Township of Mansfield

TOWNSHIP OF MANSFIELD

BURLINGTONCOUNTY

MEETING MINUTES

MARCH 13, 2014

Executive Session

6:00 PM

The regular executive session meeting of the Mansfield Township Committee was held on the above shown date with the following in attendance: Mayor Robert Higgins, Committeeman Sean Gable, Committeewoman Janice DiGiuseppe, Committeeman Arthur Puglia, Solicitor Michael Magee, CFO Joseph Monzo, and Clerk Linda Semus. Deputy Mayor Clark was not in attendance.

Mayor Higgins called the meeting to order followed by the following opening statement.

Public notice of this meeting pursuant to the Open Public Meetings Act NJSA 10:4-6 to 10:4-21 has been satisfied. Notice of this meeting was properly given in the annual notice, which was adopted by the Mansfield Township Committee on January 2, 2014. Said Resolution was transmitted to the Burlington County Times and the Trenton Times, filed with the Clerk of the Township of Mansfield, posted on the official bulletin board at the Municipal Complex, filed with the members of this body and mailed to each person who has prepaid any charge fixed for such service. All of the mailing, posting, and filing having been accomplished as of January 8, 2014.

A motion was offered by Committeeman Puglia and second by Committeewoman DiGiuseppe to go into executive session by adoption of the following Resolution. Motion carried.

RESOLUTION 2012-3-1

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING CLOSED EXECUTIVE SESSION

WHEREAS, Section 7 of the Open Public Meetings Act, Chapter 213, P.L. 1975 [NJSA 10:4-12(B)] permits the exclusion of the public from a meeting in certain circumstances; and,

WHEREAS, this public body is of the opinion that such circumstances presently exists;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Township Committee of the Township of Mansfield, County of Burlington and State of New Jersey as follows:

1. The public shall be excluded from discussion of, action on and reviewing the Minutes of the hereinafter specified matters.
2. The general nature of the subject matter to be discussed is as follows: litigation, specifically

Mansfield Residents for Accurate Home Evaluation v. MansfieldTownship, personnel, and contract negotiations.

1. It is anticipated at this time that the above subject matter will be made public when the matters

have been resolved and approved for release by the Township Solicitor.

Regular Meeting

7:30PM

The regular meeting of the Mansfield Township Committee was held on the above shown date with the following in attendance Mayor Robert Higgins, Committeeman Sean Gable, Committeewoman Janice DiGiuseppe, Committeeman Arthur Puglia, CFO Joseph Monzo, Attorney Michael Magee, Engineer Tim Staszewski, Clerk Linda Semus and Deputy Clerk Barbara Crammer. Deputy Mayor Clark was not in attendance.

A motion was offered by Committeeman Puglia and second by Committeeman Gable come out of executive session.

Attorney Magee explained that matters discussed in executive session litigation, specifically Mansfield Residents for Accurate Home Evaluation v. MansfieldTownship, personnel, and contract negotiations.

ENGINEER’S REPORT

Engineer Staszewski updated the application to the DOT for White Pine Road which is substantially complete. He asked Clerk Semus to prepare a Resolution authorizing the application to be submitted for the next meeting. This is to be attached to the application.

Contracts were received back from the contractor for the CDBG project for the door opener on the Administration Side. Once the contract is execute, a pre-construction meeting can be scheduled. The project should be on-going in April.

Doug Borgstrom reviewed and approved the water service application which was endorsed by Clerk Semus and will be submitted to NJ American Water tomorrow. He advised the Committee that initial pressure readings were received from NJ American Water indicating the building will need a small fire pump, somewhere between 10 and 20 horse power. He recommended reaching out to ABJ Company who currently inspects our sprinkler system to have a pump sized for this system. Clerk Semus questioned if this is still going to take 6 months for this process to be completed. Mayor Higgins noted that we will be slowed down since we need to go out for the water lines and then asked if we were in the position to do this. Engineer Staszewski said they have a conceptual plan established and it will be part of the application to NJ American Water. We should work with them on any modifications necessary on our plan. Since we do not have a bid specification ready, Engineer Staszewski said they will have to move forward with establishing a bid specification and, once that is done, we can go out to bid. Clerk Semus said she spoke to Mr. Borgstrom who is concerned that, because of the delay, we do not have the station up and running. Therefore he would like to have someone look at the system to see if we can get it going. Clerk Semus is to ask Mr. Borgstrom to call Mayor Higgins tomorrow.

Engineer Staszewski said that, if the application is made to NJ American Water tomorrow, they have asked for a two month review period for their Engineering Department which will put us into May although they did say they would expedite the application. If we were to start on bid specifications, he felt we could go to bid sometime early to mid next month. Allowing a few weeks for the public bid process, it should coincide with the NJ American Water review time, sometime early to mid May. Award of contract should take place probably in late May with construction about 30 to 45 days after that.

Committeeman Gable asked when the deadline was on the DOT grant application. Engineer Staszewski said there is no deadline as it is on a rolling basis. Since we are applying at such a late date, Committeeman Gable asked what our chances were in receiving the funding. Engineer Staszewski explained they look at projects from last year that are completed to see what pool of money is left over and re-allocate that money to this year’s projects. He felt they need pressure from us to see that it gets awarded.

A motion was offered by Committeeman Puglia and second by Committeeman Gable to accept the Engineer’s Report. Motion carried.

FINANCE

CFO Monzo said the following resolution is a requirement that has to go along with the introduction of our budget. Based on the way we raise our school taxes which is the fiscal method, the state required this resolution be adopted before we adopt our budget because it is part of the budget review process.

A motion was offered by Committeeman Puglia and second by Committeewoman DiGiuseppe to adopt the following Resolution 2013-3-2. Motion carried on a Roll Call Vote, recorded as follows:

AYE:PUGLIA, DIGIUSEPPE, GABLE, HIGGINS

NAY:NONEABSENT: CLARKABSTAIN: NONE
a.

RESOLUTION 2014-3-2

RESOLUTION DEFERRING SCHOOL TAX

WHEREAS, the governing body of a municipality is permitted to defer school taxes amounting to not more than50% of the total school tax levy; and

WHEREAS, it is the desire of the Township Committee of the Township of Mansfield to defer $2,385,700 local district school tax amounting to representing 23.23 % of the 2012-2013 local district tax levy;

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the Township Committee of the Township of Mansfield in the County of Burlington and the State of New Jersey that the 2012-2013 local district school tax levy be deferred in the amount of $ 2,385,700.

CFO Monzo read the following statement into the record:

“The 2014 budget being introduced tonight is a collaborative effort with the depts. and the governing body.

Several weeks ago I presented to the governing body a draft budget based on the requests of the depts., along with other non- departmental expense such as health benefits, debt service and other statutory expenses. The committee reviewed this document and met with dept. heads where warranted.

Last week we held a budget workshop in this room to make adjustments to that draft document. The result of that meeting is the budget to be introduced tonight. The introduced budget has a local tax rate of 44.11 cents. This is an increase of 1 cent from last year. For every 100,000 of AV the local increase is $ 10 per year. The introduced budget reflects the committee’s desires for 2014 as follows:

-The funding of a PT admin position

-A decrease in police overtime

-a significant increase in snow removal for both the regular and condo reimbursement budgets

-a full year of private trash tick up

-a reduction in capital improvement down payment

-an small increase in non reimbursed engineering expenses

-an increase to fund the architectural services for the civic club

-a decrease in vehicle maintenance as a result of the sanitation privatization.

The budget will be scheduled for public hearing and adoption on April 23rd”

CFO Monzo felt the above list was the highlights from the meeting last week. The budget has to be introduced before March 16th and will be scheduled for public hearing and adoption on April 23. At that time, adjustments can be made, if necessary. He explained that the State has revalued the pension systems so the original bills received in October and due April 1st are probably going to be reduced about 10%. This will amount to about $30,000. CFO Monzo recommended introducing the budget at this meeting with the original number and, if we need to amend that appropriation downward, we do that at the public hearing.

Mayor Higgins referred to e’mail from some Committee Members inquiring about the trust funds and how they affect the current fund, plus some recordings on some trust fund accounts. He felt those concerns are addressed before we try to adjust the budget. CFO Monzo said he has the document to e’mail out. CFO Monzo said that every town has several trust funds which are called Dedication by Riders which mean that the revenue and expenses for that dedicated trust fund do not appear in the budget document at all. Trust funds are dedicated for a specific purpose.

Committeeman Puglia felt that the one cent increase is due to the snow. CFO Monzo agreed that it is almost all for the snow as we spent abut $75,000 this year compared to about $20,000 last year.

A motion was offered by Committeeman Puglia and second by Committeeman Gable to adopt Resolution 2014-3-3. Motion carried on a Roll Call Vote, recorded as follows:

AYE:PUGLIA, GABLE, DIGIUSEPPE, HIGGINS

NAY:NONEABSENT:CLARKABSTAIN: NONE

b.RESOLUTION 2014-3-3

Municipal Budget ofthe Township ofMansfield, County OfBurlingtonforthe Fiscal Year 2014

Township Of Mansfield [Code 0318], BurlingtonCounty - 2014 Budget

MUNICIPAL BUDGET NOTICE

Section 1.

Municipal Budget of the Township of Mansfield, County of Burlington for the Fiscal Year 2014.

BE IT RESOLVED, that the following statements of revenues and appropriations shall constitute the Municipal Budget for the year;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that said Budget be published in the Burlington County Times In the issue of March 18th, 2014.

The Governing Body of the Township of Mansfield does hereby approve the following as the Budget for the year 2014:

Notice is hereby given that the Budget and Tax Resolution was approved by the Township Committee of the Township of Mansfield, County of Burlington, on March 13th, 2014.

A Hearing on the Budget and Tax Resolution will be held at Township Municipal Building , on April 23RD , 2014 at 7:30 o'clock (P.M.) at which time and place objections to said Budget and Tax Resolution for the year may be presented by taxpayers or other interested persons.

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

SUMMARY OF CURRENT FUND SECTION OF APPROVED BUDGET

General Appropriations For: (Reference to item and sheet number should be omitted in advertised budget)

1. Appropriations within "CAPS"

(a) Municipal Purposes {(Item H-1, Sheet 19) (N.J.S. 40A:4-45.2)} $ 5,021,057.60

2. Appropriations excluded from "CAPS"

(a) Municipal Purposes {(Item H-2, Sheet 28) (N.J.S. 40A:4-45.3 as amended)} $ 2,163,762.32

(b) LocalSchool District Purposes in Municipal Budget (Item K, Sheet 29) 0.00

Total General Appropriations excluded from "CAPS" (Item O, Sheet 29) $ 2,163,762.32

3. Reserve for Uncollected Taxes (Item M, Sheet 29) –

Based on Estimated 98.45% Percent of Tax Collections $ 447,324.32

4. Total General Appropriations- $ 7,184,819.92

5. Less: Anticipated Revenues Other Than Current Property Tax (Item 5, Sheet 11)

(i.e. Surplus, Miscellaneous Revenues and Receipts from Delinquent Taxes)- $ 2,988,705.00

6. Difference: Amounts to be raised by Taxes for Support of Municipal Budget (as follows)

(a) Local Tax for Municipal Purposes Including Reserve for Uncollected Taxes $ 4,196,114.92

(b) Addition to LocalDistrictSchool Tax (Item 6(b), Sheet 11) 0.00

(c) Minimum Library Tax$ 0

c. Invoice from Qual-Lynx

CFO Monzo felt this invoice will be an amendment to the budget since he just received it. He wanted to make sure we are required to make the payment. We had a law suit filed against us and, based on our participation in the municipal excess liability fund, we have a certain deductible required to pay plus 20% of the excess. He wanted the Committee to be aware of this invoice and the attorney believes it is our obligation. He added that, with the potential $30,000 savings from the pension, these two will probably off-set each other and there shouldn’t be a change in the one cent increase. Mayor Higgins noted that this is a 2013 bill. Attorney Magee explained that it is the deductible from the insurance fund we are in. This is in connection with a law suite that was filed by former Patrolman Titzel. CFO Monzo said he will see what is left in the 2013 reserve also. Attorney Magee said the municipality has been completely exonerated from the law suite.

d. Reimbursement re: Animal Control Officer Fees

Clerk Semus said there have been several instances where dogs and cats have been picked up by our Animal Control Officer and taken to the County after which the owners have picked them up. We are being charged by the Animal Control Officer as well as the County for each animal. She asked if there is any way we can be reimbursed by the homeowner for not obeying the leash law. Mayor Higgins asked the committee their thoughts on this. Committeeman Puglia said he felt we should bill the residents. Mayor Higgins felt the duties performed often save the animal’s life and would hope there would be value to the homeowner. Committeeman Gable felt that, if the dog has a license attached to his collar, the police can look the license number up, determine the owner, and return the pet. He felt the homeowner should be responsible, especially if the dog is loose without the license attached. Attorney Magee is to look into this.

e. Networks Plus It Contract – renewal/extension

CFO Monzo said a two year contract had been awarded to Networks Plus for Consultant services. The contract called for a one year renewal option which would start in April until March of next year for the same price. He asked if the Committee wanted to renew the option. Mayor Higgins felt, last year, we leaned on them quite heavily and they went over and above. He feels they are responsive and recommends them again this year. Next year we can go out to bid. Committeewoman DiGiuseppe agreed.

A motion was offered by Committeeman Puglia and second by Committeewoman DiGiuseppe to approve the one year renewal. Motion carried on a Roll Call Vote, recorded as follows:

AYE:PUGLIA, DIGIUSEPPE, GABLE, HIGGINS

NAY:NONEABSENT:CLARKABSTAIN: NONE

f. Custodial Service

CFO Monzo said bids were taken on February 22nd for custodial services for the municipal building plus other facilities in the township. Four bids were received which were reviewed by the Committee with the recommendation to award the Contract to Day Care Cleaning Services from Cherry Hill, NJ. The resolution is before them tonight. Clerk Semus said the agenda will have to be amended for this action.

A motion was offered by Committeewoman DiGiuseppe and second by Committeeman Puglia to amend the agenda.

A motion was offered by Committeewoman DiGiuseppe and second by Committeeman Puglia to adopt the following Resolution 2014-3-5. Motion carried on a Roll Call Vote, recorded as follows:

AYE:DIGIUSEPPE, PUGLIA, GABLE, HIGGINS

NAY:NONEABSENT:CLARKABSTAIN: NONE

RESOLUTION 2014-3-5

RESOLUTION AWARDING DAYCARE CLEANING SERVICES

FOR THE CUSTODIAL SERVICES TO THE MANSFIELD

TOWNSHIP MUNICIPAL COMPLEX

WHEREAS, there is a need for custodial services for the MansfieldTownshipMunicipalBuildingand additional facilities; and

WHEREAS, the selections of qualified respondents were made pursuant to the Local Public Contracts Law, N.J.S.A. 40A:11-1 et seq. “Fair and Open Process”. The Township has structured a procurement process to assure that each person and/or firm was provided an equal opportunity to submit their proposal in response to the advertisedRFP. The RFP respondents were required to comply with the provisions of N.J.S.A. 10:5-31 et seq. and N.J.A.C. 17:27-1 et seq., if applicable; and

WHEREAS, Daycare Cleaning Serviceshas prepared a response tothe Request for Proposal RFP in connection with MansfieldTownship’s need for custodial services for the Mansfield Township Municipal Complex and facilities as listed in the RFP.

WHEREAS, the CFO and the RFP Review Committee has accepted the proposal and made a recommendation for a contract award to Daycare Cleaning Services for a one-year term beginning on April 1, 2014 and ending onMarch 31, 2015; and