Transcript for Piscataway Council meeting on March 6 2018


Note: Transcripts are generated by rev.ai and may not be fully accurate. Please listen to the recording (below) if you feel any text is inaccurate.

Speaker 0     00:00:00    To the public. Are there any comments regarding consent? Number seven, agenda items. Item number seven, consent agenda for efficiency. Items have been consolidated into a consent agenda to be voted on together. The materials fees items have been distributed in council in advance of the meeting at this time. Are there any items that the council would like removed for the consent and agenda to be discussed? Loaded on separately. Jeff? Motion. Motion. Do have a second?  
Speaker 1     00:00:28    Second.  
Speaker 0     00:00:30    Could you please the  
Speaker 1     00:00:31    Council? Lord? Yes. Councilman Cahn? Yes. Council? Yes. Council Haw? Yes. Council Murray? Yes. Council President mcc?  
Speaker 0     00:00:42    Yes. Thank you. Item number eight, are there any announcements or comments from the officials? Councilman, Bullard, Councilman?  
Speaker 1     00:00:50    No. Thank  
Speaker 0     00:00:51    You. Councilman. Your Honor, at this time, Councilman haw. Council Frank, I Mayor. Okay. At this time I'd like to open it up for some additional comments.  
Speaker 1     00:01:06    Yes. If I make council president last week, unfortunately, I, I was able to lie to late, was on fire call. However, there was some comments made at the meeting in regards to the EMS services and I'd like to have Chief, chief and Lieutenant Mo come up with today if you want. Jim, if you, you down there Chief, want come up. Thank you. To address some of the comments that were made at the last meeting, like some of the squad, one of the squad folks. So  
Speaker 0     00:01:39    Thank you. If you could, if you just wanna quick,  
Speaker 1     00:01:48    A quick  
Speaker 0     00:01:48    Reminder, if you could just maybe introduce yourselves and just press the button so that they can, the audience can actually hear you and we can record what you're stating. You're speaking.  
Speaker 1     00:01:58    I, I, first of all, I want to thank Chief Ell and Chief Lieutenant Mosher for coming here today. 'cause I thought it's important that the council member know, and I know, do know what transpired with some of the questions about the squads. I do think what was said at the meeting last night was not factually correct and I think the department's gonna lay, lay that to rest  
Speaker 0     00:02:27    And, and Mayor just for the record at the last meeting, correct? Not last. Okay, thanks. Yes. Okay. Chief,  
Speaker 1     00:02:34    Can everybody hear me do this? Correct. Okay. Good evening. I'm Chief Scott Carmell from the,  
Speaker 0     00:02:42    Yes,  
Speaker 1     00:02:42    Sorry. Your command. Okay. I'm Chief Scott Carmel from the County Police Department. Mayor, thank you for asking us to come tonight. The Mayor and I discussed, there were some questions raised or some possible facts brought up at the meeting last week about DMS services at the, in the Township. The lieutenant and I are here tonight to tell you, rest assured, there are not issues with EMS services in this Township. We take public safety and the safety of our citizens very seriously. I would comment that any claims to the contrary are false at worse and disingenuous at best. So please rest assured, the police department and the EMS services are functioning very well in this Township. A quick comment on a couple things. This is not any criticism in any way, shape, or form of our volunteers or our rescue squads, but I would submit to you and I will state with the facts to back it up, that the police, by virtue of the fact that we are on the road 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, are the first ones on scene. Because of that, many, many more lives are saved because the police are there. I will give you some statistics quickly for your edification. These are a list compiled by Lieutenant Hackler in our record. Section of the first one is for what I would call CPR and a ED automatic defibrillator saves that by the police department. From 2015 to 2017, there were five in 2015. Seven people saved in 2016 and three last year bring a total of 15 saved by the police department alone. Who were the first ones on scene there? Scott, can  
Speaker 2     00:04:42    I just interrupt for one second? Because we should recognize that Lieutenant Moser was one of those individuals who came to the scene. Did  
Speaker 1     00:04:49    CPR successfully station, correct? That's absolutely correct. Thank you for pointing that out. Also. Now, unfortunately, in today's day and age with the opioid epidemic taking hold in this not only this state, but this Township, we have seen great increase in responses to overdoses by the police department. So some facts for you on this one. In 2015, there were 23 overdose calls responded to by our police officers. 10 were at, were confirmed heroin use six of those 10, we had to depl deploy the Nelaxone or the Narcan spray, which is used now to counteract the effects of the heroin. And in 20 15, 0 calls resulted in death. So six outta six people were saved. In 2016, we had 29 overdose calls responded to by police officers. And 20 out of the 22 people were saved by the police, the actions of the police officers. And last year we have 32 overdose calls responded to by officers 18 of which were confirmed heroin users, 13 outta the 16 that been Alex almost deployed, were saved by the police officers.  
Speaker 1     00:06:07    So over the last three years, 39 outta 44 people's lives were saved from heroin overdoses by the actions of the police department. If you combine that with the total for the CPR saved, that brings the total 54 people saved in the last three years by the actions of the police department. So I give you these statistics 'cause I want you to feel confident because the police are out there 24 hours a day. We are the first ones on scene. The, the, the statistics or that, or anyone that stands up here and cites that lives are being lost or is trying to create some sort of public hysteria on this. As again, I would say is disingenuous at best. Lieutenant Moser came along and I'm gonna turn it over to him. He's gonna explain some of the claims that were made last week and he did some research and can better elaborate on this.  
Speaker 1     00:07:02    Oh, I'll, as the chief of State of Lieutenant Moser, I run the Traffic safety division. I also am the EMS Fire Department Emergency Services Liaison of the town. So I too am pleased that we are here to make these comments because the protocols are sound, the dispatchers here do a fantastic job in a high stress, high impact situation. And they continually day in and day out. And if anyone wants to come see them operate tomorrow in a snowstorm and what goes on in that room, you'll be amazed how, how, how it's all done and settled. So lemme start by saying that the, the letter that, that Mr. Shaki referenced last year that the Mayor signed, was solely written in support of River Vermont Rescue Squad's actions to bill the patients that they, that they transport through their insurance companies. That was the sole reason for issuing that letter. It was never meant to, to limit the, the Mayor or the Chief's authority in dispatch protocols. That was, that's just simply not what it was, what Mr. Refused to do.  
Speaker 1     00:08:21    I I too believe that, that Mr. Sarkis records are disingenuous and blatantly false. The two persons that he referred to who lost their lives, that's, that's tragic. And to indicate that those calls and the way they were handled resulted in a death is, is just simply a play on words to, to inflame passion. That is not what happened there is there were no human errors and no errors in protocol responsible for those deaths. I'll go into the calls, I'll, if you have questions, certainly ask because the times and the, I, I'll, I'll try to run through 'em as quickly as I can. The December 26th incident that Mr. Shaki referenced on a car into a house at 360 2 Williams Street, nowhere in the police reports or in the CAD notes, you dispatch, can I find that there was a, a occupant of the car outside the vehicle, unconscious. Nowhere do I see that. What did happen was that a woman who exited the house passed out at the scene and she was unconscious and, and, and not responsive at the scene. Another a LS advanced life support and BLS unit were dispatched. They,  
Speaker 1     00:09:50    The elderly female was transported within 16 minutes of the time that the officers asked for the second units. And that's the time transported. That that's the time transported. I, I'm doing away with the times of, you know, the, the times that they were dispatched, the time that they arrived, but within 16 minutes of the time they were dispatched, they were transported to the hospital and the victim from the car accident was dispatched, was transported. It was within 23 minutes. That's from dispatch to roll into the hospital. When the unit calls in, we're responding to the hospital to drop the patient off. Very, very good response times. Very good ETA very good, you know, getting the patient to the hospital. The second event is tragically a fatal motor vehicle accident at West fourth Street and Kline Place. The situation here is that  
Speaker 3     00:10:57    The  
Speaker 1     00:10:58    More than twice two units responded to the scene. So with no disrespect to Mr. Shaki, I think the times that he is referencing are, are getting mixed up for which unit is responding. When the first set of ambulances that arrived tragically, the individual who was deceased at that scene, he could have suffered those injuries on an operating room table and no one would've saved him. He had catastrophic injuries. And, and, you know, that's a tragic situation. So that's, that's the, the one that occurred on West fourth Street. They, the first set of ambulances were dispatched at oh 3 43 and arrived at oh 3 56. They responded from New New Brunswick and Cedar Girl Lane. No patients went to the hospital. One of those ambulances was for the deceased person. The other person at that time, RMA refused medical attention. A considerable amount of time later at oh 4 46 and oh 4 53, 2 more ambulances were, were dispatched again, one of 'em for a hand injury for one of the, one of the people that was in the car. And a and a second ambulance to transport the driver to the hospital so we could obtain blood for criminal prosecution.  
Speaker 1     00:12:42    I, I think that's where the, where the confusion lies it. The second set of ambulances were dispatched at oh 4 46 and arrived seven minutes later at oh 4 53, which you can't ask for anything better than seven minutes. And then an hour after that, Robert Wood kept an ambulance, two ambulances on scene for us. The RMA was signed at oh 5 45 and the transport for the blood was at oh 4 53. So that's an hour later that we utilized to Robert Wood Ambulance. Unfortunately, the, the, the last call on February 2nd on New Brunswick Avenue, that was a non breather, a 64-year-old who had a long history of health issues. His wife on the scene did not even want CPR done. The officers did CPR because that's what they're trained to do. They don't have the authority to, to pronounce death. So they, they have to do CPR When they hooked up the a DD, it was no shock advised is that, tell tell that person in the case deceased J-F-K-A-L-S and Robert Wood Johnson BLS were dispatched at oh 4 31 and the, the deceased was pronounced at oh 4 56. Yeah, oh  
Speaker 3     00:14:19    4 0 4.  
Speaker 1     00:14:24    They were again updated that no shock was advised and they arrived at oh 4 41. That's a 10 minute ETA response. And then advanced life support, as I said, pronounced in then at oh 4 56 as the chief said, our protocols, our responses, the work that the officers do on scene, the  
Speaker 2     00:14:50    Work with the, the Robert Wood Ambulance do on scene is sound to create panic is, is disingenuous.  
Speaker 0     00:15:02    So I just wanna thank both Chief Ell and Lieutenant Mo for coming here this evening and providing us with the update, because that was a question that we had more or last meeting. So we just wanted to make sure that we, you know, did what we said we were going to actually do. And at this time, what I'd like to do is to, unless one council members has a question,  
Speaker 2     00:15:20    Just wanna say briefly, I maybe the Mayor may an exception, but I may be the only one who's seen the police actually in action in the middle of the night. And there's some terrific police officers in this town that do a great job at the scene. All kinds of scenes that you can possibly imagine that they respond to of different kinds of emergencies from car accidents, to, to house fires, to other situations. We've, we've had two police officers be the first on scene and, and responded to a burning house and save a woman's life over on River Crest. You know, we've, I've seen, I've seen police officers do all kinds of things well beyond what you think that police officers would do in this town. And, and I'm, you know, quite often in awe about how hands-on they are at the scene take control of chaotic situations. So I'm really, frankly rather, you know, proud of our police department, but statement, and I'm very proud of the police department because all the things you do for the community, you do a great job each and every one of you.  
Speaker 0     00:16:39    I also wanna thank of, you know, I know you just mentioned, you know, our fire department, our, I wanna also thank our firemen and, and our volunteer Rescue squad volunteers as well. And we just wanna thank everyone, but I think it's important that we clarify the situation. So thank you again. Thank you. Thanks for coming. Chief, that's basically the exact same thing I wanted to say was thank you for coming. We thank you for what you do and no discredit to any of our other volunteers, but thank you for clarifying those times  
Speaker 2     00:17:06    And I should I let Michelle out? She's, I know, been out in the go get some sleep guys, she got a hours.  
Speaker 0     00:17:18    Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you. Okay, so at this time I'd like to move to the, to item number nine, which is open to the public. If you have any comments or questions, please state your name and your address and you have three minutes, which to to speak. Okay, I'd like to Sure, if you can come, come up. Thank you.  
Speaker 1     00:17:52    Hi, good evening. Ken Simmons with the tap of Piscataway, with the use of services from RWJ, are there any charges to the town 'cause of that? Or is it just an agreement?  
Speaker 3     00:18:10    I think the Mayor was saying is that the patients would get a bill from Robert Wood Johnson,  
Speaker 1     00:18:15    But, but in terms of having an agreement to use there, there's those ambulances or dispatch, whatever process is, there's no financial arrangement to be able to do that. That's controlled by your insurance s  
Speaker 2     00:18:31    Paid by the patient, you mean the, the ambulance services, the agreement between the Township and them to fight the services? Correct. There was, there was a, a open public bidding process where multiple entities actually went ahead and bid. They don't, the Township does not pay them a dollar for the services. We basically reviewed multiple services based on various factors and determined the rug. Wood Johnson was the best fit. But yes, the Township does not pay them a dollar.  
Speaker 1     00:19:05    Okay. So overall it's designed to assist the EMS services that we have in town already. Correct. Not to take the plates up. Right.  
Speaker 2     00:19:18    Big problem with not having enough volunteer EMTs, the MT training is very long and difficult. Requirements are difficult and most towns in New Jersey are having difficult time maintaining full-time rescue squads. We've got a lot of great volunteers but we, we could not cover 24 hours a day just to volunteers. So they supplement what our volunteers can't cover. Okay. We're fortunate in got way to live by two major hospitals, three major hospitals.  
Speaker 1     00:19:51    Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you.  
Speaker 3     00:19:52    Thank you. Good  
Speaker 4     00:20:01    Evening. I wish you Austin River Road 1 0 1 Shirley Parkway. Good evening. Kind of wish you would've kept the two gentlemen. He might have been able to clarify some things. First off for that gentleman just came up, you guys pay over $20,000 a year and increases every year for the five year contracting. You have Robert Wood for Monday through Friday coverage from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM There is actually no contract for nighttime, which means that they can fully bill whatever they want at night. I did want to start by saying thank you Mr. Gatey for meeting with me. Clarify what documentation we do need to get to you for that dear. The contribution. Thank you so much. You guys also pay an annual, or it's every quarter you guys renew for weekend coverage as well?  
Speaker 4     00:20:44    I was wondering how we set up that meeting that we talked about. I just wanted to go into a few things. I wish Mr. Lieutenant Moser would've stayed. He stayed at the last emergency services meeting, which was the Wednesday after the past meeting. That was this past Tuesday that I spoke at. He said that they have the schedules that they've never had any issues about knowing when we're in or out of service. He also stated that he does not want us to put mutual aid on those schedules. We did do it as we requested at the last meeting, at the services meeting. He said he got a copy of that he has to be refrain from assisting and asking for any sort of mutual aid services. What also kind of threw us for a loop is the OEM coordinator told us that Robert Woods me posting up an ambulance at night at what used to be the police substation in order to help South Plainfield coverage.  
Speaker 5     00:21:31    If, if I may, I it hasn't been a substation for almost five years. It's emergency emergency response. The OEM.  
Speaker 4     00:21:39    Okay. My apologies that the building over on Rushmore, my apologies for not knowing the proper name. I I'm not sure why we're, we're hosting someone there for South Plainfield. It's kind of confusing to, to me when we're stating that we have EMS in town that could cover any area rather than covering our own respective islands.  
Speaker 6     00:21:58    The, the hospital actually request that they have a dynamic system that based on history can predict where calls are gonna be coming in from based, I think there seven, five  
Speaker 4     00:22:12    Or seven it predictive. Yeah, they have predictive software. Correct.  
Speaker 6     00:22:14    So they, based on that, they would like, at certain times we able to post an ambulance in that section have, so we agreed to, to allow 'em to, to use that building for the purposes when they need, need to go in there. It was never, they never discussed covering South, Plainfield out there were me, but I assumed that at the end, an ambulance there and there is fault close by the end that the response would, but it was done primarily to help them with their  
Speaker 4     00:22:43    Dispatch and this is a 24 hour ambulance or just at night. Because we were told it  
Speaker 6     00:22:46    Was just, just, just when they predict that they're gonna need it up there  
Speaker 4     00:22:49    Because oddly enough, you know, the predictive software puts a hotspot over there if you really think about it because there are calls over there that aren't getting answered. Unfortunately. Arbor, you know, they, they cover a few less nights and some others and that's, everyone does their best. But, you know, predictive software of putting a hotspot over there because you know, if Danelle's covering their calls for the most part, and if Plain Field's got two trucks on 24 7 North Arbor or not North selling Arbor Norths River Road have a truck at night and South Plainfield has a truck every night. And the only reason there's a hotspot over there is because we're not letting our town, you know, hover itself. With that said, I'm kind of confused as to what the chief said. You know, they said a lot about what the police do and I think it's fantastic that they help and that's great.  
Speaker 4     00:23:29    We don't really talk about the numbers of what EMS does. What I heard is we don't need to change anything 'cause our officers go out there and do a great job. You know, there are no EMS number is brought up. You know, a a patient that passed out on a lawn, whether it's part of an accident or or not, is it was part of that call passed out is unconscious. I didn't say that you guys caused or anyone caused anyone's life to be lost. I want it to be very, very clear for me to come up here and accuse anyone of stating that someone did something left to lost life. That that would be wrong. There would be erroneous. And that is not fair. What I am clearly stating is that we're preventing the opportunity of knowing what if you have an AM ambulance in town, also Northtown staff in-house.  
Speaker 4     00:24:14    If he, he said 15 minutes Cedar Grove, that's in Franklin Township, why would you be okay with 15 minutes? That's what we're not understanding. The point is that, you know, it could possibly be better. I I appreciate what our officers do, but, but why 15 minutes? Robertwood got there. That's great. Robertwood got there. He didn't address the fact that North sta told them that night they had two crews in house that we told them, we have a crew in house. They said they know we have a crew in house. They didn't bring up scheduling, they didn't bring up any of these things. You know, we're here 15 minutes is great. You literally said it came from Franklin. So why not give people, you know, the benefit of the doubt we're literally free.  
Speaker 4     00:24:58    I I just, it's, it's, it's mind boggling. You know, in, in the letter, the letter was meant so for, for billing purposes. So we're allowed to tell the state of New Jersey that for Medicaid purposes, this is how it is. But then when we turn around and we want to treat our own residents a certain way, that that's not how it is that they can, I I just, it's so much contradictory things and it's just, it, it's confusing. I I really do appreciate what everyone does. It's absolutely true. And you know, we've interfaced with a lot of the officers and unfortunately I was on one of those calls where someone did overdose and they didn't make it. And it, it really, it's hard. It's hard on everyone. Like, we wanna be here for every single person that we can help and to be able to just sit in our building and sit at a wall. We hear these calls going out and they're coming from Franklin. It's hard. I know I'm probably close to my three minutes. I'll absolutely stop. Yeah.  
Speaker 0     00:25:44    So, so thank you. And, and we'll have, you know, some additional meetings as we we stated last time and you'll be able to follow up.  
Speaker 4     00:25:51    We reach out to you or we just not gonna be present in these meetings and we're just gonna have to come to every council. Yeah,  
Speaker 0     00:25:56    You can actually reach out to Tim. So we're gonna set up the meeting like we stated last time.  
Speaker 4     00:25:59    Absolutely. I'll email you tomorrow, Mr. Da. Thank you so much. Sure, no  
Speaker 0     00:26:02    Problem. Thank you. Any other comments or questions with the public at this time? If so, please come to the podium and state your name and address. Few minutes in which to speak.  
Speaker 5     00:26:11    David and both Valley Lane. Good evening,  
Speaker 0     00:26:14    Ms. Da.  
Speaker 5     00:26:16    Are we, are we going through the consent agenda since we're on item nine?  
Speaker 0     00:26:23    Yes. Yes.  
Speaker 5     00:26:24    Okay. Okay. Open to the public right now on item L Lima. The cancellation of the re of the re-advertising of bid, are they referring to the 1 39 School street? No, this is council president. This has to do with the actual phase two construction of School Street. It's gonna be Reba. Okay. 1 39 School Street, which from what I remember last meeting, the town is going to purchase at, if so, no, it's the other by the Jason property owner had asked to purchase that Township piece of property,  
Speaker 3     00:27:15    I  
Speaker 6     00:27:15    Think we're that property auction, it's being auctioned.  
Speaker 5     00:27:27    I, well I won't say item number F because that was last. Let me just tell you what it was about authorizing change order number one. Rest rules re renovation not to receive $7,858. Now what did they find once they started doing these renovations in public works?  
Speaker 0     00:27:53    So Mr. Akens, is this from last week? Yes,  
Speaker 5     00:27:56    That's what I said. Okay, so you'll have, that's that's, that's why I give you a item.  
Speaker 0     00:27:59    Yeah, sorry about that. So what we'll have to do is pull that information for you unless you have that information development. No, we don't have it in front of us from last week. So sorry about that.  
Speaker 5     00:28:09    Okay.  
Speaker 0     00:28:10    We can, we can get back to you regarding it though. Okay.  
Speaker 3     00:28:12    Sure.  
Speaker 5     00:28:21    That's, and for, I, I shouldn't say IDA A provide professional construction maintenance services for the community center, Cummings Construction Management not to exceed 106,700,000 some changes.  
Speaker 0     00:28:46    Mr. Akins, is this from last?  
Speaker 5     00:28:48    Yes. Yes it is. That's why I didn't give you Yes,  
Speaker 3     00:28:50    So we'll, we'll  
Speaker 0     00:28:52    Yes. So what we'll do is we'll give you that information again. You can actually pull that if you just wanna just repeat your full question again so we can get it  
Speaker 5     00:29:00    Down. Yes. That amount, what they doing for that amount because there's been a lot of money as far as I can remember relating to the community center. So specifically I  
Speaker 6     00:29:11    Manage that. We're in the process of, we're in the process of finalizing the plans and finalizing the site work and we're in the process of getting ready to bid and we'll be bidding it sometime this summer. So they will be in charge of helping us bid it, helping making sure that the site work and the architects work goes together, answering any questions that come with the bids that any bidders have coordinate the bid and then helping us choose on a who award bids that the project goes on. They're gonna be the construction manager for the project.  
Speaker 5     00:29:54    Thank you. I will apologize these questions I'm asking you now. I didn't get a chance to ask during the last  
Speaker 0     00:30:03    I gotcha. Okay.  
Speaker 5     00:30:05    That's, that's the only reason why I'm bringing these up now. No problem. Problem. That's all I have right  
Speaker 0     00:30:08    Now. Thank you Mr. Aiken. Are there any other comments or questions? Sure, sir. Please come to the podium.  
Speaker 3     00:30:14    Sure, sure. Thank you.  
Speaker 0     00:30:24    If you could please state your name, sir, and your address and you have three minutes wishes.  
Speaker 7     00:30:28    Yes. My name's Junior Romero with Fon Water Watch. We're off of 100 Bayard Street, new Brunswick. Today we're advocating for an off fossil fuels resolution and we're urging the council to, to support our cause in, in passing one, I didn't have copies for everyone regarding the resolution that East Brunswick just passed, but last month, east Brunswick Council comprised of both Democrats and Republicans unanimously supportive to pass an off fossil fuels resolution of their own. This coincides with a national campaign where over 300 elected officials have now pledged their support for a hundred percent renewable energy in the United States and in their towns. And to get off fossil fuels, Atlantic City, east Brunswick, Princeton, Franklin, Township, they've all passed off fossil fuels resolutions. Basically this is, this is because we, we need to avert a climate tipping point. We need to, we need to make sure that we, that we tra transition to clean energy, renewable energy economy asap and yeah, this is, I was just wondering if the council has, has considered a resolution of this type already  
Speaker 3     00:31:42    Support Mayor. So  
Speaker 2     00:31:45    We Yeah, I think we did. I think we did a resolution that's very similar to this. Didn't you bring a reso You brought a resolution to us once before  
Speaker 7     00:31:52    I did. Yes.  
Speaker 2     00:31:53    You and I talked about it and I had some concern though was in support of it in theory. It had some language, legal language in there that I thought as a lawyer I was uncomfortable with looking at this quickly. It looks like each Brunswick took some of that language out that could have limited all kinds of potential projects. This looks a little different than that. This is very similar to what we did though. Am I right? Mayor council.  
Speaker 0     00:32:19    Right. And I think we're supporting it right through the US Council of Mayors as  
Speaker 7     00:32:22    Well. The US Conference of Mayors. I think  
Speaker 2     00:32:24    You were here when we by chance you came the day where we, that resolution was on the agenda if I remember correctly.  
Speaker 7     00:32:31    Okay. Can I find it on the website or the resolution?  
Speaker 6     00:32:39    The clerk is on the case. She'll be back on Monday. So at anytime Monday get a  
Speaker 2     00:32:43    Copy from the clerk.  
Speaker 7     00:32:44    Okay. Yeah. I'm glad to see it. I, I hope it, it mentions a hundred percent renewable energy. There's a lot of false solutions out there like natural gas, which is a, is emits a methane, which is a polluter and it traps heat just as carbon dioxide does. Of course nuclear, we don't consider renewable things like that because of it's waste. But, but yeah. I was gonna read a, a line from Lato. See the pope, you know, he, he came out with this great diocese on, on renewable energy. But all my comments for future, let,  
Speaker 2     00:33:13    Let, let me just say we, we are a proponent of that and we have solar power on the DPW building. Yeah. We are planning an addition, probably the best way to call it a pavilion addition at the police department. And that's gonna have solar power on it. And the current plan for the community center does is probably not gonna have solar power in the initial construction, but it's adapt, it's designed specifically to be adaptable to add solar power into it as a component. And we're gonna continue to use solar power around the town whenever we can. We have done a number of facilities and the objective is any facilities we could add it to to do so. Some like this building, we can't structurally do it structurally, but the community center is gonna be designed specifically. So that can be an added component and the objective at some point in time will be to do that. Great. But we, the next project we're gonna do with solar is gonna be at the police department. Correct. Mayor,  
Speaker 7     00:34:19    Good to hear. Awesome.  
Speaker 0     00:34:20    Thank, thank you very much for, for, for coming. We appreciate  
Speaker 7     00:34:23    It. If I could just mention one more thing, sorry I sure, I don't know if my time's a little, but there's state statewide legislation senate bill 14 0 5 basically would, it would mandate that New Jersey get to a hundred percent renewable, renewable portfolio portfolio standards, meaning utilities have to purchase a hundred percent of their renewable, their electricity from renewable sources by 2035. It's very progressive, very aggressive, but it's, it's what's necessary. So any communications y'all have with with state legislators, I urge you to mention it and just something that would benefit towns. I  
Speaker 2     00:34:58    Think the governor supports  
Speaker 7     00:34:59    That. Alright. He supports the, the concept. We just need to get him a bill. Right. Awesome. Thank you so much. Sure, thank you.  
Speaker 2     00:35:06    Take it away again  
Speaker 6     00:35:07    On Monday. You can go to  
Speaker 7     00:35:08    The clerk office.  
Speaker 2     00:35:09    Got it. Thank you.  
Speaker 0     00:35:11    Any other comments or questions from the public at this time? If you please the podium, state your name and address. You have three minutes. Mr. Lee  
Speaker 8     00:35:17    Junior, Staci Berger, 2 33 Alex Park. Good evening. So I was just pering the minutes from the June 2nd, January 2nd meeting and I'm thrilled to see the second reading of the videotaping ordinance on your business agenda coming up. So it's good to see that people are keeping their New Year's resolution. So we're glad that you kept that one. I, I'm a little, I guess I don't understand why you can't just put stuff on the website. Like it's not hard. It's 2018. Why does someone have to come down here and go to the clerk's office and get a piece of paper when we're talking about trying to be more environmentally conscious? Seems a little unusual. Like is there some reason?  
Speaker 0     00:35:59    So so we can't keep everything on the website,  
Speaker 8     00:36:01    But you can keep a lot of stuff. I mean it's actually the internet, it's pretty big. So,  
Speaker 0     00:36:05    But we can't keep everything so I just want to just make make sure that you're aware  
Speaker 8     00:36:08    Put No, I understand that you can't keep everything every Steven right too, right? Like whole internet, whole world on the internet. But it is the, it is the internet. It's a pretty big place. If think cloud storage service you can get, it's pretty cheap too. So I guess my question is if, you know, one of the things that we asked in the beginning of the year was that you try to be more transparent and more open and it seems like the opposite of that has sort of happened. A lot of stuff's come off the website, including email addresses for the council there and phone numbers. There used to be a spot where you could email the council itself, which I did last summer when we invited you all to come to the rally. We held against the fascist display in Charlottesville. Didn't get a response. I, I know that some folks said they didn't get that email, but now that, I mean I have a record of it, but that, that email page is, is now gone.  
Speaker 2     00:36:53    That's because that, that's because it's being updated. So  
Speaker 8     00:36:56    We actually emails. But can you not, can we not walk and shoot gum at the same time? You can't leave that page up while you do something different. It's been gone for about, it's been gone for about a week. It's okay. So it's just, it's just, but I won't  
Speaker 2     00:37:09    Bother. You don't want, I won't answer it if you don't want me to. I was trying to answer your question, but I won't Go ahead. Sorry  
Speaker 8     00:37:17    For interrupt. I, I guess I, I'm, I'm suggesting that if there's, if it's, if it's producible on paper, it would be great to be able to just put it in an easy fashion for folks to get to so they don't have to bother the clerk who is super busy with an Oprah request for things that are just sort of routine, like a resolution or an agenda or minutes. There are things that should just be available to people by, by. Right. And and also being able to contact your elected official by telephone or by email seems like a pretty modern but not inescapable thing. Like it should be something that's all our phone numbers are published, but No, I understand that. But, but, but an email address would be really helpful. So,  
Speaker 9     00:37:53    And, and I will say minutes are like 10 kilobytes,  
Speaker 8     00:37:58    But  
Speaker 0     00:37:58    We can't have,  
Speaker 8     00:37:59    We can't make a comment. Yeah, Lauren, Lauren Hill said that right. Two people can't occupy the same space.  
Speaker 0     00:38:05    So, so what we would like to do, if we could, we just wanna, if you have a question right,  
Speaker 8     00:38:10    We'll answer, I'd like to know why you can't put current information on the website. So for this meeting, this agenda, the minutes that people are considering, the, the resolutions that have been for the last six months.  
Speaker 6     00:38:22    Let me answer that please. Right now we are taking a look at our website. So as a result the kinds of functionality we should, we wanna make sure it's there. So as a result we are trying to do that right now as we speak,  
Speaker 0     00:38:36    But it does, it's not hard to put those things up. Yes,  
Speaker 6     00:38:38    We could, we can walk and talk at the same time. What I'm telling you is that we are looking at our website to determine what, when and how right now as we  
Speaker 0     00:38:47    Speak. Okay, so, so Jim, I think you answered the question and I think your three minutes are up at this point in time, so, okay, thank you very much. Thank you. Sure, thanks. Are there any other comments or questions from the public at this time?  
Speaker 10    00:39:05    Tony Wild 2250 Plainfield Avenue North. Good  
Speaker 0     00:39:09    Evening Mr. Wild,  
Speaker 10    00:39:10    How are you? I'm just gonna echo what she said. I mean this is 20 kilobytes. You can put hundreds of pages of minutes meeting, you know, the transcripts of the meetings, et cetera for no, virtually no cost. So, and, and as she said, the cloud storage is available so it is 2018 and many towns around are doing just that. As many towns around are also doing the videotaping rather than having me post the Facebook live their meetings. So I just think it would be behooved that if we wanted an open government, it would make sense. Make meetings available to the public, not make them TRAs down here. I don't mind doing it. I'm retired. A lot of people can't do it and I just, to me it is peop people being more educated about what's happening in government to me can't be a bad thing. Right.  
Speaker 0     00:40:18    And there's some things that we're looking into as long Thank you,  
Speaker 10    00:40:20    Appreciate. Thank you. We just  
Speaker 2     00:40:22    Actually, we just actually hired a employees relatively new and that's his job to do. And I dunno if we had anybody on staff that was really capable of doing the type of things that you're talking about before and the different things you're talking about, about adding things and changing things or, or you, I think you can see all those things happen. I'm not, that'd be great, but I think what Jim was explaining is we needed to improve the fun structural functionality before you could add some additional content. The guys hasn't been here that long, but you'll see, I think you'll see that, that those things are gonna unfold relatively soon. That was the purpose of hiring the first place.  
Speaker 6     00:41:08    And, and the other thing too, as we take a look at each of the departments, I think we have about 17 of them, we want to make sure that department is efficient. So when you call in there or when you see the information it makes, you don't have to make calls to that department head or people of that nature. So that's what we're looking to as we speak.  
Speaker 0     00:41:28    Okay. So, so thank you for everyone for those comments. Thank you. And thank you for the questions. Are there any other additional comments or questions from the public at this time? I'd like a motion to adjourn. Motion a second. All in favor? Aye. Meeting adjourned. So I'd like to move on to the proposed agenda. Please. I'd like to call the meeting to order adequate notice of this meeting has been required under chapter 2 31 PL 1975, specifying the time, date, location and to the extent no the agenda by posting a copy of the notice on the municipal building municipal court and two municipal library bulletin boards, providing a copy to the off the official newspapers of the Township on my father a copying the office of the Township clerk in accordance to the certification per will be the next council  
Speaker 3     00:42:17    Here. Councilman Cahn? Here. Council Here. Council here. Council here. Council president here  
Speaker 0     00:42:29    You please answer the sir  
Speaker 11    00:42:35    The flag. United States America to the Republic for which stands? One Nation, indivisible Liberty Does for all  
Speaker 0     00:42:45    Item number five, which is an ordinance on second chapter two administration section two dash six council meetings, which will open to the public for resolution about the ordinance. Are there any comments or questions regarding this ordinance? Item number five or resolution of adoption of calendar year 2018 Aithal Budget. Are there any comments or questions? Item number seven, the resolution authorizing return of cash maintenance LLC block two 10, which is at 3 22 Rock Avenue. Are there any comments? Item number eight, resolution authorizing award of contract under National Cooperative Purchasing Agreement for several parks per line. Red Bugs, red Bud Stir Bridge, Tara and Your Town Parks. Any comments or questions? Item number nine, a resolution authorizing return of Driveway bond to Scott Tomlinson and two 11 Hamilton Boulevard. Are there any comments or questions at this time? Item number 10, a resolution authorizing return of engineering and inspection fees to several of our residents. Any comments or questions at this time? Item number 11, a resolution authorizing return of performance, surety and cash bonds to three corporate place. Any comments or questions at this matter? Item number 12, resolution authorizing adjustment of the 2017 sewer billing to 20 19th Road. Any comments or questions at this time?  
Speaker 0     00:44:21    Item number 13, a resolution authorizing cancellation of the sewer billing for various blocks and not standing council questions. Item number 14, a resolution authorizing planning board to consider a property commonly known as 4 75 Salt Road and designated as block 52 0 4 meets the statutory requirements to be declared in area in need of redevelopment. Any comments or questions at this time? Item number 15, a resolution supporting Middlesex County project 1227 replacement of Bridge two B one 60 and acceptance of proposal to detour and road closure on Bay Avenue for bridge for replacing over Androse Brooks. Any comments or questions at this time? Item number 16 of resolution authorizing return of escrow at 1 51 Ethel Road. Any comments or questions at this time? Item number 17 of resolution appointing Timothy Dacy to the Library Board of Trustees. Any comments or questions? Item number 18 and resolution, I'm sorry, announcements and comments from officials, Councilman, Bullard. Any comments or questions?  
Speaker 6     00:45:34    Yes, very quickly. As many of you know that it is scheduled, we are scheduled to have a snowstorm tomorrow, so be aware of that and please be careful. All right. The other thing too, make sure your cars are not on the street. Yes. Make sure they're, you know, in the Barr garage or some places like that. All right. And be careful tomorrow.  
Speaker 0     00:45:57    Thank you Jim Councilman. Cahn. No comments. Thank you. Councilman Lombardi? Nope. Councilman Ard already covered it. Councilman Kail Shaw. This turned the team. The club? Oh yes, yes. That's a good one. That's a good one. Councilman? Uhrin? No. Council. Mayor. Tim. Okay, council. Okay, I don't have any comments at this time. I'd like to open it up to the public if you have a question or a comment, please come to the podium. Please state your name and address and give, have three minutes in which you speak.  
Speaker 4     00:46:33    I, yes, I promise. Way less than three minutes this time. Absolutely. Okay. Okay. I'm just gonna ask River Road one one Shirley Parkway. You guys definitely brought something up that I did forget to say thank you about Mr. Jean Wilkes. I believe you're speaking of the public information officer. He definitely reached out to us. He reached out to all the agencies, I believe. I think it's astronomical that you guys are gonna be working with us, put together some sort of TV presentation we put on PCTV to help us recruit. We really do appreciate that help along with the help of Mr. Dacy. As I initially said, I always wanna say thank you first for what is done initially before I said thank you Mr. Dacy, for your help with figuring out paperwork earlier. So thank you for those things. I do want to, you know, point out that as we were here, I don't know if you guys heard over the page, I can't hear the whole thing.  
Speaker 4     00:47:15    It's a old system that they're using. It's the VHF, the analog system. Can't hear everything clearly, but there is right now a ambulance eight Bravo four, that's a BLS unit coming out of the Somerville area to service Piscataway at this moment, I don't know what it's for. I couldn't tell you exactly where they're going. I can't hear their transmissions. They have a smaller radio on their ambulance, but there is a crew sitting at River Road and there's a crew sitting at North Delton and they're staring at walls. So just to let you know, this is a regular occurrence. Thank you. Sure,  
Speaker 8     00:47:45    Thank  
Speaker 0     00:47:46    You. Any other comments or questions from the public at this time? Please come to the podium. State your name.  
Speaker 8     00:47:53    Staci Berger. Still 2 33 Alice Parkway meeting. Thank you Ms. Berg. Good evening again, Mr. Quick question on the, the pilot, the payment in lieu of taxes, documentation that we were, that was obtained through the Oprah requests, because again, not on the website. I was looking at the document and one of the things that's listed in the addendum at the back is, and I'm sorry that I don't have a piece of paper with me, but, and I would email it to you, but I don't have your email address so I can email it to the counsel. I guess the, it says in there that, that the corporation will provide, the developer will provide a list of all of the members of the corporation because the corporation's filed in Delaware. And then once the approval is done that they'll submit a copy of the, the corporate officers. Is that on file? 'cause it's not, was not part of the okra request, so it should sort of be an addendum, but it wasn't, it wasn't there. And so where do we get that?  
Speaker 2     00:48:45    So another attorney in my office was handling it. I'll check in with him and we'll get you that documentation.  
Speaker 8     00:48:50    Do I need to file an open request or is this public enough?  
Speaker 2     00:48:53    No, we, we'll, we kind as the previous request, we'll get it to you. So you said it's the, the  
Speaker 8     00:48:59    The corporate it, the, it is the structure of the company. You all approved it approved, I'm sure you know, a pilot and obtain taxes agreement with the comp with the corporation developing.  
Speaker 2     00:49:08    I'm talking about that. No, I understand what the document is. I'm,  
Speaker 8     00:49:10    I I just wanna make sure everybody else understands all Washington.  
Speaker 2     00:49:12    It, it is just, it's a small addendum to the larger, it's just probably just an exhibit to the larger company. It says  
Speaker 8     00:49:17    It's an exhibit that would be furnished to the municipality as part of the, the agreement, but it's not in the documents that were provided. So I don't know if anybody else has asked for that. I would have hoped that somebody here might have, since it's sort of your responsibility to monitor that. And so along with that, I'm wondering on the, on that payment taxes and I guess as well as for the bank fund site that we've heard so much about, do you have any written, doc written in language guarantee commitment from the company in public that they're gonna actually be hiring Piscataway residents or doing a job training for Piscataway residents? Because we, we've seen a lot of information about the number of jobs and I've seen materials saying they're gonna be good jobs and that's great. But I'm, I'm wondering if the counsel has anything in the payment move of taxes agreements that you've given those companies that they're going to be required to actually provide a certain percentage of those jobs or if you're tracking that in any way,  
Speaker 2     00:50:13    The, the, it's, it's very hard to legally require, you know,  
Speaker 8     00:50:17    Actually you can, you can actually adopt a community benefits agreement. Lots of communities do it.  
Speaker 2     00:50:22    Yeah. Inter but you know, the, it's also about trying to get them into town if you limit them to SCA residence.  
Speaker 8     00:50:28    I'm, I'm not, I'm not asking for the discussion backwards. It's just a simple question. You don't, so you don't have anything in writing? Yes, yes or no.  
Speaker 2     00:50:33    I, I can look into it. I haven't, you know, I haven't looked at the agreement in a long time and I said another attorney in my office was, was working on, well  
Speaker 8     00:50:39    There's two. So the other, the other attorney was also working on hand on, I'm not, I mean I'm not, I I I don't, didn't need to, I just don't wanna lose my time having an explanation what the benefits, why, why you feel that a payment in lieu of taxes agreement is good. So I'm just, I'm asking you, you don't want him to answer the question, you just wanna make the statement? No, I'm asking a question about whether, or it's a very simple question, yes or no, is there in the payment, in lieu of taxes agreement, any kind of requirement or ability of the counsel to at least get reporting if you don't have a requirement, does the company report to anybody about the number of Piscataway residents that are hired?  
Speaker 2     00:51:10    And, and like I said, I as I did not work on the agreement or, you know, okay. On the periphery. I I can discuss it with the other attorney that worked on the agreement and answer the question for you. But we don't, I don't have the answer for you right  
Speaker 8     00:51:22    Now. Okay. But, and none of the council members know whether or not the, the corporations are actually hiring his, so, so actually he's our legal counsel. So he'll get back, he'll he can right. Get that information. But if we elect you all, I mean, RA's a great guy and okay, so we appreciate his hard work. So this Ms. Berger, so what he's doing is he's answering the question, so that's her response. Okay. So you'll get back to me and let me know whether or not there's, there's any guarantee that there's, that any of those jobs, even a single one goes to a Piscataway resident or whether if they're not in writing, you'll let me know whether or not those payment lieu of taxes agreements require or ask or, you know, appeal to those companies to report to the council or the lawyer or the Business Administrator or somebody as to whether or not those companies are doing anything to train or hire scaly residents on a regular basis for those jobs that we hear so much about. Can I ask one more question? Does anybody know actually at this point, if there's, if there's a union jobs four minutes, you're at four minutes. Oh, okay. Well he's, sorry about that. Okay, well I'll ask next time. Thanks. Thank you. Any other comments or questions from the public at this time?  
Speaker 10    00:52:25    Be that just quickly, I actually did that Oprah request for the pilot agreement and I had asked for the bake light agreement or the, the Best Buy agreement and the, the clerk's office couldn't identify, I mean I, you know, I got a lot and block, but I wasn't sure which lot and block exactly where it's gonna be. But they, they were unable to provide the pilot agreement. So I'm wondering if we can get that information. Best Buy is the tenant. So the agreement is really not what the tenant, the agreement, the property owner. Well, okay, so I asked and I said Best Buy or the property owner, I believe in my, in my request. So again, I'm so far they were unable to identify those lots. So if, if somebody could get, would provide me with the specific lot and block so that I, the request can be completed. I greatly appreciate  
Speaker 5     00:53:32    It.  
Speaker 0     00:53:32    Okay, so tomorrow, thank you. We'll take them free. Thank you. Any other comments or questions?  
Speaker 5     00:53:43    Okay. Akins Valley Lane.  
Speaker 0     00:53:45    Good evening you Mr. Akins.  
Speaker 5     00:53:47    Good evening to council on item number 15. My interpretation of this, these bridges are in Perca and county is taking up this project. I don't recognize it. The county  
Speaker 2     00:54:05    Owns  
Speaker 5     00:54:06    It. Pardon? County.  
Speaker 2     00:54:07    The county property.  
Speaker 5     00:54:09    They're county properties and the Township is supported  
Speaker 2     00:54:15    County. There, there are a number of bridges and culverts that are all part of the county infrastructure drainage system that the county owns and controls are over. A lot of 'em involve county parks or you know, county right of ways for Brooks. They own this and they're gonna be, and they're gonna repair it. They're gonna reconstruct it. The resolution is they're gonna pay for that. We're happy. And that's why the, that's the purpose of the resolution saying yes, we want you to do this.  
Speaker 5     00:54:43    Okay. That's great. So that means there's no financial co contribution of funds from the Township as you just stated?  
Speaker 2     00:54:54    Well, it's part of a road project. The road is, and it's, I don't know in details  
Speaker 5     00:54:59    The county's bearing a hundred percent of construction. Yeah, they don't. Okay. As long as the county's bearing a hundred percent of construction, that's, am I correct by making that statement that Yes,  
Speaker 2     00:55:09    Go ahead. Example, the, the, the bridge on Sydney Road was done a few years back. That those were county, those that whole section county projects.  
Speaker 5     00:55:22    Okay.  
Speaker 2     00:55:22    They did all that paid for.  
Speaker 5     00:55:24    Okay, well you answer the question, there's no cost to the taxpayers of the skyway or this project since the county is taking it.  
Speaker 0     00:55:33    Correct? Exactly. Thank  
Speaker 5     00:55:35    You. Okay. Thank you.  
Speaker 0     00:55:36    Sure, no problem. Thank you Mr. Akins. Any other comments or questions for the record? So unfortunately, because you already spoke during this portion, I can't ask, I can't allow you to speak again during this portion. So, sorry. Okay. Four people went three minutes each. Where's your ambulance still hasn't called on scene, so, okay. So any, any other comments or, or questions at this time? Have like a motion to adjourn? Motion? You have a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Thank you. Meeting adjourn.