Northfield City Council Meeting

ugh
okay
good evening this is the work session
for northfield city council
july 13th of 2021 this meeting was
properly advertised in accordance with
public law 1975 chapter 231
in the press of atlantic city on january
9th of this year
due to social distancing requirements
related to code 19 there are limited
seats for in-person attendance by
members of the public this evening
for this reason this meeting is also
being presented simultaneously as a
remote public meeting
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may have a flag led by mayor ciao please
thank you please rise
i pledge allegiance to the flag of the
united states of america
and to the republic for which it stands
one nation
under god indivisible with liberty and
justice for all
i would like to open up our meeting this
evening
by stating the following we are gathered
to make decisions for our community
may we use only our best skills and
judgment
keeping ourselves impartial and neutral
as we consider the merits and pitfalls
of each matter
that is placed before us enact always in
accordance to what is best
for our community and our fellow
citizens
thank you please be seated
i have a roll call please
roll call mr dewise mrs madden
mr notaro here mr perry mr smith
mr rutz mr palastina here and mr chow
here mr president thank you mary
uh i'd like to start off the meeting uh
with we have
a presentation by mrs ginny erichetti
on behalf of the elliott howard krevins
foundation
we would just like to uh uh thank them
for their generous donation uh the
foundation has
donated to birch grove park and mr
saracetti is here with the first check
and uh i i think it's really great that
they i mean i think it's wonderful that
they were able to do that
for the park and uh how mr krebs has
really loved the park and how all of us
do
as well uh councilman duise uh has a
certificate
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which was established in 2012
and funded upon his passing the
foundation provided financial support
from mr craven's estate to various
groups and organizations
including first groups you
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what we're going to do is we're going to
uh place a plaque under a tree of your
choice at birch grove park
and she could work with mary canisius
office and we'll set that up the
brick will read with sincerest
appreciation to the eliot
howard craven's foundation presented by
mayor council city of moore field
this day 13th of july 2021.
my maiden name was virtue if that rings
a bell with anyone
um jackson avenue right around the
corner from what used to be delicatessen
now
it's mike's deli what is your first name
excuse me
i'm sorry what was your first name jenny
well that's what i thought it was oh my
god
man do i feel old
[Laughter]
how are you doing okay
um
in the summer 78 i started a job online
for walking ice cream stand
and that's when i met elliot he was my
supervisor at core brothers at new york
avenue in the boardwalk
and elliot was a very unique individual
he was very loud boisterous he wore
shorts no matter what the
um weather uh he wasn't an educated man
as a matter of fact he didn't graduate
high school until he was 20 because he
had very poor vision
but and besides managing the ice cream
stand as a manager of a pool deck and a
parking lot i believe but he uh what
money he made he invested
very well until he amassed about over
a million dollars and um
very generous and gave it to 13
charities one of which
of course is first road park so um
you um beat me to the punch because i
was going to ask you to consider you
know something to
remember his legacy he didn't have any
children but he was a good friend of
mine
i don't um work for the lawyer i'm here
just to make sure that elliot didn't
become
he loved animals he loved plants
thank you so much
uh anyone else as i said thank you we're
very appreciative of it and uh
it is a wonderful park and uh glad that
he enjoyed it
while he was with us and uh he and uh
look down on that plaque hopefully and
enjoy that
and uh as you said the first check
because this is in
perpetuity i like that word this will be
for quite some
time we'll be getting this check
depending on how well the money's
invested it should be at least about the
same amount
in fact i think i have a little letter
in here
i just wanted him to be remembered
because as i said he didn't have any
family
thank you thank you so much thank you
thank you
as we uh before we move on to committee
reports i just want to offer my
condolences to our
uh engineer ronnie nasser my passing
grandmother so sorry
and uh thank you for being here tonight
but
certainly i'm surprised to see you but
thank you
my condolences uh from the bottom of my
heart
onto committee reports uh councilman
perry
um was another
you know considerable backup and uh
let me tell you what i have here to
complicate it because
but
um
uh
this is
uh thank you frank i just wanted to
thank you for uh your
your responsiveness to the to the issue
and uh you know brian and i uh
you know both talked about that and we
uh we thought it was very nice you to
come down and and
you know come down personally and and go
over to the
in the station um
i did i did in addition to the upgrades
you discussed i mean i i toured the
station and they are actually doing
quite a bit upgrades to it
uh and and uh it looks like there's a
lot of new equipment in there
so you know hopefully this doesn't
happen anymore
so how you high usage station as well
i said that station has quite high usage
um
and it's got some velocity behind it
this is a major major station just like
the other breaks that they had this year
last year um this is
something that got de-upgraded
[Music]
semi-annual meeting and uh at the same
time the doors
so i'm about to follow up after the fact
with
what's going on and certainly a couple
other issues with
the city coming offline and a couple
other issues that were on there
the other issue was the
uh i had some some complaints about the
fireworks
um in different areas and um
um
[Music]
so that it can be
um
here
[Music]
thank you councilman very councilman
nuts
um the planning board met and we
approved
studios
[Music]
uh
um the other thing about the planning
board is they go
down campus very good uh
by two votes on the first calling
and we have some more discussion and
repo and uh so the zoning was approved
by the uh by this hunting board for the
regional commercial summit and that's
all i have to do
thank you yes
they came with a concept um a few months
ago
and it looked great a builder has done
some of these
veterans administration bookings before
um
and it'll go next to where it is on
sometime
but no final plans or anything the
concept that they showed
uh demonstrated a really
vibrant center with you know lots of
meeting space for larger groups
and a lot of smaller rooms for
consultations
[Music]
good news
[Music]
anything else okay councilman notaro uh
thank you mr president um
from the fire department um i'll wait i
guess with the
you know to uh ongoing business to
discuss the
fire truck acquisition
um from ems uh i met with inspira
in uh egg arbor township um over at
corporate township over some uh uh
issues with dispatch
um experience trying to you know correct
the things and and make things a little
better so
that's kind of a a nice uh plus to uh
service to our uh residents um
i'd also like to recognize and
congratulate um
our uh our 12 little league um
on their district championship that's uh
a wonderful win i
i saw it on i saw the videos on facebook
it was uh
it was a nice thing um
i also had the pleasure of driving
afloat for the
varsity cheerleaders and the um
varsity championship football team and
it was
really nice to see the kids out there
enjoying themselves they had a great
time at that parade
um in all my years i've never seen the
parade
so energetic i mean you turned that
corner and it was just a line of people
and it just seemed like everybody came
out to this one and
you know i'd like to thank um joan
brenner
brennan roy clark the entire cultural
committee which is
four or five people it's amazing what
they did in two meetings
um mary of course mary and shannon for
coming out and helping out
the day of and and making sure
everything runs smoothly
also the the chief cummings and the
volunteer fire department for all they
do during the parade it was really
really nice
good successful day and i hope every
year is the same
so um that's all i have
thank you uh councilman deweys
thank you councilman smith
i also want to congratulate a little bit
with the
success 16 championship for the 12 year
age group uh they played last night two
games they had to
spin one of them so then with little
credit they
won the first game to force the final
game and
was down by a run in the last inning and
came back and scored two runs
in the bottom of the sixth inning two
minutes
and very exciting
the 12 new district team
next week every sunday or monday they
begin their sectionals and buy them so
they wish them
luck as they pursue a further change and
wish them great success
i also wanted to thank the volunteers
from parade it was well done was nice to
see
after a year off that the parade went
off as it did
i was very pleased to see the
participation
and especially the people lining the
roads to see all the residents out there
enjoying it it was
a pleasure to see everyone out there and
i've got a beautiful day for it as well
and also the connelly mile coming back
you know the fans
pulled that together as well and they
staged the
conley mile again
um
alan mack who passed away recently and
suddenly
and i want to express my condolences to
his family
um
and
she said the administrator said that
she would
if that was a possibility she would
reach back out to me but we're both in
the same way that i suppose
we'll have to keep looking um
thank you councilwoman
[Music]
his father
um
circulation was
but compared to years of 2019-2018
we're still um
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of the um library with the county system
it has been decided by the committee
that no further
consideration will um
what committee are you referring to well
yes but with all due respect i'm in
charge of that committee
and i said that we would have our
committee meeting now
uh you know we did not make any decision
excuse me we did not make any decision
my committee which was reviewing it
and i said to all of you both you and
councilman deweese that we would meet
at a further date to discuss our
findings that when we met with the
county
so with all due respect i think this is
a slap of my face
that you are making a statement that we
have as a committee
we have not met or made a decision i'm
sorry
i'm sorry what i'm sorry if i offended
you but
we discussed that our recommendation is
not the percent
that doesn't mean you still have talked
about but with our recommendation
right and i said that after our meeting
with the county we would meet again
all right now you may have a difference
of opinion i respect that
but no one has talked to me if that's
your decision
that was made you left me out of the
meeting
you just said the committee made the
decision did i am
am i correct
i don't care what you say councilman you
can yell
i can yell if you don't like what i'm
saying then close your ears and don't
listen to me
but i am very annoyed all right
whether you like it or not that's fine
that's your decision
but to leave me out of a meeting and
decision
that is a slap in my face i am sure that
if you were in the same predicament
you would be yelling or be very pissed
off
she just said the committee made that
mrs madden did you just say the
committee made that decision
did you did you say the committee made
that decision mrs madden
excuse me excuse me mrs madden did you
just say that the committee made that
decision with all due respect
we're not getting anything excuse me i
am talking to mrs madden
and the reason why i'm raising my voice
is because you're interrupting me
mrs madden did you say that the
committee met
and made that decision what's that i'm
sorry
what did you say who said that
excuse me who said that please
who said that please who's disgusted
okay so i'm chopped liver because i i
i'm part of that committee i call the
committee mrs mad
with all due respect all right is that
correct
am i suddenly now because i'm a
different color
that i'm left out of this meeting
i feel that way
i feel discriminated
and i will not tolerate that
you may have a difference of opinion
[Music]
do not leave me out of the meeting
do you understand that if you had a
meeting and i left you out of the
decision process
you would be pissed off
oh don't do well don't you start making
up things and telling me that i'm not
involved in this meeting
i am sorry that i'm pissed off but i am
not for the that's enough
and i apologize for reaching out but i
am so
pissed off so i'm gonna leave it at that
thank you and uh i apologize for i mean
all of this
that i wasn't able to control earlier
uh i have no committee meeting no
committee report again i'll just
reiterate
what many people said congratulations to
the little league for their success
gret and chase patty of course
the parade was quite a success
other than having to push the mustang
off to the side of the road
i had a wonderful time
[Laughter]
over my head frank
yeah yeah it was it's a small car it's
good
we had a lot of help um
we'll move on then to the work session
the zion road pump station
thank you council president uh the
submission package is being
prepared we should have it by the end of
the week so we'll be ready to submit to
the planning board by monday
so i'll contact mary to see who's gonna
sign the application and how to get the
escrow fee check so i'll handle that
between mary and
dawn for for the check for the
application fee uh romney before we
submit to the framework i have to
put that piece of property under
contract so i'll need a copy of your
site plan to attach to the agreement
i can have that email to you tomorrow
i'll get somebody to email to you
okay so
before we can submit before we can
submit
because we need probably the consent of
the owner to submit right
should i might be able to get their
consent well the agreement of sale
should be reviewed and executed by
council in august so we could probably
submit
immediately thereafter but well i mean
if the
owner of the property is willing to sign
on the application we can have him sign
as an owner and the municipality will
sign as an applicant
i think i'd rather be under contract
when we do that
okay all right i'll send that up to you
tomorrow discuss that with brian here
i hope that we've been waiting on that
plan so that we can attach it to this
all right i'll send it to you tomorrow
very good thank you thank you mr fasenda
yes do we have to do the ordinance to
authorize the purchase of land before we
go under contract we have a few things
to do
okay
uh how about the would you like to
continue with
northfield avenue yes i haven't got any
answers back from the state
regardless regarding the contribution
how
we are going to proceed with this i sent
a couple emails and i'll reach out
back again to the state to see how they
want to
split the profits that's right
would you like to uh right onto the road
yeah i got one more time
with your items yeah last meeting we
talked about the 2021 route
local road program and they submitted to
the council and a list of the road that
were you guys able to look at the road
see any admission any deletion from the
list
anyone
you know i i i did not and
i i could do it tomorrow and yeah i'll
get back to you right yeah yeah
i mean it's up to council we can't wait
till next month or we can
you can respond i didn't see anything on
there that i mean made sense to me
when i went through them prior meeting
but
i i think we we should move forward with
your proposal so we can get this rolling
all right then how about if any council
person would
want you know any discussion then you
can just email me and i'll i'll
either add it or okay great
all right thank you
is there anything on the storm water no
the county has not got back with me on
the legal documents i left in there
on their side to prepare the agreement
so we can bring at least a draft
agreement to counsel i haven't received
that yet so
okay um
nothing on the uh the parking
lot the next item this shared court i'll
just say a few words uh
mayor please and then you can add
lately there's been a perception that
where northfield has been
against or fighting against a shared
court or
shared services that that's a
misrepresentation and it's obviously
wrong norfield's always been
a leader in sharing of services
and maybe that's why that's one of the
reasons we had
so many alternatives to consider
and we will be negligent if we didn't
vet
all of those out and evaluate every
proposal
to make sure we're doing what's best for
the city
regardless of whose proposal it is or
or um the other thing would be that
northfield uh since we've been involved
in many shared services we we do
realize what some of the pros and cons
are so again
that's our job was to evaluate those
i think everyone here on the dyess
has that responsibility to review
everything
and i commend everybody for their
participation in that process
uh some have been working on it for
months going through all the different
proposals and
and uh in particular i'd like to thank
mayor chao
for his leadership on the the county
proposal
councilman smith your leader your
participation in all the proposals
uh mary canisi who helped us
with all of them as well our cfo
dawn stalinwork uh crunching the numbers
for us especially in the last one where
uh we had very little time to evaluate
all the proposals
and our solicitor mr fiscenda who
facilitated everything and uh
just keeping an eye on it from the legal
perspective and making sure we don't
miss something
that said the one proposal that is on
the agenda tonight
has been is being pulled that's the
hamilton proposal
they have backed out so that will take
out two of our agenda items tonight
let's see that will be the executive
session
and the uh number 126
and number 128.
there if you have anything to add thank
you council president um
and thank you before i uh certainly
appreciate everyone's
hard work and diligence in terms of
looking into this and as
council president pointed out you know
it's our responsibility
in terms of looking out for our
residents and taxpayers and certainly i
am proud to say that this council has
done that
this is virgin territory for us and here
in atlanta county in terms of
consolidation of courts
we have talked about this not only on
this diocese but also
throughout the state in terms of
consolidation of share services or joint
services and i am very proud of
what northfield has done throughout the
many years
uh being part of many different ventures
of shared services let me just say that
um
and i and i understand your reservation
and hesitation because
this is something new um but
you know we are doing it for the
citizens and we we are looking for the
best
and and we've taken our time and
in all my years of experience dealing
with shared services
there's always going to be some losers
and there's always going to be some
winners
and hopefully at the end of this down
the road
you know we're all going to come out
ahead and i truly believe that
regardless of whether we go with the
county or
we were going with another municipality
we're doing best for the city of norfolk
so i thank everyone for their work and
diligence
and i just hope that this works out for
uh not only for northfield but the other
municipalities that are going to be
involved on the county
level so thank you very much council
president and thank you members of
council
now uh with that uh is there any
discussion on on the court since that is
our one to vote on this evening
uh
thank you councilman
we do have to um
stay on top of that
so that it does not succeed in
getting started in january
but we do need to be aware of that
thank you yes
my concern is
well it'll be whether
with us in the in this uh even without
uh
i think it's just seven six or seven
municipalities
when we looked at the numbers last time
last meeting it is still a savings
from the
20 uh from the prior years
and and it is a savings from what we
budgeted for
and in addition to that if other
municipalities or some large
municipalities out there that may be
joining that would make it even a better
uh financial decision for us in addition
to the services that they offer
yeah one of the good things about the
one of the
positives is the uh the ability to do so
much
remotely now that wasn't prevalent in
the past
yeah that was something we've been
looking forward to for a lot of years
anyone else okay
uh uh while you have the floor
councilman perry do you have anything on
the
sump pumps to
in like uh um my recommendation
at this point would be to ban it in
municipal streets
and uh basically have it on site and go
from there
uh it does create
[Music]
is there any possibility of it of of
allowing it where
uh where people where it's not puddling
it travels quite a ways before it hits
the storm
stormwater and it gets messy yeah
it's stolen
you can't do one about the other my
recommendation right now would be your
band
okay
anyone any other input
uh
recharge systems are out there
where you can actually store it and
recharge your your irrigation systems
but that won't cost money
the biggest section of your property
were a little absorbed
[Laughter]
yeah i guess we could start putting
something together for that then uh
and we'll discuss it further if we can
come
um
you do development
[Music]
and and those in place will just uh
be grandfathered in
right okay
[Music]
yeah so we'll just have to i mean
the ones that are currently in place if
they create a problem we'll just have to
through our our uh city works we'll have
to help
ensure since it's in our it's in our
drainage
it's in our storm system in effect since
it's in that curb line
so if it if it starts gathering debris
and puddling then it's it's that one is
gonna
those in particular will be on us to
make sure that they keep running at
least
as best they can on a flat street so are
you are you grandfathering existing is
that
yeah you can't yeah i mean
from here if they voluntarily take it
out right
and i think it's only right that we that
we
clean it up we're gonna have to keep an
eye on it and uh yeah and it's only
the residents that have those would keep
an eye on it themselves
but we can't rely on that so then it
falls on us
could you treat it like it like
like how if you let your grass go a
little high and
you don't cut it it's
in our i don't know i don't know if you
can do that but
it's a thought
we can look into that
that white since you're uh since i'm not
next next item there then would be the
fire truck here you you'd
at this point uh i spoke with the chief
cummings
and uh eric shankas uh who
had they put together a committee um
you know to search for a fire truck uh
ironically
last night i was at the officers meeting
discussing other issues
uh pertaining to uh dispatch
um and um
they they had a a demo there believe it
or not
and uh it was you know it's a it's a
very nice truck and it it
works very well you know so uh i
that that's where we're at i mean
they're just right now they're just
searching
and looking and trying to put together a
a detail of what they need
um they definitely will be modest in
what they need
uh you know no no embroidered seats and
so forth
but uh you know that's uh that's kind of
where we're at at this point
okay is it the demo available
yeah uh they come available not quite
quite a bit actually but i don't know if
we're ready to buy it so
uh that one probably will be gone and i
don't think that one kind of surfaced
their needs i think it was there's a few
things that it needed
that okay yeah
uh let's see but it sure was nice
uh new new business
um do we have any other grants pending
okay um here
yeah so at this point we what we can do
is move on to uh
tim drew to uh can joe sorry
for the emergency management coordinator
to the multi-jurisdictional hazard
mitigation planning
hi tim joe an emergency management
coordinator provided 811 short road
um i want to come tonight and just
update everybody on
the plan or we'll just call it the plan
rather than throwing it all out
it is run by the county which we're part
of
and some of the requirements uh or
outreach
which is one of the reasons why i'm here
tonight um i attended the planning board
meeting last week
which i believe is this thursday to get
the word out there
the other requirement is um just to have
some what they call a your signal
assessment team
um which would be made up of northfield
stakeholders
uh such as yourselves that would come
together and discuss this
which i hope to have someone tonight one
or two people from
the council trying to review on that
assessment
probably one maybe two meetings um or
part of it has to be submitted by august
18 so
we only have about a month to get our
stuff in order um it's not going to be a
big lift we already have a plan that was
complete in 2016
so we basically got to look at that plan
what was updated
some of the things that are in there are
items like getting a tree expert to come
in and look at potential
which is our number one vulnerability
here in northfield
power outages regardless
um you know just to allow them to work
during
power outages and storms and debris
management things like that
as well as some other equipment and
things i believe we had like 16 items
listed
which i believe two or three uh have
been completed
uh one of course was a bucket truck
which i understand
color purposes has received so
so that one we can close down so um
unless anybody has any questions i mean
that's pretty much the gist of it
you guys have in your handouts the fact
sheet
on the accounting plan um we will be
discussing this thursday
at the county coordinators meeting
they have a consultant with the county
hire to help us through this
process i already had a meeting with
them
for about an hour discussing our
involvement
and then we'll just be continuing
through the process
a lot of it actually uh one thing i did
want to mention i believe romney was
speaking last month or month before
about these storm
drains on short roads that mix in with
the county
uh that project maybe not that specific
location but that project in general is
one of our projects on this list
and the purpose of this list is just to
identify our
potential vulnerabilities how can we
mitigate those vulnerabilities to
you know minimize our loss and
look at potential grant sources in the
future mitigation grant funding comes
available
whether that be pre-disaster or
post-disaster
um if these are already identified in
our plan they take a higher priority
when
fema looks at it to grant money that
we've already
for things like this so if nobody has
any questions
or does anybody have any questions
i would help with that too all right
okay
uh tim i'd just like to say thank you
for your for your service
and and you know you take a proactive
approach to
everything you do and uh i think it's
just you know wonderful to have a guy
like yourself one on the team with us
and
you know it's good to have you thank you
do a good job i enjoy our monthly
meetings
they're gonna be getting excited
just like we were
they basically look specifically at
their lines
what i'm looking for would be trees that
are dead or dying that would fall over
um i don't know if atlantic city
electric goes that far
right that does seem to be our number
one concern
[Music]
thank you
uh in the new business uh i just i want
to mention one item
that that we do have on the agenda is
the
um is it number 128
the the
no i mean
oh the ordinance i'm sorry ordinance
ordinance number
eight eight which would be the
prohibition for the cannabis and the
reason that's on there
is what that is uh
i'd like to i recommend or my opinion
would be to pause
the cannabis before we go forward
at this point we still have no idea what
the legislation is
so while they say that there's
37 licenses we don't know what the
ultimate number is going to be
if we do that as i said in the last
meeting
if the legislation comes out and
everything
is way better than the first
pass-through on what they
and what our trenton legislators put out
um we can move forward it doesn't
do anything but put this on pause
because
our deadline is august so if we
if we move forward with the ordinance
that we've already voted once
and pass it in august those things in
there
are permanent and and if we miss
something that the state comes out with
we live with those for five years and
after those five years
anything that we don't like is going to
be grandfathered in
forever if we pause it that's temporary
and we can move forward at any time it
might be a slight delay for
any businesses that wish to move forward
and certainly we realized that
70 percent of state and 70 of northfield
voted for it
um pausing it doesn't stop it
it just lets the state come out with
what they're
proposing so that we're not presenting
forward an ordinance for northfield
in a bubble and we get
some oddity that we can't undo
um and they
as i said uh you know we don't know what
they're coming out with
and that's that's my concern that's my i
have a big concern there
and don't want to be caught
living with something that we don't want
to live with
and lastly i'll say that i
take the recommendation of our our chief
of police
chief newman recommends that he at the
last meeting he did recommend we pause
it there's no reason we
need to run forward into it at this
point but uh
we can again
we can always uh as more information
comes out of trenton we can then figure
out what's best for northfield and then
we can also decide
you know again if they if they extend
this date or if they
expand the number of licenses we don't
know how many we might end up with the
difference between
this opt out i'm just saying all it does
is it pauses us
in all if we don't have something in
place by august and what we're set up
now
for is the past the one that passed it
that resolution has or that ordinance
has gone through once
uh this resolution would
run concurrently and as of august we
would then
if we pat obviously might
what i would like is that we pass the
prohibition
if we find but if we find out between
now and then
we're still set we're still in good
position to
go either way at that point at this
point if we don't
prohibit it tonight we won't be it'll be
too late then
no let's be prohibiting everything and
then if you
put it in later on it means that all of
them
will develop now then we would just go
back
to our original our original ordinance
that we
that passed we would put that in place
we can revert we can reverse that then
we can reverse the prohibition any time
um
i i also i also read i also read the
first law that the state put out i also
read the first
presentation that the state put out and
what they put out was deplorable
and if they come out with something
similar we're stuck
that's my point that's my biggest and
most
i'm not concerned about the other cities
i'm i'm on northfield's dice i'm i'm
this is my job i agree
i agree that it's going to pass i'm
asking i'm asking that
i don't see why you're putting up um
it's only been introduced it hasn't
fully passed yet we only had the first
it's an ordinance it only went through
one reading so what are your concerns
that the state might come up with that
would
impact northfield
the main one being one of them being the
number of licenses
so there's right now they say 37 what if
there's
337 that changes
how many northfield could potentially
have and although
it may be something we we want do we
want
one okay do we want to do we want five
i don't think five is a good idea
regardless of what
they're selling
but those are population controls
my point being we don't know what the we
don't know what the criteria is going to
be for a license
so mr president um my point is we don't
know what they're putting
we don't know what's going to come from
the state again i'm not quite sure the
concern but
you know as i said before in business
there's no secret something that starts
the money's already flowing and uh it's
flowing into those areas that have
approved it
and um you know you may
you may wait here to northfield's own
detriment i mean this literally could
generate i think at least 40 000 a year
probably more
which on a bond level could pay for a
fire drop if you miss the vote and the
money goes elsewhere
you're messed up and you haven't done
your residence can i give an example
my concern is mike again my concern is
the unknown
and signing a blank check
may i give an example yeah well would
you have go ahead so
so the the state right now liquor
license their issue based on population
we can't issue another one if we want to
based on population
so before prohibition did anyone
contemplate
that the state might put forth a
population control on liquor licenses
no nobody did but that's what they did
that's the unknown
we don't know what rules there will be
so
suppose there is no limit on the number
of licenses
and we end up with the entirety of that
section
being all cannabis businesses and other
businesses who are currently there say i
don't want to be next to a cannabis
business
maybe they won't we don't know i did
hear feedback from businesses
who said i don't want to be next to a
cannabis business
what's unrealistic is is that we're
assuming we know what the state's rules
are
and and we don't that's what he's trying
to say i'll give here i'll give you a
better example
would you have expected that the state
would put out a law that
if they caught an underage person
with marijuana smoking
or they smelled it that if a police
officer approached that child
that the police officer would be charged
and the child will go free with no
with nothing would you expect the state
to do that
no there was certainly a good intention
going wrong uh the intention was that
was a good intention
having something on the record that is
going to become legal that would follow
the rest of their lives we don't know
what the state is going to come up with
that's true but i find it hard to
believe that
if they even have unlimited licenses and
that
competition would allow you know
competition wouldn't allow
25 ice cream parlors until that new
[Music]
head starts count and as you as you
delay
what you may find is that you cut
yourself out of a nice source of revenue
again
literally pay for this million-dollar
fire truck tobacco
if you're interested in serving the
residents of northfield
then 70 percent of them said they want
cannabis
illegal and i'm sure none of them are
all of them would want to
um have some of their costs mitigated by
revenue that could be generated in
in this industry um i don't know what
the state could come up with that
that could be so frightening but my
guess is um
if we're in new jersey you realize that
right yeah but again
my guess is that municipal ordinances
could be created to protect north korea
from scenarios not anymore well i mean
they could come back with the same thing
they had before
they could put the miners things back in
yeah again
i think everybody agrees that parents
need to be notified when well
again they're wrong i only mean i only
mean to say this because
so is the 40 so is the 40 000. so
i bring it up for discussion i bring it
up for discussion and seven percent
you're throwing away
residents who voted in favor of it who
do not want cannabis business
in northfield and they will
opposed to this legislation well i
understand that but you're not opposed
to alcohol
it's legal no well
you're not putting out where everything
is going to be regular
it's got to be regulated and approved by
an amendment to the language
so if you say you're only allowed out
one two
so big
we can also charge for these licenses to
to get
this and i want i just want some of
these towns are charging
respectfully the liquor lace the liquor
light the state caps the liquor license
fee
we are not allowed to charge more than 2
500. we're not
the state could come across and say
you're not allowed to charge a fee
that's true we don't we don't know
and i've seen enough crazy laws some
towns are actually
already putting ordinance in place
charging for this
yeah and and ab seeking as well but
mary is 100 right with that the state
may
say hey you know what you can't do that
you know you can't do that
one two or three that's true too yeah
opening it up we're gonna have a mega
thing
this this one that's not in our
ordinance councilman ferry
i think to some extent the city can
control
the location if the state says
that well let's use liquor for example
that you can have three licenses
in the city of northfield based upon its
population
if that same analysis
arguably is used by the state we are not
able to trump the state's rules and
regulations by way of zoning
so we and we do not have any provisions
in the ordinance as drafted limiting
the number of licenses on the theory
that the state is going to establish
that
so i didn't want i didn't want if the
state trumps our legislation we can't
legislate over what the state says
so all the other towns that have proved
that i've had all this recommendation
already how many i don't know i don't
know
um and then just just so everybody is
clear
unless we formally opt out
of some or all of the license types
by adopting a quote unquote opt-out
ordinance
by august 21 we will be deemed
to have opted in for anything
that we didn't opt out of for a period
of five years
in other words if we do nothing right
it's permitted everywhere it's a
condition
no that's that's what our ordinance
we're saying he's saying we don't
if you do nothing it is a conditional
use of everything
except for a resident
if you do nothing you're deemed to have
opted in regardless of
whether it's a conditional use or a
permitted use you're deemed to have
opted
in and you are stuck with that decision
for a period of five years
uh conversely if you opt out
or prohibit certain activities
you can reverse that decision so in
other words you're stuck with the opt
in by doing nothing option
for five years if you opt out now
you could adopt the ordinance number
seven next month
so i'm saying all i'm saying i just want
that clarification known by councilman i
hope it's
clear because it's it gets confusing but
if you do nothing
or if you do nothing you're locked in
for five years
if you opt out now you can change it
next month or
in two weeks after that after you have
your next meeting
i just want that procedure known to this
council before you would act on seven or
eight
it just gives us the ability by the next
meeting
if more information becomes available um
did you mention that you uh had a
conversation with chief about this
did she did she spoke at the last
meeting
if we voted on this now it all it is we
both
we've both of them to discuss and we
vote on one of them at the next meeting
it has not passed yet it has it has to
be voted
it was only introduced
we did not introduce it at the last
meeting so
i'm asking to introduce it now
i don't see any positive reason to do
this
okay i think probably gammon is a good
example
you know gambling was in atlantic city
only in the beginning and the town vote
and uh they mismanaged it that's a shame
but now casinos are everywhere and all
of them are struggling
yes so first come get some last come
get left behind so you're going to cost
a ton of revenue
revenue is important but it's not the
only concern no that's true
absolutely but i i really think you're
overthinking this
and you know you see a boogeyman but
again i've seen
i've seen pot legal in there in various
states and it's
uh it's really another type of players
it's a place where people yeah they walk
in
they show their id it goes through a
machine they go in the back they buy
their stuff
they walk out and it's um it's it's just
another retail establishment
and uh alcohol on the other hand kills
people all the time
my both my father and my mother were
victims of trump
and uh yet um
floor and it will cost the city money if
that's all right i'm nearly um
again i'm bringing it for discussion to
make sure we evaluate it completely
that's all
i mean yeah we'll see what the state
come we'll see what the state comes back
with uh
but uh that said we'll we'll yeah
i mean if you talk about alcohol but we
don't know what's gonna happen i mean
people drive under the influence of
marijuana maybe they drive slower maybe
not
i don't know
maybe they veer maybe they still hit
somebody on the sidewalk
but
well and if you're legal yeah yeah
some communication from you know the
state of age
there's nothing and
that is my point because i just
again i fall back on the same answer the
first thing that came out
leaves me no confidence i'm not
encouraged
uh let's see okay the regular agenda
uh please address your agendas we'll uh
as we mentioned uh let's see okay the
approval of the minutes uh councilwoman
man
and councilman nuts
resolutions and that'll be
uh excluding 20s
it's it's just matching it excludes 126
and 128. uh
i would like councilman perry
and councilman deweys
the ordinances
[Music]
ordinance five and six
councilman notaro and councilman
smith
and ordinance eight
councilman smith and
councilman perry
payment of bills councilman duis
councilman butts
and meeting notices councilman nataro
mr president can i send a question just
procedurally from my office
yes and this is to all of council and
the solicitor
if we if ordinance 7 pass passes at the
next meeting
permitting the use in the regional
commercial zone
a business comes to my office and wants
to apply for a license what can they do
before the regulatory framework is in
place
so we're not up there welcome
we have to wait till then we have to
wait till the legislature so what is the
head start exactly i don't understand
i'm the i'm going to be the one
answering the questions
right so the state puts forth the rules
and then in
in if it's a two meeting month we could
pass an ordinance
i'm just i'm going to get the questions
i've already had questions about people
wanting to come to northfield and i say
we didn't adopt our ordinance yet
they're going to see our ordinance and
they're going to say now what do i do
you know
and will it still have to go to the
planning board mr perry yeah
okay thank you
okay at this time i'd like to open the
meeting to the public
anyone from the public wishing to speak
on any topic whatsoever
and i'll please ask you to to recognize
a five minute limit per speaker
you had your hand up first thank you for
waiting patiently for uh
so long it's been quite enlightening
are you going to come to more meetings
or less
i'm here tonight uh to share a comment
because a couple inside i'm sorry
uh could you give us your name and
address
okay i'm here tonight to share a couple
of insights
and look for solutions to the rental
property
at 31 northfield avenue
i grew up in that neighborhood
and wanted to change a mix
of mixed young family and retired people
you know just the community our
community
you know i grew up in that house
my family's owned and paid taxes in that
property since
for 67 years
and bought it in 1953. i'm the third
owner of my family
okay problem one is the speeding on our
street
we have a narrow street
and uh the residents for the
renters squatters or whatever they are
refuse to slow down
okay they were approached by numerous
people on my street
and they were told i'm not you're not my
father
mind your own business and go aft
yourself
okay problem two is the
inability to place trash in containers
with
lids to try to abate the rodent problem
that has
invaded my property
i'm right next door to it
since they moved the trash from where
it's been stored for 66 years
to my property
now we get to pick up after all
see see in the rats squirrels
and birds pick at the trash day after
day
and the mcdonald trucks and the mcdonald
cups you know it's just i'm really upset
very upset
visitors at this address have no problem
throwing their styrofoam dinner plates
and trash from mcdonald's
and every place else in town right on
the curb
and it sits there for weeks
or till the storm comes along and washes
it down to
another neighbor that picks it up
it's it's come to the point where my
wife has to tell the people
the renters or squatters or whatever
they are
hey tomorrow's trash day could you
please
put the trash out to the curb
last week
they put it out there unfortunately the
trashman didn't pick up all the trash
so that's they what they did missed
stayed out there for us for for my
neighborhood
even though they took the cans to the
back
this this is what i'm dealing with here
very serious
problem three is the inability of these
runners to stay off my property
they have a basketball hoop that says
own my property
with a chair so they can adjust the goof
height
on my property
and they use my house as
the out of bounds
yesterday after
the residents and friends played ball
you know i go out and there's
trash on my yard
you know and they think nothing of it
they think nothing
it's unbelievable
our interactions with these neighbors
have been courteous but
we are disappointed over the transient
nature of the residence
last week i got to witness an arrest
which i'm sure you all know about
of course come and go in all hours of
the day
last night i was up at 3 30 in the
morning here comes the car up
guy jumps out of the car runs in the
house
now what's going on here no
this is the north that i know
i'm going to let you all know make sure
you go by there tonight after the
meeting
it's the fourth half of on the left from
shore road
some nice grill in the front you know
they like to grill right in the front
fire pit in the front once in a while
the whole the whole deal there
that's that's we got going for some
northfield avenue
hopefully you can uh you know i've sent
pictures to the city
i've talked to the police hopefully you
can uh
mitigate this situation for many oh by
the way you missed a great fire
displayed it firework display there the
other day
had the street completely blocked thank
you
thank you sorry sorry for what you're
dealing with
my name is christine gordon and i live
at 101
northfield avenue i'm a neighbor of john
i've lived on that street for 25 years
and i've been in this
area born in larry's in linwood lived in
northern when i became an adult
okay that house he's talking about is in
foreclosure no one's responsible tenants
do what they want
they have no one to answer to trash and
party says spill out on the street
loud cursing and racial slurs they
scream at each other on the street
feeding cars in and out constantly we've
asked them to slow down because we have
children on the street my children are
30 i don't have little ones but you know
i have a nephew that was killed by a car
i do not want to go through this again
okay
spinning cars in and out constantly
traffic
in and out that is conducive to drug
dealing
the cars leave every 15 minutes they
come in every 20 minutes they're in and
out of in and out
right fireworks out of control on the
fourth of july
here's the pictures of them okay they
set them up
like a foot apart 50 of them lit them
all and shot them up in the middle of
the street i thought i was in beirut in
the 70s or something it was insane
they're the rockets they're not allowed
to have for hours they went over top of
our houses
landed on the roof i mean people other
people are shooting off
these were ridiculous these were
thousands of dollars where
this was like on the market for the
fireworks
that's all i have to say about but no
one has it
no one has there's no nobody can do
anything about it because of the
pandemic
and no one owns this house it's not like
you can call a landlord it's like in
foreclosure
so it's like we're being held captive by
these people
everybody minds their own business they
help each other out we have
you know the whole street comes together
all the time now we have this and
they're nice to our face but they'll
tell the kids
like i'm saying 24 year old kids that
are the same age as some of them
they go up and they say why don't you
slow down like the people ask you and
they go we don't want to
so it's really like we're living in a
health for like the last year
that's all i have to say sorry thank you
on boyd 117 northfield avenue
i just like to echo a lot of what mr
connor and miss gordon said
it's become a real nuisance
and a hazard this has been going on for
a year and it's gotten considerably
worse
um i was the one that was told i was not
the father when
the first time i stopped them and i
stopped them i mean i'm at
117 right at the intersection i'm
blessed not to live next door to him
like mr khan ever does
but they're sometimes very respectful
the first time i talked to him oh yes
okay
they had young children in their house
and the day this happened i had my two
granddaughters a nine-year-old
and six-year-old riding bikes thank
goodness not in the street
but on the sidewalk but
at any rate um we've talked to them
we've stopped them sometimes they're
very courteous
other times is up yours doesn't matter
now like mr carnever said we
grew up on the street we've lived there
my family for since 1974
and we've never as this court said we've
never had anything like this
you know it's a it's a tight kid
tight-knit street community everybody
looks after everybody else's
situation so
honestly and i know sometimes
miss gordon brought up the fireworks and
so did mr khan over
i got to tell you folks when those
fireworks went off and my windows
rattled
i thought for a moment it was 1967 and i
was back in vietnam
all right so i think that's about all i
have to say
i don't know i've talked with the chief
they have
some additional controls and watch the
street
but like miss gordon said
they come and go all times
they're out within half an hour they're
back
and not and after you talk to them
it's like okay we'll wait till we get to
your house
and then you will floorboard okay
what you know it was said it's a narrow
street with barking on both sides
somebody's going to get hurt one of
these days
it's going to be a shame okay
thank you very much thank you thank you
couch president may i just add a few
comments
yes um i've had conversations with mrs
gordon
and i've driven down there most recently
as a result of mrs gordon's uh concerns
and complaints
uh first of all regarding the fireworks
the house is located
a little bit closer towards shore road
and mr boyd is all the way down at the
end of the street
so these fireworks uh you know to reach
that
sound level all the way down there and
and rattle his windows
it was a pretty it must have been a very
powerful scene all the pictures they
were
yes they're large you know i've i've
spoken to the chief
and he has sent the captain steiner key
there
i've spoken to the zoning official i've
spoken to our
city clerk's office and let me just say
it is deplorable and i really sympathize
and
what these individuals are going through
let alone other people in this
neighborhood
i don't know what the answer is and mrs
gordon uh
did point out one thing that you know
the house is in foreclosure
uh there is nobody that's taken full
responsibility
uh and um because of
the recent con code with uh 19
as far excuse me as in terms of how one
can be evicted
you know these people can live there it
seems like forever
and it's not fair and i don't know what
the city can do
you know as far as you know i don't know
if our solicitor has some example or
some examples or
solutions but these people are going
and excuse my french are going through
hell
over there i i can certainly comment on
that
to the extent that property is in
foreclosure
um and i'm assuming that's the case
based upon the representations of the
public tonight
an eviction process cannot
so in other words they have to complete
the foreclosure process
get a judgment of foreclosure from the
foreclosure court
then and only then can they commence an
eviction process
because then and only then do they
technically own the property
so i don't know how far they are in the
foreclosure process they may be complete
and just subject to the eviction
moratorium
where they may be plotting through the
eviction process
uh waiting to get that final judgment
yes they're renting the people an llc
owns the house they're in foreclosure
right so the llc is in foreclosure
the llc is getting paid rent they're
collecting the rent while the bank is
commencing the foreclosure and not
getting any money from the owner right
nothing nothing that the city can do per
se about that
that goes through the civil court uh
through the foreclosure court and then
through the landlord tenant court
uh the other things you know like uh
you know trespass with a basketball
court or
littering uh or speeding you know all of
those things i think you've already
spoken with
chief newman uh you know those would be
all issues of
uh you know law enforcement that i'm
sure
chief newman and his and his officers
are dealing with
uh and if there are code violations
you know we would have to send mr ditalo
out to review the property and see if
there are code violations
even if there are code violations though
the landlord is going to get noticed
the landlord doesn't care because he's
in foreclosure
mary do we still do a community champion
yes we do but i don't believe this pro
this property is yet in foreclosure
according to the records
we did check community champions you do
not believe this in fourth quarter it is
it is what in rem is on the way whatever
that
first step is um
yeah i mean i mean i hate to say this
but i mean to the extent that you want
to find out where the property stands in
terms of foreclosure you may have to
retain an attorney
or you know do that research yourself i
don't think that's anything the city
would ever get involved in the
enforcement mechanisms the speeding and
those things
that is something that the city can
certainly try to help you with any
code violations but again the code
violations are a little difficult
because you have a non-responsive llc
but
you may pull them in the municipal court
and you know
has there been do we do a yearly rental
registration on that property
it's legal and and do we inspect it
every year
every two years every two years we go
over okay
so you know chances are he's probably
not even getting in
and probably not even it's a legal
rental in every
respect as far as the city is concerned
uh mr ditalo has spoken with the the
owner of the property
who it's in the process of being
foreclosed on um i believe the owner is
equally frustrated
it is a very difficult situation and let
me just add that uh you know these
individuals
and i've spoken to another neighbor are
fearful of any type of retaliation
i mean that's how bad it is
the owner can take steps to evict
murphy's got a moratorium you can
probably do that but there's a
moratorium yeah right right
i don't know if he's getting paid or not
but uh you can't expect for a
non-payment or rent right now i think
they just
extended that moratorium for i don't
know if these people
are you know under the you know where
they are in terms of the income bracket
but i believe if you're under the
poverty threshold they just extended it
to december
so as mary indicates a tough situation
for everybody
to the extent that there are criminal to
the extent that there is criminal
conduct
trespass harassment any of that stuff
you don't necessarily need
the police department to you know write
those summonses you can sign
citizens complaints at which point
they're reviewed by the judge for
probable cause
if the judge finds probable cause the
summons will issue
and those people will be summoned into
court
the best advice i can give yes
uh you know a tenant that assaults
somebody
or harasses somebody uh if there are
code violations the owner would be
responsible
but i mean i don't think you know just
hypothetically if they
you know harass mr boyd every day for
three weeks i'm not sure
at the grounds for eviction in other
words they could
they could have a cause of action for
eviction other than non-payment rent
that's a really difficult thing to do
right now especially with with the coza
protocol
but in that situation mr boyd could
certainly file harassment complaint
and you know maybe get some relief in a
municipal court
is
continuously for hours right and blew up
like
yeah the next day or whenever he hit
somebody on fire
and the kid went to the emergency room
and they had a final report because he
had second degree burns on his arms and
the legs and everything and then that's
when he turned this kid in he went to
jail
for overnight first yeah he's back
for a sleepover
um
so um
um
so that's the county criminal court as
opposed to a local municipality
where more minor criminal violations can
be handled
county handles the more significant
stuff county can remand it back to the
northfield court
but that may or may not happen
well you know i hate to say it but what
i'm going through now
you know there's actually some good kids
in that house but it's like
one adult
a week these people have to produce
seven
a week a week
every week
so you can imagine how many people are
at this place
[Music]
that's part of it there are but you're
not supposed to put seven cans down
they're not there's there's no
there's no lease there's no i mean i
imagine there's no lease and if there is
the extra people seem like just friends
of those so they're not on
they're not legal right they're not
legal renters apparently because they
couldn't have that many people living in
the home
where the landlord is not even there but
when i was a landlord
i even properties when i was in my 20s
and i ran into that
i visited them a couple times a week i
had a landscaper cutting because i knew
they wanted
to do it and i made sure it was in order
all the time
these landlords should be held
responsible and if something goes on
like that they should be
fined and you know and arrested well as
as mr fisendo was saying you have a
landlord that's in foreclosure
they're not going to be they're not
responsive it's just
they already owe the bank the price of
the house a ticket doesn't
a ticket affects you you care these
people obviously don't
right unfortunately but that's you know
i mean
that's it yeah they don't care they
don't care if there's trash all over the
street
they don't care that it's all over their
lawn they don't care if the trash gets
to the curb
they don't care at all
you know we've mentioned to them you
know we have
children and grandchildren on the street
could you please slow down
could you drive responsibly oh sure
and then the next day
they'll come by after you spoken to them
they'll idle down
and then floorboard right up to the end
of the street
like 50 miles it's 50 or 60 miles an
hour
i mean obviously obviously we'll just
need to talk about this again some more
outside the meeting but i mean we'll do
i mean
what we have the ability to do yeah it's
a horrible situation i
i agree but it won't go
unanswered i mean we'll do it
but we're not going to ignore it at that
prompt is there anyone in zoom
yeah um so we have mr david goldstein
who says why can't we have the home
condemned as a health hazard
mr goldstein would you please state your
name and address in the chat for me
um if it's unsanitary and dirty and
causing rats to be there the property
should be condemned as a health hazard
how about enforcing litter codes and
finding bad people hit them in the
pocketbook
and he's 116 dolphin avenue thank you mr
goldstein thank you
i'm sorry i couldn't hear you can
something like that just
you have to have mr totally go out and
probably the county would have to get
involved i think the
county had yeah the health department
the county health department will deal
with the rats
and they will come out have they
reported the rats to the county ask
pardon me mr conover
does anyone does anyone know if the rat
problem has been reported to the county
health department at all
inspector but he never got that
rodents are the county yeah you would
need to notify the county board of
health sir
the thing we're trying to do here is
cost them the money not
cost us yeah of course of course
well no that's what we're saying is that
we can it can be reported to the county
health department if there's
if there are if there is a rap problem
then then it's a county
issue where we there's more support to
try to
because that usually does happen in
municipalities when they get a complaint
a wrap
and take pictures take pictures
would be a lot of times it goes to the
land or the homeowner and then it goes
nowhere
but that could be a trap that could be
another health hazard
is there anyone else in zoom who would
like to make a comment during the public
comment portion of the meeting
um i don't there's nobody making a
comment okay uh
seeing no one else public session is now
closed
uh i'm sorry hold on just a second it is
now open
mr goldstein how about contacting action
news to do a story
thank you mr goldstein
okay we will reclose the public session
and uh do i have a motion to adjourn the
work session
thank you all in favor aye
any opposed
okay we'll take a brief minute
and like two minutes and then we'll
start the works the
regular session
[Music]
my heart
this is
good evening this is the regular meeting
of northfield city council
july 13th of 2021 this meeting was
properly advertised in accordance with
public law 1975 chapter 231
in the press of atlantic city on january
9th of this year
due to social distancing requirements
related to coveted 19 there are limited
seats for in-person attendance by
members of the public this evening
for this reason the meeting is also
being presented simultaneously as a
remote public meeting live streamed
using zoom conferencing service
and in accordance with the governor's
executive orders and the open public
meetings act
zoom meeting participants can dial in by
telephone and listen to the proceedings
or they can access the meeting using a
web browser and be able to view and
listen
instructions on how members of the
public could reserve one of the limited
seats as well as how they can access
zoom have been made available on the
municipal website and were published in
the press of atlantic city
full text of the public meeting notice
has been posted at the entrance to the
municipal building
and includes zoom instructions
information on where to find the meeting
agenda and relevant documents
as well as instructions on how members
of the public could submit comments in
advance of tonight's meeting
for those participating via zoom all
participants will be muted upon entry to
the meeting
web browser participants will not be
able to share their screens or see the
camera view of anyone other than the
host
which is the city of northfield zoom
participants wishing to exercise their
right to participate during the public
comment portion of the meeting
should wait until the specific
announcement is made to open the public
comment period
at this time one by one any telephone
users will be asked to identify
themselves
and will be unmuted to permit commentary
for web browser participants comments or
questions may be submitted by the chat
function
but will not be acknowledged outside the
designated public comment portion of the
meeting
chat users must also provide his or her
name and address for the record in order
to be heard
any written comments submitted in
advance would be read aloud and
addressed during the public comment
portion
and this evening there were none we have
a flag salute led by mayor chow please
please rise um excuse me
i pledge allegiance to the flag of the
united states of america
and to the republic for which it stands
one nation
under god indivisible with liberty and
justice
ladies and gentlemen committees mayor
excuse me city council members
let us remember and keep in our prayers
those serving in our nation's armed
forces
and let us like thousands throughout
this country extend our condolences to
the lives that were lost in the collapse
of the
high-rise condo in florida and also
those that have passed away
recently that our city council have
noted
thank you please be seated
roll call mr deweese mrs madden
mr notaro here mr perry mr smith
mr otts mr palestine mr chow
here mr president
thank you i get approval over the
minutes please
all in favor any opposed
mayor's report thank you council
president um first of all
i think i did send an information out to
all council members
but i just want to make a note i
attended a webinar with regards to
implications of oprah as it applies to
social media
i know some of us have attended a
workshop with regards to being wary
about how we use social media not only
uh as a city function but also as our
private owned
uh communications uh there is
potential litigation that uh comments
that we make
uh that can be taken and be exposed to
oprah requests so again i would just uh
forewarn everyone about
your usage of social media and i'm sure
that
if anyone has any questions they can
certainly either contact
jif or contact our city solicitor as to
the implications in weary
i regret and i did send the resignation
letter of our senior class
ii officer he is leaving unfortunately i
could not make a commitment
um as we had discussed during budget
meeting
as to his possible
of hiring another officer but
i wish him well um and i would just make
a comment that
you know we've been talking to chief
newman that we will be looking for a
replacement
but i know that at one point in time
during the budget hearing
councilman perry had expressed concerns
as to what costs
that were involved in the hiring of a
class two officers such as training
and and schooling and the time
of uh of what we need to advertise so
we will have to go through that process
again hopefully
we can minimize the costs uh finding
someone that has already been trained
and is available but i do want to extend
my
thanks to that officer uh and i wish him
well
in his new venture with hamilton
township
i also sent to council with regards to
some concerns about and you heard one of
them about the sound
ordinance being enforced
i will only just say that several years
ago i did look into that
and in terms of reviewing with other
municipalities how
they enforce their sound ordnance or
noise ordinance
it's not an easy task that involves
certification
yearly certification and finding someone
that would be available at all times of
the night
it was a very frustrating thing as far
as some of the municipalities but
it is a concern and i know that with the
fourth of july
my office tends to get a lot of
complaints because
of the fireworks that are being used so
something that councils should be aware
of and the council wishes to pursue it
i'd be more than happy to
share my information from the
municipalities that i had interviewed
with regards to their noise ordinance
uh councilman us did point about uh in
the planning board some new businesses
and i'm happy to say that despite
uh the covet 19 as far as
the effects of some of the businesses
here in norfolk we have lost some
but i'm happy to say that we have gained
uh
some and hopefully that will be the
upstream
but we all know that uh and i discussed
some of the new businesses
that uh finding uh staff and employees
is a very difficult task you know i i
i just want something that is very
strange as you don't always see is that
some of these businesses have signs out
there and they're actually advertising
the the salary wages so that's a really
strange thing
to see that you know so but we are
experiencing that
uh as far as some of the businesses in
northfield but i i have the utmost
confidence that some of these businesses
are doing well
i want to take this opportunity as all
of you know that our code enforcement
zone official mike d'italia will be
leaving us at the
end of this month july and i want to
thank him
publicly for the many years of service
that he has given to the city of
northfield
and i know on behalf of city council and
myself we wish him well
in his retirement uh we finally got our
new uh vehicle after over
a year and uh the pop
again uh i'm going to play it on the
covet crisis
uh but if i was told by the one of the
dealerships that
if we're looking at the purchasing or
leasing one next year
it's going to be tough because covet has
taken its toll
on these manufacturers and these
agencies so that's something to be
considered here
i do want to take the opportunity to
congratulate the mothers league
our first baby born for this year and
miss fourth of july
and that by the way is shannon
campbell's daughter
for their nomination as well as
receiving the award
from these positions here also
and also councilman uh natara pointed
out regarding
of the conley run i will tell you that
we had
well and i don't know the official
number but we had well
over 200 participants this year
so it was very well attended and i want
to thank jay
hurley who was part of the organizer he
did an
outstanding job and talking to everyone
they thoroughly enjoyed it was a
beautiful day and
i know councilman nataro was in the
event there and running
along with brian were you in there also
yeah
that's right you were there you
were you were in the old man section
right
no i'm i'm kidding you uh but
it was well attended and i i thank the
organizers for that
and on that same note i do want to
extend my personal thanks
not only to councilman de taro and all
the individuals that were involved
in formulating and organizing the parade
especially joan brenner and and her
husband david
uh they they did an outstanding job and
and and i heard nothing but kudos
uh as councilman utz pointed out the
people were very happy
with the event and we i think it was
well received and thank you to the
volunteer northfield
volunteer fire department for the hot
dogs they were delicious and
it was a great treat uh and lastly i
just want to
congratulate all our northfield
junior high and and high school congrat
graduates
i i had the opportunity to participate
in the northfield
community school graduation at mainland
very well attended
and i wish them all well and i know on
behalf of city council we wish them well
in their future educational so that is
all i have thank you very much council
president and members of city council
thank you mayor uh the engineers report
uh thank you council president um the
2020 road program the contractor was
supposed to start back up
tomorrow on the 14th i got an email
today that will be starting on
thursday the reason we waited for some
settlement period we had some issues
with
the water company moving the line and a
couple sewer ladders were installed
under cedar bridge so
we're above we're beyond the settlement
period so they will be back on
thursday to move forward finish the
project
and get everything wrapped up so the
second thing is we submitted a grant
application
for uh the reconstruction of oak avenue
uh we're having one issue with that
there's a resolution tonight
by council to authorize the submission
of
this grant application the state have
implemented new program called
pmrs which is project management
resource
system to make it easy for us to submit
documents to state unfortunately we are
we've been trying to
log on the system we can because the
city of northfield is not
listed and i think mary's been back and
forth with
administrators i'm not sure if this has
got resolved yet
so i emailed him again today yeah so
without them putting our municipality we
cannot
create an account so we can submit
documents
and the deadline is the july 31st
so we're just working through it and
at this point if we don't get any
results i think we'll just
do it the old-fashioned way we'll submit
the resolutions
hard copies and contact the i would
contact
vijay shri from the dot and explain them
this is the issue we're having we need
to get this resolved so
that's that's where we are with this so
hopefully this will get uh resolved next
couple weeks and
okay we won't miss our grant application
one
last thing council president signed my
report um
we have hired arawak to do some patches
for some work that was done for public
works uh we hired them to do three
patches we
council authorized i think ten thousand
dollars to do the work
and county right-of-way uh what happens
when they were out there to do the work
uh public works added one more patch
which is a large patch on zion and
uh mill i believe that's the area that
had the initial sinkhole
so they did the work and while they were
doing the work the county came out
and they insisted that they change the
scope and originally they were just
going to
take the the top coat and put a couple
inches
county made them take it out and put in
six inches
so that added that added to the cost so
i'm negotiating with the contract to the
final number but i would
the i don't know if i need council
approval when we determine the value on
it
so it could be paid so i'm not sure i
just need some direction
well uh do we have an approximate cost
uh
well i mean he actually asked for 20
an extra 10 000. i said no so we're
negotiating the number to see how it's
going to work out at this point i need
like bottom line number with him it's
going to have to be a resolution of
council
okay and if it's more than 175 we'll
need them to do a pay-to-play disclosure
because it wasn't bid
i got you okay all right so when i get
the final number i'll bring it back to
council let me know
we can move it forward okay thank you
see the problem it's our job that's uh
our sword line so
yeah unfortunately
right and then the traffic also they
wanted traffic
control they want traffic safety that
everything anytime you add
two people to a job you add cost to it
so
council president may i ask uh something
for romney
um romney and i know this is not our our
jurisdiction but i did receive
a concern or complaint uh someone who
lives right here on shore road by
near the synagogue yeah they said that
the the county had done some repair or
paving
and i don't know if it's the manhole or
something like that that they said it's
sticking a little bit high
uh two spots is would you mind con i
don't know who to contact the county
uh to see if they can look at it all
right it's it's do you have an address
if you can send me the the address of
where the complaint is
no they just said it was right that one
section right there so i don't know i
you know um
they didn't they keep i will call the
county engineer's office so i'm not sure
without having an address it's gonna be
a little bit difficult for you to
determine which i realized again
is it onshore road onshore road yes
yes that's it ridgewood thank you thank
you i will contact the engineering
office and let him know yeah thank you
very much thank you
on that on that we were speaking about
so there is no
the county has no responsibility for any
of that bill
uh no on the other no because that is
our
sewer system and we had to do some
repair work so we opened the road
okay county has nothing to do with the
so the county inspector showed up he
says no no no no
you need to take six more inches and
give me this much then
add the time and material to the job
okay
thank you thank you any other questions
for uh
listen uh
oh yes what happens with that they're
coming back to the job site we are not
able to buy
or to find the same people which we have
the seepage that was put in the street
was substandard it was only a four inch
thick
and i won't recommend putting the same
thing back in because that is not the
proper way so it has to be at least six
inches thick
and reinforced properly uh they're not
able to find
a supplier that can make this and if we
are going to custom make it might take
another
two three months so the solution would
be is to have
two e inlets put together put in the
street that will give us enough volume
and that would
replace what they had before so that's
one of the things they have to be
doing when they come back to the job
site
there's one thing mary asked me to do
which i dropped the ball on so i have to
go back on it
just to compare sections to the
ordinances
which yeah mary remind me about that
couple times what i have to do
you know we'll try to get it done for
next meeting
um council president i'm sorry i forgot
to mention
if i may just spare you don't uh john
good john let's go i just want to
introduce
our seo class ii john skol who is a
resident of
northfield he's one of our newer
class two officer john i just want to
introduce you to city council
uh as our new seo there and uh
thank you very much for coming here
thank you john thank you
thank you council president you're
welcome
uh at this time we'll open the meeting
to the public anyone from the public
wishing to speak
on any topic please observe a
five-minute limit per speaker
foreign
there were nobody had um indicated they
wished to comment so i did
type in there giving them one last
opportunity we'll just give it a moment
okay
nope i do not believe anyone wishes to
comment okay
uh seeing that there's no one wishing to
speak
we will now close the public session uh
the resolutions
all matters listed under the consent
agenda are considered to be routine in
nature and having been reviewed by
council will be enacted by one motion
any item may be removed from the consent
agenda at the request of any council
member
and if so removed will be treated as a
separate matter any items
requiring expenditure are supported by a
certificate
of availability of funds
the executive session will be held at
the end of the meeting and we will come
back in the public session to make a
comment for the record after the
executive session has concluded
any vote may be made on subjects
discussed
will be made in public is there anyone
wishing to pull anything from the
consent
agenda
that's what we're taking off 128 correct
126
and 1 and 28 are are taken out thank you
okay do i have a motion for the consent
agenda
thank you roll call
all in favor of voting by consent agenda
on resolutions 118 through 125 and 127.
any opposed motion carries thank you
i almost made it
uh motion for the to
pass the skin sensor
[Music]
ah we'll call mr dewees mrs nabin
mr notaro yes mr perry mr smith
mr rutz mr palastina yes motion carries
for the adoption of the consent agenda
ordinance 5-20-21
it's public hearings and then we will
vote
i'd like to make a motion to move to
adopt
ordinance 5 20 20 21.
ordinance 5 of 2021 is a bond ordinance
appropriating 890 thousand dollars in
authorizing the issuance of 845
500 in bonds or notes of the city of
northfield
for various improvements or purposes
authorized to be undertaken by the city
of northfield
in the county of atlantic state of new
jersey this is the second reading there
will be a public hearing after the
matter will after which the matter will
be considered for final adoption
the ordinance is presently posted in the
lobby of city hall as well as on the
municipal website where it has been
since introduction
any member of the public who requested a
copy of the ordinance was provided with
one
free of charge in the office of the
municipal clerk
and if adopted this evening the
ordinance will be published one final
time in the press of atlantic city with
the required established statement
on july 17th of 2021.
public hearing on ordinance 5-20-21 is
now open to any member of the public
wishing to speak
on ordinance 5 20 21 alone
i don't see anyone wishing to speak
since no one wishes to speak the public
section is now closed
any further questions from council
the established statement is required
under bond law
and that um when we publish we advise
the public that they have 20 days to
protest the ordinance
it's a manner to do it by petition
before it becomes final and you can
actually spend the money
[Laughter]
i showed him i made him ask that no i
didn't
good answer any further questions on
honor okay roll call
mr dewise mrs madden yes mr notaro yes
mr perry
mr smith yes mr rutz mr palastina yes
mission carriage for the adoption of
ordinance five of 2021.
ordinance six is also public
the public hearing uh we will vote after
public has an opportunity
i'd like to make a motion to move to
adopt
ordinance 6 20 21.
ordinance of 22 is an ordinance creating
a new chapter 39 of the municipal code
of the city of northfield entitled
city of northfield municipal alliance
this is the second reading there will be
a public hearing after which the matter
will be considered for final adoption
since introduction the ordinance has
been posted in full in the lobby of city
hall as well as on the municipal website
and any member of the public who
requested a copy was provided with one
free of charge in the office of the
municipal clerk
if approved this evening it will be
published a final time in the press of
atlantic city on july 17th
okay we will now open
ordinance 62-2021 where the public
anyone wish from the public wishing to
speak on that ordinance and that
ordinance alone
[Music]
and no one wishing to speak sir okay
public session is now closed
anyone on council have any questions or
comments for
ordinance 6 20 21
um i believe dawn has some suggestions
um there's requirements in the alliance
guidelines as to what members of the
community you should include
any other comments
roll call
mr deweese mrs madden yes mr notaro
yes mr perry mr smith mr rutz mr
palastina yes
motion carriage for the adoption of
ordinance 6 of 2021
uh just real quickly on coordinates
eight
uh in my packet i have page five six is
there a sixth page
there is
anybody else missing page six of six
four stairs it didn't double side yeah
oh dear
yeah all right
um can we take a brief recess
please nobody talk and i'll go make
copies
okay
[Music]
that would be nice
i'm gonna find a loophole
just take it off
i don't think we'd heard about that
we're not only saving paper we're saving
ink
so we're not only saving paper we're
saving ink
they did their work
nice analogy you know what
yeah yeah
yeah thank you
so
rry everybody
i hurt myself up while i was in there
sorry
uh from our meeting agenda
okay i'm so sorry everyone the copies
were not double-sided they are now
double-sided and have been distributed
you ready fire when you
uh do i have a motion to introduce
ordinance 8-21
aid of 2021 is an ordinance by the city
of northfield in the county of atlantic
new jersey prohibiting the operation of
any class of cannabis business within
its geographical boundaries
and adding section 215-151 b
16. of the city of norfolk municipal
code
this is the introduction there will be
no public input it will be published in
the present atlantic city on july 17th
of 2021
the ordinance is presently posted in
full on the municipal website as well as
in the lobby of city hall
any member of the public who wishes to
have a copy of the ordinance between now
and the public hearing can obtain one
free of charge in the office of the
municipal clerk
the matter will be taken up for a second
reading there will be a public hearing
and final consideration on august 10th
of 2021
uh roll call
absolutely i have two questions one why
is seven dad 2021 on tonight's agenda
wasn't tonight's supposed to be a second
reading
it was introduced because of the
referral to the planning board they had
35 days to respond
that 35 days took us beyond today so it
was slated for
next month okay this is my second
question how old will be time
to meet the august 21st deadline that's
introduced tonight
and then the next meeting is on the 10th
of august so there's only
two and another meeting when will final
adoption happen
august 10th is it mayor yes will be the
final adoption and because we're not
making any changes to the zoning
ordinance it doesn't need to be referred
and we'll have both at that point and
then we will pick one
obviously to move forward yeah
these are these are simultaneously just
this is just
so we have to pick one this
is just so we have the option up to the
last minute
right just a month it's a safety month
it's a safety net if nothing else
any other comments
okay roll call
mr deweese yes mrs madden
mr notaro yes mr perry yeah
mr smith yes mr ott
mr palastina yes that is five in the
affirmative two
[Laughter]
um procedurally because i did not finish
announcing the results mr perry can
change his vote
um so once again that was four in the
affirmative three in the negative motion
carries for the introduction of
ordinance eight of 2021.
payment bills oh wait nobody can you
give me
can you give me one second absolutely
executive anyway
thank you all good do we need to go to
executive first
uh you can do payment bills and we'll do
executive blast okay
payment bills you
make a motion for payment bills of 2 991
474 dollars and 14 cents second
roll call oh any questions
thank you roll call mr dewise mrs madden
yes mr notaro mr perry mr smith
mr rutz mr paulistina yes motion cars
for payment of bills
how we can do meeting notices now yep
uh our next city council meeting is
august 10th
uh 6 p.m work session uh
regular session immediately filing thank
you
i'm going to call fire to come up and
then i'll make my statement
excellent
okay we're ready thank you
the executive session of council which
is resolution
120 gosh which one is it
125 of 2021 thank you so much is a
resolution providing for an executive
session not open to the public in
accordance with the provisions of the
new jersey open public meetings act
which is njsa 10 colon 4-12 b7
regarding matters covered under the
attorney-client privilege this was just
adopted under the consent agenda
we are required to set forth as much
information as possible for this
for the public as to the subject matter
to be discussed as well as provide for
them the amount of time that can be
expected to elapse before the non-public
minutes can be disclosed
um i will defer to the solicitor for
that comment but for the benefit of
those participating via zoom
once the executive session does begin i
will be pausing the video
the audi the recording will stop and
the audio will be muted once the council
resumes public session
audio will be turned back on as will the
video feed and the meeting will begin
recording once again
and a statement will be made by the
solicitor for the public as to what
transpired
so mr fasenda if you would make that
comment please thank you as authorized
by resolution 125-2001 at this time the
city
council for the city of north vietnam
entered into an executive session not
open to the general public in accordance
with the provisions of the new jersey
open public meetings act
matters to be discussed are matters
covered under the attorney-client
privilege
particularly concerning potential
matters of public
safety council will keep minutes of the
executive session as required by law
which will be approved by the council
and made promptly available for public
inspection when required
permitted by law at this time that time
frame for the release of those minutes
is unknown
uh when the executive session is
complete
the council will return and the official
action will be taken at that time
and at a minimum a statement will be
read into the record
we will remain in council chambers for
this executive session
if someone could please close the doors
okay
i'm not messing with each other
don't like me
mr fasenda we are back thank you uh the
council for the city of northgate
concluded this executive session
authorized by resolution 125-2001
uh matters to discuss where issues
potential issues of public safety
requiring attorney-client privilege and
confidentiality
minutes of the executive session were
kept as required by law which will be
approved and made available for public
inspection when required and permitted
at this time the
do i have a motion to adjourn this
meeting
second anymore all in favor
aye aye please thank you
thank you everyone thank you
very much
that time i'm 15.