Post #31 another long council mtg of 8/9/11

The 8/9/11 council mtg—This was 2 hr 39 minutes in duration, but I am not going to blog on the full details like the complex June 14th mtg which actually lasted 6 minutes less at 2 hr and 33 minutes. I’ll highlight, but the reason I am blogging is that this meeting was not full of many intricate issues but was basically full of IMHO unnecessarily lengthy discussions on just a few issues. This blog is more just to make a point to a councilman, who I was having a dialogue with on the Garwood forum. The point is that there may be too much belaboring of issues without any true change to results, that time may be wasted for no real reason and this gives an appearance of obstruction to the public. This chronicle is simply my opinion of the events as I observed and wrote down at that time. To those who attended if any corrections are needed, please contact me promptly for attention.

The mtg portions were broken down into: from 7pm to 7:20pm- This was for the police promotions and hiring. 7:25 to 8:24- This was the workshop session. From 8:36 to 9:39pm- This was the council meeting proper. Councilman Sluka and our boro eng’r Don G were absent/excused. Boro attny Triarsi had sent a substitute in his place.

The first 20 minutes were the police promotions and hiring. There were about 70 people in attendance, many of them the relatives of the applicable officers. Some promotions listed in the consent agenda weren’t physically done formally in the council chambers that night. Suffice it to say, we have 2 new officers, and the new command structure of captains, lieutenants, and sergeants are in place. After the relatives left, there were about 15 people remained in the audience.

The workshop session issues were the upcoming underpass construction, purple heart monument, where should the seniors go for AC cooling if heat wave, and the bulk pick-up. The bulk issue took up the brunt of the time. Councilors JM, ST and LP asked the questions on bulk for further details. LP’s was just a minor question but the other 2 councilors, ST and JM asked the bulk of the questions. (no pun intended.) ST apologized for her ignorance of procedure and hoped her questions were not out of order. Both had issues with the transparency of information that they were not aware of the details enough to vote on the ordinance 11-13 which was later listed on the proper mtg agenda. However, in the course of the questions back and forth between ST/JM and the mayor/boro admin/councilor TH (Streets & Roads committee chair), councilor VD stated that indeed the details are being hashed out in the meeting, so no further time is needed. (Clarification per the mayor 8/18/11:) Councilor JM expressed such sentiment of major obstacles to the ordinance such as not enough detail, cost, not enough time for understanding the issue, possible wear and tear on the truck and workers comp/injury liability for the DPW workers, overtime, that the mayor interrupted and asked JM if he would like to table the ordinance and send it back to committee. This phrase is removed: Councilor JM wanted the bulk ordinance tabled . This nearly brought the bulk issue to a standstill, but due to time constraints the boro admin said the intro of the ordinance had to be voted on in the meeting since it would be instituted in September and had to be final voted and further coordinated with the residents. The mayor and the boro administrator tried to placate JM’s concerns, that the boro will use the older trash truck and the DPW is well aware of the potential injuries and there will be no OT; and in the end the vote to accept the committee recommendation to leave the bulk pick up program as recommended was unanimous. Just prior to the vote JM noted on record that he was still concerned with truck wear and tear and worker injury. One detail that did change, based on a member of the publics concerns-the bulk application due date of august 15th was too soon. The aplication due date was changed to friday august 19th, giving the public 4 more days. Workshop was over at 8:24pm and a short break ensued prior to the mtg proper.

In the formal council meeting, the bulk pick up ordinance was on for first introduction, there were no more comments by governing body and it was voted to introduce unanimously. The balance of the committee reports were normal, public comment was minor. The next lengthy portion of the meeting arose during the consent agenda near the end. JM wanted two reso’s removed and voted on separately regarding #11-241 for hiring a part time seasonal help and reso #11-245 for implementation of ordinance 10-10. The latter one was interesting in that it was referenced by a past number 10-10 and not the specific topic, so the public was unaware exactly what was on the agenda, until this portion of discussion came up. The reason why it was worded such is that the whole salary ordinance had to be “reintroduced” by “title,” even thought it was the shade tree salary that was set aside for later discussion (which was now).

For 11-241-(seasonal help): JM wanted this tabled since he did not know the costs, and he asked the boro admin, but she did not know the exact costs either. However, it was pointed out that these moneis are already in the budget and JM is the finance committee chair in control of the budget. It was also noted to JM that the seasonal position in the budget has a cost for hiring 1 full time seasonal person, but the position was subsequently split into 2 half positions so the cost remains the same. Again, VD, a finance committee member with JM said it was in the budget. JM said he did not like the way this reso came up. JM's motion to table however was not seconded. The vote was put to the floor and JM was the only one who voted “No”.

For 11-245-(shade tree position): JM wanted to table this one also. JM had wanted the mayor to put together a written job description ahead of time so he knew what to vote on, but the mayor previously had pointed out to him the job description is in the standard “Codes of the Boro of Garwood”, so it was unnecessary and redundant to write up a job description. Also JM pointed out that this specific reso back up was missing from his council info packet. However, a few others volunteered they did receive their back up. Boro admin noted that she would look into it as to why JM’s package was deficient. JM wanted it tabled so the DPW may take over the duties and hopefully save the $4500 stipend allotted for the duty, but VD said that the DPW wants no part of this work. ST noted to JM he should have brought this all up a lot earlier, not suddenly now. She also felt comfortable enough to vote on it. The mayor said if the job description is insufficient she will send it to Laws & Licenses Committee for review and a more detailed job description if required. JMs motion to table was not seconded. A vote was put to the floor and JM was the only one who voted “No”.

Meeting went to end, gaveled and adjourned at 9:39pm.