TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, WARREN COUNTY
Regular Meeting
January 16, 2007

TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, WARREN COUNTY

Regular Minutes
January 16, 2007

The regular meeting of the Township Committee was held this date at the Municipal/Police Building located on Little Philadelphia Road. The meeting was called to order at 7:32  p.m. by Mayor John Horensky.

SUNSHINE LAW COMPLIANCE - The Mayor noted that this meeting was being held in compliance with the Open Public Meetings Law of 1975 in as much as a notice had been published in the Star Gazette and transmitted to the Express Times and posted at the municipal building.

ROLL CALL: Dempski, present; Elbassiouny, present; Kovacs, present; Mueller, present and Horensky, present. Michael Lavery, Township Attorney and Mary Ann O’Neil, Township Clerk were also present.   Also, present was Dawn Stanchina, CFO, Pete de Boer, Certified Public Works Manager and Wassim Y Nader and Richard B Vollmar, Township Engineers and Alex Soffiantini, Township Architect.

SALUTE TO FLAG

APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Kovacs made a motion to approve the Regular Minutes of December 19, 2006, Elbassiouny seconded.
ROLL CALL: Kovacs, yes; Elbassiouny, abstain; Dempski, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.

Mueller made a motion to approve the Executive Minutes of December 19, 2006, Dempski seconded.
ROLL CALL: Mueller, yes; Dempski, yes; Elbassiouny, abstain; Kovacs, yes; Horensky, yes.

ORDINANCES
Dempski made a motion to open Ordinance 07-01  2007 Salary Ordinance to the public, Kovacs seconded.  All were in favor.  Nobody from the public wished to be heard.  Mueller made a motion to close the public hearing, Kovacs seconded.
ROLL CALL: Mueller, yes; Kovacs, yes; Dempski, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Horensky, yes.
Kovacs made a motion to approve, after public hearing and second reading,  Ordinance 07-1 2007 Salary Ordinance, Dempski seconded.  Dempski said under Section Five, there is the longevity for over 21 years at 5% and the State is in the process of introducing CAPs on municipalities, so it is a dangerous number to have in the ordinance. This will go over the 4% increase by 1% already. This will go through the entire raise treatment and staying at 4.5% raise will create problems with budgeting if the 4% CAP goes through.  Kovacs said the Municipality has contracts (PBA and Teamsters) and if it goes over CAP it does not make any difference.  Dempski said he wanted to point out that if they gave a raise of 4.5%, they would be.5% over to begin with in the budget.  Mueller asked on the shared court, does the figure represent the portion of all the salaries. Dempski said it is salary, wage and operating expenses.
ROLL CALL: Kovacs, yes; Dempski, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.

Kovacs made a motion to open 07-02 Ordinance Reauthorizing the Open Space Trust Fund for the Twp of Washington to the public, Mueller seconded. All were in favor. Nobody from the public wished to be heard. Kovacs made a motion to close the public hearing, Elbassiouny seconded.  All were in favor.  Kovacs made a motion to adopt, after public hearing and second reading, Ordinance 07-02, Dempski seconded.
ROLL CALL: Kovacs, yes; Dempski, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky,. Yes.

Elbassiouny made a motion to open 07-03 Ordinance Creating Uniform Code Construction Office to the public, Dempski seconded.  All were in favor.
Cheryl Burket asked if this was a full time job or a part time job. The Mayor said they were looking at a position that would be a shared position with neighboring municipalities, so it would be a full time position.  She said, right now, this service is not costing the Township anything to have the State do it. However, but once you put someone on the payroll that means they will have to be provided with  benefits and retirement. The Mayor said this is correct, but they are not collecting any fees in the Township.  Every fee that is collected, with regard to this position, is sent down to the State of New Jersey.  The initial estimate that has been worked out will actually be a revenue for the Township and will pay for itself, plus create a revenue for the Township.  Burket said this is a long term thing and once you initiate it, the Township will be stuck with it and the market is going down right now.  The Mayor said this will be a shared service with other municipalities, so even if there a downturn in the market, they envision that there would be enough work between the municipalities that will be going in on this. Burket said,. as a tax paying citizen, she would suggest that if it is being covered that the Committee should leave it the way it is and not add any further tax burden to the tax payers.

Jonathan Grdovic said, based on his experience, which is rather great with the DCA and the Local Code Enforcement, and although the DCA has its idiosyncrasies over all their response time is phenomenal.  That has gone nothing but down in Towns that have taken on shared positions with other towns and inspectors.
 
He said, the DCA, right now is bound that if they are called for an inspection, they have three days to perform it.  That is supposed to be the way it is done and is the first thing that goes out the window in towns that take on this responsibility themselves. Your call is made and its a week, 10 days or two weeks. He is in construction he looks at it as, right now, the service is excellent, they are extremely qualified individuals doing the inspections. He felt the DCA provides a higher quality of inspector than local towns that he has encountered. The other issue, which positions will the Township be filling, just a regular construction subcode official, electrical, plumbing, fire, etc., because there are so many different areas that are handled well by the DCA.  Grdovic said, from his experience,  the shared services never works well.  Grdovic said he would like to see the permit fees that came out of Washington Township over the past 5 years to see what they actually were as opposed to what it is going to cost, even with shared services for all the officials that would be needed to meet the level of service the Township currently has with DCA. 

The Mayor said, this individual will be an employee of the Township and as such, the Township has an obligation to the residents, as with all of the employees to hold their feet to the fire and make sure they perform. The Mayor said that Grdovic’s concern about the three days is a concern of the Township as well.  Washington Township is not going to be in a position where they will short change any of the residents.

Cherly Burket asked who will be overseeing this person if there is a problem, who do they answer to? The Mayor said a Committeeman  will be assigned as a liaison and right now it is Samir Elbassiouny.  Burket
asked if the Committee can guarantee better service than what they have been receiving, the Mayor said yes.  Burket said the service, right now, through DCA is excellent. Elbassiouny said he has experience personally that it has not been excellent, it is excellent according to your inspector.   Elbassiouny said the Committee is trying to bring in the best people out there and they will be appointed for one year.

Frank Cregan, 62 Merlin Drive, asked, under this ordinance, who does the resident go to when they want to complain about the lack of building according to code and what remedies are provided.  The Mayor said, right now, it would be Code Enforcement and the building should be done to code. If there is any concern, he thought there was a Construction Board of Appeals at the County level where a resident could appeal any concerns.  Cregan asked if this was also true under the present set up with the State, the Mayor said yes. Cregan said that he has had problems with the State Inspectors and was very disappointed in them.

Dempski said in terms of some of the numbers, in 2005 on behalf of New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, the State of New Jersey brought in $207.576 from Washington Township for permit fees.  As of September 2006, they brought in $164,000 in permit fees. This is more than enough to run a full time department.  Dempski said the funds are there and there would probably be a reduction in the fee permit and better service.   Also, if the employee is a municipal employee, they can be Rice Noticed and brought to task, if necessary, on job performance or behavior is not acceptable.

Grdovic said there are advantages and disadvantages to this, but he asked that if they go forward with it, that they go forward with the intention to at least having one full time construction official that is dedicated just to Washington Township. His concern is if the response time is not there and this individual is shared.  This person, dedicated to Washington Township, could oversee the other sub codes and other part time areas that need to be done.

Elbassiouny said, with the State it is a part time office, so you do not have a full time official just for Washington Township. He said this must be looked at as being a positive move that gives you a direct voice directly to the Township.  The Committee is looking to get better service for the residents. Kovacs made a motion to close the public hearing on Ordinance 07-03, Elbassiouny seconded.  All were in favor.   Elbassiouny made a motion, after the public hearing and second reading, to adopt Ordinance 07-03, Dempski seconded.
ROLL CALL: Elbassiouny, yes; Dempski, yes; Kovacs, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.

RESOLUTIONS
The Mayor advised that any item for discussion should be removed prior to approval.  Otherwise, one motion will cover all items on Consent Agenda.   Lavery said he had received the RFP’s for Special Litigation Counsel, has not reviewed them yet and asked that Resolution 07-14 be pulled Dempski asked that the list for this position be given.  Lavery said it was Ed Glynn, DiFrancesco, Gateman, Coley’s firm for Martin Allen, Brian Smith, Eric Bernstein, Mauro, Camerino and Grant, Benbrook and Benbrook and Florio, Perrucci and Steinhardt.  Dempski that he had received nothing on the last firm mentioned. Lavery said they may have applied for general.  Kovacs made a motion to approve Resolution 07-23 up to and including 06-27, Elbassiouny seconded.  Kovacs said on the salary resolution (07-26) this was due to the incorrect CPI number given.
ROLL CALL: Kovacs, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Dempski, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.
07-23 Tax Sale Certificate Redemption Resolution, Bl 40, Lot 27
07-24 Refund Resolution, Bl 14, Lot 1
07-25 Refund Resolution, Bl 65.05, Lot 5
07-26 Resolution to Authorize & Approve Salaries & Wages for Certain Employees
 
07-27 Transfer Resolution
REPORTS FROM STAFF
Peter de Boar said he had discussion on AJR for Executive Session. Dempski asked de Boer to provide the spread sheet on regular and overtime to the Committee.

PUBLIC QUESTIONS/CONCERNS
Barry Bourqin, Pear Tree Builder,  said they are trying to finalize things at Canal Estates. They have all their inspections and Bob Miller was engineer at the time. He has been trying to get letter from Miller for the last two months to finalize it and get a bond number to finalize the project.  Now, the Township has changed engineers and he wanted to know how to get from where he is at to where he has to be to finalize the project.  Elbassiouny said he was at the Administration Offices today and basically, what the Township has received from Miller’s secretary was verbally the project was complete, but there is no confirmation or authorization paid out, because Miller has not authorized it yet.  Elbassiouny said the transfer of engineers should not affect him in any way, as long as the Township has the completed report.  Bourqin said he needs the completed report so he can get his Maintenance Bond into Township.  Elbassiouny said there will be a meeting of the new engineer with Miller to transfer all the files, which should include all the information required. 

Bourqin said they have moved all of their equipment out and if it does snow, will the Township plow the area?  Lavery asked if there was a Developers Agreement in place, Bourqin said yes. Lavery said if the roads have not been accepted yet, from the legal standpoint, the Township should run it by the risk manager.   Right now, in the Developers Agreement, the responsibility of plowing are not municipal roads until accepted.  Kovacs said they will try to speed the process up.  Bourqin asked if the Township would let him know about the plowing.  Lavery said that the Township would be on roads that the Township does not own and have not maintained so if something happens, it would create a problem.  de Boer said he would run the issue by Sharon Cooper, Insurance Representative about this problem.   The Mayor said the best the Committee could do was to let him know that we will work diligently back from Robert Miller, Engineer, to make a determination as to what has been accepted, what has not been accepted and move the process through as quickly as possible. He said the de Boer will contact the risk manager to find out what liabilities and what concerns there would be the event there is a snow storm in the interim period. Bourqin asked if he could be called.   The Mayor said he would have de Boer call after he talked with the risk manager or de Boer can have the Clerk call.  Elbassiouny suggested to Bourqin that he should have a back up plan, just in case the Township cannot do the roads.

Frank Cregan, 62 Merlin Drive, said he wanted to remind the Township Committee that they need to amend the recently passed the feeding of wildlife ordinance and they should include public places. Cregan felt that signs should be posted telling people not to feed the birds.

John Grdovic, 7 Baltusol Road, said at the last Association Meeting it was brought to his attention that there is a concrete pipe that runs underneath  Mine Hill Road by the golf course that up until about 4-6 months ago was clogged.  It accepts all the run off from Mine Hill Road and dumps on to parking lot of the golf course, pool and tennis court area. The runoff from there is seriously degrading the parking lot to the point that they accepting the excess burden of having to repair the parking lot.  The excess run off is also going into the private pool in that area causing quite a bit of damage.  Grodvic asked if the Township had any plan to deal with this problem.   Dempski said that Robert Miller, former Township Engineer, had reviewed the plans and it seemed when the parking lot was expanded for the golf course they filled in either a swale or detention basin.  Dempski said the golf course may have aggravated the problem by filling in a drainage basin when they expanded the parking lot. The Mayor asked if the Township Engineers take a look it and there is an issue, that it be brought to the County’s attention as well to see what could be done about the problem.  The detention basis should be restored to the way it was originally designed.   Grdovic said it was about 15 years ago when this area was built and the site plan had to be approved at some point and it is quite a bit above the grade of the road in the area where it dumps out.  Elbassiouny will work with de Boer on this.

OLD BUSINESS
Carol Wicks, 1201 Butler Park Road, said she wanted to tell the Committee that they are still interested in purchasing the lots discussed at the previous meeting.  She realizes that it must be done by auction, but they are interested. The Mayor said when the Township is in a position to dispose of property, that the normal process is by auction and they have not moved on this particular piece of property yet. Wicks wanted to know if it would be soon. The Mayor said it has not been discussed in detail, but they will have to make a decision as to whether or not it is excess property that they wish to vacate.  The Mayor said,  they would take the appropriate action and she would be notified.

NEW BUSINESS
1. The Committee reviewed the letter sent from the Washington Township Fire District regarding Fire Hydrants. No action was taken.

2. Kovacs made a motion to approve the Clerk attending a Seminar on Ethics in Asbury, New Jersey on Friday, February 9, 2007, Mueller seconded.  All were in favor.

3. Mueller made a motion to approve the Raffle Application for the Washington Township Youth Association for March 17, 07 through April 21, 07, Elbassiouny seconded. All were in favor, except Dempski who abstained.

4. Kovacs made a motion to approve the Raffle Applications for the Washington Nursery School on March 10, 2007, Mueller seconded.  All were in favor, except Horensky who abstained.

5. Kovacs made a motion to approve Keller & Kirkpatrick using the meeting room for a public hearing on the Reconstruction of Warren County Bridge, on date required, Elbassiouny seconded. All were in favor.

6. Appointments to Open Space Advisory Committee - Dempski said he had talked with Al Ivany, who would like to remain as Chairman and Mark Murray has said he would like to be reappointed. Dempski said he had been appointed as Chairman of Open Space Advisory Committee, but would like to resign, which was accepted by the Committee. Elbassiouny made a motion to appoint Al Ivany as Chairman and reappoint Mark Murray an Greg Terhune to the Committee, Mueller seconded.  All were in favor. 

7. Dempski had sent a letter resigning from the Affordable Housing Board, as Affordable Housing Officer and Third Round NJ COAH Process.

8. Discussion on Demolition on Brown and Brown Building - Lavery said this is a constructional matter,
because you will be discussing the amounts paid to contractors, which is one of the purposes of Executive Session to be able to protect the Governing Body from having to compete with private contractors because if you advise publicly what you are looking to pay them, then obviously they would know what to submit as far as bids were concerned. No official action will be taken and what occurred in Executive Session will be reported once they come out.   Lavery said he also has an item on Frasella vs Washington Township Land Use Board that he would like to discuss under the litigation exception for Executive Session. The Mayor said he also has a personnel issue for Executive Session.

REPORTS FROM OFFICIALS
Barry Mueller said the Recreation Commission reorganized and the new Chairman is Mel Kries and there are still two members needed on the Commission.

The Historical Commission reorganized. They still have the same officers and will be meeting at the same time. They are working on the dedication of the Auto Giro Building for May 19th.

David Dempski said that the Municipal Alliance met last week and had their budget ready.   They will be meeting once every other month.

The Open Space Advisory meets this week. They are trying to build up some partnerships and funding mechanisms for 2 critical farms in the Township.

Samir Elbassiouny said he had met with Pete de Boer and Wassim Y Nader, Township Engineer. They are setting up a time for a drive by on locations of Township properties.  They contacted Bob Miller office to see if they could get the final reports on issues and inspections they are dealing with. They also requested to see if they could give a percentage basis next to each report.  Wasim will be meeting with Miller very soon.

Elbassiouny said he talked with Andrew Cappola, Mansfield Township, who showed some interest in consolidating services with the Township for the Construction Code Official.   This was just an informal meeting.

Michael Kovacs said he, de Boer and the Mayor met with the architect this week to go over some final items. He will be here later to make a presentation to the Committee.  The floor plans are basically done and they have gone through two sets of meetings with the employees to look at the floor plans for input. The architect will fill the Committee in on problems that he is encountering as he proceeds with the project.

Kovacs said that Stanchina is putting the budget together and is using a State Form, which is fine.  She is meeting with the auditor t sometime this week prior to Saturday. 

John Horensky said he met with the Fire Department.  They had a reorganization and installation dinner on Saturday.
 
Horensky attended a  Eagle Scout Ceremony for Kevin Olsen.

He has started to participate in the Warren County Citizens Police Academy.  It is an opportunity for citizens of Warren County to learn more about the law enforcement community and how it works in the County. 

He said there were some liaisons that had been missed at the Reorganization Meeting. He appointed David Dempski as liaison to the Environmental Commission and he would take the Economic Development Commission.

PAYMENT OF BILLS
Kovacs made a motion to pay the bills, Mueller seconded.
ROLL CALL: Kovacs, yes; Mueller, yes; Dempski , abstain; Elbassiouny, abstain; Horensky, yes.

Elbassiouny said the Boy Scouts would like to get a shed to store  their equipment.  Elbassiouny asked what process they would have to go through to have this done.  The Mayor said yes.  Dempski said he is afraid it would be vandalized if it was put by the one already in place.. Kovacs said he does not want to see sheds popping up all the place, Elbassiouny agreed. The Mayor said they should put exactly what they are looking for, size, types of equipment, etc. writing to the Committee.  This would also have to be investigated by the Risk Manager because of insurance.  They would also have to provide insurance.

Wassim Y Nader and Richard B Vollmer from Medina Consultants were present at the meeting.  They said they were happy to be aboard as Municipal Engineers and Geotechnical for Land Use Board.  They were looking forward to working with the Township.

EXECUTIVE SESSION
Kovacs made a motion to go into Executive Session at 8:45 p.m., for litigation, personnel, contract negotiations/ AJR, Dempski seconded. All were in favor.

The doors were opened. Elbassiouny made a motion to come out of Executive Session at 11:22, p.m., seconded by Dempski.

Lavery said they emerged from Executive Session at 11:22 p.m. where they discussed a constructional matter regarding some proposed amendments to the architectural on the municipal building, Frasella vs Washington Township Land Use Board, constructional matter regarding the AJR property and personnel regarding police contract negotiations and report on action by PBA.  No official action was taken and copy of the minutes will be available at such time as the Committee deems it safe and there is no further harm to the public interests.

Elbassiouny made a motion to authorize the CFO to contact Bond Counsel to develop a Bond Ordinance in the amounts discussed during Executive Session for consideration at the Budget Meeting on January 20, 2007, Kovacs seconded.
ROLL CALL: Elbassiouny, yes; Kovacs, yes; Dempski, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.

Elbassiouny said he spoke with Chuck Herring at DCA, who informed him that the Township will be getting all the files and are not entitled to any funds from fees collected. He spoke with Louis Mraw in the licensing department who would be contacted to approve the inspector before they could be hired. Mraw also indicated that Herring was correct.  Elbassiouny said he asked Herring to go forward for the next four  months. They will provide a list of what percentage of the projects are completed. Elbassiouny directed the clerk to put the position on the Township Web Site and League of Municipalities Web Site.   Elbassiouny asked Dempski to be part of the interview process.

Kovacs made a motion to adjourn at 11:40 p.m., Dempski seconded. All were in favor.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Ann O’Neil RMC/CMC
Township Clerk