Transcript for Piscataway Council meeting on October 13 2020
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 00:02:25 Yeah. Speaker 1 00:02:27 Just remember to unmute yourself. Speaker 2 00:03:09 Yeah. I'd like to call this meeting of the Piscataway township council to order before we call the full meeting into order, I'd like to read this statement. The township is using the telephone meeting format in an effort to mitigate the chance of exposure to COVID-19 as a part of the township's ongoing effort to slow the rate of transmission and avoid overwhelming our treatment centers. The dial in information and final agenda have been posted on the township website for members of the public in order to make sure a clear record of the meeting can be made. And that all parties are heard in an organized fashion. All members of the public will be muted during the meeting. If a member of the public wishes to speak during any public comment portion, please press star nine. In order to raise your hand to speak, we will unmute members of the public individually. Speaker 2 00:05:38 If they have their hand raised, when it is your turn to speak, you will hear a notification that you have been un-muted. It is at this time that you should begin to ask any questions you may have. You will have three minutes to speak at the conclusion conclusion of which you will be muted again, and the council or administration will as necessary. 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. Each member of the public shall only have one opportunity to speak during public portion. As the technology does not allow us to know if there are multiple callers on an individual line, we ask that if you wish to speak that you dial in on a separate line so that we can recognize you as a separate individual. Speaker 2 00:06:29 Thank you in advance for your patience. As we implement this new technology to continue to move the township board in during this health emergency, adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required under chapter 2 31, PL 1975, specifying the time date location. And to the extent now the agenda by posting a copy of the notice on the municipal building municipal court and the two municipal library, bullet and boards, providing a copy to the official newspapers of the township and by filing a copy in the office of the township clerk, in accordance with a certification by the clerk, which will be entered in the minutes. Ms. Cedar, would you please take the roll call? Speaker 1 00:07:17 Yeah. Councilman Cahn, Councilman Cahn. Can you unmute yourself, Melissa? Does he know to hit star six to unmute? Yeah, I wasn't on mute. I don't know why your dad. Yeah, you have to hit star six. Councilman Cahn. Are you here? I'm here. I never, yeah, I never was muted. I was always here, but I guess I was Councilwoman Lombardi here. Councilman here. Councilman Shah. Yes. Yes. Councilman council, president Cahill, mayor Brian Waller, business administrator CDC township, attorney Raj. Goomer here at the township clerk. Speaker 2 00:08:52 Thank you, Ms. Theater. And now will you please join me in a, to our flag? Speaker 0 00:08:58 I pledge allegiance Speaker 3 00:09:00 The United States of America, indivisible with Liberty Liberty. Speaker 2 00:09:15 Thank you. Okay. That will bring us to number five. And that is comments from the administration and council regarding a German of any matters on this agenda. Do I have any comments from administration or council? Speaker 4 00:09:32 President? Speaker 2 00:09:35 Thank you. Comments here. Thank you. And that'll bring us to number six, which is open to the public. And this is for comments regarding item number nine, which are the consent agenda item. So for the public, if you wish to comment at this time, it is with regard to only number nine, which are the consent agenda items. And I'll say to the public, this statement, if you wish to speak at this time, please press star nine to raise your hand. When it is your turn to speak, you will hear an announcement that you've been un-muted 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've completed any comments or questions Speaker 0 00:10:41 Mean, Speaker 2 00:11:19 Okay. Seeing no one in the public, having raised their hand, we're going to close the public portion for the consent agenda item. And that will bring us to number seven, which is a proclamation on distracted driving awareness month. I'm not sure if Mr. Mayor, you have that proclamation. And if you wanted to read that, Speaker 4 00:11:39 Yes, I do count a council president, whereas distracted driving is a growing challenge on our roadways claiming thousands of lives and injuring hundreds of thousands more each year in the United States. And whereas talking on the mobile phone, even enhance read mode, texting programming, your dashboard systems or GPS device can divert attention away from driving and result in physical and cognitive distraction. Whereas the township Piscataway holes paramount the health and safety of its residents. And whereas distracted driving is serious. Life threatening practice is preventable and requires cooperation at all levels of government and the general public. And whereas the national council safety council and keep Middlesex moving work to promote policies, practices, and procedures leading to increase safety on roads and highways. And whereas increased awareness about the dangers of distracted driving may reduce the number of crashes, traffic fatalities injuries. And now therefore we resolved that I, Brian Walton, mayor township scattering, the county of Middlesex in the state of New Jersey and the Piscataway township council fully endorsed the month of October as distracted driving awareness month. And now marks its 10th anniversary and encouraged the residents scattered to increase safety for all by pledging to practice safe driving habits. Thank you, council president. Speaker 2 00:13:01 Thank you Mr. Mayor. And that'll bring us to number eight, which is an ordinance on first reading. This is amending chapter seven, traffic seven dash 17.8. It is a schedule of residential permit parking areas, and it is a resolution adopting ordinance to, would you please read the resolution Speaker 1 00:13:24 It resolved by the township council to scattery township, New Jersey, that an ordinance entitled ordinance to amend and supplement survives general ordinances of the township of the county of Middlesex city, New Jersey, and I think chapter seven, traffic section 17.8, schedule a residential permit parking areas being is hereby adopted on the first reading that'd be published in the official newspaper and that a second reading and public hearing be held at 7:30 PM prevailing time at the Piscataway municipal building or 55 who's in Piscataway, New Jersey, as well as by telephonic conference on the fifth day of November, 2020, we further resolved that a copy of this ordinance shall be posted in at least two public places within the time prior to the day of the second reading and final passage and a copy of this ordinance shall be made available at the office of the tantric clerk for any interested member of the public. Speaker 2 00:14:19 Thank you, Ms. Cedar, do I have an offer, an offer and Councilwoman Lombardi second? Correct. Okay. Thank you, Ms. Cedar, would you please take the roll call vote Speaker 1 00:14:36 Councilman Bullard. Yes. Councilman Cahn. Yes. Councilwoman Lombardi. Yeah. Councilman McCollom. Yes. Councilman Shah. Yes. Councilman Uhrin. Yes. Council president Cahill. Speaker 2 00:14:56 Yes. And the ordinance passes on first reading and that'll bring us to nine, which are the consent agenda items for efficiency items have been consolidated into a consent agenda to be voted on together. The materials for these items have been distributed to the council in advance of the meeting at this time. Are there any items that the council would like removed from the consent agenda to DB to be discussed or voted on separately? Okay. Seeing none. I will ask for an offer. Do I have a second? Second? Thank you, Ms. SITA, would you please take the roll call? Vote Speaker 1 00:15:41 Councilman Bullard. Yes. Councilman Cahn. Yes. Councilwoman Lombardi. Yes. Councilwoman yes. Councilman Shah. Yes. Yes. Councilwoman Cahill. Speaker 2 00:16:02 Yes. And the consent agenda items path. That'll bring us to number 10, which is a discussion on best practices checklist. And I do believe our business administrator can Dacey would like to start this discussion. Speaker 5 00:16:16 Yes. Thank you. So this is our 2020 best practices inventory that's sent out each year by the state for us to complete. We've done very well. This year, there were 29 scored questions in our, we had the correct answer for all 29 of them. And there were a whole bunch of questions of the state added on dealing with the environment, shared services, coronavirus and planning that we can sorta mall, but they were unscored. So it will be passed. It was passed up all the council members for your proves for you to take a look at and we'll have Daniel file that as required by the state. Speaker 2 00:17:01 Thank you, Mr. Daisey. Is there anyone from the town, from the council who'd like to comment on this. Okay. See none then that closes to the sessions pretty straightforward. And that'll bring us to number 11, which are announcements and comments from officials. Councilman Bullard on nothing. I did find thank you, Councilman con. Speaker 1 00:17:30 I have no comments. Thank you, Speaker 2 00:17:33 Councilwoman Lombardi. Speaker 3 00:17:36 I wanted to make a quick acknowledgement that it is breast cancer awareness month, and we've all know people that who have been affected. So let's reach out to those people and it's also domestic violence awareness month. Speaker 2 00:17:50 Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Lombardi, both very important for us all to be aware of and to take action where we can council woman Scott McColum. Thank you. Council. President Councilwoman Lombardi took the words right out of my mouth. So just ditto, everything that she just stated. Thank you. Councilman Shah. Councilman earn Mr. Mayor, Speaker 4 00:18:23 Just as a note, that fire prevention month to the month of October. Speaker 2 00:18:30 Oh goodness. Yeah. Very important. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Business administrator. Mr. Daisey, Speaker 2 00:18:40 Councillor, Raj more. No comments. Thank you. Okay. And I will just reiterate what Councilwoman Lombardi said with a, with a note. I don't usually mention it, but as a three time breast cancer survivor myself this month often brings back a lot of emotion, but it is true for those of us who have had cancer, that it brings a new perspective to life, especially if we survive and are living just how precious our time is here and how important it is to make that time count. And to remember those that we love. So with that, I will close my comments and that will bring us to number 12. And this is the agenda session for the November 5th, 2020 meeting. And the first item will be the ordinance on second reading, amending chapter seven, traffic. This is what we voted on tonight. It'll be the second reading and it will be open to the public at that time. Are there any comments or questions from the council on this? Speaker 2 00:19:58 Okay. Scene on that will be on the next one will be a resolution which is chapter 1 59 governors council on alcoholism to the county of Middlesex. This is $2,307 and 80 cents. For those listening chapter 1 59 is the mechanism by which we take in grants money. So this is money that is coming to us to the county of Middlesex for this program. Any comments or questions on this scene on that will be on the next one is a resolution authorizing change in title or text for budget appropriation, any comments or questions from the council on this item seen on that will be on the next one is a resolution authorizing return of engineering and inspection fees. BMC group, LLC block 84 0 5, lot 15 through 12, which is water street. Are there any, oh, and I'm sorry. And also Avalon bay communities Inc. Block 2101 lot 11.06, which is old new Brunswick road and Felton road, 7,000 Avalon way. Any comments or questions from council on this item? Okay. See none. That will be on the next side and is a resolution establishing an emergency remote meeting protocols for local public bodies. Any comments or questions on this one? Speaker 2 00:21:24 Okay. Scene on. That will be on. Okay. That will take us to number 13. This is the public portion part. This is open to the public. Anyone in the public, if you wish to speak at this time, you would press star nine. And that is to raise your hand when it is your turn to speak, you will hear an announcement that you've been un-muted 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've completed any comments or questions. Okay. K, we have several hands raised and the first one looks like a phone number ending in seven, six, zero four. I am unmuting you or asking you to also unmute yourself. Do you believe you have to hit star six to do that? And then you are free to speak. There you go. Please state your name and address and note that you have three minutes in which you can make your comments. Speaker 6 00:22:49 Good evening. Council president Stacy Berger, 2 33. I was Parkway. I hope everyone is thinking, helping safe. I mostly, excuse me, have questions about the agenda items that were discussed or not really discussed first and foremost, the residential parking zones that was right on first reading and is now on the agenda for second reading, it would be great if we were privy to what the content of that proposal is. And not just the words in the ordinance, since that's not, that was not read by Ms. Cedar. It doesn't ever seem to be the topic of discussion. So if you or someone else on the council or the business administrator or someone could explain for the public, what actually is being discussed or decided on or proposed, that would be very helpful. Also wondering if there's any news on your meeting with Cablevision or optimum or LTS or whatever them cops are calling themselves this week. Speaker 6 00:23:42 I think a lot of people were hoping that there would be some significant reporting from the council and the mayor about what you all discussed and decided, and what is going to be done to try to solve the serious and ongoing problem that category residents are facing with optimum, not being able to hold up their end of the customer service or reliable internet bargain and last but not least are actually tools. I was curious if Mr. Dacey could elaborate on what the environmental questions were. He mentioned that as part of the checklist, and that leads into my last question, which is if Mr. JC or someone else from the council can provide data about how many members of the Scott subscriber community have opted up in the Skyway community, energy aggregation program. How many folks have opted out and sort of generally how it's going and what you all are doing to help make sure that you're implementing a law that daughters approved overwhelmingly last year, you can pick those in any order that you'd like, Speaker 2 00:24:45 Thank you, Ms. Berger. And I think we'll, we'll just go in order and I think we'll let council answer that first question and then we'll, we'll just go from there. Does that sound fair? Speaker 6 00:24:57 Sure. Sorry. I noticed myself as a CDU app. Okay. Speaker 2 00:25:03 All right. Thank you. Speaker 7 00:25:07 Kind of spiral. This is Raj Goomer to the council, sometimes fraternity in regard to item one of your questions, the ordinance regarding the schedule for residential equipment parking areas, that's regarding Hicks street. The police department recommended that we, that we make the heck street for the residents to protect their parking areas, to make it permit parking only all day, all hours. And so that's what the council is doing. As part of this ordinance, Speaker 6 00:25:36 They're going to be a fee. Is there going to be a fee for those permits? How are people? Speaker 7 00:25:43 No, there usually is not a fee for the residential permits Speaker 5 00:25:52 Regarding the best practices. There were seven questions that the governor's office qualified as environmental, and you could get the survey off of the DCAS website. Speaker 6 00:26:07 Okay. You could just tell me what they are, maybe you, that you and you guys answered them. You know what they are. Speaker 5 00:26:17 Yeah. I mean you would, you want me to re read through seven questions from the governor's document? Speaker 0 00:26:29 Thank you, Speaker 5 00:26:33 Council president. Speaker 2 00:26:40 Sorry. I'm sorry. I was double muted. I do apologize for that. I don't know any, we need to read all seven questions. I don't know if there's maybe one or two you might want to just go. That might seem most important. Seems like an awful lot. Speaker 5 00:26:58 Yeah. So one of them was that the amount of money we spend the operational costs, see what managing and treating storm water runoff. One is our, about our capital Munis, reducing the capital budget. Another is asking whether we want to establish a storm water utility by what type of recycling program we have. Are we considering changing from a single stream to dual stream is recycling program, except by what made it truck. Speaker 2 00:27:35 Okay. Mr. Dacey, are these going to be available for the public at sometimes succinct or is that through an Oprah? Speaker 5 00:27:44 Yeah, I believe they can get it off of the DCA website. You can go and you can put in whatever town you want and they'll print out the, whatever the answers were. These are all done online now by all the communities in the state of New Jersey. But if this burger has a problem, she can reach out to me and I'll email it to her, affects her. Speaker 2 00:28:00 Okay. Very good. I will. And I don't know if Mr. Mayor will want to chime in, but I will chime in about the all-team meeting. I think the township posted something to the effect of how that initial meeting went, Cablevision all T you know, again, I agree whoever they want to go by now came and spoke to us through phone, not in person to talk about splitting of these nodes that are in town in order to give extra coverage for the township. What else are they doing? They recognize their customer service department was extremely lacking. They blame that on COVID and not being prepared for a work from home staff. So they did not have a robust enough staff, which I would say the service itself has been a terrible experience for many of us. And this is why we've been so aggravated. And since they, I don't know, I think it was the August 11th meeting. Speaker 2 00:29:05 We had a couple of residents on the call, you know, speaking to it. And I myself was still without cable at that council meeting. And so we immediately, the mayor, the administration immediately started working with the board of public utilities, like the next day, trying to get something done. But anyway, so the splitting of the nodes increasing their customer service, which again, outside of terrible service, I think when you cannot get through to somebody that is probably a bigger frustration that if you could just get through to somebody and have them to explain what is going on, and then we also ask them to come back to us with some information about rates and we work with a governmental affairs division and they are supposed to be getting us information back. I do believe this week. I don't know if you want to correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Mayor. Speaker 2 00:30:07 Okay. I think that was it. Oh, I'm sorry. The aggregation program. I can start talking about this a little bit and I don't know if anyone else wants to chime in. So for those people who are on this call, who may not know, I guess it was last spring, a petition was signed by I think, 2000 residents in order to get onto the ballot. The question about having the township go into an aggregation program on, in, in the hope to get folks to use more renewable energy. I do believe the plan and the group that had put this out there said that there would be a savings and they used, you know, a neighboring town as an example. So it passed. I mean, naturally Piscataway is a very, you know, I think a forward thinking town. I don't think anyone in this town has anything against trying to use more renewable energy. I mean, we obviously know a very bad place. I'll just ask folks to mute themselves please. And then, yeah, so we implemented it as, as it was written because that is the law and it went out to bid. Now my understanding is as of today, 47% of the township has opted out. Is that correct? Mr. Mayor, do you have that figure there? Speaker 5 00:32:05 I don't have the up-to-date figure, but that's pretty close. About 47% opted out. It was only about, I think it was number is the teens of people that actually opted up Speaker 2 00:32:17 It's in the teens opposite up. So opted out, meaning that some folks opted to pay more, right. 50% or more in renewable energy, which those folks would know that their bill is going up. Now, the, the, you know, part of, part of that, that was implemented required the township to go out and educate residents, which we were obligated to do and did. Now, recently I do know that there have been complaints about the price being or the bill. And I don't know if it's the most recent bill came in higher than what was expected and there wasn't necessarily savings. And, and truth be told is when the township did all this, you know, you, you have to get somebody who comes and does a profile of the town to give you an indication as to just how will your town fair? And we did that, of course, and we, the savings wasn't going to be as great as what this organization said it was going to be, but there's still was supposed to be some savings. But my understanding is that that did not happen in a lot of that has to do with the, the current pricing of, of energy. Now, having said that the township now has to go out to bid every year, and that is our responsibility per this law, at least for the next three laws as it is written. And I'm not sure if anyone else would like to comment on that, but that is where we are with that as far as I am. I know. Speaker 2 00:34:05 Okay. We'll go to the next person. Oh, okay. Mr. Crowder, Mr. Crowd Advil. I just asked you to unmute yourself. Yes. Go ahead. Please speak. Speaker 8 00:34:24 Certainly good evening members of the council, Mr. Mayor members of the public Charles crowd Advil. I am with food and water watch. And first want to begin with an invitation to the mayor and council and anyone else in Piscataway who wants to join us tomorrow evening on zoom at 7:30 PM. We'll be hosting a community forum for the purposes of educating the public about the community energy aggregation program. And we would really welcome involvement from town officials. I know Mr. Daisy's on available, but I asked him to ask all of you, if, if, if one of you or some of you might be able to join us, we would welcome that. And we do have experts and community leaders that will be participating in that discussion. And we encourage people to bring their questions there. It's been somewhat frustrating to, you know, see and hear so much misinformation going around about this particular program. Speaker 8 00:35:29 And so we wanted to set the record straight. I appreciate some of the information we're learning now about the, the data on how many folks have opted out. And I did want to also raise a concern about the township's Facebook page. I don't know who is responsible for that, but maybe you can tell me, because last week on October 8th, I was tagged in a post. Our organization was tagged in a post that had some inaccurate information about the, the CA program, the quote I'm disputing here. It says, quote, in fact, the PCEA rate provided by energy Harbor. The contract is energy company is slightly higher than PSE and G is regular rate. And I believe the post was modified later in the day. And it was changed to something else that's I believe is also a misleading and inaccurate, but I'd like the township to address this and, and to address why you're putting out so much information that seems like it's intended to sabotage the program or, or dissuade free people from being in the program. And for the record, if you could check the Piscataway ca.com website, that's been set up by the folks you contracted with for the program. And if you could just confirm for the record, the rates for, I guess the next nine months, October through may are set PSE and G his rate is more expensive than the CA rate that might correct Speaker 2 00:37:06 Mr. Kratovil. This is council president kale. I don't have that information in front of me, but unsure that we will see that same information. I don't know if the business minister has it, but I'll definitely be looking at that. Speaker 8 00:37:24 Great, great. And I would encourage you to join us tomorrow. Do you think you might be able to, Speaker 2 00:37:30 I am on planning board, so I will be at that, but I'll see if I can't join you. Speaker 8 00:37:38 Okay. It is 7:30 PM. And for the record, people want to find the link. It is on our Facebook page, food and water watch New Jersey, and it is a zoom link and all are welcome. And we want, we want to be able to address people's questions. I, I, I know there's a, a need for transparency here. And so, you know, would, would welcome the mayor or council joining us. But, but I do believe that the site is clear@piscatawayca.com has the correct rates. These it's not really a matter to be disputed. The CEA rate is cheaper than the PSE and G rate. And so I'm concerned with the township putting out information to suggest otherwise, and did want that answer on who controls the Facebook page, who I can take this up with. Speaker 2 00:38:23 Okay, Nick, why don't you call the office tomorrow? Cause I'm gonna put you on mute or we can get that information to you on this call, but your three minutes are up and I thank you, Mr. Credible for your time. Okay. Telephone number ending in 1888. I've asked you to unmute yourself. I do believe you have to hit star six to do that. You are up next. Speaker 9 00:39:02 Yes. Good evening. My name is Darrell Williams, 57 Woodley drive. And I would just like to know if the planning board meeting will be available to the public through zoom tomorrow. Speaker 2 00:39:14 It always is. We post that information to let's see. I don't know if I have it handy in front of me, but if you go on our township website, it should be there as well. But all, all township meetings, see it, the council meeting planning board or zoning board are always open to the public That Mr. Russ I'll check the website. Okay. Please do thank you so much. Okay. Seeing no further hands, we're going to close that to the public portion. So the public portion is now closed and that'll bring us to number 14, which is an a German. Do I have an offer offer Councilwoman Lombardi, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any nays we are adjourned. Thank you. And thank you to the public for attending everyone.