Transcript for Piscataway Council meeting on December 16 2025
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 00:00:03 Recording in progress. Speaker 2 00:00:24 We're now called to order the Township of Piscataway Council meeting of December 16th, 2025. Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required under chapter 2 31 PL 1975, specifying the time, date, location, login, or dial-in information, and to the extent known the agenda by posting a copy of the notice on the municipal Building Municipal court, and the two municipal library bulletin boards municipal website, providing a copy to the official newspapers of the township. And by filing a copy in the o in the office of the township clerk, in accordance with the recertification by the clerk, which will be entered in the minutes. There will be public comments periods for both remote and in-person attendees separately. Each member of the public shall only have one opportunity to speak during each public portion. As a technology, technology does not allow us to know if there are multiple callers on an individual phone line or logged in user account. We ask that if you wish to speak that you log in or dial in separately, so that way we can recognize you as a separate individual should you have any further comments or questions. The Township Council is always available by email and phone, and you can always call the mayor's office during normal operating hours. Speaker 2 00:01:40 Ms. Johnson, may I have a roll call, please? Speaker 0 00:01:42 Council Member Cahill Speaker 3 00:01:44 Here. Speaker 0 00:01:45 Council Member Carmichael Here. Council Member Lebowitz Speaker 3 00:01:49 Here. Speaker 0 00:01:51 Council Member Lombardi. Here. Council Member Rashid Here. Council Member Ern here. And Council President Espinosa Speaker 2 00:02:01 Here. Please join me in Salu the flag, please. Thank you. Item number five, comments from administration and council regarding adjournment of any matters on this agenda. Speaker 0 00:02:33 I see none. Speaker 2 00:02:35 Yeah. Thank you. I Speaker 3 00:02:36 Have a comment what, I don't know if it's the right time, but regarding item seven, when we do open up to public, I do have some comments regarding those. So do you want to do them now or when we get to seven that we go through them? Speaker 2 00:02:52 We can do 'em at number seven as well. Okay, perfect. Yeah. Okay. Speaker 2 00:03:01 Okay. Item number six, open to the public comments regarding item number eight, consent agenda items opening for the remote attendees. If you wish to speak at this time, please raise your hand either on the Zoom app or by phone by pressing star nine. When it's your turn to speak, you will receive or hear or request to unmute yourself. Please click the prompt or press star six on your phone to unmute yourself at that time. Please state your name and address and know that you have three minutes in which to make your comments. The council or administration will respond if necessary after you have completed any comments or questions. Ms. Johnson, do we have anyone in queue? Speaker 0 00:03:36 Council President? Yes, I am asking the first person with their hand raised to please unmute themselves. Speaker 4 00:03:43 Hi, can I be heard? Speaker 2 00:03:46 Good evening. Speaker 4 00:03:48 Hi, I'm Ed Marsh at one 13 Woff Avenue in Piscataway. My comment is that I was, I'm Speaker 2 00:04:01 Sorry, can you please, can you please state which letter you are referring to for the consent agenda item? Speaker 4 00:04:07 Well, I don't have the agenda. I was not able the printout or whatever you wanna call it. It's, I wasn't able to access the agenda online. You may, Speaker 2 00:04:18 You may wanna wait till the end of the, the, the meeting to the open public section. Speaker 4 00:04:25 Right. Speaker 2 00:04:27 Thank you Ms. Johnson. Do we have anyone else in queue? Speaker 0 00:04:32 Council president, there are no other remote attendees with our hand raised at this time. Speaker 2 00:04:37 Thank you. Closing for the, to the remote attendees, opening for the in-person attendees, if you wish to speak at this time, please come to the podium, state your name and address and know that you had three minutes in which to make your comments. You may take a seat at the completion of your comments or questions, and the council or administration will then respond if necessary. I see no one at the podium closing for the in-person attendees. Item number seven, ordinance second reading, amended and supplementing various chapters at township ordinance Open to the public resolution adopted Ordinance Council. Speaker 0 00:05:15 Be resolved by the Township Council of Piscataway Township, New Jersey that an ordinance entitled Ordinance to amend and supplement the revised general ordinances of the Township of Piscataway, county of Middlesex, state of New Jersey, amending chapter two administration. Chapter three, police Regulations, chapter 12, parks and Recreation Areas, chapter 16, housing and Rent Control. Chapter 17, property Maintenance Chapter 22, solid Waste Management and Chapter 23, sewers and Wastewater was introduced on the 13th day of November, 2025 and had passed the first reading and was published on the 25th day of November, 2025 and was amended on the 25th day of November, 2025. And the amendment was published on the fourth day of December, 2025. Now therefore be it resolved that the a said ordinance, having a had a second reading on December 16th, 2025 be adopted, passed, and after passage be published together with a notice of the date of passage or approval in the official newspaper, be it further resolved that this ordinance shall be assigned number 2025 dash 28. Speaker 2 00:06:23 Thank you, Ms. Johnson. Opening to the public opening for the remote attendees. If you wish to speak at this time, please raise your hand either on the Zoom app or by phone by pressing star nine. When it's your turn to speak, you'll receive or hear a request to unmute yourself, please click, click the prompt or press star six on your phone to unmute yourself at that time, please state your name and address and know that you have three minutes in which to, to make your comments. The council or administration will respond if necessary after you have completed any comments or questions. Johnson, do we have anyone in queue? Speaker 0 00:06:55 Yes, council president. I'm asking the first person with their hand raised to please unmute themselves. Speaker 5 00:07:06 Good evening, this is Jessica Kratovil. Can you hear me? Speaker 0 00:07:10 We can. Yes, we can hear you. Speaker 5 00:07:13 Great. My address is 1247 Brookside Road and I wanted to encourage the council to not pass the amended ordinance because the public nuisance aiding and a vetting portion has not been adequately addressed. I think that this is gonna lead to people experiencing street homelessness who are getting help from others, for them both to have problems with the police, which I don't think is a very good thing. I think we should encourage our neighbors, especially during the holiday season, to provide help and assistance to anyone who has fallen on hard times. And I would encourage you at this time that we're supposed to be thinking of the, the wellbeing and peace on earth and goodwill to all to do a little bit more of that here in Piscataway. And also your noise ordinance, including no exceptions, will allow people to no longer mow their lawns or hire people to mow their lawns. And the first offense being a $3,000 fine is absolutely unbelievable. It's so crazy. I, I don't know how you all came up with any of this stuff, but I would really encourage you to please look a little closer at these things before you write them into law, because it seems either like you're intending to selectively enforce them to only pick at people who you don't like or that you just haven't really thought about. It really well, will reconsider. Thank you. Speaker 6 00:08:59 Thank you Ms. Gradwell. Council president, if I may just get some background on that. The nuisance, sorry about that. The public nuisance portion of the ordinance. I think people are misunderstanding it. It's not a crime to be unhoused, it's not unlawful to be unhoused. It's not unlawful to be to to be panhandling. So this aiding abetting wouldn't, wouldn't affect anybody assisting an unhoused person. This is specifically targeted for what we've been having is as the large house parties, where we've be seen hundreds, if not, I think the last one the police department estimated was 500 people where there's underage people drinking, et cetera. The police officers have only been able to ticket and, and put a violation on the homeowner. This aiding embedding would allow us to go after those promoting, organizing those parties that are doing unlawful activity. So this isn't, this isn't about this anything, again, it, this public nuisance is only abating, aiding and abetting an unlawful activity. Speaker 6 00:10:16 Being unhoused is not unlawful. It is not in our ordinances, it's not in the state statutes. You're assisting an unhoused person is is not within this public nuisance. I know that there's a misinterpretation. I just wanted to clarify that in terms of the noise ordinance, the levels of the noise ordinance would not go anywhere near a lawnmower. This is talking about those large parties. Again, this is talking about we being gun years of complaints about trucks blowing their horns beeping, et cetera, you know, middle of the night, you know, so, so we needed to strengthen up the noise ordinance so we could actually enforce and put violations on on those trucks, on those house parties that are affecting neighborhoods there. Is it, it's not targeting lawn lawnmowers or, or those kinds of things. Speaker 7 00:11:09 Council president, if I could ask a question of the attorney, Raj, I know over my neck of the woods, we have residents and they've called and complained about the university, and I've been on some of those meetings with the university about curbing some of the noise. We know with the new speaker system that they put in last year, I think it was, or maybe in the year before that when they're doing practices, they're mimicking crowd noise and things of that nature. Do you think that this is gonna help with any of that? Because I have residents who called me to thank us for this, but they were very doubtful that the university was going to abide by it. Speaker 6 00:11:51 Yeah, so unfortunately we can't, we can't apply our ordinances to the university. There's a state entity. What I'm hoping is that we provide this new no noise ordinances to the, to Rutgers and, and the sports and the athletic department and hopefully say, you know, this is what everybody else has to abide by in our town. Could you, you know, work with us to, to kind of abide by this also, we're hope, I mean, we had a conversation with 'em years ago when it was really bad. They seemed to get better. It just picked up again. We're gonna have, we're, you know, we're gonna Speaker 7 00:12:28 At the council meeting when you and I pulled in, Speaker 6 00:12:30 You know, we're gonna have further conversations. We try and resolve it with them. It's something that unfortunately Rutgers is a big entity that doesn't have, you know, doesn't have to abide by the rules that, that everybody else has to abide by. Speaker 7 00:12:45 Okay. Alright, thank Speaker 3 00:12:46 You. I have another question if that's okay. Yes, please. So if the intent is to address the noise and the house parties all the problems that are coming specifically from the house parties, why can't we have an ordinance that specifically addresses house parties rather than trying to make one for noise, one for aiding in a bedding, and then you're putting all residents, so you're creating policy that is going to curb everybody because of a few bad actors that are having those house parties. So why can't we just have a specific ordinance just for the house parties and create that? Speaker 6 00:13:26 I mean, to, to the extent that listen, you have to be these ordinances. The noise one is, is for issues beyond the house parties. Like I said, we've been getting complaints for years about trucks and in the middle of the night. So we've, we looked at our noise ordinances and they weren't firmed up. We, so if you look at the noise ordinances, it creates levels. We're gonna actually put in noise meters into I think a certain number of police de police cars so that we can actually go out there in the middle of the night and determine if those trucks are actually violating so we can actually enforce it. It's there, there's multiple other situations that noise, noise violations could occur. Speaker 8 00:14:07 Yeah, I have one, I have a continual call of a client over by McDonald of a constituent by McDonald's who has to deal with a continually loud bounce, you know, bass music continually all day long and she has had to call the cops every weekend and she's trying to have her mom live there to take care of her at end of life. So she has continually called me with a problem, with a noise, noise ordinance also. And she, she, she has called continually to the police department. Speaker 7 00:14:45 And if, and if I may, I don't think this is gonna pick up people who are not, you know, who are abiding by ordinances. This is not what it's intended for. The ordinance. Like if it's, yeah, right, if it's, I mean, implemented the way it, it's it's written to be implemented. Well, the aiding and abetting is only if you're doing something that's illegal and as the attorney said on being unhoused is not illegal and the house parties are just, I don't know, I think, I don't know when they started, however many years ago, those pop-up parties started, they're highly illegal. The, you know, they're underage drinking, people are renting out their home, things of that nature. And if you are a resident who lives in that area, I think Speaker 8 00:15:28 You would not want it next door to you and Michael Street. I can tell Speaker 7 00:15:31 You, I think just recently had one again Speaker 8 00:15:33 Next to my father-in-law. Speaker 7 00:15:34 Okay. So Speaker 9 00:15:37 On over there in the irishtown section on Halloween night where the parents and the child were charging admission and serving alcohol to about 400 minors. Yeah, Speaker 8 00:15:49 Well that's not only the issue. The issue is if you have 500 people at a party, they're parked all over the place illegally all over. And if an emergency vehicle were to have to get to one of our homes, they are not gonna be able to get to you. Speaker 10 00:16:03 How about the residence? Speaker 8 00:16:04 We needed a rest Speaker 10 00:16:05 On July 4th where there's 2,400 people there. Right, I know. Serving alcohol. Yeah, let's talk to those residents out there. They're not too happy. Speaker 8 00:16:13 I know, I know, but that's not Speaker 7 00:16:14 Allowed anyway, right? It's not allowed, but we it's not allowed Speaker 6 00:16:18 Anyway. Well, no, it's, we didn't have much enforcement mechanisms on them right now with the large gathering ordinance we would require a permit with, we would able be able to shut down it as it's an unlawful activity without the permit. Because to, to the extent that people can have, you know, they have private property, they can use their private property as they see fit. So that's what the combination of all these things is to really create an enforcement prayer vision. Now, of course, our police department is very community oriented and, and so to the fact that the conversations I had with our police department is we're, we're gonna use this as, as a a, a tool to get people to move on. We're not gonna go in there and ticket people and, you know, detain people, et cetera. This is about as a deterrent. Mainly we're hoping that just implementation of this will prevent anything from happening. But also that when it happen, we can shut it down and move people. On the last July the fourth I to the p the the public safety director. And the big issue is the police officers were able, were outside in the neighborhood, they really couldn't do much. They were there just trying to peek. They were just there, really just trying to keep the peace. And there was kids on, on lawns and walking around through the whole neighborhood. So, Speaker 9 00:17:41 Listen, I I can't believe that this governing body doesn't wanna make our town safe. As we sit here in this room right now, there's a, a hostage situation going on over motel six with weapons involved. The SWAT team's out there right now, and I can't believe that we're talking about, not talking about safety here. Speaker 11 00:18:02 The public portion of this, Speaker 9 00:18:04 I, I'm sorry, I have the mic here. We need to talk about public safety and it needs to get done tonight. Speaker 2 00:18:17 Anything else Speaker 9 00:18:18 Someone get seriously injured? Speaker 6 00:18:21 Sarah, did I answer your questions or, Speaker 3 00:18:24 Yes. Okay. You did answer my question. My, my my concern is that yes, regulations and policy has to be put in place because a few, few bad actors. I agree, but I feel that this language can be refined where it doesn't feel like it's a heavy handed approach to the full community. It should be a very specific refined language where you're going specifically after the bad actors and you'll be able to ma manage. Speaker 6 00:18:54 But that's what it is. It's for an unlawful activity. Now listen, every no resident's gonna be doing illegal activity, so this isn't an aiding and abetting anything other than an unlawful activity. So Speaker 2 00:19:14 We have the remote attendees. Thank you, Sarah. Do we have anyone else on the, anybody in queue for the remote attendees? Speaker 0 00:19:24 Yes, I am asking the next person to please unmute themselves. Speaker 12 00:19:29 Hello, Brian Wrack, 1247 Brookside Road about this noise ordinance. I don't know what you're saying, Raj, that a lawnmower is quieter than 65 decibels. 65 decibels according to chart I found is conversational speech or an air conditioner. I mean, I think it's pretty obvious a lawnmower, a snowblower is louder than that. And if we look at the township of Washington, which is where this ordinance was copied for from, they have a whole section talking about how it doesn't apply to lawnmowers, commercial industrial power tools, construction, demolition activity. I mean, we, you guys like missed the whole exception part and are just, I I don't, I don't get it. That was it. Speaker 6 00:20:12 So just like comment on, if you look at the ordinance, you know, it's also indoor outdoor noise has different levels of recording, you know, so the outdoors, they're not gonna be sticking the, the noise meter up to the lawnmower. I, there is already existing in this, this is only partially an amendment to it and I don't have it in front of me, but essentially there's a, there's a distance that it would be measured from Speaker 0 00:20:47 Council president. I'm asking the next attendee with their hand raised to please unmute themselves. Thank you. Speaker 14 00:20:57 Hello, my name is Allie Brockman. I live at 2 41 Vassar Drive and I'm a postdoctoral research fellow in social work practice and policy at Binghamton University. But I'm speaking today in my personal capacity as a Piscataway resident. First, I would really like to know where the agenda is posted so I can know which specific sections of certain ordinances are up for comment. It would be great if this were posted where the zoom link is posted, but about this ordinance today, having taken doctoral classes on social welfare and social policy, one of my main takeaways is that when writing or implementing social policy, it is crucial to consider how the policy could potentially be misused by bad actors at any point in the future. Vaguely worded policies that you enact could have unintended impacts that do not align with your current intentions. I think the fact that you're having issues with people misunderstanding these ordinances is a clear sign that they are too broadly and vaguely worded and could have multiple different interpretations. Speaker 14 00:22:06 If you are trying to address large house parties with underage drinking, for example, I would suggest writing policy that more specifically addresses those issues. The ordinance about aiding and abetting a public nuisance also could be interpreted to criminalized mutual aid and social service agencies who are trying to provide much needed assistance and services to people experiencing homelessness. I implore you to stop and think what exactly you are trying to accomplish with this specific ordinance. You should be able to logically connect the dots between your goal, what social policy research says is the best way to accomplish that goal and the specific wording of your policy on a more human level. I would just also like to add that no one wants to be considered a public nuisance. No one wants to be in so much distress that they're deemed a public nuisance. Someone causing a disturbance on the street, for example, needs help and resources and needs to be connected to social service providers. Speaker 14 00:23:06 This ordinance could be used by bad actors to outlaw that exact needed help. This ordinance is definition of aid, or a bet also includes providing comfort of a public nuisance. I want to ask you, do you really wanna be the people who outlawed providing comfort in any circumstances? Do you really wanna be on the side that says, providing comfort should be against the law? Unhoused folks are human beings just like you and me, and want a stable place to rest and sleep and be with their loved ones. The housing research consistently shows that housing first policies work best at ending homelessness. So until we can house everyone criminalizing homelessness or criminalizing helping unhoused folks is only going to prolong the problem of homelessness. You please do not enact this policy. Thank you for your time. Speaker 6 00:23:59 Just wanna repeat it. I think people are in misunderstanding that, that there's, that there's a generic definition to public nuisance. The ordinance actually provides that it has to be a public nuisance as defined by either state statute or, or township ordinance. Now state statute has a definition under two C 33 dash 12. Again, being on houses in the public nuisance, just standing around is not a public nuisance. Loitering is not a public nuisance. These are, it's not generic, it is tied to a, any, it is tied to definitions under state statutes. Again, it's not, I think we keep talking about unhoused. Unfortunately, it's not, this is specifically saying unlawful. You know, there's being unhoused. I don't know where we've gotten that from, but being unhoused is not unlawful here. Speaker 2 00:24:50 Thank you Raj. Ms. Johnson, do we have anyone else in queue? Speaker 0 00:24:54 Council president. There are no other remote attendees with their hand raised at this time. Speaker 2 00:24:59 Thank you. Closing for the remote attendees, opening to the in-person attendees, if you wish to speak at this time, please come to the podium, state your name and address and know that you have three minutes in which to make your comments. You may take a seat after completion of your comments or questions and the council or administration will then respond if necessary. Speaker 16 00:25:16 Hi. Okay. Hi, my name is Susan Pickoff. I live at 6 0 7 Ellis Parkway in Piscataway, New Jersey. And I'm a retired school social worker. And I'm a volunteer with nami, which is the National Association of the Mentally Ill. I just wanna know, is this ordinance about not housing people in motels? I can't stay longer than 31 days. That's not on this. No, it's not. Where can I find this ordinance? Because I am concerned 'cause I've worked with homeless families Speaker 6 00:25:48 So that, that was removed from the very, very first version of this ordinance. It's not included in this one and it hasn't been reintroduced. Speaker 16 00:25:55 Okay. So if you have homeless families who are living in motels, which is, which happens frequently, you know, I've worked with those students. Those students are not gonna ha are going to be able to reside in that motel until they can get housing for more than 30 days. Speaker 6 00:26:08 Yes. As of right now, yes. Speaker 16 00:26:10 Oh, Speaker 11 00:26:11 What I said last week. They're gonna come back in James, because Speaker 16 00:26:15 I would be very concerned about that. 'cause those kids really need stability. I have worked with them. It's really important for kids who are homeless to have as much stability as possible. And school districts, when kids are moved, have to make other arrangements for transportation. And then kids can, I've, I've had this happen are, are absent from school when, when school might be the only steady influence in their life at that point of homelessness. I'm also concerned what happens with individuals who are having altercation who might be having a psychotic break or who might be homeless. Is this ordinance impacting on that? Speaker 6 00:26:53 Having a psychotic break is not unlawful. Speaker 16 00:26:55 No, I know. So, but I'm thinking if you're a nuisance, say somebody I bipolar, they're having, they're schizophrenic or so like that in a little thousand. So that's called the definition. Speaker 6 00:27:04 So that, so that's why everybody keeps thinking like nuisance is a generic word. It's not like, for instance, I'll pull up one of the state statutes and it's the main statute. If you type in nuisance New Jersey statute, it's two C 33 dash 12. It has two or three, basically three different definitions of a public nuisance. None of what anybody has talked about would fit into these. One of them, for instance, would be by conduct either unlawful or itself or unreasonable under all the circumstances he knowing, could Speaker 16 00:27:33 You speak a little slower? I'm hearing impaired. Speaker 6 00:27:34 Yeah, no problem. By conduct either unlawful in itself or unreasonable under all the circumstances he knowingly or recklessly creates or maintains a condition which endangers the safety or health of a considerable number of persons be. Another one is he knowingly conducts or maintains any premises, place or resort where persons gather for purposes of engaging in unlawful conduct. The, this isn't, I think everybody's broadening what nuisance is. The statute specifically says it's public and nuisance defined by statute, detachment ordinance. We don't have a public nuisance here. So it would be ordinance here. So it would be under, it would basically refer back to the statute. So it's very defined already. And the the reason why we don't, we don't define it ourselves because the more you define it, it, it becomes a fight in court as to whether it applies. So we said, listen, the state has already defined public nuisance in very, in very defined terms. We're just going to make sure that we can hold other people that have, have caused this nuisance accountable. Speaker 6 00:28:44 So someone that has a mental health situation. I mean, we've worked with my, I've worked with my public safety director constantly. We, over the years, and the mayor can attest, you know, we implemented, I think it was a year or two ago, we brought in a shared services agreement with the county to make sure that we have mental health providers at calls where there, where there's either domestic violence or a mental health situation. So the police officers will only maintain the scene until those mental health providers can get there. So we always make sure that there is support and it's not the police officers that are dealing with those situations. Speaker 2 00:29:21 Thank Speaker 16 00:29:21 You. You would send a social worker out then? Okay. Yeah, I I think we're part of that with U-M-D-M-J, aren't we? I think so. Speaker 2 00:29:32 Anyone else coming to the podium? Thank you. Please state your name and address. Yeah, Speaker 17 00:29:53 This is Pratik Patel, 29 Redford Road. I have, I have few lot of things on this governance issue, but I'm gonna stick to this point lately, what I'm, what I'm observing is the legislation, whether it be state, the township, the federal, the state is going out of control. And this is to you Mr. Gomer, and I'm gonna be very specific. Are you writing British loans? Speaker 2 00:30:15 I'm, I'm sorry Mr. Patel. Is this has to do anything with the ordinance that we're reading on number seven? Yes, Speaker 17 00:30:21 It has. Because if we are talking about public nuisance and then we are talking about fining thousand or $2,000, do you guys actually study constitution is what is called as a legitimate fine because this is called, this is exceeding constitutional authority of what you call taxes or fines. That's number one. The second thing is, in this public nuisance, you want everybody to file permits. So tomorrow, if there is a public gathering against the government for things that we don't like, we need to get permit from the government. So you're taking a right to free assembly of people. Speaker 2 00:30:50 Sorry sir, did you read the ordinance? Speaker 17 00:30:52 Yes, we did. Yes I did. When we are talking about Speaker 2 00:30:54 Public, an exception in there, you may wanna look into, may wanna look into the exception. Speaker 17 00:30:58 Yeah. And this is when we are talking about public law, you're talking about somebody who's going to, yes, I understand that If it's related to private housing, when you, when you're talking about public law, this is not, this is impacting entire public. And I, I'm sorry, but you know, the legislation today is just going out of control. You guys are actually just going to create either a colony or basically a subsidiary in this township in the name of law. Speaker 2 00:31:24 We are a free Thank you Mr. Patel. Speaker 6 00:31:27 So counsel, I just wanted to clarify something that people keep bringing up in terms of the violation amounts for the noise ordinance. It's not more than 3000. And that's set by the municipal court judge. So the municipal court judge can turn the facts and say, listen, this is your first time. You're a good person. I'm gonna give you a hundred dollars, fine, $50 fine. It doesn't ha it's, it's, it's a max. It's saying that you as the municipal court judge can't charge them more than $3,000 in terms of the aiding in pub ab betting a public nuisance. The first offense is no less. It's no less than 500 because we've seen that these are big issues, but it's not to exceed a thousand dollars. We make sure that there's a cap. Second offense, it's no less than a thousand, no more than 2003rd offense, no less than 2000. You, it has to be progressive. And to the extent that still the municipal court judge has that discretion. Speaker 2 00:32:33 Thank Raj. Anyone else coming to the podium? Good evening. Speaker 18 00:32:38 I'm Stacy. I'm Stacy Berger, 2 33 Ellis Parkway here in Piscataway. Thanks for giving us an opportunity to speak about this tonight. I have a couple of comments on the ordinance itself. First of all, the, the breadth of it I think is what people are struggling with. And I think what Councilwoman Rashid and the other caller recommended is probably wise that we take this off the agenda and look at ways to make this very narrow. Because what you're doing is making a very large policy when what we have is a very specific in incident and example, I think of what you're trying to solve. I the number of people is a sort of arbitrary number. So I'm not sure where you got a hundred, but let's just say for example, you know, you were gonna have an event at your home and it was going to be, I don't know, a menorah lighting and you decided to invite 80 people and 101 people showed up. Speaker 18 00:33:31 You are now on the hook for having not properly anticipated the number of people. So do you recommend that people apply for a permit at, I mean, it would be exempt because it would be a religious event, but if it weren't a religious event, and I'm not sure how, who's gonna decide what's a religious event or what's a political event or what's a protest? I mean, there's a lot of things that could qualify as a protest. Is somebody at the police department going to be tasked with determining what is a protest and what is not a protest or what is a political event? 'cause there does seem to be a lot of conversation about what is political and what is not political. So I'm wondering how you came up with the number at a hundred because if you mis get misjudged the number of people that are coming to your home, to your private property, you are now on the hook for up to anywhere between 500 or a thousand or 3000 if you violate the noise ordinance because there's not a lot of room there. Speaker 18 00:34:23 And I don't know, maybe the judge thinks you're a good person and maybe they don't. That's a weird thing for a judge to have to decide. But if the judge is gonna have leeway, there should be some very strict language about what is political, what is a protest, what is a religious event, and who is going to make that determination is very important to implementing an ordinance in a way that you're trying to, to do this. And I do think the caller who spoke before talked about unintended consequences. And I think that's what has people very upset about this particular ordinance because it is so broad and so much of it is so vague that you may have the best of intentions, but this can be used by other people for other purposes down the road in a way that you may not be thinking of right now. Speaker 18 00:35:09 So I'm not sure if anybody has an answer about how you got to a hundred, why not 150, why not 68? Like where did that number come from and how are people supposed to know if they've not intended to 'cause the way that the the ordinance reads, it's that if you're expecting a certain number. So if I'm expecting, you know, 72 people, but 102 people show up, I'm now in violation of a law, even though I didn't intend to invi violate the law. And as I think you all know, violating the law, you know, not knowing the law is not an excuse for not following it. Right. So you are now putting people on the hook for substantial financial damages, for things that are very vaguely defined and seem somewhat arbitrary. And finally, I would just refer you to thank Miss Stacy. Yeah, I would just refer you to case law about these kinds of ordinances because they have been ruled really, they have been ruled unconstitutional. Thank you multiple times. Speaker 6 00:36:02 So I just wanna tell the council that, you know, a majority of these or these sections in the ordinance have been in including the noise ordinance, including dating, bedding, including the, this large gathering. We're not usually the first in the state to do these. We look at other townships and what other townships have implemented to try and find solutions. A ma a majority of these, if not all of them, have multiple townships that have done, done these and they've been on the books for a long time and where, where basically just implementing what other towns have tested and, and, and implemented Speaker 7 00:36:41 Council president, I, I believe that our safety director, some of the decisions that were made into putting a cap on the ordinance. That accurate? Speaker 6 00:37:02 Yeah, there was a lot of discussions between the groups. I'm Speaker 7 00:37:04 Sorry, I was asking if the safety director had had put input. And the answer I believe is yes. Thank you. Speaker 2 00:37:13 Thank you. Take your name and address please. Speaker 6 00:37:17 Good evening. Bill Irwin 2 33 Ellis Parkway, Piscataway, New Jersey. I didn't actually plan on speaking on this particular ordinance tonight, but given the sort of specific examples that I've heard as justification for it in the interim, it sounds to me like you're using a how a hammer to solve a scalpel problem. The ordinances sound overly broad. The examples that were given. Yes. Well on the noise one, yeah. Thumping base when you're trying to give care to somebody in the middle of the day is a problem. It's certainly over 65 decibels. There's an existing law for that, that law can be enforced. This one adds nothing to that. Mr. Gomer brought up that, you know, in the past, these house parties, the police have only been able to go after the owners of the house, which are the right people to go after you come down all over the house owners and they won't do it again. Those are the people that are causing the problem. They are the people aiding and, and embedding it. They're having it on their property, they're causing the nuisance. The mayor brought up a situation at Motel six, which sounds tragic. It doesn't have anything in particular to do with the ordinance under discussion. So leave that where it is. I don't think there's any particular rush to do this. I think the advice given that you should take some more time to sort of address and massage the public concerns that have been raised is solid advice. Speaker 2 00:38:52 Thank you. Speaker 8 00:38:58 Hi, Gina Register 78 Riverview Avenue. First I'd like to thank council member Cahill for going to Rutgers Stadium to try and talk to them about the noise. I live in the little neighborhood adjoining it. I have no problem at all with game days, but just to make you aware, maybe something you can open another dialogue with them this year. Football practices even in the bubble started at 6:00 AM and you could hear the thundering base. Speaker 7 00:39:34 Ms. Richard, sir, if I please take my time away from her. Are they using sound in the bubble Speaker 8 00:39:41 As Yes. Okay. It and a couple of neighbors who back up to golf links because they're right in line with the bubble. They've talked to me about it. I hear it in my house too, even though there's Speaker 7 00:39:55 One particular gentleman over there I've spoken to several times about it. So I'd imagine he might've been somebody too. Speaker 8 00:40:01 Yeah, so Speaker 7 00:40:03 Bubble, Speaker 8 00:40:04 Right? And people in the neighborhood complain about game day, but it's game day. It's five games a year. That's what you expect. Put it on your calendar and just go with it. But the practices at six in the morning get to be a little bit much. The other thing is I would like to encourage the council not to pass this ordinance in its present form. I believe the language is overly broad and I agree with the call in person who said it could be misin misinterpreted in the future. Respectfully, I think you need to write the Orin ordinance with more clarity in the language. I think your intent in maintaining a self community is greatly appreciated. Thank you. Speaker 2 00:41:01 Thank you. Anyone else to the podium? Speaker 19 00:41:13 Red white 6 0 7 LS Parkway. My comments are gonna be mainly questions. Do police issue citations for Jake breaking? Do you know what I mean by Jake breaking downshifting a a semi tractor Speaker 6 00:41:33 Mayor? Do we have, I have to look to see if we have an ordinance. I assume we have engine braking ordinances. Either that or it's, yeah, it's, it's extremely hard to force. 'cause you gotta call out the police department as you, as you hear it. And then they're already gone by the time police there as we, Speaker 19 00:41:52 So the police would not be willing to say, sit on the side of the road looking for drunk drivers and it simultaneously issuing tickets to truck drivers who use that. Speaker 6 00:42:07 And they, and they have, I mean, we've had issues where we've had, for instance, the trucks on River Road where there's a four ton limit and we've had, and we've seen like an uptick of, of trucks on there. And then there's police. The police have sat out there and issued tickets and pulled them over. So at the time, if we see repetitive complaints about, about, you know, the, the engine braking or, and Jake braking as you call it, by the trucks. I'm sure the police department would send people out to do that. Speaker 19 00:42:35 All right, one last question. I going to assume that you people remember Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane i Ida and sometimes people have trouble with keeping their homes intact. I've seen in some sections of town siding ripped off by strong winds. And I know from personal experience that sometimes you have to use a chainsaw to cut up trees. Do is some do. I, would I have to look forward to somebody coming over with a decibel meter if my chainsaw is too loud? Speaker 6 00:43:19 So to the extent that the police aren't gonna be wandering around with their noise meters, you know, this is only gonna be, you know, where the police get called out on a complaint, then they'll come and measure noise. And to the extent that, again, the, the police department is very focused on community policing. They're not gonna go and ticket someone. They're just gonna, you know, if they need to do, use the chainsaw, they're gonna use the chainsaw. The, and I, I don't think this is, this was, this noise ordinance was taken from other townships and was also reviewed and, and and written by our police department that from experiences that they had talking to other officers, I know some people are using chat GBT and determining that these decibel levels are, are, you know, are based on a lawnmower, et cetera. This is, this is taken from other police departments that have implemented this and, and said these are the good numbers. So this isn't something where we're gonna be punitive, et cetera. People will, this is about making sure that they can enforce when there's a complaint that we can enforce a noise ordinance. Yeah. Speaker 19 00:44:19 I I also like to bring to your attention that it's possible to use battery operated lawnmowers in place of which are not as loud as gasoline powered lawnmowers. Speaker 7 00:44:30 It's true. My neighbor has an electric one and I never know when she mows the lawn. Speaker 2 00:44:34 Yeah, wonderful. Isn't it? It is. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 3 00:44:37 Thank you. Speaker 2 00:44:43 Anyone else to the podium? Okay, closing to the Speaker 3 00:44:49 Comment. Sure. So just regarding like the chainsaw, just to follow up on that, right? If the neighbor was using a chainsaw, it's too loud. By the time the police is called and they come to the home, he's not using the chainsaw anymore. What happens in that scenario? Speaker 6 00:45:08 They don't, we can't do anything. Speaker 3 00:45:10 So isn't that the case right now, if anybody is very noisy in their house, they're either playing extremely loud music or they're extremely loud, you can call the police and they'll come to your house and they'll knock on the door and tell you. Right? Speaker 6 00:45:24 All they can really ask is to, for you to lower the music to an extent. This allows them to measure it and say, okay, you are violating an ordinance. Speaker 3 00:45:34 But if someone's complaint against them, then it's too loud need to have a number associated with it because then it feels like, Speaker 6 00:45:45 Yes, we don't, otherwise, at the end of the day, we won't be able to enforce it in court. And then people will just may get issued a ticket to the summons to court and the, and the judge will have to dismiss it. Okay. We have to have strict levels, we have to have numbers that we can abide by saying, this is the, this is the noise level that's allowed, this is the reading on the meter. The ev that evidence provides the, the municipal court judge to then make a determination. And again, our court judges also aren't punitive. They, they, very many, most of the time are prosecutors. And our court judges, and listen, they're an independent organization, so we can't, I can't really talk for them, but to the extent of my experience is that our judges are very, very much working with the population to make sure listen, first experience, you're a good person. Even second, second offense. Sometimes they try and work with the population not to be punitive, but to actually remediate the solution. Speaker 3 00:46:41 Alright. And then in terms of the large gathering, right, for the definitions, I know you said that the law enforcement would, would decide, but for example, I wanted to have, if I wanna have a wedding in my backyard, but it's a religious ceremony, so is that a private event then? Does it need a permit? If it has more than a hundred people, but then I don't need a permit because it's a religious ceremony that we're having, but it is a wedding. You know, there's a lot of ambiguity when it comes to the definitions then because it says exception for religious. Speaker 6 00:47:15 Yeah. And, and what I would tell the community is just give the police department or, or the mayor's office a call and they'll work with you. The, the main focus of this large ordinance is also is that to make sure that we can also work with you to accommodate traffic flow, parking and making sure we're not blocking hydrants, making sure, you know, those kinds of things. So the the point of, of the ordinance, and as you see it also works with you on the permit, say, so that all the p township departments can work with you to make sure that your, your event actually runs smoothly and doesn't have any issues. Speaker 3 00:47:49 Okay. Speaker 8 00:47:51 Because lemme just piggyback on that a little bit because when there is a large party, you know, I'm always, for the emergency services piece, parking's an issue. So if there are people parked on both sides of the road and there's a fire or an ambulance needs to get down the road and they can't get down the road, these are emergency services issues of large parties. And that's, that's part of the reason why you have to have rules to govern these type of events. Speaker 6 00:48:25 I just wanna make clear this, it's not if you have a hundred people, you can't do it. All you have to do is call up the township, submit a very simple permit, work with all the, all the different township departments like fire and police, et cetera. We'll work with you to make sure your, your event goes smoothly. You're going to hold it there, there, there. It isn't a situation where we're gonna reject it. And if, if you're working with the departments, all they're just gonna ask you is, Hey, how are you making sure that there's ingress and egress for fire trucks? You know, those kind of situations. Other than that, you're everybody. It's not stopping anybody from holding a gathering. Speaker 3 00:49:02 I totally agree with you. I understand the intent is from a good place. I know most of the feedback has been specifically for chapter three, most of the concerns from the community members. I don't know if that's something that you would want to pull out. Maybe we can revisit chapter three and maybe refine it the other chapters. Nobody has any comments for it. You know, I don't know if you're open to that. Speaker 6 00:49:28 That's the council, other than we kind of amend again. I mean if, because we'll, we'd have to, we'd have to go back to first reading next year. Speaker 3 00:49:39 And Speaker 7 00:49:41 I mean, on, on the, on the, on the sound levels. That's the chapter three. Oh, that's Steve Speaker 6 00:49:49 Large gathering. Oh, noises three Speaker 3 00:49:53 Is not only that, it's the noise gathering, it's the leading at a bedding, it's large gathering. So there's a lot of different things that came up with a lot of different concerns. Right? So it's not about not doing it. I definitely agree we have to do this. Speaker 7 00:50:08 Well, I will tell you that all the things that I wanted amended, I were amended. Speaker 8 00:50:14 I say, alright, Speaker 3 00:50:15 I respect that. Speaker 3 00:50:19 One last thing, promise. No more questions after this. I know most of the concerns were for chapter three, but I do have a comment for chapter two. Okay. And I, I, so that I am, don't mix it up, but I want to reaffirm that our contracted EMS provider provide all the 9 1 1 responses. And I really appreciate that service and that they do for the community and they're doing an amazing job. I believe that we should remain open to local EMS volunteer services. I know that they have a role to play, they're part of our civic fabric, and there's always a role for dedicated volunteers who want to give back to the community. So even if it's just the supplemental support, I think we should be open and stay open to that possibility. Thank you. Speaker 2 00:51:12 Thank you. Closing to the in-person attendees, Ms. Johnson Roco. Sorry. Motion Speaker 10 00:51:23 Councilman? Our motion Speaker 2 00:51:27 Councilwoman Lombardi. Second. Ms. Johnson Rocha. Speaker 0 00:51:31 Council member Cahill? Yes. Council member Carmichael? Yes. Council member Liebowitz? No. Council member Lombardi? Yes. Council member Rashid? Speaker 3 00:51:43 Yes. To all. No to Chapter three except three dash 31, Speaker 2 00:51:49 Sir, unfortunately. Speaker 3 00:51:50 Okay, then it's a no. Yeah. All right. Speaker 0 00:51:53 Council member rn? Yes. Council President Esposa? Yes. Speaker 2 00:52:02 Item number eight, consent. Agenda Resolution for efficiency Items have been consolidated into a consent agenda to be voted on together. And the materials for these items have been distributed to the council in advance of the meeting. Can I have a motion? Please Speaker 7 00:52:21 Offer Councilwoman Cahill. Speaker 10 00:52:23 Second. Councilman Uhrin Speaker 2 00:52:26 Roll call Speaker 0 00:52:28 Council member Cahill? Yes. Speaker 7 00:52:29 Council Speaker 0 00:52:30 Member Carmichael? Yes. Council member Liebowitz? Yes. Council member Lombardi? Yes. Council member Rashid? Speaker 3 00:52:39 Yes. Speaker 0 00:52:39 Council member Earn? Yes. And Council President Espinosa? Yes. Speaker 2 00:52:45 Thank you. Item number nine, announcements and comments from the our officials. Council member Cahill. Speaker 7 00:52:53 Thank you Council President. This is our last meeting of the year. So I would like to wish everyone in the town, those who are here, calling in remote and all across our great town happy holidays. In light of all that's going on in this world at the beginning of Hanukkah, like us to especially think about the hate that is still targeted to certain groups. And highlight the fact that our town is never in the news for that. And I've always said this, you know, this, Sharon knows it very well that I always say that our town is a model for this country in terms of, I always say we speak the same language. We, and then I don't mean that literally, I mean respect for one another. And it saddens me to think at a very, what should be a joyous occasion that people are so incensed that they feel that they have to take out hate on, on people, on innocent lives. I'd also like to say though, that as we go through the season, that we should still be hopeful that there are good people in this world. We are coming into the season of Christmas and New Year's, and I hope that once I was told that when you say Merry Christmas, even if it's for somebody who's not of the Christian faith, it's more about saying like, peace be with you, be joyful. Be happy. And so with that, I will say Merry Christmas to all of you. Speaker 2 00:54:37 Good. Council member Cahill. Council member Carmichael. Speaker 20 00:54:41 I just wanted to acknowledge the Hols Marshall Fire Company today. I witnessed them gathering toys and gifts for children who were less fortunate in taking them to Bridgewater, to the Martin Luther King Youth Center after school program. And there were 60 plus children there who are a little bit less advantaged than some of us are. And they, the Holmes Marshall Fire Company, along with the ladies auxiliary, went over there to, to Bridgewater and distributed those. And the kids were so grateful. The staff is so grateful, and they gave speeches and they wrote Santa letters. And I just thought it was a wonderful thing for this holiday season to make someone less fortunate than you feel better, feel good, and wish everyone a happy holiday season. Thank you. Speaker 2 00:55:33 Thank you. Council Member Carmichael, council member Leewood, Speaker 21 00:55:37 Following along in this theme. So two meetings ago I, in November, I spoke about our community gift giving and we had toy drive boxes through the Kiwanis Club of Edison for toys that are going to children that are through the DCP and P. And I'm proud to say that the Y did a great job. The libraries did a great job. The boxes were very, very full and people could also order on Amazon. And so it speaks to the generosity of our community. And I, I appreciate that and IC certainly something we can be proud of. We are in the middle of Hanukkah. I did bring a menorah. Hanukkah happens at the darkest time of the year. And each night of Hanukkah, we add an additional light so that on the eighth day there is more light in this world. And it's certainly something I wish for everybody here, for each of us and the world at large. Speaker 2 00:56:37 Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Leitz. Council member Lombardi. Speaker 8 00:56:41 Good evening everyone. The voting is now on for the holiday decorating contest till the 19th. You know, we have been riding around and the people are voting online. So take the time to spend some time with your family and go around and take a look at some of the beautiful decorations that some of the people have done around town. Thank you to the DPW for plowing of our streets. Please remember to not park on the streets while the streets are snow covered. We've been having a large problem with that. The plows cannot get close to your driveway if there are cars parked on the street. So we're trying to get the people to stop parking on the streets, and I would like to wish everybody a happy, healthy, and peaceful holiday season. Thank you. Speaker 2 00:57:39 Thank you. Councilman Member Lombardi. Council member Rasheed. Speaker 3 00:57:44 I would like to wish everybody a happy holidays and happy New Year. I know Wawa just opened up, congratulations to them, but more than the Wawa. Sorry. I am very excited about Tesla Chargers that I saw there. I don't know when they will be operational, but right now that would be the first electric car charger. Tesla Chargers in Piscataway. The closest have been 20 minutes away, so this is very exciting. Thank you. Speaker 7 00:58:12 Is can you only charge a Tesla at a Tesla charger? Speaker 3 00:58:17 I think they're expanding it to other electric cars too. Speaker 2 00:58:22 Thank you. Council member Rashid. Council member Ern. Speaker 10 00:58:25 Yes. I want to give a shout out to our 10 U cheerleaders. They came in first place in Queen City. Oh, very good. Queen City competition. Their trophy is in the community center, so go take a look at it. I also wanna wish everybody a happy and safe holiday. Speaker 2 00:58:42 Thank you. Council member Ern. Paula, thank you. Business Administrator, Paula Castelli. Speaker 22 00:58:50 Thank you, council president. I just wanted to, the mayor had pointed this out last week with respect to what's on the agenda, the award for grads who will be the auditing firm to submit our application for our solar credits. So we should expect $5.2 million for that. And then an additional 250,000 for the Chargers rebate. So we should be looking at about a 2.5, close to 2.5 million, excuse me, $5.5 million. So I just point that out. So thank you for authorizing that. And just a little lead up, I did discuss medical insurances. They did come in 22.3% higher. This will increase our municipal budget now by $2.7 million. So there's a $2.7 million change of which this township has no control over. It's what's happening in the insurance industry. The township was very competitive with its broker in trying to get competitive quotes in all different hybrid situations. This was the best offer to meet equal or better than in which we have to comply with some of our collective bargaining agreements. And that's all I have to say. And I just wish everyone a happy, healthy holiday season. Happy New Year and thank you. Speaker 2 01:00:14 Thank you Mr. Kumar. Speaker 6 01:00:19 Yeah, just a happy holidays and happy New Year for everybody. That's it. Thanks. Speaker 2 01:00:23 Thank you, sir. I would like to just take this opportunity to thank our mayor and council, along with our new Business Administrator and also our dedicated municipal clerks, chief of staff, public information Officer, and the rest of our staff and police departments for their continued support and commitment. Wishing our residents and families happy holidays and a very healthy 2026. Be safe. Thank you. Speaker 2 01:00:57 Okay. All right. Item number 10, agenda session for January 2nd, 2026 reorganization. We have our mayor's appointments of Civil Rights Advisory Commission Community re, outreach Advisory Board, historic Preservation Advisory Commission, deputy OEM, coordinator, planning Board, presiding Municipal Court Judge, various other appointments that are listed on our agenda. Item number 11, opening to the public if opening to the remote attendees, if you wish to speak at this time, please raise your hand either on the Zoom app or by phone by pressing star nine. When it's your turn to speak, you'll receive or hear a request. To unmute yourself, please click the prompt or press star six on your phone to unmute yourself at that time, please state your name and address and know that you have three minutes in which to make your comments. The council or administration will respond if necessary after you have completed any comments or questions. Ms. Johnson, do we have anyone on in queue? Speaker 0 01:02:11 Yes. Council President. I'm asking the first person with their hand raised to please unmute themselves. Speaker 4 01:02:17 Can I be heard? Speaker 0 01:02:19 Yes. Yes. Speaker 4 01:02:21 Hi, I'm Ed Marsh at one 13 Woff Avenue. First, as I mentioned earlier, the council, tonight's council meeting agenda was not available online to the public. I request that you look into this and resolve it. Second, the three minute time limits for public comment are not reasonable. It's not enough time for people to ask questions, try to figure out what's going on and to present comment. It used to be there was no time limits. Then it became two five minute time limits. Then it became one five minute limit and now it's down to three. So I think a two, four minute periods of time limits would be reasonable for public comment. I asked you to consider that. Also, I received the township winter newsletter today, and it has no calendar of public meetings or contact information for elected representatives. I find this disturbing and I request that you resolve this. Thank you. Speaker 6 01:04:15 Yeah, I mean, township official information is protected for privacy. Daniel's always out there and, and so for that aspect that we, we do want to protect, you know, our officials, especially in, in light of incidences that happened have happened recently in other states. Luckily not here recently, but of course Daniel's always was created because of, of a similar issue. So, you know, you can always contact the administration and also there is a 10, there's a council email address and, and the administration can always connect you with, with the council members. Speaker 2 01:04:52 Thank you Ms. Johnson. Do we have anyone else in queue? Speaker 0 01:04:56 Yes. I'm asking the next person with their hand raised to please unmute themselves. Speaker 12 01:05:00 Hi, Brian Rec 1247 Brookside Road. Again, I'm kind of wondering where that council email goes. I had talked to someone at the, let's see, America's hotel owner lobbying firm, and they talked to the Business Administrator from what I heard and tried to talk to the council, but no one responded to him. This was in regards to that previous ordinance that was altered about requiring the hotels to keep a guest book for the police. So did the council get his emails or, and just not decide not to respond or did they not get them? This was Ryan Albers. Speaker 7 01:05:38 Oh, Speaker 6 01:05:40 Well, all, all of those emails that are sent to the council are printed and printed and provided to the council. Speaker 7 01:05:48 Every email that goes into that email box, the clerk's office should be making copies of it and given it to us. I did have a copy of that gentleman's email, but I, you know, my response is, is that the motel owners need to be responsible. Speaker 6 01:06:02 Well, the, the business very reached out to me as, as it was a, a a, a reach out about a motel association regarding the ordinance. And so it was a legal issue and, and we did discuss it. Speaker 2 01:06:20 Thank you, Ms. Johnson. Do we have anyone else in queue? Speaker 0 01:06:25 Council president. There are no other remote attendees with their hand raised at this time. Speaker 2 01:06:30 Thank you Johnson. Closing to the remote attendees, opening to the in-person attendees, if you wish to speak at this time, please come to the podium, state your name and address and know that you have three minutes in which to make your comments. You may take a seat at completion of your comments or questions and the council or administration will then respond if necessary. Please state your name and address please. Speaker 23 01:06:50 Hi, my name is Rob Freeman. I live at two Haywood Avenue and I'd just like to bring to your attention an ongoing issue that's been getting worse over the last couple of years. We have a significant problem with traffic getting off 2 87 at exit eight on Possum Town and coming through the neighborhood, getting back on at exit nine. So we had some speeding issues initially they come and go, but now consistently Monday through Friday we'll have anywhere from 20 to over a hundred cars backed up on Haywood, not, you know, able to get out onto River. I've seen people drive the wrong way down the other side of the street to cut off all of those vehicles. So, to your concerns, ma'am, if there was ever a, an issue with an ambulance or a fire, there's no way that they're getting up the street. I have an eight and a 9-year-old. Speaker 23 01:07:50 I they can no longer play in the front yard and I have a property that's 200 by 2 25. We have a long driveway. They can't be out unattended on those days in the summers. It's very dangerous out there. I have been in touch with the police department, they've done what they can, but they only have four members to the traffic division, which is really not adequate here. What I would ask is that the problem is on possum town, if it is illegal to make a left there by the park Monday through Friday between the hours of three 30 and six, those cars would not be able to get on. Waze is directing those people off and through the neighborhood. So if they went down to the light and came up, there's multiple turns that's not as quick away. So even when the traffic subsides, you then get those random people that are doing 40 miles an hour, 50 miles an hour down Haywood, it's a 25. Speaker 23 01:08:45 It's just, it's a, it's a problem and you know, it's, it's now been a couple of years and it's getting worse and worse and and worse. So I would ask that you please look into that and then see if there's something that we can do. I'm not asking for speed bumps or those type of things. It's, it's a traffic flow issue. And when I speak to the police department, not one single person over the last several years that they have pulled over and ticketed has been a township resident. They're all people from out of town just trying to beat the traffic on 2 87. Yes, Speaker 6 01:09:20 So, so I actually had a, a discussion with the public safety director. I think Paula, you might have been there or the mayor was in regard to ways and we're reaching, we're gonna be reaching out to ways to see if there's a way they can alter their algorithm to prevent pushing people that way to, to avoid the traffic. We've understood that, that they are able to do that. So we're gonna continue to push to try and get that done. I appreciate that, but we'll definitely talk to the, the police department about that. Left turn is an option. Speaker 23 01:09:48 Thank you very much. I appreciate, thank you for your time. Happy holidays and thank you for the shout out to the 10 u my daughter's on that team, so Speaker 2 01:09:56 Appreciate it. Awesome. Thank anyone else to the podium, Speaker 17 01:10:12 Patel 29 Red Bed Road. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna make it short because obviously I get three minutes and it's not enough to talk about a lot of things just in general. I think if I just measure myself about trust in government in last three years and trust in legislators and if you have a matrix that shows something going up in my books, you guys are just going down, whether it be state, whether it be township, whether it be federal. And let me just give you, and I'm not just going to just say because I want to say this. I'll just give you concrete examples and let's start with this town. In last two years, obviously Mr. Mayor talked about that, how good it was to build those warehouses and he thought that he won the case two years or year and and a half. Speaker 17 01:10:55 Those warehouses are empty. There is not a single soul working in those buildings, which is on Washington Avenue. So I know how much tax breaks were given, but there is no payroll. That means now it's gonna be, again, taxpayers going to foot the bill. There was a fantastic building, which was a Paychex building. It was like, to me it was an architectural wonder. You level that thing down and I dunno whether it's public, private or who you want to blame this, but regardless of that, right on Washington and you right, I think exit six, I believe past the Walmart, that building is gone. It's a flat land now. So we have now iso warehouses that, that somehow people can find money and rationalized employment or whatever you want to call it, economic activity. We have great architectural buildings that are going down for whatever reason in names of profit in general Ledger. Speaker 17 01:11:41 When I look at it, what you guys are doing is, is just unheard of. When I look at the incentives that are going on in this country today, we are incentivizing things which are taking money away from people who are producing things and it is being given away to people who produce absolutely nothing. I think Miss, miss Administrator today talked about that, Hey, we got energy credits. The next statement that came in is our insurance payments are going to go up by 22%. You know, when we are talking about going insurance going up, that means are we talking the risk going up or are we talking for profit insurance? Because to me, when insurance are making profits, it means either the risks are going escalating high or something is not right, or that money is not doing its purpose. We have right now in our healthcare system, wait time's going up, doctors are taking five to six month vacations a year. Speaker 17 01:12:31 They're blaming lawyers that, oh, because the lawyers and their fees are going up and the lawsuits are going up, we are charging you more fees. Insurance is, is is just going at a rampant pace. Then we have, when we look at the other areas of the ledger, when we look at the schools and the taxes and the land taxation, let me give it a example about land taxation in Pisca in last five years, our taxation has gone up compounded by 10% year over year. And I think the, the letters that we get in in Brian Waller's newsletter, it's, it's just totally lying, okay? The, the taxes are going up and I'm not denying some of the services are going up, so I I I appreciate that. But when you look at it, when you're paying 50% taxes, and if I have to fund my education for my own son, for which I have to go into debt and he I have to find tuition fees, then I have to question that. If you're taking 50% in perpetual taxes for life and you still can't find people who can pay for education, where is the money going in government? Thank you Mr. Patel. I wish I could have more than three minutes and by the way, I innovated something in the the Middle Town Innovation Office. Nobody has reached out to me. Thank you sir. Speaker 6 01:13:34 Anyone else? Good evening again, Erwin 2 33 Ellis Parkway. I'm here tonight to speak in opposition to the ordinance. Criminalizing stays of longer than 30 days in hotels, which I understand is going to be on the January agenda and of which the mayor, mayor said at the last council meeting, quote, in January, either this public body is going to be for public safety or it's going to be for the criminals. I reject that characterization of the upcoming vote for two reasons. One, it is silly and childish. Two, it is an incorrect false dichotomy. It is incorrect because the measure as previously written will do nothing to either enhance public safety or to deter criminals. We are asked to believe that there is a level of criminality so extreme at two hotels in Piscataway, that the police were called over 800 times in an 11 month span. Speaker 6 01:14:36 And that somehow despite this robust police response, criminal activity continues. Indeed, it sounds as though it does tonight and we stand powerless to stop it with existing laws. Somehow the criminals evade our best efforts, outwitting us at every turn as though we have a cabal of Lex Luther or level criminal Masterminds taking up residence in our hotels simultaneously, we are asked to believe that this aforementioned group of clever criminals will somehow be deterred by a mighty ordinance stating that they can't spend more than 30 days in the same unit. That it will never occur to them that they simply, simply can't switch units or hotels on day 29, thereby being in compliance with the proposed laws written and free to continue their criminal activity unabated. The proposition is absurd on its face. Those two things cannot be true at the same time. Here are two things that can be true at the same time. Speaker 6 01:15:36 There may well be, and indeed it sounds like there are people conducting criminal activities at these hotels and they should be prosecuted under the existing laws that they're breaking. At the same time, there can be other people staying at those hotels, good people, families, perhaps a bit down on their luck, who need a stable place of shelter while they work to improve their lives. For those people, this law will present a serious burden on their housing stability and will cause more problems than it solves. In short, criminals will be undeterred good people will be burdened. That is the definition of bad public policy. It is simply punching down and that's not the sort of thing that good people do. Speaking of which, how about we set up a warming center overnight of our own here in Piscataway so that unsheltered folks have somewhere to go when it's freezing outside. 'cause that is the sort of thing good people do. I Speaker 2 01:16:43 Thank you. Anyone else to the podium? Speaker 3 01:16:58 Hi, my name is Rena and I've lived in many places in Middlesex County. I'm a social worker and a peer advocate. I'm 25 and I've been through a lot. I heard you saying that you think your town is a model for everyone to follow. That's really funny. I'm disgusted and disappointed to hear that there's still further ongoing discussion about the ordinances that would impact those who are experiencing homelessness. They need to be completely dropped as this isn't only going to be a considered a Piscataway Township issue, but a Middlesex County and beyond issue. There's no good thing that's gonna come out of these ordinances, especially the registry in lengthy stay from everything I've heard and seen, there's no actual real solution you all provided to the problem you are facing with in regard to the people using these hotels and mo motels other than to kick them all out as if they're just disposable and not human. Speaker 3 01:17:45 Many of those people using hotels or motels are homeless families with children, veterans, those who have reached sobriety, domestic violence survivors, returning citizens, and those who have found and are trying to found a measure of stability in those in their lives. But you wouldn't know that. Have any of you taken the time to directly speak one-on-one with, with any of those people that are using the hotels and motels that you say are causing problems? I bet none of you have because you wouldn't know that. You would know that these ordinances wouldn't be the answer. You're too afraid you're gonna get attacked, assaulted, raped, or stabbed with a needle by them. So you stay away, speak to these people and ask how you can help them and learn about their situation. And I guarantee you, you would be in tears after five minutes of talking to them. Speaker 3 01:18:24 This isn't even about giving these people another chance at life. It's about the fact that these people never even had a first chance at life. They're staying in these hotels and motels and your car and the ordinances that you're asking are barriers for them. So make sure you think about what you're doing but you wouldn't understand. You all were born with golden spoons in your mouth and you'll never understand what a real struggle looks and feels like. You let your biases stereotype stigma and disgusting labels dictate what to do with your lawmaking decisions. So yeah, go and enjoy your holidays, but don't forget nothing about us without us. Speaker 2 01:19:04 Thank you. Anyone else? To the podium for the in-person attendees? Motion to adjourn. Motion. Second. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Meeting adjourn. Thank you everyone. Have a safe New year.