Township Council - Special Meeting

What is this for? Okay.

Good evening everyone. Happy new year and welcome to the township council special meeting on January 8th at 4:30, 2026. This is a special meeting the council of township of Montlair. It's being broadcast live on channel 34 and is streaming live on the Montlair TV34 YouTube channel. It's available on demand and can and will be rebroadcast. The special meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meeting act. Adequate notice of the meeting has been provided transmitted to the official newspaper on January 5th, 2026 passed on the bulletin posted on the bulletin boards outside of the municipal building and has remained continuously posted. In addition, a copy of the special meetings notice is and has been available to the public and is on file in the office of our township clerk. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Madame clerk, will you please do the roll call? Deputy Mayor Anderson, absent. Councelor Birmingham, here. Councelor Damato, here. Councelor Harrison here. Councelor Toller, good evening. Present. Good evening. Councelor Williams absent. Mayor Baskerville present. Thank you very much. Um and at this point in time, we're going to open um the meeting for public comment. Please make sure that you've signed at the front and when you come forward, please state your name for us and you'll have three minutes.

Okay. Again, hello everyone. Um, so I have about a half dozen quick items, requests, comments. Um, I'd just like to start with first, um, I was happy to see the prior year budget line item on the temporary budget only because I had hoped that was going to include the sidewalk fees, the reimbursement for my invoice. Um, but maybe it doesn't. I just want to remind everybody that February is transfer month. So that we have an opportunity, you have the opportunity to transfer unused appropriations from this past year from 2025 to 2026. So you can use that money if you need to find some budget money. Um, I would like to see the uh manager's uh administrative memo posted uh as far as sidewalks so that residents know since we are responsible what our responsibility is.

I'm sorry I'm having a little difficulty. The mic is on and everything. Yeah, I'm just not speaking close enough. Is that better? It's better. Yes. Thank you. Um, do you want me to repeat any? No, I [laughter] think I heard much of the sidewalk.

Okay. Um the um moving on um when you come in as you're coming into budget practice is something that happened that I noticed last year or maybe it happened the year before and I didn't catch it. Um but I think the council should have a resolution on the allocation of salaries across departments and into the utilities. So, if you're taking a half a headcount and billing it out to the utility, um that should be somehow uh worked within some kind of guidelines because um I I understand why it happens and I think it can be a very productive tool at times. Uh but it's something that you should really have a control for. Um as far as um municipal complex Um, I don't know if any of you guys follow me, but I'm I'm one of the people that think we need um we should build new. Um, but regardless of what I think and I I think I still have an open mind to other options, uh, I would like to see from this board, this body, um, a consensus, uh, a unanimous consensus on the first step of the process, which is, do we need a new municipal building, new town hall, and a new police department? And if we don't need it, if you guys can't agree on that one, then the rest of the process is kind of like a waste of time. It's going to be it's not going to have a good outcome. It's going to take forever and uh it's it's just not a a good look. So, if we and I think people are confused. They're not clear what the council feels about this. So, I think you guys have to decide whether you can agree or can't agree. Oh, boy. Guys, did you dodge a

bullet in there? Thank you everyone.

Thank you very much. Okay. Um I don't see any other members of the public uh that wish to come forward. So seeing none, we're going to move on to the one agenda item that we have on the agenda this evening. Uh councelor Toller, will you please? Uh this is a agenda item. Ordinance is ordinance 25-66 Township of Mount Cleair ordinance amending salary ordinance 025-26 for the management non-union group for the year 2026. Uh first date of introduction was December 16th 2025 and tonight would be the second public hearing. Uh I move second. Are there any um people that wish to be heard on this particular ordinance?

Uh Frank Rebaki. Um 398 Upper Mountain. Um yeah, just one question. I called uh left the message with your office, Mr. Marks. There's a uh a job title that's missing this year from the list, which is the assist the assistant tax collector position. Uh I forget what it the official title is, but it's the the assistance position in the tax collector department. This was one that you guys actually preceded you, the prior council created back in 2024 and now it's kind of like gone. So I guess my question is have we eliminated this position? You said did we eliminate it?

No, we did not. Okay. So that's it. Well, HR is in the room, so we can ask her to come up front. Well, I could speak to it. Oh, okay. Thank you. Thank you, manager. So, this um salary ordinance is for non-UN employees and the the position or title that you referenced is is a union position covered by a collective bargaining agreement. So, that there are separate salary ordinances for um union titles and union positions. Okay. So, the original because I had it on the bud. The original position was non-management when it was created. So, it was actually created as a CWA type of I think it's a covered title. So, Okay. It's a covered title. So, it's covered. Thank you very much. Yeah.

Okay. Um, members of the council that wish to be heard on this ordinance, please. Well, I I'll wait a few minutes. I see um deputy mayor is joining us and I don't know if she has anything she wants to add but of the people that are already sitting do you have any discussion on this? No. No. Okay.

Just we should maybe describe what it is. So we're just adjusting some salaries because of of um the creation of some departments and and and mostly to adjust um the salary for the in-house attorney which there was um Miss Dawkins, thank you for doing I know a lot of work to figure out where we needed to be in the market to be realistic um not too high, not too low uh but in you know to be able to to continue um and finalize the search. So, just in case people are wondering why we're here.

So, manager, are there any positions on here that um [clears throat] were not here last year or that have have changed? Um I specifically had a question and I don't remember the parallegal um the salaries and I'm just trying to figure out where do these are these numbers some of them may be statutory some aren't for the ones that are not statutory how do we come up with the numbers like for their minimum and their maximum

so um just going back to the be to to the beginning there are four um either new or updated salaries on on in this guide. Um so the the two existing are the township attorney position and the assistant township attorney position. Um the salary the previous salaries were below market. So this kind of right sizes the the salaries for those two positions. The two new positions are um housing specialist which is a grant with the town received a I think it was $50,000 grant per year for two years. Um so it's the the um we have to establish a salary for the housing specialist position. I don't think we've advertised yet. Uh we will be advertising and making a hire in the in the f if we've advertised then was contemporaneous. So um councelor probably knows better than me whether it was whether it's been oh has housing specialist been advertised yet?

No. Okay. So, um, housing specialist is a new title with a new salary and the salary is based on, um, the the grant that was received and it would be 100% funded by the grant. And then the last item, the last title is for uh, director of sustainability. So, as you know, the uh, the governing body last month created a new department of sustainability. So, we need a director for that. So this salary ordinance creates a new title of director of sustainability for the town. Um as far as parallegal um that was an ex pre-existing uh position uh with a pre-existing uh salary range. Um and what was done from 25 2025 um that was different from previous um years was that uh all of the um the range the range the ranges uh were increased by 2.75% on the max. So all of the pre-existing um the this ordinance is for non-union positions. So all of those um titles had their their maximum salaries uh were increased by 2.75% last year.

May I? Yes, councelor Toller. Sure. Thank you. I just wanted to mention the um the grant-f funded position for the housing specialist is a part-time job. So people understand that this isn't a pensionable or medical benefits going to be given. It's for part-time work is what my understanding is from M through. Okay. So, as as a part-time position, the the employee would not be eligible for medical benefits or pension. Correct. And and also if it's not Deputy Mayor, I think if it's not it is subject to availability of the grant funds. So, if there's no grant fund to pay for it.

Oh, if there's no grant funds, we're going to have to find some funds because we need someone here. We need a ZAR immediately. So is this position and I and I you know um you and I and some of the other people um that are on housing commission have talked about this. So you're saying we need a ZAR. So is this person in your mind um a ZAR because at some point in time I I I agree that we need to discuss about you know having a director of housing. We have director of sustainability. We have director of this and it seems as though when we really believe in something as being extremely important, we find a way to get directors and we find a way to get some salaries for for that. I agree with that.

But so is this position that's coming in under the grant is that it's a part-time position that as far as my understanding it's a part-time position, right? Um they're supposed to work on affordable housing items. Um, as many of you already know, our affordable housing program runs through three separate departments here at 205. Um, in my opinion, that's where a lot of the confusion happens with some of these projects and apartments or families. Um, if we can find a way to make one person the affordable housing ZAR, that's what needs to happen. and it cuts down on chaos. It cuts down on confusion and it really cuts down on lack of oversight on many of the projects and things that are going on in town regarding affordable housing units and families.

Yeah, I totally agree um councelor Toller with everything you're saying. I'm just not convinced that that's what this position is. Manager, is that what this position is that's coming in here? Somebody that's going to do that and then, you know, possibly even um have oversight over the um external organization that runs this because that was not my understanding. So now I'm trying to find out what is that position in. So the housing specialist position is based on a grant and will be um you know the duties and responsibilities of the housing specialist when they are hired will be to fulfill the obligations of the grant. Yes. No. This position is not for and that would be what was the obligation of the grant?

I I can't speak to that. I mean it's I'm I'm not familiar enough with the grant and perhaps um I would like to in invite our um director of HR please and thank you for being here with us. No problem. Good afternoon. The housing specialist position is grant funded. Miss Tally have all the um information regarding the grant. I will not receive that information until the salary ordinance is passed. So, I I haven't had the ability to look at the grant yet.

All right. And and again, I'm not you know, I know we're under time constraints here and as far as I'm concerned. It's just that when you referred to it as the housing zarood, mayor, I was saying we need a housing zar. I wasn't saying this [clears throat] position was that. I'm just saying overall in general, the township could definitely benefit from that type of position. I know that Miss Tally presented this position to the housing commission and she was thinking about hiring a Monontlair State student to do the work and I'm not sure that that's a adequate seasoned person to deal with all things housing. So,

okay. I I did misunderstand and I apologize because I thought when you were saying at the same time that you were talking about that that we need that I thought you were saying that this person could in some way. Okay. All righty. Anybody else have anything? Um, Deputy Mayor, thank you for joining us. Do you have anything? uh uh that you want to discuss about the ordinance any of the positions? Yeah, I think um I think this is you know many of the changes that are here are going to bring us up to par with the current market um you know current market and um my understanding of the the housing specialist is um not that it's any sort of you know um coordinator for all things housing but um to f to help administer the um the fair chair you know our our affordable housing programs such as the um rehabilitation um of uh units and things like that. So, um that that is my understanding.

Okay. And manager Marks, I just have one more question, please. Are there any uh positions that were funded for last year um around the same time that we are not funding for at this particular time? And if so, please would you tell me what they are? Like if we lost any positions, do you know what I mean? that

we have a hiring freeze um for for non-essential um titles or non non-essential positions. I can't think of off the top of my head, I can't think of anything um that's not that's in here that's so this salary ordinance is for non-union positions, right? I can't think of any any non-union position that um that was gone that non-union. Okay. Right.

All right. So then anything else that that may be gone is um they're probably in the union. Um and I'm just trying to keep track of of the various positions and and what that you know does for us. And when we said hiring freeze, did we we voted on that? Um um and when was that? That's so the hiring freeze was an administratively uh prepared uh memo to department heads back in September. Okay. It was an administrative directive. Okay. And that was based on on what?

So back in July, the New Jersey uh Department of Treasury Division of Pension and Benefits came out with the um health care rates for 2026. So, the state health benefits plan was experiencing a 36.5% increase in state health benefits. We spend approximately $10 million on employee health benefits. That translated into a gen generally $4 million plus or minus um increase in one line item in this year's budget, the 2026 budget. So, at least we had a little bit less than six month head start. So, we instituted that $4 million gap or or potential deficit. At least we had a head start uh with uh knowing that um you know, we're starting the year uh with a $4 million challenge uh based on employee health benefits. Um that um basically initiated a a uh a re-evaluation of the budget for the 2026 budget and a hiring freeze for non-essential positions. And I truly appreciate you taking your time and I deliberately ask the question because a lot of the public and maybe people that are watching at home or will watch at home, they don't understand that and then they just say, "Oh yeah, well the council said so and so or the council did so and so, so thank you very much for explaining it." And and people should understand it. And I think when you take your time and you explain certain things such as this, then it begins to, you know, make well at least people get a better understanding of how we got there because then some people are like, "Oh, well you guys, you know, there's a freeze on this yet you hired that, there's a freeze on that, you know." So, thank you very much.

I mean, there there are other I mean, union positions um that are also essent crossing guards, right? You wouldn't forego crossing guards because of a hiring freeze. I think horse and guards are essential dispatchers, emergency dispatchers as well. So, uh we're making hires of of we're we're down dispatchers. So, for emergency services. So, those you know by virtue of uh them being emergency uh positions uh you know they they are necessary. Thank you. Sure. Madame Cler. Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councelor Birmingham. Yes. Councelor Damato. Yes. Councelor Harrison. Yes. Councelor Toller. Yes.

Councelor William absent. Mayor Baskerville. Yes. Um motion to adjurnn. All in favor? I [clears throat] oppose. Abstensions. Thank you all very much. I appreciate it. Madam clerk, thank you for coming in. And manager and our attorney, deputy manager, everybody. Thank you.