Speaker 0    00:00:06    Edison Edison had to drive in Woodbridge Avenue. Yes, Edison.  
Speaker 2    00:00:15    Good evening everyone, and welcome to the November 5th, 2026 Piscataway Town Council meeting. Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required under chapter 2 3 1 PL 1975, specifying the time, date, location, login, or dial in information. And to the extent known the agenda by posting a copy of the notice on the municipal building, the municipal court, and the two municipal library bulletin boards, the municipal website, providing a copy to the official newspapers of the township. And by filing a copy of the office to the township clerk in accordance with the certification by the clerk, which will be entered in the minutes. There will be public comment periods for both remote and in-person attendees separately. Each member of the public shall have only one opportunity to speak during each public portion. As the technology does not allow us to know if there are multiple callers on an individual phone line or logged in user account. We ask that if you wish to speak, that you log in or dial in separately so that we can recognize you as a separate individual. Should you have any further comments or questions. The town Council is of always available by email and phone, and you could always call the mayor's office during the normal operating hours. Everyone, please shut your cell phones off  
Speaker 2    00:01:41    And we'll get started with the meeting. Ms. Seader, can you please call the role  
Speaker 1    00:01:52    Councilmember Cahill? Here. Councilmember Carmichael? Here. Councilmember Espinosa? Here. Councilmember Liebowitz? Here. Councilmember Rashid? Here. Councilmember Rin. Here. Council President Lombardi  
Speaker 2    00:02:13    Here. And would everyone please join the flag salute? Number five is comments from the administration and council regarding the adjournment of any matters on this agenda. Do we have any comments from administration or counsel?  
Speaker 1    00:02:52    I just have a few questions. Okay. Few questions. The consent agenda,  
Speaker 3    00:02:59    I just wanted to ask for 12 B. Is that better? There you go. All right. I just wanted to ask questions for clarification. 12 B, it promotes safe streets. That's wonderful that we're getting this grant. I just wanted to know, is there room for new programs to be added for this grant?  
Speaker 4    00:03:29    So this grant has specific parameters and you have to fulfill whatever those parameters are. Those perimeters have to do with infrastructure, reducing injury crashes and whatnot. It supplies money to put more officers on the roadways, more enforcement, child safety. So you can't add to the grant. The grant is written in such a way that you have to comply with its parameters. What, what specifically?  
Speaker 3    00:04:03    So to know within the parameters, do we have the option of adding more programs to this within?  
Speaker 4    00:04:08    So it's just a matter of, of, of enhancing what we already do here. So it's making our streets safer, reducing fatalities, injuries, whether that requires more enforcement on the roadway. It's about child safety, doing child safety checks, putting more officers on the roadways during the holiday time where those may indulge a little bit more where they shouldn't be in the car, but there's no reason why they can't, you know, it it, it is a broad enforcement grant. So anything to do with enforcement is, is really, really the goal here for this.  
Speaker 3    00:04:44    Alright, thank you. The next one was 12 FI just needed a little bit more elaboration. I know I read it, but if you could please elaborate the 96th Woodland Avenue  
Speaker 4    00:05:01    Or to our attorney.  
Speaker 5    00:05:04    Yeah, so this is the, there was already an area here that was already designated as an area need. There was an empty large lot next to them that clearly isn't being utilized. It has no tax revenue, et cetera. So, so we had, I think a few months ago requested the planning board to look into whether it met the classifications under the statute for redevelopment. The study was done, it, the planning board did determine that it, it met multiple categories and so it is being, we're just amending the, the original study to incorporate this lot with the other two lots that were in the original study.  
Speaker 3    00:05:48    We'll put two lots together.  
Speaker 6    00:05:50    Yeah, I, I think this portion Raj is gonna be used for stormwater management.  
Speaker 3    00:05:55    Okay. Thank you so much. The other one is 12 N is also need for redevelopment. So is that similar or This is for one Centennial Avenue.  
Speaker 5    00:06:09    So this is, I think we've talked about this in previous meetings. One centennials basically empty buildings commercial office space. And so it's of course not bringing much if any tax revenue into town because it's empty and so the only  
Speaker 6    00:06:25    People who are using it are the vandals that stripped all the copper piping out  
Speaker 5    00:06:28    Of it. Yeah. So we're just trying to hopefully assist in getting it, you know, be usable in some way. And so this is, we're just designated an area needed redevelopment for, to start that redevelopment process and get hopefully someone interested in doing something with it.  
Speaker 3    00:06:45    Alright, thank you so much. All right. That's all the  
Speaker 2    00:06:48    Questions. Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none. We'll move to number six, which is open to the public for comments regarding items on the consent agenda. Again, it's for comments on the consent agenda only and we'll now open up to the zoom.  
Speaker 2    00:07:19    Anyone on Zoom wishing to speak on the consent agenda? We're now close. Yeah. Council president, there's no one that raised their hand. We're closing the remote attendee portion and we'll now open the portion to the in-person attendees if you wish, wish to speak at this time. Please come to the podium, state your name and address and know that you have three minutes in which to make your comments. You may take your seat after the completion of the comments or questions and the council or administration will then respond if necessary. Again, please be reminded, this is for comments regarding the consent agenda item only.  
Speaker 7    00:07:58    Yeah, hi, this is Pratik Patel 29 Red Bed Road. This is for 12 B, which is for Pisca. We promote Safe Street. I leave right off Sutton's Lane and over the past two years I've, and, and I'm kidding you not, there are almost five accidents that happened with the Rutgers new parking lot that opened up and it has opening on two sides of the street. And you can look at police records over there. I dunno how the planning was done for that parking lot, but I would wish that any, it becomes very dense during peak hours where even for me to take my son to one of the classes, if I, I literally have to wait sometimes four to five minutes. This is to be a very quiet neighborhood. So the request would be that if they can move a traffic light or if, if working with Rutgers, because I know this county and state roads and all that kind of nonsense that comes with it.  
Speaker 7    00:08:53    If they can move to a traffic light and take the Rutgers traffic straight up to where the ether road ends and make that as a crossroad so that traffic flows through that, I think that would eliminate a lot because a lot of people's speed coming that and then you have Rutgers people going in and then you have ether road traffic. So that would be my suggestion for 12 BI don't know what the, how the numbers come into existence. 'cause oftentimes people put numbers and they don't even do feasibility study. They don't ask questions to people who are living in this town, what makes this road safer, better, and so on and so forth. So that would be a common, and then in terms of 12 R, which was authorizing award through E, S, C and J typically like, I don't know if it goes through an open procurement because now it is, what I personally see is there is inherent bias towards so-called preferred vendors.  
Speaker 7    00:09:48    So any new vendors or new innovators who come with small businesses and whatnot, they're pretty much shut out. What they're, what they're getting is they always get like stonewalling, oh, you're not passing this certification or you don't have, you're not have this regulation. And it's a lot of red tape that I even see in school systems. I seen governments lately where if you bring something new, the the burden of proof to just even show and create new innovations is just extremely high. And it shouldn't be that way specifically for, for small businesses who are just starting up. And I see that a lot and this ESC and J, like if I look at it like, do we have like this on the Piscataway procurement side or it just goes through a collective bundle and then it gets lost in the shuffle because like, look, I'm living in this town and I don't even know, and I don't know with this particular vendor, by the way, are they local to this town? Okay. Yeah, just excel. That's all  
Speaker 4    00:10:49    I, I'll answer him. Council president Mr. Patel.  
Speaker 4    00:10:53    So I just wanna explain, so this was competitively bid. E-S-C-N-J is a competitively bid cooperative. So the, the town has the ability to purchase off of the state of New Jersey has local public contracts laws where any cooperative can go out and bid various services. This happens to be one of many, we purchase off state contract and various cooperatives that assist the township in streamlining the purchasing process. This is all competitive and per the local public contracts law. So any vendor that is listed underneath this co-op, the township's permitted to enter into a contract with it was competitively bid. And it's open to anybody, small business, big business, whomever is able to bid on these things when they are announced by these cooperatives.  
Speaker 2    00:11:50    Thank you for that clarification. We will now close the public portion and we'll move to number seven, which is an ordinance first reading adoption of redevelopment plan for block 2 0 1 lot 1.01 and block 2 0 0 lot 42.0 2 1 7 9 1 South second Street and 1 7 7 6 South second Street. It's a resolution adopting ordinance. Ms. Seader, can you please read this ordinance be  
Speaker 1    00:12:20    Resolved by the Township Council of Piscataway Township, New Jersey that an ordinance entitled Ordinance of the Township of Piscataway, county of Middlesex New Jersey, adopting a redevelopment plan for this South Second Street redevelopment area consisting of block 2 0 1 lot 1.01 and block 2 0 2, lot 42.02 B and is hereby adopted on the first reading that it be published on the township website. And that a second reading of public hearing be held at 7:00 PM prevailing time at the Piscataway Municipal Building 4 55 Hose Lane Piscataway, New Jersey on the 24th day of November, 2026. Be it further resolved that a copy of this ordinance shall be posted in at least two public places within the township prior to the day of the second reading and final passage. And a copy of this ordinance shall be made available at the office of the township clerk for any interested member of the public.  
Speaker 2    00:13:12    Thank you Ms. Seader. Do we have any questions regarding this?  
Speaker 8    00:13:16    No question council president. But I do wanna say I was glad to see this. We talked about this I think last night on planning board. I don't know.  
Speaker 2    00:13:24    Yes, I wa I watched  
Speaker 8    00:13:25    And it's, and it's gonna be residential, which is much needed. So very happy to speak and  
Speaker 2    00:13:29    It'll clean up an area in need. Yeah, that needs to be  
Speaker 8    00:13:33    Definitely.  
Speaker 2    00:13:34    So I will off who will give me the first offer?  
Speaker 8    00:13:37    That will be me.  
Speaker 2    00:13:39    Can you have a second offer please?  
Speaker 1    00:13:40    Second Dennis.  
Speaker 2    00:13:42    Ms. Seader, can you please call the role  
Speaker 1    00:13:44    Councilmember Cahill? Yes. Councilmember Carmichael.  
Speaker 9    00:13:49    Yes.  
Speaker 1    00:13:51    Councilmember Espinosa. Yes. Councilmember Liebowitz Due to Ms. Lombardi's Gabrielle's points. Kale's points and also what you were saying, I definitely approve of this. Yes. Councilmember Rashid? Yes. Councilmember Rin. Yes. Council President Lombardi?  
Speaker 2    00:14:14    Yes. And the ordinance per passes the first reading. We'll now move to number eight, which is an ordinance first reading adoption of the redevelopment plan for block 1 9 0 1 lot 64.01 at 44 Stelton Road. It's a resolution adopting ordinance. Ms. Seader, can you please read this ordinance, be it  
Speaker 1    00:14:36    Resolved by the Township Council of Piscataway Township, New Jersey that an ordinance entitled Ordinance of the Township of Piscataway, county of Middlesex, New Jersey, adopting a redevelopment plan for the 44 Stelton Road redevelopment area constituting block 9 1 9 1 lot 64.01 B and is hereby adopted on the first reading that it be published on the township website. And that a second reading on public hearing be held at 7:00 PM prevailing time at the Piscataway Municipal Building 4 55 Ley in Piscataway, New Jersey on the 24th day of November, 2026. Be it further is of that a copy of this ordinance shall be posted in at least two public places within the township prior to the day of the second reading and final passage. And a copy of this ordinance shall be made available at the office of the township clerk for any interested member of the public  
Speaker 6    00:15:23    Counsel That if I may, that's this site is part of our co obligation for general public. This is where the old new market school is.  
Speaker 2    00:15:32    That's another area that needs to be cleaned up. Anyone else? I have an offer, please. Lebos  
Speaker 1    00:15:43    Offer.  
Speaker 2    00:15:44    Can I have a second? Second Espinosa. Ms. Seader, can you please call the role  
Speaker 1    00:15:50    Councilmember Cahill? Yes. Councilmember Carmichael.  
Speaker 2    00:15:53    Yes.  
Speaker 1    00:15:55    Councilmember Espinosa. Yes. Councilmember Leibowitz. Yes. Councilmember Rashid?  
Speaker 2    00:16:01    Yes.  
Speaker 1    00:16:01    Councilmember Rin. Yes. Council President Lombardi?  
Speaker 2    00:16:05    Yes. And the ordinance passes First reading number nine, an ordinance First reading, authorizing the execution of financial agreement with Piscataway Centennial Developer Urban Renewal LLC block 67 0 3 lot eight dash 88 Centennial Avenue. And it's an adopting ordinance. Ms. Seader, can you please read this ordinance?  
Speaker 1    00:16:29    It resolved by the Township Council of Piscataway Township, New Jersey that an ordinance entitled Ordinance of the Township of Piscataway, county of Middlesex, New Jersey, authorizing execution of financial agreement with Piscataway Centennial Developer Urban Renewal LLC pursuant to the long-term tax exemption law NJSA 40 a 20 dash one, EC B and is hereby adopted on the first reading that it be published on the township website. And that a second reading in public hearing be held at 7:00 PM prevailing time at the Piscataway Municipal Building 4 55 H Lane Piscataway, New Jersey on the 24th day of November, 2026. Be it further resolved that a copy of this ordinance shall be posted in at least two public places within the township prior to the day of the second reading and final passage. And a copy of this ordinance shall be made available at the office of the Township Clerk for any interested member of the public.  
Speaker 2    00:17:20    Thank you. Ms. Seader. Questions or concerns? Can I have an offer? Please Offer Councilwoman Cahill. Can I have a second? Second.  
Speaker 6    00:17:28    Councilman Uhrin.  
Speaker 2    00:17:30    Ms. Seader, can you please call the  
Speaker 1    00:17:31    Role Councilmember Cahill? Yes. Councilmember Carmichael.  
Speaker 2    00:17:37    Yes.  
Speaker 1    00:17:39    Councilmember Espinosa. Yes. Councilmember Liebowitz. Yes. Councilmember Rashid? Yes. Councilmember Rin. Yes. Council President Lombardi?  
Speaker 2    00:17:51    Yes. And the ordinance passes. First reading number one is Ordinance First reading, authorizing the execution of financial agreement with GREP, new Brunswick Urban renewal LLC block 17.01 lot 2.03 dash New Brunswick Avenue. It's a resolution adopting ordinance. Ms. Seader, can you please read this ordinance, be  
Speaker 1    00:18:16    It resolved by the Township Council of Piscataway Township, New Jersey that an ordinance entitled Ordinance of the Township of Piscataway, county of Middlesex, New Jersey, authorizing execution of financial agreement with GREP New Brunswick Urban Renewal LLC Pursuant to the long-term tax exemption law N js a 40 A1 Etac, excuse me, bean is hereby adopted on the first reading that it be published on the township website. And that a second reading and public hearing be held at 7:00 PM prevailing time at the Piscataway Municipal Building 4 55 Hose Lane Piscataway, New Jersey on the 24th day of November, 2026. Be it further resolved that a copy of this ordinance shall be posted in at least two public places within the township prior to the day of the second reading and final passage. And a copy of this ordinance shall be made available at the office of the Township clerk for any interested member of the public.  
Speaker 2    00:19:06    Thank you Ms. Seader. Questions or concerns?  
Speaker 8    00:19:11    Council President. I just wanted to comment, so for folks who just realized that the, that this was an area that had been a redevelopment plan from 2022 and now finally this is a financial plan because somebody's bought that area. Is that That's correct. Am I speaking correctly? Anyway, so I'll make an offer if no one else has any other questions.  
Speaker 2    00:19:32    Can I have a second?  
Speaker 8    00:19:34    Second Espinosa.  
Speaker 2    00:19:36    Ms. Seader, can you please call the role  
Speaker 1    00:19:38    Councilmember Cahill? Yes. Councilmember Carmichael? Yes. Councilmember Espinosa. Yes. Councilmember Liebowitz. Yes. Councilmember Rashid? Yes. Councilmember Rin? Yes. Council President Lombardi?  
Speaker 2    00:19:53    Yes. And the ordinance passes. Number 11 is an ordinance First reading, amending various chapters of the revised general ordinances of the township of Piscataway. It's a resolution adopting ordinance, miss Theater. Can you please read this ordinance?  
Speaker 1    00:20:07    Be it resolved by the Township Council of Piscataway Township, New Jersey. Then an ordinance entitled Ordinance to amend and supplement the revised general ordinances of the township of Piscataway, county of Middlesex State New Jersey. Amending chapter two administration. Chapter three, police Regulations. Chapter four, licensing and Business Regulations. Chapter five, animal Control. Chapter 10, health Regulations Chapter 12, parks and Recreation Areas. Chapter 19, fire Prevention and Protection. Chapter 19, a Land use procedures and chapter 23. So, and Wastewater bean is hereby adopted on the first reading that it be published on the township website. And that a second reading in public hearing be held at 7:00 PM prevailing time at the Piscataway Municipal Building 4 55 Hose Lane Piscataway, New Jersey on the 24th day of November, 2026. Be it further resolved that a copy of this ordinance shall be posted in at least two public places within the township prior to the day of the second reading and final passage. And a copy of this ordinance shall be made available at the office of the Township Clerk for any interested member of the public.  
Speaker 2    00:21:08    Thank you Ms. Seader. Can I have an offer?  
Speaker 10    00:21:13    Offer Councilman Owen?  
Speaker 2    00:21:14    Can I have a second please?  
Speaker 1    00:21:16    Second Espinosa.  
Speaker 2    00:21:18    Ms. Seader  
Speaker 1    00:21:20    Councilmember Cahill? Yes. Councilmember Carmichael.  
Speaker 4    00:21:23    Yes.  
Speaker 1    00:21:25    Councilmember Espinosa. Yes. Councilmember Liebowitz. I just wanna point out that I really appreciate the language that emphasizes the importa of an importance of animal rescue operations in lieu of pet shops. It's so important. There are so many animals out there that need a home that are up for adoption. And I know at Petco we have Ude, which is a wonderful rescue among many, many rescues. And I, I just wanna highlight that particular piece of the ordinance. And I vote yes. Councilmember Rashid? Yes. Councilmember Rin. Yes. Council President Lombardi?  
Speaker 2    00:22:07    Yes. And the ordinance passes. I'll move to number 12, which are the consent agenda. Resolutions for efficiency items have been consolidated into a consent agenda to be voted on together. And the material for these items have been distributed to the council in advance of the meeting. Do I have a motion to accept the consent agendas? Motion  
Speaker 1    00:22:32    Cahill  
Speaker 2    00:22:34    Again please.  
Speaker 1    00:22:36    Leibowitz,  
Speaker 2    00:22:38    Could you please call the roll  
Speaker 1    00:22:39    Councilmember Caho? Yes. Councilmember Carmichael.  
Speaker 4    00:22:43    Yes.  
Speaker 1    00:22:45    Councilmember Espinosa. Yes. Councilmember Liebowitz. Yes. Councilmember Rashid? Yes. Councilmember Ern. Yes. Council President Lombardi?  
Speaker 2    00:22:55    Yes. And the consent agenda passes number 13 are the discussion for the best practices chess checklist. So maybe Paula, you wanna just give a little thank you information on that please?  
Speaker 4    00:23:09    Absolutely. Thank you Council president. The best practice in it practices inventory is given annually by the state and the state of New Jersey measures compliance with state laws and sound fiscal operations and policies that the township follows every scored count. If you don't reach the compliance score, you do not get state funding and it's cut out as as based on what your compliance is with the inventory this township. So any score 34 or above gets a hundred percent funding. This township is well above that. We have sound fiscal policies here. As a matter of fact, in many instances we're more stringent than the state law with regard to how we safeguard our monies and funds. So I'm happy to say that we will get our a hundred percent state funding for 2027.  
Speaker 11    00:24:09    Nice.  
Speaker 2    00:24:10    Thank you for that for 14 our announcements and comments from officials. So do we have any comments from Gabrielle Cahill?  
Speaker 8    00:24:25    I just wanna thank the residents who came out for the Barto event. It was a beautiful day. I wanna thank Councilman Espinosa for helping me for his wife and two residents, Nancy and Chris Corino for being the judges of the event for Councilwoman Lombardi who came out to join in in Fun. And we saw a lot of great costumes, a lot of fun next year will be bigger and better. And to Councilwoman Libe Liebowitz point about, you know, this town doesn't allow for in our ordinances for those a doggy, you know, like Pet Pet. Yeah. They are the sale of them. It's so smart because isn't it interesting during COVID all those pets were adopted and now they're back to these, these places having so many pets that need to be adopted into good homes. So with that, you know, we are a pet friendly home town home. You'll see the mayor every single day in the wee hours the morning and in the late afternoon walking his dog on Green Acres. And I look forward to when we have our ecological park up to snuff where we can ex get our doggy park in there. So in any case, thanks to all the residents who helped out. Oh, and to Doreen, I don't wanna mispronounce her name. She was a godsend with just helping me and really everyone in town. Sorry. Thank you  
Speaker 2    00:26:02    Sharon Carmichael. Any comments?  
Speaker 9    00:26:04    No comments. Thank you  
Speaker 2    00:26:07    Dennis Espinoza. Thank  
Speaker 11    00:26:10    You. Yes. I would like to extend warm wishes to our residents and families who are celebrating Diwali. I believe today is the first day of Diwali five day event. It is the Festival of Lights. So please celebrate safely and enjoy your your time.  
Speaker 2    00:26:28    Thank you Laura Levo.  
Speaker 1    00:26:31    Good evening everyone. I know it was a beautiful day on Halloween. The gorgeous weather was great. And now I do see so many homes decorated for Ali. They look beautiful. Well I know the last meeting that we had, the, we discussed looking at an ordinance banning data AI centers here in town. This was certainly an issue that came up across this country on Tuesday with over a hundred measures. And I'd just love to know where we are on the update from that, if I can ask our township attorney.  
Speaker 5    00:27:09    Sure. So I sent out a memo out to the council today, this morning. Sorry it took so long. We were doing some in-depth research in terms of the concerns with the proposed ordinance as well as what we can do. I think the, the entire council has given me kind of guidance that they do want to do something about data centers, however they want to protect the tax revenue and, and the jobs in town. So the, the good thing is the governor's office has come out with a toolkit that we will be looking into to see how we can implement. We are gonna make sure that we protect the data centers in town. We're looking to, you know, the key concerns of course are are the hyperscale AI data centers. But the current proposed ordinance, unfortunately the way it was written was could have affected our, our even local manufacturing. It was way too broad. And so there was some, there's made major ramifications from what it would've done. So I had requested the counsel to, to table it and, and, and I'll work, we're working on a proposal that we'll submit to the counsel for their discussion or review.  
Speaker 2    00:28:29    And that's why we send it to the attorney just so we don't have a, for every action there's a reaction and it could have bit us in the high knees later on with our commercial industry at the moment. So thank you for looking into that and giving us that advice. Thank you.  
Speaker 1    00:28:48    Thank you so much. I look forward to our ongoing discussion of an ordinance. And that's all I have for today. Thank you  
Speaker 2    00:28:57    Sarah Rashid,  
Speaker 3    00:29:00    I wanted to congratulate all the winners for the Cultural Arts Commission. They organized the Piscataway art contest, so I was able to attend and you know, we had all the art pieces in the gallery and it, it was a very nice event and a lot of happy people that won, especially the elementary schools. It was a very good event. I wanted to ask if the township, if Paula, you could look into Suskin Park. I had a family reach out and they said children, a lot of children like to play in that park and a lot of times whatever like the soccer ball they're playing with keeps going onto the street. So if there is a way to put like a little fence or something, if that's something that we could look into, they would really appreciate that. All right. The other thing I wanted to talk about was social media post on Piscataway Township. It was entitled Voter Alert and it had language in it, especially something like school facilities remained locked. And on November 3rd when it was posted, it was kind of misleading and it did a lot of fear mongering. So I want to understand who writes these posts for the social media? Piscataway Township who reviews it, was legal involved reviewing that specific post and who approved it?  
Speaker 6    00:30:34    Yes, legal was involved and that's factually correct what was out there? There was also a post that in regards to Rutgers University in regards to parking tickets too, that residents, so it's called Transparency, the town through the clerk's office was getting information out to the folks in town in real time. It was eventually resolved but they needed to know what was going on at that point.  
Speaker 3    00:30:57    That's wonderful. That was, but the Post did not say what school did not mention the time. So it was kind of like, you know, making a broad statement without being very specific, which ends up, especially in today's climate, creating fear. And that's not what we want to do at all.  
Speaker 6    00:31:16    I, I, I just can't say it was, it was a transparent post by we're gonna do the clerk's office and legal on that, what was going on? So folks had to know going on. You know, I'm not gonna go further into it. I mean, 'cause I think it's quite ridiculous. I, I think we're getting criticized for being transparent during election time. Quite frankly it shouldn't had have been posted because everything should have been open.  
Speaker 3    00:31:43    Thank you. So I just wanted to confirm that yes, legal reviewed it. I felt like it could be more specific telling exactly what time, what school, so it would be more transparent rather than making a broad stoke. And so it was approved by the township. So I just wanted to confirm that. Thank you. Lastly, happy DI Valley to all my friends and our neighbors. Beautiful lights. Lot of desserts, so enjoy the weekend. Bye.  
Speaker 6    00:32:11    Thank Uhrin.  
Speaker 10    00:32:13    Yeah, I just wanna let our junior pee cheerleaders this weekend. They're moving on to res. Very nice  
Speaker 6    00:32:23    Mayor. Just I want to, since Veterans Day is around the corner next week, I just want to thank the American Legion folks who do a lot of volunteering at the, the Menlo Park Veterans Home there. And also advocates for the veterans, both here in the county and here in our town. We really, truly appreciate everything that they do. So  
Speaker 2    00:32:49    Business Administrator, Pola,  
Speaker 4    00:32:53    I don't really have much to say tonight. Council president, thank you. Other than the fact that we are working together, all the department heads along with the mayor in creating our budget for next year and all the great capital projects and the great services that will continue to prevail as well as increasing them as well.  
Speaker 2    00:33:11    Thank you very much council.  
Speaker 5    00:33:14    Just a happy dwelling, A happy Bundy George device for our sick community also. So  
Speaker 2    00:33:20    Thank you. I'll finish up. I want to thank on behalf of myself and everyone here, all of our fire departments and EMS services for their unbelievable work on the working structure fire that was over on William Street recently. It was a, a devastating fire and let's keep that family in our thoughts. A township family, not, not fun to see something like that. But our, all of our fire department volunteers and our emergency services did a fantastic job. I also wanted to acknowledge Veterans Day. I acknowledge all of our veterans and also it is National Diabetes Awareness Month. And there will be a walk with the doc over at the YMCA on Tuesday, I believe in honor of diabetes month where you can walk and speak with a doctor. So thank you for that. And we'll move on to the next portion of our meeting. Number 15 is the agenda session for November 12th, 2026, of which we don't have anything at this time. And there will be things coming I'm sure. And number 16, we will open the public to our remote attendees regarding any matters or concerns. We're now to the public for remote attendees. Council president, I'm asking the first individual with their hand raised to unmute themself. Go ahead.  
Speaker 14    00:35:14    Good evening Counsel. Can you hear me?  
Speaker 2    00:35:18    We can.  
Speaker 14    00:35:19    Great. My name's Charlie Ville, I live in New Brunswick. I'm the editor of New Brunswick today. I wanted to ask if there's a press person contact for the township that interfaces with the press.  
Speaker 2    00:35:34    Is that all of your questions? Please ask all your questions and then we'll answer when you're done.  
Speaker 14    00:35:39    Okay. Well, yeah, wanted to ask that question. And here if you have a person who's in charge of interfacing with the press and you know, if not, if you prefer, I'm happy to interface with the mayor directly. But I did recall a man named Jean Wilke who was in that role previously. I'm not sure if he's still there. So I did have some concerns about the social media posts I saw regarding the election and shared a few questions with the email address I have associated with Mr. Wilke here. Number one, were any voters turned away at Piscataway schools due to the issue described. And two was any voter issued a parking ticket by Rutgers University authorities while voting. And three, I added what are the names of the school officials that you referenced in the post. So I heard a couple of good questions from Councilwoman Rashid about, you know, what school and what time. I think these are all valid questions that deserve answers. And since you know the township, you know, decided to start this discussion with the social media posts, I think we deserve answers. And I, you know, for the record, have not yet heard back from Mr. Wilke. So hopefully you can enlighten me if he's the right person for press questions or if the mayor can handle them or you know, if there's somebody else. Just let me know how to, how to make that contact and get my questions answered. That's all.  
Speaker 2    00:37:17    Thank you Mr. Rack. Mr. Ville,  
Speaker 1    00:37:29    Council president, there are no other individuals with their hand raised regarding this agenda item.  
Speaker 2    00:37:37    Close the public portion for the remote attendees. We'll now open to the public. For anyone wishing to speak at this time, please come up to the mic. State your name and address and know that you have three minutes in which to speak.  
Speaker 7    00:37:58    I'm the one who complains a lot anyway.  
Speaker 7    00:38:05    Alright, I, I know I get three minutes and I got luck to cover. I'm sorry, can you, 29 Brad Patel. So there I have different, different agenda items. One is on, I think last week Mr. Mayor kind of talked about electricity shortage. So let me just ask you just broad question 'cause I know you guys are legal scholars apparently, quote unquote, how many of you support net metering? Just raise your hand and then I'll ask questions. But how many of you support net metering? So there is a law in New Jersey, it's called net metering. What it means is you could only put X amount of solar panels that you can consume by that you're automatically creating  
Speaker 2    00:38:49    Mr. Patel, who are you addressing? Are you addressing them or us?  
Speaker 7    00:38:53    Okay, I'll go back. So the question was net metering. How many of you support that here? Is that your final question? No, I have, I have few others, but please state all your question. Okay. So let me just start. First was net metering. The second question that I had was in relation to Mr. Gomer talks a lot about affordable housing and all that kind of nonsense. Let me ask you this question. If somebody's working 40 hours and if they can't meet probably the food and rent, the tax shelter or the rent, would they be considered as a chattel slave? So that's the second question. The third question that I have is in relation to the courts that we are running in, whether you call it county or township or state government or whatever circus that we have, they are creating paperwork, which is just unbelievable today.  
Speaker 7    00:39:44    I have never seen judicial working like this in my life. This is just a travesty of what's going on in, in, in DOJ today. So that's, that's the third one. The fourth question that I had is in terms of oftentimes I, and I think this was again one more which was in press, I have reached out to Jean Wilke. Is the newsletter that comes out of this, is that coming from mayor's payroll or It's, it's open to everybody in the town because I have sent many times the innovation work that I do, and I sent email to Gin Wilke. His response is, no, we are not gonna put it into that newsletter. And our question is like, why? So that was the fourth question that I had. And he always, like, obviously me and him, we get into pow and he says, I raised my voice web nonsense because you know what, sometimes that's the only way to get things across.  
Speaker 7    00:40:34    The fifth part that I had was oftentimes where I've seen like, okay, I've complaint, complaint, complaint. And then there is no pretty much action that happens. And I've seen multiple times in the past administration whether you look at tax budgets, whether you look at the, the revenue raise. Because when we are talking about somebody bringing more revenue and the taxation goes up, then I need to understand something better. And the last question that I had is last meeting Mayor mentioned about that, with that one of this building, I guess it was on Centennial Avenue, if something happens to that building, we will lose 50, 60 or some amount of jobs. So is the entire township kind of a hostage to just one building? And if that's the case, why is the policy like this? I hope I have covered pretty much every year.  
Speaker 2    00:41:21    Thank you.  
Speaker 7    00:41:22    Thank you. And then I have one more for school system that I forgot. We're  
Speaker 2    00:41:27    Done. Okay, thank you. Anyone else wishing to come up?  
Speaker 7    00:41:37    I need the response for that networking and all that. And also answer from Mr. Gomer about rent and all that.  
Speaker 5    00:41:47    I'm not sure what you want. I mean, if it is a problem, that's why we have, we're, that's why the state is looking affordable. Housing people can't afford their housing if they work 40 hours and they can't afford their rent. That's a problem in our, like our, that's a problem. I, I can't, I don't know what you're, look what type of answer you're looking for.  
Speaker 7    00:42:05    So why can't you sue the state? Are you like, so the question that I have is, do you represent this township or you are being a puppet of the state coming here?  
Speaker 5    00:42:15    I a representative of the township.  
Speaker 7    00:42:17    Yeah, because it doesn't look like that way. Okay. Net metering. You get  
Speaker 2    00:42:22    The answer. Thank, thank you Mr. Patel.  
Speaker 7    00:42:28    I didn't get the answer for net metering.  
Speaker 8    00:42:35    I could. I could say too that on our newsletter we don't put, that's a township newsletter. It's not correct. Couldn't put up my company.  
Speaker 2    00:42:44    You can't put personal items on the township newsletter. No,  
Speaker 8    00:42:47    It's all township stuff.  
Speaker 2    00:42:52    Anyone else wishing to come up at this time?  
Speaker 15    00:43:01    My name's Chris Berardo. I'm not a resident of town. I'm a resident of North Brunswick, but I'm looking to possibly move into the town. I worked for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers for 29 years. I want to commend you guys on what you've done for this township with the data centers and the revenue that you brought in. I got some facts here. There's a lot of misinformation out there today, and I got a lot of facts here. I'm happy to share my resources with you. I got QR codes on 'em, but the last full year of data reported is 2004. The 2026 report is from a full year of 2024 and 2024. The tax revenue generated by data centers was $204.4 billion in the United States. This town alone makes $10 million in tax revenue. One of the reasons I wanna move outta my township is back in early two thousands, the big thing back then, everybody was protesting all the industry and let's get rid of the industry and the industry's no good. J and j left my town, Edison, they lost the Ford plants and everything. And I could tell you from my experience, my taxes went up 337% since that happened. The next big thing that we have now is data centers. And you guys are profiting from that.  
Speaker 15    00:44:23    The same report states that 5.5 million jobs were supported nationally by data centers. All the young people you see back here depend on the data centers that go to work every day. They're all, they're all members of the IBEW. I don't want them to go through the same thing that happened to me because back when I was working, I went into the industry, we took it apart, we sent it overseas, and a year later we were in a recession. I don't want to see that happen to these young men and women. On top of that $926.9 billion of gross domestic products were used in the United States. Why do we want to get rid of that? That is what everybody is trying to get rid of. We fall within the, we fall on a PGM power grid. That's power, Pennsylvania, Jersey, Maryland power grid. It supplies power to 13 states. New Jersey. J passed a law in July. It's called the,  
Speaker 15    00:45:34    It's called the New Jersey Data Data Center Fair Share Act. And what that act says is, if you're building a data center, that data center has to pick up 85% of the cost in New Jersey and maintain that for 10 years to upgrade the grid. These young men and women back here are putting in generation stations and they're putting in substations 69 KV substations to feed these. And it's being, it's all being paid for by the data centers. If it goes o if it goes at right over to the border into Pennsylvania, we're still gonna pay for that because we're on a PJM grid. But the difference is instead of paying 15% of it, we're gonna be paying a hundred percent of it. Our grid isn't failing in New Jersey because of the, because of the data centers. The reason the grid is failing is because our grid was built.  
Speaker 15    00:46:26    We work on it. Our grid was built in the 1930s. It hasn't been upgraded. The utility companies in New Jersey are reactive, not proactive. That's why when Sandy hit, we all lost power for, for a couple of weeks because the grid is failing. The grid has to be upgraded. It doesn't matter if the data centers go in, the grid's gonna have to be updated and we're gonna have to pay for it. New jersey's being responsible. This getaway is being responsible to have them build the right way so that it's being paid for by them. And not only being paid for by them, they have to sign contracts where they have to pay for that for 10 years. Based on this law.  
Speaker 15    00:47:09    The water usage, we hear a lot about water usage. The water usage you're hearing about is on legacy data centers. Back in the 1990s, they used what was called evaporative cooling where they used cooling towers and there was fans in air and it would blow air to cool that water and it would evaporate. Today's data centers. They're using closed loop systems. Smaller data centers are using glycol systems, so there's not even water in them. The data, the larger data centers are using water, but it's a closed loop system. They fill that system once and it recirculates through dry coolers. And it goes, it keeps continually going through that system to cool, to cool the racks in the data center. The only time they have to add water to that data, to that loop is when they're either doing maintenance on it or if there's a leak.  
Speaker 15    00:47:57    So the, all the misinformation that's out there, please, please, please do your research because it's benefiting this township greatly to the point where I want to take my family and move here because 337% tax increase in 20 years is crazy. And that's all because that was pushed out. And now the next big thing is data centers. My town had a big property where they could put the data center. They had people from New Brunswick and all these other townships coming in and fighting it because they, the data center thing is the next big thing. You know, we're, we're gonna go out there and pro, we don't even know what we're protesting, but we're gonna go out there and protest it. We're gonna go on AI and we're gonna find out what the bad information is on data centers and we're going to use that to talk, to talk about data centers and get rid of them.  
Speaker 15    00:48:49    And here's another thing. A lot of our data centers in New Jersey aren't even AI data centers. They're financial data centers. After nine 11, everybody realized that the data centers in New York City were, were vulnerable and what was gonna, they had to move within a 50 mile radius. We fall within that 50 mile radius. We're putting up data centers for Bloomberg, we're putting up data centers for Goldman Sachs. It's their financial to be able to provide data to Wall Street. So it's not all ai, the data, every business out there, everybody says data centers aren't gonna create enough jobs, it's gonna create jobs for them. And I'll tell you what, there's not a job out there today that doesn't require a data center. And if that data center has to go out to another country and you're gonna pay more money for that, then what happens? Your bosses aren't going to take that extra money that they're paying them and say, oh, we're losing all this money. It's gonna come outta your pockets. Somebody has to pay for it and you're gonna pay for it. Thank you very much.  
Speaker 6    00:49:56    Thank you sir. Thank you. Just thank you for that enlightenment. Can I ask the gentleman a question? H how many lo union local members from the electrical union is employed in Piscataway?  
Speaker 15    00:50:10    In Piscataway right now? I can't speak to that, but I could tell you in South Brunswick right now, there's a data center, Bloomberg that's going up. We got about three, I believe there's 300 electricians on that in Kenworth. We're doing one. I actually did 69 KV substation that's feeding it. The data center has about 400 electricians on it. Oh, I'm sorry. 400 electricians on it. And my piece of it, I only have about 20 building the substation, but that substation, everybody says, oh, the, it's gonna steal the power from us. It's not because we ran two brand new lines in off the grid that's feeding that. So it doesn't affect the township at all. As a matter of fact, it helps the township because the way it was built was that if the township loses power, we could, we could close switches on that and get power back to the township so that they have power up quicker.  
Speaker 6    00:51:02    How great is that? Thank you. Well, that's what actually happened during Hurricane Sandy and the Skyway with the two cloud computing sites that if we didn't have them, we would've been without power another additional 10 days. I just want to correct one fact that you did. It's $17 million that the town receives revenue from all the, all the taxation entities in Biscay receive $17 million. I need a school district gets 10 million of that. The county gets a slight and the town gets I think 4.5.  
Speaker 15    00:51:35    My apologies, but that just makes me wanna move here more. Thank you.  
Speaker 11    00:51:42    Thank you.  
Speaker 16    00:51:48    Hello, my name is Ryan O'Shaughnessy. I am a resident of Piscataway. I live, I've lived here for about eight years. I actually moved to New Jersey from Minnesota, so I'm a proud adoptee of Piscataway. Yeah, Jersey Soton, that's what I call myself. Yeah. I am a resident of Piscataway. I live just behind the new Wawa that they put on on Stelton Road. I'm an electrician. I joined the union. I'm a first year journeyman, so I just finished my apprenticeship. But yeah, just wanted to give like a face to some of the people who might be affected by a, like a unilateral decision to ban ban data centers. I'm somebody who earns my livelihood from the construction industry and I realize there's a lot of Yeah, it's, it's the new thing in the news. And certainly there's, you know, data centers aren't always in everywhere. The best idea or the best decision for, for a community.  
Speaker 16    00:52:46    They're not always in everywhere, like a bad idea. They bring in a lot of jobs and there's a lot of positives, there's a lot of concerns, obviously. And so just from my point of view, yeah, I'm, I'm grateful for the opportunity to work and I just want to encourage Yeah, openness and nuance in these discussions. And there's a lot, yeah, a lot of things to consider. And it's complicated. And so I'm grateful for you guys as a city council to think carefully about these things, how they might affect real working people, but also I'm not, I don't envy the burden you have to make these kinds of decisions. But I'm grateful and I love living in Piscataway. I love being an electrician. I love, love, love my work, and so grateful for, yeah, you guys working to support jobs, but also make laws that, you know, that protect the poor, that protect the marginalized, that, that protect the environment as well. And so I, I think it's exciting to be here and imagine like Piscataway on the cutting edge of, you know, sustainable development and construction in this, in this area. And so, yeah, I pray for elected officials often. And so know of my prayers for you all. Thank you.  
Speaker 2    00:54:12    Thank you so much. That's very kind. Thank you. That was very nice.  
Speaker 17    00:54:24    Can you hear me?  
Speaker 2    00:54:25    Yes,  
Speaker 17    00:54:25    We can. My name is Ed SoFi. I'm from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and I'm a member of the electricians union, but I'm here representing the building trades because I'm a building trades guy. And there's this ordinance going around here now that they wanna band data centers and all kinds of factories, which you cleared up, sir. Thank you. But the, the ordinance says no modernization if you don't have modernization in the 12 data centers in Piscataway, there won't be any data centers because they modernize 'em every month they put new servers in and that's part of the deal. The technology is, is advancing so fast that they modernize and that was part of the band. So that doesn't work. And I can tell you this, to protect the people in Piscataway, you got a planning board, you got a zoning board, you got state oversight now with a committee set up, and you got Cory Booker on a federal end who's gonna have federal regulations for these data centers.  
Speaker 17    00:55:17    So nobody's gonna do anything bad for residential with all these safeguards here at Piscataway. I went on the computer today and I looked up pisca away's finances, and it said that Piscataway had $206 million of combined property taxes, $206 million of combined property taxes. Now, 30% of these taxes are paid by the 12 data centers. 30% of these taxes are paid by their 12 data centers. That comes out to $62 billion on the computer. It said that there's 62,000 people living in Piscataway. There's 20,000 households. If you advise the 62 million that the data centers pay by the 20,000 households, that's a tax tax amount of th $3,100. $3,100. And if you take the $25 million that the 12 data centers support the, the police department because the municipal budget of a hundred million is 25 million of that is the police department budget. And if you take that and divide it by the 20,000 households, you come up with an additional $1,200.  
Speaker 17    00:56:22    So if you wanna get rid of $12 data centers, do it and let the taxpayer pay an additional $4,300 on their bill, let's pay it. See, they like that. Right? Okay, let's move on here. The d the the cell phones. You got a cell phone in your hand, but all that information, the way your pictures of your wife's and your girlfriends, your kids, everything is in the data center cloud, right? No data center, no information on your cell phone. Simple as that. And we, we say, and I was told by the building trades to say this to you guys, we go back to this and they say regulate don't ban. Regulate don't ban. Okay, the data centers cpr. I got a problem with CPR solutions. They came in here from Pennsylvania with 200 people. They got over. They're all non-union. They work on the merit system.  
Speaker 17    00:57:13    They don't have apprenticeship training levels of, of fair pay. The merit system means that if you do good, you get good pay. If they don't like you, you don't get it. They're going to school in Quil town, Quil Middle School over there at Piscataway. And they got their people, they're non-union because I got a problem with the board education. This town, this is the only board education in all middle six county where we don't have project labor agreements. Okay, address us, excuse me. Project labor agreements are, are, are, are, this is what it was. It was that anything over five, $5 million, you had to have a project labor agreement on it. And now in 2021, Wayne D'Angelo, the 14th District Assembly, we put a law out that says you could have a project labor agreement on $5. So the school board and municipalities could have a project labor agreement on any job they do.  
Speaker 17    00:58:05    And they don't do it because they don't do it. They take the low bid every time. And for the last 10 years, the board education Piscataway, they take the low bid and it's a non-union contractor and they have to pay the prevailing wage rate because it's over a $2,000. Anything over $2,000 if the state of New Jersey has to have prevailing wage rate, whereas the prevailing wage rate comes, it comes from the unions because the state of New Jersey says we want the best possible labor to give you efficiency, quality and safety for the people in Piscataway. And that's why we have prevailed wage rate. These non-union contractors, bad news, we got all kinds of problems with 'em.  
Speaker 17    00:58:46    In 2022, governor Murphy signed a new law. And the new law says that in the past, business owners had have a contractor's license in New Jersey as of two 2022, everybody in the state of New Jersey has to be a licensed electrician. As of 2022, these guys from Pennsylvania covered over here to do the work at Piscataway High School. And at these middle schools, they don't have these New Jersey licenses. And we're not reciprocal. We made the law to protect the people. Pisca weed, New Jersey. So we're not reciprocal with Pennsylvania. We don't want Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania people coming in here and taking your jobs. We have a contractor, fagon, which is one block away from the school, fagon one block away, a union contractor does all the signals of the state hires all local people and all union people are prevailing wage and he can't get the job because the board education won't put a project labor agreement on it.  
Speaker 17    00:59:40    They take the low bid and if they put a project labor agreement on the job or any job, they could take the job at low bid. But they have to hire out of the union halls a pay prevailing wage rate. And they won't do that. Everybody does it. Free holders do it every job at Middlesex County and the whole county with all the college work is all done. Union because the prevailing wage, the project labor agreements. Okay, wrap. Wrap it up. I wanna say last thing I wanna say, okay, is that we got 16,000 baby boomer construction workers out there, 16,000 of the skilled trades, 15 unions. And these people are baby boomers that are retiring. We got 2000 apprentices. We have 150 in local 4, 5, 6 2000 apprentices working around here. And there's opportunities that are being denied to the people of Piscataway because the board education won't let a union contractor come into this city and hire local people.  
Speaker 17    01:00:31    Now these kids back here are gonna make $2 million on their annuity. When they retire $2 million, they're gonna get $10,000 a month for their pension. We're gonna give 'em a medical plan and they're gonna make 150, $200,000 a year. And that's all the building trades. 'cause all the building trades make $52 an hour, whether you're a taper, a painter, an iron work, a plumber, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, which is $105 package. Now what about the kids of Piscataway High School? They're denying the kids of Piscataway High School a chance they get into a 2000 apprenticeship program. They're not giving them a chance because they're not putting project labor agreements. And this way a non-union contract like Cian could take the job at low bid, but the POA will make him higher out of the union halls and give the opportunity for the kids at Piscataway to have a decent job because they all can't be teachers and they can't be all firemen and lawyers and they don't give a damn. They got a teachers union know, but they don't care about the kids. And it's, I wanna let the people know that the Piscataway board, it's no good. And there's not like any other city or town this, okay. Middlesex County. Thank you. Thank  
Speaker 2    01:01:37    You. We're all for the trades. I'm a trades girl myself. We're for the unions, that's for sure. I'm a, I'm a girl that's gone to school for trades, so thank you for that. And I'm a crier because that made me cry. You know your daddy was a union man. I know.  
Speaker 17    01:02:00    Oh, they've gotta pay the taxes. $4,300. Close the data centers down, close them down. See, they like that.  
Speaker 2    01:02:06    Thank you Sarah. On that note, we're gonna adjourn the meeting for, we're gonna close the public portion. We're gonna have an offer to adjourn the meeting a second. Can all those in favor? Please say aye. Aye. Aye. And I wish everyone a good evening tonight. A safe drive home.