>> our regular session meeting agenda.
not mentioning that this coming sunday, april 13th is kids opening day at somerset patriots,
and our somerset prosecutor's office will be hosting a child abuse prevention awareness event,
so please come out and get to chance to meet bluey,
which is a cartoon character, and which would have been equivalent of a barney or blues cues back in some of our days.
come out. The game begins at 1:05.
again, child abuse prevention awareness event hosted by the somerset county prosecutor's office,
and you get a chance to meet bluey. Is there a motion to approve the above-listed minutes from
our march 25th meeting? Roll call, please.
>> commissioner drake? >> yes. >> commissioner singleterry? >> yes. >> commissioner sooy. >> yes.
>> deputy director marano? >> yes. >> director robinson? >> yes.
>> the moment we all have been waiting for, 2025 budget presentation.
>> come on. >> get the presentation up.
>> while we're waiting, I would just like to publicly embarrass, I mean, publicly thank.
julia, for a great job. Standing in for our clerk.
you're doing a great job, so thank you. [applause] >> there you go.
I saw your face, julia. [laughter] I saw the moment where you
were wondering I was looking around for it in the house.
good evening, and thank you for giving us
your attention as we set to introduce 2025 budget.
julia, if you can, it.
there we go. As we
start off every year and as I think all of us that work for the county,
we always keep front and center, what the mission statement is.
that is our guiding light, and it is worth repeating and saying it out
loud that we are committed to excellence and innovation, public service, that it's about promoting the well being
of all of our residents and communities by providing effective, efficient, and responsive leadership.
this budget presents programs that continue to provide critical and necessary services.
there are no cuts to services in this budget. But the federal cuts, as commissioner marano had mentioned, are looming.
there's information out there. We will talk a little bit about what we have seen already here in somerset county,
which we have been able to absorb. It's very important, I think, before we look forward that we remember
where we came from and what last year's budget was able to accomplish.
these are just highlights because it would be nearly impossible to
bring everything that we do on a daily basis by the strength of our staff.
we would be here for quite a long time. The key accomplishments of 2024,
we start with human services. When we look at richard hall, we understand that their mission is to be
a recovery oriented and person centered facility.
we looked to last year where we were able to expand services into our gambling disorder support and harm reduction support.
we also had a veterans wellness and job fair that was exceptionally well attended.
that office once again reached new heights of records of 5.8
million dollar in bringing back va benefits right here to our somerset county veterans.
we also saw in human services under volunteer services that they have a new online application,
which actually was really successful because it actually drove new volunteers into our system.
we have over 200 new senior volunteers and 14 new partner agencies.
it's really actually wonderful. Under our aging and disability services,
we served over 26,000 breakfast meals to support food and secure seniors.
this is separate and apart from the meals on wheels, and this is separate and apart from the nutrition and
wellness that we do with our alda care services.
we also realize that it is our belief that we are one community that if we work together,
that we can combat and address the overdose crisis,
and that we have many partners out in the field. Part of that commitment,
we have trained 58 county staff to administer narcan.
we are already out in the field doing that recently, we were at the library, where we did a no cost training to them.
in public works, we celebrated 50 years of public transportation services,
and we had in the past 15 years alone, we provided over four million para-transit trips
and one million public transportation trips.
last year, 6,400 residents drove up to utilize
our free saturday shredding in our e-waste recycling services,
and we actually have one the saturday, I believe, on the 12th.
engineering and planning, relatively new office in the sense of being combined,
but such a strong office, especially the engineering of what they have been doing. I would be remiss if I didn't really start out and say
that I want to acknowledge the success of our engineering department, because it really is the work that they do in the parks,
which is really behind the scenes with our engineering, planning, we'll oversee the design and the management of the construction that
ultimately leads to these beautiful projects that we get to cut ribbons.
in addition, they constructed four bridges. They paved 18.5 miles,
either sit slurry seal or reconstruction. Then there's a list of all of the great park supports that they did from the pool,
to the picker ball courts, to the tennis courts, to the golf courses,
and the new horse barn. We all like the picture with commissioner sooy. Good picture there.
I think this was great. Last year was the third year of the police scholarship program,
which we coordinated with the prosecutor's office, and last year we had five new graduates.
over the past those three years that we did, 12 county residents actually graduated through the program and are in place
today to assure what the goal was to diversify our police departments across our communities,
and you should be very of this effort because I know none, I know no county near or far that actually has done this.
our constitutional officers are always there supporting what we do.
county clerk peter and surrogate jalloh have their mobile outreach services,
and that they both are now using credit cards to integrate some of their purchasing capabilities.
the sheriff russo, launched last year a program, vip vital identification program,
which helps to find missing children.
economic development and office that was started in 2021,
had a very busy year. We launched the wise somerset, which was the very first county in new jersey to do a talent attraction.
we established one of our goals is looking at the cosmetic and personal care industry here in the county,
and because of us, choose new jersey now has cosmetic and personal care as a target state sector.
that we continue to be out in the ground and we welcome our new businesses,
cellares, freshpet, intra-cellular, biocon avnos just to name a few.
we've hosted five major film projects and partnered with barton valley community college,
as we heard earlier to really put the next generation of film lovers into that industry.
lastly, we really pick and choose where we think we need to be
statewide and even nationally to increase the retention of the companies that are here,
and we're having really good success because we picked up sanare bioscience as one of those new investments.
open space, which we know we love. Last year, we surpassed 15,000 acres of preserved land,
which is three quarters of it is undeveloped, and that really cannot be understated.
because it's the protection of the habitat. It removes it from development and it supports
really the overall community health of somerset, county. Culture and heritage always does a great job in giving out grants and funds.
here you can see the amount of money that we awarded or re granted with open space,
historic preservation, the local arts, and the county history partnership funds.
that's always a really nice night when they all come for the checks.
then safety and oem. Another great milestone, I think that deserves recognition is that we've
trained over 1,400 volunteers last year to become first responders,
and that we've achieved, I believe early for the first time, 100% adoption of our 21 municipalities having the operation plans.
in the health department, we were really happy that we saw a problem,
focused on it and actually came up with a solution, which is providing vaccines for children at a satellite clinic,
where we right now are probably over 70 school age children that we have
made sure that are vaccinated and contend to school. In our it, we've moved to a more secure.gov web domain.
they always have our best interests at heart and that necessarily do a lot of good stuff behind the scenes.
at our 911 communication, we expanded to provide dispatch services now for 16 police departments,
including two out of county, which are dunellen and middlessex.
that's the look back. It reminds you of all the good stuff that you have allowed us to do.
as we move forward and some of the stuff that this budget will allow us to do,
I'll start with economic development. We will launch city data,
which is a tool together insights into travel and spending within downtowns
that we will will be able to find of the foot traffic in our visitation at our historic sites,
where our tourism sites are. We think this will help us in advance of the two 50th and fifa.
we'll be able to share that information with our small businesses,
with our business partnership, and with our local municipalities.
we will launch a volunteer database to facilitate corporate and nonprofit partnerships.
this is done in concert with our volunteer services and our business community,
through economic development is always asking, where can they go? How can they give back?
that's becoming a really nice thread to try to help ourselves out there.
we celebrated the launch of new jersey bio futures, which is a clean training program.
while it's being led by rvcc, it's supported with a million dollars from j&j.
we played an integral part in this, which I don't think necessarily got the attention it deserves,
but we quarterbacked the grant. We wrote it here, we quarterbacked it,
and we made sure that it really was what j&j was looking for, which resulted in a million dollars.
we will continue to partner with our municipal leadership to deliver state resources.
the picture here is in montgomery, where we brought the business action center and the eda
out to our municipalities and they bring in their local businesses,
and we make sure that they get registered, that we make sure that they understand all the help that's out there.
when we pivot to tourism, you'll see probably maybe the next meeting or two,
the business partnership will come here, and we will be launching, seated in somerset,
which will be the promoting of the county's agra tourism and how we think that that should really be rolled out.
we're excited to show you where we are. Then we are going to be launching an updated restaurant guide,
which is exceptionally outdated, and we've been working on that pretty diligently and
we are dedicating that space there on our website.
when the world cubs come, and there's interest from different ethnic foods,
people will be able to find it. We've also, by accident,
stumbled upon a lot of restaurants that don't have websites.
we are now in the process of working with the towns and
linking them to the eda because they have a grant that will give them free websites.
we expect that to really be a nice piece that we can come out of that.
engineering and planning just last weekend. Right in this room, we graduated
the inaugural volunteer docent program of 32 residents in preparation of our 250th anniversary.
that's been a really wonderful program that started with an idea. We received a grant to make it happen,
and we have now the first class with a lot of excitement.
the department will be finalizing cross acceptance for the state plan in cooperation with our 21 municipalities.
that's not an easy task, and it's taken a lot of focus, and as the director knows who sits on the state plan committee,
but it's very important work. We will continue to invest in our bridges.
we will continue to invest in our infrastructure. One of the biggest projects will be the hvacc system that you call.
a nice project that I thought deserves a little recognition, we will complete the final phase of the van horne house exterior repairs.
also in under engineering and planning. They will continue the county wide annual improvements which cover
traffic safety and county roadway, reconstruction and resurfacing.
we will complete the new entrance and driveway at washington valley park,
which again is another initiative to 250th. I don't know when we started if we thought we would make it,
but we're going to make it in the time to spare for that project.
then we will be seeing actual really great improvements to two parks with new playgrounds.
in 911, because we believe that we should never stop
supporting and investing in our employees and especially our front line workers,
we'll be a launch of a quality assurance program to enhance customer service and improve our call takers training and our capabilities.
nit for all of the employees sitting in this room.
they completely understand that we are trying to digitize our records with record retention,
move away from keeping paper, move away from the thousands of boxes that we have to
store while also remaining in compliance with record retention.
this is a real focus that we're going to stay on, and I think we'll have great success.
in public works, we are really excited about where
the transitgo app is taking us to serve our needs and this data,
which is going to be in real time, which will be used to analyze the routes and make
recommendations so we make sure that we are really putting buses where people are.
we have the additional of curbside recycling trucks.
>> health, we'll see the accreditation from the public health accreditation board,
which is pursuing this demonstrates our commitment to delivery of high-quality coordinated and equitable programs and services.
the process of achieving this accreditation is not easy, and it improves accountability and performance,
providing the 10 essential public health services and the foundational public health services that aim to
improve our health outcomes here in somerset county. In new jersey, out of 104 local health departments,
only seven have or were accredited or accredited since 2015,
so that to go off. Then, under human services,
which does so much and probably now more than ever,
when we deal with food security, we need a county focus cohesive strategy to really address food security.
that was done by creating a food security coalition, which we did not have before,
that actually just had a first meeting several weeks ago. We are really watching our two employees that are embedded in the food banks,
which are really providing the link with signing up those most vulnerable with the services that they need,
and they are very busy, and those two young women with commissioner singleterry are doing excellent, excellent work.
we will see the completion of the onsite pharmacy, which will serve their clients.
then, we have our opioid settlement fund money,
which is really doing fantastic stuff. You've seen the presentation before.
but some of the highlights will be small project grants that we will be able to give.
I think it's up to $5,000 to local groups that are doing good work out there and that really money will help them.
we will launch the mobile harm reduction or a heal,
and heal is harm, education, assistance, and live safer.
this is a van that will give resources to reduce the impact of
substance abuse and high-risk behaviors in safe, non-stigmatized approaches.
it really is about how each of us can be responsible for healing our community.
this is really something that we're looking forward to getting out into the community.
I really want to thank all of the staff that is here because it really is a reflection of the good work 24-25,
or since I've been here for the last couple of years. Is really shining a light on them,
which is really taking your mission and your goals that you set forth through me each year and making sure that it actually works.
I get to do that good stuff, and yvonne gets to come up and really talk about some of
the 2025 directives and then get into the numbers and where we're going to land with tonight's introduction.
>> I get to put you to sleep here.
I'm going to talk about the numbers with regard to the budget for this year.
as always, we have our directives, and this budget is budget directives,
maintained our aaa bond rating. It funds all existing services.
it maintains a fund balance, and it funds all of our statutory obligations,
which include our debt service pension and health benefits,
liability insurance, and things along those lines.
it presents a well thought out budget that's funded by a sensible tax rate with no surprises for the taxpayer.
this next chart gives you a tax dollar breakdown of where,
out of one dollar, $0.15 is being paid towards your county taxes.
so that's what that represents. Just as a point of reference in 2023,
it was still $0.15, so that has remained consistent year to year, and it's been flat.
as you know, or some two of the commissioners had
mentioned the grant funding from the federal government has been,
I would say, slightly unpredictable in some areas.
we knew that going into this budget cycle
that the covid funding was ending at the end of 2024,
and we had prudently phased in some of
the expenses that we had used covid funding to cover,
such as the american rescue plan funding and covid dollars that we had received.
but we had most recently received some short-term notice
regarding some grants, particularly in health,
mental health, and I believe the office on aging,
where we got a notification
that were not going to receive the grant funding that we were anticipating.
we took a minute, took a pause, and we pivoted,
and it does impact where the numbers of
this budget lands because we had to make up the difference in some of those instances.
moving forward, we are trying to keep an eye on what grant funding is.
hopefully, we won't get any more surprises, but just know that this budget does cover so that, like cole said,
we can still maintain all of the services that we had originally planned to provide to our residents.
I can talk about that. With regard to,
with the tax dollar breakdown, there isn't a slide for this,
but the controllable costs of the county represent 32% of the budget.
then there's the 68% that's we call obligated costs,
which we are obligated to pay,
and we don't necessarily have control over that. Some of the obligated costs include things like
our we have an emergency way back in 2021 with hurricane ida,
we declared emergency, and we had to make this [inaudible] revenue.
we had to make a pen payment on the emergency every year to pay that down.
nice thing is that this is the last year that we will have to make that payment.
some of the other obligated costs are our debt service.
we're already committed to whatever debt we have issued, that we have to make those payments,
things like pension payments, our insurance costs,
our health costs, those we are obligated to fund.
as I mentioned, at 68%,
that represents 68% of the budget. Moving on to revenue,
if you can go back a slide. Moving on to the revenue slide. This represents the revenue that we anticipate bringing in this year.
I want to point out that under the interest income,
we are anticipating less interest, and I think for obvious reasons,
interest rates are declining so we are anticipating
less interest than we had actually received in or taken in last year.
then, also under special items of revenue.
that is also down. That includes the big item under that item is the roberton valley community college,
the bateman center, the debt service on that.
the commitment was that the roberton valley community college would pay up to a certain amount.
they have met their commitment, and so that is the reason why that revenue item has been decreased as well.
under notable increases on the appropriation side, the insurance,
which includes both health insurance and our liability insurance,
is up 8.56% over last year.
for health insurance alone, the increase year over year from
2024-2025 that has by itself been a 15% increase.
our debt service is up 10.38%, and pension 4.36%.
then, our affiliated agencies, which include the park commission,
the port social services, barton valley community college, and vo tech are combined up by 2.74%.
I should note that the park commission and the barton valley community college,
we were able to negotiate with them and they have come in flat with their budget.
they've been supportive of our needs
to try to stabilize the budget as well.
under our expenditures, the total expenditure increase is up 4.81%.
pretty much, I think I just ran through most of the cost drivers on this list.
you can see county departments are only up 3.51%,
and then the bulk of our cost drivers are things that are obligated,
like the insurance and debt service.
those are the two big ones on that list.
we're always about building a healthy surplus.
last year, we were able to regenerate surplus in the amount of $2,893,884.
we utilized 24 million to support the budget,
but we were able to regenerate the 24 million and have an additional 2.8 to add to our surplus.
at the end of the day, the net tax rate effect on the average home in 2025.
if the average value of the home is $590,863,
you will see an increase of $79.08 in your 2025 tax bill from the county.
then finally, living in somerset is a great investment.
rateables are moving at a very fast pace,
and they are, I think that's about six billion or so.
they're up to $85 plus billion in rateables,
which is a pretty significant jump from 2024.
I don't know if anyone has any questions.
>> I don't have any questions, I would say. I do have a comment. Thank you all for meeting the needs of the residents and dealing with
the directors that were given and handing us a budget that we could be proud of. Thank you.
>> thank you to
all the department heads and all the staff that really compromise to make this possible.
every budget season, we go back and forth quite a few times because everyone has a wish list,
and of course, we're using taxpayer dollars, and we're all taxpayer,
so we try to be as conscientious as possible about that. We're not asking you to pay anything that we're not personally paying as well.
we always take that under consideration. Colleen. Thank you because I know with the finance committee,
there was quite a bit of overtime that went into this with a lot of the other constraints that we face,
and we're not the only local government that's also having the same conversations,
but I would say it's fair given all of our externalities that came into play. Thank you.
>> I want to say good job. I know it's tough anticipating what some of the cuts may be,
but I think you did a really seller job trying to anticipate that,
respond to the comments coming in, knowing that we have a great deal of services we provide our residents,
and being able to accommodate them just the same,
I think is really important. Obviously, more to come with any future potential changes or cuts.
but I think being able to provide services, especially in the human services department,
which is really important for so many of our residents. I want to say a great job for that, keeping it all.
>> in that regard, you have various resolutions that need to be adopted.
>> I just wanted to echo what the other commissioners had said. Thank the finance committee for what they've done and the staff,
obviously, yvonne and her team. But also just make mention that this budget in the initial thought is a lot higher.
you guys did a lot of cost savings and cutting and very interesting techniques to get this to the level it is.
I just want the public to know, this came in a lot higher, and we did a lot of cutting to get it to a more reasonable number here.
great job. Thank you. Counsel. >> I'm sorry. There are several resolutions that need to be adopted.
first one is 790 authorization, to exceed the county budget appropriation limits and to establish
a cap bank and set in the public hearing for the budget for may 13,
2025 at 06:00 pm. Authorization for reading of the 2025 budget by title on only.
that is important otherwise, we'll be here forever. Authorization for equal employment opportunity commission certification aeoc,
authorize in somerset county to exceed the county entity budget request cap for the surrogate.
authorize in somerset county to exceed the county entity budget request cap for the board of taxation.
authorizing somerset county to exceed the county entity budget request cap for the prosecutor,
that is, 790-795.
>> roll call, please. >> commissioner drake. >> yes.
>> commissioner singleterry. >> yes. >> commissioner sooy. >> yes. >> deputy director marano?
>> yes. >> director robinson? >> yes. We have 25-796,
2025 somerset county budget, motion to introduce the 2025 budget and set a public hearing for may 13th at 6:00 pm.
>> motion. >> second. >> roll call, please.
>> commissioner drake. >> yes. >> commissioner singleterry? >> yes. >> commissioner sooy.
>> deputy director marano. >> yes. >> director robinson. >> yes. We have two capital bond ordinances, ordinance 25-797,
and ordinance providing an appropriation of $33,654,438 for various improvements and purposes for and by the county of somerset,
and authorizing issuance of $31,971,716 in bonds or notes for financing part of the cost thereof.
then we also have the public hearing 25-797, setting the public hearing for bond ordinance 25-797.
is there a motion to pass ordinance 25-797 on first reading,
and set the public hearing for april 22nd, 2025 at 6:00 p.m.
>> second. >> roll call, please? >> commissioner drake.
>> yes. >> commissioner singleterry. >> yes.
>> commissioner sooy. >>yes. >> deputy director marano.
>> yes. >> director robinson? >> yes. We have ordinance 25-798,
ordinance providing an appropriation of $3,004,932 for the improvement of
barton valley community college and authorizing the issuance of $3,004,932 county college bonds
or notes of the county of somerset for financing such appropriation.
we also have the public hearing 25-798 setting the public hearing for bond ordinance 25-798.
is there a motion to pass the ordinance and first reading and get the public hearing set for april 22nd,
2025 at 6:00 pm. >> motion.
>> second. >> roll call, please? >> commissioner drake. >> yes. >> commissioner singleterry.
>> yes. >> commissioner sooy. >> yes. >> deputy director marano.
>> yes. >> director robinson? >> yes. Capital ordinance 25-799,
ordinance appropriating $650,000 from the capital improvement fund for
various capital improvements in and by the county of somerset, public hearing 25-799, setting the public hearing for ordinance 25-799.
is there a motion to pass the ordinance on first reading and set the public hearing for april 22nd,
2025 at 6:00 pm. >> so moved. >> second.
>> roll call, please? >> commissioner drake. >> yes. >> commissioner singleterry.
>> yes. >> commissioner sooy. >> yes. >> deputy director marano?
>> yes. >> director robinson? >> yes. Open space acquisition 25-700 authorizing the purchase of
real property known as block 9 po lot 2-04 in the township of franklin,
owned by marcus nolton. Total acquisition costs not to see exceed $669,900.
>> motion moved. >> second. >> roll call, please. >> commissioner drake? >> yes.
>> commissioner singleterry? >> yes. >> commissioner sooy. >> yes. >> deputy director marano.
>> yes. >> director robinson? >> yes. Is there a motion to approve resolutions 25-701 through 25-714?
>> moved. >> second. >> roll call, please?
>> commissioner drake. >> yes. >> commissioner singleterry? >> commissioner sooy.
>> yes. >> deputy director marano. >> yes. >> director robinson? >> yes. Is there a motion to approve resolution 25-715 through 25-730?
>> moved. >> second. >> roll call, please. >> commissioner drake.
>> yes. >> commissioner singleterry. >> yes. >> commissioner sooy. >> yes. >> deputy director marano?
>> yes. >> director robinson? >> yes. Motion to approve resolution 25-731 through 25-762.
>> so moved. >> second. >> roll call, please?
>> commissioner drake. >> yes. >> commissioner singleterry? >> yes. >> commissioner sooy.
>> yes. >> deputy director marano? >> yes. >> director robinson? >> yes. Is there a motion to approve resolution 25-763, excuse me,
resolutions 25-7632 through 25-771?
>> moved. >> second. >> roll call, please? >> commissioner drake.
>> yes. >> commissioner singleterry. >> yes. >> commissioner sooy. >> yes. >> deputy director marano?
>> yes. >> director robinson? Yes. This is a public portion
of this meeting where anyone from the public wishing to speak. Come forward, state your name and address.
you have five minutes, no yielding of time, no coming up a second time. And we also entertain questions and comments
from previously submitted e mails and telephone. Is there a motion to open to public?
>> second. >> all in favor. >> aye. >> ayes have it. Anyone from the public wishing to speak.
no offense, I don't know, but if you are a minor, you do not need to enter,
give us your address. >> good evening commissioners.
my name is masa kamar, and I live in washington new jersey. I'm a high school junior at rs somerset,
on the washington green team and a member of the executive board at the new jersey students coalition.
I'm here to urge you all to pass a resolution in favor of bill acr 119 in the assembly and acr 43 in the senate,
which is dictate the new jersey greene. Somerset county had the opportunity to join franklin township,
both in somerset and 100 counties, essex county, burlington county, and a number of other towns.
I e-mailed a fact sheet to all the commissioners that has the links to
all the resolutions passed by all of these parents that you could look at if you so desire.
the green amendment could be a valid resolution and an upcoming november election.
if both the new jersey senate and assembly hold hearings and up members then if passed by more than 50% of voters,
it could be added to the new jersey constitution with the following wording.
every person has a right to a clean and healthy environment, including pure water, clean air,
a safe climate, ecologically healthy habitats, and to the preservation of the natural and seen qualities of the environment.
the state shall not infringe upon these rights. The state's natural resources.
among them, its waters, air, flora, bana, climate and public lands are the common property of all the people,
including both present and future generations. The state shall serve as the trustee of these resources.
I shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all people.
basically, what this does, that it puts environmental rights on par with rights
such as the right to bear arms and the right to special speech. This is not a radical idea in any way.
montana and pennsylvania have had this in their constitution since the 1970s,
and new york passed their environmental rights amendment in 2021.
additionally, the green amendment is not about politics. It has bipartisan support.
recently our republican assembly woman matsikoudis, submitted her application for co sponsorship.
it's about prioritizing clean air and water, which of the rights, not a privilege or a luxury.
prioritizing the environment now is important not only for today's residents but for our future residents in wild life.
goring about the climate issue is something as you can just to my generation as social media is.
I remember watching me video about global warming in kindergarten class. My little brother just did a project on the conservation.
currently microplastics are in our blood, our organs, and even in our babies.
climate change is accelerating and our biodiversity is. We're seeing more and more problems pop up,
but we're not seeing enough real or far reaching solutions. European amendment could be illegal to
a larger global warming mitigation strategy. It grew groups.
for example, a minority community that's being targeted for toxic facility or a large warehouse a legal pathway to protect their homes.
it basically prevents harm from happening. Somerset county currently has eight superfund sites.
if someone like a corporation tries security another one, the green amendment can stop it or delay it
until it's proven that it won't contaminate the air or water supply.
now, I know that there are existing and wonderful environmental regulations in place today.
but they don't provide as much protection and security as a constitutional.
a regulation can be ignored or rescinded quite easily,
but a state constitutional right is much more secure. It's terrifying to think that things are about to get even worse.
as the federal government is actively dismantling environmental regulations and detections that took decades to establish.
last week, there's an executive order opening up half of our natural forests to logging.
just a few hours ago, president trump signed an executive order that will boost coal production.
the green amendment, that will be able to protect our states natural resources.
this amendment will bring people out to vote and be popular in. In new york, their amendment was passed by over 70% of voters.
let's allow our residents to vote on whether a healthy environment is
a constitutional right by passing a resolution in somerset county week,
signaling to our legislators that this is an issue that their constituents care about so that they work towards getting it on the ballot in november.
somerset county has made great steps to sustainability, thanks to the efforts of this council and many others.
this is just another time for you to further show that you care about new jersey's youth and wildlife.
show us that you will take bold action now when it matters to us.
somerset county by example, by standing for the people, for the future, and for our right to a healthy environment.
as the resolution is supported. Thank you.
>> before anyone says anything. It was on tonight's agenda. >> I was going to say. I wanted to say terrific job. Great job.
on your presentation, the information you provided as well as the delivery,
I think very factual, important information the public needs to hear,
as was just mentioned by our county council. This resolution was on the agenda for tonight's agenda,
and I believe we all adopted it unanimously. It has been adopted. But I want to say great job.
it was so important to come out and speak about this important topic. Thank you very much.
>> you said it and we listened to her. >> because I think part of the discussion had always been,
would we adopt this amendment? I know you reached out.
there was some e-mail exchange, what have you, but it is important to you come here and really let the public know what it's all about.
I think you explained it very well. Thank you. >> thank you. [applause]
>> are you going to law school? [laughter]
>> says the lawyer. >> you get ice cream on your way out.
>> yes. >> harry. There you go.
your three minutes, my friend. >> hi, everybody. Harry bos logger,
ristown, new jersey, franklin township. I'd just like to say that I think the budget,
I worked for hands across new jersey and we stood for honest and efficient government.
twenty years ago, we worked really hard. To bring things under control.
unfortunately, I don't think we were very successful, but now with the county,
I think we should try to be as conservative as we can,
and inflation is caused by too much government spending.
the point is this that we have to grow the private sector.
we're in competition with the chinese, and we have to have the private sector.
we need them to create the real wealth in the nation, and it's important.
I'll tell you the truth, I've been in contact with the white house with the president and well,
anyway, I'm talking about new jersey and bring things under control,
spending and everything else. I feel it's my job to make my voice heard and just say, like,
I just want to honest and efficient government cut spending and cut waste and new jersey,
we were fighting $11 billion budget now last year was 56 billion.
we got a lot of work to do. I'm hoping that president trump gets on it here and cuts
to new jersey because I told them the legal governments from the bottom up,
not from the top down, and I want to be represented as a citizen,
not as the subject. Well, anyway as a veteran,
I'm very disappointed with the way this country has gone. I was very disappointed with losing a war in vietnam.
we fought a war to win. I fought a war to win. I didn't fight a war to lose.
one thing about harry truman, he did the job. He went to end of war, he did.
world war ii only lasted 4.5 years. The vietnam war lasted from 65-75.
people didn't know what they're doing. That's why we lost the war.
many veterans commit suicide, and I understand it because they feel like,
what the hell did we do? But let's all pull together and work together to get government under
control and beat the chinese before they kick our ass,
that's all I want to say. >> thank you, harry. >> have a good evening. >> you too. >> bye.
>> hearing nothing else, seeing nothing else, is the motion to close the public portion of this meeting? All in favor.
>> aye. >> ayes have it. We will go into executive session, coming out,
not making any decisions we adjourn immediately from executive session, is that correct?
>> that is correct. We need to go into executive session to discuss the purchase and acquisition of
various projects in raton manville and potentially hillsboro.
we will not take any direct action. With regards to that,
I do need a motion pursuant to the provisions of the open public meeting act to
go into closed session for the purposes discussing the possible acquisition of land.
>> so move. >> all in favor. >> aye.
>> aye's have it. Good night and be well. Great job. [applause]