COUNCIL PUBLIC MEETING MINUTES - October 30, 2008

The Special Public Meeting of the Mount Olive Township Council was called to Order at 12:00 pm by presiding President Greenbaum with the Pledge of Allegiance.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE & MOMENT OF REFLECTION

OPEN PUBLIC MEETINGS ACT ANNOUNCEMENT
According to the Open Public Meetings Act, adequate notice of this meeting has been given to the Mount Olive Chronicle. Notice has been posted at the Municipal Building, 204 Flanders-Drakestown Road, Mount Olive Township, New Jersey and notices were sent to those requesting the same.

ROLL CALL

Present: Mr. Roman, Mrs. Labow, Mr. Tepper, Mr. Greenbaum, Mr. Rattner

Absent: Mr. Perkins, Mr. Tobey

Also Present: Sherry Maniscalco, CFO; Lisa Lashway, Township Clerk; Bill Sohl, Business Administrator

Mr. Greenbaum: Alright, let the record reflect that we’re meeting in special session today. Our meeting of Tuesday evening, I guess it was the 28th of October, was cancelled as a result of an emergency, unexpected snowstorm which we had a power outage in the building, and travel throughout the Township was extremely difficult. There were several emergent matters on the Agenda that evening which actually need to be dealt with this week, and thus the need for this public meeting arose to deal only with those emergent matters. Do you have anything to add to that?

Mrs. Lashway: That’s correct.

Mr. Greenbaum: Okay.

Mrs. Lashway: And a notice has been provided to all of the newspapers and radio stations.

CONSENT RESOLUTIONS AGENDA:

Resolutions on the Consent Agenda List are considered to be routine and non-controversial by the Township Council and will be approved by one motion (one vote). There will be no separate discussion or debate on each of these resolutions except for the possibility of brief clarifying statements that may be offered. If one or more Council member requests, any individual resolution on the Consent Agenda may be removed from the Consent Agenda List and acted on separately.

CONSENT RESOLUTIONS

1. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount Olive Authorizing a Change Order with Dave Bogart for Stabilization of the Seward House. PDF Resolution

2. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount Olive Authorizing a Professional Services Agreement with Tom Hitchins for Architectural Services in Connection with the Stabilization of the Seward House. PDF Resolution

3. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount Olive Authorizing a Change Order with Tom Hitchins, Architect for Stabilization of the Seward House. PDF Resolution

4. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount Olive Authorizing Additional Materials and Equipment for Continued Stabilization of the Seward House. PDF Resolution

Mr. Greenbaum: This evening, this afternoon we have four matters on Consent Resolutions. Does anyone wish to have any of the four matters removed? Do you have something to add Mr. Sohl?

Mr. Sohl: No, I just want to thank the Council for taking the opportunity on obviously a difficult situation with weather and everything else being what it has been. Kathy is here to answer any immediate questions.

Mr. Greenbaum: Well, nobody has asked to have any of the resolutions removed. At this point I’ll have a motion to move the Consent Resolutions by Mr. Roman, please.

Mr. Roman: I make a motion that we move Consent Resolutions 1 through 4.

Mrs. Labow: Second.

PUBLIC PORTION ON CONSENT RESOLUTIONS - none

COUNCIL COMMENTS ON CONSENT RESOLUTIONS

Mr. Greenbaum: It’s been moved and seconded. I’ll open it up to the public to anyone who wishes to have a discussion on any Consent Resolution. Seeing none, are there any Council questions? Seeing none, Roll Call. Mr. Rattner?

Mr. Rattner: I just wanted to say that these only total about $13,000 all related to the stabilization of the Steward House. I think with the snowstorm that we just got that was unexpected, I don’t think anybody could have planned, and it shows that we have to get everything buttoned up for the winter. We have a lot of money already invested and this is something that has to be done and has to be done as soon as possible.

Mr. Greenbaum: Thank you, any other comments? Seeing none, Roll Call.

ROLL CALL – Passed Unanimously

Mr. Greenbaum: Any Old Business? Administrative Matters, I’m sorry.

ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS

Mr. Sohl: No, just thank you for your quick attention to this. We appreciate it.

OLD BUSINESS

Mr. Greenbaum: Any Old Matters?

Mrs. Labow: I just wanted to, I know we talked about it earlier. Is there any way at all that we can move the Bill List to get that situation…?

Mr. Greenbaum: Without legal counsel being here and without Lisa telling is that it would be appropriate, I don’t feel comfortable in moving the Bill List.

Mrs. Labow: Okay, I just wanted to make sure and get it on the record.

Mrs. Maniscalco: I have a thought. I don’t know if you’re going to be okay with this. We can technically release whatever, like checks that are under $2,500. Does anybody have a problem with that if we do that at least to get those out?

Mrs. Lashway: You have full authority to do that.

Mrs. Maniscalco: We do, but I always like to check with everybody beforehand.

Mr. Greenbaum: I don’t think in light of the weather condition, needs to be…, anything under $2,500 no one sitting here has a problem with. I can’t speak for other members that are not here today.

Mrs. Maniscalco: Okay, then we’ll just put, I’m going to leave, I’m not going to void the checks and re-issue them with a different date and lose all the paper. We’ll just basically leave the Bill List as it is then for the next meeting if everybody’s okay with that.

Mr. Greenbaum: Mr. Rattner?

Mr. Rattner: We also have five other categories of checks that can go out. Those are still going to go out, too?

Mrs. Maniscalco: Yes, those are fine, Steve.

Mr. Rattner: Like utilities, tax stuff, okay.

Mrs. Maniscalco: Yes, exactly. We’re okay.

Mr. Rattner: That’s good because we don’t want that.

Mrs. Maniscalco: Yes, we’re okay with that stuff.

Mr. Rattner: Is there any other items on there that will cause us a problem that you know of?

Mrs. Maniscalco: No, I spoke to Colleen. She said we’re fine, but I thought at least if I can get the smaller ones out when we do that, because that’s really the bulk of what’s…

Mr. Rattner: And we got the bigger ones which are the utility bills and stuff like that.

Mrs. Maniscalco: Yes, and those are fine.

Mrs. Lashway: By ordinance, you do not need approval for any payment under $2,500.

Mrs. Maniscalco: Yes.

Mr. Greenbaum: I think Sherry knew that but she’s just saying she wants to…

Mr. Tepper: She’s just asking to confirm the right.

Mrs. Maniscalco: Well, I mean before we got here we only used to put on the Bill List anything over $2,500 and we’d just change it so everybody knew what we were paying. Like I said, I just want to make sure everybody’s alright with it. Thank you.

Mr. Tepper: That’s fine.

NEW BUSINESS

Mr. Greenbaum: Any New Business this evening?

Mrs. Labow: This afternoon.

Mr. Greenbaum: This afternoon. I’m sorry. Any Legal Matters? Anyone from the public who wishes to be heard on any issue? Any Council Comments? Mr. Sohl. You’ve been overly talkative today, Mr. Sohl.

LEGAL MATTERS – none

PUBLIC PORTION – none

COUNCIL COMMENTS

Mr. Sohl: I’ll just mention that I got an update from JCP&L. There are less than 100 Budd Lake residents without power according to their…

Mr. Rattner: And when is that, those 100, because I am one of those 100 without power.

Mr. Tepper: The Firehouse is ready for people who can go there.

Mr. Sohl: And their records indicate four in Flanders.

Mr. Rattner: No it was last night. I think I get a free meal.

Mr. Tepper: Not meals, a place to stay.

Mr. Sohl: Four in Flanders.

Mr. Rattner: Yes, but they didn’t give you an idea of when they think they would clear them up?

Mr. Sohl: Well, they’ve been predicting by the end of today.

Mr. Rattner: Okay, because yesterday you told me by the end of yesterday, and then I got the reverse telephone call from JCP&L saying if I was cold to go to a Firehouse.

Mr. Sohl: No, that was ours. We did that.

Mr. Rattner: Oh, that was you. Oh, okay.

Mr. Tepper: You don’t get fed, but there is a place for you to stay.

Mr. Rattner: Well, there were no cars there. It was locked up last night around 10:00 when I had to go out and get more gas.

Mr. Sohl: Well, we had no takers as of 9:00 yesterday evening.

Mr. Rattner: That’s what I figured.

Mr. Greenbaum: Alright, any other comments? Seeing none, I’ll take a motion to adjourn.

ADJOURNMENT - Motion was made and seconded, all in favor and none opposed, the meeting was adjourned at 12:06 pm.

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Raymond T. Perkins, Council President

I, LISA M. LASHWAY, Township Clerk of the Township of Mount Olive do hereby certify that the foregoing Minutes is a true and correct copy of the Minutes approved at a legally convened meeting of the Mount Olive Township Council duly held on November 10, 2008.

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Lisa Lashway, Township Clerk
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