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HomeMy Public PortalAbout1999/10/21 The Regular Meeting of the Mayor and Council of the Borough of Carteret was called to order by Mayor James A. Failace at approximately 7:30 P.M.on Tuesday, October 21, 1999, Municipal CourtfPolice Facility, 230 Roosevelt Avenue, Carteret, New Jersey. Upon individual roll call, the following were noted present: Councilmember Patrick Crilley Jack Fazekas Stanley Gutowski James Mancuso James O'Brien Remy Quinones " " " " " Noted absent was Borough Attorney Craig J. Coughlin. The meeting was opened with a moment of silent prayer and the pledge of allegiance led by Mayor James A. Failace The Clerk stated that on October 14, 1999, in full compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act, a notice of tonight's meeting was sent to The Home News Tribune, The Star Ledger and posted on the bulletin board. Upon MMS&C, by Councilmembers Gutowski and O'Brien and unanimous affirmative vote of the full Council present, the minutes of October 12, 1999 were approved as transcribed and engrossed by the Clerk. Upon MMS&C, by Councilmembers Crilley and O'Brien and unanimous affirmative vote of the fuJl Council present, the Agenda was amended to include Resolution #99-341. Appointing Anthony Beluch to the position of provisional Park Maintenance Worker. A copy of each Resolution was placed upon the table for public review prior to the meeting in accordance with the Rules of Council and upon MMS&C, by Councilmembers Gutowski and Fazekas and unanimous affirmative vote of the fuJl Council present, the meeting was opened for public input on all Resolutions William Kolibas, Jr. asked if someone could tell him the year to date total amount that Killam has now incurred. 1 Mayor Failace said he didn't know the exact figure off the top of his head, but it's about $200,000. He told Mr. Kolibas he could go to Borough Hall and get the exact figures. OCTOBER 21, 1999 COUNCIL MEETING ROLL CALL PRAYER, PLE[X;E OF ALLEGIANCE STATEMENT OF MEETING NOTICE APPROVAL OF MINUTES Agenda Amended To Include Resolution #99-341 MEETING OPENED Public Input On Resolutions OCTOBER 21, 1999 Borough Attorney Noted Present MEETING CLOSED RESOLUTION #99-335 Refund of Tax And/Or Sewer Fees Overpayment Adopted RESOLUTION #99-336 Authorizing Bids - Tree Stumper Adopted RESOLUTION #99-337 Approving Agreement Lucent Technologies Solutions Adopted Borough Attorney Craig J. Coughlin was noted present at approximately 7:32 P.M. There being no further comments or objections to the resolutions, upon MMS&C, by Councilmembers Gutowski and O'Brien and unanimous affirmati ve vote of the fun Council present, the Mayor declared the meeting closed. RESOLUTION #99-335 was introduced by the Mayor and was referred to the Council for action. Upon MMS&C, by Council members Gutowski and Fazekas RESOLUTION #99-335 "AUTHORIZING REFUND OF TAX AND/OR SEWER FEE OVERPAYMENT" was adopted. Upon individual roll can vote, Councilmembers Crilley, Fazekas, Gutowski, Mancuso, O'Brien and Quinones voted in the affirmative. RESOLUTION #99-336 was introduced by the Mayor and was referred to the Council for action. Upon MMS&C, by Council members Gutowski and Fazekas. RESOLUTION #99-336 "AUTHORIZING PURCHASING AGENT TO ADVERTISE BIDS FOR A TREE STUMPER" was adopted. Upon individual roll call vote, Councilmembers Crilley, Fazekas, Gutowski, Mancuso, O'Brien and Quinones voted in the affirmative. RESOLUTION #99-337 was introduced by the Mayor and was referred to the Council for action. Upon MMS&C, by Council members Gutowski and Fazekas RESOLUTION #99-337 "RESOLUTION APPROVING AGREEMENT WITH LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES SOLUTIONS" was adopted. Upon individual roll call vote, Councilmembers Crilley, Fazekas, Gutowski, Mancuso, O'Brien and Quinones voted in the affirmative. 2 RESOLUTION #99-338 was introduced by the Mayor and was referred to the Council for action. Upon MMS&C, by Councilmembers Gutowski and Fazekas RESOLUTION #99-338 "CREATING HANDICAPPED PARKING SPACE AT 17 PULASKI AVENUE" was adopted. Upon individual roll can vote, Councilmembers Criney, Fazekas, Gutowski, Mancuso, O'Brien and Quinones voted in the affirmative. RESOLUTION #99-339 was introduced by the Mayor and was referred to the Council for action. Upon MMS&C, by Councilmembers Gutowski and O'Brien RESOLUTION #99-339 "PROFESSIONAL SERVICES CONTRACT FOR ENGINEERING SERVICES" was adopted. Upon individual ron can vote, Councilmembers Crilley, Fazekas, Gutowski, Mancuso, O'Brien and Quinones voted in the affirmative. RESOLUTION #99-340 was introduced by the Mayor and was referred to the Council for action. Upon MMS&C, by Councilmembers Crilley and Gutowski RESOLUTION #99-340 "APPOINTING RICHARD HRYCUNA TO THE POSITION OF LABORER" was adopted. Upon individual roll call vote, Councilmembers Crilley, Fazekas, Gutowski, Mancuso and O'Brien voted in the affirmative. Councilmember Quinones abstained. RESOLUTION #99-341 was introduced by the Mayor and was referred to the Council for action. 3 Upon MMS&C, by Councilmembers Gutowski and Fazekas RESOLUTION #99-341 "APPOINTING ANTHONY BELUCH TO THE POSITION OF PROVISIONAL PARK MAINTENANCE WORKER" was adopted. Upon individual roll call vote, Councilmembers Crilley, Fazekas, Gutowski, Mancuso, O'Brien and Quinones voted in the affirmative. OCTOBER 21, 1999 RESOLUTION #99-338 Handicapped Parking Space - 17 Pulaski Adopted RESOLUTION #99-339 Professional Services Killam Associates - Dorothy St. Pump Station & Roosevelt Avenue Corrrninuter Adopted RESOLUTION #99-340 Appointing Laborer - Richard Hrycuna Adopted RESOLUTION #99-341 Appointing Provisional Park Maintenance Worker - Anthony Beluch Adopted OCTOBER 21, 1999 PAYMENT OF BILLS Upon MMS&C, by Councilmembers Gutowski and O'BrienFazekas all bills appearing on the prepared list, properly audited and signed were ordered to be paid. Upon individual roll call vote, Councilmembers Crilley, Fazekas, Gutowski, Mancuso, O'Brien and Quinones voted in the affirmative. REPORTS: Department The Clerk stated that she was in receipt of the fonowing reports: 1. Inspection of Buildings - September 1999 2. Sewer Collection - September 1999 3. Treasurer's Report - September 1999 Upon MMS&C, by Councilmembers Gutowski and Fazekas and unanimous affirmative vote of the fun Council present, all reports were ordered to be received and placed on file. Standing Committee BUILDINGS & GROUNDS: Committee Chairperson O'Brien said basic building maintenance is being kept up at the various buildings. At the Recreation building there was a problem. Someone punched a hole in the wall. He told the different groups that use the building to take care of it. It's their place, for their use. He reported progress. FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION: Committee Chairperson Quinones reported progress. FIRE: Committee Chairperson Fazekas said the Fire Department, Police Department and OEM, along with some industries in Carteret will be working on the Y2K Contingency Plans. The winners of the poster contest are now being displayed at Borough Hall and at Fire Headquarters for the next couple of months. They will be announcing the winners of the Great Escape Contest and the winners will receive a ride on the fire truck. Moving right along. PARKS & RECREATION: Committee Chairperson Crilley said on October 31st at 1:00 P.M. will be the Halloween Parade. Line up will be on Carteret Avenue. In the next couple of months they will be adding new park equipment to Civic Center Park and Chrome Park. The Community Development funds that were requested are there, so they will be ordering the new equipment. He reported progress. POLICE: Committee Chairperson Gutowski congratulated Director Elg and his wife on the birth of their son. The Pension Board has come down with two rulings. One is they have turned down the borough's stay, not the appeal, of the appointment of the two officers. They are continuing to take this to court because this is an interpretation of a state statute according to pension and we still feel that we are right and we are still going to pursue it. 4 Committee Chairman Gutowski said it will not cost a great deal of money, as some people would lead you to believe. It would certainly cost the borough a lot less than bringing these officers back. They are not against bringing the officers back if they are ordered to do so. The borough was ordered to take them back as of October 28, 1999 or incur a fine of $100.00 a day to the maximum of $10,000. The officers will return to work and will meet with the Director on Monday, not necessarily to work. They will have to go through training and the academy. They have to qualify to shoot a gun. There are a lot of things they have to do before we put them out on the street. We have to protect them, the citizens and the borough. They will go back to school and go for six months, just like a new officer. The other ruling the Pension Board brought down was the chance it will change in the way the Policemen's pensions will be calculated. They will no longer be using longevity payments or other accrued time to put into their base salary. There is a chance that some of our senior officers could lose a substantial amount of pension money. They have been coming into the Business Administrator's office to see what the ramifications are. If this new rule affects them and if it will cost them any money. Potentially, we might have some officers leaving by the end of the year. He reported progress. PUBLIC WORKS: Committee Chairman Mancuso said a program has been set up with PSE&G and the other companies. They are now posting bonds when they do any road digging. It was on the books, but was never enforced. No one will be digging up any streets unless we know about it and it's okay. He reported progress. BOARD OF EDUCATION: Committee Chairperson Crilley reported progress. Mayor Failace said he would like to clarify something that he heard on the street. Everybody knows that at the last Agenda Meeting we brought in McManimon and Scotland to discuss the possibilities of what would happen if we sold our sewers, like other towns have done. Some of the things that would happen is we would get influx of cash as capital. The sewers will be fixed. There is a whole bunch of stuff that would have to be done. We would have to negotiate rates and so forth. We brought them in because we thought this might be something for Carteret. Already, municipal workers have asked him if they are laying off the sewer department. Anyone that was at that meeting knows one of the things they said is that, if we follow through with it, one of two things could happen. We could keep them in other positions or the company that would be doing the sewers would take them as part of the agreement. If in fact they did that, they would only do it if it will benefit Carteret and these people will still have jobs and we would be sure that they would. He wanted that to be known. 5 Upon MMS&C, by Councilmembers Gutowski and O'Brien and unanimous affirmative vote of the full Council present, the meeting was declared open to the public for discussion. OCTOBER 21, 1999 Standing Committees Continued MAYOR PUBLIC DISCUSSION OCTOBER 21, 1999 Library WILLIAM KOLIBAS, JR. asked if there was any truth to the rumor that there was a spring or a well found in the library? Mayor Failace said it was absolutely no rumor. He said where they put the elevator they drilled down 30 feet and drilled into an Artesean Well. He has been assured by the architect and the engineer that they pressure grout it when they put the shaft in. It will eventually stop it. They have been able to build the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels without water coming in. Mr. Kolibas said he was commenting on what Council member Quinones said. He would surely file all the papers necessary with the Business Administrator before he asks for it, unlike her. Councilmember Quinones said she did file the proper papers. Mayor Failace said what she said was make sure he has them first thing in the morning. Councilmember Quinones said he should listen a little more clearly. Sewers FRED GERSTLER asked about the sale of the sewers and keeping the jobs. He asked how can they privatize something and have people keep their jobs, making the same amount of money and benefits. Mayor Failace said they have done it in 12 different municipalities. They make it a part of the contract. That's how it's done. Mr. Gerstler said as a town we must be doing something wrong and we're wasting money. Mayor Failace asked him why did he say that? Mr. Gerstler said how can they do everything the same way and it costs less? Mayor Failace said they are not doing everything the same way. It's completely different than anything we have ever done before. Only 12 municipalities have done it. He would like to jump on the bandwagon while it's still young, if it's feasible, before everybody else does and the benefits won't be as great. Mr. Gerstler asked what are we doing wrong. We are doing the same thing we have been doing for the last 20 years. We have $10,000,000 in sewer projects that need to be done and they fix them. They even give the town cash when they buy the sewers. Other towns have gotten up to $5,000,000 in cash. Mr. Gerstler asked how could they do that and make a profit? Mayor Failace said they charge a rate, but that rate is contracted for and they can't raise it. We know for 20 years what the rate is and after that time, we can take our sewers back. Mr. Gerstler would have to ask the company how they make their profit. They have only had an initial meeting with them, but it looks like a win situation for us. Hoboken has done it. 6 Mr. Gerstler said he thought it was important that the people representing Carteret know how they do it. Mayor Failace said he understood the contract was big. It's going to take a whole team to go over this. A whole team will be put together with the Borough Attorney, Borough Engineer, McManimon & Scotland, etc. The bottom line is if it's not good for Carteret they won't do it. They will spend a few dollars to look into it. Mr. Gerstler said they could make a deal to have our own representation, if they pay for it. Mayor Failace said that was part of it. He was talking about initially. Mr. Gerstler asked if it was true that sand is not allowed to be dredged to use as fill? Mayor Failace said it's clean. Mr. Gerstler asked if it was clean dredge sand, are they allowed to use it? Mayor Failace said he believes so. Borough Attorney Coughlin said the Ordinance provides that fill that is already within a community can be used. It prohibits bringing in contaminated dredge spoils from without the community to be used as fill. Mr. Gerstler asked if the EPA said it was clean, would it be allowed in? Borough Attorney Coughlin said our standards are higher than the New Jersey DEP standards. Mr. Gerstler asked if it meets their standards can it come in? And he asked where our standards came from? Borough Attorney Coughlin said from an evaluation by engineering firms that try to set the highest possible standard to ensure we have the cleanest fill as possible. There is no fill that is virgin, it would be cost prohibitive. There is going to be some level of contaminants. He doesn't mean that it would be toxic, because that wouldn't be permitted under any circumstances. There are levels set out in the ordinance. Our standards have been set specifically higher than the NJDEP. Mr. Gerstler said he understood that Bellmead, who have the rights to build the mall, was going to use clean dredge sand that was approved by the Army Corps of Engineers and our ordinance will not allow that to happen, so now they can't build. Mayor Failace said Mr. Gerstler knew more than he did, because they haven't come to the Council. They were given a copy of the ordinance and asked to review and bring it back if they had any problems. 7 Borough Attorney Coughlin said Bellmead made some comments on it. OCTOBER 21, 1999 Sewers Continued Dredge Fill Ordinance OCTOBER 21, 1999 Dredge Ordinance Continued Mayor Failace said they made some comments and the Council made adjustments. Borough Attorney Coughlin said they are still discussing it. Mr. Gerstler asked if anything was done to endanger that deal? Bellmead Mayor Failace said whatever deal was there, there will be a deal there. They have done nothing for Bellmead to get out of the project. Borough Attorney Coughlin said clearly there are avenues of discussion. It is our ordinance, so this Council stands in the position to make whatever amendments are necessary in order to facilitate projects which they believe to be worthy. Mr. Gerstler said he was worried that by having this ordinance in effect and they turn around and say we are making it impossible for them to build and they want their money back and all the expenses they have laid out. Mayor Failace said that absolutely will not happen. Fundraising Ordinance Mr. Gerstler asked about the ordinance concerning no solicitation, no fundraising? What happens when they receive checks in the mail during business hours. What do they do to police themselves. Mayor Failace said evidently Mr. Gerstler knows what happened. He said he would explain it to him. There is going to be a Mayor's Ball. Mr. Riggio is working on a Ad Book off premises in his house. Mr. Gutowski is treasurer for that. All the checks that came in for this Ad Book were to go to Mr. Gutowski and the ad itself would be mailed to Mr. Riggio. Mr. Riggio's clerk opens all his mail. If they were doing something they didn't want anybody to know about, they certainly wouldn't send it to his office. The clerk opened the mail and a check was mistakenly sent for the ad book to Mr. Riggio. The clerk went down and mentioned something to Kathy Barney. Nick Goldsack, our Business Administrator immediately talked to Melanie and called in John Riggio and they explained what happened. There was an investigation and that was the end of it. Mr. Gerstler said he wasn't focusing on that. He wanted to know about the letter that all the supervisors got regarding obtaining tickets for the Mayor's Ball. Mayor Failace said it was a notice that was put on the bulletin board notifying employees that there was a Mayor's Ball and to call a certain number for tickets. Not as a fundraiser. For there cost or for free. He just wanted to give them an opportunity to come if they want to. Councilmember Gutowski said there is nothing on that paper that gives a dollar amount. All it says if they are interested in tickets to the Mayor's Ball to call this number. Mayor Failace said there were a lot bigger issues in this town. 8 OCTOBER 21, 1999 Mayor Failace said if Mr. Gerstler feels they did something wrong, he should go to the prosecutor. Fundraising Ordinance Continued Mr. Gerstler said he just didn't want there to be double standards. Councilmember Gutowski commended Mr. Gerstler about his web site. He said there was one question he was interested in. It said the money that was set aside for the marina was gobbled up and spent on consultants. He asked Mr. Gerstler if he knew how much money was spent on the marina and where the money was? Marina Mr. Gerstler said he was told and by looking at the paperwork, the money was spent on other things. They moved the money around. Councilmember Gutowski said the money for the marina was in two phases. $985,000 grant and the $985,000 loan at 2% from Green Acres, cannot be transferred or spent unless it is specifically earmarked for the marina. They have spent approximately $15,000 of that $1,900,000. We don't even have that money. It sits in Trenton with Green Acres. The borough first has to spend the money and then get reimbursed from Green Acres. Mr. Gerstler asked what they are doing about the marina? Councilmember Gutowski said they are being held up by Green Acres at this point. The site next to it is contaminated. Our site needs to be remediated. When the state tells us we can go ahead, we will. Councilmember Crilley said they received two grants from the state for the EPA remediation and inspections. They have just completed phase 1, trying to identify where the problems are coming from. The I" phase is a $15,000 grant and the 2nd phase is $50,000 to do a more extensive search of the area and identify problems and start to put together a remediation plan. The 3cd phase will be the remediation and they will probably have to get additional grant money for that. Mr. Gerstler asked who on the Council is the one focused on working on this project. Councilmember Gutowski said he has been down to Green Acres numerous times and has had meetings with them. He said they all have been down. They want this to go forward as much as anybody else does. This marina was supposed to be built in 3 phases. The 1" phase was to refurbish the dock and fix the infrastructure around there. The 2nd phase was supposed to be getting acquisition of the parking lot. That is not our property. The 3cd phase was the anticipated structure of the marina. Green Acres has only funded phase 1. There never was a phase 2 or three according to them. The only money they gave us was to do the park. They had tried to get money transferred from parks to that area, Green Acres wouldn't allow them to do that, but they allowed to change the plans. They allowed them to put a roller hockey ring and they won't cost the borough anything to do. 9 OCTOBER 21, 1999 Marina Continued Mr. Gerstler said something about moving the money from here to there. Councilmember Gutowski said they were using that money earmarked for that park Mayor Failace said he has always said there is not a marina. He went down with Mr. Gutowski to Trenton and they were shown the plans and there wasn't a marina. There never was a marina. The plan is to do the park. There is a possibility there might be one in the future if they get money for it. He said they are not switching any money from anywhere. Sewers THOMAS STIGLIC suggested when the Council looks into the panel to study the sale of the sewers, they should have a union representative present. Mayor Failace said they would take that into consideration. Paving Streets ROSE A. CAPP spoke about Hermann Avenue, Linden Street and Whittier Street. She said the fixed the sewers, but never did the top coat on the road. She spoke to the engineer and he had said the whole street has to be ripped up. Councilmember Gutowski said that's not completed. Some of the sewer laterals have to be done. They have to rip the street up again. That's why it hasn't been paved. Ms. Capp asked if they were going to fill in potholes? Councilmember Mancuso said T. Surick has been filling them up. Ms. Capp said when they connected the sewers on Linden and Matthew they only went half way. She asked if Linden St. was going to be repaved? Mayor Failace said not at this time. There are other streets that are worse and they have prioritized the streets that have to be done. Ms. Capp asked if they were going to put another catch basin on Hermann A venue. In the winter that area gets to be a sheet of ice. Councilmember Gutowski said that is why everyone got the survey, to tell us the problems on their streets. It's less expensive for the homeowner to tell us the problem instead of sending the engineer out. Mayor Failace said they have had a tremendous response to the survey. Turnpike Councilmember Gutowski said back in July he talked about meeting the Governor and asking her to help us with the turnpike problem. Mr. Lang was here last week and brought it to light that we have tremendous problems. The Governor's office called him this week. He spoke to her Aide. 10 Councilmember Gutowski said the Governor's office assured him the Governor's office is sending a letter to the Turnpike requesting that they come and meet with the Mayor and Council and formulate some type of plan to help us out with the Turnpike entrance. He doesn't know what it will be, at this point, but at least they finally got through to somebody to set up a meeting with us and the Turnpike. Hopefully, that will be in the next few weeks. He thanked the Governor's office and said they were sending her a letter to that effect. There being no further business and discussion, upon MMS&C, by Councilmembers Fazekas and O'Brien unanimous affirmative vote of the full Council present, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:10 P.M.. Respectfull submitted, K THLEEN M. BARNEY, Municipal Clerk KMB/SJ 11 OCTOBER 21, 1999 Turnpike Continued ADJOURNED OCTOBER 21, 1999 COUNCIL MEEIING 12