Town Council · Full Meeting Recap

Everything that happened at Monroe's May 4 council meeting

The 2026 municipal budget is adopted, water and sewer fees go up, a Route 33 affordable housing site gets looser buffer rules, and residents press the council on electric bills, bus access and a request to waive a permit fee.

May 4, 2026 · Compiled from the official meeting recording, published on the township's YouTube channel

Monroe's council meets in two parts on the same night: an agenda session, where the council reads through the items and residents can ask questions about them, followed by the regular meeting, where the votes happen. An ordinance is a permanent local law that must be voted on twice, once to introduce it (first reading) and once, after a public hearing, to adopt it (second reading). A resolution is a one-time official decision. All three ordinances on this meeting's agenda were up for their second reading and adoption, and all three passed 5–0 on roll-call votes.

1. The 2026 municipal budget is adopted

The council adopted the township's 2026 budget by a 5–0 vote after a public hearing. The budget had been introduced at the April 6 meeting, and the council first passed a resolution allowing it to be read by title only, which is standard practice: the full document is posted on the township's website. Township officials answered several questions about it. About 350 employees are on the township's health insurance, and the township and its utility have budgeted $10,350,811 for health benefits this year. The budget includes no new full-time employees. Council members who spoke afterward described it as a tough year driven mainly by the rising cost of health insurance, and Councilman Van Dzura noted that the township had gone about three years in a row without a tax increase before this one. Vice President Markel called the increase slight. Council President Siegel said the budget is balanced and responsible, and cited some 2025 figures: the senior center's transportation services carried 16,678 riders, the construction department did nearly 15,000 inspections and issued more than 3,600 permits, and the township's EMS responded to 11,836 calls. We could not make out a tax rate or the size of the levy from the recording, so check the budget itself on the township website for those numbers.

Most of the substantive discussion came from residents. One resident, who said they supported the budget and the tax increase, asked the council to look closer at three pressure points: the health insurance program (whether the township reviews its claims data, runs wellness programs and lobbies the state), debt service (which they said rose about half a million dollars from 2024 to 2025 and is rising by roughly another half million in 2026, with a request for just under $1 million in extra levy cap room for debt service this year compared with none last year), and the general fund's reliance on transfers from the water and sewer utility, which they said have grown from roughly $1.3 million to $2.4 million in this year's forecast (the captions are unclear on those figures). The same resident noted the ambulance service has gone from a margin of just over $700,000 in 2023 to a forecast deficit of about $43,000, asked the township to renegotiate vendor contracts, and asked for a future presentation on the open space trust fund. Two other residents, one a finance professional attending for the first time, said budget season is hard to follow and asked for a more understandable summary, such as a single page covering revenue, debt, capital improvements and operating costs, or a public meeting devoted to the budget rather than a pointer to the website. The council did not respond to those suggestions on the record.

2. Water and sewer fees go up, along with other township fees

Ordinance 04-2026-009 amends the township's fee chapter and was adopted 5–0. It changes fees for the water and sewer utility (known as the MTUD), for construction permits and for ambulance service, and officials said it does not raise every fee by the same percentage. The water and sewer department went category by category and raised the ones it thought justified. For most households, officials said, the fixed monthly charges are rising on both the water and sewer side, and a typical household using less than 25,000 gallons per quarter would pay about $17 more per quarter, as best we could make out from the captions. A resident wondered why fees were rising when the utility's budget is about $23 million and last year's regular water and sewer charges brought in a little over $19 million. Officials answered that the utility is "self-liquidating": by law it has to cover its own costs through the rates it charges, taxpayers cannot subsidize it, and the roughly $19 million is the largest but not the only source of revenue, with connection fees and other income making up the rest.

The council also heard a separate explanation of how developers pay their share. Officials said developers contribute to specific capital projects through other ordinances, with the money going into a separate "off-tract improvement" fund, and that this ordinance has nothing to do with it. A further amendment to the fee chapter, covering water and sewer connection fees, was introduced on June 29 (see our June 29 recap).

3. A Route 33 affordable housing site gets narrower buffers

Ordinance 04-2026-007 amends the "VC2 overlay," an extra layer of zoning rules for a stretch of Route 33, so that a project in the township's current affordable housing plan can go forward. New Jersey requires every town to provide its share of affordable housing, and the planning for that happens in ten-year "rounds"; this site is part of Round 4. The business administrator said it is the site the township used to call the "bald eagle site," on the southwest side of town next to East Windsor, where a development of 186 homes, 37 of them affordable, is planned. The ordinance reduces the required landscape buffer along Route 33 from 100 feet to 50 and relaxes a few parking and design standards, which he said also pulls the buildings away from the wetlands and a conservation easement for the eagles at the back of the property. The planning board approved the change and the council adopted it 5–0 with no changes.

A resident asked why only 20% of the homes are affordable when the township has talked about 30%. The business administrator said this property's owner had challenged the township's plan in court, that the township settled for fewer units (about 187, down from roughly 240 the owner wanted in the earlier round) in exchange for a 20% set-aside, and that the township's plan as a whole averages above 30%. He said another project, the Edgewood property, is now at almost 28% after last fall's changes cut market-rate homes by almost 500 while keeping the number of affordable homes the same. The resident asked to confirm that nothing else along Route 33 was changing, and was told that is right.

Also from Monday's meeting

The "cap bank" ordinance

Ordinance 04-2026-008, passed 5–0 with no public comment, is a routine yearly step. New Jersey limits how fast a town's budget can grow (2% this year), but a town can pass an ordinance letting it "bank" the unused room up to 3.5%, which it can use in later years. The business administrator said the amount is about $817,000, and that this year's budget does not use any of it.

Road paving and other contracts

The consent agenda (resolutions 106 through 110) passed 5–0 with none pulled. It included about $1.6 million for the 2026 road program, roughly 18 road segments, which the engineer said came in well under the second- and third-lowest bids of about $1.8 million; a resident confirmed with officials that the amount is all construction because design was approved earlier. It also included up to $4,036 more for the township's share of a regional watershed study with several neighboring towns, after some towns dropped out and the cost per town rose. Officials said the state requires Monroe to study its watershed by the end of the year, that doing it regionally is cheaper than going alone, and that the plan will be public when done.

Engineer's report

The township engineer said final paving of the pickleball courts and senior center parking lot was scheduled for the following week, with the fencing after that and completion hoped for by the end of May. The James Monroe Park concession stand and park improvements were nearly done, waiting on a third electrical panel that is on back order and backfill around the new septic system, with wrap-up expected in late May or early June. Concrete work was underway on Lynx Drive, a project of a little over half a million dollars with state grant money. The county's work at the Prospect Plains Road and Applegarth Road intersection, which includes new curbs and sidewalks, was expected to continue through the year. In answers to Councilman Dipierro, the engineer said the Route 522 water tower is essentially complete and would be refilled and returned to service within about two weeks, and that the bid specifications for rehabilitating the Applegarth Road water tower are nearly ready, with bidding in June and work starting in late October, after summer demand drops.

Electric bills, solar and energy aggregation

A longtime resident said electric bills have risen 20% to 30% for many residents, called it a serious hardship for Monroe's roughly 19,000 seniors (about 40% of whom the resident said are on fixed incomes), and asked what the township is doing, citing steps by other towns on data centers and power lines. The mayor and business administrator said the township looks into energy aggregation every year: it takes bids to see whether it can buy power for residents at a rate below the utility's standard rate, but in recent years the bids have come in higher, so it passed. With increases above 20% a year, they said, the bids may come in lower this year, and if so any savings would apply in 2027. They also pointed to a community solar program, with a letter mailed to every household and posts on the township's website and social media, a separate community solar bid for residents who qualify as low- or moderate-income, and the planned 80-acre solar redevelopment of the former landfill, where Monroe residents would get priority to subscribe (see our August 3 recap). The business administrator urged residents to sign up for the township's email updates, which he said go to tens of thousands of residents.

A request for bus access

Two residents of the Villages at Country View area, off Spotswood-Englishtown Road, asked the council to formally support extending NJ Transit's new "MicroLink" pilot, a free on-demand ride service to a nearby park-and-ride, one to two miles into their part of town, where they said neither they nor neighboring communities have reliable public transit. They said they had already contacted NJ Transit and that the extension would cost the township nothing. The recording does not show a response.

A request to waive a permit fee

A resident asked the council to put on a future agenda a formal vote on whether to waive the township's portion of the fee for permit-to-carry (firearm) applications, saying the business administrator had researched the issue and written a memo but that the decision belongs to elected officials. The recording does not show a response.

Proclamations and the character awards

The council proclaimed May as Military Appreciation Month and Building Safety Month, marked National Day of Prayer (May 7), Municipal Clerk's Week, National Police Week, EMS Week and Public Works Week, and then held its annual Good Character Awards with the township's Human Relations Commission and Dr. Adam Layman of the school district. Principals nominate one student in each grade for demonstrating the "six pillars" of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship, and about three dozen students received certificates from the mayor.

Housekeeping

The council approved the payment of claims (run date April 27) and the minutes of the April 6 meeting.

Council and mayor's remarks

Councilman Dipierro asked the county to refresh crosswalk striping near the Perrineville Road intersections with Schoolhouse and Prospect Plains Roads and asked for an update on LED streetlights; the business administrator said the power company has not provided quotes and is still working through repairs, with the LED discussion expected later this year. He also reported on the first-Sunday-of-the-month open house at the Dey Farm, noted the high school's recent musical and the baseball and softball opening day, and said most of the council attended the township's Holocaust remembrance at the senior center, where a tree was planted at a school in memory of a local survivor. Councilwoman Cohen, who lit a candle at that event, also highlighted that Monroe's EMS does not "balance bill" residents who are taken to hospitals, so they are not surprised by a large ambulance bill. Vice President Markel thanked local scout leaders, announced the first township-wide National Day of Prayer event at the senior center, Military Appreciation Day at the high school on May 19, and next year's remembrance on May 2, 2027. Council President Siegel thanked the clerk's office and the finance team and previewed the Mayor's Youth Advisory Committee's history exhibit on June 7 at the Dey Farm (see our June 3 recap). Mayor Dalina spoke about visiting a concentration camp and what the township's Holocaust remembrance means to him, described a wellness event at the high school raising awareness of addiction, recommended a recording of the police department's recent community presentation on the township's YouTube channel, said he presented a plaque to a local Olympian at softball opening day, and announced upcoming events: Tai Chi on Mother's Day, a passport clinic on May 20 from 1 to 5 p.m. at the municipal building, Memorial Day services on May 25 at 9:30 a.m. at Avenue K Memorial Park, a Zumba event on May 30, and a Flag Day 5K and veterans picnic at Thompson Park on June 14.

Other public comment

A resident thanked the council for its budgeting and public safety work, another asked that National Nurses Week be recognized, and another suggested residents watch the Board of Education's April meeting, where a student board member's remarks during the school budget debate impressed the speaker and, the speaker said, influenced board members who had considered voting no.

This story was compiled from the full closed-caption transcript of the May 4, 2026 Monroe Township Council meeting, posted to the township's official YouTube channel, and checked against the township's published council roster. Automatic captions garble names and figures, so where a name or number was unclear we left it out, rounded it, or said so. Because this recap was written after the fact, we say where later events are known. We do not name members of the public who speak at meetings, and we describe any minors generically. The recap is condensed and rewritten in plain language and takes no position on disputed matters. Monroe in Focus is an independent project, not affiliated with Monroe Township government. See the About page for how stories like this one are put together, and verify anything you plan to rely on against the official recording or the township's own minutes.