Mayor and Council - Regular Meeting

Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to the CoStar, the official newspaper of the borough, Belmar, and the Asbury Park Press, and notice of this meeting was posted on the bulletin board and the borough's website. Take roll call. Councilman Lubin?

Here.

Councilman McKinney? Here. Councilman de Blasio?

Here.

Councilman Maroney? Here. Mayor Donovan? Here.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Please remain standing for a moment of silence for our troops, their families, and our first responders. Thank you. Thank you everyone for coming tonight. We have a pretty full house, so we're gonna go a little out of order. We have some special resolutions tonight. First, we have a very special resolution that is not on our agenda. Take a look. So we would like to read a very special resolution for our chief, Tina Scott. Whereas police, resolution honoring police chief Tina Scott on 25 years of service. Whereas Police Chief Tina Scott is celebrating 25 years of dedicated service to the Borough of Belmar in 2026, and whereas Chief Scott began her distinguished career with the Borough of Belmar Police Department in 2001 when she was appointed as a police officer, and whereas through dedication, professionalism, and exemplary service to the community, Chief Scott steadily advanced through the ranks of the Belmar Police Department, and whereas in 2020, Chief Scott was appointed as the first female police chief of the borough of Belmar, becoming a leader and role model for law enforcement professionals throughout the state. And whereas in 2026, Chief Scott became the president of the Monmouth County Chief of Police Association. And whereas over the course of her 25 year career, Chief Scott's leadership has been marked by her commitment to community policing, public safety, and the professional development of officers under her command. And whereas Chief Scott's 25 years of service reflect a lasting commitment to the safety and well-being of the residents and visitors of the Borough of Belmar. And whereas Chief Scott's dedication and accomplishments bring great credit and honor to the Borough of Belmar and its residents. And now therefore, I, Caitlin Donovan, Mayor of the Borough of Belmar, together with the Council of the Borough of Belmar, do hereby proclaim recognition of Chief Tina Scott's 25 years of dedicated service and express our sincere gratitude and congratulations for her continued commitment to the borough of Belmar.

thank the mayor and council for administrator for attorney for the recognition it's been a great 25 years plus as a special um here in belmar but uh it's been an honor to be the chief of police the last six years and um it's very uh very humbling right now to know that i you know i've I've known a lot of you a long time. I've known a lot of you a short time. And I'm very happy to serve the residents and visitors of Belmont.

Thank you.

Can I sit and stay down there for the next part?

Well, they gave it away. No, because they're there. Just casually. They're always here.

And I will say, just on a side note, having served with Tina now for, she's got for a few years now, just not only how well respected she is within the community, but within the larger Jersey Shore community. I have people reach out to me all the time just to praise you. And it is just not only an honor to work with you, to be able to have our children see you and look up to you. So thank you for all that you do. So it is a great pleasure and honor to recognize some of the people we have here tonight who have done so much for the borough, and we are recognizing their service within our fire department tonight. Some incredible, incredible 50 years, over 50 years for some one very... I don't even know the right words, guys. I'm getting choked up. So we're just gonna start. Why don't you guys come a little closer? We're gonna start. First, the borough would like to recognize Eugene Chip Cavanaugh Jr. for his 50 years of service.

Can you hear me?

Okay. A few words. Chip joined Goodwill. September 2nd 1975 and is still an active firefighter. He was a fire academy instructor and credited with life-saving rescue in 2001 and he has risen to department chief in 1992 and has served as company president for over two decades. Thank you for all of your service to the borough. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next honoree is Glenn Pringle, 50 years of service. Is Glenn here?

No, he's not here.

Oh, okay. Let's go through it again. Glenn joined the Wilhelms Company February 4th, 1975. Also still an active member. Rose to the department chief in 1989. He was the company president and captain for multiple years and later became a trustee. Glenn helped organize the Belmar Fire Prevention Bureau in 1985. He was a fire academy instructor and involved in notable rescues in 1982 and 1986. So thank you.

James Albertus, 50 years. I'm very proud to be able to read this one because I've probably known you around town longer than a lot of these people. Jordan Goodwill Knows Company, June 3rd, 1975. Contributed to preservation and renovation of the firehouse. Served as secretary, 1983, president, 1997, trustee, to the Relief Association and Belmar Exempt Association.

Okay, we have Thomas Tim McGuire for 50 years of service. Tim joined Goodwill Hoes Company September 7, 1976, served as captain in 1991 and president in 1990. He held the trustee, secretary, chairman, and treasurer roles across Belmar, the Relief Association, and the Exempt Association. Longtime fire department secretary, over three decades as company secretary. Thank you.

Timothy Whitley, 64 years of service. Wayne Quidwell host company March 6, 1962, the longest tenure of the group. Rose department chief 1980 and led the department through the St. Rose gymnasium fire. Served as company president in 1978 and Relief Association secretary. U.S. Navy veteran, 1957 to 1961, before his fire service began. Thank you so much. Congratulations.

Little did I know when you said, see you tomorrow. Thank you. And finally, we would like to honor Fire Chief Shawn Pringle. Okay, well we'd also like to honor her 50th birthday.

company on September 2nd, 1975 and is still active today. He has served as a fire academy instructor and rose to department chief in 1998. He has served as company president and company treasurer continuously there since 1999, which is over 27 years. Thank you so much for your service. And now we have the Resolution Honorary Fire Chief, Sean Finkel. He has served multiple years, first as second assistant chief, first as assistant chief, department chief. He is recognized here today for his leadership, his fire skills, and community spirit across his terms.

Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. I just want to say, too, we have the 25th anniversary of 9-11 coming up.

With that, I just want to take one more second to recognize the incredible spirit that is in the room of volunteerism and service to the community with all of you, our firemen up here on the dais, and of course to all of the people who served and worked and volunteered on 9-11 itself. Thank you, everyone.

Thank you. so so

So I'll go through the resolutions really quickly that are on the agenda, and then we're going to move on to workshop discussion. So first, and this is a fairly short agenda, but we do have a resolution authorizing the purchase of tasers, and holsters, and the purchase of two Dodge Durangos. This was part of the bond package we passed earlier this year. We have a resolution awarding a contract for the position of labor attorney and one for redevelopment attorney. The first is for Bruce Padula, who is in the law group. The second is a new redevelopment attorney, that would be Michael Edwards, Esquire, Serenian, Edwards, Cusack, and Nolan. I also want to point out, because it's relevant to the next point of our workshop discussion, that these resolutions include maximum payable amounts. That's for our corrective action plan. We have our resolution on approving our private action plan. We're going to talk about that next. And finally, we have one ordinance, and this is allowing for flood hazard development permit fees. So that was a discussion in our last meeting. And so it authorizes applicants to pay a permit fee of $150 for residential properties and $200 for non-residential and mixed use. So now we're going to move on. There's two items on workshop. The first is just the tax collector position. We wanted to update you that we are in the middle of negotiating a shared service for that position. If there's any questions we can have, the Borough Minister can comment more on that.

Sure. Mike Baskin and I have been talking to Wall Township. They have four certified tax collectors, one staff. They currently are doing a shared service agreement with Manus Quorum. They felt it would be no problem coming into Belmar and helping us out as a shared service. In Belmar, they would not have to do the water and sewer collection. We have our own water and sewer collector. So they would only be doing the certified tax collector duties here in Belmar. They're going to speak, the administrator in Wall is speaking to their township committee tomorrow night and hopefully by our next meeting we can enter a shared service agreement which will get us right up to speed.

Chair, one of the things you pointed out to me and I think is important to tell everyone is that we are going to require, we're requesting set office hours in our borough so we can alert the public when our tech director will be in our building.

Absolutely, I think that's positive step that we'll put it on the website and in the newsletter, and the public will know when their staff time is here, where they can come in and meet with the tax collector on any issue they want. But as far as our staff's concerned, they're willing and able to take calls from any of our staff at any time during the week, so that'll be part of the agreement as well.

And the next item is the corrective action plan. And I want to point out that this is something that at Alberta we do every year, but I wanted to make sure that it was on the agenda and we talked about it fully in the interest of transparency and in light of the changes that have gone on in the last few months. So just real quick, because Michael Baskin is here and he's going to review the plan really quickly. I just want to take a minute and just talk a little bit about what this plan means for middle-runner taxpayers. It's from the 2025 Borough Audit. So that identified areas where we needed to review and strengthen our internal processes, controls, and record keeping. And we take this seriously. But just as important as identifying these weaknesses, which is what the audit does, is taking action to correct them. When all of the recent improvements of reservations happened, we took action immediately. We brought in proven administrative and financial professionals to take a look at our operations, identify areas requiring improvement, and put us on a stronger path forward. So just before Mr. Vascom goes over the thing, I just want to take a moment to recognize our staff, because they have played a critical role in this process. Our employees have worked cooperatively with the governing body and our professional advisors. They provided valuable institutional knowledge and helped implement improved procedures. So I want to thank them for their cooperation and their commitment to making these changes successful. So thank you.

Thank you very much. Mayor, as you stated, this is relative to the 2025 municipal audit, and it is something that's done annually. You do adopt the resolution annually to address the comments that were in your audit. What you're doing differently is you're actually discussing them and that. being a little more transparent about them. And the first step in that process was that Joe and I met with each one of you to review the audit in detail. I know each one of you gave hours of your time to sit down and really understand what the audit was this year and what it meant. And that's an important step in the process. And like you did say, the staff has taken very well for this. and they've moved quickly to initiate a lot of the corrective actions, even before the plan was written, based on our conversation. So I think that's important to point out. There were a number of comments, and there is a resolution on it, as you said. This is required by law. So the first step is the audit is completed, which was just completed about a month ago. And then the next step, obviously, as part of making the submission to the state, is to demonstrate one section of the audit has audit comments, basically, or areas where they say there's a deficiency or something needs to be handled more appropriately. We address that section. So that's what this corrective action plan is for each audit comment within the audit, each deficiency within the audit. We identify, hey, what was the deficiency? Why did it happen? And what are we going to do to address it? And by when? And we identify whose responsibility it is to address it. So that's what this plan is. And I know it was shared as part of the agenda. But I can explain each of them in general terms for you. The first one is in regards to inter-funds. Inter funds are simply funds transferred between funds within the town. So you have multiple funds. You have current funds, capital funds, grant funds, beach funds, water and sewer funds, water and sewer capital, beach capital. You probably have about a dozen different funds. And at times, because of the way you do business, at times these funds become somewhat intermingled. Tracked, but intermingled. The responsibility of the borough is, by the end of the year, is to clear all that, put it all back where it's supposed to be, and report it that way. It's not unusual to have an interfund at the end of the year, but it should be minimal, and the basis for not clearing the interfund should be clear. So our goal this year, as we work through the record keeping, we'll better manage the interfund process, and by the end of the year, we're sure that they're clear, or if they're not clear, we have a clear explanation as to why they're not. The next item is regard to the general ledger. And this is consistent in a number of these comments on regard to the general ledger. So I won't read each one of those as we go through. But really, it's just a matter of there's a process. It starts at a very basic level of bank reconciliations and account reconciliations. And it leads finally in various journals that get proven in various reconciliations and various steps. And the final step is to get it all together in the general ledger. So you have one place you can go and look at a summary. of everything where we stand financially all the time. What was happening was I would say that it wasn't being kept accurately. So the steps now have been implemented to assure that there's some redundancy in who has capabilities to be part of the process some separation of duties to assure that the same person isn't doing multiple steps in the process that could maybe hamper the internal controls of what we'd like to have go into the general record process. So we've clarified a lot of that, and I think one big part of what we're working on right now is just getting to a point where the general record is fully reliable, which I believe we'll have in place by the end of the month, and then move forward from there so it's maintaining a proper balance or a proper record-keeping manner going forward. And that would speak to the next several items on here. The next one that I would talk about would be the purchasing contract awards. You mentioned that and addressed that and you can see it on tonight's agenda. It was simply that resolutions, when they were being passed, and sometimes, well, there's two things that were happening. One is there was a resolution being passed that appointed a professional but didn't set the cap on what that professional was committed to, who was committed to spend on that professional. So now you have a cap. It doesn't mean that, you know, you get three quarters of the way through the year and you've gotten to the cap that you can't reconsider, that you can't come back and say, hey, guess what? You know, something arose that justifies the need to make an adjustment. You have that ability to do that still. But you have to lay it out now what your intent is, what I intend to spend on that professional. Secondarily, you had situations where you appointed professionals And then assign them work based on proposals simply by purchase order throughout the year. So maybe the government body knew that we were going to use an engineer or some other professional to handle a project. And you did see the proposals, but you never formally authorized to use those proposals. That was just happening as an internal process. So now, each one of those proposals will come before you as long as it's above the bid threshold, it'll come before you to actually be awarded, and that way you are fully aware of what you've awarded to your professionals and when there needs to be an adjustment to those awards. The next several items are in regard to tax collection items, and they come down to a similar situation I spoke to before, was there was a lack of a full comprehensive process here. There were things that were being left that were not being completed or taken to the finish line. I'll be very clear, though. taxpayers were not impacted by the issues that occurred here. These were internal office matters. These were issues that were in regard to getting the record keeping to properly match across the board. and to make postings and make complete things in a timely manner. That's what it's more about, less about, in this . So it's such as the item of post-facture statements. So it's a matter of these items were not on record, so when the auditor came, they weren't able to just pull them all together and show them to the auditor, so the auditor could review them. It was just a matter of maybe better processes that needed to be in place and maybe some better oversight that needed to occur. So some of that is being addressed. Well, all of that is being addressed now. I think, let's see. This item was just more of a process item. Again, there were some situations because of our computerized timekeeping system that there was not a supervisor above others who were authorizing overtime within the system. They were authorizing overtime verbally. They knew that the workers were doing overtime. but they weren't going in the system to validate . That's been addressed already. And the last one you recently addressed through an agreement with regard to the pilot agreements. It wasn't a good exchange of information between the redevelopers and the borough, and it wasn't being managed properly. I think now I think you have a good process in place, you have a nice reset, the funding's been received, and now we can move forward and handle that more appropriately and move forward. Did that answer any questions that the council had to do?

Yeah, thank you so much for doing this, Mike. This is great. Do we know who our pilot consultant will be moving forward? Will we afford to do that commission?

So NW Financial is managing that portion of it. The billing and collection is handled internally. So your staff is handling that. What's happening now is when the audits come in, they'll go to NW Financial. They'll analyze and make sure that they meet the terms of the agreement. and then they'll pass that on to the assessor and the collector and the CFO to assure that the proper maps are being built and collected. In addition, there'll be a strengthening process within the tax office to assure that it's handled properly on that side.

I just don't want any more lawsuits. Anything else? That's it. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mike.

This is just a good opportunity to improve our government and establish practices that will serve you for a while, for years to come. So thank you so much for working, again, to the staff for working with us through this time. This has been quite a time to be alive. But I'm really, really proud of the work that we've all done. Everyone here on this desk, all of our staff, everyone. So thank you.

OK.

We will move on to petitions.

I do not receive any petitions.

Having no petitions, we move on to approval of minutes.

Can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the August 25th meeting?

Motion.

Second.

Councilman Lubin? Yes. Councilman Kinney? Yes. Councilman de Blasio? Yes. Councilman Maroney? Yes. Mayor Donovan? Yes.

All right. We'll be back to reports of council. Council member Lin.

My second meeting of tourism is tomorrow night, so there's nothing to report on that. But I would like to say, because I got to read the beach report for the summer, having worked there for three years, it was Very nicely written. I'd like to thank Kevin Carew, everyone else that works on the boardwalk, all the staff, all the different departments too. When we go through Kevin Carew's report, there's a lot of things to discuss going forward. Some of it was on the list that I've accumulated myself. to see he's thinking the same way. The one thing, though, is we were given a survey and questions the public and comments from the public. The number one comment from the public all summer long is we have one of the most beautiful beaches up and down the coast. And that also comes from the reporters of Channel 7. So that's basically it.

Thank you, Mayor.

I also would like to... echo the sentiment of having a great 2026 beach season. It was a great summer, no major catastrophes, so thank you to the police department, and EMS, and the fire department, and TPW, the marina, everybody over at the beach staff, and Kevin Grew, and Belmar Clyde went off great, kids race went off great, the fireworks went off great this weekend, so it was a really, the weather couldn't have been better, so thank you to everybody involved to make this summer really good. And then I also wanted to thank Barry, Turbo, and Reclamation, because all of those burns are great, too. We have summer camp, junior garlands, movies on the beach, fans in Piano Plaza, and Barry did a really good job organizing all of that. So another really, really great summer. Couple things from recreation, basketball clinic sign-ups are happening now for kindergarten first graders. Winter basketball is also happening now, sign-ups for second to eighth graders. Youth club, also sign your kids up for youth club. There's a Marine Science Enrichment class which will be starting Monday, September 28th. Please reach out to the Recreation Office for more information about that. Planning before our crisis seminar will be on September 30th. There's a flyer in the lobby for all the information and we'll email and go out to all the senior citizens who are registered with the Recreation Department. Fall tennis sign-ups are also happening now. Tennis is going to start October 3rd. And registration for pickleball lessons for boys and girls in 5th through 8th grade is open now. This program is for Belmar and Lake Como only. And it is a free program for our Belmar and Lake Como kids. So that's great. The Belmar Pro is this weekend as well as Surfers Healing up on the beach. So between I guess it's like 14th and 19th. There's going to be a lot of tents and activity. The Belmar Skate Park Committee will be selling t-shirts at the Belmar Pro all weekend. So come out and check those guys out by a t-shirt or a sticker. The weather is supposed to be really good as well. The next Jade Tree Commission meeting is this Thursday night at 6.30 here in the borough conference room. And we're going to be discussing pruning and maintaining and planting new trees around town with our newly awarded grants that we got. So that's going to be great. Around the schools, everybody's back to school. Thank God, right? The kids are back. Everybody started today at Belmar, St. Rose, everybody's back to school. And just a quick announcement, October is our first Responders Awareness Month. We are going to be doing a flag raising on October 2nd. Time will be, I will let you know next meeting, but we won't be determining the time. But we'll have a little ceremony out front and a flag raising for First Responders Month.

And that's all I've got.

Thank you, Council President. Council Member Blasio?

and our beach staff and our police and DPW. Thank you everyone who has made this summer absolutely fantastic and what a successful summer we had. For my committees, I have the Art Work Commission. We haven't met since our last meeting. Our next meeting is on the 15th at 6 p.m. The Planning Board is on September 28th at 7 p.m. There will be 10 days before that a final version of the master plan revisions that will come up 10 days before the meeting to be reviewed by us and then we're going to meet on the 28th with the hopes of redlining and approving or voting on the new master plan. One other event that we haven't talked about is on Thursday, September 17th is going to be the San Gennaro Festival fundraiser hosted by the Del Mar PES PTO. That will be a $10 donation. spaghetti dinner, and we will be honoring our Centennial honorees, Gary Henninger, Nicolette Cotella, Rich Falcone, and Jenna Campbell.

Thank you, Councilman, and Councilman Rooney.

I'll be attending my first part of the commission meeting on the 15th, as Councilman de Blasio said, since being appointed, so hopefully I'll have more to say next time, so that I can...

Thank you, council. I would like to remind everyone about the two 9-11 memorial ceremonies we're going to be hosting. They will be at the first one at 9 AM at the Belmar Housing Authority. And then later that evening, the fire department hosts a second ceremony beginning at 730 in front of Taylor Pavilion. Oh, in front of the 12th Avenue Pavilion, rather. So that will feature a light memorial. I just wanted to encourage everyone you can to come out. These are beautiful ceremonies. And they're really touching. So please consider coming out. It is absolutely a coin memorial to the day, to the occasion. We will have our next Environmental Commission meeting on October 8th. And finally, a thank you to, of course, all of our beach staff, but also thank you to Goodwill and Jersey Shore Running Club and to all of our volunteers, including some who can ladder for the Belmont Five and the Belmont Five Kids Race. Finally, the next copy will be there September 27th, so I encourage you to come out. And we will wrap up our reports if you have some more. Thank you. Second. Now we'll have a vote session. This is for a vote session for resolutions on the agenda.

Eugene Creamer, 4th Avenue. I just want to thank you for looks like resolution 185 appointing a local attorney for the redevelopment attorney position. Thank you. I think we would have made out a lot better if we had a local attorney that was familiar with CAPRA and the protections that CAPRA offers for Oklahoma when it comes to these redevelopment projects. Thank you. Thank you.

My name is John Judson. By the way, I've been here before. I go to the inspectors there. I don't take care of anything. My neighbor, the landscaping friend asked.

I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, sir. That's why I can't speak well. That was why I was interrupting. This is for resolutions on the agenda. Oh, I'm sorry. But if it is at all a hardship, you can continue now. I don't want to. Okay. Is there any more comment for the resolutions on the agenda?

Okay, can I have a motion to close the public session? Motion.

Second. All in favor? Aye.

Okay, can I have a motion to approve the resolutions as listed on the consent agenda?

April, I'd like to make a motion. I'd like to pull out 2026-185 as a separate resolution. While they are local, and I do appreciate they will probably know more than what we've had over the last couple of years, the rates were significant still. that can handle this at a much better rate. So if I could consider those, I thought we would interview a few more.

Which local attorneys are you interested in?

Well, there were two other, but the Dasty firm has been involved this time before, and we didn't interview them at all.

I understand that. And I appreciate that the DASI firm has worked with us. However, having reviewed their work on other projects, including the Verizon case, I don't feel comfortable discussing our work here.

We don't have to lose it, right?

No, just responding. OK, so we can pull that from the consent agenda. So I had a motion to do that. Is there a second?

All in favor? Aye. Okay. Can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended?

Motion. Second.

Okay. Councilman Lubin? Yes. Councilman Kinney? Yes. Councilman de Blasio? Yes. Councilman Maroney? Yes. Mayor Donovan? Yes. And then can I have a motion to approve Resolution 2026-185, a resolution authorizing the contract for legal services for a redevelopment attorney?

Motion.

Motion. Second. Okay. Councilman Lubin? Yes. Councilman McKinney? Yes. Councilman de Blasio?

No.

Councilman Maroney? Yes. Mayor Donovan? Yes. Okay, next we have ordinances. We have one ordinance, 202620. This is an ordinance amending the Borough Bellmark Code, Chapter 35, Section 4.2, Application for Flood Hazard Development Permit. Do we have a motion to offer this ordinance for first reading and introduction? Motion. Second. Okay, Councilman Lupin? Yes. Councilman McKinney? Yes. Councilman de Blasio? Yes. Councilman Maroney? Yes. Yes. Mayor Donovan. Yes. And now we have the regular public session. So sorry if you'd like to come back up. Just remember to state your name and address, please.

John Judge, 508, 11th Ave. I've been here a couple times before. I went to inspect your report. My neighbor does landscaping. He has a truck in front of the house. I own a R75 lot. He's got a commercial truck in front of the house. And so, a lot of times, I load it up. Six o'clock in the morning, he starts working. He just keeps on working all day. I know how to do it. According to the ordinances, right?

And his property is a real mess. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The hedges are, we don't do the top of the hedges.

Nobody ever gets back in touch with me. I had a meeting with our enforcement officer last week relative to the to the complaint about the property. He was going to revisit it and come back to me. So we didn't forget about it, but I don't know the answer right yet.

It's many pillars. That's the front yard. That's the front yard. It's not going to be the mayor.

The council would like to see it. But I've tried to address it. I'll give you the outcome pretty shortly. That's all crap.

You've got to see this place. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable.

I will give you an answer. All right. Thank you. Thank you. I'll be back next time.

All right. Can I have a motion to close the public session and adjourn the meeting? Motion.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Thank you.