Council - Regular Meeting

one. Please stand for a salute to our flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] Can the deputy clerk please do the roll call? Councilwoman Miriam Cohen, present. Councilman Charles, here. Councilman Michael Markel here. Councilwoman Rupa P. Seagull here. Councilman Terrence Vanera

here. Can the deputy clerk please read the sunshine law into the record?

In accordance with the open public meetings act, it is hereby announced and shall be entered into the minutes of this meeting that adequate notice has been provided by the following. One, posted on the bulletin boards within within the municipal building on December 26, 2025 and remains posted at that location for public inspection. two printed in the Home News Tribune and the Cranberry Press on December 26, 2025. Three, posted on the Monro Township website, and four, sent to those individuals who have requested personal notice. In accordance with chapter 3, section 17 of the Monroe Township Code, public comment shall be limited to 5 minutes unless further time is granted by the council president.

Thank you. Um, at this time, I would like to take any nominations for the position of council president to serve serve for a 2-year term. Do I have a nomination? Madam Chair, it would be my pleasure to nominate Rupa P. Seagull as our council president for the next two years. Thank you. Do I have a second for that? Second. No second. Okay. Are there any other nominations? Hearing none. Can I have a request? I need a request to close the nominations. Motion to close nominations, please. Thank you. Can I have a second? Second.

I would like a motion for consideration of resolution R12026001, resolution appointing Rupa P. Seagull as council president. So moved. Second. Roll call. Councilwoman Miriam Cohen. Yes. Councilman Charles Dapiro. No. Councilman Michael Markell. Yes. Councilwoman Rupa Seagull. Yes. Councilman Terry Vanerza. Yes.

Okay. Motion carries. At this time, Rupa could uh Council Councilwoman Seagull, could you meet me in the front to administer the oath of office? Thank you. You're welcome. Oh, sorry. Sorry.

No, you're good. Right hand up. left hand on the Bible and repeat after me. I please state your name. I, Rupa Seagull, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the State of New Jersey and the State of New Jersey that I will bear true faith that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same

and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and in this state and in this state unto under the authority of the people. under the authority of the people. And that I will faithfully And that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform impartially and justly perform all the duties of council president all the duties of council president in the township of Monroe in the township of Monroe. According to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations [applause]

Well, you got you got the motor off. I'm leaving there.

Yes, I'm coming. Should I take my own?

I shouldn't At this time, the meeting is officially turned over to the new council president, Rupa Seagull. ladies. Okay. So before we move on to the next item, I just wanted to say happy new year to everyone. Thank you to my council colleagues for your support and trust. It is an honor and privilege to serve in this role as council president. I look forward to continuing to work hard with each of my council colleagues, Mayor Delina, and the entire township administration and all of our residents. A very special thank you to Councilwoman Cohen for your leadership over these last few years and your mentorship. Thank you again and let's all work together for a great 2026.

So, we'll move on to item seven on the agenda, nominations for the position of council vice president to serve for the term of two years. May I have nominations, please? Madame President, if I could. Um, one of the great pleasures in serving on the council the past 5 years has been the opportunity to meet special people throughout the township who go out of their way to do what's best for the township of Monroe. One of those people is my friend and fellow Councilman Michael Markel. Having said that, it's my distinct privilege and honor to nominate Michael Markel to serve in the position of vice president of the Monroe Town Council.

Thank you. May I have a motion or I'm sorry, are there any other nominations? May I have a motion? Motion to close, please. Nomination. Second. Thank you. Second. Okay. Consideration of the following resolution of appointment 2-year term January 1st, 2026 until December 31st, 2027. Resol R-1-2026-00002. Resolution appointing council vice president. May I have a motion, please? Second. Second. Thank you. Roll call. Councilwoman Miriam Cohen. Yes. Councilman Charles Dapiro. Yes. Councilman Markell.

Yes. Councilwoman Seagull. Yes. Councilman Vanzora. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Clerk, can you please administer the oath of office to Council Vice President Michael Markel? I please state your name. I, Michael Markell, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear

that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the State of New Jersey and the State of New Jersey that I will bear true faith that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and in this state and in the state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and I will faithfully impartially and justly perform in impartially and justly perform all the duties of council vice president

all the duties of council vice president in the township of Monroe in the township of Monroe according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations

[clears throat] We're gonna move Mike over here. [laughter]

Right. [clears throat] Thanks. She's Mike. [clears throat]

Congratulations again, Vice Chair Markeel. We'll move on to my item eight, adjournment of our reorganization meeting. May I have a motion, please? Second. Thank you. All in favor? Any opposed? Meeting is adjourned. Time 6:41. Moving on to our agenda meeting. Agenda meeting. May I have a motion to call our meeting to order? Moved. Second. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? [clears throat] Moving on to item two, proclamations and presentations.

Yes. It's a whole different perspective from this side. Absolutely. require. Yeah, I heard I heard about that.

Good evening again, everyone. We have a few presentations this evening. First, I'd like to start with congratulating Lisa G. HOD EMS on her retirement and recognizing her 34 years with Monroe Township. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to be here with us tonight, but we wanted to congratulate her. So, maybe we can give her a round of applause. Thank you. And we'll move on to our other proclamations and presentations. Our presentation for first one will be for Tim Stoler, congratulating him on his retirement and recognizing his 35 years with Monroe Township. Tim, will you come up and join us? So Tim started with the Monroe Township Utility Authority in 1990. Dedicated to purchasing, he started and cultivated the purchasing department throughout his long career. His wealth of knowledge acquired over his 35 years have assisted the township and utility department in many ways. Each and every department felt and understood his dedication to his job. After his many years of dedicated service, he can now look forward to spending more time with his family, particularly his granddaughter, and enjoy time fishing. Congratulations, Tim. And I'm going to read the plaque. Congratulations on your retirement with great appreciation of 35 years of dedication and commitment. Thank you for going above and beyond serving the citizens of Monroe Township. Wishing you the best on your new adventure with much respect and gratitude. Congratulations, Mayor Steven Delina and the Monroe Township Council. Thank you.

Just want to thank everybody here that knows me and I know. Thanks for all your support over the years and uh I'll see you on the beach. Congratulations. So, we're gonna

[applause]

Moving on to our next presentation, we're congratulating Angela Siestan on her retirement and recognizing her 17 years with Monroe Tang Monroe Township. Angela, would you please join me? Hi, congratulations. Angela Sieston began her career in the Monroe Township Tax Collector's Office as a tax clerk in October 2008, where she quickly became a trusted and dedicated member of the team. Through hard work and a strong commitment to public service, she continued to grow in her role and further her professional knowledge by returning to school to earn her certified tax collector's license. In October of 2024, Angela proudly stepped into the role of tax collector, a position she has carried out with integrity, professionalism, and care for the community. Her dedication and contributions have la left a lasting impact on Monroe Township and her service is truly appreciated as we celebrate her retirement. Thank you, Angela. And read your plaque. Congratulations on your retirement, Angela. With great appreciation of 17 years of dedication and commitment, thank you for your going above and beyond serving the citizens of the township of Monroe. Wishing you the best on your new adventure with much respect and gratitude. Congratulations, Mayor Steven Delina and the Monroe Township Council.

Just a short few words. Hi everyone. Um, just want to put my glasses on. I want to start out by saying thank you to my family and I get upset for attending this special day. I also want to recognize Kevin and Lori, my managers, for their [sighs and gasps] guidance and to all my any all of my amazing Oh god, I'm so sorry. Colleagues for making me coming to work a pleasure. While I'll miss our daily interactions, I am excited for this next chapter. Focusing on spoiling my grandchildren, Cameron and Kingsley. Thank you everyone for bringing [sighs and gasps] for being a part of my journey here at Monroe Township. Thank you. I like this seat.

Good seat. There's a good seat. [clears throat] [applause]

And we have two other we have two proclamations on the agenda this evening. One is January 27, 2026 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day and January 2026 is Muslim Heritage Month. At this time, we're going to take a five minute recess so we can take some pictures and some family pictures. Thank you. [clears throat] [laughter]

Kyle, Kyle, will you take a picture of me with my new sign? I want to send it to my granddaughter.

Thank you. I want to send I saw

We're moving on to item three, ordinances for introduction at the January 5th, 2026 regular meeting. Clerk, can you please read the ordinance into the record? Ordinance 0120260001 supervisory personnel 2026 salary and wage ordinance for Monroe Township Middle Sex County. Thank you. Moving on to item four, resolutions for consideration under consent agenda at the January 5th, 2026 regular meeting R-1-2026-00003 through R-1-2026-30. Council members, please res review review the resolutions and if any h one has any items they wish to be removed from the consent agenda.

Any items? Yes, I do. Council President, uh R12026-008 R1-2026-016 R1-2026-019 That's it. Thank you. Moving on to the public comments. May I have a motion to open public comments? Moved. Second. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed?

Great. This public forum is for agenda items only. Five minutes per speaker. Those wishing to speak, please state your name and address for the record. Council President George, five killer court, Monroe. Um in the consent resolution uh 2026 010 um authorization to have the business businesses administrator purchase federal property is that is there any limit to that up to exceeding you know and we buy the east wing of the white house [laughter] too late

so uh thanks Mr. This is really authorization for me to sign applications to to acquire any federal surplus property. Any acquisition of property still has to come to the council for approval. So there's no dollar limit at this point, but there's also no actual acquisition. This is sort of proforma for the year, you know. That's all I had. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Happy new year to all and to all of Monroe. Uh Michelle Arminino, 9 Nathaniel Street. Uh I would first like to um sadly say as a first comment my disappointment that the public was unable to witness the swearing in of the newly reelected ward council people. Um generally that it's an open meeting and people can come and witness that. I did not see it on our agenda. I mean on our calendar so I was not aware. I take it that the newly elected reelected council people were sworn in. Is that correct?

Yeah, you know public ceremony on it was a public ceremony. Was it advertised as a public? Well, it wasn't a counselor but it was done just a swear. But was it advertised on the calendar? Cuz I did not see it. That part of it I don't know. But I know it was public here. It was not, but it was open to the public and I think I think every seat was full. So a lot of residents got got to be here.

I'm just curious, how would we know where was it noticed? I mean, if the council people brought their friends and relatives in, I can understand why the seats were full. But if the rest of the I would surely have appreciated being in the audience for that. So, Council President, it's not a public meeting under the Open Public Meetings Act. It's a ceremonial function. It wasn't noticed in the same way that public meetings are not.

So, just for the record, it wasn't noticed and it wasn't a public. All right. Um, I would also like to talk about, let's see, three resolutions. I think I have um the property address for resolution uh 020. Council President. Yes, please.

So, this is block 31, lot 9, which sits between it's it's a piece of landlock property actually that sits between Hoffman Road and Federal Road. It is um an unusable uh parcel of open space. It does not have an actual street address because it does not um from from what I can rec recollect it doesn't front on any of those particular streets. The county purchased it as uh as preserved open space um and uh and and the block and lot can be accessed on our GIS site if anyone's looking aridally uh to see where it is but it doesn't have an actual street address. So, is there any purpose for this or is it going to be just open space?

Council President, the purpose of our resolution, it's not our purchase, it's the county purchasing this from a private property owner. The purpose of this resolution is to put that property now into taxexempt status because as county uh like all county open space, it's it's now taxexempt. Um and and there's a small refund of about $4,000 because um because that was prepaid taxes that are being uh refunded for that reason.

So it's $4,83 and 15 cents according to our resolution. All right. Thank you. Um I would also like a a quick um explanation of the Garden State Municipal Joint Assurance Fund Bond. Uh, have we previously been in the Middle Sex County? Like, is that new, Mr. McGowan?

Council President, so we've been in the Garden State joint insurance fund at least the last five years, maybe six. Prior to that, we were in the Middle Sex County joint insurance fund. Um, that that GIF became uh it became a better um option for the township to move to the Garden State GIF because of some financial issues that the Middle Sex GIF was experiencing. Yeah. and just Oh, okay.

I understand that um it actually went bankrupt the Middle Sex County and do we owe any money to it because I know they were going out asking for more money and if the answer is no, if the answer is yes, I'd like to know how much. And um my second question would be on the joint the current joint fund, do do we pay a premium up front? You can answer that one first and make the second.

Sure, Council President. Yeah, of course. Like like all insurance, uh we do pay a premium up front. Well, we pay a premium throughout the year. I think it's charged two different times throughout the year. We're still negotiating our final uh rate for 2026. So, we're already in the joint insurance fund. We we passed a resolution last year with a three-year commitment that ends at the end of 2027. This resolution appoints myself and two alternates as commissioners of that fund to attend meetings and be able to vote on all all GIF. um all GIF uh resolutions. How much are we into that? What do you mean? What do you mean by in into it? You said we've been in it.

So So GIFs don't charge premiums. They charge assessments. So that's what we have. So I don't know what our annual assessment is. I think that's we're still in the process of determining what it is. We can probably tell you what last year I don't know what last year was. last year was 1.7 million and that covers workers comp insurance, property casualty insurance, law enforcement liability insurance, general liability, cyber security, covers a lot. Thank you. Thank you. Any other members of the public wishing to speak? Seeing none, may I have a motion to close the public comments? Second. Second. All in favor? All opposed?

N. Public comments is closed. May I have a motion to adjourn the agenda meeting? Second. Second. Roll call, please. Councilwoman [clears throat] Cohen, yes. Councilman Depiro, yes. Councilman Vanzora, yes. Councilman Council Vice President Markell, yes. Council President Seagull, yes. Time, please. The time is 7:04. Thank you. Moving on to our regular meeting of the Monroe Township Council, January 5th, 2026. Regular meeting call to order. May I have a motion, please? Second. Second. Roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen,

yes. Councilman Dapiro, yes. Councilman Vanzora, yes. Council Vice President Markell, yes. Council President Seagull, yes. Time, please. 7:04. Okay, moving on to item two. Clerk, can you please read item two on the agenda? Ordinance 0120260001, supervisory personnel 2026 salary and wage ordinance for Monroe Township, Middle Sex County. May I have a motion, please? Second. Second. Roll call. Councilwoman Cohen, yes. Councilman Diapro, yes. Councilman Vanzora, yes. [clears throat] Excuse me. Council Vice President Markell. Yes.

Council President Seagull. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Clerk, can you please read item three? Resolutions for consideration under the consent agenda. R1 2026003 through R1202630 with the exception of R1 2026008 016 and 019 which will be considered separately. May I have a motion please? Move. Second. Second. Roll call. Council Councilwoman Cohen. Yes. Councilman Diapro. Yes. Councilman Vanzora. Yes. Council Vice President Markell, yes. Council President Cohen,

yes. Motion carries. Council President Oh, I'm sorry. Council President Seagull. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Let's have it. Of course. Clerk will um clerk, if you could please read item four. Sure. Resolutions removed from the consent agenda for consideration R1 2026008 016 and 019. Motion please. Second. Second. Roll call. Councilwoman Cohen. Yes. Councilman Depiro. State. Councilman Vanzora. Yes. Council Vice President Markell.

Yes. Council President Seagull. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. We'll move on to our reports. We'll start with our administrator's report from Mr. McGowan.

Thank you, Council President. I'll be very brief tonight as we as we met just two weeks ago. Um hope everyone had a good holiday. We just want to say congratulations to the new council president, the new council vice president. Excited for the term ahead. And also just a congratulations to Tim Stoler and Angela, our our our retiring tax collector. They they've both been here a long time. Did a phenomenal job and uh we couldn't do that work without them. Um they are being replaced though by folks who are incredibly competent and wellqualified and I'm excited for Alex Uurig and Jeff Moilla who are going to be stepping into those roles who've been with us for a while not new to the township but are are stepping into these roles and I'm happy to continue to have their expertise on our administrative team and I thank you very much.

Thank you Mr. McGowan. We'll move on to our engineers report. Mr. Raoitz, please. Thank you, Council President. Uh, nothing new to the report in the last two weeks. U, you know, weather has been cold and it was the holidays. I would like to say congratulations, council president, as well as council vice president. Thank you. Thank you. We'll move on to our council reports. Councilman Dapiro, I'll start with you. Thank you. Uh, just wanted to uh ask a question on the survey for the open space. Uh, do we have any updates on when that's going to be uh public?

Um, Councilman, I I was and I may be misremembering, but I thought it was distributed to all the council members, but if it's not, I can I can double check on that. So, the survey is completed. I'll I'll send you a copy if if if I haven't already. And um the results were uh I don't want to speak to them. I don't have them in front of me, but I know hiking and trail uh you know, hiking and and bike trails were high on the list. Uh volleyball was high on the list in terms of what people are looking for in terms of recreation. Um and and more playgrounds for younger kids was high on the list, but I'll send you the full data.

Okay. Um when you say council, just don't send it to me. You know, I feel very special sitting up here for eight years. Um you know, and now I'll be here for another four. And um it's just it's just amazing um on sitting up here and watching and and and I care about our community. We have residents coming up here talking about um you know we should have had a public um notice about us getting sworn in us last three uh council council members. I mean it's very important to be transparent. So when whenever you send the council a response, I I just would request that you send it to all of us, not just not just a few or selected. So just I did not receive anything. Uh and I'm just trying to trying to find out exactly what's going on.

Yeah. There's nothing that I sent to the rest of the council that I don't also send to you. So if I didn't send it to anybody, you started out saying by I thought everybody got the and and Yeah. And I'm saying if I'm wrong about that, Yeah. then I will resend it to all the council tomorrow. So just just don't make me feel special after 8 years. That's all. Um police uh department. Do we have any updates?

Council President, the um the dispatchers have moved in to the new dispatch center. Uh the the council approved tonight uh furniture for the rest of the police staff who are going to be moving in there to move in there. Sprinkler system is almost finished. The spray insulation in the attic is now finished. So, we've gotten to a point where we've done some emergent work that have enabled our police to move in. And throughout the spring, we're working with the bond company to finish the other work. I don't want to call it minor work, but it is work that was not necessary for a certificate of occupancy. And that'll be site work outside, parking, um, and and some finishes, floors, uh, walls, and other finishes inside the old the older part of the police building. So, we're moving along pretty well. And, and I think our police department is very happy with where we're at.

Do we have a CO? We have a TCO. That wasn't my question. I said CO. So, no is the answer to your question. Thank you. And we do have a date when we're going to have a CO. We do not.

Okay. Um, Applegart schools is open. So, that I thought that would something uh that the public should be aware of because we did contribute to the uh 1936 boiler and also the roof. So, it's very important that we let our residents know that that that project is complete. um where the schools are the school's back open for our uh students to uh to to to use that school which is they they worked hard on working around the repairs and now it's back open. So, I just wanted to to make everybody aware. And while I was talking about the ceremony, I also wanted to thank our mayor and I want to thank our clerk's office for making making that a very uh successful even though as as Kevin said before, the room was packed, but it was uh it was very well done. And I I wanted to say thank you to everybody that participated and and also our fellow uh council that came to support us. I want to say thank you for coming to support us. Thank you. Um I attended an Eagle Scout event at the senior center um for for Ohas uh Geravi and it was a he did a u a project for uh the temples to to have um a caddy for chairs and tables and and he did a very very well well job. Um it was a snowstorm that we had and and his his hard work was appreciated by the residents and also the community and I just wanted to say thank you to him and his family because that's a a high honor and uh and I I was I was uh really amazed to to talk to them and and meet with them for a few hours. [clears throat] It was very very well attended even though with the snow. Thank you, Council President. That's it.

Thank you. Moving on to council reports. Councilman Vanzura.

Thank you, Madam President. Um, first of all, uh, congratulations to yourself and to, uh, my, uh, friend, Mr. Markell, as vice president, and I'm sure that we'll all do a great job, and I I think I I don't want to speak for all the council. I'm only one person, but I I think we all try our best to do what's what's in the best interest of Monroe. and uh I have a lot of faith in your uh leadership and I'm sure that you'll steer us in the right direction. So, thank you for all that. As we enter 2026, I just want to wish all the residents of Monroe a happy, healthy, successful new year. I want to thank all the uh the people that work for our town. We sort of went through this at the end of the year, but um I know everybody works hard to try and do what they can and and it does it does not go unappreciated. we we do see what's done and when you see people retiring after so many years, it's nice to know that we have others coming in and uh you know this was sort of a year of change. We lost uh Allan as our business administrator and Kevin stepped in and we're very fortunate and I think Kevin's done a great job over the year and it's not easy just stepping in, you know, to a job running a town like this and uh having everybody's support and the council working together with the administration is is what I think uh really works best. So, thank you and and I also say thank you to the public that comes up and and makes suggestions and nominations. We might agree with some things, we might disagree with some things, but input is never a bad thing. So, thank you for all you do and uh we'll look forward to a successful new year. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Vanzora. We'll move on to Councilwoman Cohen for your report. Oh, that feels so good. Thank you. Congratulations to all of my colleagues who were reelected and to Rupa and Mike who I hope enjoy their leadership positions on the council. It's an interesting take on how we function. Uh it's been a pretty quiet month between snowstorms. So just accept my good wishes to all of uh all of you and for all of Mont Monroe that we have a wonderful 2026. And I'm kind of hoping we have already seen the end of the snow for this season,

Mr. Markell. Great. Thank you, Vice President Markell. Your turn.

Realize that was off. Um, I just want to thank everybody for electing me as vice president, and I want to thank um, Mr. Van Zura for the nomination and the great job he did in this role. Um, and I do want to acknowledge uh Miss Mrs. Con, Mrs. Conn for the wonderful job she did over the years as president with everything ran so well. Um, and I just want to say thank you for this opportunity. Thank you for the reelection out there. And I just want to tell Rupa good luck. [laughter] And I want to tell her to uh eat healthy and be healthy because I'm a heartbeat away from your seat over there. So I want to make sure you're in good shape. Okay. And uh congratulations, Paul, on being the first uh gentleman now of uh the town council. I just wanted to put that out there.

Yep. Yes, I noticed that. and um and we're looking forward to a great 2026. Um and thank you for coming out and to this cold night and participating in this uh council meeting. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Uh I have a couple few couple little updates um just to share our youth advisory council kicked off last month. We have about 20 students participating in the program this year. And as we've done in the past, the students will have the opportunity to learn about municipal government and be part of a project around community service. So stay tuned for more information as we begin working through this year. And then I wanted to let the community know the Cultural Arts Commission is hosting the jured art show. Again, it's starting at the library starting January 10th through the end of February. So, please do stop by and look at the beautiful work from our local residents. And that is my report.

We'll move on to the next item. U Mayor Delina's not here, so we'll skip his report. Moving on to public comments. Five minutes per speaker. May I have a motion to open public comments? Moved. Second. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? None. Seeing public comments is open. Are there any members of the public wishing to speak? If you do, please state your name and address for the record.

My name is Adrien Fine and I live at 15B Canterbury Drive here in Monroe Township. And I'm just getting up to as a member of the township to thank Miriam Conn for all her years of service, especially in her leadership role. and to say to you, Ruper, you have big shoes to follow. And thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else in the public wishing to speak? Michelle 9aniel Street. Um, I would like to make a comment about resolution 22 which is a resolution of determining and declaring that certain properties designated as areas in need of redevelopment pursuant to the local redevelopment directly. the planning board prepare redevelopment plan into consideration that this is a super fun site and that um the residents surrounding it will be taken care of and I'd like to I'm looking forward to seeing this study. So I think this is just a resolution allowing this study to move forward. Is that correct council president?

It correct. It's going to be a solar field is what it's going to be. It's not certainly I think it's the study that's important. So the study's done and there's a designation. So now we're past the study stage where this is the designation study is already right. So the next that happens is the redevelopment plan which just outlines the what the re the solar field will look like.

I would like to say that in this resolution it says December 18th 2025 the board conducted a public hearing and reviewed the study. I was the only member of the public other than there were four people who were there as relatives of people on the planning board was the only member of the public there. And again, I would like to um let you know in terms of transparency, my displeasure with the fact that on that uh agenda, planning board agenda, it had it said that there were no applications and unless you read all the way down to the end of that agenda where it said that a discussion, it was a discussion item and at the very end it said uh action may be taken. Now for members of the public that that wasn't a notice at all. So I think it was improperly noticed that meeting. I think it has potential to um go against the open public meetings act that people really weren't informed and in terms of having a hearing. I don't think it um it rose to the level of proper public hearing. I was the only one there. um people and that people that I asked were not aware of what was going on. So I think in the future if this is not brought to court uh I think in the future that something like that if it's going to be the only thing on the agenda that it's be it is incumbent upon the boards and coming on the council president and the council to make sure these things are properly noticed and the public has a right to uh hear them. So again, I think uh we're really falling short of transparency. We could talk a lot about how willing um the elected officials are to be transparent, but the actions speak

louder than words. And I think it's time um we're entering a new era in the Monroe Township Council. I would ask that my elected officials that represent Monroe uh please start to deliberate in public. That is also something that the own public meetings act requires that the public has a right to witness what goes on in their government. Uh I'm going to ask the new council president to consider that. Make sure that the public is aware and what the deliberation is. I don't know if and when you deliberate. That'll be a question that I'll have for the next meeting. But I would also like to know, especially the newly elected or reelected members of the council, what their vision, what your vision of Monroe is in the future. I hope we can progress to the future and not regress to past um [clears throat] just past resolutions that are really not I don't there are a lot of things that I don't think are in the best interest of my will. So that would be my comment and I hope that going forward we have a far more transparent organization and that the public is really considered before a lot of these decisions are made. After all, we support the council with our tax dollars. We support the community and there are a lot of people in this town who love this, including me especially. And but I think uh you know the kind of democracy that we are seeking going forward in this country and in this state and in this municipality is to be really responsive to the people and to have us be more a participation after all it is the government of the people. Thank

you. Any other members of the public wishing to speak? Seeing none, may I have a motion to close the public comments? Second. Second. All in favor? I. Sure. Mr. Reno.

Yeah. I just want I just went back and looked at the planning board agenda. This wasn't an application. I think the the agenda clearly indicates that it was a discussion item and that they may take formal action on it. Uh I have to tell you, I don't there's nothing about the way this agenda was structured certainly that that violates the law. But I did want to point out, council president, and I think it's important at the beginning of the year that we do point this out that we're we're moving into a new phase in terms of public notices in New Jersey, that we're phasing out the um the print media as the primary focus of uh obtaining public notices. And that what will happen that the public notices will be on our website. they'll probably be on a state website and also twice a month they'll be summarized as to what the public notices are. So, in my opinion, because of the way we've all become attached to, let's call it digital media, it'll be much easier for people to find in one place where all of the public notices are, I think it's I think they're hard. I think up until this point in time using print media, honestly, in all the times I in all the newspapers I've read in my life, I don't think I've ever once gone to the page of the public notices in the back to scan, you know, amongst the thousand sheriff's notices as to whether or not there's a planning board application notice. But this will put it all on our our our public page. Um I I just wanted to assure council that there was nothing improper or illegal or violating the sunshine law with regards to the way the planning board conducted their meeting with regards to this. And of course all of these actions are taken at public meetings. So that was a public meeting duly notice. We just made a designation at a public meeting duly notice. So you know I'm pretty confident in the process. But I did want people to know and we should probably I haven't talked to the clerk's office about this extensively though I know both the clerk's office and my office have been getting you know missives from the DCA and from the league of municipalities that we should probably you know make it a little bit known to people that there

will be a new way for you to get notices. Um and I think they'll be in one place and I think it's really positive. Thank you Mr. Renown. So I think we were at mo we had motion and second for close so far. We did the motion. Yes, we did. I think director motion was closed. Okay, we're on to motion to adjurnn. May I have a motion, please? Motion. Second. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you. Time. We are adjourned. The time is 7:26. Um our next council meeting will be Monday, February 9th at 6:30 p.m. Thank you.