Township Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Good evening, everyone.

This is a regular meeting in the Council of the Township of Montclair, and it's being broadcast live on TV 34, and it's streaming live on the Montclair TV 34 YouTube channel, and it's available on demand and can and will be rebroadcast. I sort of said it's regular, but it's not so regular because I'm really excited that we're getting ready to swear in our attorney to the township, Attorney Borum, in just a few minutes after we take care of some... BUSINESS. THE MEETING IS CALLED PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF THE OPEN PUBLIC MEETING ACT. THE MEETING WAS INCLUDED IN THE REVISED ANNUAL NOTICE OF THE MEETING SCHEDULE IS SET FORTH ON RESOLUTION R26-064. IT WAS ADOPTED BY THE TOWNSHIP COUNCIL AT THE REGULAR MEETING OF FEBRUARY 10, 2026. advertised to the official newspaper on February 26 26 posted on the township website and bulletin boards outside of the municipal building and has remained continuously posted in addition a copy of the revised annual notice is and has been available to the public and is on file in the office of our township clerk please at this moment rise as you are able 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.

Madam Clerk, will you please do the roll call when you're ready? Yes, Mayor. Thank you. Deputy Mayor Anderson? Here. Councilor Birmingham? Here. Councilor D'Amato? Here. Councilor Harrison? Here. Councilor Tolar absent. Councilor Williams? Here. Mayor Baskerville?

Present.

I like to stand closer to the family, feel that positive energy. It gives me great pleasure on the behalf of the Township of Montclair to welcome Chantelle Borum as our new Township Attorney. Attorney Borum in just a few moments will be sworn in. And she comes to us with nine years of municipal legal experience in Newark. But what impressed me most was the preparation that she's had, the preparation for public service that goes far beyond the courtroom and the law books. Even early on in her career, she demonstrated a commitment to leadership, mentorship, and service, qualities that are so very important when you're entrusting someone with helping to guide a municipality. Attorney Borum, your experience working within Newark's complex municipal government has given you an understanding of the challenges, the opportunities, and responsibilities that come with serving a diverse urban community. You bring with you a reputation for being communicative, ethical, and solution-oriented. Those are all things that we very much need here in Montclair. These are exactly the qualities that we want someone who will be advising this council and helping us navigate the important way moving forward in the township of Montclair. We are delighted to welcome you. We believe you are prepared for such a time as this, and we look forward to your experience, your wisdom, your energy, and all that you will bring to our township. I'd like to invite Attorney Borum to the podium at this time, along with the rest of the individuals, our clerk, and people that will participate in your swearing in. Attorney Borum.

welcome we're good welcome no um

Good evening. Wait, wait, wait. Did I tell you all she's the first African-American female? Yeah. All right. I just had to throw that in. I mean, it's all good, but yes. All right. Thank you.

good evening everyone I did not know was making the speech but I would like to thank the mayor the deputy mayor and the council of the great township of Montclair for entrusting me to do this position I hope I will make you proud I would do my best and I would like to thank my family my friends and my co-workers for coming out I definitely appreciate your support my Newark family is here guys so that's how important I am to them that they actually showed up So just thank you. We're just waiting for something. Thank you so much.

We'll have some cookies. Anybody want cookies? We have chocolate chip. We have a fruit-filled cookie. We have water. You want me to come around so you guys don't have to get up? Come on. Don't be bashful.

I think we should celebrate. I want a cookie. I said this is a happy moment. I want a cookie. Yeah, don't be sad.

yes please help yourself I'm not moving my marble.

No, we all arrived a few minutes before 5.30 and observed the swearing in of the police, of fire people going on already.

standing back there you could you know there are so many people

Thank you.

because they wanted to do it at five because they didn't want to come home go home and then come back so they asked me to do it no i i think that worked out fine it's fine i just didn't want to see my house

Okay, I state your name. I solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established In the United States and in this state, under the authority of the people, I do further solemnly swear that I will faithfully, impartially, and justly perform all the duties of Township Attorney of the Township of Montclair according to the best of my ability. So help me God. Congratulations.

trick trick trick trick trick

is it raining i don't know

all right and is that right there that's right get a little closer one two three thank you

this means you want your family up now I appreciate this.

One, two, three. Alright, how are you? Alright.

Yeah, so like, is it such that we can move the board, or are we going to vote? That was security, and then there was something else, like conference room upgrades and stuff. So it's like, you know how we have the big one, and there's a large conference room, it's basically we do the same thing, but it's more of a conference room. Yeah, it doubles the versus celebration.

Yeah.

All right, that was my only question.

Another question. Another one for the chamber, for the empty shelter, was they have a room full of medicines. I had to use that as a keyword. And another keyword that I can name, a question, for $6,000 a month. Oh, so I had a tree planted in front of my house today, which is great.

I was thinking the exact same thing. Why are we planting it in my house? There was a tree. So I was working from home today, and I saw in the distance, like, a truck with a bunch of trees on it.

And I was like, oh, there's a bunch of trees.

And I was like, how was I supposed to get my house back?

Did they just put a gator back on it? No. I have to look. Did you request a trade? I did request a trade, not a year and a half ago.

But a band of grocers' neighbor complains she requested a maple, and I'm like, I'm not holding a trade. It was in poor condition. The leaves were burned.

I sent an email too, and I copied it. I did not.

I mean, it's only an excerpt of the email.

It was a custom, please don't tell me we're planting trees in Oregon.

Yes.

And I asked a guy, so this is why I'm so pleased, because one, I didn't know that they were planting trees. And then I was like, well, what's the care? So I just wanted one around the week. And there were a lot of people that were like, oh, it is. A lot of people are going to come home and they're going to find a tree. It's going to die. It's going to die. Half of them are going to get dead by 16. Right. And that's the thing. It was just like, I'm wondering if we should send out an email saying we're planting trees and there's a period of time. But to your point, it is way too early on in the shop.

But the window is like...

April, March, April, or October, November. So this guy was like, oh, the leaves are going to fall off, but they're still ready to fall. And I was just like, all right, he's maybe in the field.

He's maybe in the field.

Okay, everyone, we're moving, oh yes. Gotta take a picture in the seat, the seat. Oh, help yourself. Like, don't really help yourself, but have a cookie. No. No, uh-uh. They don't need this. It's not for them. It's for them, this, and then it's going. Thanks. It's not for the rest of the people.

Oh.

That's okay. It's not. It was for the swearing in of the people. Thank you. No, I want it here. Thanks. In fact, I can move it out and take it upstairs if you want to, because I'm going to take it upstairs. We did them. They wanted to do it so they wouldn't have to go home. Yes. Take care now. Okay. Let me pull... This. I'd like to make a motion that we adjourn into our executive session. We're going into the executive session for discussion of a potential acquisition of Miller Street property. Also, we're going to discuss legal update on the affordability controls and We took a couple of things off of here that we had on the agenda because Councilwoman Toler is not with us physically here tonight and not here by Zoom. So for tonight, we're going to discuss the acquisition of the Miller Street property and the update on the affordability controls. And we're going to have planner Talley to help us with that and ISO MOVE.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Township Council regular meeting of August 11, 2026. We're very pleased to welcome our township attorney who will be with us momentarily, Ms. Chantel Borum. stepped away. In the meantime, we have a proclamation that we're going to start with, and then a very special celebration from our friends at the Clary Anderson Arena. Oh, here she comes. We'd like to welcome to you our township attorney, Chantel Horowitz. okay um deputy mayor would you please do are there people here to receive the proclamation um for the voters right yes can you please come to the podium council members as you would desire join our deputy mayor sushi and anderson at the podium

Hi, how are you? So today we have some representatives from the League of Women Voters of the Montclair area and TOVA, two organizations that have been doing really great work for many years to make sure that people are not disenfranchised from exercising their rights to vote. And so we are here to recognize National Voter Registration Day, which is in September. We wanted to make sure that we presented this proclamation before then, given this time when there are all sorts of, I guess I'll say shenanigans to really destroy communities' right to vote, particularly communities of color. And we're here to recognize the important work that's being done to combat that. So this is a proclamation for National Voter Registration Day, whereas the right to vote serves as the foundation of our nation. And the right to vote freely, fairly, and to have our vote counted is sacred to being an American. Whereas each year in the United States millions of eligible voters are unable to vote due to a missing registration deadline or because the registration was not updated after a name change or moving or because of confusion around the registration process. Whereas right now the right to vote is being suppressed and subverted in this country by attempts to restrict Americans access to the ballot which is rolling back decades of voting rights progress. Whereas National Voter Registration Day was created in 2012 as a nonpartisan rally for the nation to promote voter registration, and since that time, more than 6.5 million citizens have registered to vote on the annual holiday, including a record-breaking 1.5 million in 2020 alone. Bravo indeed. Whereas on Tuesday, September 15th, 2026, thousands of partners ranging from local libraries and college campuses to national nonprofits, Fortune 500 companies, Silicon Valley tech giants and more will join forces for a single day of celebrating our democracy and the voting public that makes it possible. And whereas a coordinated nationwide civic effort in traditional media, online and face-to-face voter engagement in communities across the country will drive unparalleled awareness of voter registration opportunities to millions who may not otherwise register. And whereas National Voter Registration Day is a day of civic unity, It's an opportunity to set aside differences, enjoy the rights, responsibilities and opportunities we all share as Americans and celebrate our democracy together. Now, therefore, the mayor and the Council of the Township of Montclair do hereby proclaim September 15th, 2026 as National Voter Registration Day and affirm our commitment to holding free and fair elections and urge all citizens to register to vote vote.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Kathy Keegan. I am the voter registration chair of the League of Women Voters of Montclair. So we're busy. We're going to be here on Saturday all day with the jazz festival. So you come and see us there. But I just want to make sure that you know that we're New Jersey's pretty good with registered voters. Not all the registered voters vote, but also we want to make sure that the registered voters are checking their registration. No matter how long you have been registered, I want you to check your registration. And I left some rack cards. You could do it with a QR code. So I just, you know, make sure that everything is in correct order. When I joined the league, I checked it just because I was checking all my family members to make sure they were registered. And I found out my name did not come up registered. And it was a mistake on my birthday. So just make sure you have all those in orders and get anybody and everybody to get excited about this election and vote.

And I just, first of all, I just wanted to thank the council for getting this on the agenda. We know that it took a little extra effort to get it at this state and we very much appreciate it. And I just wanted to also mention that um in essex county there are several events that are already on the schedule and one is on the day september 15th at the livingston community center where they're going to be registering people having speakers and writing letters so if you're interested just come over and and keep looking for all the other ways one can participate in the voting process thank you again

Just really one quick thing. I'm sorry. We are doing on our website, you can find it, League of Women Voters volunteering training. And we're starting on the 18th at 7 o'clock. It's Zoom. Energizing young voters. On the 19th, candidate forums at the same time. And on the 25th, I'll be doing voter registration. So this is the way we're getting people involved with voter registration day two. Okay.

And at this point in time, please, I'd like to invite Ms. Krpuski and Darren Seidens, please, to join the council down at the podium. We are really excited that you're here. Council, can you stay here? Because they have something very special planned for us. So thank you for being here.

So I'm Monica Kurpieski and this is Darren Siddons. He is the head of the president of the CAAA Association. So the group that we raised all the money through to do all the work on the arena. So we wanted Darren to have a chance since he's been in this fight for a very, very long time, many years. with his commitment to trying to save Clary. And we wanted to make sure he was here to give the full amount of all the money we've raised to the council for the arena's first phase of the rebuild. And we are, since last July, at $1.2 million.

so if i could just say a little bit about about how we've raised them i didn't thank a few people that would be great um first of all i'd like to thank my fellow trustees um reggie anderson and and scott gibson are not here tonight but without the two of them sort of begging me on to start this whole thing we wouldn't be here where we are we started i think the early 2023 to sort of lobby to get something happening at the rink. And it's a great accomplishment. So, you know, $1.2 million is what we've had pledged in rates so far. And that is just up until the end of the summer. A lot of stuff happening at the arena, Monica and Matt Allen. who have been sort of on the ground making sure that things happen at the rink have been fantastic. And more importantly, I think all the donors, even the small donors, there were kids that donated the amount of their hockey number to CAAA. And then we had big foundations like the McMullen Foundation. I couldn't thank Peter more. Cal Trevannon also at the White Hill Foundation. And all of the monies that came in, a lot of big donors, individual donors. It's a lot of money and it's going a long way towards keeping this rink open and operational for the next, I don't know, hopefully in the next 50 years. I'll say 20 anyway. So what we did last year is we rented a chiller because the refrigeration system was not operating properly. So we rented that for the year. We also had to rent an electrical panel because the electrical system wasn't capable of managing the chiller, the power that was needed for the chiller. This summer, we have put, are in the process of putting new rubber mats in the arena. We painted the ceiling, got rid of all the paint flecks and made it look like it's nice and new. We're repairing the roof. We're cleaning the gutters, and we're putting a permanent chiller in place that should be in place probably by October. We're going to have a rental chiller there for the opening. And that's just the start of it. There's a plan for a lot of other things to happen next summer as well. So this $1.2 million is up until now, and we're really happy that it's a positive note that the town is really going to have a great facility for everybody to enjoy for the next long period of time. So thank you very much to everyone.

thank you thank you very much thank you we appreciate

All right.

Okay, they have been presented to the council, the minutes of July 14th, 2026. Are there any corrections or additions?

Seeing, oh. Yes.

I said, are there any corrections, additions? Okay, seeing none, I'd like to make a motion that we adopt the minutes. second all in favor aye any opposed or abstentions thank you okay so next up is the public comment period I hope that all of you who wish to speak during the public comment have had an opportunity to sign the papers that are down at the front that's what I will use to identify who's next okay thanks so yes if you've signed over there that's that's terrific then when you come down to the podium please I would like you thank you so much madam clerk I would like for you please to give us your name and I'd like for you to be mindful that we offer you three minutes to speak up to three minutes to speak and we appreciate it. If you have something that is pertaining to any of the ordinances on second reading, that you keep them, and don't do that during the public comment, but wait until we discuss the individual ordinance that you wish to be heard on. Yes, sir.

Can you add my name to the box of the public comment, please? My name is Asher Bergman, B-E-R-G-M-A-N-N.

I have it. Thank you. Okay, with that said, I'm going to call Monica Kurpuski, please.

So I just wanted to let you all know that we are still on track for the opening of Clary Anderson. We are set for, we are looking for the opening to happen the first week in September. And we're on track. Everything's going really well. And again, we can't be more proud or happy to be in partnership with you. This has been an amazing, amazing experience. And I mean, the benefit to the town, I can't say enough. So thank you for working with us.

Thank you. Darren, are you also going to come up again? I see your name here. Unless you have another check for us, we'll be happy to. Oh, it doesn't work like that. Okay. Thank you both again. Stephen Mayer.

yes thank you uh town council town manager and welcome attorney um i'm just i'm just here to be uh you know if you should effusively celebratory of the item you have later on in terms of the harrison street Harrison Avenue traffic calming. You know, traffic calming is so important. You know, on the bike bus, we act as human safety for the kids, and that's not the way it should be. It should be systemic safety. And what you all are starting to do at the south end of town is exactly what we've needed and we've been wanting for so long. So I'm just here to, like, celebrate and thank you and just love where you started for all the reasons. It's a cut through between the towns, so it'll have an impact you know north north of it uh the when we built the routes in in bike bus we found under participation from the south end of town and so having the first bike lane be there is just huge and i couldn't be happier and i hope you approve the bid that's all i have to say so thank you so much for getting to where you are

Thank you. May I please remind you, even though I'm going to give it my best shot to call you by your name when I call you up, please, when you get up here, if you would say your first and last name also, then that would be very helpful.

We're good.

Thank you. Next up is Dave. Mayor?

Yes.

Great.

Oh, and the team. Oh, how beautiful. You remember from last time.

I do. How are you? I'm Dave Maher. And this is my oldest daughter, Alice. So Alice is going to go first.

Go ahead. Hi. My name is Alice and I ride my bike to school with Bike Bus. When I first started riding, I wasn't as confident as I am now. Now I can ride all the way from my house to school and it makes me feel really good. really independent. My little brother and sister ride on our bike together now, but pretty soon they're going to be big enough to ride their own bikes too. I think bike lanes would make it safer for kids like me to ride more places in Moncler and make our parents a little less nervous. Also, if you build more bike lanes, maybe my dad will finally stop stealing car back every 30 seconds. I hope Harrison is the first of lots of them. Thank you.

Allison yeah I will be quick so counsel thank you for hosting tonight my name is Dave Maher I live in the fourth world with three of my kids my three kids no other kids that I know of a few years ago if you had to tell me that one of the most meaningful parts of raising our family in Montclair would be riding our bikes to school on Friday mornings I'm sure I would have not believed you But biking has changed the way our family experiences this town. My oldest, Alice, has gone from learning to ride the bike to making the entire trip from our home on the south end to school on her own two wheels, a 2.1-mile one-way ride.

Nice. Go, Allison.

My two younger kids are still passengers in the trailer, but before long, they will be riding beside us too. And that's why tonight and this decision about the calming infrastructure matters to me. A bike lane on Harrison is a relatively small piece of infrastructure, but what it represents is much bigger. It tells families that we are designing Montclair not only for the people who can drive through it, but for the people who actually live their lives in it. I have ridden enough miles around Montclair with my children to know that enthusiasm and a helmet aren't infrastructure. Kids make mistakes. Drivers make mistakes too. Good street design gives both of them room to make these mistakes without a terrible consequence. I don't want Montclair without cars. We drove here tonight. I want a Montclair where driving, walking, and biking can coexist safely, and where choosing not to get into a car actually feels like a reasonable choice. We already know there is demand. You guys were there for critical mass. We see it every Friday when hundreds of kids and parents ride to school together. What we're missing is infrastructure that allows that confidence and independence to extend. Tonight, you would have an opportunity to build the first piece of that. My hope is that for years from now, Harrison Avenue isn't remembered as Montclair's bike lane. It's remembered as Montclair's first bike lane. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Noah Gale, please.

Good evening. My name is Noah Gale. I hope everyone in this township has, has been having a great summer so far.

Thank you.

Um, thank you for all you do mayor, Dr. Renee E Baskerville and the township council. I know this is not an easy job and I really appreciate your service and I appreciate you as well. I am here to speak about something I've previously talked about in the past at town council, township council council means before. So I highly suggest, and I finally came up with a plan after months, suggesting we lower taxes by a huge chunk because parents, I know a lot of people have school-age kids here, but a lot of taxpayers don't, including my own parents who want to stay in Montclair. a lot of people don't have a lot of kids in the school system and they're paying so many taxes it's even driving longtime residents out of this town and I want them to stay and plus I want to afford to live in Montclair the rest of my life perhaps raise my future husband and kids here one day and maybe grandkids who knows and um i won't live here till the day i die i'm mountie born mountie brett and i will mountie die at the age of 100 in montclair anyway so um i hope we can find a solution and come up with a plan of how we can lower taxes by a huge chunk so that way it won't drive a lot of long-time residents out of this wonderful beloved devoted town thank you thank you very much next guest is john wentz please

Hi, my name is John Wenz. I live on Midland Avenue. I'm new to town. Well, relatively new within the last year. First, I'd like to thank you all for supporting this project, the Harrison Avenue project. It's just a tremendous... addition to this community that I've embraced here. I'm really pleased to see the number of advocates of individuals and groups that are supporting the effort, not only for bicycles, but safe streets, safe streets for all users, you know, and that includes, we add bike infrastructure, it actually makes it safer for cars too, and public transportation, people walking, And that's what we need to do. And I'm really pleased to see the direction that my new adopted home is going in. It's really great to see it. I've embraced the bike bus. Grove Street Greenway I participate on Fridays I don't don't have any school-aged kids they're all out but but it's just a wonderful thing to see nine bike routes and somewhere around 300 kids riding to school on Friday mornings that's just tremendous you know this is this is a model for communities around the country and and I I really applaud you all for supporting that nothing has stood in the way of that as far as I know in the short time I've been here But I'm really grateful, again, to be part of that. The other part of this effort that many of these people are making is an app that has just broken through here in Essex County. It's a national bicycle app called Bike Streets. It's crowdsourcing safe streets. And as this thing grows here, we've instituted here in Essex County, kind of greater Montclair. We have people in Bloomfield and Verona participating. And what it allows us to do is those of us that know or have discovered low impact routes around the area can use those and create, again, a crowdsourced map. And the other part of this is it logs miles and where people are riding. So you'll be able to see real data that shows us exactly what people are doing here on bicycles in Montclair. And so I ask you to keep an eye on that and, again, continue with what you're doing to support this effort because the world is changing. We know it. I know personally in the last 20 weeks using that app, I've recorded myself replacing almost 100 minor car trips. my bike and I've logged that chosen to ride my bicycle instead of jumping in the car to go to Whole Foods or to ShopRite or whatever it is I ride my bike and and that's something that I see many people doing and and it's only gonna get better and it just makes streets safer it'll reduce traffic it encourages a healthy way of life thanks very much thank you very much next guest is Deborah Kagan please

Hi, thank you, and thank you Mayor Baskerville and Town Council for having us here. I'm here to talk in support of the Harrison Avenue project as well. I don't think I can do better than the family that was up here before, so I'm not going to try to do that. That was just, I think, really spoke to the heart of the direction that the town is taking. I'm extremely happy. I've been working to try to get bike lanes and safe streets in Montclair for decades, a couple decades, for those of you who know me and worked with you, Mayor, on some of the advisory committees in the past. I think this is a really great project and it's a great beginning to the implementation for our completing Green Streets Ordinance. I'm very excited to see that and that it's happened in a fairly short period of time and knowing how infrastructure projects take time, because I've been doing this for a little It's really come about fairly quickly and I want to applaud both the town council and our Complete Streets director and oversight board for getting this through quickly. I just want to add this is a really important piece for developing active transportation and an active transportation network in Montclair. And that doesn't just mean we get to ride bikes. And I ride a bike around town, if you've seen me. But it's really also about creating a place and a quality of life in this town where we do not have to get around for short trips, especially in our cars. And in order to do that, we do need to extend and work to build on this Harrison Avenue project. I want to encourage the town council and our town manager to get a full plan, biped plan, for the town of Montclair. I am aware of and have been in conversations recently with DOT on possible grants to support that. I'm happy to share that information and in addition to that once we have that we can also approach the county so of course a lot of our busiest and most dangerous roads are county roads in montclair in order for the county to implement as part of their safe streets action plan they want to see a local municipal bike pay plan so i'd like for us to get there so that we're including streets like bloomfield and grove street the county roads where we have some of the highest incidences of crashes. So I'm happy to help wherever I can. Really excited to see this, and I'd like to thank you all for getting us to this point. Thank you very much. Next guest, Tony Martin, please.

Good evening, Tony Martin, 41 North Fullerton Avenue. I have a few questions and comments on changes and reorganization of the municipal oversight of housing, affordable housing, the rent control board, of which I am, you know, a member, and also planning and development. I attended two master plan meetings hearings, and one was extensively informational, but it was hard to parse so much that was presented at the hearing. And then people kind of erupted into furious public comment. I don't know that that was that helpful. attended a second one on last night on the commercial district focusing intensely on that one issue although you know comment ran aground but that was much more useful to me as someone who's trying to understand what's going on and what how we might communicate what we want in the new master plan um okay now back to um the housing arena uh i see that i i made it my business to meet the new housing specialist i see from what i can discern on the agenda she will now be have various departments and agencies reporting to her from what i can tell the rent control board will be under her aegis with the departure of brian scandalberry and i want to acknowledge his long service to this town we are without an official rent control officer as required by ordinance we do have a rent control administrator i want to make sure that's taken care of. We have a meeting September 9 and we need to have things in place by then. And what else? affordable housing i know that there are a lot of people here tonight to talk about home core i'll be watching carefully i understand some moves are being made there too and i would like to have the public be more informed about what we're doing in terms of oversight there thank you so much thank you very much

Next guest is Jeremy Downtown. Say your last name for me, Jeremy.

My name is Jeremy Folwatano.

Folwatano. Thank you. Welcome.

Good evening. My name is Jeremy Powatana and I'm here regarding the Church Street Piano. For those who may not be familiar, I created a community piano art initiative through my nonprofit organization, Downtown Montclair, called Montclair Art, to bring public art and music to neighborhoods, to our neighborhoods. Pianos were placed in the Downtown Montclair, Upper Montclair, and South End. One more I'm planning in the coming weeks to get to Wachung area as well. each transformed into a unique piece of art for anyone to sit down, play, and enjoy. The Church Street piano was removed almost a month ago due to complaints from residents in the adjacent building. Since then, I have done everything I believe I am supposed to do. I've spoken to the township officials, i've emailed i've met personally with counselor williams listened to the concerns that were raised spoke to residents and offered reasonable solutions reasonable solutions including putting a lock on the piano and establishing specific hours when it can be played and counselor williams i sincerely appreciate you taking the time to meet with me and trying to find out a solution for this. While I appreciate that solution of moving the piano to the other end of Church Street, I respectfully do not believe that solves the issue. I think we would be simply solving one problem while creating another. We all know the history of concerns surrounding music being played at the end of that block. Moving a piano there and leaving it open to be played throughout the entire day will create the exact same situation that we're in. And I believe you know that. That's why I believe the most reasonable solution is to return the piano in the original location, in front of my business, where I put it, where I can personally monitor it, lock it, and agreed upon time and make sure that the rules are followed. I WAS TOLD BY YOUR DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATION AND CODE ENFORCEMENT THAT THE BID CONTACTED SURROUNDING BUSINESSES AND THERE WERE NO COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE PIANO BEING PLAYED. I WAS ALSO TOLD THAT COUNCILOR WILLIAMS WOULD SPEAK TO THE RESIDENTS WHO HAVE CONCERNS AND THAT THE PIANO COULD RETURN TO THE SAME ORIGINAL LOCATION WITH THE NEW HOURS AND A LOCK AND I WAS EVEN TOLD I WOULD RECEIVE TEMPORARY WRITTEN PERMISSION. But I still don't have that permission. I don't have a date for its return, and I don't have an answer as to what the holdup is. Meanwhile, the other pianos are, you know, in Montclair that have been allowed to remain. 595 people have signed a petition supporting the Church Street Piano. There are even residents in that building that's complaining who play it and want it to be there. I paid for these pianos to be there. I painted one of these pianos to be there. I put my own time and resources into creating something positive for our community. This is public art. It's music. It's a gift to Montclair. I'm not asking you to ignore anyone's concerns. I'm asking you to balance those concerns with the voices of everyone else while we figure out an ordinance for this type of situation so permits can be distributed. If there's a legitimate reason the piano cannot return, please tell me what that reason is. If there isn't, then I respectfully ask, what are we waiting for? Please give us, the community, an answer, a time frame, a path forward to bringing the piano back to Church Street. We can't allow two to three people to dictate what happens to something that belongs to and is enjoyed by our larger community.

Thank you. Next guest. It looks like Nancy and then maybe JAS something. Am I sounding familiar to anyone? I'm sorry. I can't read the writing. Thank you.

Just press the button.

Is it a green light on? Yeah. Then you're good. OK.

My name is Nancy Iannis. I live at 59 Essex. My husband and I have lived in our home since 1988. For the past two years, we felt like our home and our right to quiet enjoyment of it has been stolen. In 2024, the baseball field was rebuilt and turned towards us. Home plate, the infield, the foul ball zone now abut our home and others on Essex and Champlain. The dugout and the bleachers sit nearly as close to our house as the cars across the street. The trees along Champlain that kept the sound contained and the breezes cool are now gone. Now it is music. Play-by-play commentary Amplified through a public address system for hours at a time at every game and often at rentals I've emailed you two recordings made on our deck on May 20th at a varsity game Yesterday a for-profit company ran the PA for four hours fully audible indoors In our home with our windows closed and the air conditioning running. It's like we were in Yankee Stadium. I We cannot relax on our deck. We leave our home during games and during the four day tournaments to get some peace. During the last one, batting cages started at seven in the morning before we were out of bed and play ran until eight at night for four straight days. That's 48 hours of baseball. On July 31st, we collected six baseballs in our yard and I wrote to many of you about this. One hit our garage, one hit our roof, one hit our fence, and the rest were around the yard. We move our cars around. We bought a new car. We move our cars in the driveway to avoid them being hit. Our home is in a residential zone. That field is a conditional use. Conditions exist to make an intense use tolerable besides the homes it borders. None of these were imposed. What grew up instead is a commercial venue. Out of town tournaments, ticketed camps at over $200 a child, all day weekends, traffic, and sound that carries for blocks. The district told the state this field is used for physical education curriculum. In 38 years, I've never seen a PE class on the baseball field. They use Fortune Auto and occasionally the track. My husband and I are longtime members of the Montclair community. I was director of the adult school for years. We renovated our home so we could age in place here. Woodman Field is the board's responsibility. Providing a safe and predictable environment for the residents is yours. Please pass a strong enforceable noise ordinance and a strong tree ordinance, which addresses the other thing that this reconfiguration took from us. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next guest, Sherry McPherson. McPherson. Good evening, everyone.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the Council.

Good evening.

My name is Sherrilyn McPherson, and I am the Executive Director of HomeCorps. I do have my board with me today, but you're just only getting me. I wanted to take a few minutes this evening to provide an update on the work HomeCorps continues to do to strengthen our organization and preserve affordable housing here in Montclair. Home Corps has served this community since 1988, and over the last several years, our board and staff have been intensely focused on strengthening the organization so that we are positioned to continue that mission for decades to come. I am proud to share that all our outstanding audits have been completed, our outstanding tax liens have been paid, and we have applied for property tax abatements across our portfolio, which, based on the progress of those applications, we are hopeful will provide relief over the next three years. Each of these milestones represent something larger than simply cleaning up our balance sheet. They allow Home Corps to move forward from a stronger financial position, one that better enables us to cover our operating expenses, pursue capital funding opportunities, reinvest in repair, and reinvest in the repair and quality of the homes we already own. And beginning to think strategically about future affordable housing opportunities. Our work does not stop at preserving what we have today. We want to be positioned to partner with the township in creating additional housing opportunities and deepening affordability for Montclair residents in the years ahead. That is why we are also encouraged that Home Corps now has a regular bi-weekly meeting cadence with the township planner and the township's affordable housing specialist. We see those conversations as an important opportunity to build a stronger working partnership, identify shared priorities, and determine how Home Corps and the municipality can work together to advance affordable housing in Montclair. We have made significant progress. There is still work ahead. But Home Corps is financially and operationally stronger today, and we look forward to continuing this next chapter in partnership with the township, preserving the housing we have, reinvesting in our properties, and creating new opportunities for Montclair residents to call this community home. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next guest is Carl Krause, please.

Good evening, everyone.

Good evening.

My name's Carl Krause. My wife Anne and I have lived at 5 Champlain Terrace since 1992. I want to describe for you tonight just what has happened to the quality of life in the past three years. Champlain Terrace sits along the outside of Woodman Field. During the reconstruction, some may say the unwarranted demolition of an excellent field, huge oaks along our street came down. Those trees were not a decoration. They stood between our home and the field. They held the sound, they broke the light, and they kept the house in shade on hot days and sheltered on windy ones. They were replaced with plastic, an acre of hot plastic. The temperature difference in front of my home It's not subtle. It is a different climate than it was three summers ago. Heat, no shade, no protection from the elements, a complete sensory change. But then there is the noise, not the sound of children playing, which is a wonderful sound, or a graduation, rather a stadium sound, a stadium atmosphere, amplified music through a painfully loud public address system, play-by-play commentary running for hours at a time, which was previously cited. Yesterday, it ran for four hours in a row for an event that was not a school event at all, had nothing to do with the school system. A private company selling $200 tickets to young folks and their parents. Many have seen recent articles about the extraordinary cost of parents to get their kids into difficult and extraordinary training outside of their regular athletics. This is something that's happening. The camp had a professional baseball player. Photographs, autographs were sold. Certainly ice cream was sold. That makes sense. All of this was done over this incredibly loud PA system. Almost 200 kids were present. Parking has been a disaster. It's been congested for blocks. I had to personally chase out a person from my driveway since they decided to park there to watch the game. I ask you to give us some relief from this situation. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Next guest is Alison Robots.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Good evening. I am an accidental guest. I'm an accidental guest. I wasn't expecting to be a guest, but I was under the impression there was going to be a proclamation for Caribbean heritage or something today. So that's not the case, so I'll take advantage of the time to just speak a little about Caribbean heritage here in Montclair. Thank you. This is, I'm sorry, Alison Roberts. I live at 196 Harrison Avenue. I loved hearing all about what's happening and making sense of the changes that I've seen on Harrison Avenue, by the way. So I'm from Trinidad. This is Jennifer Perry, also from Trinidad. And we both live here in Montclair. Three years ago, we decided to host an event at the Montclair Brewery to celebrate the Trinidad culture in the Montclair community. There is actually a deep history of the Trinidadian culture here. It was a very successful event. Our objective was simply to showcase and bring our culture into the community. And it was so successful we did it again last year. And last year we elevated our initiative by giving back from the culture to the community. So some of the funds that we raised we donated to the Howe House. So we chose that charity last year. This year we are again doing it August 29th actually. and at the brewery again, and we are going to recognize two people from the culture making a difference in the community. Mayor, one of them is going to ask you to present to them. That's all I'm going to say. I don't know if they have already. So I just wanted to share that since I'm here and I got my name on the docket accidentally. And I hope you guys can come out and enjoy. We all spend a lot of money going to the Caribbean for vacation, so come and experience a little bit of the Caribbean here in Montclair. We will have live steel pan, a live band, and music. It's not over on Champlain. We will never go over there. It will be from 5 p.m. until 10 p.m. at the brewery and in the yard outside, and there will be a lot of also delicious food from Trinidad.

So hope to see you there.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next guest is Lynn Stockhammer.

Hello everybody, good to see you and welcome new township attorney. Real quickly I wanted to support Jeremy who spoke earlier about his initiative with the piano and I really feel that we should support everything that we can. with the arts and with his efforts in terms of the tree canopy I feel that the loopholes really need to be closed on permitting and that no C of O's should be listed should be issued until replacements of trees are assured or in the ground So as the council went into executive session, I was at home with the TV on and I saw the town planner, Janice Talley, was going to be updating you in executive session on affordability controls. I was only able to make one of the presentations. They may have been very similar regarding the master plan. And I noted that some figures had been quoted that 51 people attended, a total attended four meetings out of about 40,000 residents. And fewer than those spoke. I was among those that did not stand up to speak. And it's very upsetting to me with what's going on in this town and that we have an opportunity now for the master plan that many of us feel that we're not being listened to. Forgive me, I'm trying to find the words that I was going to read. It's really felt that there are errors made by the planner in overlooking important details that undermined residents' efforts. and they benefit the developers. There's a consistent failure to ensure that exchanges that are due from the developers for public benefits are received. I was particularly, as many of us were, distressed about the whole Lackawanna thing and about that vote where there was only one no on pilots. I'd like to see enforcement on those issues in terms of collecting that down the road. Again, it's really felt that efforts by the residents to hold the planner accountable and to be listened to are simply dismissed. And to me, that seems to be the worst of all, that people feel unheard. It just doesn't seem like democracy under this grip. And we've got a lot of that going on. Thank you. Thank you.

Next guest is Anna Grossman, please.

Good evening. Anna Grossman, Montclair resident. Three things. Congress recognized noise as a pollutant more than 50 years ago. Title IV of the Clean Air Act is titled noise pollution. Noise pollution affects public health, cardiovascular, cognitive, and metabolic effects, among others. Noise regulation is handled at the local level. Montclair's noise ordinance has needed an update for many years. People are suffering the effects of noise pollution in R1 zones. Please take action. Protect your residents. The Board of Ed has no interest in protecting us. Trees are climate infrastructure. This is the second thing. Heat is now the leading weather-related killer in this country. It took 29 lives in New Jersey during the heat wave last month. Our canopy is how we fight back, but right now we're losing this battle. A neighborhood's cooling doesn't rise in a straight line. It accelerates once canopy passes about 40%. Below that, relief is small. Above it, summer temperatures drop several degrees. Um... It's the threshold where infrastructure starts really working, and we're not there. In Montclair, our lowest canopy neighborhoods sit near just 20%. Just for reference, New York City's canopy is around 20%. In New Jersey, the maps of historically redlined neighborhoods are almost identical to today's maps of low canopy and extreme heat. In other words, environmentally overburdened communities. Trees give us cooling for free, and we have families here who need that now. We must grow Montclair's canopy, not just hold it. A sapling does not replace the environmental benefits of an oak. The benefits take 50 to 80 years to return. Preservation must come first. Replacement is the last resort. What Montclair needs is simple. A tree comes down, trees go up. Every removal, including hazard and dead trees, should mean trees are replanted. Because lost canopy is lost canopy. The cause is irrelevant. If we need to help people afford that, then let's do just that. But let's not weaken the numbers we need to help us get to our goal. You have an opportunity to give Montclair one of the strongest tools possible in the war against climate change. None of us here will be around to see the product of the choices you make up there on that dais. We will be long gone. Let this be your legacy. The kids are depending on us. Lastly, public trees. Our budgets and grants for trees need to put trees into the ground, not decorative trees, shade trees. And also, why are we planting trees in August? Thank you.

Thank you very much. And the last guest that I have on this list is Asher Bergman, please. I'll be happy to just

Good evening, council. My name is Asher Bergman. I live out 124 Lloyd Road. I am a lifelong Montclair resident. I graduated from Montclair High in 2022. That means I just graduated from university. I graduated from Cornell with a degree in history and environmental science. I'm here tonight as one of the younger residents who will live longest with the consequences of the decisions being made here today. I have come to discuss a shared resource, one in which we all benefit from, but one that we've been allowing to steadily disappear before our eyes. And while I recognize that the tree ordinance isn't a part of today's discussion, I understand that the council is continuing to discuss it, and I want to make sure that my voice is being heard. The question at the center of this debate is if Montclair removes a tree, should Montclair replace the ecological value that was lost? The data and my lived experiences walking this town make it clear that our current system is failing to do that. In summary, from 2020 through 2025, 3,000 trees were removed with only 2,000 canopy replacements being planted. This is a deficit of 900 trees. When including public removals, the documented total rises to at least 4,700 trees removed, with a net deficit of roughly 2,100 canopy trees. We are losing trees faster than we are gaining them, despite our master plan calling for the exact opposite. Our official canopy figure is 38%, and that is a number that is over a decade old. If our sustainability and resilience master plan is calling for us to increase our canopy by 10%, if our current system is still leaking losses year over year, this is a debt we are incurring. The longer that we wait to plant and restore our canopy, the more expensive it becomes for the town. I understand that some trees must come down for disease, death, or hazard, but an exception to removing a dangerous tree should not become an exception to replacing the canopy itself. The permit data of documented hazard removal show that residents planted 133 canopy trees alongside 121 privacy screens. This means for every two canopy trees that we have cut down, we've only replanted one. That goes exactly against the master plan. So the question isn't whether someone just replants a tree. It's whether we replaced what we lost. A 100-year-old tree is not ecologically equivalent to one new sapling. And there's no guarantee that that sapling will actually reach maturity and replace its forefather in the first place. I asked the council to consider proportional replacement tied to the size and ecological value of what's being removed. Townships like Verona and Princeton already do so. We are one of the few lacquers in this area. Further, if The property does not have the space to replace those trees. I would encourage us to set up a dedicated fund so instead of planting a tree in their house, they could contribute it to a fund which will plant trees in our most vulnerable districts, whether it be the business districts or the fourth ward. Since the ordinance is not on tonight's agenda, I'll close with this final ask. When the tree ordinance does come up, give residents a real advance notice, not just the standard 72 hours. This is our town's future in which we are discussing, and it deserves the constituents to do the research and respond with the kind of data and input that this council deserves and our township deserves. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Okay, our final guest for this evening is

Len Brown, 119 Yannick Hall, Brook Road. It's great to see that you're breathing, because after calling you seven times with no reply, I thought you were a ghost. I swear to God.

Excuse me, can you say your name one more time, please?

Leonard DeWitt Brown, Jr.

Thank you very much.

I had sent this letter a couple of months ago to everyone here, and I never got a response. So what I'd like to do is to read it to you all today. By now you should know that Norberto sent the original letter to the wrong people. They never bought 117 Yanticaw Brook Road, and now they have issued a new letter July 17th that instructed the Violas and the attorney that they needed to remove the fill that they dammed up Yanticaw Brook with on March 15th, 2025. in 10 days or they were going to be fined. Their response was is that they cleared it. When I talk with Carmine and Roberto, they haven't touched it. Okay, so that dam is still in place. Let me review the situation. Montclair town officials know that Yantakal Brook was dammed on March 15th, 2025 and that the obstruction on the town sewer right of way has existed for decades. The town officials have had statutory and ordinance authority to require the removal of the obstructions in the FEMA special flood hazard area. Multiple enforcement orders have been issued that are being ignored. No physical action to remediate this threat has been taken. Montclair town officials have a clear legal duty to act to protect the people threatened by catastrophic flooding in this special FEMA flood area. Montclair Town officials are failing to act while having authority to remediate the threat to lives and property. Will this inaction directly cause harm? This is a metaphysical certainty, 100%. Every time I hear that there's going to be a flash flood warning, I am in terror, afraid that my house will once again be flooded waist deep. Frank Viola damned Yanicor Brook on 3-15-25 and has never been held responsible, even after I have reported this act of criminal negligence over and over and over again. I'm requesting that the town have the town attorney place a $250,000 lien on the estate of Frank and Gloria Viola 117 Yantico Brook Road, lot 29 immediately. The Violas are scofflaws, defying the town for many years, decades. They almost got away with it by selling the property, but the people backed out. This gives the town another chance. This is a freebie. Why should our taxpayers have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to clear this obstruction?

Thank you very much for coming. Oh, there's another guest. Thank you for letting me do that.

Hi there, I'm Drury Thorpe. I live at 21 Macapin Avenue, and I'm here to speak about two things tonight. Both have to do with quality of life and our health, which I'm asking all of you to protect. First, the tree ordinance. We chose Montclair for so many reasons. One of them was its majestic trees and what they mean for my family's quality of life and for that of future generations. please pass the strongest possible tree ordinance with a certificate of occupancy hold, real canopy replacement, and protection for our largest trees. And the second thing I want to talk about is to express my support of bike lanes and a local bike pedestrian plan, which is what I understand Eric has been telling me we need in order to move forward with some projects and grants. So I think that's very important. I come from a family of bikers. My dad is a teacher at Hillside School and he rode his bike every day to school through snow and everything. I now do that at Wachung School. Years ago, my car was hit by a fallen branch, and instead of replacing it, I bought an awesome low-speed e-bike. I ride it everywhere. I rode it tonight. It's revolutionized how I think about getting around and improved my quality of life immeasurably, whether it's leading one of Wachung School's bike buses or Kittical Mass or dropping my kids off at practice where I don't have to find a parking spot at Brookdale Park. Yes. Or getting a pastry on Church Street where I can park easily just by pulling my bike up to a rack. We need more racks. I biked here tonight in the daylight with my glow vest on, with lights on my bike, and still at the corner of Wildwood and Park. I was almost hit. We need bike lanes. Then, getting back to the quality of life side, I see one of my students who waves from down the street. Hey, Ms. Thorpe. I was able to stop and say hello and catch up. This happens to me all the time. I love it. Bicycling is community building. Community building is healthy for our body, for our mind. um and i really want to also say that i support jake and his role with complete streets and we're here for any questions and help that you all need to get things done so yeah thank you let's support both of those issues great

Thank you very much. And so now we're going to move on to the next portion of our agenda, which is the pending ordinances on second reading. If there are people that are either here or watching at home, if you have other questions or things that you'd like to share with us, please feel free to send us an email, and we try very hard to get back to you.

Do you want to roll with the pending ordinances you want to do?

Mm-hmm.

Okay, the first pending ordinance, second reading is O-26-27, an ordinance amending chapter 327, section 41, vehicles and traffic of the code of the township of Montclair, New Jersey to redefine and amend the list of special parking zones. And at this time I'm going to open up the public hearing without objection. Is there anyone here who wants to be heard in relation to this proposed ordinance?

Is the green light on, Tony? Push it and see if it

Yeah, got it. OK.

Thank you. OK. No emergency. I would just like to ask a question about the fee schedule for special parking zones. A couple of these blocks are right around where I live. It's going up by how much and for what hours? Could you go over that before you vote on it?

The director of Complete Streets is approaching.

I'm sorry, Tony, you're asking us for what? To go over all of the zones?

A special parking zone involves a higher... Right? Am I correct? Yes. Yeah. I want to know what it is. Yes. Thank you.

So, all right. I'm just trying to figure out.

I'm sorry I missed the previous discussions, but I just, I saw it on the agenda and I was, I then looked for the information on what this does to rates and I couldn't find it.

Okay. All righty. So at this point in time, I would like to call to the podium our director of Safe Streets, Jacob Neiman.

Yeah. Hi. So I can answer that. This is going to make it so that from Thursday to Saturday, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., the rate is $3 per hour at the meters. That's the rate, and that's the hours.

thank you so at this point in time I would recognize councillor Harrison to clarify this only applies to the street parking meters not any of the Lots within the zone is that correct and to the township website needs to be updated with all the information on the parking what's there when we first adopted it is not totally clear like doesn't explain what's happening in the north fullerton deck but it needs to be updated so the public knows because i think ms martin's issue is a common problem even i'm not sure as to what i'm doing when in which area understood i'll work with the utility on that

Great. Thank you. Anyone else from the residents that wish to be heard?

I'm sorry. Go ahead. That's OK. I'll just OK. Seeing no other comments, and I am going to move the motion. Move the ordinance now. Second. Second. The mayor seconded. Is there any discussion among the council members?

roll call call the vote please deputy mayor anderson yes councillor birmingham yes councillor d'amato absent councillor harrison yes councillor toller absent councillor williams yes mayor baskerville yes okay

Pending ordinance second reading. I'm going to open the public hearing without objection. Is there anyone? Excuse me. Pending ordinance 0-26-28, fully funded capital ordinance providing for various water utility capital improvements in and by the Township of Montclair in the County of Essex, New Jersey, and appropriating the sum of $3 million from the Water Utility Capital Improvement Fund for the cost thereof. i am going to open the hearing without objection is there anyone present that wishes to be heard in relations to the proposed audience seeing none i'm going to close the hearing make a motion to move second please call

Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councillor Birmingham? Yes. Councillor D'Amato absent. Councillor Harrison? Yes. Councillor Tolar absent. Councillor Williams? Yes. Mayor Baskerville? Yes. Councillor Harrison?

Next is an ordinance to fully fund the capital, fully funded capital ordinance providing for various sewer utility capital improvements in and by the Township of Montclair and appropriating the sum of $1.5 million from the sewer utility capital improvements, opening the hearing to the public. Is there anyone, President, who wants to be heard in relationship to the proposed ordinance? I move the ordinance.

Second.

Any discussion among council members? Call the roll.

Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councillor Birmingham. Yes. Councillor D'Amato. Yes. Councillor Harrison. Yes. Councillor Toller absent. Councillor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville.

Yes. Councillor Birmingham, please.

um this is pending ordinance on second reading and i am going to open the public hearing without objection um this is the pending ordinance and ordinance this is o 2630 an ordinance amending section 15 of chapter 48 township personnel article 2 vacations of the township of montclair new jersey to add certain job titles uh is there anyone in is there anyone present who wishes to be heard in relation to the proposed ordinance Then without objection, I am closing the hearing. And then I will ask my fellow council members. Oh, I need to move the ordinance. I'm going to so move it. Second. Discussion? Madam Clerk?

Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councillor Birmingham. Yes. Councillor D'Amato. Yes. Councillor Harrison. Yes. Councillor Toller absent. Councillor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville.

Yes. Thank you. Councillor D'Amato, please.

We're on app. Appending Ordinance 02631, an ordinance amending.

Yes, sir.

more amending chapter 153 fire prevention article 1 administration enforcement of the code of the township of Montclair I so move I am going to open this public hearing without objection is there anyone in a president who wishes to be heard in relation to the proposed ordinance seeing no one without objection I will close the hearing and open it to discussion of the council

Yes, we did get some questions via email and I know that fire soon to be Marshall I think but is on vacation. I think there was some questions around whether this is an increase in the number of inspections. This is for essentially what this ordinance is, is when there's change of occupancy in residence, you have to have an inspection. And that's New Jersey State Code, right?

At this point in time, I would like to recognize Deputy Fire Chief Lizza. Welcome.

Thank you. So yeah, so this ordinance does a couple of things. The existing ordinance, this amendment, takes out some of the references to the old state fire code. So we're governed by the state fire code and township ordinances, and it just referenced an older state fire code. So some of it is just updating that and the reference to the proper fire code, which allows us to do certain things. um it also it um it lays out when people need a change of occupancy compliance certificate so basically if someone sells a residential property or there's a change in tenancy in a residential property they need to have a as per the state fire code they need to have an inspection done for smoke detectors carbon monoxide detectors so all this really does is bring us in line with what the state fire code is um and it just it specifies which properties uh get inspected the fee schedule um there is a climbing fee schedule because it's hard for us to schedule these so someone calls and says hey we're trying to close in two days there's a you know it's a little bit of a rush so there's it just sets up those fee schedules thank you thank you very much any other questions

Thank you.

No, I'm OK. Thank you. I'll call the roll. I'm looking at the email that somebody was referencing. I will call the roll.

Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councillor Birmingham? Yes. Councillor D'Amato? Yes. Councillor Harrison? Yes. Councillor Tolar absent. Councillor Williams? Yes. Mayor Baskerville?

Yes, thank you. Deputy Mayor, please.

This is pending ordinance O-26-32. It's an ordinance amending section 11.1 of chapter 153, entitled Fire Prevention of the Code of the Township of Montclair. And I will move it. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you. And at this time, I'm going to open up the room to public hearing without objection. Is there anyone here who wishes to be heard in relation to this proposed ordinance? Seeing no one. Without objection, I am closing the hearing. And is there anyone on the council who would like to be heard?

I just have a question as to whether or not these have been annual fees? Oh, sorry to make you run out. No, that's okay.

I should have stayed. So what was your question?

My question is whether or not these fees have been annual in the past.

in the past there there were inspection fees we've changed over and a lot of the state is changing over to registration fees so these are annual these are annual registration fees for businesses and any multifamily dwelling for three three families and up and again just a scale for those fees

But in the past, in the inspection-based system, roughly what is the change in the cadence of the fees? I mean, the fees are going up, and then the frequency of having to pay the fees is going up.

Yeah, so just in order for us to be able to update information on an annual basis on these businesses, just the administration of that in and of itself is costly. So this is just to reflect the administration of updating business information on a year-to-year basis. So it's just kind of the direction that the state fire code is moving in as well. So it's just a registration fee. What will happen is notices will go out typically in the beginning of the year. So this wouldn't happen until the beginning of 2027. Business owners will get a notice to say, look, you have to update your registration information. There's a fee associated with that. If they don't comply with that or pay the fee, then there would be a penalty. And it just allows us to constantly collect information on the businesses in town. And now that we're going to have a shared records management system with code enforcement and construction, we're kind of at the tip of the spear of getting this information. And it doesn't just benefit the fire department or fire prevention bureau. It benefits anyone in town that has to use this information.

and the multiple dwelling with common area would that that would rule out a three-family residence a normal three-family I mean everything has a common as a common

yeah so any any building that has any common area like a three three family that has common area would be affected by this it doesn't affect one and two family homes whether their owner occupied or not they would still need to you a change of occupancy they would get that fire safety compliance certificate when someone else moves in but this is this is treating those three family and ups as they are the state fire code sees them as commercial businesses yeah because these definitions of the non life hazard use properties are established by the state correct like so so they are use groups and types of uses so life hazard uses they actually actually register with the state they pay their fee to the state we do the inspection where the local enforcement agency and then the state reimbursed us they keep 33 percent and they give us 66 percent so that whole registration process and updating goes through the state and then we perform the inspections non-life hazard uses which is all handled locally um there are guidelines and right this the in later in that in the back of that it establishes um the uh what the establishments are and the uses. That is, those definitions are defined by the state of New Jersey, the Division of Fire Safety.

And the fees are guideline at the state level?

The fees that we have are guideline, but the fire official used other towns as kind of a benchmark to say, look, we were, I think it was over 10 years since these fees have been updated. So they really didn't reflect what's been happening as far as inflation and our cost of doing business.

But again, in the past,

like let's say for a three dwelling unit three a house multi-family house they would you're increasing the fees and then you're you're making an annual where it would have been previously once every three years or something it is an annual fee it was on a cyclical basis um and some of it just depended on on how our staff could get to those because uh they they have to be done on a cyclical basis so they'll probably get done every other year or every third year now it just depends on the volume

Okay. I mean, I'm asking all this because I'm like literally looking at people who are in the business of trying to keep, you know, housing costs down. Right. And so every penny really makes a difference. So we should, when we're going to do this, we should at least take a breath to know that there are consequences.

But can I just, I'm sorry. No, go ahead. I'm just trying to get. Council Birmingham and then deputy. Because crossed out in this ordinance here is it says the following fee schedule will apply to all annual inspections of non-life hazard use performed by the fire department. Can you just tell me what page you're on? Sorry. Sure. I'm on page two of three. It's at the top. Oh, at the very top.

Okay, go ahead.

and it is crossed out it says the following fee schedule will apply to all annual inspections of non-life hazard so the question is were they paying an annual fee for an inspection like it's it's it seems to imply there was an annual fee they were they yeah so if we inspected them on an annual basis they were they paid the fee okay um now they're paying a registration fee

okay and i think we had looked at bloomfields for example and we're lower to my um i believe we're still towards the bottom of the comparables i have some of them here i know it was clifton um bloomfield i'm trying to see here orange patterson so we kind of put ourselves in the probably the lower tier of the compact comparable uh towns that we looked at yeah okay thanks

Okay, Mayor. Now I can go. Deputy Mayor. I have a few questions. Thank you. So I do, first of all, I do think that this is a good way of keeping track of, you know, being up to date on the businesses. We have talked about this issue and better ways of tracking, you know, changes in business owners and things. So I'm glad to see that. I just want to be clear. So I understand that this is now an annual registration. That's the responsibility of the property owner and occupant. Does that mean that there is still an inspection that's required or is that's no longer required?

We will perform inspections on a cyclical basis, but there's not another fee for that. okay okay and then um i just want to be clear like how um how are new and existing property owners going to be uh you know made aware of this the change in this law um i know that the the fire official um is going to uh so he he kind of he couldn't be here so he gave me some i'm going to just read digital outreach social media newsletter the township website i know he'll work with our communications director on that and also through inter-department sharing so code enforcement is in a lot of these places so they'll be saying hey look you have to look out for this and it probably will take a year or two to kind of get the word out there we're gonna start in January we're gonna start the campaign as soon as this passes if it passes But it's not going to actually kick in until January of 2027. And there's maybe even targeted mailing that the Fire Prevention Bureau can send out as well.

Thank you. Who's doing this one?

OK. If there's no further discussion, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Yes. Councillor Birmingham. Yes. Councillor D'Amato.

Abstain.

Councillor Harrison. Yes. Councillor Tolar absent. Councillor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville.

Yes. Thank you. Councillor Williams, please. Yes.

Pending Ordinance 0-26-33, an ordinance to amend Chapter 27, Fire Department Article 1, General Provisions Chapter 153, Fire Prevention, Article 1, Administration and Enforcement, Chapter 157, Fire Safety Act Enforcement. I am going to open a public hearing without objection. And is there anyone present who wishes to be heard with relation to this ordinance? Seeing none, I'm going to close the hearing. Is there any discussion from council members? I didn't move it yet. It's always listening, right? Second. Discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk.

Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councilor Birmingham? Yes. Councilor D'Amato? Yes. Councilor Harrison? Yes. Councilor Tolar absent. Councilor Williams? Yes. Mayor Baskerville? Yes, thank you.

Next is pending Ordinance 0-26-34, which is an ordinance amending Chapter 3 of the Administration of Government of the Code of the Township of Montclair. This is reorganizing how the offices are set up under the manager. Without objection, I open the public hearing. Is there any member of the public who wishes to be heard on this ordinance? Seeing no one, I move the ordinance. Second. Any discussion among council members?

Just one. Yes, Deputy Mayor. Just a question because I think there was a question related to this. Mr. Marks, the Department of Housing Services, there's no, I just want to clarify, the specialist is not the head of that department. Correct. Okay.

Madam Clerk, do you want to call the roll?

I'm sorry, my hand was up a little bit. I just have one question regarding the language where it says human resources program. Is there a reason we're using the program? I mean, something new with that versus just like the director of HR?

That was something that the previous interim township attorney had put in. It's probably interchangeable with office or division or bureau. She just happened to use the word program.

I was just wondering, because when I looked at it, I said, well, maybe they were going to hire some additional staff and have some programs. I didn't really know, but thank you very much. That's not the intention. Okay. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Madam Clerk, can I call the roll, please?

Yes. Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councilor Birmingham? Yes. Councilor D'Amato? Yes. Councilor Harrison? Yes. Councilor Tolar absent. Councilor Williams? Yes. Mayor Baskerville?

Yes. Thank you. Councilor Birmingham, please.

um this is pending ordinance 02635 on second reading i'm going to open the public hearing without objection and this is an ordinance to repeal chapter 134 article 3 single-use food and beverage items due to the state law preemption and so as we all know we had passed last year the skip the stuff ordinance here in montclair and as of august 20 august 1st 2026 it is now state law that food service businesses are prohibited from automatically including single-use plastic utensils napkins condiment packets or straws and take out and delivery orders there's some other items as well that can be found online but i will open the public hearing without objection now

if anyone like to be heard okay without a without objection I am closing the hearing and now I so move the ordinance second discussion madam clerk deputy mayor Anderson yes councillor Birmingham yes councillor D'Amato yes councillor Harrison yes councillor Tolar absent councillor Williams yes mayor Baskerville yes

Councillor D'Amato, please.

Pending ordinance, uh, Oh, 26, 36, an ordinance to further amend and supplement chapter 50, uh, 51 article two and article three of the, uh, of an ordinance entitled police department amendment of the department composition. Uh, and I so move second. And I'm going to open the public hearing without objection. Is there anyone present who wishes to be heard in relation to the proposed ordinance? OK, without objection, I'm closing the hearing and opening our discussion.

Discussion.

Good. Madam Clerk.

Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councilor Birmingham. Yes. Councilor D'Amato. Yes. Councilor Harrison. Yes. Councilor Tolar absent. Councilor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville. Yes.

And that concludes the portion of our meeting where we were doing pending ordinance on second reading. We're now moving on to new business ordinances. And Deputy Mayor, if you'd start with letter K, please.

of Montclair, New Jersey. And this is an ordinance that seeks to clarify administrative agent fees. I so move. Second.

councillor Harrison questions I don't know if we were able to reach our affordable housing I did but they did not give me an answer to this particular question so I guess I have a couple of concerns one is we're referencing a model ordinance promulgated by fair share housing center and they're my friends I've spent 20 minutes on the phone with them where they write very helpful to a client today but I'm not sure I'm trying to understand what is the statutory basis of our doing this and then my secondary concern is councillor D'Amato's concern as to these are costs that affect the availability of affordable housing and I'm concerned with doing this so these fees are being set administratively rather than by the council.

OK, and these fees have actually been part of our administrative agent process for the past six years. CG, P&H would sign a contract with us for the fees to administer our program. They also had contracts with the landlords to split the cost for managing and marketing the units. But there was never an ordinance to that. It was just part of the contract and how they operated. The new, and I don't know where it says, and I looked through the amended Fair Housing Act. I looked through the Uniform Housing Affordability Controls. I couldn't find specific language for this. But it is in the model ordinance that was promulgated by the Fair Share Housing Center. um because i think it's fair we've been charging these in the past so i added it to this ordinance with the additional requirement that we post it because it's something that comes up every year and rather than amend the ordinance every year i think i put language in here that the township shall post the fees that will be charged to landlords to administer their portion of the affordable housing administrative agents costs do we have examples of other townships that have done this by ordinance i do not

I like doing things that are authorized by statute is what I like doing so how would you can you give me an example so that I can better understand how would you recommend that we do this well it's the question I asked is is there statutory I I like director Talley could not readily find something in either the state regulations or the state statute that said municipalities get to do this so

right that i thought was going to be an easy fix i just replaced the model ordinance with njac whatever and i couldn't find that i mean if it makes you feel bad there's no um urgency to do this i'm just trying to keep our costs down i i i understand the purpose so we can table it to the next meeting and i can try and find out more and more information in response to your questions i have another question which is are these have these fees these fees are changing as a result of this correct or not no it just it we've been doing this this has been practice common practice for the past six years it's just legitimizing it by putting it to our ordinance and in practice every year we get a contract with our administrative agent Right. And these fees would be part of that contract and the proposal and the contract that we sign. And it would be posted on our website so that the landlords all know what this is the fee. So it's not set, this particular fee is not set, just like the fee that we pay the administrative agents is not set by ordinance. It's something that's part of our contract.

Right. And now what if ACS already has a forward contract with a landlord?

They do.

But this would not change that.

no it just it does not change it it just again i think it was the recommended practice from the fair share housing center is to put this language in your affordable housing ordinance so that's why and i agree i think if this is the the practice is to share the costs of the affirmatively affirmatively marketing those affordable units

is to include it in our in our ordinance and i think it is fair to post the amounts on our website and so i'm sorry um if by tabling this right i mean i don't get it so even if no one else has done it then does that mean then you would back down and say okay because no one else did it we're not going to do it I read it, and maybe I'm not understanding or anything, but I didn't have a problem with that. So I'm just trying to understand why we would table it because no one else, no other municipality has done it.

I'm just trying to give myself more time to respond to Counselor Harrison's question.

So what would be your next move? So if you look and find out no one else has done it. I mean, we've always been frontrunners and done some magnificent things here. I'm just trying to find out what would your next move be?

The issue is I got the questions today regarding this ordinance, and I reached out to our affordable housing attorneys on this question and many others and did not get a response on this particular question. Mm-hmm. so if we have more time i might be able to answer that question and also do some research to find out what other municipalities have done i know it's commonly provided included in administrative agent contracts with municipalities i just haven't seen it as an ordinance as recommended by the fair share housing center okay but my bigger concern thank you is the statutory council harrison of course gotcha authorization

Deputy Mayor, you're in the ready position over there. Anything?

No. I mean, like you, Mayor, when I read it, I didn't have an issue with this per se. It doesn't say, the ordinance doesn't specify the fees. It just says who's responsible for payment of the fees. But I don't have a problem with tabling it until the next meeting out of respect for Councilor Harrison.

anyone else counselor sorry i don't really understand it would specify the fees we would be specifying the fees so that there would be which sounds like i think that that's good but we're not specifying the fees by order by ordinance we're not doing that by doing that by contract and then you would be publicly advertising them

and posting it, I think the current thing is posting it onto the website so I can point out to the landlords who have affordable, this is what the fee structure is per this contract.

Which I think is a good idea because I've heard that there are different fees that it is not uniform.

The way we usually structure it is it's a sliding scale depending upon how many units are in your building. So if there's two affordable units, it's a lot less than if it's 10 affordable units.

Councilor Harrison? Oh, I'm sorry. I thought your hand was. Anyone else? No. OK. So are we going to table this? That's what I'm asking. Yep.

I move to table.

Second. So we're going to table this?

Do you want to vote on that motion? Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councilor Birmingham? Yes. Councilor D'Amato? Yes. Councilor Harrison? Yes. Councilor Tolar absent. Councilor Williams? Yes. Mayor Baskerville?

Yes, thank you. Who's next? Councilor Birmingham, are you next? I don't remember who just went.

I feel like I just went, but I'll leave that one.

new business ordinance in ordinance to amend chapter 202 land use procedures of the code of township of Montclair so moved second my mayor may I yes sir so my only thing I would have liked to see a red line

I don't know.

Were there any changes? There were changes, right? Thank you.

I don't know why it didn't show up as a red line. Thank you. The ordinance that I prepared was redlined. You can share that. Thanks.

Oh, yeah, this is very helpful. This is the red line one, right?

I don't know why, when it was uploaded to Granicus, it didn't show the red line version, because that's the only version I have.

No worries. I mean, we have the information we need, but at least there we can compare it. But thank you for taking your time to do it.

Can you clarify what is intended for number seven, applications requiring board engineer review? It's not a million dollars, right?

Wow yes that's just increasing the fee because the engineers costs are always right now the ordinance says the the escrow collection for the engineer review is $750 we're just increasing that to a thousand thousand dollars one thousand dollars okay

Yes, Deputy Mayor, please. This is not substantive, but the copy that I have of the ordinance, I think there are typos just in the word. In section B, in subsection 1 and 2, I think the word is supposed to be plan instead of plat, right?

On C, it says preliminary plat.

C. Yes, I know. 202-27, section B, scope of reimbursed services, subsection 1, and then C, D, and E. It says, here, she's just wondering the word plat.

your honor over here says it's the plat yes okay well I can learn something new I don't know what's a plat it's a plot plan for a subdivision it's called a plat it's a technical term PLAT okay one

problem with what's there now and because I do this all the time and just had a lot of fun with an applicant who is doing literally every type of fee other than a use variance. It says for amendments to approved plans, it says one half of the escrow fee and one quarter of the escrow fee, but it doesn't say which escrow fee. So like for final, it says half of the preliminary fee and typically the ordinance will, but you don't know whether you're looking at the preliminary fee or the, final fee for calculating the amendment. I think if it just says one half of the preliminary escrow fee in both instances, that would make it clear for applicants who want to know which escrow fee they're looking at and want them looking at the bigger fee was normally how it works.

Right. And that issue's never come up, but we can easily make that change. That is the preliminary fee.

And there's the typo with the extra dollar amount. The extra dollar symbol. The number 2B minor site plan. Maybe we should just table this and clean it up for next time.

Oh, we're good.

We're good.

It's really just a miss there. 2B.

yeah yeah just cross it out boom okay so I should move to amend make those changes I'm looking at her yes sir okay I moved to amend the pending ordinance by in B1E, have it read half of the preliminary escrow fee. And B2B, delete one of the dollar signs. And in B2F, have it read one quarter of the preliminary escrow fee.

And this one, how about seven? We have to change seven to the $1,000. Just delete the $750.

Yeah.

Okay. Great.

A second? Discussion? I'm going to close the roll.

Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councillor Birmingham? Yes. Councillor D'Amato? Yes. Councillor Harrison? Yes. Councillor Toller absent. Councillor Williams? Yes. Mayor Baskerville? Yes. Thank you.

And then I move to introduce the ordinance with those amendments.

Second.

Any discussion? Call the roll, Madam Clerk.

Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councillor Birmingham? Yes. Councillor D'Amato? Yes. Councillor Harrison? Yes. Councillor Toller absent. Councillor Williams? Yes. Mayor Baskerville?

Yes. Councillor Birmingham?

Okay, this is new business ordinance. And this is an ordinance extending the affordability controls on 4 Washington Street, 33 William Street, 25 William Street, and 43 Glenridge Avenue.

Are we moving to table this? I would like to make a motion to table this to a date uncertain.

So what do we need to do? Just vote on the motion. We need to, Madam Clerk, vote on the motion to table. Yes, ma'am. Deputy Mayor Anderson?

Yes. Councillor Birmingham? Yes. Councillor D'Amato? Yes. Councillor Harrison? Yes. Councillor Tolar absent. Councillor Williams? Yes. Mayor Baskerville? Yes.

Just so the interested people there, this is to give Ms. Talley an opportunity to meet further with Home Corps and discuss a variety of issues.

We're thrilled to hear that. Thank you. Thank you.

Councilor D'Amato, please. Letter N under new business ordinances.

An ordinance to amend chapter 341 water section 341, 24 meters and remote registers of the code of the township of Montclair, New Jersey. And I so move.

Second. Yes, Councilor Williams.

Sir, I meant to email you and ask you this question. Do we know how many properties will be impacted by this?

As a matter of fact, I do. All right. So out of our 10,665 meters, there is 53 3-inch, 28 4-inch, 9 6-inch, and 1 10-inch. That makes up of 0.85% of the meters in Montclair. There we go. Thank you. You're welcome. Anybody else?

No, but thank you.

All right.

Nice to see you.

Okay. So that's the motto.

Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councilor Birmingham? Yes. Councilor D'Amato? Yes. Councilor Harrison? Yes. Councilor Tolar absent. Councilor Williams? Yes. Mayor Baskerville? Yes. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor, please.

Letter O. O is the ordinance adopting a redevelopment plan for the municipal community.

I did it again. Oh, I did it again.

OK. This ordinance is an ordinance adopting a redevelopment plan for the municipal complex property. And this is comprised with the following properties, lot 12, block 2311, which is 68 North Fullerton Avenue, block 2311, lot 14, 205 Claremont Avenue, and lot 15, which is 57 Park Street. I shall move. Second.

Councilor Harrison.

Just there. couple of I think just corrections to the redevelopment plan on page 11 B refers to larger multifamily and office and then the word buildings needs to be added but C refers to multifamily and apartment buildings and I would have thought when I'm not sure the difference between multifamily and apartment if I would have thought both should say multifamily and office building right

okay I made that change yes council Birmingham please um just would you mind just explaining to the public what what this is the purpose of this sure the township designated the township owned properties here surrounding the municipal building as an area need of redevelopment right now all one of these properties is in a residential office zone and the other two properties are in a public zone the purpose here is to create a redevelopment plan for all of these properties that envisions other uses for this for this property as you know we're talking about options to relocate the municipal building and as part of that this property and surrounding properties are part of the conversation so this plan envisions this property being developed for a variety of other uses could be residential because the RO zone which is the adjacent zoning to the to the south and the actually to the south east and west is an office residential zone so we took that zoning and matched it for the most part here with several changes because this property has as a whole has frontage on three roads so we tinkered a little bit with the setbacks to reflect the fact that there's three front yards and made specific setback requirements in here for a setback from residential uses because to the north there is a residential use essentially the uses that are permitted are office buildings apartment buildings public facilities public buildings and utilities as well And there's design requirements ensuring that the size, determining the size and scale of whatever is built here. There's requirements for, for instance, windows to make sure whatever building is here has windows and facade treatments that reflect the apartment buildings that are nearby. So that's essentially it.

Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Council Harris.

So I move to amend what's pending by on page 11 of the redevelopment plan B. Add the word buildings after larger multifamily and office. And in C, have it read multifamily and office buildings. Replace the word apartment with office.

say the second one please I'm sorry I got the one on B where you said use of brick and just building the word buildings is missing after office okay and then the one below it it should say office rather than apartment buildings okay thank you I thought you were

Call the roll, please.

Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councilor Birmingham? Yes. Councilor D'Amato? Yes. Councilor Harrison? Yes. Councilor Tolar absent. Councilor Williams? Yes. Mayor Baskerville? Yes, thank you.

And I move the introduction of the ordinance with that amendment.

Second. Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councillor Birmingham? Yes. Councillor D'Amato? Yes. Councillor Harrison? Yes. Councillor Toller absent. Councillor Williams? Yes.

Mayor Baskerville? Yes. Is it Councillor Williams, please? Agenda item Q?

P. No?

Agenda item P. I apologize. Agenda item P. No worries. No worries.

An ordinance amending Chapter 82, Animals of the Code of the Township of Montclair, New Jersey. So moved.

Second.

What? I don't even know who to ask about this. Who sponsored this?

Is it going back to Director Tassie, maybe? Is it going back to Director Tassie? Hm?

Thank you very much for being here. Forgive me. I don't have a copy in front of me, but I will try to answer your question.

OK. No, I just wanted to know what prompted the need for these changes.

seems like a lot of defining what the chicken is a hen counselor Williams families in the township keep keep chickens for you know just for their own eggs and what have you. So this is just tightening the regulations that go with that, ensuring that the neighbors of these families are protected on each side by a buffer, that the chickens are not overpopulated. There's not a larger than necessary amount of actual chickens. that's kind of what was what was motivating it it's increasing number excuse me of applications for the for the licenses and an increasing number of feedback from people in people feedback from people close to those who keep chickens do we know I think, to be honest with you, I think that there are more families that keep chickens than licenses have been taken out. But this year we've had, if I'm not mistaken, we've had two requests. And my short tenure, that's the most.

Mayor, so do you know how many active licenses? I'm sorry, Mayor.

It's under 10, Councilor Birmingham.

So under 10 licenses have been issued? Correct. All the time? OK. OK. Deputy Mayor?

Thank my colleagues for keeping me humble a few ordinances ago, because I didn't know what a plat was, and now I know. I didn't know either, so join the crowd. So at the risk of sounding silly again, I guess I did wonder what was the impetus. But then it looks like we're specifically, it's being proposed that we specifically, or maybe this was always the law, that roosters are not allowed to be kept.

that's correct okay that has always been the law and counselor counselor Harrison had made mention of the fact that maybe we should use the the word hen all the way through and that's something that if if you so desire I don't think would be a substantive change the war on men

it's a war on men that's funny and then but it's adding um like foul defined as ducks pigeons doves are we finding out about things like that being kept here that hasn't that the intent is um not to allow or regulate okay thank you yes council of birmingham please um so you the in um

Item C, where you're talking about the construction and the location of the coops. In the second one, there's an addition, no structure for keeping live chickens shall be built or maintained, which is less than 50 feet set back from the doors or windows of any neighboring dwelling and not less than 12. And that's changed from six feet back from any neighborhood property line. And then it's added or be located on unfenced lots less than 50 by 100 feet. And I'm just wondering if you can meet the setback requirements, is that addition of like, lot size is that sort of penalizing people who live on small lots versus someone who lives on a larger lot I wouldn't I would not use the word penalizing I would say it's protecting the neighbors on either side of a small lot but if you can meet so I guess my question is like if if there's a setback of 12 feet from a neighboring lot if your lot is if your lot is like 200 feet and you're 12 still 12 feet why if your lot is smaller than that like if you're smart why is the setback if the setbacks 12 feet what is why does it matter how big the lot is I guess I think the intent of disallowing

chickens to be kept on something 50 by 100 feet or smaller is so that the neighbors on either side of that lot aren't disturbed by the sound and smells of animals.

Is it the fencing that should be required? So I guess to be located on an unfenced lot less than 50 by 100. So if you fence it, it's OK? I guess I'm just, if it's a small lot?

I am not actually a hundred percent. I will get you some clarity on what's meant by that. I, my belief is that the 50 by 100 is meant to protect smaller property owners on either side of a small lot from a large amount of chickens and the attendant.

Yeah, no, I understand. I understand. I'm just trying to figure out again. Cause like if it's, if you, Yeah, I guess can you confirm, I'm just confused by if it's the fencing that's the issue or the site. Because, yeah, are we saying that because you have a small lot, you have to fence it? Or are we saying because you have a small lot, you can't keep chickens at all is what I'm not clear on from that language.

Will you allow me to? Absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely. I just, yeah, I just can't. I can provide the government body some clarity just on that sentence. Yeah, I should have emailed you earlier and I didn't have time to. And then just this reduction from 25 to six chickens, that's like sizable. I can't imagine keeping 25 chickens, but is that something that in your experience is that most people have?

six chicken most people have under 25 chickens the largest number that I've seen is in the teens but most people keep three and four okay and then my last question the people who already have existing coops are they grant their grandfathered in like if they I think there is some I think there is some grandfathering language in here I'm not mistaken I believe that's correct

Okay. Councilwoman Birmingham, I believe the fence size has to do with the pen size, so that's the reason that it's structured that way, because you have to have, the pen has to be a certain diameter, so it has to be certain width and length. So I think that's the reason with the fence and the lot issue. I don't have the paper in front of me.

I think you're right.

But I just wanted to point that out. Okay. So you're saying the fence is so big that it, the way, or the pen size is so big that it can't be accommodated in a physical way?

Exactly. So it has to do with the pen and as well as the neighbors. So you have to have a certain pen size based on the amount of chickens. But again, I just don't have it in front of me, so I can't confirm, but I believe that's what it's about. Good share.

clear that you can only keep ends and moving all the references to chickens I have a the section 29.2 cancellation and revocation I have a a two-fold problem with the portion that says after a public hearing before the Township Council so the first part of that says that there's a two violations your license is terminated which I have no problem with but then it says besides that if there's if the council finds after a public hearing that the operation is inimical to the health safety and welfare of the public I One, good justification for not running is being involved in such a hearing. But my legal concern is that's vague and there are no standards. And if they're not violating the ordinance, I'm not sure the council wants to spend its time with a neighbor complaining and saying everything they're doing is consistent with the ordinance but I don't like the chickens next door and we have a hearing and have to decide whether their health safety and welfare issues with that and what constitutes that and I would just as soon leave it with if you're violating the ordinance you lose your license and if you're not keep doing it and if it's there's something happening that's a problem that the ordinance allows, you fix the ordinance and not suddenly have

assuming you get it come the reason for this is you get complaints from neighbors about the chickens next door is that correct code enforcement does receive complaints with regard to with regard to chicken keeping the my understanding is that the law office The law office did most of the drafting of this ordinance in conjunction with both the code enforcement and health department. I understand what you're saying about a hearing and not wanting to play that role, and I think it would be the counselor can advise us if that's a substantive change.

I think we table, and I am sure our new attorney is looking forward to working on it. chicken ordinance sorry well the hearing is based on of course revocation of licenses with the due process issue but issue is to what what we're doing if they're not violating the ordinance it's what's the problem and And is that a good use of the council's time if we want to do that? Because I suspect there will be neighbors who want to take advantage of that. Okay, so I move we table this ordinance until it's refined. Second.

You go.

Any further discussion? No. All the roll, Madam Clerk.

Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councilor Birmingham?

Yes.

Councilor D'Amato? Yeah. Councilor Harrison? Yes. Councilor Tolar absent. Councilor Williams? Yes. Mayor Baskerville? Yes.

Councilor Birmingham, please.

OK, this is agenda item R. Oh. QR, oh my gosh. We're tabling the church street? Yes. so I'm doing Q I'm sorry okay this is a an ordinance authorizing the acquisition of property known as 16 Miller Street block 3 is 1 1 2 lot 5 and I'm going to move to Tate table this second

Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councillor Birmingham? Yes. Councillor D'Amato? Yes. Councillor Harrison? Yes. Councillor Toller absent. Councillor Williams? Mayor Baskerville? Yes. Thank you.

Councillor D'Amato, please.

An ordinance authorizing assignment and execution of an amendment to financial agreement between Township of Montclair and 65 Church Street Urban Renewal LLC for a redevelopment project to be developed on block 2208, lot 17. So moved.

Which changes is he talking about?

Previously brought before us and we asked for some changes but can't tell what the changes are.

The council had previously requested some changes to the existing financial agreement and I think council members want to know what has changed.

Okay. I have a memo because the attorneys couldn't be here, but I have their memo about what the changes are to the financial agreement. They added a definition for annual gross revenue. I can read that to you if you want. The definition in the original financial agreement did not include revenues defined as additional rent in the entity's lease agreements with its tenants as annual gross revenue for purposes of calculating the pilot payments due. We'd originally proposed to the current owners over their strenuous objection that such additional rent be included. however in recognition of the fact that such an amendment would apply only to the commercial space in the project and therefore would not result in a material increase in township pilot revenue it was decided that additional rent would only be captured in the unlikely event that the redeveloper obtained site plan approval to expand the commercial component of the project that condition is is included in the proposed amendment and the developer has agreed to that in section 8.3 of the agreement the entity reserves the right to use utilize a master lease or sublease in the operation of the project while it is our understanding that no such structure is in place today this arrangement is sometimes used to facilitate financing our proposed amendment clarifies that if the entity decides to use a master lease or sublease for any part of the project The rents payable under those arrangements, which are not typically considered to be at arm's length, would be disregarded for purposes of calculating the pilot. Instead, we would only be recognizing the rents payable by the true tenant users of the project as annual gross revenue, and the redevelopers agreed to that amendment. Under assignment, as originally written and approved, Section 8.1 would permit the assignment of the financial agreement from one urban renewal entity to another under certain stated conditions, but without any requirement for the entity to file an application seeking township consent to the assignment, and without providing for any mechanism for review and formal consent by the council. in fact in 2022 the assignment of the financial agreement from 65 church street urban renewal to may montclair urban renewal was done without formal consent from the township council the proposed amendment would now require that any entity seeking to assign the financial agreement to file a formal application with the mayor and council establishing satisfaction of the stated prerequisites for assignment and further requiring the payment of an administrative fee equal to 2% of the annual service charge to defray municipal expenses related to the application review process. and that is that fee is expressly authorized by the long-term tax exemption law and the redeveloper has agreed to that amendment and finally in section 8.3 this is the no restriction on rental units this section would be modified to make it consistent with the proposed amendments to section 1.2 definition of annual gross revenue such that a additional rent could be captured as part of the pilot calculation in the event the entity expands the commercial space in the project and beat the master lease and sublease rent would be disregarded in favor of the rent paid by the tenant occupant occupants of the space. And the redeveloper has agreed to that change. So everything you asked for, they agreed to

which one so open to discussion I understand why this needs to people think that this needs to work so that we can get this building filled up but I'm going to make a symbolic vote against it I think that this building never should have had a pilot this is a textbook example of the granting of pilots when there was no need it's a commercial spot Should have just been a building, ad valorem taxes. It's punishing the regular homeowner to do this. They broke the pilot agreement, and we should have gladly said, fine, get on the tax rolls like mom and pop. I understand if everybody's not with that. It maybe is a little harsh, but somebody should make the point. So I'm voting no.

So who introduced it?

Who is this guy?

Did you? I'm just trying to figure out who was introducing it.

notwithstanding this symbolic vote can we just review the legal aspects of this that by law we are they have a right to transfer like that this agreement there they have a right to transfer that's correct correct okay I just want to be clear to the that is not what I'm voting against I voted for a transfer yeah before of pilots that were this one they just walked away from it the previous owner

So did you, I'm just saying, did you introduce it and we got a second?

Yes.

Okay, so now we're doing roll call. You ready?

Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Anderson?

Yes. Councilor Birmingham? Yes. Councilor D'Amato? No. Councilor Harrison? Yes. Councilor Toler absent. Councilor Williams? Yes. Mayor Baskerville?

Yes, thank you. Okay, and so now I'm going to switch this around because I had asked that that be last on the agenda, these discussion items, and we're going to go to the consent agenda. Does anyone have anything that they'd like to have pulled from the consent agenda? Please let me know now. If not, maybe we can get through the consent agenda and get to the discussion items fairly rapidly.

6, 12, and 19. 6, 12, and 19 are coming out.

Anyone else.

I just had a question about the Saint Sebastian.

Which one is that?

I don't want to pull it. I just have a question about it. I just want to know where the fireworks are going to happen because I see it's a resolution.

the resolution is put forth by the fire department I think so they may know the exact location but it's always near Cavany Field so the festivals right there in the corner by the walnut station so they'll do it on one of those lots there yeah

Well, hello, Deputy Chief. Hello, yes. So as per New Jersey Fire Code, they have to file a permit for the fireworks as well. But then they also have to, just in Montclair, they have to have a resolution passed to approve it. So they've got their permit. Part of that process is then they have to have a permit inspection, and it usually is at the field. I didn't do the permit. I'm not the fire official. But they did fill out a proper permit, and they'll get an inspection right before the fireworks go off.

Okay. Yes, Councillor D'Amato?

We're just asking a question about self-defense.

no we're pulling if you want to have things pulled from the consent agenda right now I just want to know which ones they are please so far I have six and twelve and nineteen seven okay And so on the, I don't see them where they are on here at all, but there were some items on the agenda and I guess I'm calling them 27 and 28 and 29. that would be the three individuals that wish to be appointed to the PRCA the one individual that is wishing to be appointed to the Housing Commission and then there was one person being considered for the Civil Rights Commission not on the agenda supposed to be and I know that's what I don't understand what's happening here they are on me I mean they should be on the agenda they were put on the agenda a while ago I have it here I don't have it and I never saw it okay so then I guess this is going to take longer than I thought I'm going to read to you the recommendation and

Can we do the consent ones first and then do the discussion?

Nope, I'm going to tell us about these because I don't know what's happening and why they aren't on the agenda. So Sean Hunter comes to us and she's wishing to be appointed to the Housing Commission. She's got an MBA, she's got community development, and she's got 20 years of finance, legal training, real estate, landlord, tenant law. Yes. yeah we can but I don't understand you know what's going on because I got this and this should have been on the agenda so I don't know what's going on okay all right so we're going to move into the executive session and we'll come back because we need to do this in the executive session so yes you're right Well, there's someone else back there that's waiting to get approved here also. I mean, they're all waiting here for different things. I just don't understand, you know, what happens when, you know, these things just don't get on the agenda. Then it's wrong for other people that are sitting here all night waiting to get appointed too.

Yeah, it's wrong to just walk something on and expect that it's going to be a yes.

Why is it a walk-on when it shouldn't have been?

Because I never saw it until now. And I'll get a little hot here because you go out of your way to hide things from the agenda. Oh, okay.

Out of your way.

Yes.

You're being disrespectful and it's not necessary. Let me just please explain to you, this was on the agenda. It was on the agenda. I gave it, put it in on the agenda a while ago. And I even have it here. I don't know why it wasn't on there. And it went back and forth. And there was a second on it. Bill Harrison saw it. Councilor Tola saw it. And I don't think that you need to be rude to me because you don't understand what happened. I don't understand what happened either.

Madam Mayor, Mr. Council, I'm going to ask that we do executive session for five minutes. I don't think it should be that little longer than that. I do have something to say, but I don't want to stay in front of everyone. So if you guys can give us five minutes, please. I'm sorry. Everyone must leave. Thank you.

Do you want to have a motion and a vote to go into executive session? Yes, thank you. I'm sorry. All right. Aye. All in favor? Aye. Any objections? Any opposed? Okay. That was mean to me.

And I don't think it is.

like to make a motion that we exit from the executive meeting and return to regular session second um we are not going to be discussing the committee appointments this evening because um they were not um in the sunshine law they were not posted and so legally we can't move forward with those appointments this evening um and so we're going to move on to the yeah and so we're going to move on to the consent agenda and I so move a motion to get out of close session that's what I said but you're still talking and I'm finishing okay I said I'm making a motion and I was explaining to them why I'm making a motion that we're gonna move on so is there a second

Madam Clerk? Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councillor Birmingham? Yes. Councillor D'Amato? Yes. Councillor Harrison? Yes. Councillor Toller absent. Councillor Williams? Yes. Mayor Baskerville? Yes.

From the consent agenda, I'm taking out 6, 7, 12.

and 19. anyone else yes i did want to say that on the revised agenda yellow i see an item number 26 but i don't actually see i don't unless i'm just missing it from my papers i don't see the actual document

Yeah, and I'd like to pull that one as well.

That's the assignment of the redevelopment agreement.

Was that the redevelopment agreement that we already voted on?

I don't need to pull that.

We had voted on the financial agreement.

And I think because it was not on the published agenda, we can't proceed on it anyway. Is that correct? This was not something that was out to the public as far as I'm aware.

So we'll take number 26 out. So from the consent agenda.

Right. So we're going to take it all. I just want to be clear on this. Councillor Birmingham. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. If we're pulling it, I just want to understand the repercussions, which I don't. Dispute may be pulling it, but will this hold up? I mean, we had put in place, we want you to finish at least the facade of this building by October 31. We're not coming back into session until September 15. 15. I guess I just want to understand that.

Well, and Councilor Harris, whoever can chime in, my understanding is they we would need both the financial agreement and the redevelopment agreement assignment to happen to be in place before what we want the redeveloper to do can be done so it may not make a different i mean this is just a resolution so if we were to do the second reading of the financial agreement which we voted on tonight um that makes sense okay

So are we going to table 26 to a time unknown or until September 15th? Yes. OK. So I make a motion to table 26 until September 15th. OK. But I'm making a motion to table number 26 until September 15. I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry.

I just checked, and item 26 was posted on the township website. OK. Just so that you're informed. You still make your decision, but it's out there.

Why didn't we get a copy?

Do you want my copy?

None of us have it, though. So, yeah, I made a motion to table number 26 until September 15th. There was a second. Madam Clerk, please.

I'm sorry, Mayor. Who was the second?

I did.

Okay. Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Council Birmingham?

Yeah, I just, Susan, what you, Councillor Anderson, Deputy Mayor Anderson, Jen Anderson, what you said, I just want to be clear that it does, it really won't impact movement forward on at least the outside of this building because we are now, okay, okay. Yes.

Okay. Councillor D'Amato?

This is to table? Yes, this is to table. Yes.

Councillor Harrison? Yes. Councillor Tolar absent. Councillor Williams? Yes. Mayor Baskerville?

Yes. Okay, I make a motion that we vote on the consent agenda 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11.

Everything but 6, 7, 12, and 19? Yeah.

13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, and 25. And I so move.

Second.

Madam Clerk. Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Council Birmingham? Yeah. Council D'Amato?

Yes.

Councillor Harrison. Yes. Councillor Toller absent. Councillor Williams. Yes. Mayor Baskerville.

Yes. Now we're going to go down to consent agenda number six. And someone had that pulled. Discussion, please.

Was that? That's me. I'm reading my notes. My question is, given the condition of the building, are all of these cameras necessary in the short term?

I believe so. As I mentioned to Mr. Marks, that these cameras, access control, panic buttons, horns, all can be relocated. The only cost would be cabling in the potential new building if we were to relocate.

these items have a 10-year useful life and a 10-year license software license so and they're portable so with the exception of the the actual cabling which would be the sacrificial element everything else could be moved and reused no there would be 132 000 of labor that would be lost true that is true that's a lot of money but there's uh we discussed the security and the security situation in this building before and i think it's necessary

I'd like to thank you very much, Director Devin Close, Director of IT for the Township of Montclair. Thank you. Anyone else on number six? Okay. Somebody want to move that? Where are you with this, Councilor Harrison?

Sitting quietly. Okay.

I'm fine with that. No. Thank you.

okay Devin would you mind just describing like there will be cameras and their security cameras but like the data retention or you know for people because we we do hear a lot about like surveillance and questions about that but so can you just describe where this will go like where the footage goes or you know

so the cameras themselves actually have a 30-day retention um so video footage is stored up to 30 days and then it's also uploaded onto the cloud of ricotta cloud specifically and um typically you can set the retention hold from a 30-day period to a 60-day period to possibly a 90 it's extendable ideally what at least for the municipality I would go with a 30-day period so that way we're not constantly saving or archiving the data. And it's a case by case situation. So within that 30 days, if there is an incident, we can archive those situations and then obviously involve the police department to document and then also create what's called an incident report and save that potentially. But 30 days retention on on camera and then also on the cloud. So it really just depends on the situation. Did that answer your question? yes and we can put like a sign that let's people know that I was working with I was actually talking with our paralegal before and putting the new lawyer I believe that that would be advisable as specific specifically outside of the building because in this proposal I also included LPR cameras license plate readers because there have been situations where incidents do occur outside and we want to make sure we have the most information to at least how should I say it be prepared to document that situation if need be so we can have those signs going forward inside and also outside of the building as well can you repeat the part about the license plate readers please so the specifically two cameras that were added are going to go if approved would be on that side of the building as well as that side of the building just because although you do have camera footage it is it's not I in the best license plate readers will allow to at least capture the footage and also obtain the data of a vehicle and within that same time frame it is a 30-day period that it does retain that storage and also adjustments can be made so we can have it 7 any other time but there have been incidents from what I've seen even prior to me becoming a director of IT where People have not been able to provide such information for police reports. So in avoiding that being a problem in the future, I would like to at least provide that to be an option for not necessarily us in the municipality, but for the public if there are events that occur.

There's been numerous hit and run acts, not involving like pedestrian hit and run, but I mean like sideswiped cars where damage has been done to vehicles. And because we have no cameras outside whatsoever, there's no record of who was there, how it happened, or just people sustained damage to their vehicles. And unfortunately, there's nothing that could be done about it.

May I? So with the license plate readers that just sort of when you mentioned that I you know I have had some residents approach me recently with concerns about specific you know certain companies and use of license plate reader cameras and potentially those companies using that information giving providing it to you know the government for different purposes and so I mean this is just authorizing awarding of the contract but we would be able to like check to see what the data use terms are right in the contract before that as well as checking any audit logs for any changes or views or from other third yes we can okay

Councillor Birmingham.

Thank you. So I remember reading about like in 20, I think it was in 2024, like the attorney general did an audit of all the towns who were using license plate readers. And it appeared to me that there were some, and this was for police use, but it appeared to me that there were fairly strict, like there had to be training. It was sort of, Controlled how this was being used so it has to be I'm sorry Bert. Yeah, so I just want to make sure that That we're in line.

There's no whatever is required Agree. I'm sorry again for speaking over. Um, yeah there there I will be working with the law department to kind of set up what like a audit or like a specific policy for specific use cases for either requesting information from a vehicle so if a read is or users trying to search for a specific license plate read there needs to be a report well that there will be a process set up with the legal department for that portion

to be pending but for that's okay yeah because I guess that's the question will you only do it in the case like where the police are involved like you're not like that I guess is the question like is it that you're gonna be like hey I want and I don't mean you you know what I mean but like if if a lay person, like a non-police person, what would be their right to look at the license plate reader? When you're talking about a hit and run, that's a potential crime, so you're involving the police. The police may come and look at the license. Otherwise, what is the right for someone else to be accessing the license plate reader?

Outside of the police department? Right.

the only use case oh I'm sorry no then this is going off to your question I think just because you have a license plate reader the it's picking up the license plate but it's not searching I don't know that you can just go against databases no yeah they would have to go to the police department and the police department would have to utilize their tools I would assume to look that is correct that the database is locally saved at least

for that camera as well as for the cloud hosted environment but that that database does not get sent to any state or police department for unless an investigation is done specifically by the police department it's just capturing me okay so it will not be used unless in conjunction with a crime correct

And that no one else will be able to access them like you or these other people? Anyone else other than the police?

Yes, but we'd have to set it up that way. Verkada actually has integration with Axon, which is what the police department is currently migrating, or actually in the process of migrating their vehicles to. So in the event that there is an investigation, we can create what's called an incident report on Verkada, and that incident report can automatically, including the footage, can automatically be sent straight to an Axon database for their review. So I... could to be quite honest do not want anything to do with the license plate reading or information it's just only for police for safety for safety and security concerns and just to chime in here what what i think we're talking about two different things one we're talking about a camera and we're talking about stuff that you can just walk outside and just see

right and then the other aspect of it is can you use that information that you see to identify someone which it seems like there's a wall in between you know just seeing the license plate and being able to identify someone so that's i just want to make that distinction that information it only identifies the object not the it does not tie it to the individual unless unless

that information, again, gets sent to the police department for further research. It's only capturing the event and the object, saving it within its database, and unless you have the information to link it to police department, there's no misuse that can be done, at least from that perspective, without police department being involved. There's no misuse.

It's interesting, though, that we're having this discussion, because I don't know if anyone else But just the other night, there was an incident where a female cop was tracking, you know, somebody that she was having an affair with by the license plate thing. And now we're having a discussion. That's messy. We're setting up. And I'm asking a question because I just think that, you know, we're trying to figure out what can go wrong.

As long as we have a policy set up and audit logs reviewed thoroughly, I currently, and obviously involvement with the law department as well as the police department, ensuring that all policy, ensuring that some, This is reviewed and it's a case by case, but it will be heavily monitored specifically by me as well as the others just to make sure that there isn't any misuse specifically with the product. I understand.

I'm sorry, Attorney Borum, did you have something? I wasn't aware of it until he started speaking. To discuss what matter?

I'm Devin is there a possible way where we can take not use that particular camera license and reader cameras just get regular cameras we can also do that as well I think that may be the best okay what was the ask and what are we going to do now

Um, she asked if there was a possibility to potentially use other cameras, if this would be a concern, um, for this building, uh, to use the license plate readers. And I said that we can obviously make that change later on if there's a high concern for the LPR cameras being used.

I think that would be a good idea because I would be much happier if the policy was developed first.

Yeah.

Understood. Yeah. So I would like to move to amend the resolution to delete the two, I believe it's two license plate readers.

Yeah, second.

Thanks.

yes yes yes yes yes motion to adopt second

Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councilor Birmingham? Yes. Councilor Donato? Yes. Councilor Harrison? Abstain. Councilor Fuller absent. Councilor Williams? Yes. Mayor Baskerville? Yes.

Okay, we're moving on to consent agenda item number seven. Please, whoever asked to have that pulled. That's more with the Millennium Communications Group.

Yeah, I just have some questions about this, which I think Councilor Harrison was also interested in why we're choosing WebEx to expand on.

So WebEx, it's specifically a hardware license to be able to use the device. You can use Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or WebEx for the device. Specifically, it just allows for you to be able to use, the device requires a SIP license in order to be able to use those services. And it also integrates with our existing phone system that was a part of the network modernization project with Millennium Communications Group. as well as it has the same setup and infrastructure as the existing conference room. So it's just extending those services onto another room and replacing the end of life device that is in the conference room as well.

that answer your question yeah I guess now we have gone back and forth a lot over remote public comment in this room and would and we had discussed very briefly some time ago because we haven't actually had a community communications committee meeting for far too long But have you determined whether or not that would be the platform that would be good for audio-only public comment in this chamber?

I would prefer WebEx as its one system, one platform. However, I'm not opposed to using other options. We currently utilize Zoom, Teams, and WebEx for our meetings here. I would prefer WebEx, personally.

Okay. Have you watched a Board of Ed meeting here?

Here, no. Other towns, yes.

Okay, because they use WebEx, seemingly, to good effect.

Yes. And from the perspective of at least having the mayor and council meetings being a remote, is that what you're referring to?

Remote comments, so that if people call in.

Yes, I did inquire about that. We actually do have a proposal for that. However, I wanted to...

Yes.

Wanted to hold off a little bit, at least for a bit, because there have been conversations that we might potentially be relocating. Yes. And it's a bit of a big project. I would like to revisit it at another committee meeting when you guys are available.

Thank you.

council deputy mayor and then councillor Harrison is the title of the resolution incorrect for item seven it looks like the same title as the resolution for item six that's the question number six and seven yeah the actual resolution looks like it has the same exact title Maybe it's just the copy I have.

No, mine are different.

Oh, at the top. Yes.

R26. That's okay.

We'll make it match the agenda. Okay. Thank you.

Councilor Harrison.

Okay. My question was partially answered, but now I'm even more confused. Okay, so the resolution we have says $291,510.15. And the certification from the CFO says $48,000. the memo that's attached refers to 48 000 then i asked when i asked about the discrepancy i got an answer saying the number should be 300 000 for the millennium sorry which is different and what what how much money are we authorizing so i had uh one of our uh my co-workers uh up

the memo and the COF for both proposals. I verified at least that I sent her the correct information. There might have been a duplicate uploaded onto Granicus. However, for the original, because the add-ons were for the LPR licenses, which was for the 291 that you specified, which resulted With that change, it results to the $326,000. So I have, that's the most updated one. And I actually believe this should be for the memo you were saying?

I'm sorry, I still don't understand. So for the one that we just voted on, which is the comprehensive security system, that's $300,000.

That is for $300,000? Is the memo saying different is what you're specifying?

I'm trying to distinct... So six was $300,326. Correct. We just approved that minus two cameras. Correct. This one, there are now three different numbers. So before we get to the specific numbers, are we talking about $300,000 for number seven or $48,000?

Number seven is $48,000 for the conference, WebEx conference room, specifically for the $48,000.

For the resolution, I think. Okay.

Mine says $48,000. Oh, resolution.

Oh, for the resolution. Okay, because I thought you were looking here. Look. I missed that. Okay.

So the certification of funds.

I move to amend the resolution so that the third whereas reads not to exceed $48,833.98. Second. Any discussion? Another amendment would be in the now therefore. Yes.

Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councillor Birmingham? Yes. Councillor D'Amato? Yes. Councillor Harrison? Yes. Councillor Toller absent? Councillor Williams?

Yes.

Mayor Baskerville?

Yes. Next up is the consent.

I move to adopt the resolution as amended.

Second. Okay. Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councilor Birmingham? Yes. Councilor D'Amato? Yes. Councilor Harrison? Yes. Councilor Toller absent? Councilor Williams? Yes. Mayor Baskerville? Yes.

Moving on to consent agenda number 12.

I just have, it's really a partial question, partial statement. It's the scope of services for $15,000, the resolutions for $30,000. I know this is going to cost far more than $30,000 by the end of the day unless Chevron miraculously says we'll take care of it all. But that's not going to happen. So I'm just curious as to why the 30,000 number and just.

Sure. So the proposal for 15,000 is their best estimate to get us through the next step. However, it's going to be multiple years. So this gives us the runway to have this LSRP on staff for as long as it takes to get this issue resolved. And I would go into more detail, but there's.

You're going to be in six digits before you know it, just by experience with LSRPs, and the scope of services is likely to grow rather than shrink, you know, unless Chevron is amazingly cooperative. Right. But I'm dealing with them on another site, which they're not amazingly cooperative. No.

I don't disagree.

I move resolution in number 12.

Second. Deputy Mayor second that. Madam Clerk.

Deputy Mayor Anderson. Yes. Councilor Birmingham.

Yes.

Councillor D'Amato? Yes. Councillor Harrison? Yes. Councillor Toller absent. Councillor Williams? Yes. Mayor Baskerville? Yes.

Okay. Item number 19, please. Whoever asked to have that pulled. Councillor Harrison? Is 19 yours as well?

Yes, I just have, well, so we're awarding three. Vendors came in and bid for two of the four spots. We awarded two, and then two vendors applied for one of the spots. We gave that to one of the vendors, and then we gave the other vendor the third spot. And I'm questioning how we did that. I also have a question. I know the three spots that they've been using this year, but I don't know A, B, C, D. But there are some practical differences between the spots. And I'm trying to figure out if they bid on one spot and we're saying, okay, you're getting another spot that no one bid on. And how we decided which of the two vacant spots they were getting. will have to look into this and report back so if you want to hold the table well don't we need to do this before the school year starts I could still investigate everything I could get back as to why it's strikes me as a little unusual way of doing this, but if none of the three are objecting, we'll be okay.

Sorry, I don't quite understand that because cilantro lime bid and then and Kate and they both bid on space C so and catering won that space by random draw and then it says be it further resolved that one opening remaining vendor space space B will be available on a first-come first-served basis so what happened to cilantro lime like what are they what spot are they getting or they're not getting any Because it's like A is going to Thomas Carrera, C is going to Anne's Catering, and then it says that B is open.

T is out.

sorry gosh i you're you're saving me already madam attorney this is like thank you everyone i'm just abcd i had to ask about i had to make sure cilantro taco would be there asking for a daughter do we finish 19. yeah i i move approval of number 19. second

Deputy Mayor Anderson? Yes. Councillor Birmingham? Yes. Councillor D'Amato? Yes. Councillor Harrison? Yes. Councillor Tolar absent. Councillor Williams? Yes. Mayor Baskerville? Yes. Okay.

Okay, next up we're going to have discussion item noise ordinance. Whoever wishes to lead us through that discussion. Anyone wish to lead the discussion on noise ordinance? If not, we can move on and have the discussion on tree ordinance.

We should discuss for a little bit. I guess as we transition attorneys, what was presented to us today we got is an update based on the prior attorney didn't realize that DEP had updated its noise ordinance so she gave us a revised version based on that and where I'm struggling with either version is There are portions of the DEP model ordinance that are not included and a few that are modified and I'm not sure. I think the most productive way for the council to have a discussion is to understand what's not being included and we can then discuss why it should or should not be included I it's hard with no one other than me having a copy of the model ordinance so to see what's missing to discuss that there And I think that's the best way to discuss it as to what are the practical effects, I think, particularly in terms of the complaints we got tonight on Whitman Field noise as to how we want to deal with that. And I actually have mixed feelings on how best to deal with it. But I think without everyone on the council seeing This is what could be included and isn't included in saying we agree that shouldn't be included. And there may be provisions that she did include that we feel shouldn't be included. But without anyone other than me being able to look at the two, it's very hard to compare. I don't want to go through and say section by section. This was left out and read it to you and this will be here past my bedtime.

So do you want us to bring this back in another meeting?

I think if our attorney could do the comparison and before the next meeting just so and then we can have and you know ideally well before so council members in the interim can exchange thoughts as this is great I want to be able to blast my amplifier out by window and destroy my neighbor's ears, so we shouldn't be prohibiting that. And we can comment and not have to have a focus on what the issues are, and then we can have the discussion based on those issues.

Counselor, did you want to maybe just give the public, if anybody's watching, like the rough outlines of what this is, that it's a model that we're going off of a state model ordinance, and we're going to lightly adapt it?

Well, okay, I can do this. Okay, so the current noise ordinance is... antiquated will be my nice word for it, and very difficult to enforce, and DEP, it was not approved by DEP. DEP has a model ordinance that actually has, includes in it some optional provisions, but our attorney then attorney prepared was something that based on discussions she had with some council members some discussions she had with staff what she thought was appropriate that leaves out a number of provisions in the DEP model ordinance and modifies a couple of provisions and what I think makes sense is for the council to see what was and wasn't included and give their thoughts on that. And I think it would be helpful for members of the public to look at the DEP model ordinance, which, you know, you can very easily type in DEP model noise ordinance and it pops up. and give their thoughts to the council on you know we like section 8 you should never include section 7 and give you know give comments on that and you know based on your thoughts on how that deals with noise situations you care about because you think these situations should be able to make the noise or you think these situations should not be able to make that type of noise or that noise that is that loud for the hours involved there so i think that's probably the best way to proceed at this point one thing i think as i recall in our meeting with members of the health and code is that 217 7 they want we needed to remove because the

Isn't the octave band sound pressure level where they were not able to... So that's one technical part, that there's a whole way of measuring sound, and we don't have... We don't have the C scale measurements.

I was puzzled because I thought that was not going to be in, but both things she said today, the ones she said I guess the other day and today, had it. I don't know if she had a further discussion that we can do it or But I guess, manager, if you could check with the staff and confirm that that provision shouldn't be in.

I haven't read this, so I need time to read this.

I need time to read this, and then I

That's part of what I'm saying. We got the current version this afternoon.

Madam Mayor?

Yes, Councillor Birmingham.

But just so people are aware, the public is aware that we already, there's a statewide noise control act, right, that is already in play and that we are subject to. So just so the public is aware that we are sort of, as you're describing, we are fine-tuning something But there already is a statewide noise control act that the entire state is under in terms of decibel levels and timing, et cetera. So I just want to make that clear. And that's enforced currently by Essex County.