NJ News & Views

Like many start-up companies it was founded to help, the Lakewood Development Corporation (LDC), which oversees the largest Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) in the state, has a marketing problem.

It provides goods and services at a cost its target audience is not willing or cannot afford to pay.

So does the Lakewood Board of Education.

For the past two years, the state has appropriated UEZ project funds for property tax relief from several municipalities, including Lakewood. Instead of giving the money back to property owners to spend, the state turned it over to school districts, including Lakewood, as extraordinary aid.

Taxpayers are not seeing a return on their investment in the township or the district.

The UEZ fund is generated by the interest earned on loans to qualified businesses and a reduced sales tax collected by UEZ members. For years, Lakewood has relied on the township's shoppers to generate its UEZ fund, not local businesses.

The LDC has finally begun making UEZ loans to qualified businesses again.

Their actions may be too little, too late.

At the October 5 LDC meeting, members approved two $35,000 micro-loans at 3.5 percent interest for 10 years to Miron Trucking and Delivery of 155 Oberlin Avenue and Curves of 1200 River Avenue.

Despite finally making loans to generate the township's UEZ fund, which the state Auditor recommended, a new gubernatorial administration is examining the viability of the Lakewood zone.

LDC Executive Director Patricia Komsa discussed problems in public perception of the township's UEZ program.

"People just don't understand what these projects do, despite (our) press releases," Komsa said. "We need to step it up a bit."

The township Web site, which the LDC subsidizes in partnership with the township and the Lakewood Industrial Commission, may be a good place to start.

Prior to the start of the October 5 meeting, no meeting agenda was posted on the township Web site. Although the LDC met on July 26 and September 7, the last posted agenda was for the June 1 meeting.

The only 2010 LDC meeting minutes posted on the township Web site were for January 5, March 2 and April 13.

The LDC also met on February 2 and May 4.

In 2009, the year the LDC hired contractor Ben Heinemann of BP Graphics as township Web master, he posted 10 months of industrial commission meeting minutes.

Heinemann has not posted any 2010 meeting minutes for the industrial commission, which also subsidizes his services.

He has not posted any 2009 meeting minutes either, but did post the commission's 2009 meeting agendas.

During the commission's July meeting, which a reporter for NJ News & Views attended, members discussed the development of a new logo for the township in place of the Victorian horse and buggy that currently represents Lakewood.

The reporter asked to see the proposed drawings being discussed by members.

In response, commission Chairman Robert Kirschner asked if members could go into executive session to continue their discussion.

Under the state Open Public Meetings Act, board members may not go into executive session to discuss contracted work, only contracts being negotiated.

No agendas were placed out for members of the public that attended the meeting since few ever do at the scheduled time of 12 noon.

Last month, a reporter for NJ News & Views contacted Yisroel (Steven) Reinman, Lakewood Executive Director of Economic Development, whose salary is reimbursed to the township through its UEZ program.

Reinman is director of Lakewood Airport, a UEZ-managed public business.

The reporter asked Reinman, as director of the Lakewood Industrial Commission, for all 2010 dates the industrial commission was scheduled to meet, but did not, and all 2010 industrial commission meetings attended by Mayor Steven Langert, committee liaison to the commission.

Reinman, who sat in for township Manager Michael Muscillo at the October 7 committee meeting, did not reply to the reporter's e-mail. Instead, Reinman's administrative assistant, Anita Doyle, e-mailed all 2010 industrial commission meeting minutes that had not been posted and all 2010 scheduled meeting dates.

All information the reporter received is not all information the public has received because it was not posted on the township Web site they fund.

According to Komsa, the state is reviewing the Lakewood UEZ program.

Instead of possibly eliminating the Lakewood UEZ program, the state could amend legislation that governs its operation.

In place of $25,000-$35,000 "micro-loans," Lakewood needs to reduce the risk to start-up businesses by offering loans as small as $500-$2,500, payable in one-to-three years - a true micro-loan.

Because the township provides little regulation of home-based businesses that proliferate in it, few qualified applicants are willing to take out a UEZ loan for $25,000-$35,000 to compete with them. However, some home-based business owners could be compelled to apply for a UEZ micro-loan if given the right motivation.

Many home-based business owners are either homeowners that rent out converted basements or attics, or absentee landlords that rent out single-family homes as multi-family apartment buildings. Many absentee landlords charge exorbitant rents many undocumented tenants cannot afford by living alone. As a result, large groups of tenants and their families may rent a single residence or apartment in it, creating unsafe overcrowding in the homes, which are often not properly maintained by absentee landlords.

In 2007, the Lakewood Landlords Association settled a lawsuit filed against the township. Under terms of the settlement, the township agreed not to schedule surprise inspections of rental homes owned by absentee landlords in response to complaints officials received.

The township has a rent control ordinance, but does not enforce it.

Public policy benefits business owners of private properties, but not their tenants or their neighbors.

The state can and should require all municipalities operating a UEZ to conduct an annual safety inspection of residential homes that are or include rental properties - which are businesses. Any owner found to be in violation of the annual rental safety inspection would be offered the option of applying for a UEZ loan to improve the residential property at a reduced interest rate of 1.5 percent over 12 months, when the next annual inspection would be scheduled.

Landlords would still be eligible to apply for Community Development Bloc Grants (CDBG) to rehabilitate their properties, but would have to pay for annual inspections conducted by a new department to be created within the state Attorney General's Office, as well as correction of any violations found.

The regulation would assist government by generating a stream of revenue in payment for the required inspections, while also generating local UEZ funding through loans to qualified businesses.

It would also improve the quality of life in town.

To ensure public safety, the state should not permit any rental home in a UEZ to include both commercial and residential rental properties. A required annual inspection of all rental homes or spaces in a UEZ municipality would not only ensure those properties did not operate as mixed-use buildings in residential neighborhoods, but would enable the state and Federal government to identify all taxpayers required to report rental or home-based business earnings.

The state should also use the UEZ program to compel home-based business owners that sell prepared food products to receive approval by the county Board of Health.

In an August 14 e-mail, Lakewood UEZ member Pat DeFilippis discussed the issue with Lakewood Chief of Police Robert Lawson.

"Friday about 2 driving along Rte. 88 and the corner of Pearl Street I noticed a woman selling food in front of her home," DeFilippis wrote Lawson.

DeFilippis said she reported the unlicensed food business to a police officer driving down Clifton Avenue. The officer told DeFilippis he knew the woman and would take care of the matter.

That didn't happen, according to DeFilippis.
 
"When I returned to Pearl Street and 88 that same woman was still selling food," she informed Lawson. "Either she ignored the Police Officers order or he did not do his duty."

DeFilippis expressed her concern that the longer officers ignored the unpermitted food business, the greater the public health hazard.

"Who knows if she is following proper food handling procedures?" DeFilippis wrote Lawson. "Who knows if the food is kept at the proper temperature? Setting up a table with garage sale items is one thing but food is crossing the line.  Food poisoning, E-Coli, are just a few the illnesses she could spread."

Lawson agreed in an August 16 e-mail he copied to DeFilippis.

"I have a report of (a) woman selling food in front of her home at the corner of Ocean Avenue and Pearl Street last Friday around 2pm," Lawson wrote his officers. "Please keep an eye out for this type of activity since this type of sale must not only have a permit from the township but a certificate of inspection from the Department of Health as well."

Township inspectors also responded to DeFilippis' police report.

At the August 19 meeting of the Lakewood Township Committee, owners of two of the three lunch truck businesses licensed to operate in the municipality said inspectors informed them they had to relocate under a 1971 ordinance.

Committeemen said they would reintroduce an amended ordinance that would enable the lunch truck owners to legally continue earning a living.

An amended UEZ program in Lakewood with increased state oversight of its home-based businesses could ensure that all businesses selling prepared food products are licensed and regulated or not permitted at all.

The same state oversight is needed to regulate business decisions by the Lakewood Board of Education, which now receives UEZ funding as well.

On October 5, hours after the LDC discussed the uncertain future of the township's UEZ program, the Lakewood Board of Education cancelled their scheduled 8 p.m. meeting due to lack of a quorum.

Prior to the meeting, a reporter for NJ News & Views left voicemail messages for board member Abraham Ostreicher and Business Administrator/Board Secretary Robert Finger.

For several weeks, district administrators have blocked the reporter's e-mail or stopped faxes being transmitted by the reporter.

In the voicemail messages, the reporter asked Ostreicher and Finger for comment regarding two items on the cancelled meeting agenda. Although the agenda reported Finger's resignation, one of the items gave him permission to attend a workshop in Stafford on October 12 - less than a month before he leaves the district's employ.

Since Finger will no longer be working for the district after November 19, Lakewood taxpayers would be subsidizing his continued education while deriving little to no benefit from it. They would also be paying his salary for the day, while not receiving the benefit of his services.

The reporter asked both men if Finger intended to withdraw his request to attend the meeting on October 12.

Neither man returned the reporter's call for comment.

A second item on the cancelled meeting agenda called for payment of $1,101 in overtime to Finger's secretary, Rosemary Caricari. The overtime included transcription of board meeting minutes, even though the board hired a transcriptionist to perform the described work.

Although the district receives UEZ funding, the board has also failed to approve and post all board meeting minutes - including the verbatim transcripts or Caricari's meeting minutes based on them.

According to the cancelled meeting agenda, the board was scheduled to approve the May 17 meeting minutes prepared by Caricari.

Caricari has been working without a contract since the end of 2009.

The reporter also asked Ostreicher and Finger in separate voicemail messages if they intended to correct the meeting agenda to report that Caricari was receiving overtime payment for preparation of meeting minutes from contracted meeting transcripts, not transcriptions of board meeting minutes.

Last month, the reporter inspected copies of bills and invoices submitted for payment by the contracted transcriptionist, Jacqueline M. Wahler of Hamilton.

Wahler attended the September 14 board meeting as its transcriptionist. So did Caricari, who is also being paid overtime for her attendance there.

Instead of returning the reporter's call for comment, the board cancelled their October 5 meeting, which was rescheduled for 8 p.m. on October 12 - the same day Finger requested to attend the Stafford workshop.

Board members Abraham Ostreicher, Isaac Zlatkin, Jonathan Silver and Yechezkel Seitler attended the cancelled meeting, which required the attendance of at least one other board member to have a quorum.

Board President Leonard Thomas, board Vice President Meir Grunhut, and board members Carl Fink, Irene Miccio and Ada Gonzalez did not attend the meeting at the scheduled start time of 8 p.m.

The board did not cancel the meeting before the public turned out to attend it, even though many board members text or call on cell phones before, during and after their meetings.

The board has acted to suppress public information at its other scheduled meetings.

During the board's September 14 meeting, members voted to bar the reporter from being heard because the reporter was not a Lakewood resident or property owner.

The reporter subsidizes the Lakewood UEZ by shopping at UEZ member businesses that collect a reduced state sales tax turned over to the district as extraordinary aid the past two years.

Prior to the September 14 meeting, the reporter exchanged several e-mails with Finger regarding an item on the scheduled board agenda. The item called for the hire of Johnson Appraisal Services of Sea Girt.

Finger declined to disclose the reason the board sought to hire an appraiser.

According to a purchase order provided under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA), the board has budgeted $10,000 for appraisal services for non-public school rental space for Title I and Chapter 192 services.

Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) funds parent involvement in their child's education, according to the state Department of Education (DOE) Web site.

The DOE Web site also reported that New Jersey's Chapter 192 and 193 programs are available to eligible students enrolled full-time in non-public elementary and secondary schools located in New Jersey.

Chapter 192 programs provide non-public school students with auxiliary services such as compensatory education, English as a Second Language, and home instruction.

Chapter 193 programs provide non-public school students with remedial services such as evaluation and determination of eligibility for special education and related services, supplementary instruction and speech language services.

In an October 8 telephone interview, appraiser Paul Johnson confirmed the board hired him to appraise non-public school property. Johnson said he was hired to appraise 14 spaces at seven locations "in various buildings owned by others."

He did not disclose whether privately-owned buildings being appraised with public money were already operated as non-public schools or if they were being appraised for sale as non-public schools.

While the board has not posted approved meeting minutes for several months, it has approved and paid for several months of advertising that benefited one non-public school and not others.

Last week, a reporter for NJ News & Views inspected all contracts, bills, invoices and purchase orders for services provided in 2010 by BP Graphics, the township Web master. At a cost of $370 to taxpayers, the board authorized payment of an advertisement for a parenting course being held by the Cheder School at 901 Madison Avenue in BP Weekly, Heinemann's publication.

Heinemann is an investor in a non-public school located in Lakewood's industrial park - where Johnson said he would be performing several appraisals of non-public school property.

The advertisements were paid with Title I funding for Pupil Improvement under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.

Earlier this year, the board posted a corrective action plan in response to a report of ARRA malfeasance.

Under terms of the report, the board was required to post the report and its corrective action plan on the district Web site - which the board reportedly failed to do for months.

The board's appropriation of taxpayer dollars to subsidize a private business enterprise short-changes public school students and their parents, who also pay taxes, and non-public school taxpayers who do not have a child enrolled in the Cheder School.

UEZ monies could have been better spent.

The board or its administrators could have advised the Cheder School to apply for a UEZ micro-loan for marketing and advertising expenses if the township had offered one for so small an amount. Instead, taxpayers are subsidizing a public business cost that provides little to no return on their investment.

The state has the duty to ensure the dissemination of public information its citizens are entitled to receive, but in many instances, have not.

For months, New Jersey's public television and radio station, WNJN, broadcast live gavel-to-gavel coverage of state Legislative budget hearings.

Last month, the public station also aired live Legislative testimony in defense of its continued existence.

The state and the governor should not pull the plug on one more source of public information.

They should instead lobby for legislative action to amend the Open Public Meetings Act by requiring that all government meetings held in New Jersey be recorded for electronic dissemination, as well as publication of verbatim meeting minutes.

Like WNJN and other public television and radio stations, state officials can and should solicit corporate sponsorships. The state can and should legislate a tax credit to any New Jersey business that will make a donation to fund the videotape of all government meetings held in all public buildings.

Recordings of those meetings should be disseminated to anyone that wants to watch or hear them in their home or place of business through their computer Internet Service Provider (ISP) or television service provider as Video On Demand (VOD) or Audio Video On Demand (AVOD).

Television VOD systems either stream content for real time viewing or download it to a computer, digital video recorder (DVR) or portable media player for viewing at any time.

Internet television also provides VOD content, while some airlines offer AVOD to passengers as in-flight entertainment.

Airlines departing or landing at Newark International Airport would be invaluable corporate sponsors of New Jersey public meetings since they could also disseminate them upon request as AVOD content during flights.

In an increasingly electronic age, government has greater opportunities to inform the electorate of its programs and services.

The need to inform the public is as great today as it was in the early years following the birth of the nation.

"Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government," United States Founding Father Thomas Jefferson told political pamphleteer Richard Price in 1789. "Whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights."