VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD VILLAGE COUNCIL SPECIAL PUBLIC BUDGET MEETING 
February 17, 2016 
Village Hall 131 North Maple Avenue
Ridgewood, New Jersey 07451 

APPEARANCES 
ROBERTA SONENFELD, Village Manager | ROBERT ROONEY, Chief Financial Officer | TIMOTHY CRONIN, Director of Parks and Recreation | RICHARD CALBI, Director of Operations | CHRISTOPHER RUTISHAUSER, Village Engineer | NANCY GREENE, Director of Library | GAIL CAMPBELL, Library Board President | SHARYN MATTHEWS, Director of Human Resources 
HEARING BODY 
PAUL S. ARONSOHN, Mayor | ALBERT PUCCIARELLI, Deputy Mayor | GWENN HAUCK, Councilwoman | SUSAN KNUDSEN, Councilwoman | MICHAEL SEDON, Councilman | 
HEATHER A. MAILANDER, Village Clerk | MATTHEW ROGERS, ESQ., Village Attorney 
Jessica Robinson, AOC #581 King Transcription Services 3 South Corporate Dr., Suite 203 Riverdale, N.J. 07457 
Audio Recorded By: Unknown 
I N D E X PROCEEDING PAGE 
1. Call to order, Open Public Meetings Act, 3 Roll call, Flag Salute & Moment of silence 
2. Public Comments 4 
3. Discussion Items 18 
a. Review of Department Budgets
1. Village Council 19 
2. Village Attorney 20 
3. Village Manager 21 
4. Parks Department 31 
5. Recreation Department 50 6. Engineering 64 
7. Traffic and Signal 72 
8. Property Maintenance 87 
9. Water Pollution 88 
10. Ridgewood Public Library 99 
11. Central Garage/Fleet Services 112

12. Recycling 122

13. Sanitation 132 
14. Yard Waste 137 
15. Streets and Roads 151 
4. Wrap up and Next steps 148 
5. Public Comments (none) 151 
6. Adjournment 151 
**Transcriber notes: Those items bolded are not of the verbatim record and are merely inputted intothe transcript for index purposes.**Transcriber notes: Certain microphones werenot working properly at time making it difficult tohear certain parties throughout the proceeding. 

A SPECIAL PUBLIC BUDGET MEETING OF THE VILLAGE COUNCIL OF THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD HELD IN THE SYDNEY 
V. STOLDT, JR., COURTROOM OF THE RIDGEWOOD VILLAGE HALL, 131 NORTH MAPLE AVENUE, RIDGEWOOD, NEW JERSEY, ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016, AT 5:00 P.M. 
1. CALL TO ORDER - OPEN PUBLIC MEETINGS ACT - ROLL CALL - FLAG SALUTE - MOMENT OF SILENCE 
Mayor Aronsohn called the meeting to order at 5:06 P.M., and read the Statement of Compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act. At roll call, the following were present: Councilmembers Hauck, Knudsen, Pucciarelli, Sedon, and Mayor Aronsohn. Also present were Roberta Sonenfeld, Village Manager; Heather Mailander, Village Clerk; and Matthew Rogers, Village Attorney. 
Mayor Aronsohn led those in attendance in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag and asked for a moment of silence in Honor of the American men and women serving in our Armed Forces, as well as those who serve as first responders in Ridgewood and throughout the United States. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Great, thank you everybody. Good evening, welcome. This is our third budget 
hearing, I think. 
VILLAGE CLERK: Yes. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: So welcome. We're supposed to be -- I think we're here until 9 o'clock tonight, but according to Albert no later. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: No later. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Right, he's got a basketball game. 
All right, we've got a lot of departments, so we've got a lot of work to do. Before we do that Public comments. Is anybody here from the public? please, I guess sort of just stand in the middle of the room. State your name. 
2. Public Comments. 
(Indiscernible Conversation) 
VILLAGE CLERK: Use the -- use the microphone. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: I have a microphone. 
MS. VALCRY: Thank you. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: State your name and address please. 
MS. VALCRY: Sure, I'm Linda Valcry (phonetic), I live at 460 Alpine Terrace in Ridgewood. I'm here as a member of the Open Space Committee. Just to make a comment on the budget, I think you might recall a few months back Roth Curry (phonetic) and Jim

Bosland (phonetic) and I were here -- to talk to you about a survey that we had crafted to get a better fix on the village's open space needs, their awareness of residents of various facilities that we currently own and maintain, what the residents think of those facilities, et cetera, et cetera. And at that time we prepared a budget which we needed to implement this survey and I think at that point it was $1,032. And there wasn't room in last year's budget to pay for the survey. 
I understand from Tim Cronin that he requested $1100 again this year for the survey. It's printing and mailing -- survey, just our -- just to update you it's a random sample survey. So, it's not to the entire village, it's -- and it's been very carefully designed with the help of the market research individual who volunteered her time to Jim Bosland. 
So, anyway I'm here to advocate to have that money returned to the budget. The Green Acres fundings requires that every year -- every five years we update our open space plan. The last time we updated I believe was 2010. This would be a vital component of that. A vital component of that. And a lot of volunteer time get into this. If we don't get the money for the postage and the printing it just simply is not going to happen. 
Now, if -- if you can't find the funds in, you know, your general budget to cover this, I'm wondering if perhaps the Open Space Trust would be able to help out in some regard with funds. So I'm -- I'm putting that forward at this time for consideration. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Great, thanks Linda, appreciate it. 
VILLAGE CLERK: Any questions? Anyone else? 
MS. HALIBY: All right, good evening I'm Cynthia Haliby (Phonetic) 374 Evergreen Place and I'm wearing two hats tonight -- still the afternoon. One is the -- Conservancy for Ridgewood Public Lands and the other is a laborer for the Women Gardeners of Ridgewood. And I'm here to urge you to add more staff members to the parks department. I remember last year you added two seasonal workers and they did not have much experience. At one point I know they tore out a whole lot of very good plantings at VanNess, so be it. So I'm hoping that you would add some more experienced workers as well. The two seasonal, plus hopefully a couple of more with some experience. 
I have to say, I think first impressions count a lot and it's important that CBD area be looking as it nice as it can with the beauty of VanNess right in the center. And we do work hard volunteering to keep the beds in order, but we need some more help. 
The Conservancy has invested a lot of money in a lot of shrubs along North Broad and with 14 Dogwood trees and what have you and the 19,000 daffodil bulbs. But we spend time and money on fundraising. And a lot of people do not want to contribute to us, because they feel that this should be included in their taxes. 
Last year in the summer VanNess was -- weeded and pruned only once, I believe, that was because they had no man power and the weeds and the vines were rampant in July. The tree wells were full of weeds for July 4th and the little pocket gardens were full of thistles and vines. So we really need much more man power to keep this up, we can't do it. 
Since I'm here, I'd also like to suggest that another arborist be put on the staff, or maybe a contract. Many of the trees in town, particularly in the CBD area need to be trimmed, they need to be pruned they need to be kept health. And there are trees up at the train station at VanNess the weeping cherries along the memorial -- need to be lifted. And Mr. Gary Cerulo (phonetic) last year said there's much, too much shade at Graydon, many of those trees need to be pruned. So my suggestion is to add staff for that purpose also. 
So thank you. Thank you for your listening to me and I'm looking forward to spring. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Great thank you. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Could I ask one question again Cynthia, I think I asked it last year as well. The work by the Conservancy For Public Lands and the Women's Gardeners to beautify Ridgewood, through your private efforts, about how much money do you think your projects save the village? 
MS. HALIBY: The Conservancy --
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Microphone. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: I'll let you use my microphone. 
MS. HALIBY: Thank you. The I'd really have to look it up. But I'm -- I'm guessing that in plantings alone and in some man power for adding some mulch we probably spent about $10,000. And manpower, I mean I -- I -- you know that's very difficult. We do have groups that go out. It's really more with the Women Gardeners that we have maybe 6 or 8 people working, maybe 4 times a year at VanNess. And then the Ridgewood Garden Club probably give us about -- an average of $500 a year to buy shrubs. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Good evening, welcome. 
MR. UBECK: Good evening I’m Don Ubeck 
(Phonetic) 219 Hope Street. I'd like to talk in support of Parks and Recreation and the work they do with the -- organization and the community center organization that I'm associated with. In the last year, due to budget adjustments we -- Parks and Recreation provides a full-time manager for the community center which makes is much more acceptable and usable for those organizations within Ridgewood and the special -- organization. And the cooperation the council has appreciate giving us permission to go ahead and applying for the foundation -- the 501c classification for any donations made to the community center of Ridgewood. And we're proceeding with that and we'll be making some changes within the next six months. 
Also, the council has been very cooperative in approving the over 55 survey which allowed us to gather information almost 600 replies have been submitted which -- handled by the volunteers on the community center board, and has applied for a grant from the -­foundation and we were awarded $22,000 to continue our work in this area to better identify the senior needs in --
So, I submit Tim Cronin is doing a great job with the funding that you provided last year and I 
request that you continue with so we can achieve more in 2016 and on for the year. Thank you. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Okay, great Don, appreciate it. 
MR. BROOKS: My name is Richard Brooks, I live at 777 East Ridgewood Avenue. I am the chair of the Parks and Rec -- Recreation Conservation Committee Board and have been that for a couple of years. I've been a member for longer than I've been chair. I -­frankly, I forget how many years. 
I stand in support of the great men and women who work at Parks and Rec and who we work with, almost on a daily basis, certainly weekly and we meet once a month. Our job, really is to make sure that the investments that the village has made in the Parks and Recreation facilities in town are well care for and utilized. Utilized in a way that benefit all citizens of Ridgewood. In addition, there are programs that Parks and Rec -- not only sponsors, but actually creates to make sure that the large variety of interest that people in Ridgewood have are met, satisfied and in most cases people are thrilled with them. 
If you would probably -- and -- and again, not saving members, but if you were going to look at this antidotal the bulk of the programs that Parks and Rec would probably -- supported, would probably satisfy the youngest members of our town. Okay, so it would look somewhat like a ski -- a ski jump, high up here and go down. Okay, now it looks through the research that we've done and the audits of the various programs it looks like a big U. Because there's a lot of people at the younger end and a lot of people at the older end, a lot of seniors who are using Parks and Rec, not only facilities but programs. 
And what we're seeing, and this is really exciting is that it's starting to get straight. Which means that all age groups are finding Parks and Rec to be a legitimate and fun alternative for their recreation time. That's a neat place to be. And the only reason it's there is because this department, these professionals, have done such a great job over the years of being creative, doing whatever they can in working so hard to getting the most out of the least amount of funds. 
Obviously Graydon is one place where, you know, we need to some work, we need to attract more people there. But the way that we use our parks it's so exciting because the technologies that are available to make those parks great places to be on the weekend, on a week night, any time during the day, to hang out,  to see a program, to take part in a program. Those alternatives will become greater and greater if we support these people. 
So, I'm not going to sand to -- stand here and say that I supports all the members of the board, I think I do. We have great meetings, they're exciting, because we talk about fun stuff. There are some challenges, we -- we address them every month. But as a chair, this is a great department to support. I'm proud and honored to be a member of the Parks and Rec group and I hope that you'll support them as well. Thank you. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Great, thanks Rich. Good evening, welcome. 
MS. BUESER: Good evening, my name is Monica Bueser (phonetic) I am the chairman of the Shade Tree Commission and I live at 492 Northern Parkway. 
I'd like to ask everyone to continue supporting the trees in -- in Ridgewood. We have planted them last year for the first time in five years or so, the shade trees on the street. And we'd like to continue doing that, especially since we've lost so many trees in -- in the past. 
I'd also ask to continue the funding for training because to be a certified Shade Tree 
Commission we have to have two people trained in core and we have to have eight CEUs total. I think by at least two different people. So that's one of the things that the state requires of a Shade Tree Commission. 
And the core training stays with the individual so that if that individual would happen to leave we wouldn't have the training necessary. So core training is something that should be done every year, by at least two individuals on the Shade Tree Commission. 
And the CEUs are something that we have to do every year, that stays with the community. There are several different ways you can get CEUs but the Shade Tree Federation has a big convention in October that we -- Mike and I attended this year and got training. That's one way to do it that does entail some cost. But other ways you can do training is actually have an individual who's trained come here and do a training and have that training for all individuals in the town. 
We also want to start a tree warden unit, with the Shade Tree Commission. And they would actually help us count the trees, which is one of the necessary things we need to do to get our certification. We need to have an inventory of trees in town. And this would also help the town, because if there's another disaster -- say another hurricane or flood or something that affects the street trees that we have paid to put in. If we have an inventory, theoretically we can get disaster relief to replace those trees, which we couldn't do with Sandy, because we didn't have an inventory. 
So there is a benefit to having the Shade Tree Commission more than just keeping the trees and keeping the village looking beautiful and in the way that people want to come here and stay here. 
And we also are going to try and expand our Adopt-A-Tree program, which we had 10 residents participate in this year. Hopefully next year we'll have a thousand. But we need to replace that many trees. If we can at least keep the funding steady, which this year we replaced 25 street trees. We would of course like to replace hundreds. But if we can keep the funding steady for the replacement of street trees and also for the training, which is necessary for our -- our continued -- for the State to see us as a true Shade Tree Commission. And that's it. Thank you. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Great, thanks Monica, appreciate it. (Pause in Proceeding) 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: You can just sit there, that's fine --good evening, welcome. 
MR. WOLFSON: Thank you -- be here. George Wolfson 212 Schuyler Avenue. A member of the Shade Tree Commission, the Green Team and REAC. Here primarily to second what Monica has just said relative to the Shade Tree Commission. Usually I'm at this meeting every year to talk about the quality of life programming through the Parks and Rec department. It's still important, but Shade Tree issues, I think for me at least, take a little bit of precedence. 
To review quickly the Shade Tree Commission over the last two years has basically had three major accomplishments. We focused the planting of trees in the Central Business District. The two years ago we commenced the planting of trees in the right of way in the village after a five year hiatus. And this year we did the 25 trees that Monica talked about. 
We did that through an outsourcing program. It was done, both trees and labor were provided by a vendor that went through a bidding process. So it was outside of village labor and that was very successful. We added to that, those 25 with 10 more that came through a volunteer program from residents which we call Adopt-A-Tree, which allows a resident to plant a tree in the village right of way. 
So, the -- we feel that there's a lot of accomplishment but we have a long way to go and part of that is our need to be qualified under the New Jersey State law -- the assistance law, New Jersey State Shade Tree assistance law, which requires that we certification core training, CEU training as Monica just laid out. 
To put some numbers to that, the total training package for certification for core and for membership in the Shade Tree organization comes to $1,000 basically. It's not a lot of money because in order to be eligible for any other grants we need to meet the certification requirements. Without that there's really no need to move on. It's a small amount of money, but we have accomplished quite a lot in the short period of time, but we do need your support. It was in last year's budget, we need to make sure that it stays in -- in to this year's budget. 
So, that's really the focus for us. We have a small amount of money in the budget for the actual purchase of some trees, total comes to about $8,250. That includes, again, the planting and the tree itself. And we have $4,000 to pay a consultant to do the study that's necessary to be compliant put forward a five year management plan. This is a plan that the State requires, it's also part -- one of the rewards if we're into Sustainable New Jersey, we get additional points for that. 
If we're going to have a real tree program in town, if we're going to maintain ourselves as a tree city, it would be important for us to show that we are, in fact in complaint with the rules and regulations off the State. 
That's it for me. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Thanks George, appreciate it. Any other public comments? Good evening, welcome. 
MS. SUMMERS: Hi, I'm Lisa Summers from 183 Catherine Road, and this isn't my chance to get pity but I did rise myself from the couch where I've been for four days, with a really bad cold. So -- but I thought it was really important to be here and I'm a new member for the Shade Tree Commission and I wanted to reinforce what's been said already about the need for funding. 
I would love to take the training, I think it's really important to do it. And I also think it's just really important for funding that helps us move forward in reforesting in terms of trees that have been lost in some of the really bad storms that we've had. 
As an environmentalist I know how it is important it is for the ecosystem for us to think about our trees, but also in terms of property values as well. I mean if you look at the studies of what matters to people, leafy trees and shaded streets makes a big difference to people. 
So I think it counts in terms of what makes Ridgewood Ridgewood. So, I hope you'll take that into consideration of the funding. Thanks. And I don't think I'm infectious so. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Thank you. Any other public comments? All right. All right, going to you Roberta. 
3. Discussion Items 
MS. SONENFELD: Okay, all right. Okay, good evening everybody. So, we have a very big agenda tonight a lot of complex conversations around things. Some strategic some practical. So we are going to do Parks and Rec. 
It's always -- it's always interesting in these budget reviews, the folks that come out, because we had nobody last night, are always Parks and Recs people. So it always -- it always impresses me. So we're going to do recreation, Graydon Pool. We have some large discussion around Graydon Pool to have. 
We'll then do Chris's area, which is 
engineering, property maintenance, sludge, traffic and signal, WPC. 
a. Review of Departmental Budgets. 
1. Village Council 
We're actually going to start with 19 -- tab 19, Village Attorney, Council Manager's office, because I'd like Sharyn to provide an update and she has a child care issue tonight. We'll take a break and then we'll do the library will be coming to present their numbers and then we'll have Rich and John work on central garage/recycling. There's some interesting issues around recycling that we need to kind of share with you from a strategic view point, and that's it. 
So, with that I think if you could all go to tab 19, we're going to go slightly out of order and then Tim and Nancy will be up after that. Okay, so we're going to start with the village council, I just want to note -- note for the record that the village council is up 181 percent year over year. Maybe the worst --
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Yeah, who got the raise? 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Are we getting overtime? 
MS. SONENFELD: Okay, so what we put in here are the four multifamily studies That's why in fact you 
see that. We weren't sure -- that's my pen. We weren't sure where else to put -- I think it belongs there and so that's really accounting for the very large excess. What is not here is really legal fees that have anything to do with potential Valley Hospital issues, if in fact we have two litigations going on simultaneously one would think that the village -- part of that would be in this budget. So right now I would say it's a risk. We have not built it in. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: How much do the impact studies total? 
MS. SONENFELD: The impact studies are about 50 -- we're estimating $50,000. Now if we decide we're going to add to them, which they seem pretty thorough at this point, but it's about 50,000 for all four. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: All right, any questions or comments there? 
2. Village Attorney 
MS. SONENFELD: All right so the next -- the next subject we have here is in fact, this is the village attorney. This budget is basically flat year over year, flat to budget. It's about $100,000 less than last year's actual. So again I would say you know Valley Litigation comes in here. You know there could be a potential risk to this number as well. But I 
think we all said the other night that to the extent that we have some extraordinary legal bills that we would, in fact, handle them kind of as emergency appropriations during the year rather than, you know, put them up front and then, you know, potentially impact the tax base, so. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: All right, any questions? All right. 
3. Village Manager 
MS. SONENFELD: No, okay. All right, the village manager budget as far as highlights go, as we did last year they're generally contained within each of the individual departments. When we publically introduced the 2016 budget we will summarize, as we did last year, key village 2015 highlights across various departments and divisions. 
I would say that in the highlights in this year budget we do have the full year impact of the human resources director. We also have leadership development in this number. We also have leadership development in this number, we have one Bergen Leads candidate as well as the CPM program. So we're holding that at top level rather than putting it out to the departments. 
So, with that I'm going to ask Sharyn to 
provide an update on HR. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Good evening, welcome. 
MS. MATTHEWS: Okay, last year -- last year's human resources was only -- in 2014 human resources only been in -- in effect for three months of 2014. So for 2015 there was a full year impact for what was done through the function. Why is this --
MAYOR ARONSOHN: You want to try the other microphone? 
MS. SONENFELD: Try the other one. 
MS. MATTHEWS: Much better. Is that better? Okay, it's better. 
MS. SONENFELD: Go ahead. 
MS. MATTHEWS: So just a couple of highlights, where the focus was for human resources in 2015. I think one of the biggest areas that we're working on and that there's a lot of work with a lot of departments was on -- issue. 
I think that over the past year we had a much more consistent and fair approach to employee relations across the village, whether it be disciplinary actions or counseling issues, or just regular issues on a daily basis. We're able to be much more consistent and fair in having an essential area to have that going through. 
Over the past months -- particularly over the past, I would say three or four months, we have really addressed some very longstanding issues in the village that related greatly to our employees' safety and well­being to the attendance of our employees as well -- as well as to the performance of our employees. And that was really a big focus for us as well. 
Tying into both of the above we have as a village prevailed in every Office of Administrative Law hearing that we were brought to by the unions in terms of any disciplinary actions that went that far. But for the most part we've been successfully work with all of the unions to prevent issues from even going that far. Whether it be through -- resolution or through meetings that -- that the union and management have been able to accomplish before going to -- Office of Administrative Law. 
All of these accomplishments in the employee relations -- alone have greatly reduced the risks of any action taken to the village by employees or by those impacted by these actions of the employees, so there really was a benefit to that. 
In terms of management development. Last year when I was here we talked about a goals and objectives program that we were going to implemented for all of the senior staff in the village. We did implement that 
this year. I think that the goals and objectives assisted in communicating the priorities of each department to Roberta and myself and to make sure that everybody was really working within the same goals that the village had and to have a focus on -- on what our goals were. 
Going forward we're going to be using these goals and objectives and update -- regular basis so that in the future we can use them as part of a performance evaluation process. 
In terms of day to day operations. We really worked to centralize the employment -- information, into the human resources department. It's sort of the hub there where an employee will call. I may not have their answer for the, I might, but at least they have somewhere to call where I can get them to a resource which will give them their answers. Have a central area for all -- all of that, and as well answer day to day questions that were in the past handled by legal question, are handled here more on a day to day basis. 
On a -- on a weekly basis I would say, I would speak to -- 15 people a week for individual questions alone; benefits, employee relations issues, hiring issues. Anything like that. That's in addition to things that we see on a department wide training issues 
and things like that. 
And you -- with a continued interaction with staff and assisting the directors, the focus in 2015 as I mentioned earlier, was really resolving a lot of employee issues that had been outstanding for a while. Most of the focus had been in water, in sanitation and in the revitalization of the building department and working with the staffing there and helping to insure that the right staff, were in the right places there to help the building department go along. 
In addition, key staff were recruited in terms of -- like I just said revitalizing the -- the department and a number of key senior management team positions were filled 2015 as well. 
Going forward, in addition to all of that, I said before, that's going to continue. I want to continue to become more relevant to the employees as a resource of their questions. I think as more and more people are coming to human resources and realizing that there is a place for somebody to come to. It has been said in many meetings, you know this -- is somebody who is not my direct supervisor, who I don't have go directly to the village manager to, who will listen to my issues and who will address my issues. So I plan on continuing that as well, building upon the positive relations with all of the unions in the village, playing a key role actively in the PBA contract that we are working on now, and in 2015 as well three other contracts expired on December 31st, the blue, white and supervisor contracts will all be negotiated in 2016. So I plan on playing a role in that as well. And working with senior management regarding strategy objectives on an ongoing basis. 
Again, whether it be staffing, whether it be organizing management staff in that -- in those departments or working on other issues that have been outstanding for a while there. 
(Indiscernible Conversation) 
MS. MATTHEWS: Yes. 
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But I know that you have been working on at least one of the -- policies and procedures. 
MS. MATTHEWS: Uh huh. 
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because in the past we've seen that there are, you know, too many -- one of -­and the -- has more regularized policies and procedures -- employees. 
MS. MATTHEWS: Yes, uh huh. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Is that -- that is something still on your --
MS. MATTHEWS: Well yeah, I mean our -- our human resources policies and procedure manual has -­was reviewed in 2014 right before I came here in May of 2014. As policies change, as the law change, obviously I am updating that as well. 
What -- what you pointed out as well is very important is sticking to the human resources policy, there is a procedure. You know which -- and I have been working on this, you know, very very closely in terms of there's a procedure, let's follow it. It's not a runoff, everything is here and that's why I said it's more of a consistent and fair application of that policy. As we see things that need to be changed to updated or addressed, absolutely, that's part of my plan as well. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Well, I see that it is. I think that, you know, you shouldn't be shy about leaving -- objectors. Keep policies and procedures --
MS. MATTHEWS: Absolutely. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Thank you. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Great, thank you. Any other questions or comments? 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Yeah, I just -- I have one. Is there -- do you have a number that basically say how much human resources has -- has saved tax payers versus 
not having human resources or anything like that? Is there any kind of like way to quantify that? 
MS. MATTHEWS: Well there's not really a way to quantify it, because there's -- there's a savings. Human resources is -- is never -- it's seen as -­center, but you're saving in terms of actions that could have been taken if things weren't done. There was some huge issues that were addressed this year that I think really could have resulted in some problems down the road. 
One of the things I do see, and I think we talked about it last year, too is we are not contacting our legal counsel on the basics, on investigations, on disciplinary actions that we were doing on a more regular basis before human resources was implemented here. 
MS. SONENFELD: Mike it's a good question. -- you know we had struggled with that because it's really hard to tell how much legal fees we're really saving. Only by speaking to some of our -- you know, lawyers who say they're being -- you know they're being contacted less. You all know that we have one big HR issue last year that we successfully went through the Officer of Administrative Law on. It was 30 boxes of discovery. We prevailed. We prevailed at the appeal. 
So, you know that kind of -- kind of makes the numbers a little hard to kind of -- to kind of compare. But I would say in supporting what Sharyn said, if you -- you know reading the record you can tell what happens if you handle a -- mishandle a human resources issue. And we have had at least one or two cases that I would say we could have -- the organization could have been put at risk. And I can't really say much more than -- than that. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Thank you. If -- if I could add to that. You know, it's -- in just the work you do, I think, is invaluable and I say that to you specifically as well as in terms of the function. 
MS. MATTHEWS: Thank you. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: You know there's a lot of the day to day stuff and you talked about that. But some of the bigger, more important, more un-attackable issues, the public doesn't even know about and you work on them. And I know you've worked on some of them this year and brought to a very good resolution. And people may not realize it, but thank you. I know how hard that is. 
You know I work -- my day job is -- I work -­I work for a global corporation, Bristol Myers Squib, and you know a major corporation. We do a lot of work in oncology, we do a lot of work in other therapeutic areas. But one of our four goals is about, you know about our culture, about -- about our people and -- and the need to develop them, need to create an environment where people can work and grow and -- and feel comfortable, and -- and that just underscores how important the human resource function is. And so again as I've said in the past I'm glad to have you here, I'm glad to --
MS. MATTHEWS: Thank you. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: -- I appreciate the work your doing. And it is invaluable, it's hard to quantify but it's -- it's important. And I'm sure no one knows that more than your colleagues. So -- so thank you. 
MS. SONENFELD: So on the numbers, you know, basically there's a difference of about $18,000 on salaries. That's just the difference between basically some increases that we had. We had a promotion. Some Sharyn, but not all of Sharyn. And, you know the budget on OOE is less than last year's budget and it includes Bergen Leads, CPM, recognition. And we've also put some money in here to do consulting studies, if needed. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: We have one our Bergen Lead students here. 
MS. SONENFELD: Oh, yes, Jackie is -- Captain Lefky (phonetic) is currently a Bergen Leads student. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Student. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, it's a great program. Okay. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Great, thanks. 
MS. SONENFELD: Thank you. Okay, so with that I guess we're back to tab -- I have to -- back. Okay, so we're on the long awaited Rec -- Parks and Rec, so that's tab 15. And I'll hand it off to Tim and Nancy and we will -- we will have a discussion around Graydon, I think, in depth, so. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Are we going to all -- all three of them first for the presentation and then go for the discussion? 
MS. SONENFELD: I think -- Tim, I think wanted to go through the entire highlights first and then -­right? 
MR. CRONIN: Correct. 
MS. SONENFELD: Okay. 
4. Parks Department 
MR. CRONIN: Okay, thank you. I would like to thank a few people first, which I have to. One is this group as a whole. I think we work together well. Everything starts and begins with council and in 
between we try to do the best with the funds and the staff that we have and I think we've put out a good product across the board. 
Secondly I'd like to thank the other departments that we work well with, and they are all here and we couldn't probably survive with what we do without them, and we do a lot of things in house, that again has bottom line on the -- the cost of a project, the cost of the program, the bottom line cost to the -­to the residents in town. 
And lastly -- well not lastly, but I would like to thank Nancy and her staff, and the park staff as programs grow and as the width of the programs grow they put in more and more time that you will never see. It's the after hours, it's the before hours, it's the weekends. Because everybody knows we don't recreate 9 to 5. It just doesn't happen that way. So, I would like to thank them. 
And then those people who came to the microphone we couldn't work without them either. I mean Cynthia and her group and the Conservancy and the Wildscape Association, Grace Church, we all went out and weeded various parks in town this past year, just to keep up with the work load, and I would like to thank them. And there's a myriad of other groups, Open 
Space, the Shade Tree Commission for the -- I think we had a great year, Shade Tree Commission for our first year. We reinstituted the planting program which hasn't happened in five or six years. The website and all that. 
So field committee who does a fabulous job scheduling all the fields in town for all the programs across the board, so I would like to thank all those people, for the record. 
Going into the 2015 highlights which there were a bunch. We dedicated the new addition to the stable and I think it blended in seamlessly of the character of the building. And if you haven't been there I'd invite you to come over, because it came out beautifully. 
I'd like to thank the Bulger Foundation (Phonetic) for that donation. That includes accessible rest rooms -- expanded accessible rest rooms, which you, as you know we run a really big day camp out there and it was badly needed. There's meeting room, an activity room. He also redid the existing kitchen for us. Storage and there's an outside patio now in the back. It all came out beautifully. If you haven't been there please stop by. 
The other -- one of the other big things is through the community relations advisory board -- I'm sorry the community center advisory board, they obtained a 501c -- 501(3)c status, which is saving them money. They purchased the new seating, the rugs, the furniture, the baby grand piano and the update on the media equipment downstairs. The purchase and installation of the news skateboard park equipment, which we got for a dynamite price from the Borough Affair went to a cooperative effort. And that was used for the first time this year. 
The municipal alliance program that we do, which is a grant, we do that in partnership with the Ridgewood Public schools and put out the Parents Who Host Lose The Most, and that's about hosting alcohol and after hours parties, which was a dynamite program if anybody was there. 
The Shade Tree Commission we implemented the Adopt-A-Tree program working with them, educate the community on the importance of trees which Monica had mentioned, the replacement tree program, and we outsourced that. So we kept our Shade Tree on point and we still got those trees in through an outside source. 
We work with the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts. One of the -- or two of the big projects they did was the installation of -- and dedication of the new flag pole up at the Irene Habernickel Family Park. I think some of you were there for the dedication. I think the Mayor was and maybe Gwenn. It came out beautiful. And the other was the enhancement of the existing trail, that is on the backside of the property up there and they successfully got their Eagle rank as a result of that. 
Nancy and her staff expanded the programs by networking and -- and researching. Some of them include the academic enrichment program, the equestrian program, which is really cool if you haven't seen it, it's actually live horses -- program, the cooking, the art program and a new pickle ball program, which we are actually in negotiations now and just finishing up doing a program in cooperation with Upper Ridgewood Tennis Club and using their facilities. So, that should be very interesting. 
The goals for the department for 2016 would be the enhancement of the community center. We have some more things downstairs that we would like to do. Needs assessment, the community center advisory board, the subcommittee, that is -- is we're trying to conduct a community based survey for our residents 55 and older. With the results of the survey, you know,
desires in regard to housing, transportation, community supports, services, health services, medical services, socialization, and financial concerns. So again, that -- that should -- the -- the information coming back on that I would think would be very interesting. 
The volunteer -- the volunteer corps in town would like to increase the number of adults and high school volunteers that we could assist people through there. The mission is civic renewal, public engagement and connecting these volunteers are a valuable resource to pool from for the after school programs, evening and weekend events that I mentioned before that we put a lot of time in on. 
Online registration for village programs. The village residents have increased the use of the Community Pass system, which is the online registration system that we instituted nine years ago. And by the way Ridgewood was one of the first in the state to -­to do that. In fact we were the pilot program for -­for that and they are now in the tristate -- that program I so popular it's in the tristate area now. 
We initiated a -- tennis court use and security through one of our staff is doing double duty and going around and actually checking to make sure people have -- have the tennis to try to increase that revenue. 
We have further park adoptment needs, use of the municipal park, recreation -- special events, park use, -- facility requests, the demand of park use escalates as we know. Professional department is eager to further develop and enhance amenities at various parking locations. Citizens, Habernickel Family Park as you know, Maple Park, Veterans Field. These are all discussions that we've either had had or will be having. 
A request from outside groups. We'd like to prioritize and streamline that because those requests are getting larger and larger every year, for the municipal services and determine financial obligation as it relates to billing out these groups. And we've had discussions on that for many years, Fourth of July, Backwards Dance, Car Shows, things like that. To make sure that the village is being reimbursed for those items and materials that they use. 
We would like to conduct a customer satisfaction survey through Survey Monkey, I'm sure you've all heard of that. There's currently an evaluation in process for seasonal staff and program offerings. It's a priority to ascertain comments on the areas of other problems such as the Graydon Pool, which we'll get into later, the overall department service, maintain the current -- as far as Graydon Pool, we're suggesting maintain the current fee schedule for this year. Normally every two years we reevaluate that. We'd like to keep the Graydon Pool and tennis membership badges current level. 
Graydon Pool resident membership has been steadily declining, as we know, in the last five years in certain categories. Department staff would like to strategize and implement a multifaceted approach to optimizing marketing potential of the favorable attributes, amenities and benefits of seasonal membership to the Graydon Pool facilities. These individual points would include a dedicated separate brochure, which is in this current budget, a survey that we would like to do of current members and past member, even including those that no longer belong. And that would include customer service, cleanliness of the facility and program offerings that maybe we do and don't have, -- the amenities of the physical nature, research option to partner with the Board of Education in the backpack program, that's a way of getting information out that we don't currently use. And enhance the social media regarding information dissemination to all the residence and streamline the 
registration process, swipe of badges and so forth so there's no line waiting to get in and out of the facility. 
In the Parks division the one item which we'll be talking about later is the additional request for laborers and that would be the title laborer in -- in replacing the tree climber position, which is currently advertised. That was for one person who left us. 
And then the last thing is to research optimal computer technology and social media to enhance everything I just said, which is a big thing nowadays. I think our CFO actually mentioned that last night at the previous budget hearing. 
With that --
MS. SONENFELD: So I guess -- if you look at the next -- I think on your next page, this is the issue, I think we wanted to bring to the council. If you look at, for example, resident adult badges that were sold between 2011 and 2015 you see a drop from 1200 to 665. Now, there's not an common drop in the revenue. The revenue is coming down a little less because other sales is going up. 
You do have that, right? Does everybody have 
(Indiscernible Conversation) 
MS. SONENFELD: So, you know that's -- it's concerning. And as we talked about, whether or not it made sense to raise the prices up for -- for these badges, we came to the conclusion that we don't know whether or not that would either further impact demand. So decided not to do that. 
And I think that there's -- there's some issue -- I think it's important that -- and we talked about this, going out to the 665 folks that were here last year and maybe even the 810 that were here the year before and find out you know are they coming back, are they planning on coming back? I know Nancy and Tim feel that we could be aging out, in a sense, that the folks are getting older. So I guess the point that Tim and Nancy are making in the presentation is that we need to somehow market maybe to new families and younger families that are coming in -- into Ridgewood. 
In general, there have been articles in the press that suggest municipal pools in general have been under some amount of duress. Whether or not that's true for natural pools, versus concrete pools it's unclear, because Glen Rock and -- Rich goes to the Glen Rock, because he's a Glen Rock resident, they're saying to us they haven't seen this kind of -- you know a drop in their -- in their volume. 
So, I think this is -- it's concerning and we have to be proactive in how we address it. 
MR. CRONIN: One of the other things I asked the building department to look at was how many built-in pools there are in town now. There are 795 built-in pools in Ridgewood. Built in. Not above ground, built in. It's considerable I would think. 
MS. SONENFELD: The question -- the question though and we don't know this answer, was it the same in 2011? 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Right, that's what --
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Yeah, I think -- I think -­yes, you know you put the finger on the issue that we really need to focus on. I think marketing is absolutely something we can do a lot more in and we can, maybe brainstorm some ideas. I think surveying, like you said, current members but also those that have left would be really instructive. And really getting a sense of what is happening in other pools, other communities, whether they're seeing a similar decline or not or somewhat of a decline. My sense is this -­this is an issue we can easily tackle and sort of drive those numbers up together, so --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: I would definitely not say it's an easy thing to tackle, though I would like to be optimistic about it and there's certainly things you could do. I -- I've read all the pools around Bergen County and Union County as far away as Pennsylvania. The thing is that municipal pools are facing some -- some -- most of them are facing big revenue drops and membership drops and I -- I don't know why. 
There's one that was really successful, I think it was Union. Is that -- is that a town? Anyway they had to close it to the town next door because they had received Green Acres funds to do like a big renovation, and it was so successful but then they had to open up the pool to other -- to other towns. And until they get the grant money they're trying to keep the other towns out, because it hasn't actually been awarded yet. And it's just like the old days of Coney Island. 
I mean it -- most of the pools, including Mahwah and Ramsey, they got like 2 million dollars for upgrading their facilities and then they're -- they're still waiting to see results. They aren't really necessarily yielding immediate results. 
So, my feeling about Graydon Pool is that it's one of -- it's not -- not ever going to be a revenue generator, we'll be really lucky if we break even. And we can do that with special events and things like that. 
But Graydon Pool is an asset to our community and it's an asset -- it enhances property values. And we have to look at it as a -- as a net zero because it's -- it -- it just enhances our quality of life. think other things around Parks and Rec need enhancement in terms of staffing and -- and what it could do for the village. But Graydon Pool we just have to keep it sort of the close to the -- keep the needle in the middle. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: I would -- I would say two things in that. One is, I would never look at it as sort of -- a place to generate revenue, or necessarily that we're going to generate profit. That's not the issue. The issue is its utilization by residents in this community. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: You're right. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: You know if the numbers are dropping it's -- we're not talking -- it's not even a question of revenue it's okay are we meeting the needs of the community and how can we do it differently. And I think we can take a page -- and this is a suggestion if nobody's thought of it. But take a page from like the library. Because the library -- like the changing -- you know people use libraries for different reasons these days than they did, let's say, 20 years ago. What -- you know by doing the survey as Tim suggested, you know, what are people looking for in terms of recreation? What can we do that's different? You know it's -- is it having bands? Is it having some other kind of recreation thing there? 
I don't know what the answer is. But my -- my sense is this is a nut we can crack. And we've got a, you know, a great resource there and the question is, you know, just how could we put it to better use and get people interested in it. So --
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Yeah, I -- I agree with what the -- with what the Mayor is saying. Because I know some years ago there was a -- a big drop in revenue versus expenses. I think Graydon was in the hole something like $140,000 at one point and it's really come back from then, because the water quality has come up. It's -- it's got people there, it's really a great place to go. And it looks like the expense -- the total expenses are about $256,000 and last year it brought it like $251,000. So it doesn't seem like it's -- it's -- it's not so much as a crisis as it was in the past. 
So, I'd like to maybe look at some -- some less expensive options. Like maybe put together a -­like a new resident package, or something, to highlight some -- some things for Graydon and get that out to people who move into town and see if there's any kind of way to contact them and put something together so they know it's there and they can make the decision whether or not. 
I don't know if you guys do that now or if there's something we can do. But you know it might -­there might be something that wouldn't be that expensive because there's not -- there's not much turnover. There's thousands of people moving into town, you get, you know a few dozen residents to go and you can get those numbers up a little bit more, but --
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, that's part of our goal Mike. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Okay. 
MR. CRONIN: We -- one of the numbers that doesn't show on here, I don't think you -- if you have it is the point of sale. The point of sale is your guest passes, just so you know. It's interesting to me, if you go back five years -- and I don't want to spend a lot of time on it because we delved into this, you know, in the parking lot so to speak, went from 53,000 up to 82,000 last year. Now, I don't know, does that mean people are switching to guest passes from seasonal as they're aging out? 
(Indiscernible Conversation) 
MR. CRONIN: It'll -- it'll come out in the survey -- it'll come out in the survey, but I mean if you add in the 82,000 you're even higher than the number you gave. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: And then maybe even do like monthly passes so somebody -- want to see -- you know -- option. 
MR. CRONIN: But it will be interesting the information that comes out of it. It'll be interesting. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: You know just -- a point that -- it would be curious to see 2008 to 2000 -- 2009 to 2010 because the increase going over that $100 mark and the 30 percent increase over, I guess, 4 or 5 years is pretty significant and there might be just a break point of where that $100 psychological is a point where somebody says I'm not going to spend that and it's easier to pay just for the day pass --
MR. CRONIN: That's what I'm saying. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: -- rather than -- you know so I think that -- that it's -- you know, just an important thing to look at. Maybe -- the parties -­
back. I mean --
COUNCILMAN SEDON: And also --
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, but I would say, I think -- when I -- when I spoke to Glen Rock I think they're the same -- aren't they the same price point, or even higher, right? The Glen Rock, they're higher, they're like 130 or something, right? Yeah. So, Glen Rock pricing is high -- you know they don't have sand, they don't have kind of the area we have. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Maybe you charge more, people will think there's more -- go. (Indiscernible Conversation) 
MS. SONENFELD: And you know the thing -- the thing you have to be careful about is if you look at the expenses, which are a page later, you know we've worked hard to try to bring them down because of the revenue challenge. But in here is not fully loaded --
(Indiscernible Conversation) 
MS. SONENFELD: If you go -- you have to go one, two, three, four, five pages after the revenue page. We were going to go back and do expenses one at a time, but you'll see that the expenses are coming in a little lower than budget, and they're lower than revenue. But these are not fully loaded, they don't have -- they don't have the FAC sheets yet behind them, right. And it really doesn't represent capital. Right, so you know we don't have the -- the --
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: It probably is coming -- first of its coming --
MS. SONENFELD: Right. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: -- it's better and it looks better now --
MS. SONENFELD: Then ever. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: -- then ever --
MS. SONENFELD: True. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Even it's not -­even if you don't go swimming in it, it's a wonderful park. It isn't just during the swimming season but the fall and the spring and --
MS. SONENFELD: Beautiful. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: So as the parks go there's a -- park in the middle of the town and you can't forget that because there's an amenity available to the whole town. But it looks as if -- being covered by revenue. And it's only because you're allocating financial overhead and the like --
MS. SONENFELD: Right. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: -- shouldn't. That's the portion that I see the tax payers, in a 
sense, might be -- and even -- not all -- this appears as an excess -- covering expenses. 
So I -- to me it's probably -- an amenity that we have in the town, it's available to the people and I don't know -- make use -- swimming in --
(Indiscernible Conversation) 
MR. CRONIN: -- people still come into the office and ask for, you know, -- information on it, so they can pass it along to their perspective buyers. It is a facet of the community and is valued by the real estate industry in town. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: And it's location. I mean it's right in the center of town. We're right near the village complex an -- so I -- again, it's a wonderful amenity that was being made available. We have no expectation of it being a profit --
MS. SONENFELD: Sure. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: -- and as a plus side -- it's not. It doesn't strike me as -- whatever it's urgency it isn't a lot -- if anything. We don't even --
MS. SONENFELD: It may. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: It may. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: The one last thing I'd like to throw out there is something we've kicked around for 
years. I'm sure you've kicked around even longer, is doing something in the off season. And I don't know -­I know we did the fire and ice, you guys did that and that was fantastic. 
MS. SONENFELD: Right. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: That was big. I don't know there's smaller things we can do in the off season. know it requires staff, it requires resources. But, you know it's something maybe we can look at. I'm going to have some free time after June, so maybe I can help in that regard. 
(Indiscernible Conversation) 
MS. SONENFELD: So Tim as you go through the expense pages, starting with Parks, you might want to, at the same time respond to some of the residents' questions as to whether things are included or not included in the current budget. 
(Indiscernible Conversation) 
MR. CRONIN: Is that in here? 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: What came up before. 
MS. SONENFELD: I said as we start with the Park's budget and go through the numbers a little bit. I think we should try to respond to questions that residents have raised prior. So for example in the Parks budget we do have two extra laborers that are added into this budget. Those kinds of things. And when we get to Shade Tree and the others, did we include the stuff or is it coming out of a different fund? Okay. 
MR. CRONIN: You have the cover sheets for --
MS. SONENFELD: Yes, they have the -- the next page they have is parks -- the parks number -- the 738,000. 
MR. CRONIN: The salaries, the upper portion is up by a percent. The -- as Roberta said the two requested laborer positions and they would be laborer title. Director of Operations and I have talked about that, that fits us best because they would then be utility people, since this is a civil service town. 
The total for -- for the upper portion salary, is 634,080 is what I have, which represents a 1 percent increase, bottom line. The requested two individuals -- two laborers we are trying, as we always do, to make use as opportunity comes along, I'll say. We had a gentleman leave village service who was an 80,000 a year position. We are downgrading that position to a labor, which would be $40,000. That's the open Shade Tree position. There's a three member -- three man Shade Tree, they're working shorthanded, two man right now. We're going to downgrade that to $40,000 and he would be a forestry aid position. Sorry, I was trying to think at the title at 40, $42,000. The other half of that would pay for one of the laborer positions, because they start at 40,000. 
So the best way I can explain is the head count is up two, financially it's up one. If that makes sense to you. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, and also we didn't have a full year impact with the person that we --
MR. CRONIN: Correct. 
MS. SONENFELD: -- handled. 
MR. CRONIN: We -- we worked shorthanded since sometime in June. So -- it also addresses the needs, thank you, Nancy of the Conservancy that -- Cynthia's not here -- brought up. So, mainly they would be doing the things that we don't do well, and we don't do well because we don't have the time or the staff. There are three park maintenance individuals left within the parks division. That's at three -- Al's looking at me like am I crazy, but that's three. We haven't hired a Park's labor position in 20 years. The supervisor there now is the last person hired. 
And we have been combining titles and taking advantage of opportunities as they had come along, like I said. We used to have two supervisors, we combined that into one. And those are kind of opportunities of people left. So, we're down to what it is three people now and two men in the Shade Tree, which hopefully will be three shortly. That's being advertised, but that's where we are with this request. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: In line -- in line 29, other contractual services there's a substantial increase, is that tree maintenance service? You see it has other contractual services. You went from 17 to 36? 
MR. CRONIN: It's not tree maintenance services there -- the only thing of a tree nature in there, councilman, is the roll offs to transport the trees that we take down out of town. 
MS. SONENFELD: And also if you look at the actuals from last year, actual to actual the delta is not huge. 
MR. CRONIN: The big thing there, Nancy pointed out to me, is our irrigation maintenance and repair, which is farmed out every year. We don't have a person on staff who does that. It's a bid program, it's in the second year of the bid. We have over the last, I'll say, four years increased gardens as a result increased irrigation systems, i.e. the taxi stand -- from the Christmas Tree location down to the 
taxi stand, the front of VanNess. 
Engineering put in the beautiful traffic island at the end of Grove Street, that's all irrigated. So, the Stable has been reinstated after a two year hiatus. We even replaced that when we did the ramp, was it. And we reinstituted when we completed the addition this year. 
So, the more and more gardens you put in the more and more irrigation systems that -- that line item goes up. And in that particular item that's what's driving that. 
The only two things -- to answer your question in there that's truly relating to -- the cleaning service, because we do all our own cleaning, and the roll offs. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Yes, I saw the increase and I was wondering A, what it was for and B, whether it addressed some of the comments that were made. 
MR. CRONIN: The only thing that's in there is the -- as our friends from Shade Tree Commission pointed out is the community forestry management program is in there. But that's a grant and I'm not sure if that's 100 percent reimbursable or 50/50. I'm not sure at this point, but that -- that 4,000 is 
partly reimbursable. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Yeah, I mean I -- if you want I can speak to that. That's -- yeah the -- it's basically a 50/50 grant but it covers the cost of the five year forestry management plan, which is $4,000 that we would put out. We were going to do it last year, last year's budget, but we're -- you know hopefully going to do it in this year's budget. 
And then there's also the time of the -- of the volunteers. So the -- the Shade Tree -- the Shade Tree members who actually helped work to take inventory to go out and count the trees and do everything else. The -- the state gives them -- you know allows them to have $23 or $22 for their work. Which comes out to about 7 hours a month that they might have to put in. It's about $2,000. So it gets us close to about $6,000 total between the volunteer time and the actual cost for the management plan for the consultant to put I together. 
The grant as applied -- the volunteer time that -- the volunteers actually wouldn't get paid because they're volunteers, so the -- the $3,000 would go basically towards covering most of the grant. The 3 of the $4,000 and the volunteer time would just go towards bringing that total up, which is allowable and that's -- that's how the grant's administered and how it was explained to me. So -- and again that would help with going forward with tree maintenance and getting grants and being certified as a Shade Tree Commission. 
So all of that is -- is, you know, basically a long term benefit for the Village of Ridgewood. 
MR. CRONIN: The overall of the OE portion is at 7 percent, but the total budget for the Parks division is up 2 percent. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yes, so to answer a couple of questions. We -- we have added laborers, because we've also added gardens and because we also recognize that we could do better at that stuff. We have not added an arborist to the budget. And answering some questions relative to the training and the CEUs and stuff, I think they're either in the expense side or they're -­they're being taken out of trust. 
MR. CRONIN: Out of trust. They're all out of trust, yes. 
MS. SONENFELD: So it's covered. But it may not be covered in the expense budget. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: So, you know people keep talking about well we added this little garden and that little garden and irrigation is, you know, driving 
costs up. But the one thing that resonates with me is how many cuts this department's had since 2010. So if you look back at the 2010 org chart you had something like 15 or 16 -- I don't know, how many more people did you have in 2010 then you have now? 
MR. CRONIN: I can't remember which year it was, but at one point there was 15 people in Parks. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: And now you -- counting 
MR. CRONIN: Now if -- if we fill the Shade Tree position there will be -- and -- and we fill the two requested there will be ten. But right now there is seven. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: And some of these -- I mean, positions are really one part-time in the Parks division and one part-time in the recreation division who make full-time through two part-timers, and I mean it's a really, you know, chiseling, chiseling, chiseling to make it as cost effective as possible to the village. But also isn't really the best for productivity or even, you know, knowing your job, being able to do your job, investing in the future and having consistent development of -- of staff. 
I mean this is really just piecemeal and I -­I feel bad that we don't have more money to give more back to the Parks and Rec -- and Recreation department, because -- well my feeling is that, it's not just Graydon Pool that improves our property value. If you think about what makes Ridgewood Ridgewood, it's really the open space, the green, the blue sky, the parks, the sidewalks, the social aspect, the recreational aspect, the cleanliness, the peacefulness. Why else would anybody move to Ridgewood? Because you could live in another more congested town with a lot less care for those kinds of things that we -- we prioritize in this town. And if we don't have the manpower to take care of the parks or run the programs I -- I just think -­it's a shame that we have all this space and we aren't able to use -- utilize it as well as -- as we could. 
MR. CRONIN: I mean that goes back to what I said earlier in my thank yous. And we couldn't keep it up as good as we do now and there are people out there who say we can do better. We can all do better at whatever we do, but we couldn't keep it up not without the Wildscape Association, the churches that we've tapped -- knock on their door, you know the Conservancy who is actually planting these flowers for us and weeding. Grace Church sent their congregation down and did Maple Park for us. You don't see -- on a Saturday this past fall and we weeded and reestablished the 
gardens there. 
I don't know how much longer that can go on, but -- I ain't getting any younger. 
MS. SONENFELD: So do you -- do we want to move on to the Rec budget or do you want to stay with Parks? 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: I'm just going to just kind of add to the point that Gwenn was making. I mean -­you know it struck me recently because I was looking through the list of committees that we have. And the breadth of your work -- you know if you think about how many committees, sort of relate to the work with the Open Space, Shade Tree, Parks and Rec, obviously fields committee. I mean it's amazing the breadth of the work you do with the limited staff, with the limited resources. I mean you really touch everybody's life in some way. We didn't talk about the seniors and the camp. I mean just -- it really is pretty remarkable. 
MR. CRONIN: I mean -- and the Rec division with Nancy and her staff, they've taken over a lot of large programs that used to be run by other people. For instance the swim team. We didn't run that, that was run by the Graydon Pool Swim Team Parents Association, which doesn't exist anymore. So the staff absorbed that. The staff absorbed the swim lesson 
program, which is still in existence, but the Y didn't -- doesn't run it anymore. We absorbed that. We absorbed the diving team, that used to be run by the parents association, we absorbed that. 
So, like I said before the more the base grows, the more time that's put in, the more demands on the staff. And we're just lucky we have a staff who are not clock watchers. Or I'm lucky, you know. And the hours that you don't see before 8:30 and after 5 o'clock, and on Saturdays and Sundays and holidays. Because that's when people recreate and we understand that. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Well, it's appreciated, you should know that and I hope you know that. 
MS. SONENFELD: Move on to Rec? Yeah? 
5. Recreation Department. 
MR. CRONIN: Recreation is in pretty good shape. The -- of ages is up 5 percent and I have to defer to either Bob or Steve, our CFO or our Treasurer. The full-time salaries is up 7 percent. We -- anybody from last year to this year. So, I don't know if that's the incorporation of possible raises with white collar contracts and -- I don't know, but --
MS. SONENFELD: The overall number's up 3 percent. 
MR. CRONIN: So -- Right. 
MS. SONENFELD: For salaries and wages. So we reviewed this during the budget discussions. So, Steve can answer -- Steve and Bob can answer that. 
MR. ROONEY: Yeah, I think it's contractual. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, I do too. So overall net net, you know we're up 2 percent over budget and one percent over actual for total expenses in recreation. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Questions? 
MS. SONENFELD: Staffing is flat. Yeah, Graydon is next, we kind of covered it, I think before. I don't know if there are any other questions. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: So, again this is without any allocations, again. 
MS. SONENFELD: No. I guess community center we talked about earlier. It's basic -- basically flat. Well there's a raise for the person is the full-timer as was pointed out earlier. We invested in that last year if you recall. That was an --
MAYOR ARONSOHN: It's a great investment. 
MS. SONENFELD: -- investment we made. 
I think it was worthwhile. It's a vibrant community center, so. 
(Indiscernible Conversation) 
MR. CRONIN: Committee we work with -- small 
budgets, but there are two, it's Project Pride and its beautification -- up in the central business district. That is a flat request for 15,000. 
MS. SONENFELD: Right. 
MR. CRONIN: And the last is the Kasschau Shell, which as you know runs a summer entertainment program at the Kasschau Memorial Shell outside, 19 to 22 concerts they put on depending on what year it is. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, I think -- I think the Kasschau Shell may not be everybody's package, but it's flat. 
MR. CRONIN: It's flat, yes. It's $9,000 I believe. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, 9,000 right. 
MR. CRONIN: They fundraise for the rest. Their normal budget is around 22 to 24, depending upon the year. So from 9 to the rest the knock on doors. So, last year they had $18,000 worth of sponsors, so --
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: I missed this question. I guess it could be addressed to councilman Sedon or to -- or to you Tim. In the -- in the past there was always a question, perennial question, no pun intended about the -- the planters downtown. Who was responsible for them? Has that issue been resolved?  Who's responsible for maintaining the CBD planters? 
MR. CRONIN: The beatification of downtown, the planters that you see seasonally, go up in May when we have Project Pride Day. That's falls under Project Pride. If there's something that they can't handle, a car accident blew one up, Parks Division will be notified via the chair and we will go and remove that. So, 99 percent of it is done by Project Pride. Situations like that would be handled by that. 
The tree wells, which we instituted the cleanup with the assistance of the Shade Tree commission that last year was 32 or $3300, 120 -- in town and they were all weeded and mulched by an outside vendor for an unbelievable price. And that's in the budget this year also. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: But it's now on somebody's list of responsibilities, because again we had complaints in the past about, you know, who's in charge. 
MR. CRONIN: And that works to be basically -­goes in at our expense, because you approved the funding for it. We clean them out, mulch them in the beginning and then the Shade Tree Commission came up, with the assistance of, I got to say, with Chris in Engineering and came up with a -- believe it's an 
ordinance or resolution that we now have that a 
property owner has to maintain the well. Similar to they have to maintain their sidewalk for snow removal. So we'll clean it out for them once a year, and get them off to a good start and they have to maintain it. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Thank you. 
MS. SONENFELD: Okay. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Thank you very much. 
MS. SONENFELD: Thanks guys. So we move on to Chris. I guess he can do it from where he is. 
6. Engineering Division 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Good evening Mayor and Council. I'll start off with the engineering division. We had a very busy year last year. We had a record amount of paving thanks to the financial support of the village council. We also completed two NJDOT grant funded paving projects. We also won an additional NJDOT municipal aid grant, which will be applied to resurfacing Morningside Road. 
2015 we implemented a program of increased notification to residence of defective sidewalks. That's part of a pedestrian safety program. What we've done is we utilized crossing guards in the summer to inspect sidewalks. These are crossing guards that the police departments offers to various departments for filling up -- for doing tasks in lieu of paying medical. 
MS. SONENFELD: No, I was just going to say Chris that you're not in the same order as the book is. 
MR. ROONEY: Yeah, it's the third entry in Tab 16. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Okay. 
MS. SONENFELD: So it's the third -- the book is --
MR. RUTISHAUSER: I never got a book so I'm just going off my notes. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, -- yeah. This is the order that everybody was -- so --
MR. ROONEY: But it's within -- it's within 16. 
MS. SONENFELD: It's within 16, but you need to go to the third --
MR. ROONEY: Third section. 
MS. SONENFELD: -- one. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Would you like me to start with another department? 
MR. ROONEY: No -- no -- no. 
MS. SONENFELD: Why don't you do that and then we'll go back to the first one and I'll tell you what it is when we -- when you finish engineering. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Okay. 
MS. SONENFELD: Okay, good thank you. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Like I said we used crossing guards that normally would be laid off in the summer to inspect sidewalks. I think that saves the village some money, because if they're laid off we have to contribute to their unemployment payments. We've had -- we've been doing this for several years not, it's worked quite well. 
We've been tracking -- engineering has taken the lead in tracking costs and expenses for FEMA declared disasters. That's where we eventually get a reimbursement for the costs that the village has incurred. We manage to clean up last year with the assistance of Senator Menendez's office. A lot of our claims are related to Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Irene and even some older snowstorms that went back -- six years. The federal government doesn't move quickly and the senator was invaluable in his help. 
In response to complaints in December, we rapidly repaired the sidewalk on the Glenwood Road that leads from the Heights area down to the Hohokus Train Station. We got a number of complaints from residents, we assessed the condition and concurred with their complaints and with council funding we managed to get that done before the snows hit. 
The department bid out a number -- a record number of projects and purchases this year -- this past year, for various departments. We also had a busy year issuing permits. We issued 434 sidewalk permits, 38 storm water permits, 24 soil moving permits, and we had 43 -- permits. 
We also recertified the village's CRS rating, that relates to flood insurance. We maintain the rating we have of seven. That generally entitles residence to a 15 percent premium reduction on their flood insurance policy. In the coming year we hope to get the new FEMA firm maps from the federal government and once those are officially issue we anticipate having to answer a lot of questions from residents who live in flood zones. There will be people that may be negatively affected. We'll try to help them through the process as best as we can. 
In 2016 we had a number of goals, one of them was to hire a public works inspector, which we have. We have a candidate, that's an intergovernmental transfer from another municipality. This individual will be very helpful with our paving. Last year we incurred a lot of overtime, as you may see in the budget, for paving because we did not have a qualified capable public works inspector. 
In 2016 we're going to continue our sidewalk safety program. We have a number of other projects we'd like to wrap up. We'd like to finish up a subdivision of the West Glen Avenue Firehouse. This is because the firehouse itself is on Green Acres property and we've been in discussion with DEP that they've suggested that we do a subdivision to separate it out so it's much cleaner on their inventory. 
We also have to work on resolving the villages NJDEP divergence issues for those that are familiar with it. The village, a long time ago about 30 years ago, took a public park and transferred to become affordable housing. Unfortunately the computer age caught up with the village and this is an issue that we have to address. 
We'll look -- engineering looks forward to developing of passive and non-passive recreational areas -- opportunities at the Schedler (phonetic) property. Once a couple of the major projects the village is facing have moved along we hope to get on to that. 
We look forward to assisting in the construction of a parking structure on the Hudson Street lot. Currently we have a desilting and 
desnagging program that is actually working right now, the contractor may be wrapping that up in the next couple of weeks. You may have seen some of the machinery in the Hohokus Brook. We removed a number of sandbars. Most of the sandbars that we removed are the same ones we removed just before we got hit with Hurricane Sandy. So, it's -- basically it's a continual maintenance of the water courses. This work that we are doing has been funded by the DEP, through our grant program. 
In 2016 we're looking at addressing the underground storage tanks and contamination issues at the North Walnut Street parking lot. That is a backburner issue and at some point in time the village will have to address it. 
We also have to finish off our Saddle River bank restoration. This is related to the Hurricane Irene project where a 16 inch sanitary sewer line was ripped out by the storm flows. We finally got the permitting done last year, only four years later. And we still have some restoration work to satisfy DEP. 
On an upbeat note, last year Yohan Mehansig (phonetic) the assistant engineer got his certified public works manager license. It's a big step in his professional development, congratulate him. 
We're looking forward to working with the operations division on considering privatizing the Lakeview Compost facility operations. We think that may be an opportunity to gain some benefit for the village. But we don't know until we try and until we find out what the market's going to tell us. 
We recently had an intensive meeting with the Department of Homeland Security regarding the waste water treatment plant and we have a number of things we have to implement and upgrades we have to do. It's a very interesting report that I got, I'll be forwarding it over to the village manager as soon as I get to open it up. 
In 2016 we looked at number of risks and opportunities. Basically FEMA declared events are a risk. We may have one with the current winter storm Johanis (Phonetic). We've had some discussion as to whether that's going to be a declared event with the potential for reimbursement to the village for the cost expended. 
Other risk we have is working with contractors and scheduling the various projects. 
One budget item that we think is going to be improved over last year in 2016, is for the overtime, because we've now retained a new public works 
inspector. 
If there's any questions on engineering I'll be happy to answer them. 
MS. SONENFELD: All right, so if you just want to talk to them, maybe Chris do the top line -- the top line numbers and why the delta is over 2 percent. So, 11 and 5, 10 and 5. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Oh, one of the reasons is we -- last year we had a -- I don't know how to best characterize. We had an individual that we had to select as a public works inspector. It could be -- it could be charitably said he was an exercise in failure. And --
MS. SONENFELD: We took -- we took --
MR. RUTISHAUSER: There's your quote. 
MS. SONENFELD: We took care of it. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Yes, we did take care of it when it became apparent that he was woefully inadequately prepared for the position, documentation started immediately. We worked with HR and after about three months he took the initiative on himself to resign. 
MS. SONENFELD: So, you know it's -- it's a -­it's a civil service challenge. I mean we're a civil service town and as a result you're forced into certain 
people you have to take at times. And as a result we don't have the full year impact of the replacement of our former person. So -- so the whole -- the whole delta here and Chris's numbers really is that, basically. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Yes. 
MS. SONENFELD: And you see that overtime, this year was a whopping 24,000. I mean this is, you know, a result of -- we were handling two contractors simultaneously for paving. It's a lot of overtime. 
Any questions on engineering? So Chris if you want to go back, the first thing that everybody has in their package is department of public works Division of Traffic and signal. 
7. Traffic & Signal 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: All right, Traffic and Signal, one of my favorite departments. That's only because the supervisor's present. Just kidding Jim. 
The signal division, for those who may not be familiar with them, they're kind of the fix it group. They try to fix and repair and maintain our infra -­our physical plan, our buildings as best as they can. They're very knowledgeable group of individuals. They save us a lot of money by doing it in-house rather than doing -- using an outside vendor. When an issue 
requires an outside vendor they are honest and straight up and says we can't do this, we need somebody else. Recent example that was last year, we had to replace some air conditioner compressors on village hall. 
The signal division has been working with the fiber optic network. Their individuals are trained in doing the splicing and the installations. We are working also with the -- we are also the maintainer of the Board of Ed's fiber optic network. That is part of our arrangement we have with the Board of Ed to gain access to their fiber network. That has benefited the village in better communications between department, outside of just the village hall, and from outlying pump stations and -- for both water and waste water. We can connect into the fiber optic network and then we can drop what is known as the Verizon tie line, so we don't have a pay a monthly fee to Verizon for communications with that station. 
Signal has worked to improve coin collection and accountability for the parking utility. We just required a new mini excavator that will greatly assist with tasks that require digging a hole. And again thank you for the funding from the village council. 
We've implemented some traffic signal timing changes for pedestrian safety at the high school and to 
produce improved vehicle flow. Working with the police department, came up with a solution that was implemented and it appears to be working. 
Signal replaced an employee last year. The previous employee was hired by the police department, he's now one of our law enforcement officers. We hired a replacement employee, also for one that retired. 
For those that are not familiar all the fire extinguishers in this -- in the village are inspected by the signal division. Jim happens to be the licensed inspector for those, and that again keeps it in-house, keeps it current and makes sure all of our inspections are up to date. 
In 2016 we have a number of goals. We're going to continue with the fiber optic network installation to connect more of our facilities. We're, I would guess, maybe 70 percent of our facilities -­facilities are connected. I'd like to get that remainder connected. We'd like to continue training our new staff members so they're all familiar with all things in the village, particularly in fiber optic work. 
Maintain our buildings as best as we can. We're looking at purchasing a replacement bucket truck for fiber optic work and the communications cable plan. 
We're looking at implementing additional parking spaces at Park-And-Ride and the central business district. This is a little bit of a repeat, but the Park-And-Ride has been kind of tied up because we have an ownership share with New Jersey Transit and the Department of Transportation. We've met with those individuals five months ago, and let's just say it's moving at glacial pace with them. 
In 2016 we're looking at a number of opportunities and a number risks. We have a lot of faded and non-compliant traffic signs. We'd like to replace them as best as our funding permits. A sign film product that we used in the past developed an extremely short lifespan and the signs are fading quickly. So if you see a faded traffic sign, we're probably aware of it and we're trying to get the replacement as soon as we can. We know what caused the problem, we've addressed it and going forward we hope our signs will be having a much more -- a much longer lifespan. 
We're also going to continue the retro -­reflectivity compliance program for traffic signs. That's a Federal Highway Administration standard that traffic signs have to have a certain level of reflectivity, particularly at night, so motorists can see them. We're also looking to upgrade our pedestrian walk/don't walk signals and our old electromechanical traffic signal controllers. That's going to be tricky because as we upgrade intersections we're have to stay below a certain threshold otherwise we have to do a full upgrade and that may require property and land takings. 
In 2016 we have a few budget items that will may -- may be a problem for the department. We have an interlocal arrangement with Glen Rock. We maintain their fiber optic line and they've just installed -­they just had PSE and G install a lot of 65 foot polls. Signal is going to have to transfer that fiber. We're going to have to work with Glen Rock on how to get that done without impacting their duties for the village. 
We're also looking at considering hiring an additional person -- person for the signal division to help with repairs, try to bring the department back up to some of level of staffing it had in years past. 
And if there's any questions. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: I have a stupid question. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: There are no stupid questions. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: How come when signal works on the streets they don't have any public safety protection. I see your trucks so vulnerable? I --
MR. RUTISHAUSER: A lot of times it's a short duration event. We do communicate with the police department. If we have to retain a traffic officer we have to pay him, and --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: I know. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: -- that becomes an additional budget item. I think we have a discounted rate but I think $89 an hour with a four hour minimum. So, if we're just putting up a -- a -- say a kissing ball on a decorative street light in the CBD we try to do that without a traffic officer to save money. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: I appreciate it, but I -­I -- I just want to say thank you. I see the guys up there fixing telephone poles outside Stable for some reason often. And it just looks like there's nothing there for them, and I -- it's heroic really. Thank you. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Yeah, it's -- we try to balance and we do work with the police department and if -- you know if an officer comes by the scene and says listen you really need an officer, we'll work with them and schedule accordingly. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: And I want to complement Jim for his leadership. Because you are a mentor and an inspiration and you're everywhere and I -- I'm so glad you're still year. Last -- I thought last year there was some talk about there was some talk about retiring or something and I'm just so grateful to you for still leading that department. It's ever present. It really is. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yup, ditto. So in -- in the numbers here is a half of year of an additional person that, you know we'll bring back and see if we should hold on to, because we have a couple of additions to staff across the whole group. So we need to really evaluate that. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Great. 
MS. SONENFELD: Okay, so I --
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: On -- on the question of signals are we still not buying new -- new traffic meters -- new parking meters and no longer -­we're not investing in parking meters, are we? 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Well, we are buying them. For example the plowing efforts in the snow, because of visibility, we lost maybe half a dozen meters, those have to be replaced. We're only purchasing meters and meter housings to replace what is damaged or stolen. We get a couple of meters disappear every year. People like to pull them out. They like to take them with them. Those have to be replaced. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: I thought the plan was to harvest meters from Park-And-Ride and --
MR. RUTISHAUSER: That is the plan. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: And -- and --
MS. SONENFELD: yes. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: -- you know over time there'll be no meters -- years --
MS. SONENFELD: And we just discussed that last week. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: It's still a goal, but again we're -- we're working with the DOT, New Jersey Transit partnership and it's a very slow process with them, very slow. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: It remains on our list of objectives. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Oh, yes. We'd like to get away from the meters. The village implemented Park Mobile. A lot of customers, patrons like it, but there are some people who don't like it. As that gets adopted more and more we can see what locations maybe the users are only using Park Mobile and we can consider and discuss with you folks and the council whether we'd want to make that location a Park Mobile only, eliminating meters. We do have the Chestnut 
Street lot as Park Mobile only. That can be considered for some of the street meters. Again, if we see there -- that Park Mobile is the only pay -- payment method being utilized. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Uh huh. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: We don't have that data yet. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Yeah, and I understand the Park Mobile subscriptions continue to increase. 

MS. SONENFELD: Yes, they do. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Greatly. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Yes. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: So you know over time it will be the, you know, sort of the currency or the realm will be Park Mobile. 
MS. SONENFELD: Every month --
MR. RUTISHAUSER: We hope so. 
MS. SONENFELD: Every month they've been going -- every month they've been going up from 8 to -- from 6, to 8 to 10,000 which as I pointed out once before it's like 40,000 quarters when you think about it in terms handling. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Right, that we're not handling. 
MS. SONENFELD: That we're not handling. 
Yeah, we do. We do. I don't have it off the top of my head. Okay. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Chris I just wanted to thank you and not -- and not just you, but through you, your entire team. You guys wear a lot of important hats and do a lot of important work, just the way you catalogued it here, it's just pretty extraordinary. I just want to personally thank you for three -- three particular things. First of all the paving you guys did was just extraordinary and so important. That's one of those issues, again, that sort of is both a quality of life and a public safety issue. And you guys did a really -- work last year. 
Second, the work you've been doing, you know the desilting and the desnagging. And I remember a few years ago when we had all these floods and it was a real problem and you've been maintaining it throughout and I want to thank you for that. I know a lot of homeowners want to thank you for that too. 
And the last thing is the work you done on -­on the parking deck and this whole initiative, getting us to this point. We're very close and I too hope that one of your goals, it will sort of work on the construction of the parking deck this year. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: I definitely look forward to that. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: But you -- you know you've been -- you've been instrumental in getting us to this point, and I want to thank you for that. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Thank you. 
MS. SONENFELD: So now we have two more expense codes for Chris. So we have -- the next one is the -- building maintenance -- the infamous building maintenance budget which is -- it says Division of Traffic and Signal building maintenance. And we also have the all-important water pollution control, which is at the end. So --
8. Property Maintenance 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Building maintenance is a moderate budget. It's the upkeep of our buildings. The line items you'll see under other expenses, those are accounts that the signal division uses to purchase material to fix things. If a light switch goes bad, if a light balance is inoperable that's where it would get charged to that building's account and they would do the installation. 
A big salary and wage item in this is the janitorial staff that we have in the village. They're principally in Village Hall and in the Stable. There's been some thought looking to going forward that we 
should consider outsourcing it. We're going to take a look at that this year, as with Lakeview Compost, we're not going to know any benefits of it unless we bid it out and see what kind of numbers or prices the market presents to us. 
For 2015 we waxed the village hall floors in-house instead of using a contractor, that worked out quite well. We coordinate that with the Park and Rec department. Usually do it after the summer day camp on level one. I guess the kids in the summer do put a lot of wear on the floors so we try to get them spiffed up so when the fall programs downstairs occur, they have a nice environment. 
I mentioned the repairs. In 2016 number of goals, try to get a more timely cleaning of Village Hall. We're also looking at upgrading Village Hall security, working with Dylan in the IT department and with representatives from the police department as to how we could best do that. I don't know if Chief Ward touched on some of the security issues. We're happy to assist him and we have some ideas we're going to work together on implementing those. 
MS. SONENFELD: All right. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: 2016 the big opportunities and risks are the fact most of our building and 
facilities are aging we're trying to maintain them as best as we can, but there is a continual greater demand for repairs and maintenance services. 
MS. SONENFELD: So, I guess if you look at the numbers one of the thing you'll see and I remember 2014 we spent a lot of money. I mean we were -- we had $184,000 versus the budget of this year of 157 and it's really hard to estimate what we're going to need and what's going to break and what we're going to have to fix. So that's why you see this kind of vagary between the different years. Because it directly is related to what we have to fix. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Yes, that's -- that's true. Just in the last couple of days we got notified of a leaking faucet. We have to find it and fix it. We also found out that the signal building had a leak in it from the driven rain yesterday. We have to find out what the cause is. Unfortunately the roof on that building is now outside of the warranty period. So we'll see -- have to see how to fix that. 
Council heard last night from Chief Van Goor he knows he has an ailing roof. We know very well he has an ailing roof. This -- when it leaks we try to fix it as best we can, but it's coming to the point where it may need to be replaced. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Roberta this is 
maintenance, does this include custodial services? MS. SONENFELD: Yes. MR. RUTISHAUSER: Yes it does. MS. SONENFELD: Yes. MR. RUTISHAUSER: Janitorial custodial 
services. MS. SONENFELD: Yes, uh huh. DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: And that's all they 
spend? And I see one and a half people. MR. RUTISHAUSER: Yes we have one full-time 
and one part-time individual. DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: At --COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: I don't want to call 
attention -- I'm sorry I interrupted you. DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: No -- no --COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: I thought you were 
finished. DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: -- I'm just struck that maintenance and custodial --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Yeah, I -- I -- yeah, I'm looking at my community center line item, I don't understand what you guys do there. It's just a concrete square. What -- it costs $14,000 a year? 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: That's the amount we have 
budgeted. That's for like -- balance. But I also know that the community center had been discussing with me in the early part of last year sound baffling and insulation because of the echo in the --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Oh, good that's what that is? 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: It may be. I just don't have the individual breakdown on that. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Yeah, because it really is nothing more than a bunker right now and yet we have thousands of people who, you know, use it. Not thousands, but almost. So if that's what that line item is for I --I would applaud that. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: I'm thinking it is, but I'm not a hundred percent certain because I don't have my individual breakdowns on that with me. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Thank you. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, I think -- I think the thing to look at in this budget actually is the bottom line. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Yeah. 
MS. SONENFELD: Because things just are so -­they move around. You know, things break outside. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: I'm surprised at how low it is. I've got to believe we have fireman and 
firewomen -- fire personnel cleaning their own facility to some degree. I mean it has to be the case. We can't be doing all that. 
(Indiscernible Conversation) 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: You do, yeah. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, EMS -- EMS has a service, actually. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Most departments and outlying buildings are responsible for their own janitorial efforts in house. Water pollution has the third shift guy. Part of his duties clean the place. Same thing with the street division, sanitation, they also have to take care of it themselves. 
MS. SONENFELD: Right. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: That -- that explains it. 
MS. SONENFELD: So we're looking at all of this because I think -- I'm not criticizing staff here. I'm just saying that if you even look at the floor right now it hasn't been vacuumed. You know, it's just one and a half people and you just can't get to everything in the building. So, I know you were complaining about -- somebody was complaining about soap in the men's room, that nobody put the soap in the 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Not with a number like this, I would not complain. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Well, for example our regular full-time janitorial person was off today because he had a death in the family, so he attended the funeral, that's why he couldn't get to this. 
In the past we had two and a half people on the janitorial staff. That, over the years, has been shrunk down to our current one and a half. 
MS. SONENFELD: So the -- are we done, because we have one more to do. Okay so the last one is at the end of your -- of this tab, so this is WPC. 
9. Water Pollution Control Facility 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Yeah, Water Pollution Control facility. Our water pollution control long time superintendent Bob Geller (phonetic) retired last year and I think the best quote from him that I can give everyone here is, we're at the end of the pipe. Whatever Rich Calbi and his colleagues put out we get it at the end. 
In 2015 we hired a new superintendent, John Spurber (phonetic). He's starting to fit in good. He's getting a good understanding of what we have to do and what he has to do. He's working out quite nicely. We bid out sludge hauling, instead of buying a new 
truck. We're going to have to reassess that, because some issues have developed. 
Our combined heat and power program is producing more and more power. Matter of fact the program was recently featured in an article Effluence Magazine. I don't know how many of you get Effluence. 
MS. SONENFELD: No. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: I do not. How could I? 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: And that is really the name of the magazine. It is -- it is an industry publication geared towards waste water professionals, the end of the pipe gang. 
In 2016 we're going to have a major accomplishment, our lab manager Yagnis Voss (phonetic) is going to be awarded the Rowe Award for Laboratory Analysis Excellence from the New Jersey Water Environment Association. He'll be honored in Atlantic City later this year for this accomplishment. He runs our lab, he does done a very good job at it. He always passes his recertification exams for the lab and he's been a big asset in running the plant. 
In 2016 we have a number of goals. We'd like to continue to optimize the sustainable energy program, like to do a cost benefit analysis of that program to see how much it really has helped the village. We'd also like to get an energy audit performed at the plant funded by the New Jersey Clean Energy Program. We have an outstanding air quality permit issue, with the plants auto-control system that we also have to resolve. 
The big project we have at the plant will be to bid out the digester rehabilitation. We have to take the anaerobic digesters off line, clean out the crap, for lack of a better word, in them and get them back running because they've been a little bit clogged up. Eighteen months ago they had a -- they were upset and they burped. And if you've ever seen a digester burp, it's not pretty. You saw it. 
(Indiscernible Conversation) 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: We also are currently working on emergency repairs to the Bel Air pump station. I haven't submitted the extraordinary unspecified services resolution to the council yet, because we're still tallying up the cost. But the pump station has three pumps. Two of those three pumps failed within a matter of days. They did give us a decent lifespan they were installed in 1991. Unfortunately now we have to replace them and there's a lot of work involved. We anticipate that will be somewhere in the order of 300,000 or so. 
In 2016 we have a number of opportunities and risk. We'd like to start to initiate a cure in place pipe program, that's effectually known by the acronym CIPP, it's a pipe rehabilitation methodology. It's a no dig methodology. It lines the pipe from access ports and holes. We hope this could bring our pipe system more up to date in terms in I and I, inflow and infiltration, and add some strength to the existing pipe. 
We also worry -- I worry very much about our operating permit. We started the renewal in 2014. We were approved in like June or July of 2014 and we still have not heard anything on our operating permit. The reason I'm concerned is if they spring something on us in terms of a new treatment methodology or a greater level of treatment. 
There's a lot -- been in the media lately about water quality, mostly on the potable end, but all of that eventually comes down to us on the treatment end also. 
In the Homeland Security audit for the facility, I mentioned that earlier. We're going to have to address some of the critical security issues. In 2016 some of the decisions we're going to have to look at, potential privatizing plant operations. Again this 
is a discussion item. Don't know how it's going to go. May need some time and thought to it. 
We may want to look at our sludge system. Our current sludge truck was just up at the fleet services because we needed it for the Bel Air pump station project and unfortunately the prognosis was very poor. It's probably not worthwhile repairing. So we have to look at what we're going to do in -- in lieu of it. 
Budget variances of 2016 for water pollution is increased cost for treatment chemicals. We now have to purchase polymer for dewatering, we're increasing our use of a bioorganic catalyst. We're also looking at -- possible increased cost in the -- dewater sludge. Our sludge volume from the digest is its increasing. We also have to truck it down to Passaic Valley and that is another cost. 
Our equipment, the wear and tear on the equipment has been considerable. The plant upgrade was last -- I think it was finished 10 years ago. Time does fly. The pumps and operating systems are starting to wear out, we're going to have to look at replacing it. 
Our SCADA, our computerized operation control system, I have to thank our consultant Keystone they've held it together, the question will be for how long. Any questions? 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: I have a very specific question. I really don't want to ask but I'm just curious. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Go ahead. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: The sludge volume is increasing? Is that --
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Yes. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Is there any reason for that? Does that have to anything with restaurants, or is that just --
MR. RUTISHAUSER: No, it's nothing to do with the restaurants. It has to do a little bit with our liquid waste acceptance program. But what we're looking -- when we look at the sludge after we dewater it, before we truck it out, we're looking at and we're thinking we're not getting a complete digestion by the bacteria. That's another reason why I really want to get these digesters clean that we have. I think the reduction volume we have in the digesters is not allowing us to have the complete digestion of our organics and is increasing our sludge volume. We're also seeing a little bit of other bypass or pass through products. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Sorry I asked. Thank you. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Really, I was happy to answer that. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: That was between interesting and kind of gross. 
MS. SONENFELD: I -- you know you can see -­you can really see analogy here between that and water and the fact that we have two very capital intensive businesses that are old --
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Yeah, that's true. 
MS. SONENFELD: -- and that you know are kind of dying here and there. And what I said to Chris was this was the year of water, and hopefully we can make next year the year of sewer. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Sludge? MS. SONENFELD: Sludge. But if you look at the overall numbers --(Indiscernible Conversation) 
MS. SONENFELD: If you look at Chris's overall numbers, you know, he's not coming up that much higher. And actually with the reduced sewer -- sewage disposal charges in one area, he's actually pretty flat year over year budget to budget at this point. But again, as is the case with water to a degree, you know there's risk. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Okay, all right thank you. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: No more questions? 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: They're afraid to ask. 
MS. SONENFELD: That was very edifying. Okay so we're ready for --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: I -- I -- I guess -- I'm sorry I will ask one quick question. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Oh goody. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: The list you had of 46 tasks you know pending or whatever 48, how do you feel about your staffing? I mean --
MR. RUTISHAUSER: In engineering? 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Overall. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: With the additional public works inspector, I think it will improve. There will be a training period. I'd like to get him up to speed. One of the reasons I want to get him up to speed is that on the outside construction projects I no long have to put the assistant engineer on them, I can keep him in the office for his design skills and his AutoCAD skills. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Right. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Another big thing, we're hoping, that's our -- keep our fingers crossed -- that we don't have any FEMA events because that takes a lot of our staff to address those on behalf of the village. 
If it's nice and quiet for another couple of years, we'll be very happy with the weather. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, so Chris and I discussed this a little bit, because they have -- there are more than 47 projects that he has on his plate. We thought that the conservative thing to do for this year is to get this person on board, see how it goes and see whether or not we think we need to add somebody else to engineering at some point. But right now in the budget that's not -- that's not there. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: No. Thank you. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: I know last year came up briefly that maybe for capital expense we put out some -- some sort of money to maybe hire some outside consultants to tackle some of the issues or some of the different projects on this list. And I was just -- I was going to ask maybe during the capital budget discussion, but I guess since Councilwoman Hauck brought it up. I'll just ask now if that was a consideration? 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: We've actually done that, the digester rehabilitation program is being done. The plans and specs are being by Bergen Consulting Engineers. We selected them through the RFP process. It look like it's working out good, because we -- we felt that we just did not have the time, as you correctly surmised to get that done. There's something else, I just can't remember what we also subbed out. 
We have -- we have issued RFPs for consultants to address tasks that we feel we just don't have the time to get to properly. And we're going to continue to do that going forward. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: And is that through the operating budget or is that a -- a capital expense? 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Usually that can be charged to a capital account. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Okay. 
MS. SONENFELD: If it's part of an overall project. If it's just staff expenses. Some -- it can sometimes and sometimes it can't. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Okay. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: So -- yeah, so we have started to do that and we will continue to do that if that's the best way to go forward for the village. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Okay, so then that would be something to discuss, I guess, as the year progresses. You wouldn't have to really have to wait until the budget process. If there is -- you know if residents came up with some -- some project or if, you know, there was a need in the village that they had to 
prioritize. That -- that can be -- I guess that's a 
discussion that can happen throughout the year? 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Yes. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Okay. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, and also when we discuss capital, capital's tomorrow night. Some of Chris's projects will be specific. Will be in the capital discussion as well. So okay so we are due for -- I think we could cut the break to 10 minutes. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Yes. 
MS. SONENFELD: 7:15 the library comes up. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Exciting. 
(Off The Record, On The Record) 
MS. SONENFELD: Okay, so I'd like to welcome our library friends. We have handed out your package. We didn't realize at first that they were personalized yesterday, so everybody was getting everybody else's, but we got it straight. 
VILLAGE CLERK: Did not have that -- does everybody have one? 
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. 
VILLAGE CLERK: You mean like Susan might have got Paul's. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah. 
VILLAGE CLERK: They're all the same. They're all the same. They're all the same. 
MS. SONENFELD: Okay, so I'll turn it over to you Nancy and that's --
10. Ridgewood Public Library 
MS. GREENE: Hi everybody. Thank you for --
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Hi Nancy, hello. 
MS. GREENE: -- today. Thank you very much. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: I don't think --
MS. SONENFELD: Mike. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Nancy we're not -­we're not hearing you. 
MS. GREENE: Oh, that's a --
MAYOR ARONSOHN: You've got to turn it up. 
MS. GREENE: is that on? 
MS. SONENFELD: Yes, great. 
MS. GREENE: That's the only time I've heard that -- hearing me. 
All right, I really haven't had much of a chance to look over your packet, but I just -- I'm going to talk briefly about the library and things that we have done along this year, and things that we're looking ahead. And this is our board treasure -- board president Gail Campbell and she's going to describe the budget for us. And we also have here tonight Judy Cleary (phonetic) who's on the Library Board of 
Trustees and Tony Nafis (phonetic) our business manager. So thank you everybody. 
Well, first off in the packet we're having a kickoff event featuring none other than Jim Griffith (phonetic). We wrote and received a grant from the Bergen County Division of Cultural and Historic -- to do an oral history program which we've been wanting to do for a very long time. Which -- which I wish we did that when -- in town, but the next generation -- the generation after that, anyway. And a program that's called -- at Ridgewood Public Library. 
So they're going to interview -- they're going to start with Jim, interview him in the auditorium, along the lines of -- I told him, I'll be David Floss and you be Richard Nixon. It wasn't exactly like that. But we're going to get started with that and do about a 20 minute you know -- 20 minute interviews. Now we're going to have podcasts available at the library so that -- on our website. So anybody that wants to listen to, you know, how somebody explains life in Ridgewood can tune in and listen. So, that was a grant that we got this year that we're very happy about. 
A print out our computer class schedule here which I'm very proud of. We started a number of new classes here, we're teaching -- with word press. We now have the Adobe Creative Suite, so we can teach in design and we can illustrative, we can teach Photoshop and we're doing all of that. We're teaching website design, advance Excel. Starting a newsletter. We have a photography day for people to update their LinkedIn profiles. Any -- just for Ridgewood residents we have teenagers come on Tuesday afternoons and residents can bring anything that they want from, you know, an IPod to a camera, anything at all and the teens will help them figure out how to get better use of it. That's one of our Ridgewood only services. 
We also -- I hate to sound crass, but we charge non-residents a dollar an hour to use internet computers and we brought in $3100 this year by -- by doing that. So these little nickel and dime things help us with our -- with our user fees. 
Another big initiative that we're doing this year to save money is we're cross-training our staff. You probably all know that basically libraries have a children's desk, a circulation desk and a reference desk. And this year we're having four big retirements. We're having June Migdale (phonetic) our -- adult library is retiring. Irene Collier (phonetic) our adult services librarian and two people from circulation. So we're trying to figure out how can we provide the same level service and reduce the number of staff that we have. So we're in a cross-training program where people who work at the circulation desk are trained to be able to assist at the reference desk too and -- and reference to circulation and -- of course everybody's scared to take over in children's, but -- but that -- trained in children's. 
And -- and there was a little, I think, reluctance at first. But now the people that are doing it are really enjoying it and circulation could get reference questions anyway. So we -- anyway we think that this is going to be very successful. It's going to give the staff more interesting jobs, and it's going to let us operate a little more economically. So we'll be replacing June and Irene with new full-time librarians with their masters degrees. But the two people who circulation Karen and Margaret we're going to replace -- they were both full-time -- we're going to replace both of them with part-time people. And so we're going to see how this works out. We've got about a $40,000 dip in our salaries budget this year as a -­as a result. So, so we'll see how this goes. 
Let's see I -- oh -- okay, all right. We've got -- we've got about 23 people on the staff that lead programs and they're not just arrange for speakers to come in. A lot of the staff delivers content. We have staff members that teach creative writing, that teach memoir writing. That hold book discussion groups and foreign film discussion group. I lead a foreign film discussion group about two weeks ago -- beautiful Italian movie about a -- life and people stayed for 45 minutes afterward. They were so interested in -- in -­in -- in intellectual content, I think. 
I think people in Ridgewood are coming to more programs then they ever did before. That's one of many of our services. Physical circulation is dipping slightly about 3 percent of -- of physical items. But program attendance is going up. And I think that's because we can offer the face-to-face services. 
And I just wanted to mention also that we partnered with about 25 committee organizations including REAC, the Ridgewood Gild, the Chamber of Social Services, the scouts share house, Christian Healthcare Center West Bergen, Ridgewood Schools and of course Parks and Rec. So we're very glad to reach out to other organizations and do everything we can as well and as economically as we can. Thank you. 
MS. CAMPBELL: Thank you again for inviting us here. I had the less glamorous part. I'm just going to talk about the numbers very quickly with you. 
You should have the budget proposal in your packet. If you take a look at the column that says 2016 request I'm going to be discussing that column and the budget to actual numbers for the most part. 
You can see that this year we're requesting that the village approve an appropriation of approximately $2,375,000 which is an increase of 1.5 percent over last year or $35,107. The total proposed budget is $2,659,427. 
I'd like to point out that the overall library budget is only increasing by $6400 from last year. The reason though that we're increasing our -- we're asking for 35,000 more from the village is basically because patron service fees have continued to decline and that's largely due to advances in technology. 
In 2012, for instance, the library received $198,000 in patron service fees, whereas in 2015 we received only a 143,000. 
The second thing that I'd like to point out that our expense in salaries in the proposed budget is less than years -- last year's actual number, $34,100 less. And as Nancy said we are replacing four employees who retired with only full-time employees and only one has been hired so far. One is going to be hired in the future. And we've added some hours for 
part-time staff. 
As Nancy said we're cross-training our staff so they become more versatile. And the other thing I'd like to point about -- point out about salaries is that the staff is picking up more of the healthcare expenses in 2016 from 31,900 to 47,200 or about $15,000 more. 
So -- and the expense on the expense side, the other two items that I'd like to point out are -- we've budgeted a little bit more for books and media and buildings and grounds. We've budgeted about 70 -­17,000 more than last year for books and media. Basically because Buckles (phontic) has raised the charge for our online databases by about 21 percent and that's something we've already had to pay for. That's the majority of the increase there. 
And then with respect to building and grounds, we've increased the budget of an amount by about $12,700 for a lot of different things. As you know the age of our building is one reason and also just for something that have to be serviced, like the elevator that wasn't done last year. And then we also need to replace some furnishing that had been broken. 
So that's about it. Before I go to the capital budget are there any questions? No, question okay. Yes, I'm sorry? 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: --
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, Susan was asking about the Buckles increase. What part of that line item is Buckles increase. Which is the books and media I think you were saying that. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Books and media was the increase. 
MS. CAMPBELL: It's in the -- that -- hold on -- do you know what --
MS. GREENE: Yeah, with our Buckles fees -- we are the high -- Ridgewood residents are the highest usable of downloadables in Bergen County and Buckles has changed their formula for charging libraries to include how heavily the people in that town use the service. So our cost for database services went up -­went up $7,000 this year. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: From 13,358 to 20,253. 
MS. SONENFELD: So it's up 7,000. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: I just wanted to ask if it was related -- if there was a relationship to how much it was being used by our --
MS. GREENE: Yeah. 
MS. CAMPBELL: Okay --
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Before you get to capital budget I just want to comment -- I'm sorry were 
you --
MS. CAMPBELL: No, go ahead. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: I wanted to comment that, you know, I have the privilege of attending your trustee meetings and I know what careful stewards you are of the money that you do have and -- and you're always -- at those meetings you're always looking at the budget on a regular, you know, monthly basis like -- like a business looks at its P and L, and it's a very highly disciplined process. I can certainly, you know, attest to that. 
I guess I -- a question for the trustees that I wish I had thought about at the meeting. We're looking at a decline in revenue for fewer video rentals in the non-resident pay carts. I'm not exactly sure what the non-resident pay carts are. But do you anticipate being able to replace those sources of revenues? You have so many programs that you offer and I know you charge minimally for the video -- the movies on, you know, Friday night, there's a small entrance fee. 
MS. CAMPBELL: So not -- well we haven't been able to do that. We have increased our -- the amount that we've received for things like room rentals. And some -- like you know people using the copy machine, things like that. But we haven't really been able to replace, because that was -- the videos was bringing us such a large amount of money. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Yeah. 
MS. CAMPBELL: We really have no way of replacing that. And we're not -- you know we're restricted by Buckles rules on -- on what kind of, you know, fees that we charge. So we have to very careful with that. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Uh huh. 
MS. GREENE: Also, if I could say, new services that we require more staff. We -- one of the services that we offer is one to one computer classes. It's $55 for a resident and $85 for -- no $55 for, you know, a basic class and $85 for an expert class. And Ridgewood residents get 20 off on those. We could -­we could sell those classes, you know, into 2017 but we don't have the staff on. It doesn't make sense to have the staff for it. You know, it would cost us more than we would make. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: So the -- you know the video rentals, obviously that's going to continue to decline, probably to zero at some point. Anyway and we have to face -- just face that. 
MS. CAMPBELL: Yes, exactly. So you should also have a proposed preliminary capital budget in your packet. The total that we're requesting is $41,700. We've broken down the request into three categories. The first is an upgrade to the HVAC system. This is essential because the current system isn't functioning properly. The parts that regulate the heating and cooling have been failing and must be replaced. And that's in the process, actually. 
The second request is for $6550 for a new server. Again, this is essential because the older server is eight years old and it's no longer supported by Microsoft Tech assistance. It has already crashed once and had to be rebuilt. 
And finally we're asking for $8,000 for some new technology. We need to replace some of our computers for our staff, some keyboards, mice, locks, things like that. In general a lot of our computers are outdated and require excessive repair time. 
So those are the items that we're requesting in the capital budget. And I believe that we have about $6100 that we haven't used in prior years budgets that won't be needed. 
MS. SONENFELD: Okay, thank you. Any -- any questions? 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Anybody have questions? Well let me say, as I always do, you know first of all thank you to you and your -- all the folks, and that includes the trustees, it includes the professionals that work at the library and all the volunteers that you have at the library. You know, the library is a community space, unlike any other and we talk about this through the year. And the reason it is, because you continue to evolve and you continue to sort of meet the needs -­the changing needs of this community. And just looking at some of this stuff, you know the technology training. The idea that you're going to have a day when you do the LinkedIn profiles. I mean it's really meeting the needs and sort of changing with the time. And it's not only a question of staying relevant, it's actually playing a great deal -- offering value to people's lives here and I -- I thank you for that. 
The -- you know I always love these, sort of the library by the numbers. It's just amazing, 3,940 cultural/educational programs. That's extraordinary. I remember you had the foreign affairs discussion group. I remember stepping into that a few years ago, thinking oh it will be a nice light conversation. It's one of the most intense conversations and it's -- it's thoughtful and a lot of intelligent people participate in it. And it's just one of the many, many things that 
you guys do and it's just -- it really is wonderful. 
And the last thing I wanted to say is you have, under Community Affairs, support access civility, Robin Ritter (Phonetic) and you folks just don't support those initiatives they actually are leaders those initiatives. And I thank you for that -- thank them for that, so --
MS. GREENE: We have -- we have a great outreach team, Karen and Robin. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Yeah, Karen too. Really plays a leadership role, yeah. 
MS. GREENE: Yeah, they're terrific. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: So thank you. Thanks. 
MS. SONENFELD: Thank you, great. We've met before this. So, we'll take this into the context of the whole budget request, get back to everybody and have you back probably. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Yeah, thank you. 
MS. GREENE: Anything -- okay, thank you. 
MS. SONENFELD: Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so Rich and John are up to talk about the central garage, recycling, streets and roads and yard waste. So we're in -- this is our last topic tonight since we did topic 19. And I just want to give you a preview of tomorrow and after that. But we're in tab 18. 
MR. CALBI: Okay, thank you. Feeling the pressure, I'm the head liner tonight. 
MS. SONENFELD: No -- no slide show, none -­none of that. 
11. Central Garage/Fleet Services 
MR. CALBI: I'm going to run through a little intro, this isn't in your packets just bear with me. And then if you -- if you can I think you have two sheets that are our highlights and goals. If you can kind of pull them out of your binder, because we're going to -- we're going to kind of go through each division and highlight those goals and, you know important accomplishments as we go through each part rather than do it all at once. Because I think it's kind of important to kind of break down each division and talk about, you know, what the parts are, what we've done, where we're going and what some of the risk factors are and issues out there. 
But just to start, you know, thank you again Mayor and Counsel and everybody here. This presentation will be a little bit less dramatic when compared to the water budget, but yet equally important. Divisions of fleet, recycling, sanitation, yard waste and streets provide essential services to the community. Whether it's cleaning catch basins to avoid flooding, collecting garbage and recycling or clearing the streets of leaves and snow, the employees of these public works division insure the expectations that the communities has for these services are met every day. 
Behinds the scenes of these services the division of fleet is there to insure that the vehicles and equipment required for all operations, over 200 pieces of equipment are available and in working condition for the staff every day. 
In the order of agenda fleet will be our first division to discuss, followed by recycling, sanitation, yard waste and then streets. And I'll walk thorough each division, you know, accomplishments, highlights and so on. 
But first let's look at the overall picture. I think you have a sheet that says summary and DPW 2016. That's an all total, encompassing for all the divisions. You know the five division exclusive of fuel and garbage disposal fees, which are at the bottom of the sheet, total an overall proposed budget of 4.28 million dollars, which is flat when you compare it to 2015 budget and is up only 2 percent compared to actual in 2015. When you add in fuel and garbage disposal fees, then we're up to a 5.24 million dollar budget.  Still only up by one and a half percent compared to last year's budget. But going up by 5.8 percent to actual. 
The increases in the budget are mainly the result of three things. Our dumping fees have increased. We have a new two year contract. So we're paying an additional $4 a ton for garbage that's dispose outside at an offsite facility. 
There's also increases in the cost of rock salt. We're paying an extra $4.09 for a ton of rock salt. And now we have a huge reduction in the recycling budget credits in excess of $100,000 and we'll highlight that a little bit when we get into recycling. 
Additionally, I want to note why the actual increase is up by 5.8 percent. And you know as part of last year's budget we had a bit of a crisis at the end and we had to free spending. So as a result you're seeing a huge -- bigger difference then typically would have been there when you compare it to actual, because there were things that we just didn't buy at the end of the year because we were frozen across the board. You know a lot of that was needs that we had in fleet division and other departments throughout the village last year. 
So to start with fleet, last year's budget presentation I -- I think fleet was highlighted and was one of the top things discussed and -- the topic was, was evaluating and transitioning from an in-house division to outsourcing. 
MS. SONENFELD: Right, and this is the last page. This is the last page in your handout. Fleet is at the end of the -- at the end of the tab. I'm sorry. Go ahead, I'm sorry Rich. 
MR. CALBI: So you know with that in mind, with last year's discussion we set out to meet that goal and begin that transition. We initiated the rebuilding of the fleet division and successfully filled the positions that we felt were the minimum required to keep our in house presence. Because regardless of any type of outsourcing we going with we need people here. In -- in the morning when we start the garbage trucks we need somebody here to jump on it. We can't rely on having to drive it to Paramus or to the county to get fixed. 
So we felt at the minimum we felt we needed two full-time mechanics and at this time we have two full-time and one part-time employee that service all of our equipment because we're not relying on Paramus at the moment and we're waiting, in the midst for the county to come up with a solution to accommodate us and -- and take care of our needs. 
So, as a result of what we're doing we've received kudos from all department staff, particularly police and fire department. I think it was mentioned in some of their presentations and the work place has seen an overall improvement in morale and open communication between the fleet staff and staff members throughout all the divisions. 
This year fleet is to me our biggest success story, moving into the year. The budget is down 17 percent from last year budget and 27 percent from actual. In 2015 with only three mechanics for half of the year we serviced the same amount of vehicles that the staff of six mechanics completed in 2014. Of those 910 vehicles that were serviced in 2015, 41 of them were outsourced. Paramus handling 41 of them for a total cost of $155,000. 
In 2016 our goals is to complete this restructuring of the fleet division. This will include consideration to outsourcing it at the new Bergen County facility, any opportunities that yield cost benefits. Additionally, we be looking to leverage technology to enter service calls, diagnose vehicles, track repairs in and out of house and keep track of our 
inventory. 
So any question on fleet numbers or anything I -- I said in terms of highlights? 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Yeah, it's remarkable and the restructuring certainly has accomplished a lot already. I guess I -- I just want to ask a question and maybe a question that's probably more rhetorical at this point, because I'm sure you don't really have the answer. 
You know, at what point do two mechanics who are there, sort of on the -- you know as the, let's get the trucks started in the morning basis, but they wouldn't be changing a transmission on a garbage truck, I assume. I imagine the heavy lifting is going -- is now being outsourced? I don't know if that's entirely true. 
MR. CALBI: I think it's yes and no. Our -­our hope is -- and this year is going to be a tell all for us. Our hope is going to try to do as much as we can in-house, with half of the staff then we were doing it with for 30 years. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay, well then -­then the question still -- that I was leading to is still applicable. At what point would those three individuals -- three or two, I'm not --
MR. CALBI: It's two full-time and one part-time. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Two full-time, one part-time, be more efficient if they were working with, you know, different tools on a different location. mean I've got to believe the location that they're now in is not efficient for two and a half people to be working in. They can -- there's an awful lot of moving of stuff around and the building itself is -- you know is -- is clumsy. It's just very clumsy from what I've seen. 
MR. CALBI: I'm going to -- I'm going to leave that question to be answered, if I can, to the footprint study. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Yeah. 
MR. CALBI: Because that's -- that's one of the buildings that are in the study and that's a major part of the evaluation and -- and telling to where things kind of go in the future. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Yeah, I guess I just couldn't imagine two and a half, you know, mechanics who are really skilled being in a -- a leaner facility with modern equipment and, you know, less of a clumsy leaky building around them. 
MR. CALBI: There's a lot of efficiencies to 
be said to what you're telling --
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay, thank you. 
MR. CALBI: Definitely. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: So, I see the overall budget is down, I can see that. But I thought we outsourced more car -- I thought the whole thing was we were surprised by what it cost to send the cars to Paramus and we kind of got smacked. 
MR. CALBI: Yes we did. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: So where is that in this? 
MR. CALBI: If you look at other contractual and you --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Yeah, that's what I thought, okay. 
MR. CALBI: And you look at actual as compared to budget in 2015, we spent an extra $186,000. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Right, thank you. 
MR. CALBI: Of those 41 vehicles I spoke of that went to Paramus, if you look at some of the individual bills, you know, and compare them. We would believe the typical cost they were outrageous. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah --
MR. CALBI: And we have --
MS. SONENFELD: I was going to say, which is why as we deal with the county in trying to put an 
outsourcing agreement together, we don't want an outsourcing agreement that's parts and labor for each specific item. We could be going more for a package. 
And I guess Rich, you might want to -- because you had the last conversations with the shared services guy, Tom. You might want to give a little update as to 
MR. CALBI: Yeah, it wasn't encouraging because the -- you know I attended a meeting of, you know managers of, I guess it's West Bergen area. 
MS. SONENFELD: Northwest Bergen --
MR. CALBI: And the county was there to present their new facility and talk about shared services and they came up about fleet and that they're looking to add a second shift, which is what they need to accommodate us and others. So, I asked a question, when would you be thinking of adding that shift and I was told in another year. 
So, you know again, as I said year it's really going to be a tell all for us. I'm out to set the goal for John to really make this work, with what we have and the budget we have. You know, but I can't guarantee that. But we'll see how it goes. 
Anybody else? 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Yeah, I just wanted to ask if it turns out that a partnership with the county shared service might be more expensive doing things in house. Would you see maybe rebuilding the fleet staff in years to come if that's -- if -- if it's just not economically feasible to go with the county? 
MR. CALBI: Yes. You know we'd have to look at the capabilities to do some of the bigger things, like the councilwoman spoke of transmissions and rebuilding motors and -- you know because in the best world we want to be able to do everything. Because every time we go out of house we're paying premium. 
Okay, move on to recycling. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Actually just one -- one more follow up on that. 
MR. CALBI: Yes. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: So, aside from the county are there any other potential shared services, partnership that you're looking at. At one point we talked about Glen Rock. Is there anything else that sort of -- that you -- that's on your radar? 
MR. CALBI: Nothing that I've thought of. It's a good question. Probably something that we should be looking at. I'll add to my equivalent of Chris's list of 50 some-odd things. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Only 47. 
MR. CALBI: But very good point, yes. 
MS. SONENFELD: I mean I guess again we're -­we're really looking at this foot print study to see what they come up with, vis-a-vis that building. Because one of the things we have to think about is how huge of a capital expenditure is this. So, it's not the expense side of the equation, it's also the capital investment side, you know, so. 
12. Recycling 
MR. CALBI: All right recycling. Just starting with the highlights from last year. In 2015 we provided residents with an new and improved green guide. The redesigned guide received a positive response from residents and was featured on a national webinar, as an impressive rework of public communication materials. So kudos to our team on that. And in the spring we became aware of an elementary school in Ridgewood that had stopped recycling. By working closely with the home and school association and our recycling program we were able -- able to successfully relaunch and implement that system in the fall of 2015. 
Moving on, this year recycling looks to be what's going to be our biggest challenge of the year. News of the continuing China Green Fence, the skids and 
oil prices and we all know fuel prices are down significantly. And the closing of recycling facilities nationwide has caused our local facilities and vendors to express concern and warn us of major price restrictions a result of these market changes. The overall budget is up 42 percent to budget and 40 percent to actual. And this is predominantly due to the reduction in the budget credits of about $105,000. It's a direct result of the recycling trust balance reaching depletion due to reduced revenues. 
In 2016 should our annual grant and revenues be further reduced we may be in an emergency budget crisis when it comes to recycling. In this regard we're going to need to evaluate other options and determine if the cost for those options have any savings on the other side of our stream in terms of solid wastes and the personnel we use to pick up recycling. 
So in other words, if we move to something like single stream is there a possibility that people would put more in the recycling and less in the garbage. So we might see less cost on the disposal side in terms of solid waste and some savings on that end. But at the same time we'll be paying more of to dispose that single stream, you know, load or tonnage.  So, we have to start evaluating these different alternatives. 
You know with keeping all that in mind our other goals, which are -- blend all into all of this. We have to get out there and communicate. We want to leverage social media, initiate a seasonal recycling newsletter. We want clear communications at the curbside, whether it's a hang tag or sticker. We want to let people know and we want to motivate them to recycle. We want to tell them when they've made a mistake. You know give them a warning and tell them how to correct it and why -- how it's affecting, you know the budget and the recycling stream. 
You know we want to clean up the recycling quality. You know right now there's garbage that gets mixed in with our recycling. There's plastics and other items that shouldn't be in there. People really need to refer to our green guide, there's clear concise photos that show what items are allowed and which ones aren't. So when I got that -- get out that and communicate that better, you know, to the residents and kick start, you know, a new program in terms of recycling and enforcement. 
You know and this will aid us with this whole green fence issues. Because essentially what's 
happening to market is China said we're not going to take your garbage with the recycling it anymore. So we're going to pick through it and charge you more or not take it. So, we need to attack that from our end and send, you know, a clean waste stream, out to the facilities that we send the material to. And that's -­that’s up to us in the community. 
Equipment wise, I know many of you have probably been in the recycling yard. Right now we utilize our trucks to dispose of a lot of the recycling in yard. We want to move the container and maybe a compactor for cardboard, so we can get those trucks out on the road. You know often times we have trucks that are down during the day. It affects sanitation, it affects recycling pick up. At times we've had to borrow trucks from Glen Rock, Fairlawn, other municipalities. You know we have trucks literally sitting in that yard to serve the purpose for the residents to drop off their recycling. It'll be better served in the type of old dumpster or compactor to save space and put the -- those wheels on the road. 
And lastly was want to get out to the public areas more recycling options. You know we need to choose better functional and retractive container, you know that has signage and can be placed out in maybe the CBD and the parks, you know to get people and promote more recycling from, you, know the residents and the visitors that come to the village every day. 
So any -- any questions on recycling numbers? 
MS. SONENFELD: It's a challenge. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: I -- I had a question about the -- what we're getting per ton of recycling and has that gone down and how much has that gone down? 
MR. CALBI: We -- we're currently at the floor prices and we've actually been contacted by the vendors asking us to renegotiate and they actually want to give us zero. 
In some cases for items that we used to receive money for, like electronics, we're now paying to dispose of each dumpster of electronics. So, that's -- that's partially why the budget is up in disposal fees. For those little things included. We're seeing a total turn around in the industry. There's other municipalities that are already paying to dispose of their recycling as opposed to getting the money. You know it was a great industry for a long time, but you know now it's taking a turn for the worse, unfortunately. And I came here just in time for it. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Welcome. And -- and on a slightly happier note a lot of the issues that you 
brought up about recycling we deal with at the Ridgewood Environmental Advisory Committee. So, if you ever want to come to one of the meetings or send a representative or send somebody down there, it's the second Tuesday at 6 o'clock we're downstairs in the garden room. And I'm sure the committee has -- has already been working with -- with you on several initiatives and you know I'm sure a lots of, you know, the people would be excited to try and help to educate the public and get out to the community. So please leverage REAC as a resource if you -- you --
MR. CALBI: We definitely will and we have started to -- one -- one of the things we're trying to get out there and do, we've been communicating with the Board of Ed on, you know Roberta and I. We want to go out and just a walk through the school. Just to make sure, you know, they're adhering to what policies they're -- they're saying they have. And I want to do the same thing for all of our buildings and for the library. 
We want to make sure -- before we go out there and tell the public what they need to do that we're doing it first. You know, so I think REAC helped in that matter. The put out a questionnaire to the Board of Ed, the Board of Ed responded to let us know what facilities they had, what they're doing. Now we actually want to go out there and do maybe a half hour walk through of each building to verify, you know are there recycling containers in the classroom. What's available in the hallway or the lunch room. Because you know then if there's things that are lacking we have the resources to help them get what they need. You know we've already done that. We've helped them buy the crates and recycling containers that they have in some of the schools. 
MS. SONENFELD: So this is like a double whammy if you look at it. One, the recycling trust is just plummeting, and you know Steve says it'll probably -- could go to zero. Where in the past it's been as high as $500,000 to offset your expense. So that's a problem. 
And the other problem is, you know, we might have to pay people now on top of this to take the recycling. So it's kind of a -- and I was talking to Rich today and one of the reasons -- you know this whole single stream concept, which is something that's an anathema to us in a way, because we really don't want to do that. It's not good recycling. But for example Wyckoff does that and the reason they do that is they feel that it's less expensive. They're not getting money for it anyhow. And -- and it's just -­it's just easier. And -- and it goes into rubbish or whatever and may be cheaper. 
MR. CALBI: Yeah, supposedly they see less on the solid waste side because of it. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, as a result. Because people just throw everything into recycling all smooshed together. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Well, it disincentivizes recycling a little bit when the cost of -- of getting rid of it is more and -- and they're not -- no one's interested in buying it. So, you have to do all this separating in order to get pennies, shekels. But -­and it's a shame because obviously it's better for the environment so I don't know -- even the whole system was out of whack before, I guess. But it was -- it was helping with recycling efforts. 
MS. SONENFELD: Well, it could get separated at their next stop, right? Like in Florida -- in my place in Florida it's -- so everybody recycles because all you do is throw everything into one -- you just go downstairs and throw everything into one. You don't have to separate plastics from glass, from paper, and as a result there's more being recycled. But -- but you can't sell it. 
MR. CALBI: No, there's a lot to look at and 
-- and hopefully at some point the -- the state or county will get involved, because the regulations are that we have to recycle. We have no choice. You know, but knowing what's going to happening in the future of this, you know, it's going to affect everybody's budget. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Just going back a second to what you were talking about with your work with the REAC and the Board of Ed. It might be an opportunity and I think this is what Mike was leading to with respect to communication, maybe in the public space of recycling, to get some students involved and to get REAC involved and help sort of get out the word. I know there's at least one environmental group in high school. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Yeah, Alison Regg (phonetic) and she comes to our meetings so often. And I guess every school is kind of different and so some -- some have stronger recycling program and some have like an environmental club and some -- some might not. So, it's -- you know we're trying to reach out to the -- to the schools. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: But maybe the -- groups can actually sort of drive that initiative. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Yeah. 
MR. CALBI: That would be great. Yeah once everyone's a go I'm going to tell the parents. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Yeah. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, great. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: So, did you explain the bump up in the salary and wages yet? I mean --
MR. CALBI: That -- that bump up is predominantly because of the reduction in the budget credit. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Oh. 
MR. CALBI: We went from $280,000 to 181,000 credit. 
MS. SONENFELD: That's what I was trying to --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Oh, I -- I see that, okay. 
MS. SONENFELD: -- 500,000 in previous years. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: But temporary and seasonal were up 8 percent and full-time's up 8 percent those are the contractual or --
MR. CALBI: Contractual and we also need to appoint a recycling coordinator. So, that's actually a good question. Glad you brought that up. You know currently John's serving as the interim recycling coordinator but we need to get a licensed person on staff to -- to have that position. And then the money in here is not to hire another person, but it's to have somebody on staff get that certification and be recognized for it, so. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Thanks. 
MR. CALBI: Good question. 
MS. SONENFELD: So you know this is -- this is a 40 percent -- this is big, this is a 40 percent increase year over year and it's -- it's not something we at the moment control. 
MR. CALBI: Okay, move onto something better. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Yeah, please. 
MS. SONENFELD: Let's -- let's try for something positive. 
13. Sanitation 
MR. CALBI: Okay, solid waste. Maybe not much better, but -- so in 2015 we increased our special pickups and accommodated all of the, you know for residents that requested them. On the job injuries decreased as a result of further training. And with the assistance of human resources we initiated a plan to reduce lost time and met with all staff to discuss this issue and other related village policies. That was -- that was a key issue that came up, I think, in one of my first months here and it was brought to us by 
the staff themselves, you know, that whenever people are out it -- it affects their ability to get the job done because they're riding three men on a truck and if there are four people out on a given day, you know then they're down two men a truck and they're doing alternate routes they're not familiar with. 
So -- so we had a sit down, you know, with a group and then with individuals about how they were handling their time. And in some cases there was discipline as well that went with that. So overall we're seeing a huge increase in efficiency and moral as a result of that. You know and the HR department was huge on that. 
For -- for this year the division is down 2 percent from budget and it's up 1 percent from actual, that's all exclusive of dumping fees. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, that's the problem. 
MR. CALBI: When you add in the disposal fees the 2015 budget is up 24 percent the budget and 32 percent to actual. And that's because the increased disposal fee that I talked about earlier in the introduction an extra 4,000 -- $4 a ton. 
There may be room here to adjust the tonnage based on, you know, what we feel we're going to do with recycling and you know what we could forecast, you 
know, for this time in terms of waste. But, you know, that's a discussion to have later on in the -- in the budget. 
Our goal this year is to continue managing -­managing the lost time, stay in close communication with all staff, utilize discipline when appropriate. We're going to approve oversight on -- and complaints. Specifically to that cause we're looking to add one part-time aid position to assist on monitoring all complaints and this say public communication and more. 
Essentially you need somebody to man phone in the office. With only one administrative staff member in the DPW office it's difficult to answer every call while that person's completing their daily work required of the other divisions. And when that person's on vacation the phone often has to be staffed by a supervisor, and some cases John, whose time is better spent on the road overseeing other daily work tasks. 
So, you know part of this salary wage increase in sanitation is the result of that position. But overall it's still down because we did have a position that turned over and was replaced with a lower level position. So net there is a savings there even though we would be adding a part-time person. 
MS. SONENFELD: And honestly this is a -- this is a customer service issue that we get complaints on that the phone doesn't get answered, in this particular area. 
MR. CALBI: Yes. 
MS. SONENFELD: And it's nobody's fault, because there's nobody there at times, you know. 
MR. CALBI: And to the point, this is another thing that the Footprint study could tell in the future because right now we're just spread out, all these different island, you know if certain divisions work together we could have more efficiencies in terms of administrative staff. But right now in -- in John's office there's literally just one person. So when they're not there John's pretty much it. 
Any other questions on the sanitation, solid waste? 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK:  Can I give praise to?  
MR. CALBI:  Please.  
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK:  Because ever since I  

moved here and it's -- well anecdotal, but my garbage backyard pickup is -- is -- is -- like was the brightest part of my day. Because they would come in there smiling every single day while they're carrying my crap, you know, to the curb for me. It was just interaction with a human being when you're at home. And they always have a great attitude when they serve our residents. I mean I don't know what kind of discipline problems you have internally, but they -­they put a good faith on the village. And I'm not sure whether rear yard pick up is a cost, that -- you know is eventually going to have to be analyzed but it sure is a pleasant thing and -- and they're great --
MR. CALBI: And as --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: -- they're great individuals, really good staff. 
MR. CALBI: Yeah, putting the displace thing in perspective, it's only a small percentage. The overall group is -- is very ambitious and they love what they do and that's why you see them with a smile. You know, I think they know almost everybody on their route, which is amazing. You know they know what people's special needs are, where they put their trash. You know on a certain day if something might change. You know, so it's amazing how they could know ahead of time what might happen. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: And it's -- it's a dangerous job too. I mean we all --
MR. CALBI: Yes. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: -- know what the risks 
are walking through ice and snow and up and down driveways and being out in the street. It's probably the most dangerous job in the village. 
MR. CALBI: Yesterday morning is a good example. We had -- John actually held them back an hour in the yard, because we were just afraid of that. And we were at that point where it was still cold enough and that driveways that weren't shoveled, you know, could haven't been shoveled, you know, could have been a big problem. So maybe their day took them a little bit longer, but we kept them from getting hurt, so -- okay yard waste. This will be our last waste category. In 2000 -- and this is mostly what we're talking about here is Lakeview, you know, and processing the leaves. 
14. Yard Waste 
In 2015 we completed installation of an onsite trailer at Lakeview. And the real purpose there was to aiding compliance with our requirements in terms of record keeping, while we're doing processing there and dumping off leaves. But more particularly aid in security and to approve working conditions. 
We also creating higher berms on the perimeter of the site to reduce noise complaints and with the engineering department's assistance a large portion of the site was paved. And what's that's done is it's improved on dust conditions as well as our ability to move equipment more efficiently, we no longer get stuck in the mud. 
Overall this budget is up 1 percent to last year's budget and 3 percent to actual. And the majority of that is the result of the cost for the trailer. It's a rather small budget compared to the -­to the others. 
You know, moving forward. I look at yard waste as kind of being our fleet story for this year. As Chris mentioned earlier we're going to be evaluating privatization options and procuring bids for the operation of Lakeview. This outsourcing, if we're successful, eliminate our need to invest major capital for the replacement equipment that we used to process the leaves. 
Right now our tub grinder and -- drill, our scour machine that process the piles of leaves are getting beyond their useful life. You know we invest a lot of money in them every year and to replace them outright we're talking about over a million dollars. So we -- we're very interested to see what opportunities we have in outsourcing this so we eliminate that -- that future capital investment. 
Additionally we're looking to maintain compliance with our DEP Regulations, as mentioned with the trailer, improve on our security and record -­record keeping. 
So any questions on yard waste. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: It looks like the dumping fees we had an increase from 14 to 15, but they're holding, unlike the solid waste. 
MR. CALBI: Correct, yes. I mean here's where we may see some savings with the outsourcing as well. Because right now, a good part of that disposal fee is for disposing of grass clippings. Which is something we used to process on the site and then maybe if some new vendor comes in they might have some other means that they use it at one of their other facilities. You know and we can eliminate some that -- that cost. 
MS. SONENFELD: It's still a lot -- it's a lot of money for grass clippings. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Well in '14 it was --
MS. SONENFELD: 65,000. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: -- 65,000, yeah. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah. 
MR. CALBI: One thing that's not represented here, because it's a bit of unknown, Glen Rock does pay us every year for part of the repairs to the equipment. 
For this year we anticipated -- it might be in the around of $8,000 so that would offset some of this budget as well. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: And the outsourcing opportunity I assume is just to manage, operate the facility, not to pick up yard waste. 
MR. CALBI: Correct, no pickup but we're -­we're playing around with a couple of options in terms of operating the facility. You know, one is it do they operate and process and then sell? You do they do some other type of processing and marketing like colored mulch or -- you know any other opportunity that we hope won't affect -- or you know we're looking at the affect will be to the community there because there's only one way in or out. 
You know but if we're able to make that work and not affect traffic or those impact, might be on the other side of this where maybe we make some money. 
You know, so we're kind of putting it all out there. You know let's see what the different options are and what prices we get and then we can evaluate what their potential effects are. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: I did have -- I just had something quick about this, because I know the tub grinder is like -- I guess it's a shared service with glen Rock. So if moving forward if we get away from that would they still be involved with the shared service deal of -- you know they continue to contribute for management and operation of the site or would we give them that option or, you know, what's happening there? 
MR. CALBI: It -- it's something we'll have to discuss with the vendor. Right now our agreement with Glen Rock is up and hasn't been renewed. So we're going to need to consider some language in there that kind of falls back into what we're considering. 
You know maybe the company we'll get would still provide that service to Glen Rock or maybe they don't need the tub grinder and we can sell it to Glen Rock. You know so there -- I think there's a lot of opportunities with this whole -- option that we're doing to see where we go with things. It's exciting. 
MR. CALBI: Oh, good thank you. 
MS. SONENFELD: It's mulch. It's mulch and sludge. 
15. Streets 
MR. CALBI: We've got one more to go, streets. Probably the biggest division of the bunch. In 2015 streets increase its response and accountability on pothole repairs, via the creation of the app on the village website. A total of 4,010 potholes were filled in 2015. That's quite an accomplishment. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: What did you say that number? 
MR. CALBI: 4,010 potholes were filled in 2015. We also improved ditch maintenance and catch basin vacuuming, which resulted in less localize flooding of roadways and hopefully less debris of getting into the streams that, you know, Chris is maintaining. 
With the addition of a claw attachment for our loader we improved on leaf collection and leaf processing. We found that this claw actually had multipurpose abilities. We used it to -- to load our tub grinder at Lakeview. And believe it or not we may even use it in the future to clear corners of snow. So one piece of equipment has multi-functions. 
The overall budget here is flat as compared to 2015, but is up to actual. You know, again as I highlighted earlier. A lot of that is a result of our freezing and spending and lot of the categories, you know for this particular division. 
Our main goal in 2016 is to successfully integrate the position of a superintendent of public works into the staff hierarchy. This new position will 
prepare the division for managerial succession and afford the supervision necessary across all division, specifically fleet, streets, park, Shade Tree. This new position will not increase head count and would result in no -- increase to public works management staff costs. Because we had a person leave streets and that person was not replaced. Additionally, we had a superintendent in fleet leave as well and that was not replaced. And in the long term this position will save even more money as the real succession takes fault. 
We're trying to look forward and -- and use this chance to get someone in there so they could take a lot of the institutional knowledge and move forward with it. I think the only way we're going to succeed in all of these divisions in the future is to work together. And right now, as mentioned, we are in a lot of island and the hope is with position is to bring somebody who at the point in time when it happens, and we need to succeed a lot of positions, because there is a lot of the superintendents that we have, that this person can take hold of it and really intertwine things and as the library mentioned cross-training is a huge part of that. 
And we want to make every bit of any -- any laborer that come into the village to give them the ability to do anything across the Board. Not just make them specific to a streets division or a parks division or a sanitation division. We're going to have to attack that with our negotiations issues with the union, but I think it's key to our -- to our success in the future. Because otherwise these divisions are just not going to be able to function on their own or we're going to be relying on more outsourcing in the future that may or may not cost more money. But we will have evaluate that all. 
MS. SONENFELD: So this is a -- I mean we feel strongly. Rich and I and John have been talking about this for months and with Sharon. We feel strongly that this is a very important position. Sharyn is working with Rich on an ordinance change to add this position, which hopefully we'll bring to counsel on Wednesday. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: What's the name of the position? 
MR. CALBI: Superintendent of Public Works. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Oh. 
MR. CALBI: Would work directly under John's position as superintendent of operations and myself. You know, and they're responsible for all -- all the divisions. You know we're looking to get somebody in that's hands on, has the experience and has the proper qualifications such as a certified public works manager certificate. You know and could really take a hold of the operations, not just in their individual zones but together as one. 
MS. SONENFELD: So, again no head count increase for this. 
MR. CALBI: Correct. 
MS. SONENFELD: Just a -- again, a restructuring of the group to make it more effective and efficient. 
MR. CALBI: The other goals we have for the year, I mentioned the cross training of personnel. We also want to purchase another claw. Our -- our new leaf vacuum is on the way and we need to buy a new street sweeper as well, which will be part of the capital discussion. 
You know with all that new equipment we hope to restructure the leaf collection, yet again, you know and make it better -- bigger and better and -- and the same with snow removal. You know I think a lot of you are testament to what happened this year, you know, during, you know, storm Jonas. That we -- we were, you know, somewhat successful and you know we did have some setbacks. But, you know besides -- behind the scenes what a lot of people realize we utilized the most amount of our own staff than we've had in a long time. We cut down significantly on the reliance of a contractor. Because we found that we have the equipment and we actually have the people too across board, when you look at the divisions. So we got them out there and put them in trucks. And you know as a result we were out on streets and plowing them eight, ten times. Which was necessary to keep up with a storm like that. 
So, we hope with the right equipment and cross training people that we can continue that and, you know, reduce our reliance in the future and keep more of it in-house. Because just like sanitation the more that our own people do it they have buy into it and want to do it better. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Yeah, with -- without exaggeration the cleanup you guys did in the last storm I never heard more compliments, more praise. I mean people were just -- I'm sure you heard it too, I think we all heard it. It was just across the board a great job. 
MR. CALBI: Thank you, and it was everybody at the stable. You know Chris and Yohan was critical. mean he put together the whole map, laid out the 
routes. You know we assigned who was on each route, you know, and then together everybody -- all supervisors across the board were in and monitored their sections and we got it done. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Yeah, it was fantastic. 
MR. CALBI: So it was a great team effort. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, it was a tough storm. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: I just had one question about it though. Because if it's our regular day staff that's coming out to do after hours overnight work, who covers the day staff the next day? 
MR. CALBI: Good question. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: You -- you can't do it -­you can't do that really. 
MR. CALBI: It happened yesterday. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Yeah. 
MR. CALBI: Because our streets division was here most of the day on the holiday, you know salting and preparing for might become of the snow that landed -- the icing overnight, et cetera and the next morning we had to send them home so no one was left. And it -­it ties right in to what we want to do with this new position and cross-training. Because we have other people available, whether they're in signal or Parks or Shade Tree, for -- for that part water, if we pay a person out of water for the day in public works, we have people that we could utilize better. 
That's -- that's our plan. It's going to take time, but --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Yeah. 
MR. CALBI: -- we hope to get there. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Thank you. 
MR. CALBI: Okay. All right, anybody else? 
MS. SONENFELD: Thank you. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Rich, let me just -- let me just say, sort of like I said to about Chris. You know, you and your lieutenant over here. You guys where many important hats and they do a hell of a job and you hit the ground running last year. I mean it's just amazing. How many months you've been here now? 
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eight months. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Eight months. You guys do a great job, thank you. 
MR. CALBI: Thanks. Thank you. 
4. Wrap Up and Next Steps 
MS. SONENFELD: Okay, I agree. Okay so we are done for this evening. Let me just set up tomorrow a little bit. 
So tomorrow we'll be going through office of emergency management. We did finance the other night, last night. The parking utility and the allocation methodology that we continued to use this year. We'll review some trust fund, some staff levels. We'll look at surplus at a top level and begin to provide you with a recommendation as to how we think we should be using surplus and trust funds. We'll be spending some time on unclassified expenses, like insurance -- group insurance, other kinds of insurance. Those numbers are not solid yet. We don't have them all and they're big. These are big numbers. Pension, social security, terminal leave, et cetera. 
So we will not have a summary of top level expenses tomorrow because of that. We will discuss some revenue issues and some of the revenue components. And we will have, I think, a good discussion on capital tomorrow night. 
Capital numbers are a little larger than last year. The request, I think -- I was thinking -- we were thinking about this, a couple of us, and I think it would be good to show the counsel more capital requests this year than we did last year. Like last year we had already come to kind of chopping back capital a bit. And we have, of course, brought down capital since the initial request but there's some decision that I think, you know whether it be Kings Pond Park or whatever I think that you guys need to see. 
So the intent here is that we will go through all of that, that we will go away -- we will go away and we will come back probably with a couple of -­we're thinking a couple of options like we did last 
year.  We'll probably need a week or so to do that, I  
think.  Is that fair, do you think?  
MR. ROONEY:  Exactly.  
MS. SONENFELD:  The team will get together,  

think through it, think through some of the comments that have been made the last two nights, which means, I think, we need another meeting to be set up separate from the normal -- the normal meetings. 
So, I want to thank the staff again, you udo an outstanding job. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Yeah, thank you 
MS. SONENFELD: A lot of work. Yeah, I don't know. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Good thank you. Thanks. Thank you. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: A lot of material, well presented, really, thank you. 
MS. SONENFELD: And I want to thank all the department heads that are here that didn't even present 
tonight and are still here, most of the, until the end. It's impressive. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Absolutely. Great, motion to adjourn. 
VILLAGE CLERK: Public comments. 
MAYOR ARONSOHN: Oh public comments. Matt? 
5. Public Comments (none) 
MS. SONENFELD: Seeing no public. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: None MAYOR ARONSOHN: Motion? 
6. Adjournment 
There being no further business to come before the Village Council, on a motion by Councilman Sedon, seconded by Councilwoman Hauck, and carried unanimously by voice vote, the meeting was adjourned at 8:21 P.M. 
Paul S. Aronsohn Mayor 

 

Heather A. Mailander Village Clerk 
CERTIFICATION 
Certification 
I, Jessica Robinson, the assigned transcriber, do hereby certify the foregoing transcript of proceedings on disc, from approximately 5:06:51 p.m. to 8:21:01 p.m., is prepared in full compliance with the current Transcript Format for Judicial Proceedings and is a true and accurate non-compressed transcript of the proceedings as recorded. 

/S/JessicaRobinson June 24, 2016
Date: Jessica Robinson AOC #581 
KING TRANSCRIPTION SERVICES (Date)3 South Corporate Drive, Suite 203Riverdale, N.J. 07457 

VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD VILLAGE COUNCIL SPECIAL PUBLIC BUDGET MEETING 
February 16, 2016 
Village Hall 131 North Maple Avenue
Ridgewood, New Jersey 07451 

APPEARANCES 
ROBERTA SONENFELD, Village Manager | ROBERT ROONEY, Chief Financial Officer | DAWN CETRULO, Supervisor of Health Department | MARIA DOERR, Municipal Court Administrator | JAMES VAN GOOR, Chief of Fire Department | BLAIS BRACHEAU, Village Planner | DYLAN HANSEN, System Administrator 
HEARING BODY 
ALBERT PUCCIARELLI, Deputy Mayor | GWENN HAUCK, Councilwoman | SUSAN KNUDSEN, Councilwoman | MICHAEL SEDON, Councilman 
HEATHER A. MAILANDER, Village Clerk | MATTHEW ROGERS, ESQ., Village Attorney 
Jessica Robinson, AOC #581King Transcription Services3 South Corporate Dr., Suite 203Riverdale, N.J. 07457 
Audio Recorded By: Unknown 
I N D E X PROCEEDING PAGE 
1. Call to order, Open Public Meetings Act, 3 Roll call, Flag Salute & Moment of silence 
2. Public Comments (none) 4 
3. Discussion Items 
a. Review of Departmental Budgets
1. Health Department 6 
2. Village Clerk 17 
3. Municipal Court 30 
4. Fire Department 44 
5. Planning Department 56 6. MIS/Technology 73 
7. Finance/Tax Collector 94 
b. Wrap-up and Next Steps 109 
4. Public Comments (none) 111 
5. Adjournment 111 
**Transcriber notes: Those items bolded are not of the verbatim record and are merely inputted intothe transcript for index purposes. 

A SPECIAL PUBLIC BUDGET MEETING OF THE VILLAGE 
COUNCIL OF THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD HELD IN THE PATRICK 
A. MANCUSO SENIOR CENTER OF THE RIDGEWOOD VILLAGE HALL, 131 NORTH MAPLE AVENUE, RIDGEWOOD, NEW JERSEY, ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016, AT 5:00 P.M. 
1. CALL TO ORDER - OPEN PUBLIC MEETINGS ACT - ROLL CALL - FLAG SALUTE - MOMENT OF SILENCE 
Deputy Mayor Pucciarelli called the meeting to order at 5:05 P.M., and read the Statement of Compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act. At roll call, the following were present: Councilmembers Hauck, Knudsen, Pucciarelli, and Sedon. Also present were Roberta Sonenfeld, Village Manager; Heather Mailander, Village Clerk; and Matthew Rogers, Village Attorney. 
Deputy Mayor Pucciarelli led those in attendance in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag and asked for a moment of silence in Honor of the American men and women serving in our Armed Forces, as well as those who serve as first responders in Ridgewood and throughout the United States. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Thank you. Before we turn to public comment I'd like to note that this is 
a special occasion and I'd ask everyone to join me in signing one verse of Happy Birthday to our village manager. 
(Happy Birthday signing) 
MS. SONENFELD: Thank you. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Thanks everybody. That was fun, she has been working all day. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay, and this is the time of our meeting for public comment. Would anybody like to make a public comment? 
2. Public Comment (None) 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Chris feel free to sit among the table. And -- and Tim you too. You're part of the -- this is leadership team, Tim, Janet. There's seats. 
MR. CRONIN: Here? 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Yeah. Yeah. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Seeing no one present for public comment, I'd like to thank the members of the staff who are here once again for the budget meetings. You have given up your time in preparing for these meetings and attending the meetings and thank you very much for that. 
So Roberta I turn it over to you to continue with the budget hearings for our 2016 budget. 
MS. SONENFELD: Okay, thanks. Can you hear me? Is this on? Is this on? 
VILLAGE CLERK: Yes. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, okay. Okay, so tonight is one of our shorter meetings this week, it's 5 to 7. We're going to be doing -- Dawn's going to be going first with Health and Animal Control. We're going to spend some time on the village clerk and elections, municipal Court, as well as fire, planning and technology. The fire package that you should have gotten a replacement fire package for today's meeting. There were a couple of changes. So I'm hoping everybody replaced it in their number 12 tab for fire. 
You also received a change in engineering so you should dispose of what is in your book for engineering goals and objectives and accomplishments and replace that one. And did we send out any others? 
MR. ROONEY: No. 
MS. SONENFELD: That was it. Okay. Okay. We prefaced this the last time we met, so rather than do that and spend some time let's just get pragmatically to the details and the presentations. The rest of the week, you know Wednesdays are challenging, very challenging day because it's the four hours and there's some topics there that merit some discussion. 
Thursday is when we really go through things like surplus, what the revenues look like, what capital looks like and those are important topics as well. Right now we're holding Friday as a place holder. If we can get through Thursday then we can give ourselves Friday off. Yes. 
Okay, so with that -- Maria please sit, sit next to Dawn. Maria has --
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: That's good incentive to be efficient. 
MS. SONENFELD: Or sit over here, wherever you like. Okay. Good, I'm glad that's there. Okay, so with that I'm going to hand this off to Dawn to do health and animal control. And that would be tab nine in your --okay, go ahead Dawn, you're on. 
3. Discussion Items 
a. Review of Departmental Budgets 
1. Health Department/Animal Control. 
MS. CETRULO: Hello everybody. I feel like we just did this not too long ago. Can you hear me okay? 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah. 
MS. CETRULO: Okay, so I just want to say that 2015 was a great year for the health department. We had an exciting year, we had a lot of changes and some fun stuff that we did. We had the Ebola crisis which I 
think we went off really well. We were the first town in this area that was monitoring a case, which was pretty exciting and I think we did really well with it. And now we don't really have to worry about that anymore, fortunately. Now on to Zika virus for this year. 
I've been working with the State Health Department and Fairlawn Health Department and working on accreditation with work force development and quality assurance. Gone to a couple of meetings and basically it's just organizing the department to try to be in the line with the state health department. So that's something that takes years to do. But I just wanted to mention that because I think I've ever mentioned that before. 
We implemented our second annual village wide weight loss challenge program. We had 228 participants, 837 pound lost, a little less than last time. I think we did great. And a lot of people actually came back and kept the weight off so it was very successful. 
We, again, used the local pharmacy for employee flu shots and we had 25 employees attend, it saved the village $675 from the way that we were doing it in the past. 
We continued our dog -- dog friendly pet committee with the village and which resulted in the free microchipping along with our rabies clinic. We had 118 rabies vaccines given and 32 microchips at no cost to the residents. 
We started the new cycle with the three year dog license which was very successful just with the staff time alone. And now we actually have the three year cat license this year. 
Revenues for 2015 reflected a 3 percent increase over the previous year. The village share was 343,808.25. 
Birth certificates, death certificates and marriage certificates we sold 11,271 for the year and dog and cat licenses 1670. We actually sell less now because we sell them in the three year increments. 171 retail license, 27 one-day special event license. 88 ice licenses, 46 vending machines. 
We successfully transitioned to the electronic birth system in May. There's still some glitches with it, it's a state run program, it's called VIP, but it's actually going to be better in the long run because we don't have to keep the paper births, which we're actually running out of room in the health department. 
So, we did 261 routine sanitary inspections,
 126 resident complaints, 34 animal bites and quarantines, 3 lead poisoning cases and we had 42 people attend the food safety class. Just to give you an idea of some of the numbers that we do. 
Child health conferences. We had 28 children that were seen, 46 immunizations, and adult health clinics we had 145 patients seen and influenza clinics about the same. And for health education, which is run out of Valley Hospital, there is a thousand plus attendees that attend. 
And then we hired Margie Downs (phonetic), she started in April of this year and she's been wonderful. She really is a great addition to our apartment. She's got a great relationship with the community, which helps us excel with our relationship with the community. So it's been really great, I just wanted to point that. 
So, for 2016 our goals are to continue to improve outreach projects in the community, such as monthly press releases and the local paper. January was Radon month. This month we're focusing on heart health. And we actually have a wall now -- well, it's a door, but in our department that we're focusing on like a monthly health positive. 
So I took some leadership in a stigma free
 initiative working with the community relations advisory board and some Ridgewood High School students and we're going to be working on a stigma free program with them, which I'm really excited about. That's -­the stigma free, for those of you that aren't familiar with it. It started in a lady in Paramus that had an idea to do this and now it went county wide. I was at a meeting that had like 300 people. So it's been really -- really great. 
What else? Let's see. We want to continue our leadership role in the village's annual health and wellness festival. That was very successful. I forgot to say the numbers. We had 72 vendors and 800 attendees, very successful. We look forward to do it again this year. 
We streamline our -- this year we're going to hopefully streamline our food establishment licensing combining the ice and the restaurant licenses into one, just to make the processing easier and to also raise the fees slightly so we haven't raised them in about ten years, so. 
And we want to continue our weight loss challenge that's actually May 14th. I'm going to send an email out to all the employees that are invited to attend. Valley Hospital does free blood work for the
 first 75 attendees. And again a very successful program. 
If we are going to be able to continue the use of the crossing guards, we are going to continue the canvas, which is not -- no longer required by the state, but is still recommended by the state. Especially since if you guys read in the newspaper we did have a rabid dog in Monmouth County. So, rabies is definitely around. And the reason why we don't really see it in dogs because we have such a strong program for rabies control. 
We are continuing to improve our relationships with businesses, and owners and employees in an effort to maintain a safe and healthy environment. I've been out for the past six weeks. I don't have an inspector so I've been actually out doing inspections and it's been -- I'm actually really enjoying it and reconnecting with a lot of the restaurants. I was there today. We had a place that had no hot water and I worked with him for 10 years, so it was really nice to see -- see him, get back out in the field. 
The Zika virus, basically we're talking points. I haven't gotten any calls. They're just basically educating us. There is a case in Bergen County, the first one in New Jersey, once again. 
I
 don't know what it is with Bergen County, but and then I'm also working again this year with Jeff Ball (phonetic) on the pet friendly committee and we're going to do -- in the spring we're going to do another behavior class for animals, I thought that was really successful. 
Strategies for 2016 we hired, or in the process of hiring a full-time REHS to replace the two part-time inspectors that we had. Hopefully by the end of this month he starts. And we’re --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Could you repeat that? 
MS. CETRULO: Sure. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: You're currently, what? 
MS. CETRULO: So the part-time that we had Satia (phonetic) he left for a full-time position somewhere else and then the other inspector who we contracted out for her services she retired. So we're hiring a full-time inspector to replace the two part-time inspectors. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Thanks. 
MS. SONENFELD: So, I think it's important to point out here that we've done work around this where we've looked at totally outsourcing this, using the county. We've looked at insourcing it. We've had a hybrid condition over the last year. One of the things 
we're finding is that we can't really get professionals in this area that stay with us for just part-time. 
So you'll see us in Dawn's numbers that this costs us actually a little less than the other way. So it is a little change --
MS. CETRULO: Yeah. 
MS. SONENFELD: -- in the staffing paradigm in health. 
MS. CETRULO: Hopefully then we can train somebody and they'll stay and not move on, which is what's -- what's happening. Is they're moving on for benefits for a full-time position. And these -- these inspectors, just so you know, that they are -- they have a college degree and they a state license that they sit for, so they are well trained. 
And then next -- this year, hopefully with the space -- special data logic, Dylan we're going to have that up and running for the health department. So that's our strategy for this year. It'll streamline our inspections and our licensing. 
So and that's really it for my presentation. 
MS. SONENFELD: To the numbers. 
MS. CETRULO: To the numbers. Any questions about the numbers? 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Well, maybe you can
 just highlight for us what's happening, line -- was it 
29, hang on. 
MS. CETRULO: Yes. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Line 29. 
MS. CETRULO: So on line 29 that's where we had the part-time inspector. That was the contracted service. So that has significantly been reduced, however it's now brought up to the full-time salary. But you can also see under part-time salary that's been reduced as well, because that was the part-time inspector. And that's also in the full-time salary. 
So, it actually -- working the numbers it actually was less. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Thank you. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, so I think if you look at overall 2016 budget requests and compare it to both actuals last year and budget last year, we're 3 and -­3 percent down respectively on both. So that's a good news story. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Any questions from my colleagues? 
MS. SONENFELD: And I'll also point out though, because sometimes we always look at top level head count, this will cause a one person increase in headcount in the village. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Okay. 
MS. SONENFELD: Okay, so I just want to point that out. 
MS. CETRULO: Okay. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Thank you, thank you Dawn. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Good job. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Great -- great presentation thank you. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Michael? Gwenn? 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: No I'm good, thank you Dawn. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: As you know I had the pleasure of experiencing your department twice today, early in the morning and late in the afternoon for routine document and -- that we needed and -- and service was fabulous. 
MS. CETRULO: Thank you. Thank you. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Thank you and everyone was really very gracious and very efficient. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: It had nothing with him doing the deputy mayor. 
MS. CETRULO: They didn't know. Believe it or not they had no idea when he came in to do his marriage. I'm like, do you know what was? They're
 like who is it? No idea. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: They treat everybody very well, I know that -- that's his proof. 
MS. CETRULO: Yeah, they -- they really -- I'm very lucky. We're a good team. And especially like I said with Margie she's such a perfect addition to our team. It's like we all get along and we help each other. It's not -- it's not my job, we don't have any of that, which I really like. So --
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Thank you. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Thank you. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Gracias. 
MS. CETRULO: More questions about public health? 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: No, thank you. 
MS. CETRULO: No. Okay, how about animal control? 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: No you seem to have everything under control. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Except my animal. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Everything is under control. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: My animal is a frequent visitor with them, so I don't have the animal under control. 
MS. CETRULO: Thank you. COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: The department runs 
very well. DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Thank you Dawn. MS. SONENFELD: Okay, so we are up to Heather 
talking about both village clerk -- I'm sorry -- and elections. 
2. Village Clerk/Elections 
VILLAGE CLERK:  So some new initiatives,  
highlights and -- 
MS. SONENFELD:  -- use -- 
VILLAGE CLERK:  Are you ready or no?  

DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Yeah -- yeah ready, sorry. 
VILLAGE CLERK: Okay, in 2015 were new -­procedures were established for worker's compensation claims, whereby the injured employee is interviewed by their department director to the extent possible the injured employee comes to our office and drops off their slip indicating how long they're going to be out of work. We follow up with the employee to see, you know, how well we're doing with physical therapy, things like that. And this was to curtail the claims of workers compensation injury where there were no witnesses and also so that we can help the employee to
 get back to work, recovered, which is our goal obviously. 
State department handing records management, did a training session for us on Artimus (phonetic) which is the records management system and destruction system. And several departments have now been training on it and we are waiting for our shred date in April in order to get rid of a lot of the records that the state has approved can be destroyed. 
We initiated a meeting with our current insurance administrators for the village, because of the fact we had some concern in the way they were handling it. They were not being as proactive as we would have liked, perhaps or followed up on claims as much as we would have liked. And in doing so we have set up monthly meetings over conference call. And actually we've been very pleased with the results and they are being more proactive. They're going back to the doctors, asking the employee can come back on light duty if they're out on worker's compensation. So again the goal is to get the employee back to work and to have them be as healed as possible, as quickly as possible. So it's working out really well. 
And then also we created an online folder for resolutions and ordinances. What we used to do after a 
meeting is copy all of the ordinances and resolutions and then give them to the departments they pertain to. Now we have an online folder, thanks to Dylan's help and we're able to let the departments just go in an print out the different resolutions or ordinances that they need and they are able to see them. 
We -- village clerk's office by the numbers, we process 31 worker's comp claims, 12 minor injuries, 4 general liability, 35 auto claims. We processed 36 raffle licenses, we responded to 325 OPRA request with averages approximately 6 request per week. 
Our OPRA request are actually up tremendously this year, at least 25 percent if not more. There are times we get six request a day, sometime. 
We published 67 ordinances, issued 5 parking permits, which were 2 new permits and 3 changes in valet parking companies. We processed, signed and sealed 18 one-day social affair permits. We reviewed and processed two localized transferees. We issued an average of 80 CDB parking permits per months, 410 RPPs to residents over the year, 18 to non-residents, 26 overnight parking permits, we issued 268 garage sale permits, 513 landscaper permits, 322 senior citizen tax-free coupon books, issued over 80 CDB parking permits and 49 letters of request for use of the train
 trestle. 
We ran the primary and general elections, which included the -- getting the referendum question to the county clerk for it to be on the November ballot. Prepared layoff plans for two different layoffs in different -- different departments. Also we explained on a daily basis the change in our parking, because you know, we added the hours of Cottage Place, we changed where we were going to have parking. So that was one of the goals for 2016. Includes coordinating and training session in Ridgewood for liquor license holders. It was hope that it could -­could have been done last year. Unfortunately it didn't happen. But the goal is to do it before the renewals in June and I'm hoping also, possibly to open it up to maybe Hohokus and/or Glen Rock. 
Implementation of Municipality in a Box for both OPRA requests as well as boards and committees, so we can keep a better track of our boards and committees and when the terms expire. Continue the training of our part-time employee so that she may take on additional duties with hopefully her increased hours and also administer -- the municipal election process which as you all know is coming up in May. 
MS. SONENFELD: So, can I just interrupt you
 for a second. Chris do we have an update. We sent the council an email saying don't park at this lower level because of potential flooding. Is there -- because I just got word that the west side -- part of the west side power went out. So, I'm just -- is any --
MR. RUTISHAUSER: -- stopped raining. 
MS. SONENFELD: Okay, all right. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: The brook is going down. For those who don't recall, the brook here floods very quickly, it also drains very quickly. So -- literally it stops raining, that's a good thing. It's not going to crest much more than that. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, okay. So we gave you a warning ahead of time, we sent out an email. You got it right? 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: You know what I've been so busy -- emails and I have a few. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: I parked up there, so --
MS. SONENFELD: You're parked up there. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Yeah, I don't need my car floating down the river. 
MS. SONENFELD: No I -- no I think he's saying it's okay -- I think what Chris is saying --
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: So I'm okay. I usually don't park back there but I'm okay, I think,. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: I've been warned in 
any event. 
MS. SONENFELD: I just don't know how pervasive this power outage is, so. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: I don't know anything about the power outage, it might be localized, I haven't gotten anything PS, but the flooding was when --
MS. SONENFELD: It's localized at my house. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: -- when we -- discussed and was serious enough to warrant the concern. Nobody likes losing a car. 
MS. SONENFELD: Sorry. 
VILLAGE CLERK: So -- so the big news here obviously is the increase due to the municipal election. Because of the fact that this cost us additional money because we run everything. The county, for the primary and general elections. They bill us for primary election and then the general election they do not bill us for. But this one we have to do everything from paying for the printing for the ballots, to the machine strips to the translation of everything to Korean and Spanish. So we pay the rental of the voting machines, the poll workers, we pay for all of that. 
MS. SONENFELD: So that would be the second 
page that you have so -- I mean there's a 282 percent increase over actual 189 increase over budget. So this is something we have to figure out how to offset in other places. But it doesn't -- I don't see anything that can be done about this, other than changing the election to November. 
VILLAGE CLERK: Right, which is an option. Not this year, but we can certainly discuss it for the future. And I know some municipalities have done so and it's just whether or not -- I -- I still -- my personal opinion is the ballot still looks like people are in party lines and -- but you know -- decision and we can look at it again if you wish to do so. 
MS. SONENFELD: And then I guess on the village clerk budget the big -- the big difference is the conversion of a part-time position to a full-time position. 
VILLAGE CLERK: Correct. That's in my request because of the fact that -- just OPRA in itself has become almost a full-time job. The general liability, workers comp claims and auto accident claims could in itself be a full-time job. And Eileen is currently working 27 and a half hours, I believe, a week. And -­so this would bring it up to 35 with benefits. 
The thought process is that we do get some
 routine OPRA requests and right now Eileen is doing all the workers comp, general liability and auto claims. She also does raffle licensing and she helps with putting together packets. But her time in the office is limited. She also covers for the reception desk if either of our two part-time reception people are out. 
So what the thought is, is that she can help with the more routine OPRA request and kind of help Donna who is the deputy, obviously and take over, basically handling the OPRA requests. 
So, it would be very beneficial. We could get things done more efficiently and certainly more timely, which is on hold. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Do the payments for the OPRA requests are they credited to your --
VILLAGE CLERK: We -- we get very few that are paid. Because it has to be in excess of 200 pages, or in excess of 3 hours. So most of them, actually, because they are emailed we don't even get a copying cost, which is only 5 cents a page. But we don't even get that because we email it so it's free. And most people who request things they are smart and they ask for it to be emailed so they don't have to incur a charge. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Oh, so there's no 
revenue to speak of? 
VILLAGE CLERK: It is very minimal. 
MS. SONENFELD: And so do we want to talk about, Heather, the 28 line in the clerk budget why it's up as high as it is? 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: The other professional services. 
VILLAGE CLERK: All right, those are the minutes. It's because we have had for several years we had somebody doing our minutes. It was $3 a page, it's now up at 8.50 a page. And you know we -- we were lucky when we had it at $3 a page, our average over the years and we've been doing it for 23 years, this year, you know outsourcing the minute preparation has been between 9 and $11. So we're still paying a little under the average so it's more than two and a half times, you know, what we were paying for. So that's why it's up so high. And, you know, obviously we've had additional meetings and long meetings. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: And they've gone longer. 
VILLAGE CLERK: And long meetings, so that takes more time to prepare and more pages. It's based on price per page, so but it's more pages. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: And I think we saw that coming because we approved that so it's --
VILLAGE CLERK: Correct. 
MS. SONENFELD: -- it's just something --
VILLAGE CLERK: Yeah, it just is what the situation is, and -- and unfortunately the person who was doing the minutes is unable to continue, so. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, so between the -­between the two budgets -- I mean there's -- you know one has a 12 percent increase and the other has a 282 percent increase, which is far -- it's a stretch from 2 percent. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Right. 
MS. SONENFELD: Okay. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: I did have something about the OPRA request. Is there any particular reason why they seem to be going up and is it just something -­just something that's last year and -- or is it going to be a continuing trend? Is it like a blip, an outlier or are they going to be increasing or staying at this level going forward? 
VILLAGE CLERK: Yeah, last year a lot of them were commercial. We still get a lot of commercial, but now what we're seeing more and more are people buying houses. And what they want to know is about underground storage tanks, they want to know about additions and if permits were obtained. So we have to
 go out to several departments. If there were any health concerns, you know, whether; asbestos, mold, radon, whatever might be there. And so we have to go out to multiple departments for this, and what happens is people -- multiple people come in for the same address, but they come in weeks apart so we don't realize it's the same address right away. And otherwise we could just provide them with what we provided them before. Sometimes it's months apart, even, because the house hasn't sold. 
So we're seeing a huge increase in that. We also have found that the real estate professionals are going into the building department and asking these questions and then sending their clients in. So, you know, if we could do it once it may save us on some of our OPRA requests. I don't see it reducing. I think more and more people are becoming savvy to OPRA. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Uh huh. 
VILLAGE CLERK: And I think that they're asking for -- and sometimes we don't even know. You know we can't ask why and we sometimes we wonder why they're asking for things, you know. And -- but the main increase we see, currently, is this buying of houses and wanting to know what kinds of things may be in the ground or in the house that would be 
detrimental. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: So, just out of curiosity is that something where there's duplication of requests that could be months apart. Is it something like on OPRA requests where you create little files online so you can --
VILLAGE CLERK: We have --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: -- just go back instead of having to redo the whole OPRA request. Maybe just go and --
VILLAGE CLERK: We do. We -- we actually have a log as well as keeping the information. Now the only issue is if we have like building plans and things like that, they go back to the building department. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Right. 
VILLAGE CLERK: Because most of the time what they want to do is they want to look at them. You know, if -- if we have actual documents like thing -­closing an oil tank or something, then that's a document. But for the most part, you know -- and then sometimes we find people ask for the same things, six months, eight months apart. We -- we -- we haven't figured that one out yet. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: So a special date -- I'm sorry special data logic might, in fact, help us a 
little bit here. 
VILLAGE CLERK: I'm hoping. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: -- automatic -- uh huh. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Just, is that something new, because I know in the past maybe someone would pick up the phone, call the building department say, do you have any -- what's the story on this -- the back story on this particular house or property. Is that something that's --
VILLAGE CLERK: Well the only -- the only reason why -- if -- if we require research or if it's going to take us time. Like sometimes I know the building department has to go downstairs into files to find things, documents, then we ask them to do an OPRA request. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Okay, all right. 
VILLAGE CLERK: Because this way we can document it. If it's something easy that they can just say, oh yeah it's been closed out. You know that permit was closed out, then they really don't need an OPRA request. We -- we try to not encourage OPRA unless it's absolutely necessary. But I have to say most of the ones we get are necessary. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Okay. 
VILLAGE CLERK: So --
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Thanks Heather. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay, Gwenn? No? 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: NO, thank you. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay. 
VILLAGE CLERK: Thanks. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Great, Heather thank you very much. 
MS. SONENFELD: So next up is Maria Doerr Municipal Court. I asked -- I asked her this last year I covered her stuff and I said it would be really good for you guys to hear directly from her. So this is the next section. Section 11. 

3. Municipal Court. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Maria welcome. 
MS. DOERR: Hey everyone. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Hello. 
MS. DOERR: So we did have a retirement in the municipal court of an employee, 31 year Village employee. So you'll see a significant difference in our salary and wage. Fortunately, we were able to -­with a rehire of that position, we were able to change that position and we now finally have a deputy court administrator, which we have not had for years. So that was a huge benefit. Actually Glenda (Phonetic) came to us from the Dumont Municipal Court, so she came 
with eight years of experience. So she has been an asset instantly from day one. So that was a big part of our goal, that was already met. 
We have implemented the E-ticketing system, which we are current -- primarily using just for parking violations. That's worked incredibly well for us. The benefit of that system is a recipient of a parking ticket can essentially go online and pay it real time. So we are seeing parking tickets that are issued and paid in the same day. And of course that involves no data entry on our part. Everything is automated, even the payment is automated, because that -- they're able to go through the state website to do that. 
So in 2015 the Court processed over 18,000 -­almost 18-5 in filings. Again, primarily parking tickets were, in 2014, went from 11,900 up to over 15,000 in 2015. We took in $7700 in the Parking Offense Adjudication Act fund. That we are able to use a portion of that to offset salary for someone in my office who does do data entry, so that's always helpful. 
So primarily if you look at the money side of the report that has been provided to you, where still 51 percent of our income does go to the village, a 
hundred percent of it goes to the Village. 
The one item that I did ask for an increase in, and it's a modest increase but none the less an increase, is in conferences and meetings. And that is due in part to hiring a deputy court administrator who now has education she has to maintain. So that's what that represents. 
There was a little bit in the decrease in the printing and binding, because we went to electronic ticketing so we anticipate that we will not have to print paper tickets at the rate that we were before, so that went down. 
And the only other item would be just -- and it kind of comes up every year, so I'm bringing it up before you raise it, is -- is our interpreter expenses. And all -- we need to have that in our budget. We don't usually spend it, but it is a mandatory item in our budget. We're seeing even based on the census from 1999 to the 2000 census we have -- it went from 7 -­993,000 people reported in 1999 that they are not English primarily speaking individuals up to 1.7 million. So we can see that. That's where the demand comes from. 
We do have the benefit of Language Line, which is a telephonic interpreting service that we are able
 to utilize probably over 90 percent. So we're looking at 17 cents a minute as opposed to over $125 an hour. So we're really seen a huge savings in that. Obviously the only area we can't -- can't use that for is when I need to get a sign language interpreter. And that's it. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: So, Maria the E-tickets when they're pay on line, how much -- how much of that is paid out in fees to the --
MS. DOERR: It doesn't change as -- it doesn't change because they're going through a state financial website. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Okay. 
MS. DOERR: The merchant fee is tacked on by the state and that's an agreement between the state and the credit card holder, the village doesn't get involved in that. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Okay. 
MS. DOERR: So if it costs somebody $20 to pay what normally would be a $19 ticket we're still getting the same percentage. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Right, because that's the fee is being --
MS. DOERR: Yeah, the same thing. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Okay, all right. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: The security that's provided when the court's in session is that our -- is that an expense that our police departments allocates to you? How is -- how does that work? 
MS. DOERR: Yeah, the court isn't -- just because of the role and the separation of powers we wouldn't be responsible to provide budgeting. That comes from the police department. We do have some measures in place to obviously keep that a minimum. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Uh huh. 
MS. DOERR: So -- for instance if an officer is subpoenaed to testify in a case, I'll communicate that to the sergeant who sets up the security. They'll make sure that's one of the officers on security because we have to pay him to be here anyway. 
So we do have a coordination of efforts between the court and police department to try and keep a handle on that. We have an officer who is a court and police liaison. He will also serve in the security role when needed. And you know we do have some interesting things that happen at the security gate. We just had one last month where we had an arrest. So that -- you know all of a sudden then you need six officers. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Right. 
MS. DOERR: So we keep it at three. We're able to most of the time, you know sometimes we go down to two, because things just happen. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Uh huh. 
MS. DOERR: But we do have a combined effort between the court and the police department to keep that at a minimum. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay, and note that -- I mean it's a substantial net positive revenue contribution from -- you know from the court to the village. So the extent there is an expense to the village for police personnel that are able to appear, that it's more than covered -- covered that. 
MS. DOERR: Yeah, and actually 15 over 14 we're up about $64,000 to the village in their portion. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Maria I just have a -­are you done? 
MS. DOERR: Yes I am, uh huh. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Just another question. I know property maintenance issues, I know that's going to be perhaps a big number --
MS. DOERR: Yes. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: -- coming up. 
MS. DOERR: Yes. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: So is that a -- would 
that -- will we see that next year on this also? Is it another column? 
MS. DOERR: It won't be a separate column because the -- we're actually prohibited from doing that because the court is not in a revenue business, we're in a business to deliver justice and resolve disputes. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Okay. 
MS. DOERR: So -- but that will be reflected in the village total of next year. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Okay. So all right, I understand. 
MS. SONENFELD: And -- and unfortunately because of the way the laws work we can't budget an increase over this year without going through hoops and be able to kind of justify it to the local boards. So right now we're going to budget her rev -- the revenue 
MS. DOERR: The revenue. 
MS. SONENFELD: -- as flat. But -- an so just thinking ahead to Thursday there's certain revenues that might look like they're -- we're stretching it a little bit and we're being a little aggressive, but we know we have other revenues that we're being 
conservative on. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Uh huh. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Right. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Understood. 
MS. SONENFELD: But yeah, 360 to 425, year over year. And yeah, fortunately the leaves did cause us to --
MS. DOERR: They did but keep in mind that imitative that really didn't begin until November. So this amount is very little contributed to that initiative --
MS. SONENFELD: Absolutely, right. 
MS. DOERR: -- that enforcement initiative. Part of this is due in part that some of the fines went up. They went up from $24 to $30. I think E-ticketing has a lot to do with that because we went from sorry we don't have that ticket yet, you can't pay it yet, we have to turn that revenue away to someone going on their phone and it's immediate. 
So our collection percentage, if you will, I think improved with that as well. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Got it. 
MS. DOERR: Yeah, so. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay, Michael? 
MS. DOERR: Any questions? 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Yeah, I -- I know, I guess in years past there was some back log of some court cases. Have -- have you worked through that back log, does it still exist or --
MS. DOERR: Yes. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: -- is there --
MS. DOERR: No, it does not exist at all. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Oh, good. 
MS. DOERR: We actually, also we really should mention, we participate with the springboard program, where we have -- someone sent to us, who is actually helping us do record destruction. So we are -- we have 99 percent of our files have been removed from our storage facility down in the basement, which is -- you know storage is at a premium here to all upstairs in our office. And a lot of that we have a student that comes in and she helps us with that effort and we're teaching her job skills in -- in exchange for that. 
So there's no backlog on that aspect and there's no backlog on cases that are waiting to be heard. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Wow. 
MS. DOERR: Which -- which is -- that was a real focus for us a number of years ago. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: I didn't even think 
to ask that, because it's such a long standing 
tradition to have a back log. 
MS. DOERR: Right. Right. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Another tradition gone. 
MS. DOERR: The tradition is gone, which is a good one. Which is a good one, yeah. No our clearance rate is -- is super. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: -- doing a great job. 
MS. DOERR: Super. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Has -- has E-ticket helped? Is -- is that helping, I guess, clear out some of these -- some of the cases --
MS. DOERR: Not so much --
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Or that doesn't work with parking ticket --
MS. DOERR: Yeah, not -- not so much that we have actually changed the manner in which we hear contested parking tickets, because we've come across some legislation that allows us to eliminate the role of the prosecutor. 
So, sometimes when they're in a courtroom under oath we can just dispose of it a little quicker than sitting across the table, someone just wanting to tell their story to the prosecutor. So we've actually
 expedited. We can hear -- seven parking trial inside of a half an hour. But that seven people that are not going in and tying the prosecutor up and keeping her from adjudicating things that might be a little bit more serious than that. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Okay, great thank you. 
MS. DOERR: Yeah, sure. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Gwenn? No? 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: No -- no not really. mean it's not budgetary. I'm just curious. The wheel of complaints filed, does it move around from time to time. So there's zero DWIs and now there's 82 percent parking. You know, how does that change from year to year? 
MS. DOERR: Well it should --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Just curious. 
MS. DOERR: For instance in '15 we had 24 DWIs in '14 we had 42. So, that number will change ever so slightly. It isn't -- the -- you will never really see a big shift in that wheel. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Uh huh. 
MS. DOERR: Because we, have such a high parking volume. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: And we tried to sort of write more tickets for a while, this is just anecdotal. 
I thought parking enforcement downtown was going to be more strict in order to make people comply with the hourly rates and not double parking in the same spot and everything. 
MS. DOERR: Which it has been. Part of that -- part of that curve, I think, is -- they went through a transition period where they were learning how to use this device. You know, when you're first learning the e-tickets it seems like it's faster for them to handwrite a ticket and it probably is, until we get all of that out -- you know, all of that ironed out and they become use to the devices and the software and, we haven't -- this company that we're working with has been so responsive. We -- we tweak it and build it. We like to see this, we like to see that. They've been very, very responsive. 
MS. SONENFELD: And the other issue is that we have dedicated PEOs now, and we're at staff with PEOs, which we weren't with at staff the year before. I think moving violations have actually gone the other way. 
MS. DOERR: Yes. 
MS. SONENFELD: We've issued less moving violations, because the PEOs don't issue moving violations they issue --
MS. DOERR: Right. 
MS. SONENFELD: -- parking tickets, you know. 
MS. DOERR: And part of that is due -- there was a full traffic bureau in March, April and May. As retirements took place and -- and staffing needs shifted in the police department some of those officers have been transferred out. So you'll see that reflected in the moving violations as well. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah. 
MS. DOERR: There's really, I think we just have a sergeant. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Yeah, all of them got transferred out. 
MS. DOERR: All of them got transferred out. So that's a big impact. 
MS. SONENFELD: Exactly. 
MS. DOERR: That's a big impact because their focus is not -- they're not able to do campaigns as much, and just -- they're out answering calls. 
MS. SONENFELD: Uh huh. 
MS. DOERR: So, you're going to see that drop. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, there's a big pressure -- I think as you heard with the police presentation there's a big pressure on staffing and this has --
MS. DOERR: Yeah. 
MS. SONENFELD: -- kind of taken second seat to some of the other stuff that's been going on. So --
MS. DOERR: And -- and history the numbers have always shown that when the traffic bureau is not at full -- or there were times where I think we had none, you'll see tickets drop immediately. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Maria, I think the details about what I'm about to ask, and probably best kept for an offline conversation. But can you just tell us in summary, has Park Mobile presented unique problems from the parking enforcement perspective? 
MS. DOERR: Not from the enforcement perspective. Again, the system was new to us. The system was not new. So I think whatever they were experiencing -- again, just going through a transition, retrieving their information other ways. We have not had any problems at all, with -- with Park Mobil. We've had -- and as a matter of fact the feedback that we get from the public is very positive. They love it. They love the convenience. 
As far as goals, one of our biggest goal is -­and Dylan is helping us out with this, is to get a flat screen TV installed in the courtroom so that we can play in-car video as evidence. You know data now is all coming on DVDs so Dylan's helping us out with 
researching what the best solution and hopefully we'll see that happen this year. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Great, well thank you very much. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Thanks Maria. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Thanks Maria. 
MS. SONENFELD: Okay, so I think next up -­we're running ahead of schedule. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Uh huh. 
MS. SONENFELD: We do have a couple that we could try to get done tonight that are ready. So, you know, Jim's up with fire. 

4. Fire Department 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Welcome Chief. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: Good evening. All right, why don't we just go right in. In 2015 we responded to 3,504 emergency calls and conducted 2,932 fire prevention inspections. The responses range from minor calls to life threatening situations. 
In 2015 we also hired four firefighters to fill positions that were created from retirements in 2014. We held off on hiring until the contract was done -- was completed at the end of 2014, which gave us a huge savings to the town by waiting. We still have one more to hire, we were short five. So, we're going
 to hire one more this year. 
We purchased a -- or no we applied to FEMA for a grant for a wellness and fitness program, which was -- we received $41,510 and that's to buy new equipment, set up a program, do some alterations to our gym, which we're in the process of doing right now. 
We purchased a new Chevy Tahoe with capital -­2015 capital, which replaced a 1989 Tahoe, which is used for the Captain's car to respond every day. We made improvements and updates to fire headquarters. The last time anything was done was 1992. So we needed the outside of the building painted and fire prevention, and the hallways we had repainted. 
Community -- as far as community outreach we hosted open house during fire prevention month in October. We held fire safety education classes, Sunday School drills and we participated in Touch A Truck last year. 
Let's see we also -- we hosted classes in leadership, responding to railroad emergencies firefighting, emergency medical technician courses, and also -- training safety classes, held last year. And we implemented the new Right to Know online service for Village departments. 
The goals -- 2016 goals, I'm in the process of
 completing the goals that were set for last year, I'm working on developing a customer survey, community outreach programs, hosting educational classes on leadership and like I said we're going to hire one more -- one more firefighter to fill a vacancy that we still have. And we're also researching the requirement specifications for the new pumper, which hopefully we'll be replacing. It's a 1989 fire pumper. 
And I'll go right into the budget. This year's budget -- well last -- last year the revenue for fire prevention came in at $196,805 which was an increase over 2014 and that was due to more inspections, house sales and building. We're not recommending any increase in fees. They were increased, I think it was 2012, so we're just going to remain flat. 
The operating budget, the salary and wages increased 5 percent over last year's actual. The increase is from contracted step raises and because we hired the four last year and that carries over to this year. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Right. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: So that -- that's what the increase is from. But also on a good note it's still less than the salary and wages that was in 2009. So we 
haven't seen any --
MS. SONENFELD: I think that's an important point. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: Right, we haven't seen an increase in over six years. So we're still below, and that's due to the contract -- the new contract we had and we've had about -- over 20 retirements over the last five years. So --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: So it's kind of not fair to compare it to last year, because you had 11 retirements. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: Right, yeah last year we had five --
MS. SONENFELD: But we had --
CHIEF VAN GOOR: In 2014 we had five retirements. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: So it went down -- 2015's budget went way down. And then with the new contract, hiring the new people it didn't go up as much as we lost. 
This year capital's budget, we're looking to replace a 1989 Pierce Fire Pumper. We conducted a risk analysis of our fleet and determined that that was our most pressing problem that needs to be replaced. The
 existing fire engine is 27 years old. It's unreliable and it's hard to get parts for it. And all the recommendations we had, we had a Technical Fire Service did a study of the fire department and they recommended that it was replaced after 25 years. And then all -­we had another study done by Matrix Consulting Company and they -- they agreed with National Fire Prevention Association, that fire apparatus should be replaced after 20 years. So we're -- we're just trying to look to do -- you know be proactive and -- and make sure our stuff is up to date and -- safety wise and able to do what it needs to be done. 
We're also looking to replace a Ford Explorer that's used by the fire inspection bureau. The Explorer is a 2003. And we want to replace the roof and carpeting at fire headquarters. The roof is 26 years old and it's 20 year shingle. So it's 6 years past its life and we're starting to see leaks in the roof and -- so we need to get that replaced. 
And also on the side of the fire house at 311 West Glen Ave, it's been leaking through -- every time it rains it leaks through the side of the building and it's starting to create a problem. So we want to put a drain in there and resurface the parking lot to keep the water away from the building. 
That's pretty much it. That's what we're looking to do next year, or this year. So any questions? 
MS. SONENFELD: Did you want to just highlight the numbers Jim, first or --
CHIEF VAN GOOR: The -- oh. 
MS. SONENFELD: See where we are, year over year. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: Which -- which numbers you want to --
MS. SONENFELD: I guess you can go to bottom line -- you can go to, you know, bottom line, where we're up on both salary and wages and, I guess, also on -- and we're down on OE. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR:  OE's down 1 percent from last  
year.  
MS. SONENFELD:  Right.  
CHIEF VAN GOOR:  Salary and wages is up 5  

percent from last year. And it's basically the -- the salaries and full-time salaries are up because we hired the four people and we're looking to hire one more this year. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: This -- on salaries and wages on the separate sheet that's attached, that's a fairly substantial increase in the third line, and
 without mentioning names, what's the -- what accounts for that large difference in -- in the -- in the third line from the time. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: Oh, we changed that. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: The 701 versus the 847. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: I'm not sure I'm looking at the third -- the third line --
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: The third line down, the 701 versus 847. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: Number 18? 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Yeah, no I'm sorry, on the separate -- on the attachment. The salaries and wages summary. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: Oh, I don't have that. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: That's the old one isn't it? 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, I guess it wasn't in --
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Did you get that in the new package. 
MS. SONENFELD: It was in the old package. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: If it's dated --
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Should it have been in both? 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Well yeah, because I
 threw -- like for example I threw out the whole fire 
thing, so. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Okay. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: So make sure it's not a mistake. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: So what were you looking at? 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: Actually I'm not sure, I'd have to look into that. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Yeah, okay, that's 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Where's that? 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: It's the 701,000 on one -- on in '15 and 847,000 -- I just want to make sure it's not a mistake or --
CHIEF VAN GOOR: That's -- I mean there was no -- no promotions last year. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Yeah. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: There was no big increases last year. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: From what you said it seems like the number may not be accurate. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: Yeah, it seems like a high number. We'll have to look at that. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Well maybe Steve, can you
 UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just asked him for promotions from last year. He said there's none. Maybe I have a bad head count, or --
CHIEF VAN GOOR: Yeah, because even promotions only -- we get an increase of 6,000. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Right. 
MS. SONENFELD: Well this could be a combination of steps and longevity. There may be some longevity raises in here and steps. I don't know. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: Yeah, but even that -- even that would be --
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: It's only six people. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: Yeah, six people it would be the most -- you know maybe two of them went up 6,000. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: All right, well I asked because it just jumps out at you, but it may -­it may not be an accurate number. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, it might be off a little. 
MS. SONENFELD: And you know something there could be a flip between that and the 30 firefighters, because that doesn't look necessarily like the right
 number either; $70,000 for 30 guys in raises. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Oh, yeah that could be. 
MS. SONENFELD: So there could be a flip between those two line items. We'll look into that, good point. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay, thank you. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: So maybe it's just an error. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Any -- any other questions for our chief? 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Yeah, Jim I actually had a question, on the 3504 emergency calls what -­does that include mutual aid? Is that in that? 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: Yeah, last year we didn't do much in mutual aid, but that includes mutual aid calls. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: So the greater percent of it it's --
CHIEF VAN GOOR: It's in Ridgewood, right. think if we had five or six last year. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: So that means the pumper truck doesn't go out all that often for mutual aid. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: No. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: If you guys don't go
 the truck doesn't go. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: It doesn't go yeah. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Okay. Okay, that was my only question. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: So 3,504 calls in 365 days. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: Yeah. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: That's pretty crazy, you know if you think about it, yeah. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Can I just --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Impressive. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Does that include -­because you get called out -- you go on all the ambulance calls, right? 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: Yeah, that includes about 700 ambulance calls. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Okay, so those -- so when we look at that number, that's 700 of them are emergency -- medical emergency calls. 
CHIEF VAN GOOR: Medical -- yeah, medical emergency too, right. Yeah. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: You guys have one of those routine numbers, right? What does it cost a day for the -- to support the fire budget. Is it like $4 a day? 
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, a cup of coffee. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: A cup of Starbucks coffee. 
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Starbucks of course. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: That high end stuff, right. Late. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Thank you. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Yeah, thank you, I don't have any questions Jim. Thank you. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: So just could we get a corrected sheet that --
CHIEF VAN GOOR: Yeah. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Okay, that would be helpful. 
MS. SONENFELD: Good point out, I didn't -­actually I didn't see that sheet. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay, Chief thank you. Thank you very much. 
MS. SONENFELD: Thanks Jim. Okay, so in Tab 13, we have planning -- planning board. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Uh huh. Planning Board and what else? Just planning board, right? 
MS. SONENFELD: Just planning board. I want to -- well no, I'll let the Blais go first before I preface it, I'll un-preface it. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay. 

5. Planning Board 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Blais welcome. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: Thank you. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Over to you. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: The planning board, as you know, has been active in a number of controversial matters in the past year and we continue to invite controversy in the coming year. 
We completed about four years of discussion, study and debate over multifamily housing, as you know. And we also, just recently, two weeks ago completed a re-examination of the Village's master plan and development regulations. Re-examined, not being an amendment just looking at what needs to be amended. 
In addition, we've been working on an update to the housing element of the master plan, which is the controversy to which I was alluding to future based controversy. You're all, I assume familiar with the Supreme Court's legislature and executive branch of the government's complete follow up on the affordable housing situation and what the situation has put us in. 
So at the moment we are working with the court to come up with a new housing plan. We still haven't determined what our obligation is yet, but whatever
 it's likely to be more likely to not be able to meet that obligation due to the lack of developable property. 
The debate will likely be over how much of that property is developable for affordable housing and how -- and what densities in zoning regulations should apply to that. There are an array of housing advocates and developers who are going to argue for more and more and more. So, we anticipate that that will involve a good part of the board's time and to some extent the council's time as well in the coming year and maybe beyond. It all depends on ultimately what the obligation is, further court appeal and so forth. 
All that is prefaced to say that probably the main item of the planning board's budget is the legal aspect -- legal fees. I mean we have, obviously salary, myself and Michael Cafarelli (phonetic) are the next big portion, but that's really stable, it doesn't vary much from year to year. And the other expense is we work largely with volunteers occasionally. We hire an outside consultant for something, but that's relatively rare and usually it's paid for by developers money. 
There's nothing in the budget, I'll note, that would allow us to retain an additional consultant for 
any special studies or any master plan amendments or any other things like that. If that were to be done it would require a special appropriation by the Village Council, but we're not anticipating that for the coming year. 
Other litigation that we anticipate impacting the budget in the way of legal fees relates to the hospital litigation that you're familiar with and potentially the -- related to the affordable housing litigation. They're technically different, depending on the councils’ action relating to the five ordinances currently pending. 
It's possible that developers could challenge -- or objectors could challenge, either way, depending upon how those go. So that would possibly incur legal fees from the planning Board as well as the township attorney's legal fees as well. 
Those are the big -- big items. The rest of the items in the budget are fairly straight forward. We do anticipate moving forward on the next step on the re-examination and that is working on studies, doing possible amendments to the master plan, recommending possible amendments to the ordinance, that of course the council would take action on, but those are not budget items. They're already in the budget in 
salaries and in legal as -- as well. So, they're not really affecting the budget in any major way. 
I will note -- I don't know what the council has as far as the budget spreadsheet. The one that I had in this -- in my folder is not -- apparently not the latest. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: It's dated February 9, 2016. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: February 9th, I think the -- I think the salary item is low in that. 
MS. SONENFELD: No, I think we verified it twice. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: Well then I don't understand the discrepancy myself. Because it says in -- there's a 90,000 something figure. 
MS. SONENFELD: 98,000 it's a net --
MR. BRANCHEAU: But if you look on the net -­next page it's 116. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, and the difference is the amount that's being paid out of escrow to you. It's a net number. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: Oh, it's an estimate okay. 
MS. SONENFELD: It's a net number that takes 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: No net number. 
MS. SONENFELD: Right, you know what I'm saying the escrow --
MR. BRANCHEAU: I understand and that's an estimate, just so you understand. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, that's an estimate. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: Because the amount that I billed to developer's escrow is necessarily dependent upon how many applications are filed --
MS. SONENFELD: Right. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: -- and how complex they are. If we don't get any applications I can't bill. If we get a lot of them I bill a lot. But that's based upon an average over prior years. 
MS. SONENFELD: Right, that's correct, so it's credits from escrow for work that Blais has done. So that's why -- that's why you see the difference between the two. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Yeah. 
MS. SONENFELD: The other thing I would say is Susan asked us to think through and she was going to do some research on her own. What's not included here is any re-write of the entire master plan. And so we figured that that would be at least $100,000 if we were to go outside. That's not here. So it's something that needs to get discussed as to whether or not we
 want to add it. So we'll start making a list of things 
that are kind of extra. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Right. 
MS. SONENFELD: So, $100,000 I would just point out is about a third of a percent of increase on taxes. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: I would -- you know my own recommendation on that is, you know, focus based studies, there is certainly much that needs to be amended. Much of this I can do myself. I don't need an outside consultant to do. There are certain aspects, however, where I think it would be appropriate. For example, if we were to do a new -- a circulation plan, probably need to hire a traffic consultant to do that. 
MS. SONENFELD: And we know we removed that because it was so outdated and not -- never implemented. Or parts of it were just --
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Yeah, it's -- it's extremely out of date and it needs to be either eliminated entirely or if it's going to be updated it's going to take a lot of work to do and you will need a traffic consultant. 
MS. SONENFELD: But I think on the other hand we sat down with the -- with the -- we sit down every
 week with the people that are doing the multifamily housing studies just to make sure that we're on schedule. And I think -- we'll see what comes out of the traffic one because I think he did an awful lot of intersections. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: Right. 
MS. SONENFELD: And although that doesn't make a total traffic plan it may in fact help us devising a traffic plan. That's the sense I get. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: There is -- you know circulation wise there's not a lot of that. I anticipate happening but there are areas where we could do improvements such as -- we don't really have much in the way of a multimodal plan, only vehicular plan. We don't have much for pedestrian routes or back paths or anything like that, that we can spend some time dealing with. 
There are some, obviously vehicular areas that need attention, certain intersections that need signalization upgrades, turning restrictions or dedicated turning lanes, things like that that a traffic -- a circulation plan would help us with. Obviously engineering could do some of that as well. But I do anticipate if -- if we were to do a comprehensive circulation plan you would definitely
 need a traffic consultant to assist. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Well for now can we just put a place marker down. It's -- put an item in, whether it's in brackets or however you can put -- you know, a question mark around it. So that it's -- maybe one of the final decisions we make as the budget is -­is approved, you know at the end of the day. 
MS. SONENFELD: You know we'll list it -­we'll list it for Thursday, that's discussion. All the things of this nature. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Uh huh, yeah. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: And whether it's 100,000 as Councilwoman Knudsen has suggested, or 50,000 or 300,000 I don't know what -- I don't know what number is appropriate. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: It all depends on the scope. That's the problem to -- to really get a good number with this you need to break down the scope and the time frame. But to do a comprehensive full master plan at a high level of detail, I doubt you would do in one year. It would take multiple years and probably well over $100,000. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: But it could be spread over two years. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: If -- if you do --
MS. SONENFELD: Well, that was, I think, the -- what is -- you would be spreading that --
MR. BRANCHEAU: That's what I'm saying, you would do focused, prioritized, what's most important now. Do that, and then as you go through work on it year by year. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: And obviously the other sensitive number in this budget is outside counsel fees, which have gone from 49,000 in 2014 to an actual of 98,000 -- 97,6 in 2015, versus a budget of 
136. But I think it was a good idea to budget that, and that's what you're looking for this year. Budget 
136. Hopefully it'll come in less, but you have to -­we have to be prepared for --MR. BRANCHEAU: Yeah, it's hard because you 
never know --
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: -- the full amount. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: -- where litigation is going to go, whether appeals are taken and all sorts of things. 
MS. SONENFELD: This could be a big -- this is a big risk item. I mean as we've heard in various quarters. And I think the though process here was, that if in fact we wind up doubled -- for argument sake, doubling this we'll go into emergency spending
 mode. We'll have to figure out how to handle it at that point. Rather than assume a number now and as a result have a potential impact on taxes. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Uh huh, right. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: That makes sense. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: This number is not necessarily going to cover it, but I think it's a reasonable estimate. It gives you a reasonable cushion. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Right, it's -- direction we're going in at this point so it makes a lot of sense at this point. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay, Michael? 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: I don't have anything, thank you Blais. 
MS. SONENFELD: Wow, we're really running ahead of schedule. 
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll have time for a potty break. 
MS. SONENFELD: Bio break. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Could you just show me where -- where the escrow account is reckoned here? Is it item 01Z. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: I'm sorry. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: The credit, the 27,5? 
MR. BRANCHEAU: Yes, the 27,5. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Okay, so that's -- that -- those are those developers fees, it pays for --
MR. BRANCHEAU: That's an average of what I would bill that gets reimbursed by the developers' escrow money. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: And -- and I'm going to ask a sensitive question, even though there's the other angel and devil on both of my shoulders. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: Right. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: This is the thing that everybody keeps challenging. They say, you know, throw out that, you know, internal advice because it's tainted and so let's get outside consultants and then we have to go out and hire consultants to reinforce what our planner says. So I'm -- I'm sensitive to that. Is there -- is some --
MR. BRANCHEAU: Either way it would be billed against the developer's escrow, whether you hired an outside --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Right, and that was an issue that people had, that if the developer was paying for it then it was tainted and so on and so forth. 
So I really want to bring it up at a budget meeting and say do we accept this -- this kind of advice or do we reject it? Because if it's costing
 27,5 a year and then we go out and duplicated it through outside consultants then why do we have it our 
budget?  
MR. BRANCHEAU:  Well the developer doesn't pay  
me.  
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN:  No.  
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK:  I know that.  
MR. BRANCHEAU:  He pays the village.  
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK:  I know that.  But you -­ 

we all know that a lot of people say that it -- it's not -- that it is -- it is ruined by the taint of the -- you know who had the escrow account of the developer. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: -- they would pay me. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: I'm just putting it out there, because --
MS. SONENFELD: I'm not sure though -- I'm not sure that this is the same exact thing, because this is a longstanding -- this may not even be developers, this could be residential people, right that we're -- that 
MR. BRANCHEAU: It could be. I don't review a lot of the Board of Adjustment residential cases, only in certain situations. Typically these are commercial developers. These are both the special re-zoning 
appeals that have been filed, such as multifamily housing and the hospital. But it's also site plans, subdivisions, things like that that come before planning board and board of adjustment. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Okay. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: So, whether it would be me or be an outside consultant the same mechanism is there, that -- and the same criticism could be leveled is that, oh since the village is being reimbursed by the developer the consultant might feel --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Yeah -- yeah, sure. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: -- feel obligated to please the developer. And most developer don't accuse me of that. But --
MS. SONENFELD: And I think Chris does the same thing. I mean when engineering gets involved and does some consulting on certain on projects and stuff we charge -- we charge against the escrow too. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Yeah, Chris bills to -­too. 
MS. SONENFELD: We charge -- we charge against the escrow too. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Yeah, I bill against any escrow account, possible for any review that's been requested by either the zoning board, or the planning
 board. 
Also one thing to -- the councilwoman's query, we found that we -- when we issued an RFP for a traffic consultant a number of years ago, we put a number of stipulations in it, particularly regarding Valley Hospital, you cannot work for Valley Hospital or had any conflicts related to Valley Hospital. 
We ended up selecting two traffic consultants. One was Maser (phonetic) that is familiar to many of the folks here. But they could not do anything regarding Valley Hospital. They had a conflict because one of their principles had worked, several firms ago, for a firm that had done work for Valley. And so he was conflict -- that firm was conflicted so we ended up with a different firm RBA, Gordon Meth (phonetic) which now the council has selected to review other aspects of traffic. 
So what I'm getting as if you're looking for a consultant to review an application, you would certainly want to vet that consultant to see if they had any conflicts with that potential developer. Because when I worked for the consulting engineering firms -- well the firm I worked for 23 years ago we worked for developers. We primarily worked for developers. And that's how you can also see the 
engineer's --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: But that's the process that we always do go through that so every -- every outside consultant is thoroughly vetted and is independent. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Yes, it cuts out a lot --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: So, I just like to reiterate that as often as possible, because there's a lot of public perception that, you know, that all our consultants aren't independent. That they are -- that they are somehow --
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Right. 
MS. SONENFELD: -- influenced --
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: That's true. 
MS. SONENFELD: -- or influencable and they're really not. Anything that we pay for is -- has been vetted, that's all. 
MR. RUTISHAUSER: Yeah, with the traffic with Maser we asked a lot of very pointed questions. I believe they presented to the planning board before we selected them. 
Is it a perfect system? I don't think so, but it's about pretty good as we can get it. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: So, I just wanted to add, to put this into perspective, because Blais 
brought up a great point. It doesn't really much matter whether it's residential or commercial, planning board or board of adjustment, an applicant puts money into escrow because those fees and consultants should never be shouldered by the tax payers. In lieu of that escrow amount we would paying for an applicant's cost. So we wouldn't want that. 
So whether it's residential, I think commercial we've had consultants speak to any number of applications in any of those scenarios. So in fairness it's -- it's just the way the system is set up. 
MR. BRANCHEAU: And that's all in accordance with the Municipal Land Use, even the board attorney is billing, I guess, the escrow applicants to prepare the resolution to -- you know, the review documents and review notice and stuff like that. 
So, it's -- it's all done. But my own personal feeling is that as a staff person who doesn't do work outside you're more likely to get an independent review than somebody who does work outside working for developers and then also work for the municipality. Because his -- his affecting of those developers could affect future work. Whereas if you have a staff person doing that review, they're not going outside and looking for future work. They're
 working only for you, so they're not likely to be swayed by the fear of losing a potential future client. You're not going to have that. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay, any other questions for Blais? 
MS. SONENFELD: I would point out again, so when you're looking at tax impact, although we've been emphasizing that we're looking at actuals from the year before, and we've done that for the last two years, we'll note here that the actuals are higher and the reason they're higher is because of the legal issue. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Right. 
MS. SONENFELD: But budget to budget is right on target and so that's the determination of tax need more than budget over actual. So just budget to budget this budget's in good shape. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay. All right, thank you Blais. 
MS. SONENFELD: Okay, so --
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay, let's proceed to MIS technology. 
MS. SONENFELD: And so I think, you know, Bob and I had talked about this earlier. You know we set some guidelines here, because we thought maybe we're too broad. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Uh huh. 
MS. SONENFELD: So what we'll probably wind up doing is, if we have some time therefore maybe taking some stuff off of the Wednesday/Thursday's plate. We'll probably do finance of the tax collector, which would have been a Thursday event. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay. 
MS. SONENFELD: As well as, you know the Council's budget which is much higher this year than last year. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: But with -- but with a break after this presentation and prior to those. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Yeah. 

6. MIS/Technology 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Dylan welcome. 
MR. HANSEN: Hello, all right we'll jump right in. All right, 2015 we deployed a new antivirus package, it's been going pretty well. We also launched Municipality in a Box, as you've heard from a couple of other groups in the building and assessor's office. A couple of little bugs, but we've worked out pretty much most things. So we're moving forward next with the health and clerk's office and engineering. So that's our goal for the beginning of this year. 
We launched the Village website on January 1st, really early in the morning and it was followed right by a newspaper article at the same time. So, that went very well. 
The expansion of the fiber loop has been going great. I can't thank Jim and his team enough for the amount of work that they do from signal department. It's been great. Also the Board of Ed has been very helpful with their part of the fiber loop as well. I'm able now to remote into the PCs at the other locations, instead of traveling to the sites to repair things. It's been a great time saver. And we've also been able to share documents between the offices. I mean and any time you call signal they're there to help out, instantaneously, they've been great. 
E-ticket launch has, as you heard from Maria, has been going very well. So we're going to be talking about expanding that even more this year. We're going to look at buying some more equipment this current year, to implement it more into the police department. And then we're also going to look at it as a shared service. 
And also we hired a part-time employee that has been great. She's been taking over a lot of the day to day tedious work so I'm able to focus more on
 projects and everything. So that's been great as well. 
MS. SONENFELD: So we spent -- Dylan and I spent -- Dylan in particularly spent a lot of time in this decision. Again, we looked at potential outsourcing. We brought people in. The price tag was astronomical. So this is our first step towards, at least bringing some support into an area that is very, very stressed and stretched. And you could look around the table, you'll see people nodding because everybody has issues with technology and they're not really Dylan's fault. It's the -- it's the fact that there was only one Dylan. And one Dylan was taking care of everybody and the network and everything else. 
So, we're hoping that this part-time position does a lot for us, and then you know as I go to conferences and talk to people I think, you know, technology is the area where municipalities is going to see some expense growth in the next couple of years. 
MR. ROONEY: I just want to add to that. My observation is, Ridgewood is so far advanced in technology compared to other communities it's unbelievable. And I give you credit for all the work you're doing and I wish there -- we had four or five of you, but he's far ahead of what we'll see in other -­other municipalities. 
MR. HANSEN: I can budget a cloning matching. MR. ROONEY: That's a good idea. COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: We can get a 3D printer 
MR. HANSEN: 3D printing. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: We could 3D print you. 
MR. HANSEN: That would be a little scary. All right so the 2016 goals is we're going to look more to expand more of the fiber loop, both in the water department and the Village departments, the emergency services. We're looking to implement more security protocols with the fiber loop. Adding in security in some of our other facilities, our satellite facilities throughout the village and then Glen Rock. 
We also are going to be focusing on redundancy, accessibility and consolidation, and more information sharing with utilizing Municipality in a Box, as well as fire sharing amongst the departments. 
Jim at the fire department has given use of one of the rooms to expand into as a backup server room, which has been great -- it's a perfect location. So we're going to be looking at that as a disaster recovery type of scenario as well. So, that's working out very well. 
I covered the Municipality in a Box, we're
 going to be expanding that more. 
MS. SONENFELD: And importantly out to residents -- out to residents. And we have to determine --
MR. HANSEN: Yeah, we're going to be meeting on that. 
MS. SONENFELD: -- what the -- yeah, what the rules are behind that and how much we want to engage, at least in the beginning. But --
MR. HANSEN: Yeah, and --
MS. SONENFELD: -- transparency. 
MR. HANSEN: We're able to implement some of the portal now -- the portal that comes with the software. So now we're just looking at the functionality of it and what we can make available to the residents. 
Oh, with the -- we're going to be getting the IPads for the inspectors. That resolution just went through at the past meeting, so those will be on order. So the inspectors will be able to go out in the field, all paperless, do their inspection, submit it, instantaneously, print out, send them an email, be done with it. And they'll be able to get a better tracking of when inspections are going on and what are outstanding. So that will be a nice feature. 
We'll be -- that's the portal. Oh, also one of the big projects this year will be upgrading the firewalls. The current firewalls are the same firewalls that I started here with. So those will protect the network and everything. They are up to date on software and everything, we are protected. They're just reaching their end of life and I want to get -- swap them out before that happens. 
The Municipality Box inspector devices, the resident portal. Oh, we're going to be upgrading the portal switches, which we funded for last year. The company I want to stick with just came out with their new line, so I'm going to be ordering those. You'll be coming -- you'll be seeing a resolution for those very shortly. 
We also be looking at VPN access for employees to remotely access their files and work from home. So if you have those snow days and so on and so forth, we'll be able to give them the ability. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, this is -- this is important. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Yeah, we do that in our firm. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, we do --
MR. HANSEN: So, there's a lot of rules and 
stuff. Like there's some networks that we can't make 
VPN accessible versus others. Like we can't make the SCADA networks accessible remotely. But we can make manager's office, clerk's office, so on and so forth accessible, health office -- some stuff in health 
office.  But there -- we have to follow all the rules,  
so.  
We're going to be doing security upgrades  

throughout Village Hall and other satellite locations. We're going to be -- file structures, we're actually migrating. We've actually -- since I've started here we have increased the file structure a lot. I mean we went from a couple of gigs worth of data to over -­we’re over a couple of terabytes worth of data that we store now, that is accessed every day and it's -- it's actually been getting really well. 
MS. SONENFELD: It's --
MR. HANSEN: It's amazing, yeah. Department involvement. Since we launched the new website I will say the department heads have been great, patient. They've been supplying the information on updates to their pages. I've been sitting down with many of them. They're eager to learn, which has been great, to learn how to access their site and update it themselves. So they've been putting a lot of good involvement into the 
-- into the site as well. 
We're going to also be upgrading the public access channel equipment. Some of the stuff we can no longer upgrade, such as the cameras. We are recording the DVDs. We got rid of the VHS tapes, right Tony? 
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. 
MR. HANSEN: We found it was very hard to -­to purchase VHS tapes now these days, not many people sell them. We also are streaming now. We switched over to the YouTube, we've had really minimal issues with it so far. The Board of Ed is using the -­utilizing the same features, so it's been great. 
We'll also be expanding in Village Hall one of the things is like right now we can't put this current meeting on television. I will have it up tonight and I will have it on YouTube after the meeting is over, but we're going to look at making it so we can stream from many more locations and access -- and also public access TV. So if we wanted to do a meeting down here we can make it live on the TV, so we're going to look at upgrading the facilities to do so. 
And we also -- we just implemented a new recording system in the -- in the council chambers/courtroom. That was in the efforts of Maria and Heather. They did a lot of research and 
involvement in that and I think they're happy. And also Michael Cafarelli is using it for the planning board. It's been a nice system so far. And we also have a redundant backup which we've never had before. So that's a plus. 
This year we're going to look at doing some soundproofing so we can increase the sound in there make it better. Add additional speakers, upgrade the amplifiers, add visual such as the TVs on walls, so and so forth. So we can do presentations and no more pop of screen. And then they also can utilize that stuff for court to do their video reviews. 
Also, I'm very proud of this. The communications on our e-notices. We have broken the 4,000 marker of subscribers. And since that -- since we broke that, it's been like that one little hurdle we're now at 4180 subscribers. 
MS. SONENFELD: And how many were we at like a year and a half ago? 
MR. HANSEN: Year and a half ago we were in the 2000 range. So it's increased drastically. We get more and more each day. Every time there's an event more people subscribe. We have more people also subscribing to our reverse 9-1-1 system as well. So that's been very well taken by the residents. That's
 been very well spreading the words to say hey sign up for this. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yes, and thank you to the Ridgewood News for putting it in an editorial that it was, you know, it was important to sign up so --
MR. HANSEN: Yeah, it's been great. 
MS. SONENFELD: -- it's working, yeah. 
MR. HANSEN: Also -- oh, with the additional part-time assistant, increase in efficiency our ability to handle daily maintenance and task. She has -- if you get a chance to meet her, her name is Misha Dao (phonetic). She's currently sitting in the finance department. She's been very -- I mean she's been handling surplus. You'll be seeing a resolution for that. She's been helping me with inventory, daily fixes on computer issues. She's been going around and meeting with all the -- all the employees that have like your Microsoft Office issues. And she's been very great with everybody. I haven't had a single complaint. So that's been very well taken. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay. 
MR. HANSEN: I'm very happy. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Great Dylan thank you. Roberta anything you want to highlight. 
MS. SONENFELD: I guess to the numbers. You
 want to just take a few top level numbers. 
MR. HANSEN: All right, if you -- you'll see a large decrease in other professional services, on 28. That was when we were currently looking at outsourcing -- no actually we were doing 28 and 29. 
MS. SONENFELD: That's correct. 
MR. HANSEN: Because we were looking to outsourcing it to a company, some of the daily issues and we found the prices to be a lot higher than what we expected. So we then upped the part-time salary, which is still lower than those two numbers of what we lost -- I mean what we -- what it decreased. Otherwise everything else is for parts, books. We kept some money in there for professional services and contractual services to cover telephone equipment repair and other software. Nothing --
MS. SONENFELD: So again on a budget to budget comparison --
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: That's down 10 percent. 
MS. SONENFELD: -- we're lower -- yeah, so it's down 10 percent on actually. It's up for -- for -- the main reason is the part-timer. And then there are ancillary things that we kept, because we think that we're going to have to have other professional and 
consulting services throughout the year as we --
MR. HANSEN: Progress. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, and as we look at, you know how this is working and what we think, you know, we may need going forward. I mean originally this budget we had changed the part-timer to full-timer towards the end of the year. But we're going to hold on that and see how this works --
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Right. 
MS. SONENFELD: -- first. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Yup. Yeah, those are the only lines of any -- worthy -- worthy of any discussion, 28 and 29 they're -- you know they're substantially below last year's budget, but they're also substantially above last year's actual. But the total amount -- A, is not a lot and B, I can see how with the expansion of your services you may have to go outside. So it's a $20,000 combination and you've never spent that in the past, you've spent $8,000 in the past. They're relatively minor. 
MR. HANSEN: I try to utilize any leftover equipment and stuff to --
MS. SONENFELD: So you'll see again, the head count is going up, right, from 2015 to 2016. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Uh huh, we see 
that. 
MS. SONENFELD: Because of Misha. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: I mean it's -- it's kind of like a lifeline for everybody. Like this is what we need to communicate. It becomes such an incredible part of our daily business operations. You can't -- cannot do this without having this department running efficiently and you're doing a great job, I have to say. Thank you, thanks Dylan. Thank you. 
COUNCILMAN SEDON: Thanks Dylan I just want to know how the website going, rolling out -- rolling out the new website? Different things that maybe you've found -- you found is challenging, or different things that maybe changed since you initially rolled it out? 
MR. HANSEN: For the most part I have -- I do have residents coming in questions and how to's and where do I find this. But for the most part I've received a lot of positive feedback and it is a change. It's different from our previous website and there's different features and stuff. So it's more of a learning curve for where is this and where is that. But once they've found it I really haven't had many issues. 
MS. SONENFELD: I guess the agenda and minutes were a sticky point. But I think -- I think we're 
almost there. 
MR. HANSEN: Yeah, we actually -- we actually have the part-timer taking all the minutes and agendas from previous website and manually transferring them into the new website. 
MS. SONENFELD: Moving them over. 
MR. HANSEN: So now they'll all be searchable. So you'll be able to go on and search through all the minutes and all the agendas for the past -- I think we have ten years on there. 
MS. SONENFELD: And the format is better now than it was on December 30 -- January 1st at 1:01 in the morning. So that's been a change. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Oh, no it's progressively, it's just kind of been morphing into better and better. I did have a quick question which reminded me when Mike asked that. 
There's this little box underneath the agendas, I think, and it says "add an event." 
MR. HANSEN: Oh. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: And I'm afraid -- I want to -- keep wanting to add an event. But just kind of curious if you could --
MR. HANSEN: I have to take that out. It's -­it's -- we have now an ability for -- if you're a local 
organization that wants to submit something to put onto our calendar they can just input it in. So for some reason it's showing up on there I will get that off. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: I was going to add my birthday and Roberta's but --
MS. SONENFELD: That's fine. 
MR. HANSEN: Janet will have to approve it. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Going to add that event. 
MS. SONENFELD: And then, I mean, we had that little issue that I -- I actually have. That you know we have that box that shows the top four things that are going on, whether it be --
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Yeah. 
MS. SONENFELD: And you have to really -- and you have to do this too. You have -
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Click it in the right place. 
MS. SONENFELD: You have to click it in the right place, but we've changed that and that's fixed now too. So I think you --
MR. HANSEN: It's all the little tiny things. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Yeah, that's --
MR. HANSEN: But we're getting there. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: -- so it's fine. 
MR. HANSEN: Tweaking it. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: See now when it takes that feedback to make it -- because you can't possibly, yourself see all those little things going on there, so it helps to have the feedback. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, this was -- I mean this was a lot of work and one could argue that we should have -- I hate to say this -- but outsource the whole development of that website two or three years ago, because -- you know because Dylan has become a website designer, you know. And there are different skill sets on this and their -- so -- but it came out great. 
So, it just took us -- it took us a while to get there. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: But it really is an improvement. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: We -- we had estimates for over $25,000 to do that. So in a sense Dylan fitting it into our schedule was 25 grand. 
MS. SONENFELD: Our latest estimate, I think was 40. 
MR. HANSEN: It was like 45 almost 50. 
MS. SONENFELD: Because Dylan and I were looking at --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Yeah. 
MR. HANSEN: Yeah. 
MS. SONENFELD: But Dylan and I were looking at various ways to kind of add on to what he was doing and we just -- it was not that affordable at that point. 
MR. HANSEN: Yeah, like we have one unique application, which is My Village Services, which I haven't seen on another website from anybody. So to get somebody to develop that from scratch was costly. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: You know Dylan just wanted to ask a quick question, because Heather's comments Village By the Numbers or your department by the numbers and your OPRA requests. How does that impact your department, those OPRA requests? 
MR. HANSEN: OPRA requests? 
VILLAGE CLERK: Well they're impacting Dylan right now as we speak. 
MR. HANSEN: Yeah, there's -- it depends on the OPRA request. But if it's an email search. Such as if somebody says I know I had this email, could you find it in the archives? Because we do archive all our emails. So if I have to look through all those emails I had a previous search that was almost a return of 7100 items. So I had to go through those, I got them done and so on and so forth. But I think there's two 
more down the pike. 
MS. SONENFELD: It's actually, I have to say, not a great use of Dylan's time. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Right, that's why I was asking, because I agree --
MR. HANSEN: Yeah, I have to get them done. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Yeah, okay. It's time -- it's a lot of time for you as well. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Gwenn? 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Just that I recall last year's budget, this was the year of technology. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Yes. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: So here we are and now we're entering into the year of water. So it kind of 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: See we got our share --
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: -- I wanted to look -- I wanted to look backwards and say how was the year of technology? You know I thought we were going to see big flat screen TVs in the courtroom and we were going to have a better sound system. And I know finally the IPads came in. That was so -- took forever. But the Municipality in a Box thing is going to change everything for everyone, employees and residents alike. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Yeah. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: And that is halfway there, but you know the other half is -- it's all just the implementation. So the budget is set aside, the sort of work is done, but it's just putting a period at the end of the sentence. 
MR. HANSEN: Yeah, it's whenever you release a project there's a couple of technicalities -­unexpected issues that arise that takes a couple of weeks here, a couple of weeks there and before you know it you're three months past. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: A year goes by so quickly. 
MS. SONENFELD: You know think about this. think about the whole cycle time it took us with Municipality in a Box. We started that last year, probably February/March. We went, we looked at vendors, we evaluated them. We picked a vendor and we implement it in the same year. Which, you know, is not -- not bad. 
MR. HANSEN: And that was the biggest department to implement to, with all the data conversion and everything. 
MS. SONENFELD: And building is -- the data conversion was not small. 
MR. HANSEN: And then the outside training. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: So I mean it was going to impact the building department so profoundly and the health department and the engineering department. But the OPRAs to me are -- are the cruelest thing of all. Because it is just becoming such a drain on our budget and so time consuming and so sort of menial -- such a menial task. If it only could be done electronically. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: Thank you. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Dylan thank you very much. Roberta it's 6:35 and before we decide to take a break and come back I just want to confirm with Heather since --
MS. SONENFELD: I'm not sure we should take a break. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Well, I'm not sure we can come back. The agenda did not notice anything other than what we've heard. Can we -- are we free to 
VILLAGE CLERK: No, it's okay because all of them were noticed for budget. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: We can add to the agenda? 
VILLAGE CLERK: The 2016 budget. 
MS. SONENFELD: Oh, I never thought about that. 
VILLAGE CLERK: So it doesn't matter we -- we can add things to the agenda. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: We can, we're free to do that? 
VILLAGE CLERK: Because of the facts is general notice just indicated 2016 budget. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay. 
VILLAGE CLERK: I don't see a problem with it. There are times when we don't get through all the budget items, you know all through the items on the agenda for a budget meeting and that's okay too. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay, okay let's just two minutes and come back and --
MS. SONENFELD: You want to do a two minute? 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Yeah, a two minute break. Come back at 6:38, three minutes. 
MS. SONENFELD: 6:38. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Just we can stretch 
if nothing else. MS. SONENFELD: Okay. (Off The Record, On The Record) MS. SONENFELD: What we'll do is we'll jump ahead. Thursday Bob and Steve are going to finance and 
tax collector, which is why they didn't provide the updated copies to you for tonight, but you all have them now. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: We have them now. 
MS. SONENFELD: So, you do -- he gave you one, right. 

7. Finance/Tax Collector 
MR. ROONEY: So just work with these, because I think there might be one or two pages in what I originally sent out to you that may be missing. So work with these tonight and then you can always. 
MS. SONENFELD: I need to put this in your book, in tab -- in tab 7. 
COUNCILWOMAN KNUDSEN: Are we doing -- are we doing this tonight? 
MS. SONENFELD: Yes. 
MR. ROONEY: Yes, we're going to do it right now. 
MS. SONENFELD: That just gives us some time on Thursday --
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Right. 
MS. SONENFELD: -- to have more of a textured discussion around top level. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Okay, so let us proceed. 
MR. ROONEY: 2015 highlights. You know some of these occurred before I was here, but it was still part of our department so I'll focus on them anyway. Redesign --
MS. SONENFELD: Thank you. 
MR. ROONEY: I'm trying to give you credit here. 
MS. SONENFELD: And Steve. 
MR. ROONEY: And Steve. Redesigned that led to 2015 budget preparations that mixed operational detail with important strategic discussions. Utilize budgetary comparisons, prior year actual expenditures and presented both operating and capital requests. Established a realistic parking utility budget. Monitor debt requirements and market for short and long term debt as needed. Attended FAC meetings, responded to inquiries and provided updates on financial issues. 
We worked with the FAC for the second year to create a new budget newsletter for residents. Produced an RFP, evaluate responses and recommended the hiring of a new audit firm, which resulted in much more comprehensive audit than we've seen in several years. 
Provide the cross training to department employees that we can back up all functions within the finance area and tax collector. We provided counsel
 and the FAC with quarterly revenue and expense reports for the current water and parking utility. We enhanced controls on the collection of coins. We prepared and submitted the village's first user friendly budget, prepared a corrective action plan addressing the finance of a 2014 annual audit and presented such to council and reconciled and documented support for the village's capital assets. 
For 2016 we'll coordinate the issuance of refunding bonds for the general award of the utility funds to minimize annual debt service cost. We're analyzing projected capital expenditures and scheduled debt issuance to finance capital costs. This would involve also reviewing the capital items that we no longer need to decrease our net debt for authorized non-issue. 
And if you don't know it we have a new QPA, Steve Sanzari. Steve just passed the test for qualified purchasing agent. This allows the village to increase the minimum for going out to bid on various items from 17,6 to 40,000. Without that being said we will be presenting resolution to council in the next couple of weeks for your approval on that limit. At the same time we'll be presenting to you controls that will be established to insure that we comply with the
 larger minimum being set. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: All right, congratulations Steven. 
MS. SONENFELD: Yeah, this was a -- this was a big -- biggie. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: It was a big one. 
COUNCILWOMAN HAUCK: It is. 
MS. SONENFELD: We knew he'd pass his first time, but we didn't say anything to -- we didn't want put pressure on him. But he did pass right away. 
MR. ROONEY: Yes. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: Well done. 
MR. ROONEY: And it wasn't easy. We will enhance the use of departmental encumbrance. Enhance the quarterly reporting process to include balance sheet and capital asset reports an coordinate departmental audits without external audit firm. 
DEPUTY MAYOR PUCCIARELLI: What are the departmental encumbrances? 
MR. ROONEY: Each department has the ability to use our accounting system Edmunds (phonetic). With that we encourage them to -- when they post requisitions or reserve money knowing that they have -­they'll spending that money during the year, we encourage them to encumber those funds so we can 

A REGULAR PUBLIC MEETING OF THE VILLAGE COUNCIL OF THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD HELD VIA ZOOM, DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, ON SEPTEMBER 9, 2020 AT 8:00 P.M.

 

1. CALL TO ORDER – OPEN PUBLIC MEETINGS ACT – ROLL CALL – FLAG     SALUTE

 

Mayor Knudsen called the meeting to order at 8:00 P.M. and read the Statement of Compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act.  At roll call the following were present: Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen.  Also present were Heather Mailander, Village Manager/Village Clerk; and Matthew Rogers, Village Attorney. 

 

Mayor Knudsen led those in attendance in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag as well as in a Moment of Silence to honor the brave men and women serving our nation, our first responders, and especially our Ridgewood Police Department.

 

2. ACCEPTANCE OF FINANCIAL REPORTS

 

Mayor Knudsen moved the Bills, Claims, and Vouchers, and Statement of Funds on Hand as of August 31, 2020, be accepted as submitted.  Councilwoman Perron seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

 

3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

 

Mayor Knudsen moved that the Village Council minutes of July 8, July 15, August 5, and August 12, 2020 having been reviewed by the Village Council are now available in the Village Clerk’s Office be approved as submitted.  Councilwoman Reynolds seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. PROCLAMATIONS

 

1. FIRE PREVENTION WEEK

 

Mayor Knudsen read the following proclamation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. GOLD STAR MOTHER’S DAY

 

Councilwoman Walsh read the following proclamation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. NATIONAL BREAST CANCER AWARENESS WEEK

 

Councilwoman Reynolds read the following proclamation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. PROCLAIM SEPTEMBER NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION AWARENESS MONTH

 

Deputy Mayor Sedon read the following proclamation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. RECOGNIZE CERTIFIED GREEN BUSINESSES IN THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD

 

Councilwoman Perron read the following proclamation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC

 

There were no comments from the public.

 

Mayor Knudsen stated that as promised at the last meeting, she will respond to assertions made by the One Village, One Vote campaign.  First and foremost, while it is not the role of the Village Council to fact check this campaign’s promotional pieces, the Village did make information available to them that conflicted with what they continued to propagate.  The Village has acted in earnest to aid in putting forth accurate information but cannot force the One Village, One Vote campaign to use that information.  She added that the One Village, One Vote campaign have made various factual errors in their assertions including the cost of elections, voter turnout, and the true implications of the so called 2% cap, but the onus is on them to correct that, with the information provided.  All the Village can do is give One Village, One Vote that information they request, when possible.  If members of One Village, One Vote claim they would like more specific responses on any of these topics this evening, Mayor Knudsen will respond to each of them.  The same holds true for any member of the public making the same request.

 

Mayor Knudsen stated that she was going to make a brief statement regarding the Village Clerk, Heather Mailander, who has served the Village faithfully and well for over three decades.  Anyone who has worked with Heather Mailander or sought her help in the 30 plus years or so of service to the residents of the Village of Ridgewood, knows that she has always discharged her duties confidently, fairly, without agenda or personal purpose.  Ms. Mailander has stood accused in what was an emergent motion brought against her.  The rushed nature of this court action did not allow her an in-depth review of the facts, resulting in a finding that must now be appealed.  Mayor Knudsen stated that until that time, she urged all residents to avoid judgement.  Ms. Mailander deserves better from the Village community and the Village Council is confident that with a more thorough look at the facts, Ms. Mailander will be vindicated.  Indeed, the petition from One Village, One Vote, that is subject of a court action, is deficient in ways that were clearly outlined in the very statutes that the One Village, One Vote campaign cited in their proposed initiative ordinance.  The onus was on the One Village, One Vote campaign to obtain legal advice during the time they were working on their petition or leave themselves sufficient time to find mistakes and correct them properly.  In this way the One Village, One Vote campaign could have put this initiative forth in compliance with the statutory requirements and deadlines.  Had they met those statutory requirements and deadlines, the Village Clerk and the Village Council would have certainly fulfilled each of their roles to complete the process.  Mayor Knudsen stated that the Village Council is in full support of the Village Clerk/Village Manager, and they are grateful for her service to the community.

 

Councilwoman Perron stated that she would like to respond.  She has reviewed the One Village, One Vote website and she found that their factual assertions with regard to the cost of elections were supported by Village documents and County documents, and that the conclusions were reasonable.  With regard to their petition, the law makes it clear that petitions are to be liberally construed so that voters can participate in government and as an antidote to apathy.  Therefore, she disagrees with the assertions that the Mayor has made about the One Village, One Vote campaign.

 

Mayor Knudsen stated that she had anticipated that a Councilmember would challenge these assertions, and she was hoping that Councilwoman Perron wasn’t challenging the assertion that the Village Clerk has worked diligently and honestly and that that is the crux of the complaint that’s been filed.  She added that she was only going to give the piece of it, as it relates to the election cost.  Mr. Lindenberg, who is on the Committee of Petitioners, used Village Council public comment to advance the claim of saving up to $100,000 in an election year.  Mr. Lindenberg claimed this to be a positive change, which she agrees it would be a positive change if only it were true.  Mayor Knudsen stated that she was only going to touch on this piece, because Mr. Lindenberg asked her to identify where he is wrong.

 

Mayor Knudsen stated that Mr. Lindenberg has advanced the claim of saving, which is in the Village Council minutes that were just approved, and these are his words, that the Village would save $100,000 in any election year.  He claimed that this would be a positive change and she asserts that would be true if his claim were true, but it’s not.  Mr. Lindenberg based his numbers on annual elections seemingly unaware that Village Council elections are biannual, not annual.  There is some more detail to this that is sometimes a bit more complex for some to wrap their heads around, but hopefully everybody is going to understand.  Due to the result of a Board of Education budget vote in May, the Village Council worked with the Board of Education and shaved $630,000 off the budget in this year alone.  Mayor Knudsen stated that they could have actually done more, but they were being extremely conservative and with that $630,000 came zero impact to the delivery of educational services.  Councilwoman Walsh worked with Mayor Knudsen directly on that, and they would not have encouraged that $630,000 reduction if there had been an impact on educational services.  The $630,000 is actually an annual savings now, and is not added into the baseline of the Board of Education budget.

 

Mayor Knudsen stated that if, on average, there were a 2% increase each year for the next five years, that $630,000 savings would grow to just shy of $700,000 based on the compounded tax increase each and every year.  She stated that her position is that it is an oversimplified sound bite to state that the Village is going to save money.  In fact, the cost is far greater because the difference between $100,000 for an election cost, which was inflated anyway, and as a matter of fact she thinks the $65,000 for the most recent Board of Education election in 2019 was the result of a proofreading error.  Both the Board of Education and the Municipal Election cost about $48,000 each.  The difference between that and $630,000 this year or that $50,000 and $700,000 five years from now, the savings dwarfs the cost of the election. Mayor Knudsen stated that it is overly simple, they are simplifying something that is a little bit more complex.  Mayor Knudsen’s point tonight is really to stand behind the Village Clerk who once again works honestly, works hard, is dedicated and the Village Council thinks the world of her.  In addition, Village residents appreciate Ms. Mailander as the Village Clerk and due to her efforts, she has made our Village a better place.  The current outcome of the One Village, One Vote lawsuit, in her opinion, is just unfortunate and egregious.

 

6. MANAGER’S REPORT

 

Ms. Mailander stated that there is a new recycling program at the Ridgewood Recycling Center which is book donations.  They can be dropped off at the Ridgewood Recycling Center Monday to Saturday 8:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M.  Remember that the Recycling Center is closed on Wednesday.  The books can be hardcover, paperback, and in good readable condition.  All books must have a barcode label and the vendor will then sell the book online using the barcode to establish value and the Village gets 15% of the sales.  They cannot accept encyclopedias, magazines, or water damaged books.

 

Ms. Mailander stated that Welcome Back to Ridgewood, New Jersey is an event that includes outdoor dining, and free music along East Ridgewood Avenue all day Saturday and Sunday, from Broad Street to Walnut Street and the side streets of Oak, Chestnut, and Prospect Streets are closed to cars and there is a pedestrian mall.  Also this week, on Saturday at 2:00 P.M., the West Side of the Central Business District will be doing a ribbon cutting for their stores and restaurants.  Come and enjoy the west side of Ridgewood with lovely lighting, music, restaurants, and businesses there to welcome you.

 

Ms. Mailander stated that the Hudson Street Parking Garage first floor has opened.  The hours are 9:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. Monday through Friday and 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. on Saturday.  On Sunday it is free to park in the garage.  Parking is $1.00 per hour and there is a three hour limit.  The kiosk is also operational.

 

Ms. Mailander stated that to honor the memory of the 12 Ridgewood residents who we lost on September 11^th, portraits of each resident are displayed in the Ridgewood Public Library Auditorium for the month of September.  The library is open seven days a week and offers a tranquil place for reflection.  In addition, Mount Carmel Church will have masses at noon and at 7:00 P.M. on September 11^th.  Due to social distancing, pre-registration is required to attend a mass at Mount Carmel by going onto their website www.olmcridgewood.com.

 

Ms. Mailander stated that Ridgewood is now at an 83% response rate for the US Census and the goal is a 100% response rate.  Surrounding towns are little higher and the Village would love to have a complete count, if possible.  She encouraged residents to please fill out their census forms as soon as possible at my2020census.gov.  The last possible date to do so is September 30^th.  She added that the Complete Count Committee has worked diligently in various forums to try to get to this complete count.  You can fill it out by paper, by calling in, or online, it is very easy and simple and none of this information is shared with any other agency at all.

 

Ms. Mailander stated that rear yard garbage pickup resumed in July.  Residents no longer need to bring their garbage cans to the street.

 

Ms. Mailander stated that there are already a lot of election posters and yard signs.  Some of them are in the planting strip between curb and sidewalk.  They ask that the signs are not placed there because that is actually public property.  They may be placed on one’s own property.

 

Ms. Mailander stated that the General Election will be primarily Vote by Mail.  There are various options as to what a voter can do with your Vote by Mail forms.  A voter may mail it back to the County by US Postal Service, or can put it into the ballot box outside the lobby doors of Village Hall, or may bring it to the polling location.  There will be only three polling locations, and voters should check their ballots for their polling location.  She will also be sending out an E-Notice giving people information about where each voting district will be voting, and at those polling locations there will be ballot boxes as well.  Her understanding is that at the polling place, the voter will sign the book and then put the ballot into the ballot box at the polling place.  ADA voting machines will be available in the voting locations, only for those unable to mark the Vote by Mail ballots. 

 

Ms. Mailander stated that cancellations due to COVID-19 include the Chamber of Commerce Annual Car Show, Coffee with the Council, and the Parks and Recreation Department Annual Street Fair. 

 

Ms. Mailander stated that the Chamber of Commerce will hold its Annual Shop Hop Sale Days inside and out on October 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd.  The Ridgewood MOMS Club will partner with the Chamber and have a Preschool Activities Fair in Memorial Park at Van Neste Square on Saturday, October 3^rd.

 

The Bergen County Utilities Authority Household Hazardous Waste Collection will be this Saturday, September 12^th from 9:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. at Bergen County Campgaw Reservation at 200 Campgaw Road in Mahwah.  Acceptable materials include aerosol cans, antifreeze, fire extinguishers, fluorescent lights, gasoline, paint and varnishes, pesticides, used motor oil, and propane gas cylinders.

 

Ms. Mailander stated that the Village Council upcoming meetings are televised live and also on Zoom, September 23^rd is a Village Council Public Work Session, October 7^th is also a Public Work Session, and then the Public Meeting is October 14^th.

 

Ms. Mailander stated that Boards and Committees are looking for volunteers.  It is on the Village website and also on the Village’s Facebook page.  Those who wish to volunteer should send a Volunteer Citizen Leadership Form, along with a resume or a history of what you have done in your life, so the Village knows where the applicant’s interests are, and also a cover letter indicating which Boards and Committees the applicant would like to serve on and a little bit about themselves.  The deadline was extended to September 15^th.  There are about ten or twelve different committees and there is a short description of each committee on the ad located on the Village website.  The Village Council encourages residents to apply for these volunteer positions.  Interviews will be set up shortly after the filing deadline, and appointments will take place after that.

 

7. VILLAGE COUNCIL REPORTS

 

Green Ridgewood – Councilwoman Perron stated that Green Ridgewood met on September 3^rd and Chris Rutishauser spoke with them about all kinds of environmental issues such as storm water, resilience, the Village’s sanitation system, the upcoming energy audit of the Village Hall, and electric vehicles.  Their next meeting is October 1^st at 7:00 P.M., and any member of the public may join the meeting.

 

Central Business District Advisory Committee (CBDAC) – Councilwoman Perron stated that CBDAC met on September 3^rd and got an update on Walk on the West Side, which is a subcommittee of Welcome Back, Ridgewood.  It will kick off this weekend, and there will be various swag bags and things like that for people who attend.  At their meeting, Dylan Hansen came to speak with them about the possibilities of a Visitors Bureau type of website for the Central Business District, and that brought them into the discussion of what is a Business Improvement District.  They are at the very beginning of researching what that could mean for the Village’s Central Business District.

 

Councilwoman Perron stated that they talked about recycling in the Central Business District and decided that for now, they are tabling that issue.  Regarding the Grab and Go parking spaces downtown, ten of the fifteen were rented for this pilot period until October 3^rd, and they are perfecting the signage.  One person said that the location of the Grab and Go spaces was confusing and they are thinking about how to make that less so.  Also there was a complaint about one sign being rather low and difficult to see over the cars.  They have made changes to the signage and she thinks it is less confusing now.

 

Councilwoman Perron stated that CBDAC has an opening for one resident member.  Their next meeting will be September 17^th at 8:30 A.M.  The public is welcome.

 

Chamber of Commerce – Councilwoman Perron stated that the Chamber of Commerce met this morning.  The pedestrian mall is a wonderful event and people are asking if they are going to do it again next year.  Members of the Chamber of Commerce are really concerned about winter and they would like to continue it past October 4^th, if possible, if the weather is cooperating.  They discussed the Grab and Go parking spaces, and two sponsors are members of the Chamber of Commerce.  They said that they wouldn’t sign up again to sponsor Grab and Go parking spaces or probably wouldn’t sign up again, mostly because of the price which she thinks is indicative.   Many of the people who sponsored the Grab and Go spaces during the pilot program are not the beneficiaries of the Grab and Go spaces, because they are not the businesses downtown who are brick and mortar and depend on serving meals.  Mostly they were doing it as a civic gesture to get this going and they cannot depend on them going forward.  At the current price of $75 per space, she doesn’t think it will succeed.

 

Councilwoman Perron stated that after the meeting, she got a call from one of the Chamber members who suggested that they extend the pilot for another six months until April 1^st, because the seasons change and the economic situation is so fluid right now.  The time period when they did the pilot program for the Grab and Go parking spaces was when the weather has been good, and the problem is what will happen when the weather gets bad.  The suggestion was that they do it for another 6 months at $750 per spot for the 6 months and the Chamber will market it.  She thinks it is worth doing and would like to bring it up for discussion at the next Work Session.

 

Councilwoman Perron stated that she wasn’t sure if the business owners wanted a survey to establish usage of the Grab and Go parking spaces, but the Chamber of Commerce would like a survey, so she will be working on that.  At the end of the meeting, one merchant asked when the Train Station parking lot would open up to shoppers and diners.  Councilwoman Walsh stated that it is open, if you are a Ridgewood resident and have a resident sticker, you can park in the Train Station any time.  Ms. Mailander added that any time after 12 noon, all of the Village parking lots can be parked in, without a permit, for a three hour limit.

 

Open Space Committee – Councilwoman Perron stated that the Open Space Committee has not met since their last meeting, but the next meeting is September 17^th at 7:00 P.M.  They do have an opening on that committee and the public is welcome to attend.  That meeting will be in person, socially distanced at The Stable.

 

Citizens Safety Advisory Committee (CSAC) – Councilwoman Reynolds stated that CSAC is finally meeting in person next Thursday at the Youth Center, at 7:30 P.M.  Everything will be socially distanced.  They are allowing the public to come in for public comment.  The maximum number allowed in the room is 38 people.

 

Board of Education – Councilwoman Walsh stated that she and Mayor Knudsen met with the Board of Education to touch base and see how things were going with the opening of school, and the wonderful news is that every school seemed to open up without a hitch.  The kids were all very happy to be back in school, in hybrid format, and in remote format.  There is a lot of support from the community, teachers, and administration.  They were urging everyone to wear their masks.  It seems like a great start to the year; everyone was very excited and it was nice that there wasn’t anything that was extraordinary about the start of the school year.

 

Mayor Knudsen stated that she personally found the kids walking to school to be happy, excited, and optimistic about returning to school.  She felt that there was a joyfulness about the meeting with the Board of Education, which was very nice.

 

Fields Committee – Councilwoman Walsh stated that the fields in the Village are being used.  This is a huge undertaking to make sure that everyone is social distancing and following the protocols when they are on the field, so be patient.  Everyone is trying to do what is right for the children who are playing sports.

 

Kasschau Shell – Councilwoman Walsh stated that the Kasschau Shell Committee met before the Village Council meeting this evening, and talked about what a wonderful season it was in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.  They really had a great season and presented a lot of great performances.  They wanted to thank photographer Ziggy Putnam and Bob at Ridgewood Press for some of the banners.  They talked about some requests to use The Kasschau Shell for other events, and they will have to look at the by-laws to see if that is permitted.  To send a donation to the Village to support The Kasschau Shell, it can be sent to Nancy Bigos, the Director of Parks and Recreation, and ear mark it for the Kasschau Shell.

 

Green Team – Deputy Mayor Sedon stated that the Green Team met September 3^rd.  During  

pre-COVID times, they would probably be finishing the application to Sustainable Jersey.  Because the pandemic hit, every town in New Jersey was granted an extension.  They were talking about picking back up where they were and there are probably going to be several resolutions forthcoming between now and next November when the Sustainable Jersey renewal application is due.

 

Shade Tree Commission – Deputy Mayor Sedon stated that the Shade Tree Commission met yesterday and the big topic of discussion was the Fall tree planting that is coming up.  Several questions arose.  They were wondering why the bid was broken up to include three companies because there are always questions of logistics.  Another one was that they wanted to see someone from the Village supervise these plantings. 

 

Mayor Knudsen stated that she thought Mr. Rutishauser explained why there were three vendors.  Ms. Mailander stated that it was whoever provided the lowest responsible bid for each of the various species is being awarded the contract for those species of trees.  By doing this, they were able to do it within the available funds and will be able to plant a large number of new trees.  They also may get better service as there are three different companies planting at the same time, so it may go faster.  Regarding supervision, they will have someone make sure that the planting is being done correctly, as it is a big investment and the Village wants the new trees to thrive and survive.

 

Councilwoman Reynolds asked if there was going to be anyone checking to make sure that people are filling the gator bags.  Ms. Mailander stated that there would probably be sporadic spot checks throughout the week to make sure that they are being filled.  There will be pamphlets given out as to the best care of the tree.  Councilwoman Reynolds asked if they are going to ask the residents if they want a tree.  Ms. Mailander stated that the trees are being planted in Area D, in places where trees have been in the past.  If someone really said that they didn’t want it, they would probably move on to another possibility.  She doesn’t know exactly how they are going to notify the residents, but she will find that out.  Deputy Mayor Sedon added that there were lists and he thinks they have been satisfied.

 

Mayor Knudsen stated that regarding the Business Improvement District that Councilwoman Perron raised, this is something that she has been advocating to do forever, and she has all of the documents for it.  She thinks that timing is everything, and it is a difficult time right now.  She felt that this might be the first time that the Village Council might be open to the Business Improvement District as an opportunity. 

 

The CBDAC discussed a couple of other ordinances that they are going to be bringing to the Planning Board.  They will talk about a window display ordinance, a vacancy ordinance, and an “Adopt a Tree Well” ordinance.

 

Mayor Knudsen stated that there have been some questions on social media about the COVID-19 reporting.  What they learned when she was organizing the numbers is that there was some discrepancy in the numbers this weekend and she reached out for the Director of the Health Department and they determined that the labs are not parsing out the data as it relates to specific municipalities and they are not reporting the total number of tests or the negative results, only the positive results.  There was a recommendation that the Village should not be posting data as it relates specifically to Ridgewood, and that they should just be directing people to the State dashboard.  They will work through this and see if there was a way to report meaningful data to the public without it being skewed.

 

8. ORDINANCES – RIDGEWOOD WATER – NONE

 

 

 

 

9. RESOLUTIONS – RIDGEWOOD WATER

 

THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTIONS, NUMBERED 20-252 THROUGH 20-256, WERE ADOPTED BY A CONSENT AGENDA WITH ONE VOTE BY THE VILLAGE COUNCIL, AND WERE READ BY TITLE ONLY:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10. ORDINANCES

 

1. INTRODUCTION – NONE

 

2. PUBLIC HEARING - #3808 – Amend Chapter 265 – Vehicles and Traffic – Placement of Stop Signs in Hudson Street Garage

 

Mayor Knudsen moved the reading of ordinance 3808 by title on second reading and that the Public Hearing thereon be opened.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

 

The Village Clerk read ordinance 3808 by title:

 

AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND CHAPTER 265 OF THE CODE OF THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD, VEHICLES AND TRAFFIC, AT SECTION 265-56, SCHEDULE VI PROHIBITED TURNS AT INTERSECTIONS AND AT SECTION 265-59, SCHEDULE IX “STOP INTERSECTIONS”

 

Mayor Knudsen stated that the Public Hearing was opened.  There were no comments from the public and Mayor Knudsen moved that the Public Hearing be closed.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

 

Councilwoman Reynolds moved that ordinance 3808 be adopted on second reading and final publication as required by law.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

 

3. PUBLIC HEARING – #3809 – Amend Village Code to Allow Additional Village Employees to Perform General Code Enforcement Duties

 

Mayor Knudsen moved the reading of ordinance 3809 by title on second reading and that the Public Hearing thereon be opened.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

 

The Village Clerk read ordinance 3809 by title:

 

AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND CHAPTER 223, PROPERTY MAINTENANCE AND CHAPTER 260, TREES AND SHRUBS, OF THE CODE OF THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD, AT SECTION 223-8, ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITY AND SECTION 223-17, TERMS DEFINED AND SECTION 223-18, DESIGNATION AND SECTION 223-153, ENFORCEMENT AND SECTION 260-1, RESPONSIBILITY OF OWNER OR TENANT; NOTICE

 

Mayor Knudsen stated that the Public Hearing was opened.  There were no comments from the public and Mayor Knudsen moved that the Public Hearing be closed.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

 

Councilwoman Reynolds moved that ordinance 3809 be adopted on second reading and final publication as required by law.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

 

 

4. PUBLIC HEARING – #3810 – Amend Chapter 190 – Land Use and Development – Allow Accessible Ramps on One-Family and Two-Family Dwellings to be Reviewed by the Site Plan Exemption Committee

 

Mayor Knudsen moved the reading of ordinance 3810 by title on second reading and that the Public Hearing thereon be opened.  Councilwoman Perron seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

 

The Village Clerk read ordinance 3810 by title:

 

AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND CHAPTER 190 OF THE CODE OF THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD AT SECTION 190-37B TO ALLOW ACCESSIBLE RAMPS AND LIFTS ON ONE- AND TWO-FAMILY DWELLINGS TO BE REVIEWED BY THE SITE PLAN EXEMPTION COMMITTEE

 

Mayor Knudsen stated that the Public Hearing was opened.  There were no comments from the public and Mayor Knudsen moved that the Public Hearing be closed.  Councilwoman Perron seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

 

Councilwoman Reynolds moved that ordinance 3810 be adopted on second reading and final publication as required by law.  Councilwoman Perron seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

 

5. PUBLIC HEARING – #3811 – Bond Ordinance – General Capital ($290,000)

 

Mayor Knudsen moved the reading of ordinance 3811 by title on second reading and that the Public Hearing thereon be opened.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion.

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

 

The Village Clerk read ordinance 3811 by title:

 

A BOND ORDINANCE PROVIDING FOR VARIOUS CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS IN AND BY THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD, IN THE COUNTY OF BERGEN, NEW JERSEY, APPROPRIATING $290,000 THEREFOR, AND AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE OF $275,000 BONDS OR NOTES OF THE VILLAGE TO FINANCE PART OF THE COST THEREOF

 

Mayor Knudsen stated that the Public Hearing was opened.  There were no comments from the public and Mayor Knudsen moved that the Public Hearing be closed.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

 

Deputy Mayor Sedon moved that ordinance 3811 be adopted on second reading and final publication as required by law.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

 

6. PUBLIC HEARING – #3812 – Bond Ordinance – Supplemental Appropriation for Front End Loader

 

Mayor Knudsen moved the reading of ordinance 3812 by title on second reading and that the Public Hearing thereon be opened.  Councilwoman Reynolds seconded the motion.

 

 

 

 

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

 

The Village Clerk read ordinance 3812 by title:

 

A BOND ORDINANCE PROVIDING A SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION OF $40,000 FOR THE ACQUISITION OF A FRONT END LOADER, IN AND BY THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD, IN THE COUNTY OF BERGEN, NEW JERSEY, AND AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE OF $38,000 BONDS OR NOTES OF THE VILLAGE TO FINANCE PART OF THE COST THEREOF

 

Mayor Knudsen stated that the Public Hearing was opened.  There were no comments from the public and Mayor Knudsen moved that the Public Hearing be closed.  Councilwoman Reynolds seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

 

Deputy Mayor Sedon moved that ordinance 3812 be adopted on second reading and final publication as required by law.  Councilwoman Reynolds seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

 

7. PUBLIC HEARING – #3813 – Bond Ordinance – Circle Avenue Drainage Improvements

 

Mayor Knudsen recused herself from this ordinance proceeding, due to the fact that she lives on Circle Avenue.  Councilwoman Walsh moved the reading of ordinance 3813 by title on second reading and that the Public Hearing thereon be opened.  Councilwoman Reynolds seconded the motion.

 

 

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, and Walsh

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

RECUSE:        Mayor Knudsen

 

The Village Clerk read ordinance 3813 by title:

 

A BOND ORDINANCE PROVIDING FOR CIRCLE AVENUE DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS IN AND BY THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD, IN THE COUNTY OF BERGEN, NEW JERSEY, APPROPRIATING $362,000 THEREFOR, AND AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE OF $343,000 BONDS OR NOTES OF THE VILLAGE TO FINANCE PART OF THE COST THEREOF

 

Councilwoman Walsh stated that the Public Hearing was opened.  There were no comments from the public and Councilwoman Walsh moved that the Public Hearing be closed.  Councilwoman Reynolds seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, and Walsh

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

RECUSE:        Mayor Knudsen

 

Councilwoman Perron moved that ordinance 3813 be adopted on second reading and final publication as required by law.  Councilwoman Reynolds seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Reynolds, Sedon, and Walsh

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       None

ABSTAIN:      None

RECUSE:        Mayor Knudsen

 

Prior to moving on to consideration of resolutions, Mayor Knudsen stated that the resolution regarding the establishment of a Pilot Program for Rental of Village Facilities by Outside Groups was discussed at 7:30 P.M. by the whole Village Council and they are supportive of establishing a Pilot Program as well as establishing fees for rental of these facilities. This is in recognition of the COVID-19 pandemic and the difficulties many organizations have faced in finding appropriate venues to have functions to benefit their groups and programs.  Ms. Mailander added that will be the last Resolution the Village Council will consider this evening.

11. RESOLUTIONS

 

THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTIONS, NUMBERED 20-257 THROUGH 20-269, WERE ADOPTED BY A CONSENT AGENDA WITH ONE VOTE BY THE VILLAGE COUNCIL, AND WERE READ BY TITLE ONLY:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12. COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC

 

Boyd Loving, 342 South Irving Street, stated that he was somewhat disappointed in what Mayor Knudsen billed as the longest Council Report in history that there was no mention that Graydon Pool had a very successful season and the last day of the season at Graydon Pool was last Monday, Labor Day.  He was there when the pool closed at 7:30 P.M.  It was a wonderful season, the water quality was the best he has ever seen it, the staff was excellent, and he would like to thank the Village Council for making it happen.  He remembered back to June when the Village Council insisted that the pool would open and as a result, everyone was able to enjoy the pool this season.  He doesn’t believe there were any COVID-related incidents, and he mentions this only because he sees that one of the clinical trials for the vaccine has been put on hold, and it appears that there may not be a vaccine later this year.  He encouraged them to all remember what a wonderful season they had this year, and if the staff should be leaning towards not opening Graydon Pool next year, he hopes the Village Council will insist that it open again, so that residents can have a wonderful time next summer.

 

Mr. Loving stated that it is extremely frustrating for residents to watch these Zoom meetings.  He mentioned last week that the Board of Education has resumed meeting in public, socially distanced.  They have heard that CSAC is going to be meeting in public, socially distanced and allow visitors.  He noted that there was a legal notice in the paper that the Village Council would not be meeting in public through September, but he did hope that in October the Village Council decides to meet in person.  Whether they allow visitors to the room or not is another story, but at least they could get rid of the feedback, microphones that don’t work, and the people that sound like they are underwater.  He believes there is enough room in the Court Room for the Village Council to be appropriately spaced.  Deputy Mayor Sedon stated that he agreed with Mr. Loving 100%.

 

Laurie Webber, 235 South Irving Street, stated that she had to respectfully disagree with her neighbor, Mr. Loving, because she loves the Zoom meetings.  She finds that since the Board of Education went back to meeting in person, it was a jumbled mess of microphone issues, and without a choice of being there, she finds the Zoom meetings to be preferable.

 

Ms. Webber added that she seconds Mayor Knudsen’s comments regarding the Village Clerk/ Village Manager, Heather Mailander.  As a 37-year resident, she finds Ms. Mailander to have always been helpful on the largest or smallest of issues and honest as the day is long.  Being familiar with the laws at play here, and the obstacles she faced in the decision she had to make, she understands why this was rushed through the court so that those aspects couldn’t be fully considered.  Ms. Mailander made the only decision that she could have in those circumstances, in order to be in compliance with the law.  She thanked Ms. Mailander for her service and for all she has done for the Village.

 

Rurik Halaby, 374 Evergreen Place, stated that during the last four meetings, the Mayor whenever she calls for a moment of silence, singles out the Police Department.  He thinks this is a mistake due to the Police Department’s internal investigation that is taking place, for the unfortunate events of the last couple of months involving Police Officers and protestors.  Mayor Knudsen comes across as putting her thumbs on the scales, which she should not do.  The Police Department is a great department, but so are the many millions of people who are out there serving us.

 

Mr. Halaby stated that regarding the Central Business District, the reality is that the CBD is on life support.  All of these games of Grab and Go just won’t improve the situation.  For about a year, the Village must stop charging parking fees, even though the fees go to the parking garage.  He and his wife now avoid downtown Ridgewood, and go to Waldwick or Midland Park instead.

 

Mr. Halaby stated that regarding One Village, One Vote, he isn’t sure what to make of the Mayor’s comments which conflates the so called savings with whatever number the petitioners stated.  The important thing about One Village, One Vote is to encourage people to come out to vote.  He has maintained the problem with Ridgewood is that it is a microcosm of Washington, DC.  According to Mr. Halaby, President Trump is doing everything he can to discourage people from voting and here we have a Mayor discouraging people from voting.  He added that funnily enough, the savings of $600,000 was mentioned at the same meeting where the Police budget was increased by $900,000, so we need some more integrity from the dais.

 

Andrew Lowry, 441 Hawthorne Place, Shade Tree Commission, stated that this year the Village Council allocated about $110,000 for tree planting and to his knowledge, this is the first time that it was awarded to a company based on the lowest price for each species to be planted.  Generally it is allocated with the total planting being awarded to one company, and there is a reason for that.  Declan Madden, the Village Arborist, gives the specifications, and one company plants all of the trees for a given price.  The issue that he sees coming out of this current situation is that it is hard to manage.  He is concerned that nobody understands the complexities of what it takes to plant 200 trees in a short period of time, while the arborist is assigned to leaf truck driving during this period.  He wanted to express his concern and frustration that the Village is going to spend this money and may or may not get the best quality trees in five years, because they may not have been properly planted and supervised when they are planted.  There is one Arborist in the Village, and he is the only person who is really qualified to supervise the planting.

 

Anne Loving, 342 South Irving Street, stated that she wanted to make a brief comment about the One Village, One Vote campaign. She wanted to remind all of the listeners that if that initiative were to pass, the Village residents would lose their legal right to vote on the Board of Education budget.  This is the right of all voters to vote on the Board of Education budget, by law, and if it is moved to November, the voters will not be able to vote on the Board of Education budget.  She encouraged anyone in the listening area to vote no on this One Village, One Vote nonsense.

 

Ms. Loving added that she wanted to echo what her husband said, if the Village Council were all in one place, even if they were still on Zoom, viewers would at least be able to easily hear all of the Councilmembers.  She thanked them for all they were doing.

 

There were no additional comments from the public, and Mayor Knudsen closed public comment. 

 

Mayor Knudsen stated she rejects the notion that she is conflating anything about the Board of Education’s budget, as those are facts and numbers.  They are very real numbers and very real savings, as it pertains to the long term and short term costs of those elections. 

Changing the subject, Mayor Knudsen stated that if the parking garage had been built five years ago, the parking rates would have been increased over the last five years.  The parking garage has always had a cost, and the increased rates are part of that plan in the Walker Report.  Mayor Knudsen emphasized that it was always necessary to increase parking rates, in order to support the debt service for the parking garage.

 

Councilwoman Perron stated that with regard to what Anne Loving said, if the School Board election were moved to November, voters would still have the right to vote on the school budget if the proposed budget exceeds an increase of 2%, with a few exceptions. 

 

Mayor Knudsen stated that on September 4, 2019, in response to the on-going misinformation regarding the 2% cap and the ability to vote on the Board of Education’s budget in November, the One Village, One Vote website states that voters have the right to vote on any budget that exceeds a 2% cap.  In response to the constant beating of that drum, on September 4, 2019 the Village Council invited Bud Jones, the Village Auditor, who went through step by step and showed how the 2% cap could easily far exceed 2%, when using exemptions and exclusions of the CAP Bank.  In fact, in 2018, when the election was in November for the Board of Education, there was a 3.62% increase in the budget, which never triggered a vote on the budget, due to budget exemptions.  The One Village, One Vote website states that if the budget exceeds 2% a voter will be permitted to vote on the Board of Education’s budget, which is simply not true.

 

13. RESOLUTION TO GO INTO CLOSED SESSION

 

Ms. Mailander read Resolution #20-270 to go into Closed Session as follows:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14.         ADJOURNMENT

 

There being no further business to come before the Village Council, on a motion by Councilwoman Walsh, seconded by Deputy Mayor Sedon, and carried unanimously by voice vote, the Village Council’s Regular Public Meeting was adjourned at 9:28 P.M.

 

 

 

 

 

 

______________________________

                                                                                                    Susan Knudsen                        

Mayor                        

 

 

 

 

 

 

______________________________

              Heather A. Mailander

      Village Manager/Village Clerk

A REGULAR PUBLIC MEETING OF THE VILLAGE COUNCIL OF THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD HELD VIA ZOOM, DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, ON AUGUST 12, 2020 AT 8:00 P.M.

 

1. CALL TO ORDER – OPEN PUBLIC MEETINGS ACT – ROLL CALL – FLAG     SALUTE

 

Mayor Knudsen called the meeting to order at 8:00 P.M. and read the Statement of Compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act.  At roll call the following were present: Councilmembers Perron, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen.  Also present were Heather Mailander, Village Manager/Village Clerk; Donna Jackson, Deputy Village Clerk; and Matthew Rogers, Village Attorney.  Councilwoman Reynolds was absent.

 

Mayor Knudsen led those in attendance in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag as well as in a Moment of Silence to honor the brave men and women serving our nation, our First Responders, and especially our Ridgewood Police Department.

 

2. ACCEPTANCE OF FINANCIAL REPORTS

 

Mayor Knudsen moved the Bills, Claims, and Vouchers, and Statement of Funds on Hand as of July 31, 2020, be accepted as submitted.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       Councilwoman Reynolds

ABSTAIN:      None

 

3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

 

Mayor Knudsen moved that the Village Council minutes of July 1, 2020 having been reviewed by the Village Council are now available in the Village Clerk’s Office be approved as submitted.  Councilwoman Perron seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       Councilwoman Reynolds

ABSTAIN:      None

 

 

 

 

 

4. PROCLAMATIONS

 

1. DECLARE SEPTEMBER OVARIAN CANCER AWARENESS MONTH

 

Councilwoman Perron read the following proclamation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. DECLARE SEPTEMBER NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS MONTH

 

Councilman Sedon read the following proclamation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC

 

Hans Lehmann, 234 Union Street, stated that last week he spoke to the Village Council about his concern for the reputation of the Police Department and by extension, the Village as well as its political leaders.  Last week, he requested that the Village Council take a position on what has occurred and provide some leadership and direction on how to make things better.  To date, he has heard no official statement.  He suspects that pending litigation in both cases has kept the Village Council from talking about the current turmoil.  His 35 years in the judiciary can appreciate that; however, pending litigation does not need to be addressed.  Mr. Lehman stated that the issue with police in general in this country calls out for the political leaders of this Village to take a stand to let the residents and voters know where they stand and how they feel about these disturbing events and times.  They can be public about an assessment of the Police Department’s use of force.  The Police Chief released the Police Department’s use of force data, and the Village Council can speak to the residents about how changes will be made, as well as providing improvements for the Police Department.

 

Mr. Lehmann asked if as a Village Council, they had committed themselves to implicit bias awareness training.  On July 30, 2020 the Legislature passed A-2394, which requires law enforcement to establish minority recruitment.  He asked what the plans were for complying with this law.  He asked that the Mayor, as leader of the Village Council, make a statement addressing his concerns.

 

There were no additional comments from the public.

 

Mayor Knudsen stated that in response to Mr. Lehmann, there is nothing to do with any pending litigation but there certainly is an investigation, and in order to maintain the integrity of such, it requires that this Village Council make no comment.  That is the only way to maintain the integrity of the investigation for all those involved.

 

Ms. Mailander added that the Village is governed by Civil Service, and therefore hires are done through Civil Service which does not require a Bachelors or Associates Degree currently.  Those who apply take a test, and then they are ranked according to their test scores and then the Village chooses from the top three on that list.  The Village has no say in who is applying, but perhaps they could get the word out to a more diverse population. 

 

Mayor Knudsen stated that it was important in the absence of any requirement for a college degree, a test is given and a ranking is established, based on the outcome of the test.  In fairness, any such test allows for a screening of applicants at the very basic level.

 

6. MANAGER’S REPORT

 

Ms. Mailander stated that “Welcome Back to Ridgewood, New Jersey” is an event that includes outdoor dining, and a free music program presented in the Central Business District by the Ridgewood Guild on Friday nights in July and August, featuring up and coming talented musicians who perform and enhance the outdoor dining experience in Ridgewood.  In addition, on Saturday and Sunday nights there will be musical performances outside Stella on Broad Street and in Memorial Park at Van Neste Square there is usually a band.  The east and west sides of town are both open, and there are wonderful restaurants and businesses ready to be enjoyed.

 

Ms. Mailander stated that the Hudson Street Parking Garage first floor has opened.  The hours are 9:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. Monday through Friday and 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. on Saturday.  On Sunday it is free to park in the garage.  Parking is $1.00 per hour and there is a three hour limit.  The kiosk is also operational.

 

Ms. Mailander gave an update on the storm debris disposal and stated that the crews are picking it up as quickly as they can, and there are various ways to dispose of it.  One way is to put it out with the regular yard waste pick up, another is to place it in the planting strip between the curb and sidewalk.  The yard waste crews will pick those up as time allows.  Storm debris can also be brought to the Lakeview Compost Center from 7:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M., Monday through Friday.  A driver’s license is required to confirm that it is a Ridgewood resident bringing the storm debris to Lakeview.  In addition, for the next two Saturdays, August 15^th and August 22^nd, the Lakeview Compost Center will be open to collect the storm debris.  They asked that residents not bag the storm debris unless it is in biodegradable paper bags.  In addition, storm debris should not be placed near gas or water valves, water meters, fire hydrants, or fencing.  She encouraged residents to get the storm debris out as promptly as possible so that it can be picked up.

 

Ms. Mailander stated that Ridgewood is now at an 81% response rate for the Census and the goal is a 100% response rate.  Surrounding towns are in the mid to high 80% range, and the neighboring town of Glen Rock, is at 88%.  She encouraged residents to please fill out their census forms as soon as possible at my2020census.gov.

 

Ms. Mailander stated that Graydon Pool is open, and late season memberships at reduced rates are available starting this Saturday, August 15^th on CommunityPass.  The Water’s Edge Café is also open every day from noon to 7:00 P.M. 

 

Ms. Mailander stated that the Kasschau Memorial Shell still has a couple weeks of performances.  This Thursday will be Bergen County Line which are Country hits, August 18^th is Treble and August 20^th is Rio Clemente, The Bishop and His Abbotts, performing Jazz.  The programs begin at 8:30 P.M., they are free to the public and are located on Veterans Field.  Those attending should bring a chair or blanket, wear a mask, and practice social distancing on the field.  If there is a baseball game going on, it is asked that those attending the concerts don’t walk across the field, but walk on the path instead.

 

Ms. Mailander stated that Parks and Recreation has a couple of mini camps with limited spaces still available for Dyno-mite art camp with Abracadoodle, Sports Camp, Lego Flix, Golf, Skateboarding, and Lacrosse.  They also have Fall programs open for registration.

 

The Ridgewood Guild sponsors Movies in the Park and the next one will be shown on August 19^th, The Sixth Sense.  Admission is free, and the movie starts at sundown, approximately 8:30 P.M.  Those attending should bring a chair or blanket to enjoy the movie, wear masks, and maintain social distancing.

 

Ms. Mailander stated that cancellations due to COVID-19 include the Chamber of Commerce Annual Car Show, and also the Touch a Truck event.  In addition, the Parks and Recreation Department has canceled the Annual Street Fair.  The Elder Dinner, which is held in November, will be more of a grab and go or giving gift cards, and they are still working out the particulars.

 

Ms. Mailander stated that the Farmers Market with locally grown produce is open in the Train Station parking lot every Sunday from 9:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M.

 

The Bergen County Utilities Authority Household Hazardous Waste Collection will be Saturday, September 12^th from 9:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. at Bergen County Campgaw Reservation at 200 Campgaw Road in Mahwah. Acceptable materials include aerosol cans, antifreeze, fire extinguishers, fluorescent lights, gasoline, paint and varnishes, pesticides, used motor oil, and propane gas cylinders.

 

Ms. Mailander stated that the Village Council upcoming meetings are televised live and also on Zoom, September 2^nd is a Village Council Public Work Session, September 9^th is a Village Council Public Meeting, and September 23^rd is a Village Council Public Work Session.

 

Due to the observance of Labor Day, all Village Offices will be closed on Monday, September 7^th.  There will be no sanitation, yard waste, or recycling collection on that day, and the Recycling Center will also be closed.

 

7. VILLAGE COUNCIL REPORTS

 

Open Space – Councilwoman Perron stated that the Open Space Committee would meet August 20^th at 7:00 P.M.

 

Central Business District Advisory Committee – Councilwoman Perron stated that CBDAC has not met since last week, but will be meeting at 8:30 A.M. tomorrow.

 

Chamber of Commerce – Councilwoman Perron stated that the Chamber of Commerce met this morning at 8:00 A.M. and had a lengthy discussion about people who due to COVID-19 don’t want to get out of the car, but would like to buy food or merchandise.  Their idea, which she supports, is that a lot of the retailers really need the “Grab and Go” parking spaces to keep their businesses alive.  This really is going to be an issue come the Fall, when the cold weather starts and the pedestrian plaza is finished.  Everybody at the Chamber of Commerce Board meeting did not support the idea of a 15 minute “Grab and Go” parking space without letting people leave their car.  They pointed out that it creates an inequity between the retailers and the restaurants because the restaurants have more employees than most of the retailers.  The retailers don’t have somebody who can run out to bring merchandise to somebody’s trunk and make it a contactless delivery.  Councilwoman Perron stated that it ends up being a little unfair to the retailers.

 

Councilwoman Perron stated that they took an informal poll of the Directors of the Chamber of Commerce if they would participate in the “Grab and Go” parking space pilot program and one person said he would.  The Village Council should really think about that and bear in mind that time is of the essence. 

During the hurricane, power went out at Ridgecrest, and so those elderly residents were left without electricity and food.  Feed the Frontlines had enough money left over to deliver 150 meals to Ridgecrest.

 

Councilwoman Perron added that the pedestrian plaza is just getting better and better, the streets are full of retailers and additional restaurants who are participating.  The bands and music really add to the atmosphere, and Ridgewood is an example to other towns in the region.

 

Mayor Knudsen added as part of her Council Report, that when time is of the essence and they are talking about things which require immediate attention, such as a modification to the “Grab and Go” parking spaces as reported by Councilwoman Perron, certainly if there is an inclination or a desire to have a modification, Councilwoman Perron could have called the Village Manager about making a modification.  If this had been done, perhaps there might have been an additional modification to the “Grab and Go” parking space resolution this evening.  However, it is probably too late to modify the resolution at this moment.  The Village Council wants to make sure that they work to get things right and to better understand what the needs are downtown.  Their focus originally, from her perspective, was a pricing aspect and that was where the focus was, not so much on getting in or out of the vehicle, which was the nexus for taking the resolution to reduce the price and do the pilot program.  They could have just as easily added allowing people to leave their vehicles for 15 minutes while in the “Grab and Go” parking spaces.

 

Tropical Storm Isaias –Mayor Knudsen thanked all of the First Responders, OEM, Village staff, PSE&G, and their out of state response team that really got everyone back on track as quickly as humanly possible after Tropical Storm Isaias left many Ridgewood residents without power.  She thanked Ms. Mailander for responding to everything as quickly and efficiently as possible.  She especially wanted to thank the Village residents, because they really are amazing in their patience and sense of humor, and resiliency in this, and the outreach to the community.  This may repeat itself during this hurricane season, and she wanted to thank everyone for their patience and input.

 

Mayor Knudsen also wished her mother a Happy 84^th Birthday.  

 

8. ORDINANCES – RIDGEWOOD WATER - NONE

 

9. RESOLUTIONS – RIDGEWOOD WATER

 

THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTIONS, NUMBERED 20-229 THROUGH 20-231, WERE ADOPTED BY A CONSENT AGENDA WITH ONE VOTE BY THE VILLAGE COUNCIL, AND WERE READ BY TITLE ONLY:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10. ORDINANCES

 

1. INTRODUCTION – #3808 – Amend Chapter 265 – Vehicles and Traffic – Placement of Stop Signs in Hudson Street Garage

 

Mayor Knudsen moved the first reading of ordinance 3808.  Councilman Sedon seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       Councilwoman Reynolds

ABSTAIN:      None

 

The Village Clerk read ordinance 3808 by title:

 

AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND CHAPTER 265 OF THE CODE OF THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD, VEHICLES AND TRAFFIC, AT SECTION 265-56, SCHEDULE VI “PROHIBITED TURNS AT INTERSECTIONS” AND AT SECTION 265-59, SCHEDULE IX “STOP INTERSECTIONS”

 

Councilwoman Walsh moved that ordinance 3808 be adopted on first reading and that September 9, 2020 be fixed as the date for the hearing thereon.  Councilman Sedon seconded the motion. 

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       Councilwoman Reynolds

ABSTAIN:      None

 

2. INTRODUCTION – #3809 – Amend Village Code to Allow Additional Village Employees to Perform General Code Enforcement Duties

 

Mayor Knudsen moved the first reading of ordinance 3809.  Councilwoman Perron seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       Councilwoman Reynolds

ABSTAIN:      None

 

 

The Village Clerk read ordinance 3809 by title:

 

AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND CHAPTER 223, PROPERTY MAINTENANCE AND CHAPTER 260, TREES AND SHRUBS, OF THE CODE OF THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD, AT SECTION 223-8, ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITY AND SECTION 223-17, TERMS DEFINED AND SECTION 223-18, DESIGNATION AND SECTION 223-153, ENFORCEMENT AND SECTION 260-1, RESPONSIBILITY OF OWNER OR TENANT; NOTICE

 

Councilman Sedon moved that ordinance 3809 be adopted on first reading and that September 9, 2020 be fixed as the date for the hearing thereon.  Councilwoman Perron seconded the motion. 

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       Councilwoman Reynolds

ABSTAIN:      None

 

3. INTRODUCTION – #3810 – Amend Chapter 190 – Land Use and Development – Allow Accessible Ramps on One-Family and Two-Family Dwellings to be Reviewed by the Site Plan Exemption Committee

 

Mayor Knudsen moved the first reading of ordinance 3810.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       Councilwoman Reynolds

ABSTAIN:      None

 

The Village Clerk read ordinance 3810 by title:

 

AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND CHAPTER 190 OF THE CODE OF THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD AT SECTION 190-37B TO ALLOW ACCESSIBLE RAMPS AND LIFTS ON ONE- AND TWO-FAMILY DWELLINGS TO BE REVIEWED BY THE SITE PLAN EXEMPTION COMMITTEE

 

Councilman Sedon moved that ordinance 3810 be adopted on first reading and that September 9, 2020 be fixed as the date for the hearing thereon.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion. 

 

 

 

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       Councilwoman Reynolds

ABSTAIN:      None

 

4. INTRODUCTION – #3811 – Bond Ordinance – General Capital ($290,000)

 

Mayor Knudsen moved the first reading of ordinance 3811.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       Councilwoman Reynolds

ABSTAIN:      None

 

The Village Clerk read ordinance 3811 by title:

 

A BOND ORDINANCE PROVIDING FOR VARIOUS CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS IN AND BY THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD, IN THE COUNTY OF BERGEN, NEW JERSEY, APPROPRIATING $290,000 THEREFOR, AND AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE OF $275,000 BONDS OR NOTES OF THE VILLAGE TO FINANCE PART OF THE COST THEREOF

 

Councilwoman Perron moved that ordinance 3811 be adopted on first reading and that September 9, 2020 be fixed as the date for the hearing thereon.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion. 

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       Councilwoman Reynolds

ABSTAIN:      None

 

5. INTRODUCTION – #3812 – Bond Ordinance – Supplemental Appropriation for Front End Loader

 

Mayor Knudsen moved the first reading of ordinance 3812.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion.

 

 

 

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       Councilwoman Reynolds

ABSTAIN:      None

 

The Village Clerk read ordinance 3812 by title:

 

A BOND ORDINANCE PROVIDING A SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION OF $40,000 FOR THE ACQUISITION OF A FRONT END LOADER, IN AND BY THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD, IN THE COUNTY OF BERGEN, NEW JERSEY, AND AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE OF $38,000 BONDS OR NOTES OF THE VILLAGE TO FINANCE PART OF THE COST THEREOF

 

Councilman Sedon moved that ordinance 3812 be adopted on first reading and that September 9, 2020 be fixed as the date for the hearing thereon.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion. 

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       Councilwoman Reynolds

ABSTAIN:      None

 

Mayor Knudsen stepped away from the dais and recused herself for the introduction of ordinance 3813.

 

6. INTRODUCTION – #3813 – Bond Ordinance – Circle Avenue Drainage Improvements

 

Councilman Sedon moved the first reading of ordinance 3813.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Sedon, and Walsh

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       Councilwoman Reynolds

ABSTAIN:      None

RECUSE:        Mayor Knudsen

 

The Village Clerk read ordinance 3813 by title:

 

 

A BOND ORDINANCE PROVIDING FOR CIRCLE AVENUE DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS IN AND BY THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD, IN THE COUNTY OF BERGEN, NEW JERSEY, APPROPRIATING $362,000 THEREFOR, AND AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE OF $343,000 BONDS OR NOTES OF THE VILLAGE TO FINANCE PART OF THE COST THEREOF

 

Councilwoman Perron moved that ordinance 3813 be adopted on first reading and that September 9, 2020 be fixed as the date for the hearing thereon.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion. 

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Sedon, and Walsh

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       Councilwoman Reynolds

ABSTAIN:      None

RECUSE:        Mayor Knudsen

 

7. PUBLIC HEARING – #3804 – Amend Chapter 145 – Fees – Significant Sewer Discharger Fees

 

Mayor Knudsen moved the reading of ordinance 3804 by title on second reading and that the Public Hearing thereon be opened.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       Councilwoman Reynolds

ABSTAIN:      None

 

The Village Clerk read ordinance 3804 by title:

 

AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND CHAPTER 145 OF THE CODE OF THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD, FEES, AT SECTION 145-6, “ENUMERATION OF FEES RELATING TO CODE CHAPTERS”

 

Mayor Knudsen stated that the Public Hearing was opened.  There were no comments from the public and Mayor Knudsen moved that the Public Hearing be closed.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       Councilwoman Reynolds

ABSTAIN:      None

Councilman Sedon moved that ordinance 3804 be adopted on second reading and final publication as required by law.  Councilwoman Walsh seconded the motion.

 

Roll Call Vote

 

AYES:             Councilmembers Perron, Sedon, Walsh, and Mayor Knudsen

NAYS:            None

ABSENT:       Councilwoman Reynolds

ABSTAIN:      None

 

Prior to considering the resolutions, Mayor Knudsen asked if Resolution No. 20-251 could be amended on the floor to say that the requirement that people stay in their vehicle be suspended during the “Grab and Go” parking spaces pilot program.  Ms. Mailander added that it would be for the duration of the pilot program.  Mayor Knudsen stated that since the Village Council was going to amend the resolution, it should resolve the concerns that Councilwoman Perron brought up earlier and encouraged Councilwoman Perron to communicate this change to the Chamber of Commerce.

 

11. RESOLUTIONS

 

THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTIONS, NUMBERED 20-232 THROUGH 20-250, WERE ADOPTED BY A CONSENT AGENDA WITH ONE VOTE BY THE VILLAGE COUNCIL, AND WERE READ BY TITLE ONLY:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTION, NUMBERED 20-251, WAS REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA, AND WAS READ IN FULL:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12. COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC

 

Boyd Loving, 342 South Irving Street, stated that the Village Manager made some comments tonight regarding the late season at Graydon Pool beginning on August 15^th, and he wanted to clarify that the late season results in a change of hours and the discounted rate actually began on August 1^st.  On weekdays, the pool will not be opening until 12 noon, and the weekend times will stay the same.

 

Mr. Loving stated that regarding the storm debris, in previous years there have been some extraordinary efforts to make sure that the storm debris gets removed promptly.  He is concerned that if it is left to the yard waste crew to pick up, the storm debris is going to be out there for quite some time.  He remembers one year after a storm, Downes Tree Service was hired to go around and clear the debris from the space between the sidewalk and the curb, and another year, sanitation was suspended for two days and the Sanitation crew went out to get it.  He added that he is of the opinion that it is starting to look crappy, the leaves are starting to wilt, and it is a safety hazard.  He stated that if they let it go for another week or so and the storm debris still has to be picked up, that there must be a way to clean it all up.  He reminded them of the time that leaves were left at the curbs, and snow came, and the leaves were not picked up until February.

 

Mr. Loving added that the water quality in Graydon Pool has been the best he has ever seen.  The water is very clear and during these times, it is good to know that the water is being turned over, as Mr. Rutishauser had mentioned previously.

 

John Knudsen, 120 Circle Avenue, stated that he wanted to thank everybody for the fine job that they are doing, and he wanted to particularly thank his beautiful wife, the Mayor, and wish her a Happy Anniversary, which is tomorrow, and thank her for all she does every day.  

 

There were no additional comments from the public, and Mayor Knudsen closed public comment. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13.         ADJOURNMENT

 

There being no further business to come before the Village Council, on a motion by Councilman Sedon, seconded by Councilwoman Walsh, and carried unanimously by voice vote, the Village Council’s Regular Public Meeting was adjourned at 8:47 P.M.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

______________________________

                                                                                                    Susan Knudsen                        

Mayor                        

 

 

 

 

 

 

______________________________

              Heather A. Mailander

      Village Manager/Village Clerk