City Council - workshop

Oh wait. Okay.

Mayor, I'd like to close to order the work session meeting of the Enwood Park Mayor and Council for September 3rd, 2026 at 7 o'clock p.m. On roll call, we have council members Fasolo.

Here.

Oswald.

Here.

Sampson. Present. Sheridan.

Here.

Choisy. Here. Council President Pellegrin.

Here.

Mayor Colletti. Here. We have a quorum.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our action meeting. We're not all going to get up and start dancing when I say action, but we have to get this done and then we will proceed with our regular meeting in the back room. So let's get started. Whereas Chapter 231 of the Public Laws of the State of New Jersey require at the commencement of every meeting a statement of compliance be read by the presiding officer. Now, therefore, be advised that the meeting requirements for this meeting have been met by publishing a special notice in the Record and Herald News and by posting such notice in the Office of the Borough Clerk as well as in public place within the Municipal Building. Also, by notifying interested citizens. Said notice was posted and transmitted on January 2nd, 2026 and published on January 8th, 2026.

Okay, we have 1 ordinance on 2nd reading resolution R dash 293 dash 26 introduce ordinance number 26 dash 20 on 2nd reading. Whereas the public notice has been given by the borough clerk that an ordinance entitled bond ordinance to appropriate an additional sum of 135,000 dollars. for the construction of a replacement salt shed at the Department of Public Works facility and buying for the Borough of Elmwood Park in the County of Bergen, New Jersey to make down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such additional appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes. An anticipation of the issuance of such bonds was introduced and passed at a meeting held on Thursday, August 20th, 2026. and that further consideration of this ordinance would be taken up at this meeting, and whereas all persons interested in said ordinance were given an opportunity to be heard concerning the same. Now, therefore, it be resolved by the Mayor and Council of the Borough of Elmwood Park that an ordinance entitled bond ordinance appropriate and additional sum of 135,000 dollars for the construction of a replacement salt shed at the Department of Public Works facility and buying for the borough of Elmwood Park in the county of Bergen, New Jersey to make a down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such additional appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds passed on final reading.

Mr. Fuller, now we have an update on this, the situation there with OSHA. Am I correct on that? They deemed it uninhabitable?

Well, we did receive a complaint that we had to, that they investigated. They completed their investigation. They had the construction official inspect it, and he deemed it to be hazardous and posted the sticker on there. So no one's allowed in until the process is completed with the new structure being erected.

Thank you, Mr. Feligno. May I have a motion to open to the public?

So moved. Second.

Anyone from the public here to comment on this alone? If not, I will close the public portion. May I have a motion to adopt the ordinance?

Actually, I just have one bit of discussion. I brought this up at the last meeting. This original bond ordinance for the $135,000 was passed in 2023. Prior to that, we passed the $700,000 to build a brand new salt shed. I would just like some clarification on the record as to why a bond appropriation from three years ago is necessary if we didn't know about this when we decided to knock the thing down and build a new one. We got the bid, so if they're already going to knock it down and build a new one, Why is this $135,000 from three years ago now necessary to add to the budget?

Mr. Floyd, do you have any opinion on that?

I don't have an opinion. So what I'll say this is I don't know why it didn't get done three years ago. But what I do know as of today, as of yesterday, when it was deemed after an investigation to be hazardous and uninhabitable, That's the information that we have to deal with today. I can't speak on before.

Again, the clarification is we agreed there was a bid and an agreement and we all voted on and it was passed that we would build a brand new salt shed and the bid was for $500,000. This $135,000 is a three-year-old appropriation. How do those match up? Did the bidder find out and then come back and say, no, actually it's actually $635,000. Why does the price have to change if we're not gonna, the original $135,000 must have been appropriated to fix something. If we're knocking the whole thing down and building a brand new one, why do we need to spend this $135,000?

Correct me if I'm wrong, that's the latest price for

This is from three years ago. This ordinance specifically, $135,000 approved by the council of 2023. So why does it now need to be added to a bid where the person said they could build this into the shed and they could knock down the old one for X price?

So I think you're intermixing two things. There is the, when the program or project was originally envisioned, The bond was issued at that point in time for whatever number of dollars, X number of dollars, based on the estimate of what the project would cost at that time. But the project didn't move forward at that point in time. The project was not bid out at that point in time. It was only bonded for the amount that was thought to cost. I don't know why it took three years before we move forward, but by time they move forward three years later, that is when the bid went out. And when the bid went out and the bidder came back, the only bid that was received by the borough was for the $135,000 more than had been estimated to be cost. So it wasn't bid out three years ago, and the cost changes that. The three years ago number was the estimate of what it would cost at that point in time. And presumably, because of the three year delay and because of the increased costs of materials, et cetera, the estimate was woefully short compared to what the bids actually came in. So there were two different things. The bond three years ago was based on an estimate. The bid was done this year, the bid came in higher than what was estimated three years ago, and that's where the $135,000 is now needed to bring the estimated amount up to the actual amount of what the bidder came in and offered the project for.

So on the record, the bid is now, the only person that bid, the only bidder has now come in and We are now going to put out, what, $750,000 for the salt shed that we were told was $400,000 two months ago. And we're not talking about the safety. The shed's gone. It's going to be redone. This is not a safety thing. This is an accounting issue that was brought up in our audit that cited this as an issue. And now this is coming to fruition. We passed a budget. We told these people out there, your taxes are only going up 18% or whatever. And now this three-year-old $135,000 appropriation is going to be added on to what we had already agreed to spend when the bidder came in and that bond was put before. So in that two months, it's gone from $400,000 to $750,000. And we've only accepted that one-month period of taking a bid. I just want to know. If this $135,000, why was it not included when that bidder put in the bid for the $400,000? Because that's not how it works.

The bidder didn't put in for the $400,000. We as a borough had to estimate what this project was going to cost three years ago when they did it. That was the number that was operated off of for three years. Then the bid actually went out. Anyone could have submitted a bid to do the project. In this instance, there was only one bidder that did respond. And the number that came in was the $135,000 more than what had been estimated three years earlier.

I have a question. First of all, I have a question. First of all, it's a safety hazard. We established that part. But where are you seeing 780? I'm seeing 618.

I, at the last meeting, I had asked what now is the total cost going to be of this project? And I said we had agreed to an almost, you know, $600,000, you know, salt shed. But what is the salt shed going to cost? I mean, maybe I don't have that number correct. What, at the end of the day, with this $135,000 and whatever bid we agreed to at the last meeting, what is the final cost? cost going to be to the Borough of Elmo Park for this salt shed, which has to be redone. I agree it's a safety issue. I'm not contesting that. I'm just asking about the accounting of it.

Mayor, may I, because now I'm very confused with all the different dollar amounts that are going out. Do I understand correctly that three years ago it was estimated to be $515,000? Is that correct based on the way this ordinance reads? And then this is an additional 135, which would bring us to 650,000. So is the final bid 650?

So I can interject because I have it in front of me. So the award of the bid was to Colinelli Brothers Incorporated. It was resolution R268-26, which I believe passed during the August 20, 2026 meeting. And the amount of the bid was $596,150.

So that's the bottom line. So coming to my point, where is 780 fitting into this?

So can I just make this simple? Sure, go ahead. Thank you. I think that, with all due respect, Councilman, I think that the Councilman is including engineering fees and design and all that. So that those engineering fees, if you say that $595,000, let's say $600,000 and all that said and done, Then you have the design, the planning, all that. That's going to bring you up to close to $700,000 for the salt shed. My opinion, and I'm glad that a day before the vote we have a declaration that it's a safety hazard. That wasn't a debate. The debate wasn't that it was a safety hazard. I think that we needed to do our due diligence and maybe re-scope change the scope of the project to bring it down to what our budget maybe could have been. it's not a hard thing to do i don't think it would have taken us six another six months to do um again it's just a difference of opinion on the strategy and the route that we took to get here um and that's uh my opinion i think that's where the councilman if i could speak for you councilman i think that's what um he was trying to get at well councilman the problem with that is six months from now probably be another thirty forty thousand dollars If you change the scope of the project. Change the scope? We could have talked about it. We've been sitting on this project for three years. And now it's considered condemned, right? That we condemned the building? Yeah. Now it's condemned, the day before the vote. But... That's just my opinion. I mean, my opinion is that we could have changed the scope of the project, get it down to maybe $500,000, maybe $450,000 to save the taxpayers some money, but we're three years too late.

See, that's the problem. What we're doing here is delaying it, delaying it, and delaying it, and eventually it's escalating in price. So now it's time to get off the potty.

We have not delayed anything. This vote passed because it came now to the council. You accepted the one bid you got. And now you're passing it. This wasn't delayed by us talking about the price of the project. This is delayed because for some reason we didn't get to it for three years.

Exactly. Now it's time to get off the pot and let's do it. I'm glad we got off the pot. Anybody else have anything to say?

If not, call the roll, please. I have a motion by Council President Pellegrin. I need a second. Second by Councilwoman Sheridan. On roll call, we have Councilmembers Fasolo?

No.

Oswald?

No.

Sampson? Yes. Sheridan? Yes. Troisi? Yes. Council President Pellegrin?

Yes.

Motion carries. At this time, we have one stand-alone resolution. Through you, Mayor, I would like to read it by title only. It's a resolution to refund overpayments.

May I have a motion on the resolution? So moved. Any discussion?

Call the roll, please. First by Council President Pellegrin, second by Councilman Oswald. I recall we have Council Members Fusillo. Yes. Sorry. Oswald? Yes. Sampson? Yes. Sheridan? Yes. Joyce? Yes. Council President Pellegrin? Yes. Motion carries. At this time, we will conclude the remainder of our work session meeting in the caucus room where the public is welcome to join us, and it will switch from video to audio recording. Thank you. Okay, I would like to reestablish a quorum for the Edmonton Park work session of September 3rd, 2026. On roll call, we still have Council Members Fusillo.

Here.

Oswald. Here. Samson. Present. Sheridan. Here. Choisey. Here. Council President Pellegrin. Here. Mayor Coletti. Here. We have reestablished a quorum.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, what we do at our work meetings, we allow the public hearing to start off the meeting. Is there anyone from the public that would like to speak on any item whatsoever? Eleanor. Yeah, we'll also have it at the end. Anyone care to speak now?

with that i'll close the public portion okay at this time we have item number one um sorry oh okay insurance presentations uh you want to explain it yeah yeah

So we have four brokers here to talk to the council about insurance premiums and shopping for different plans, less expensive plans. So we have four that put in RFPs, and they're here. Talk to the attorney. It's not going to be a closed session today. It's a public discussion. But in fairness to everyone, we're going to bring them in one at a time and then ask the other ones to remain outside.

Just for the education of the audience, an endless pursuit trying to bring down the costs and this is our way of seeing if there's anything available by some good old competition between insurance companies so

Chief, can I ask a quick question? What's the fastest possible way we could implement a change? If we decided on a change, whenabouts would it take effect?

So we already ordered our claims history, which is required for whomever you appoint to shop to other insurance companies. It hasn't come in yet. They have 60 days to produce it, the state. We're not close to that yet. Usually it comes sooner than that, but it's not here yet. And whoever gets appointed will get that claims history from the portal. And then enrollment, what happens if we miss that?

That's where I'm getting at. So typically, some plans will let you adjust it. I don't know that state health will allow you to. If you can leave mid-cycle, I'd have to look into that. But I think the intent would be for you to make a selection REGULAR MEETING LATER THIS MONTH, WHICH WOULD THEN LET THEM GET THE BALL ROLLING AS SOON AS THE CLAIMS HISTORY COMES IN. BUT IT WILL TAKE THEM TIME TO, WHOEVER YOU SELECT, SHOP IT OUT AND EVALUATE DIFFERENT OPTIONS IF THEY'RE READY. THANK YOU.

OKAY, MOVING ALONG.

ALLEN ASSOCIATES, COME BACK. YOU'RE UP.

I GUESS OVER THERE, NO?

Welcome, gentlemen. Thank you very much for having us.

we just to keep it fair we're gonna allow each different individuals the 10-minute rule and keeping track of that would be our attorney so please convince your presentation well mr. Feligno is handing out is this an overview on Allen Associates and

I've been in business for over 65 years, privately held by one family. We have over 100 public sector districts between schools and towns. We've been doing this for a long time. I know in the RFP you want to know certain things that what we can do and what would be the process. I'm going to hand that over to Rick right now, Rick Alessandrini, my partner. Hey, Rick.

Again, thank you for letting us present here. We really do appreciate it. You can let it go.

He doesn't even know what he's doing.

Anyway, the process that you guys, you're with the state health benefits right now. Obviously, you've probably gone through this process in the past of requesting your claims, getting your claims, and going to the market. So how, you know, I don't know if you put in for your claims yet. Okay, you did. They're taking a long time because many, many groups are putting in for their claims because the increase is going to be so high as of January. So everyone's trying to avoid the high increase. A lot of people are trying to get their claims. Anyway, I would expect to wait almost four weeks or more to get your claim. So I don't know when you put the claims in, but that's how long it typically takes. And it all starts with the claims. Once you get the claim information and you distribute it to a broker that you decide, They can quickly evaluate to see if you have a shot at getting out of the state. It all depends on your claims experience. If your claims experience is favorable or somewhat favorable, there's a, you know, they would shop the marketplace which would include every private carrier out there as well as health insurance funds. They're really, you're only two options at this point. If somebody wants to suggest self-funding to you, I would take. I would run. A group of your size, you're about 150 to 200 employees. Is that correct? Self-funding is not for a group of your size. You would have to be at least 500 employees to even start to consider self-funding on your own. Now, health insurance fund is self-funded, but you're with a lot of other groups. So the size becomes a non-issue and you're more credible. So ultimately, the best place for you to be would be with a health insurance fund. And there's several of them in the state of New Jersey to choose from, which is nice. And independent carriers, nice as well. But again, you're going to be carried on your own experience. So if you have a bad first year, you could be getting a very high renewal the second year out. And a group really doesn't want to switch year to year to year. It's not good for the employees. It's not good for the group. So ultimately, if we were to be chosen, we would gather all the information from you and we would shop the entire market. We would present the results so you can have a full look at everything that came back and make a firm decision on what makes sense. We would give a recommendation as well based on what we received back, but what we received back is going to be based on your claims experience. There's not a magic wand out there. If your claims experience is not favorable, There's not much that can be done as far as leaving the state. That being said, broker services, all brokers have access to all the same markets. So I have access to everybody that they have out there and they have access to everything that I have. The difference between brokers that really should be looked at is service. Whoever's going to give you the best, because you're paying the broker either way, so you might as well get the best service for it. We can pretty much all do the same thing. We're all going to grab your information We should be doing the same thing and putting it out to market and showing you the results. That's pretty standard. We should all be doing that. We shouldn't be influencing one over the other. We should show you all the results so you guys can see what comes back. And again, we can all do that the same way. The difference, the differentiating factors between brokers would really be the type of service that you're going to get. We've been in business since 1960. Everybody can hear me?

Yeah, yeah.

Sorry. I'm hearing like an echo. I wasn't sure. Yeah, we're family-owned. We have a dedicated 800 number for our groups, not just for the administration to call, but the members themselves. Each member that's enrolled in the health care plan can call that number and get service. Whether it's a simple question, whether they lost an ID card, whether they have a claim issue, whatever the situation is, they can call us and we will work with them and work with the carrier to resolve the issue. The alternative is the member has to call the carrier or the health insurance fund direct. And I don't know if anybody has ever had that experience, but you're pretty much going into some sort of electronic voicemail service, press one, press two, and really getting nowhere. So that level of benefit of service is something unique that we do that a lot of brokers don't do. They may say they will be there to help. What they usually mean by that is they're there to help the administration, the higher-ups, but not the members. We allow the members to call in as well. So that's kind of a big talking point, a differentiating point between the two.

So basically what you're saying is that all that are coming in here tonight basically It is what it is in terms of cost. What the advantage to your company would be would be the service.

That's correct.

Any questions while we are under the time limitation?

Mayor, can I add to that real quick? Education is a big factor. To come out to come out and educate your employees as a humongous factor whichever, if it comes favorable that you want to switch to another carrier or same carrier, different plans. Education is so important to educate your employees so they know what they're getting so they're not coming to you and pointing a finger. So we believe in service and education are two biggest things that have to be done because we all could do the same thing. There's no difference in what we all do. We all play in the same market.

Does your agency offer education? If you were selected, would you be available for sessions to talk to our employees and us?

Yes. As needed? Via Zoom, come here, whatever you need. And you have dedicated people from 9 to 5 every day, Monday through Friday.

And that telephone number that you're referring to?

Somebody picks up the phone.

Locally?

That's Vineland, New Jersey. And we have Saddlebrook, New Jersey.

We have four offices. I understand, but not overseas? No, no.

And the live body answers the phone. Yeah. We say within two to three rings, and we've tested that many times. Obviously, we can't test it now. It's after hours, but we've put it to the test during hours. It rings twice. We sweat a little, but by the third ring, somebody answers the phone.

Any other questions for these gentlemen?

What do you say is the approximate cost for a borough of our size to do this process, like from start to finish to, you know?

Well, there is no cost right now because this is what we do our due diligence for you if you're favorable or not. And then we come to you as a council and mayor, and then we say, okay, what's the next step? We like to talk to the heads of the union. Then they have to talk to their people and see what they want to do and switch over. So we educate, educate, educate, and then we come out and enroll. So that's... Yeah, yeah.

I'm sorry. The first step of the process would be going to the marketplace, bringing you back the results. If something's selected and it becomes effective as of January 1st, which would be the goal, then there would be a standard commission paid by the carrier on your behalf to us. Without seeing the numbers, it's hard to... It's usually a percentage. And we would disclose all of that at the time when it was appropriate.

So a minute 30 seconds left.

OK. Another big thing to consider, we talked about service. A piece of the service would be implementation if you get something that's considered. Like say we want to make a transition. Well, having a transition plan in place is very important, and we've transitioned over 100 groups out of the state health benefits program. We did about 20 this year alone. We know the process very well. We hold your hand through the entire process. We come up, we do educational meetings, as John mentioned, to all the unions to talk about equal to or better than benefits. Tell the individuals if you have any concerns, call us ahead of time. If you have a pre-existing condition, if you have anything at all, a health condition, talk to us privately because of HIPAA and everything else, and we'll make sure that you transition appropriately with the transition of care without missing a step. So all of that's kind of important. Anybody can get the rates, like I mentioned before. Who's going to transition you accordingly and safely and quickly the right way? And who's going to service it after the transition? They're the two main differentiating features between brokers.

All right, gentlemen. Thank you. I want to thank you very much for your presentation. Sorry we had to condense it and keep it. That's okay. Sometimes it's better that way, right? Yeah, yeah, no, it's great. You get it? get more quality, less time.

If you have any questions afterwards, please feel free just to reach out.

We will. Have a good weekend. Thank you.

Before we do, I have a question.

so i read a report online yesterday that the governor is freezing the increase for next year okay so yeah i i don't know that we know the details of it yet because presumably someone is going to eat the cost i don't know if that's interpreted to mean the employees are not going to see the increase and the employers still will or that the state somehow found money that it's going to eat all the costs so i think it's still somewhat unclear hopefully before you guys make the decision next there'll be a little more

So she has to talk to the unions.

May I just make a reminder that the governor said she was going to freeze utility costs also.

This is supposed to be a politics thing. It's not a politics thing, it's facts.

Guys, let's get through this process.

It's a serious question. You're bringing up the utility costs.

Yeah, then we can... you know, we can elaborate on the whole situation.

I think it won't necessarily change things in the immediate term because you're still going to shop them out, and you'll just, assuming that the costs aren't going to increase to you at the percentages that were talked about, if that is implemented, that means that we'd be comparing more favorable state health to, you know, Aetna and the other private options.

Okay, thank you.

The governor's saying that they're going to freeze the... She froze it, but now we don't know where the freeze is going to...

She froze it, but now did she have the power to freeze it is what you're saying.

So what my understanding is, is that the... statewide unions, CWA, PBA, et cetera, had reached an agreement with them that they're going to implement a committee of constituents to try, starting October 1st, to try to reduce costs. And part of that process will include a freeze of the increase for one year, but I haven't seen it well-defined exactly what that means. Are they talking about the increase that employees were going to see, which potentially could mean that you're now going to eat more of that cost as a municipality, That wouldn't really help the taxpayer as much. So I hope that's not the case. My hope is that that means the state is stepping in and filling the difference for the year. But I don't know the details of it yet, other than it's coming October 1st.

Yeah, we're getting some movement on the top end is where it counts.

They definitely recognize that there's an issue. Whether they're going to be able to fix it or not, I can't speak to that.

Find out the root of the problem and go at it. And don't come up for air until it's resolved. There's no way they're going to stop it, but if they can freeze the escalation of the costs each and every year and then start reducing it slowly, that would probably be practical.

They're sitting at the table and trying to discuss something to alleviate it.

I mean, it's about time. It's about time. That's where the problem lies with the state legislators.

They waited too long.

Yeah. You've got to talk to those guys when you see them and tell them. One out of 400. One out of 400. Shape up or ship out.

So the way the press release is word, at least the beginning is, is Governor Mikey Sherrill and 17 unions representing state employees today announced an agreement that waives increases in state employees' health benefits contribution rates. in 2027 and launches a broader state-led effort to make the state health benefits program more sustainable. So I'm not sure whether that benefit trickles down to Elmwood Park or if it's only at the state level or if it's only the employee contributions, which would just mean the state is eating more. But again, if it's not for local employers, that doesn't help you at all.

To his point, what took so long, 80% in three years, the health insurance went up, 80%. So if you had a million-dollar tag, now it's close to $2 million.

Way too long. Speaking of waiting too long, I think there's some people in the hallway.

Shall we move along? Yes, sir.

No, I would have said huddle.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.

Park, New Jersey. I have the pleasure and the honor of leading a wonderful group of insurance professionals.

We have a time limit set at 10 minutes. So you have to condense everything if you can and get your points across. We'll be listening.

Thank you. So I was going to introduce the group and then give you the floor. So we've been in business for 30 years. honored, really delighted to be here with you tonight. This is what we do. We strictly work with public sector accounts. We've got clients from the largest city in the state to boroughs and hamlets up and down the state. We're here tonight to present on the health benefits broker record. Sitting to my right is our senior vice president, Raquel Cagley. I'll let her tell you a little bit about herself and what makes us different and why you should consider making Alamo your next broker.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. As Louis mentioned, my name is Raquel Cagley.

Could you get in the mic a little more? Sure, absolutely. Now we can hear you.

Thank you. As Liz mentioned, my name is Raquel Cagley. I'm the Senior Vice President for the Employee Benefits Division, and I've been with Alamo now going on 16 years. Prior to that, I was on the carrier side. I was with Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey for 15 years. So suffice to say that I've been doing this for a very long time. How long? Almost 30 years.

Ooh, come on. I thought that you were, your age was 30.

Oh, thank you. Thank you, Mayor. But we do this day in and day out. And as Liz mentioned, we focus exclusively on public sector clients. So this is our specialty. And we've been extremely successful in delivering results to our clients. Go ahead.

So just to move it along, we bought you a handout for you to browse on your own. Primarily for Elmwood Park, you're in the state health benefit plan. The plan is spiraling out of control. For the second year in a row, we're seeing excess of 30% rate increases.

Actually, three years in a row.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. And it's something I want to say we watch very closely, as you do as well. We bought you a value proposition. We call this our putting our money where our mouth is. We do not intend to charge you a penny unless we're successful in removing you from the state. As evidence to our ability to do so, we've listed 10 entities that we have successfully exited from the state since last August alone. The ability to do so is going to depend heavily on Elmwood Park's history. The state is going to give us a report. It's only a three-page report. There's very little transparency, very little detail. I served, I was the only insurance broker, modesty aside, I'll say I was the only insurance broker on this new governor's transition team dedicated to fixing the state health benefit plan. I was not involved in the governor's race. I've never met the governor. I thought Jack was a great guy, and I also thought that having a female governor who was a fighter pilot was pretty cool. Why I was selected, I don't know. I was surprised to get the call, but I enjoyed working on the transition committee. But it wasn't an incredibly satisfying experience in that there's really no fix, Mayor, until they create greater transparency. And that was the point that I was making. They're going to give us a number. That number is called the loss ratio. It's an index. that says how many dollars you put in divided by how many claims dollars they say they paid out. It's also going to have a list of how many high level claimants over $50,000. It's de-identified and it doesn't really say much because anybody can have a $50,000 claim here. Raquel, you want to share a little bit about how we approach? putting a match to our client's carrier match, disruption, how we handle our transitions, our enrollments, et cetera?

So the first thing we actually try to do is, provided that the report that Lewis speaking about is favorable, we begin to scour the market in order to identify a carrier that can provide proposals that will be equal to or better because that's the first thing we do is always honor the CBA agreements and ensure the benefits are equal to or better. And then we try to identify not only the carrier but also a solution that's going to provide each employer with the most affordable solution with minimal disruption. We've been extremely successful partnering with not only placing clients directly with Horizon or Aetna, but also looking at the JHIFs, the Joint Insurance Health Insurance Funds that are out there as well because sometimes we do find that they are a good match. Exclusively with one in particular last year which partnered with Horizon who leased their network for the first time in over 30 years. So meaning that if it was a good match, employers can transition to the joint insurance HIF, New Jersey Solutions HIF, and they would have Horizon as the network, which most people find extremely favorable because now you don't have to worry about any provider or facility disruptions.

So carrier or health insurance fund, there's the J HIF that Raquel shared, and there's also various, there's about nine other HIFs in the state that we'll solicit on your behalf. If we're blessed, we'll be out of the state in a more sustainable solution. Then we begin looking ahead at the next year and the year after that so that the recommendations that we make are well in advance. In the second year, we're going to have greater reporting so that will give us a lot more information to do better analytics and better predicting what your cost should be and you roughly have 150 employees. Yeah. So you're like they're at the borderline. The business is evolving historically at 300 employees. You're viable or credible, we say, for self-insurance or partially self-insured or level funded. My point is that we'll continuously be giving you alternatives that are viable and that they're innovative.

In terms of cost savings, what are we talking about?

I mean, so you all are, you know, the, they say town fathers, right? But what about the girls? Town fathers and mothers, is that how you would say?

Eh, all the guards.

Okay, well, you're the bosses, right? So our proposition is... We've been called some other strange things also, very strange things. Well, so let me take a minute to thank you for your service, because... I can't imagine that it is an easy job, not every day. I want to say it's not an easy job and some days I imagine are worse than others, but you're all here, you're all volunteers and you should be commended. Thank you very, very much for your service.

You have about two minutes left.

Okay. So, portability is subjective. We could put a program that's a million dollars more affordable. If you feel that that is substantial and that you want to make the move, then we go to work. It's at your discretion. Again, we're putting our money where our mouth is and we're going to try and create opportunities that are compelling. that are least disruptive, we're going to worry about things like morale, we're going to do education and we're going to be here on the ground. We're not the biggest broker but we're specialists in this space and we are concierge, white glove, customer service.

We consider once we're, if we're fortunate enough to actually be assigned as your broker of record, We are not brokerage firms that are a la carte, meaning that, you know, they provide a service, but then anything additional is additional fees. That's not how we operate. Additionally, we really pride ourselves, as Lou mentioned, in providing white glove concierge service. So we have our 1-800 number. We have emails where employees can reach us. We consider ourselves an extension to your HR department so that we kind of pick up the load from them and assist them and we're there to help employees every step of the way.

Any questions from our council? or your customer service, excuse me, that 800 number you're talking about, is that answered locally here in New Jersey?

Right by our team, right here in Secaucus, New Jersey. What are the hours?

Well, 9 to 5, but you'll have Raquel and my cell number that you can call 24-7. That help desk is amazing. They track the call from the minute it comes in and they... We have a log, so we keep track of everything because...

One of the things we do is we not only track it, we have a log on a monthly basis which we would provide to the HR department because we identify if there's any trends developing. We implement proactive measures to ensure that they don't reoccur. So we're extremely active and hands-on with every single account that we're assigned to.

Thank you. We're at the 10-minute mark to wrap up.

I have a question. Where's your office at?

Our headquarters is in Secaucus, New Jersey.

Any other questions?

Yes, Mr. Mayor. I noticed that in your charts here, you have the projected savings. The one town, Kenilworth, is probably the closest one to us, and it says projected savings of $400,000. For example, I think ours went from 1.1 to 1.8. It was a ridiculous jump. That projected savings, though, how far out are you projecting those savings? First year. The first year. And you said also that every one that you brought over got equal to or better. Of those, about how many ballpark it were better and still saved the borough?

Great question, great question. We're trying to create affordability, right? So carrier by carrier, fund by fund, there will be amenities that slightly improve the plan designs. We're very careful about that because we don't necessarily want to raise the bar on equal to or better, right? Because if you want to make a move in a subsequent year, now we've got to match equal to or better at a higher level.

Okay. So the standard status quo is to just keep it equal.

Best, but there'll be, for example, a dental plan that I witnessed recently went from $1,000 a year maximum to $1,500 a year maximum. It was a throw-in, so we don't want to work away from something that's free.

And just the last one, as I'm sure all the people that are going to come before us are going to say, everything is the same. Marketplace is the same. You're not going to be able to go to X carrier and get typically a better deal than any other broker. So what is the thing that sets you apart most from all these other guys that are gonna come ask us for the same thing, promise the same thing, they're all gonna say, you know, we're gonna search it out, we're gonna look at your record and stuff, but what are you offering that's different than everybody else?

I rebuke that. Everybody's gonna get you the same price. No, absolutely not. We take deep dives into our data. And once we're able to, we're going to scrub your claims, and we're going to be looking for claims that are chronic, they'll be repeating, and therefore chargeable. And we're going to look for the acute cases that are not recurring, and we're not going to let you get charged for those. So, go ahead.

In addition to that, everybody's going to do their due diligence, but I think one of the things that has set us apart, as Lou alluded to, is the results that are delivered to our clients year after year. And in addition to that, the extra level of touch that we give each and every one of our clients. You call, we're there. We don't only see you during the renewal process, right? We implement wellness programs. We have educational programs. We're here year-round. to make sure that there's no surprises along the way. So we're already forecasting three months in advance come that renewal. So those are some of the things that truly distinguish us from the other big blockbuster.

And don't forget our mission statement. So we leave a philanthropic footprint in every community that we serve. Raquel earlier said we're not a la carte. Once we're engaged, you have all of our services. We're comprised of two divisions, risk management, or today we call it enterprise risk management, and employee benefits. Should you have a need for a third eye, an opinion, something's going on that you want our help with, that comes along. Delighted to be here with you guys. It's tough in 10 minutes, but... God bless you all again. Thank you for your service.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Have a great evening everyone.

Moving along there, Senator. That was Alamo, right?

We all know what happened at the Alamo.

Welcome, gentlemen. Unfortunately, we have many to listen to, so we're going to have a time of 10 minutes. I know that's a little short, but condense it and we'll get your point.

You guys can hear me, right? All right, all right. So it's good to be with everybody today. You guys are enjoying all these insurance presentations. It's the most exciting topic of your daily lives is insurance. So we'll try to make this fun. My name is Michael Crispy. I'm the president of Public Health Advisors. And I'm going to go through who we are, what we do, our value proposition, some of our success stories, and hopefully we'll get all that done in 10 minutes. So starting off, you guys can see on the first page of the slide who we are. We are a full-service benefits agency that really specializes in doing self-funded medical plans, pharmacy consulting, Medicare Advantage and retiree management, enrollment technology and benefit communication services, life and disability coverage, dental and vision, voluntary benefits and wellness program, and telemedicine. So basically, from point A to point B, everything that you need can be handled by us and our firm, and we want to make sure that the service is obviously well taken care of through every facet of the plants. We'll go to the next slide here. This is where we start off. This is us making everybody's job as easy as possible. So the number one thing that we say at our company is that we want less burden for anybody involved administratively. Half of the problem is when you're switching a plan or getting a new carrier or doing a new system, is there's burden there's work people don't want to do extra work under understandably so so we want to alleviate administrative burden and cut it by 90 we will take on everything that would be done in the front office administrative office from your perspective here. So we have so many people we talk to that are administrators, town managers, et cetera. And they almost do quasi HR functions. They're doing a lot of work. We do all of that. So we will migrate the plans and make it as painless as possible with zero hassle to your admin staff. And we're doing the work. How is that possible? Benefit communication services. Those are in-person meetings. Those are call center that we have set up for all the employees. We have employee support and HR support that we provide with our team and our account managers and employee education benefit counselors scheduled on site anytime, anywhere with any of the employees to meet with them and to explain their benefits so they don't ask questions to the front office. And so there's nothing that they don't understand. It's a very important piece. Now that all wraps around, next slide, a benefit administrative system. A benefit administrative system is where you put everything into one place, all your HR resources, all your employee self-service things. You can build it. We will build it. We will put all the plans on there. We will put documents on there. We will put claims forms on there. We will put everything you need onto the online platform so the employees can really own their own benefits. A lot of the times they don't. They are doing it. There's paper that we see in towns. They're using spreadsheets. It's a whole different thing from town to town. But we like to streamline it by delivering a online system which we will get them logged onto. We will get them set up with. We will get their password, their username, and everything like that. and we will help them get onto there so they can make their benefit elections. We will walk through them with the benefit elections and the system in person. We'll do it on call center. We'll do it any way they want to do it. But our main job is to have an online system to take all of the work and all of the burden off of the town administration. We don't want you guys doing any work for the administrative perspective. We don't want them doing any extra work because that really does become half the battle, especially with a lot of towns that are smaller. We integrate with all of our carriers, the insurance carriers that we work with, TPAs, payroll vendors. It's all done through the Ben Admin system. So we see that it alleviates 85 to 90 percent of the work that inevitably will fall on a BA or even a CFO or anybody in the front office. A lot of these things are alleviated when you set it up where the plan lives on the Ben Admin system. It's enrolled. It's integrated with carriers. It's integrated with the payroll vendor. We're managing that for the town at no charge. And it can also do other things that you see here at the bottom of the screen. So that is what we do to support. I want to start with that. What we do to support the ease of any type of change or anything that we want to implement because that's very important if you don't have a system to do it if you don't have technology if you're not educating the employees if you're not supporting the town administration changing plans becomes burdensome cumbersome and confusing we want to make sure that that is done seamlessly and that is my opinion the most important thing is if things aren't organized and people don't know what they're electing it turns into chaos even if it's the greatest plan in the world so that is who we are from a foundational standpoint to support the town administratively. Now I want to talk about health insurance. I want to talk about the actual nuts and bolts of what we do and how we save money and continue to provide plans that meet and exceed what is expected in the union requirements. So I wanted to highlight probably our greatest success story that I think is a record. I don't think anybody else has done it. We saved a town. in Morris County, Roxbury, New Jersey. We brought in Employee Navigator, which is the Ben Admin system to migrate them over. And we brought in Apti Health Solution. which Anthony Selma is a part of, and we'll speak a little bit to that. And we saved them $1.4 million off of their top line, $1.4 million in savings by reducing by 20% the reduction in total healthcare costs. We avoided the projected 36% increase on the state health plan renewal. not only did we do that but we met and exceeded the union requirements we met with all the unions we met with all the people and we were able to comply with the equal or better to then requirement and deliver a plan that i believe is the future of health insurance excuse me yes sir i like what you just said

Would that apply to Elmwood Park? Have you done your homework when referenced?

Yes. We've done our homework. We know how many employees Elmwood Park has. We know how many retirees Elmwood Park has. We know whatever information that's available publicly. And we believe they are a great fit. And we'll explain why in the subsequent slides.

Do you want to go out on a limb and give us a savings amount that

well let's we'll do the presentation and we can't i can't just say a number you know it's really customized based on the risk of the group um what we found and if you look at the state health benefits plan the way it's working is that you have everybody getting a uniform renewal which means you have healthier groups that are paying more than they should and in sicker groups that are paying less than they should so depending on the health of a particular population that's going to determine the amount of risk The other factor is also the state plan is extremely poorly managed. So what we did with Roxbury, they came off the state plan, is we were able to get them the Aetna network. We used an independent third-party TPA for full transparency. We gave them a fully transparent PBM. And then we identified specific instances where we said, okay, we can source this drug at a lower cost without disruption for the member. We can implement this clinical program that will lead to a better healthcare outcome for the member. And by enhancing the plan in that way, which is in the background, as opposed to changing the actual benefits grid itself, you know, the copays, the deductibles, that's in large part how we're driving a lot of the savings. So that's the core strategy. Roxbury is a local example of that. And then I've personally done this with municipalities, counties, school boards, even colleges across the country in 40 different states.

We've got about two minutes left. How many employees in Roxbury? Real quick, how many employees in Roxbury?

It's 158 enrolled, and then the total members is 408 total members.

Thank you. So if you go to the next slide here, in the interest of time, you see here that there are two ways in which health insurance works. There is the fully insured model, which I believe, if you look at here, this is the old way that people did things. Cell phone.

This is antiquated.

This is outdated.

I recognize that.

And this is what everybody used. And now you have the iPhone. And when this was changing to this, obviously people were saying, oh, I want to use my flip phone. This is the past and this is the future. So I have a question.

Why is the flip phone gray, like me, and then the smartphone is black like you, you black kid?

It's because it's sleek and young, right? So you're in sync. You're in sync there. So the future is this. Right now it all goes through the Bucas. It goes through Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, all the Cigna, whatever you have it. And they control everything. They control all the administrative services. They control the TPA, the PPO, the PBM. They control any cost containment strategies. It's all done at the insurance carrier level. Brokers make a lot of money from these insurance carriers and they've been doing it for a long time. So they don't want to change it. But the best way and the future way to do this is not to change anything with how things are being done, but to unbundle the model, which is the thing you see here on the right. That is you, the client, and us going to market to get each individual piece and bring it together for a plan. So instead of it all going to a funnel and a logjam of UnitedHealthcare, we now can pick the TPA. We can pick the pharmacy benefit manager. We can pick the stop-loss provider. We can pick the network. And then, most importantly here, we can use data to manage the plan and how each facet of the plan is performing. Anthony, hit the last slide clip. We're at the 10-minute mark. I'm speed racing here, right? I'm sorry. Summation. Yeah, go ahead.

So the key difference with us is you're going to have complete transparency into your health plan. That means all of the claims that would go through a health plan will be going through our system. The key aspect of this is that we're taking those claims, we're automatically repricing those in our system against potential opportunities for plan enhancements and savings. To give you a practical example, again, to return to Roxbury as a case study, they came on for January 1st this year. We identified an opportunity for what's called our alternative funding pharmacy program, which reduces costs on brand name drugs by an average of 50% with a zero out of pocket for the member, massive savings for the plan. We were able to implement that April 1st. We saw another opportunity, implemented another program, 6-1, and then also, again, for 9-1 as well. The impact of that is when you come around to renewal, we're seeing what's hitting the plan, we're adjusting the plan by enhancing the plan mid-year, and then that way you're able to push in or avoid massive renewals that you've seen with other models. So the proactive aspect of the plan is really the key to holding down costs without having to sacrifice on coverages for members.

And so people get afraid about self-funded and what that means, but the special sauce is if you're managing it like Anthony's talking about and we're talking about on this last slide here, if you're managing it throughout the year, which we will manage, managing what's happening in real time, you're proactive. You're not waiting for the end of the year to see the increase. We're seeing in real time what claimant, what they're claiming, what it is, where we can save money, where certain things are happening, where we could put somebody in one of these programs, of which we have 180 different cost containment programs, and we're able to manage the plan proactively. And on average, we see our groups have increases that are flat or what?

Yeah, it's on average over a period of four years, you look at 3% to 4% annual increases, which is 3% to 4% increase. Yeah, typical average increase. 3% to 4%.

Any questions from the council?

I have a question. Where are you guys located out of?

Our office is in Englewood Cliffs.

Any questions from the council?

Yes, Mr. Mayor, just general questions. This is a little different than the other proposals we've gotten because it's like the self-funded thing. So how would you be helping the borough transition from the current plan to the new one if we went with you guys?

So we have a couple of different teams that are assigned to you. I would call it one account team. An implementation manager, and as Mike mentioned, our partners are pre-integrated, so it's a very quick and seamless implementation, typically 60 days. You have a dedicated account team as well. That's three different people that are able to support you on an ongoing basis. The actual transition is pretty seamless, mainly because we're doing all the work for you. The other thing I want to say to the self-funded, because we didn't touch on this, is that there is the stop loss reinsurance, which is how we're able to offer you a defined or near defined risk. So, for example, if you have people always ask, oh, what do you do about a million dollar claimant? Well, part of the stop loss is by is to provide coverage on each individual member. So if you have a member with a million, two million, whatever, there's no limit on it. claim, that gets absorbed by the stop loss carrier. You don't have to front the money and there's no worry about, hey, is this plan going to cause a financial issue? So I did want to clarify that.

Yeah, actually that piggybacks into the next thing. So what does happen if we have an extreme loss? You're saying it's kind of like how my insurance, I have like a maximum out-of-pocket benefit. It doesn't matter how much injury, I fall off the roof, every bone in my body is broken, the maximum they can bill me is X. So you're saying that we will have that, but in the event that it's something God forbid something like that does happen. How would that then affect renewal for the next year? And you're saying there's a reinsurance. So you're saying that in this contract, if we went with you, there's 100% no risk to us going above what we're paying for. Even if it, a claim does come in, that takes it pretty far.

Yeah. So if you have a major, what happens is when you're looking at your renewal, the underwriters are looking at the risk going forward. So you can have a very large claim in a year and it doesn't necessarily carry into an increase in the next year. because the member may not be ongoing. It could be a one-time $500,000 claim. And so, okay, that's not really an issue. Now let's say it is ongoing. What we're going to be doing is, and this is where the data comes in, we'll be seeing what's the condition, what's the treatment path, are there drugs that can be sourced at a lower cost? Is there some other program we can identify for these members? We've even gone so far, we have a program called Compassionate Care, where there are people who are willing to donate to support people with rare and severe diseases. And that is able to fund taking a member, removing them onto a custom health plan, no cost to them. They don't have to pay premiums anymore, no out-of-pocket costs. And then when they are healthy again, we can move them back onto the plan. What that does is it takes the financial risk away from the town temporarily, paid for again by people who are donating their money. And then when that's resolved, you bring it back on. It's like it never happened. So there we can get extremely creative here again with the idea that we want to support the member and we want it to be Seamless and we want to be effective but the stop loss is is the back side? Yeah on the stop loss you have individual coverage, which is for each member. Then you have an aggregate coverage With the deductible like you mentioned and once you hit that deductible you get reimbursements based on I guess a one thing to the to the person to the end user is

it looks and feels, I know we're talking about, we're talking about the back engine of this. To the person, it looks and feels just like their health insurance plan now. They got the copay, they got the deductible, they have their card, they go to the doctor. So we're talking about the back end here. This is the future of health insurance. This is how it changes. And frankly, this is what a Bucca does. This is what one of the big carriers do. We're just unbundling and controlling it, each aspect of it ourselves and providing full transparency where you're not just at the mercy of an operation like United Healthcare, who they go to, the broker gets a nice commission, they handle all the stuff. We're managing each piece, we're managing each claimant, but to the end user, I wanna make it very clear that it looks and feels exactly the same, fully matched plan, Same benefit levels, if not better. They have the card. They go to the doctor. It looks and feels. They got their network. It looks and feels exactly the same to the end user. This is the mechanism of how you actually prevent what's happening to the state health plan right now, which is a catastrophe that nobody wants to change because they're all making money from the insurance.

So just to be clear, there's no way that the fund can become insolvent and the borough becomes liable for something? No. So how come you guys do it this way and anybody else that might be here today is doing it the other way?

Self-funded is extremely specialized. It's the only thing that my company does. 20 years we've been specializing in self-funded strictly for small to mid-market groups, which are anywhere from 30 enrolled employees to about 500. If you don't have these cost containment strategies and these different solutions pre-integrated, if you're not able to quickly deploy them, you will not control your costs. Yes. Thanks for your questions. It was a good question.

Thank you, gentlemen.

We appreciate your presentation. Any further questions with the council? If not, thank you very much. You want to keep the phone? I want the flip phone. Do you want...

It's an ancient artifact.

Excellent job in the 10 minutes, by the way. You hardly came up for air. I was going to offer you some water.

I can't help it.

Excellent.

Excellent. Thank you very much. Thank you, Chief. Thank you very much. Good meeting you. Thank you, guys.

Appreciate it. Good evening, everyone. Good evening.

Welcome, welcome.

Unfortunately, we have a 10-minute limit. Our lawyer will make sure it's enforced. He's also

He's our guard for the evening.

Two minute warning.

Two minute warning.

Well, I have a parliamentary point of order before we start the clock. Does anyone need a copy of our response? I have extras. A copy of what? Well, it's our qualifications that we submitted. Oh, I'll take probably half of my rounds. That's why I bring extras. I try to be prepared. Well, thank you very much. Now, I'm not sure. That's not what I wanted to give you. I mean, you can have that. I'll stay in my lane over here.

Yes, you will.

You all have this handout?

Yes, we do.

OK. All right, council. We ready? Ready. Here we go. Hold on. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to come before you this evening. I am no stranger to you. I am your risk manager, and I do wear the hat of a health benefits consultant to a number of municipalities, probably in excess of 40 public entities. I have 20 towns that are in the state health benefits program. I have the largest number of towns in the Bergen Municipal Employee Benefits Fund, affectionately known as the BMED. Do you still want me to push the button or am I okay?

You're okay. All right.

I don't want to break your rule.

No.

And we also have a number of towns in western New Jersey, in the north Jersey hip. We even have the township of Hillsborough in the southern skylines regional health insurance fund. So we covered the state. We have our finger on the pulse. The state approved the rates today. And? 17.3% for all of the Direct plans, I'm talking a little insurance jargon here, and a little bit higher on some of the lower cost plans.

Increase. Yes. 17%.

A little bit more.

And this is what, for 27?

Correct. That was adopted at 2.30 today, give or take.

What about a freeze we heard about?

There is a freeze you might have heard about for the state employees. It was actually a release yesterday that came out from the governor's office. You'll have to excuse me. My glasses may come on and off. I lost my regular progressive glasses on vacation. So these are only distance. So if I do this or I look funky and I'm doing that, you know what's going on. Okay.

Do you realize that? Do you realize one of the lenses is not in there?

funny that might be my problem governor cheryl and 17 state employee unions reach agreement to launch comprehensive state health benefits program reform effort the committee is not expected to meet until october 1st this is dated September 2nd. This was released yesterday by the governor's office. I have no idea what relief this will help us with at all. The rates were adopted today, and unless I hear otherwise, that's what we're going with. And that's what we have to plan for, and that's what we have to strategize.

Thank you for clarifying that.

No worries. Part of my job is to give you up-to-date information So I would ask you, since I have a 10 minute limit, I would ask you to turn to page 15 of our submission. Again, for those that need it, I have more with me.

Yes, ma'am.

We saw it. We saw it already.

The committee saw it, but nobody has like a copy.

Really what I'm going to focus on, whatever you'd like. is I've put together a plan of action. So when I had heard that this process was going to take place in the light, I had a concern that you would be running out of time for 2027. What do I mean by that? I mean that the state holds open enrollment October 1st. And that open enrollment runs until, excuse me, until October 31st. and you're making elections for 2027. It does not mean we couldn't move you after that. It means that if we were going to stay in the state for 2027, only under very specific circumstances could we change what people elected. We would have to do it in that window, October 1st to the 31st. So we're in a very condensed timeframe based on your process, but by the way, that's not meant to be blame or criticism or anything because the state, I just said, adopted their rates today. The state normally adopts their rates in July. They were introduced July 7th. They were supposed to adopt them on the 27th or the 24th. Either way, they didn't do that because one of the members of the committee challenged their actuary, who, by the way, did an outstanding job. I was cheering in my office listening to the meeting. And caused the state to put it on pause. I thought they might revise their numbers because what they've done, again, is not in your, for the short answer of 10 minutes, was not in your best interest. But be that as it may, we have to work with what we're given to work with. So I have laid out an action plan. was I had asked Mike to request your data from the state. There's no cost for you to request it because it's been two years since you requested it. We provided him the verbiage, where to send it, and the like. And I got that moving. Regardless of who you decide to choose, you need that to move forward. So I took the initiative to do that for you.

Thank you.

That data will obviously tell us where we stand in terms of marketing. The sheet I handed you tonight just gave you a very, very, very quick overview of some takeaways on where the public sector insurance is with regard to medical trend, prescription drug trend, and what are the cost drivers. It also lists what your data was the last cycle that it was requested, and you see where your loss ratio was. You're on the cusp. You can go either way. I obviously have no way of knowing what your data looks like. I don't know what the claims are. What I can tell you is I've never submitted a claim on behalf of the borough. So none of my claims are in there. It's your employees. So we'll see what it looks like when it comes back. You're on alert for when it comes from the state. The state has 60 days to provide it by law. And you made the request in early August. but they have been quicker than 60 days recently. I would anticipate, actually we got something back from them last week as we inquired on behalf of another town. They said they're probably gonna push a lot out right after Labor Day. So you may very well get it next week. That will tell us where you stand. In terms of an action plan, we will analyze that data. We will make recommendations to you. As I had said the last time I met with you, and remember, don't overstay your welcome or you won't be welcome to stay. That's Swedish Digest. All right? We will educate your employees on what their options are within the state. We will also look at what options you have outside of the state. Again, depending on your claims data. One of the things you might recommend, you have 91 employees covered active, and you have, I'm sorry, 93 active employees, 92, and 71 retirees. You have a lot of retirees. But that's a total of 163, what we would say, contracts and henders. So that means that there are other options on the table, like self-funding. OK, so I'm not ruling anything out until we see what the data tells us. And I think we have a trust factor with your employees. I think they trust us. We've been around a while. They know us. They know the other towns that we're in. We have had, as I said at the last meeting I had with you.

About two minutes.

Thank you. Didn't know exactly where that voice was coming from. We've had the most success moving employees to lower-cost plans. We've saved towns almost $2 million. That's a fact at the bottom of the... By the way, Councilman, I checked my fax after you questioned me. My number was wrong. I was too low. So I fixed it. Thank you. So we've had great success. And why do you have success? You have success when you earn the respect and the trust of your employees. This is a topic that scares them. It is a topic they do not like to discuss. It is a topic that frustrates them. And I will tell you, education is absolutely positively key. That's not a talking point, that's a fact. And we have that experience and we will provide it. I'm also going to believe we're probably the lowest cost of anyone you've got. He's in here.

Any questions from the council to Mr. Covelli? Yes, please. Just one, Mr. Mayor.

As you mentioned in the beginning, you do provide us, the borough, with risk management and alternative services. Can you just briefly describe how you'll be able to avoid any legal or conflict of interest, anything like that? If you're our risk manager, but also helping us find insurance. I'm just, is there anything there at all, or is that a consideration at all?

It's not uncommon for the risk management to do both. I do it in many towns. Do you know of any conflict?

Nothing's apparent to me. So I asked that, and this is a completely neutral, just empirical question. Was there any time when this as our risk manager, this information could have, you know, we could have tried this before. I mean, is there a reason you maybe never suggested that we look at self funding or anything like that?

Well, I think up until recently, until the state became very, um, Unstable, I think that's a good word to use, unstable. People were very pleased with the state authentic program. One of the things that I made a comment to somebody today is I don't think the state has realized how much they have destroyed their credibility. Mike, you've been around a long time and I think you would agree that the state of benefit was considered the catalog, the plan to have among all others, And I think that they have completely shattered that trust and that confidence that public employees, whether they be municipal, whether they be teachers, whether they be state employees, they have destroyed that through their mismanagement, their lack of attention, and the like. So I would say to you that when things were running well, there was not a reason to do it. I could have come in and said, why don't we move so I can make a fee. Everybody was happy, and there wasn't a reason to do that. So I didn't do it. Thank you. You're welcome.

Any other questions for Mr. Covelli? I have a question. What type of support would we get during the transition process if we were to move to another carrier or something?

I have several people in my office that assist me in those presentation meetings, enrollment meetings, and the like. They help me with both marketing, they help me with meeting with people, and when they're not employees, and when they're not doing that, they're at their desks handling claims problems and answering questions on any plan designs, questions, I need an ID card.

Okay, and so then in terms of like an employee health care portal or something like that, that would be directly with the carrier then, right? Correct. Okay, thanks.

I'm not sure the last presentation, I think it was self-insured or self-funded. Was it self-funded? The folks before me? Yeah, I think it was self-insured. I actually deal with them and use them in other places.

I haven't seen them as a consultant.

So their proposal, It seemed like a lot of a lot of risk going into something like that as opposed to going with you know with a regular you know a regular broker to shop out our plans and to go to a different plan. Who's already established is already seeing that what you just said.

What I say. Oh yeah. What I could you could quote me. You said something very profound very important. Yeah. By the way I don't like the term broker but It is what I am, because I don't do things based on, if you notice, I gave you a flat fee, not a fat, a flat fee, okay? Because my job is not to make money on where you go. My job is to make sure you get the best program at the best price. So I am going to do, there's no commission. I get a flat fee. One of the markets that I use is APTA, the one that some of those folks that just came in before me. They're in one town in New Jersey. They're actually based in Colorado. I'm intrigued by their program, but sometimes they talk a little fast about the program. It took me a couple of meetings with them to drill down as to did they talk to you about the self-funded with the card and that they would pay a cash program. Did they talk about that?

I don't think they talked about a cash program, no. OK.

So they would also go out and get reinsurance and the like. They would use one of the established networks, as I would approach anyone else in the business, a Cigna. When I say that, a Cigna, an Aetna, a United Healthcare, a Blue Cross, all the names you're used to. And yes, you are corrected as a broker. You're shopping each different one. They're using a TPA, a specific TPA with that network as an overlay.

Got it. Because I was wondering, where is the foundation to this thing? So what are the risks on something like that, going into it?

Remember, I wasn't here for their presentation. Yeah, yeah, but the concept of it. I believe they might have talked to you about self-funding. Correct. And what you do with, by the way, the technical term is called a partially self-funded plan. The reason you use partially is because your funding, you, the borrower, when you have that type of plan, either with them or with anyone else, I'm talking generically, I'm not talking specifically. You have stepped up to be your own insurance company, okay? So you're hiring a third-party administrator, a TPA, to administer claims and pay those claims up to a certain point, what we would call a stop loss. Let's say that's $80,000. I'm picking a number for this question purposely. Okay, meaning the borough pays the first $80,000 for any man, woman, and child covered by the plan. Employees bound for pay, another way of putting it, right? And after that, a reinsurer pays after that. So if I work for the Borough of Elmwood, I'll always use myself. I work for the Borough of Elmwood Park and I have a heart attack and it's $350,000. The borough pays $80,000 on me. That's the stop loss, the reinsurer takes over from that point forward and reimburses you. So the protection to the municipality, to answer your question, is that reinsurance policy.

Okay, so is there any way, let's say my son needs a surgery, right, and I'm at a hospital or whatever, and it's about $3 million, and now it's my son's surgery, he needs an open-heart surgery, and the borough only covers $1 million. So that extra $2 million, you're going to say that there's no risk for the borough that the reinsurer doesn't cover that extra $2 million?

Just so you know that under the Affordable Care Act, no plan is allowed to have an annual maximum. All plans provided in the United States are unlimited.

Okay.

So if your son needed $3 million, to use your example, the borrower is responsible for the $80,000, the reinsurer is on the hook for the other $2.2 million.

Yeah, you made it difficult on yourself. $2.2 million. So it just seems like,

I only made a statement. I wanted to see if you were smart enough to see that. I was wrong.

The point I'm trying to make is it just seems very risky to me to be self, your own insurance company.

You know what I'm saying? It just seems like it's...

I have a couple of them and they run very well. Here's what I'm going to say to you when you talk about this. If I were to present to you a self-funded plan, I would be telling you that the first year you can't lose. And you're going to say, how could you say that, Frank? I will tell you how I can say that. Because there's a lag in the claims. I just said you are becoming your own insurance company. The claims don't show up day one. They... They happen, they get submitted, a doctor holds them, the TPA is asking questions of the provider, why'd you build this, why'd you do that? So there's always a lag in claims. So the first year of a program, you'll probably see 75% of the claims. So after the first year, I come in, you guys say, Frank, you're a genius, that was fantastic, my God, we're gonna put a bronze statue of you down there on Mulder Boulevard, we think you're great. Year two comes. The claims from year one flip into year two. You have a full year of claims. And there was trend. In other words, how did the group trend? Did we have a good year or a bad year that first year? And you're going to get the increase associated with that. Now all of a sudden you're directing the mayor to pull the statue down, pull it back, take them off all the boulevards. It's not going to happen. I have to add a little humor because insurance is boring. So one of the things to your point about risky, if it's managed properly, it's not risky. I have, if you'd like me to use the town of Crosstead, which we've insured continuously since 1960. I'm always proud to say that. They've had a self-funded plan for over 20 years and it runs like a clock. At one point they wanted to go to the state health benefits. And I said, you don't want to go to state health benefits. And we worked on what actually was the police that asked. We worked on some things that the police were looking for. And that plan is running $10,000, $15,000 less in premium this year than the state health benefits. Actually, next year, they renewed August 1st. So they're still that much better off. We're also able, one of the things I'm disappointed in in the state, going back to the state, you know, I had my two-minute warning,

We're already like seven.

That was a half hour ago. What if I told you that we analyzed the state's data that in the first quarter of 2026, do you know what the third most expensive thing in the state health benefits program was for the state? You're not going to guess. It was vein ablations. Are you familiar with what that is? Yes.

Yes?

Okay, varicose veins.

Oh, varicose veins.

Okay? Now, I didn't say it was cancer. GOP ones were the one and two, okay? I didn't say it was heart attacks. I didn't say it was stroke. I said it was vain oblations. They spent $42 million the first quarter of 26 on that. There are providers that are predators. They go into places like police departments and say, we can do all of this checking for you and we're not going to charge you. We're going to accept your insurance. You're going to be so happy with us. and you're gonna bring your spouse, and we're gonna take care of them, and they're billing sometimes $100,000, $200,000 for those services, and the state doesn't even see it. They're not looking at their own data. Why did I bring that up? Because when you have a self-funded program, we're watching that data. We're saying, hey, there's a problem here. I have towns that have lifetime limits on GLP-1s because you're not supposed to be on it forever. A health plan treats a condition, It's not a maintenance. So we give them a year, but we don't say you can be on POP once forever. You have a situation, we're going to deal with it, we're going to pay to cover it.

All right, Mr. Covelli, so that we can stay fair to everybody else. Yes, sir. I just want to say one thing.

Yes, sir.

Regarding that bronze statue, Emmett Park were frugal here, cast iron.

I have another question, if I can. You had talked about, you know, the first year versus second year. Yes. So when you have those claims, do you differentiate between what was like an acute versus a chronic claim when looking at the next year, whether or not we should anticipate or expect The same, you know, type of or similar, you know, claim amount or claim history. Absolutely. Okay.

That's very astute of you because the other thing I would say to you is when you have to have, one of the things that I'm going to, hopefully, I want to be fair to you. When you have a self-funded plan, you have to have the discipline to fund it properly. So you're going to be given a maximum program liability There will be an estimate of what the plan will cost. And I'm going to tell you every time, you should budget to the maximum program liability. And you will have money left over every year. And then you will build a surplus to the point that you will start taking that and using it to offset operating costs while maintaining a sufficient surplus. That's the proper way to run a self-funded plan.

Okay, and are there wellness programs or cost containment programs that you offer?

Sure, they can always be built in with carriers, third party vendors and the like, absolutely.

I was just thinking specifically for self-funded.

It's something that you would negotiate with the carrier that you bring on board to run the program. Either the third-party administrator or even the carriers offer programs.

Any other questions for Mr. Covelli? Yes.

If we were to switch, Right, is there a lapse, like let's say we go from state to whatever? No.

How does that go through? It's a good question though, because I'm gonna answer your question if I may. Unlike your property and casualty, you can switch at any time. So in other words, if we put everything together by the time you get the data and we figure out, let's just say you wanna go self funded, let's just say. And by the time everything gets in place, you have to give the state 60 days notice that you're leaving. So let's say we got everything together by November. Well, now you can't leave until December, let's say. You can't leave until the end of January. That's the state's rule. You can start a program at any time. Ironically, I've said to you that Karlstadt renewed August 1st. It happened to be when their last program ended. And to be specific to your question, you would start the new program so the duty no lapse. And it automatically takes over then? Correct. Why do new employees have a delay? That's a waiting period you always have on a program. Got it.

How many employees in the ?

How many are covered by the plan? Well, there's about 110 smaller than you.

Thank you.

MAWA is also self-funded. They're much larger than you. But 100 and over, I'm comfortable with self-funded. You're OK. Thank you. If you were under 100, I would say I'm a little uncomfortable with that.

That includes retirees. That includes retirees.

Yes. That's why I said you had 92 and 71 kids.

Any other questions? Mr. Covelli, I want to thank you very much.

My pleasure.

Once again, it was a pleasure for us.

I don't know how sitting through five of these is a pleasure to you. Not much.

We get used to it.

We didn't even start the meeting yet. I wish you all a happy Labor Day weekend. Yeah. And I hope to have the opportunity to work with you on that. Thank you. It's exciting and we can make good things happen. Good evening to you all.

Thank you.

Thank you, Frank.

Thank you. Good night. You too.

Okay, do we want to go into discussion here now regarding this? We want to make a special meeting for this? Or do we want to continue on discussion?

So you could do the discussion at the regular meeting and make the appointment then, or you can do a special meeting. It's entirely up to you.

I'm concerned that we're running out of time to make a move.

But I think we should do it at the next meeting, like before the meeting, before the next public meeting.

It gives everybody a chance to...

It gives everybody a chance to digest some stuff. We look at that. And you're only waiting. You're not waiting that long.

You weren't going to vote tonight anyway, I presume. Not that. So we have time before the regular meeting.

Are we in agreement with that? This is a huge thing. I'm not going to discuss it and then vote.

Right, it is a huge thing.

This is something that's going to change the lives of 100 employees. I don't think it could be done. We're not going to rush this through.

No, no, I'm not looking for a vote. I'm just looking for a discussion while everything is fresh in everybody's minds. We just sat through four presentations. That's my only point.

But just bear in mind, all you're voting for is the selection of the broker. They'd have to go out, and whether it's self-funded or shopping elsewhere, that process is going to be separate, and you can't start that until you get your experience ratio.

I'd like to do it before the public, like sit down as a group and just really go through everything again. That's just my opinion. No problem.

We in agreement with that?

Yes.

Okay, before the next public. Okay, so that would be 7 o'clock, what, 6 o'clock? Can we, is an hour enough?

Yeah, so there's a two, I guess, if you want to have quorum-based discussion with the full mayor and council, then we'd have to advertise special meetings starting earlier so that it could take place in front of the public, assuming you're starting normal.

It's not an executive discussion. It's a public discussion.

It becomes public. Yeah, if you wanted to have discussions privately, you'd have to do it in a non-quorum setting, be it a committee or otherwise. I think 5.30.

What are you suggesting?

5.30, two weeks from tonight.

An executive or a? No, it's not an executive.

It can't be executive. OK. Special notice goes out. So I'll be public. Special notice out.

I would suggest if anybody has any questions to get in touch with the individual carrier this way that question would be resolved and you come here with your gun full full of bullets that way the only thing I might suggest is perhaps going through one person whether it's the CFO or the administrator so you're not having the carrier or the broker is getting eight different questions that might be the same mr. mayor if it's all right

I am one of them folks and I do a regular old nine to five, bless Dolly Parton. So getting here at 530 might be a bit difficult. I mean, I like the six o'clock it's it seems far more reasonable. And I honestly I feel like we've only got the four choices. It shouldn't take us an hour and a half and then another two hours of a meeting. So I'm just suggesting six o'clock instead of 530.

Is that okay with everybody else?

Thank you, sir.

Okay, shall we move along.

Yes, at this time we have a master plan reexamination review being presented by Daniel Cuban from TNM Associates, the borough planner.

Welcome, Daniel. Welcome back, Daniel.

Red is on, right?

There you go.

All right. Thank you, everybody. I know you just had your brains are probably melted from the insurance conversation, so I'll try and keep this to the point. I was here back in May or April I think and I had received your authorization to take a look at your 2020 master plan reexamination report and take a look at some of the recommendations that were made in that report is primarily concerning zoning with a focus on your business districts. I had a chance to do that. I sent a a how many pages is this 11 page report to the chief back in July, identifying some of those recommendations from the master plan reexamination report and giving my recommendations. Well, first my findings as to whether they have been implemented and then my recommendations as to how you should move forward. And I think just for some context, the master plan reexamination report, which is the 10-year look back at the last master plan that was prepared, And then a summary of what has changed since that master plan was repaired and then recommendations for different policy and regulatory actions that the town could take for land use related issues. That was adopted in 2020 and obviously in 2020 we were dealing with the pandemic. After we got out of the pandemic, the borough had to tackle the third round housing plan and then once we were done with the third round housing plan, We had to deal with the fourth round housing plan, so there's been other priorities, clearly. And so the majority of the recommendations from the master plan have not been touched yet, but we're only five years into the 10-year period that the master plan reexamination report covers, and the issues that we had identified can be resolved in a year or less if they are issues that you want to tackle. The recommendations in a master plan reexamination or master plan are their recommendations. If you don't implement them, there's no penalty to you. But when you do adopt zoning or other changes to your land use regulations, the master plan is the foundation that you're supposed to look to to see is your zoning consistent with the goals of the town. So it's not uncommon for towns to actually not implement any of the recommendations from the master plan. But just going into what our report says, there were a couple dozen recommendations in the re-exam about your business districts, primarily Market Street, Broadway, and Route 46. And the recommendations fell into a few different categories. For example, there were several recommendations about adopting design standards for your commercial districts, looking at your parking requirements and bringing them up to date. And just on that topic, there's been a lot of discussion in the planning world about how a lot of parking ordinances date back to before e-commerce, before you could do most of your banking from a your phone and so there's a lot of properties and not just in the park but all around New Jersey that have way more parking than they need just because people you know can do a lot of things from the couch now. So you know that's something that I typically recommend looking back at. There were recommendations about taking a look at the the land uses that are allowed in your business districts and making sure that They are, you know, keeping up with trends, obviously going back to the e-commerce discussion, retail uses that were, you know, viable and thriving 20 years ago are a little bit struggling in the age of Amazon. So when you look at your main streets, your neighborhood commercial, you want to see are your are they are you allowed to do uses there that are maybe a little bit more economically viable these days with with coming current shopping and service trends. There were recommendations about updating your sign standards in and having very signed standards across your business districts. and rezoning or overlay zoning on Broadway 46 and your other commercial districts. And that's actually something that I encourage. For example, you have the same zoning designation for Broadway Route 46 and River Drive, which I think we all can agree are very different roads. And I think you would want to take a look at that, maybe have different zoning on each of those corridors. One thing that I saw was that there's a maximum floor area for retail on Broadway. I think it's 5,000 square feet, where I'd say you could probably have some viable 10 or 20,000 square feet. I don't know how large the new ShopRite is, but it's probably 5,000.

Daniel, a lot of this is Dutch to us.

Yes, understood.

So we're relying on you. Yes. Out of all your recommendations, what is blaring needs to be corrected.

So it you know I don't think anything I want to say that anything is glaring I would say you know it's it's sort of a matter of what are the the priorities and the concerns of the borough. I'll just give you an example in Fairlawn a lot of businesses have you know complain about signage and the science standards are restrictive and uh so i've been asked in fairlawn for example to look at the science the sign ordinance and update that so if that's something that you hear about in town that's something that we could take a look at i definitely recommend looking at your parking and i would work with your engineer on that as well and and again i would recommend uh taking a look at your zoning for your for all of your your your uh business districts okay is there a way we could get sorry is there a way that we could get a list of the recommendations to our email or like i would say honestly the report that i i sent which i i assume that they've been distributed to the council i think that's comprehensive if you want if you want me to kind of have a a I know that it was much more verbose because it was saying hey here's what they said in 2020 and here's what I'm saying now I can give you something that's a little bit uh that's truncated yeah and a little bit eat quicker to digest I'm happy to do that uh I think I can do that that's that's not a problem break it down make it make it simple yes I can make it super simple for you super simple yeah super simple because we're super simple people nah come on you guys get out of here Yeah, I'd be happy to do that. And then, you know, I'd say that.

Then we can meet again at some.

Yeah, we can do that.

After we digested it.

Absolutely.

All right. Any questions for this gentleman?

Just to the mayor's point, there was nothing that stood out in particular. We got a jump on this now.

You know, there is one thing that I would say, which is that there's in your zoning, you have what are called conditional uses. Those are uses that are allowed. as long as they meet certain standards. And some of those uses don't actually have those standards laid out, which makes them pretty much the fact that they're conditional sort of moot. The whole idea of having a conditional use is that if somebody deviates from those conditions, they have a bigger hurdle to jump over to actually get approval. If there's no conditions, that hurdle doesn't exist, they can clear it pretty quickly, easily. I would say that that's something that you would want to handle probably sooner. Worst case scenario, if it became a kind of an issue in a planning board meeting or a zoning board meeting, I guess in this case, it could result in litigation. But if it hasn't happened yet, it probably won't happen in the next few months. But it's a good thing to cover your ground with. Let's put that at the top of the trunk. Yeah, sure. Yeah, that's about it.

I have none. Does the council have any? We're finished with questions? Dan, get us that bullet point sheet and we can work off of that.

You got it. All right. Thank you, Dan. Thank you.

Is it okay if I sit this way? I like looking at you guys. Thank you.

Thank you. You stayed awake, huh? I did.

Actually, the insurance conversation was very interesting. I didn't know most of that stuff. It's good to take a look behind the curtain now and again.

Yeah, and you have like a good mix of ideas and experience there between the four of them.

Yeah. You get your work cut out for you.

Okay, let's talk some engineering.

Very good. Good evening, everyone. I'll just go through my report quickly.

If you can get in that mic and bring that mic in. Sure. There you go.

There we go. Item number two, the Elmwood Drive Park improvements. Just a quick update. I had a conversation with the Green Acres folks. I spoke with Amy Simonski there to tell her that we were slightly delayed. She told me to give her a call back once we actually started construction. She doesn't want to, like I said, jump the gun and give any extensions yet until she knows where we are. We'll probably finish in time, but. I just want her to be preemptive there and, you know, let her know. So that project will probably be starting in the next two weeks. So once that starts, I'll be in contact with her.

This is for what location?

The Elmwood Drive Park. It's on Dreamas and Elmwood Drive.

It's on the top. Okay, I got it.

I'm going to jump down to item number three, and I don't actually have any update. There was some conversation at our last meeting, and this item was tabled for the salt shed.

It wasn't tabled. It was tabled.

At the end of my report, you guys were going to have additional conversation about it. What was the council's desire to move forward? Were we going to award it? We awarded it. It was awarded. Yeah, today it was awarded. Well, I feel stupid now. No, it's OK. OK. Never mind then. You did forcefully. Then I will.

Just for that part.

OK. Well, then I'll get the resolution and move forward with the contractor to get them moving on it. Very good. Soon. Soon. I'm going to jump ahead a few pages to Item number eight, this is the Borough Park improvement space two, the softball field. We've been working on the final design. Unfortunately, I hope to be here tonight with the design for you, but while I was on vacation, unfortunately, nobody did any of the stuff that I asked them to do. A little bit of a mea culpa here, but I will have a package together for you guys next week. And I've forwarded some amenity to the chief this afternoon. But I look forward to next week to providing that to you guys. I'm also going to be having a meeting with the turf vendor that we used at the soccer field to basically And one of my questions for him is how to interface the new turf with the old turf. There's a point in there where there's going to be a hard curb that falls in the edge of the new softball field. I just want to see how the best deal with that. So I'm going to have a meeting with him.

What was the issue? Sorry, I didn't catch that.

The soccer field will come into where the warning track is at the end of the softball field. There's going to be a hard point there that sticks in about four foot into the edge. Oh, wow. how we can best basically do a nice transition between the two that's the best of both worlds for both the soccer field and the softball field.

And also there was, just so for the information there, the separation between the stage area and the softball field as well. There needs to be a good, if we're not turfing the whole thing, a good grade change that's feasible for in front of the stage if people want to put chairs. or something there because we don't have seating. So you want to make sure that that...

Transition, yeah.

You can't tell that, you know, you get on top of turf and then like there's a drop off, you know.

To the Councilman's point, the elevation should all comply with also the stage.

Yes, correct.

And in case a bull does go in that area and somebody's going after it, they won't have a tripping situation. I believe that's what you were talking about.

Yes. Our intent is really to turf up to the face of the stage, have a continuous level all the way across the field.

When do we think this project is going to get underway?

I hope to have the design done With comments before the end of September, be bid in October and hopefully awarded to a contractor by end of October, beginning of November.

Ready for the spring? Mm-hmm. Okay. Early spring would be nice. Maybe it would... How are you even going to have it ready by spring? No. No, we're going to have a start in the spring. To break ground by spring?

I hope to break ground and do all of the grading and the drainage this winter. If the weather's mild, there's no reason they shouldn't be able to do that. And literally, the last item they should have to do is do turf installation in the springtime. If we're doing springtime work, usually the contractors

have crews available we have the big the big problem is as you get closer to the summer time we have a lot of experience with the the turf project um in the winter it's there was a mess that was a hell of a winter too yeah so i mean and it wasn't as bad as last winter It was bad, but it wasn't as bad as the winter we just had, two winters ago. So I would be cautious to say it's going to be ready by the spring, hopefully. But we don't have a design yet.

Understood. Jumping down to item nine, the recreation center structural improvements. That project is out for bid. We'll be accepting bids on the 18th, and hopefully award shortly thereafter and get that going.

What did we do last meeting on that, Chief? Did we tell them to go to bid, or did we accept the bid already for that? We did accept, no?

I don't think we accepted.

We did the bond. Oh, the bond. OK. Yep. We'll be accepting bids on the 18th and hopefully next meeting.

When you have the work meeting, Can I be advised of it? Absolutely. I'd like to be at it. Yes. With the contractor? Mm-hmm. All right. Will do. Thank you. I want to understand the underpinning process that they're going to use. Okay.

Very good. I'm going to jump down to item 11, Muller Boulevard, the 2024... NJDOT projects.

What number?

This item 11. The contractor has been in contact with me asking for the borrower to release payment number one. I've looked at the cleaning effort he's made on Lee Street. There is still quite a bit of tar tracking between MOLA and

Spidell.

Spidell. Thank you. Thank you. West of that, most of the tar is gone. It's been worn off. I will say that, you know, from what it was two months ago to what it is today, the tar between Mola and Spidell has dissipated quite a bit, but it's still there. It's still visible. Contractors said it will wear away over time. He doesn't have any further solutions on removing it.

Does the contract we signed to start that job have any clauses in it that suggest what happens in subpar work, like we get a 10% discount or something?

There aren't any clauses for what you call cosmetic damage, physical damage to broken curbs, clogged inlets, other things.

That wouldn't be considered damage? What if it was on somebody's property? You know what I mean? What if they spilled turf on somebody's path into their home? Something would happen and there's tar, sorry, I said turf? Yeah, I know what you meant. Tar on the lady's pathway into her house between her grass. So what's the difference? So we're going to tell the homeowner now, no, there's nothing we can do about that, sorry. Your street's nice, but there's tar all over the street. I can't.

How is that not considered damage? They come into our town to do the job. It gets messed up. OK, things happen, right? Life's not perfect. But then to just say, OK, well, we did the best we could, and now that's it. No. Something has to be done. Take something off the bill.

If I go get my car painted and it comes back with a scratch, I'm not going to wait for the weather to buff it out. I want compensation. And I'm sure other folks here feel the same, that I would not, if it comes down to it, I would not vote to release his name until we got some compensation or something. Come out there with a scrub brush. Try it. Don't just say you looked at it and, oh, over time it's gone away. That's not fair. We are the customers.

So how much are we?

There hasn't been any payment.

No payment at all?

Yeah. No. If we were to pay the first payment, we would still be holding approximately $35,000 left on the contract. I'm currently holding the second payment in my office. How much was that? The second payment is approximately $35,000.

So part of this can be addressed in the executive in terms of attorney-client. So why don't we distinguish the factual information that Eric's providing now and then the discussion about options and advice in executive.

Very good. Cool.

OK.

So I'm of mixed emotions. I do think that the first payment should be released to him. I think the $35,000 is ample to encourage him to try doing something else or to – we could negotiate something.

We haven't paid him anything yet? No. How much is the first payment?

The first payment is just about $200,000. And that would be $35,000?

Mm-hmm.

If you release the first payment at $200,000, you'd still be holding that? Correct.

I think that's, you know, I don't, I also don't want to get into legal issues with him as well. So we're okay. Okay.

Very good. Um, moving on to item number 12, uh, dreamers place road. Um, I believe the last payment was processed for that tonight. Um, I'll be working with the CFO to get all the documents together to send over to, uh, THE COUNTY FOR REIMBURSEMENT FROM THE COMMUNITY BLOCK GRANTS.

THIS IS A DIFFERENT CONTRACT, CORRECT?

CORRECT, YES. IT'S FOR CLEANUP.

I DON'T THINK HE WOULD COME. I DON'T THINK HE WOULD SHOW UP.

THEY KEEP COMING. ON TO ITEM NUMBER THREE, GARDEN DRIVE ROADWAY IMPROVEMENTS. 13?

16?

13. It's Garden Drive roadway improvements. We finalized the design. That is also out to bid now, and we'll also be taking bids for that on the 18th of September.

Is there still time for us to do that before the winter?

Yeah, I think so.

You think so?

Yeah. It's not that big of a street. It's not. And while there is some concrete work, it's isolated panels. It's not big pores.

When do you expect them to start that?

If we were to award, I would look maybe third week of October. All right.

shooting to complete that this year?

I wouldn't see why not. It's two blocks from there. It really should be a six-week job, if that.

I'd like to know where those cars are going.

Everyone on the street is pretty excited to have it done, though. When I was just walking around, everyone was like, hey, are you the engineer?

A lot of residents have contacted me. When's it starting? When's it starting? I have no answer for that.

So soon and hopefully wrapped up this year. Okay, going to do a little flipping to the last page down to item 21, that's on the page 12. Veterans Place parking and roadway improvements. We requested a proposal from some contractors to basically broaden out the paving. at the little league field to provide full-size spots um we have a contractor in mind um um chief did we uh it is on for tonight okay okay very good okay okay very good okay so uh i will get him out on the field because i know uh He's very interested to start.

For this project, I know that we're fixing the roadway, that we're enlarging the parking area. Can we just make sure that, because we had just changed this road for draining, that the draining is not going to be changed. I know we're making it bigger, but going into the park or going near the houses, that's a priority for him as well. Yes. Because we just fixed the street, you know?

No, no, he'll maintain grade across.

OK. Very important.

Yes. Gennaro I trust to do the right thing. But we will keep on him and make sure that he sticks to that.

Actually, we want to drain everything into his house. All right.

Going to second to the last item for tonight, item 22, the 2026 Borough Roadway Paving Project. I apologize. I made a typo on the title. That should be for Terrace Street and South Center Street. I have a proposal that I will be sending to you in the morning. My boss was late in approving it. So I'd hoped to have that before you tonight. But I will be sending it to you and the council tomorrow. Again, we'll get going on that right away.

Mike, do we have this in our consideration for bonding? We bonded already. Okay.

I have a question. Sure.

Center Street. Question over here?

Sorry, yeah. Go ahead. The terrace in South Center, how long is that going to take? Did you ever drive down that road? Oh, my God. I end up driving on the wrong side of the road. I hope nobody comes because you're underneath the bridge. It's like a crater there. How long will that take?

For the mill in South Center, it's... There's almost no concrete work on that, so that's literally all pavement. That's probably a sub-two-week job. Terrace will be a little more complicated, mostly just because of the way, like, if you've been on Terrace, you know it's wavy. There's going to be some grade correction there. There's going to have to be some filling. There's going to have to be some finagling around to make sure the water drains properly. So that might take a little longer. Plus, we have the school there as well. So you're going to have to treat that one a little gingerly.

Thank you.

And I have one more item that I should have put on the agenda that I did not, which was there was a request beginning of August to look at the Linden Avenue sidewalk along the south side.

That's item 3B. So perfect. It's the next item.

Oh, okay. Sorry.

Perfect.

But I went in the fields, took a look at it, And while the sidewalk west of Mola Boulevard is damaged, partially covered with soil, it's not in good shape. But that being said, it's also not utilized. i was out there after a rain i've seen seen no evidence of footprints there or anything else um outside of a straight liquor bottle here and there there's no real traffic there um there's an adequate sidewalk on the north side of the street um so quite honestly the to to repair it would cost probably about sixty seven thousand dollars and i think you probably have better things to spend your money on

I think that we should kind of put this on hold, considering we don't have an extra $70,000 to do this. I mean, if nobody's going to use that area,

No, my recommendation, Councilwoman, is not to do the job, to put a few signs there and say, please go to the other side of the street.

Yeah, the elbow tape's been there for a couple weeks now, and just let's get through that. We've got the winter coming. I don't think anybody's going to be sleigh riding there or anything like that. So I think we should just, like, put this on the back burner for a while.

Mm-hmm. I think you have an excellent suggestion. And what we could do is search for a grant, maybe.

I have a question. What's the possibility of just removing the sidewalk? Because quite honestly, you know, we have ordinances that require property owners to maintain their sidewalks. And then if the borough is not going to do it, how do we enforce it with a resident? I'd just as soon just see it removed and taken away.

I agree with the Councilwoman. I would like to see, it's an eyesore, number one. Number two, if we're not going to do it, which I, you know, it doesn't do me any, I mean, I agree nobody uses that side of the street if you're coming from, where you're coming from, from Van Riper. Nobody uses that side of the street. Why don't we just take it out and just make it all grass at that point?

Yeah, I'm definitely on agreement with them.

How much is that going to cost to take that out?

That's something maybe our DPW can do.

Well, in the cost estimate, two-thirds of the cost, $43,000, is putting in new concrete. So we're talking, you know, a few thousand dollars to remove it and potentially turn it into green space. You know, that could be a green team project. You know, we could plant flowers, something there.

Excellent suggestion. what i would do you know somebody walks over the yellow tape they're still going to sue the borough excuse me sorry mike what i would do is i'd see talk to the dpw director they got the backhoe they could do it at their own convenience a little here a little there remove it put some topsoil back in there like the councilwoman suggested and that will end it

Yeah, because you're not going to keep the yellow tape up there forever. Or put a sign, use the other side.

Theoretically, if someone just jumps the yellow tape and trips and falls, we're still liable, right?

There's been a wire hanging for almost two months, and nobody said nothing about the wire hanging or the yellow tape going back and forth.

What wire hanging? What wire hanging?

It's like 50 feet before you get to the stop sign. Is it in these pictures?

You're going to touch the wire? I'm not touching the wire.

So we're in agreement to remove the sidewalk and see if the DPW can handle it?

Yeah, let's see if the DPW can handle it, number one. And number two, I don't think we should put any money into this.

Well, you're going to have to buy the topsoil. I mean, it goes without saying. And then there'll be some dumping, dump charges, but it'll be minuscule compared to... Definitely not going to be $66,000. No, it's not going to be that. It should be a couple thousand dollars overall.

But I agree with her, the council, and we can't leave it like that. I mean, it looks terrible.

But that's a good point. Get rid of it.

And then we don't have to worry about it. If we're not using it, why are we going to put up the sign? The sign will probably cost us more to do anyway.

And it leaves me perfect space to plant wildflowers along there.

Probably look better anyway.

Yeah. I have like, I don't know, over 10,000 wildflower seeds just waiting for a place to grow.

Now you have a spot. Fresh topsoil you got now.

After we get the sound barriers.

OK. Moving along.

OK. Any questions for me?

Any questions for our engineer? Thank you so much.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Eric.

Thank you. Everyone has a great weekend.

Thank you for being patient.

My pleasure. Thanks for having me tonight.

Okay. Next up, we have proposed resolutions. We have item 4A, refund tax-exempt veteran. Any questions or discussions? Item 4B, refund overpayment. Any questions or discussions? Item 4C, block party request. Any questions or discussions? Item 4D, refund for road opening permit. Any questions or discussions? Item 4E, handicap parking request on Willow Street. Any questions or discussions?

I have a question. What is the criteria in awarding a handicap spot. Does anybody who has a handicap plate or placard, are they entitled to get a spot in front of their house or is there some type of criteria that is used? Mr. Filigno?

Yeah, there is a criteria that the traffic division uses. It's in the uniform traffic code. They go out and take measurements. There has to be no access for a certain distance or the shorter distance the spot gets awarded to but they use the same criteria for each one that comes in and they go out and do their inspections and their measurements and then there's been times where it didn't fall in the criteria and they said no and then the ones that do they get forwarded to you guys to go for a resolution.

any further discussion on that okay moving along next we have item 4f bergen county shared service for health services any questions or discussions we have to choose between a two-year plan or a four-year plan so that we can have it for a vote at the September meeting.

What's the scope of the service that they provide?

It should be all in here. The two-year pricing worksheet is the first one. The four-year is the second, the last page of it. It looks like it's... Yes. Thank you. So this has been an ongoing thing with the county, correct, for years? Yes. And the four-year plan say there's a little money?

or the four-year plan if it's been working all along and yeah it's been since we switched over it's been pretty successful all the way around so it's not broke why fix it okay we'll move forward with the four-year agreement

Okay, next we have item 4G, Department of Public Works full-time replacement recommendation. Any questions or discussions?

Mike, does that end the requirements that we set forth regarding the DPW, or have we still got to hire more?

No, this is the last item that we're aware of that's leaving.

Okay. Do we know what Because now they have steps, right? Do they have a step in their contract? Yeah. So do we know like what, are they hiring them at whatever step or are they hiring them at entry level? Even if they have experience? Oh, wow.

Got to pay your dues. How much?

Yeah, so that's what I'm saying. If somebody comes in with five years experience, you're not starting them on step five, you're starting them on step one? That's terrible. I would never leave.

This candidate also has a glaziers experience. He works with glass that can be used to our advantage also.

That's what I'm saying.

It looks like a good candidate.

I get it. No, you're right. I think that would have to be addressed in the CBA, right? How you just arbitrarily start somebody out.

It depends on the CPA language. Some will allow you to hire at a school.

I have 10 years experience.

Normally you can make the decision. Moving along.

Okay, next we have proposed ordinances. We have item 5A, police department equipment. Any questions or discussions?

I just have one. I know that the chief had sent around the explanation for the Um, the other stuff, the mandatory cameras and the five year plan. But, um, I think at the last meeting we, um, already passed the appropriation for all the department's requests. So wouldn't this have to now be a separate appropriation and not lumped in together? They are two separate. So, so the, cause I, I mean, I'd mentioned it the last time, you know, when we had talked about the automatic license plate cameras and that we're buying, uh, firearms replacing, cause they were nine years old. And I think the police department requested, what, like $165,000? So that was approved separately. So now this new contract is completely separate. But when I'd asked for some clarification before, I'd asked if this new proposed ordinance included the automatic license plate reader cameras.

That was already passed.

OK. So I'm just asking to make sure, on the record, so this particular ordinance is only to renew those contracts that would be mandatory to those five-year groups, right?

That must be a typo.

Yeah, if that's a typo, can we have it officially struck from the record? Because I am, I, yeah.

Apparently somebody did a copy of the case.

Yeah, if only we had the Microsoft paperclip, I guess, but.

I have, are you done? Yeah, sure. Are you done? I'm done, yes. Okay, okay, I had a question. Are our current body cams at end of life, according to the manufacturer?

Yes, they're all failing. And we can't have cameras that don't work. It defeats the purpose of the AG's directive and guideline. So they have used up their life expectancy, which is the five years. And basically, we leased them anyway. So it's releasing. And then with this lease, we get all new cameras.

Okay. Any further questions? Moving along.

Okay. Next, we have correspondence. We have item 6A, Elwood Park Planning Board hearing notification. Any questions or discussions?

I'm sorry. Can I just go back to that? So I want to clarify. Within the... In-car camera systems, they do have built-in license plate recognition in them. So that's why he put that in here. I apologize to the CFO. He didn't copy and paste.

That's what I saw.

Yeah. I apologize.

I gave you misinformation. I didn't think it was a mistake. I'm sorry.

It's OK. Moving along? Yes. 6A, Ellen Park Planning Board hearing. Any questions or discussions? 6B, Bergen County Open Space Trust Fund Public Hearing Notification. Any questions or discussions?

Yeah, for this one, we're listed on here for the Phase 2.

Walking past for just decorating .

Right here on the second page.