NJ News & Views

One year ago, retired engineer Robert Schneider answered a call to public service.

Schneider, a resident of the Four Seasons adult community, applied to serve his township after hearing a presentation by Bernard Gindoff, Chairman of the Lakewood Transportation and Safety Board.

"I thought it was the right thing to do," Schneider told NJ News & Views earlier this month.

Following the board's January 28 Reorganization meeting, Schneider is no longer certain he would answer that call to public service again.

Instead of notifying outgoing public officials in writing that they had not been appointed to another term in office and thanking them for their service, the township has continued to simply appoint new ones in their place.

Last month, public practice became public humiliation for Schneider and two other former board members.

As Schneider, Marlene Atkins and board vice chairman Dave Garfield entered the second floor meeting room, Gindoff told them to take seats against the wall where the general public was seated. He said the township committee had not reappointed the members to another term on the board.

One month earlier, the township committee also failed to disclose the new appointments to the general public.

According to a January 1, 2009 Reorganization agenda distributed only to new appointees, the township committee was slated to appoint Yakov Ort, Yitzy Scholar, William Wells and Steven Reinman to 2-year terms on the transportation board, and Chana M. Jacobowitz to a 3-year term.

No explanation was provided on the agenda as to why Jacobowitz was serving a 3-year term and all other appointees were serving 2-year terms.

Last year, Schneider received a letter from the township informing him his term on the transportation board would run from January 20, 2008 to the end of the year. He said the letter did not state that the appointment was made to fill the unexpired term of another member.

Schneider said he did not receive a written or verbal request to file a financial disclosure after his appointment.

Garfield, who told NJ News & Views he was first appointed to the transportation board in 2002 and reappointed several times after that, said the township asked him to file annual disclosures, which he did.

NJ News & Views was unable to contact Atkins, the third board member not reappointed in January.

One month after she was told to take a seat in the audience at the transportation board meeting, Atkins was reappointed to another term.

A reporter asked Deputy Mayor Steven Langert, the committee liaison to the transportation board, which member Atkins replaced on the board in February. Although Schneider said several board members never attended meetings during the year he served, Langert said Atkins had not replaced any other member. He said her removal in January was "an oversight."

Under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA), NJ News & Views requested to view all financial disclosures filed by transportation board members since 2001. Acting Township Clerk Mary Ann Del Mastro said the township did not have to provide disclosures for advisory board members.

A reporter asked her to have the township attorney provide a legal basis for the denial in writing.

Del Mastro declined the request, even though she does not have a law degree.

A spokesman for the state Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) told NJ News & Views in a January 30 e-mail that under NJSA 40A:9-22.1 et seq (3e), "any...board...which performs functions other than of a purely advisory nature," is subject to local government ethics law (NJSA 40A:9-22.6).

The township Web site states that in addition to its advisory function, the transportation and safety board also oversees the taxi and towing business in Lakewood, a regulatory function.

Last year, Diane Iannarone of Leisure Hack, a licensed Lakewood taxi company, told members of the township committee that the transportation board had failed to regulate unlicensed taxi operators.

This year, other Lakewood taxi and towing business owners told transportation board members the same thing.

At the January 28, 2009 meeting of the transportation board, Marcel Manzarron of States Unidos Taxi LLC and Latino Express; Joseph Clasene of Lakewood Transportation LLC; and Joe Barina of Barina Automotive Services, a township-licensed towing company, told transportation board members they were being hurt as well by the township's failure to regulate illegal taxi and towing operators.

Manzarron told NJ News & Views it was not the first time he had discussed the problem with the board.

"Two years ago, I went to their meeting," Manzarron said. "Smitty (township compliance officer Leonard Smith) said (unregulated cab owners) have to eat, too. He also asked me why I always complained."

Smith is a retired police officer now employed by the township.

Manzarron, married and the father of five, said he did everything legally required to operate his business in Lakewood.

So did Barina, who said a Toms River towing company he did not publicly identify was continuing to cruise Lakewood accident scenes before police could contact registered tow companies eligible to remove vehicles blocking traffic.

Clasene and Barina told NJ News & Views they remain hopeful that the township will begin regulating their industries, but Iannarone and Mazarron were doubtful the issue would be addressed without legal action.

A decade ago, Iannarone and other taxi companies successfully sued Lakewood over the increased cost of renewing a taxi cab medallion, which allows their companies to legally operate in town.

Last month, Clasene told the transportation board that many illegal taxi operators are handing out business cards in front of the local ShopRite supermarket to anyone that will accept their unlicensed services.

Reynaldo Soliscervantes of Los Amigos Taxi Service LLC is also licensed by the township, but was not present at the meeting.

At the October 2008 transportation board meeting, Smith described an undercover operation that resulted in the issuing of summonses to illegal taxi drivers. However, Smith said at the January board meeting that no one had notified him of the court date on which he was expected to testify. As a result, all summonses were thrown out.

The compliance officer is required to notify Lakewood police, who issued the summonses.

Each taxi owner that legally operates a business in Lakewood must pay an initial fee of $1,000 for each medallion, and $200 per year to renew it.

Iannarone said the township had reduced its original fee of $3,000 per medallion, but that the cost still represented a significant investment for taxi owners. Iannarone said she paid for seven taxi medallions, but currently operates four taxi cabs.

"At one point in my business, seven medallions were worth a lot," Iannarone said. "But with fewer fares, you can't afford to put as many cabs on the road as in the past."

Iannarone said Gindoff asked each of the taxi owners present at the meeting to tell the board how many medallions each owned and how many taxi cabs each operated in Lakewood.

Manzarron said he also paid for seven medallions, but operates three taxi cabs under the Latino Express company name and two taxi cabs under the States Unidos company name.

Clasene, a Jamaican immigrant, bought his taxi company four months ago. Clasene paid $13,000 for 13 medallions, but so far can only afford to operate three taxi cabs.

Licensed taxi owners must not only support their business with a smaller number of passengers willing to pay a higher township-regulated fare, they must also hire from a shrinking pool of qualified drivers licensed to work in Lakewood.

"You end up recycling the same drivers," Iannarone told NJ News & Views.

Taxi owners may soon have competition from the township itself.

At the October 2008 and January 2009 transportation board meetings, members also discussed the township's plan to own and operate a fleet of buses.

During 2008, the local governing body appointed members to a steering committee that discussed options for creating additional parking downtown, as well as providing public bus service. Both initiatives are required for state Plan Endorsement.

The steering committee did not hold public meetings.

Garfield told NJ News & Views that Gindoff insisted that the transportation board be briefed on the steering committee's discussions. At the October 2008 transportation board meeting, which NJ News & Views covered, John Jennings of T&M made a public presentation of the steering committee's recommendations.

After his presentation, Atkins said the transportation board should have been kept in the loop about the township's plans.

Schneider and Garfield asked Jennings if proposed bus routes could also include Lakewood's adult communities at the southern end of town. Board members said some Lakewood adult communities were forced to give up their buses after gasoline prices skyrocketed last year.

Jennings said that bus routes were proposed to run as far south as Seagull Square, but not to The Fairways or The Enclave.

During township committee meeting discussions of the proposed bus routes, residents of Leisure Village at the eastern end of town also requested that the buses service their communities.

Transportation board members discussed the proposed bus routes again at their January 2009 meeting, where related materials were distributed only to the board, not the public.

NJ News & Views made an OPRA request to view the materials. Although the same bus routes were discussed at committee meetings in December 2007 and January 2008 before the committee voted to proceed with plans to acquire the buses, Del Mastro declined to provide information she termed a draft.

The township also declined to provide access to public information about transportation board members.

Under state law enacted in September 2008, all Lakewood Township financial disclosures must be filed earlier than in the past. Instead of requiring public officials to file a disclosure by the end of April, the state Local Finance Board now requires the disclosures to be filed by the end of January.

Although Mayor Robert Singer, a state senator, voted for the new requirement, Del Mastro told NJ News & Views that disclosures were not available for public inspection two weeks into February.

The only 2009 disclosure provided to NJ News & Views for inspection in February was filed by Lawrence E. Bathgate II, the township attorney Del Mastro declined to consult.

Who does or does not serve on the township's boards and committees determines how much the township's attorneys can earn. In recent years, that amount has swelled as more litigants have turned to the courts to reverse public policy promulgated on the recommendations of appointed officials.

In 2005 and 2006, the township committee approved appointments to a mayor's advisory committee tasked with making recommendations to revise Lakewood's Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) and its Master Plan, which is a required document for state Plan Endorsement.

Many of the appointees to the mayor's advisory committee included developers that stood to benefit from their public service - and did.

In a 2008 decision, state Superior Court Judge Vincent J. Grasso, sitting in Toms River, responded to those charges in a lawsuit filed by resident Steven Scher.

"…plaintiff argues that the procedure leading up to the adoption of the current Master Plan Re-evaluation was flawed in that some of the members of the Master Plan Advisory Committee owned property, represented property owners, or were planners or developers who would be affected by the Master Plan Re-evaluation and they failed to disclose their potential conflicts," Grasso wrote in his July 30, 2008 opinion. "For example, Brian Flannery, the intervenor in this matter, sat on the Master Plan Advisory Committee, as did the plaintiff's wife, Janet Scher. Both of these individuals, as owning land within the affected Property clearly had an interest in the outcome of this matter."

Grasso noted that under NJSA 40:55D-69 of the Municipal Land Use Law, "No member of [the board] shall be permitted to act on any matter in which he has, either directly or indirectly, any personal or financial interest."

Grasso also wrote, "This provision has been interpreted as a codification of the common law principle that a public official is disqualified from participating in judicial or quasi-judicial proceedings in which the official has a conflicting interest that may interfere with the impartial performance of duties as a member of a public body."

Accordingly, Grasso wrote that the basis for determining whether a conflict of interest existed should be based on whether factual information indicated the likely capacity to tempt an official into departing from his sworn public duty.

Grasso found four circumstances were an indicator of such a situation: 1.) direct pecuniary interest, pertaining to money or property; 2.) indirect pecuniary interests, such as an official voting on a matter that financially benefits someone closely tied to the official through employment or family; 3.) direct personal interest, such as an official voting on a matter that benefits a blood relative or close friend in a non-financial, but equally important way; and 4.) indirect personal interest, such as an official voting on a matter in which that person's judgment may be affected because of membership in an organization.

In his decision, Grasso remanded the matter back to the township planning board, whose members did not all file financial disclosures last year.

"On remand, the court reminds the parties that no one with an interest in this matter, as defined in NJSA 40:55D-69, should participate as a board member or advisory committee member," Grasso wrote.

In December 2008, members of the planning board voted to uphold their previous interpretation of the area's zoning, which Committeeman Charles Cunliffe described as "a mistake" in public comments made in 2006.

This month, members of the Lakewood Planning Board approved an application to develop a dense residential site in the former agricultural (A-1) zone. Flannery, who owned the property, testified on behalf of the applicant, his wife.

The site is located near the Crystal Lake Preserve, an environmentally sensitive area the state has told Lakewood it does not want developed.

The state would also like Lakewood to provide adequate parking as well as public transportation in downtown Lakewood, but last year the township committee failed to rezone the area from B-2 to B-1 in order to accomplish that goal.

Planning board members continue to approve projects that do not meet state objectives or conform with township ordinance. Residents are continuing to turn to the state's courts for relief.

In legal papers filed in 2007, Nisson Schwartz and the Fifth Street Homeowners Association charged that the planning board approved an application by Batim Management, owned by the Burzstyn family, that was not in conformance with current township zoning adopted under the Municipal Land Use Law.

Plaintiffs alleged that the defendant received site plan approval to build a 3-story mixed-use building on Fifth Street, between Clifton and Lexington Avenues, in the Residential Multi-family (RM) zone, where business is not a permitted use.

Clifton Avenue Grade School is located one block from the 15,000-square-foot site.

The planning board approved the project for the future addition of two more stories. Retail shops are proposed on the first floor, a restaurant in the basement, and offices on the second, third, fourth and fifth floors.

Batim proposed to remove a 2-story barn and 2-story shed currently on the property in order to build the project as proposed.

The application did not provide any buffering for the project, which is required by township ordinance.

The applicant proposed to install nine off-street parking spaces. The applicant testified that additional parking was provided on property located across the street, which the applicant did not own.

"Several objectors appeared in opposition to the application citing the concern for fire and safety issues, parking, and also pointed out that buses currently use the area as an unofficial parking area when delivering customers to the Strand Theater," legal papers stated. "With the addition of the building, traffic would become dangerous for children in the neighborhood."

Despite safety concerns, the planning board determined that the application did not require any variances and approved it.

The parties later entered into a consent agreement, resulting in the withdrawal of project approval - at taxpayer expense.

As Lakewood grows into a city, transportation, parking and green open space will continue to challenge its elected and appointed officials. All public officials that serve their township need to protect its quality of life, while nurturing the growth of all business and industry that comply with its laws.