NJ News & Views

[Editor's Note: At 10:28 p.m. on June 6, 2010, this story was edited for style, content and accuracy.]

John Fossa Jr., a resident of Idalia Street in Lakewood, is not happy with the township's plan to redevelop a privacy buffer between his neighborhood in the R-12 zone and State Highway 9 north, where a strip mall is located.

There is little he or his neighbors can do to stop it.

At its April 28 meeting, the Lakewood Industrial Commission (LIC), comprised primarily of developers, discussed the appraisal of blocks and lots in the HD-7 zone that include a parcel known as Hagaman's Property, which the township plans on purchasing for future redevelopment.

The LIC generates revenue through the sale of township land.

On Wednesday, June 2, at 12 noon, LIC members may continue that discussion after they have their customary lunch at taxpayer expense before beginning their rescheduled meeting - without any taxpayers or members of the public to address them.

Fossa told a reporter on Memorial Day that neither he nor his neighbors will likely attend a midday meeting since they have to work.

Last month, the township announced it had become the 30th municipality to join the state's "Live Where You Work" program in partnership with the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Financing Agency (HMFA).

The program offers first-time home buyers who live and work in a participating, approved municipality special incentives, such as a low-interest fixed-rate mortgage, in addition to a reduced down payment and/or closing costs.

Two Lakewood business owners are already employed locally on the parking lot of the strip mall adjacent to Hagaman's Property.

Diane's Custom Autos advertises its business on the site at www.dcaweb.com and John's Auto Sales (JAS) advertises the motor vehicles permanently parked on the strip mall's parking lot as "quality used cars."

In an August 8, 2005 letter to the township, attorney Abraham Penzer requested that the township sell two public lots owned in the area for construction of additional parking for his client's proposed business, a neighborhood supermarket.

"Please be advised that this office represents Ovadi Malchi who is the principal of 1161 Route 9, LLC," Penzer wrote Mayor Charles Cunliffe, Township Manager Frank Edwards and Planning Board Chairman Stanley Banas. "Mr. Malchi has come up with a plan to do an addition of stores which will create a nice rateable and will cause a good use to be made of the property. However, in appearing before the Planning Board Tech Meeting it was realized that there is not enough parking to make this project happen."

Penzer asked township officials to consider selling Hagaman's Property to Malchi.

"The adjacent parcel to the north is lot 1, block 1064 and lot 3 to the south along River Avenue is part of the Hagaman Dump Site," Penzer wrote. "It was indicated by the Board that this property would lend itself perfectly for a parking lot due to the environmental considerations."

In online meeting minutes from the September 6, 2005 meeting of the Lakewood Planning Board, Penzer told members that Township Manager Frank Edwards did not know if public property remediated with Brownfield funding could be sold off as a single parcel instead of an entire tract.

Five years later, the township has yet to acquire the entire Hagaman tract for resale.

On October 7, 1997, Lakewood Township filed an In Rem foreclosure against Alfred Glenn Hagaman, owner of Block 1051, Lot 31; Block 1064, Lot 1; Block 1064, Lot 3; Block 1065, Lot 4; Block 1065, Lot 7; Block 1066, Lot 1; Block 1066, Lot 3; Block 1068, Lot 1; and against Glenn J. Hagaman, owner of Block 1069, Lot 2.

The LIC is seeking to appraise Block 1065, Lot 1, 3, 5 and 6, and Block 1068, Lots 4 and 6 for public sale and redevelopment.

"We are looking at land acquisition of a number of "out-parcels" to consolidate them into a tract of approximately 7.4 acres to be redeveloped into a large commercial project," LIC Director Yisroel (Steven) Reinman told Township Manager Frank Edwards in a May 6 memo. "An appraisal has been completed of a number of parcels that are contiguous to lands already owned in fee by the Township of Lakewood. It is intended that vacation of paper streets be included to provide a saleable single tract for development as indicated."

For years, the Lakewood Development Commission (LDC), which oversees the largest Urban Enterprise Zone in New Jersey, told the state the township owned Hagaman's property, even though Lakewood Tax Assessor's records stated that Block 1068, Lot 4 was owned by Unknown c/o Glenn Hagaman at a Brick Township address that officials there said did not exist.

According to LDC Director Patricia Komsa, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spent approximately $200,000 to clean up Hagaman's Property as part of a pilot Brownfield program in Lakewood - which included Block 1068, Lot 4.

Sale of the blocks and lots known as the Hagaman Property is critical to the continuation of the township's redevelopment program, according to Reinman.

"Its like 5 little properties & one normal sized one, but they are what they are, wooded and unimproved if at all," Reinman said in a March 10 memo to Komsa. "We could use the LIC appraisals line if the LDC can't do it. BUT THEN we gotta sell it so we can replenish the line & have money for LIC existence."

New Jersey's UEZ program is also struggling for its continued existence.

This year, a new gubernatorial administration has taken UEZ funding from zones across New Jersey and turned them over to the state's school districts as extraordinary aid.

Lakewood School District last year received $2,669,736 in extraordinary aid, according to district Business Administrator/Board Secretary Robert Finger.

This year, Finger said the district is receiving $2,888,875 from the state in extraordinary aid.

The district will need it.

Last month, the township committee reduced the defeated school budget for next year by $7.63 million, eliminating any increase in the school tax levy.

Officials testifying before New Jersey legislators during state budget hearings said they could have eliminated the UEZ program altogether, not just taken the funds it generated for property tax relief.

The state authorized the Lakewood UEZ in 1993. Since 1994, however, the township has not made any loans to qualified businesses, which generate second generation revenue through the interest that is earned and then reinvested in other for-profit businesses that also create jobs filled by Lakewood residents.

Instead, the township has relied almost exclusively on UEZ funding generated by a reduced state sales tax. A sales tax is referred to as a regressive tax because all consumers must pay it, regardless of their financial ability to do so.

For years, the township has pursued a program to redevelop private and public properties for construction of non-public schools and affordable housing.

Many homeowners that purchased affordable housing in Lakewood are unable to afford payment of their property taxes. Many others that can afford to pay their property taxes, do not.

An increasing number of homeowners are claiming their residence as the location of a non-profit business, including members of the Lakewood Board of Education.

LDC board member Moshe Zev Weisberg is Director of the Lakewood Community Services Corporation (LCSC). Both he and his employee, Lakewood Board of Education member Ada Gonzalez, receive their LCSC salaries through the LDC Job Link program, which is funded by the township UEZ.

On May 31, a reporter for NJ News & Views visited 500 W. Kennedy Boulevard, a professional building at the northwest end of town. The reporter visited the location to confirm the business address of board of education member Abraham Ostreicher, who reported it as his home address on his certified petition to run for re-election in 2008. On his 2010 ethics disclosure, however, Ostreicher instead reported a Parsippany address as the sole source of his income, which was also incorrect. Oak Financial Services, Ostreicher's company name, is prominently posted on the outside of the building, on its lobby registry and on the door of his second floor office.

So is the name of the LCSC, which is located adjacent to Ostreicher's office in the same professional building. County tax records report that the LCSC is also the owner of 415 Carey Street, a residential property the non-profit organization purchased in December 2002 from Beth Medrash Govoha, a Lakewood rabbinical college that purchased the home in December 2000 from Barney Gertner.

State and local legislators have continued to blur the dividing line between church and state as an increasing number of Lakewood voters have chosen to enroll their child in the township's non-public schools, which are not required to meet the same academic bench marks under the No Child Left Behind Act as public school students.

Last week, Lakewood Committeeman Robert Singer, a dual office holder that also represents Lakewood as state Senator of the 30th Legislative District, said publicly that he supported a bill sponsored by state Senator Raymond Lesniak of the 20th Legislative District that was signed into law last year. Public school teachers opposed passage of the bill, which provides a tax credit to UEZ businesses that make donations to organizations such as the LCSC, which fund non-public school education at academic institutions such as Beth Medrash Govoha.

The same year Governor Jon Corzine signed the bill into law, the state Urban Enterprise Zone Authority (UEZA) took $1.9 million of Lakewood's UEZ project funding for property tax relief.

The majority of New Jersey school districts rely predominantly on property taxes to fund student education.

Although the state authorized the Lakewood UEZ program in 1993 to bring commerce and jobs to the municipality and tax revenue to the state, members of the Lakewood Township Committee have approved UEZ funding to promote an underground economy of unregulated home-based businesses that do not report their income to the state or Federal government.

So has the Lakewood School District.

Earlier this year, members of the Vaad, a political interest group that makes endorsements for public office, reached an agreement with members of the Igud, an association of non-public school directors. According to media reports, the Igud said its members would endorse candidates for election to the Lakewood Board of Education and the Vaad would endorse candidates for election to all other elected offices.

That was not necessarily the case.

Meir Neumann, the brother-in-law and employee of Vaad member Ben Heinemann of BP Graphics, did not run for re-election to the board of education in April. However, in his place, the Igud endorsed Yechezkel Moshe Seitler, who is married to BP Graphics employee Miriam Laya Seitler.

Carl Fink, who also received the Igud's endorsement, is a member of the Lakewood Planning Board, which hears applications by taxpayers to develop their properties - including as schools.

Because the Vaad can coerce a large bloc of Orthodox Jewish voters to elect their endorsed candidates for township committee, the Vaad is also an influential lobbyist that recommends appointments to the planning board, as well as the LDC.

Two years ago, LDC Director Russell Corby discussed participation in township tax sales on delinquent properties.

Despite a conflict of interest, neither Gonzalez nor Fink was asked to choose between their township appointments and their elected office before being sworn onto the board.

They are not the only board members that have conflicts of interest.

The Igud endorsed Isaac Zlatkin as the fourth candidate its members sought to elect to the board of education. However, Zlatkin stated on his 2010 ethics disclosure that he earns income from both his position at the Lakewood Cheder School and his position at Unique Realty & Management LLC, which is operated out of his home.

Last year, Jonathan Silver, President of The Villas homeowner association, won election to the Lakewood Board of Education. He and his wife, Donna, also operate a Lakewood home-based business, in addition to one based out of Goshen, NY.

Goshen is approximately 69 miles from Gilboa, NY, the location of a camp operated by Oorah, a Lakewood charity engaged in missionary work - and the business of education.

Earlier this year, Penzer presented Oorah's development plan before the Lakewood Planning Board, on which Fink sits. The plan, which calls for construction of several 3-story buildings on the Swarthmore Avenue site in the heart of the Lakewood Industrial Park, will include warehouse space on the first floor for vehicles donated through the affiliated charity of Kars4Kids, office space on the second floors, and operation of non-public schools on the third floors.

According to sources, board Vice President Meir Grunhut also operates a non-public school in his for-profit business, Astor Chocolate. Grunhut did not include the non-public school on his ethics disclosure and he has never abstained from any board vote to award a bus transportation contract, even though eyewitnesses said they continue to see school buses entering and leaving Grunhut's company.

Grunhut is also an investor in a publishing business that owns one of the board's official newspapers, which he also failed to disclose.

Board members are not the only investors in the township's growing education business. So is board attorney Michael Inzelbuch, whom the board voted to reappoint as their special education non-public school consultant at Reorganization 2010.

Over the years, the board has voted to approve transportation awards to parents of students attending non-public and special education out-of-district schools in excess of the state's Aid In Lieu Of (AILO) payment, which is currently $884 per year. The parent transportation awards were based on state statutes NJSA 6:21-10.3 and NJSA 6:21-16.1(a).

A reporter first noted the state statutes on the May 17 Lakewood Board of Education meeting agenda and asked district Business Administrator Robert Finger if he had a link or description of each state statute. Finger said he did not.

Neither did a spokesman for the N.J. Department of Education (DOE).

"The citations below are somewhat confusing to me," the spokesman wrote in a May 18 e-mail exchange with a reporter for NJ News & Views. "State education laws are under Title 18 of New Jersey Statutes Annotated, not under Title 6, which is what the citations below refer to.  State Education Regulations however, are found in Title 6A of the administrative code.  Regulations are not statutes. They are rules that have the force of law."

Prior to contacting the state spokesperson, the reporter conducted an Internet search for the state statutes, but only found them referenced on Lakewood Board of Education meeting agendas.

The spokesman expressed bewilderment as well.

"I don't know what "NJSA 6," the citation you give below, covers," the spokesperson told the reporter in an e-mail response.

The reporter left a telephone voicemail request for comment at Inzelbuch's office.

Inzelbuch did not return the reporter's call, but according to the June 1 board meeting agenda, he did respond to the reporter's request for comment.

Instead of referencing NJSA 6:21-10.3 and NJSA 6:21-16.1(a) as the basis for awarding a contract to parents transporting their child to class, the meeting agenda referenced NJAC 6A:27-1.5 and NJAC 6A:27-7.7.

NJAC 6A:27-1.5 is a valid state education regulation pertaining to insurance coverage by parents transporting their child or children to school.

NJAC 6A:27-7.7 is a valid state education regulation pertaining to a parent transporting his own child or children.

"A parent under a negotiated contract with a district board of education to transport only his or her own child or children shall not be required to possess a commercial driver's license, to use a vehicle registered as a school bus, or to comply with the health examination prescribed for employees of the district board of education," the regulation stated.

What the board did not include on any of its meeting agendas was the basis for determining the amount of the award of each parent transportation contract or how it proposed to finance the cost without an increase in the school tax levy, which committeemen cut.

In addition to providing remote and non-remote district transportation services, referred to as courtesy busing, the board must also ensure the safe condition of all its buildings and grounds. The board is liable for the injury or death of anyone working, studying or visiting any of the district's six public schools, which are all in need of repairs to their roofs. Some repairs are critical.

The board must also dedicate at least 20 percent of its Title I funding to the improvement of public school academic performance on tests required under the Federal No Child Left Behind Act since students at all six public schools failed to meet required state bench marks.

Instead of providing businesses with a financial incentive to donate funding to non-public schools, state legislators can and should provide a financial incentive to non-public schools to participate in the No Child Left Behind program. Non-public school directors may be willing to administer the program's bench mark tests in exchange for state aid based on academic performance.

All children deserve and need a thorough and efficient education that enables them to read, write and comprehend the written word.

All children deserve and need a thorough and efficient education that enables them to perform basic mathematic calculations.

All children deserve and need a thorough and efficient education that enables them to use a computer.

All children eventually grow into adults that need those skills to get a job.

The LDC took a step in the right direction toward meeting those goals at its June 1 meeting. Komsa announced that on June 3, the LDC would begin making UEZ microloans again on a first-come, first-serve basis. Those loans are not only an investment in the future of Lakewood adults and their school-age children, but the future of the LDC.

Unfortunately, committeemen may have hindered those efforts at their meeting last week.

At the May 27 township committee meeting, members approved an ordinance on second reading to revise the township code book, also referred to as the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). The revised section addresses home occupation.

"A business, including child care, profession, occupation, or trade, conducted for gain or support and located entirely within a residential building, which use is accessory, incidental, and secondary to the use of the building for a dwelling and does not change the essential residential character or appearance of such building," the revised ordinance stated.

The ordinance falls far short of regulating commerce in a New Jersey township with the largest UEZ program in the state. It is also counter-productive to the goals of the UEZ program since the ordinance would not require home-based businesses to generate revenue to the township that in turn reduces their property taxes.

Public policy must not only attract new taxpayers to the municipality in order to ensure increased revenues, it must also retain its current base of taxpayers.

Instead of depriving homeowners of a needed privacy buffer, committeemen should dedicate the remediated blocks and lots that comprise the former Hagaman Property to passive open space, not redevelop them as another tax ratable with businesses that reduce available parking to customers by leasing it out to retail tenants.

While education remains the predominant business in Lakewood, the municipality is not so much a college town, as described by Singer to a reporter, as it is a company town.

A company town is a term that refers to a town or community whose residents depend on a single company for many of their personal and family needs. The company may own or provide housing, schools, shopping facilities, recreational facilities, library facilities and houses of worship. Loyalty to the company that is perceived to be responsible for the town's success is expected.

Although Beth Medrash does not employ all of the students that attend it, the college is instrumental in providing for their housing and financial assistance through local, state and national political influence and an ever-expanding network of dedicated alumni.

The relationship between the college and its current and former students is the engine that drives Lakewood's development into a city.

That does not mean the college, its supporters or its political appointees are acting in the best interests of all of the township's residents or those of its neighbors.

In 1999, singer/songwriter Andrew McKnight released "Company Town," which was included on the compilation CD "Moving Mountains: Voices of Appalachia Rise Up Against Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining."

Coal trains run through our veins,
moving monuments to better days
that mountain stands over our darkened lungs,
we've time to ponder what we've become.

In this company town, it's what we know,
change comes hard, change comes slow
until the bottom falls out, that's how it goes down,
til the money's all drained, from a company town.