NJ News & Views

[Editor's Note: On October 27, this story was edited for style, content and accuracy.]

Three decades ago, Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan asked voters to assess the administrative record of his Democratic opponent, incumbent Jimmy Carter.

"Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" Reagan asked his audience during a televised debate.

The question resonated with voters. One week later, candidate Ronald Reagan became President-elect Ronald Reagan.

Five years after Reagan's death, his question remains a barometer of incumbent administrative success.

During three terms as mayor of New York City, from 1978-1989, Ed Koch famously greeted his constituents by asking them, "How'm I doin'?"

Not all incumbents want to know the answer.

With less than a year under its collective belt, a new Republican majority on the Lakewood Township Committee has yet to fulfill its promise of open government.

During Reorganization on January 1, 2009, Republican Mayor Robert Singer, a state senator that also represents Lakewood in the 30th legislative district, announced the township's public relations initiative, but not its cost or scope.

A reporter for NJ News & Views asked Singer after the meeting to describe the public relations initiative. Singer, a committeeman for three decades, referred the reporter to Republican Committeeman Menashe Miller, who did not return the reporter's call for comment.

After the reporter called Singer again to ask for further information about the public relations program, Singer said it referred to the township Web site, which was being redesigned - but not to include all township ordinances, which former Democratic Committeeman Charles Cunliffe advocated in his last term on the committee.

Cunliffe, now an Independent candidate for township committee, and his running mate, Lynn Celli, also support updating the township Web site to include e-mail links for all committeemen and township officials.

For weeks in early 2009, the Web site's calendar of monthly events was not updated until township officials hired political lobbyist Ben Heinemann as the township Web master.

After his hire, Heinemann's contract with its stated salary was not available for inspection in the municipal building, even though Heinemann told NJ News & Views he was already providing Web maintenance services to the township.

Heinemann, the owner of BP Graphics, is not just a Lakewood businessman. He is also a member of the Vaad.

The Vaad is a political interest group that makes endorsements for elected office. Because the Vaad can coerce a large bloc of Orthodox Jewish voters to elect endorsed candidates for public office, the Vaad is also an influential government lobbyist.

According to sources, the nature of the coercion ranges from threats posted around town, warning anyone that failure to elect endorsed candidates will result in eternal damnation, to blacklisting children of families that do not do as they are told from securing a place in Orthodox religious schools around town.

Earlier this year, a young Orthodox man left a suicide note found on his computer after his death. The suicide note accused a former instructor of sexual abuse, which the man said drove him to take his life.

Accusations of sexual abuse within the Orthodox community are usually referred to a council of rabbis, not the police. According to sources within the Orthodox community, many of the rabbis are not trained to deal with accusations of sexual abuse.

After the suicide note became public, the young man's family home was burned to the ground by arsonists.

The Vaad may reward those who do as they are told.

Moshe Z. Weisberg, Chairman of the Lakewood Development Corporation (LDC), the township agency that oversees the largest Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) program in the state, is also a member of the Vaad.

Weisberg is Director of the Lakewood Community Services Corporation (LCSC), a non-profit organization that receives UEZ funding. During Reorganization 2006, the township committee also appointed his employee, Ada Gonzalez, to the LDC. That same year, Gonzalez ran unopposed for the Lakewood Board of Education after receiving the Vaad's endorsement.

According to county tax records, the LCSC is registered to a Carey Street address that is owned by Beth Medrash Govoha, a Lakewood rabbinical college.

Aaron Kotler, Executive Director of Beth Medrash Govoha, is also a member of the Vaad.

Both Weisberg and Kotler have asked the LDC for UEZ grant funding over the years.

So have members of the township committee, who each received the Vaad's political endorsement for elected office.

In April 2006, Mayor Marc (Meir) Lichtenstein made a presentation to the LDC. Lichtenstein said the township committee sought to build a muster zone for day laborers that waited for work along Clifton Avenue in downtown Lakewood. Lichtenstein sought $37,500 in UEZ funding to construct the muster zone, which he requested be called an employment center.

The state established the UEZ program decades ago to bring urban renewal to designated municipalities across New Jersey through programs that fostered the growth of jobs and commerce. However, many day laborers are undocumented aliens, primarily from Mexico, that do not pay income taxes, and many of their employers do not declare the men's wages.

LDC members, moved by Lichtenstein's proposal, voted to approve the funding.

After NJ News & Views posted a report of Lichtenstein's presentation and request to call the muster zone an employment center, the state Urban Enterprise Zone Authority (UEZA) responded by temporarily freezing Lakewood UEZ funding for it.

The UEZA also froze funding for the Job Link program that funds Weisberg's non-profit organization pending LDC action to accress Weisberg's conflict of interest as both grantor and grantee of UEZ funding.

Members of the UEZA referred Lichtenstein's misrepresentation of the grant request to the state attorney general, who did not press fraud charges against Lakewood committeemen.

After LDC Executive Director Russell Corby submitted a corrective action plan to the state, the UEZA restored funding for the Job Link program and the muster zone, which committeemen built it without planning board of zoning board approval on a site in Lakewood Industrial Park.

The site, located on Swarthmore Avenue, was constructed on vacant land owned by the Lakewood Industrial Commission and was a habitat for endangered species. It was also the location of Lakewood Airport's safety zone, which is required for safe landings and takeoffs.

The township purchased Lakewood Airport over a decade ago through Federal and state grants totaling $10 million.

Day laborers declined to wait for work at the muster zone, three miles away from downtown Lakewood, where many of the men lived.

During a committee meeting, a resident asked Committeeman Raymond Coles, mayor of 2007, if the township was going to restore the muster zone to its former condition. Coles said no.

During construction of the muster zone, a reporter noted that it appeared to more closely resemble a park than a waiting area and that employers seeking to hire the men would have had to park curbside to pick them up, which is illegal in that area.

Although committeemen did not apply to the planning or zoning board for permission to build the structure, they did ask the Inspection Department for a permit, which had not been granted before the public works department broke ground on the site.

After construction began, the owner of a business located next to the site asked the LDC to stop it. He said his company, a member of the UEZ, would lose business if the muster zone opened next to it.

The committee and the LDC ignored his objections and day laborers ignored the muster zone - built at taxpayer expense.

This month, the committee and the LDC continued to pursue a special interest agenda in violation of state law and residents' quality of life.

The muster zone site will play a part in that agenda to turn Lakewood into a city.

The town's taxpayer-owned airport may not be able to exist with a developed safety zone anymore than neighboring for-profit companies may be willing to remain in a town where public policy hurts business instead of helping it.

Under the township's proposed Smart Growth Plan, required for state Plan Endorsement, Lakewood Industrial Park would be renamed Lakewood Industrial Park and Campus.

Many non-profit Orthodox schools are either building new facilities in the industrial park or occupying former for-profit company offices now vacant.

The industrial park is located in the heart of the township's UEZ and the airport is its center.

Under township public policy, but not clearly stated in township ordinance, non-public schools operating as educational businesses are permitted anywhere in Lakewood with only administrative approval of one township official.

Under district policy of the Lakewood Board of Education, those businesses are all eligible to receive transportation subsidies that enable them to stay in operation, whether or not the school facilities pose a hazard to those working or studying in them.

A majority of Lakewood's approximately 20,000 K-12 students attend non-public schools that are permitted to operate anywhere in town, including the industrial park, and often in any condition.

For months, possibly years, the township permitted a boys school to operate over a Formica factory at 166 Main Street (Route 88) in downtown Lakewood. The district provided transportation to the school, located in a former attorney's office in the rear of the building, which had insufficient access for any emergency vehicle or fire truck that might be summoned there. The fence around the rear of the building, where the boys played, was located adjacent to railroad tracks and had holes in it which a child could use to leave school grounds.

A former Italian restaurant located in the front of the building had been converted into a girls non-public school. A reporter for NJ News & Views visited it last winter.

A railing installed in the center of the front lobby steps had never been secured and swayed from side to side, providing little support for anyone using it. However, the school classroom inside the former restaurant appeared to have been extensively renovated.

Many non-public religious schools cannot afford to bring their facilities up to code and the township inspection department turns a blind eye to many of their problems.

In early 2006, the township committee adopted an ordinance that permits schools under construction to open for class in trailers on the construction site. 

Last month, the township's attorneys, Lawrence Bathgate II and his law firm associate, Jan Wouters, said during a committee meeting that under state law, schools could not be restricted from opening anywhere, but did not tell the public that state statute pertained to public schools, not non-public religious schools, which are businesses.

Lakewood's proposed Smart Growth Plan would ensure the success of the township's non-public schools, but not necessarily the quality of life for residents living near them.

Despite a divided township, the LDC is already funding the plan - with state approval.

On October 13, 2009, the UEZA held its monthly meeting at 2 p.m. in Trenton, the same day as the LDC, which was scheduled to meet at 4:30 p.m.

The UEZA agenda included two Lakewood requests: $334,880 for the Monmouth Avenue Revival Project - Phase V, listed on the UEZA agenda as New Business, and $50,000 for the Shuttle Bus Master Plan, an item on the UEZA Consent Agenda.

For over a decade, Rabbi Shlomo C. Kanarek, Director of Bais Rivka Rochel School for Girls, has overseen the redevelopment of Monmouth Avenue, funded by the township's UEZ program.

At the July 7 LDC meeting, Kanarek presented a plan that called for construction of a shopping center with a 17,000-square-foot supermarket space at Monmouth and Fourth Street.

Located on Block 160, Lots 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 14, the shopping center would include 31,000 square feet adjacent to the supermarket that would be leased to 14 other stores. Kanarek also plans to construct 20,000 square feet above the retail stores as office space and a day care facility.

Under Lakewood Township zoning, non-public schools are defined as any child care center not licensed by the state, making the shopping center eligible for a partial tax exemption.

In 2007, Singer sponsored state legislation signed into law by Governor Jon Corzine that expands Title I funding to include pre-K non-public schools.

The Tiny Tots pre-school is located in the same building at 285 River Avenue (Route 9 north) as Bais Rivka Rochel, Kanarek's school for girls.

Under current township ordinance, the multi-million-dollar project would qualify for a 5-year tax abatement on new construction, which Kanarek requested in his proposal. He also requested a $4 million UEZ low-interest loan, an unspecified amount in grant funding for the shopping center's façade and landscaping, and construction of a parking lot.

At the July 7 LDC meeting, Kanarek proposed that the LDC purchase the tax-exempt Lakewood Community Center parking lot on 4th Street with UEZ funding and redevelop it as the shopping center parking lot. He estimated the cost of the parking lot construction as high as $425,000.

According to the project overview, phases I, II and III of the project were financed in part with a UEZ grant and interest-free UEZ loan.

The UEZ fund is generated by a reduced sales tax charged by UEZ members and by the interest earned on loans the LDC makes to qualified businesses.

Kanarek said in his proposal that the shopping center would create 125 jobs, and would generate $99,225 in UEZ sales tax revenue and $9 million in sales revenue.

Kanarek also said his project would divert traffic from Clifton Avenue, expanding the central business district downtown to Monmouth and 4th Street.

The expansion will also recreate downtown Lakewood's parking and traffic problems since township planner T&M Associates did not include that area of town in its study and the infrastructure does not support Lakewood's redevelopment into a city under the Smart Growth Plan.

According to LDC officials, the UEZA approved both Lakewood requests.

Their action will not benefit taxpayers that help subsidize the UEZ program.

By approving UEZ funding to buy the Community Center parking lot without also ensuring that township bus routes proposed under the Shuttle Bus Master Plan service the new John Franklin Athletic Fields at the southern end of Lakewood, inner city youths will have limited venues to use their recreational time constructively - and more reason to join gangs.

More importantly, because the township permits pre-K schools and day care centers not regulated by the state to open anywhere in town, parents that work or attend Beth Medrash Govoha will not be able to use a township shuttle bus to pick up their child - they will still need a car.

Last year, the LDC conducted a survey of the Job Link program shuttle bus to determine its peak hours of use. According to LDC Executive Director Russell Corby, now an LDC consultant, few people used the Job Link bus in the afternoon or evening hours of operation. As a result, LDC board members voted to cut funding and reduce its hours of operation.

Under the township's Smart Growth Plan, the Job Link program would be expanded to include the township's fleet of 9-10 buses. Although state grants will fund the purchase of the buses, committeemen confirmed last year that the township would have to fund the required two-year operation at an estimated cost of $1 million.

On October 13, the LDC approved a resolution funding the Job Link Bus Transportation program in 2010 at a cost of $105,000.

Last week, a reporter for NJ News & Views contacted all five township committeemen for comment on the Smart Growth Plan hearing.

Four committeemen did not return a call for comment.

In a recorded telephone message, Miller said he would be out of the country - less than a month before he is up for re-election. In his recorded telephone message, Miller also said he would be back in town on October 29 - the date of the rescheduled Smart Growth Plan hearing.

According to sources, Miller and his running mate, Hannah Havens, did not have a campaign manager before NJ News & Views contacted Singer to ask if he was the Republican campaign manager.

Singer did not return a reporter's call for comment.

Singer is up for re-election to the township committee in 2010.

County Tax Board Commissioner P.G. Waxman, a former Democratic Lakewood committeeman, denied he was the Democratic campaign manager.

Lichtenstein is running for re-election with Miriam Medina as the Democratic Party nominees.

Both Medina and Havens have previously run for township committee.

In 2007, Medina ran an unsuccessful campaign against Singer, but discussed her platform and qualifications for public office with NJ News & Views.

In 2002 and 2003, Havens ran unsuccessfully for township committee as Miller's running mate. She discussed her platform and qualifications with the media both years.

This year, neither woman is publicly discussing their platform or their qualifications for public office.

It has never been more important for all candidates to do so.

The township recently held a tax sale that included Havens' home at 1300 Lexington Avenue.

A reporter attempted to research the amount of back taxes Havens owed on the property, but most online county tax records for Lakewood properties were not updated after 2006 and the count tax board Web site.

Waxman, a Lakewood real estate agent, attributed the absence of the information to the township's tax revaluation, which was completed in 2007, but did not explain why county tax records were posted consecutively prior to that date.

In 2006, Lichtenstein was mayor of Lakewood.

On October 13, 2009, he was breaking state law.

Immediately prior to the 4:30 p.m. scheduled LDC meeting, Lichtenstein organized an unscheduled meeting of LDC board members and department officials. Because Lichtenstein's meeting ran 20 minutes into the regularly scheduled LDC meeting, and because Township Clerk Mary Ann Del Mastro confirmed in an e-mail to NJ News & Views that the meeting was open to anyone that entered the room, including a quorum of LDC board members, the meeting was a violation of the state's Open Public Meetings Act.

Under the Open Public Meetings Act, all meetings at which a quorum of members is present must be publicly advertised in official newspapers at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting date.

According to Del Mastro, the meeting included a presentation of a proposed transportation system by a representative of Aaron Kotler, head of Beth Medrash Govoha. She denied that a quorum of seven or more LDC board members were also present. However, the reporter entered the room before the meeting adjourned and saw Weisberg, his employee Gonzalez and LDC Executive Director Patricia Komsa seated at a fully-occupied table where the LDC holds its regularly scheduled meetings.

Before entering the room, the reporter saw Lichtenstein in the hallway with other members and staff of the LDC.

In 2008, Lichtenstein formed a transportation "steering committee" that did not hold publicly-advertised meetings open to the public, but included members of the Vaad.

In October 2008, Transportation and Safety Board Chairman Bernard Gindoff said that the transportation "steering committee" Lichtenstein formed independently months earlier had not conferred with the transportation board.

The transportation board is not just an advisory panel, but a regulatory body that hears complaints and recommends township action to enforce taxi, limousine and towing company regulations.

Instead of organizing the transportation system briefing as a presentation during the regularly scheduled LDC meeting, Lichtenstein and other township officials continued to keep the public and the media from knowing how taxpayer dollars will be spent or whom they will benefit.

During the LDC meeting that started at 4:50 p.m. instead of 4:30 p.m., members approved a resolution for $35,000 for a traffic study of the proposed Cedarbridge Town Center, which will include the Lakewood's minor league baseball stadium, FirstEnergy Park, located at Cedarbridge and New Hampshire Avenues.

The LDC also approved $66,000 for environmental assessment of 10 potential building sites in Lakewood's business centers to determine whether the areas can be developed in accordance with CAFRA.

Lakewood Township zoning does not require development applicants to submit a traffic or environmental impact study, although members of either board can request them.

Proposed Smart Growth construction projects include development of entrance roadways to access the 10 proposed building sites. The LDC projected the creation of 10-15 new businesses and employment of as many as 150-200 job applicants within the 70,000-square-foot project.

Lakewood is zoned for mixed use development.

The LDC also approved the hire of DW Smith Associates LLC of Farmingdale at a fee not to exceed $47,000 "for performance of Engineering Services for CAFRA Modification relating to the Cedarbridge Redevelopment Area project."

If Lakewood participates in the state planning process, it will be eligible to re-establish its expired coastal center boundaries. At stake is developers' ability to build on environmentally sensitive areas governed by the Coastal Area Facility Review Act (CAFRA) and state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regulations.

Coastal centers are used in determining the impervious cover limits and vegetative cover percentages for development proposed in the CAFRA area, according to online DEP documentation.

Impervious coverage refers to sidewalks, roads, parking lots and any other man-made construction improvement to vacant land. The amount of impervious coverage impacts the effectiveness of natural stormwater management, such as trees, freshwater wetlands and water bodies that include rivers and streams that act as a sieve, channeling the runoff into the Barnegat Bay estuary and out into the Atlantic Ocean.

CAFRA changes will help accelerate the Vaad's plan for township redevelopment as a city, which requires a high percentage of impervious coverage dependant on less effective detention/retention basins in place of naturally-occurring stormwater management.

In conjunction with Smart Growth Plan redevelopment, the LDC also hired `T&M Associates at a fee not to exceed $15,000 "for performance of Redevelopment Plan Amendment relating to the Cedarbridge Redevelopment Area."

A decade ago, the township committee contracted with a division of Beth Medrash Govoha, a non-profit institution of higher learning, to build a for-profit Town Center on a 400-acre site that has already benefited Kotler's business, but so far has not benefited taxpayers.

Under the Smart Growth Plan, the site is planned as a high-density population hub, or "node."

The site is located near Lakewood's eastern border with the suburban Townships of Toms River and Brick.

Residents of those townships will be impacted by Lakewood's growth into a city in ways they may not have realized. Many insurance companies base their rates on the insured's proximity to a high-density urban area, which increases the probability of an accident, fire or theft resulting in loss of life or property.

Lakewood residents may receive increased grant funding if their township becomes a city, but individuals living or working there will be likewise impacted by unexpected cost increases.

The LDC hired Giordano, Halleran & Ciesla, PC of Middletown at a fee not to exceed $14,000 and the firm of Levin, Shea & Pfeffer, PA of Jackson at a fee not to exceed $25,000 "for provision of Legal Services relating to the Cedarbridge Redevelopment Area."

The LDC also hired Stearns Associates, LLC of Stockton at a fee not to exceed $95,500 "for provision of Land Planning Services relating to the Cedarbridge Redevelopment Area."

In 2006, the LDC hired planner/landscape architect D. Thomas Stearns to assess the cost of redeveloping the exterior of the former Jamesway shopping center at the border with Howell, which Beth Medrash Govoha purchased in June 2000.

In September 2009, the Lakewood Planning Board granted a waiver to the property owner for construction of a building addition within the 300 foot buffer of the Metedeconk River, a state-protected waterway.

During Stearns' 2006 LDC presentation to redevelop the Jamesway exterior, he said that had the building not already been constructed, it could not have been built within the Metedeconk's 300-foot buffer.

At the time, Corby did not ask the LDC to vote on the proposed UEZ grant to fund redevelopment of private property at a projected cost of more than $1 million, but during the October 13, 2009 meeting, board member Michael D'Elia said the Jamesway project showed what the board could accomplish.

The LDC also approved the hire of Van Note-Harvey Associates, PC of Princeton at a fee not to exceed $13,552 "for the performance of Engineering Services needed to prepare a single final major subdivision plat and modify and file existing maps relating to the Cedarbridge Redevelopment Area project."

The LDC also approved $177,625 currently in its Zone Assistance fund for the purposes of funding a 'Business Center Land Development Initiative' for "target business identification, planning and marketing programs to promote new business development within a 60 acre tract of land set aside for industrial/commercial development within its primary Business Center 'Nodule' as identified in the proposed 2009 Smart Growth Plan (draft)."

Since 2003, when the corporate park's infrastructure was completed, Beth Medrash Govoha has failed to live up to the terms of the contract its representative, Jack Mueller, signed with the township. Under those terms, Mueller agreed to build at least 100,000 square feet of office space a year in the corporate park.

In his last year on the committee, Cunliffe discussed the vacant corporate park at a meeting of the Lakewood Industrial Commission. He said that representatives of many of the high profile banks, insurance companies and "big box stores" told committeemen they preferred a location on Route 9 instead of Cedarbridge Avenue, where the corporate park is located.

According to Waxman, Route 9 locations command the highest real estate sale prices in town.

This past spring, the LDC voted in executive session - a violation of the Open Public Meetings Act - to hire Transportation Board liaison Yisroel (Steven) Reinman, a friend and neighbor of Deputy Mayor Langert, as Corby's successor. At an annual salary of $75,000, Reinman is instead responsible for attracting new business to Lakewood.

At the October 13 LDC meeting, the board of directors approved $70,000 for a "Business Attraction Initiative" and $20,000 for establishment of a "Redevelopment Database" project to make the township "more competitive in the (attraction) of retail developers."

During the meeting, members also discussed another Reinman project. According to materials distributed to members, which NJ News & Views requested under OPRA, Reinman has proposed the hire of Buxton Community ID of Fort Worth, Texas at an estimated cost of $63,000 the first year.

A reporter for NJ News & Views questioned board members about the advertising and marketing programs during the meeting's public forum. The reporter asked if the board intended to disclose in all advertising and promotional literature that the township permits schools anywhere in town.

Weisberg said publication of advertising and marketing materials would go hand-in-hand with development of the town's business.

Failure by the township to disclose local zoning policy could make Lakewood taxpayers liable for any legal claims of fraud.

Instead of spending UEZ funds to attract business to Lakewood, committeemen could rezone the township to restrict non-public schools and day care centers to residential zones that do not include commercial tax ratables, ensuring the success of for-profit businesses that invest in facilities in Lakewood.

Lakewood could also change public policy.

In 2006, Lichtenstein became manager of one of Lakewood's largest shopping centers, Seagull Square, located on Route 9 south near the border with Toms River. For years, Seagull Square has not been fully leased. It is currently half-empty.

Following Lichtenstein's hire as shopping center manager, a reporter asked him if he had approached Loehmann's, a discount retailer, to open a store in Seagull Square.

Loehmann's had reportedly attracted a large retail audience to its recently-opened Manhattan store.

Lichtenstein said he had not, then suggested the reporter instead contact them.

Celli, a former retail tenant in Seagull Square, said in past media interviews that Lakewood had a responsibility to protect small business owners being driven out of town by shopping center landlords she accused of fraud and misrepresentation.

She said the township committee continued to tell her and other small business owners operating retail establishments they could do nothing for them.

The township is also doing nothing to protect taxpayer-owned businesses.

After the October 28 meeting of the Lakewood Industrial commission, commissioners will take a tour of Lakewood Airport with board members of the LDC. The airport bus tour will depart from the law offices of 2009 Township Attorney Lawrence Bathgate II, who sold the township a portion of land for its acquisition of the airport back in the 1990s.

A reporter asked Reinman to accompany township officials on the airport tour. Reinman did not respond to the reporter's e-mail request or call.

Under the proposed Smart Growth Plan, the airport safety zone will be redeveloped as one of the township's high density "nodes," even though it is essential to the safe operation of the airport.

After Lakewood advocate Yehuda Shain successfully sued the township over a 2005 land exchange by committeemen for construction of non-public Orthodox schools, the township now hires appraisers to assess land value, even though a township revaluation was completed in 2007.

The LDC approved $1,200 for the hire of Kathy Marmur Appraisals of Point Pleasant and $4,000 to hire AJ Lehman Appraisal, Inc. of Manasquan to appraise Block 123, Lot 1 of the Franklin Street Redevelopment Project. Board members also approved $1,200 for the hire of Amerival Realty Consultants and Appraisers of Toms River to appraise Block 123, Lot 25 of the project.

During the meeting, Komsa said the LDC would not be able to afford to purchase all blocks and lots in the Franklin Street Redevelopment Project. However, those properties the LDC will purchase include 166 Main Street, which may or may not be owned by the individuals listed on county tax records.

Following the LDC meeting on October 13, the planning board held a public discussion of the proposed Smart Growth Plan during its 6 p.m. meeting. Weisberg, speaking during the public forum, said the LDC had adopted a resolution in support of the plan.

He failed to also disclose to the public that the LDC had not only supported the plan, but had already approved UEZ funding for it.

On October 15, the Lakewood Scoop posted a video recording of Mayor Singer announcing that the committee was rescheduling the Smart Growth hearing because of audio problems. Singer said on the video report that the state required Lakewood to produce verbatim meeting minutes, which required a taped recording of the meeting.

The Scoop also posted numerous photos of residents forced to stand in the hall outside the meeting room after hundreds of people turned out to hear and discuss the proposed Smart Growth Plan.

After announcing that the meeting would be rescheduled to October 29, Singer and other committeemen continued with their committee meeting, even though it could not be taped either.

According to Lakewood Township Clerk Mary Ann Del Mastro, the township does not have to record its meetings under the Open Public Meetings Act. A reporter for NJ News & Views asked Del Mastro if the committee had suggested she retrieve the cassette recorder used by the LDC during its meetings instead of continuing with the township committee meeting.

Del Mastro said no in an e-mail reply.

A reporter for NJ News & Views then e-mailed Singer at both his senatorial e-mail address and his personal e-mail address to request comment.

The reporter asked Singer why the state required verbatim meeting minutes of the Smart Growth hearing if the Open Public Meetings Act did not require the township to record all meetings. The reporter asked Singer if township policy was in conflict with state policy. If so, the reporter asked, did state policy supersede local policy?

Singer did not respond from either e-mail address to a request for comment.

Although the committee announced on its Web site that the rescheduled hearing would be held at Lakewood High School Commons, a lunchroom where the Lakewood Board of Education has also held its meetings in the past, committeemen never requested the board's permission, which must be granted by resolution at its meeting.

NJ News & Views asked board Business Administrator/Board Secretary Robert Finger in an October 20 e-mail for a copy of the township agreement with the board to use school property. After Finger did not immediately respond to the request, which must be answered upon being made under OPRA, the reporter e-mailed him again.

Finger faxed the reporter the first page of a typed, unsigned permit application that was dated October 20 - the same date the reporter requested a copy of the committee's agreement with the board to use school property.

Finger said in an e-mail response that the permit application was the only documentation the district required for the township committee to use school property.

Del Mastro said in an e-mail response to the reporter's OPRA request for the same information that committeemen did not ask for the board's approval to use school property.

Both the township committee and the board of education, two separate governing bodies, must publicly respond to any request to use public property under their fiscal management.

Each year, the board has been asked and has approved the construction of a bonfire at one of the district public schools. If the district could grant permission to use school property with only the submission of an unsigned permit application, board members could be charged with malfeasance if public or private property is damaged.

The township committee also responds to written requests to use municipal property during its meetings.

Because the board rescheduled its October 14 meeting to October 15 - the same day and time as the committee's Smart Growth Plan hearing - the next opportunity for the board to approve the committee's use of school property would have been the scheduled October 28 board meeting.

After the reporter asked to see the board's agreement with the township for use of school property, the board rescheduled its October 28 meeting to October 26 at 8 p.m.

Several board members have relationships that leave little doubt they will grant the township committee use of school property for the rescheduled Smart Growth hearing, even though hundreds of people are expected to attend it, creating a potential safety hazard.

Board member Meir Neumann is both the brother-in-law and employee of Vaad member Ben Heinemann of BP Graphics.

Gonzalez, the employee of Vaad member Moshe Weisberg, lost her bid for re-election to the board in April 2009. One month later, board President Chet Galdo resigned and the board replaced him with Gonzalez.

District Community Liaison Miriam Medina, a Democratic candidate for township committee, could soon join the list of elected officials with a conflict of interest because they also oversee district or township finances.

According to Medina's official resume, which NJ News & Views requested under OPRA, she oversees her department's district budget.

As a member of the township committee, Medina would be tasked with reviewing defeated school budgets - a conflict of interest if she also helps make them.

In 2006, Medina's running mate, Lichtenstein, failed to abstain or recuse himself from voting with other committeemen to reduce a defeated school budget, even though Lichtenstein was employed by then-board member Simcha Shain, an investor in Seagull Square, according to his 2006 district ethics disclosure.

In 2004, Shain was sworn into office as a member of the board of education, but did not disclose that he employed board attorney Michael Inzelbuch to represent his business interests, according to documents posted on the county clerk's Web site.

After Shain declined to run for re-election in 2007, the township committee appointed him to the Lakewood Airport Authority the day after his successor was sworn onto the board.

In 2009, the township committee dissolved the Airport Authority, placing it under oversight by the LDC. Because the LDC hired Reinman to oversee the airport, his $75,000 annual township salary is eligible for state reimbursement with UEZ funding.

Last week, NJ News & Views contacted committeemen to discuss how and where the Smart Growth Plan hearing would be held. The reporter asked all five elected officials if they had discussed the possibility of holding a town hall-style meeting that could be aired over the high school's television station or webcast over the township Web site, allowing viewers to send in their comments or questions by telephone or e-mail for committee response.

Committeemen did not return a call for comment.

According to Celli, she and Cunliffe have frequently offered to debate public policy with the other candidates. Each time, the candidates or their spokesperson declined to debate the issues or did not respond at all.

"Government is supposed to work for all the people," Celli told NJ News & Views on October 25. "I believe there is too much wheeling and dealing behind closed doors with the (township's) power brokers. Lakewood's future should belong to everybody."