Town Council - Regular Meeting

but still under budget 25 was significantly lower and of course I I I see you decreased it by $5,000 this year. Um do you anticipate you know the numbers remaining the same you know anywhere from 30 to 35 40,000 or you council calls right so our inspectors are called out in emergencies if there's a fire at night there's a car accident knocks down a pole our inspectors are called calls out there and as you know the construction workload varies

right u we currently have eight vacancies in our construction office $546,000 over the budget. We had the same amount in 2025 um license finding people with licenses professionals is difficult. So um we wanted to reduce it because we haven't used that amount but we think 45,000 is a good number. Well you brought up you have eight openings. Are you looking to fill them vacancies? active. We were trying to kill him, right?

But um you know, typical, right? We just had a pretty good hit to us. We have a plumbing inspector leaving us. He's our only full-time plumbing inspector. What that's going to leave us is a sub code is the supervisor there and a part-time plumbing inspector. Disastrous. We're actively uh reaching out reaching out to the labor union, see if they have somebody qualified. Indeed, we're advertising on uh we need to fill at least that spot. Sure. We're in a lot of trouble, right? Okay.

On on page number two, just a real it's another small amount, but I just was curious of under um postage you have 5,000. It was exactly spent every year and then last year you didn't spend anything and this year it's 5,000 like the recommended. What's that? You know what? So, I'm gonna lean on Mrs. Monza for some healthier. That amount just comes out of our budget each year. It's 5,000. We're hold. All right. I think that accommodates, but last year it wasn't taken out. That gets allocated to our postage account and everything. So, that probably just wasn't charged off properly.

Yeah. And you know what else too, Councilman? I carry police and public works and everybody knows I just want to say my friends want to say something nice about me. I'm sure.

How about read on uh books and publications? What's that? Uh that that that's the third page that's down one more page. It shows zero. It's like 0 and 24. It was zero and 24 is just a I mean we typically had in there well it's just fluctuated like I mean we've had in there 7500 then we went to a,000 then we went back up to 7500 this office is governed by UC's standards so they dictate uniform code of construction and those changes occur every three years. Okay. Last year they had changes proposed but never got adopted. a change in the governor's office.

Okay. Gotcha. Okay. I understand. I don't have anything else for that.

Any my colleagues have anything else? No. Nope. Pretty pretty a lot of zeros. Yeah. There's If you're okay, we can move on to planning and compliance. Mhm. So that is our second largest division. That's land use planning. Just looking at salary. Salary looks um looks like do we have an employee not there? somebody transferred because there's u looks like we actually spent less than was allocated last year.

We have a clerk's position that's uh vacant in that division. Is that the cause for the overtime increase? So council we've done the same work uh throughout my six plus years here this year as we did day one less employees. Um, got to fill the situation somewhere, you know, fill in the blanks. Well, I think the reason I'm asking is there's not not many people working in this building other than in this room right now. It's 10 after 6 and one of your employees is still in there working. Are they on overtime or are they salaried?

Um, so that employee is uh is here on overtime. I think you can come by most nights and that employees here. Jeff was here yesterday for the council meeting as well. I don't think there's a night you go by that that employee is not at her desk um work this I don't keep this department she what um what's her title

anybody is there a way to change her title to so we're not paying her over Are we looking at um community planning and response? Because the OT number was 2,000 last year and they're asking for 20. So I'm asking a lot. We ask but it it fluctuated to like the year before was up to like 11. Still less than 20. I see that. I'm just I'll repeat. I'll repeat my question.

So if that employee that night is working on engineering, I charge you overtime to engineering. UCC I charge over time whatever activities is being reviewed that particular night that's where I charge the most okay so I believe last year is uh significant amount of money I was 11,000 just for that just in that department. Yeah. Yeah. And a 22 was 30,000. Right.

Not notation on that one.

Fred, what what about the um this was on the next page. It's 028 under other professional services. Um there's planning services for ordinance change and special projects. What does that really? Can you use So if council should should choose to ask if an area is in need of redevelopment. Um yeah. Okay. Professional services out. Last year we did a we outsourced that right for like Yeah. someone to come up with the plan. Yeah. We did A and C. That's right. There's nothing else.

All right, move on to economic development. I have a question. I don't have any questions. I didn't auction.

I know. Appreciate all those zero spread on the year-over-year increases because my dedicated staff.

Going on to the next uh section, economic development advisory commission. The salaries there are getting a little out of control, aren't they? I'm telling you, they want to join the union, but I won't let them. You almost exceeded $1,000,

Fred. Engineering the steep decrease in wages. And that's that's engineering. Engineer and we jump too. I'm sorry, council president, but I knew we didn't have mushel now, so I just moved this. That's rare for you to move forward that quick. He's itching for something. No, no, I'm good. Um, you just need to fill positions. Is that why it's salary wages is so low? I mean, well, we're budgeting less. We're budgeting significantly less.

So, a big part of that is the chargebacks that they're expecting for this year. It was last year it was a little over 100,000. This year, they're expecting over 400,000, which is factored into the overall budgeted amount for salary. Can you explain that chargeback? So maybe could probably elaborate a little bit more on that exact chargeback. So our our road inspectors uh and are out there working on private projects. The time on those projects are charged in escrow account that that developer has to post up and uh then that money comes out of that account and goes against our salary wages allows us to look at. Okay. Oh, that's right.

The net of that. Yes, I got you. I got you.

So, I'm up to 028. Other professional consultant. I'm up to the line where it says I need glasses. Yeah, I know. I know, right? I wrote down the numbers tonight because last time I didn't write down the numbers where anyway. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So, um Fred, can you talk a little bit about I I see like all the expenses here for um different consulting including Rucker's water resource management. We spent over 40,000 on that. Can you talk a little bit about what that what they're doing for us? Well,

does a series of activities uh monitoring our basins um resigning some of our professional reports that have to be submitted to us. We actually do roughly uh $4,215 this year because some of their activities were coming in the house. Uh otherwise I believe everything else stays the same as in 2025. Yeah, overall this actually this uh section did drop by almost 3%. I'm I'm wondering about um a few of the bigger ticket items. Uh traffic signal signal maintenance 40,000 for that. We have great resc.

Yeah. Uh the last one like that is the uh engineering consultants. Now we have an in-house engineer. We do well but uh for special consulting uh functions we rely on engineers to assist us with our different performances and we have a sort of engineering CN C.

Okay. Oh, wait. If I use the Who's I think I think we're done. We're done with that. Unless you have other questions, we can move on. No, we're good. Housing inspection. So, this is uh another one uh probably going to be a recurring theme tonight. Um we spent 430. I'm sorry, which Oh, I apologize. Yeah, housing inspections. I'm looking at salary and wages. Yeah, it's uh 100-011.

So, we are eliminating a position in uh in housing, the senior housing inspector, and we're asking that another uh individual moved up into that box. So, it's around a $80,000 senior. Yeah, that's right. It's about $80,000 savings, right? $1,200. So, we are right now the line item is is more than last year, but we're eliminating a position.

So, are you guys on the same page? Last year we spent 430. This year we're asking for 488 here. Going to get some different performance council. What was the question? I'm sorry. I was

Well, Fred just said that uh in housing inspections, they're eliminating position. Um and that there should be a drop. Last year, we spent 430. This year, we're budgeting 488. Oh, so I just want to understand what we're doing.

Yeah. So, there was a position that was partially budgeted for last year, which salary fully budgeted nearly doubled. All right. And there's probably 2% increases across the board on top of that. Absolutely. Okay. So, that kind of Well, if there's a position eliminated though, shouldn't we still be down from Let's see. There was this right here. But it could be contractor 79,535 that fell off and then up $4,000 for another seven for this. Another seven for this

salary. Yeah. And then essentially a watch. Yeah. All right. Well, it's it's one of the only salary and wages that's actually flat. So, I'm not even complaining, but Well, we don't want to even We're not going to fill that position. We eliminate that $40,000.

Well, you can't because he identified where the money's going. Like, it's the 2% increases plus you had a part-timer who's or maybe not part-timer, but somebody worked a partial year. Now, we've got to account for a full year's salary. So it kind of wipes out that savings, but it makes your salary and wages for this department flat versus pretty much every other department we looked at is up substantially in salary and wages. So that's relatively good for So all right, I'm satisfied. Right.

We get to move on the pling board. Yeah. Yeah. I don't have anything there. And I think we have one question on um legal services. We spent 10,000 last year and we're asking for 40,000 this year. You have the budget for challenges. Yeah, just little challenges for uh planning boards decisions. Okay.

And last year we canceled six planning board meetings. That mean six times we have to turn the border in. Okay. But that 40,000 is a decrease of $9,000. I see that. Okay. And if you look at the previous years, we sometimes in most cases at least 21 and 22, we went over the allotted amount. It's more of an anomaly. Yeah. Than Okay. But they still cut it. Instead of 49, they went down to 40. So that's Yep. I don't have anything on tree zoning, border, zoning, enforcement.

Zoning enforcement. I'm good. No, I'm good. All the way to there. Yep. Where you going? Zone work. Actually, that's everything for Fred, I think. Well, he has capital and then Fred, the one one question I had was on the um the revenue. I noticed it just went down a little bit with the uh UCCC fees. Is that what was the main reason for that? Less mean last year. Yeah, last year compared to this year we actually last year we hit a record high 3,885,000. And why do I show

what are you looking at? So on the revenue side, why are we only showing um for the 2026 proposed? 2026 proposed, we show 3.1 million.

Because we tried to anticipate we might not have a stellar year like we had last year in terms of the permits and and other things that come in development. Although it's going well, we were being very conservative in our approach to that. So, we could anticipate up to a higher number because we collected a higher number last year, but you know, we were just we want to make sure we don't go into the end of the year and end up with a deficit because we thought we were going to reach this much and we almost got there, but we really did, right? So,

so last year, just want to understand this clearly, last year we we brought in 3.8 or 3.5 3.8 district. Well, and I'm seeing a little bit less than 3.5 brought in. That's why I'm just like I mean we can be conservative. I just don't want us to be 3.4.4 3.6 3.5 right 6.5 but I think you're including some other things that they categorize elsewhere not. Oh, okay. I know what you're saying. Okay. So, we're just being conservative under that category. We could anticipate up to 3.5, but again,

they had such a good year last year. If we miss that, this year, even by 100,000, we'll have to take a deficit on that, right?

Okay. Okay. Move on, Captain. Cat, but the trend I'm sorry, I'm back on this issue again. But the trend has been we've been moving and collecting more and more. Well, what makes us think that

and most years have gone up, but there was one or two in there that just gets down slightly and then we're higher the next year. So, I would put my faith in Fred. He's going to bring in more. Not that I don't have faith in him. I absolutely do. And he shows us the numbers every month. So, he has a really good handle on that and what's coming in and how it compares to every other year. So, do you know where you're at like right now? We're over a million dollars in the first two months. It's on track. Definitely on track.

So, and how how does that affect your thinking if that number's off? Well, the more I mean, I'm thinking that, you know, we just want to act have an actual accurate number there. You're not going to have an actual number because it didn't happen yet. Yeah. Well, not actual, but an accurate close test. Yeah. Make sure it's a Okay. Here's my numbers for your last 2017 2,265,000. 2300,000. 2018 2,230,000. 2019 2,412,000.

2020 2,987,000. 2021 3,547,000 22 3,600,000 23 3,277,000 24 3,77,000 and this comes right out out of our UCC uh law 3,825,000. Okay. Yeah, he's got roads. Roads.

Roads. Oh, yeah.

Says engineering. All right. Uh, second plastic. There's a split on both. It's right before WPC. I see. So we we split the roads between public works and grads department.

We always coordinate together. So they have different roles and different things that they do, different types of projects, but it all has to do with the road. And so they coordinate everything together to make sure that whatever they have to do on that it it all coincides.

Public Works does a great job with their roads. We do things a little bit differently. Um, we installed we hire contractors to install the uh the um the curves, you know, uh any kind of sidewalks need to be replaced on both engineering roads and um public works roads and the our engineering staff and and Chuck's paving staff work very closely to identify roads that they can do and roads that we have in front of this a series of roads including uh the T roads that's roads that T is a fund uh transportation independent district where uh um developers have to pay for this fund. So it's not taxpayer money. Whenever we do that in that district, we use it. And this year there's two roads identified in that district. We pay for it not with taxpayer fun. Maybe this is a question for Chuck. Um, but for the roads, when we do the assessment on the roads, um, how frequently is that done to give them the score, the grading? Like I know we had, was it a outside company that came in and actually assessed our roads? If I remember correctly,

that was done six years ago. And we have road inspectors that every winter go over our roads to uh check the ratings. That is the ratings. Um see our changes out there, deterioration out there. And that's you look there's a column rating. That's the road ratings on each road. That's our basis. But we put eyes on it, too. Let's just say the rating is this. We're going to do this or not do this. We put a set of eyes on it, too. That's Chuck said. Chuck's got a That's like Chris Lock. He's got a great page there. Hey, hey, Fred. When we decided uh to do that, did we say, "Hey, we're going to redo this uh rating system every so many years. Is it time to maybe redo that?"

It was a little bit little bit expensive, but we needed something to go on. And I think I'm confident in our uh road inspectors that they do an adequate job out there. Um, good. I think they're the best in the group, our our folks, and uh I I like what they do and I like their standby. I'm good with it. Just offering it up in case you felt that we maybe it's something we have to look into. I've looked at that contract where we they did the uh image, whatever it was, they did that assessment uh as kind of a level set just to make sure you guys were and that gave you a basis for base. Yeah. the work you've done since then.

And you know what? We give past u um director Chris Mark, a lot of credit for that. He wrote that firm to us and engineered the way and we as we all saw this winter boats can go downhill in a hurry when we have weather like this. So, um, so we I get a lot of calls about poss to you, Chuck.

I'm good. I was just curious for y'all. So, next to the one I know she has six grants six for the theme, which is awesome. That's great. Is that is there a reason there's not a rating on those? Ben, I'm just curious. That's a difficult question. So, a lot of a lot of effort goes into uh applying for a grant. Yeah. Um all has to be do approved and qualified. I think we lobby pretty well. I give Mayor Martin a lot of credit for that. He's involved in the process of uh seeing what kind of grants we can get out there. Um but there is no ring because it's totally separate and our our uh individual.

Thanks or unless you have anything else to add.

I I I just have one question. I I I know you brought up before that that your system works a lot of overtime and I appreciate her dedication. Naturally, she's being compensated for that through the different departments that she works in. So, just in your department alone, but on average, what what is the amount of overtime say that one individual is is receiving? And is there a way we could listen, I'm sure would rather go home, too, right? I know at the end of the day, some people would rather go home than work overtime. And I appreciate the fact that she does put that extra effort in. Is there a way to to, you know, make it easier for her and to cut down on the overtime?

So, I don't receive overtime. My construction official doesn't receive overtime. Uh, my language school here doesn't receive over by title. We don't receive overtime, right? Um, Kathy knows my feelings about this. um you know if there was a title that was available that would move anybody into not getting less overtime. It's a safe is there a title available? Is that something we have to talk about offline?

We can if you want because I don't have that information right in front of me. I know Fred put in and wanted to look at a title change for her. Okay. Um it's it's tough when you're at that level because she's at a pretty high level right now. So um it's something that I can go back and get you the information on. Certainly. Okay.

So and I think you know part of the reason for the recommendation is because she is so dedicated and she does just do a fantastic job. And as Fred said, you know, she doesn't do it all. You do a lot, but she she helps you hold that all together and get everything done. And so it's not so much about trying to save money on the overtime as to, you know, if she got a title change, there would be an additional compensation for that as you get a promotion, right, in that title change. So, and that's that's probably fitting as well.

I fitting, but I don't want I want to go on the record saying the other 41 police out. Yes. I think all the township employees I don't think didn't get enough credit. So I agree with you. I I

as far as your budget goes though, Fred, I'd just like to just say myself personally and you handle many departments, right? And you have plenty of help and to just look at your budget and see the zeros is I I appreciate the time that you put in to preparing your budget and making cuts where it could save the town money. So, I just wanted to go, you know, thank you for the time that you yourself and whoever helped you get this budget together. You guys did a great job. So, it's it's nice to see. Thank you. See, thank you, Fred. So, before I say he's off the hook, does anybody else want to comment? No. Thanks, Fred. Yeah. Thank you. Now, you're off the hook. You're off the hook, sir. Thank you, everybody. Have a good night. Have a good night.

Tell you something. The people follow behind me do an incredible job and they should do that. Y

I have uh public safety division of police up next. Thank you, Mr. President. I appreciate it. Good evening everybody, council. My closing remarks for you. Uh we have a pretty challenging year in 2025 in terms of our staffing levels and power reflected in maybe some higher overtime.

Chief, is your mic on? Is that better? Ah, there we go. There we go. Sorry. I I I figured Fred might have left it on for me, but apparently he just falls. Apparently, it's too complicated.

Uh, at any rate, we had a we had a pretty challenging year last year uh with with with some of our staffing levels due to uh injuries, due to uh some military deployments, due to officers taking advantage of uh paternity leave. We had a couple disciplinary issues that that resulted in suspensions and and we had a very challenging year last year. Uh, however, I'm super proud of my men and women on the road. We did we were still able to achieve a nearly 19% drop in in major crime rate last year pretty much across the board. Um, we did a fantastic uh fantastic job uh you know with with our community policing as well. I think we we've done a excellent job over the last few years in in connecting with the community uh more so than maybe what we had done in the past. uh many more community uh events that we do and in fact uh this Saturday we're doing autism awareness uh over at the PDA. If anybody has a free Saturday, you're you're welcome to stop by. Um regarding the budget process, uh it's always uh it's always difficult and timeconuming and and I'd like to thank my uh my trusty right-hand man here, Lieutenant Kane, who's my budget officer. Uh spend a lot of time and effort over the course of the year managing my budget and also preparing for this budget process. I'd also like to thank Kathy Monzo and and Thomas Lackey and and and their uh teams for uh for the time and effort in reviewing our budget as well. I know it's uh it's always complex and and timeconuming and uh we always we always appreciate it and uh we we generally reached uh consensus on on most items. I might have one objection here I'll bring up later, but beyond that it's uh it really wasn't uh it it wasn't a very stressful process this year and I appreciate it. So open to any questions.

Chief, um just to start off, I where how are you with pending retirements? This looks like um where are we at with overall personnel? I have it in front of me, but just give me a little better sense of of the um breakdown of the sworn officers, how how they're falling.

We're actually at full staffing right now. Okay. Uh we're at full staffing is 174 officers and for only the second time in my almost three years as chief of police, we're at full staffing as of February. And I haven't lost anybody in the last two months, which is pretty shocking. Um and we're not anticipating any retirements over the next six months or so, but probably at the end of the year, we're looking at between two and four retirements, which, you know, which is actually a little bit on the low side. Usually over the course of a year, we we budget for eight. Sometimes we've had as many as 10 or 12. Um so this year is a little bit on the low side. We have a very young department. Um over the last three or four years we've had a number of retirements and uh you know we've we've been able to replace those officers.

Chief, going by what you said uh regarding challenging times with injuries and deployments. I know we went over budget with overtime last year. We're going back down to the original number. We have salary increases. Is that an attainable number? Well, the the the salary number of,50 which is budgeted, we're I I can assure you we're not going to we're not going to be able to meet that. Um we were at almost uh 1,500 or should not 1500 1.5 million last year.

Um some of which was reimbured overtime. And by reimbured overtime I mean some of the uh overtime that we generate for our SWAT team for example uh is reimbured by other agencies. Uh we we have a partnership with the crime suppression unit with the state police. Any overtime that's generated from my officer that's assigned to that unit is is reimbursed by the uh by the by the New Jersey State Police. Any uh opportunities where they use our SWAT team uh to execute a search warrant. They pay for the overtime for our SWAT team. Uh the we have an officer who's also deployed to the Mercy Homicide Task Force. any overtime that he generates is reimbured by the county. Th those are examples. There's other examples, but uh a pretty good chunk of that was uh was reimbured. Several hundred,000 dollars of that was reimbured last year.

Are we ever successful in getting somebody uh attached to FBI or DEA? Uh we have a liazison with the FBI. Sorry, Alison. Keep going. I'm going to move over here. There we go. We do have a designated liaison with the FBI. That's officer Bill Murphy.

Out of my anti-rime unit. Uh we do not have an officer who's actually uh here we go. Who's actually deployed uh to the FBI as a task force officer. Okay. Uh we do not have a representative with the DEA. We do have contact with the Trenton Office of the DEA. Uh currently we have obviously state police. We have the Mercer County Special Investigations Unit. We have the homicide task force. and we're exploring a relationship with the uh US Marshalss as well. I have uh two officers that are working with them on a part-time basis, but uh we're we're awaiting theou to be signed uh for that to proceed any further. Does they also have reimbursement programs through some of those agencies as well that we'd be able to take advantage of if we can get somebody there?

Yes. The only one that doesn't reimburse directly is the Mercer County Special Investigations Unit, but any monies that they uh happen to take in as part of seizures for criminal activity, we do get a a chunk of that from the county. So, it it may not offset 100%, but it it helps. Can you just keep me posted on those other agencies if we're able to get in? I'm sorry, Mr. President. I can't hear you. Can you please keep me posted? I guess I should turn this off. keep me posted on those other agencies if we're able to get somebody there. Yes, sir. Thank you. I'm going to jump ahead to medical expenses. Anybody have anything they want to Which page?

Y it's um page 11 001-093. I'm just surprised to see that these medical expenses are are out of the department budget. It's not covered by insurance. Well, these these are part of the hiring process, Mr. Tai. Uh this is for um psychological examinations for medical examinations for the hiring process. They're not uh medical exams that are generated by injuries, for example, or anything along those lines. Okay. Yeah. But I'm going to talk about that. I just want to jump back uh to page eight if I could uh to the uniform allowance. Is that um page six, right? Yes. No. Eight.

Page eight. Uh it's on it's on both pages. Uh it's clothing uniform on six. Yes. Are we using um what what vendor are we using for that? I know we approved a couple. We have a couple of different vendors. Uh we use uh we still use GS. Correct. And then Kax. Oh, just just Coolax. We were using Galls for years, but we were dissatisfied with their service. Once they sold, it's been a nightmare. It's been a mess. Yeah. Since they went from Sam's to Galls. Okay. Actually, why is that broken up into two different So, we have Well, it's two different things. One's clo one's a uniforms, which would be uh like an aotment of uniforms and then a clothing allowance uh would be different. It's a stipen.

Okay. It's like a clothing allowance. They get a clothing a clothing allowance to upkeep their uniforms. The other one is actual uniform type.

Yeah. So, the undercover vehicles were not purchasing then. That was pulled from a budget. Uh, we had we had requested the $70,000 again this year for uh undercover uh/ unmarked vehicles on the undercover vehicles are assigned to our anti-rime unit. Um, which we we've purchased uh let's see over the last two years probably four maybe five vehicles. Would that sound right? Purchased

three last year. three last year, right? And and we also received some from the county that were previous seizures. Okay. Uh that we're also allowed to use for my for undercover surveillance and you know buys and things like that. Police 911. I'm on police 911. But

yeah, I'm I'm ready to move on as long as everybody else is ready. I just had a quick question about the um telecommunications because there was an increase, but then admin I'm sorry, Miss Phillips. I I am sorry. Kathy could attest to I am deaf. Not at all. Um, no for telecommunications it was initially it's in the note that it was an increase of 84,200, right? And then it was reduced to 84,000.

Cell phones were denied.

Yes. Yes. Um yeah, it was something that that we had discussed previously with the with the administration regarding purchasing cell phones for all of my officers for use on duty. Uh I had proposed we had gotten quotes for doing all 174 officers. Uh now keeping in mind that we already have probably 20ish uh cell phones already assigned out. So it was an additional 154 or so cell phones to outfit the entire department. There's reasons that that to do that because my officers use their personal cell phones on a regular basis and between communicating with each other, communicating with uh their supervisors and it does create some issues uh in terms of putting my officers at risk of having their phone subpoenaed uh if they're communicating regarding a a criminal investigation. Also, we have numerous programs that uh we also use, such as our scheduling program, for example, that officers install on their phones that they're a little bit leerary sometimes about using their personal phones. So, over the last couple of years, I've had conversations with uh with Kathy and and other members of the administration of potentially um purchasing cell phones, but I mean, it's a big ticket item. I understand that. So, that's uh something that we're going to have to put off till future budget cycles.

Okay. Another overreach of the state government. I agree.

We're moving on to 911. Yes, sir. I don't have anything there, Chief. Uh item 12 is overtime. Um, it looks like there's been a decline over the past 3 years. Yes, sir. Um, what do you anticipate happening?

Um, I would expect it probably not to be too far off of the 94,000 number. Uh, the reason it's declined is about a year and a half ago, we changed the uh schedule for the dispatchers. They had worked a uh four 40 on two off schedule and we had changed it to match what our patrol officers work which is called the pitment schedule the 12-h hour schedule and it had the uh net effect of increasing our staffing levels in the radio room uh during certain periods of time such as midnight shift when it would generate a lot of lot of overtime with the 42. In the in that previous schedule, there were only two dispatchers scheduled at any one time and any and and there there's a two person minimum in there uh on the state level because we're required to have uh personnel in there who can respond to NCIC inquiries and ACS the some of the state computer systems they have to be certified to handle those systems. So there was always a two person requirement. So if one person was off we were generating overtime pretty much you know on a on a weekly basis. So by changing it to 12-hour schedule, it allowed us to increase our staffing levels on night shift to three. So now if one takes off, it it doesn't generate overtime. So that that schedule changes really uh resulted in a you know significant savings in our dispatcher overtime. Right. That was my only question on that one.

Yeah. Okay. To move on police vehicles.

Yeah. I have nothing on that. It's actually uh the last thing we can move on to uh capital if everybody's ready. Yep. Yep. There we go. Good job. Chief uh s what is that?

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm on your capital budget and it looks like you were denied an item an IT item SAN or SN for the new building for new building. I think that's under it's under sorry Chief threw me off there for a second Mr. Ty. Okay. I know we made it to you as a police capital but it's really the entire capital budget on that worksheet. It says it's a Yeah, it's all broken though. It just happens to be right next to the police. Yeah.

Yeah. The carpet and the paint is zeroed out. Can somebody explain why? It's on capital on page four.

Mhm. If you've seen the carpet and the ceiling tiles, it needs to be replaced. I don't think there's much more needed to be said. Question was there um about that, but I know that we were taking a look as he said last we taking a look at old capital

and if there was old capital available, we would deny that. But we unfortunately didn't make those moves on there. So right now they don't have any old. So the carpet we have in this room is better than the carpet in that room. So I would suggest that we fix figure out a way to fix it. Just my opinion. Mr. President, just to add to that, uh you everybody's going to this is our last council uh budget meeting in uh in in these uh 100-year-old quarters. You take a piece of wallpaper with you on the way home. Uh okay. Uh, it probably won't match my house, unfortunately. I'm taking one. I'm going to frame it and give it to my desk.

Um, but the the PD building is as old as I am, and as the years pass, I'm getting older, so that's not good. 39.

Sure. Um, so uh we've we've been requesting every year for uh you know, maintenance maintenance of the building to at least modernize certain areas of the building. For example, my bathrooms are still original from 1966867. Uh the we we've done a pretty good job with keeping up with things like carpet and and paint and and so on. You know, thanks thanks uh to Chuck Thomas as well for his contributions. But uh as the building ages, uh we continue to run into uh some maintenance issues and that's why we continue to request uh money in every annual budget uh for for those items. Uh fortunately, we're getting a new roof. They just started that. So, uh, you know, my officers up in the preserve officer station don't have to carry an umbrella anymore. Uh, but, uh, it's, uh, it it as the, as the building ages, it gets more challenging to, uh, to maintain it. So, that's that's really the purpose of those funds.

And the following year, that same request might increase because, let's face it, the costs are going to go up. And if anybody wants to discuss maintain our facilities when it needs to be painted or ceiling tiles need to be replaced or in this case even rugs, you know, I get we we're trying to save money, but some of these things that are are needed that

we're also trying to balance it with right a $60 million new building project and a debt service that goes along with that. So last year we reduced capital to increase significantly and then uh this year we've been trying to use old capital or really just do the things that are critical and you know roof is critical. So thankfully we got a nice grant for that but we also have other monies going into that as well of our own. So it's and that aren't insignificant. We have some capital funds going into that. The problem is, you know, it it does affect morale. When the water that was coming off the roof is not coming in the building and the building is filthy, it also reduces morale, which we can't allow to happen either, right? So, the damage and the debris and the garbage that's in there should be replaced.

Well, if anybody wants to uh bring up the discussion of a new building for the police police department, I'm always I'm all ears. I'm I'm willing to listen. Uh, if you'd like my input, uh, you start. Well, 60 million sounds pretty good, actually, for a new PlayStation. We already have the wallpaper and the panel. And the paneling. Any other questions on the um capital for the chief?

Uh, yeah, on the vehicles, chief. Um, so it looks like you requested 12 marked and four unmarked and that was reduced from 1.2 million to 750,000. So how many vehicles are you going to wind up with?

Well, as you're aware, police vehicles are are multi-year commitment. And last year, uh, the capital was cut down to zero for new vehicles. After the budget presentation with, uh, with the council last year, you were able to find some some capital to get us two vehicles. Uh, the unfortunate reality when it comes to police vehicles, number one, they're they're 24/7. So, we average around 40 40 to 45,000 miles per year per patrol vehicle. That doesn't include all my secondary vehicles, uh, you know, unmarked vehicles, etc. We're we're I'm talking specifically about my 34 patrol vehicles. Uh the uh we're we're in the process of uh equipping and deploying a number of vehicles that were actually in the 2024 budget cycle now from capital. They were just delivered late last year. They're in the process of getting one one done uh about every two or three weeks in Winter Ford. So, they're now coming out. the ones that were in the 2025 capital, the two vehicles, we're we're not going to see them until 2027. And any vehicles that we get here, we're probably not going to see till 2028. That's that's just it's the ordering uh cycle for police vehicles. Uh Ford has been severely backed up. Uh you know, because they're basically the only supplier of police vehicles at this point. So, uh I did have extensive extensive conversations with my fleet manager uh leading up to this presentation. uh we can manage right now with uh the eight vehicles that are authorized under capital. Um but at some point losing only having two vehicles for last year uh is going to cause us issues down the line as our mileage continues to increase and increase. Uh it's it's just the reality of the situation. Um I'm okay with just getting the the eight vehicles uh for this year. Uh, I understand, you know, with capital that the the the biggest um concern for

myself and my officers this year was replacing our duty handguns. I'm sure you saw on there was $275,000 capital request for that. Uh, that's a much higher uh priority for the PD to get those handguns replaced. And that's a oneshot deal. We don't have to worry about it. That's about a 10-year life cycle for for handguns. So, uh, next year I hope, uh, I can work with the administration and increase the number of vehicles that we order, uh, perhaps up to that 12 12 number in that range. Chief, are you aware of any departments that are using hybrid or electric vehicles for patrol?

Uh, I'm not aware of any hybrid vehicles for uh, police vehicles. Um, I know some departments have experimented with electric. The pro there's there's significant downsides to electric vehicles. uh starting with infrastructure, we don't have any place at the PD that, you know, where we could charge an electric vehicle. But number two, but because they're 24-hour vehicles, I can't afford to have a vehicle take 30 minutes, 45 minutes to charge up. Those vehicles have to be available at a moment's notice in case there's an emergency. Electric vehicles really that the technology really has not advanced to a point to where they're practical as a as a patrol vehicle right now. I understand the logistical I understand the logistical challenge if you're if you're running the vehicles 24 hours a day.

Uh they have to charge at some point. Okay. Any questions? I'm good. Thanks, Chief.

I do have one request here in closing. uh we had requested uh not a significant one but a $25,000 uh request for UAV drone system that's on the page two of capital request. Now to go into a little bit of history, our our drones have really become over the last seven or eight years or so integral parts of the police division's operations. Uh if I could point you to the situation we had two weeks ago where we had the barricaded suspect. We had literally every one of our drones deployed uh on a on a rotating basis.

Uh our batter we were burning through batteries. A 17 18 hour long operation. Uh we had to request assistance from other drone teams in the county in order to effectively resolve that uh that situation. Um we're on a 5-year cycle right now in terms of drones. I have four medium-sized drones and four what are called micro drones uh that are uh designed for use inside of a building. The uh all of the drones have a 5-year life cycle in the sense they run out of warranty after 5 years and batteries start to die, road, you know, parts start to go on the drones. So, I have I have several others that are older that are more or less useless. So, right now I have eight drones that we can deploy, but I've got several that are approaching the end of their life cycle. Uh, also the unfortunate reality with drones is that with uh on the on the national international political sense is we can no longer purchase Chinese drones. They're now banned from use from purchase in the United States DJI drones. Uh, so we have to purchase Americanmade drones which are substantially more expensive. The DJI drones, the Chinese-made drones were $8 to $9,000. The Americanmade drones are 24 to $25,000 a piece. So, in order to maintain my fleet, you know, unfortunately, the the price is tripled uh until the uh political climate, you know, changes in in terms of uh you know, international conflict with China here. Um we in order to maintain my fleet, I need to I need to purchase the American drones. And uh the the medium-sized drones are about 24 $25,000 a piece and the micro drones are about $12,000 a piece. Uh in speaking with my uh drone unit commander, um we actually need two more of the micro drones because our micros are getting uh towards the end of their life cycle. So I was uh going to put out that request and if the council's willing that to uh you know find find some money for drones, I'd appreciate it.

Chief, you mentioned uh the the recent standoff and you know Yes, sir. Um you were able to use drones in that operation.

Yes. Uh we used both the mediumsiz drones and the micro drones. Uh the mediumsiz drones were used on the perimeter of the house to keep uh as much of a 100% view on our on our suspect as we could from the exterior of the building. the micro drones. We actually flew inside of his residence and we were using two at a time uh to surveil where he was because he was constantly going from first floor to second floor to attic and so on. And uh we actually parked our drones inside of his house to sort of use as a surveillance system inside of his house in order to determine where this person was. Reminding everybody that he was armed he was a Iraq war vet who was armed with a rifle. So the the danger was very very significant there. So us knowing where he was at all times was was critical uh to the successful resolution of that incident.

Uh what other types of operations would you uh do you use the drones for?

Uh we use them for missing persons. Uh they always go up in the in the case of missing persons. Uh we've successfully resolved some missing persons investigations. Um I can you know proudly say that we've saved two lives with uh with the use of our drones. Now that would be the mediumsiz drones. Uh last fall we assisted Robinsville. They called us for assistance on a missing person who was endangered and suicidal. Uh we found that person in a lake in Robinsville um in very cold weather and uh we're able to direct Robinsville PD over there to retrieve that person, save his life. And we had a very similar incident um about a year ago uh wherein we had a missing person who we were actually tracking their cell phone into Lawrence Township. uh that person had jumped into Colonial Lake and we were able to uh behind Colonial Bowling Lanes and were able to direct Lawrence Pey over there uh to rescue that person and when they found her she was face down in the water and uh that was a we absolutely saved her life with the use of mic.

Okay, thanks Chief. I like the fact that you're have to purchase them here in the United States too. So Oh, it's not a bad thing. It's just it's it's incredible cost. Well, unfortunately. So, I don't have a problem with that. I'm glad you're I appreciate that, Mr. Well.

Uh, but some other usage, we do use them on serious uh motor vehicle crashes. We use them to help measure measure the scenes, for example. Uh, we use them quite regularly at public relations events. Uh, my drone guys will go out to some of the schools. I think we were at Langree not too long ago doing a a demonstration for it for the kids. They love it. National Night Out, you know, so on. So, there there there's a PR PR purpose to them as well. and and naturally the technology is changing constantly and and it's making your jobs easier right safety wise and and in some cases saving a life. So

and drones that we would purchase today are going to have better technology than than the ones that are reaching the end of their life cycle you know the four and five year mark. You know, we have just one more thing on the drones. We have a like a rising problem with uh these ATVs riding on the ship. Oh, yeah. Um I wonder if the drones could be helpful in tracking the

Well, it's funny you should ask. Um two weeks ago, we we were involved in a joint operation with Trenton. Uh invariably, these uh nuisance ATV and dirt bike riders uh originate in the city of Trenton. Uh they seem to take uh pretty predictable routes that take them out into into Hamilton. Uh I've seen them on on Craigbridgeidge Road. Uh South Broad Street is now a common um you know common area, common route for them to travel for whatever reason. So in this operation two weeks ago uh Trenton PD had developed intelligence that you know this they were going to have another big ride and there was about 40 or 50 of them that you know left the city and came down South Broad Street. Um of course whenever we attempt to stop them they they scatter. or they flee knowing that we we can't chase motorcycles or ATVs because invariably that is not going to end well. So we track them using our drones and whenever they would pull off for example we made a couple of arrests at the Wawwa at the uh White Horse Circle where several of them have had pulled off to uh to grab some refreshments. Well, we advised our officers that hey there they are. So they went into the Waw Wa and and and made made a couple of arrests there. Uh we've also assisted uh going into the city of Trenton their their normal meeting points or or Kawara Park for whatever reason and we're able to surveil them uh without them realizing that they're being surveiled. Obviously if we had uh you know police cars you know keeping an eye on them they're they're going to you know they're going to scatter and move etc. So the drones have been were were uh very helpful in that uh joint operation with the city a couple weekends ago. And I'm sure you're using them too. Right here in Hamilton Township where we have an ongoing problem with the the younger kids using the electric bikes. Yep. Not sure where you can't get any chase and god forbid somebody gets hurt. So it sits you following them to their house,

you know, where you notify the parents of the problem because I'm sure you're aware of it. It's an ongoing problem. And a and a and a final example of where it's been been very helpful is uh we actually have drone pilots that are out on patrol uh that take the drones with them in case there's a an emergency that in which they could be useful. um a little bit over a year ago, year and a half ago perhaps, we had a uh burglary in progress on Whitehead Road. And as the the homeowner went out to confront the suspect, the the suspect pushed pushed the homeowner down and ran off with a couple with an electric bike um electric scooter, I'm sorry. Um well, he dropped the scooter, but but then, you know, ran away from the scene. But obviously, when he using force and commission of theft, that's actually a robbery, not a burglary. So, one of my officers that had a drone uh with him on patrol put the drone up and was able to track this person from Whitehead Road uh across Asen Pank Creek and followed him all the way under Route One to Helen Fold. And my officers were able to track him down and make the arrest by Helen Fold Hospital. Without the drone, that arrest would never have been made.

Great. SPO, did you uh you had something you wanted to bring up? Well, I and Thomas would tell you also that I think we have some old capital that under that tech category. Yeah. I just want to uh make sure those projects are kind of are done, right? I'll send them to you tomorrow. I just wanted to ask about the 20 say the $25,000 for the drone system. Is that a fully loaded cost or are there other I have quotes from u from my uh drone media commander Sergeant Lugo. uh for a medium-siz drone which is 24,000 and change and the micro drones are $12,000 a piece.

All right, but what about maintenance of them and Axon charges and things like that for anything that you have to make sure is being recorded and stored and all of that? Well, the Axon comes into play with the drone sense program that's already already built into the contract. Um, so that for a certain number of drones, but uh I don't I don't think there's a limitation on the number of drones. I I don't I don't recall that in the in the drone sense program. Axons are are our body one camera. Check this. We're doing our best to try to get coverage. Can you just confirm that please because she could become a couple could be coming out of service too, right? Well, yeah. There's there's at least one I'll go to you tomorrow. Good. Yeah, I think he's got it. We'll make it work.

Good. Thank you. All right. I appreciate that, everybody. Thank you. Oh, that covers it. Oh, you're starting to ask something, but I wanted to get Kathy out there. Any questions for the chief? No. Appreciate you. Thank you everybody. Appreciate your time. Thank you.

Good. Good budget. Oh, look who's next. Department of Public Works, you're up. Buildings and grounds will start with unless you uh have an opening statement you'd like to make. You know what? I like to see his personnel.

Come on, let's go.

Hey Is this thing on this button? Okay. Hello everyone. Council president. Testing. Testing. I'm also very proud of our public works team and the effort they put into everything all year round, the support we give to other departments and residents of this town. So, uh, we did put some work into a mission statement and I would like to read it for council. Yeah. before you do that and before uh we get into your budget, I I just have to you know, you know, I give you compliments every time and we all do, right? I think every between storms and problems,

um I had spoken to Chuck uh about two weeks ago and I just I want to kick this off because I want I think this is going to be a very positive meeting. And um I reached out and I said, "Hey, there's some big potholes in a couple places. I've had people tell me, "Hey, I damaged my car." Um, I believe it was 7:30 in the morning and it was fixed by lunchtime. Wow. So, five different locations and um you know, we're all proud of you and your team and you know how I feel about you. So, we appreciate you and we always brag about you and um we'll let that start the meeting off. Thank you. Thank you very much.

I'll share that with our team. Please do. Always striving to better the level and quality of customer service, the Department of Public Works is a hands-on team of professionals dedicated to supporting and improving Hamilton's infrastructure and public properties. DPW is de dedicated to enhancing the quality of life in Hamilton and making every effort to maximize the efficient, effective use of Hamilton's resources. DPW is committed to public safety and providing prompt, courteous and quality service to our residents and businesses. Uh we consist of three major divisions. Our roads division uh which is responsible for the maintenance and improvement of 625 lane miles of roads, many of them with potholes in them and we're taking care of that. Uh the operations of of our ecological facility and the township garage which maintains our fleet. Sorry. Our division of buildings and grounds which is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of all our public buildings and facilities and our division of parks which is responsible for the parks and basins. In addition, we manage the uh solid waste collection services through our private contractor interstate waste service. Thank you for that. Um, anybody start off whoever wants to whoever wants to lead off. Um, we're going to start right at the top of the salary wages.

So, for buildings and ground right there to a $200,000 budget difference for positions that weren't budgeted for last year, but are budgeted for this year for that um 18%.

Okay. Thank you. Everybody um yeah uh 001018 differential out of title. Um, what's what's causing us to consistently uh be paying out of out of title?

In our in our Billies and Grounds division, a lot of the people we we've screened um our young labors, our starting position people to select people that had some trade experience. So that being said, a lot of the work that it's required from B&G is specific to trades, whether it be HBAC, electrical, carpentry, and uh these young people that we've hired have stepped up to the plate and they're fulfilling those services and we're paying them accordingly. That's good. Yeah, Chuck, I have a question on 028 other Profession

Profession Construction Special Services. Yeah. Uh that is page two. Page two. So why it wasn't budgeted at all last year? Was that just a budgeting budgeting issue, Thomas? on page two. Um, under 028, it was $1,000 consistently than zero last year. Was I think I think public works should be able to speak a little better on on that exact line item.

Yeah. And to kind of follow up on that, so it's uh item number 03. You said that we we've never spent more than a,000 on that and suddenly we're budgeting almost 30,000 for it. So it's we must be budgeting something in that category that we never budgeted before. That's what I'm thinking. It says maintenance radio service maintenance calls yes devices monthly service for devices. Yeah, we we

is I'm sorry. Is that connected to the one prior to that? The 026 that is the opposite where we had spent up to 23,000 but we're only budgeting under 5,000 like things get moved from one area to the other.

Okay. Yep. It's coincidence.

Okay. It's also weird. Why does it show as a zero change? Yeah, cuz it went from zero. So there's no That was 25. Oh, yeah. There wasn't even There's no multiple of zero. Yeah. wasn't that thing that one. Okay.

We can come back to Yeah. Going to have to look into that. I'm sure that had to come out of another line item. Yeah. Yeah. Because we didn't make any major We didn't do any major changes. Yeah. I assume it's just like it was pulled maybe from a different line item than what is listed here. Yeah. I'm I'm I'm interested to know too like was there some change in how we're accounting for this that we have this jump from a th000 a year to 0 to 30. And if if you can get back to us on that check. Yep. You know what I mean? Yep. Um,

so uh the next item is 030 materials and supplies. Um, and it looks like there was a transfer in of funds that then went unused. Am I reading that right? So that was that line item we discussed in our budget meeting um that they're probably mischarging it. They have O1 and O2 for um buildings and grounds. As you'll notice, there's two different types of control accounts within that. And we think that they've mischarged that last year. One division management. Okay.

Yeah. So, this this money division division management was budgeted for work on the floats, getting the materials, special promo items, things like that that aren't specific to building maintenance. And what we feel was that it was discharged regularly out of building maintenance and needed to be moved into this. All right. So, you're just cleaning up your account in place to make sure other proper Yeah. Yeah. We restructured how we're putting the account numbers on the requisition so that we have each division accountable for where their money is coming from.

Okay. My next question is um 037 electric and communication supplies or no? How can I have a question on that? The best line I had. No. Um did you have one on zero the clothing a uniform allowance? It was late last night when I was making these notes. You can you can tell

I wrote electric electrical next I'm always happy to see zeros but uh electrical it looks like maybe communication supplies I don't know I don't see even see that on this page Chuck the the uniform allowance one on that same page uh 043 That's just contractual, right? That's just, you know. Yes. That's based on that that increase is just based on the newly newly established contract that we have. Yes.

Okay. That's all I have written down. on page five, the big jump under maintenance of other equipment. There's about a $45,000. Is there is there um something that there points that that increase?

Yeah, we're in O2 now, right? 3102. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We we've asked for an increase for some work at the police station gate. We need we need a major amount of funding for that and also for um preventive maintenance on the air compressors at all the firehouses. As as we taking over more and more of the maintenance on the firehouses, we're finding different items that need constant maintenance. Thank you. probably a wide variety. Yeah.

Yeah. This is a long list. It's a kind of a catchall like it keeps going to the next page. It's a lot of detail there. Thank you for all the detail. Mhm. The electrical supplies that you were looking at on page 9. Let's see. bottom of

that's what was my question. I guess really for you guys it was we spent over the budgeted amount but there was no transfer in to cover that somehow. So the way the budget works for them is for all the departments is there's a control balance that adds up all of these individual accounts and when they overexpend which happens often with their department because a lot of interest they draw it down off of that control balance. Okay. We didn't have to necessarily draw. So if you had uh unders spent in another correct area just can move it over as long as it's within the same

Yep. Oh got it. All right.

Good. I'm good. You ready to move on to landfill? Yep. So landfill this big number. I just don't see any details here. Like it's it's just one big number for this. What's the big number?

Six million. Just one. So, I'm just wondering what's that like the landfill allocation. What's that going to Oh, it's just hauling. Yeah. 6 million for hauling. Yeah. Which is less than we Well, less than last year. I mean, last year we budgeted a little bit. Uh we budgeted 6 million last year. Mhm. So, it's slightly slightly more The actual's less pretty flat, right? Pretty much flat. Yeah.

It's about a week. You good to move? Yeah, we're good. Yeah. Park maintenance. So the um overtime budgets item 12 right on the first page 3%. So we're contractually obligated to increase that amount by 3% per year. No, but I miss I'm I'm misreading that based on the the spending pattern and them going over budget every year. 3% would be approval, correct?

Right? Because the contract for salary and wage went up 3%, we said let's make sure that we up right are over time, especially since you know and if it's time and a half they're overending what we budget in there. So we keep an eye on that year.

You're taking the number that was there was already one and a half then the same amount of hours times three. So the one and a half. So all right. Okay. Well, uh just above that salary and wages a bump of about 14 and a half% there. Is there are we uh hiring or or what's what's happening there? Are we filling vacant positions? There were a couple positions last year that were budgeted half for that he filled that are now fully budgeted for. Similar with a lot of the other departments.

And you still have openings, right? Yeah, we just held some interviews and made some recommendations. We have a lot of openings in roads. We used to still have a couple in B&G and some in parks and a garage. So, it's it's like Fred said, it's hard it's hard to find find people. I mean, you want to work. Yeah. These are these are tough jobs. They're tough jobs. Yes. Um, nobody wants to work in any job.

I just had a question. Um maybe you have super 028 other professional consultants. There was a almost 90% increase there. Am I reading that right? I don't have my glasses on either. Um but it says tree trimming was 30,000 was used from the tree count in 2025. Where would that have the tree count?

Yeah. Yeah. Uh Fred worked together real well with our our park superintendent and helped support a lot of the tree cutting with the tree account, funding from the tree account, and that's no longer available. So, we we need to budget for it. We had some money in in there for tree services, but we there's a lot of maintenance that are that's connected directly to that within our parks on curbside trees. Does that equate for the decrease in your requested amount with the help that he's going to provide you? I mean, I see your requested amount was 215,000 and they cut it looks like, you know, in half.

More than half. More than half. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What am I talking about? Half. Way more than half. It's like a Yeah, they they upped it on those as a whole. It went down. So, where did it go down? But the 50 was the big item. And then the same pond res pond restoration project which is ongoing right now. Right. Yes. Yes. Beauty. I think tomorrow that to do for that. So Okay. We're keeping our fingers crossed. We're not swimming in there right now. Have to move the

Yes. Is there one the one pond though seems like there's seems like it's just been excavated a little bit, right? Is it Well, there's Yeah, there's different phases to this project. Um the the ramble in the front, the dock pond and the ramble was like phase one. So, we had to have that dredged and and we had I saw Yeah, I passed by a lot.

Yeah, they just took care of all of that. They just got done with the ramble cleaning that up. Uh, we had a new well put in because we need to have irrigation for that front section and also to supply water for that dock pond so that we can keep that feature going and keep it airrated and prevent it from getting in the condition that it was in when all that work was required. And then there's the phase two which is the koi pond in the back which is going to what we're proposing to do is an extensive renovation of that uh filter system waterfall bridge uh a lower maintenance by uh having the water flow similar to like it would in your swimming pool. If you have a pool, the water, you know, collects at the skimmer, have something that practical for our staff to maintain and not unreasonable so it doesn't get green and cloudy and and full of parrot feathers and invasive weeds.

But this is where the match had to fall 150,000. And we did receive a significant amount of grant dollars. I can't remember how many we how much we received for this overall project, but we did um was it 300,000? Yeah. 310. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so I understand where that you know why that but I guess the only question I have we're budgeting 65,000 for this. It seems like that's where we landed at. But we have a $150,000 obligation for a matching grant. That ain't going to cut it.

Huh? What? No, he's in he said no. I think again Joy participated in all of our budget workshops and she's been intimately associated with the same pond project. So, was the thought that the the grant-f funded portion of that project isn't going to be completed this year? Um, but it's zeroed out. It is zeroed out. Just the matching piece. Just the matching piece. We hope to have it done this year. Yeah, we're going to have to do about that because I'm not Okay. Yeah,

we might have the match already in grant funds and I'm just not sure if that. And again, we don't have good enough note on there to know why it was made out. And we're still working with the stewardship grant to get there the rest of it. The rest of it, which is up in the air. There's conversations going back and forth. Yeah. Right now. So, okay. Once I have hard numbers from the professionals, I'll be able to see exactly what they'll be able to give us.

Okay. on um materials and supplies 030. What is um what's playground five are? That's um the engineered wooden mulch that goes in playground equipment. We've been, if you see some of the playgrounds that that are going in, a lot of them are getting poured in place surface, which is like a rubber poured in place surface. Is that the one they spray in? Uh, it's two levels. It's like an epoxy. They put a base down and then they put a twocolor layer on top of it. And

they use some of that Joey's Angels. Yes. Yes. Exactly. A lot of the uh newer playgrounds are going with that. It's less maintenance.

It's a lot less maintenance. you if it's done properly, it should last the life of the equipment. So when you go to change out the equipment, you can do that. And then the plan is to cut back on how much fibar we need in the future. Fibar is just a trade name. Uh but it's engineered wood mulch. It has to be finely um ground and get a certain rating so that we can put it in our playgrounds. Got it. Um So 038 General Hardware minor tools. It's just a big increase there, Chuck. Um

Yep. Okay. It's actually less than you've been spending. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I see. Uh, Coozer Farm tennis court fencing. I see uh Coozer Farm tennis court fencing. It's one of the line items. Well, that's a good thing. How's um the like the uh outbuildings at Cruiser? Um any projects with those? I know I know they needed

I know they need a ton ton of maintenance. We just had a waterline break there this year. Um which was and in the cold of winter it was there were numerous waterline breaks throughout the town, not in township facilities, but because of the infrastructure and we had one there that we had to address. So, um, there's a lot of work and they're constantly going to be needed in those buildings. The mansions 1912 and the buildings are right around the same age. So, we have some old capital that we're using um to work on that and they to keep doing the work on them. Um, and now that we have some talented uh newer people on our staff, we lost a lot of uh our trades people, our carpenter and some very experienced people, and we're trying to get some new people on board and get them involved in the in these kind of projects, restoration of them.

Great. I know it's a lot over at Kiser Park. There's maintenance building, shower about replacing the railings at Ker Mansion. Is that something your department would handle or would you We would work together with recreation on that. Um the railings like hand railings. Yeah, there's there's a there's custom railings that were built on top of that that go around the deck. They go around the deck. Yeah.

Yeah. There's there's pictures of them there and not there, but they're because of the way the porches are are built, they're all different sizes, so they have to be custom made and that's going to have to be outsourced. There's there's a lot of uh lathe work and custom carpentry that needs to be done with those. Probably the contractors need special certification for that. What to put railings in for on a historic uh on a historic property like that? What's that? I would I would think any

Yeah, I the way that building is registered. It allows us to do some things. We we check with the state. We'll we always check with them before we do anything. Like we check with them before we did the roof. We got a shingle roof on there. uh we were able to put that on which was a savings. Yeah, tremendous savings. So, we'll do the same thing with the railings. When we do the railings, we'll check with them and we're going to we have pictures and we have some samples of the railings that were on there. So, we're going to try and do them similar to what was on there. I know it's big markup if you have to bring those certified contractors in. Yeah. A lot more expensive.

Oh, yeah. If it was a historical contractor, it would be another story, but I I think we can get away without doing that. Just one quick point. I was I was looking through um I know I know made Councilman Tai happy about the fence around the tennis court over at Koozer, long awaited. Um I didn't see anything budget in here. Is it budget in here this year for the the little project I've been talking about as far as the skate park lights or is that being put off? Oh, we got a grant for that. We got a grant for that and we just got a PO to have it. I didn't see the numbers in here. We voted for it just what, two meetings ago.

So, it might take a little while for that to Yeah, we have we have the PO and we're working with the uh awarded contractor to um get the electric service contractor in place. That's good. So, that'll happen. What kind of time frame do you think? important.

I I would say aggressive, you know, it would be at least six months. We have to get um the electric service approved. Public service has to their engineers have to work with getting that in. Then the infrastructure has to be done. And we want to put a we want to we want to do a service large enough that we if we want to expand in the future, we'll have the ability to do that. So we want to do it one time. Good. That makes sense. By the time it's getting dark already. By what? By the time it's getting dark earlier. Maybe we'll have some lights there. Yeah, that would be a good time. Yeah.

I've got nothing. Yep. B just the general I was just curious are these just um salary and wages and overtime I'm sorry solid waste solid waste solid waste yeah is that well I mean we're skipping safety then I looked I don't have anything I don't I didn't have anything either there was the parks we really can't do anything about

so Remove this. Remove the solid waste. Unless somebody wants to go backwards. Yep. No. Anthony. No, I was just going to say I So, this is two new line items. I guess there were budget. There's a budget. Oh, the salary and wages. Yeah, the salary and wages and the this was pulled from somewhere else. I'm assuming there was zeros until this year. That's a new job for 150,000. I was like, what? Yeah. I will recuse myself. Our solid waste coordinator's salary was coming from a grant, but the grant's almost done. So, this is one of those items.

There it is. Yeah, we Okay. And we threw him some overtime. We benefited from that for a long time. So, it is it Yeah, this was like what type of grant was this? Was this like a D or Clean Communities Communities Grant? Clean Communities Grant, I believe it was. And they stopped. Jimmy's still going for the grant, but we didn't get okay that we're going to be getting a grant for this year yet. So, we're just got to put it there. Some old funds. Yeah. So, we had to, you know, make sure we're So, naturally, if we get it, it'll be applied. Exactly. And that will be pretty clean surplus. Okay. Let's keep our fingers close.

Okay. Uh under solid waste.

Anybody happy? I did not. We're on solid. Yep. Oh, this is just the hauling. We talked about that.

Um 28 we always talk about. We talked about it, right? It's recycling. All right. We're on to I'm good to move on to storm recovery. Storm recovery. You guys have anything else before you move? Anybody? I don't even So you say we have storms. We sure did this year. Yeah. You want to talk about this? Yeah. Just explain if you could chuck a little bit. Yeah.

Yeah. We we got lucky for the last few years. This year, not so much. So, we got hit with storms in December, January, and February. Some of the biggest storms we've been hit with in 10 plus years. So, a lot of the nuisance storms cause us to use a lot of salt to to combat the storms, to fend them off, to keep the mains open. So salt was difficult to get this year the latter part of the season. Yeah, absolutely. The freezing of the river didn't help.

The conditions didn't help. The snow sticking around for a long period of time, the cold weather, just a number of factors made this a hard year. And then with the melt and the traffic on the roads led to the potholes which we're trying to stay on top of top of. So four we had to hire the contractors a few times.

How Kathy, how do we come up with that number? And I I I know in the past, right, it's hard, right? Because we don't know what the seasons are going to bring us. Um you know, where in the past, you know, last year obviously was, you know, we only budgeted $10,000 last year for storm recovery where the year before it was a h 100,000. Um but that's because we started keeping all that money in that account so that we can use it. So if we didn't use it from past years, we carried it. We are car That's right. Okay. But this year we depleted all that. So now we have to re reinvest that money that we already depleted. So that money hypothetically if we only use 50,000 next year that remaining balance will be just it'll go into the reserve into the reserve account. Yep.

Okay. So the reserve is there in case so you build up that reserve. you don't budget the right amount and and all of that. So, okay. Thank you. I hate to say it, but there's nothing wrong. Somebody look at the farmers. I know. Have a small balance in reserve and so I think we should be okay.

Let's hope. The idea here is to now that we know what the costs were for the first uh two storms, right? So, we're allowed according to put that outside of cap so it doesn't affect our spending cap inside cap. So, we do have some of the monies inside cap and those are the ones the $75,000 is what we're kind of putting in.

Uh the other not round numbers that are in there, right? Those are our actual costs from the first two storms both in the salary and wage and in the outside cap. So, and we still do have a reserve and actually the reserve is probably healthier than you know than a small amount. So, we'll be it'll we won't have to worry about the rest of the year because we know we have enough in reserve to because these monies are already spent basically um except for the other items that you have in there in terms of you know replenishing your salt and other brine and things like that.

Right. And it's only has to last through December. Correct. I was just gonna say

I'm on streets and roads if you guys want to go there. Chuck on 018 under streets and roads. Um can you explain that one? It looks like we haven't spent out of that category. 018 page two top. We never spent out of that category actually. What is that? Out of title. Out of title. Yeah.

Yeah. That could be somebody. Yeah, it looks like it was not in in the right place last year, that number because we budget for it every year. It was not in the right place last year. Yeah, we always budget for it. We always budget for that. But there's no um

differential here. We can now we're charging it to add title. Yeah, that could be something. I'll I'll look into separately with payroll and everything like that and see how that links to the earning code because we are we have to be we're hitting that some right during a given year. There's been some some like prime point things with the charging and everything like that with the specific codes and stuff getting allocated correctly, but we could look into that for you. So, if those monies were not used going all the way back, right, hypothetically going all the way back to 2021, right? Or if it wasn't, um, does that just go back to fund balance? Is that

just going some surplus? Yeah. whatever unused in the budget except for those couple of things that have specific reserves, right? Like for trust, then uh it all gets sent to surplus after it's the jumping back to salaries and wages. I think you touched on it in your opening statement. You're anticipating uh filling filling vacant spots. Yes. Okay. So that

could I just jump back real quick to storm recovery? So we might have some additional expenses that we haven't identified here yet that you might ask me to add back in. And one of the costs that and you guys do a great job at getting us the cost and the actuals after the storm, but one of the costs that we have as a result of storms is the condo act requirement that we reimburse our condo agreement for um our cost of the storm for not having to plow their area because they do it on their own. So, um, and those requests don't come in usually till later, but we wanted to capture all of the storm costs in this year in this budget. Um, so we might come back to you with a number to ask you to add that into this as well.

Do you have an idea for outside of cap expenditure also? What does that number look like? Do you know yet? I don't know off the top of my head because I wouldn't know but um yeah I think we just done by by mile right by line mile yeah it depends on they all vary about 50,000 of for the the first two storms about 50,000 so might be just that amount that we'll ask you to add back in outside of cap They don't typically submit till the end of the year. You know, this is just a projection,

right? But I think we wanted to capture it this year, not wait for them. Sometimes they wait two years. And all the associations they show you, right? So, um 028 Mhm. from the current. Did you ask that question? Yeah, I'm good. Okay, I forgot what I want back to 028 is other professional consultant. It's just a big jump.

Um, we have US fleet added on to this is for US fleet, right? Okay. Yeah, we have we modified the snow plow south system that we we were getting a lot of complaints with the old system and it wasn't it wasn't keeping accurate taking accurate um time pulses on the vehicles for GPS. It was like once every 5 minutes and in five minutes you can go a lot of different places and to try and track a map and keep a map up to date uh that way is is almost impossible. So, um we we um got it we got this from WPC has the same company monitoring uh their vehicles and we have them put them in for the season for leaf season, snow season, and then we take them out for the regular course of the year, but it's an updated system that works through Traaser and and tracks our vehicles.

That's good. I was actually seeing complaints about those maps this winter. Yeah. I mean, it's a great feature if we can get it to to work, right? Yeah. It was new to us last year at the end of the year. Last year, we tried it through leaf season and um we've handed handed these out to the contractor's vehicles. We have so many reserve units that are battery powered and we charge them up and we give them to the contractors. Fred's team helped us monitor the contractors this year. So, we all work together uh to get that done.

My notes for push.

I don't have anything else. A chance here to take a look. I think zero reduction.

The electrical going up here. The materials especially just for copper has gone through the roof since since December last year just in the last few months. It's a commodity and it it's it's crazy. It's crazy. My electric bill goes up anymore. We're gonna have lights. Candles. I follow my builder around turning off lights. Oh, I do the same thing in my house. I go to my church house and turn the lights on. It's a great idea. It's payback.

My daughter's trying to harass. Turn it off. Yeah.

So that's just electricity just anticipating the extra cost there. Higher costs. Um yeah, it's not a large increase though. Really isn't most of them are small. Mhm. Mhm. I don't have anything. All right.

Are you still in roads? No, we skipped ahead to utilities. Sorry. Yeah, we're finished. We're in the utilities. I'm actually ready to move on to Yeah. I'm just looking at garage fuel and and not that I want to give you more money, but I'm worried about the rise in cost of fuel. Yeah.

Yeah. I was hoping that you'd bring that up too because again when we first put this together it's based on what we were what we think it might go to that kind of thing but that was before the war and so now we're pretty concerned about that and everything that we hear even from our consultants about that that fuel costs are just going to go through the roof starting you know as early as this summer. So we still have some room within our within our pack to add to this. So again, I don't feel like asking you to add to the budget. But

you do have though. I mean, you do have a cushion from last year based on like based on what you spent last year, you spent 688,000 roughly. So you're budgeting for 966. Now I know 901. Oh, I'm sorry. Looking at garage fuel. Am I in the wrong? Still an increase though. Yeah, it's still an increase, but they asked for 966. We budgeted 901. Where where's which one is that one? They spent 688. They spent 688. Yes, that's what I'm saying. And you bud and or 901. You did bring it down to they brought it down to 901.

And I think again these are all utilities. You know, I was looking at you know electricity as well, right? You have an amount in there. Yep. Not usually more than last year. And we also halfway through the year are ending our uh contracts for most of our electric uh last month in natural gas and that wasn't crazy, but it did go up and we're doing this one. I think it it expires. our current prices that are locked in expire on June 1. So, we're gonna have to do another auction. So, the fiscal and

we just talked to the consultant today and they just said the market is nuts on this trajectory up. So, I'm really concerned about electric and and again I think there is a little bit of a push in fuel but I don't want to speak to that because we didn't know that a little better. Yeah. Do we use multiple companies when we're trying to lock in that number or we just use the same company? No, it's you mean in terms of doing the auctioning the auction. So we we used to use one company, we we get we get a consultant, you know,

um on a regular basis. We had one we used last year, we started using a different one this year. um they're very good. But we also have consultants with our solar projects and they seem to be really, you know, they get interested in all of our, you know, um utilities. They want it all. No, we we don't pay them any extra for that. They give us even advice on that. They know we're working with a different consultant at least for these auctions. And um but

but but does the so the company does the solar, it comes in and and figures out your plan. is it look at our lighting itself to say you know all right I you know we'd like to switch over to LED right and in certain maintenance buildings naturally we're building a brand new buildings going to have all LED I hope right I think we we've got just just about all our buildings switched over to LED we've been pursuing that for years

yes and that was a response to the traditional market that we've had right for the last 5 10 15 years or whatever. We actually just had a very exciting meeting today, at least I think it is, on um difficult to do that and to now start looking at it a different way where LED lights are great and those changes we make are great, but they basically said with the increases that we're going to be facing, it'll barely make a dent in the the cost. And so the the future of this according to them is uh storage basically battery storage, right?

Or yeah or other or other sources other sources to be able to control um if you store up some of that energy then you can turn off your your grid. you can go off the grid during peak hours and use that energy that you store. They just passed some legislation regarding that, right? The state New Jersey through thankfully our assemblyman here in the 14th that worked on that.

Seems like that don't happen overnight. And so we have to still plan obviously for talks that we know that are coming, but at the same time I you know I thought that this is something that they can end up moving on quickly. So that's with different you know consult the ones that are helping us with our our solar plan as well. Okay. But if we have about a cushion of 300,000 that we could add back to utility line items. Whether we split that into fuel and electricity I don't I don't care. But we can kind of propose that to you and bring it to you.

Yeah. I would um we're still working on with the erri in the yard and we don't have that closed out yet too. So I think that's coming out of the fuel okay fuel account. So just another thing to keep in mind.

Vehicle man. Vehicle man. Hey, Chuck. On uh overtime for buildings and maintenance. Mhm. It's a a big percentage increase. So, vehicle maintenance or Yeah, vehicle maintenance. Other vehicle maintenance. It's item 12. They went over by 10 and I guess he they also factored in the 3%.

Yeah. So, is that only $1,000 point? I think that's why they did it that way, Rick. Oh, I see. We're just covering what you had to spend, Meister. I guess. Yeah. Okay, I'm good. They have probably all the overtime storms. You multiply 34 5 23 44 * 3% comes out to that number. Yeah, that's some good math there.

Calculations. All I do is get math my contracts calculators on my first thing that pops up. Yeah, it's all those numbers all day. Okay, that's probably where my eyes are going. I guess, you know, we under um 039,

we ended up spending a large number above what was actually budgeted in 2025. So, I guess the anticipation is that that, you know, in in 2024, that number was more in line with what we're budgeting this year. So, I I'm assuming that, you know, inflation other you know, this is what to be expected. This is the new the new line item for this is probably roughly right around like 130 135. That's that's where we ended up having that larger increase this year. Yeah. General machinery parts. It says 395 for sweeper parts. We're budgeting and capital for a new sweeper.

Yeah. So they continue to maintain. How many we have? How many of those? We have two. How many do you have active in right now? street sweepers. We have four street four street sweepers, but yeah, one's down. Three that are up. We got one in capital this year. And these are 2016, 2018.

So, and they get used quite a bit. They get used for leaves, paving year round. and storm water management's going to require that we do even more uh street sweeping. So, we've been working with the grant. Uh Jimmy's been able to get us some funding for some of the parts. One of the companies went out of business and we kind of stockpiled on some of the parts because it was going to be difficult to get to maintain the older ones until we could get newer ones in. I know they're an expensive item, but we're doing everything we can to try and keep them going as long as we possibly can. Emergency.

I guess we're all the capital. Oh, yeah. Um, well, the capital first. Yeah. Yeah. What are we going to do? Go slow. You're cold.

So, Chuck, u you you're you're buying um Oh, actually only one of the two got approved. So, the F-150 with the lift gate.

Mhm. Um, are are you seeing any opportunities to like transition to hybrid or electric? We don't like the police. We don't have any infrastructure in place for that right now. We we might be able to do a car or some type of vehicle like that. Uh, right now this is replacing the '09 pickup truck and it's it both of them are bad. This one's bad and the other one the other one I think has a fuel leak now on top of it. So

yeah, I don't I don't uh I don't uh I'm not uh trying to dispute that you need the vehicle. I'm just trying to save money on fuel. Yeah. Yeah. So if there's an opportunity to, you know, Yeah. We're we're just looking to try and get a vehicle off a state contract, keep the cost of the vehicle down as well. Um I don't know that there's EVs. We were researching some electric vehicles. We just were looking for a garbage truck and and street.

They were what we were getting offered was like a first generation prototype and I was like we can't I don't want to take a chance on that. Bad idea. I think unlike a car or some of the trucks, the road trucks, I I think the technology needs to be advanced a little more and data before we jump into something that's going to cost us in the long run. I mean, I don't even I've never priced a electric vehicle compared to a gas vehicle. I don't know if they're more. I don't know if they're cheaper,

but you know, just like when we talked and I I understand Councilman Tai's brought it up with fire and police and, you know, fire basically don't want nothing to do with, you know, electric fire trucks because the the they're not proven as far as reliability, right? Last thing you want is a problem fighting a fire and your electric truck goes down fire. So, I think as technology progresses, I think that's something, you know, I think we all should look at. Yeah. Yeah. We're we're looking at it. We're considering it. I don't think it's there yet, and I don't think it's spread out in the state contracts that we're looking to purchase our vehicles off of.

So, what are we limited to make a model by the state contracts or?

Well, we just get we get a better rate for the vehicle, much better rate, fleet rate. uh for a vehicle of this type, a F-150 with a lift gate. Um and we can they come pretty much uh with everything we need in it like a typical pickup truck. And uh this is this is for our uh this is for our tool room. The guy he does supports all of our B&G teams and he uh picks up materials, checks in, shipping, receiving. That's why moving uh big packages, skids, salt, calcium flakes, we get it. We buy it by the skids so he'll go pick them up, save on the delivery of it because we're getting fuel sir charges as well. We're trying to uh cut back on that. So the this vehicle will help us out quite a bit in B&G. I see some of your stuff was zeroed out. Um, not focus point anything particular. Do you have anything you want us to look at?

You can be honest. I I appreciate everything I've got. I do have one I'd like to ask and I I I see it was cut out and it's sidewalk of completion on Endai. park is where it says it's critical current conditions called residents uh to walk in the road ray especially if they're pushing a stroll. Um you know I don't know if there's any any room, you know, especially around a park. What page is that? That is page three. Three.

Yeah, we have no playground replacement. We got you know equipment. They allotted some of the money, not the full amount. And uh new facade for special events. I don't know what that facads are, but you know, it's a cheap item, but you know, public safety as far as sidewalks go. Yeah, it I've gotten requests from people in that neighborhood um that that use the park. It's got some older playground equipment. We want to put newer playground equipment in that park. And this would it sidewalks come down both sides. You can go all the way around. I'm familiar with except for right there where the where the uh station is right at the end.

And we've deemed it critical to replace that. Kathy, do we have old capital? Yeah, we they have some old capital. I would just have to I'd have to meet with uh Dana just go over existing projects to make sure that they're finalized. So Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it's a safety issue. Good to catch. I did. Thank you for pointing that out. I did have a question mark on that one. I do pay attention once more. Sorry. Okay.

Oh, yeah. What's that one?

Yeah, I do have one more thing I would like to say about the floor in that police station, especially now that we're doing the roof. I have some pictures of what the floor looks like and I really wish they would have attached that to the request. Um, disgusting. Which one? It's horrible. The Terzo floor in the police station. And my guys, they try, but they there's nothing they can do to to clean it. It has to be uh professionally brought down back to the Dazzo floor and then we can maintain it and keep it up and keep it looking good. But the main hallways are disgusting. Just I was just there for the roof and I was like this is horrible.

It's there's no excuse. Yeah. Just if there's any other if there's a way to get that he 31,000 just over 31,000. Oh, full restoration of the Terzo 431290. Where you at? It's page four. There are the two things. There's the replacement of carpet, ceiling tiles, and paint. But then the Terzo flooring is a separate item for 31. Yeah.

Do we have old capital that we I have to evaluate that. Yeah. For that for that specific public facility, so it's a little bit more niche. Okay. I have uh you have pictures. Yeah, I got a picture if you want. Just take a look.

You can't get It's got to be It's got to be done. If you look at um M I know it's not mold, but it almost looks moldy the way it looks. Yeah.

Wasn't the police station wouldn't be allowed. I wouldn't I wouldn't have that much. Oh my good. He can't catch your phone. You could restore that. Oh yeah. It'll come back brand new. Check out the room we found in the home in the hall area that we just did. Yep. But you have to get a professional in there, right? Yeah. You don't have to. Yeah. Still they just

And that's probably one of the best floors you can get in the building. Well, maintain. Good. I'm ready to move on with everybody on board. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. OEM when you're ready. Thank you. Have a good night, Chuck. Thanks, guys. Thank you very much. Thank you.

And thank you. You know what? I know Pat compliment you, but uh through the storm, you know, I know answered many. I know I called you a lot and you called me back and and I appreciate, you know, all the work your the men and women did during especially during this storm, not all the work that they do during the year, but the many hours that they spent trying to keep our roads clear. They did a magnificent job. Thank you. I'm very proud of them and they they came through and we had just about everyone show up for each one of those storms. Yeah, we're playing on pizza. It's all the No, I appreciate the whole team. The whole app, too. I I was in touch with him a couple times during that one. You get right back to me. I appreciate it.

A lot of people all the support that he has right in his office. Amazing. Truly blessed. Thank you. Thank you. I'll call you tomorrow to complain. Now I got to call you in the morning. We had a couple residents here last night. Uh one just want to pass on their messages. We had a council meeting one of the inspectors that I think Kyle was out there actually already was out there checking the roads out with him. I see cuz I think we were out there the same. Which one we talking about? Oh. Oh, I'm talking about the the sentry uh Shauny Drive lady.

Oh, okay. I see a part of today. Johnny, you're going to be going out there again. I don't expect you. Bye, guys. Going out there. Thank you. Thank you. Well, good evening everyone. Thanks for having us. Thanks for being here. Thanks for enduring the time. Yeah, absolutely. So, we did have can speech um but what better way to talk about OEM than what just happened uh tonight. So, my phone rang and Chris's radio rang and he left uh to have a fire on Nottingham Way and um Lieutenant Keen left to check on his report of a missing juvenile. So, we plan, we prepare um you know, for blue sky days when they turn into somebody who's you know, worst day ever in our community. So, that's why we're here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Not not We came. So, what do you need from us? Let's start there.

Okay. Well, we just want to continue pursuing our redundant radio communication system, station 13, which will eventually be the functional EOC. Okay, that was um I believe 037. And then our plan is up for renewal this year. Um we do have a price from a consultant to work on that and get it to its, you know, well-maintained finished state. We really want to focus on the annexes. Um, we did the plan review two years ago. We kind of took um a bunch of bones and skeleton fragments and put the plan together. Now, we believe that we're in a good spot with um where we are currently where we can be again this year. Those are two major items.

I just had a question about um 030. You had requested 13 thou over 13,000. The admin only recommended 600. That's like a significant.

We were looking for some technological improvements in the EOC, some additional smartboards um to kind of coincide with the active 911 that we um we're pursuing that'll kind of that'll display police, the fire, CAD system. So when we're activated um all the different, you know, entities and annexes that'll be working, we have all that information readily available in EOC. But we can you know we can certainly pivot into other other existing devices and other technologies um in the meantime. Okay.

Have any questions? Really? I don't. I was waiting to see if you No, I'm good. How did you you have a capital or two? I forgot. Yeah, we have it. You have one message board um finding was recommended. You said you have no you have No, we do. We have a we have a message board um from the variable message board to replace one of our oldest um

from 2010. Okay. So, we have two 20110s and two maybe 2014s. The 2010s run off PDAs and that technology no longer exists. And we pulled off the vehicles. Some of the vehicles I can tell.

Is there a reason that we didn't do the utility vehicles? Well, we haven't been really doing those road style vehicles for anyone. Um, other than that, I think they're selling at the ground at public works. Um, I don't know what the ones are. I'm not sure. So, we do use the ones we have at public works, but there's been times this past year where the utility style ones have been unavailable just due to service issues. So, for the special events in the park specifically, we're looking or we trying to pursue, you know, dedicated utility vehicles. So, didn't we um for special events at the park? Aren't we renting like golf carts and stuff?

Could these be used in the place of the rentals? Because the rentals are not cheap, right? Could we use this in place of renting that? Well, I don't think we spend this. So, I

How much do we What do you think we spend? I I want to say that I don't know how many they do and it might be $1,000 per I don't think they do 50 of them or you know we tried to go by and I have to say that you know when Kyle submitted his budget he might have been one of the few honest people in here by giving the category of project status right he said he tells you when something's critical and it's is critical

and you know these were two items that he said were desirable. So again in our efforts to kind of balance that with our our upcoming sure additional debt service we I think we cut out a lot of just things from all department and this wouldn't be a replacement this would be a new vehicle right? Yeah.

Okay. in the future when we're looking at something like that, you know, you see, you know, I'm not that familiar with them as because I don't own one, right? Everybody has utility things for the woods and stuff, but something like that. Can we look at a a quality used one where we could save money and and still serve your purposes or Yeah, we can definitely work with the garage to find alternatives. Right. We did we did ask about um basically like buying like a base model and then retrofitting it or outfitting it you know down the line but that ends up becoming more costly than buying the vehicle as described now. So

are there any grants available to us with the company that we use that would because it's for OEM would allow the coverage for something like this? I'm not sure. Okay, looks though there much out there. Not for these types of vehicle really. We did have a conversation with Ryan about you know vehicles mostly they geared towards like fire service and the police service. What about through o what about through like um the state OEM? There's nothing that we can apply to there. I know the county gets the money gets funneled through the counties.

Sure. I think we're in like right now in the process with the hazard mitigation grant and some options there or it's not the grant, excuse me, the um hazard mitigation plan. There are some grant programs there, but they're more geared towards like infrastructure improvements like reduce flooding and things of that nature. Okay. And sustainability, not so much equipment request from PV for similar type vehicles and we suggested that they look into using funds. So, and again, I know this PV and everything else. they'll call public safety. Mhm. So that might be an option too, but you know

anything else anybody wants to talk about before we uh move on? No, I'm good. Um well, under vehicles, you requested the Ford Expedition as well. It's again, do we have any old capital to so nothing awarded for that invest?

So that would be something that I'd have to run by public work to see any challenges that they do have on any vehicle to see if they were planning on utilizing that. Any opportunities to go with a hybrid or an electric instead of a fossil in this case? You can certainly explore that with the garage. Again, the infrastructure charging station, things like that. Well, you don't need charging stations for a hybrid. Okay. Yep. We can definitely explore alternative Okay. options. Yes. We're going to have a lot more charging stations next year. Mhm.

Everybody will have a place to charge. I just I just wonder if we're doing something with OEM, like I think there's a time and place for everything. I just wonder about the logistical point of if it's OEM, you potentially could be have a car running for a long period of time. If it's an emergency with a flood or

will we be able to oh time out, we have to take a timeout to go charge up. So for something on OEM like I always worry about emergency type vehicles being that because what happens if they're running for a long period of time looking for a missing person those types of events are that is that going to be suitable you know the the transportation like we had talked about like a fire inspector like hey they're going from place to place and stopping or a housing inspector I just worry about OEM you know in that capacity we just have to balance the risk and the reward

and I understand your concern but hybrids don't have that issue. Yeah. Hi, Bridget. I'm just strictly all I have. We should let you guys go first next time. Yeah. Remind us. Bring it up the rear here. We're going to say more. All good. We appreciate you guys being here. Thank you both.

Thank you guys. It's only 8:30. Come on. We still got nothing while you're going to go out of order. Guess I

go. Yes. Poor guy. contact. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, I'll just say first of all, thank you for having me. I appreciate it, council president, council members. Um, many of you have not met me. I'm Bob McQueen, the chief technology officer. Started here last year. Um, it's really been a transition year for for the technology department and all that we're doing with taking on support for police and fire. Um, with my first year here, just really wrapping my head around everything that goes on here. we've consolidated and taken. So you'll see large increases within my operating budget, but some of that's decreases out of the police and fire budgets because they've come out of their budget and we're centralizing it all underneath underneath technology now. Okay. Thank you. Makes sense.

It's a good warning so that you don't have a total shock shock. I think it's a good cost and but it truly is pulling things from other areas. Some of it is actual inensive that is things that have been 10 to 15 years past and all that. Does that does that account for the the the change in the overtime from the requested amount? I can talk on that. Um last year after our support for police and fire was outsourced to Ocean Computer System,

we're taking that back in-house now. So it's going to based on the cost that we spent with Ocean. It's really kind of a savings for us to do it inhouse by their contractual agreement we have to give them for on call time and overtime when they come in. But it's still we estimated based on their salaries where we would be with that for the end of the year. So, we're no long we no longer have that contract with them. We will not. It's ending as of the end of this month. We're taking over May 1st. Okay. Do you know what that cost of that contract was? It was $30,000 for the base cost, but then you paid an hourly rate for everything they did. So, we spent upward of close to $80,000 last year just in after our support with that.

So, we're going to be able to cut that in half. Yeah. It's really cutting it down. And it's to be honest, it's providing a better quality service. We know our equipment. We know our software. Yeah. Um they're calling into a company that doesn't necessarily deal with law enforcement every day and we do. So agreed. Thank you. Yeah. When you see 275% increases. Well, how does So, can uh rather than going line by line uh with the computer service agreement increases,

uh do you have any I know I know there's a big increase. Anything that stands out for you? You don't have to go through each one. Just anything that stands out for you that maybe would help explain the increase or say, "Hey, this one went up because of this or that."

Sure. So last year um we're the PD alone in their own 24 budget we took out 470,990 93. So that's offsetting almost half of the increase to that fire. Um we took out 72,2727. Um so the difference really now of what went up is 278,143 in that line item. 90,000 of that is the Axon contract that was signed last year for the police department bodywn cameras. 17,000 of that is for um civic plus ADA module which we're mandated by federal government to have in place by the end of this month. Um 59,000 is to update the office licensing at PD so that they're off of um unsupported versions of the office products. So really the rest that that 15,000 is Cisco support that was included for one year that this year we now have to add into it. And then our uh HyperV VMware software which is our virtual servers. There's across the board they're going up contractwise. So that's $60,000 increase.

So that's the big items offset. And now all some of these others went up minimally as they do every year. Yeah. Thank you for doing that. I just with all of them there it's a laundry list of them my and I'm continuing to evaluate and looking at alternatives that cost less. So for instance the Adobe software we're looking at something that's cost almost half of that. So we're trying that right now with a couple users to make sure it meets our needs. It works and if it does then we're going to move to that platform and cut down on our Adobe licensing. So, I'm constantly looking at what alternatives are out there that do the same thing because a lot of these name brands, you're paying for the name brand. Mhm.

Thank you. You're welcome. Just for a personnel perspective, you have uh five employees now. Five with myself. Yeah. Okay.

And that's a de a decrease from last year. One of our employees just transferred to WPC. Um WPC added a technology position to eliminate their contract that they were also paying yearly for maintenance support. So we are backfilling that position right now. And we do have in for a new computer operator trainee to bring our staffing up because we're taking on additional responsibilities with afterhour support. Plus we've got, you know, 12 firehouses. We're now running around to the police department. There's a lot of people out on the road. My other big plan for this is um I want to do a uh a a swing shift of a 100 pm to 900 p.m. person. So, one of the computer operator trainees would come in at 1. A provide meeting support for afterhour meetings that occur in the evenings at the new municipal building, especially when we go in there. We're going to need that with all the new technology. And it allows us to be reactive in proactive instead of reactive. So with our Windows computer replacements, the Windows 10 that need to be done, that person at night when they're not getting pulled in 100 different directions can set up 15 PCs at once so that they can be deployed the next day.

Will um contracts allow for that or one to nine? It's got to be negotiated. It's mandatorily negotiable. It's a great idea, but obviously we have to comply with Yes. Some of the contracts specifically say these are what the hours are and others just talk about 7 hour day or eight hour day, whatever that might be. So, but we'll work with that. We would never do anything without sitting and having that discussion with the the and it's it's as simple as a a shift, right? I mean, that's shouldn't be crazy. just make it nice.

Perhaps your current contract already has a shift differential in there. We may just have to add that type of that, right? So, great. Okay. So, you will be at six hopefully. Yes. Okay. Hopefully that's what we're Yeah. I don't have anything else about any of my stuff.

No. No. I'm sorry. Lot of things moving around. Taking it personal, you know. No, it's good. It's all good. Hopefully, it changes a little. I know. Thank you. Quick, we want to go over capital. Get them. Yeah, you got capital. Good point. Most of it got axed out. It looks like you're um and all critical, all critical items. That's because a lot of that was for the new building, outfitting the new building with network equipment that we need and there was already money approved for that prior year. So, we didn't have to put it into this year's capital because it's already approved and we can order that. Okay. You mean like cabling and fiber runs?

No, we're talking about firewalls, switches, um data storage, all of that stuff. All stuff I don't understand. You're asking uh for a cargo van, correct? You you heard me ask the question of a few different

I have and I'd be open to it, but again, um infrastructure, charging, and all of that. I mean, it's really with us now. Part of our biggest challenge is we have a car and with all the buildings that we have to support, we get over there, we find out it's a bad monitor. We have to run back to this building to get a monitor to go back to that building. I want to get a cargo van similar to like the electricians where they have equipment in the van hardware so that we're being more um efficient with our time on the road. We have cables, we have switches, we have stuff right there to be able to repair and to get it backed up quicker. Could be a hybrid. Could be. It's not a van.

And if not a van, they definitely make uh we definitely get a pickup truck with a cap in the background. Get them one. Let's get them at least one. Let's get at least one. I I I came from a town and we had electric vehicles, so I'm I'm used to them. So, um, I have a question on capital on page four. We, uh, it did not, we did not fund, uh, the security camera at the ecological center at $16,000. Um, is there is there a big need for it there that and then we denied it, somebody illegally dumping or doing something they shouldn't do?

There's a lot of challenges. The the the security cameras currently at the ecosenter are um not as secure. So, we're trying to replace those, but I think from talking with um public works, they have some old capital that we can do that, which is why we took that off of this year. And there's also been challenges with people driving in yelling at the attendant in the gate. So, they wanted cameras on the driver's side view when they're coming in as well as the facilities inside. Did we just steal that capital for anything else? No, they public.

I know. I hope we're not overpromising. public work does have a lot of old capital funding stuff like that. So I it I'll run that by Dana as well and have her evaluation balances. Oh and again I think I wish we had made better notes and we had made notes to do that better next year or whatever to let you know this we pulled out because we identified old capital so we knew we weren't double promising when we were in each of the registration. Well, right after that, you have the animal shelter that also that's as critical and that wasn't funed.

That's card access system. Um, they don't currently have card access over there. Everything is done by key lock. It's really just trying to bring them in. But one of the reasons we took that out with all of the projects we're going to have for the new building. We're not going to have time to take on another project. And to be be just to be honest, this year we're not going to be able to get it done. So, we might put that back in next year, but we knew we would not have the time to do it this year. Okay. Right. So, you got the you got the cargo van approved. Well, that depends on you guys. Well, I mean, it does make sense like you said. I mean, having a van like that where you have your equipment in it, your material in it, you're not running around, that's just makes sense. They make hybrid vans.

Sure. They make EV vans. Yeah. They have SUVs and everything EV. Now, if it's something that we can use it for, then it's something we should explore. Yeah, cuz the person driving that'll be based out of the new municipal building, right? Yes. We're going to have charging stations. Yep. So, the infrastructure will be there. Um, appreciate being open to that. No, I'm definitely open. I guess you get the pricing at least worth see where the cost goes if there's a big differential. See what we can find out. I think, listen, if we could get you one, I think that'd be that'd be good for everybody. I hope. And uh

I would appreciate it. I I wouldn't I'd support one after, but then we got Well, that's right. It' be stored at the new building. So, we'll have charging stations there already. I understand. They don't have infrastructure. Chuck doesn't have infrastruure. Don't don't don't go too far. You get me wrong. You know, I'm not a big proponent of that. I'm I'm a refinery guy, so let's stop. It's one more than the zero I had. So, thank you. Listen, you asked each one each department. I respect that. Your persistence is good, right? Consistent. Yeah, you might end up getting one. You know, that's a good thing.

And again, I just want to thank my staff because, you know, they're they went through a big transition. They really stepped up to the plate. They really have learned new software, new hardware between taking on the police department and fire department. Um, we lo unexpectedly lost the person doing technology at the fire department this year. So, we really lost our knowledge base there. So, we've really had to figure it out and the staff has really stepped up to the plate and done a tremendous job. So, big undertaking. Yes. Huge undertaking. Sure. So, I just want to commend each and every one of them. We appreciate the Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for hanging in Thank you for hanging in there till dinner. No problem. All right. Thank you guys. Have a good night.

I need any more animal dinner. I knew we finally good to meet you. Nice meeting you. All right. Mayor's office in I see what his recommen ask was and we gave him what he asked. Oh, you're the only one going up. Wait, we going backwards, right? Back to Mayor. We're doing mayor. Well, we have or we have to go back to department administration. What's purchasing? Where the heck is that?

Cut. Business administration. Budget and purchasing. Department of administration. Here we are. Yep. It's from where was he at? Oh, I got it. Got it. Go ahead. Franklin Township in Somerset or not. He's from Sunset. Franklin Somerset. That's where he was. and he was director of IT there, but I kind of moved him over because I worked with him for about 12 years in

Seems like a nice

he went right from a tech up to uh director of that department. I was the CFO at the time, so I was always pulling my hair out because he was calm with these big numbers and I thought, "Oh my god, what are you doing?" But um you know he really kind of drags you into the current century right with what your needs are with it. Um and I'm sure like even here he's just done a marvelous job of getting projects done that have been sitting there for a long time to do because he just didn't have the staffing and the knowledge and all of that. Um, so it's great and we've had he put the cyber security in place that is so important and this is what we hear about all the time. Um, that and I know he's done it every place that he's been to make sure that that's like a big thing. So that gets taken off your mind and then you can get down to work with all these other projects. So So I knew of him before he came and I was just happy he found some residents. So he was

happy to come home. Oh wow. Good. I was impressed. Yeah, you did a nice job. Good guy. Yeah. Okay. I have nothing on the first group. There's really nothing.

It's pretty flat. Business administration. Did we add a new salary there to make it go up to 40,000? So I think it's just an adjustment of salary. Okay. Um, we don't have any new stuff in there. Yeah, just general increases. It's really the only Yeah, there's not really. Mhm. That's the only increase besides. Yeah. Which is the only small number. Very good. You did good. Human resources. Human resources.

Did we do same thing? So they they added they added an intern um and then there was also a relatively large increase for employee and then also the fall off because someone in personnel last year got maternity leave. Okay. Okay.

Congratulations.

Who's on maternity leave? Good. Oh. Oh. Oh. And you took family leave. I I personel. Oh, okay. Mar. Okay. Now it's all coming together. It seems to us in the package. Yeah. Good deal. Works for me. Did you use your um family leave yet? No, I just used I used my time, but I have saved up enough family leave up. Get some time off. Good for you. Enjoy. Biggest increase is this other professional consultant. Uh not a huge number but a big jump. Prime Point.

Prime Point. That's why. So prior that was in that was charged to finance and now because it's a personnel function, we're charging it properly this year and you'll see it continuously build that line. Is there a new requirement for that we have to do? up at the mayor's office. Yep. I have nothing in there for your salaries are up a little bit.

That's it. Yeah, that was an increase in her step. That was a decrease. Yeah. There's the mayor's office. Hasn't need to use the ropes since 2020. The ceremonial rope. He doesn't put it on for the cleaning and cereal. So, I've married two people. So, I wear a robe. You know, I'm not the mayor. So, what? found this me and so I want it to be official for that. That's nice.

Well, it's out of the budget together. Let's see.

And that's where the ceremonies are done for the wedding and um to take care of um and facilitating those ceremonies that have where you and others enhance that. They just come right over from where they're at in their work and they'll help the community and they absolutely love it. They love doing it. It's always such a happy event. So, it's probably a nice break from their regular

Yeah. So, but it was when we asked them, you know, just made more sense trying to coordinate somebody from over in our building to get over there. So, it and you know, they can they love it a lot. So they'll probably still continue to do it when we move into the new building. What are we going to do with recreation moving? We're not done yet. Okay. Oh, wreck is going to move. That makes sense. Have them next to the Sorry. Any any questions? I'm going to give them to me then. It's like over here.

No. Thank you uh for everybody for participating and thank you for being prepared. This was uh you guys made this easy for us. Well, actually tough because it it was hard to find much to cut. So uh maybe question. No. This is a