Common Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. Good evening everyone. Good evening everyone. The meeting will come to order. Um Okay. U madame clerk, would you please read the adequate notice of compliance statement? Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the city clerk's office in preparation of the council annual meeting notice dated December 17, 2025, which was properly distributed and posted per statutory requirements. Please be advised that fire exits are to my right, your left, and at the back of the room. The city has a listening system to assist the hearing impaired. If anyone needs hearing assistance, please obtain the system at the deis and return it thereafter. Um, thank you. Uh, roll call, please. Mr. Ber present.

Mr. Christopher Foley here. Miss Calmanson here. Miss Landman here. Miss Le Sarosina here. Mr. Powski here. Uh President Toe here. Okay. Thank you. Um so next is next up is our pledge of allegiance. Um Owen Seagull, would you be willing to lead us in the pledge, please? 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.

Um, madame clerk, would you please read the notices regarding closed sessions and hearings and comments? A close session meeting is a authorized by state statute was announced and held prior to the start of this meeting and the known items for discussion were listed on the published close session agenda. Please be advised that council meetings are broadcast live on Comcast channel 34 and 36 and Verizon channel 30 and rebroadcast on Thursdays and Saturdays on HTTV on Comcast 36 and Verizon 33. When invited to speak, please come to the lectern. Clearly, state your name and address. Spell your last name and speak into the podium microphone so that your comments can be understood by all and properly recorded. Whenever an audience or council member reads from a prepared statement, please give or email a copy to the city clerk's office at city clerk at cityofsummit.org. If I may just add, um, if they could put their name and the date of the council meeting also on their statement, that would be most helpful. [snorts] uh to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard. Please limit your comments to no more than three minutes in length. Unless you are using an electronic device to follow the meeting agenda or needed for professional per contact purposes, uh please turn it off. Thank you.

Thank you. And I'm going to expand just a little bit on the city clerk's note about hearings and com and comments. Um this is going to facilitate a smoother process for particularly for those watching remotely. And if you're seated in the first two rows this evening, please remain silent. Anything you say can be picked up by the recording microphones and then it's very difficult for people online to hear the official proceedings. And also, please don't cross in front of the center in front of the room and please only use the center center aisle to approach the lectern. The cameras in here are motion sensitive and they'll turn away from the the person who's speaking to pick up your movement. Um the 3minut limit on public comments corresponds to a little bit less than a single typewritten page. So if you're leaving your written remarks, please put your name on them and place them in the box near the lectern when you're done. Um and with that, let's proceed to the city's business. Um let's move to the minutes for approval. First is going to be the regular and close session minutes December 16th, 2025. So, the council members eligible to vote on that. Are those who were on the council that day? Um, do I have a motion to approve?

So, moved. Do second. Okay. Um, thank you. Um, all in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. On to the minutes of the organization meeting on January 6th, 2026. Um, do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Um, all in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Um, now it's on to our reports. Madame Mayor, please lead us off.

Thank you, Council President. Good evening, everyone. [clears throat] Please mark your calendars for February 6th when our Department of Community Programs will kick off America's 250th anniversary with a Boston Tea Party event at the community center. There will be tea, of course, along with snacks, crafts, and a live reading of a historical narrative written by the ideas students at Washington Elementary School. Each elementary school's ideas group helped plan one of our events this year, and the first one is coming up February 6th. Senior tea will also be that day from 12 to 1:30, and the kids tea party will be from 3:30 to 5:00. Please register through the community programs website. We also enjoyed a great MLK Day of Service yesterday, visiting nonprofits around town and finding new ways to contribute to our community. Thank you to everyone who braved the cold and the ice to come out and help. And speaking of cold, this weekend snow was also a good reminder to register for Nixl notifications, which the police department sends out when there are important updates residents should know about, such as road closures, hazardous road conditions, and other public safety emergencies. You can sign up through our website. And finally, be on the lookout for our quarterly newsletter, which is being printed now and will be mailed to all Summit residents. [snorts] It's a great way to stay uptodate on city news, even offline. Thank you and have a great night.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, city administrator Baldwin.

Thank you, Council President. The summit free market is back for 2026. The free market will continue to be held on the second Saturday and the fourth Friday of every month. Please note that in November and December, [snorts] um, those dates might be slightly different because of the holidays. The next event will be held this Friday, January 23rd, from 12:00 p.m. to 2 p.m. And the rest of the 2026 event dates have been posted to the city website. Uh, if you're not familiar with the Summit Free Market, it is a unique volunteer-run initiative that promotes the principles of reuse, sustainability, and community sharing. The program is open to Summit residents who have a resident parking transfer station permit, which are available for purchase through the city's parking services agency. More information, including the 2025 event, I'm sorry, 2026 event dates, parking permit registration link, information on how to get involved, is all available at cityofsummit.orgfreearket. Um, I can't believe I'm saying this, but curbside tree collection. I feel like Christmas was so long ago. Um, the tree collection is ongoing now through Friday, January 30th. So, all ornaments, lights, and decorations must be removed and trees should be removed from plastic bags. Please note, there's no specific dates or times for Christmas tree pickup. Um, please don't submit a cclick fix for tree pickup until after January 30th. Hometown Heroes enrollment is now open for our 2026 Hometown Heroes program. The deadline to apply is March 31st. This will be the ninth year for this wonderful program that displays banners with the names, images, and dates of service of active military members and veterans on our city streets from midmay through mid August. Please visit our website at cityofsummit.org/hometown heroes to access the application and additional program details. And that completes my report.

Thank you very much. And now it's on to my report. and I learned about half an hour ago that I'm expected to write it myself. [laughter] Um, so on February 5th at 700 p.m., Mayor Fagan and I will hold our first Facebook live event, I think, of the year. Um, you can watch it on the Facebook page live. It'll be recorded to the city's YouTube channel as well for subsequent viewing. You can email your questions in advance to the email address that our communications officer didn't give me. Press office at city of summit.

Thank you. Press office at cityofsummit.com. That's what I thought it was, but I wasn't quite sure. Um, state of New Jersey has has a code blue in effect from today through the 25th. Um, warning of severe weather. If you or somebody you know may need an emergency shelter, call 211. We The city has three warming stations. um the community center, the library, and city hall during the hours they're typically open. Um so you can take advantage of those. Um and I want to finish with a very brief update on the round four affordable housing process. We're very close to a final settlement. The documents will be available on a dedicated portion of the city's website as soon as they are signed and finalized that hopefully as early as this week, but no guarantees. Um, as soon as we can, we'll be rolling out as much much information as possible. We plan to have a public educational session with our affordable housing attorney and our city planner hopefully at the next council meeting on February 3rd. and we're working to develop as many a avenues of communication as we can so we all understand what's happening. Um and with that let us move to the historical minute. Um Owen Seagull who is a student at Summit High School will be presenting on one of my favorite Summit form. So thank you. [snorts]

Good evening everyone. My name is Owen Seagull. I'm a junior at Summit High School and a member of the speech and debate team. Firstly, I would like to thank my coach, Miss Pointer, and council member Landman for giving me the opportunity to speak in this historical minute about Violet Johnson, an important figure in the history of social justice in Summit in honor of MLK Day. Violet Johnson was born in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1870. She moved to New York in 189 in the 1890s and was employed as a servant until the family she worked for moved to Summit in 1897. A year after moving here, she founded a Bible study group for African-Americans that became recognized as the Fountain Baptist Church, the first African-American congregation in Summit. The church, whose website proclaims itself as a modest church with a mega impact, is the longest and highest giving church to the United Negro College Fund. They also raised over a million dollars to donate to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and continue to make impacts today. As founder of the church, Violet was active in the Afrobaptist Convention of New Jersey and the National Baptist Convention of America. She also founded and was vice president of Summit's NAACP and founded the Girls Industrial Home, which pride itself in being a trading school for black girls and an alternative YW.CA, unofficially called the home away from home. Violet's fight for social social justice was felt beyond just summit as she pioneered suffrage for women across all of New Jersey. Following the failure for a vote on suffrage in a New Jersey special election, she helped organize the state federation of colored women's clubs, which made progress by affiliating with the Colored Republican Club, which was predominantly male at the time, and by formalizing an agreement with the New Jersey Women's Suffrage Association, an organization that prior to the agreement refused to allow African-Americans on their executive board. Her actions directly contributed to the election of the first

African-American to the state assembly in 1920. While Violet's activism may have cur occurred over 100 years ago, her message should not stay in the past. As a member of the speech and debate team, we speak up about current issues worldwide every week. And I encourage you to do the same. Summit is the great town that it is because of the the change that comes from people who will who were willing to make a difference. people like Violet Johnson and people like you. Thank you.

Thank you very [applause] much. And it gets a little warmer outside. I urge everybody to check out the historic marker. It's actually in the police parking lot near the original location of Fountain Baptist Church and explain some of that [clears throat] if he has a statement. Yes. If Yes. And and if you can either email your statement to the city clerk or if just leave the paper um in the box on the table, whichever you prefer. As long as your name is on it. As long as your name is on it. Thank you.

Thank [laughter] you. Now on to presentations. And this evening we have Chief Peters talking about recent crime statistics. [clears throat] Look at that. It works. I was wondering why there were such a big crowd tonight, but obviously everybody's here to see my updated crime statistics for 2025. So, [laughter] good evening through you, Council President. Um, so before I go into uh the statistics, uh, pretty much gave a rundown of all the important uh, areas of concern for 2025, I do want to just reiterate a few things. in November or I'm sorry in September I gave a a third quarter update and um just want to kind of give a rundown on UCR stats. So uniform crime reporting is something that um was generated by the FBI to kind of give standardization across the board to determine you know what the level of crime is in different municipalities across the country. Obviously there's different factors that go into that but one thing that I can say it's it's it isn't perfect but um it's the best that we have and essentially it's taking a snapshot of a moment of time. So what the stats look like today, they could change tomorrow depending on investigations, dispositions, uh so on and so forth. So essentially the way we operate as a police department is we have CFS codes. So when a call comes in, the dispatcher based on the information that they have, they generate a CFS code. So if the call comes in and it's a 911 call, person hangs up, the CFS code, the initial CFS code will be a 911 hangup. There are times though when we go on a call for service, like a 911 hangup, and when we get there, we'd find out it's actually domestic violence uh disturbance. So then it's up to the officer to change that CFS code when they close out the call. I'd like to say that we're perfect, but you know, 52,478 calls in 2025. Sometimes the CFS codes don't get updated correctly. We do have checks and balances, but some do slip through the cracks. So I just want to set that right out of the gate. Uh next off, um statistics statistics are counted based on initial reports and

allegations until proven otherwise. So if a report comes in, the stats are displayed in the UCR table. However, if at the completion of the investigation, we find the incident did not take place or something that would classify as a different CFS code, that could change the statistics. As I said before, also we often encounter initial allegations with no further cooperation from victims resulting in the case being closed by exceptional means. So, what that means is we can't prove or disprove a incident took place. However, because the initial report is made, the FBI has us count that as a UCR statistic as well. And then also CFS codes always reflect the most severe criminal activity. We can only close it out with one CFS code. So for example, we had an incident earlier in the year on Greenbryer where two vehicles were broken into. So there was a car theft there. However, they also burglarized the residents which rose to the level of the first degree home invasion charge. So that would be closed out in that first-degree charge, not for a motor vehicle theft. So we do have to keep um secondary kind of um tallies of certain criteria to make sure that our our numbers are accurate. And then lastly, we find that there is a delay in reporting. Um, sometimes, especially with sexual assault allegations, people don't come forward right away. Sometimes they come forward years later. Um, as you'll see in one of these statistics, one of those was reported from a an incident that occurred five years prior. So, let's get into the numbers. There you go. Thank you. How fast that was. This is a PDF. This is not a PowerPoint. There we go. All right. [clears throat and cough] So, uh, if you guys can see, I'm not sure if everybody from the audience can see. So, um, if we, as we take a look, um, the major criteria for a UCR reporting is violent crime, assault, burglary, lararseny, and motor vehicle theft. So, we'll start with the first column, which is violent crime, that's comprised of homicides, which we had zero. Rape, which we had zero, attempted rape, which we actually had 10, robbery, which we had three, and aggravated assault, we had 11. So between the

attempted rape, the robbery, and aggravated assault, we total 24 violent crimes in 2025. As you can see, that number is higher than previous years. That being said, as I said in September when we saw this trend, um I do want to assure people that we don't have people running around attempting to rape anyone, there hasn't been many aggravated assaults out in the public. I'll give you a brief rundown without getting into too much detail on each one of those criteria. So, as far as the robbery is concerned, um, one of the three actually involved, and I I feel comfortable saying this because one of the council members has has been outspoken about it, involved a council member's daughter. Another one of the robberies involved taking money from a tip jar in which an employee intervened, which created an assault, turns into a robbery. And then the last one was a domestic violence matter where an ex-boyfriend stole things from his ex-girlfriend. Uh, the next category, we had 11, I'm sorry, 10 attempted rapes. Um, so I just want to be mindful. Seven out of those 10 actually came from facilities in town that have a duty to report sexual assault allegations. Several of the victims were under psychiatric medication during those allegations. And one incident actually involved two patients that were making allegations against each other, which both ended up becoming closed exceptional means because neither cooperated with us. So we had two patients alleging sexual assault against each other, which counts towards our statistics, and neither cooperated with the detectives when they followed up on them. It's frustrating to say the least. As for the last four, those were more um I'd say private matters happened within the house. Probably don't want to get into too many details on that, but rest assure we did not have any uh attempted rapes in the general public. Everything was either confined to a healthcare facility in town or within the privacy of homes. One was actually reported uh several years later. So, the incident actually occurred years prior. Uh next to the final category in u violent crime, which would be aggravated assault. Six out of the 11 aggravated assaults were actually domestic violence situations confined to the home of the individuals. Uh over the course of the last few years, domestic violence laws have changed. Anything involving

strangulation automatically upgrades it from a simple assault to aggravated assault. So a lot of these involve that. Um and then another three out of the 11, so six out of the 11 were domestic violence within households. Three out of the 11 occurred within healthcare facilities. So similar to a police officer, if you assault a healthcare worker, like a doctor, it actually gets upgraded to an aggravated assault, which it should. And then lastly, which was the one aggravated assault we had, was at a bus stop between two participants that were willingly participants, but one of them had suffered injuries to the point where it rose to the level of aggravated assault. So that's the first column. Next would be assault. That would be simple assaults. That's anything from smacking someone, punching someone, touching someone, inappropriate allegations of those such uh burglaries. These are actually burglaries um and attempted burglaries to houses, not to motor vehicles. We separate those. Uh larsenies, that's theft. That's actually way down. I'm I'm pleased to see that number because that's theft by unlawful taking. That's not like a fraud theft. That's actually like a shoplifting, taking money from uh from a tip jar. So, that's actually way down, which I really like to see. And then motor vehicle thefts, we held strong at 15. I was uh hopeful we'd be in the single digits. Um of those 15, seven actually were from two dealerships. Okay. So none of them involved the public. Seven out of the 15 were inside jobs uh involving employees where keys were taken, vehicles removed from lots. There was nobody like driving the streets, stealing keys, you know, breaking into cars. So seven out of we would have been at eight if it weren't for the two dealership jobs that totaled seven of our thefts. So I am hopeful for the future when it comes to motor vehicle thefts that we will get in the single digits. But um I am I am pleased that we're trending in the right direction in that category. burglaries and attempted burglaries to motor vehicles. Um so again, initially I sent over um earlier today when I ran these numbers for 2025, I had gotten a return of 10. That's because a lot of these cases were closed out with different CFS codes. As I dove in a

little bit deeper, that number was actually 22. Okay, that being said, of the burglaries, the motor vehicles that were 22, seven of them were the same suspect on the same night in the same neighborhood, he was charged with all of them in addition to the resident protection ordinance as well to the vehicles that he didn't make entry to. So again, those numbers can be a little bit skewed in that one incident can include almost, you know, 10 all on the same night, but it doesn't play well when you kind of just take a snapshot of the numbers and see where we are. So, here's some of our basic numbers, just calls for service. So, uh, we're busy. 52,478 calls for service in 2025. Of that, 2,693 were traffic enforcement details. That's monitoring traffic, traffic lights, radar, speeding, distracted driving um, details. We handled 840 motor vehicle accidents. That's more than two a day. Um, and then 600, no, I'm sorry, 1646 medical assists. And, uh, this number is for everyone who says with that, we don't do anything. Um, 8,099 motor vehicle stops last year. Um, that's up quite a bit from our historic average. Uh, 1745 moving summones, 3,558 parking summones with for a total of 5,33. Um, for me that's u an encouraging number. We have a very young police department, a lot of young officers. They're out there. They're being proactive. Um, as you can see of the 8,99, we do use discretion. The vast majority of the motor vehicle stops we have, we're educating the public. We're advising them of the their, you know, their wrongdoing and we're sending them on the way. The most most of the people we do pull over are residents. So, we try to, you know, have common courtesy. But, you know, of the 8,99, I think that does send a message that we're out there. We're willing to enforce the law. Anybody that has a history typically gets less discretion. Um, but we're

doing everything we can to kind of mitigate any pedestrian or or traffic safety issues that we come across. And that that's my statistics. Open for questions if anybody has them. I sent them over earlier. From what I understand, they went to your spam box. Um, we worked that out with the IT vendor. For some reason, we upgraded our server and so everything was going to your guys spam. So if you didn't get a chance to review it earlier to ask questions, I guess now would be your chance. Okay, Council President. Yes, certainly. Councilman Boyer, those are your numbers and you're sticking to them? Those are my numbers and I'm sticking to them at least for now until they change tomorrow. Just kidding.

So, uh, the drop in medical aid, uh, any correlation with the homeless population decreasing? Not that I know. Uh could could be a good portion of our uh calls for service with the people who were unhoused was were medical calls for service. Um so it could be but that number varies. I see the increase in motor motor vehicle crashes. Yep. Any you wrap your head around that one? No. Can't really wrap my head around it's all over it's all over town. Got

uh post 2020 uh people do tend to drive a little bit less uh cautiously. I'm sure we've all observed it. I observe it. um when a when we're in a marked police car, everybody tends to behave and then you get in your personal car and everybody's out of control. So, um I'd like to say we see all these violations, but like I said, we're out there and we're stopping cars. We're doing everything I can to mitigate these accidents, but unfortunately, that's just the trend that we're going in. And I'm glad to see that the uh motor vehicle stops were up 20%. That's a big that's a big deal. Yep.

Um so, burglaries, car thefts, I mean, we were inundated with them two years ago. uh the numbers look like they're flattening out, cross my fingers, but in two years. Um we still see those certain spikes, right? And I and we kind of know when those spikes come, I guess, now.

So, yeah, I put out a statement back in December. Um you know, we're we one of our best practices is information sharing uh with municipalities that not only that we border, but also in in counties that we border. and um through the tail end of the fall saw a major uptick in motor vehicle thefts and burglaries to residents, specifically residents for um key fobs, right? Um again, I'll say this till I'm blue in the face. Two of the number one vehicles that are targeted are the Land Rover Range Rovers and then the BMW X series. So, if you own one of those vehicles, my recommendation would be to park it in the garage, keep your key fobs out of view, and uh keep any of your belongings out of plain sight because those are the vehicles that we mainly see these suspects entering houses for. whether or not they're doing that because they want to joy ride those vehicles. There might be an order out where they deliver them to a port and end up in another country. But the the BMW X series and the Range Rover Lane Land Rovers are the two top makes and models that we see are being targeted for especially for burglaries to residences to get the key fobs.

And Chief, last one. You still do the home inspections, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I I actually we have that number. So, we do a snapshot as well. It's more, you know, visually friendly for social media. It should should go out this week. um which shows I think we did like 32 last year of the uh home security assessments and you still do the is it citizen eye or resident eye?

The citizen eye where you can register your Ring camera and then we have access to it. So when you register your Ring camera for citizen I we don't actually have access to the footage. We just know if there's a burglary on, you know, Blackburn for lack of a better street. We know which houses on that street have cameras with direct contact information to those people to those residents. So we can ask for them you know via telephone as opposed to canvasing the area and walking up and down the street and taking two hours. and knock on doors and leaving business cards. We already have direct contact information. Hey, can you check your camera on this date and time? See if you have anything. If so, can you share that information with us? So, that's the citizen eye registration program that we have, which is pretty good. We should probably remarket it. We tend to have to remarket programs every like year or two. People forget. Um, so maybe I'll work with Jenny on that. Any other questions?

Um, if I may, um, question I always have is how do we look compared to our surrounding communities? So again, like I said, in December, our surrounding communities were getting hit pretty hard. Um, knock on wood, I don't want to say it. Um, we've been holding the line. Um, we invested in some serious technology that's helped us a lot. Um, I can tell you our pursuits are going up. Um, we are finding these suspect vehicles as they enter town and we're chasing them out. And uh, again, I'm not I'd like to sit here and say everything we do will solve the world's problems, but at the end of the day, we're really just diverting that crime to another town. Um because you know our whole goal is if every time these suspects come into our town they're met with resistance. We're holding the line. We're holding that route 24 corridor, you know, coming in from Berkeley Heights or or Mountainside if they come off 78. Uh maybe they just go to another town. Really, that's our hope, you know, cuz you know, Summit, we're not we're not shy about police work. We're not shy about holding the line. And like I said, we have young motivated officers that are out there. They're putting their lives on the line.

Every night they pursue these cars. And uh just in the last week, we've had I think two or three pursuits that ended up back in Essex County. Um which were terminated due to safety reasons. Once you get in Essex County, our radios tend to cut in and out. You know, doing speeds upwards of 100 miles an hour. It tends to get a little unsafe for everyone. So, we'll just we'd rather terminate it. It's not it's not worth it at that point. Thank you. [snorts] Yes. Um the UCF [clears throat] stats, you explain them. UCR UCR, sorry, I said F. Um those are reported to the FBI. Yep. Right. They're not necessarily crimes.

So they're reported crimes. So the way the FBI views it is especially like for example like sexual assault. Um someone may come in and report a sexual assault and then never come back. They may not cooperate whether it's a family member they're whether it's a you know a boyfriend, girlfriend, someone that that they're reluctant to pursue charges on. Um, but that being said, even if we don't get cooperation for an investigation, we still have to count that as a statistic for an attempted rape because we haven't validated it. We haven't done a full investigation. We haven't brought up anybody up on charges. Nobody's been arrested. But the way the FBI looks at it in terms of their reporting is we have to take the victim at face value on the day they file the report. Unless they come in afterwards and specifically say, "I made that up," which tends to not happen.

Then we can close it out as unfounded. Some of our allegations do get closed out as unfounded, which means it never happened. But if we can't prove or disprove it, which is what the vast majority of these we close out, we close out at exceptional means, which means we've received the report, the victim was uncooperative, or the two victims that made allegations against each other were uncooperative, so we just close it out as exceptional means. We can't prove or disprove it didn't happen, but we also can't, you know, not count it as a statistic essentially. So, it's one of those things that kind of,

you know, shoots us in the foot. Um, but again, it's all every town is different. You know, for example, a town like Short Hills next door, they have a mall in town. So, by default, you would assume that their thefts would be higher than another city that doesn't have a mall in town. Does that mean that Short Hills or Melbourne's less safe? No. It's just that they have, you know, a facility in town that draws in a certain criminal activity. We have, you know, two healthcare facilities in town. A lot of people go there for substance abuse, mental health treatment, and oftentimes that carries some baggage that ties into our UCR stats, unfortunately. Thank you. One other question. of the 15 stolen vehicles that we had, how many did we recover any of them? Yeah, I actually have the number here.

So again, seven were from um two dealerships in town. Uh actually, of course, the one column that's missing on here, I have the case number, date, time, location, year, make, model, point of entry, area, items taken, disposition, and entry made. So um I can tell you of the vehicles taken, we did have seven arrests. Um, but I don't have which ones were recovered or not, but the vast majority we do recover. As you guys know, if you've been paying attention, every time a vehicle is taken from our town, um, you know, there's license plates readers all throughout the state. We go to the last known location, our detectives are out there the next day. And again, if we can get that vehicle off the side of the road by lunchtime the next day. Again, it sends a message. There's a lot of police departments that will not send their officers down to Essex County, rightfully so. We had two officers nearly, you know, get get killed down there um, retrieving a car. Um, but we do because again we're not we're we're paid to hold the line. That's what we're going to do. If a vehicle's taken, we're down there the next day. We're snatching it off the street. And hopefully, again, not to solve the world's problems, but if every time they come to town, they're either met with resistance or they steal a car and it's gone by 9:00 a.m. the next day. So maybe they just go to a different town. That's our hope.

I hope so, too. Thank you. Okay. Any further questions? Yes. Question. Uh, Council Member Calmanson. Thank you. Um, thank you, Council President. Thank you, Chief Peters, for um giving us this presentation and statistics. I had a question about target hardening like with with the um the most stolen vehicles um Range Rovers and BMW X series. Is it an effective way to deter criminals to put the club on? Yes, it is. Actually, believe it or not, the town I live in, we have an issue with motor vehicle tests and they did a program where they were giving they partnered and were giving away free clubs. Um, I don't know. You know, I'm not sure if somebody who drives a Range Rover Sport wants to put a club on their vehicle, but it works pretty good. Tell you if they see that in there, they're not going to be able to drive the car.

So, if they see that, I would assume that they're going to go somewhere else. They don't they don't come not try to gain entry into a home if they see it on the So, unless you have a saw, you're not going to be able to drive that car. Layer of security if somebody wants to. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. You got it, Council Member Lucer Cena.

Thank you, Council President. Thank you, chief, for being here with us tonight. I just wanted to uh double underline how wonderful this free athome assessment is that our police department offers free of charge. They will come to your home at a time that's convenient for you. They will walk through your home with you to conduct a free security assessment. It's a really terrific service that the police department offers to our community. Um so I'd encourage everyone to to take advantage of that. You email cpuddenj.org org and you'll you'll get right in touch and you can get your session scheduled. So, if you haven't scheduled your security assessment yet, I would encourage you all to do so. Okay. Anything more? Just

Okay, council member, I almost forgot. How how many uh summones did you write for the resident protection order?

So, I reached out to the court. Apparently, some of them were down with the flu today. I was waiting to hear back. I should get those statistics tomorrow. I could say at a minimum five because I know that one subject that was out that night, we hit him with at least five. But I if I had to just based on reviewing the reports with the mayor weekly, I would I'd probably say at least 10 for the year. We haven't issued any of the camping ordinances, we haven't even had to address that at all uh since it's been passed. But yeah, the resident protection ordinance, again, for certain situations in which we can tie it to another charge, a 2C criminal charge, we will. Uh but other situations where there is no twoc charge that you know kind of quantifies what the act was the the pulling of the door handle we'll hit him with the resident protection ordinance and uh it'll be heard here in municipal court and again if you pay attention anybody in in the public you'll see that there are certain penalties that tend to be a little bit higher than what the state um you know puts forth during their disposition. So

that's it. Okay. Any else? Good. Cool. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you chief. Okay, you have a fan club. You were right. Um, moving on to resolutions. Um, first up, Mr. Chris Chris Aphouli, you have a couple of finance resolutions for us. Sorry. Ah, I am so sorry. I'm I was just so excited about all of the capital projects resolutions. I couldn't wait to get to them, but yes, please. Miss Landman.

Thank you, Council President. Uh, this is resolution 12336. This resolution authorizes us to move funds from finance to defined contribution and social security. Municipal appropriation transfers like this allow us to transfer funds between municipal accounts to maintain a balanced budget. These transfers are permitted during the last two months of the year and the first three months of the year. I move to adopt this resolution by a roll call vote. Do I hear a second? Second. Um, do we have any comments from the public?

Comments from council. Okay. Um, then let let us move to a roll call vote, please. Mr. Ber, I. Mr. Christopher, I. Miss Calmanson. Hi. Miss Landman. Hi. Miss Laroscina. Hi. Mr. Plowski. I. Miss Ch I um Okay, back to you, Miss Lyn.

Sure. Resolution 12319. So, from time to time, the tax assessor's office is required to make adjustments to the computation of tax assessments on property within the city. It's common practice to have a special tax appeal attorney to file the necessary cases of increases, decreases, or counter claims with the Union County Board of Taxation andor the Tax Court of New Jersey. This special counsel is crucial in helping the city defend tax appeals and to negotiate settlements when necessary. I move to adopt this resolution. Thank you. Do I hear a second? Second. Okay.

Do we have any comments from the public? comments from council. Okay. Um, then should we have a vote? All in favor? Oh, I get to do that vote. I'm sorry. All in favor? I opposed. No. Okay. Then we get to move on to our capital projects and community services. Over to you, Council Member Chrisi.

Thank you, Council President Toe. Um, as chairperson of the capital projects and community services committee, I'll introduce the next set of uh resolutions. There's there are quite a few. We'll try to bundle some of them to reduce the the the time required. U the first is resolution [clears throat] 12323 to authorize um the city forester in not to exceed $65,000. Uh the city forester has by all reports been performing well uh in activities that include planning and zoning board applications, completing of the city's annual hazardous tree survey survey, and many other important activities. I move to adopt the resolution.

Second. Okay. Do we have any comments from the the public on this one? Do we have comments from council? No, I can just say having spent four years on the zoning board, I never heard anything but good things about our city forester and I'm thrilled we get to continue to work for him. Um, so with that, um, all in favor? I oppose. Back to you, Mr. Chrisulli. Thank you, Council President. I I recommend that we bundle the next five resolutions.

Thank you. [laughter]

Uh resolution 12266 authorizing the 2026 consultant engineering services of Boswell not to exceed $100,000. Resolution 12332 to authorize the 2026 consultant engineering services of Dynamic Traffic LLC not to exceed $100,000. Resolution 12333 to authorize the 2026 consultant engineering services of Mont McDonald also not to exceed $100,000. Resolution 12334 to authorize the 2026 consultant engineering services of Neglia Group not to exceed $100,000. And the final of this group is resolution 12317 to authorize the 2026 sewer consultant engineering services of CP Engineers not to exceed $250,000. I will note that these are caps of the expenditures uh for these different contracts. Uh these expenditures have also been allocated through the capital budget. So they've already been approved for the capital project, but then to use the funds, we need to pass the resolution. And so I am moving to adopt these resolutions.

Second. Okay. Do we have any comments from the public? Comments from members of council? Council President. Yes, please. Council member Ber. Um, this is to our our director, Mr. Shger. Uh Aaron, so I'm familiar with Boswell and uh Neglia. Um M McDonald looks probably just to me, but looks like a new engineer service uh and dynamic traffic. What what are they doing specifically?

Through you through [clears throat] you, council president. So, M McDonald has helped us significantly in the past with LSRP work, which is licensed site remediation professionals, which was primarily as we closed the fuel tanks at the firehouse. Uh, and we have two other sites at the transfer station and one at DPW. So, we had used them at the past, but they went through some restructuring over the last few years, so they didn't uh apply to the RFQ the last few years. Uh, and we haven't done that much work. So, as we're getting back into some of the LSRP work, we'll have them back on call because it's always easier to use who started most of the work. It's just more cost-effective. Um, so that's where we anticipate using them. Uh, again, we're only using them as needed. As the state has requirements for our sites that need uh remediation, then we'll use them. Otherwise, uh, likely the use will be limited. Dynamic is for anything traffic related whether it's additional traffic studies we don't do in house traffic signal design traffic signal upgrades uh some traffic calming design um they can do that you know signal synchronization that we'll use them we did use them a little bit last year but it was probably under just getting quotes so this year they'll be on call as we know we have a lot of traffic concerns we'd like to address

thank thank you it's good to see they get those uh those tanks out of the firehouse too yeah finally [snorts] any Yes, Council Member Palowski. Thank you. So, it's my understanding that we have um been looking for an assistant engineer for a while now. Um haven't been able to get somebody in for that. And I'm just wondering if we had if we are able to fill that position, will it cut down on any of these consultant fees?

Yes. Again, through you, council president. So if we had more staff in house, it would reduce the need we have on this. So we we'll keep looking to make sure we augment our staff while using this um as a backup plan uh for when we do need it. Some of these are just work in capital project, but both Neglia and CP, we would have them come in for a day, a week or so just to kind of do just the in-house work. So um there's definitely a benefit to having in-house staff that you could do a lot. But when you get to like LSRP, yeah, you know, we're not, you know, licensed for that. So that's when we need them. But yes, to to have in-house engineer [clears throat] would definitely reduce the need for these. So, thank you. Okay, with that um all in favor? I.

Any opposed? Resolution passes. Back to you, Mr. Christopher. Thank you, Council President. Uh the next resolution is number uh 12324 to award the bid for the Darma Street improvement project in the amount of $374,000 and and and change. Uh I've been advised that this project will begin as soon as weather permits, likely in late March or April uh to improve the conditions there. Uh, and with that, I move to adopt the resolution. Second.

Any comments from the public from council? Um, u I just perhaps you can confirm, director Sher, I understand that this is it it will alleviate some of the flooding under Amos Street, but also I believe it includes repaving SE and William. Is that correct? or um am I misremembering? Yes. No, that that is correct. So, um while we're in the neighborhood and since some of the drainage work extended into those streets and they were due for paving, uh we'll be taking care of it as part of this project as well. Yes. Terrific. Okay, that all in favor? I opposed.

Resolution passes. Back to you, Mr. Christopher. Thank you, Council President. Um, the next resolution is number 12338 to authorize the purchase of a 2026 Chevrolet Silverado with a snowplow uh under the New Jersey state contract in the amount of approximately $62,000. Uh, I move to adopt the resolution. Second. Any comments from the public? Comments from council? [snorts] All in favor? I. Any opposed? Looks like you need to buy it quickly. Mr. Brucei.

Thank you, Council President. The next resolution is number 12368 to confirm the mayor's appointments uh to the arts committee. Um uh I move to adopt this resolution. Second. Comments from the public. Comments from councel. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. One, Mr. Grizzly.

Thank you, Council President. Uh, resolution number 12367 to appoint the housing authority members. I move to adopt this resolution. Second. Any comments from the the public?

Thank you. Thank you. Please give us your name. Tell us where you live. Andrew Minger, Summit, New Jersey. I'm just curious who was the new who are the new people appointed to the housing authority. Mr. Chrisully, give it back to you. [laughter] Kelly Montgomery and that's it. And and yes, I can give you that. Yes. Well, I mean, the reappoints. Okay. Okay.

We're getting there. Too many committees. Okay. Like to read them. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um, so we are reappointing um Jacquellyn Gray, the housing authority executive director. Um, Rick Whipple, who is the, um, New Jersey Department of Community Affairs appointee. Um, he remains active until the state appoints somebody else. And Kelly Montgomery is is taking the the the position, the third position. Um,

yes. Okay. Thank you, Robert Lee. Um, Summit, New Jersey. The executive director gets appointed by the housing authority board and that is Jacqueline Gray. And so there must be a different person that's been appointed. I'm not quite understanding what you think. Yeah, the council doesn't. That's just for paper trail. We just list them all just so that she's on there. Let me see. Yeah, I I just I think the council president just misspoke. We don't we don't appoint the executive director. No, no, no, no. She's But she's been reappointed to the board, not appoint. I'm

Yes. Let Let me try to clarify. The executive director of the housing authority is appointed by council to the housing authority board for a one-year term. Does that make sense? No. The executive director is appointed. There there are certain positions that are required on the housing authority and one of them is executive director. Yes. And that executive director gets appointed by the um summit housing authority. You determine that the housing authority determines who the executive director is. But once the executive director is in place, then council appoints the executive director to the to the housing authority board.

And she's then a member of the board. She's more of a consultant to the board. I think she's an ex official member. Similar. She's not a voting member. Not a voting member. She's similar to a superintendent is to a school district. They're an ex official member of the board. They participate, but they're not a voting member. Uhhuh. Thank you. Okay. I think we all learned something there. Thank you, Mr. Lee. Okay. Anything else? Any comments from council? I Okay, you want to go first, Bob?

Sure. Um, so Kelly Montgomery is uh certainly a good candidate for the uh housing authority, but I think there's a better one. And since we haven't voted yet, um I just wanted to give a little background on this. When we came into our appointments, we [clears throat]

thought that the council had two appointments and uh we had decided to reappoint Geette Barnes. And after that we learned that uh because of an error in our database that second pick actually belongs to the mayor. And when uh the council majority learned of this, it decided to appoint somebody different, Kelly, and pressured the mayor to change her pick to Georgette, who I think many people uh agree is the is the best candidate for the position. Um, and in doing so, council is essentially asking the mayor to forfeit the one pick that she gets to the summit housing authority for her entire term as mayor. And um so that the council can make two picks and even though it gets a pick every single year, I think that that was wrong. And um to be clear, the mayor's pick for the housing authority, it's not there are some council picks and then there are some mayoral picks that are with advice and consent of council, meaning we have to approve the mayor's pick. This is not one of them. This is just the mayor's pick. And um it's a check on the council and uh it's a balance of power that's required by the statute that applies to the housing authority. Um but the council still has a duty to select who it believes is the best candidate and we can still do that. Uh this year the city was blessed with a great pool of applicants for the housing authority in particular. Um, three of them rose to the top and two are left. And to be sure, Kelly Montgomery is a a

solid candidate. And while I don't support her appointment here tonight, if there is a resignation, which there often are on the housing authority, I would support um putting her right in there. I had a great conversation with her. I think she's very good. I think she'd be dedicated. But Geette Barnes is just special. Um, she's got experience working on the Planefield uh housing authority, 13 years worth of experience, and she's accomplished um so much in seven months. The the housing authority commissioners want her back. The Summit Housing Authority residents want her back. and she's only been on for 7 months and she's still accomplished a great deal and been a great help to that uh to the housing authority. Um and that was as a she was only on for seven months because she was a replacement after a resignation. So I think this council should reappoint her regardless of who the mayor decides to appoint. Um again it's a reappointment or we could appoint somebody different. And I'd like to uh at least have this be a roll call vote. Um and maybe even have further discussion about it. Thank you.

Council President. Okay. I thought the mayor had wanted to speak.

Okay. Okay. Council member Boy. So, not to pat myself on the back, but I've been pretty good with Summit Housing Authority um appointments as liaison there for two years, and I have never been political about it whatsoever. Mr. Lee, that just came up will be one day. He will be the the chair next year. I'm so happy I appointed him. He's going to be the chair of the Summit Housing Authority. Um, Mr. Lee, I hope not to embarrass you, but you don't you don't rock with Republicans, though, right? So, you know, Yeah. So, I appointed a Democrat, right? Um, Wanda Fortune, I appointed her this year. She's got to be like one of the best people to the Summit Housing Authority. She's a Democrat. Geette Barnes, who we're talking about right now, who is also a Democrat I appointed because the bottom line is this is Summit, right? We a lot of us grew up here. Wanda grew up here. Geette grew up here. She's lived in Summit for 40 years, right? So, forget politics. It's about, well, what are you going to do? So, what did these folks do, right? Um there's been issues with overpayment of rents [snorts] calculations. Um security deposits being collected. Um I mean people are losing money at the Summit Housing Authority. There's flooding and mold and you know all of this stuff these folks have been addressing. We've been pushing. We finally turned the corner to get a deal with um the city of Summit, you know, to fix up all of the the units there, which

is phenomenal. Hasn't happened before. It's phenomenal. So when you look at track record, there is no reason, no reason whatsoever not to appoint someone who was the director of the Planefield Public Housing Authority for 13 years. It knows all the HUD laws and the HUD rules. That's one of the downsides um that's been the Achilles Hill of the Summit Housing Authority for the last couple years, having folks that don't know the rules. So, this is not like a popularity contest or you know, and I put one of my Democrat or Republican friends on this is a serious serious committee. This affects people's lives. And I don't remember the last time that there was a liaison to the housing authority where you know people didn't um didn't respect the person that was being presented to be on the board but this year that happened. Not only that um there was another now the Summit Housing Authorities got another liaison there. And listen um Jacqueline I'm I'm cool with you. Cool. But do we really need two liaison now to the Summit Housing Authority? I mean, come on. So, listen, I this is a council selection and I implore the council to make the right decision to make the right decision. you know, reappoint Geette Barnes, who's been a 40y year plus Summit resident, has family members and and other people that live in there, um that has a track record of turning things around this year. Let's let's make the smart move and not

the political move. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to echo um what Councilman Pilowski and Councilman Buer have said. Um I think that it's a real miss if you and I said this to each of you before, but I think it's a real miss and a real mistake u to not reappoint Geette. Um she is an asset and um your job is to do what's right for the residents that you serve. Okay. Council President. Yes. Council member Larina.

Thank you, Council President. If I may, reasonable people can look at a set of facts and interpret them differently. I I agree with much of what was just said. Uh all of us uh all of the council members have had and the mayor have had the opportunity to speak with our housing authority residents, with commissioners. We take our responsibility to appoint the most excellent candidates very seriously. And the resident feedback is of course a very important part of our evaluation process. As Councilman Palowski noted, when we first came into the appointment process, we thought that the two seats available were going to be uh both under the control of the council. And taking into account all of the excellent candidates that we had before us, we selected to reappoint Commissioner Barnes and to appoint the new member, Kelly Montgomery. Again, we felt that taking all of their qualifications into account, their commitment to advocating for the residents and making sure that the authority is working in their best interest, that those were the two candidates that really stood out amongst the pool. We then learned that one of the seats, one of the available seats was actually under the control of the mayor. Uh, and I know several of us, myself included, have urged the mayor to kind of honor the decision that the council had come to. The seats are funible. Um, we have two vacant seats. We have two excellent candidates. We have heard from the residents that they wish for Commissioner Barnes to stay on. I agree absolutely with Councilman Palowski and Councilman Ber that Commissioner Barnes should remain on. And we have another excellent candidate who we wish to bring on with fresh eyes and fresh energy and fresh ideas and that is Miss Kelly Montgomery who are very fortunate um to have her raise her hand for this important role. Um, so I would in turn again acknowledging that reasonable people can look at a set of facts and disagree, but uh I would urge you mayor to to consider reappointing

Geette Barnes and have her be selected for your seat before we repeat. Is there anybody who hasn't spoken who would like to say something? Okay.

So, I just [clears throat] want to I just want to um correct something that Councilwoman Laroscena just said. We did go in thinking we had two council appointments. We did decide to select Geette Barnes, but we didn't at that time decide to select her and Kelly. We debated between two other candidates and even postponed this appointment two weeks so that we could continue to have that conversation. It was only then that we found out it was a mayoral appointment. So to say that we decided to pick two and then the mayor made her decision and it wasn't the second one that the council said, that's just not true. Um so the timing of that is is crucial to anybody who's trying to understand it. These seats are not fungeable. There's a council pick and there's a mayor pick. Um, yes, they both sit on the same board, but again, the mayor gets one pick her entire term. We get a pick every single year. Um, and the last thing is yes, uh, I thank the council for everybody reaching out and speaking to all the candidates, but that didn't just happen organically. Uh, I had to petition several members of the council to make sure that they go and speak to all of them before they make their decision. Apparently, the decision had already been made, but one council member even told me that it's not their job to micromanage every appointment. Didn't have time for it. And my response to that was, this is probably the single most important appointment that we have to make. And you ha that you have to make sure that you talk to everybody before you make your decision. That person said, "I got to trust the team."

And so my question really is, is that team team summit or is it team party?

Okay. Well, I I'll honor your request for a roll call vote, Council Member Pelosi. So, could you lead us on, please? Um, madame clerk, Mr. Boyer, this is for appointing Kelly. It's for appointing um the three council, the three appointments to the housing authority. [clears throat] But the one we're talking about is Kelly. So, if I say a nay vote, then all three are then you're voting against all three. Can we split them up? Matt, it's one resolution.

One resolution. Make a motion to separate if you wish. Like to make a motion to separate. Second. Oh, is that something on which we debate or is that more like a That's more like a motion to table. So you vote to see if Okay. Um all in favor of separating I I opposed nay. Nay. Think the naysay show of hands please. Sure. Absolutely. Okay. The eyes to separate. Thank you. And the nays. Okay. Okay. Now you go back to the roll call vote. Yes. Back to the roll call.

Mr. Ber. Nay. Mr. Chris Foley. I. Miss Calmanson. I Miss Landman I Miss Lucerina I Mr. Palowski may President Toe I Okay, the eyes have it. Um I believe that takes us to the consent agenda. May I have a motion? Actually, Council President, we have a resolution from the floor that I believe under Cap. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yes, we do have a resolution from the floor. I'm so sorry. Back to you, Mr. Chrisouli.

Thank you, Council President. We have yet one more new resolution that's been added today. Resolution PERS personnel CS CAPR R number 11 to declare a personnel vacancy with the city's DCS uh the Uniform Construction Code Division full-time building inspector an important position that has recently become vacant and needs to be filled. I move to adopt the resolution. Second. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Do we have any comments from the public?

Comments from council. No. Okay. This is just this is a very important position in the city and the the resignation came in recently. So, we need to move quickly. Um so with that all in favor I Any opposed? Okay, resolution passes. Um may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Second.

Let's give it to Miss Lucer Cena. Um [snorts] okay. Um, any comments on the consent agenda from the public? Any comments from council? No. Yes, Miss Lera Cena. Council President, I just like to uh with respect to resolution ID 12331, uh, extend our gratitude to the Oaknull School for their, uh, very generous donation for the flashing beacon. It's a great investment in pedestrian safety and traffic calming. So, we we extend our thanks to the Oaknull School. Thank you. Any other comments? All in favor? Oh, whoops. Council President,

I'm so sorry, [clears throat] Mr. Christopher.

Thank you, Council President. Uh, for for resolution uh 1266 authorizing the submission of a revised community forestry management plan. This is the stuff that I get excited about. It's talking about our [cough] It's [clears throat] an incredible incredibly rich document talking about the forests here in Summit and the benefits that they provide to us and how we take care of them. For example, annual storm water avoided runoff of 1.2 million gallons of of rainwater. That is a big number. uh and our trees are providing in addition carbon sequestration, carbon storage and producing 162 tons of oxygen. So we get tremendous benefits from our forest. We need to take care of it and we're trying to do that.

Thank you, Mr. Chrisulli. Okay. All in favor of passing the consent agenda? I.

Any opposed? No. Um okay. At this point in the meeting, um members of the public have the opportunity to comment on anything they wish. Again, please limit your comments to three minutes. Anything written goes in the box. And I'd like to start with um residents of Summit. If there are any Summit residents who have a public comment. Ah. Oh, I like that, Mr. Bennett. Okay.

Yes. Good evening, Mayor Fagan, President uh uh Toth, and members of council and staff. I'm Jim Bennett, BNE TT, 38 Fair View Avenue. I compared the math in council president Toe's statement of round four afford affordable housing with that of attorney Nancy Holmes December 23rd brief in which she supported the city's application for approval of its round four plan. My numbers are different. Miss Toth claims we will potentially be required to provide 345 affordable housing units. In making this claim, she conflates new affordable residential units with credit towards our affordable housing obligation. Page 11 of Miss Holm's brief shows 368 units already satisfying the uh prospective obligation, though I think the number should actually be 366. To see how many of these credits represent new affordable units, let's start with 366 and subtract 71 bonus credits such as veterans credits counting counting double which are not new affordable units leaving 295 units to account for. Subtract 147 units from 295 for the Summit Housing Authority, which are existing units that are not new affordable units, leaving 148 units to account for. Now subtract 31 credits carried over from round three from 148, leaving 117 units to account for. Subtract seven credits from 117 for the renewal of rent controls on existing units which are not new affordable units.

Uh leaving 110 new affordable units to account for. But not all of these units are for round four. Miss Holm's brief and the city amended plan make clear that 23 of these credits are surplus credits that carry over to round five. Subtract 23 these credits from 110 and the actual number of new affordable units for round four is 87. Exactly what fair share housing wanted in the first place? Why don't we start with it? Why didn't we start with 87? We started with our strongest defensible legal position to the best place ourselves to minimize the impact of Trenton's ownorous mandates. We always expected to receive three challenges as former council president McTurnon told us many times last year. By starting at 87, uh the challengers may otherwise have succeeded in imposing larger, more concentrated developments. If everything in this plan is built, we will have surplus credits entering round five and our unmet need then should be close to zero. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bennett. Any other comments from residents?

Hi. [snorts] Um, my name is Carrie. I live in Summit and I want to talk about the affordable housing.

Um, also I did this today. It's front and back. You said one page. I'm going to go fast. Okay. So, all right. Um, I've been a Summit resident for almost 10 years. And when my husband and I moved here, we were so excited about starting our family in the quiet, safe suburbs. We were torn between a few houses in Summit and other towns, but ultimately chose the Ivy League neighborhood close to downtown, the highway, a beautiful park, and part of an excellent school system. If you drive down our street, you'll find people out with dogs, pushing strollers, kids on bikes, toddlers, motorized cars, and even with no sidewalks. Traffic is light and the street light at the top of Shunpike to Morris. I've rarely seen more than like two to three cars at a time as a backup. A 25-unit building changes that along with what my family has built by choosing to live here and purchase our home. If the plan was to use the land to add more homes to our neighborhood, we would not be here tonight. We would welcome new homeowners just like my family was welcomed as our home was also built on an empty lot. That's not what's happening here. The development plan affects our property value, a sense of safety, my children's class sizes, and our quiet neighborhood. I am hurt by the city that I love that zoning changes and major plans have been made without alerting any of the residents nearby. A a few years ago, um, sorry, I lost my spot. Hold on. I I thought someone said something. So, okay. A few years ago, our home had water issues, and because of city zoning laws, we were told that we were unable to make simple changes that would have completely fixed our issue, even though all of our neighbors were supportive of it. We followed the city rules and spent thousands of dollars on experts, engineers, and plumbing to hopefully solve it, but we're still unsure of the long-term results. Imagine then finding out that the city can up and change housing zoning and so drastically in this situation from a single family zone to 25 units because they needed to. It's disheartening. It also seems it was done with closed

doors and no visibility to the impacted community and our elected representatives. Is this because this neighborhood is not as visible or vocal? Is it because our collective tax contribution is smaller than other parts of town? There's roughly 50 families living on and off Shunpike. A 25 unit development literally increases the area population by 50%. And without the fury of or flurry of calls and texts from neighbors this weekend who luckily made us aware, we would have had no idea and we wouldn't have been here.

You are the elected decision makers of this town and we appreciate your dedication to summit. Sorry, but how is the plot of land with this space being reszoned at this magnitude without a broad sharing of that message? If you put yourselves in our position, you'd feel like you are being minimized. you feel like your class sizes were less important and you feel like your safety is less important. Most of all, you feel like your voice is. So, now that the residents are aware, I just hope that council uh the council considers that there's other suitable properties in discussion for the affordable housing that summit requires. I hope we can all have open conversations about it and that reszoning residential land and completely changing our neighborhood is not the route that's taken.

Thank you guys. Thank you. Um, and the city clerk has reminded me that um I should ex if if if you could leave that or either email it or email it. Um, and yes, the clerk kindly reminded me that city staff is free to go. Um, okay. [clears throat and snorts] Staff is free go. I mean, it's fascinating, Erin, but you really don't have to stay open up the email inbox. [laughter] focused. Do we have any other comments from city residents? [snorts]

Hi, [clears throat] my name is Chris Rice. Uh,

okay. Al also the the same um the same concerns over the the stage four um affordable housing and [clears throat] really impacting the Shumpike street, the street of Shumpike down in the Ivy League neighborhood. Um I think Carrie did a great job of sharing all of our sentiments to be honest. We've all been very vocal together and wanted to come out. I think what I'm here to do is ask specific questions of the council. One is how do these types of things get passed without any notification to the residents when there's we're expecting to hold developers by a certain standard of zoning and yet we change what we want to do as a city just because we feel like it's the right thing to do for the city uh without consulting anybody and putting a completely different type of zoning structure within the neighborhood. The other thing I'd like to ask is um it seems Claire, you mentioned that uh there's a vote hopefully this week. I think that that should be not voted on. You said there's a vote on on

you just you just said on round four you said hopefully it'll get passed this week. Um, so I'd like to understand is this a done deal and how is that a done deal without any kind of notification to this to the residents? Pass off. So okay. Um,

yeah. If if if I may clarify, this is this is a courtordered adjudication process that should be resolved this week. It's not a vote. It's it's between the Yeah. Um yeah, this isn't a dialogue. I'm simply trying to answer your question. This is this isn't something that's being voted on. This is something that is working its way through the judicial process. Um yeah, but you didn't answer question.

Sir, you can't yell from the audience. Yeah, sorry. I just name and where you live, please.

Okay. Uh, Dileia Hamlet, uh, 59 New England. Up until a few days ago, I was sitting right up there on the deis with most of you. Uh, for those of you in the audience, I didn't come here to talk about um your area, but this was all a very deliberative process. So, for the last 18 months to two years, we've been having a ton of meetings. Um, in those negotiations that Claire was in, Michelle was in. Um unfortunately there it's a deliberative process. So um what I will say is with the affordable housing uh this council can choose to not have one project and replace it with another. Um these numbers these numbers are driven from Trenton. So this council could choose to replace one project with another. Um but they were deliberative processes. um actually spoke with one of the um former the current owner of that property and with the density or the acreage that's there now um that property was going to have something built regardless and I think it was in the city's best interest and your interest to have the city control uh that property so that we can go through the proper zoning process. Uh so hopefully we will be able to do that and I sit on the planning board so I'm happy to speak with any of you. Um I came here tonight I promised I wasn't going to come to any council meetings. Um, however, Claire, after I saw your uh Facebook post around uh our affordable housing plan, uh I found your your council president comments tonight very interesting. Uh you mentioned there would be a public session for the affordable housing settlement. I'm curious why you didn't post that on your council page. Instead, you chose to divide the community and blame the Republican majority for a failed and egregious affordable housing plan. As you know, I've been working diligently on this plan with our city staff, our city affordable housing attorney, and our city planners. In fact, Claire, even up until two days before Christmas on December 23rd, you and I were working across the aisle rolling up our sleeves in order to put Summit first. In fact, I even sent a text to you and a few others stating, "Wow, look at us. Republicans and Democrats can work together." At the

end of the day, I was proud of what we had accomplished, and you were part of that. Both of you voted unanimously in January to accepting our numbers. I found you to be a reasonable contributor to that process for the last few months. In fact, I recommended we remove the old council president, Mike McTieran, in the Mount Laurel subcommittee and put you in so that you could get up to speed. I was utterly floored when I saw your post as the new council president claiming we made a huge bet not calculating our RDP number to be 87 and lost big time. That simply isn't true. I'd like to put on the record two clips from our esteemed planner Joe Burgess from the planning board meeting uh on June 23rd. Um, this process just for for all of you has been talked about at probably 24 meetings and our esteemed planner and I'll put these clips in the minutes and I'm happy to email all of them, but these clips will show you how all of this process has evolved in the last 18 to 24 months and I'd like to put those on the record. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah. [cough and clears throat] Hi, Andrew Mcker summit.

Um, up until about 380 days ago, I was up there on the council day as with all of you. Um, I was very glad to hear that the sum the city is finally going to be able to post uh detail of that oops detail of that um settlement that we all read recently um that was negotiated last year. I want to know if the city will post a map of what's going to be reszoned so that there's more uh clarification to the residents um and where these buildings will be constructed, not just Shunpike, but all of the other neighborhoods that are affected. Uh, and council president, you did mention that you were um um close to a settlement, and I I think it would be good to know if um this settlement was that was submitted under the prior uh Republican council, will be able to be modified at this point or if it is a lock in. Um, and finally, uh, I want to mention that the vote on January 21st, which was unanimous, was tantamount to a math checking on the on the on the the state of New Jersey, making sure that their math was correct according to the law. Um, it was something mandatory by every municipality in the state. It wasn't this uh giant acceptance of of a number other than did they do their math right. So, thank you very much.

Thank you. Um and to answer the first the the question the we are we are told that there will be a map prepared as part of this entire process and yes that will be posted. Um yes please.

Uh hi Carol Pac Pak 234 Summit Avenue. Um, just for context, I would like to say that I'm the co-founder and president of Summit AAPI in town, also the lead organizer of reinvigorating SpeakUp Summit. Um, so recently I learned something quite distressing that four families were deported on Christmas Day of all days. Um, in addition to hearing about other things that have been going on in the last few months, um, related to ICE, um, I can tell you that my community members are very scared and worried um, on social media. Occasionally, people are posting um, on Summit New Jersey happenings or other Facebook groups when they are seeing um, people that look pretty obviously like ICE officers patrolling different areas of our town. Um, I know that the FBI training session also scared many members of our town. Uh, legitimate legitimately. So, uh, I can tell you that, you know, growing up, I've been profiled, pulled over with friends. Um, anytime I see I know there was a lot of talk about police officers and, um, you know, traffic stops making other people feel safe. Those things make me feel very unsafe as someone who has been um profiled by police and again many members of our community have told me that they've had experiences in the past as well. Um you know the people people in Minnesota are being asked to identify Asian neighbors. Um I don't know if you're seeing that. And so these things are on on social media. They're being seen by our students. They're being seen by our community members. And so my questions are a I don't really know even who to address these questions to about how we can make our community feel and be more safe. Um the I'll be asking these

questions of the board of ed as well of do we have any plans uh with the schools to address this with the students and how do we you know make sure that they feel safe. Um, you know, if people are being taken and deported, children are being disappeared from classrooms and what is being told to our students when this happens because the void of information just causes rumors, especially at the middle school, we all know if someone is gone, uh, it gets noticed. I mean, if my my daughter was out sick today, all the kids are asking, "Where's Nadia? Where's Nadia?" you know um so so these are questions um many of my community members are asking um people are feeling scared I I'm [clears throat] personally feel very scared these days um and yeah I just wanted to address that with all of you as people who you know have the responsibility of taking care of our community um so thank you

thank you Dr. Pang, do we have any more comments from summit residents?

Good evening. Um, Diego Hoy, Argal Court. I was actually going to talk about uh the new affordable housing settlement that was submitted to the courts precisely 6 months to the date after the June 23rd uh plan was submitted that had significant changes versus that plan. And I was going to address all the various detailed changes that there are. Hearing Carol speak, I am going to change my mind and I'm going to talk about what she talked about. I was born in 1970, March of 1976. After much pressure from the from the people of Argentina, the military took over. Prior to that, we had put a whole bunch of terrorists who had been blowing people up. We had been putting them in jail and then they were liberated. So then the military came on board and they got rid of all the terrorists and everybody was happy with that. But they didn't just stop there. They got rid of the terrorists. They got rid of the terrorist friends. They got rid of the friends of the friends. I actually have a somebody that was my friend in kindergarten who one day was in kindergarten. The next day I have no idea. I was told he moved to Spain, but I have no idea what happened to him. We have individuals walking around the streets with masks, with no identification, with weapons of war, who are actually taking people away from the streets. Now, I can see Chief Peters. He has a badge. He has a name. I can see his face. I know he's legit. But how can somebody know full well that the person who's facing them with an AK-4 with an AR-15 or whatever it is is a true law enforcement officer or somebody engaging in kidnapping. Fast forward seven or eight years from

1976, we had trials in Argentina. There's a great movie 1985, highly recommended. We put them all away. Never again, we swore. Argentina has never again had an authoritarian government. We've had also mismanagement, also mismanagement economically, but we've always respected the rule of law. There's a phrase at the ministry of justice in Colombia. Weapons will give you independence, but laws will give you a freedom. Why is that? Because under the rule of law, everybody's the same. I make a mistake, I get punished. You make a mistake, you get punished. When there's no rule of law, if you know the person who is doing out the law, you get you get you get off. And if otherwise you could be challenged. Dealing with ICE is a big problem for our community and those of us who are citizens should defend others who are less fortunate or who may look the wrong way because one day it'll come for us.

Thank you, Mr. Hoy. Any other summit residents? Yes. [snorts] Hi. Yes. Chris Zanelli, Ze Li, 14 Harvard Street. Uh, just talking about the 14 or the Shunpike and Harvard Street development.

Uh, I'm someone who grew up in Summit and recently moved back here six months ago with my wife. Uh, my father sitting over here and my grandfather are both Summit Summit born and born and raised as well. Um, and like I said, I moved back six months ago because me and my wife love what Summit is. We love what it's about. It's the treeline streets that you can walk down. It's the great schools. It's the sense of community. And that's why we picked uh 14 Harvard Street as as our home. And and we've quickly fallen in love with this neighborhood and and this part of town. Um, and my wife is we're now expecting a a child and and we couldn't be more thrilled to to have our child running around on on on the Ivy's, but this new project raises uh more than enough concerns for us with regards to traffic, the scale of the of the project. Um, just the general safety of of of children in the area. So, it is something that we feel blindsided by, something that we feel like we have no say in, and something that um we at the very least would like to have a discussion about because we feel like as residents of the neighborhood, that's the least we can ask for. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. [applause]

Any other resident comments? Hello. Unfortunately, I think we got quite a few. Okay. Lisa Heft HF. I live at 18 Harvard Street. I too am here to talk about the uh

the housing project. Um you I want to be clear. I I support the affordable housing. I understand what Summit's obligations are to meet this fair share of requirements. Um though it sounds like there's a little discrepancy as to what that fair assessment is. But um but my concern is the appropriateness of this specific location developed for this 25 units that we're hearing about. Um the proposed sites 47 and 53 Shumpike Road um right now um board and and house horses that I've owned for 30 something years. um is the fair for the the is the public transportation, the grocery stores, thearmacies, the schools, the essential services. There's no sidewalks in our entire neighborhood. There's not a single sidewalk on Yale, Princeton, Harvard, or Shumpike. Um there, you know, we have no nearby bus stops. Uh the train is obviously in the center of town. um you know into the surrounding areas but for the residents who may rely on transportation, walking, share rides, this assoc creates barriers for a job, you know, to jobs, health care, daily needs. Um a development of this size would also significantly increase traffic, service vehicles, parking demands on a narrow, quiet roads. Um, somebody stated, you know, you could be out there and you won't see, you know, four or five cars come down and except it's, you know, at at dinnertime when people are leaving work [snorts] and never designed for this kind of level of use. Um, with limited sight lines, there's, you know, the pedestrian infractions, the safety of residents, the children, the drivers, cyclists. I mean, sit out there on a Sunday, you'll see more people riding bikes and walking to the park than you

see cars. Um, finally, the area lacks in, you know, the infrastructure typically required for the high density housing, including the adequate storm water management. I had a a very large thing, you know, it took us 10 years to get the city to do something about the water behind our house because it was eroding our property away. Um, you know, the increase in pvious um coverage. So that's going to could flood us out potentially if you it's all farmland now and you're going to now put a 25 unit with black top all around. Um you know affordable housing should be approved access and opportunity placing highdensity development in an isolated car dependent area risks undetermining those goals. You know, I respectfully ask the township to reconsider where this site and scale truly serves the long-term interests of both the residents and the community of Summit. Thank you.

Thank you. [applause] Any other resident comments?

Yeah. Hi, Michael Luciano. Uh, Six Harbor Street. Mhm.

Uh I just I'm going to be short and sweet. It's pretty much every they said everything, but I'm fourth generation which we call East Summit. So uh my grandparents, great-grandparents, my father, me were all from down that way. That was always like our sanctuary down there. And uh the farm's been there since way before my time. And we knew one day it would disappear, but it was zoned for single family homes and that's what we would like to see go there. Single family homes, not some kind of apartment building or to that effect. Uh it's just not the place for it. There's other places in town that it could serve better than down there. Um, that's about all I have to say, but it's uh it's I'd like you to reconsider this and uh where you're you're putting it. It's it's a neighborhood down there and I don't think anybody here in front of me would want it in their neighborhood. So, thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Okay. Yeah, Mr. Lee. Oh, okay. Good evening. Don Nelson, 20 Plain Street. Um, it's interesting how in one hand we support a a a forers's report that we should preserve trees, right? But yet we're going to clearcut a farm,

right? Doesn't make sense. Michelle, you fought for no lights in front of your house. You have residents here that are fighting for no 25 unit building in their neighborhood. You represent all of Summit. I don't care if you're Republican, Democrat, you're from the moon. You got elected to represent Summit. Represent these people. Fight to keep our neighborhoods nice. You live here for a reason. You live here for a reason. You live here for a reason. They live here for a reason. I would love to stay here for that reason. It's getting afford. It's getting expensive, but I do my best. But you have to fight for us. File the lawsuit. Get in with the other towns. Take a stance. Have some guts. Don't just say, "Oh, well, somebody else did this. Somebody else did that. You can do it now. Fight. I I've raised in this town, been in every neighborhood in this town.

I hung out at the farm. I went to the barn. Did all kinds of things. There's a history there. Did you even know where the farm was before you ran? Probably not. Did you? I had a person on this council. Not here. When I was a fireman here in town, we were talking about the community pool. He had no idea where it was. How can you represent Summit if you don't get out and look?

This is an important thing. Would you want it next to your house? Would you? Every neighbor I knocked on doors a couple years ago. Every neighborhood has a problem. Water construction. Springville Avenue. I forget the name of the stream. All right. My neighborhood, they want to build affordable housing. I'm not I could care less about affordable housing. It's crowding. schools crowding. That's all going to cost us more money. You have to fight for Summit. Take our fair share, get it down to a decent number. I think you said the the um Claire the apartment building on Mars Avenue that was approved three years ago by you. You were on the zoning board, I believe.

Mhm. So, that's not new. That's been in the plans. River Road. Okay, we can accept that. But this area where they want to build this building, no bus. Who's going to walk to the shop, right? Right. What are you gonna do? So fight for Summit. Fight for your residents. I implore you. That's why you ran. Fight for Summit. Thank you. Thank you, J. [applause]

Good evening. Uh Mattelli, 93 West End Avenue. I'm here to support these folks um particularly on the Shan Pike site. I guess the one question I have for all of you is you Don Nelson just got up here and talked about the lights, right? The the lights clearly are not the type of impedement that these folks are talking about with with their neighborhood. Why did they not get the forewarning and the and the time to hear about this and ask questions and speak with you all yet? For two and two years now, we've been talking about these lights and everybody in the neighborhood that was going to be affected, you know, met with people and and Kevin Smallwood and there were meetings and there was all sorts of stuff going on. I I'm just a little bit confused is why this was sort of sprung on this group most recently yet, you know, lights in a neighborhood which clearly don't have the effect that it's going to have on these folks got the the the the you know, respect to to spend time with all of you and and and speak their mind. Um, the other question I had was for the proposed site on the Shampike, how did the city acquire this property,

if in fact it's been acquired.

Okay. No, there's not a back and forth. You make your comments, sir, and then when you're done comments, the council can Sure. I'm I'm done with my comments. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Yeah,

Tracy Keegan. Um, I've been a resident of Summit since 1994. Um, first I just want to say after hearing these neighbors speak about the Ivy's, um, it sure seems like the firehouse property would have been a much better idea for a development like this. And unfortunately, the former council rushed the sale of that at the end of last year, which was really a shame. Uh my statement tonight is also related to the fair share housing settlement. Um but I'm here tonight to raise two related concerns to that. The policy decision surrounding the use of housing trust fund dollars for housing authority rehab and the way a city council member responded when I asked questions about that decision. On Facebook, I asked whether alternative funding options were explored for the rehabilitation of Weaver, Glenwood, and Gallow. Options that might have preserved Summit's long-standing residency preference. My concern was about the long-term impact on Summit residents who have waited years for housing and who now lose priority as a result of this decision. These were policy questions I posed. They were not political. They were asked because this decision affects generations of Summit families who believed that local priority mattered. Instead of receiving an answer about alternatives or a transparent explanation of why no other paths were viable, I was met with dismissive and deeply personal responses, insults really, from a sitting council member Jamal Buer, who took credit for the decision, joined by former council member Kevin Smallwood. I'm not going to go into the gory details, but all of the screenshots are here for anybody to look at. That kind of engagement discourages public participation and undermines trust in local government. Tonight, I'm submitting the affforementioned screenshots of those exchanges for the public record, not to provoke, but to document how a constituent was treated for asking reasonable questions about public spending and h housing policy. So, I want to ask on the record, were any alternative funding strategies explored that could have allowed rehabilitation to move forward without

removing the summit residency preference? And if not, why? I am hopeful that this council will affirm that residents should be able to ask questions of decisions respectfully without being personally attacked. Transparency, accountability, and respectful dialogue are foundational to good governance. I look forward to those ideals being respected once again from the deis. Thank you. Thank you. Next president. Yes.

Good evening. Shaen, Southern Harvard Street. Um my wife and I put our life savings into moving into uh our special neighborhood. Um I have the honor of sharing the neighborhood with people that I've come to known and consider family. I've enjoyed hearing their anecdotes. It's a special neighborhood. It's a small neighborhood. My wife and I work in the education fields. So uh we worked very hard to be where we are and to enjoy that privilege for our two small children. I actually work in town. I'm a uh driving instructor. Most of us in education have two jobs. So, um I would strongly ask you to reconsider this project for this neighborhood. It will greatly change uh change our neighborhood, affect our neighborhood, I don't think, for the better. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Any other resi? Mhm. Uh, Shampike Road Summit, ZOTTI.

Okay. The information I'm reading is from an NBC news report. Firing ranges complicate veterans PTSD recovery. The proximity to the sound of gunfire only aggravates their disorder. Health experts say that housing soldiers near a firing range subjects them to a continual trigger for PTSD. The sound can instantly transport a veteran back to the battlefield, triggering a fight orflight response. The connection between triggers and survivors guilt is another important aspect of war related PTSD. Many veterans struggle with feelings of guilt or shame, especially if they've survived situations where others did not. It's worth noting that PTSD triggers can manifest in unexpected ways. For instance, some veterans may find that a baby crying triggers their symptoms. An aging veteran may experience PTSD symptoms even 50 or more years after their wartime experience. The county's firing range is 210 of a mile from the proposed housing site, not even a quarter of a mile. Why would Summit want to place veterans in an area harmful to their recovery? Is it just to add Summit's afford is just to add to Summit's affordable housing numbers? Why don't you look at the Summit Kinks property? They have an application before the planning board for town homes. The veterans would be near the train, bus stop, and many food establishments. Substance abuse is also a common problem among veterans with PTSD. The most

commonly abused substances are alcohol and nicotine. This provo proposed housing site would be next door to the Knights of Columbus, a club that serves alcohol. Helicopters are another trigger for PTSD. They fly over this area frequently to go to Overlook Hospital. What our veterans need are more supportive housing like Valley Brook Village, which is near the Lions campus in Lions, New Jersey. It's a common space, a village style community on 16 acres, one or two bedroomedroom apartments with shared community space, ample program space, landscaped walkways, and shared outdoor spaces. Highlights include state-of-the-art learning centers, and on-site vocational training. In addition, array of supported services are designed to assist the formerly homeless veterans and at risk lowincome veterans to meet their goals. What will our veterans be able to do in a neighborhood of single family homes, many with children? Thank you.

Thank you. And if if you could leave your email or leave your comments if you'd like. Thank you. Thank you. Um Mr. You've been trying for a bit. [laughter]

So, Robert Lee, uh, nine Pearl Street Summit, New Jersey. Um, as you can see, starting out a new council, you've got a lot to deal with here from Carol's comments about dealing with ICE situation and people being scared. This Yeah.

And uh, also Mr. Ber's comments um, about how to be more open with the things that you're going after. Um, I think all of you have experienced over the past years what it's like to be on council and even you know from observation and now being on council and it's I hope that you will find a different way to work with each other. I think the past years have not been great

and I understand it's difficult. I understand people have different ideas. I understand we all have different needs in the community here. And yet, I hope that you ask yourselves not how can I be here and win what I want or win for my team or my party or whatever, but ask yourselves how can you win together, win for us and do the best you can to get the best outcomes. I know understand there's a lot of different issues. I asked the mayor, I know your decisions are very difficult, and I hope that you guys find a way to be on one team and not be against each other. Find a way to make people feel safe. I think that's my one of my biggest concerns right now, seeing that families have been arrested here in Summit. [clears throat] So I implore you all to ask yourselves better questions, different questions, how you can find a way to be together, work together, support each other and shake hands, reach across the aisle or whatever you want to call it and really find ways to help each other come to greater solutions. Thank you. Any other residents? Do we have ah name is Judy Jang and I living the 10 Princeton Street

Summit. So, um I've been here I live in this um lovely um town over 10 years. So, um I oppose the post um proposal the multi- apartment building for um lowincome family next to the our labor of um single family house um home. So this development um threaten the low property value by 10 or 20 20% space based on the study of the um similar project. So enrol in enroing the residents um significant um um significant in quality. So it will um it would um worsen the traffic noisy and uh the safety issue on our quiet streets while the straiting already for local schools and the park without the adding the resources. So the project would uh uh fundamentally change the inclusive um stable character of our community that attract the high value the h house owner like us. So department housing is important but should be placed in the more um appropriate area with the better in um in infr infrastructure such [snorts] as the downtown um commercial zones and uh I urge the um council to reject this um plan. Thank

[snorts] you so much. Thank you. Robert Carbone, Orchard Street. Mayor, how you doing? Council Rosemary, how are you? I'm good. How are you?

So, um, this, uh, this building doesn't belong here at all. Uh, you know, I've been in East Summit my whole life, just as my neighbors back here, and we [snorts] always get the least amount of respect from the city when it comes to something they don't want uptown, they send it down our way. So, let me un let me make myself clear. So, you're going to break zoning ordinances for single family housing to multifamily housing to put this what I call a small hotel right in our backyard. So, you're talking 25 units, 25 cars, maybe two people per unit. It's extra 50 people, maybe more. Uh, [snorts] I don't really believe it's for veterans because I don't trust anything that the city does really. In the last 10 to 15 years, it's always something different. I could trust certain people that I know. Um, but this building does not belong here. I can't even believe this was on the table, number one, to even be talked about putting it down there. Um, if you guys ever go down there in the morning at rush hour, okay, Princeton, Harvard, and Yale are used for cut offs, cutthroughs from Shumpike, Mars Avenue. They fly down the streets, okay, and they cut past uh Orchard, Harvard, and Yale to get to Mars Avenue, vice versa. With this happening, you're going to have triple the amount of traffic coming down the street when there's now young couples that are taking over the neighborhood. to have young kids that play in the street constantly and you're going to put this building where it doesn't belong. Bless you.

So, this to be even tabled to me is just so sensitive to us down in this end of town. I can't believe I'm even up here talking about this, but I have to get my words out. So, you got to rethink this project. It's got to go somewhere else, not here. Thank you.

Thank you. [applause] Good evening. My name is Genevie Spielberg and I live at 12 Princeton Street. Grew up on Dale Drive, went to Franklin, have three kids that went through the Summit Public School System. And I want to say I'm really proud of my neighbors because I really believe that each one of you sitting before me probably learned something and a perspective about what you're discussing. And since we all heard about this just days ago, it doesn't happen so quickly. This has had to be a conversation that has been ongoing. And while I realize many of you are new to council, it's a conversation that whoever has been engaging in the dialogue deliberately chose not to engage our community. And our community that's bringing up some really valid points and we want to protect our neighborhood. We want to protect our families, but the infrastructure of sidewalks and access to many community needs, shopping, transportation, etc. It is really so important for safety and so many other things. So, I would just urge all of you to really take a pause, take a breath, think about all the really excellent points that have been brought before you this evening because they really are important and you're all here to represent us and I think it's it's crucial that you're putting something in a neighborhood. I think affordable housing is important. It needs to be done. the Wells Fargo building. There are no single family homes there. There's no kids running in the street there. It

It's a very different thing. So, I would just really urge you all to take a breath, think about the data that has been presented to you. It's a different way to think about this project and the impact it's going to have on our community and protect us. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] Do we have any other comments from residents? Um, why are we why are we saying residents? Why are we discriminating against people who don't live here? Resident comments are coming first. This is content.

No, they will not be. when public comment starts and you open up to the public. You cannot enforce discrimination like that. Aren't you the party of uh inclusiveness? Do we have any other comments from residents? Excuse me, I'm speaking. You you were out of order when when I order. You're actually out of order. No, you cannot you don't look over at a constitutional protective somebody who believes in the constitution. You have to legally allowed a public portion and you cannot discriminate

against residents, non-residents, people who worship this is a contentneutral way to go through our comments. Okay, then if that's the case, let's take a break for 5 minutes. Comment because we're discriminating. Can somebody speak? Sir, sir, sir, you'll have your chance to make your comments. They're asking for residents to speak first. You'll have an opportunity. And I'm not letting that happen. Okay. Council President, Council President, just so try not to break for five minutes, right? But can we can we just can we let the gentleman I don't think there's any more summit folks that want to talk.

Can we let the gentleman just Are there any other summit residents who have a comment this evening? I'm sorry Mr. Lee it's it's one comment per resident. What what is happening right now? You have not you have not recognized you already spoke. I just watched the live stream. Yeah. Good. So, you can sit back down. You're interrupting my public You're actually out of order right now. Would you please sit down or we're going to have to call a break on this? I'm not sitting down. You have to allow public comment. You can't make a discriminatory separation. It's not going to work. It's uninforcable.

So, lead, council president. Lead. Okay, we're going to take a five minute break. We're going to come back and calm down.

in order. Okay.

Okay. Okay. We continue with public comment. Um believe we h any more resident comment? Okay,

thank you. Your name and where you and where you live? Peter Link. Okay, thank you. I live in the My wife and I live in the block between Princeton and Harvard on Shunpike. We came to We came here to Summit from New York City 10 years ago.

We first rented for six years. We loved it here so much that we bought our home. In that block, there are six houses. And in the time that we have been there, four of the houses have put tremendous amount of money into their homes. And we've seen the value of that block change dramatically. I have to tell you, I didn't know about this until yesterday. [clears throat] I am one of those people who has put thousands and tens of thousands of dollars into my home. What they are doing here is I agree with Robert Carbone. This is a terrible idea. This isn't just a bad idea. This is an idea, excuse me, but that just stinks. I am so shocked that they would do this and that I come to this meeting tonight, which is bravo to all of you for what you do. But if you lived on my block, you'd be standing here right now. I That's a promise. You would say, "Uh-uh. This is not a good idea. Please reconsider this." That idea does not belong in our idea of home. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Any other residents?

Good evening. I'm Julia Wade. Um I live in Summit. I'm on the That was my husband. [laughter] So, um, just to piggyback on what everybody said tonight from our neighborhood, um, we did move here from New York City over 10 years ago. And, um, we fell in love with the neighborhood and the area. And it it has a lot to do with the fact that first of all, yes, there should be affordable housing. I am so for that. It's so important, but it has to be in an appropriate place. And I don't know how many of you have come down to that neighborhood. Um I met you, Claire, because you knocked on our door. And um I I just can't imagine that you would think that that was an appropriate place for a 25 unit um housing situation for especially for veterans for all the reasons that have been uh shared here tonight. This neighborhood in in over 10 years, just over 10 years, has is in the middle of transformation. And we've watched it transform with great joy because it it is um there are generations of people, there are new people, there are children everywhere to to add to the pressure of people trying to cut off their commute time by roaring down our street and making a quick turn either on Princeton or on Harvard. Um, that in and of it in in in and of itself is something that we're deeply concerned about. We're considered the grouchy couple because we yell at the traffic and and we're not afraid to, especially my husband. Um, and so, but

but we do it out of a sense of safety because there are little kids that the foot traffic, as everybody has said, far outweighs the normal traffic in the neighborhood. And um I'm just here to implore you to listen to all of the wonderful points that have been made tonight. The the one thing that that really caught me caught me tonight is the fact that this is not political and it doesn't matter what our politics are. We're just here to work together to create safety and have and create a a safe living environment for every neighborhood. So, there's appropriateness of where where affordable housing can go and I don't need to repeat that. But I do absolutely support that, but not in this neighborhood. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Yeah, Mr. Bassman. Henry Bassman, 18 Hartley Road. First of all, I want to thank you, Council President Thoth, for counting for for calling that five minute break.

I've been sitting at home. I chose not to come here tonight because I looked at the agenda and I didn't think there was going to be anything I was interested in on the agenda. And then I found out about this uh tremendous show of support for the neighborhood that is around Shunpike. The I just got a chance to see the round four plan recently and I'm appalled by it. Whoever put it together was totally irresponsible from my point of view. Um there was objection two and three years ago to a fourstory building in Broad Street West. This proposal has two fourstory areas designated for affordable housing. So contradicting the whole uh the whole controversy for which they were elected is now being overturned. But my biggest concern is the stupid location for veterans housing. When council president McTurnan mentioned that there was going to be veterans housing in summit I was delighted and I complimented the council and then I saw where it's going and this woman I'm sorry I don't know your name showed such sensitivity to the needs and the concerns and the vulnerabilities

of veterans. especially those who have seen combat that it really warmed my heart. But there's another reason why that's a bad location. There's no access to the library, to the YMCA, to city hall, to a place to get a hamburger or sandwich. no way to get to shopping. If somebody wanted to get to the community center, a lot of these veterans who are in need or older, they would have to climb up the hill. It was absolutely the worst location in town that you could think of for veterans housing. And yet no one thought to ask anybody who had been active in veterans issues about this.

Thank you, Mr. Bassman. Thank you. [applause] Any other residents? Okay. Do we have comments from people who are not residents? want to party.

Anonymous. Yeah. So, I got a couple statements. Well, I'm late because I was just in the Cranford meeting. Double header tonight. Double header, baby. That's why I like that they do the the public comments in the beginning of the meeting in Cranford personally. This way people don't have to be around all night. I personally like that. But [clears throat] I'm certain without a matter of doubt that nobody in this room has been to more meetings in different municipalities across the state. been to hundreds of meetings all over New Jersey so I could serve as a resource whether you like my opinion or not. And I want to say that my personal opinion was that was the most horrific last meeting was the most horrific transition of a new council president I've ever seen out of all the meetings I've been to. You had the ability to bring the community together and within the first 10 seconds of your comments when you said you look forward to serving all residents, you immediately immediately divide the community farther apart by referencing January 6th because you chose politics over community. And you know, we we don't do question and answers. The only person who has the authority of how these minutes are conducted are me. So if anybody wants if I ask anyone a question, I am giving you the right to answer in real time so we can have an actual dialogue. I'm the one who has the authority of how these minutes are spent. So if I ask someone a question, feel free to answer. Feel free to answer through the charity to Mr. Chriselli. Had I not been filming you the night of September 3rd, your lies and your

manipulation may have actually worked. Heard this already. Quiet. You're out of order. It may have worked, but you didn't know I was filming. That was a gamble. That was a gamble and you lost.

It's a bad bet. Bad bad bet. And actually, that was the end of September 3rd when I filed a formal complaint against the Republican majority council. And then you all talked about me being aligned with the Republican party. After meeting after meeting, I was just giving Mike McTurnon hell. You want to know what leadership is? I think it was at the last meeting of last year. Mike McTurnon called out President Trump. Claire, have you ever called out anybody in the Democratic Party? You can answer. I give you the authority. Have you ever done that? Cuz that's what leadership is. Leadership is not separating and dividing and conquering, making distinctions about where people come from, where they come from. They're less than.

That is shameful. Shameful. Shameful. Thank you. I request another minute in in Do we have comments from anybody? You may not have another minute. May Do we have comments from anybody else in the from the public? Okay, [snorts] then we can move to council member comments. Council President, Miss Landman.

Thank you, Council President. I would like to address the revised round four affordable housing plan the city proposed in December. For those who haven't read it but have heard a lot about it tonight, in short, the plan allows for hundreds, I'm not going to argue with Jim Bennett, of new apartments and homes to be built in Summit, of which less than 150 are affordable. Last year, we were repeatedly assured that Summit's interests were being protected, that negotiations were under control, and that these were ordinary challenges, that leadership had a strategy residents would support. Instead, what has been delivered is a plan that dramatically increases population density and changes the landscape of our city. To our residents, we hear you. You are outraged. You feel blindsided and misled by the elected leaders who authored this plan. What may be most troubling is that this plan is not an unfortunate surprise or an unavoidable outcome imposed on us by Trenton. Saying so is abdicating responsibility. While it is true that New Jersey state law mandates adding affordable housing, it is also true that our elected leaders were empowered to make decisions about how to deliver that mandate. They had discretion. They exercised it. They made risky choices. And now we should be honest about that. The overwhelming majority of other municipalities in New Jersey have demonstrated that firm, transparent, and competent leadership can meet legal housing obligations without provoking significant legal challenges. Deliberate choices made by the authors of this plan refle reflect a high-risisk approach that failed. They did this despite repeated warnings from affordable housing experts and pleading from residents. So now what? Overdevelopment and a sudden and significant increase in population will place a strain on our infrastructure. Our roads, schools,

storm water, emergency services, and on and on. These systems were not designed for this level of expansion, and there is no plan yet to manage these impacts. Residents will bear the consequences of decisions we did not support. Taxes, traffic congestion, overcrowded classrooms are no longer hypothetical concerns. They are real and foreseeable results of this plan. The city made commitments to the court to reszone and develop. Here comes the bad news. We cannot simply back away from these commitments now that the public has seen them and expressed outrage. Under the agreement, by March 15th, the new council will have to change our zoning to accommodate some of these developments. That is a critical part of the plan committed to the court. Once the plan is signed by the judge, we this council will be bound to honor it. We will have to vote for things we don't like. We will not like resoning for more density. We will not like watching the largest residential construction project in Summit go up on River Road and be absorbed by Washington School. I want to be clear, this is not opposition to affordable housing. Affordable housing can and should be pursued thoughtfully, sustainably, and transparently. And while it is true that this plan results in more new affordable units than the city's original submission from June and commits funds for overdue public housing repairs, that neither validates the plan nor excuses how we arrived here. Our new council was elected to be transparent, responsible stewards, and we will be open with residents throughout all the next steps. We are not afraid to make tough decisions and put in the work to understand the complex issues. We don't think we have all the answers and I don't think anyone voted for us to pretend that we do. This is a serious situation facing Summit and we will work together as a team with city staff, our professionals, the mayor and residents

to get you the answers to your questions and manage the fallout. Thank you. Any other comments, Mr. Chrisy?

Thank you, Council President. Back in June of last year, we s we first saw Summit's proposed affordable housing plan, our city's answer to the legal requirements we face to build more affordable units in our town. I'd made statements at that time that were critical of the secrecy around that plan presented hours before the deadline at the end of June with virtually no time for public comment. And I particularly criticized a development at East Summit at a traffic hot spot on Ashwood Avenue. Former council president McTurnon repeatedly assured us that we would get a good deal. And even tonight, we heard a former council member defending the deal that she struck. Turns out that last year's council chose an approach that has put us all in a very unfavorable situation with far more new construction required in Summit than in other similar towns. The other towns made a realistic plan for modest new construction and that's pretty much what was approved. We were one of a dozen or so towns across the state that took a different approach that was deemed obstructionist and we've gotten slammed as a result. Some that took an extreme position and we all lost big. The court saw through their tactics and hit us hard. In the coming weeks, this council will be called to put in place the ordinances which we are legally required to do or face even worse consequences. I won't give you the everything's great handwave that we got last fall. We will need fortitude and smart planning to address the challenges ahead. And I hope to be able to address real challenges that we are facing, working to preserve

what makes our town special while adapting to a more populous future. Do we have other comments? Yeah, council president. Yes, council member Boyer.

I you know I I am I am so confused especially by the um the Spartanist speech that just happened. Um, we we all in the same room together, right? I we could go back to the videotape in in videos. Um, D, you're making me dizzy with your head shaking. Um, we we can go back to the videos, right? I've repeatedly said the one issue, the biggest issue that I have about this whole thing is the fact that we cannot share this information with the public. We were just talking to the attorneys. I asked a specific question. Why can't we share this with the public? Well, because it's a deliberative process, right? We we are we're negotiating with the developers. We're negotiating with the arbitrator. We're we have the judge and there's this not public information. We can't tell the public. Well, that is that sucks. I mean, I've said this. Go to the YouTubetubes. I've said it all the time. That's a huge problem. I've lived on orchard in Yale, right? I know what a cow pasture is, right? Like I used to play back there back in the day, sneaking into the pool, [snorts] but like we our hands are tied. And and I have to disagree with someone that said, you know, this has nothing to do with politics. This has everything to do with politics. The state of New Jersey has tied the hands of municipalities.

Even with these laws in 2024, Governor Murphy pushed everything up. We have to do it in in 10 months. Made sure it was going to get done before he left office. Hundreds of thousands of of units and homes. You don't think you were going to be impacted in Summit, New Jersey by the laws that are being voted on in Trenton? Not all of you, but most of you voted for these people, man. And and by the way, the whole idea of that we made some huge mistake that other municipalities didn't make. What are you talking about? We're not even in the same atmosphere about what is true or not. The fact of the matter is, and our council president put out a statement on Facebook, which I thought was just very highly political, especially as a council president. I mean, try to bring the community together, you know, oh, the Republicans did this, you know, last round, right? So, you can completely separate yourself from the same deal that you were privy to all year. And to be honest, listen, this council has the authority. I want to back away from it. They have the authority, have the majority to say no. Fight. Take it to court. Let's go. Y'all have the power to do that. Don't back away from it. Don't tough talk. And then, you know, yeah, we got to sign this, right? No, you don't. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. Now, this body was advised by council that the details of these negotiations were privileged information.

We were told that until the ink dries, silence was necessary to protect the city's leverage and we were bound by a duty of confidentiality. And I thought that was horrible. I thought it was horrible that we couldn't do that. However, if we did, and let's talk about the whole builder's remedy aspect of it, right? Why don't we fight? Let's go fight. So, if we were to lose control of the city and developments in the city, the cow pasture, um, Uptown was West Summit, East Summit, you're talking about developers. They could get a a blank a blank check to put hundreds of units throughout the city.

There has to be some type of stop gap. The last thing that I will say, the last thing that I will say, um, there has to be some point where this council can separate ourselves elves from the political atmosphere of always taking shots and coming together to do what's better for this city. At what point are we going to work together to do that? I mean, right now you have the majority. I'm willing to help out. I mean, most of you know how I feel about, you know, this this project. We could work things out, but it it you know, it [clears throat] makes no I mean, you think you get points for coming up here saying all this stuff that's not true, that we messed up and other municipalities did a better job. That's that's patently false. You know, it's false, man. I mean, the the you don't you the bottom line is you don't need to do this. You're choosing to use this rhetoric. You don't need to do it. Why do it on Facebook? You come. Nobody is trying to We're not trying to fight with you guys, [clears throat] right? We're not. We want to work together. So, to the to the residents, um you know, finally, I've had a I've had a problem, and I hope you guys go back and watch the YouTube videos. I've had a

problem with this process for the last two years. [clears throat] I have and it is political and the whole fair share housing mount Laurel doctrine. It's just it it's not meeting the purpose the spirit of what it was created for and it's out of control. Any other comment? Council member Palowski. I have a whole bunch. So, I'll start with the more serious stuff. I agree with uh everything Councilman Ber just said. Um, can you speak up?

Sorry, I have a bunch of stuff. I'll start with the more serious stuff first. Uh, I agree with everything that Councilman Ber just said. our lawyer will be here next week or not next week uh at the next meeting and she'll be able to tell you some of the differences between affordable housing in rounds one two and three and affordable housing today um then versus now and it's starkly different and uh this is a serious situation facing New Jersey if you don't think that this is driven by Trenton and the affordable housing industrial complex. As I've said up here many times, I'm going to quote my dad here. You're living in a dream world. All right? So, talk to people in Trenton. Okay? We didn't take it upon ourselves to come up with some kind of a plan in such a short period. We didn't take it upon ourselves to not share as much as we could with the public. I I'm on the Mount Laurel committee, right? I don't know how many meetings we've had. 50 maybe. And every meeting we ask, what can we tell the public? We need to tell the public something. Uh, I had to be a broken record about this to just get a couple of the developers to agree to come and give a presentation to the planning board about what they had in mind. If I hadn't done that, nobody would have even seen that. And Clary, you know, you were intricately involved in all this. Um, and you supported these measures all along the way. You would have put 250 houses or 250 units down at Wells Fargo. I remember it as clear as day. So 198 is a win down there. Um, rehab money. Uh the Summit Housing

Authority has looked into what they can other ways to get money and they have failed for decades. The sad fact of the matter is that the sources for the grants sufficient to do the kind of rehab that are necessary down there do not allow you to have housing preferences and get the money. I'd love to keep the preferences over there. They can't get any money. So we could triple our taxes and rebuild them. Uh we could try to get private donations like the folks did back in the late60s. But the world we live in now says we're not giving you that money unless you affirmatively market each of these units. And that means that you can't give any kind of a preference to uh anybody whether they live in summit or whatever else on public comment. Um I think Mr. Anonymous might be right here. Um and in fact I think we should revisit this in law and labor. We did talk about it last year and I think we came to the conclusion that while you can ask everyone in the audience to be respectful and allow Summit residents to speak first because this is their city, we can't require it. And um so we'll look into that a little bit more. Uh you may have um noticed that uh Councilwoman Toth introduced the historic minute uh today. Um you know and this sort of also goes into working together. Um Shantal and I are going to share this uh historic minute this year and she she's

enthusiastic about doing it and I'm happy to share that with her. But um nobody talked to me about it. Um I was basically told that if I wanted to be involved with it, I had to share it. And so I'm happy to do that. But I think, you know, in the spirit of working together, maybe give me a call first. Uh after all, this this was a great thing that we did for a number of years way back when. We haven't we hadn't done it for years when I came on council and I resurrected it and it's near and dear to me. So, um yeah, let's work together. Uh what else do I have here? Firewood. Some of you guys may have seen the video that I did this weekend. We're now uh offering fire free firewood to our residents. I spoke with our city engineer who said you might have to season it a little bit. Uh we don't know exactly how how new the wood is. So, you know, if you put some right into your fireplace, it could get a little smoky, but he did tell me that there's no pine or anything that will muck up your chimney. And then finally, uh, excuse me, in February. In February,

in February, uh, last week in February, I think the high school's putting on a performance of Big Fish, which is an awesome book. It's a fanciful story. Some of you may have seen the movie. These guys do such a great job. Please come out and support the arts. Thank you. Do we have any other comments, Council President? Yes, Council Member Lucer Cena. Madame Clerk, could I impose upon you, Do we still have our clock? I'd like to experiment with the clock running on my comments and see if I can keep them to three minutes or under.

Sure. She wants uh I first want to uh again celebrate the wonderful Martin Luther King celebration that we had earlier this week. A special thank you to our community leaders, our faith leaders, to the team uh of city hall staff who made those service opportunities uh and that celebration of Dr. King's legacy uh possible. It was a really wonderful celebration. So we extend our gratitude. Uh, I also want to share that next month, February, when we celebrate random acts of kindness month and random acts of kindness week, we will be celebrating Summit's first city of kindness initiative. So, we'll be sharing some ideas and suggestions for ways that we can be kind to ourselves and to others and uh to our community. So, please stay tuned for that for next month. To Mr. Hu and to Dr. uh Pactang, really appreciate you sharing your personal experiences and your concerns. uh let's please connect uh after this meeting or or tomorrow to continue the conversation. Uh and then I do have some prepared remarks with respect to affordable housing. Uh there are moments such as these when seemingly contradictory things can be in fact true at the same time. What we commonly refer to as affordable housing, housing for working families and individuals, that's a good thing. We want our teachers and nurses and police officers and firefighters and others to be able to both work and live in Summit. At the same time, we want affordable housing mapped in a way that works for our community in a way that does not overburden our schools, infrastructure, essential services, government services, roadway, roadways, and so on. The map that has been introduced is not the map that we wish to see. I understand that many of us are angry and frustrated by this. I share that anger

and frustration with you. There is a time for that and we need to work through it. But what's the path forward? This is a body that has the opportunity and the responsibility to be both transparent and accountable. It it might not have been our mess that we made, but it's our mess to try to clean it up and to do our very best to make it work for the community. As a first next step, we are working to schedule information sessions so that we can share all of the information that we are able about the what and the where and the when and the how to answer your questions as best we are able. That is our initial commitment to shine some light both on the process and where we are today. To say that this is complicated and consequential is obviously a ridiculous understatement. But again, we commit to as a first principle transparency to being honest about the situation we're in and to indeed work together to come together as a group in partnership with all of us in the community to try to make it work. This is the beginning of a new chapter. It's a conversation that's going to be ongoing for the next decade. Uh and it will impact summit for generations to come. Um so we again we we hold the opportunity for transparency and accountability and that is our commitment to you in three. [laughter]

Thank you. Thank you. Any other council? Ah madame mayor.

Thank [snorts] you council president. Um a couple of things. I wasn't going to speak on affordable housing or this complicated mess that we are in. I will just say that I have been for two years screaming that the process stinks um and that it's really unfair to the public. Um actually I got myself in a little bit of trouble. I went down to Trenton when the legislation that was creating this crappy mess and crappy process um and I said I don't think this is the right thing to do and people called me a lot of names for going down and saying that. Um, I still don't think that the legislation was the right thing for the state of New Jersey and it particularly was not the right thing for the city of Summit. And so I just want you to understand that, you know, I tried to fight the legislation that created this terrible process. So, and I will continue to fight for what's right for the residents of Summit. I'm here to serve you, and that's why I'm here. And I think that the new folks on council, I'm going to give them a hot second to do their homework. Hope they continue to do their homework and understand what the real reality is and what the facts are before they cast dispersions. Um, and speaking of doing homework and doing the right thing for the residents, um, I want to go back to the Summit Housing Authority, um, appointment because, uh, I sent out a letter earlier today with my appointment who, um, was a terrific addition, um, was going to be a real asset and a and a spokesperson for the residents of our Summit Housing Authority properties. Um, and I was really hoping that this council would do what was right for the residents. And because they haven't, I am going to reig on that. And I am going to appoint

Geette because she is the right person for the residents. [applause]

[applause] Hope I don't have to clean up too many more messes. Thank you, mayor, for on on both counts there. Anything else? Council President, Council Member Ber,

um, just really quick. So there's this saying this one comedian has right he says you know who raised you right that's when people are acting you know crazy or whatever it's like who raised you like who your parents are right so I you know what I I'll never I'm not going to stoop down right but for two years if I had like 360 posts on Facebook this one post person posted a message on it 365 times, right? Like I I mean it at some point it's like give it a break, right? Like I grew up in this town, right? [snorts] I I choose to serve as a volunteer, choose to come back like um Zanelli over there, right? I I'm glad you came back to this town and raising kids here. It's great, man. um you know, let me be a volunteer without all of the like all of the anger and I ain't do nothing to you, you know, like just let me let me do my thing, right? Like you do your thing, let me do my thing and we all can just be cool. Um because one of the most frustrating things of being up here is having somebody um just just talk to you like any way they want to talk to you like just craziness, right? [cough] I mean just be a decent human being. Jesus. So the I know the last thing is um when you talk about the Summit Housing Authority like having all of those units Weaver Street, Glenwood and Vita Gala

being renovated and it hasn't been for 40 years. That's a big deal, man. That's a big deal. Like I agree with the with the gun range down there and having the veterans that's you know that yeah you're right that don't even make sense right but but the thing about it is when you think about it and I think um former councilwoman Hamlet said this it's like okay so we have 20 units affordable housing units right so we just got to find a place for 20 affordable housing units right and I mean as the community, hey, let's let's try to do that. You know, we're not removing them from the book, just saying, well, where else can they go? Right? And I think as a council, we can all talk about that. And listen, if that happens, right now we're talking about an affordable housing plan that has been extremely positive, right? 200 and something units that have never been, you know, I got relatives in there that still have the same kitchen cabinets from 40 years ago, right? It's a [clears throat] good thing. It's a good thing. This has never happened before in Summit's history that they were even in our fair share housing plan. They should have been in there a long time ago. Yeah. So, that's right. I I I did say Yeah. Thank God for for me being on council speaking up for the folks in Glennwood, Weaver Street, and Vita Gala. Yeah, damn right. I'm glad I was up here to do that.

Thank you, Council President. Okay, one more thing. Ah, the mayor has one more thing. It's a quick one. Happy birthday to our city solicitor. Yes, absolutely. Happy birthday. We're thrilled he's spending it with us. This it great 40th. [laughter] Is that it? Well, uh, M council member Christophouli.

Thank you, Council President. I really applaud the mayor's decision. And I guess to Bob's earlier point about working as a team, which was the thrust of my comment to him earlier, it really does take two sides. And I've seen encouraging signs from the mayor throughout the campaign of her efforts to turn down the temperature, turn down the volume, and I applaud that. Um uh in in the issue of um the many doors that I knocked on last year, I heard a common desire to make summit work better and make it work better for everybody. We are still seeing these stale political attacks left over from the campaign. Political operators thrive on chaos and false narratives. The reality is they're right here in our town. But rest assured Summit that these attacks won't distract us from the important business that a historic number of Summit residents elected us to do. Get costs under control while we protect and enhance our essential services. Summit remains a very special place and let's work together to keep it that way.

Thank you. That it. Okay. Just I'm going to be very brief. We know that under the best of circumstances affordable housing is tough. The planning for it um round four is really really tough. Um, summit is 22,000 diverse residents, but we are one community is one community. We are going to figure this out, move forward and work through it. Thank you for coming out tonight. Thank you for those watching at home. See you in motion to Yes. Yes. It would be nice. Let's have a motion to adjurnn.

So moved. Second. Thank you. All in favor? See you in a couple weeks.