Notice that the time, date, location and agenda this meeting to the extent that known was provided at least 48 hours prior to the commencement of this meeting the following manner pursuant to the provisions of chapter 231 of the law in 1975. By posting such notice on the bulletin board in the municipal building, and by email notification generated by IQ mtwo to the offices of the independent press blue for life, Star ledger patch person that and tap into Bloomfield, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag. And one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Please, please call the roll.
Councilman Mondale here, Councilman Joanna here.
Councilwoman Cruz here.
Councilwoman Davis here, Councilman gamble here. Councilman Rockwell may have been easier here all present.
Okay. First up, we have a proclamation for Black History Month.
Everyone Happy Black History Month or we celebrate black history month in February. Here's a proclamation. Whereas in 1976, Black History Month was formally adopted to honor and affirm the importance of Black History Throughout our American experience, which goes back 1000s of years and include some of the greatest, most advanced and innovative societies in our history that we can all draw inspiration from and whereas African Americans have played significant roles in the history of New Jersey state economic, cultural, spiritual and political development, while working tirelessly to maintain and protect promote their culture in history, and whereas as a result of their determination, hard work, intelligence and perseverance, African Americans have made valuable and lasting contributions to the township of Bloomfield state in our nation achieving exceptional success in all aspects of society, including business education, politics, science, and the arts. And whereas honor strength and stature can be attributed to the diversity of cultures and traditions that are celebrated by the residents of this great region. And whereas Black History Month is a time for all Americans to remember the stories and teachings of those who helped build our nation, who took a stance against prejudice to build lives of dignity and opportunity, who advance the cause of civil rights and strengthen families and communities. And whereas during Black History Month, all Americans are encouraged to reflect on past successes and challenges of African Americans and look to the future to continue to improve society so that we live up to the ideals of freedom, equality and justice. Now, therefore, I Michael J. mnesia, as mayor of township of Bloomfield, along with the township Council, do hereby proclaim the month of February 2022 as Black History Month I encourage all of us to observe this month with appropriate civic community and service programs in honor of Black History Month.
Thank you, Councilman Cruz. Public comment, do we have anybody on the line? Okay, township administrator.
Good evening, mayor and council. First up is the approval IT department contracts. Director Latour has some information on that.
Good evening, Mayor Council. Hopefully next year, this should be shorter working with the Cuvier. We've identified from the list of the IT contract that we do not fair and open for as a resolution.
Can I get somebody to move number one? Councilman Davis? Second, Councilman gamble. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye.
Number two, number two is a contract award for professional service for historic survey services. This is the completion of phase two and not to exceed of $20,000.
Okay, okay. It's um, it didn't move this. Okay, get a second. Second. Any questions, comments? All in favor? Aye.
Number three. Number three is a request for approval for an agreement social services for a homeless grant program from Essex County.
Okay, moved by Councilman Dell. Second. Second, Councilman Davis. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Number four.
Number four is the township vehicle auction. And I believe Louise has some information on that.
Thank you. There's currently 18 vehicles listed to be auctioned off by Gov deals. And all the photos have been taken in an inventory list has been created. We're in the final process now of collecting the titles and the keys for each vehicle. And then we'll have a resolution for next meeting.
Okay. Was that Councilman Cruz Second? Second. Councilman? Councilman gamble. Sorry. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Number five.
Number five is a recommendation from our Q PA and a request to join the Union County Co Op.
Can I get somebody to move this move in there? Moved by Councilman Joanna, second counsel on the cruise. Any questions or comments? Yes, question.
So can you do you mind sharing a little bit more detail about what the this this Co Op would provide for us? Joining them would provide.
So the unique Co Op is very similar to the Morris County Co Op or the state contract. It's a conglomeration of organizations they put together to get the best pricing on goods and services.
So Essex County doesn't have
that. I can't hear you.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Essex County didn't have to guess I'm trying to make the connection to why we're connecting not
to not to this way, just because it's called the Union County code, but it's mostly throughout the state counties can join.
Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Okay.
Any other questions, comments? All in favor? Aye. Number six.
Number six. The fire chief has some information on six.
Good evening, Mayor Council. Six is a non fair and open resolution to award lexipol. To national policy company. To they will revamp our policies and procedures and continually update them based upon changing laws.
By Councilwoman Davis second Councilman gamble. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Number seven.
Okay, number seven, eight and nine are proposed ordinance changes to reduce confusion among the redundancy of inspections that the fire prevention Bureau handles a lot of the ordinances were crossed over within the building department, health department and fire department and use different terms. So, for instance, we now do the certificate of occupancies. That's technically a UCC term and doesn't apply, but it's for the transfer of title on sales. So we're renaming that no fee changes on that. Also, we do, we're renaming the certificate of habitability inspection. That is every rental unit in town has to be registered with us and inspected once every three years every change tenant. Now we're going to call that a rental property registration. We're also eliminating some terms in their game wildfire systems. They haven't been used in 15 years. Those are the things that used to be on poles or in front of schools, the red boxes. So just cleaning up a lot of the language.
Okay, okay. It's submitted by Councilman Cruz
second second. Councilman
Joanna, do we have any questions or comments? And this is for seven, eight and nine. All in favor. Number 10.
Now you're number 10 through number 14 Director Scarman.
Good evening mayor and council are to my appearance. I'm running from one practice to the next after this. First one is the discussion award of a non fair and open contract for sport suburban Sports Group. This is the assignor for all of our basketball officials for grades 6/7 and eighth boys and girls. Every township that's part of the suburban Sports Group through Essex County uses this this company to do so.
Okay. Can I get somebody to move this? Both by council Mundell second second, Councilman gamble. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Number 11.
This is a temporary emergency resolution. This is to set up the account for phase one of the Morris canal Greenway towpath project. That's the Top grant that we received from 2018.
Okay, can I get somebody move this motion? Moved by Councilman Rockwell. Second Second. Councilman gamble. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. The 12
New Jersey historic trust fund. This is the grant agreement. There's a resolution that's on the agenda. I believe it's just for discussion this time and for action at the next meeting, but this will allow me to execute the Collins house. grant that we received the amount of $900,000.
Okay. All right. Somebody moved by Councilman Mundo. Councilman Davis. Second, Councilman Rockwell. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Number 13.
Number 13. Is the recreation part time salary range. This is our yearly ordinance that allows our department to hire part time employees in accordance with this fee ordinance.
Okay, my vote by Councilman gamble. Second Second. Councilman Cruz. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye.
1414 is our yearly recreation fee ordinance. This is something that we have to do by I believe by statute. It's an ordinance that allows us to charge recreation fees throughout the year. Included in this is our park, our park permit application fees along with the town green, which was something that I believe the mayor and council wanted me to add last year. And we also updated it with the farmers market fees that we're going to be doing this year starting in June.
Okay. Okay. Somebody move this boat by Councillor Mundo. Second Second, Councilman gamble. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Hi. All right, number 1515 through
18, public safety director of the mail.
Good evening, Mayor Council. Number 15 is a discussion for the local Emergency Planning Council. This is through the Office of Emergency Management. We've put together a new list for this for this year, updated. Some of the names that were on there are no longer members of the township, a number of members of any department in the township. So that list was revamped and submitted to you for approval.
Okay, moved by Councilman del. Second. Councilman Davis. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye.
Number 16 is a new ordinance that we're looking to put in place. We found a number of places throughout the township where we're receiving complaints where our streets are being used pretty much like a parking lot for people that put tractor trailers and park them overnight. This would make it a terrible offense. And it would enable us not just the issue with summons, but also to tow vehicles that are being parked in our streets overnight.
Moved by Councilman gamble. Second, Councilman Cruz. Any question or comments?
I just want to thank the director for getting this on the agenda because it's it's definitely been an issue in some parts of town. So I appreciate that
our pledge accounts. Number 17 is a request to put a load loading zone on Belleville Avenue. It's actually in front of the learning ladders daycare center. It's becoming a safety issue with cars that are parked Afinitor all day rather than just a loading zone, letting people on or off cars or double parking to drop the kids off. And this would enable us to have the cars pull right in and drop the kids off and pick the kids up. motion.
Moved by Councilman Davis second Council Mundo. Any questions or comments? All in favor, aye.
And next would be the monthly report from the police department to the mayor Council. And we'll start out with our internal affairs complaints. So far for the year we're at four total internal affairs complaints. That's against the same number as it was last year at the same time. Number four, we have two external complaints that are made so far. One was an arrestee for domestic violence. The keys for the apartment were given to the spouse which was the proper thing for the office to do being a restraining order was being issued. He felt that his key shouldn't have been taken made a complaint and the complaint was exonerated. Number two was a citizen made a complaint and officers would not arrest someone that he wanted arrested for harassment. The individual was known to the other person. So it's not an arrestable offense. We took a report and refer the person to court to fill out a summons which is the proper thing to do or should have done, but the person made a complaint regardless, that complaint also was exonerated. The other complaints the other two complaints for a month are internal. One was a an accident by one of our officers in a motor vehicle. Turns out it was his fourth accident in a two year period, extensive amount of damage to the car. So the incident was handled with restitution half of the amount of the damage would be paid by the officer as well as he's banned from driving any township vehicles till he goes through a full EVOC course at the Essex County Police Academy again, which is going to happen late March. The other internal complaint was one that's still active right now. So I really can't report anything with that but it was One that was generated by us internally. We had no new early warnings for the month of November and going into new year. We currently have zero officers that are on the intense monitoring system. The last officer that was on it successfully was removed at the end of the year. We had one use of force incident by officers for the month of January. In arguing between two intoxicated parties, one party tried to strike the other and you officers tackled and mounted the ground and handcuffed them and made the arrest, no injuries to the suspect or two officers. We had no police pursued for the month of January, motor vehicle stops we had a total of 457 with a breakdown of 26% of Caucasians. 32% African Americans 36% Hispanics, 3.5% Asian and point six 5% Indian total of 36 arrests for the month of January 32 of those were arrests that were issued initiated by calls for service from the public, whether it be shoplifting or domestic violence or something of that nature not initiated by our officers. Four are initiated by police. One was a DWI arrest. Two were services of warrants that came off of field inquiries in the First Avenue area, and one was arrested for disorderly conduct. Overall crime so far for the year Part One offenses were at 32 Compared to 38, the same time last year. So slight reduction, again, going into 2022. Training updates. For the month of January, our officers were trained in a course called Foundations of crisis intervention, which is just that path that we've been going on and having them deal better with people that are emotionally disturbed, which is so many calls that they're responded to right now. Basic finish fingerprint identification course just the homeless skills of our people in the crime scene unit. Our emergency response team did tactical training on dynamic entry. Police involved motor vehicle accidents, that was through our supervisors to better investigate the accidents that have been involved with our officers, internal affairs training for our our lieutenant and Sergeant and they're just another part of annual training for them to always be up on a new attorney general guidelines. We did our 2021 performance evaluations, which I'm currently reviewing now of every member of the department. And we did performance evaluation training for our new new supervisors are fairly new supervisors. Care Unit for the month of January, which is really their first really full month up in swing unit received a total of 70 reports from assignments involving EDPs or suicidal persons 46 of those were handled directly by EMS after hours. 22 were handled on duty during the day by the actual Care Unit going through the scene which alleviated police from having to to handle those calls. And our police units from patrol for the month only had to respond to two calls and handle it from start to finish. So it's already having an impact on call time for our police officers. They also opened up to self in the initiated cases for the much providing outreach through things that they saw and identified in different reports that they read, or they're going to the people before they become a problem and trying to offer services to them and the people didn't accept the services. They also conducted for duty to warn notifications, which emanated from them doing these calls. Somebody that's suicide or somebody that's making a threat against a third party. Hospital has what's called duty to warn if that somebody's making a threat against someone them as well when when they are doing their interviews with people. And that concludes the Report for the month of January. If anyone has any questions,
send have any questions, comments. So the only one I have is it's kind of more engineering and please wear the Belleville F bridge seems more and more incidents have happened there in the last 18 months then in the past. I don't know if what we can do or if we want to check the signage to make sure the signage is up to date and an appropriate spots to try to prevent it. And
maybe there's something with the like we're doing some of the stop signs use solar panels where the sign actually lights up and blinks. It just brings it to their attention.
Yeah. Seems like
what traffic we'll get it.
Perfect. And the questions comments. Thanks, Director. Okay. Thank you. township attorney,
evening mayor and council. This is a renewal agreement with the township of Nutley for the continued provision of Animal Control Services. This is a three year agreement. It's a 2% increase over the prior year and it does have built into it annual 2% additional increases, services provided Monday through Saturday 830 to 430. Any services outside that outside those hours are charged overtime rate. We're also working on similar renewals with Glenridge and Caldwell.
Okay, okay. Can somebody move this move by Councilman gamble? Second, Second. Second, Councilman Cruz. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Finance Director.
They are Council number one is a request to interest be waived. for $53.11 for block 991 lot 70 Tax Office never received the check and the homeowner hadn't realized the check was not cashed.
Moved by Councilman Cruz. Second, Councilman Davis. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Engineer.
Good evening mayor and council. The first item I have is award of our street sweeping contract for the coming year. Three bids were received. The lowest bid was from Clark Moynahan landscaping were $2,099 per work event. You have to review this between the town attorney and the qualified purchasing agent. Your recommendation is that Clark Moynahan be awarded the contract.
Okay. Can I get somebody to move this? Move that council on Monday? I'll second Councilman gamble. Do we have any questions or comments for pool? All in favor? Aye. Number two, okay,
the next item is an emergency water main repair that was done at the corner of Montgomery Street and Franklin. This was an area where public service was doing their upgrade to the electrical service. In the process of doing that the earth was disturbed in such a way that it resulted in the pipe failing. It wasn't due to the actual work. The backhoe wasn't involved or any type of equipment that hit the line. It's just that the line was built in 1915. And lines of that age, you know through the years are going to go think within a gunfight. So the recommendation is that Montana construction be awarded the emergency contract for $17,881.50.
Okay, can I get somebody in? This was by Councilman Joanna. Second Councilman Rockwell. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Number three,
okay, the next item is a change order. This is for a lead service replacement contract. This was a small one that the township did to clean up some of the older lead service lines. While this contract was ongoing, there was a water service leak on ampere Parkway that was investigated, it was found to be led. So since we had a contractor already, you know, doing this work, we had him repair that one, the total cost of the change order is an additional $3,192.24. That's like a 2.9% increase over the original.
Like, council on the cruise. Second. Second, Councilman Rockwell. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. And number four,
okay. Basically, this is kind of a follow up to our discussion on the the water meter replacement upgrades. There were questions and concerns relating some of the surcharges that we're going to be assessed against residents. Going back to it. The pain, essentially what we did is we kind of stepped the surcharges, we maintained a $500 surcharge for one in two family homes, if they don't get it replaced within a specified deadline. Anything above that three family apartment buildings commercial properties would be assessed the $1,500 administrative fee, what we also did was we added another paragraph in here, which is kind of a a waiver of this if if a resident or you know an owner gets the surcharge, he will have 30 days or they will have 30 days in order to rectify the situation and then the fine will be waived. It's kind of a one, one and done deal. If they don't do it in that time, there'll be reassessed at that point, that we're making major changes, I added a couple other items related to frozen meters because that's been a problem. So that's basically now going to be considered negligence of the owner that they need to, you know, maintain the meters keep them warm, or keep them insulated. So that they don't burst no during a cold spell. That's basically all we we did the rest of it remains as discussed before. Okay.
This was by council woman Davis. Second Councilman Dell, do we have any questions or comments?
I just have a quick comment. I wanted to thank you for going back and you know, rethinking it and figuring out How to do it. And I really appreciate the the waiver option and the tiered, because we had not discussed that. And so that that does make a lot of sense that if it's a multiple unit, it should be a higher price. Okay.
So you're welcome on that. And, you know, we're gonna do our best to make sure these get changed. And we will do notifications and notices prior to this, to try to give all the property owners some good, you know, some good advance notice what we have noticed, just from our discussion of this the past couple of weeks, we've gotten a little extra bump and calls want them to put their meters in. So just that alone helps.
Good. Any other questions, comments? All in favor? Aye. All right, township clerk.
Thank you. Good evening, mayor and council. The first item is the new polling locations for the two new election districts. The former word one district 12, which is now going to be word to district 12. Is I'm recommending DeMars school be the polling place. There's currently two districts at Demarest in the gym. And there's plenty of room for an additional district. I did discuss this with Councilman Joanna, we seem to work that this would be favorable for the other district, which was formerly ward three, district 14, which will now be Ward one district 13. I'm recommending the library theater as a polling place. The library theater, the children's library is a recent new polling place we had moved one three from the civic center, because it's very crowded, if some of you remember over there, because it was three districts. So we move that to the Civic Center, which is the only district there. So now, I'm recommending the children's library be the second district ward? One 113 Because they're contiguous. So Ward one, district two, and then the new district will be continuous. So I'm recommending the library, the children's library, which is where we have the other one
doesn't work one district to vote at Franklin school. Oh, I'm sorry,
that should be 12 I guess. I'll have to look at the map. They're next to each other. So recommending that the library would be the best place for them.
Okay, so it would be one, three, and then it should be 113? Yes. 113. Sorry. Or it actually should be 112. Because there is no more 112.
That's true to 112. Yes. Okay. Mark, do you have a I'll get the list in between, but I believe we do. So I'll check it. I think there is a 112 112 just
went to the second word.
Oh, that's right. Okay. That's right. So 112 So the, the new 112.
Anybody have any questions, comments? Okay, can I get a motion? Motion with the councilman giant second Councilman Mundo. All in favor, aye. Number two,
this is an annual request from Sacred Heart fundraising for Mount Olivet cemetery. Their spirit run, which is to be held Saturday, October 29. Early in the morning, I know they've reached out and gotten the county approval and the police department and reached out to Mr. Jenkins at the high school. I did check with my experiment. There's no scheduled events that day. It would be a rain date for any Halloween events. And because it's early in the morning, it would not interfere with anything.
Okay. Tell you the motion by Councilman gamble. Second. Second. Councilman Joanna, any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. township council.
So I wanted to recommendation recommend the establishment of a Juneteenth ad hoc committee. Last year, we had our first township celebration. And we wanted to officially create this committee so we can bring more people to the table for planning. And it will be on June 18. This year is a Saturday. And that's really just allow us to take some resumes and interests from an brought in the planning group.
Okay, can I get a motion? Moved by Councilman grease? Oh, my God a second. Second. Second. Councilman Davis. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. liaison reports. I have to Councilman though.
The farmers market is accepting vendor applications now and we will be accepting them through. I think it's March 21. If I'm correct, we are working on a webpage right now for that but in the meantime, for those who are interested, they can email my experiment and he has the applications so that it's going to be exciting this year, it's going to be, as he mentioned earlier in the meeting from June until the end of October, we're excited for that. And then we The library also launched a new service earlier this month called the library of things, which is a really cool service that they've added. So basically, it's a way for folks to borrow kind of uncommon, or common items from the library that they maybe don't want to purchase, or that they want to try or they just want to use once. So they have everything from a giant Jenga that you can borrow for a barbecue to one of those car code readers, like when your check engine light comes on to the sewing machine. Lots of stuff, I'm sure they'll be adding to it as well. So if you're interested, please go check it out at the library.
Can I ask a question about that? This is the it occurred to me that like, I mean, I know that the library doesn't want to be the repository for stuff of things, but it seems to me that there might be places and moments where people have like a perfectly good thing that's brought in a new and they are like, you know, perhaps getting ready to donate it to a local charity or something. Is there a way that, you know, like, say someone had a telescope or something like that? They never, it's never really nice when or something like that? Is there a is there a possibility or process maybe to, for someone to make a recommendation of something that they'd like to donate? Sure.
So they have that in place, just like they do for books that it so kind of the same thing, it has to be in really good condition. You can bring it to the library, you can walk up really any to at any point, bring it into the library, and they'll let you know if it's something that they'll accept, or you can call them or email them and no,
excellent. Thank you.
Anybody else for liaison reports? Councilman Davis
was pointing at Nick, but I'm just gonna make one quick, a quick announcement which is, which is that? MLK season of service is continuing. And we are having a food drive on February 26, at Jack's food town, and we'd like to encourage people to come if you'd like to continue to support community members who are still dealing with food insecurity. who are dealing with food insecurity, please come by feel free to make some purchases and we'll be there to collect them.
Perfect. That's been Joanna
Yes, mayor and council. Beginning in in May single use plastic bags by the state has banned single use plastic bags. Along with the Recycling Coordinator committee, greener, Bloomfield is collaborating together so we can get the message out to residents and businesses that the date is coming and to make other provisions and being able to purchase multi use bags. Now we, the committee, the recycling committee has put together a ray containing a multi use bag, and we're seeking businesses who want their logos on that bag. They can do that by contacting our Recycling Coordinator, Louise Pelicano. Louise would be the contact information they could reach you at. If they're interested in the
township website. It would be L Pelicano. At Bloomfield T WP nj.com. Or my telephone number 973-259-3162.
Fantastic. Thank you. Because certainly when as we quickly approach that they will be panicked by many. And we're again trying to get it out as as many weather digitally on our website through the bus. So it doesn't come as a shock to people. And if I'm I believe correct, May 14 would be our first shredding event at Pulaski Park parking lot. Every year has been wonderfully successful. And again, we're looking again for the support of our residents for Bloomfield residents. And we'll you'll hear more of it but just to get it out there for you to kind of check off that date. If you have items that you want shredded. You're there you'll see the trucks thread your secure documents. That's it there. Thank you.
Okay. Anybody else will based on
reports I had one more
thing I forgot about. We are accepting nominations for 2022 Bloomfield Women to Watch, which we will be featuring on during our sort of annual Township's social media takeover on International Women's Day. And so if you know a woman who is someone who has inspired you who's a current Bloomfield resident, please send me an email with a nomination for her. We'd love to hear about her. Thank you.
Can I have a motion to go into closed session motion. Second Council approves and we will be coming back into open. All in favor.
Welcome back. Alright, we have a couple of action items action number one
Marin council I have a resolution accepting a grant in the amount of $110,500 from the county of Essex department of Citizens Services Division of community actions for assessed HTA and F program. So moved.
Second. Second. Councilman Joanne. Oh, any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Number two,
we have a resolution emergency temporary resolution prior to adoption of the budget and j s 40. A semi colon four dash 20 Mars canal Greenway tap grant awards. So moved. Second.
Second. Councilman Cruz. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Number three,
council have a resolution authorizing the 2022 award of non fair and open contract for suburban basketball leagues fees and referees with phys surburban Sports Group LLC some
Second. Second, Councilman Davis any questions or comments? favor.
Mayor council have a resolution to award fair and open professional service contract for engineering and consulting services for stormwater management. So moved.
Second Second Councilman gamble. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Number five
man council have a resolution authorizing the township to participate in the Union County Cooperative pricing agreement. So moved. Second.
Second. Councilman Rockwell. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Number six
Marin council have a resolution authorizing the tax collector to credit interest paid to Texas do So moved.
Second. Second Council muddle any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Number seven.
resolution authorizing the award of a professional service contract pursuant to the fair and open process for special legal counsel services with Ceridian Edwards and Nolan. So moved. Second,
second. Counselor Joanne. Oh, any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Number eight.
I have a resolution boards and commissions. Local Emergency Planning Council appointments. So moved. Second?
Second. Councilman Cruz. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Number nine
Marin council have a resolution authorizing title change from MAF, director to assistant township administrator it for John de Latour, effective February 7 2020. To some Second.
Second, Councilman Davis. Any questions or comments? Congratulation Jagi. All in favor? And number 10.
Mayor council have a recommendation for an approval of our bill list for February 7 2022. So moved. Second.
Second. Councilman Campbell. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Get a motion to adjourn.