Township Council - Regular Meeting

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Thank you. Good evening everyone and welcome to the March 24th, 2026 regular township council meeting of Mont Clair. This is a meeting of the Council of Township of Montlair. It's being broadcast live on channel 34 and it's streaming live on the Montlair TV YouTube channel. It's available on demand and can and will be rebroadcast. This meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the Open Public Meeting Act. The meeting was included in the revised annual notice of the meeting schedule set forth on resolution R-26-064 and adopted by the township council at its regular meeting of February 10th, 2026. It was advertised to the official newspaper on February 26 26 and posted in the township website and bulletin boards outside of the Montlair Municipal Building and has remained continuously posted. In addition, a copy of the revised annual notice is and has been available to the public and is on file in the office of our township clerk. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Madame clerk, when you get a chance, will you please do the roll call? Deputy Mayor Anderson, here. Councelor Birmingham, absent. Councelor Damato here. Councelor Harrison here. Councelor Toller. Good evening. Present. Good evening. Councelor Williams absent. Mayor Baskerville present. Okay. At this uh moment, I'd like to make a motion that we um adjourn from the public um meeting and go into the executive session.

The purpose of the executive session will be for um personnel and for contract discussions. I second the motion. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you. I'm going to ask the public, please, who's not directly involved with what we're getting ready to participate in, to please uh step out of the room. I expect that we will be um coming back into the regular portion of our meeting as close to 700 p.m. as we can. And thank you so much

Um, I'd like to make a motion that we exit the executive session and go to the public uh portion of our meeting. Second it. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. What do you think? Five minutes will do it. Okay. because we're going to try to move this along. So, please try to get back in 5 minutes. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening everyone and welcome to this regular meeting of the township council of Montlair March 24th 2026. Um and we are at the appoint the point in our agenda where we're going to um present a proclamation. Um and I'm sure we're all extremely excited about this. We're going to um present a proclamation and I think the entire council wanted to participate in this. So, we're going to come down together. This is recognizing Trans Day of Visibility. So, we're going to go down to the podium. If there are people here that came to receive this, if you would join us at the podium, we'd be grateful. Thank you. Oh, we have everything. Huh?

Oh, that'll be fine. Okay.

You have a lot of talents. However, no. singing now.

Okay, this is on. Okay, the township of Mont Clair is presenting this proclamation recognizing trans day of visibility. Whereas every March 31st marks International Day of Transgender Visibility, a day to recognize and center the voices and contributions of our gender diverse community of transgender twospirit non-binary and intense and interex people. It could be intense interex interex people in our township. And whereas all Americans have the right to self-determination, adequate health care, and comprehensive free public education so that we all may live our life and our truest selves. And whereas this day is dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments and victories of our gender expansive community while raising awareness of the work that still needs to be done to address anti-transgender violence and become a truly equitable community. And whereas our gend our transgender and gender diverse community members deserve love, respect, and a safe place not just to survive, but to thrive. Today's mayor and council, we are truly dedicated to doing our part in making this a reality. And whereas everyone should use this day to raise awareness around discrimination and violence that trans people still

face while also showcasing the beauty and power of visibility and pride. Our work does not stop on March 31st. When March 31st ends, we continue to work. We must continue to uplift positive, authentic voices the transgender community has. And all through the year, we must do our part to ensure their safety. And now, therefore, we, the mayor, and the council of this beautiful township of Montlair do hereby recognize March 31st, 2026 as transgender day of visibility. And with this proclamation, we affirm that all transgender people in our community are heard, loved, and they belong. Our commitment to advocating for transgender expansive rights is not just on March 31st, but all year long. WOOHOO. This is a proud moment. Um, as the president of Out Monontlair, uh, and, um, I have a co- and co-founder and I have another co-founder here, Maline Gail. Um, we we are so proud. We're going to celebrate five years at Out Monontlair next month um, and in April. And we are so fortunate. so fortunate to have a mayor who as before she became mayor believed that we needed to get visibility for our people. That was important. Not just we have an umbrella and everyone belongs there. And

this means so much to me. I get emotional but I won't um now because I want to finish this and I want to say thank you um Montlair the community of Montlair. Thank you. And I want to make sure that I give the voice um my voice um and support to those people who are either trans or representing the trans community 247. Yes. Yes. All right. You can introduce yourself. Yeah. Hi everyone.

Hello. Thank you. Thank you, Madame Mayor. My name is D. Chen. I am not a Montlair resident, but Montlair has been my adopted queer community. Um, I have always felt welcome as a trans person of color in Montclair. Um, from the community, not just the queer community, but the community itself. And I just want to say thank you to Montlair for making me feel welcome. But the work doesn't stop ever. Um, you may not be trans. You may not know someone who's trans. You may not care about trans rights. You may not agree with trans rights. But the fact of the matter is they'll come for our rights and then they'll come for your rights.

That's right. And it's happening now. And I'm not going to make this political, but it's happening. And if you can stand on the sidelines until and then it's just, you know, things are changed and things are different. And we have to stop that now. So we need your help, not just for us, for the black and brown people, for women, for immigrants, for people. This is not about trans rights. This is about human rights. This is about equal rights for all. Thank you.

So good evening. Good evening, Monontlair. So, uh, as always, uh, my name is, uh, Reginald Bledo. I'm the director of the Essis County Office of LGBTQ Affairs. Uh, it feels great to always come back to Montlair. Uh, Montlair is doing it right. uh Montlair is recognizing uh trans individuals, but also you're recognizing people and you're giving uh authenticity uh to residents in this town and to so many residents across this state. So to the mayor and members of council, thank you so much for being at the forefront. Uh we need elected officials uh to stand with the LGBTQ community uh in times of celebration in times of challenges and times of just being allies. And allyship is important uh when we're not around. Allyship uh should be spoken and if if there's transphobia, homophobia happening, uh we expect our allies to step up and speak up and to stand up and that's what you're doing here today. So to members of council, to the mayor, thank you so much. We appreciate you. You make Essex great and as always, great to be here.

Hi, I'm Ruth Kunstarter, a 35- year resident of Montlair, parent of a trans young adult. Um, and I, as I've said before, proclamations are great. Um, and I'd like to see action, too. So, um, whatever we can do to make trans people more visible, more safe, more welcome in our community, um, it the better. And I do want to congratulate the Montlair Council or previous Monontlair Council for making all single occupancy rest rooms in Montlair to be all gender because my own daughter Yeah. this. Let me tell you why it's important. My own daughter was transphobed and refused entry to a single occupancy women's bathroom in South Jersey and told to use the men's room twice even after she identified herself as a trans woman. So, it is. So, it's really important if if you never had to think about bathroom access, which most of us don't, you don't think about having to make a decision every time you're in public and need to go to the restroom. And it's really serious. And so, I really want to thank Montlair for for doing that. And I'm going to be encouraging other towns to do that as well. Well, as far as I know, there only four or five towns in New Jersey that have that, including Princeton, West Orange. I forget what which other ones, but we are one of the four or five towns that have it. And thank you because it makes a big difference.

Thank you very much. You see the line already?

Yes. Sunday. Yes. Sure. Thank you so much.

Yes, absolutely. Okay. Um, at this point in time, we're going to have a a budget presentation. So, Oh, you're here already. Hi. Good. Good evening. How are you? Good evening. Might be a hard act to follow even for me. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me tonight. So, if you can't hear me, I'm not used to speaking. Is the light green? The light is green. Okay, you should be good. That means the public can hear me right on the telecast. Yes, on the TV.

Okay. Um, so thank you. Um, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Joe Monzo. I'm the interim chief financial officer for Montlair. I've uh I work for Phoenix Adviserss, who is the township's municipal adviser. They appointed Phoenix through um the uh third party entity statutes that allow municipalities to appoint um a third party who has a chief municipal finance officer on staff to perform the statutory duties necessary. I took over that role on February the 1st when the prior CFO uh left the town to go somewhere else. Uh so since that time uh my office and my staff as well as the staff of the township and the manager have been putting together the 2026 budget. Um I prepared a document that I believe Mr. Marks distributed to you this evening. When you get a chance take to read that you know I wouldn't suggest you read it all right now. Um but if you do and when you get a chance to it please reach out to myself or Stephen with any questions you have about the particulars of of that document. It has a lot more detail in it than what I'm going to present here tonight. Um, and then when I'm done my presentation, myself and Mr. Marks are available for questions. So, let me give you just a status of where we stand uh financially as the township. Um, two documents have already been filed that were due statutoily. The township's debt statement was filed by the end of December. That was done by the prior CFO before she left. Um, I filed the township's township's unodudited annual financial statements which were due March 10th. They were filed sometime in the middle of February. And just a little added note, you you have new auditors this year and they had an expectation they were going to do the AFS. Um, so when I told them I did it, they cut their fee by $9,300 for this year. So because their their original proposal included them doing the annual financial statement. Thank you. Budget solved. Thank you. Okay. So that would that was filed on time. Uh and both those documents are important to be

filed timely. A because there's a statutory deadline and B because if they're not filed on time and when the town introduces their budget, the state will not review your budget. Okay? They need the 2024 audit which was filed last year, they need the 2025 document that I filed before they'll even take a look at the 26 budget when it gets introduced. Okay. So I just want to give you a little bit of summary as to what happened in 2025 financially. um and then talk about the expectations for this year. Um so the tax collection rate last year in terms of how much of the tax levy that was build was collected was a little bit south of 98.7%. You know it's in in the top of state of New Jersey. Most towns are hopefully they're above 95 96 you're pretty close to 100%. Okay. Um however uh even given that uh collection rate the township's fund balance um which is the drainy day fund um surplus did decrease by almost a million. At the end of 24 that surplus number was 17 $2 million. At the end of 20 um five it was $16.2 million. Okay. A couple reasons for that. You know other anticipated revenues did not did not generate the excess revenue that was expected. Um some of the balances from prior year's appropriations were not as great as the year before. Um but a lot of towns would would uh beg and kill to have a $16 million fund balance um at the end of any given year. Okay. Um last year uh the council also passed a resolution to fund a special emergency for the revaluation. So in 2026 will be the first year in which that uh funding is in the budget. It's $400,000 over the next five years. 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30. Okay. Um, so those are kind of the highlights for the end of the year, especially with the current fund. Uh, all the utility funds did well. I think one of them had

not not counting the ice rink utility. Uh, utility funds all finished well with all healthy surpluses at the end of the year. So I'm not really going to go into the details about the utilities. But when you do see the budget introduction and and the document I sent, understand that in addition to the current fund, which is the bulk of our operations, all the departments, right? Um there is a water utility, sewer utility, a parking utility, and a utility that was formed mid year last year, which is the ice rink utility at Clary Anderson. Okay. Uh the budget that Stephen and I have have put together uh is projected to be $1.5 million more than last year. And when I talk in these general numbers, I'm speaking in terms of the budget without any grants. I don't like to muddy the waters and talk about comparing one year to the next because if I did that, I could say your budget is down this year, right? But I haven't put any grants in the budget yet. I'd like to wait until the I've had these kind of presentations so that everybody understands we're comparing non-grant to non-grant. Okay? going up $ 1.5 million or 1.48%. Now included that in that one in that 1.5 million right now is a placeholder for an increase in the reserve front collected taxes. That is the obligation that the township has. And this is not just us, any township has because you do not collect 100% of your taxes. You collect less than 99%. You have an obligation to pay the school and the county whatever their 100% of their tax levy is. Right? We make those checks payable to them. Okay, that difference between what we do collect um what we build and what we collect is our obligation, right? It's our bad debt. So, we have to account for all that. So, last year that number was $3 million. Right now, I've put it at three and a half because when I formulated this document, I didn't know at that time whether both questions that were put before the voters were going to pass. I heard today the second question did not pass. So, when we revisit our obligation to the school, um, and we need to find out what their FY27 budget's going to

look like. When we revisit that obligation, that number may change when the budget comes back to you for introduction at the first meeting in April. Okay. Um, the largest increase this year was for group insurance, $3.1 million. Okay. Um, in 2025, the township was part of the state health benefits plan, right? You've all seen the articles about the death spiral that they're in and the and the increases to their membership was 36.9% in 2026 and it's expected to be even higher than that in 2027. The township made the fiscally responsible decision to extricate itself from the state health benefits plan and now is insured through a private carrier. Um while the savings is not the expected number from the state number, um the plan is just to get out of the state plan and and in 2027 get a better handle on what our claims are because the state is very difficult in terms of telling you what your claims experience was. Right? So we're saving I think $188,000 over what the premiums would have been with the state. And in 27 hopefully that number starts to stabilize and we don't have 35% increases. Okay. So, even with that 3.1, I'll talk in a minute about how it was achieved, we still only have a million dollars operational increase if you take out the increase for the reserve. Okay. Uh, the pension obligations this year decreased $435,000. That's the township's obligations to the state of New Jersey to fund the police and fire retirement systems and the public employee retirement systems. It's basically the township's match for the employees contributions. That went down $439,000. Uh, municipal debt service went down $39,000. Um, the budget right now calls for a decrease in capital improvements of a million half dollars. I've talked about the reserve. That's going to change. Okay. Uh, the the assessed value from the town did not change very much. It's

now 7 bill217,000 and went up $5 million. Okay. So, as I said before, you know, the the budget um the initial look at the budget even before I got here with Mr. Marks was that our the health insurance was going to the budget operations, right? Um so, the tact that was taken this year was to on the spending side look to reduce departmental spending. Okay? And I want to make that distinction because there are many many items of spending in the budget which cannot be touched. Right? You cannot come in and say across the board 5% reductions. We have pension obligations, debt service obligations, statutory obligations for the revaluation. You cannot just take a knife to the budget and just cut an an arbitrary percentage. Nobody can do that, not just Montlair. No town can do that. Um but um Mr. Marks, his idea was to to pair back departmental expenses by 5%. In total, that's salaries and wages and operating. in those departments that have salaries and wages and operating and that's the tact that we've taken. Um Mr. Marx has met with all the department heads and had that conversation and and if this budget were to be introduced and adopted at those levels, it will be the department head's responsibility to manage their departments with the resources that the governing body has given them. Okay? Resources being cap human capital and the operating expenses in those budgets, right? That that is their responsibility as department heads. All right? And Mr. Marx's responsibility to manage them to manage their departments. So, all that being said, um, and we we've made some up we've made some considerations for the increases in gasoline and electric and utilities that seem to be, you know, also, you know, crippling some towns in New Jersey. Um, all that being said, the budget we expect to introduce at the first meeting in April. Uh, and if we do that, we will

meet the statutory obligation to introduce by March 30th or the first meeting thereafter. Obviously, we're not going to make March 31st because that would have been tonight. Um, so your first meeting in April will satisfy the statutory requirement to introduce and then that's the budget will go to the state of New Jersey for their review. Um, and then when it comes back and we've answered all their questions, it'll be scheduled for adoption at your first meeting in in March. Okay. Uh, the budget right now calls for a um

May. I'm sorry, I say March. I need a time machine. Um, so the budget right now calls for a 2.2 cent increase in the local tax rate. Last year's rate was 86.8 cents. This year it would be 89. Okay. If it was to be passed as we plan on introducing it, that's a 2.55% increase in the local rate only. Okay. Um, so the budget is in balance. Okay. Um, because it has to be. uh the budget we're presenting and hope to introduce and again there might be some minor changes with respect to the reserve fund collected taxes but for the most part it'll be the budget you have in front of you at least the document you have um is within the two caps. So New Jersey has two uh cap restrictions for all municipalities in New Jersey. The first one is a spending cap. Um and CAP doesn't stand for anything. It's not an acronym. It's one of the few things in New Jersey that's not an acronym. Um, it's an artificial limitation on municipal spending, right? Not all municipal spending, not utilities, right? Not debt service, not capital, not the library, that's a separate tax. Um, you know, there's some other things that are that are outside of the scope of the limitation, but for the most part, it's 90. It's all your departmental operating expenses. So, the statutory maximum is a 3.5% increase. Okay? But in order to achieve a 3.5% possible increase, you have to adopt a resol an ordinance to get to there. And it's on the agenda tonight. Every year, the director of local and government services sets what is known as the index rate. Okay? Um he can set that between zero and 2 and a.5%. This year it was set at 2%. So the ordinance you have in front of you takes that 2% and says we want we want the possibility of increasing our incap spending by another 1.5%.

It does not say we're going to go there. It says we need the possibility to go there in the event our appropriations cannot fit within that 2 and a half%. The three and a half% is the statutory maximum. Right? The other benefit of doing that ordinance is that it preserves for the next three years what's known as a cap bank. If you do not use all the allocation that the three and a half% provides to you, you can use the difference over the next three years if you need to. So, as I've calculated that number this year, this document that you see in front of you, uh, that you will see will be $225,000 under the spending cap, right? If was that my five minutes? Uh, will be $225,000 under the spending cap if you pass the what's known as the COLA ordinance, introduction, and then adoption. So, it's within the spending cap. um permitted by the state, required by the state. Um so the second cap is known as the levy cap. This law was passed in 2010 that limits local property tax levy increases, not the rate, levy increases to 2%. Okay? Plus any exceptions that the a town may have for obligations over 2% for debt service, capital improvements, pension, um and low, which we don't have. Okay. this budget is within that calculation. Um because of the decreases in um pension um we don't have the we don't have those sorts of oblig our debt service remains the same. So we don't have some of the exceptions um but um within $1 of the of the permitted maximum right which is slightly above 2%. So, the budget would be statutoily introduced on time, hopefully adopted on

time, and presented to the state within both caps um with an expectation that the majority of departmental expenses would have a 5% reduction to make up for the fact that our group insurance was $3.5 million increase. And again, we'll re we'll revisit our obligation for the for the county and school for what their levies are. Um I still have to speak to the county. have estimated a certain percentage for their increase in their levy and I did the same thing for the school. But now that the second question has not passed, I'll have to revisit that. Okay. So that's my presentation for what it's worth. Um I'm open for any questions. I guess as is Mr. Marks, I hope. Great. Thank you very much.

And the and the expectation would be to introduce at the next meeting and then schedule the adoption and public hearing for the first meeting in May. Okay. Council questions. Eric, I'm I'm sorry. Council Damato, that's a small one. Uh so our provisioning for uncollectible uh uh taxes, right? Um in reality that that is what happens in that year, but do we get often does the does that end at the same level given our our status as I would imagine the most? Not always. So yeah, cuz we're the senior leanh holder on anything that we put a tax lean on. Correct.

Well, in terms of So at the end of the year, there were there were delinquent taxes at the end of the year, right? Those taxes will be collected this year when the tax when the they'll either be paid in the beginning part of the year or more more than likely the tax collector will hold what's known as a tax sale, right? Sometime later in the year, they they sell the taxes. They're not selling the property. They're selling the taxes and either the resident the tax the homeowner will pay right or the tax might not be a home could be a you know commercial

the person who owns the property will pay the delinquent taxes with the appropriate uh state penalties or a third party lean holder will will come to will come to this room and bid on the taxes and they will pay us but in some fashion we will get our money right so so from the prior year's taxes were almost made whole we do have a We do have a significant number of tax title leans where that means that the township holds the lean for the property because nobody bought the taxes and this is an accumulation over years. Um that number is pretty significant. It's about $1.4 million.

Um that you know over the years the taxes that remained unpaid either by the homeowner, property owner or third party investor still remained unpaid. So now the township has them. Um and so we hold we hold the lean, right? We can foreclose on those properties, but it takes a couple years to foreclose statutoily. And then we are also given the state of real estate in the town in a better in a similarly better position than some other municipalities which may not actually be able to get made whole on any property over which they have a le. Right. So just so people know that this is an on an ongoing thing that we are usually made whole on any

usually made whole. Right. Yes. And most towns most towns are usually made whole. Yes. Other no. Council Harrison, do you have anything? Just I I want just as partially for the benefit of the public. Um how much in last year's budget and how much in this year's budget is paying principal and interest on the prior form of the school but school creation that the town when they were type one yes now the tax rate that I just spoke of has nothing to do with that just so you understand.

No I understand but it's ultimately money

the principal and interest combined remain the same. So the principal this year on the type one school debt is 6,860,000 and the interest is a million18,000. There's a separate tax on your tax bill. So Montlair has the has the the luxury of having three taxes on their tax bill. Three local taxes, not counting the school and the type two and the type two school and the county. Your tax bill has three local taxes. It has a tax to support the municipal operations. That's the tax I'm speaking about tonight. The that's the one that's going up 2.2 cents. You have a library tax because you have a library. That tax is determined by the state of New Jersey. It's based on your assessed value. It's not a number that the township can budget less than. We budget more than we we provide additional support to the library. Right? But that minimum support creates its own separate tax that year. That this year that number is u 4,271,000. Last year it was $3,888,000. Okay, that's a separate tax on your tax bill. And then the third tax is the tax to support the type one school district. Okay, that tax agrees to how much we pay in debt service, which this year is $7.8 million. Okay, so when you look at your local purpose local tax bill, there's three separate taxes. Local, the municipal operations, type one school debt, and the library. the type one school debt will be off your books in 2031.

Okay. Um so obviously the schools issuing their own debt now. They turned they became type two I think in 2021 but we still have the obligation for the debt that was issued while they were type one. I believe it goes through 2030 maybe 2031. Decreasing. Yeah. Decreasing every year. Yes. Absolutely. Y anyone else? No. Um just a quick question here. Um, thank you for this. I heard someone say it's um I think I don't know if it was in Hoboken because in Hoboken they're talking about a 20% tax increase and that this is one of the most difficult budget years.

Absolutely. I've been doing this so this is my this is my 46th year. It's not meant to get applause. It's just meant to tell you how old I am. This is my 46th year working in municipal finance. Since 1980. Yeah. Okay. Uh and every year we always say this is the worst year. Right. and and every year it kind of is, right? There's there's very little resources the towns have to create their own revenues, right? Almost every revenue has to be, you know, ordained by the state of New Jersey, whether it be cannabis or or pilots, right? Um if you're unfortunate enough to be in the state health benefit system for the last three years, your premiums have increased 100%.

In the last three years, that 37% this year was not an anomaly, right? It was almost the same the last two years. I would say the I would say since 2023, so four, five, and six, it's gone up. It's doubled. Right.

And the towns that are getting out of the state benefits are the ones that have decent experience. The towns that are not are because their experience is so bad, nobody will take them. They won't they can't go into a health insurance fund. They can't go to a private carrier because their experience is so bad. So, what's going to be left is going to be one of those the old uninsured, under, you know, non-insured, underinsured, you know, at the state for car insurance. It's going to be all high-risk uh towns, schools, counties, etc. Uh, in that pool. So, the fact that the township got out of that um is very fortunate. The fact that our experience was good enough that we could get out was very fortunate for a little bit for this year, but more importantly for hopefully going forward.

Going forward. Absolutely. Yep. Um, one thing just about the fund balance because I know we we do try and track that and keep it flat. You had mentioned I I think we've talked about um with the storms this year that you can put some money into a a trust a fund trust that doesn't count against the cap and the appropriations that basically came out of our fund balance. Correct. like that or how would that have So this year's budget is being presented to use $1 million less in fund balance than last year because our fund balance dropped a million dollar. So essentially we're using the same you know level of allocation 8 million last year 7 million this year.

Um the way the towns regenerate their fund balance is a couple of ways. One they can have revenue that gets collected greater than what they anticipate. You put a million dollars in for court fines and you collect a million3. That's $300,000 it goes into your pocket, right? Into the coffers, right? Shouldn't say in the pocket in a government setting, I guess. Um the other way is that at the end of two years, whatever remains unspent from a budget, right, adopted spending side of the budget becomes fund balance for the town. So at the end of 2025, there was a certain level of appropriations that remained unpaid and unencumbered and unspent, right? And if we did nothing to those, they would have become fund balance at the end of 26. What I did, and you passed resolutions to this effect, was I did budget transfers, and this is all, you know, allowable by this budget law. I did budget transfers from some of those accounts into our storm trust to the tune of about a million dollars. So that bolstered our storm trust because the the cost of the storm this year were extraordinary. They were so extraordinary that the governor um gave an executive order that said they can be outside the spending cap. You know, towns can't afford to be restricted to three and a half% if the storm the current storm of the century cost towns a million dollars. Um but we didn't have to do that because I used last year's money to fund the snow. If we had put it in this year's budget, it would have been difficult to maintain to get within the spending cap because that would have been another million dollars.

The consequence of that is at the end of 2026, there'll be less money from 2025's unencumbered budget to become fund balance.

So, it's either budget it and have difficulty meeting the spending cap or use last year's numbers and try to regenerate surplus in a different fashion. And then do you mind just talking a little bit about the pension in terms of this year our pension went down a little bit. Last year it went up and the year before it went up a lot. There's a lot of uncertainty because it relies on your headcount. It also relies on the investment rate of return that they're getting. So in terms of do you have a sense of projection for us or

I know that so the the state of New Jerseyy's pension system is basically a you know it's like a you know quadrangle there's the local police and fire state police and fire local state they're not supposed to cross right the state has been funding their pension to their false obligation for the past I don't know maybe seven to 10 years now the current budget that governor um the new governor put forth fully funds it at the local level. Municipalities pension obligations and by the way schools don't pay schools don't pay pension for teachers. The state pays the pension for teachers. Okay? They pay pension for non you know teachers. Um in 2026 our pension obligation is based on the salaries from 2024 that the township had. Right. And then that number is that's actually just the second quarter of 24. It's always two-year lag. Then they multiply it by four to annualize it, right? Um and then they apply their actuarily calculated number to to say that percentage when applied to all the towns will keep the system healthy. Okay. Um that number is dropped this year. Right. For the public employees, it's about I want to say 15% and for police and fire, it's about 39%. Okay. So, um that's the match. You know, there's not a direct it's not a direct dollar for-doll match. Employees pay 7 a.5% uh police and firemen pay 10% of their of their own salary into the pension system. So, obviously the municipalities and anybody else contributing at a government level pay more. I mean for police we pay almost three times more than three times and for the local municipalities we pay more than double as a match. Okay. Um so the the fund is healthier this year. Um the expected rate of return I guess was

better. So they lowered those actuarily calculated percentages. Right. Um that kind of seems to be the trend. You know as the system gets healthier. There haven't been any I'm a retiree, right? There are no there are no COLA increases. I don't expect one in my lifetime, right? I retired in 2019 at a certain pension. I expect to get that pension forever. I I don't expect to ever get an increase in that pension. Okay. Um same thing with the police, right? Police have a different police have the option to increase theirs. They have a their own investment council. They can vote to increase their cost of living adjustments. They have not yet. Um but they can. All right. There's no such animal on the PES side.

Thanks. Thank you. Anyone else on council? No. No. Okay. Manager, anyone? No. Okay. Okay. Thank you. As as Stephen and I, you know, work through some possible changes to the document you have in front of you. Uh we'll get that to you before the introduction, probably before the next finance committee meeting at the Friday before the introduction. We'll talk through those and then bring you a copy of the resolution for introduction the first meeting in April. Great. Thank you very much. Very much. Have a good evening. Thank you. You as well.

Okay. The um next portion of this meeting is the public comment. Um please, if you haven't done so, if you would sign um at the front table here. And when you come up, please, we're going to try to really hold you to your three minutes. So help us with that please. Um you can come forward. I'd like for you to tell us your name. Have your three minutes. We are interested in what you have to say. Also if you wish to make any comments on um any pending ordinances um that we have listed. Will you please do so during that part of the meeting? The two pending ordinances that we have this evening are pending ordinance 02603 an ordinance authorizing execution of a financial agreement between Township of Montlair and Lacawana Montlair Urban Renewal LLC and pending ordinance 0-26-07 ordinance to amend chapter 82 animals of the code of township of Montlair Essex County New Jersey to prohibit the use of lethal methods of wildlife management within the township of Montlair. So please, if you wish to be heard on those two pending ordinance, will you do that during the um portion of the meeting when we will discuss those ordinances?

Yes. Okay. Uh my apologies. Um because we closed the public hearing on the Lacawana Plaza, we're going to um look forward to you coming up now. So my apologies. If you want to speak about the Lacawana Plaza, now would be the time to do that. Thank you. Okay. Hey, good evening, Saul. How are you? or I should say commissioner.

Okay. Good evening everyone. Thank you again for having us here for public comment. Of course, it's always a great opportunity to exercise our democracy and this opportunity to share our voices with you all. Uh like I came to talk about last week, I'd like to again implore you all to work on the Monontlair Trust Act. I especially appreciate the work that our mayor has been doing on that. It really means a lot to me and the rest of the community especially in ice out of Jersey to be pushing this act and we are really hoping that Monontlair can continue to go for this initiative to not only become a safe and welcoming town to immigrants but also a sanctuary city. I understand that that can be a challenging concept to look for, but I'd like to reiterate a few points I brought forward last week. First of all, we've previously been put on a list of sanctuary jurisdictions. If we have something to fear, it's already happened. We don't need to be afraid of more federal retributions that are less than likely to happen at this point. Additionally, Newark became a sanctuary city, like I said last time, in 2017. That's almost a decade ago. We're far behind. And if we want to really become a town that can lead this state, potentially even the nation, we should take this initiative and push ourselves forward. New Jersey as a state as a whole has also been targeted by the current administration as a sanctuary jurisdiction. We should really take this title of pride and take this opportunity upon ourselves to push forward. Honestly, like we are we're knocking on the door. We're knocking on the door of becoming a sanctuary city. We're doing everything around it. We're becoming a welcoming town. We're pushing forward the Monlair Trust Act. All that's left now is his last name to codify, to solidify it through a resolution, through an ordinance. It doesn't matter. It needs to happen, though. We have to put forward this message and be clear about it. We can't beat around the bush. We have to be very obvious in what we're trying to say, and that is that we welcome and care about immigrants in our township. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next guest, please.

My name is Thea Cook. Um, I live at 9 Laurel Place in the First Ward. So, let's talk about the MAR Trust Act. In last week's Montlair local article, uh, Monontlair moves towards immigrant protections after student walkout, it was noted that counselors Harrison and Shin Anderson and Mayor Baskerville have expressed their support. How about the rest of you? I know for a fact that there are constituents in each of your wards demanding and deserving your voices. Represent them. Represent the immigrants in Montlair and in our community. Speak up and take action. You were not provided with the opportunity to make change. So you can stay silent while residents live in fear for themselves or others. I want to hear your support support and I want to see its impact. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Next guest, please.

Hi. Good evening. Uh my name is Jill Beckman Gaines. I live at 50 Gordon Hurst Avenue in the second ward. I'm here tonight to demand that you share pilot money with our schools. Now, I have two kids in the Monontlair School District. The oldest is a sixth grader at Renaissance Middle School. Two weeks ago, I had to do one of the hardest things I've ever had to do as a parent. I had to tell my son that his beloved school was closing down. The heartbreak in his eyes is an image that will haunt me forever. And it's an image I wish I could share with all of you as you discuss this Lacawana development deal and all other development deals that rely on the use of pilots in this town. I am new to this fight. I will not speak as eloquently as other community members who have been beating this drum for years. But what I do know is that by not sharing pilot fees with the school district, the town is stealing resources from our children and my kid is paying the price. Montlair is a small town, a bedroom community as the realtors call it. We have a small footprint with precious few opportunities for commercial real estate and the large influx of property taxes that they could bring. While it may be charming to live in a town without any big box stores, I sometimes wish that Target could help pay for our schools. That is why it is doubly insulting that for that the for the few opportunities we do have to collect property taxes from large commercial properties, the town is cutting deals with developers so that they can avoid giving any money to our school district. This is totally insane to me. And I know that there are other circumstances that have led to the current calamities with the school district. I know there was district mismanagement. I know we are hamstrung by the 2% tax cap from the state. But I also know that according to the recent explainer put out by the Monontlair Partnership for Equity, Accountability, and Trust that if pilot developments had

been paying their property taxes for the last 10 years, $28 million would have gone to the school tax levy. That's 28 million paid by developers instead of homeowners like me. And I can't help but wonder if the district had been getting its fair share this whole time, would my kids incredible school be closing this June? Montlair is nothing without its schools. It's why my husband and I moved here 12 years ago and why almost every one of our neighbors chose to call Monontlair home. But now we face an uncertain future as we weigh sending our neurode divergent kid to a school with three times the student body or try to figure out a way to pay for private school. And if we're paying out of pocket for private school, does it make sense to stay in this town, this town where we pay some of the highest property taxes in the country, and we're left wondering what exactly we're paying for? Who will want to fill all those condo units at Lacawana if our schools are deemed undesirable? So please, as you make your final deliberations about the Lacawana development project, make sure that you are including language to share pilot revenue with the schools. The future of our schools and our town depend on it. Thank you.

Thank you. Next guest, please. Thank you. Uh my name is Doug Sroa. I'm a 35-y year resident of Union Street. I just wanted to uh voice my full support for the Montlair Trust Act and say that I'm totally opposed to any local law enforcement cooperation with ICE. This is America. This should not be happening here. ICE out. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next guest, please.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Ryan Kley. I live at 64 Grand View Place in the First Ward. And as a concerned resident of Montlair, I'm here to express my strong support for the proposed pilot agreement tied to the Lacawana development. I've lived here for 18 years, and most of them have been waiting for somebody to do something with Lacawana Plaza. While I understand the urge to compare this to more conventional tax structures, the pilot framework seems to clearly deliver a significantly larger and much more immediate financial benefit to the township itself, growing from over 400k in year 1 to nearly 1.9 million in year five. This represents a meaningful and sustained revenue stream that directly strengthens municipal services, infrastructure and fin and fiscal stability without placing additional burden on resident on residents. And we all know based upon the recent fiscal crisis facing our schools that we could use these funds immediately. Equally important, this agreement reflects a partnership with a developer and a development team who's willing to invest in our community in a way that aligns with the town's financial interests. I do not see a clear downside here. Supporting this project sends a clear message that we in Montlair are open to smart, forward-looking development that maximizes local benefit. I encourage the council to move forward with confidence and to approve the pilot agreement as a practical and advant advantageous step for our town's future. Thank you.

Thank you. Next guest, please.

Good evening. My name is Johanna Coxer. I live in the fourth ward and I just have to say I think I was listening to some alternative facts from the previous gentleman who was very arudite but pilots are subsidies for developers. Rather than share pilot money with the schools don't even have a pilot. Let it just go to the schools. This is what the town's people really want. Also, I want to ask you to allow the animal shelter to accept animals from outside the town. My cat is from the south. She was in a lab and I'm so happy to give her a home. At least accept animals from Newark. I don't understand why this is happening. And also, I support Montlair being a sanctuary city. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Next guest, please. Thank you, Madame Mayor. I strong strongly urge approval of the pilot and BDB holdings for the Lacawana project. I'm sorry. Would you please state your name? I'm sorry. Copeland Burchie. I I apologize.

While reasonable people can differ and we've heard many differences. This really should not be a close call. This is a high quality viable proposal. It will not be built without municipal support. There is no superior alternative waiting in the wings. And given Monontlair's track record is unrealistic to to expect that one will emerge. Delay is not a neutral act. It means more more years of vacancy deterioration and another reset with a future council. We've seen this movie before. Worse, adding financial burden now only increases the risk of failure. If we want this project to succeed, and we should, we need to support it, not weaken it, the developer success is directly aligned with the township's success. Leadership is making hard decisions in the face of noise and uncertainty, and this is one of those moments. Approve the pilot, support the project, and let's move forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Next guest, please. Good evening. My name is Nola Kim. Last time I stood here, I spoke about the 400 students who walked out to demand action on immigration issues in our community. I asked whether our voices mattered. This week, I got my answer. Since then, we've heard from some council members who say that they support the Monler Trust Act. We know there's talk about moving forward, drafting proposals, and weighing legal details. But talk is not enough. No ordinance has been introduced. No vote has been scheduled. And tonight, it isn't. There isn't even an immigrated relation immigrated relation measure on the council's agenda be because instead of action, we've seen inaction. Instead of transparency, we've seen things that we've seen that this is being held up at the fine legal points. If that is the case, then say it clearly. Set a timeline. Show progress. Because right now there's no transparency, purely silence and inaction. Without a timeline, without accountability, working on it sounds a lot like avoiding it. And while this is being delayed, people in this community are not living in theory. They are living with this real fear. According to a 2025 national the national library of medicine, nearly 42% of children and families affected by immigration enforcement show symptoms of depression and 32% experience post-traumatic stress disorder. This trauma doesn't affect just individuals. Impacts entire families and our community's well-being. Children's ability to learn and thrive suffers when their homeless feel unsafe and anxiety spreads beyond the affected families to us all. Imagine waking up every day feeling like you're walking on glass. Every sound, every unexpected knock makes your heart race. You want to live normally, go to school, go to work, visit friends. But fear is a constant companion. It's not just worry. It's a heavy weight that shadows every moment. Now, think about carrying that weight with you all day long. Every moment is filled with what ifs. What if today is the day your family is separated? What if today is what if the safe space you've known suddenly isn't safe anymore? That fear is an imaginary

distance. It's real. It's happening here right now in our own community. Now, imagine knowing that the people who represent you in your town are aware of that fear and yet choose to delay meaningful action. This is what an action looks like. So, I'm not here to ask for more discussion. I'm asking for a timeline. I'm asking for accountability and action. Because silence and delay sends a message, too. And it's one of neglect. Neglect for the people you are supposed to support and protect. Doing nothing is still a choice. And the longer you choose it, the clearer your message becomes. This community deserves more than just talk. We deserve action. And we deserve leaderships who don't just hear us but who respond. The time for waiting is over. The time for excuses is over. Thank you for listening, for discussing this important issues and for the work you are beginning to do. Now we ask you to turn those words around into real act to real timely action. My question truly is will you stand with us or will you stand aside? Thank you.

Thank you. Next guest please. Good evening. My name is Victoria Luna. I spoke here last week on the same topic I will speak on tonight. I read the article posted on the Monontlair local and I will say that I'm so pleased to hear that you are or some of you at least are in support of the Monontlair Trust Act. I don't have much to say tonight. I simply want to echo my friends here and urge you to move quickly. Please don't draw this out any longer than necessary. Please don't delay in taking action. It's been long enough. The current administration has been working tirelessly every day to ensure that immigrants and anyone who looks like an immigrant feel fear in their daily lives. These are real people, my people, your people, and they deserve action. So, please pass this as an ordinance and please do it soon. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next guest, please.

Good evening, town council and community members. Good evening.

My name is Jeffrey Robert Grayson. I will be begin tonight by reimagining a quote from Hamlet. To build or not to build, that is the question. Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune of a flawed redevelopment plan or to raise our voices against a sea of troubles by opposing end them. The Lacawana redevelopment plan has sat at the center of a cultural divide in Montlair ever since the Pathmark Supermarket closed in 2015. Supporters of the project say, "Let's move forward because anything is better than nothing." And David Placeic is such a nice man and an asset to the community. Yes, indeed. Mr. Placeic has ingratiated himself to members of the community from the police department, the commercial business sector, various civic civic or organizations, past and present council members, one of whom resigned abruptly and fled across the country once his name was linked to a health benefit scandal. Two of whom sit on the council today as guaranteed approval votes regardless of any information they received to the contrary. I personally don't know David Placeet from Adam, so I won't comment on his likability, credibility, reliability, or integrity. There are plenty of people in town that can testify to those traits. If we move forward with this, we need to be 110% certain that David Placeet has the financial wherewithal, experience, and capability to complete a project of this magnitude. And that has nothing to do with him being a nice guy. As Michael Corleó famously told his brother in The Godfather, "It's not personal, Sunny. It's strictly business." This council is being asked to grant a pilot that will provide a trickle down benefit to the township, but provide an

immediate benefit to the developer. If Monontlair is such a hot market, why is it that the developer always seems to have the upper hand? It appears that someone in the room doing negotiations and planning is working at cross purposes in lie of a pilot. Why aren't we asking for a substantial upfront payment to be applied to the current and future school deficits? With recent cutbacks in the police and fire departments, why aren't we asking for recurring contributions to those departments since this project will greatly increase demands on their manpower? These upfront and recurring payments will provide an immediate benefit to taxpayers and help keep our public safety units fully staffed. Here in Monontlair, we await the day when a developer comes to town and makes us us an offer we can't refuse until that day arrives. To build or not to build will always be the question. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next guest, please. Good evening, Mayor Dr. Renee Elise Baskerville and members of the township council, please know that I love you and I respect you deeply. Thank you for everything you do. Love you, too.

Anyway, I am here. I'm a long time. I'm a I've lived in Monontlair for 21 years over two decades since Friday, June 24th, 2005. My name is Noah Gail and I am here to speak tonight about the Lakawana. I am asking you to do your part and vote yes on Lacawana because um Lacawana has been sitting empty since Pathmark closed for over a decade since Saturday November 7th 2015 over that guess what that was over 10 years ago over a decade ago almost 11 years got this point seems like in our lifetime ago I know sorry to make myself filled but it's true anyway um so I am asking you to do your part and do the things that you promised on the campaign trail to do that when you were elected and part of that is vote yes on Lacawana. That should be a part of a plan. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next guest please.

Uh my name is James Pellet. I live on Alexander Court. Um first of all um totally in support of what Mr. Grayson so artfully expressed. Um however my concerns here are very basic. One is I would like the board to uh get in touch with the public works department and see why now that winter is over we had so many mounds of salt spread in this town. This is a photograph of what every sewer uh states which is don't uh don't drain into the sewers because it will get into the waterways. We had so much salt, huge giant crystals of salt going all the way up my driveway. I mean, and there were mounds of it after after um the snow left. And where does that all go? Into our drinking water. It used to be that there was a brine mix and I'm sure it costs less and put this thin layer and was equally effective. So, I would like to see why the town is polluting our waters um with such huge amounts of salt, which are probably very expensive and um you know, it's it's overdone. While we're on the subject of roads, both Alexander Court, Park Street, Alexander Avenue, and others were beautifully paved. They were dug up by these huge machines. must have cost, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars. This happened last year. Within a month, they were all dug up by PSENG to put in high pressure gas lines. A I would like to establish some means of communication with this with the public works department and PSEG just on an environmental level. I mean, how can you

dig up the roads, deposit all this crap somewhere and then and then pave it and now it has to be dug up again? Number two is I understand that PSNG is responsible um within five years of a newly paved road to redo them curb to curb. I want to make sure that happens because these roads are scarred, a mess, and it's just such a damn shame just from the environmental level alone to have done all this work. I don't know who paid for it, whether it was grant money or town money, but you just had to look at the machines to see how expensive this job was. We have to fix this because uh this town cannot waste any more money on on, you know, debacles like this. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next guest, please.

Hi, my name is Jamie Bedran and thank you to the previous speakers who already used movie references because now mine will just be one more. So, I'm the mother of two children in the school system. They're 17 and 12 and a half. I'm also the PTA president of Renaissance Middle School. Maybe you've heard of it. Um, my son's school is closing. I'm not fighting the decision because we really need to take one for the team. And so I'm here to say, well, you you know, our schools, they need financial help, right? This isn't uh breaking news. Education is expensive. Our kids and teachers are worth it. And our schools, and I've said this before, but truly are the heartbeat of this town. So, let me tell you about the movie Dave. You ever see it? Kevin Klein, Sigourney Weaver. Um, there's this big budget scene in the movie. Dave is trying to balance the budget and, uh, he wants to save a homeless shelter for kids, and he says to one of his colleagues, you know, I don't want to tell an 8-year-old kid that he's got to sleep in the street. Do you want to tell him that? And the colleague says, no, sir, I sure don't. You heard tonight what Jill Beckman said about telling her son that his school was closing. I don't want to close another one. I'm a real person with kids in the schools. It's really quite traumatic to tell your kid, "I'm sorry. You won't be going here." It's the children, the teachers, the paras, the custodians, the security officers, the secretaries, the lunch supervisors.

It's not a joke. This town needs to do better. We're making a very big sacrifice. Like I said, taking one for the team. Let's figure out how we can work together and do our part for our children. There's nothing more important than their education and safety. Thank you. Thank you. Next guest, please. Tony Martin, North Fitton Avenue. What we have here is a failure to communicate. Frankly, Scarlet, I don't give a damn. I'll have what she's having. Okay, now that that's out of the way. Um, I'm I actually thought about not coming tonight, and as you know, I'm very faithful coming here and speaking because I was dispirited by the last discussion of the pilot program here. Um, one counselor um asked whether or not it was normal to have a pilot like the one you are considering tonight. Normal. We don't want to be normal. We want to be great. We want to have a fabulous, well financed and stable plan for Lacawana. Another counselor was primarily concerned with whether or not the terms of the agreement fit within existing regulation and law. Okay, the law is the law. On the other

hand, where there's a will, there's a way. and why we elected you was to be as creative and citizen focused as possible. In my view, the pilot is not citizen focused. And yes, there are regulations there. There's all this that's been sunk into this project. But let's not have tradition and inertia be the power broker here. Let's have your brain power and the assembled brain power of the citizenry be the deciding matter. I thank you for listening to all of us about this. I I I hate that this is tearing the town apart in the same way that we've been torn apart over the school budget. I I see the signs yes on Lacawana. I'm not a no on Lacawana. I love Lacawana. I want Lacawana to be great. I am a no on this pilot. and I ask you to spend one more minute, one more hour, one more week, however long it takes to reconsider. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Next guest, please.

Hi, I'm Matthew Peller, Alexander Avenue. Um, sorry, I'm a little under the weather and I had the flu last week, so I couldn't come and I sent you guys an email. So, I'll just reiterate that, you know, you need to implement uh remote public comment uh for these meetings and I there's no reason why uh it can't be done. The school board does it and you know there's not been any issues with it. Um on the Lacawana pilot, I think you guys know that the the 10% you know is too low. The assumption for school funding at $10,000 or whatever it is is completely wrong and it's way too low. It's more than half below. I don't think any state uh spends as little as $10,000 these days per student uh per year to educate students. So, if that's a plug uh required under the administrative law, it might be, you know, legally correct, but it's just factually has no relation to reality and the number of students assumed is too low. So, if you're going to have a pilot for uh Lacawatada Plaza to push it forward, the amount that goes to the schools needs to be in there because there's going to be kids living in these apartments and they need to be educated. And if it's not coming from the pilot, then the rest of us are bearing that burden. Thank you.

Thank you. Next guest, please.

Hi, Bonnie Fogle, 16 Forest Street. Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. Um, I just want to express my gratitude that um, I know this job is really enormous and I don't expect people on the day to have extensive real life experience with finances and banking and and and commercial development. But we're so lucky that there are people in this town who do and love this town and share their knowledge. And I'm very very grateful for them. Um, I'm very grateful for them. Uh so thank you to those people who work so hard on this who are not getting any kudos. Residents have been told that we're not allowed to participate in the upside that their tax concessions, density bonuses, zoning approvals, and town appeal help create. But let's focus for a moment on who does get to participate. First, the banks. The developer has indicated that 65% of total project cost, approximately $212 million, will be funded with commercial loans. On that amount, banks will earn roughly 21.5 million during construction, plus another $2.5 million upon permanent financing. Leasing agents will earn approximately 6.7 million. Insurance companies, 1.3 million. architects, engineers, and attorneys roughly five million. And when the property ultimately sells, brokers will earn another two to four million. The developer itself will be paid approximately 11 million in overhead. In total, that's roughly 50 million, much of it in commissions, all expensed against net profit. So, what do we residents get? discounted pilot payments

and about 20,000 to 30,000 if the property sells. That does not sound like a partnership. To recap, recap, every bank, every lender, every leasing agent, every broker, every attorney, even the developer, they all get paid. Residents don't. Why? Not because the law requires it, but because that's how this deal was intentionally structured. Amen.

I also want to state that uh Tony's what Tony said was just brilliant. And the reality is that normal or if it's normally done like something is totally unacceptable because when we have a lawyer that we pay who works for us, they're not supposed to be telling us what's normal. They're supposed to be negotiating and advocating for you us. If anybody here has ever had any legal dealings and paid an attorney, that's what you expect of them. Not to say, "Oh, no, that's normal. That's what people get." That's not what we hire lawyers for. So, please Thank you. Thank you. Next guest, please.

Rody Moore, third world counselor. I mean, you're a third world counselor. Third world resident. So, Dr. Mayor, council, I want to briefly revisit some of the legal points raised at the last council meeting related to whether the statute allows economic participation outside the pilot payment. Um, the question isn't how pilot payments are calculated. That's the statute is clear on that. The real question is whether the township can negotiate additional participation particularly at the time of sale because what I'm proposing is straightforward. Residents should share in the project's upside above and beyond standard pilot payments. The 2% provision referenced last week is an administrative fee. It applies when ownership changes to allow the tax exemption to continue. It does not prohibit participation in sale proceeds. Two entirely different concepts. Section 15 of the same statute explicitly provides for excess profit payments to the municipality. At a minimum, that tells us that the statute contemplates participation beyond base pilot payments. This part was left out. This may be why the agreement explicitly excludes sale proceeds from annual gross revenue. A drafting choice with direct implications for whether excess net profits are ever realized. It's not required by statute. That's a choice. Separately, redevelopment law gives a township broad negotiating authority. The redevelopment agreement can also be used to supplement the pilot agreement. Two do different documents governed by two different statutes. A part was left out. Taken together, these provisions suggest there may be more flexibility available than has been conveyed. And if that's the case, residents deserve to understand why these insights weren't proactively offered during last week's exchange. Because after all, we're paying for legal advice, not strategically curated Q&A. Residents are contributing real value to this project through tax concessions, density bonuses, and the rest, which residents, particularly town's broader appeal, which residents themselves create and sustain. Whether and how the township participates in the value is a policy decision. You know, during the last election cycle, we heard a lot of

buzzwords. We heard about trust, but structuring deals this one-sided when there are viable ways for residents participate erodess the public trust. We heard about affordability, but this deal both increases average rents and shifts educational costs on everyone else not lucky enough to score a discounted unit because our schools are excluded. And to be clear, that's property owners and renters alike. That's 49 new students based on the unit mix. We heard about accountability, but when negotiated deals produce this kind of outcome, it begs the question, accountable to whom? So, yes, I can see that it may be exceedingly rare to see this kind of advoc advocacy on residents behalf, but it's not rare because it's unreasonable. It's rare because it requires making different choices. So, Dr. Mayor Council, I urge you vote no on this agreement as it's currently structured because there seems to be pathways that haven't been fully explored. I urge you to vote no, not because you're anti-development, not because you don't want to see a supermarket in a in a neighborhood that's been a food desert for far too long. I urge you to vote no simply because it's not a fair deal for residents. A yes vote not only willfully and knowingly excludes residents from sharing in the value we help create when there are legal avenues to do otherwise, but also a yes vote takes all the pilot policy mistakes of council's past and makes them your own. MLA can do better. We should expect better. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next guest, please. Did I um Jessica Stoulsburg Montlair resident um I'm going to offer up what's a really lay version because I didn't know much about pilots. Probably still anything I know I've learned from other residents and from things that I've looked at or read about. Um, and I think the consensus seems to be except from the consultant that you hired that this is not a good fit for this plan or for our town and that pilots in Montlair are really should be a relic of the past, not something you're, you know, planning on for the future. Um, I also was at another meeting where Mr. Place came forward and he mentioned he's looking for a pilot for another development. So, I feel like this is going to continue. Um, I just want to mention that I went to I I attended in the end, not intentionally, two presentations by Mr. Hanley about the pilots and until someone told me at the first one, I thought he was hired by the developer. I didn't realize he was for the town. And I now have read his um the presentation. I've looked through it and it's a real exercise in confirmation bias. I don't know if anyone picked up on that that the way it was presented, there were no downsides. And when you've hired someone, usually they're going to tell you pros and cons. There were no cons. This was fully pro. And that that's what confirmation bias is about. Words like benefits, misconceptions, necessary, reasonleness, financial success, financial certainty. Never about what? Why might this not be a good idea? What are we going to what are we weighing? What are these, you

know, checks and balances? None. None of that. And then the the other thing that I noticed that really caught me by surprise was that he he was talking about the issue, you know, children, how many children in the in the uh development. And for workforce housing in 12 two-bedrooms, he said it would yield only one child. And yet the equivalent in affordable housing would yield five. And then someone told me that a lot of this was based on sort of an outdated Ruter study that was done. And I thought like, well, maybe Ruter should be looking at a new study on if workforce housing creates an infertility issue because it absolutely makes no sense that only one child would show up in a in 12 two bedrooms. So, um, I just urge you to really think about whether voting for a pilot in Montlair is right for Montlair, if it's right for the people who elected you, as people talked about the citizens citizenry of Montlair, or is it just right for the developer? And the other thing is that we all know that right now there is um a pro bono offer from a world-renowned designer, urban planner, architect to work with Montlair on a plan that overall is better for this entire community and to turn away from that and stick with what really is an exercise in mediocrity is another thing that I hope you'll consider. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Next guest, please. Um my name is Levi Seagull. I'm a senior at Monontlair High School. I live in W 2. Um for here to support the ordinance,

the ordinance for um Lacawana. This project has been in development for over a decade. The plan has been revised numerous times from public input. It includes a significant number of affordable housing units as well as an affordable grocery store and public space. This benefits the quality of life for current Montlair residents and gives the opportunity for future residents to comfortably live in Montlair. It will be built on what is currently just a parking lot, a site that does not currently contribute to the walkable, vibrant, nor diverse atmosphere of Montlair, but would if this project were to be built. Sure, the project may not be perfect, but it still contributes so much more to Montlair than just a parking lot, including economic activity that benefits all residents, new and existing residents. There is a very high demand to live in Montlair. And the project in its current form will still adequately address that demand even without rent control. And even if the developer makes money because um hundreds of new housing units will be added, it still massively helps affordability by adding by um addressing the supply gap. I believe this ordinance should be passed for a more affordable and enjoyable Montlair. We should not have to delay this any further. Thank you.

Thank you. Next guest, please. Ariel Xstad uh 316 Park Street. Houston, we have a problem. Sorry, just had to add one more. Okay, so uh Lacawana Plaza represents a singular and exciting opportunity to create an extension of our town center that has the ability to serve our entire community. Its history is our town's history. Its architecture is some of our town's most treasured and important. It rests on Tony's Brook, one of the engines of the economic development of Monontlair. It sits at the intersection of two of our most important streets. And its size is larger than any development in decades or for decades to come. No development is perfect, but that is not an excuse for mediocrity. This is a plan that does not serve our vibrant mix of residents either in terms of its public offerings on the site or in its financial prospects as our schools and infrastructure are under such duress. A tremendous amount of time and money has been invested in Lacawana Plaza. So the human instinct is to push it through. No one wants to appear wasteful or obstructionist, but if you approve a pilot tonight, you saddle our community with a high-risk development. High- risk are the words of the financial consultant hired by the town, not me. This current iteration of Lacawana Plaza is high risk due to requirements made by the town that are out of step with the current marketplace, current ideas about how to design public space, and current environmental standards. High risk

because the developer is inexperienced, as were and are the councils that have moved this plan forward. high risk because the town is saddled with a lawsuit that will impair the project's ability to move forward. There are solutions, good solutions, great solutions, solutions that benefit the residents, the town, and the developer. The current council was left with a mess. Now you have the chance to clean it up by working creatively with the developer to improve upon this plan. The pilot is your means to negotiate. Will you be victims of the sunk cost fallacy and push this through because you think you have no choice? Or will you use this pilot to hone in on a plan that benefits the people you were elected to represent? Thank you.

Thank you. Next guest, please.

Hi, I'm Mariana and I live in Montlair on Gardenhurst. So there are I'm not asking you to vote one way or another on Lawana, but I'm very disappointed that you're not talking about where the money is going and even you know those of you who promise to share pilots with the schools are mom not a word about it. It's very disappointing that there isn't a discussion about this going towards either tax relief or the schools because it's really deeply disappointing the idea that will go towards more municipal overburden. Our municipality has more employees in so many departments than would be expected given the average of other municipalities our size. So that this really needs to be justified. And beyond that, I want to talk about some things that I've heard here recently that are simply not true. And if I'm mistaken about this, please interrupt me and say that I'm mistaken because we need to have shared facts around our opinions that may differ, but some things either are or aren't. And some of them that I heard are a little bit ridiculous, right? One of them is that pilots reduce our taxes. Today, your CFO told you they are taxing within a dollar of the caps. If you're taxing within a dollar of the caps and you're bringing over $5 million in in pilots, those pilots are not reducing the tax. They're over and above the tax. They're funding municipal overburden. If they were actually giving us tax relief, you'd be $5 million below the caps. If I'm wrong, tell me why. The other one is that if you share shared pilots with the schools, you need to raise your taxes. Again, if you're within dollar of the caps, you can't raise them. If you shared shared pilots with the schools, you need to cut your

budget. Again, cutting municipal overburden. We don't need as large a police department as we have, we don't need as large a fire department as we have. Another one in 2020, both the mayor and the prior mayor at the CPAC at one of the the schools debate for the mayoral candidate said pilots are not a problem because we serve the school debt. They were speaking about the type one debt and that wasn't entirely a lie. It's true. The money comes in and you serve the debt.

But it sounded as if pilot money was servicing the debt. pilot money never service the debt. The prior CFO confirmed that the money that services the debt comes from the addition to the local school tax which is in all of our tax bills and that could be reduced. That would bring no advantage to the schools. But if you put the pilots towards that, it would bring a minor advance to advantage to the municipality because you would decrease your debt ratio, increase your ability to borrow in the future and not do that for the schools, do that for you. But you'd actually cut our taxes, which the way you're using pilots does not. It's just a scam on all of us. Thank you.

Thank you. Next guest, please.

Hi, uh, Caitlyn Brookke, uh, on Aubrey Road. Um, I did want to say thank you. I remember last week you you mentioned that you were interested in sharing pilots with the schools and I I really appreciated hearing that. Um and I would love to hear from others uh similar sentiments. Um likewise I I'm not going to comment on Lacawana. I know that you guys have to negotiate this and I know that you're balancing a lot of goals here. just make sure that when you look back in 10 years, you're not g you're going to feel good about the decisions you made. We none of us have a crystal ball, but I trust you guys will do your due diligence. Um, I'd also like to mention I I'd like to echo the statement that we should be having uh virtual comment here. I know nobody wants to be here till 1 in the morning like the school districts do. I hear you. I hear you. Um, but if the reason that we're not doing it is to end the meeting earlier, it it means it means we're cutting people off, people who want to be here. And I have left my husband for the second time in two weeks with my kids. And I don't want to get divorced. So, I might need to bring them next week or not next week, next meeting. And nobody wants that. Okay? The toddlers will be running around here. It'll be crazy. Okay. Um, and then finally, I want to say that um there were a group of us uh trying to dig out the trees under all the snow. I know that you guys we the snow that we had was crazy and you had to do something with it. I I hear you. Um I do think we can do something right now. Um and I would like to work with you. I will email you. I will come to your office. We can problem solve this. Um, but I I really want to do something because again, I don't want us to look

back and say, "Okay, now we have to plant new trees. We have to remediate the so like like we've literally salted the earth." Like, you know, um, and I I'm not being dramatic there. I I think we shouldn't have them encased in ice. The the trees there and the trees that were just planted, all but one were destroyed. Um, and I think the heavy machinery that would have to come in to to get the snow out, I I think it's doable. I think we can work through this. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this um at some point. So, thank you so much. Thank you very much. Next guest, please.

Good evening. Anna Gman, Monontlair resident. Um, I want to talk about drinking water and trees in our parks today. Seven weeks ago, the township used heavy equipment to deposit contaminated street snow in Essex Park and Erie Park in direct opposition to NJDP guidance. Essex Park sits within a tier 2 wellhead protection area and Erie Park within a tier one wellhead protection area, the most protected tier representing the 2-year groundwater travel zone directly adjacent to a public water supply well. The NJP snow removal and disposal policy requires that snow disposal sites be located in upland areas away from water resources and wells. These parks are not away from a well. They are in the zone immediately surrounding one. The Environmental Protection Agencies of New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts independently state in their snow disposal policies that storage within wellhead protection areas is is explicitly prohibited. The science does not change at state lines. Street snow is not clean. Those piles are saturated with road salt, automotive oil, heavy metals, and waste. Snow storage and snow melt are significant sources of non-point water pollution. Chloride from road soil salts does not biodegrade. It moves through soil into roots and into groundwater. When I raised this issue directly with the township, I was told the risk was low because our wells pump primarily in the summer. That is not low risk. That is a description of when the contamination will likely arrive. The mature native oaks in these parks have been damaged by machinery and put at severe risk. NJP guidance is explicit that snow should be stored where it is unlikely to impact

sensitive environmental resources. It's also common sense. 7 weeks of salt laden heavy snow on their root zones has been compacting soil and leeching chemicals into the ground. Road salt damage is not temporary. Sodium ions displace essential nutrients and require active remediation. These trees are not decorative. They are ecological infrastructure in a neighborhood your own master plan amendment identifies as Monontlair's hottest heat island, a condition created by tree loss and artificial turf. First, the BOE sacrificed the oaks at Woodman for plastic fields. More recently, your planning board failed to remove unscientific statements about artificial turf from a key environmental document. Now, this just a few hundred feet away from Woodman Field. The window to protect what remains is right now before bud break. Every week of delay reduces the chance of saving these trees. I'm asking this council for five things. One, confirm in writing that these parks are not NJP approved snow storage sites and that no such designation exists contrary to what township staff has stated publicly. Two, direct the immediate removal of the remaining snow using appropriately sized equipment. Three, commit to a remediation plan for the affected trees and soils beginning this week. Four, initiate chloride monitoring for the wells nearest to the parks. Five, designate these parks as ecological recovery zones. Restore them, replant them, return environmental integrity to Woodman Field, Essex Park, and Eerie Park. The future residents of this town depend on it. Thank you. Next guest, please.

Hi, Diane England. 158 Orange Road, 60 year almost 60-year resident of Montlair. And I'm confused. I don't know if this is Lacawana or if it's public. My good friend Anna, I love what she's talking about, but I I'm here I don't want to lose my public comment time is what I'm talking about. So, I am here to speak in favor of Lacawana. I do respect those in the town, though. I think growing up in this town just having differences of opinion is healthy conversation. Um, but when the question was asked why we talk about Dave Place or BDP holding as good people is because that's necessary. When things like this go on and on and on, things tend to get personal. And we sat here last time and you can hear people say things about that guy. Well, that guy lives in town. that guy pays taxes in this town. That guy owns properties in this town. I think one that we're even as a township looking to purchase for ourselves. If that's not true, scratch it from the record. But um right now we look at the what we call the path mark in the neighborhood. I grew up where I live. However, my second home was on Grove Street. I remember and people that live here long enough remember when Grove Street was a hill right there at Lacawana. Now it's it's flattened. But what Lacawana has for us right now is beautiful space. Some people don't want to go there cuz maybe they're boycotting it or whatever. But we've seen young kids go in there and ride their bicycles. We've seen flea markets come there which has provided opportunity for entrepreneurs and um small businesses. We've seen small businesses like uh the flower shop that used to be in Southoun and a young sister who does like uh lotions and things like that. So it's

been a community space in the waiting for all of this. So um there is a difference. I don't know what happened with pilots before and I think this is like oh you get beat down because we made some bad decisions before. this time we have a Montlair resident who I've even seen support the jazz festival uh Monontlair Pride um I've been to YMCA and MFES and uh when the young people talk to me about playing Cobras and safer equipment it is because of that support of residents like the playix. Um, so I just want people to think about, you know, we he is paying taxes this pilot program and we need to be honest with people. As much as I want help for our schools, I don't think that's on the table for pilots to go to the schools for what it contributes to our municipal budget and we need to start talking to people about creative ways of looking at how we're going to do different things and just start telling the truth. Um, so yes, I am here as Diane Angler 158 onroad, not speaking for any organization that I belong to. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next guest, please.

Green light.

Green light. Hey, how about that? Technology. My name is Brian Mills. I'm a resident of War I. Um, can I get a shout out to War Two? Thank you very much. You spoke well earlier. So, um, as a deal with a developer that's intended to provide revenue for the town, a pilot is fundamentally flawed. A township revenue opportunity that avoids equity through appropriate revenue sharing with its school district that would normally happen via taxes inherently robs our town of sufficient educational opportunities to ultimately and negatively impact property values. Please choose a citizen focused future for Montlair where our schools are actively empowered to serve existing and future residents. This pilot could objectively be called a scam. I'll email all reps a copy of the 2023 Cedar Grove revenue sharing agreement is a viable model and collective way for to move forward. W 2 and Monontlair can and must do better. Thank you.

Thank you. Next guest, please. Hi, I'm Parker Chak, uh, Harvard Street. Um, I'm here tonight to say thank you. Um, thank you for all the work and thoughtful consideration you've put into the the Montlair Trust Act. I'm hopeful that the final kinks have been worked out and that it will be introduced as an ordinance at the next meeting on April 7th. Um, with ICE at our airports and the impending funding to be reinstate and the impending deal for the funding to be reinstated, it gives me hope to see actions being taken to protect our diverse community. The recent actions on the state level will help stem the tide of this fascist regime. But it remains essential that we also shore up our local resources and provide another level of protections on a municipal level. The Monontlair Trust Act will not only provide an enforceable set of township laws separating ourselves from the f from federal overreach, but also lives up to the ideals that we expect this town to stand for. We are a welcoming town made up of all types of people unapologetically. So, thank you. You're not off the hook yet. We will continue to show up and push until the the Monlair Trust Act is passed. I look forward to April 7th and and having another opportunity to say thank you.

Thank you very much. Next guest, please.

Good evening. My name is Remy Sharon. First off, thank you very much for your selfless service. Keep on the movie theme. This feels quite like Groundhog Day. I'm going to try to keep this short so we can all get out of here. I am asking the council members to vote yes on Lacawana tonight. As mentioned previously by other constituents, developer success is aligned with the town success. I I like what the woman said prior, Mr. Placeic is a local resident, a decent human being, and someone who cares deeply about this town. And I can share that from my personal experience, and I think that is quite important to get across. This is not an anonymous person coming into our town and trying to develop for his own benefit. I too have two kids in the Montlair School District, one of which had her kindergarten teacher laid off at the Christmas break. It was horrible. However, Mr. Place and BD BDP holdings are not responsible for the school crisis and I think that is very important to mention. I believe this program will benefit the school district and town and I hope you will vote yes tonight. Thank you. Thank you. And for our next and final guest, please noes. Good evening. My name is Leticia Visford. I live for in Forest Street for the last 25 years. Um, I I approve. Yes. Lakawan.

Thank you. Next guest, please.

Hi, good evening. I'm Lonnie Summer Padilla, president of Montlair. Um, so just so I can remember a couple of things I want to talk about aside from pilots. Uh, one, please pass the immigrant trust act. Um, everybody who is a human um or even native wildlife deserves to feel safe in Montclair. Um, also please virtual comment. Um there are so many people that I know who would have loved to come out tonight to speak and cannot um for a variety of reasons and it's something that many other townships do. Our board our own board of ed does. It's time. Um this is something we've been talking about since you know I can't remember when we had that petition but uh years ago already. Um so um and many people signed that petition at the time. I think close to I was se hundreds if not a thousand. So um right I know I know there are people who are on the deis who signed it. So um let's let's do that. Let's make Montlair modern um like other towns um and accommodating to people who you know can't make it out this time of night for a variety of reasons. Um also about pilots, it's another thing that we've been talking about and advocating for for a number of years. also had a petition that had over a thousand signatures at the time. Um, happy to dig that up and bring it to you

if you'd like. Um, but you know, this is an issue that has is longstanding and um, it's something that really needs to happen. It's what's fair. It's what's right. Um, also, and I'm assuming you're aware, there is legislation at the state level for pilots to be shared with schools. Um, the budget, as far as I know, doesn't have anything, you know, written in that. I don't know if you have a plan for what happens if the state, you know, passes that legislation. How are you going to make those adjustments? Um, I think it's important to be talking about that, looking at that. Um, you know, whether there is a lacawana pilot or not, if the state passes that legislation, the township will have to share that, you know, a certain portion of the funds with the schools. So, this isn't an absurd request. It's a reasonable request. and um please increase the amount of the Lacawana pilot to ensure that we can, you know, fund what we need to fund in our township and our schools. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next guest, please. Good evening. Uh my name is Scott Kennedy at 423 Bloomfield Avenue in Monlair, New Jersey. Dr. Baskerville, thank you all for serving.

I'm gonna ask you guys to vote yes in for this program for Lacawana. That's important for all of us. You guys are finally have an agreement. You guys have worked together, your staff, the developer, their staff. You've all come this far and we Monontlair citizens are asking you to vote it. Move it on down the line. Um I've been here for 44 years. Um, and there are 90 families who are not here tonight who are going to be the residents in those lowincome and workforce apartments that are going to be there. The pilot is 30 years 30 years long. I stood here. I advocated for the MC hotel, the Sienna, the Seymour Street project. Um, I advocated all for all of them because they have neighbors, they have customers, they have people who are paying taxes and all of that activity adds to the economic breadth and depth of Montlair. The councils that were here before you all voted in favor of those because there's three groups of constituents. There's all the people who build those buildings and all of that revenue that comes into Monontlair when those buildings are built. That's a shot in the arm. All those people then move in. The the shopkeepers, the the people who work those buildings, they're all in there now. And the third and final act is what happens when those pilot agreements sunset. And Joe was here earlier to speak about our budgets. When those sunsets, when those pilot agreements sunset, there'll be a shot in the arm to your municipal office because those taxes will finally begin to roll in. Now, all those four buildings that I mentioned earlier, they are there because those developers worked an agreement with Monontlair.

This developer is is doing exactly the same thing. He's here. He's bringing $387 million worth of pure cash into our community, not just Monontlair, but the greater New Jersey community because those buildings are going to require concrete from someplace. and all of those people that are going to work there and all of those people that live there. Yeah, they're going to be some kids in our school and yes, we're going to support them just like we have all of our kids. So, I'm going to urge you guys to to vote yes on this. And as far as a personal note, David Placeic, I'm proud to call him my neighbor. He sets the bar high. I would love to be able to support all the organizations that we have supported in the years past to his level. I'm proud that he's here. I'm thankful that he's here, but I'm thankful that you guys have all volunteered to take these jobs and I'm asking you to pass it tonight. Thank you.

Thank you, Scott. Next guest, please.

Good evening. My name is Laurel Dumont. I live on Wong Avenue. I moved here um 11 years ago with my one-year-old son who's now finally old enough to start participating in enrichment and the kinds of things that our school district um had previously been able to fund. Um I am here just to lend my voice and support of whatever we possibly can do to raise revenue and share it with the school district um and whatever is the best incentive um uh whatever the best deal is um with the developers and with this project. I'm in favor of. I lived in New York for about 10 years before I moved here and worked closely with the economic development department there. I watched a lot of development projects where pilots and tax incentives were deeply necessary because the the market um value of the property and the rents that were available could not close those gaps. And there was uh and and my understanding is that in this town we're not there yet. This is a very desirable place. And so I don't think we should be um giving away more than we need to. So, I'm in favor of whatever is the best um arrangement for our town overall and to share whatever we're able to bring in with the school district because if the school district collapses and if our schools lose the quality and inclusivity and creativity that we all moved here for, then we will be having to beg people to come here and invest in this town. So, thank you.

Thank you. Next guest, please. Hi, my name is Tracy Sanderlassie and I'm a resident of Montlair. I'm here to request that the township allocate p allocate pilot revenue to the Montlair public schools district. I also ask that public comment be allowed for virtual attendance. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, so I'll be quick.

Okay. Good evening. You guys work really, really hard. Good evening, Claire Silata, 279 Park Street. I've been sitting at these meetings and listening to how many brilliant people you have in this town who really know their stuff. Isn't there a way that you can form advisory committees instead of paying the lawyer that you paid last week? Because there's a lot of people in here who are more than willing to give their time, energy, knowledge to you to help you make these decisions. So that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Okay. Now, at this point in time, we're going to move on to pending ordinances on second reading. And I'm going to ask um the Honorable Councelor Bill Harrison to lead us off, please. Pending ordinance 0-26-03,

an ordinance authorizing execution of a financial agreement between the township of Monontlair and Lacawana Monontlair Urban Renewal LLC for phased redevelopment project to be developed on block 3,213 lot 2 and block 4,22 lots four and 4.01. I so move and I'm going to talk for a long time which I'm sorry for but I want to get some facts out there um to under so you understand how I'm voting uh on this and you know I think you know some of the things that we are being advocated to do I wish we could but the the existing long-term tax exemption statute just does not let us do it. I have pushed our attorneys, and I do this professionally, but I've pushed our attorneys for potential workarounds so we could accomplish some of the things um that people have asked us to do with the financial agreement, but it is the the statute very clearly precludes us from benefiting from any revenues. the developer receives if he sells some or all of the property. It just can't happen. I have can give you half an hour speech on the problems with the existing long-term tax exemption legislation, not the least of which of how the money is allocated in that. I there's been legislation pending in Trenton for well over a decade to require some of the pilot monies to be shared with schools. I wish I could have some assurance that would happen, but the development community um is and municipalities,

interestingly enough, adamantly have fought that for over a decade. I we'll see if it passes, but I I don't think you can assume anything with that. I think going on in terms of this pilot in schools, we are not going to be getting any money from this pilot for three years and the initial money that we are going to receive is one not going to be large because it is going to be from a supermarket and a parking deck and those are not going to be large revenue generators and and you know and before we get apartments online with residents and potential school children were four and five years out. So this pilot is not a solution for the existing school situation. Um I am neutral on whether when we do this year's budget whether we should allocate some money but there are tradeoffs. This is not we don't have a pile of money sitting there. You heard the budget presentation earlier. We are cutting municipal services um in order to not raise taxes, trying to stay within the cap. And there are exceptions to the cap which we're not taking full advantage of to try and minimize the impact on people's taxes, but money to the schools means less money for the municipal budget. And that's a discussion we can and should have when we have the budget discussion, but it's irrelevant here. I do not believe I mean the financial agreement is a contract between the township and the developer. I don't believe that we should be binding future councils 5 10 15 20 25 30 years from now as to how money should be allocated between the municipal budget and the school budget. I think that's a

decision that should be made on the circumstances in each year. Um, I the easiest thing for me to do would be to vote no. It's, you know, I am not thrilled with this redevelopment plan, but this is a plan the prior council adopted. I think it's unfortunate they adopted it before this council took office, but that's what happened. I think the reality and knowing what went through with the red development of the first redevelopment plan and this redevelopment plan. It's not like there's a magic redevelopment plan out there that everyone's going to agree to and the developer, the property owner who is an important person in this because it's his decision whether to develop the property according to whatever the plan is. I expect we would be two years from now before we would get to this point we are now if we went through a process to adopt a quote unquote better redevelopment plan. There's not a wonderful consensus out there. There wasn't eight years ago. There isn't. There wasn't three years ago. There isn't going to be now. People are going to argue. We had a nice presentation at one of our first meetings on this on an alternate plan that some people liked, some people didn't like. no matter what plan we have is going to be controversial and it's just going to delay things. The going back to the the one thing that keeps being missed in all the things that are being presented in the pilot. the land, the tax on the land, which is the bulk of the current taxes that are being paid on the property, continues to be taxed normally, divided between the township,

the school district, the county, the library. That's that that's not going to change for the entire duration of the pilot. And that's the bulk of the taxes. Um I you know there's been much concern about our doing the 10 the lowest possible pilot the first five years and it's only five years 10%. I think the reality of the economics of this development are the costs of building first the supermarket, the parking deck and the exterior of an office building above the parking deck are extraordinary and justify the 10% pilot for that initial five years because it's going to be 5 years before he gets meaningful revenue from the more profitable mixeduse buildings that are part of the development. I you know I I you know my my concern and other members of the council's concern is not that the developer is going to make a huge amount of money on on the development but will the supermarket actually get built. We have had extensive discussions. We've done modifications to put additional deadlines to ensure that the supermarket will in fact be there and we can point to residents and say once he gets site plan approval, this is when this is going to happen by and that we have the ability to take action on the developer if he does not accomplish that. But if this were a pure mixeduse development, without the historic preservation requirements, without the open space requirements, without the requirements that a certain

portion of the property be open for public events, I would fully agree that there's a pilot is not warranted. This is a very attractive municipality for but we are requiring in the redevelopment plan extensive contributions from the developer. And yes, the pilot is a subsidy. I'm not going to pretend it's not, but it is subsidy in order for us to get the benefits to preserve it. If we were willing to say go destroy the station, go destroy all the artifacts of the station and just build what you want. Don't do any open space. We I would be first in line to say no pilot should be given. But the township is requiring extensive givebacks for the developer and in order to make the project economically viable, I think this pilot is justified.

Thank you very much. And council members, first of all, I think um deputy deputy mayor, I believe councelor Harrison moved it and I seconded it. So I just want to make sure that that No, but now we're having um discussion. Anyone? Councelor Toller. Oh, councelor Williams.

So, I'm in favor of of this pilot agreement. And, you know, this is something that I campaigned on and so everybody knew where I snowed on this. And you know, I appreciate all the folks that have come out with kind of innovative solutions and things of that nature that you know, have really put pressure on the council to go back and make sure that we were getting the best possible deal. This uh when this first was brought up, it was a a pilot of 10% for 30 years. And now what we have is every 5 years it incrementally increases right off the gross revenue. So that was something that you know we we thought was very important here. And you know I think one of the residents here did point out rightfully so that the taxpayers are subsidizing this this property and that's absolutely true. So one of the things that folks have to realize here is one of the things that uh some of the things that people say here is hey I moved here for schools I moved here for safety one of the things that people also say is I moved here for diversity right now diversity income diversity right there's ethnic diversity here also there's also diversity and thought now when I I hear folks saying that you know the town's being torn apart because of this I don't necessarily see that. So, I've gotten a lot of uh emails and things that, you know, some of them quite angry and and people talking about their their kids' school closing. My my kids school is closing, too. I have twins in Renaissance in sixth grade. They I chose that school for a reason cuz it's a small school. I liked everything about

it. My kids are being impacted. I did not send and I'm not I I chose to handle it in a different way. I understand the choices that the school, the board of education has to make and I appreciate the posi position that they're in and from the municipal side here. What we're trying to do here is cut back because you can you can see where I was on this a long time ago when I campaigned. This affordability. We need people not to be able not to be forced out of their houses. people are on fixed incomes and things of that nature. We need to make this town affordable. Okay. So, just to go back because I kind of went down a rabbit hole here is with the Lacawana Plaza, we're getting affordable housing, right? So, which I I think is is pretty important. Uh open space, a grocery store, all these things are important. And there's also various infrastructure um things that have to be done surrounding the project which is also a benefit. So when I put all that together here, you know, that's that's where how I got comfortable here with voting for this plan. And you know, I know people are not going to like that and things of that nature. And and I'm I'm fine with that. I'll I'll take all the criticism. as they say, you know, I'll take all the smoke. It's all good. But that's where I am on this. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next. Anyone, please?

Um, okay. Uh so I first of all I do want to thank everyone who um provided your comments whether by email or coming to public meetings um on this project um and the financial agreement um and conversations that I've had with people and um and you know this is this is a project itself. So, I'm a member of the economic development committee along with councelor Toller and you know, we've literally spent we we mainly worked on the redevelopment agreement. Um and uh just hours and hours of of um reviewing it and making sure that um that the town is protected and that that that it everything that um is supposed to you know be there for uh through the um redevelopment plan um is uh that is something that the developer is contractually obligated to do. Um a woman spoke at the last public uh the last meeting public comment and um you know just sort of wanted to make sure that um the redevelopment agreement would have terms um that uh that the the project would be phased that that was very clear um that any successor and interest um to the property was going to be bound by um all of the terms of of the agreement and all of that is there. Um, so I just wanted to, you know, make sure um to mention that and that the agreement is um available to the public um to view. Um, going back to the start of this work, you know, when I uh when I came on board, you know, one of the first things that I was asking is, you know, is this redevelopment plan um something that I feel comfortable moving forward with? Um because we did talk about, you know, we did talk about the possibility of going back and um you

know, changing some things about the redevelopment plan and ultimately um uh you know, I I my personal opinion was that um I thought that it was important um for for me it's more important to um proceed with this. Um there are needs that the the residents um particularly the ones that live in the immediate area but really for the whole town. Um this is a highly underutilized property. We know this this is going back to the 1980s. Um and um again there have been uh several different versions of of various redevelopment plans. And um I you know my opinion was that just based on what I read um in the redevelopment plan um and uh you know what I know about the process and um how how this the planning board really has you know the next big job. Um I I I came out in favor of proceeding with the redevelopment plan. So um then you know just sort of going back to this pilot um so given that we have um decided that we were proceeding with as a council proceeding with this redevelopment plan um you know in considering whether or not we need a pilot um to uh for this project to work and that's really the bottom line is do we actually want this project and do we want it to work and how is it going to work? Can it work with or without a pilot? And um so we got a lot of information. This uh you know we we requested a lot of information from our financial um experts, our attorneys um you know the uh the redeveloper um through their attorneys um looked at project costs. You know, this is a very expensive project as councelor um Harrison has already said and um councelor Williams mentioned um you know when I heard some

of the alternative plans like um Miss Ext's um father you know um gave a really great presentation and I I love the vision um and I would love to have um some of more of those things but you know the more that we ask for um that is out of the norms right of what um a regular developer um is required to do under a regular plan like the more expensive it is and it there is a trade-off. So, um the pilot uh you know, we looked at what what money the the project was likely to generate um you know, what we'll get out of it. We looked at um data about you know um uh comparing amounts the pilot buildings, the buildings that have a pilot um uh provide to the town versus other properties. Um and the potential costs to the township. Um we uh and you know the trade-offs, what are the trade-offs? Um we have um you know affordable units um 20% affordable units plus 10% workforce for workforce priced housing. So that's the latter of which is, you know, not um required, but I I thought it was important to be able to provide opportunities for um young people or, you know, people who u might be trying to age in place to be able to um to have um an opportunity to um have lower rents. Um there's public space um required. There's storm water matter management. Um other infrastructure improvements that otherwise the township would have to take on. an independent traffic study, street infrastructure, bike racks and bus shelters um that would encourage um more use of alternative forms of transportation. Um all of these things um are things that we as a council have decided are important enough um to um to demand. And so um in looking at the financials um I I think that um uh to provide some stability to the project, I think that

uh you know we we do need to to grant this this pilot and um uh you know I'm not going to repeat everything that um councelor Harrison said because all of this was discussed all of this was discussed amongst all of us. So I guess what I'm trying to say is um this is a very thought out um reasoned decision and um I'm going to vote um yes to this. Thank you councelor Toller.

Sure. Thank you. Um so first um councelor uh well deputy mayor Susan Shen Anderson stated that you know she and I did work together uh on the redevelopment agreement but we did not work on the financial agreement. I just want to set the record straight on that. It came through the finance committee. Um and we did ensure some of these uh additional things that we thought the community would need uh to protect and preserve uh the neighborhood were put in place. Um, we had a meeting, a few of us had a meeting with the developer yesterday via Zoom. Um, and we asked some very pointed questions and we even tried to see if we could go back to scratch. And, um, even today in executive session, we well, I can't say what we've talked about, but you know, my concern is that this pilot agreement is not adequate enough to sustain uh, the future. Um, I don't believe it's really resident or citizen focused in this manner. I believe the numbers are too low. Um, but here we are. Um, all of the amenities that we're supposed to get out of this project, affordable housing, workforce housing, open space, all of those things are great. Um, and let me just put it on the record because there's some weird energy going around that counselor doesn't like development. That's not true. I would love to see something at Lacawana. Okay? We need a supermarket. Uh, when I met with Mr. placeic back in 2022. I met with him and told him that his project was beautiful and I did ask him did he have to have 300 apartments? Could he put eight cookie cutter town houses on the property? So, I just wanted to clear that up. I do want to see something there. I am not in favor of this pilot agreement because I believe that we could have gone a little harder or rather the finance committee could have gone a little harder to get us a better number. um because I'm very concerned about what the future's going to hold and whether or not this manager is going

to be faced with cutting staff or shared services. The numbers that our uh lawyers presented to us, I think a member of the public stated it high risk. Um we're rolling the dice here and it's just not fair. Um if we can get more money, then we can absolutely share some money with the schools. I hope. Those are just my takes on it. So I will be voting no for this pilot agreement. Um, thanks. So, um, we joke about I'd like to joke about first ward privilege, and in this case, there really was a lot. Um, I was not on the committees that had to do the very, very heavy work here. I got off very easy, even though, you know, I was stuck with things like that. Um, I also obviously live in and represent a ward. that's the farthest geographically. So some of the resident concerns that are involved I've been insulated from. So I just wanted to say and also the mayor I would say we've been working on this for a couple of years and you've had to work on on this issue for for even longer. So, I I want to thank my colleagues and especially Councelor Harrison um who really dug in at the end and I did uh also uh for obvious reasons had concerns as to whether or not we were pushing the hardest possible deal here. And it's very very difficult to know. I mean, it's really, you know, this is this is hard stuff. People who say, "Oh, it's obvious or it's easy." That's that's BS. It's very very difficult. But I was given, you know, confidence that that when when when councelor Harrison came in and and really started pushing at the end, um that that this is as good as we could do. I also would say that the one thing that I really wanted was some

forward path on a mechanism to have an equitable share of of these non- tax revenues and I was given that. So we did pass a resolution and I believe the board of education last week um assembled uh a team to have a joint uh committee which will be the finance committee on our side. So again it's more work that my colleagues are doing but so that was my ask here based on a very you know multi-year demand that we look at it seriously at ways to do that. uh and uh I would wish that it could happen immediately but you know I can't be greedy. I would have one other ask and I have not asked my colleagues of this. I understand why a pilot structure which I don't I've never been comfortable with and haven't liked can apply in this condition. It is it is a singular piece of property and development challenge in the town for reasons that council Harrison laid out eloquently. There is no other place that has a tenth of these kinds of challenges. So I will go I I I'm vote for this, but I do not want to do this again. I don't think we need to do this again. I think that most any other project that comes down the pike can come through traditional taxation and just be left. I cannot. I've thought about the empty spots on the map and whether they would need it and they would really have to push hard to get uh consideration from me on this, but again I would end by just saying at the beginning, thank you guys very much for all this work that you've done uh to help me along. Thanks and I will be voting yes.

Council Birmingham.

Um thank you and thank you to everyone who's been expressing opinions along the way. Um, so you know, I always hear New Jersey referred to as a home rules, the home rule state. And it kind of makes me laugh because in fact in New Jersey, we have very, very limited ways to operate outside of the state legislature and our attorney is very often reminding me us of that. So when we hear, you know, be creative, be creative, it is unfortunate that or, you know, it's just the way it is that we really are bound by state statute. And in this case, the long-term tax exemption statute really does prohibit us, as councelor Harrison was referencing, doing some things that have been mentioned here. So the upfront payment that was mentioned was, you know, specifically struck down by New Jersey courts that you cannot that was voided in Jersey City in in terms of the gain on sale clause. That is a clause defined gross revenue is defined by state statute. That is not our choice. That is specifically coming from state statute. And I believe the term and you can correct me is ultra vary that we are not really allowed to go beyond what is specifically in state statute. So on a sale it is we are not really allowed to that is specifically excluded from gross revenue and then you know the terms of sale it is we are allowed to take a percentage of um the service charge but I believe this is the New Jersey courts have really determined this. So this idea you know of being

creative we really we have the annual service charge that's what we can negotiate. So then the question becomes is an or are annual service charges which are commonly called pilots fair. And you know when we see the comparison between conventional taxation if a project is built what it would be conventionally taxed at versus um a pilot. We have to kind of remember that the left hand of the column is theoretical because if if the project doesn't get built there will there are no taxes generated from a project.

So what we look at and you know the this the finance committee did do a lot of this but this has been in front of the council for months now. This has been since September that the whole council has been aware of this. I just want I just want to be clear it's been since September. We didn't have much input. Yeah. But it's been in you know it's been in front of the whole council for months now months

that and so when we look at you know is this project feasible without a pilot one of the things of course that were offered is you know this is what we you know the developer says this is what it's going to cost and you know and of course we should acknowledge developers are trying to make money okay they are not this is not a pro bono project we we had that opportunity in the you know in the '7s 70s and 80s when we had a lot of federal money coming in for this for the original lock on development. That is not where we are now. We have to acknowledge that developers could take their money and put it in treasury bonds and get you know a very have a very low risk investment. We we have this is an acknowledgement that they are operating to make some money. So they are you know this is what we think it's going to cost. If if it's taxed conventionally, you know, we we see this as a no-go project. If we can get this pilot, we see this as somewhat more feasible project. So, we take that information and we say this is what you tell us it's going to cost you. We're going to independently verify this, you know, given the specs of this project. And we did that. And in fact what we learned is that you know independent verification was very much like this project will cost at least that much if not more. So that you know moving forward in terms of okay again if with conventional taxation this will not be will not pass then we move to okay a pilot and getting the fairest deal. We talked about, you know, it started at a 10% across and then, as we've discussed, this is expensive. It's complicated. There's a lot of old infrastructure, historic preservation that needs to go in. King Supermarket

right now is valued at $850,000. So, we're going to convince a developer to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build things that are, you know, not um not necessarily big profit makers, but um I think the question and I do think again I'm going to just spend a minute if you don't all mind just talking about are pilots in our community paying fair share and there are two questions actually where the pilot money goes is a policy issue. So when we talk about it's not lowering our taxes, it's not going to schools, that is a policy issue. The New Jersey statute, the agreement is between the developer and the municipality. The schools are, as we've said, are intentionally left out of that. The Cedar Grove um agreement is a separate agreement between the municipality and the school district. So that is and Princeton has a similar one now with with their pilots they they are do and so those are separate agreements. So the the question of where the money goes is policy set by council. The next the important question which is I think what we're all thinking about is are pilots paying a fair share into our community? And so again, the theoretical taxation is one way to look at it, but again, if the pilot, if the project doesn't get built, that's all just theoretical. But what I feel like is potentially a little bit more um in my mind, you know, a way to look at it in terms of fairness is how does it compare to other what other properties are paying in terms of taxes that are doing cert similar things. And so if you

look and you can find this in the school audit, um who are the principal taxpayers of Montlair? How much are they paying? The largest taxpayer currently paying conventional taxpayers conventional taxation in Montlair is paying under $700,000. So of all the property in Montlair as of two 2024 it was under $700,000. We have three pilots currently that paid over a million last year. um by acre, by capita, by unit, they are paying fairly compared to other properties in this town. If you look at the MC Hotel, which has a pilot, they are paying comparably to what the Short Hills Hilton pays in in money. And Short Hills Hilton is conventionally taxed per room. our pilot, our MC hotel pilot is paying comparably to what the um Short Hills Hilton pays. The Short Hills Shopight pays $110,000 in taxes. So I would just remind that like we wouldn't expect that a supermarket is going to be you know paying a lot in terms of taxation or in terms of so I think and I mentioned it last week you know these seven our seven pilots last year and looks like just from the budget information we're got we're getting our pilots produce $700,000 more than anticipated um and that comes from gross revenue. So again when our pilots when the projects do well we can get more revenue. So I will just I think that um again where the I think this pilot that we have negotiated given the complexity of this

project is and they will be when it's finished likely the highest revenue generator of all the properties in Montlair. Um, it I think it's I think it's fair. I think the money, as I said last week, I believe it should be part of a social contract that everyone contributes to schools. It whether you have children in the school district or not. It is just how we should I think society has to operate um in terms of valuing the nurturing of our children. So I am I do think we should and we can discuss whether we do it now or we wait but I do think that that is something that we should be doing as I've said and as you could see we are trying here to uh forge a sustainable budget path for Montlair and it is difficult but we are really trying you know we're looking at insurance we are looking at you know everything uh we are really trying to establish a sustainable path. Um and that you know may mean that we have you know we can discuss uh pilot revenue you know some something you know in terms of maybe potentially supporting school infrastructure or the fields that are shared um between school and and children. So for me I all of that and thank you mayor for your patience here. Um

thank you. You're making my job easy.

I echo what others have said. I I think again to get the supermarket, the housing, the open space. Um I think I I I will be a yes on the pilot tonight minutes. Um thank you very much. Um so um gosh, I'm really appreciative that I got to go last on this for several reasons. Um, first of all, I appreciate all the hard work that every council member here uh did and all of you. Um, when we talk about these subcommittees that we have, I don't want anyone to think that if there's a finance committee, no one else is contributing because these subcommittees work together and we work closely together and then after we work together, we come back to the entire council. So everything that we do uh should have the entire council coming together and listening to one another, growing together and bringing thoughts and ideas. And that's just the way this form of government works. So when people say, "Mayor, you have to do something." Um many times I wish there are things that I could do that I can't do. We're equal partners up here. And so um all of us have participated. So when we have a financial agreement and when we're dealing with um infrastructure and those types of things, the entire council has a say so and a vote and that's just the way we are set up. Um, I'd like to thank um, your honor um, councelor Harrison and um, councelor Birmingham because both of you um, very well stated exactly where I feel where councelor Harrison um, believes that we should probably not make a decision on how we're going to allocate the pilot funds this time and what percent is going to the school and that type of thing. I tend to stand with him in that direction because I'd like

to see where we go. Three years is a long time and five years or what the actual number of years going to take is is going to be even longer and I just can't really um get get my hands wrapped around where we're going to be at that time and and what our needs are. They may they may change during the time. So since um people have already stated where I stand on these, I'd like to tell you um my feelings about this. So I started working on this Lacawana project in about 2008 and spent a lot a lot of time going back and forth with uh Brian Stlar at the time and we came to an agreement that I thought was something that that was going to make us all proud. And then things changed and then and and the property switched hands and we've been going back and forth and I know a lot of people have said, you know, just go ahead, you know, make a decision. We promised we were going to, you know, lead the way or whatever the words were and I respect that. But I think that this council did an outstanding job with this because every time we asked you guys to come on out and say something, we actually went back and we listened and we pulled data out and and we got information. And I think that's how this process is supposed to work. And we're not always going to agree. We may never agree on, you know, we may um all never agree on anything, but I think we did an incredible job of listening. Um I thank all of you all who had many many um community meetings so that people can be heard on the topics and I think by and large it was done in a civil manner. When we first started discussing this with uh Mr. Place I had concerns about traffic. I had concerns about flooding. I had concerns about uh if our public safety is equipped to uh take care of a

fire or something that may erupt in in in that area. And um I still have those concerns. In particular, I still have concerns about the traffic and you know what what is going to happen there and how is that going to affect the near neighbors in that area. So, the concerns that I had when we started out, I pretty much still have, but I have for a very long time been um trying to make sure that we were able to get something in that area that was going to make us proud, something that was going to help us to maintain diversity in some form. So while it is going to give an opportunity for us to have more affordable housing and I'm very grateful for that and workforce housing which is something that I brought to the township of Mont Clair uh when I was trying very hard to make sure that our police firefighters and educators and other people had an opportunity to stay in the township that you know had like a a middle type of income um who couldn't afford like the very high high areas and maybe um had more than they would qualify for affordable housing. And so this will be the first opportunity that we really have to find out if if that's going to happen. We never really marketed it in appropriate way before. So hopefully with the workforce housing, we will do a much better job of marketing it and we'll expand uh the diversity of the neighborhood. So, while I'm very excited about that, I still have concerns about what that does to the people on the south side of Bloomfield Avenue and the near areas, the people that are in neighborhoods that are um pretty much um lowincome areas, right? And for some reason, I am still not convinced that that is not

going to hurt those residents because I've seen what happened in some of the areas where we put some very lovely apartments further down on the street closer to the train station and the um houses in the nearby neighborhoods have skyrocketed. They've gone from maybe 300400,000 to a million dollars. And so I'm concerned about about that. But this is already rolling and I don't think that this particular um development is going to be the end all in that right it's happening already. I wish it weren't happening now. I'm going to do everything that I can with every opportunity I have to try to push back on that and make sure that we can try to set up some things maybe in planning uh planning board or or other areas wherever I have an opportunity so that we can try to set something up so that those neighborhoods are not going up into the million dollars and pushing out and d gentrifying the neighborhoods. So, I have a bunch of um concerns still. Um, and I'm also concerned about what supermarket is going to come in there. Is it going to be a supermarket that will provide um food for um residents that have historically been in that neighborhood like our senior citizens who are living in that area and like the people who are living in affordable housing in the near areas and um lowincome housing in near areas. is the supermarket going to be something where they can go over there and get a loaf of bread and whatever you know whatever those staples are and that's very important to me. So those same things that I started out having concerns about with by and large I have the same concerns now. But I am at a point in

time where I feel as though um you know even though you know the pilot it for me it's a starting point. Is it perfect? No. Do I think we could have done slightly better? Yes. But when you're working with a group of people on the team, you have to give and take and you have to listen. And at the end of the day, I believe that this is probably the best that we can do um at this particular time. And I do believe that um and I'm going to to to vote in favor of it. Um again, Councelor Harrison expressed very much my sentiments. Councelor Birmingham. And so, yeah, that that's where I am at this. And I'd like to thank thank you all. I'd like to to thank Mr. Place and and all of the other people who have come out night after night and and have participated. So, that's it for me. Um, attorney, do you have anything you'd like to say? No. Manager.

Was that a yes? Huh? Yes. Well, we we're not voting now, are we? Oh, okay. Yes. I didn't know that. I thought we were having discussion and then we were going to do a roll call. Shouldn't we have a mo a movie quote though? No, we didn't. She was going to call a roll. Yeah, I haven't. Yeah. Huh? You ready? Right. No, but I just want to make sure I know what what we're doing here. So, this is called deliberation. we're discussing and I'm now giving an opportunity for anyone else that's here. Mayor, I mean manager, deputy manager. No. Okay. All right. Madame Deputy Clerk, will you please do the roll call? Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councelor Birmingham?

Yes. Councelor Damato, yes. Councelor Harrison, yes. Councelor Toller, no. Councelor Williams, yes. Mayor Baskerville, yes. And so that's that. Moving on to the next item.

Yes. Thank you. Uh we're going to move on to pending ordinance 0-26-07. Um we want to do something with that public hearing. Yeah. But I just want to know if you're going to vote on it cuz somebody said they want to

All right. We're going to give you guys a just a very few minutes, please, cuz we'd like to move on with our next um order of business. Thank you. If any of you um want to participate in the public hearing on this next um pending ordinance 026-07 which is an ordinance to amend chapter 82 animals of the code of the township of Montlair, New Jersey to prohibit the use of lethal methods of wildlife management within the township of Montlair. Um if you would stay, uh this is going to be that time and we do want to hear with you hear from you. No, not quite yet. No, but we we are shortly. Do you want to um read that? You've been working on that a lot. Or who

who's been doing that? Councelor Toller, who's been doing the wildlife? What what are you thinking now? Yeah. So, go ahead. Council behaves. I think 11. I'm going to um ask councelor Harris if she would pleer if she would please look. Councelor Harris. Councelor Toller if she would please um read pending ordinance 0-2607.

Sure. Uh pending ordinance 026-07 an ordinance to amend chapter 82 animals of the code of the township of Montlair Estis County, New Jersey to prohibit the use of lethal methods of wildlife manage management within the township of Montlair. And I so move second. Okay. I'm going to make a motion that we open the public hearing for pending ordinance 02607. Um,

should we take the first w without objection? I'm going to invite the first guest to come forward, please. Thank you. Don't worry. I I'll let you know when it's time.

Thank you. Um, I'm Maline Gail, a resident of Montlair, and I'm speaking on this ordinance. Um, I believe that how we choose to solve problems matters. In a community like ours, we should always be looking for ways to reduce harm and not normalize it. And that includes how we respond to challenges with wildlife. This is another opportunity for Monontlair to be a leader in the most humane inclusive approach to situations. The non-lethal wildlife management ordinance reflects a commitment to coexistence. It recognizes that the animals we see are part of the same environment we live in and that we can share that space responsibly. These are real practical ways to do there are real practical ways to do that. We can make roads safer in areas where collisions with wildlife happen. We can use wildlife resistant landscaping and protect trees trunks from squirrels and deer with temporary guards. We can manage geese humanely through habitat modification and deterrence and reduce conflicts with animals like raccoons and groundhogs by securing trash, closing off ding spaces, and using exclusion techniques. or just learning to live with them in our backyards and appreciating this unique opportunity in Montlair. These approaches don't ignore the issue. They address it in a way that is safer, more thoughtful, and more consistent with our values. This ordinance is about choosing coexistence over conflict and responsibility over harm. I respectively urge respectfully urge you to vote yes and thank you for that. And also I also urge you to vote to a separate issue but to vote yes on the Mont Clair Trust Act and also thank you for doing the reading of the trans day of visibility proclamation.

Thank you very much for all that you do. Next guest please. Okay. Good evening. Good evening.

Um it's past my bedtime so excuse any fumble I make here. Um but my name is Jen Cypek. I'm a Montlair first w resident and very active and humane Montlair. Um, to me, words matter and what they mean really matter and need to be completely clear. Um, with that said, it's important to be completely clear on what lethal management truly means in a community like ours. Lethal management is an organized effort to kill wildlife. Hard stop. When discussing this with my my neighbors, like they'll be like, "What are you up to, Jen?" I'm talking to them about them and they're like, "Oh, that wouldn't couldn't happen here." The reality is without the non-lethal wildlife management ordinance passing tonight, it actually could happen here. Lethal management activities like sharpshooting, bow hunting, gassing, electrifying wildlife don't just happen somewhere else. They happen in parks, green spaces, and neighborhoods near places we live and enjoy. A lethal approach really focuses on removing removing animals rather than addressing why the issues are happening, taking responsibility for those issues, and coming up with non-lethal solutions. Rather, we place that blame and consequences on the animals. Um, our community absolutely can do better. We we can choose solutions that are effective, not cruel, and align with our community values of coexisting peacefully within w with wildlife. I respectfully urge you to support the non-lethal wildlife management ordinance once again as you did two weeks ago and make this law. I do really appreciate your time tonight and thank you for your leadership. Thank you very much. Next guest, please.

Hi again, Lonnie Summer Padilla, resident of Montlair. Um, I would just like to voice my support um for ensuring that native wildlife are protected in Montclair. Um, as I said before, I think everybody and every living being deserves to feel safe here um and has a home here. Thank you. Thank you. Next guest, please.

Hi, good evening. Suzanne Atman, Monontlair resident. At a council meeting last year during a discussion on EV chargers, I'll never forget what councelor Damato said because it has guided my thinking on many issues since. He said, "We must do this. It's in Montlair's DNA." Choosing non-lethal approaches to wildlife would not be a new direction for Monontlair. It would simply reflect the values we have consistently chosen to uphold. Compassion, forward thinking, and respect for life. This ordinance is in our DNA. A few years ago, Montlair made the decision to move toward non-lethal management of geese, thanks to the mayor and others. And in those discussions, several counselors expressed something important that they wish there was a clear non-lethal ordinance to help guide those kinds of decisions going forward. That's exactly what this ordinance provides. And importantly, this ordinance does not mean doing nothing. It means doubling down on our commitment to finding and implementing non-lethal solutions when needed. In the case of deer as an example, that means looking seriously at how we design our roads and infrastructure for humans and animal safety, strengthening our complete streets approach so wildlife safety is incorporated in known collision areas. We've already made some suggestions on this. It means educating residents on how to design their landscape for coexistence through planting choices and deterrence. I have an example of what that could look like. It means using guards under our newly planted trees until they mature. It means taking thoughtful sightspecific action in our wooded areas, using temporary fencing where needed, planting strategically, and protecting vulnerable areas so plants can regenerate. There are some great examples of these practices in action in places like Long Branch, New Jersey, where micro forests are being installed. These are real practical steps that address the underlying issues with wildlife. This is active management, not avoidance. This ordinance sets a clear standard that we

will address challenges effectively without resorting to violence and without introducing unnecessary risk into the places we live in. Without a clear policy, harmful and even cruel options remain on the table. With this ordinance, we make a deliberate choice about who we are and how we solve problems. And at a time when so many decisions feel difficult and divisive, this ordinance offers something different. It provides a bright light. It gives us faith that we can choose compassion, clarity, and better solutions even when the issues are complex. This is a moment to be clear, to be consistent, and to act in line with values Montlair has already always stood for. It's in our DNA. It's a great thing. I urge you to vote yes. Thank you.

Thank you. Next guest, please. Claire Silata, 279 Park Street. So I agree with everything because in this incredibly violent world in this moment we have an opportunity to work for peace. When uh God created the world, he didn't make animals our enemies.

We got to name them. So, I would urge every one of you to consider voting yes on this as soon as possible because violence comes ever closer and we have an opportunity to stop it and find better ways and educate our population about how to live with these wonderful amazing creatures even the groundhogs. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next guest please. Hi Diane England 158 on road. I don't I I feel the representation of our leadership sitting here that you are not going to vote no and I urge you to vote yes just because there will be people that follow you and we don't know that they will have the same great judgment that you have. So I urge you to vote yes. We want to live together. Yes, we have to educate the community um so that we learn to coexist. But I have faith in you. I just know that if we don't do this now, our future could be at risk for whoever else would be making those decisions. I want to thank you again for the work that you do. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Next guest, please.

Hi, Jessica Stoulsburg, Montlair resident. I wasn't actually planning to speak twice tonight, but I I thought before it was for Lacuana Plaza only and then we were doing separate public comment. So, thank you for your support on this ordinance. Um, I do want to mention a couple things related to trees, which there is a connection to trying to preserve uh, you know, wildlife and also our natural resources here in Montlair. Um, as I know you've heard from me, a a real injustice was done on Erie and Essex Parks. I've also since learned that the town also used some space on Wildwood Avenue to also dump more of the uh, snow with the salt and chemicals in it. Um, I hope that you will be moving quickly to remove what's left. Uh, I think that there's been a lot of input that that is the correct thing to do or we are going to end up very likely with severe tree loss. Um, it appears that some real either misinformation or lies were told when this decision was made. I don't know if it was made alone.

Excuse me. I'm sorry. Sorry. I I apologize if I'm not receiving what you're saying. This is for um Yes. I thought before you you stopped public comment and said it was for for the pilot and so I got up to speak about the pilot and then it turned out it was both and I didn't know that. So I just want to quickly bring up two quick things. Okay. Well, this time is a public hearing. Will there be a public comment tonight? That's just regular public comment. We had you called it as public comment and then you said would you like I just need to say two quick things because something's on your agenda tonight and I think it's important that you be aware of something and you would you

I'm going to I'm going to allow I'm going to allow you to do that. Um and if it was my error I apologize but I do believe that I said it was public comment but let's just go ahead and an opportunity to say what you need to say. Tonight on your list, you have an ask for $300,000 that DCS is asking for you to contract to another tree company, the same tree company. You also gave But if you're going to talk about the tree company now, we've got to come out of this public hearing. So, will I have an opportunity to do public?

Yes, I already said I will allow you to do that. We have to come out of this um the public hearing on this. Are there any other people here that would like to be heard? If not, I'd like to make a motion that we come out of the public um hearing and um all in favor. Any opposed? Okay, council members. Okay, councelor Toller, we've received requests for amendments to this which our attorney has said are substantive. What How do you want to proceed? Um if we can read it in. Do you have it on your phone? Because I don't I didn't bring my work phone. I know that sound. Yeah, I thank you to make a motion. I I

Please make just let me get it on my phone. So, um it's just one sentence that needs to be there there are couple the uh I move to amend the pending ordinance in the following way. In the first whereas insert the word native before wildlife in the first line.

In the second whereas insert the word native before wildlife in the first line. In the do the fourth whereas insert the word native before wildlife in the fourth whereas in the definitions add a definition of native wildlife which I'm making shorter than either of the ones suggested because I don't want to mention specific animals because I think that's causing a problem. Mhm.

The definition would read, "Native wildlife means species that occur naturally in in New Jersey and were not introduced by human activities." And then at the end of C just so let me make sure I'm getting this correctly. Okay. Um but except in cases of a declared public health emergency as determined by the Montlair Department of Health in coordination with the New Jersey Department of Health. Let me slow down. and where no non-lethal approaches exist to address the the declared public health emergency.

What's the latter? Okay, let let me let me do the whole thing slowly. except in cases of a declared public health emergency as determined by the Montlair Department of Health in coordination with the New Jersey Department of Health and where no non-lethal approaches exist to address the declared public health emergency. I'm I'm not I'm I'm still not clear on what the what how we're defining the um native wildlife.

Okay. The native wildlife definition would read na native wildlife means species that occur naturally in New Jersey and were not introduced by human activities. So um what I don't know what was introduced by human activities like so would other people know that? Yeah, there are species that have been brought in by colonists. I'll call them interlopers from Europe like by grandparents and greatgrandparents. Exotic exotic species, but like mice and rats and that type of thing are not native species, right? I'm just trying to find out. European darlings, huh?

Cats, right? But are rats and mice and that they're not native species? I really don't know. I wanted There are two native species of rats. Okay. But I've never seen either of those. Right. So does that mean then if I I see a rat or whatever, you know, then there's just hands off. I'm just trying to really put my hands and just so for anybody watching, I do want to vote. Yes. But I want to know what I'm voting on. They have bushy tails. They're beautiful. Well, that is this. Yeah. This council Harrison. Yes. Yes, deputy mayor. So, I apologize. I was not at the at the meeting. I was unable to attend the first meeting when this was introduced. So,

um I wasn't able to raise it. So, one of my comments was um including a definition a clear definition of native w native wildlife because um I I don't think that that's clear. I mean, I think we want to make it very clear in the in the ordinance um what exactly we're talking about here. And um you know, I don't I don't know if you know, maybe somebody might say like if there's different rodents rodents that you know um that they have. Hang on one second.

Um so that was one comment. Um uh and then in section C in 82-48 um it says the township shall not participate in state, county or regional programs involving lethal native now it says native wildlife population reduction. Mhm. So I just want to clarify does that is that intended to mean also that um participation in regional programs etc. um that we would not um be able to seek funding from the state county or regional programs for counts animal counts. No no just not killing. No no killing doesn't mean we can't seek funding. Um this has been something

Can we ask the attorney? Sure. Is she here? Why does reduction mean a count? Like why would you think that? No, no, she asked would it mean that we can't get funding for a count? It says it I'm just saying state, county, or regional programs involving lethal population reduction. Right. Right. So why does a count equal reduction? Isn't that our whole I'm just asking if like if if we would be prohibited from seeking funding for count from those agencies. Madam uh attorney, would you be able to answer that question? Sure. Could you repeat? Sure. Can uh deputy mayor,

I just want to confirm um whether or not in section 82-48 um section C paragraph C if participation in regional programs involving lethal native wild population would prohibit us from seeking funding from like the D for instance for um counts, animal counts. I'm not quite sure. The language seems to be um over broad and um I know. I'm not quite sure what the intent is. I don't see I I didn't draft this ordinance, so I don't have the

So, Councelor Harrison, would you like to answer that question? Um, we worked on this for a couple of weeks and um I'm not sure just like the financial agreement. Everybody's seen this. They've had a chance to chime in. So, this is all

No, what I'm saying is this has been worked on by experts. Council Harrison's been with us. Council Birmingham. Um, you know, we've changed the word from deer to native life to broaden the animal uh life, if you will. That's important. Um, we're not in this is to introduce a non, you know, use of lethal meth methods, non-lethal methods on wildlife. We don't want any killing in Montlair of any animal. So, that's really what this is about. It's not stopping any uh grants that can be sought out. Um, this came about because one of the vendors for this original uh, deer count, you know, after doing some investigation, we realized that this might not be the best vendor for the township based on what they do with the data. So, we are just trying to make sure we're protecting the animals.

Yeah. And that's it. There's nothing more, nothing less going on. I'd like to um, thank you for for all the work. So maybe um I I would understand it better if we said like um native species that are essential for healthy ecosystems um because then No, that's but I don't understand then that the little rodents then so if we mayor into a back and forth. Okay. Okay. Well, they they probably got a lot more knowledge than I do. But the ecosystem wires to a different a whole broader thing that we don't really want to get into. So, can I make a motion that we Huh? Yeah. Yeah. I I just have a procedural question here. Okay.

So, the language that was added here, it's material. Yes. So, does that mean that we have to do another first reading on this? That means we can amend it. If if it is amended tonight, that counts as the first reading. It would have But it's substantive for a All right. So, so we're doing first reading of of with the new language tonight. Can we table it? Why do we need It seems like there's I don't think we need to table I think we need to just do two things. I think we need to define native wildlife, right? And and I think that we got a definition that I will read that I think okay

is just a little bit more elaborate on what um councelor Harrison said just it you a native wildlife in the northeast re United States where we are refers to animal species that have evolved adapted and lived in the region for thousands of years having arrived and established themselves without direct human intervention. So I still don't know whether that includes rats and rodents. Well, there are certain rats in general are not native. If I get a try,

but that's the thing. You would have to look up like we can't list every animal that's native or not. You'd have to look it up. Like there are certain mice that are native. There are certain that are not. Rats typically I don't think are but um but we can't we have to just have the general definition. All right.

Go ahead. And I just wanted to say when Dr. uh the office of sustainability got this grant in um this again we didn't want any killing. So this is how this spiraled into this and as we've stated in the email I think I've shared with everybody a few weeks back you know this has to be in place before this deer count through the grant Dr. Johnson received is done so that there's no killing. Um additionally to talk about the rats that you're referring to we're going to have a working group. Okay. And I think I've stated to you before that we would like to have somebody from the parks and wreck, somebody from the MEC um because we need to do more education on how to live with wildlife. So that's very separate from this.

So just understand that if you have questions or anybody has questions going forward about what to do with a rat. Yeah. Well, Mayor, well, they gave me the notes. Can But can I give you Thank you. Can I make you feel at ease? And first of all, I'll just say feel at ease around rats. They're lovely. But those rats that you are thinking of are generally Norway rats or roof rats which are not native. And in New Jersey, we have two species of of native rats. One is the eastern wood rat or the Alagany wood rat. It is unlike the scaly tailored tailed rat that we know. Woodrats have a f furry tail and large ears

and they're and they're endangered. And the other one is a marsh rat that's in South Jersey. So there are no rats that are going to bug you. Great. Thank you. Oh yeah. I wish that were true. Clear rats, right? Okay, good. So thank you. Yes. Um Deputy Mayor. Yeah. So this is still discussion, right, amongst council. So I I think thank you for providing that. I think that it's still vague and I would rather not have a vaguely like a a something that is very vague to the average. Um,

but I but you would always who who knows what every animal is native or not? Like there are there are scientists who have told us I I don't understand how we would get more specific.

Excuse me. I'm not I just don't know how you get more specific in a you really can't deputy mayor. So if the and and so what I'm hearing is in section C the intent I mean it's I'm a little confused because so I'm hearing that the intent of paragraph C is not to prohibit necessarily like seeking out grants from particular agencies that might include lethal you know reduction you know lethal methods um in their programming um to um to it doesn't prohibit us from going after grants to help do counts. Fine. Um the in in the emergency exceptions um uh the wording I I mean I'm just wondering like is there a reason why we would want to rule out lethal management if it was determined to be necessary to protect um human public safety, health and welfare?

Yeah, because this is a non-lethal ordinance. H. Yeah. Councelor um Harrison, are you going to respond to the deputy mayor's the the what I read was there would be an exception if there's a declared public health emergency as determined by the Montlair Department of Health in coordination with the New Jersey Department of Health and non-lethal approaches ex and no non-lethal approaches exist to resolve the public health emergency. Okay. Okay.

I'm I'm sorry. Can you please speak in your mic cuz I can't hear you. Thank you. No worries. I understood that to be an amendment to C above, not to the section that Susan's talking about.

Emergency exceptions. I was referring to that section. So in that section we're saying lethal action can only be taken but it doesn't say like for human humane euthanasia. But I'm asking is there a reason why we couldn't consider having emergency exceptions be for um you know in cases where there's a declared public health emergency? No. I the point I I think the language should go in both places.

Okay. Those are the two places that you read at the beginning be to C and then to 82-49. Okay. And it just that one would instead of starting except it would say or in cases. Okay. And so attorney this is not um a substantive change at this point in time. These are all substantive changes in addition. Okay. Yeah. A list of the animal species combined in an ordinance in the resolution. You wouldn't move that. Thank you. Is there a motion? Is there a motion on the um What were you going to say, Council Birmingham? No. Is there a motion on the the floor right now? And there was a second

for the amendment and the second. The motion was for an amendment. Yes. And the second. Okay. She's saying it's substantive. So, we're going to just introduce it. Okay. So, do the roll call, please. Then, wait. Wait. You're saying I'm not sure how this works. You have you have to list every animal species. What? You have to provide adequate notice to the public as to which animal species falls under your definition. So, can we reference 25 miles hour and we list all the streets out?

So, can we reference like per some web like some scientific body that has labeled. So, we should just do that. You'll help us. We'll help you. Y'all will help us. We're good. Excuse just But but I but I'm just not sure how like it would be like but but I mean what is a policy by resolution? This is an ordinance for an ordinance to be valid. It has to provide notice as to this. You have to be more specific than in a resolution policy. So the words native wildlife is what's making this have to turn into species when originally this was to for a deer camp. Correct.

Okay. I don't even know how we got to native wildlife. There's a lot of children, you know, kids in the sandbox with this one. So if it could have just stayed the way it was, then we wouldn't be having this situation. But now you want us to add about 85 pages and name all the species when we have a deer count coming up and we're trying to put something in place to avoid I No, I'm not. I'm just asking. If you want your order to be valid and it has to provide adequate notice to the public as to what species and in originally it was only for deer when you expanded it a general definition like that is too vague.

But can you put anyone to know what that means? Can it be like native wildlife is this this as you know for a list see um like for a list see website x y and z like as defined by NJ because this is an ordinance if this is your your handbook for your residents not for experts for your lay people right lay people need to know what are the animals that are being prohibited from being managed legally right your average go on on on the res. So, how does this tie into the deer count? I'm just wondering what's going to happen.

No, no, no. It Well, the deer count nothing like the deer count can happen because we're not none of us are going to authorize like we we would be the ones authorizing killing deer. Nobody here is going to authorize that. So, please anyone who has any ever had any inkling that that was ever any a consideration that has never been a consideration. But I'm just now trying figuring out how we can get this ordinance correct and you're it seems to that you're saying we can't. C can I make a suggestion that we move on and I will try and solve this problem while we're moving on? Madam clerk,

can we just try there's another way which is that if we can just tighten in the same is it in the same chapter? Oh no, discharging firearms within township is a different is in a different chapter. I don't understand why we can't just enumerate the lethal management techniques that everybody would use for the type of animals that people want to protect. Right? So, it's it's rifles. It's rifles, shotguns, bows, and then um you know, uh uh uh whatever those things were called that they use. If we just if we just enumerated those bow and arrow

um madam clerk, can you please do roll call? What do we have? I don't I'm not clear what the amendments are. I'm going to ask him to read that again. And she said it's timeensitive.

Um, okay. Just because the people at home, they need to hear what we're what the discussions are, too. So, if we're not going to vote now, can you speak into your mics up here so that you know there's not like just dead air at home and they don't know what we're talking about? Thanks. Council Harrison made that that stated that he would work hard if you will. Um I also was saying that perhaps council Harrison, myself and um council Birmingham will get back on another Zoom and iron this out. That's not a problem. Okay. I was going to try and do something while we do the next resolutions and see if I can solve it tonight. Okay, that's even better. In the meantime, what do you want? We'll table this and come back to it. Come back to it. Yeah, withdraw.

So, there's a a motion and a second. So, we want to withdraw that or what are we going to do? Withdraw it. Withdraw it. And Madame Clerk, we're going to withdraw this uh motion for the moment. Okay. Thank you very much. And we're going to go on to new business. We can't vote on it tonight. Correct. That's what we were going to vote on. Um, Madam Attorney, is that something that we can do later on? Vote on the amendments.

Yes. No, just the amendments. Okay. Thank you. So, um, Councelor Damato, will you please go to new business ordinance C? Do we want to vote on the amendments? No. He said he was going to go iron it out or do something in the back. He has a sidebar. He thinks Yes. Yes. Do you want me to do this? Mhm. It's not not at this point in time. I'm coming back to her. I didn't forget her. Go ahead. I want to do the other cannabis one, but I'll do this one. Um, we're on ordinances. No, I'm going to come back to her. She didn't. She misunderstood. Councelor Damato,

an ordinance to amend chapter uh 347 of the zoning code for the township of Monontlair Essex County, New Jersey. And I so move second. Okay. This is a a kind of a pro-forma changes to the zoning code about cannabis. We have two cannabis ordinances up for first reading tonight. And in uh I I don't really have any comments on this. Maybe if planner Cali wanted to talk about it. She she I don't see her. What's the It's it is uh porting in um things uh to keep us uh conforming conforming with state cannabis law.

Mhm. May I um just to clarify these um changes in the zoning court code are to make consistent with um it's this is related to agenda item D. Yes. So, can I just go ahead just one question and um council Birmingham. Thank you, mayor. Sorry. Um 34 this cannabis establishments here the word consumption I is that that's standard for the state. I'm just curious like where

here am I on the wrong one? No, I'm doing C. We're on. See, which page are you on? Uh, it's um this right here. You're 347-17.2. Yes. Yeah. Because I have a question on item C as well. It's an item D and it was added um consumption. This is this is probably this I believe is referring to the possibility in state law for on premises consumption so-called consumption lounges which we have not permitt which we do not permit

in chapter 110. Yeah. Okay. So that's believe that that is correct. Yeah, that is that's a term that's used and we and we can deal with that on the second reading if if we if it's okay and I'm sorry were you done? So for item C buffer zone is 250 ft what we have in place already because I thought the last council approved it at 500 ft. This is the current ordinance council. The black is the current.

Okay. So, are we thinking about expanding that beyond 250 ft? Um, cuz I'm just thinking a retail on the Bloomfield Avenue side um down below where Glenfield School is right there. Is that far enough or do we need to I believe that our that that would 300 400 we have already licensed several um retailers okay that that have that are that have gone through the land use process that are okay fewer than 250 ft fewer than 500 sorry 500 that's what I'm saying but more than 250 I checked it out on the map

I thought the last administration dropped it 500. You know, it was 1500 a long time ago and then there was a meeting 1500 is a quarter of a mile. Smell drugs around a school zone. I'm talking about around a school zone and it got dropped to 500 and this is reading 250 um pre-existing public or private school. So, um the attorney is saying this is our current language 250. And what is the amendment? I'm have to go back and watch the video for that one because I felt like I thought they said 500 but maybe I'm wrong. So, did you move that? Yeah. And who seconded? The mayor did

you you okay? Roll call, please. No, initially it was um the mayor. You second it. Roll call, please. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville. Yes. Uh, councelor Birmingham, please. D.

Um, this this is an ordinance to amend chapter 110 cannabis of the code of the township of Monontlair. Um, and I so move. Second. Any discussion on that? Do you want to just give a quick overview of what it is?

So, um this was the the purpose of these amendments is to um we wanted to clean up some of the existing definitions um uh create some streamlining in the initial application process to make it a bit you know less cumbersome um for people who are uh applying for new licenses. And also um I think the biggest one of the biggest things is clarifying the renewal process and streaming streamlining the process for people who already have existing licenses um there. Excellent. Um we also increase the number of permitted municipal licenses in in uh four of the categories from two to three. So every type of license um maximum is three.

Thank you very much Madame Clerk. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham, yes. Councelor Damato, yes. Councelor Harrison, yes. Councelor Toller, yes. Councelor Williams, yes. Mayor Baskerville, yes. Thank you. Um, deputy mayor, please. Um, letter E. H. Okay, thank you. H

H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H is new business ordinance um calendar year 2026 model ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appro appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank according to NJSA 4A col4-45.14 I so move second discussion madame clerk Deputy Mayor Anderson, yes. Councelor Birmingham, yes. Councelor Damato, yes. Councelor Harrison, yes. Councelor Toller, yes. Councelor Williams, yes. Mayor Baskerville,

yes. Thank you. Um, Miss Slouseberg, is that what's her name? Soulsberg. Soulsberg, I'm sorry. Soulsberg. Stolenberg.

Stole I'm so sorry, Miss Stolberg. Stoullesburg. Thank you. I appreciate the exception. Uh Jessica Stoulsburg, uh Monontlair resident. I just would like you to pay close attention tonight to a $300,000 ask for a a tree company uh that we've contracted with in the past. Um there seems to be just to really understand where's $300,000 going for tree removal if it's including uh you know the trunks what do they call it at the bottom the grinding and pruning and all of it that if that's not for healthy trees and it's just to take down trees then it really needs to be looked at carefully because it's a lot of money and we're trying to protect trees here because the trees continuously are being put in jeopardy. So, um and then on top of that, um you know, you know that I came up and spoke several times about a $300,000 investment in a log truck that was also to take care of trees, but that was for the municipality. So, now we've got a total of $600,000 going towards tree care.

And I guess just please before you approve such another large bill for trees, what's it for? What are they doing? And I just want to say that my fears and concerns were realized uh today because I heard from a resident whose street was cited for sidewalk problems and the code officer, the arborist visited and the code officer encouraged the residents to remove their town trees in order to protect their newly what would be their newly minted sidewalks and said if you do a curve around your tree that's going to cost you more, but we can take the tree down for free.

And that is exactly what we're talking about here. that there seems to be something going on at the municipal level that is sort of like no one is maybe aware of and that's happening separate from with code enforcement and DCS who now is if if if you've got a code officer who's encouraging healthy tree removal and one she said she described it as a beautiful healthy old oak. One neighbor agreed to have a beautiful, healthy old oak municipal tree removed because the code officer said, "You'll have to pay if it messes up your sidewalk, but we can take it for free." Now, you've got an ask for $300,000 for tree work.

So, something seems really off. And I also feel like this is violating whe our existing and hopefully our future tree ordinance. And that something if an arborist on site is approving this, that's a problem. The fact that someone thought putting the snow in these parks was acceptable, that's a problem. And this is all leading to a shrinking canopy. And I think I heard on the radio today that this summer they're yet again expecting it to be the hottest on record. So please uh I please I I ask that you remove that $300,000 ask until there's a full understanding as to what all of this money for tree work in our town is being spent on. Thank you very much for your attention tonight.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, councelor Toller, do you see where it is in the budget? It's in the budget line. What she's referring to is one of the agenda items that we have requested to table. Well, one of the numbers I Okay. So, you already highlighted that. So, when we get to Well, no, it's in new business. I'm sorry. What she's referring to is in um consent consent agenda. Yes, I did ask for that one to be tabled. I think it's number 13. What items from the

No, number 10. Six. Okay. Got a lot of them. Okay. So, we're going to move on to the consent agenda. And these are the items so far that um I've been told people wish to have removed from the consent agenda. Item 1, item six, item 8, item 10, item 12, and item 13. Are there additional items that need to be pulled from the consent agenda?

Can we pull the tree? Whatever. Yes. Yeah. That That's six. That was the number six on the um Yeah. Do you mind repeating, Mayor? I'm sorry. Can you just repeat item one? Items one, six, eight. 10, 12, and 13. Can I move the remainder of the consent agenda? Move things. Second, madam clerk. Okay. Just so it's clear, it's items 3, four, five, 7, 9, and 11.

Yes, we got that. We pull that for discussion. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Deputy Mayor Anderson, yes. Councelor Birmingham, yes. Councelor Damato, yes. Councelor Harrison, yes. Councelor Toller, yes. Councelor Williams, yes. Mayor Baskerville, yes. Thank you. Uh, councelor Toller, will you please um lead us in discussion in the bill list?

Sure. Uh, this is agenda item number one. Bill list resolution. Whereas invoice against invoices against the township of Monontlair in favor of the following persons for the amount set opposite their respective names have been received duly audited and found correct. Now therefore, it be it resolved by the council of the township of Montlair and the county of Essex that said invoices be and they are hereby ordered paid and that checks be drawn by the finance committee to the order of such persons for the amounts respectively inherent stated on the schedule attached here to and made a part thereof. Uh total amount $738,1628 and I so move second. discussion on any of the items, please. Councelor Toller. Sure. Thank you. Um trying to get the page number for you guys. I have a question on um excuse me, the Northeast Construction Services. It's vendor number 101333. Um I know it's for the senior hub. This is the first payment and I'm just wondering if the manager can advise. Are we staying under budget?

This is the first payment application. We are currently on budget.

Wonderful. Um and the other question that I have is on uh gee there's no page number. Uh vendor number 2321 I see is for M Morton Salt uh for $51,4702. Um this is on there is no page number on this one. I'm sorry guys. And I'm just curious because we have a resolution up here. Um, I think it's resolution number I forgot what number it is, but we paid for a trucking company $77,000 to do what exactly? Because it says for delivery of, you know, pickup and delivery of snow. So, are we paying that company $77,000 and paying for the salt? I mean, I'm trying to make it make sense and perhaps you can enlighten me.

Uh, good evening. Um, the question is for why are we paying Morton salt? Yes. Because on this resolution that you presented to us, number 16, um, you know, it says $77,337.50. And when you read the body of what you presented or someone in your department presented, um, for immediate delivery of roadway salt and trucking services. So, I'm just trying to understand this 77,000 that we're paying. Is this just for drivers or did they come with salt? Because if they came with salt, then did is it this salt that we paid for or did they come with their own salt?

Okay. So, it's so it's two questions. The first one for the Morton salt delivery on the bills list.

Mhm. So if you recall during the first snowstorm, the major uh snowstorm that affected the northeast seabboard um multiple states were affected by that storm which caused a shortage in salts. What? What? And if the governor had said at the time that there was plenty of salt available, which was true, although it was located at the port of Newark and there was such a demand for salt all at the same time, what they didn't have was the trucks to procure that salt. So, what we did was enter into an emergency contract to get that salt delivered to um the township.

Okay? Because on resolution, I'm sorry, agenda item number 16, the Mark Vanero Trucking, all of their backup documentation shows Morton salt. So again, my question is, did they pay for the salt or did we pay for the salt and they went and picked it up? And if they picked it up, why are we paying them $77,000? No, we paid for the salt. That's the tickets. Those are the tickets showing how much salt they picked up. Okay. So, we paid them $77,000 to go pick up $51,000 worth of salt. No, no. See, there's mult we we buy salt multiple times. Okay.

So, there's our salt shed holds 2,000 tons of salt which has to be replenished constantly during the season as it's as it's used up, right? But even if you add up these invoices from the trucking company, they build us for hours in quantity. 8 hours, $150, but all of their backup is Morton salt. So I'm trying to h understand how we reached $77,000 on agenda item 16 because their hours that they've submitted don't total $77,000. That's my question.

Well, I believe they do, but uh we we can take this is something we can when we're going to meet on Thursday, we can go over this as well. Okay. Because it's 23,000 here. There's 165 and then there's one other invoice. I think it's for go past all this salt stuff. Yeah, it's it's I'm just I'm very confused. That's all. I wasn't done, Madam Mayor, with my bill list. Thank you. Well, because he brought them up. That's all right. So, we'll go over this um Thursday. Thursday. Yeah.

Okay. Uh manager Marks, will you be joining that Zoom call or web web meeting? if I can. I'm not sure my calendar. Okay. Um and I just see that the Verizon bills um are being paid, which is great. Is that the old Verizon bills or is this a current bill that we're paying? It's probably a combination of both. Okay, that's all. Just making sure it's going down. That's all I have. Miss Tassy, you don't have to get up. You can send me an email. Don't worry. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else have anything on the uh bills list? Otherwise, there was a um motion and a second. Yes, Madam Clerk. Deputy Mayor Anderson.

Yes. Councelor Birmingham. I'm sorry, Mayor. We're going to have to table that one. I apologize because I have to meet with Austin first. So, what problem? So, do you want to just pull that one? I'm just going to pull that one. Yes. Okay. The Morton salt. The Morton salt. Um because this one's already been pulled from the last meeting and I don't want to pay the salt until I speak with uh Okay. Mr. Ashley and his crew. Okay.

If you will, um hopefully we can. And just for the record, um I did email the manager today and I'll be the deputy manager and the mayor regarding the other two vendors that I tabled at the last meeting, Angels and Shawer. Um if you guys want to see the email, I'm happy to share it with you. But I am going to be meeting with Austin and his team uh this Thursday. um because there were some duplicate invoices. So, I can't be certain that and they'll let me know if the total amount that was put on our last bill list for $59,000 half a million dollars. There's some duplicate invoices that were attached. Uh same thing with Angel's Landscaping. There were two duplicate invoices. So, they were looking to get 28. My calculation is about 22. So, I just wanted to put that on the record and explain why I'm tableabling this because I'm not sure where the breakdown is or the checks and balances don't exist, but when we get these type of huge bills, it's in all of our best interest to ask for the invoices and check them. Okay.

So, there were lots of duplicates. That's money going out the window. Yep. So, I'd like to table this one and then we can make an amendment to take that off of the bill list. I'm not sure what the best way to do. No, no, no, it's not. I'm just saying we can Can we amend to take that out so it can be out? Yeah, we've done that before. Huh? You have to vote. You're in the middle of a vote. So, wait. So, can we just vote no and then amend it and then vote yes again? Okay. Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yeah. No. Councelor Birmingham? No. Councelor Damato? No. Councelor Harrison? No. Councelor Toller? Nope. Councelor Williams? Yeah. I mean, no.

Uh, Mayor Baskerville. No. Okay. Now, we can make an amendment. Now, go ahead council. I'd like to table Morton Salt until I meet with uh the DCS. And if anybody else wants to join the Zoom call, shoot me an email. I'm sorry. Just Do we make an amendment or I want to hold that particular vendor? Not Not table the entire Not table the thing. Just Oh, you just that one. Yeah. For Morton. Take that one out. This is I move to approve the bill list minus the Morton Salt item. There you go. Second. Okay. Call the role to amend. Call the role to amend. He moved to do this bill. Go ahead. Tell her again. Minus the salt. Just to confirm, it's PO260142.

She's giving you the number. She wants confirmation. Martin salt. Is it 22 2321? Uh, well, I go by the PO number because I have to tell finance not to is um it's in the amount of 51,4702. Correct. Yes. Okay. So, councelor Harren Harrison moved to and adopt as with removing that one that I just mentioned. I second. Okay. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes, councelor Damato. Yes, councelor Harrison. Yes, councelor Toller. Yes, councelor Williams. Yes, Mayor Baskerville. Yes.

Number six, please. Someone had a concern about number six. Yes. Go ahead, Bill. Um, okay. I I mean, I have I have the same concern that the member of the public raised as to what this is for. It's a lot of money over two two years and how this fits in with what the township's doing and making sure we're not overlapping, overspending, cutting down too many trees and otherwise annoying the residents.

I also have a concern that um if we're, you know, going through with this, I just want to know what our log truck is doing. Like I don't get it. What? Like we paid for a log truck and how does that work into this? So our new log truck will be delivered in June. That's the projected date. The log truck was instrumental during the last snowstorm and removing I believe Michael do you remember how many trees were removed during that fell during the storm which about eight trees fell.

So that was an e situation which we needed to have a log truck in order to open the roads. Um, again, these are natural disasters. So, we're operating in under conditions where it's vital that we have the equipment at the ready. The existing log truck that we have is very old and has trouble making it up hills. Um, that's why it was it's needed to be replaced. Um, as far as the question for this resolution for tree king, if you recall last year, um, we had a number of injuries within our shade tree department and we were unable to mobilize, uh, the, uh, stump grinding machine for the trees that do have to be taken down. So, we were able to utilize this contractor to keep that service going um and get those thumbs um ground and uh the um site return to normal as far as what it would be used for. In addition, um these are for times when our when our department has to um tackle a hazardous tree that it's just beyond our ability to handle this. These are hazardous trees. Trees that are too tall that our machinery can't reach, trees that are in wires, um precariously placed trees.

Um it's not our intention to utilize this service for um services that we can do on our own. Um but what we did use them in the last year for was more intensive pruning. um where we can get more um service done um using an outside contractor than we can in-house because you have to remember we're only dealing with a shade tree department of three employees and it is a labor intensive uh position with uh and as as careful as they are and and as good as they are and I have to say we have very good tree crew um accidents do happen um and um it's necessary to have a standby uh tree contractor to supplement that service. The other uh aspect for this is um in the grant for the overburdened communities that the grant will cover portions uh areas that are in the under under overburdened communities for um the funding of some of that work. Um we had looked at um identified Nishuain as a as a park that could utilize a lot of uh tree pruning. There's a lot of dead wood um that has not we have not been able to get to. Um we did our best last year to clear out some of the undergrowth. If you look at the underneath the trees, there's a lot of um well undergrowth um that we do our best to keep up with. Um it but it's the it's the higher stuff that um that really we need assistance with. But again that can be the funding for that can come out of that grant. Um and that's something that we're working with Lisa Johnson with.

I forget was there was another question. Yes. Go ahead. Okay. So before we get to why you're removing undergrowth which is helpful for the wildlife which we're going to try and protect. Okay. I'm very confused by this before we get to the dollars involved. You have items awarded. Okay, so you had three vendors, then you have items awarded and you have that for two of the vendors broken down by districts one, two, and three. But the resolution is only dealing with Tree King. And so I'm trying to understand who we're awarding to and at what rates. Sure.

So this is this is through the Morris County Co-op. So they have different districts. So the district that we use it has Tree King. So that is their their document. So the the rates that we're using are under Tree King's rates and we we've had we had success with Tree King last year and had no issue with their service. So So everything we're Monontlair is in district three. So everything's under that and hence everything's going to Tree King. Yes.

Okay. the so but in category B tree trimming the only vendor listed is Harmony Tree Care. Okay. It's on the back of the page. It might be a subcontractor for Harmony, but I have to double check that.

Which one is Harmony? Oh, okay. Thank you. I have a another quick one. So, is district the districts are literally like geographical districts, right? Yes. Okay. So, we're in three, which I kind of figured because the upcharge for emergency stuff is is the highest by 50%. But like the the numbers here are weird, which is that if you look in district one, like they're just all over the place. So, we're cheaper for a certain caliber of tree and then way more expensive for another one. It's just what is this? That's a function of how the the bids are are tabulated. did. Okay.

I don't know. Couldn't answer that. Now, with tree trimming, I think that that's pretty straightforward, you know, except for the understory thing that councelor Harrison said.

Um, and we have to I know that we have to, you know, stay on top of trimming trees, but in terms of removal, um, I do have a question, which is like are are we recording and is like is director Johnson getting a record of all removals of notes? So let's say we're starting at if we're if on this schedule we're starting at up to 12 in like what at what point do you know homeowners need to report and make good on a tree if they remove it right so we have a whole ordinance that's set up around that what is the reporting mechanism that you have for removal

yeah so arborist tracks every tree that is taken down every tree yeah so as long as he's been the arborist he has a log of what being uh removed and he inspects the trees that that all trees are inspected and he is making a record. Yes. And we're not taking down trees that are we do not take down healthy trees unless there is a very good reason. It has to have a intense safety reason or something having to do with Yes. Uh okay. Thank you.

You have a question? I was just going to say, Austin, would if you if you need to check this, is this time sensitive? Like could could you could we just review it and would you be able to give us like the lot like the list of the trees just so we can have that information? Would that be okay? Yeah, that's fine. List of the trees that were Yeah. For like the list that basically what happened with this contract last year. So we can just review it. We can also ask for how much was spent last year? I'm sorry. Thank you. And then I als I heard you say that high trees, you know, wires, but doesn't public service come down to do that? Like you guys don't go up and

we don't. Right. But no, if public ser if it's in their lines, then they're doing it. If if it's in their lines, cuz when you when you said high high, you know, that's as high as you get with the wires, right? I think public service is going to come and take that down and remove. Not necessarily. Okay. Um Yeah. So you can get us some information. We're going to table that. And I'm just wondering what do they do with the trees that you do take down? Is there any way for us to turn that into mulch here and return it back to, you know, I don't know. They're taking them away and we don't know what happens to it because that would be some excellent mulch. I'm sure people would like free mulch, right? We do have surplus mulch. So

surplus meaning that residents can come and get it from We have talked with Dr. Johnson about implementing a program where people could pick up uh mulch. We just have to work out. So, we don't even know where these are going. These trees would go once they We have to pay to have them. No, I know. We pay If we pay If we agree to pay this and they take the tree down, we don't know where that tree is going after this. It's just being taken out of my being recycled. Yeah. It's not But it's not us recycled, right? We don't have the facility to do that. Okay. Thanks. Okay. So, so I move to table item six until we get further information. Second.

Would you like it to be tabled to the next meeting, April 7th? Sure. All in favor? Can we do that? Yeah. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Abstensions. Okay. Thank you. Moving right along. Now we're at um eight. Eight. Thank you. Uh who who wanted to hear more about number eight, please? Um the only question I had is that the uh certification of funds form is incorrect and um that probably a small thing. Um good evening.

Good evening. So the reason that the certification of funds form looks the way it does uh the resolution passed on January 27th in the line for the total amount for the contract for this year was incorrect. It was total of 276. It needed to be a total of 506. That's why we have a certification of funds of for 506. So what this is doing is correcting that resolution in order for us to get the total 506. You sold on yourself. I wasn't even talking about the money, bro. I'm talking about the CFO information at the bottom of the page. Juicy. Okay. She was She was there when it was certified. Okay. So, you're just putting this up now, though? No, this was passed on January 27th when she was still here. I'm just showing that the money was already certified to be used. Okay. All right.

So, the money's already been encumbered. It's just correcting the resolution that was passed on January 27th. No problem. Mr. Was this councelor Birmingham? Did was there congressional money or something that So yes, for Randwell we get a $2 million grant from former congresswoman Mikey Cheryl. It's an EPA grant. Um we have to do the project first and then in return we get the money back. So, the plan is for us to essentially design and go out to bid and have it ready for June fiscal year 2027 and try and hit the state revolving fund, borrow $2 million, do the project because you get 50% principal forgiveness for emerging contaminants. So, essentially, we'd be borrowing 2 million to pay back a million and then we get the 2 million from the grant.

Thank you. And what exactly is the you know what what is the engineering work? So, the engineering work is involved in the design. It's the total design of the new well. So we have to essentially because of where this well sits. It's in Rand Park which is Green Acres. We cannot change our footprint. In order to change our footprint, we have to go before Green Acres board. You have to make certain deadlines. Uh it is a nightmare to make Green Acres deadlines. I guess um so what we're doing is we're staying within our footprint. We are going to deconstruct certain parts of the footprint to reconstruct it in order to put a different type of TR. So this type of treatment process we're putting in is ion exchange where in the past we've done carbon. Iron exchange vessels are much smaller.

They can they can treat more what their their detention time is three to four minutes where carbon vessels is 18 minute detention time. So they're actually much smaller. You can fit them in a smaller footprint. So there's a lot of reconstruction that has to happen within our footprint in order for this to happen. But it is I mean it is a a startling amount of money for soft costs. A lot a lot of that money is also going towards the the paperwork to go to state revolving fund too. So it's not just engineering, it's also paperwork for state revolving fund. I mean it is thousands of hours of work, right? Yes. There's a lot that goes into that. Just thanks. Thanks for deputy mayor. Just for the public's benefit, when was the LA was this well pumped recently?

This well has not been in operation since uh 2015. 2015 was when they did UCMR or unregulated contaminant rule 3. That's when POS was found. Once POS was found, all three municipal wells were shut off until treatment was put in on Thank you. Thank you. There's a motion and I need a motion. So moved. Second. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller. Yes. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville. Yes. Number 10, please.

The Department of Health. Yeah, I I had a question. Yes, Deputy Mayor. Um and hi, Miss Monaco. I just wanted to um thank you for the memo. Um I just wanted to know what services um this uh Essex Health and Wellness Recovery Center had been providing before.

Right. So, they've been with us for about two years. um they've been a recipient of the uh opioid awards. And so what happened this year, just so everyone has the background, we put out the RFP like we always do. We got um just one respondent that was Montlair ambulance unit, which you'll see later on the agenda. Essex Health, they just misread the due date and so they miss the ex the date to submit the package. And so then that's why we had to go to a non-fair and open um award which the QPA suggested. So the work they've been doing um they work with the mayor's wellness program. Um they do but their initiatives are vast. So they do a lot of work with the PD. Um the chief knows uh Robin well. She's worked with them even before we um awarded the funds. So I did get some numbers from her like so for last year um they did a lot of work with the high school like it had been hard to make inroads in the high school and she was able to work with the athletic director and get in and do some programs there. So

um they had an education session they had 120 students. They brought in the black poster project which some of you may be familiar with which is really nice. Mhm.

Um they referred 26 people um to detox, 12 to treatment. Um treated 12 uh 10 people on site with Narcan. Um because they sometimes just walk up and down Bloomfield Avenue, work with the unhoused. Um they help 40 people in recovery court. Um you know, advocate for them. So they do a lot of like the hands-on like what really you're supposed to be doing with the opioid money. Um they're working on a project with Monontlair Ambulance Unit this year with the vehicle that MAU purchased with our funds last year to do more outreach. Um the you know you've seen I think you've seen the vehicle, right, counselor? Um so they've have it all stocked. They've been using it. MAU has been using it and now Robin's going to work with them. Yeah.

So, um, when I when I awarded both of the contracts initially, I purposely brought them together so they could not duplicate services and really work together and work on their strengths. And so, that's it's been a great a great, you know, success. So, was the um awareness parade that we did from Newark up, was that part of this? Yeah, that's that's something she's done before, but now she's been able to, you know, use more resources that she's getting from us to expand it, and she'll be doing that again this year. Great. Great. Thank you. Question. Sure. Yes. Councelor Toller. Um, Essex Health and Wellness Recovery Incorporated is at 51 Elm Street in Monontlair.

So, they were on Park Street initially. Um, they lost that space and so they were staying using St. Marks. So that we're working with some of the mesh clients as well over there. They are very close to securing another space off of Bloomfield Avenue. Um because they really want to be downtown. No, I Well, I'm just wondering why we use 51 Elm Street if that's not their address. I mean, I'm for the program, but I'm just That's where they're working out of now. Okay. Right. Right. That's that is where their office is right now. Right. Okay. They move like everything there and the services and everything there.

Okay. I just hope to see more of it going on in town. I haven't seen a parade yet, but I saw one picture. Yeah, I haven't like seen anything go on yet. That's exciting. All right, I'll make sure I sent out some I'm going to vote in favor of this, but I am not more than a little concerned with, oh, they missed the deadline and let's do this workaround since there were no other biders. We don't have to worry about someone challenging it. But I don't think it's a good practice to say we'll find a way to make it work even though you missed the deadline. That's the whole point of having the deadline in. And if there were competing biders, that's an automatic

Right. Right. Would have been different situation. Understand? Okay. Madame Clair, I need a move in a second. I moved. Second. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Absent. She said yes from the hallway. It's health and wellness. She's in. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller. Yes. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville. Yes. Thank you. Number 12, please. Okay. I have concerns, substantive concerns.

Okay. So this was a settlement because ostensibly and to some extent it's correct there were two tax bills issued for one of which was issued for a lot that no longer exists. There were lots three and four. This is the Chase Bank property. There were a number of board of adjustment applications. There's a tail to that lot that goes behind the adjoining building to the north that has a garage on it. And I am concerned that one I'm concerned that the lot that won the tax assessment has the bank approved at $653 the improvements at $653,800 which seems low for a big new fancy bank that also is renting parking spaces and the garage building I drove by today to verify is still there. and they had indicated when the bank came in to that they that would be used cuz we asked cuz it's rather curious setup. So, um I just would like before I vote to approve this to make sure that you know and given that the lot that they're dropping the improvements value is 1,576 which sounds a little more in line with a new bank building. But I just want to be sure that they did this correctly and we're not suddenly cheating ourselves out of some tax revenue. If I can speak, there's a tax court judgment signed by the tax court judge. This this was not litigated by myself, but there's no going back. So there's no

then why are we approving it? You have to approve it by resolution as for and I am not voting for something that I think may be incorrect. This is the tax court assessment of the property that was stipulated to I I I and that's my problem. And I understand what you're saying, but I'm saying the judge has already entered an order as of February 27th. There is the ability if there is a mistake, go back and say there was a mistake. Not after you've signed a stipulation of settlement.

Okay. I I do I fundamentally do not understand. If we're required to vote on it, that means we have the opportunity to vote. No. If it's a pro-form action, then what what is the point of our voting? So, Bill, if you read the resolution, I read the resolution. The resolution is simply to affirm that the tax collector is hereby authorized and directed to issue a refund pursuant to this. You're not approving the settlement. You're not approving, but we're approving the issuance of a refund. We need authorization from the council to effectuate the settlement. This is something that I deal with in litigation all the time. The council has to authorize the settlement proceeds even if we do a stipulation of settlement. Okay. But why

this is why before entering the settlement? I didn't handle this. We did. Yeah. Well, I'm just asking council Williams. This was an issue before and I thought former CFO was explaining something to us and it may have been even the other manager that was trying to walk us through something. So maybe we should table this and go back and watch the video. I mean, is this time sensitive? I mean, only because only because it's not timeensitive. This was explained to us right before, right? And in fact, I think what is settled is less than what we were expecting. So, so maybe we could just um

table it till April this meeting so councelor Harrison can council Harrison um councelor Williams. This was a situation where there was a tax lean put on the property and bills were going to chase for a long period of time and nobody was getting back to them and then they sold the tax lean. someone bought the tax lean and then afterwards Chase came back and said, "Hey, you know, this was incorrect and um and this is the resulting settlement out of it because, you know, the township realized that it incorrectly put on a tax lean on this property and and then sold it to someone else. So that's that's how this whole settlement came about. But we we can table it if folks

it's not time just it's not time sensitive and if you've already been produ you know I would assume it was already presented before a stipulation of settlement was entered into they can table it. You want to make a motion. So yes so moved second. Madam clerk this is the table to April 7th. Yeah. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Uh, yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller. Yes. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville.

Yes. Where are we? Are we at 13 yet? Lucky. 13. Who? Who wanted 13, please? I did. Councelor Toller. Thank you. Um, I'm just wondering, I thought a while back or maybe back in December and November, we agreed we didn't really want to use this firm anymore for other reasons. Do we know why the law department put this particular firm up? The law department. I can answer that. Why they use this firm? Because I thought

the that firm was already handling the previous litigation. What was filed was a motion for reconsideration. And since this firm had already handled the original motion practice and the original complaint, then that firm would be the most obvious choice to instead of hiring someone new to get up to speed and order transcripts and all of that nature. They already have the knowledge to address this medication that's being I think you were very vocal about this firm and what they might fund.

I I was and I am. uh but I did some research and discovered that uh I don't think I we are able to vote against a vendor based on the morality the perceived morality of said vendor unfortunately and weirdly am I correct Ruby I believe that that is just if you have an animist towards a vendor because of things that they may be doing that don't impact our the work that they do for you that that's not either it's either considered unethical or it's illegal. So, I very much want to vote no. And I guess I can vote no, but now that I've talked about it, I guess I can. I don't know. I just want to follow up.

So, where are we? There was a motion and a second. Move it. Move it for this. Anyone? I move. Second. I'm going to have Madam Clerk. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato, no. Councelor Harrison, yes. Though their list of contributions is fascinating. It's unbelievable. Councelor Toller, no. Councelor Williams, yes. Mayor Baskerville,

yes. Okay, so now we're going to move on to new business resolutions. Um, number 14, please. Councelor Williams. Um, I'm sorry. Did Did we want to go back to that because I don't know if they Can we Can we finish all this stuff first and then go back to to his Yeah, because we have people here here waiting. Oh, they're waiting for this. They're employees. Okay. But I thought they might have been waiting for the other one, too. No, they're waiting for something specific. They're waiting for us to approve or deny these resolutions here so they could go home.

We should really try to get the stop. Okay. I just paid enough money to save. Um, councelor Williams. Agenda item number 14, resolution authorizing aware, excuse me, the award of a non-fair and open contract to Pace Analytical LLC for the Township Department of Utility Lab Services. So moved. Second discussion. Yeah. I just want to know how come every contract that we get, not just from this department, but why is everything two years? Is there a reason for that, Mr. marks or is that standard practice? Two years,

you know, cuz then it kind of locks us in. I'm just wondering, is it cheaper to do two years or should we do it a year at a time? Just a question. Standard operating question. So, from my experience, a lot of times when we do two-year contracts as opposed to one-year contracts, we get locked in at the same rate for two years. If you go from year to year, you will usually see an increase in your rate of whatever that contract is. Okay? Okay. And so you'll keep copious notes with your blanket purchase order when you peel away to pay an invoice. That is correct. We don't exceed.

So yes, this not to exceed $50,000. Essentially what this services for us, just to explain it, um we are required by the NJ to meet a c certain sampling schedule every year. Our certain sampling schedule normally cost us around $25 to $30,000. The reason we do $50,000 is because if there's a major emergency and we have to go and do a 100 bacterological samples or something else that they may be required by the D, that gives us the money to cover that work. Okay. Just curious about the two years. That's all. So you can test for the salt. Thank you, madam. Uh we test for chloride once every three years. It is a secondary. There's some public interest in maybe doing it more frequently this spring and summer.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Deputy Mayor Anderson absent. Uh, Councelor Birmingham, yes. Councelor Damato, yes. Councelor Harrison, yes. Councelor Toller, yes. Councelor Williams, yes. Mayor Baskerville, yes. Um, yes, sure. Go right ahead. Thank you. Agenda. Agenda item number 15, resolution amending R-24-255 awarding a non-fair and open contract to Atlantic Coast Recycling for processing and disposal of recyclable materials. So moved. Second discussion.

Yeah. Come on up, Austin. So, I'm just curious because this is for 235,000. Um, and I thought somewhere along the line someone was it you or the last meeting where recycling is costing us more money and we're getting less money back. Is that that was you, Mr. Marks? Yeah, that's it's a market price. So currently I believe paper is bringing in6 and coingle is71. So we pay per ton

and there's no other way to move our recycling. Unfortunately it's a market based commodity. Um that's that is what the market's bearing at the moment. Any more discussion? Madame clerk. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Um, yes. No. Can I ask a quick question? May Yes, I'm sorry. Um,

along with it, so can you just describe like um is this affected when like people don't recycle correctly? like is how does it work like in terms of so yeah our contamination rate is a is a factor which we can have loads rejected um our contamination contamination rate is actually is decent um what um we get a lot of wishful recycling that's why we tell people it's you know when in doubt throw it out um contaminations food particles or um plastics that aren't marketable um but for the most part Um, we do a pretty good job of

Okay. So, this could be an education Yeah. thing that we can work on. Okay. Yeah. I think we talked about that before because I know like in Ward 4, there's a lot of absent landlords, so we have more renters and when I go outside and recycle day, everything is just all coingled together. So, do they do any type of educational programming or will you be trying to do some pop-ups in town to make sure that people are recycling correctly? Yes, this is another thing we've we've we've discussed with the office of sustainability. We'd like to put out a flyer um or kind of a guide in order to educate people on how to better recycling, not even just recycling for bulk trash uh for a number of issues.

I'm sure there's an opportunity that if it's not done right, code enforcement can issue a violation, then people will start doing things right. Unfortunately, the most effective way of education usually is through Oh, that might have be the way to go. I don't know. just saying we can we can discuss. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Uh yes. Thanks. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller. Yes. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville.

Yes. So agenda item number 16, resolution authorizing award of emergency contract to Mark Vanero Trucking for purchase and delivery of roadway salt. So moved. Second. Councelor Toller. 16. 16. Oh, you want 16. Anyone else? Well, she's pulling her 16 up. We were tableing. I would like to have my meeting with Okay. Second until we're going to table this until April. Okay. April 7th. All right. Number 17. Put it away.

Agenda item number 17. Resolution approving execution of stoppple certificate relative to the township's redevelopment agreement and financial agreement with Monontlair 11 Pine Urban Renewal LLC. So moved. Second. I have somebody wanted to pull that for some reason. Um I just had a question I wanted to ask. Okay. Well, we don't know who prepared this um document and from my reading I was just trying to see were they asking for an exception? Did you review this attorney or not? Yes. Yes, it's from me. Okay. So, they asking review. Well, didn't he write it? Didn't he put this contract in place then, Mr.

Reg? Yes. So, but what I'm reading in it is like the LLC language seems like they're looking for a little bit of a um if it doesn't quite go this way, we can do this. Is that what I'm reading from this? I don't believe so. This is these are just establish certificates in order for them which the bank requires in order for them to refinance. We're not doing anything with the agreement. The agreement is just for your as an exhibit to be established certificates that need to be provided to the bank. Is your question about the redevelopment agreement or financial agreement because more about the financial agreement because

I don't those are just exhibits that's not what I'm asking I'm asking you to um execute the esop certificate for the redevelopment agreement okay that's different okay you're not changing anything okay good to go a lot of information for one yes madam clerk please deputy mayor Anderson yes councelor Birmingham yes councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison, yes. Councelor Toller, yes. Councelor Williams, yes. Mayor Baskerville, yes. Thank you.

Agenda item number 18, resolution authorizing to re-qualify an award of a fair and open professional service contract to serve as Monontlair Township Opioid Settlement Fund implementation program consultant RFP-26-P23. So move. Second discussion. Madame clerk. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller. Yes. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville. Yes. Thank you. Number n 19, please.

Agenda item number 19, resolution authorizing a contract with Professional Property Appraisers, Inc. to perform townwide property tax revaluation. So moved. Sec. Oh, good. I'm sorry. discussion. Um, just that there are very few companies in New Jersey that do this and this was the only one apparently that responded to the RFP. Just Madam Clerk, please. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller. Yes. Councelor Williams. Yes.

Mayor Baskel. Yes. Thank you. Now, we're going to go back to um the honorable councelor Harrison and the sidebar team. Okay, I'm going to go through all the amendments and can this be emailed to me? There'll be a charge, but yes, I'll take the charge.

I was going to say you charge him. Um the first whereas the word native will be inserted before wildlife in the first line. The second whereas the word native will be inserted before wildlife in the first line. The fourth whereas the word native will be inserted before wildlife in the first line. Okay, I'll do the scary part of this. the added definition of native wildlife in 82-47. And this is consistent with how native plants are defined in the ordinance. Native wildlife means any I'll read slowly. wild bird, mammal, reptile, amphibian, fish, or other animal species indigenous to New Jersey as defined and regulated by the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife pursuant to NJSA231-1 at SEC and NJAC 725.1 at SEC.

Nailed it. Nailed it. Okay. Then the other changes the other changes is after C at the end of C add accepting cases of a declared public health emergency as determined by the Monontlair Department of Health in coordination with a New Jersey Department of Health and where no non-lethal approaches exist to address the declared public health emergency. And then the the same basic change added to the end of section 82-49 except the word or instead of the word except but otherwise the wording is identical. Okay, I can read it again. Oh no, you're good.

I'd like my email. But yes, you will get an email. Thank you. So move. So So move to amend second to amend the introduced ordinance. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. I know, right? Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller. Yes. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville. Yes. And I'd like to thank all of you in the back for your help. Thank you very much. Sidebar gang.

Good job. I'd like to make a motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Oh, we want to stay. Opposed. Okay. And that wraps us up. Thank you so much, Rick. We should have done