friend spoke about it see what's going to come up with that's all. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good seeing you.

Good evening, the mayor and the rest of the members. I'm Helen Russian from 280 High Street. I'm back. I had stopped coming for a while to give you time to figure out what's you plan on doing with High Street with the parking and I said when you go tonight

and address it again cuz snow time we really had a bad problem. We went out to dig out and the rest of them that lives up on the hill they would come in park in the space that will be dug out. We had to put cans in there and not we didn't want to disrespect the policeman, but we had to put it there to save our spot after we had dug out and they took the coins and everything up. That's okay. But I'm back to see what decision you made. Um any what you going plan on doing with High Street the parking there? There is an answer, but I'm I'm going to let everyone speak and I I'll address that. Okay. Yeah. And I thank you. I hadn't seen you in a long time. So, let me go back tonight and address it again. It's good to see you.

All right. And I hope you can help us out, please. You got it. I think I think you'll like the answer. Yeah. And there's two cars right now there. They parked over there yesterday. They still there. They're not going to move them until it's time to park over there again. So, that is not right. Understood. Thank you. Thank you. One last one.

The last for the best. Okay. Uh, my name is Darling Bodhi. I reside on 154 Clinton Place. Um, I just have a question. I have I would like to know what this city has any dog park in place in the future. You know, park

dog park. So, we talk about increasement of individuals, right? We also have an increase on pets. I'm a pet lover. I have two little boys at home. So what's going on? We don't have a dog park with all this redevelopment. Easy. My dad is an engineer. He knows just fans and that's it. German engineer by the way. So what I'm trying to say is that we need a dog park if it's on the plan on a future plan. And um and I think that's it. That's it for today. Thank you. Oh, and you know what? I just um let me brag about a little bit. I was in Norway last month and so of course I was such a So I brought two of tote bags. One for deputy mayor and one for council woman. Um it's a tote bag. One is from the opera house and also I'm an opera lover. and one from the Nobel Peace Center. Yeah, it was I was in the middle of that one. I should have done the priest prize myself, but this is for you guys.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Since we didn't get gifts, we're going to sing opera peacefully. So, all right. Thank you. All right. Anyone else from the public wishing to speak? Seeing none, motion to close to the public. Motion, a second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. And then just as a reminder, we're going to get ready to go. I'm going to um throw it to the city manager first and then um then we'll I'll take our Okay. Do you want to answer about the resident parking or would you like me to? Um I I'll answer about the resident parking, but if I need help, I'll I'll throw it back to you. Thanks.

Okay. Okay, first of all, Mr. Freddy, I thank you. I did get your messages and I apologize if it didn't get back to you because I passed it down the line and asked them to reach out to you. So, I will follow up with that. But, I really appreciated the offer and it was really welcomed to to find that you were looking to help us out. So, I appreciate that. I thank you,

Mr. Smith. Uh, as far as uh making it a violation to talk and text, I don't believe the mayor and council looking to formalize that. However, the police chief told me that they can issue violations for that with current standards that are in place. So, they are aware of it, but I don't believe there was any particular um ordinance that needed to be passed to do that. But if the mayor and council see fit to uh pass a separate ordinance for that, I'll remind them for the upcoming meeting. we can discuss it. As far as Summit Avenue, I know Chief Antista told me that uh his captain had a good conversation with you. He was going to circle back to the county. I think they were going to request another speed study and they were going to be in contact with you. So, I do not have any other update beyond that. As far as the uh designated crosswalks at Anderson and Union, that is in the plan for a streetscape project that is already funded for uh Anderson Street. So those crosswalks will be installed. I don't know the time frame on that. Uh but Ryan Wester, our project manager, is aware of the the request that you made. And lastly, Colin. Colin, I have some news you're not going to like. I do I I sympathize with your with your problem and with your concern. Um, parking in on the streets in the city of Hackinack is very very challenging. Just to preface that, we we have residents that live in homes that do don't even have driveways. They don't even have one parking spot. So, and I did look into your situation and I'll actually I'll read what I what I wrote to the mayor and council. Um, I said at the last meeting, a resident Colin Debro from 403 Prospect requested your consideration in providing resident parking decals to occupants of his building just as we currently do for 406

Prospect. Upon further investigation, I found that 403 Prospect Avenue, which is your building, contains 40 units, and they provide 53 on-site parking spots, which equates to 1.325 spots per unit. 406 Prospect Avenue, by the way, which is a 100-y old building, contains 80 units. They provide 30 on-site parking spots, which equates to 375 per unit. So, the ratio currently available at 403 Prospect Avenue is even that's above our current standard for new construction for that ratio. So, even when we have new construction, we don't require 1.37. So, you're above what we even require. Now, I hate to I hate to tell you that, but I can appreciate your concern. Um, so anyway, I had said here that um based on these figures, I don't recommend entertaining the request, but that's also it's up to the mayor and council. What I will say, you know, and I don't know if you've explored it, but the city does have several, you know, lots that you can permit for uh parking. I don't know the fees off hand, but we have a parking utility uh and we I'm not sure what the closest one, but you might be over here on Railroad Place. uh there that might be monthly parking available for you there. So that was um that was my findings. That's what I forwarded to the mayor and council here. Again, it's up to them if they wanted to pursue it. But my recommendation was that that would just open up further uh buildings coming to us because many of the buildings don't have the ratio that you even have there, 1.3. So I'm sorry to report that to you.

No, I am Am I allowed to respond? Go ahead. Yeah, sure. No, I do appreciate your time and I appreciate you looking at just just for the there folks streaming. Yeah, if you don't mind. Thank you. Just come up to the microphone real quick.

Thank you. It's my first time doing this with the council, so I do appreciate you at least looking into it. Um I do have a just a follow-up question. I understand that my building may be 403 Prospect Avenue. However, there are like two buildings as part of my apartment. I believe the other is 333 possibly like Payic Street there. So I I just maybe I'll follow up on my end too to see if like the um amount that you found includes that second building as well. So I have a pen on me if I could just write down your findings and then I just you know I want to know Yeah. I want I I based this off of your report at the meeting. I I watched the meeting video. You said that you had 40 units in your building, right? And as I counted like I walked around and counted not, you know.

Yeah. So, I went with the 40 units that you reported you had and you reported you had 53 on-site spots. I know you did say that your management company had some uh items in garages and so forth that I would certainly if I were you as a resident, I would pursue them to clear out whatever is not needed for parking and make that available to the residents. But yeah, I went with the 40 units that you provided to me and the 53 on-site parking. And if something changes, please let me know. Okay. So, and because of the the amount of available spots versus the amount of like residents um or the units, it's considered like two working adults per unit. I I know it's it's the number. Unfortunately, if you talk to parking specialists that they like for for new construction standards, they don't ever even go near two per unit.

Okay. It's the it's like a 0.9 or 0.85 per unit. They nowadays, especially in in a in a city like this, they assume that many people are uh commuting. Okay. All right. Well, I do appreciate the cities. And then um at what point should I ask for like reconsideration if there's any changes in the situation or You can come back every week and ask the mayor and council. They'd love to hear. Okay. All right. Thank you guys very much for your time. Thanks, Colin. Thank you. Okay. Thank Yeah. Good. Thank you. Uh M. No, no, we we need to respond to Helen. Oh, I'm sorry, Helen.

Oh, yes. Oh, sorry. So, do you want to I'll I'll take this because I we did this last um you weren't here, but someone else was here inquiring about it. So, back in I want to say uh December or January, we actually did approve for residentonly parking on High Street, Clay Street, Stanley, uh Dwolf, that that whole area. we expanded the ordinance. Um what is occurring right now is that there needs to be some onboarding for that to happen. Um so once we pass the ordinance, there's a a wait period before it actually takes effect. There has to be signage. There has to be a sticker, you know, more stickers have to be ordered. All of that is in the works, but we did we did our part and we did pass that. So, um you are more than welcome to come and say where are the stickers. Um but in terms of it being resident only parking, um I know that the manager's office is working on that along with PD and it'll it'll be operational uh soon, but it's coming.

Thank you so much. You're very welcome. Anything you want to add on that, Tom? No. No. did a good job. All right. Thank you. I tried I tried my best. All right. So, thank you. All right. Deputy Mayor.

Okay. Hello, everyone. Good evening. Thank you all for coming out to on this chilly and rainy evening to our meeting, but at least it's not snowing, right? And um I'd like to um Mr. Serbo, I'd like to make a comment. Um, I know you don't like to hear this. Um, but unfortunately, we were on on this particular we were left with a lot of things to deal with and and a lot of them we we have no one else to blame but prior administration. So um and we were left we were left with a a messy situation and and because of that um we weren't able to we weren't able to to do our best on this on this uh snow situation but we are going to go forward and and improve on these on on this matter. Um, at this point, I'd like to take a moment to thank our public works department, fire department, police department, and our city manager for their tremendous efforts during this unprecedented blizzard we recently experienced. We haven't seen weather like this in many, many years. And the conditions presented significant challenges across our city. We're deeply grateful to the residents who were patient and understanding during this time and to those who were disappointed with certain services during our this snowstorm. Please know that we too were navigating the same difficult conditions. Since coming into office

this past July, we have been addressing many complex situations throughout the city. Some requiring immediate attention and taking precedence due to their urgency and time frame. Storm response on that scale tests any municipality and we continue learning and improving from that experience. In addition, the city has been actively working on updating and improving our equipment to better prepare for any future weather events. Our goal is to ensure that we're more efficient, responsive, and equipped to handle extreme conditions moving forward. This was truly a community effort. We appreciate everyone who followed guidelines by removing vehicles from the streets and clearing snow from around fire hydrants. These actions are critical. Our workers cannot fully and safely complete their jobs without that cooperation and public safety depends on it. So, I'd like to say thank you again for being here tonight and for your continued commitment and engagement.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Well, I had something prepared I wanted to say, but um I'm just a little upset right now. And I'd like to address what Mr. Serbo had said about um let's not talk about the past. The past is what got us here. Um we have a a president in the office right now who's trying to erase some of the past. And you can't forget the past. You have to deal with the past. Um some of the things that was said for example um just the equipment on the snow about the snow the past administration didn't feel it necessary to invest in the equipment and so this is what we're left with.

It's March. It's March. Please don't. Okay. I let you talk. Thank you.

So let me speak. Um as far as these apartments are cons are uh buildings are concerned um Darlene just know that the administration who allowed all these apartment buildings to be built there is no um uh what do you say um yeah it's it's no not only just affordability but there's no rent stabilization and no rent stabilization can be placed on those apartment buildings. So even if we have an ordinance in place for rent stabilizing, it does not apply to those apartments. They can charge whatever they want and there's nothing the city of Hackinstack can do about that. So a lot of things that were done is out of our control. And people keep saying, well, you know, you're still building this and that. We cannot stop uh things that were uh approved. They were approved to be built and so it has to be um I just wanted to say that that um it it it disturbs me when people say don't talk about the past but sometimes you have to bring up the past because the past is what's got us here in the first place. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman,

thank you, Mayor. Good evening. Well, uh, now that we hit March, we finally turning the corner. We shaking off the last of the winter chill and hopefully the last of our snow shovels and officially welcomecoming the spring season. And we understand that there were some issues regarding this snowstorm. You know, those two gigantic snow storms that nobody was expecting to be this big. And we had to deal with some issues, but let me tell you, this uh whole team worked diligently and they put their best effort. Uh maybe wasn't enough, but the commitment was there. And let me tell you, and I'm talking about personally, I don't have to include my whole council here, but let me tell you, if there is one little mistake that we made is that we didn't put the city on alert when we should because we DPW department with the city manager and we saw the conditions, the really bad conditions of those equipment. Really bad. You have to see it to believe it. And now and probably our mistake was no to relate that info to you because we considered at that moment probably that you know hey I don't care you just there to uh uh to get better on that and that's what we try to do. Okay. So uh but anyway uh everything is already passed or everything is already done good or bad I don't think it was that bad but we

definitely are sure that we're going to be much better next year and you'll see that okay so but now in another note March is women history months and we are incredibly fortunate to have two dedicated Ed, brilliant women serving right here on this council. And let me tell you this little secret. They are the ones who keep the rest of us in line. So, thank you, Deputy Tumi. Thank you, Councilman Collins. So, I want to thank you all for your continued support, for staying so engaged. But let me take this opportunity to uh remember uh to everybody or I don't know if you have the opportunity uh to go to the uh to the web page and and check that out. This Thursday, March uh 5th, we having the uh art exhibit from the Hackinat Art that we think is going to be something you know out of the ordinary. So please, we invited him to go there at the hackpack.

Okay. John's library. Huh? Oh, he's got it was moved to the uh John's library. To the jump uh library. Okay. So, even uh nearby. Okay. So, please go uh and we'll meet you there. Um let's keep working together to make this spring a season of real progress for every neighborhood. So, let's get to work. All right. So, thank you so much for being here tonight and God bless you all. Thank you. Uh, in celebration of Women's History Month, uh, the councilman and I got you these tote bags. So, um, congratulations. Thank you. Thank you.

So, uh, thank thank you for that. So, um, but by the way, you guys you guys are amazing. Okay. Thank you. What I spoke it was I know it was already done. So, thank you, darling. Thank you.

So, um so I I'm gonna um speak from my heart tonight as well. First, I do want to um say we we go to different uh events and things like that. Um there was a great event here just at our fire headquarters last week that the councilwoman and Councilman Carol were both at. Um, our fire department participated, city manager was there, fire chief. Um, and it was just a a great a great uh opportunity for Hakazak to be featured in that way. Um, and I also want to thank the condo and co-op board for extending an invitation for the deputy mayor and I to attend the last meeting. Um, which was nice and there were lots of questions and it was a nice invitation for us to to take you up on. So, I want to start with the snow and I want to echo the sentiments that uh our DPW works incredibly hard and they do a great job and we are incredibly proud of the work that they do. And it is not the fault of workers if they have inadequate tools. There was a real focus and I understand it to some extent to be fiscally responsible. Um, I think that was the keeping a t a cap on spending was the chief priority of the previous administration or at least so they said.

At some point fiscally fiscal responsibility to the extreme becomes negligence. If you strangle a department and don't adequately maintain vehicles, maintain staff, maintain appropriate wages. Hackinack fell short. and it fell short. Not starting in July, not starting with this council, not starting with this DPW leadership. It fell short because of a number of decisions that were made over the course of a decade plus. And it happened in front of our eyes, but it never mattered because the snow was two inches. But if you went outside and you looked last year, last winter, you saw a rickety truck going down the street. You saw rusted out vehicles going down the street. And now when it's 28 in, you can't say, "Well, when it was two inches, it was clean. Now it's 28 in and I want it clean just as fast." We have to collectively work together when we have emergencies like we had this past weekend. Hackinack fell short. Doesn't mean the five of us fell short. We're not hacking. DPW isn't hacksack. Everyone who didn't move their car.

Everyone who plowed or shoveled back into the street or back into the sidewalk, everyone who said, "I know there's free parking available, but it's too far, so I'll just roll the dice." We all fell short. We all fell short. Hackin sack. All of us fell short. But it's just falling short. It's not failure. It's just falling short. And we'll do better next time. We'll do better next time. We'll do what we can do. And we ask that everyone do what they can do. We can purchase vehicles as long as we have the money for it. we can be in better communication with our manager and with the heads of DPW to make sure that they're communicating what they need. And if we can act on it, we'll make sure they get what they need and that the workers get what they need if we can accommodate it and we'll better communicate when people have to move their cars and things like that. But just like you want us to do our part, we ask for you to do your part so that our workers can do their part. So please, I implore you to help us help you in that effort regarding affordability. And what are we doing? We are doing our level best to actually get affordable units in the city of Hackinack. There was lots of talk over the course of the last 12 years about how much affordable housing was promised. The end result is exactly what Carlo I don't know if Carlo is still here. exactly what Carlos said, which is we have zero

affordable units created out of all of this redevelopment. Not one. Not one. As the council woman said, that's that predates us. But we are number one prioritizing putting that trust fund, that affordable housing fund to good use to actually build affordable housing, which was never done by the previous administration. and also ensure that there are some of these new buildings that actually have affordable housing in them because that's the spirit of what the law is. It's not just everyone buy your way out of affordable housing. That's the spirit of it and we will do all that we can. That was not a priority. Clearly, it wasn't a priority of the previous administration, and I'll prove it because they were very effective in doing things they wanted to do. They got 20 buildings up. So, they were very effective, just not in a way that benefits Hackinack folks.

34. So, so I also just want to make the comment because as an educator I can't not address I don't really I couldn't really decipher what exactly the statement was supposed to mean. I think by the tone I assume that it was negative in nature to some extent but community college is a viable option for people. So if you go to community college, we're proud of you. So I just want to make that clear. There is nothing insulting to me about community college whatsoever. And finally, I just want to say um we hear you about the YMCA. Uh we did not tear down the YMCA despite the flyers you might have seen. I don't actually own a hard hat. So uh I was not out there doing any demo. But um I will say this, it's interesting to me that a city council saying we'll do better next time is headline news. And what that suggests to me is how rare it is, I suppose, that municipal governments just say the honest thing. We can do better and we will. That shouldn't be revolutionary. That shouldn't send out a news crew, but unfortunately in this day and age, it is. We're going to be honest about everything. And that includes what we inherited. I know that after 12 years,

people feel like after 8 months, we should have everything solved that wasn't solved in 12 years. I don't subscribe to that. And I'll say as politely as I can, I think considering all of the things that we are addressing and tackling, we are incredibly kind to our predecessors. I think for all of the issues that we are trying to address and correct on behalf of our residents, we have shown a level of grace to our predecessors that they never extended to us even before we were elected. And so we will do what we need to do for the residents of Hackinack. The most important title that we hold is that of resident and we will never forget that. We take those roads, we take those sidewalks. Our DPW over 50% of them live in Hackinack. They take their kids to school on those same roads, too. And they want them clear. So, we will do all that we can. I assure you. But one thing that we are not going to do is take responsibility for things that predate us that we are now doing the hard work of correcting and we are not going to be penalized for being honest. That's not going to happen. With that, I need a motion to adjurnn.

I'll make a motion. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions?