NJ News & Views

For more than half a century, the Statue of Liberty was often the first sight America's immigrants saw before they arrived at New York's Ellis Island.

These days, immigrants are no longer processed at Ellis Island, now a museum, and few ever see the Statue of Liberty before they enter the country - with or without legal documentation.

Despite the risks, immigrants continue to cross America's borders in search of a new life and a better living.

Some government officials are willing to help at taxpayer expense.

At the April 30 meeting of the Lakewood Industrial Commission (LIC), members voted to approve a $40,000 grant for classroom instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL), provided by a non-profit organization at no charge to students.

ESL courses provide non-English speaking immigrants with a skill that is key in competing with American citizens for many of the construction and trade jobs in demand in Lakewood.

Until two years ago, the Lakewood Community School offered ESL classes one day a week at no cost to taxpayers and a profit to the school. Demand for the course began to drop after a non-profit organization started offering ESL classes for free.

In 2001, members of a Lakewood political interest group formed the Lakewood Community Services Corporation (LCSC), a non-profit organization that offered beginning, intermediate and advanced ESL courses four days a week at no charge to students. Special interests secured financing for the program through their political influence and appointments to the Lakewood Development Corporation (LDC), which oversees the township's Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) fund.

The Community School could not compete and dropped its fee-based program. So did the Lakewood branch of the Ocean County Library, which also offered ESL courses.

Earlier this year, the state cut UEZ funding for the ESL classes, but special interests continued to seek public monies for the program, which lowers the cost of development in town through the employment of illegal aliens.

William Doyle, LIC secretary, questioned why it was the responsibility of commission members to fund the ESL program with a grant for $40,000.

LIC Executive Assistant Anita Doyle said the grant paid the salaries of ESL teachers.

Anita Doyle told NJ News & Views she is not related to William Doyle.

"I have some reservations," William Doyle told her.

Chairman Jeffrey Golub said the expense was appropriate.

"We're a mechanism of the township to put (this program) into motion," he told William Doyle.

The local governing body appoints township officials at the recommendation of the Vaad, a special interest group that meets the state definition of a Continuing Political Committee (CPC), also called a Political Action Committee (PAC).

The state Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) defines a CPC as any organized group of two or more persons acting jointly to aid or promote the nomination, election or defeat of any candidate or candidates for public office, or to promote the passage or defeat of a public question by raising or expending a minimum of $1,800.

A Political Committee, unlike a CPC, is formed solely for the purpose of a single campaign.

Because the Vaad can coerce a large bloc of Orthodox Jewish voters to elect its endorsed candidates, the Vaad is an influential lobby group as well as a CPC.

All members of the Lakewood Township Committee were elected with the endorsement of the Vaad.

LDC Chairman Moshe Zev Weisberg is a member of the Vaad, as well as director of the LCSC.

In January 2006, the committee voted to appoint Weisberg's employee, Ada Gonzalez, to the same board he chairs, even though the appointment is a conflict of interest.

For years, both Weisberg and Gonzalez participated in LDC votes to approve UEZ funding to the Job Links program, which in turn supported the LCSC that paid their salaries. In 2006, the state UEZ Authority froze Job Links program funding until a corrective action plan was submitted that addressed Weisberg's conflicts of interest.

At the LDC monthly meeting in February, Executive Director Russell Corby told the public that the state had reduced the LDC budget. The state action was taken a month after the LDC held an illegal vote in executive session on a resolution for action that Weisberg opposed.

Under the state's Open Public Meetings Act, all votes must be taken in public session.

During the April 30 meeting, William Doyle asked why the LIC was now involved in funding the ESL program.

"I know we have to," he said, "But that doesn't make it right."

Corby, who is also Executive Director of the LIC, said the program was very beneficial.

Golub agreed.

"It helps the employer and employee communicate," Golub said.

Corby said many of the employees didn't speak English.

A large number of Lakewood developers employ illegal workers from Mexico that come to the United States to work. Referred to as day laborers, the men wait daily for work along the sidewalks of Clifton Avenue in downtown Lakewood. When employers drive by and signal how many workers they need that day, the men often rush the vehicle from both sides of the street, creating a dangerous traffic hazard for drivers and pedestrians alike.

According to Committeeman Marc (Meir) Lichtenstein, the employers often take advantage of the men, who work long hours in all weather and are not always paid for their labor.

Many of the developers that employ the men are also landlords that rent the workers housing in single-family homes illegally converted into multi-family dwellings. Although Lakewood rents are controlled by township ordinance, local government does not require landlords to register rental apartments in single-family houses, which were legalized in 2005. Unless a complaint is filed with the township Inspection Department, inspectors do not visit rental homes that may be in violation of overcrowding or rent control.

As the quality of life diminished in many Lakewood neighborhoods over the years, residents began filing numerous complaints with the Inspection Department. Inspectors issued numerous violation notices to Lakewood landlords, who filed a class action suit against the township.

In March 2007, Township Attorney Steven Secare negotiated a legal settlement with members of the Lakewood Landlords Association (LLA). The settlement required the township to notify the landlord or his agent prior to making an inspection of any residential rental property. The township also agreed to manage absentee landlords' properties by making their tenants responsible for correcting violations. In return, Lakewood landlords were each required to plead guilty to a single violation and to pay a fine of $100 and $33 in court costs.

The settlement benefited landlords, but not their tenants or their neighbors.

Resident Diane Reaves rents a single family house on Holly Street off Route 88. She said developers Mark Engel and Eliyahu Weinstein each own one of the two neighboring single family homes next to hers.

In 2006, Weinstein leased his property to as many tenants as he could fit in it.

According to township inspectors, a total of 26 individuals lived in a residence zoned for only 10 people. Eight individuals resided in an attic converted into three illegally-built bedroom apartments. Two first floor bedrooms were illegally subdivided into four bedroom apartments. On the second floor, two bedroom apartments were illegally constructed. The garage had been converted into an illegal apartment as well.

Although multiple families lived in Weinstein's house with their children, township inspectors did not see any cribs in the home. There were no working smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors or fire extinguishers in the dwelling. Inspectors reported that the rear exit on the first floor was blocked by a refrigerator.

No one living in the house would give inspectors their name.

Reaves said the single family home on the other side of her rental home is owned by developer Mark Engel.

In 2006, inspectors also paid a visit to Engel's property. They found more than 10 men at a time living in the residence. The men, who work in shifts, did not pay their monthly utility bill. Unable to heat the house, the men illegally tapped into a natural gas line. In order to cook, the men used a washing machine hose to connect a barbeque propane tank to the kitchen stove, which a Lakewood code enforcement officer said could have blown up half the block.

Reaves said she was so shaken by what the code enforcement officer told her, she went home and cried.

According to public comments, she is not the only Lakewood resident feeling frightened, angry or frustrated at the failure of local government to stand up to special interests.

Not all government officials willingly comply with special interest demands.

Before voting to abstain, William Doyle said for the record that the commission should not have the responsibility to fund the ESL program.

LIC Vice Chairman Bertram Albert also abstained from voting.

Doyle owns numerous properties in area townships and correctly abstained. However, Albert declined comment when asked the following day why he also abstained instead of voting no.

Last year, the township committee did not reappoint Albert to the LDC after he questioned plans to build a muster zone for day laborers in the airport safety zone.

Albert is the director of Lakewood Airport, a public business special interests seek to redevelop as residential housing.

The three LIC members that did vote on the resolution should also have abstained.

LIC board members Justin Flancbaum and Jan Kokes are real estate developers that may either employ men that attended the ESL classes or have business relationships with those that do. Despite a possible conflict of interest, both men voted to approve the grant resolution funding the ESL program.

Golub also voted to approve the resolution, but shares a failing common to illegal aliens that should have disqualified him from public service on a commission that handles large sums of money.

Non-resident aliens that do not have permission to live and work in the United States cannot file tax returns. From 1992-1996, Golub, a self-employed small business owner, reportedly did not file Federal tax returns either.

In August 2005, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) filed a lien with the county clerk for $31,133.53 in back taxes on a property that authorities believed Golub owned at 554 Vine Street in Lakewood. Golub did not have title to the home, which was owned for years by Richard Orne, Chairman of the Lakewood Airport Authority, and his wife, Nancy.

In August 2006, the Ornes sold their home to Esther Fuchs. No documentation was posted on the county clerk's Web site indicating the property was encumbered by an IRS lien at the time of sale, or that Golub's income tax obligation had ever been discharged.

LIC board members Shlomo Katz and Charles Silberberg did not attend the April 30 meeting. Like Doyle, both men own extensive real estate investments in Ocean County.

LIC members discussed the commission's finances during the meeting.

The LIC is a self-supporting township agency that generates revenue through the sale of land owned by Lakewood taxpayers.

According to the LIC meeting agenda, which was not posted on the township Web site before the meeting, a total of $13,500 was budgeted from January-April 2008 for payment of services provided by AccuImage. The services included $6,000 for Web site development.

During the first four months of the year, a total of $236.28 was spent for legal ads in designated newspapers, including notices of the commission's public meetings.

A reporter from NJ News & Views, an Internet news service, was the only member of the media that attended the April 30 meeting.

While some LIC expenditures failed to benefit the public, others did not.

The commission budgeted $2,500 for March services rendered by Princeton Public Affairs Group, a legislative lobbyist. The investment could result in saving lives as well as taxpayer money.

In a March 28 memo included with the meeting agenda, Andrew V. Sinclair of Princeton Public Affairs Group described a pilot program that the state Department of Transportation (DOT) initiated to promote safety, while increasing revenue to municipalities.

The Red-Light Camera Program employs automated photo traffic light enforcement through use of high resolution digital video photography. "Red-light Cameras" document motorists that run red lights, then process citations that are mailed out to the owners of the vehicles photographed.

Sinclair said camera vendors install, operate and maintain the systems at no cost to municipalities. In compensation, vendors receive a portion of every paid citation. Sinclair said several vendors compete to install Redflex Traffic Systems.

"This approach has been in use for 20 years with over 1,000 systems installed in 28 states," Sinclair wrote in his memo. "There has been a demonstrated safety benefit using this technology."