Township Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. Welcome to the township council regular meeting of February 10th, 2026. This is a regular meeting of the council, the township of Montlair. It's being um at at some point in time it will be broadcast live on channel 34. Right now we are um experiencing some technical difficulties. We expect to resolve that momentarily. It's being streamed live on Montlair TV34 YouTube channel. is available on demand and can and will be re-broadcast. This meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meeting act. The meeting was included in uh the amended notice of the meeting schedule as set forth in resolution R-25-352. It was adopted by the township council at its regular meeting of November 25th, 2025. Advertised to the official newspaper on December 25th, 25, January 1st, 26, and January 8th, 26. Posted on the bulletin boards outside of the municipal building and has remained continuously posted. In addition, a copy of the annual notice is and has been available to the public and is on file in the office of our township clerk. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Madame clerk, will you please do the roll call? Deputy Mayor Anderson, present. Councelor Birmingham, here. Councelor Damato here. Councelor Harrison here. Councelor Toller absent. Right. She's not on the council Williams present. Mayor Baskerville present. Thank you.

At this point in time, we are going to adjourn um to the uh executive session. The purpose of our executive session will be uh contract negotiations and um other such things. Um I thought we pulled that.

Okay. So in executive session in addition to the contracts we will be discussing um the various boards commissions and um committees that we have and yeah that's about it. So at this time I'm going to ask please that everyone that's not a part of the um this body the council or the manager or our attorney clerk deputy manager please be excused. Um, I anticipate that we will resume um for the public to return around 700 Yeah. I'm pleased that we um return from the uh executive session into the regular council meeting.

Second. All in favor?

I. Any opposed? Okay, let's take a 10-minute break and uh convene um for the regular meeting uh starting at 700 p.m. Um thank you. Good evening and welcome to the township counselor council regular meeting. Um, we began the meeting at 5:30 and the council went in to the executive session and now we're reconvening. At this point in time, we are going to um have a proclamation for Black History Month. If there are people here that would like to stand and um receive the proclamation. Council members, if you would like to stand while we read the proclamation for Black History Month, anybody that would like to come on down while we read the proclamation for Black History Month, you're all welcome. Everybody Oh, look. I'm reading this right here. Here it is. But you literally don't have to stand. You can

No, but really No, but yeah, you you do. Come on. Come on. Huddle in or you can stand there. However, that's that's good. Thank you. Where is Miss Amber? Miss Amber. Oh, no.

Yeah, great idea. Okay. Uh this gives the mayor and council um just a a great honor to stand here this evening and read this proclamation as we celebrate Black History Month. Whereas Black History Month is a month in which we we bear witness to the progress, the richness and diversity of African-American achievement. We honor the contri contributions of black Americans since our country's beginning. And whereas during the 1920s, an African-American named Carter G. Woodson created and promoted Negro History Week, which was celebrated in February and became included in the birthdays of Frederick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. And in 1976, the month-long celebration was implemented as a time for Americans to reflect on both the history and teachings of African-Ameans. A history which goes back thousands of years beyond that of slavery and includes some of the greatest most advanced societies in the history of human existence. And whereas black history is American history and the contributions made to our nation by people of African descent are numerous and vital part of the fabric of our society. And whereas celebrating Black History Month helps us to appreciate the diversity and the character of our region and highlights the importance of sharing our culture, our customs and traditions with those around us. Now therefore, I, Mayor Dr. Renee Baskerville and the council of the great

township of Montlair do hereby declare February as Black History Month. We encourage everyone to join us in this month-long celebration by learning more about the collective ingenuity, creativity, culture, and traditions, the rich African heritage. We call upon all Americans to learn more about the history of African-Americans and to observe this month with appreciation and with programs and activities. Lift every voice and sing till earth and heaven ring. Ring with the harmonies of liberty. Let our rejoiceing rise high as the liing skies. Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us. Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us. Facing the rising sun

of our new day beun. Let us march on till victory is one. Thank you. Amber Amber Brown. Everyone, thank you so very much, Amber Brown. And we would also like to wish a special happy birthday to Manager Marks.

Happy birthday, Manager Marks. And we'd like to um present this to um Mr. Scott. Are there other members of the NAACP that are here this evening? If not, we'd like to present this to you. Uh Mr. Scott, would you like to say any words or receive that? Thank you. Okay. Didn't have anything prepared, but uh I'll come up with something. Thank you uh Monler Council Mayor for this uh proclamation. It's not only Black History Month, but we are also celebrating a 100red years of Black History uh in this country.

So, uh this is going to be an extension of that obviously, but uh and being a lifelong resident of Montlair, four generations, I can appreciate black history uh locally. So, uh, this is a great honor and thank you very much. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Okay. Um, we're going to um go through um our agenda. Unfortunately, councelor Toller could not be with us this evening and originally uh we were trying to do accommodations and that's why we've switched the format of the meeting, but it's just for this one meeting because we were trying to make accommodations to include everyone. So, thank you for your understanding. We're going to go to the section um new business ordinances. Um councelor Damato ordinance A please. Ordinance authorizing execution of a financial agreement between the township of Monontlair and Lacawana Monontlair Urban Renewal LLC for a phased redevelopment project to be developed on block 3213 lot 2 and block 4202 lots 4 and 4.01 and I so move

second discussion just let let me do a couple things. Um this is a resolution that does a bunch of things but prim for terms of

terms of what members of the public are concerned about. It includes a proposed pilot agreement. We are going to have a public meeting at the firehouse on Pine Street on Tuesday, February 17th. That's a week from today from 5 to 7:00 where our consultants will uh do a presentation explaining uh what the financial agreement does. We will welcome your comments at that time. Um and in addition, we will when the ordinance is up for second reading, there will be a public hearing. We are not committed to moving forward. you know, if as a result of the public comments, uh, there are changes that we feel are appropriate to be made, we'll make those changes and then reintroduce if the changes are substantive. But the goal of this is to get your input. We have been working with the developers attorney in developing this um, for a number of months, but we're at the point where a decision needs to be made, but before we can make an informed decision, we need your input. So you'll have an opportunity to get further information from our consultants on the 17th, an opportunity at that meeting to give your input, and then you'll have a further opportunity to um provide input when we have the second reading and hearing on the proposed ordinance. And please comment. This is a very important decision for the township and we need as much input as we can so we make the best decision possible for the township.

Thank you. Uh councelor Harrison. No discussion. Any discussion? Council Birmingham. Um I would just say I I am going forward here with that understanding that there can be made changes made and I would also um think we can review what is available online right now for people to be reviewing in anticipation of um the meetings. understanding that pilots are complicated and um need really we do really need to talk this through.

Thank you. Anyone else? Council members? Um yes. No, I would just

I would just encourage people to um I I know that we had provided a copy of the um proposed financial agreement um and uh you know encourage people to review it. Um there are a lot of considerations that went you know we we did discuss um I know that the finance committee um did review uh did a lot of discussions and we as a full council also had several discussions um and asked many many questions of our legal adviserss and our financial consultants um going back to at least October 2025. Um and so uh um again as councelor um Harrison said just encourage you to get the facts um ask the questions and give us your input. Yes, council Damato.

And just very quickly, that's also some of us, you know, so just in plain language, an ordinance has two readings. So if we vote tonight, it is only to set it in motion. It can be reintroduced or amended uh in ways. Um and some of us are are before voting on it on the second thing will be wanting some other related things. In my case specifically, um, a framework agreement for future cooperation with with the board of education, which if things went well, could lead to some sharing of some revenues, but just to to do a first concrete first step and it is I would have liked that it was in place today, but the fact that it is not is actually a sign that there's serious work being done on it. Uh, which which I'm happy to know. Uh so so that will be likely in place uh by the time we are to actually finalize this in a couple of meetings. Thank

Thank you. Um anyone else? No. Madame clerk? Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller absent. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville.

Yes. Thank you. Uh, Council Birmingham, please. B. Um, new business ordinance B, ordinance to amend chapter 65, affordable housing of the code of the Township of Montlair, New Jersey. Um, and this is a lengthy red line document. I know um Miss Tally, this is um in regards to the agreement we came to with Fair Share Housing if or if you could just explain.

Uh yes. Um the ordinance changes which are extensive are to um weave the new state regulations that were officially established on December 15th of this year into our local code. Um so not only is it to bring our ordinances into compliance with state regulations, um but it's also to comply with the time frame that was established in the amended fair housing act as well as the settlement uh agreement. uh between the township and the fair share housing center and these the ordinance has to be adopted by March 15th. Um so Janice, if I um since many of us did not have an opportunity to read this through, if we pull this tonight, it won't be adopted by the the date that you just said. Is that

we have to have schedule the second reading for February 24th.

Okay. in order because your next meeting after that I believe is March 17th. So, uh and then we submit it to the to the court um and DCA. Uh there may and and they'll it'll they'll review our ordinances for again compliance review. So, there may be changes that we have to make. Um, as we discussed, our ordinance right now still maintains the local preference. But just as as we heard with the last ordinance, when we um go through this, if there are changes and things that need to be made, we can do that at the next meeting. Is that correct? Or no, we can't do anything to this at all.

They and I will defer to our council. They would have to be nonsubstantive changes. I would recommend not making as minimal as possible. I did integrate the changes that were sent to me prior to tonight, okay, that I got from various council members. Um, but again, these are new regulations. There may be changes coming down the pike um once the the judge and the court reviews it. Um, and for our different programs, I know I did get some comments about the affordable housing programs. We can fine-tune those. Okay. I wouldn't hold this up uh for any to make any changes to those programs. Thank you, Deputy.

Just to be clear, um, these red lines particularly and which have, you know, um were shared with the economic development committee um also councelor Harrison reviewed them. These are solely made. These are the only changes are because um we need to make it consistent with the state regs and I understand that um did our affordable housing attorney also review this? I sent them to our affordable housing attorney. He did not have any comments. I also it also reflects the um housing element. Yeah. So when you look at the amounts for the different programs, increasing the amount of subsidy, increasing the amounts for the rehabilitation program,

those came out of those amounts came out of our housing plan, right? And if again, if you want to change those numbers and how much money we will provide or the maximum amount or the minimum amount for various programs, we can amend those, you know, in in the future. But for now, these were put in to match what's in the house the adopted housing element. But everything else, the the majority of this is is statutory. And we are required under the terms of a settle um I believe what was it a not a settlement agreement a mediation mediation agreement we were required under the terms of that to adopt um these by

by March 15. And then it's also state law too. So, and are are you able we I see we we you you sent us a memo or included there was a memo that went through like the old rule and now the new rule rule you know right which led to these changes. Are you able to post that online so people can see it? Yeah. You mean my the memo from February 3rd where I attached our the attorney's um list of changes? I can certainly or the December 24th where she went through there's two I guess but whichever one yeah it was attached to to the memo that I sent. So yeah I can I can uh post that.

Okay I think it just goes it's like old new I think that is very helpful. Yep. Thank you. Okay thank you very much planner tally. Anyone else? Um, deputy

really I mean it has nothing to do with this specifically but um I I would like to make the suggestion that anytime we have an amended ordinance on the agenda um that it be accompanied with a memo um summarizing you know the reason for the changes and what the changes are um for the benefit of both the council members and the public. I I certainly agree and I appreciate counselor I mean uh listen to me counselor planner Tally for for doing that for us. Thank you very much. Okay, let's move on. Um can we have a roll call please? Councelor Birmingham, are you the movement?

I am I'm second. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller absent. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville. Yes. Thank you. Um, Council Harrison, please.

This is an ordinance to amend chapter 202 land use procedures of the code of the township of Montlair. This is a followup the prior ordinance dealt with chapter 65 for the land use ordinances. This is doing the necessary amendments to chapter 200 202 of the which is deals with land use procedures um and is making the changes that are required by the mediation agreement that was entered into to um have our housing element and fair share plan approved. I so moved. Second discussion. No. Madame clerk.

Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller absent. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville. Yes. Thank you. Deputy Mayor, please. Number D or letter D, right? Number D. D. um an ordinance to amend chapter 347 zoning of the code of the township of Montclair of New Jersey. Um and uh this has rather extensive red lines to make it um consistent with um the relevant provisions of the housing element and fair share plan. I so move. Second discussion, please.

Madam Clerk, Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller. Absent. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville. Yes. Thank you. Okay. At this point in time, we're on to the consent agenda. Um there are some items that have already been given to me that uh were requested to to have pulled. If there are others, when I'm finished going through the ones that I have, please feel free um to notify me of the others. Yes.

Okay. Thank you. Um before we begin to to pull those out, um there's been a request to do the bills list first. So, um Councelor Williams, the bill's list, please. Bill's list. bills list. Do you have it? Um, so we're going to vote on this one, right? Because it's being pulled from the consent agenda. No, I thought you said you wanted to do that. No, I wanted to pull it. I wanted to pull it from the consent agenda. That's what I was saying.

Okay. Because I was what I was saying was that I was going to go through the list that I had of those that were going to be pulled and then when I was finished we can do that. Well, we can start with that one. So, we're going to pull number one, number two, number three, number seven, number 13, 14, 15, 16. Okay. Other other Yeah. Mayor number 12. We'll have to do 12. Okay. Thank you. I couldn't figure out that one. Thank you. Number four. Did you say

number four? Okay. Let's begin with um the bills list. Please. You want to do the cons approve the remainder of the Okay. We can 1 2 3 4 5 6. So the remaining items would be 5 6 8 9 10 and 11. Manager, can you read the um 56 8 9 10 11 so that those that are watching will know what we're going to also 17 that to be pulled. No, no, include on the

included. Yes. Thank you. May if you could give an explanation of 17 just so people know what's going on. We're going to have the manager t uh do five, six, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 17 so that um all of those that are all of you that are here will know what we're going to vote on and then um those at home as well. Ready? Yes. Um thank you. We begin with uh

so item number five is a resolution awarding the fair and open contract to national water main cleaning company for the 2026 sanitary sewer rehabilitation project which was bid 26-4. Item number six is a resolution authorizing execution of a professional engineering services agreement with Suburban Consulting Engineering Inc. for construction administration and construction observation services in relation to the 2026 sanitary sewer rehabilitation project which was bid 26-4. Item number eight is a resolution awarding an extension of a fair and open contract to Angel's Landscaping Contractors and Suburban Sidewalks Inc. for snow plowing and removal services for township parking facilities which was CY uh 2026 bid 24-10. Item number nine is a resolution authorizing payment for proprietary software and hardware invoices to CD uh W government Inc. Item number 10 is a resolution authorizing uh to pre-qualify and award a fair and open professional services contract for insurance broker risk manager services for calendar year 2026. Item number 11 is a resolution authorizing to pre-qualify and award a fair and open professional services contract to serve as special counsel labor and employment attorney for calendar year uh 2026 which was under RFP26-P08. And item number 17 is a resolution to adopt a revised council meeting scheduled um due to the special school board election scheduled for March 10, 2026.

Can Yes, Council Birmingham, can I manager, can I ask just one question about item 10? Um th this has the 2026 health premium listed at $14,921,87. Is that the final is that the actual number or is that that's the estimate for the year? So that that's based on a per employee per month projection based on the number of employees that we ended uh 2025 with.

That's $4 million more than last year. That's approximately $4 million more than than last year. If the number if the number of employees goes up, that that for 2026, that number would correspondingly go up. If the number of employees full-time employees who are eligible for health benefits goes down, then this number would go down. Okay. But that so far that's an estimate of $4 million more. Okay. Correct. Thank you. Ready to vote? I I move the consent agenda items. Just one thing, the March 10th meeting will now be March 17th.

March 17th, and I second that. Um, Madame Clerk. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller. Absent. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville. Yes. Thank you. Um, councelor Williams, would you please do the bills list? The bills list. Uh, so moved. Second.

Any discussion? just just th this um has some old invoices on it and I asked and just where where are we with getting all caught up with some things that got left behind from prior managers and we we are in the process of identifying uh past uh invoices and rectifying the situation. Madam clerk, please. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham, yes. Councelor Damato, yes. Councelor Harrison, yes.

Councelor Toller, absent. Councelor Williams, abstain. Mayor Baskerville. Yes.

Number two. Um, who wanted number two pulled and can you share with us why, please? I just I just wanted to make clear that this is one of the um requirements of um under the new state statute. Um and so um I know that um councelor Toller is is not with us physically um this evening and I know that she does quite a bit of work um in terms of the housing portion. So I would like to um pull that until our next meeting.

I know councelor to had concerns. I just have a question on this in terms of um there are special requirements that have to be met and um Miss Tally is director Tally has met those. I guess my question is is there can we train so have someone else do the training just Janice may get smart and decide to retire or more importantly I think you know Miss T director Thally has um a lot on her plate this year um with Lacawana Plaza redevelopment plan for the property that includes the police station property And I think in any event, it would be good to have someone else on staff um who could step in under either of those circumstances. Just so um one less thing that Miss Director Tally has to do. Um and good to have backup in any instance.

My suggestion, thank you, Councelor Harrison. I appreciate that. um between now and then and and the next meeting I can inquire as to anybody in my office who would be interested in doing this work. So, okay. Yes, deputy. Um I'm sorry, deputy and then councelor Birmingham. Did Did you have some Okay, deputy, did you have something?

Oh, no. That was one of my actually that was one of my questions. Is there someone else who can um receive the training only because you know if if you fall sick or god forbid um it would be good to maybe you know do some succession planning and and things. Um and I also my other question was um you know is do we have or can we make um public a list of the affordable units in the township? Well, we we do have a list of the locations of our afford where our affordable units are located. Um, we don't tell you exactly which apartments, but it is on the afford we have an affordable housing web page and it says which where the units are located.

Thank you. Okay. We don't we don't identify the houses that are rehabilitated, just where the rental and sales units are. Okay. No. Any further discussion? I'm I'm s recommending that we pull that until the next meeting. I second that.

Yes, madame clerk. We'd like to um have this go on the what is the next? the February 24th.

Yes. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller. Absent. Councelor Williams. Yes.

Mayor Baskerville. Yes. Um, please number three. Someone asked please to have that either tabled or put in the discussion. Whoever that was, please do number three. Is there anyone here that wanted to have number three? Okay. So, uh, resolution authorizing an amendment to the professional services agreement with Acuity Consulting Services for administrative agent services. Um, planner tally. Oh. Is there a question?

Okay, let me the the this goes back to my earlier comment. I This is This is an after approval of this. They've Is that correct? Yes.

Yes. The uh work required responding to requests. This is their first year that they did the work. The effort and the time required, they charge us on an hourly basis, was higher than anticipated. So, uh yes, they did exceed the amount uh not to exceed by $5,000. So, we are restructuring the contract for this year um and requiring uh additional um work to be paid for by the landlords and not by the township. Thank you. Yes. Um, council Damato

and just to confirm that our their new contract our new contract with them will specify that they are marketing to our local list only as long as our ordinance does. If our ordinance changes then they have to market according to our ordinance. They can't do they can't deviate from what our law is. They're already deviating. That's all I'm going to say. Okay. They will do as our ordinance requires. Okay. And where does the contract for this year stand? We we've approved it already for this year. Mhm.

So move second. Madame clerk. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Um yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato, yes. Councelor Harrison, yes. Councelor Toller, absent. Councelor Williams, yes. Mayor Baskerville, yes. Thank you. Who wants to do the next one? Number six. Number four. Number four. I had it. Um, yes.

Yeah. This is the resolution um around Lacawana Plaza. Um, it's the resolution reaffirming the designation of BDP Holdings as the redeveloper of the Lacwana Plaza redevelopment project and authorizing the execution of a redevelopment agreement between the township and BDP holdings. I would ask, again, this is rather unexpected, but I would ask to pull this um until councelor Toller can be present. That's I would ask to table it. So, that would that's my opinion. Second

discussion I just can I Oh, yes. I'm sorry. Um, Deputy Mayor, I guess I just want to um un I think I just do want to understand why Um I mean this I mean it's only because we were all part of the discussions about the agreement,

right? I mean it is just my opinion. This is a project going in the fourth board. She's a member of the EDC who's been working on it and so she should be present for the vote in my opinion and others can disagree. I will I'm just putting it forward to table and again because at the next meeting we will be um voting on the financial agreement as well. So it would they could go hand in hand at that meeting. That's just again I'm putting that forward. Others may vote as they wish. I'm I'm just a little confused because this isn't the one that we were talking about and then I called counselor told her and she said she was okay. That was a different one.

No, that that was the financial agreement. Okay. So, now you're saying to have both of them going hand in hand to pull Well, we voted to approve the financial agreement on first reading, right?

That will come up at a subsequent council meeting. And I think what um councelor Birmingham is saying and I agree that it will come up at the same meeting we're doing the financial agreement and it is certainly better for councelor Toller to be here and this is going to have a major impact on her ward and just to know she is fully on board or not fully on board but to have her ability to participate. Okay. No, and definitely um I know you referred to it as as her ward. Certainly it is my ward as well and I um appreciate it. I was just trying to make sure that that was um in accordance with the the discussions that we had and councelor Toller. So um madame clerk just to confirm it's going to be tabled to um February 24th. This would be a vote to table. Yes. To February 24th.

Yeah. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Abstain. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller. Absent. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville. Yes. Thank you. Um where are we now? We are at number nine. No, number seven. Number seven, please for discussion. Who is that? You. Number seven, please.

Yeah. But I just wanted to know was it it's pulled for discussion. Um according to my notes, is there anyone here that'd like to lead lead off on the discussion of number seven? We can have um if necessary, Mr. Mr. Primivera is here. This is we reviewed the rates that we were charging for water wheeling and this is an update and PG valley I believe you can explain but they get a small amount of water but it takes a little more energy to give it to them. Correct. Good evening. Yes.

Can we um I'm sorry. Were you the person that asked to have it pulled? Because um whoever asked to have it pulled I would like for them to just ask what their question was. Otherwise, can we vote on this and and move on and then we can get to, you know, the public comment. If this if nobody has any further discussion on it? No. Okay. I I Okay. Just it would have been helpful if there was a memo accompanying this. I mean, I've done interconnection agreements in my other life, but this was not easy to follow what was going on.

My apologies on that one. Um, this kind of came up as we realized that the contract had expired. Um, and there was actually no contract on file. So, what we wanted to do is just have a contract agreement executed with them to move forward. So, that's why it just kind of went on without them. It was just it was my fault. I apologize. It's just and then obviously better we approve ahead of time rather than a month after. But that's my issue for the night. Thank you very much, Madame Clerk. Roll call. I need to move it in a second. So moved. Moved. Second. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham.

Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller absent. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville. Yes. Thank you. Are there um council members here that would like discussion on um any of the others? I know we pulled quite a few of the remaining. Anyone here want to discuss something else? Is there another one that we need to vote on? 12 is 12. Okay. I didn't pull but someone. Yes. You want to pull the rest of it and then do 12. Yes. Um, so we pulled I thought we pulled them but then just to table

to table them until the 24th. Yeah. I move to table items 13, 14, 15, and 16 till the February 24th meeting. Second. I'm sorry. Okay. Then we're going to go to number to call the role. Yes. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller absent. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville. Yes. Thank you. Now we're um going to go to number 12. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yes, please.

So, item 12 is a resolution authorizing the award of a contract to Millennium Communications Group. Um, there are approximately 33 devices that comprise the the computer network. not not related to like laptops or or desktop computers or any mo other mobile devices but um 33 servers switches and firewalls that comprise the network. So out of the 33 approximately 28 are either past their useful life or compromised. So um this is a network modernization project. So if approved this um the work should be done within the next six months and uh the town will have a modern computer network. um the the current system um is subject to failure and there's been several um computer, telephone, and even 911 failures in the last uh 6 months. So, this would rectify that uh as well.

Thank you. Discussion.

So, yes. Um, I mean this is a substantial amount of money over $2 million, but um I I do, you know, recall that we have had several issues with emergency um calls. So to me it seems like well worth um the the money to be spent um we to keep our systems upgraded and and um protect the safety of people who need help. So the um the vendor here is a state contract, New Jersey state contract vendor. So they're pre-qualified by the state of New Jersey uh on a per unit basis uh for the devices that are being uh proposed to be installed. And um it's a the way the contract is structured, it's a five-year contract under um Cisco. Cisco is one of the manufacturers of the devices. Um and it's 0% APR for the life of the um the contract. uh five years zero zero APR.

Any other discussion? Just if um you know lightning hits a building, whatever that this will enable us to get back up and running relatively quickly. So, every device has uh I believe it's a 5-year warranty. If any device fails for whatever reason, from what I've been told by the the um uh the company Millennium, um we just um notify Cisco and literally within a business day, uh they have a a device to us. Yeah. And also just if for disaster recovery, it is now we will

it would be backed up. Our entire files will be backed up to the cloud. I think it's every 15 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. And I also like the fact that a lot of the um troubleshooting and things where we used to have to have a individual physically come in and maneuver things can be done remotely. Um yeah, it's it's a heavy note to to have to um put in, but I think that it's very necessary um even in terms of some basic things like you know security. So yeah,

council Damato. Yes. Uh I mean so everybody should know this is a relatively large amount of money that was not initially anticipated. This is a mixture of good news and bad news. It was you know uh a study that was done uh during a transition in in uh a study that was done which showed that basically we had uh not really maintained a lot of these systems over some years as well as they should have been done. That's very frustrating especially after the cyber breach that happened and it continued. Um that's not that's that's sad but it's good to know if you have a problem and then to have a good plan to fix it. So I went through the manager really walked us through had a great team that came in and I think all of us were like oh that's lousy and then you realize it's good to know you have a few termites in the house it's bad news it's good to know that you have them and you get rid of them and that's sort of the you know the issue here. So we go through it with these buildings as well and it's the same thing. It's frustrating when you come up on something that hasn't been taken care of and you get a bill and it's not a sexy new thing that you're buying. It's something you're fixing something you thought was working and it wasn't. But it is being done. And I just want to thank the manager for uh for handling this unforeseen issue in a very calm and very professional manner. And the people that were brought in seem to be quite good. So, I'm I'm voting for this with gratitude, but

Thank you. Did we move this and second this? Yes, we did. I move. Second, Madame Clerk. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller absent. Councelor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville.

Yes. Thank you. Okay. Um and so I think that wraps us up for that part of the the um meeting. Um now I'm going to um move down to the public comment. Um and and again I thank you all for um you know understanding the importance of us um doing this in in the way that we did tonight. Um councelor Toller if you're watching um we wish you a speedy recovery and um yeah we miss you. So, anybody did you have a chance to sign in at the front and get numbers?

Okay, then let's begin please with guest number one. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Laura Kenny. I'm here tonight with other members of our Montlair Indivisible group. Please stand. Those of you who are with Monontlair Indivisible as well as other concerned groups, ICE out of northern New Jersey, please stand. Join us. I have lived uh with my family in Montlair for 30 years. And uh like so many residents, we settled here because it is a community committed to diversity and the belief that every person has a right to live secure in the knowledge that their families are safe and that they can live and work with dignity. We were here last November to urge you to adopt the Immigrant Trust Act and we were pleased when it was finally unanimously adopted. I say finally because Montlair stepped up to adopt the resolution only after Morristown, Madison, Trenton, Patterson, Flemington, Planefield, Atlantic City, Bloomfield, Maplewood, South Orange, and the Essex County Board of Commissioners. And as you know, the trust, the immigrant trust act at the state level only passed one piece of the legislation to protect immigrants in our state. Much has happened in our country in the past three months. We have witnessed ICE

inflict violence, abuse, and terror on many of our immigrant residents and American citizens throughout the country. And even more horrifying, we have witnessed the death of two American citizens in Minneapolis at the hands of ICE for simply defending the rights of their immigrant neighbors and exercising their own First Amendment rights. We all feel a tremendous sense of urgency about the need to protect our neighbors, especially those who are most vulnerable. So, we are here to urge the council to address and adopt the Montlair Trust Act, an act that codifies that the town will not expend any time, funds, or resources on facilitating the civil enforcement of federal immigration law, nor participating in civil immigration enforcement operations, except where they are legally required to do So both Hoboken and Jersey City have already passed trust acts. Montlair needs to do the same as soon as possible. This time we want to see the town of Montlair as a leader not following from behind. Recently, many of us joined Montlair Sundays in conjunction with the Unitarian Universalist Congregation here in Montlair for rapid response training. That is training on what to do when ICE arrives. We are preparing. As I noted in October, many of our members have been providing mutual aid for detainees at Delaney Hall in Newark.

We've written letters to the Essex County Board of County Commissioner Commissioners insisting that a heated shelter and portaotties be provided for families of detainees at Delaney Hall during this frigid winter weather. We were asked uh to bring small toys because having a small toy or a little stuffed animal to pick from helps these children a little brings these children a little joy during a difficult and traumatic time. We are working hard to do our part to stop this abuse, this trauma, this violation of our rights and our conscience. We need the Montlair Town Council to do its part. We need to see your leadership on this issue now when it is most needed. Thank you. Thank you. Next guest, please. I basically am going to second what Miss Kenny just said and it's just horrifying what's going on in this country.

May I please have your name? Oh yes you may. Kate Begley. Thank you. Um and I do take a great deal of pride in living in Montlair and the diversity of this town and I do think that Montlair taking a leadership role uh in this matter would is really important. So I thank you. Thank you. Next guest, please. I would like to pass some of this stuff out. The people already are aware of the flooding problem. Um, thank you. There's a copy for everyone here.

Can you please give it down to the clerk side? And thank you so very much. We appreciate that. Hi everyone. Um, my name is Len Brown, 119 Yantico Brook Road. Um, I've lived in Montlair since 1953. Um, I remember as a child on 97 Mount Hein, where we lived, across from the school at Bradford, seeing the floods come down Mount Hebrin Road, two, three, four feet deep.

Um, I never realized what the result of those was at the time. I now reside at 119 Yandic Cole Brook Road and I am terrorized by the results. How do you do it? Just push it and it'll be a green light. You see a green light? I got a green. Yeah. Okay, you're good. Um, I've been fighting this battle since we moved into Yanico 2007. Wow.

Um, since 2010. Um, we've been trying to make some progress to be able to on terrorize the neighborhood. It is absolutely frightful um with the water that comes down Mount Hein Road into um the Alexander area flooding Lasowl and Marquette all because of the dam at 117 Yantico Brook Road. The Biola's property has it totally blocked the sewer right of way. Um, and there's many um notifications that I've um passed out that the town attorney has given the residents in order to be able to clear this obstruction.

Um, in that thing, you can see just exactly the water in Alexander Avenue is this deep. Yep.

In um, my backyard had 20 some odd inches of water at my back door. My neighbor at 121 had four feet in their basement. Um, I would like to be able to plea for relief to be I I had at my at my own cost $5,000 I excavated the 122 ft of that um thing as you can see in those documents to be able to allow Yantacob Brook to flow freely to be able to drain whenever we had torrential rains. Um, on 15th of March last year, Frank Biola Jr. came in with the crew and backfilled it and filled it in. Uh the town subsequently gave a notice that he was in violation of I think was code 280 for obstructing a natural brook. Um but nothing has been done to clear it. Um I I I'm at a loss as to why. Um, this is a a danger to the town more than the residents because now that everybody knows what the root cause of the flooding is, why the EPA and the D have designated this area a FEMA hazard flood area is because of that dam. If we have another incident, and we will, it's metaphysically a certainty that we're going to have that type of an event again. Now everybody knows whose responsibility it is and where to fall, where to place responsibility for getting compensation for the damages. Um, I plea for your help. I would suggest the simplest thing is to be able to have the town attorney put a $250,000 lean on the Viola estate because they're trying to sell the house until they clear that right of way at no expense to

the town. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next guest, please. Guest number four. Tony.

Hi, Tony Martin, 41 North Fullerton Avenue. Um, two things. First, I was at the rapid response training uh for ICE and related anti-immigrant uh training and um I support everything that was uh said before, but also um the issue of um crowd uh license plate reader cameras, block cameras as they're known, um came up here at the council several weeks ago. And I would like to add that I think uh we should join in any effort to oppose installing any more of those or any if we don't have any now. I'm not exactly sure. Um I read a report today about how those cameras are being used um by uh police in this was in Texas but there were other uh states as well. um used by police to refer cameras placed at schools using and the police were using the information from those license plate readers uh and referring them to um the federal anti-immigration authorities. Okay. Um number two, um I'm here to oppose the 10% pilot agreement. um for the Lacawana Plaza uh project. Um I tried my best. I have new renewed respect for the kinds of things you have to wade through and for the staff that must prepare the the incredibly complex plans and um uh legal

terms and so forth. Um but and I I I can't say I've read every single bit of it, but I really feel that um one obvious thing is that the 10% uh agreement 10% payment in lie of taxes mind you for 10% you know is just not acceptable. um the town's own consultant who I believe is here and so I won't attempt to quote quote him directly but um he said what number one that the project can't proceed without that pilot agreement and number two that his estimate of the project's successful execution remains that it is somewhat iffy. Um, but the developer believes that he can make it work financially. Um, meanwhile, the town's financial picture is, if you will, iffy. Okay, that's my time. May I finish? Okay. Um the issue of school finances also hangs like a great dark cloud and I don't expect to be here in 30 years when we get to 13% payment in lie of taxes. Still not enough. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Next guest please. Hi, good evening.

Hi, my name is Carla Millian. Sorry, my I have been in court all day today and just came home and I've been evicted. I'm a homecore resident for 24 years in Montlair and 30 years living in Monontlair in the affordable housing and um I've been evicted today by Homecore and what has been happening with Homecore, I couldn't explain it to the court because they're using certain things that I don't have a representative to represent me in court to get away with. But in 2015, they failed to renew my lease. And moving on to 2018, when I provided documents for my lease, they said I did not provide it. And after that, when I request repairs for the property that I've been maintaining and painting and taking care of with my family myself because it's affordable housing, but when it got to the condition that it needed repair, they failed to make repair for it. After they failed to make repair and continue to do do that, I withheld my rent in a bank account. I told them that by certified mail, instead of making the repairs, which I told them I would give them their money back if they made the repairs, they went ahead and filed an eviction case against me in 2020. When the eviction case was filed, it was co so that took a while. In when I found out at the end of the year, it did file it in April. I found out at the end of the year when I found out I came into the town. I requested from the township to have a inspection done. They got

violations to comply by the 22nd of February. When they did not comply, when we checked with the township again, they said they were offering us I live at 12 Miller Street. They were offering they were repairing 11 Miller Street and they were said they would give it to us and they would not repair until I move over there. They did not complete that building and wanted me to move in. I said, "No, you have to complete the repairs. They did not. They moved an employee into the property." Where's the weight list about that? an employee into the property and then they turned around and forced me to make the repairs while we are there. Even though my doctor said I wasn't supposed to be experiencing that, I'm recovering. I had to next year when they forced in to come in and do the repairs, I had a surgery the following year. stage three cancer was removed for me and um it's well I I'm here to say that everything that's worked out they're providing wrong documents to the court. The documents that are providing is incorrect documents, incorrect property registration. They have done that and gotten a judgment against me. They have filed a case against me for collection because I don't have a representative. They got a $25,000 to get that judgment before the eviction case. They didn't tell the court that they had another case going on. And this has gone on and um I would request from the township because it seems like they're getting help from the township. And um what is happening with Homecore? It's an ecumenical cooperation. I I'm a Christian. My parish is right down the

street there. Immaculate Conception. But I'm standing alone. Thanks for Thank you for standing with me. I'm stand alone in this battle, but I'm going through it believing that the Lord is with me. I have done so much to maintain that property and help believing that it's a affordable housing. It's a Christian. It's not Christian. I don't see the Christian in home court. Miss Mong, um, would you please take this and I I would like to talk with you offline and try to see if I can do something here about the township and I I couple of times I consider reporting that to the I'd like to try to talk to you. I'm going to give you this and um I'll take

needs to be done because I do not want to get the town reach out any further than the township. Thank you. I will try to learn more about it and see how I can help you. If you would take this, it has a number and I'm also going to tell you when my son's disability. I'm sorry, Miss Million. It's um Okay. I have to find where would I move to, right? And I'm not going to be able to do that right in here right now. But I do it's very important and I'm a Christian person too and I would like to try to assist you and see what we can do and at least get you in the right direction. Thank you all the time. I do not want to expose the tongue with all the comments I have. Yes, ma'am. Next guest, please.

Hi, Annalise Sheriff. Yes. Hi. Good evening. Sorry. Analise Sheriff, 322 North Fullerton. I'm sorry I didn't hear your name. Annelise Sheriff. Oh, thank you.

Hi. Um, in February 2017, the Montlair Town Council passed a resolution continuing commitment to equal, respectful, and dignified treatment of all people, regardless of their immigration status, and to remaining o an open and welcoming community. While not exactly actionable, it did project support to our immigrant neighbors at a time when the federal government was very publicly and proudly denigrating them. And just back in November, this current council thankfully voted to urge the state government to pass the IM immigrant trust act, which would have in part limited state and local cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Unfortunately, Governor Murphy failed to approve this law in his final days in office. But Monontlair has repeatedly chosen to express support for our immigrants in our community. for immigrants in our community. It's time to put actions behind those sentiments. Both Hoboken Hoboken and Jersey City have codified protections for immigrants and Monontlair can and should adopt similar protections to show not just tell not just tell immigrants in our community that they matter. I urge you to support the Montlair Trust Act. I also want to take this opportunity to urge against the proposed resolution expressing support for legislation authorizing municipal use of traffic enforcement cameras that was brought before the council two weeks ago. The stated purpose of utilizing traffic cams is safety, but one important question is safety for whom? Adding more surveillance will likely not make us safer as they cannot stop crashes or speeding, but it will almost certainly punish the most vulnerable, including our immigrant neighbors, among others. And as our federal government carines into fascism, the thought of adding more

surveillance locally instead of shoring up our community's actual safety is disheartening. The resolution states that it will encourage due process protections. So even if you choose to believe that the current police force will act within these limits, this legislation strengthens the infrastructure of surveillance available to future authorities with whom you may not have as much confidence. But the infrastructure will be in place and it will be too late to go back. I urge you to vote no on that resolution when it comes up for a vote. Thank you. Thank you. Next guest, please.

Good evening everybody. Um, thanks for hearing me. My name is Lynn Stockhammer. I live on 16 Forest Street. Um echoing what um various people have said both both about ICE and about the surveillance cameras and under the guise of safety and revenue. Please do not use our tax dollars to contribute to data mining mining and or eventually detention or death which is a given to impact advers adversely on black and brown community members. We do not want additional surveillance in Monontlair. It's just another step on the slippery slope of state terrorism. I hope you'll read Greg Pacin's February 8th letter to the editor in the Monontlair local. Um, and speaking of newspapers from the February 3rd New York Times opinion piece, ICE is watching you. And I'm excerpt being a little bit out of context, but I'll give you the article. But basically um with the recent killings um in Minneapolis, the images by Trese McMillan Katum, the images captured by bystanders and immigration agents were reminiscent of the lynching postcards that white spectators once bought and traded. Reproductions, reproductions of retributed violence tailor made to titilate and int intimidate whichever abuse convinced you because this is when white America seems to be waking up a little bit. Um that but you are here now. You need to pay attention to the guns ICE agents are pointing out to all of us. Um this is from a friend of mine um who did not come because she she doesn't want to be recorded and she said to thank me for helping everyone that is not able to speak up because they are with too much fear to be seen and then she wrote this is from my friend in turn Marisol um this is translated into English hello

everyone good evening I'm not here in front of you tonight because I'm afraid of the things that are happening around us in our town. That's why she couldn't be here. On Monday, February 2nd, as I was leaving my apartment on Elm Street to take my daughter to the bus stop for school, several patrol cars with ICE agents pulled up next to me and looked at me in a very intimidating way. I was terrified that they were going to arrest me, and I didn't know what to do. They rolled down their windows, looked at me, started their car, and drove away. I was so scared for myself, but even more for my daughter. If they had arrested me, what would have happened to her? I quickly went back home. We didn't leave the house all day. I beg you, please, that we can have protection on the streets of Montlair. That we can take our children to the bus stop, go to our jobs without having to live with the uncertainty that we could be arrested at any moment. Please help us to be protected. These are among um at least a dozen stories I've been told by my friend of people she personally knows. Um please say no to more surveillance surveillance and please vote yes on a Monontlair trust act. Um I'd also like to know if it can be commented on later. What is a bounce imaging tactical camera? um which was in the bills list and a little bit about that company blood something that's providing other surveillance for the police. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next guest please. Guest number eight. Seven. I'm sorry. No, I can't count. I'm sorry. I'm just glad you're here. I got the number wrong. She was 10 just Okay. Thank you. members, right? Um, hi, I'm Parker. I'm from Harvard Street.

Um, I'm here about the Excuse me. I'm here about the uh Montlair Trust Act. I sent you guys all a copy. I expect you've read it. Um, this act represents the very basic uh action that can be taken by this council. Um, it's actually part of it was directly excerpted from the Hoboken Trust Act. It's section three. There are 10 other sections within that trust act. I didn't want to burden everybody with it. I wanted to get something in front of you as quickly as possible and the most important section in my opinion. Um, but I'm also here to discuss the recent push by the council for increased surveillance within our town. Um, under the guise of safety and increased revenue. On September 30th, this council approved a pilot program to install safety sticks to monitor parking. last meeting or the meeting before there was the resolution to uh include the to support state uh state legislation for the municipal use of automated traffic cameras. Uh Monontlair police has acknowledged the ownership and use of of automatic license plate readers. Uh while the current initiatives are relatively benign or symbolic, they represent the slow creep of surveillance that affects us all. Given the actions of the DHS and their use of technology and databases to identify and track citizens and non-citizens alike, I urge you to place a moratorium on any increased surveillance initiatives within town. Um, should you shoot choose to proceed with these initi with any of these initiatives and add more cameras and surveillance to this town, we need to we need to have a robust discussion about the collection, retainment, and sharing of this data. It should not go outside of the township. It should be used solely based on hot lists within that the township creates and it should not be shared with any other agency at all. Um, the ACLU has put out guidelines for amendments that should be incorporated into any contracts between a vendor and

and a township for the for this exact purpose. It's um, also to Lynn's point, this is the oped from Sunday, ICE is watching you

um, by uh, Trese McMillan Cotton. Um, and I'll leave you with a quote from it. For decades, Americans have treated their data like a cheap external externality. We trade crumbs of ourselves, our names, phone numbers, location datas for discount, uh convenience, and the illusion of safety. Uh I ask you to place a moratorium on any additional surveillance in this town. And I ask you to please consider uh the Montlair Trust Act and get it onto an agenda to have a first pass. Thank you.

Thank you. Next guest, please. Good evening.

Good evening. My name is Maria Evadoro. I'm a resident of Monontlair. I'm here tonight to remind us that now more than ever, we must take care of one another and that includes taking care of our our undocumented neighbors. I'm here in support of the Monontlair Act uh trust act. Um what we are witnessing across this country makes one thing painfully clear. People have been left to fend for themselves. In Minneapolis, as elsewhere, political leaders at national, state, and local levels have failed to protect their communities. Instead, it has been ordinary, courageous people stepping up to keep one another safe. We are confronting a government armed with firearms while we are left with whistles and our camera phones. I'm carrying my US passport at all times. Not because I'm traveling, but because I'm afraid. Although I'm not I may not look brown, the moment I open my mouth, my accent reveals me. We must be clear. We cannot collaborate directly or indirectly with a government that is implementing policies that harm our communities. That is why we must be consistent. If we say we want to protect all residents of Monontlair, then we cannot invite mass surveillance into our towns. We cannot claim safety while installing systems that place our our neighbors at risk. I am firmly opposed to the installation of flock cameras in Monontlair. According to ACLU, flock is not a limited or targeted system. It is a growing national network that tracks people's movements across towns, cities, and states, creating a centralized mass surveillance in infrastructure. This data is searchable by law

enforcement agencies across jurisdictions, giving even small towns access to an Orwellian system of tracking and monitoring people's daily lives that raises serious and unanswered questions. What information is being collected? Where is it stored? Who owns it? Who has access to it? How long is it kept? And what happens when federal agencies demand it? At a moment when disscent is criminalized, when defending your neighbors are or opposing government policies can label you a domestic terrorist, we cannot afford to hand over surveillance tools that will in inevitably be used against us. Do not trade our civil liberties and our civil rights for town revenue. Do not sacrifice safe community safety for an illusion of security and do not make Monontlair complicit in systems that will be used to harm the very people we claim to protect. Monontlair must choose courage over fear and people over profit. Thank you. Thank you. Next guest, please. Are there any other members of the public who wish to be heard this evening? Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Johanna Coxer and I reside in the fourth ward at 165 Lincoln Street. Um, I always come with one thing and then I hear people talk and now I've got three things. Lacawana, please consider the master plan when making decisions about this redevelopment. Keep in mind that the residents of the fourth ward did not want it overbuilt. I also oppose pilot agreements because people are going to move in there that have kids. We need the money for schools. It should not go to the county. Um the traffic cameras, I'm against that, too. We have enough surveillance as it is and put people over profits. Absolutely. The Montlair Trust Act, I urge the council to adopt it so that the township will not fund, support, or collaborate with ICE. Let's support our neighbors. Immigrants, nativeorn, everyone should be free. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Martin Bosland. I live uh 126 Essex Avenue here, Montlair. And I've lived there since uh uh 1990 and been in Montlair since 1985. I'm an immigrant and uh I'm a prouder immigrant. This all immigrants should be proud of themselves because they bring stuff to this country. Uh that is important. I want to add my voice to saying no to more or any surveillance in this town.

And I want to add my voice to urge you to adopt the Montlair Trust Act to put some real teeth in the immigrant trust act that you all belatedly perhaps uh adopted a little while ago. And this is all in the context of the incredible violence that we witness every day on television, newspapers and so on online of the federal government in this country and that perpetrates into this very town. Montlair Sundays protest every Sunday against what is going on with ICE and and and other things in uh in this country. And on February 1st, there was a large gathering at the intersection of uh Church Bloomfield and Fullerton. And a person who didn't agree with that clearly uttering uh insulting comments punched my wife in her face and a another person next to her also. She was slightly injured thankfully not badly. We file it filed a police report and I hope that will have some ramification but it's pos impossible to hold hold people accountable if there is no presence of law enforcement. So I'm urging you to consider providing presence of police uh at these gatherings to really push down on on violence of people who don't agree with people that are expressing their first amendment rights.

Thank you.

Thank you. Sarah Avery. I live on uh Irving Street in the fourth ward. Uh with respect to the resolution appointing a municipal housing liaison, uh councelor Anderson, you misspoke. This is not new. It was in the code already. It's just that Monontlair does not comply with its own code. And if you read my challenge of Monontlair's housing element and fair share plan, you would be aware of all the different ways that Monontlair does not even comply with its own code. With respect to Homecore, uh Carla's lease was up on September 30th, 2025, and it did not get renewed because Homecore had deducted charges from her security deposit. And when she questioned how they dispersed her security deposit, they refused to tell her uh and refused to accept her rent payments. You know, Homecore allows their properties to deteriorate. They're like a slum lord, uh in my opinion. uh they also do not pay their real estate taxes and multiple properties, if I could find my sheet, multiple properties uh have tax leans and the special charges on those tax

leans I checked today are up to over $200,000. All right, that's what I've got for Homecore. Uh quickly as far as the presentation, the financial presentation on the redeveloper project at the last meeting, I have written up a verbatim synopsis of the presentation. Anybody in town, in the room, around the world can read that synopsis uh at monlair progressive orcrupt.com. The post is called synopsis of presentation on redeveloper project. And lastly, as far as whether or not a pilot should be granted to the Lacawana Plaza owner uh investor, pilots are a subsidy, right? It's a subsidy. I have prepared an analysis of two South Willow uh which you can read about since I only have 16 seconds left Monontlair progressive orcrupt.com there is a post on the page progressive orcrupt down on the lower right called pilots are subsidies Brian Stler just very quickly you know he has been the beneficiary of most of these financial subsidies and um in fact the taxes if he had paid on two South Willow for 22 23 and 24 if he had paid the taxes as assessed it would have been $1.7 million more than the pilot plus he made $20 million when he sold the building that was a 25%.

So if anybody needs to understand about pilots, they're not complicated. They're just subsidies. Thank you. Next guest, please.

Hello. Um, my name is Rita Doo. I'm a student at Montlair State and I work in Montlair. And I just also want to express my support for the Montlair Trust Act. I was here when you guys were looking at the resolution support of the ITA. And since that package failed to pass at a state level, it's up to municipalities to kind of like make up the SL like make up where the state uh failed. And so I think um it's a no-brainer since you all voted for the resolution in support of the ITA that the Montlair Trust Act should go through. I also think the um kind of increase in surveillance measures raises some serious privacy concerns. Um so I would urge you to kind of reconsider. Um and then a third thing is I rely on the bus to get around. Um I don't drive and many times over the past few weeks I've been um at a bus at like various bus stops in Montlair where there's no street access at all. So I have to kind of stand in a lane of oncoming traffic to like hail and board a bus. And I think that's really dangerous. So like I think if like in snow removal um in the snow removal process if like bus stops could be a bigger priority that would be great because I mean it's it's been pretty bad. So um thank you.

Thank you. Next guest, please. Best steps. Priority. Priority. Hello. Hey,

Greg Pacin, 97 Pine Street. Uh, it's good to speak last because so many things I wanted to say have been said so well. Um, I'm here to support the Montlair Trust Act. I'm slightly aggravated, I guess, as a Montlair resident. feel like we should be in front of these things and I think we're always behind. Uh other towns pass and make statements about um supporting migrants and immigrants and we seem to be dragging our feet on that. I hope we can move forward on that quickly. Um the other thing I wanted to talk about was the uh traffic cameras and I don't know if they're flock or what they are. Um I have the same concerns about security uh and surveillance. Um, even if the people who have the cameras tell you that this information cannot be used, we've seen it is used. We see ICE officers with phones scanning people's faces. We see people being picked up on camera and it just gives this Orwellian big brother feel in town where at every moment uh we're being followed. But I think on the another thing and something that really bothered me at the last meeting, I did not know this was going to be discussed and I saw at the last meeting that there was a discussion about encouraging the state to support um the traffic cameras. It really bothered me that we look towards revenue as part of this because if we want traffic safety, we should be discouraging and it seems like we'd be encouraging uh people to violate because we want to make money off it. If we're saying people are going to break the rules, let's make money. Let's capitalize on it. That's the wrong way to look at it. And I really worry about the accuracy of these cameras. You know, somebody myself, a working-class person, so many other folks here, you could drive around, not know, and come back one month later, get $400 in tickets of lights you supposedly went through, have no time to c to challenge these. How would you challenge a machine? I mean, it's just at any time. I think if anybody was followed around by a camera

all day, we'd probably make multiple violations without understanding. Um so I also worry about that sort of mentality that we should be looking at these nickel and dime sin type taxes as revenue. Uh if we want to increase safety we should create safety by changing the structure of putting new lights like we have or changing the way intersections are. So please don't look at things like this as revenue because it hits the poorest folks and um the surveillance hits the most um the most affected by ICE. So, please uh support the Montlair Trust Act and please no on the surveillance cameras. Thank you. Thank you.

Are there any other members of the public who wish to be heard?

Hi. Uh I'm Mara. I'm a Monontlair resident. Mr. Max, I'm here today to thank you. And now I found out it's your birthday, so I'm here to wish you a happy birthday, too. Um, I read the fire department memo and that is brilliant and long overdue and thank you so much. That is excellent. Um, Mr. The Max is proposing changing a new plan of fire department staffing that takes the fire department to a 70 member staffing plan which I'm sure some people come here and they scream bloody murder and say it's not enough but Englewood has 55. Regroup has 50. Maplewood and South Orange together in their merge fire department have 72. Melbourne has 46. Nutley has 42. Harrison only 32. Morristown 35. Cran for 28, Summit 32, and Westfield 30 will do just fine with 70. None of those towns are dangerous. When folks come here talking about safety with the fire department, they're talking about jobs. They're not talking about safety. If they were concerned about safety, they would be asking for ambulances, not for fire department that does not provide emergency medical transportation. Right? And if we can see a fire department as a jobs program because that's what it is, then it makes so much sense to change to a mostly career model where we have an auxiliary component which Mr. Max markets is requiring now because the last time I saw the residency of Monontlair firefighters, more than half were from towns with all volunteer fire departments. Monontlair is not entirely rich. There are a lot of people in this town for whom a job like a fire department job would be life-changing. So there is no

reason for us to be making the jobs available to people who don't even pay their firefighters, right? We pay ours, let's keep them here. So with a mostly career model and a volunteer component, if you support Mr. marks in this. You could make it exclusive for Monontlair residents or maybe Monontlair residents or children of residents and graduates of Monontlair High School. Whatever you think would be necessary to include both Monontlair residents and people who might have been displaced from Monontlair and let's make sure that we all understand the fire department is the jobs program. we'll do just fine with all volunteer fire department and since we're maintaining a fire jobs program let's make it a jobs program for our community right um lastly if I have a couple seconds uh Mr. Max is also calling for automatic automatic aid agreements which basically multiplies the capacity of our fire department and in the case of South Orange and Maplewood led them to merging their departments which was a lot more efficient than having each their own. Thanks.

Thank you. Well, good evening, Williams, 23 Cedar Avenue. And I always like to save the last the best there. The best of the last at this point. Okay. But I just would like to uh really uh one, thank you for all the hard work you do. Uh there's a lot of tough decisions this guy has to really make. Uh we're moving into a new year 2026 and I really would like to see the uh appointments to the uh civil rights commission, the parks and recreation committee, the housing commission and the planning board move to the top of the next consent agenda for the last couple of months. I mean they're at the bottom and then we pull them. So, I think, you know, I know you have a lot to do and I'm being respectful, but let's move it up to the top of the consent agenda because if you continue to put it at the bottom and then for some reason uh put them on hold, you're never going to really address those uh reappointments. So, just pleading with you to uh you've got a lot of people that are interested in being volunteers. I've spoken to some of them and uh they're wondering why things aren't being done uh in a timely manner. We have got some reappoints. I'm not not beating up for that, but I think that it would show uh respect for people that are trying to volunteer uh some consideration. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other members of the public? No. Okay. Um I'd like to make a motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? Wait, wait. Mayor, could we make an announcement? Yeah. Can we just remind people of the meetings that we're having coming up?

Yes. And like Yes. In like 2 minutes each. It's like quarter 9. I think it'd be really great um since we really don't have anything we have to do if we can give Mr. Markx his birthday and let him do that. So, can we keep our comments to two minutes and then go? Thank you. Um counselor Uh, good evening everyone. I just want to I just want to address something with the traffic enforcement cameras, the support of them. So, I'm not for surveillance really. I'm I'm not a social media user and things of that nature and I my privacy is very important to me and and so is everyone else's. So I just want to assure folks that when we're talking about when something is spoken about in terms of traffic enforcement, it's purely for that. It's not for revenue raising because if you look at the when a ticket is issued, the municipality gets very little of that money. The state gets most of it and then the municipal court gets a good portion of it. So it's not a good revenue source. So, um I I know that folks are putting online that it's, you know, penny pinching and stuff like that. It has nothing to do with that. What it has to do entirely is safety. I heard somebody say that they take a bus. If you look on a lot of these buses, you have cameras on there and it's for safety of the driver who sometimes gets attacked. It's for safety of other people, you know. So, I totally get, you know, everything that's going on in terms of surveillance and and everything like that, but on one hand, if you you trust trust us to push for the Monontlair Trust Act, as it's being called, where we're not cooperating with federal agencies, which

we've already agreed not to uh cooperate with federal agencies in in support of the Trust Act, the the other hand, you know, So, I don't think you you can say also, hey, we'll we'll sign this trust resolution, but u we're going to share surveillance uh footage. They they don't they're they're complete opposites. So, I I just want to put that out there. It's purely for safety. If any of you have walked around the town or run around the town like I have, you have seen that people are driving at increased speeds and things of that nature. We have crossing guards getting hit and things that nature. There's a couple of different ways we can deal with that. We can hire more cops and put them at every single corner, but then no one can afford to live here, right? So, you have to you have to be a little bit cost effective and that's the reason behind this.

All right. Thank you, Council Birmingham. Um, yeah. Before we adjourned, I just wanted to remind people that here in this room on Thursday, we're going the finance committee is going to do a little bit of um an overview of the upcoming budget. We are not introducing the budget, but we're going to talk about some of the issues Montlair is facing. That's Thursday. And then I know it's the 17th that there's the facility. Yeah. 17th facility and infrastructure committee is doing another um infrastructure overview and soliciting input. That's at the firehouse. Is that true? And then the pilot uh the the Lacawana Plaza project is being discussed. What is the date on that one?

Same date. at five o'clock. Okay. Five o'clocks at at the firehouse. Okay. So, that's a double header. And and tomorrow night. Oh, tomorrow night. Um I will be having a a W one community meeting. So, if nobody got to yell at me tonight, come there tomorrow. And I would just say it's going to be videotaped though, which we have to do. Okay. There's been a a movement for adjournment. There was a second. Madame clerk, please call the role. Mayor Anderson. Yes. Yeah. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. No.

Councelor Harrison. No. Uh, councelor Toller absent. Uh, councelor Williams. No. And Mayor Baskerville? Yes.

The motion is defeated. Okay, just a couple things. On the 17th, just to make this clear, there'll be two meetings at the firehouse. 5 to 7 discussing the pilot financial agreement. 7 to 9 discussing new new or renovated municipal buildings, police headquarters, 10 both. It'll be a fun evening for all. Um the second um I'm hoping members of the council will look at the Montlair Trust Act so we can move on that quickly and to respond to councelor Williams. The problem with even if Montlair is totally obedient, that would be statewide legislation and there will certainly be towns in the state that will fully cooperate with ICE. And I based on the articles I've been reading, there's no assurance that Monontlair would have the ability to keep the data from the cameras even if we don't cooperate that ICE would not be able to access it. And I remain opposed to doing that and authorize having the state authorize that statewide.

Thank you very much. I'd like to adjourn. Second. All in favor? I oppose. Abstain. You all say you want to leave and then you know