On Monday night we had a meeting where we made some really important decisions.
We voted 5-0 to move our non-partisan Municipal election from May to November starting in 2025, a move that we are locked into for 10 years. In addition, every current member of Council gets a 6 month extension to our 4 year term to align with the new election schedule.
As you know from my past updates, I was an early supporter of this move. The cost to run the May election are significant, the effort required to educate voters on why we had May elections took time away from talking about the issues, and features like early voting would not be able to be offered to our residents for that election because of the cost.
In the Spring, our Administration asked us to consider a non-binding referendum in this November's election so that residents could vote on this change. The majority of the Council did not agree to do the referendum (only Councilwoman Holland joined me to support that approach). In addition, many of my peers made a lot of arguments against moving the election.
This is why I was so surprised that this ordinance was put on the agenda by the Council majority after this year's November election. And I was also thrown that not one of them made a public comment before the vote on Monday night. Here we are, changing the timing of our election after 38 years of having it in May, and no one has anything to say.
As you can tell, I am big on a transparent, collaborative process. While I believe moving the election from May to November will ultimately be a positive move for our community, I am not happy that the voters were cut out of the process on how the decision was made.
On Monday night we also made another very significant decision - we appointed Kevin O'Sullivan to be our new Township Manager, starting in February. For those of you that don't know - in our form of government the Township Manager is basically the CEO of the entire organization, and the Town Council functions like a Board of Directors. Not every government in NJ operates in the same way, so this is important to clarify.
When we hired our current Township Manager Joe D'Arco, we knew that he was going to be with us for three years before he retired from the industry with a stunning 56 years of public service. Last year the Council agreed to create a position of "Deputy Township Manager", and Mr. O'Sullivan was hired by Mr. D'Arco to fill that role. We had a year to get to know Mr. O'Sullivan, his style, and his caliber of his work. He has brought a level of project management and analysis to projects that have been really beneficial to getting things done - and we still have a lot of get done. I am excited to work with Mr. O'Sullivan for the next three years.
We also talked again about the pool on Monday night (50 minutes into the meeting). We saw the results of a recent pool survey that the Administration sent out. First, let me say that we got quite a few emails from residents expressing their disappointment on how the pool survey was designed. I shared that view. Despite it's limitations, the survey did reveal that we have a risk of losing significant membership if the Council passes a one time 32% rate increase or if the Council allows a pilot to let a limited number of out of town residents join.
Based on that result it appears we will go with Option 2 which spreads the 32% increase over two years - resulting in a 15% increase next year and a likely 10% increase the year after that. We would continue to use fund balance to cover some of the expected revenue shortfalls. I asked the Administration to present to us an entire package of all of the changes they will make the pool season and their plans to increase pool memberships and revenue. I do not want to approve rate changes until we see the big picture. More on this in January.
We also had a presentation on installing solar panels in most of our municipal parking lots and on some of our municipal buildings. The locations considered included both Municipal Lots 1 and 2, the new Lakeside Avenue lot (which is in development), the Community Center (both building and lots), the pool parking lots, and the wastewater treatment plant buildings. If we put solar in all of those areas, the firm that did the presentation estimates that we can offset 1/4 of our electric bill. The Council had some questions, mainly about replacement costs over time, snow removal and emergency vehicle access. However, I think we have a lot to think about in terms of adding all of this infrastructure and the long term benefit. I would love to hear resident input on the presentation, that you can find here. https://www.veronanj.org/media/Council%20Docs/2024/SOLAR%20PRESENTATION%20-%20Mantis%20Innovation%20and%20DGen.pdf
Other highlights from the meeting are as follows. We applied for additional grant funding for the Everett Field project from the Essex County Community Development Block Grant program for 2025, and we applied for a $40K grant from the same program for 2024 to make ADA improvements to Town Hall and the Community Center. We affirmed the Township Manager's appointment of Detective Joel Martin as the Office of Emergency Management coordinator for a three year term. As a manor of transparency - note that Mayor Tamburro is a Deputy Management Emergency Coordinator, putting him in the unusual position for a Council member of being a subordinate to the position he voted on. On Monday night, we also accepted a grant for body armor of $2,700 and contracted with Groundview LLC for holiday decorations.
Our next meeting on January 6th will be a big one. We are going to review new plans for the Emergency Services building, which has been modified due to some changes to the project and feedback received by the public. I expect a full house in person and online for this critical update.
If you have any comments for the Council, I encourage you to send them to us here: https://www.veronanj.org/councilcontactform.
I hope you all have a healthy holiday season. See you all in 2025.