There is no metered parking in Lakewood, but for many motorists driving there, the days of free municipal parking will soon be over.

The township is one step closer to operating a paid municipal parking lot instead of the free municipal parking garage that was discussed for years.

At the August 19 meeting of the Lakewood Township Committee, the three members present unanimously approved an ordinance on second reading that establishes a municipal impound yard.

For a nominal fee of $25, police will store abandoned vehicles; vehicles owned by drivers charged with DWI (drinking while intoxicated); disabled vehicles involved in "serious" or fatal crashes; vehicles confiscated as evidence; and vehicles seized under violations of Title 39 or 2C, or for investigative purposes.

Owners will pay a much higher price to get their vehicles back.

Police will serve as collection agents for registered tow services that remove the impounded vehicles at a cost of $150 for each vehicle with a gross vehicle weight of less than 15,000 pounds, as well as any extraordinary or additional fee charged by the towing service, and $250 for all vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of 15,000 pounds or greater, as well as any extraordinary or additional fee charged by the towing service.

A related ordinance scheduled for first reading was carried at the August 19 meeting. The ordinance would further amend the township code book to include a winch fee.

Township ordinance defines a motor vehicle as any automobile, omnibus, road tractor, trailer, truck, truck tractor and vehicle according to R.S.39:1-1.

The impound ordinance has registered township tow operator Joe Barina of Barina Automotive seething.

According to Barina, who publicly addressed the township committee during the meeting's public forum, Mayor Steven Langert, Police Chief Robert Lawson and Township Manager Michael Muscillo met with him, listened to Barina's concerns, then committeemen adopted an ordinance in violation of fees established by the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA) to tow specified vehicle weights.

"You took it from 8,500 pounds (down) to 1,500 pounds," Barina said. "That's $150 to pick up a dump truck."

He said that vehicles as heavy as 8,500 pounds could not be towed without special equipment, which Barina Automotive owned.

"You're going to tow a heavy duty truck for $250?" Barina asked. "If (its) overweight, you can't (even) tow it."

Barina charged that instead of working with him in good faith to negotiate a compromise, committeemen adopted an ordinance that illegally reduced the state's established towing weights and fee schedule to eliminate the need for Barina's services.

Barina, who said he has not received any consumer complaints, repeated Langert's response upon hearing Barina's opposition to the reduced fees tow operators will receive under the revised ordinance.

"You told me, 'You don't like it, get off our tow list'," Barina said.

According to Barina, the public will not like committeemen's action either.

"You're going to work with them?" Barina asked, referring to the large number of Lakewood motorists that cannot afford the fees to recover a towed vehicle. "You're going to take their car and sell it!"

The township needs the money.

At the same committee meeting, members approved a resolution to adopt a corrective action plan based on an audit of the 2009 municipal budget.

Auditors for the firm of Holman & Frenia, P.C. in Medford provided two recommendations that committeemen adopted.

Audit recommendation #1 advised the township that the Lakewood Tax Collector be separately bonded in order to comply with New Jersey State statute, but did not identify the specific statute requiring it.

Audit recommendation #2 advised the township that an analysis of all tax overpayment transactions be maintained and reconciled on a monthly basis.

According to sources, a complaint was filed with the state last year that charged the township with discriminatory practices in the collection of property taxes. The complainant alleged that the township refunded tax overpayments by some property owners, while adjusting the future tax bills of other property owners.

Public policy may have depleted public coffers.

A copy of the proposed municipal budget introduced on May 6, 2009 reported that the state Division of Local Government Services (DLGS) had approved deferral of $10,008,958.73 in payment of July school taxes to the district until August.

The 2009 municipal budget appendix disclosed that the township had $10,299,837.65 in surplus on December 31, 2007 and $7,031,705.58 in surplus on December 31, 2008.

By padding the 2009 municipal budget with over $10 million in school taxes that were not be paid to the district for a month, the township committee projected a $5.5 million surplus on paper that it did not have in its treasury to close an approximate $4.5 million municipal budget shortfall.

A reporter for NJ News & Views asked Langert during the August 19 meeting for the total overpayment of all tax refunds referenced in the auditor's corrective action plan recommendation. Langert did not provide the amount.

The reporter also asked Muscillo for the total. Muscillo, who recently succeeded former Township Manager Frank Edwards, returned the reporter's call, but did not provide the requested total either.

Jerry Conaty of Holman & Frenia, who conducted the 2009 Lakewood municipal audit, did not return a reporter's voicemail request for comment.

Attorney Jan Wouters, an associate of Township Attorney Lawrence E. Bathgate II, did respond to the reporter's request for the specific state statute requiring the township tax collector to be separately bonded.

Wouters, who sits on the dais with Bathgate at committee meetings and responds in place of Bathgate to all legal matters, told the reporter in an August 23 e-mail, "I have no idea what you are talking about."

In 2009, committeemen budgeted $615,500 for legal services and costs.

In 2010, committeemen budgeted $650,000 for legal services and costs.

The reporter asked Senator Robert Singer, Lakewood mayor of 2009, for the state statute referenced in the corrective action plan.

Singer, who did not attend the August 19 committee meeting, did not return the reporter's request for comment.

In a township with the largest Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) in the state, public policy promulgated at the state and local level in conflict with Singer's role as state senator and Lakewood committeemen has resulted in the continuing loss of small businesses that pay township fees, not just township property taxes.

Last year, Langert met with Lakewood taxi owners. He proposed legalizing unregistered transportation service companies in competition with registered taxi companies by calling them car services.

All of the taxi owners that attended the meeting stated their opposition to the proposed change.

Despite taxi owners' opposition, Singer voted to approve a change in state statute the following spring that accomplished the same purpose.

One month before Langert met with registered taxi owners, Howell Township adopted an ordinance in September 2009 that reflected the proposed state change months before state legislators approved it.

One week before state legislators approved the change, the Jackson Township Council removed an ordinance scheduled for first reading on the March 23, 2010 meeting agenda that also would have reflected state changes before state legislators adopted them.

The Jackson council reintroduced the ordinance and adopted it the following month.

In a letter dated February 2, 2010, provided to NJ News & Views under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA), Jackson businessman Patrick McHale asked local government to include car service in Chapter 97 of the township code book, which regulates taxi and limousine service.

"Our insurance company finds the auto registration classifying our car as a taxi in conflict with the true description (of) a "car service" car," McHale told council members.

According to Diane Iannarone of Leisure Hack, registered in Lakewood and Brick, there is no difference between a taxi and a car service.

"Whether you call my service a taxi or a car service, its still the same operation," Iannarone told NJ News & Views. "We do not cruise; everything is done by phone appointments that log the pick-up location and the destination. So what's the difference between my transportation service and a car service? This is what we've been doing for 38 years."

Not anymore, according to amended state statute, which now refers to car service as a separate classification of for-hire transportation.

While Singer did not sponsor the legislation, his participation in the legislative vote to approve it was a conflict of interest.

He should have abstained.

Since he didn't abstain, he should have voted no.

For years, Lakewood taxi owners have told committeemen and members of the Transportation and Safety Board that unregistered transportation companies, some driving unmarked vehicles with darkened windows and out of state plates, were soliciting fares at locations around town that included the Lakewood bus station, which has a leased taxi stand, and the local ShopRite supermarket. Owners of registered taxi services produced numerous business cards that illegal transportation companies were handing out to the public.

For years, committeemen and township officials have failed to prove they issued a single summons to the unregistered transportation company owners - which would have generated revenue to the township, as well as ensured the public's safety.

Unlike Lakewood, Jackson and Howell Townships did not have any opposition to the change in local ordinance.

A reporter for NJ News & Views made an OPRA request for the names of all taxis registered in Howell and Jackson. Officials for both municipalities reported that no taxi service was currently registered to operate in either township.

That doesn't mean limousine and car service providers registered in Howell and Jackson are not in competition with taxi operators registered in Lakewood.

Iannarone said Lakewood officials also delayed the processing of applicants seeking to drive her taxis, further hindering her ability to make a living in town.

Lakewood public policy was funded by state and Federal grants to grow local business.

In 1983, the state approved the UEZ program in designated urban municipalities that later included Lakewood in order to promote commerce and jobs.

The UEZ fund is generated by the interest earned on loans to qualified businesses and by a reduced state sales tax that goes to the municipality.

Years earlier, Lakewood officials also approved a program to reclaim wildcat lots located throughout the township that could be redeveloped to accomplish the same goal as the state's UEZ program.

In September 1960, the Lakewood Township Committee created the Lakewood Housing Authority and Redevelopment Agency to develop affordable housing, schools and commercial business in town after Lakewood's hotel era ended.

Later that decade, committee members also created the Lakewood Industrial Commission to administer land to which it recovered title through an In Rem foreclosure department established at the time.

Half-a-century later, township officials are nurturing and growing unregulated home-based businesses that do not report taxable income, instead of tax ratables that generate township fees and pay Federal and state income taxes.

At the August 19, 2010 township committee meeting, committeemen approved an ordinance on second reading that amends the township code book, referred to as a Unified Development Ordinance (UDO).

The ordinance exempts residential property owners from applying to the Lakewood Planning Board for site plan approval, provided the change is not from a residential to a non-residential use.

As amended, the ordinance now requires that residential property owners also seek planning board administrative approval if the zoning officer determines that an addition is planned to a residential lot for a non-residential accessory use.

Residential property owners seeking a change of use to a non-residential use or a non-residential accessory use must submit a copy of the site plan; an executed Site Plan Exemption Checklist, together with all the items listed in Section A "Administrative Data" of the Site Plan Exemption Checklist; an application fee of $250; and an escrow fee of $1,900.

All over Lakewood, unregulated companies are open for business in residential homes whose owners are unlikely to apply to the township for a change of use permit if they have to declare their income, let alone pay for planning board approval.

When residential properties are converted into commercial businesses and homeowners do not declare their earnings to local, state and Federal government, taxpayers must make up the lost revenue.

Last year, a Lakewood businessman known as the Candy Man stored his wares in the rented garage of a residential home at 58 Seminole Drive. The home itself was rented out to an Orthodox family that could not park on their rented home's driveway while the Candy Man rented its garage.

Since 2006, neighbors said a procession of three large trucks would arrive twice a week in the residential neighborhood to deliver palettes with large boxes that were warehoused in the rented garage.

During one delivery, neighbors said one of the boxes broke apart, enabling them to see its contents. The box contained imported Kosher food, cookies and candy sold at local supermarkets around town.

Neighbors also said that before the Candy Man began using his home on Genesee Place and the residential property he leased at 58 Seminole Drive to store his food products, the Seminole home garage was open for business as an automotive paint shop.

At the August 19, 2010 committee meeting, a reporter for NJ News & Views asked committeemen if the amended change of use ordinance also applied to residential homes already converted to an accessory non-residential use.

Wouters said, "Probably."

Probably not.

Earlier this year, committeemen approved an ordinance on second reading that continues to permit residential property owners to earn unreported income from the comfort of their homes.

An increasing number of those homes are tax-exempt locations of non-profit businesses.

At the July 26 meeting of the Lakewood Development Corporation (LDC), the township agency that oversees the municipality's UEZ fund, members heard a presentation for Job Link funding.

Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg, Director of the Lakewood Community Services Corporation (LCSC), one of the non-profit organizations that receives Job Link funding through the UEZ program, was not sitting in the audience during the presentation.

Weisberg is not just a recipient of UEZ grant funding, but a member of the LDC that approves it. So is LDC member Ada Gonzalez, his employee. Both Weisberg and Gonzalez receive their salaries through the Job Link Program, which funds several non-profit organizations in addition to the LCSC.

At the start of the LDC meeting, Weisberg sat down, took out his cell phone and placed it on the table in front of him as speaker after speaker made a presentation for Job Link funding.

Weisberg did not announce the name of the party at the other end of the line or explain the reason for continued interruptions created by sounds coming from the phone. At one point during the meeting, his cell phone ring tone began playing the Beatles song, "Do You Want to Know a Secret?".

Like many Lakewood non-profit organizations, the LCSC is located in a residential home that is eligible for tax exempt status.

Although the LCSC maintains an office at 500 Kennedy Boulevard, a professional building located at the northwest side of town, county tax records report that the non-profit organization is the owner of a residential home at 415 Carey Street.

Last year, the state Urban Enterprise Zone Authority (UEZA) approved $25,000 in Job Link Year 13 funding, according to the 2010 municipal budget. This year, the LDC is requesting the same amount in Job Link Year 15 funding that the state approved in Job Link Year 14 funding: $426,000.

During the LDC meeting's public forum, a reporter asked LDC members if non-profit organizations that provided job placement and ESL (English as a Second Language) services to Lakewood clients also asked them for copies of their first year tax returns to ensure that taxpayers saw a quantifiable return on their investment in the program.

The reporter said that area developers frequently employed Lakewood day laborers, but did not report the workers' earnings to state and Federal government.

Many day laborers do not file tax returns either because they are undocumented aliens without permission to work in the United States.

Langert recently disclosed that the township was closing the muster zone that committeemen approved on public land near Route 9 for use by day laborers and their prospective employers, who shunned it.

In 2006, Mayor Marc (Meir) Lichtenstein asked for $37,500 in UEZ grant funding to build a muster zone on Swarthmore Avenue in the Lakewood Industrial Park, which day laborers and their employers also shunned.

Committeemen continued to fund services to residents that do not report taxable income at their August 19 meeting. Members sought to encumber $426,000 approved by the LDC for Job Link year 15 funding, even though the state took all Lakewood UEZ project funding earlier this year to help close its' own $11 billion budget shortfall.

A reporter for NJ News & Views asked committeemen how much of the total was allocated for the ESL (English as a Second Language) program operated by the LCSC.

Langert declined to respond to the reporter's question until after committeemen had closed the public forum.

He said he did not know, even though he voted to approve the total.

In 2008, the year Langert successfully campaigned for a seat on the township committee, the industrial commission approved a $40,000 funding request by Weisberg for his organization's ESL program after the state declined to approve UEZ funding for it.

Langert was committee liaison to the industrial commission in 2009 and 2010.

Non-profit organizations that receive UEZ monies through the Job Link program may not require the same proposed level of funding in Job Link Year 15.

Herschel (Harold) Herskowitz, owner of Toys for Thought in downtown Lakewood, told committeemen on August 19 that he recently followed and videotaped the Job Link bus on its 5:00-5:45 p.m. evening route. Herskowitz said a total of eight passengers got on and off the bus, which made three stops and spewed black soot behind it.

The Job Link bus was funded to provide workers employed in the industrial park with transportation to commute to work.

At the Lakewood Township Committee meetings held on December 20, 2007 and January 17, 2008, John Jennings of T&M Associates presented a township plan to buy nine full-sized buses and a spare, similar to those used by the New York City Transit Authority. The shuttle bus service would be incorporated with the township's Job Link Bus service, making it eligible for reimbursement with Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) funding.

According to members of the Lakewood Transportation and Safety Board, which met on October 28, 2009, the proposed committee plan to purchase shuttle buses with state and Federal grants hit a road block - lack of municipal budget funding for their required 2-year operation at an estimated cost of $1.2 million.

According to the presentation by Jennings, the municipal bus plan that incorporates the Job Link bus would primarily service Beth Medrash Govoha, described by many sources as the world's largest rabbinical college, and Orthodox developments where many of the school's adult students and their families live.

The director of Beth Medrash Govoha is Aaron Kotler. Kotler is a member of the Vaad, 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, the Vaad is also an influential government lobbyist.

Weisberg, whose office voicemail identifies his organization as Higher Education Management, not the Lakewood Community Services Corporation, and LDC Chairman Abraham Muller, a Lakewood police chaplain, are also members of the Vaad.

At the July 26 LDC meeting, Muller participated in a board vote to approve $690,000 in year 16 UEZ funding for the continued employment of Lakewood police officers deployed throughout the zone.

Although police chaplains do not receive compensation for their services, a reporter asked Muller why he did not abstain since police chaplains hold the rank and authority of police captain.

Muller maintained he was not required to abstain since he did not personally benefit from the LDC vote to fund the salaries of UEZ police officers.

As a UEZ member, he does.

Last year, Muller asked the LDC to include his supermarket in the township's request for a UEZ boundary change. At the end of the year, LDC members announced that the state had approved the request.

Instead of spending taxpayer dollars to promote taxable jobs and commerce in Lakewood, township officials have increasingly approved public funds to promote their own continued employment in public office.

During the January 2009 Reorganization meeting, committeemen represented by a new Republican majority voted to appoint Singer the new mayor of Lakewood. Singer's administration appointed real estate investor and developer Robert Kirschner to the Lakewood Industrial Commission, which generates revenue through the sale of public land.

Commissioners voted to appoint Kirschner to the position of chairman in 2009 and in 2010.

Kirschner's wife benefited from his appointment.

In 2009 and 2010, the LDC and the industrial commission both voted to hire Frantasy Enterprises, LLC, a Lakewood public relations firm owned by Kirschner's wife, Frances Kirschner.

On February 28, 2009, the industrial commission voted to award Frantasy Enterprises a $24,000 township grant drawn from funds budgeted for Marketing and Public Relations VI, according to LDC Resolution 09-04-5.

Frantasy Enterprises also received $28,350 in UEZ project funds, bringing the total of her contract award to $52,350.

A reporter for NJ News & Views recently inspected Robert Kirschner's state-required 2010 Financial Disclosure, which did not report his wife's company as a source of his income.

Robert Kirschner did not abstain from voting to appoint his wife to a paid consulting position or from voting each month on bills of payment for her services at a cost of $2,000.

Neither did Singer, who also voted to approve the LDC contract with Frantasy Enterprises, from which he is now also personally benefiting.

Singer has expanded the scope of public relations services provided by Frantasy Enterprises to include his 2010 re-election campaign for township committee.

In an August 2 press release issued by Frantasy Enterprises, Kirschner promoted the accomplishments of the Republican administration that hired her.

"What A Difference A Majority Makes," Kirschner titled the press release.

She described Singer as the lone Republican voice of fiscal frugality on the township committee, continuing to oppose Democratic finances for more than a decade.

"When a person is the minority vote on the Lakewood Township Committee, as Senator and Committeeman Robert Singer was for 12 years (four Democratic votes to Senator Singer’s lone Republican vote), it is just about impossible to effect change," the press release opined. "During the 12 years, Committeeman Singer voted against the township budget eleven times, making him the sole vote against the township budget."

In 1999, Lakewood Democrats became the new majority on the township committee. However, Singer was not the lone Republican for 12 years, as Kirschner stated in her press release.

In January 2004, Republican Menashe Miller joined Singer on the Lakewood Township Committee, but did not support Singer by voting with him against adoption of the annual municipal budget proposed by the Democratic majority.

In January 2009, Republican Steven Langert was sworn into office on the township committee, creating a new political majority that voted to appoint Singer mayor of Lakewood for the first time in 15 years.

While Singer did not seek appointment to the office of mayor this year, he is still seeking a seat on the township committee - despite a conflict of interest with his position as state senator.

"Since the Republican party took control 18 months ago, the Township Committee is tackling taxes and township problems head on," Singer was quoted in the press release. "It hasn't been easy. We were left with virtually no surplus, about five thousand tax appeals that cost us legal fees, and an inspection department slated to lose one million dollars."

Singer defended state legislation he sponsored in Trenton that resulted in a reassessment of Lakewood property values earlier this year.

"The first thing we did, in the first 12 months, was ask for a reassessment of the town in order to curtail the huge amount of tax appeals, which cost the township hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees," Singer was also quoted in the press release.

According to the 2010 municipal budget and township records, the committee hired the same firm that performed a revaluation of the township to also perform a tax reassessment at a reported cost of $700,000.

That amount is almost as much as the committee budgeted in legal fees one year after Singer sponsored state legislation to reassess Lakewood property values.

According to Internet postings, the new assessments may also be discriminatory against some taxpayers at the expense of others.

Every fiscal year, Lakewood Democratic and Republican administrations have continued to budget more money for legal services to defend public policy that benefits a narrow political interest instead of the general public.

On August 19, Heath Gertner appealed to committeemen for a change in public policy.

Gertner asked that committeemen reconsider their plan to convert the former Little League field between 9th and 10th Streets and Clifton and Lexington Avenues into a municipal parking lot within walking distance of Beth Medrash Govoha. Instead, Gertner proposed that committeemen build a pocket park in its place.

Gertner said that a pocket park would more effectively brand Lakewood than the current marketing effort funded by UEZ dollars.

Members of the LDC budgeted $250,000 in UEZ funds to market and advertise the township to businesses that would locate there.

Included in the campaign is funding to rebrand Lakewood with a more modern image than the Victorian horse and carriage design on signs welcoming visitors to downtown Lakewood.

"Parks play a big role in the growth of a municipality," Gertner told committeemen. "A pocket park costs less than $60,000 and can be built by bonding."

Gertner said the pocket park provided social as well as economic advantages for Lakewood residents. In his opinion, such a project would more effectively promote Lakewood in a positive image than any public relations campaign at several times the cost.

The project could change public opinion, according to Gertner.

"I believe we are worthy of accolades," Gertner said. "It takes a lifetime to build good standing, but only a moment to destroy it."

In a Lakewood, NJ shopping center, the forgotten victims of real estate investor Eliyahu Weinstein are still waiting for justice.

Located on Route 9 south near the Lakewood border with Toms River, Seagull Square remains a checkerboard of leased and vacant retail spaces.

For years, the shopping center has remained half empty - and only half profitable.

One of its owners is unlikely to step foot on the premises anytime soon.

Last week, agents for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested real estate investor Eliyahu Weinstein at his Lakewood home and led him off in handcuffs to jail.

Weinstein's arrest comes in the wake of a court victory by British real estate magnate Berish Berger. Berger alleged in 2009 court papers that Weinstein forged checks and other documents to defraud Berger out of $36.5 million.

Last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, PA overturned a 2007 summary judgment granted by a district court judge and found in favor of Berger, who sued Weinstein; Ravinder Chawla; 2040 Market Associates, LP; JFK Blvd Acquisition; UBS Real Estate Securities, Inc.; Mark Sahaya, also known as Mark Stephens, doing business as Mark Stephens Co.; Pine Projects, LLC; and World Acquisition Partners Corp.

In media reports and court papers, Berger asserted that he based his business dealings with Weinstein on trust.

That trust was misplaced - not just by Berger, but by a growing list of other investors alleging they, too, were victimized by Weinstein and his partners.

In papers posted online by the Asbury Park Press, the FBI charged that Weinstein targeted investors living in Orthodox Jewish communities in New Jersey, New York, Florida, California and overseas. After arranging to meet his victims, Weinstein falsely represented to them that a business entity he either controlled or owned could purchase a particular parcel of real estate.

Weinstein allegedly told his victims that a third party was prepared to buy or rent the property, ensuring a profit on the investment in a short time. Since Weinstein usually did not possess a deed to the property, he told his victims it was owned through a limited liability corporation (LLC), eliminating the need to file one.

Weinstein told his victims they could invest in a share of the LLC.

He reportedly told the same lie over and over to multiple victims.

The FBI charged that Weinstein fraudulently altered checks for small amounts to increase the size of his victims' investment for much larger amounts. Weinstein used the fraudulently-altered checks to convince other victims to invest in his schemes.

Weinstein also drew up fraudulent leases that misrepresented the properties as having tenants that paid rental income. In many cases, there was no tenant and no rental income at all.

The FBI also charged that Weinstein hid material information from his victims that dramatically reduced the value of their investment.

Retail tenants leasing space in Seagull Square, a Lakewood shopping center owned by Weinstein and other investors that included a member of the Lakewood Township Committee and a member of the Lakewood Board of Education, made the same allegations.

Like Berger, retail tenants sued Weinstein and other investors that they claimed defrauded them.

Unlike Berger, all retail tenants did not continue to pursue recovery of their financial loss in court.

The only remaining member of a class action lawsuit filed against owners and managers of Seagull Square that includes Weinstein, is retail advocate Lynn Celli, now disabled and unable to work.

Celli told a reporter that her nightmare began in 2002, the year she signed a lease with Seagull Square. Celli invested over $300,000 in an ice cream parlor she opened in a neighborhood that at the time had none.

According to Celli, managers for the shopping center told her there would be a new anchor store to replace Stop and Shop supermarket, which vacated its space in 2001. She said the leasing agent for Seagull Square did not disclose that Stop and Shop continued to lease its space there, preventing any other anchor store from taking its place.

Stop and Shop relocated in the former ShopRite supermarket space in Tri-City shopping center of Toms River, less than a mile away from Seagull Square in Lakewood.

Although all retail tenants were required to pay a monthly fee for security and maintenance, Celli said the shopping center manager and owner failed to provide either.

A reporter observed that shopping center parking lot lights were not turned on every night, light bulbs were not installed or changed in darkened areas of the property where vagrants slept on abandoned furniture, snow was not always plowed from the parking lot, and the parking lot macadam was not repaired for months after huge potholes became huge sinkholes on it.

After Celli and 11 other retail tenants filed a class action lawsuit against the owners and managers of the shopping center for fraud and misrepresentation, crimes against them and their customers increased there.

In 2004, Celli reported to police she was threatened and raped as she emptied trash behind her store after closing for the night.

Several months later, another woman visiting the shopping center while many businesses were open was abducted and raped as well.

That same year, owners of a Chinese takeout restaurant in Seagull Square reported that thieves broke into the store after closing and made off with an undisclosed amount of money.

During a meeting of the Lakewood Township Committee, Township Attorney Steven Secare publicly stated that nothing could be done to stop residents of a Toms River group home from terrorizing Seagull Square retailers.

Secare did not disclose that he represented the Lakewood owners of the group home.

Celli closed her business in Seagull Square on August 31, 2004. She told a reporter she had no other choice; she was liable for the safety of her employees and she could not even ensure her own.

Retail tenants alleged that shopping center owners and managers did nothing to protect them, even though they paid a maintenance fee for lighting and security.

Committeemen continued to tell retailers they could do nothing about the problems because the shopping center was private property.

The terror escalated in 2004 and continued the following year.

Seagull Square management informed retail tenants in writing that their stores could contain asbestos, including a free-standing fast food restaurant not built by shopping center developers.

Management told the retailers they were responsible for removal of the asbestos in the leased storefronts, but reversed that position after retail tenants provided government documents that proved there was no asbestos used in the construction of shopping center buildings.

Shopping center management also contacted utility companies that serviced some retail tenants. Management asked that the retail business accounts instead be put in the shopping center's name. Retail tenants told reporters they became aware of the deception after they no longer received their monthly utility bills.

Management, which did not pay the bills, claimed its actions were "a mistake."

Utility companies did not explain why they did as the shopping center management requested without the permission or knowledge of retail tenants affected by the action.

When Celli and other tenants of Seagull Square filed a class action lawsuit, local media covered the news. According to legal documents obtained through discovery that Celli showed a reporter, the same owners of Seagull Square bought and sold the shopping center through a succession of holding companies.

In Spring 2005, a press release announced that a group of investors had purchased Seagull Square shopping center for $10.7 million and financed the acquisition with a $9 million mortgage on the 97,522-square-foot property.

GMH Capital Partners of Newtown Square, PA represented Fair Oaks LLC in negotiating the deal, while Zev Lesser of Lakewood represented purchaser Ocean Realty 101 LLC, according to the press release. However, a deed of ownership filed with the Ocean County Clerk listed only the name of Lakewood real estate developer Eliyahu Weinstein.

Weinstein referred a reporter to shopping center manager Simcha Shain for comment, but did not disclose that Shain was also an owner.

Shain and Weinstein are partners in Pine Projects LLC, which manages the affordable housing development where Committeeman Menashe Miller and his family live.

In 2006, Miller reported on his state-required financial disclosure that he owned several rental properties assessed at almost $1 million. Township vitals also reported that Miller claimed each of the properties was his primary residence.

As a member of the Lakewood Board of Education from April 2004-7, Shain was also required to disclose all sources of income. He included his investment of more than $2,000 in Seagull Square on a 2006 state-required ethics disclosure, but not on the deed filed with the county clerk.

In early 2006, Mayor Marc (Meir) Lichtenstein announced to retail tenants that he was the new manager of Seagull Square, which Shain had managed after Weinstein took title to the property.

In response to a reporter's question, Lichtenstein denied he was an investor in Seagull Square or that he was related to Weinstein through marriage.

The owners and managers of Seagull Square eventually settled with all but one of the retail tenants that filed a class action lawsuit against them.

Celli pursued her legal claim against the owners and managers of Seagull Square.

Like Berger, Celli was unsuccessful in her initial attempt to prove allegations of fraud and misrepresentation against Weinstein and other defendants.

Unlike Berger, she could not afford to appeal the decision.

In her legal papers, Celli charged that the owners and managers of Seagull Square had not lived up to the terms of her 7-year lease, as well as the spirit of good faith and fair dealing implied by their business agreement.

Owners and managers of Seagull Square countersued Celli for unpaid rent on the remaining five years of her lease.

In a decision dated June 9, 2006, state Superior Court Judge Vincent J. Grasso, sitting in Toms River, ruled that neither party had proven their case.

"There was no evidence of any pressure exerted on Ms. Celli," Grasso wrote in his decision. "Regrettably, the business venture of Kringles (Frozen Delites) did not succeed and a substantial investment was lost. These factors did not, in the court's view, create a scenario of bad faith or unfair dealings in this commercial transaction. The court does not find there is clear and convincing evidence to find that the defendant-landlord and/or its' agents committed common-law fraud against the plaintiff."

Grasso dismissed the countersuit against Celli. He said in his decision that no evidence was presented to show that the shopping center had asked Celli for rent due after she vacated the premises. The judge also said no representative testified on behalf of the shopping center to prove that efforts had been made to find another tenant to occupy Celli's space in order to mitigate damages resulting from loss of her rent.

On a visit to Seagull Square shortly after Grasso issued his decision, a reporter noted that Celli's retail space remained dark, although the Kringles store name had not been taken down. Many other retail spaces in the L-shaped shopping center were also vacant. Some store names of former tenants had also not been taken down.

Three years later, little has changed.

On a return visit in August 2010, the same reporter counted 11 leased store fronts, including a free-standing fast food restaurant, and 7 vacant store fronts - including the former Stop and Shop supermarket.

Celli's former retail space has not been repainted or prepared for any new tenant to take its place.

That does not mean the shopping center's manager has not made renovations to the property based on charges made by Celli in her lawsuit.

In front and in the rear of each retail space, management has installed bright lights, but no privacy fence to block out their glare from residents of an Orthodox development that recently began undergoing buildout on the adjoining site.

A reporter noted that homeowners and tenants now living in the development had attached dark plastic bunting on the residential side of an 8-foot-high chain link fence separating the commercial shopping center and residential homes.

Full-size yellow school buses formerly stored on a portion of the shopping center parking lot in past years were not observed on the reporter's return visit in 2010. However, township zoning now permits a used car business to operate on the parking lot of a Route 9 shopping center near Seagull Square that Weinstein and other investors also own.

Weinstein is reportedly a former used car salesman.

With Weinstein's arrest, his misfortune could become the township's misfortune since Lakewood revenues are generated in large part by the collection of property taxes - which Weinstein and his partners, current and former township officials, may no longer be able to afford following a court-ordered payback of millions received through fraud and misrepresentation.

Berger's legal victory may have laid the basis for a successful appeal by Celli and other Seagull Square retail tenants that made the same charge as Berger against Weinstein and his partners.

On August 15, Celli maintained that anyone can be victimized.

"I believed that when someone I did business with gave me their word, they would keep it," she told a reporter for NJ News & Views. "Obviously, that wasn't the case. Everybody doesn't follow the rule of law."

Unlike Celli, who had a written lease, Berger invested in Weinstein's projects based solely on the Lakewood investor's word and the recommendation of clergy in the Orthodox community that benefited from Weinstein's charitable donations.

"The face of any criminal may not be who you expect," Celli said. "I never expected that some of the business people who were my landlord were also the same government officials that told me they could do nothing to ensure the public's safety at a commercial shopping center."

For years, Celli advocated in behalf of a proposed retail Lemon Law that she asserted would have protected small business owners leasing space in shopping centers throughout New Jersey.

Lobbyists representing an association of shopping center owners worked to block passage of the proposed legislation, sponsored by Senator Robert Singer, a member of the Lakewood Township Committee, and Assemblymen Ronald Dancer and Joseph Malone.

All three legislators are Republicans representing the 30th Legislative District, which includes Lakewood.

Singer is running for re-election to the Lakewood Township Committee.

At the July 2010 meeting of the Lakewood Industrial Commission, Steven Reinman, township Executive Director of Economic Development, confirmed he was engaged in discussions with the same association of shopping center owners that opposed Singer's retail Lemon Law in order to bring more retail businesses to Lakewood.

If Reinman is successful, retail tenants that enter into lease agreements in those shopping centers will continue to risk their investment, according to Celli.

"Many people believe that just because there are laws in place to protect them, government will enforce those laws," Celli told NJ News & Views. "People are always testing the boundaries of what the law can or cannot do to stop them from breaking it through their business dealings. Anyone can be victimized, no matter how well they do their homework."

Earlier this month, readers of the Asbury Park Press commenting online about the news also reported it.

According to residents that attended the Jackson Township Reorganization meeting, which the newspaper's reporter covered on July 1, the mayor and council did not reappoint Township Manager Phil Del Turco.

The online copy of the July 1, 2010 Jackson Reorganization meeting agenda confirmed what residents told the public and the published copy of the newspaper did not.

That is not always the case.

Three years ago, the Jackson Board of Education reported on an addendum to the June 26, 2007 meeting agenda that the district received two bids for installation of fencing at Liberty High School and had awarded the contract to the lowest bidder.

Board members misinformed the public.

They also misinformed a member of the media that reports to the public.

On June 27, 2007, a reporter for NJ News & Views requested to inspect the bid package and fencing contract under the state Open Public Records Act (OPRA).

District personnel told the reporter they did not have the contract.

District personnel did not produce a bid package completed by both bidders cited on the board's meeting agenda either.

Instead, district personnel gave the reporter a blank bid package.

While the reporter did not request a completed bid package, the reporter also did not request a blank bid package.

Under OPRA, officials can respond with a written denial of access if the requested document does not exist.

That is not what the board's designated records custodian or the board attorney provided to NJ News & Views.

The reporter asked district personnel to provide the contract for inspection as soon as it was available.

They did not.

Several weeks later, the reporter called district offices and asked again if the contract was available for inspection under OPRA as previously requested.

Under OPRA, all contracts, bills and invoices must be produced for inspection upon request. They are the exception to the 7-business day limit in responding to all other requested documents.

On July 30, 2007, over a month after the reporter filed an OPRA request, district personnel presented a signed contract for inspection that included the winning bid proposal and no other.

The contract was signed on July 26, 2007 by Jackson board President Marvin Krakower and Anthony Martinez, President of National Fence Systems, Inc., the winning bidder.

Krakower is a former member of the municipal governing body.

On August 3, 2007, the reporter filed a denial of access complaint with the Government Records Council (GRC).

Under legislation enacted in 2002, which replaced the state's Right to Know law, OPRA called for the creation of the GRC to hear complaints of denial of access as a less expensive alternative to filing suit in state Superior Court.

Located in the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA), members of the GRC include the Commissioner of Community Affairs or the commissioner's designee; the Commissioner of Education or the commissioner's designee; and three members of the public appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the state Senate.

Only two of the three governor's appointees are permitted to be from the same political party.

Because OPRA did not require that the GRC adjudicate all complaints within a specified time limit or that an alternate member of the public and the government be selected through the same procedure as jury duty to sit on the panel in the event there is no voting quorum, many complaints have not been adjudicated by the GRC or a court of law.

One of those complaints was filed three years ago by NJ News & Views.

Two years after a reporter for NJ News & Views filed a complaint against the Jackson Board of Education and its designated records custodian, business administrator/board secretary Gregory J. Brennan, mediation failed to yield an agreement. State mediator Fran Snyder turned the reporter's complaint back over to the GRC for adjudication.

Michelle Richardson, who succeeded Brennan upon his retirement, responded to the reporter's denial of access complaint two years after it was filed against Brennan, who was then deceased.

She denied the complaint and asserted that the reporter had received the requested information under OPRA.

In response, the reporter provided as further evidence a copy of the board's 2007 meeting agenda, which included the names of two bidders, a photocopy of the dated contract signature page, and correspondence with Brennan which further clarified the OPRA request and asked that it be fulfilled correctly.

In an October 1, 2007 letter, sent by postal mail and copied to the board attorney, Marc Zitomer, the Jackson Superintendent of Schools Thomas Gialanella, and the District Communications Specialist Allison Erwin, Brennan acknowledged receipt of the reporter's faxed letter of September 27, 2007.

"I sympathize with your frustration in not being provided with information exactly when you request it," Brennan wrote. "However, I fail to understand how you can expect some document to be produced that my office does not physically possess."

In an October 4, 2007 letter faxed to Brennan, the reporter reminded him that access had still not been provided to inspect all requested documentation.

"Instead of completed bid proposals, I received blank application forms for potential bidders to fill out," the reporter wrote. "As a reporter for an Internet news site, why would I want to inspect blank application forms instead of completed bid proposals?"

Despite further clarification of the OPRA request, Brennan still did not provide all fencing bid proposals listed on the board's June 26, 2007 meeting agenda or a denial of access letter to explain the absence of all requested documentation.

Neither did his successor, Michelle Richardson.

Instead of deciding the reporter's complaint based on the evidence presented by both sides, GRC member Kathryn Forsyth, the designated appointee of the Commissioner of Education, abstained without explanation. Her failure to vote on the matter reportedly left the GRC without a quorum.

Until last month, Forsyth was reportedly the Director of Public Information for the Department of Education (DOE) - a conflict of interest since she responds to media requests for information.

According to spokespersons for the DOE and the GRC, Forsyth is no longer employed as DOE director of public information. Commissioner of Education Brett Schundler has reportedly not appointed a new designee to the GRC.

According to GRC meeting minutes, Schundler has appointed a second designee to adjudicate some complaints on the GRC meeting agenda on which Forsyth abstained, but not others - including the complaint a reporter for NJ News & Views filed against the Jackson Board of Education in 2007.

After failing to adjudicate the reporter's complaint for two successive GRC meetings at the beginning of the year, the complaint was no longer placed on the GRC meeting agenda for 2010.

Without a replacement, the GRC spokesperson said there was no quorum to adjudicate the reporter's complaint.

Information a reporter does not receive is often information the public does not receive either.

The same year a reporter filed a complaint against the Jackson Board of Education, on September 11, 2007, the district entered into a joint busing agreement, called a jointure, with the Lakewood Board of Education.

The reporter made an OPRA request to inspect the signed jointure and all correspondence between the two districts regarding the transportation of Jackson students to public and non-public schools in Lakewood.

The Lakewood board delayed acting on the jointure for months after the reporter made the request, delaying its inspection just as the Jackson board had delayed inspection of the fencing contract.

Both districts denied any correspondence regarding the jointure existed, even though a Lakewood district employee told the reporter that no contracts or agreements were made without it.

According to Jackson documents as well as current meeting agendas posted on the Lakewood District Web site, both boards may have participated individually and in collusion in what is referred to as bid rigging.

In an inspection of 2009-10 Lakewood Board of Education meeting agendas, NJ News & Views found repeated awards of student bus contracts to a sole bidder, even though the district reportedly solicited four transportation companies for bids for each route.

Although the same transportation company did not bid on each bus route, by accepting a single bid, the Lakewood board essentially awarded a no-bid contract, increasing the cost of the service to Lakewood taxpayers.

Jackson taxpayers are also paying for malfeasance by elected members of the Jackson Board of Education, which awarded a fencing contract to only one documented bidder. While state law permits the award of a professional service contract without competitive bid, the Jackson board fraudulently informed the public on its meeting agenda that it put the project out for competitive bid - which was not confirmed by any documentation requested under OPRA by NJ News & Views.

Had the Jackson board's designated records custodian informed the reporter in writing that some bid documents requested under OPRA did not exist, the denial of access letter would have been admissible in a court of law as evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

Ironically, as a public document, the letter could be requested by other members of the public under OPRA - provided public officials admitted they had it. According to a spokesperson for the GRC, the oversight agency does not have the legislative authority to audit government records to determine if, in fact, they do exist.

Someone else does.

As State Auditor, Stephen M. Eells is a constitutional officer appointed by the Legislature. Within the Office of Legislative Services (OLS), the Office of the State Auditor conducts financial and performance audits of state agencies, certain school districts, and vicinages of the Judiciary. The State Auditor also conducts studies on the operation, economy and efficiency of state-run or state-supported programs, according to the Legislative Web site.

From the time period of July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2009, the state auditor conducted a performance audit of the Lakewood School District, which focused primarily on purchasing and payroll functions of the district.

The state auditor also conducted a forensic audit of the period of July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007, when the district ended the 2006-7 school year more than $1 million in deficit.

"The objective of our performance audit was to determine whether financial transactions were related to the school district's programs, were reasonable, and were recorded properly in the accounting system," Eells stated in the report posted online. "The objective of our forensic audit was to determine the primary factors that contributed to the district's June 30, 2007 fiscal year end general fund deficit."

Under 2006 legislation, the forensic audit was triggered by a year-end deficit and a recommendation by the DOE that it be conducted. According to a spokesperson for the DOE, board members could face charges if the audit turned up evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

That is unlikely to happen.

"Certain questionable items will be turned over to the Division of Criminal Justice," the report stated.

On June 14, a reporter for NJ News & Views called Anthony Glebocki, manager of the Lakewood district audit, to discuss the report.

NJ News & Views asked Glebocki what "questionable items" were turned over to the Division of Criminal Justice for further action.

"We turned the entire report over to the Division of Criminal Justice," Glebocki said. "If we find things of this nature, it goes to Criminal Justice. In the past, we would turn over the audit report and talk to Criminal Justice. The policy goes back to as long as I’ve been there – 1975."

Based on a review of the report, investigators with the Division of Criminal Justice may find it difficult to prosecute any Lakewood official. While the report identifies by position some officials it charges with possible malfeasance, it does not identify them by name.

In the case of board attorney Michael Inzelbuch, who also holds the position of board employee, the state auditor alleged his position appeared to be a conflict of interest, but did not provide any evidence of it - even though evidence exists.

"As the board attorney, he may have to recuse himself from giving legal advice on employee matters which may impact him or other employees where there is an appearance of a potential conflict of interest," Eells reported.

A reporter asked Glebocki if auditors had investigated that possibility by researching the board's posted meeting minutes. He said no.

In March 2010, three months before the state auditor posted his findings following a 2-year audit of the Lakewood School District, NJ News & Views made an OPRA request for all ethics disclosures Inzelbuch was required to file as a board employee for each year since 2002, when he was appointed to each of the two positions he still holds.

Lakewood Business Administrator/Board Secretary Robert Finger told a reporter in an e-mail response that Inzelbuch did not have to file an ethics disclosure because he did not have the authority to spend district funding.

He already did.

Last year, Inzelbuch, who is also board Parliamentarian, publicly authorized district funding for his services to research an issue covered under the state's Open Public Meetings Act.

The November 23, 2009 meeting minutes, which the board approved, did not record a board vote or a request by board President Abraham Ostreicher to have Inzelbuch research whether or not Lakewood advocate Colin Lewis could videotape the meeting - which Inzelbuch, as Parliamentarian and board attorney, should have been able to advise the board was permitted by state law.

According to the meeting minutes, Inzelbuch stopped Lewis from continuing to videotape the meeting.

"Mr. Inzelbuch asked the gentleman filming the meeting to stop and stated the policy had to be reviewed," the November 23 meeting minutes reported.

In a 26-page letter Inzelbuch sent the board two days after the meeting, he advised his employer that Lewis could videotape the meeting if he provided the board with written notice beforehand.

Total cost to taxpayers: $312.50.

Had the state auditor also researched public documents posted on the county clerk's Web site, he would also have determined that Inzelbuch has already failed to recuse himself from numerous board meetings he attended from 2004-2007 with his client, then-board member Simcha Shain.

Glebocki conceded that the state audit did not include investigative findings that would assist the state Division of Criminal Investigation in prosecuting possible malfeasance identified by Eells in his report.

Politics may also play a role in whether or not Lakewood school officials face charges for their actions.

After the state auditor posted his findings of the Lakewood District audit online, a reporter for NJ News & Views contacted state Senator Robert Singer, who is also a member of the Lakewood Township Committee.

The reporter asked Singer what legislation he proposed to sponsor in the state Legislature that would address problems identified in the report by the state auditor.

Singer did not return the reporter's calls for comment.

He should.

Singer is not just a dual office holder that represents Lakewood on the township committee and as part of the 30th Legislative District in the state Senate. He is also a member of the Senate's Office of Legislative Services (OLS).

Created in 1979, the OLS has several duties, but the most important is to recommend revisions to existing state law.

"The Commission was given the responsibility to…carry on the work of continuous revision of the general and permanent statute law of the State…to remedy defects therein," according to N.J.S.A. 52:11-55 et seq, posted on the state Legislative Web site.

Last year, Republicans became the majority party on the Lakewood Township Committee, which voted to appoint Singer the 2009 mayor. Singer's administration hired another member of the OLS, Senator Sean T. Kean, a Republican representing the 11th Legislative District, as counsel to the Lakewood Development Corporation (LDC), which oversees the township's Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ).

While Singer has repeatedly told NJ News & Views he does not support revisions to the Open Public Records Act or the Open Public Meetings Act, Kean has indicated he does.

In an October 16, 2009 letter, Kean referenced a public document a reporter did not request and did not believe existed based on Singer's public comments that the township was not required to tape its meetings under current state law.

"Please accept this communication in response to your inquiry regarding the Open Public Records Act and the Open Public Meetings Act, as they relate to the Lakewood Development Corporation ("LDC") meeting on October 13, 2009," Kean wrote the reporter.

On October 13, 2009, the LDC was scheduled to meeting at 4:30 pm. A reporter, arriving 10 minutes late, found the doors to the upstairs meeting room closed and members of the LDC and the public congregated outside it. In the hallway, the reporter saw Lakewood Committeeman Marc (Meir) Lichtenstein, the committee liaison to the transportation steering committee that was meeting inside the room at the same scheduled time as the LDC.

As the reporter entered the room, members of the LDC seated at a table got up and left the room, where other LDC members were waiting outside for their meeting to begin. The reporter charged that any of them could also enter the room - a violation of the state's Open Public Meetings Act, also known as the Sunshine Law.

Under the Sunshine Law, a quorum of members appointed or elected to a government body may not convene without first noticing the public so they may attend the meeting.

Kean denied that the overlap of meetings that both included members of the LDC constituted a violation of the Open Public Meetings Act.

"The Open Public Meetings Act is not triggered absent a quorum present," Kean wrote the reporter. "On October 13, 2009, prior to the regular LDC meeting, a quorum of the LDC members were not in attendance during the briefing which took place in the LDC meeting room."

Ironically, without a videotape to prove his assertion, Kean would have had to have been present during Lichtenstein's meeting to make such a claim - further proof that the LDC was meeting in advance of its advertised meeting time of 4:30 pm without public notice.

"Pursuant to NJSA 10:4-8, a 'Meeting does not mean or include any such gathering (1) attended by less than an effective majority of the numbers of a public body, or (2) attended by or open to all members of three or more similar public bodies at a convention or similar gathering," Kean wrote. "Furthermore, regarding your request for a copy of the video, pursuant to the Open Public Records Act, you must make an official request on the form provided by the Township Clerk."

According to Lakewood Township Clerk Mary Ann Del Mastro, the township does not videotape its meetings.

The only videotapes the township makes are by cameras on board each Lakewood Police patrol car, which Chief Robert Lawson said start recording once the vehicle's lights go on.

Kean continued to assert in his letter that the township had videotaped the unadvertised meeting Lichtenstein held during the advertised time the LDC was scheduled to hold its monthly meeting.

"The Township, in a previous e-mail, volunteered to let you view their copy," he wrote. "However, if you would like your own copy, there may be costs associated with recording a duplicate."

At the July 8 meeting of the Lakewood Township Committee, members adopted an ordinance on second reading that raised the cost to obtain a videotape from the township.

"Duplication of videotapes constitutes an extraordinary duplication process and will be charged at the rate of seventy-five ($75.00) dollars per each CD, DVD, and/or videotape," the ordinance stated.

During the public forum held before the committee vote on the ordinance, a reporter for NJ News & Views asked if the township videotaped its meetings. The reporter referenced Senator Kean's letter, which suggested the township did videotape its meetings.

Township attorney Jan Wouters referred to the reporter's query as a "gotcha" question and declined to answer it.

"Its an improper question…that's not part of this ordinance," he told the reporter. "Its silly."

It is not.

Thirty-five years ago, Governor Brendan T. Byrne spearheaded a "government under glass" initiative that led to passage of the Open Public Meetings Act in 1975.

In an April 24, 2007 paper titled "Open Public Meetings in New Jersey: History and Current Issues," Suzanne J. Piotrowski, Assistant Professor of the Rutgers University School of Public Affairs and Administration in Newark, and Erin L. Bory, a Masters student at the same school, discussed the state Legislature's pending revision of the Sunshine Law.

"While the spirit of the current law promotes open government, revision is necessary to adapt it to current information technology, to promote uniform application in all jurisdictions, and to eliminate gray areas and ambiguities," the paper stated.

Piotrowski and Bory asserted that a new law was not enough.

"It is imperative to train public employees and elected officials concerning their obligations under the Sunshine Law," the two authors stated. "Key areas that need to be considered when revising the current Sunshine Law are: meeting minutes, closed sessions, notices and agendas, public comment provisions, the video and audio recording of meetings, electronic meeting regulations, and the recovery of attorney fees after successful litigation."

Less than a decade after the Open Public Records Act was signed into law, it, too, needs to be revised.

Both laws governing the communication of public information should reflect modern technological advances in a Digital Age. That means videotaping public meetings, not just police actions.

Instead of excluding the judiciary from the requirements of the Open Public Records Act, state law should mandate that all court records personnel meet the same requirements for disclosure and electronic copy of public records.

So should members of the state Legislature and their personnel.

Four decades ago, Federal officials also sought to limit public access to electronic documentation.

On July 16, 1973, during nationally televised Congressional hearings, presidential aide Alexander Butterfield disclosed that President Richard Nixon had ordered the installation of a taping system in the White House to automatically record all conversations. The special prosecutor immediately subpoenaed eight of the tapes to confirm testimony by White House Counsel John Dean.

Nixon initially refused to release the tapes, claiming they were vital to national security. He later agreed to surrender the tapes to U.S. District Court Judge John Sirica. However, the White House told the court that two of the eight subpoenaed conversations had not been recorded and that an 18-minute gap existed on a third.

To this day, information on those documents has never been recovered.

In a May 8, 2003 press release, Archivist of the United States John Carlin announced that tests conducted by several specialists had failed to recover any spoken words recorded in taped conversations between officials.

"We have explored all of the avenues to attempt to recover the sound on this tape," Carlin was quoted in the release. "We will continue to preserve the tape in the hopes that later generations can try again to recover this vital piece of our history."

On June 10, a Lakewood company located at the township's border with Toms River fulfilled its mission.

For better and for worse, the company changed the lives of several area men.

One of them is now dead.

Government officials share the blame.

According to an undated press release issued by the Lakewood Police Department, provided only upon request to a reporter for NJ News & Views, Curtis Pierce, 48, Toms River, was killed on June 10, 2010 at 8:30 p.m. after his motorcycle collided with a vehicle driven by Shmuel Brachfeld, 30, Lakewood, on Massachusetts Avenue (County Road 647), between Enclave Boulevard and Locust Street.

Both Brachfeld, who suffered a minor head injury, and Pierce were transported to Kimball Medical Center, where Pierce was pronounced dead.

Police reported that the injured were treated on scene and transported to the medical center by Lakewood Township Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and Hatzolah First Aid Squad.

Police also reported that the crash was still under investigation by Lakewood Police Officers Robert Redington, John Novak and Joe Sandstrom, but that no summonses had been issued.

The press release stated that Detectives Steve Capoano and Eric Skieczius of the Ocean County Sheriff's Department and Detective John Hill of the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office were assisting in the crash investigation.

The press release concluded by asking anyone with information regarding the crash to contact Lakewood Police.

Someone already has.

Fairways resident William Hobday told NJ News & Views what he already told the Lakewood Township Committee in public following the crash - it was preventable.

According to Hobday, 1536 Massachusetts Avenue, owned by Somerset Development LLC, was converted into a non-public school last year with only the approval of a Lakewood Township official.

Upon receiving township approval of the school, the school director instructed township employees to install a township-owned trash dumpster on the semi-circular gravel driveway, which blocked sanitation truck access to the property to empty it.

Lakewood Township provides free trash pick-up and free use of municipal trash dumpsters to all non-public schools, but not to any other business.

Earlier this month, the Lakewood Township Committee announced that it would be charging the Lakewood School District for garbage pick-up at all public schools.

The public relations gesture is not saving taxpayers any money since they pay property taxes for school services whether or not they have children and whether or not those children are enrolled in public or non-public school.

Public policy that permitted the school in 1536 Massachusetts Avenue to open in a residential home without adequate parking may also cost taxpayers in dollars and lives.

"Visitors to the school park on the shoulder of both sides of the street, directly over the rise going southbound," Hobday told NJ News & Views in a June 25 e-mail. "They then abruptly enter the travel lane or make a U turn where their actions cannot be seen by southbound traffic until it is too late.  They cross the highway on foot.  We have predicted that accident at that exact location for a year."

According to Hobday, on June 10 Brachfeld not only exited the driveway without seeing the approaching motorcyclist, he also attempted an illegal U-Turn.

"I talked to residents that heard the impact and came to see what happened," Hobday wrote NJ News & Views in a June 25 e-mail. "I arrived at the scene soon after the accident and took note of the van that had sustained damage to the driver's door, indicating that the van was making an illegal U turn. I took note of the motorcycle laying in the roadway. " 

Hobday said the evidence clearly indicated that Brachfeld was at fault for the collision.

"The motorcycle hit the van directly in the middle of the driver's door," he told NJ News & Views in a June 26 e-mail. "The motorcycle was off the road on the west side of the roadway, directly after the driveway exit. Police had the area off limits by this time, but I saw no visible damage to the motorcycle other than it was laying on its side.  A single skid mark was present, just at the top of the rise."

Based on those accounts and on his own inspection of the crash scene, Hobday provided a different account of the incident that cost a man his life.

According to Hobday, Brachfeld exited the property, even though he could not see oncoming traffic around cars parked curbside on either side of the home's driveway, then attempted to make an illegal U-turn over a solid yellow line to enter the northbound lane of Massachusetts Avenue.

Brachfeld lives in a rental home in Coventry Square at the northern end of town near Howell.

A Lakewood police report of the crash confirms Hobday's account, and further indicates Brachfeld may have been driving without a valid vehicle registration.

On June 18, one week after the crash, a reporter visited police records to request a copy of the crash report. A records clerk told the reporter it was not necessary to fill out the public information request form displayed in front of the window, then told the reporter she could not release the crash report since the incident was still under investigation.

That same day, the reporter e-mailed an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request for the police report, which Township Clerk Mary Ann Del Mastro provided for public inspection on June 24.

According to the report, which did not include a diagram of the crash scene, but did include a crash narrative, Pierce was traveling south on Massachusetts Avenue on a red 2007 Suzuki motorcycle.

He was wearing a helmet.

Brachfeld, driving a silver 2006 Toyota Camry, entered the roadway from a private driveway at 1536 Massachusetts Avenue in front of Pierce's motorcycle. Police reported that both vehicles collided on the roadway.

Pierce was ejected from his motorcycle.

The police narrative included an explanation of Box 75 of the report. That box reports the registration expiration date of one of the vehicles involved in the collision.

While Box 45 provided a September 2010 registration expiration date for Pierce's motorcycle, Box 75 contained four asterisks for Brachfeld's vehicle registration expiration date.

The explanation in the police narrative stated, "Box 75: Vehicle #02 Expiration 06-27-10."

Despite the report's missing crash diagram, Boxes 130-133 provided the positions of the two vehicles at the time of impact. According to Box 130 and 131, Pierce's motorcycle was heading straight before impacting Brachfeld's vehicle at the clock position of 12:00, which is straight-on, while Box 132 and 133 state that Brachfeld's vehicle was positioned for a left-hand turn at the clock angle of 8:00.

In Box 105, police reported the crash type as 03 - a Right Angle.

Hobday told NJ News & Views that after he reached the scene of the collision, he saw Brachfeld's Toyota Camry parked on the opposite side of the road from the residence.

While Hobday asserted that a rise in the road contributed to the collision, police stated in Box 100 of the report that the county road was straight and grade.

Other options were straight and level, straight at hillcrest, curve and level, curve and grade, and curve at hillcrest.

Box 118a and 118b did not report that any action by Pierce had contributed to the collision which took his life.

In Box 119a and 119b, police made the same report about Brachfeld, even though one of the options was 08: improper turning.

A sign is installed in front of the residence prohibiting U-turns.

Last year, police failed to issue a summons to either motorist involved in a collision on East County Line Road that also resulted in damage to an area cemetery.

Police also failed to accurately report the home address of both drivers involved in the crash, which is required by all parties involved should any or all of them file an insurance claim for damages resulting from the incident.

Months later, the cemetery's fence is still unrepaired. A reporter did not see the cemetery headstone the police crash report stated was damaged by one of the motorists involved in the crash.

Shortly after inspecting the Lakewood crash report, NJ News & Views contacted the state Department of Transportation (DOT) and made an OPRA request for the state's copy of the Lakewood police crash report. The DOT records custodian denied access to the report, even though the reporter informed the official that the copy police provided contained evidence of insurance fraud.

For years, public policy has constrained the ability of Lakewood police to effectively and fairly perform their job - to serve and protect.

In 2005, Lakewood Police Officer Erik Menck performed a traffic stop of an 18-year-old motorist that he observed tailgating the car driving in front of her. During the traffic stop, Yosef Burzstyn, a prominent non-public school official and uncle of the woman Menck stopped, intervened by assaulting Menck.

Menck summoned back-up, but when another police officer arrived at the scene, he ordered Menck to turn off his on-board patrol car camera, even while the responding officer's own patrol car camera continued to record the incident.

Burzstyn later pled guilty to assaulting Menck, but for years special interests sought to discredit the officer through attempted bribery and accusations of police brutality.

Since the 2005 incident, police chaplains have become increasingly influential in establishing a departmental policy of preferential treatment. By 2008, the Lakewood Township Committee adopted an ordinance giving police chaplains the rank and authority of lieutenant.

By 2009, the township had promoted chaplains in the non-salaried position from lieutenant to captain, without having adopted an ordinance or resolution in public.

In 2008, committeemen did discuss their reason for the change. According to the discussion, committeemen made the change to reflect the elevation in rank of county police chaplains.

One of the most influential of those county police chaplains is Chaim Abadi, a rabbi and self-described Lakewood real estate developer.

Four years ago, Abadi and other investors began redevelopment of a former single-family home on South Lake Drive as a planned multi-home development. He did not apply for or receive planning or zoning board approval.

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a violation notice to Abadi, but later approved the development and even subdivided the site by issuing a permit for it.

Displaced wetlands on the site flooded neighboring properties, reducing their value.

In March, Abadi built an illegal landfill off Vermont Avenue in Lakewood on public and private land.

Last year, he did the same in Jackson off Frank Applegate Road.

Although the DEP issued violation notices to Abadi, ordering him to remove the illegal landfills, Abadi refused to comply.

DEP officials have referred the matter involving the Lakewood landfill, which has continued operation as a business, to the state attorney general's office.

Abadi is not only a police chaplain, real estate developer and businessman, he is also the owner and operator of Minyan Shelanu, a non-profit organization located at 145 Ocean Avenue in Lakewood.

"Minyan Shelanu is a low profile yet highly effective organization that has thus far achieved remarkable results," Abadi stated on his organization's Web site, www.minyanshelanu.com. "Founded in 2001, the organization originally served simply as a warm, non-judgmental synagogue/social center for teens and young adults who did not fit into the more rigid model typical of the community. Before long, Minyan became a rallying point for troubled teens desperate for a bit of love, a kind word, and a surrogate home."

Until last year, a green limousine parked in front of 145 Ocean Avenue that is used by Minyan Shelanu was also outfitted with police patrol car lights - which only uniformed police officers are legally permitted to use.

Abadi attributed the success of his organization to one person - himself.

"The dynamic founder and leader of Minyan Shelanu, a successful real estate developer, is also an ordained rabbi – Chaim Abadi," according to the About Us Web page for his organization. "Chaim’s appeal lies in his unpretentiousness and his unconditional love for every person. Chaim feels the pain of these troubled teens, many of which are victims of abuse. His heart is open to them and they instinctively recognize his as a trustworthy father figure. Chaim is also extraordinarily perceptive, and has great insight into the youths’ emotional, social, and spiritual needs."

Abadi said on the Web site that his organization provided two categories of programs for troubled youth: Synagogue and Social Center.

"The synagogue programs are generally geared towards young adults, or kids who are “at-risk” but have not yet dropped out of school and the community," the Web site stated. "The Social Center caters more to kids “on-the-street.” It is important to note that there is significant overlap between the two, as kids will often drop in for a game of pool and wander across the hall to listen to a lecture or the like."

The school in 1536 Massachusetts Avenue provides that atmosphere for the troubled youth that Abadi has made it his mission to save.

According to the Minyan Shelanu Web site, teens and young adults are paired with a mentor or study partner for an hour of "mind-engaging study" and refreshments during evening hours.

"Minyan Shelanu has recently professionally trained a select group of mentors to expand the Center’s scope," the Web site reported. "These mentors will keep in contact with their charges, and will be available to offer a listening ear, support, and a shoulder to cry on. "

Lakewood Township Committee meeting minutes from November 19, 2009 included discussion of a proposed No Stopping No Standing ordinance scheduled for first reading. If adopted, the township would have installed signs prohibiting curbside parking in front of 1536 Massachusetts Avenue months before the collision between Pierce and Brachfeld. Instead, committeemen killed the proposed ordinance on first reading by not seconding a motion for a vote on it.

Attorney Adam Pfeffer, representing the business owner operating out of the residence, which was identified in meeting minutes only as a yeshiva, asked committeemen for more time to provide additional on-site parking.

"Mr. Pfeffer explained that the school has approximately thirty students there; obviously they have teachers and staff that has to come to the site, and they do have existing parking on the site," meeting minutes reported. "Currently, on most evenings, the majority of the students have one on one study with a partner, which now entails approximately another fifteen to twenty cars that come to that area."

One of those mentors was Brachfeld, according to his profile on a social network Web site.

Brachfeld told visitors to his profile that for the past 10 months he has been an employee of the Cheder School, and for one year and five months, a counselor/mentor at Ohr Nosson.

Under Additional Information, Brachfeld listed only one organization: Minyan Shelanu.

Under Friends, he included Rabbi Chaim Abadi.

On a June 18 visit to the Lakewood Police Department division of Traffic and Safety, a reporter asked Officer Robert Redington, one of the reported investigators into Brachfeld's fatal June 10 collision with Pierce, if an attorney or a police chaplain was present when Brachfeld gave police his statement while being treated at Kimball Medical Center.

Redington told the reporter there was a man present in the room, but said he did not know his name or if he was an attorney or a police chaplain.

Minutes before the collision on June 10, the Lakewood Township Committee held first reading of a reintroduced ordinance to designate 1536 Massachusetts Avenue a No Stopping No Standing zone, following months of discussions with the county engineer.

On June 24, committeemen adopted the ordinance on second reading - but not before Hobday disclosed during the meeting that the No Stopping No Standing zone would not include the home where the collision occurred.

It would not have mattered if it were. Unless police aggressively enforce the ordinance, visitors to the home will continue to violate it, just as Brachfeld violated the No U-Turn sign by attempting to make an illegal left-turn over a solid yellow line.

When the committee meets again in July, Mayor Steven Langert indicated that committeemen could be introducing another proposed ordinance for which Hobday has lobbied. The ordinance would require schools to apply to the township's development boards for an educational use variance.

In a town where schools are a permitted use in every zone, such an ordinance would still fail to save lives.

Had there been signs installed in both the northbound and southbound lanes in front of the home that designated the area a school zone for a distance of at least 1,000 feet in either direction, speed bumps installed in the road as vehicles approached the home, and signs requiring a reduction in the posted speed limit on Massachusetts Avenue to 10 miles per hour, Pierce might have been able to stop in time to save his life.

Had there been a sign prominently displayed on the front of the building that identified it by its business name and a school crosswalk installed on Massachusetts Avenue so that pedestrians visiting the premises could safely cross the highway when a police crossing guard is present, Pierce might also have been able to avoid the collision with Brachfeld.

Had the township, the county and the state properly regulated a Lakewood business operating as a non-public school in a residential neighborhood by installing a traffic light in front of 1536 Massachusetts Avenue, Brachfeld might never have attempted an unsafe left-hand turn out of the property at the same time that Pierce attempted to drive past it.

More importantly, had government officials not been subject to political influence, they would not have permitted the property's parking lot to be converted to a recreational use when alternative parking facilities available on-site were insufficient to replace it.

Had all those safety conditions been implemented and enforced, Abadi could have saved one more life.

So could government officials.

According to an obituary posted on The Asbury Park Press Web site, Curtis Roy Pierce was born in Passaic and lived in Clifton before moving to Toms River over 34 years ago. For the past two years, he worked as a personal trainer for K.S. Fitness in Toms River. Pierce was a U.S. Navy veteran.

Surviving are his parents, Bonnie Pierce of Toms River and Jerold Pierce of Nevada; his maternal grandmother, Jean McCann; his uncle, Dave McCann; and many cousins.

Pierce also leaves behind friends that shared his enthusiasm for motorcycles and also mourned his loss. One of them is a 41-year-old Toms River woman that posted her good-bye to Pierce under her user name of DestinySweet269 on BikerOrNot, a social network for motorcycle enthusiasts.

Her good-bye, like Pierce's life, was cut short all too soon.

"RIP Curtis Pierce!!" she posted. "My Heart & Prayers go out to your Mom...wish people would lookout better for bikers where this would stop ha"

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.

The scenic views around Lake Carasaljo are to die for.

Area developers think so, too.

Their actions in violation of local, county, state and Federal law are killing the environment that all humans need to survive.

Officials are doing nothing to stop it.

At the April 22 meeting of the Lakewood Township Committee, Esther Moskovits of 59 Glen Terrace, told committeemen that four homes were being developed on a wetlands site at 844 South Lake Drive, located in the R-12 zone.

The rear of the Moskovits property is adjacent to the rear of 844 South Lake Drive.

Moskovits said no permits were issued to the developer of 844 South Lake Drive and that there was a "tremendous amount of water damage to the adjacent property," located at 868 South Lake Drive.

Yehuda and Tziporah Yanai live at 868 South Lake Drive, facing Lake Carasaljo.

Moskovits said trees were chopped down to clear the site around the 844 South Lake Drive and never cleared away.

Last month, both women discussed the unapproved development with a visitor.

Yanai invited the visitor to inspect damage to her property since the neighboring home was redeveloped four years ago.

"Come in and look at the water," she said.

At the far left side of her property, adjacent to the home owned by Abadi, a swale of water stretched from one end of the yard to the other, expanding in size with the slope of the terrain.

Yanai said she bought her home six years ago, set amidst a lovely wooded area. Now heartbroken by the many problems developers created through flooding and ponding of displaced freshwater wetlands, Yanai said she will likely have to remove the few remaining trees on the property since water damage to their root system could cause them to topple onto her home in strong wind and heavy rains.

Trees and shrubs not only provide aesthetic appeal for homeowners, they aid in stormwater management.

When precipitation falls to the ground, trees, shrubs and soils soak up rainfall and store it. After the flood peak has subsided, the water is slowly released as groundwater or stream flow. In a natural watershed that contains numerous wetland and forested areas, plants soak up 40 percent of all precipitation, 50 percent becomes ground water and just 10 percent is surface runoff.

Areas with a greater amount of impervious coverage, such as roads, sidewalks and other hard surfaces, have higher rates of stormwater runoff and flooding. When precipitation falls to the ground in areas with a higher amount of impervious coverage, 75 percent of all water becomes surface runoff, while only 25 percent is either groundwater or is soaked up by vegetation.

Freshwater wetlands form transitional areas between dry land and waterways. They filter out chemicals, pollutants and sediments that can clog or contaminate drinking waters, soak up runoff from heavy rains and snow melts, provide natural flood control, release stored flood waters during droughts, provide critical habitats for endangered, commercial and recreational fish and wildlife species, and provide open space that contributes to recreation and tourism.

Displaced wetlands not only redirect flood waters onto neighbors' properties, they also eliminate wildlife habitats.

Yanai said that in the past, geese would congregate on the existing wetlands and pond at 844 South Lake Drive. Since construction began on the property, geese instead congregate on the Yanai property, polluting the home's now-soggy lawn.

Yanai asked the visitor, "Who will fix the flooding on my property?"

No one.

Local and state officials have ceded their authority to developer Chaim Abadi, an Ocean County Police Chaplain assigned to the county sheriff, county police department and county prosecutor's office, who owns 844 South Lake Drive with other investors.

Instead of regulating the property, state officials helped Abadi develop it.

According to online records, the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a Notice of Violation to Abadi on February 1, 2006 for the clearing and excavation of the site at 844 South Lake Drive. DEP records reported that Abadi pumped out water from freshwater wetlands collecting in the foundation pit and discharged it into the storm drain adjacent to the old existing house on the site.

"The NOV (Notice of Violation) noted that the overall site consisted of 2-3 lots approx 2.44 acres in size and  there were multiple new homes being  proposed," the DEP records reported. "There were wetlands throughout and  permits were required."

NJ News & Views asked Lakewood Zoning Officer Francine Siegel if zoning board approval was required to redevelop a single family home. She said no zoning board approval was required to redevelop a single family home, but that zoning board approval was required for a density variance.

NJ News & Views also contacted Lakewood Construction Official Michael Saccomanno by e-mail. A reporter asked what township permits a developer was required to have to demolish an existing residential or commercial building and redevelop the site for a permitted use.

Saccomanno said in an e-mail reply that the developer was required to have a demolition permit and "a full package permit," consisting of a "zoning application, building, electric, fire, plumbing and mechanical tech cards."

A reporter asked Saccomanno if any of those permits had been issued to the owner of 844 South Lake Drive, which the DEP subdivided by permit in 2006 to also create 842 South Lake Drive, where a much larger, unfinished home is still under construction.

Saccomanno did not respond to the reporter's e-mail question.

DEP online records stated that the owner of the property was required to have permits for all proposed houses on the site, as well as a DEP Letter of Interpretation (LOI) to regulate wetlands located on it.

The reporter asked a spokesperson for the DEP why the state department issued a permit to the owner of 844 South Lake Drive after issuing a notice of violation.

The spokesperson said the DEP issued the permit to Abadi because the site was located on isolated wetlands that did not flow into a protected waterway.

Based on an earlier inspection of the neighborhood, the reporter asked the DEP spokesperson another question.

"Since the developer of 844 South Lake Drive in Lakewood is pumping wetlands water out of the home's basement and into the neighboring lake, does the DEP still consider this area to be an isolated wetlands eligible for a permit?" the reporter asked the spokesperson in an April 30 e-mail.

Lake Carasaljo flows into the Metedeconk River, a Category One state-protected waterway.

The spokesperson did not respond to the request for comment.

On April 22, Lakewood Mayor Steven Langert mocked DEP attempts to regulate Lakewood wetlands in his discussion of development at 844 South Lake Drive.

"That's part of the Smart Growth process," he said. "This is what the DEP says."

Smart Growth is the state's blueprint for cooperative regional planning.

Lakewood officials have not always shown their willingness to comply with state efforts to preserve environmentally-sensitive areas by regulating investors' efforts to develop them.

At their February 14, 2008 meeting, members of the Lakewood Township Committee defied the DEP by attempting to sell public land located near the Kettle Creek, a state-protected body of water.

Prior to first reading and committee vote on the ordinance to sell the land, Deputy Mayor Marc (Meir) Lichtenstein, a real estate developer, investor and property manager, denounced the state's efforts to control the township's growth.

"We're having a lot of problems with the DEP," he said. "We need land for affordable housing and education."

In 2004, Mayor Raymond Coles announced that the township had identified suitable public land for construction of affordable housing near Oak Street, even though the Kettle Creek flows through the area. Since the parcels identified for affordable housing were not contiguous, the township began exchanging public land for private property assessed at lesser value. Many of the parcels were owned by developers that profited from the exchange.

In 2005, committeemen began auctioning off township land in the area for construction of non-public schools.

On March 13, 2008, committeemen yielded to state pressure and killed an ordinance on second reading to sell the environmentally sensitive Kettle Creek site for construction of residential housing and non-public schools.

In the years before state and Federal government acted to stop development of environmentally sensitive land, developers received approvals to cover much of it with concrete, asphalt and macadam.

State and Federal agencies are still engaged in a race against time to save what is left.

They are failing in that mission.

Developers are increasingly filling in wetlands through political influence and any physical object they can use to displace marshes, bogs and swamps that comprise them.

After a suspicious fire destroyed the NPGS supermarket on Main Street in 2004, owner Ze'ev Rothschild partnered with Lakewood real estate investor/developer Mark Engel to build a supermarket shopping center on the former Petersen's Sunset Cabin restaurant site, which is located on wetlands.

Prior to demolition by the new owners, the rear of the restaurant was supported high above a precipitous slope that the DEP had declined to permit the former owners to fill in.

The restaurant went out of business after misdelivery of heating oil contaminated the site, which Rothschild and Engel are required to remediate.

They may instead have further contaminated the wetlands site.

In 2006, Rothschild and Engel told township officials in correspondence inspected through the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) that trailers on the site contained mechanical equipment purchased at discount.

At the May 21, 2009 meeting of the Lakewood Township Committee, resident Gerri Ballwanz asked committeemen if the trailers were at risk of being buried or submerged on the wetlands site. Mayor Robert Singer told her they would be removed, but did not provide a date that would happen or a means to extract them.

According to eyewitness accounts, developers do not need to extricate the trailers because they are now part of the parking lot foundation where a bank is under construction on the site. Eyewitnesses said no drywalls were built around the interred trailers during construction.

A township inspection department clerk said two permits were issued to Engel and Rothschild - one for construction of a supermarket and the other for construction of footings and foundation for a bank.

Saccomanno gave permission for the reporter to inspect the footings and foundation plan documents, but the clerk said he could not find the department file.

The reporter asked Saccomanno for comment in an April 23 e-mail.

"For us there is no difference if (the DEP) issues a permit," Saccomanno said in an e-mail response the same day. "The architect may want something different but that's up to them."

Because the trailers are constructed of metal, rust and corrosion will further contaminate wetlands where they are buried.

That is not the only danger to the public.

Bank customers are at risk of losing their lives as well as their vehicles when displaced wetlands once again reclaim the site.

In another part of town, Abadi has also found a way to temporarily displace wetlands, while also forcing out unwanted area residents living or owning property there.

The area is located near the site of the Kettle Creek, where Lichtenstein said in 2008 the township planned to sell public land for development of non-public schools and affordable housing.

Committeemen still support that goal and Abadi's efforts to achieve it.

Despite public denials by township officials, DEP records confirm they gave their approval to Abadi to construct an illegal landfill near John Patrick athletic fields off Vermont Avenue.

In a March 28, 2010 report, DEP investigator David Norville discussed his findings after responding to a complaint that an illegal landfill was created within close proximity to a potable well.

"We…(walked) down to a newly created dirt trail approximately 1/8 of a mile long where dozens of large pine trees have been knocked over in order to make a trail," Norville wrote in his report. "At the end of the trail there was a large trench approximately 75 x 35 x 18. Inside the trench were several thousand black plastic garbage bags filled with what I was told is religious materials."

According to numerous photos sent to NJ News & Views that were taken by area residents present during the building of the landfill, the black plastic bags contained children's toys, a liquor flask, pens, a child's car seat and packaging remnants with out-of-state addresses.

DEP emergency responder James Manuel was present at the landfill a day earlier, according to Norville's report.

"According to Jim Manuel, there are two water wells nearby supplying drinking water for the community (by New Jersey American Water Company)," Norville wrote. "One well was visible from the recently cleared road."

He also reported that Saccomano was not the only township official to have given Abadi permission to build the landfill.

"(Lakewood Police) Sergeant Stillwell made several phone calls and reported that the township council apparently had given permission to Chaim Abadi to bury religious articles at a different location," Norville reported. "The sergeant dispatched a patrolman who reported there was no excavation at this other site. The sergeant could not confirm with certainty what the township council had approved."

That evening, Stillwell reportedly called the DEP investigator at his home.

"He explained that he had talked to Chaim Abadi and that Mr. Abadi owned the property and that the items in the hole were only paper products," Norville wrote in his report the following day.

Norville said in his report that he met with Yitzchak Abadi, the son of Chaim Abadi, at the landfill site.

"Mr. Yitzchak Abadi told me that approval was given by Mike Saccomano (732) 364-3760 from Lakewood Township to allow the burial of the religious items," Norville wrote. "Mr. Yitzchak Abadi told me approval was given only by word of mouth and no written approvals were issued."

Norville said he asked for the block and lot on which the landfill was constructed, but was told it was unavailable. He said Abadi's son told him he would call and provide the information later.

Contributions to Abadi's landfill are reportedly not free of charge; according to Shlomo Greenwald of the Jewish Press, a nominal fee is paid to dispose of solid waste referred to as Shaimos.

"(Yanky) Pinter, like all shaimos collectors, charges a small fee, ranging from $5 to $20, depending on the bag," Greenwald wrote. "He enjoys sifting through the shaimos hoping for a rare find, a relic of Jewish life from the past. One time Pinter found an Eastern European's shul's record book detailing births, weddings, deaths and other events of congregants. While he was able to sell it for $1,000, the buyer turned around and auctioned it off for $20,000."

Shaimos are traditionally interred in cemeteries.

Not in Lakewood.

According to township and superior court records, Abadi's landfill includes paper streets the township committee has not vacated and still owns.

The paper streets are on public land that is tax-exempt.

So is land in neighboring Jackson, where Abadi also built an unpermitted landfill on DEP regulated wetlands near a residential neighborhood off Frank Applegate Road at Mary Beth Lane.

In May 4, 2009 meeting minutes from the Jackson Planning Board discussion to update the township's Master Plan, residents discussed Abadi's landfill.

Benjamin Geltzeiler of 6 Chris Ann Court said he noticed activity on Frank Applegate Road.

"There was heavy equipment, work was started, the Township dispatched police cars, and then there was a visit from the State," Geltzeiler reportedly said in the May 4, 2009 meeting minutes.

Geltzeiler also said neighbors looked into the matter, noted that the area was zoned R-3 and that there was a proposed change to LC (Limited Commercial) on the new Master Plan map. He asked how all this had come about.

Chris Warren of the Alaimo Group told Geltzeiler that the proposed change was not made at the request of the public, but by the township. He said township officials were seeking to increase commercial development in the residential area.

An unidentified resident reportedly living at 22 Mary Beth Lane said in meeting minutes that he found it curious the land in question started at County Line Road and continued to Frank Applegate with a large swath of wetlands.

Warren said it was the only contiguous public ownership for open space.

"That is why they are using the Conservation overlay," Warren told the resident in meeting minutes.

Joanne Pinkham of 1 Chris Ann Court asked Warren if the township was proposing to rezone the area to permit construction of an assisted living facility, church, synagogue or convenience store.

Warren told her that the proposed change in zoning was a work in progress.

One month earlier, the DEP determined it was already a business illegally built on wetlands.

On April 21, 2009, DEP investigator Frank Spino reported that a meeting was held at the Horizon Center to discuss whether or not to order the removal of solid waste buried at the illegal landfill owned by Abadi's company, Hard Maple Realty c/o Fairmont Investment of New York City.

Spino said in his report that 5-acre site consisted of two vacant parcels. One parcel was reportedly located on wetlands and the other was not.

Spino said the area that was not located on wetlands would be developed if approved by the township; the unpermitted landfill built on the wetlands parcel would not.

"The area will be covered better and will be re-vegetated," Spino wrote. "At this time, no violations were issued. If the appropriate actions are not taken, violations will be issued."

Instead of ordering the removal of solid waste illegally buried there, Spino said the wetlands parcel would be given to the county or town as open space.

One month later, Jackson officials proposed that the site be rezoned for limited commercial use.

Jackson officials, like their counterparts in Lakewood, are increasingly accountable to special interests instead of the public interest.

In an August 17, 2009 press release, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that Supreme Asset Management and Recovery (SAMR) of Lakewood had been fined $199,900 for illegally exporting non-working computer monitors to Hong Kong in 2007 and 2008, and for failing to promptly respond to the EPA's requests for information.

“This case demonstrates that the illegal export of electronic waste will be punished to the fullest extent of the law,” said EPA Acting Regional Administrator George Pavlou. “As our society becomes more dependent on electronics like computers and cell phones, we must become more vigilant in ensuring electronic waste is disposed of in a way that does not harm the environment.”

Computer monitors contain cathode ray tubes (CRTs), which are the video display components of televisions and computer monitors. The glass in CRTs typically contains enough toxic lead to require managing it as hazardous waste under certain circumstances. Color computer monitors contain an average of four pounds of lead. CRTs may also contain mercury, cadmium and arsenic, all of which can pose threats to human health.

Ten days later, the EPA issued a press release reporting its administrative order requiring SAMR and its parent company, Preferred Enterprises LLC, to halt the unsafe processing, storage and transfer of fluorescent light bulbs and batteries classified as hazardous waste, both of which contain toxic substances that include mercury and lead.

“Mercury and lead can pose severe threats to people’s health, so properly managing waste that contains them is of the utmost importance,” Pavlou said in the press release. “These companies failed to handle hazardous waste in a safe manner, so EPA stepped in to protect the health of workers at the facility and New Jersey’s air, land and water.”

Preferred Enterprises owns 1950 Rutgers University Boulevard in Lakewood where the EPA reported improper activities took place. SAMR operates the facility.

In 2008, Supreme Computer and Electronic Recyclers, Inc. merged with Ecoglass Recycling, Inc. to become Supreme Asset Management and Recovery, Inc. (SAMR). The company acquired a solid waste facility permit from the DEP.

From 2006-8, the EPA reported that Supreme accepted spent fluorescent bulbs. The EPA also reported that inspections of the facility at 1950 Rutgers University Boulevard, located in the Lakewood Industrial Park, found evidence of improper handling of crushed fluorescent bulbs.

Crushed fluorescent bulbs are hazardous waste, according to the EPA press release.

"Supreme was permitted to receive and store intact spent fluorescent bulbs, but not crushed bulbs," the EPA press release reported. "Fluorescent bulbs release mercury when crushed."

Exposure to mercury, a component of fluorescent bulbs, can adversely affect human nervous systems. Exposure to high levels of mercury can permanently damage the brain and kidneys. Short term exposure can result in lung damage, increased blood pressure and rashes. Exposure to lead, found in batteries, may cause reproductive, nerve and memory problems in humans.

In early 2008, SAMR shipped intact bulbs to a facility in Richmond, Virginia to be crushed there. In May 2008, the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry cited the company for failing to protect its employees from exposure to mercury.

The EPA inspected the Lakewood facility in October 2008 and found that many bulbs had enough mercury to be classified as hazardous waste.

During its October 2008 inspection, the EPA also found that the companies were storing 40 pallets of spent lead acid batteries, some of which were badly corroded and leaking, and three containers of spent lithium batteries outdoors without proper cover.

As a result of EPA’s order, issued under the Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, SAMR was required to stop accepting crushed fluorescent bulbs that contain mercury and move all crushed bulbs to a permitted facility using a carrier licensed by the DEP.

In April 2008, the DEP issued SAMR a notice of violation for accepting the crushed bulbs at its Lakewood facility and for failing to prevent the release of mercury. DEP officials identified several instances during which mercury may have been released into the environment at the facility.

After identifying the same problem during a January 2009 inspection, the DEP issued a violation notice to SAMR. The following month, the DEP took steps to revoke SAMR’s permit to operate a solid waste recycling business.

Alfred Boufarah, President of SAMR, not only owns commercial property in Lakewood, but also in Jackson .

Boufarah's company, Preferred Enterprises, owns 380 Clearstream Road in Jackson, a commercial property acquired under the limited liability corporate name of Harmony Hideaway Campground. The Jackson campground is located off Hope Chapel Road in Lakewood.

Although the Jackson Council renewed the property's campground license in 2008, "No Trespassing" signs are prominently posted in front of the property and its chained entrance.

A Jackson buildings department clerk declined to disclose all violation notices issued to the owner of the property at the request of a visiting reporter.

Jackson Township Clerk Ann Marie Eden declined to permit inspection of uncensored documents under the Open Public Records Act, which the reporter had requested one month earlier.

Jackson Mayor Michael Reina told a reporter for NJ News & Views by e-mail that despite written approval by Eden to inspect the Harmony Hideaway Campground file, the reporter was not permitted to have copies of any of the file documents.

Their actions are not protecting the public.

On September 4, 2008, the DEP issued a violation notice to Harmony for failure to collect required total coliform samples.

The consequences could be catastrophic for neighbors of the campground, which is located on environmentally sensitive land.

In an undated fact sheet, the DEP described how fecal coliform in well water could result in widespread contamination within a watershed.

"Storm events transport fecal coliform from sources such as geese, farms, and domestic pets to the receiving water," the fact sheet reported. "Nonpoint sources may also include steady-state inputs from sources such as failing sewage conveyance systems and failing or inappropriately located septic systems."

In 1914, the Public Health Service adopted coliform testing for the detection of fecal-based bacteria in the sanitary quality of foods and water. Coliforms are abundant in the feces of warm-blooded animals, but can also be found in the aquatic environment, in soil and on vegetation.

On September 19, 2008, the violation notice issued to Harmony for failure to collect total coliform on the property was deleted without explanation by the DEP.

Reporter/commentator Bill Wolfe told readers in an August 28, 2008 posting on www.nj.com that according to a DEP report required by the Private Well Testing Act, residents of over 50,000 New Jersey homes were unknowingly drinking unsafe well water. Despite that statistic, Wolfe said the DEP and local health officials were ignoring the problem.

"This is bad news (the DEP) would have preferred stay under the media radar," Wolfe told his readers.

Wolfe said that while the DEP disclosed the problem, it did not recommend how to fix it.

The solution may be far simpler to state than to implement.

In an April 30 e-mail, a reporter for NJ News & Views asked Assemblyman Ron Dancer of the 30th Legislative District, which includes both Lakewood and Jackson, to respond for comment.

"An October 4, 2009 article by Herb Jackson of The Record reported that you and several other New Jersey officials, including the former governor, accepted campaign contributions from the owner of a Lakewood computer recycling company that also owns a licensed campground in Jackson," the reporter told Dancer in the e-mail. "The same computer recycling company was subsequently found in violation of Federal and state environmental law." 

The reporter told Dancer that in 2006, Jackson Township inspectors issued six violation notices to the owner of the campground. 
 
"Did Mr. Boufarah, the owner of Supreme Asset Management and Recovery (SAMR), whose parent company Preferred Enterprises also owns Harmony Hideaway Campground of Jackson, ask you for any political favors in exchange for the $2,600 in campaign contributions you received since 2008, the same year Jackson officials renewed the company's license there?" the reporter asked.

Dancer did not respond to a request for comment from NJ News & Views.

He also reportedly failed to respond to a request for comment from reporter Herb Jackson, who asked if Dancer intended to return SAMR's campaign contribution.

In 2008, the same year the Jackson Council voted to renew Boufarah's campground license there, developer Dov Gluck, under the limited liability corporate name of "White Elephant," asked Lakewood officials to approve his plan to build a mixed-use development off Route 70, a heavily-trafficked retail corridor adjacent to the Lakewood Industrial Park.

Residents of Gluck's development may regret their decision to live there.

The development's planned access road will connect it with the Garden State Parkway Lakewood exit via the Oak Street Sanitary Landfill.

According to online DEP records, Lakewood and Jackson each have six landfills the state has identified and recorded.

There may be many more it has not.

There may also be many more it has yet to record.

Public policy has continued to compromise public safety at public expense.

The Lakewood Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) includes Gluck's site in the Lakewood Industrial Park off Route 70. In November, state officials approved a boundary change in the zone to also include the Towne and Country shopping center near it on the opposite side of Route 70.

This month, McDonald's fast food restaurant, Pet Smart, Staples office supplies and Value City furniture store are being forced to vacate their retail spaces in the shopping center, whose owner reportedly raised their rents to evict them. However, Gluck will continue to benefit from a reduced sales tax collected by the shopping center's Home Depot, as well as any other retailers that ship to Gluck in the UEZ.

In a May 1, 2008 letter, Gluck's attorney Raymond Shea expressed his client's appreciation to township officials.

"Thank you for your continued courtesy," he wrote.

Last year, Steven Langert, 2009 Deputy Mayor of Lakewood, New Jersey, had a message for some of his constituents.

"They'd better not show up at any (township) committee meetings next year," Langert said in a videotaped post-election meeting at Republican Party headquarters.

Langert became mayor of Lakewood on January 1, 2010.

Langert's comments were directed at residents of The Enclave, an adult community on Massachusetts Avenue. On Election Day 2009, residents of The Enclave rejected candidates for township committee endorsed by the Vaad and instead voted for Independent candidates Charles Cunliffe, a former Democratic Committeeman, and first-time township committee candidate Lynn Celli.

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

In 2008, the Vaad reluctantly endorsed Langert for township committee after a majority of Orthodox Lakewood residents supported him for public office.

That support may have been misplaced.

Langert's videotaped comment at the Republican Party meeting was posted on YouTube and The Lakewood Scoop.

After a reporter for NJ News & Views left Langert a voicemail request for comment upon hearing an audio recording of his remark, the Scoop took down the video, which provided incriminating evidence against Langert.

State statute NJSA 2C:12-3 addresses the crime of making terroristic threats.

"A person is guilty of a crime of the third degree if he threatens to commit any crime of violence with the purpose to terrorize another or to cause evacuation of a building, place of assembly, or facility of public transportation, or otherwise to cause serious public inconvenience, or in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror or inconvenience," according to New Jersey criminal law.

In 1981, and 2002, the law was further amended to include terroristic threats that led the victim to believe their life was in imminent danger.

"A person is guilty of a crime of the third degree if he threatens to kill another with the purpose to put him in imminent fear of death under circumstances reasonably causing the victim to believe the immediacy of the threat and the likelihood that it will be carried out," criminal law also states.

Republican Committeeman Menashe Miller and 2009 Lakewood Mayor Robert Singer were also present during the November party meeting and heard Langert's remark, but expressed no opposition to it.

Singer is not only a member of the Lakewood Township Committee, but a dual office holder that also represents Lakewood as state Senator of the 30th Legislative District.

Singer is seeking an 11th 3-year term on the township committee this year. He has served as a member of the local governing body for the past 30 years.

Miller and Democratic incumbent Marc (Meir) Lichtenstein, each elected to the township committee in November 2003, received the endorsement of the Vaad last year - and the votes of a majority of adult communities in Lakewood.

This past weekend, neither Miller nor Lichtenstein were taking e-mail messages from residents of The Enclave or The Fairways, according to Fairways resident William Hobday, who was also blocked.

The committeemen may not have wanted to read what Hobday wanted to tell them.

In earlier e-mails to residents of Lakewood's adult communities, Hobday asked for their support in opposing the construction of a non-public school with an elevator shaft at 950 Massachusetts Avenue that did not receive planning or zoning board approval.

Lakewood's code book, called a Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), permits schools in all zones by not specifically prohibiting them.

Last year, Hobday said at township committee meetings that a non-public boys school had opened for business in a former residential home adjacent to The Fairways. Hobday charged that the school director had not filed for planning or zoning board approval to install a privacy trailer on the property's parking lot, which students also used for recreational exercise. As a result, visitors to the school began parking on the shoulder of Massachusetts Avenue, creating dangerous obstacles for motorists and pedestrians alike.

Hobday also said the township provided a dumpster free of charge to the school, which the director instructed the township to install in front of the home on its semi-circular driveway. Township officials removed it after garbage trucks were unable to collect trash from the dumpster, which blocked ingress and egress to the residence.

Zoning Officer Fran Siegel told NJ News & Views last week that the residence under construction at 950 Massachusetts Avenue was a single family home that did not require planning or zoning board approval to make improvements to it - which would have permitted residents opposed to the project to speak out about it at application hearings.

For residents of adult communities throughout Lakewood, increasing numbers of non-public schools opening for business so close to the age-restricted developments has reduced the quality of life in their retirement years.

It has not increased the safety of students that attend the schools either.

According to one resident that addressed committeemen earlier this year, students that received non-remote bus transportation to class because the route was deemed by local officials to be "hazardous" were seen entering a stranger's vehicle during school hours. The resident said no school administrators stopped them.

During the 2008-9 school year, the Lakewood Board of Education approved a total of $15,350,587 for student transportation services.

This school year, the board has so far appropriated $17,091,264 for student transportation services.

The school year ends June 31.

Next school year, the board is asking voters to approve a total of $19,492,247 for student transportation services.

According to the Asbury Park Press, three-quarters of the district's approximately 15-16,000 non-public school students receive non-remote bus transportation to class, referred to as courtesy busing.

The state does not reimburse districts for non-remote bus transportation, which property owners subsidize.

The resident said she paid a high price to ensure the safe transportation of the students to class. She asked committeemen what they intended to do about the problem.

Lichtenstein shrugged his shoulders and said nothing for several minutes, then said there was nothing he could do.

As Lakewood has grown, so have problems afflicting youth in all its diverse communities.

An increased number of Orthodox "schools for troubled youth" have been constructed or are planned for construction to cope with a generation of youths influenced by drugs, alcohol and violence.

Their numbers reflect similar problems among public school youth.

A proliferation of gangs throughout the state have further complicated the matter.

Star-Ledger reporter Maryann Spoto reported that on November 12, 2007, a fight erupting outside Lakewood High School that morning had escalated into a full-scale riot inside the building.

"Nearly 150 students attacked each other, innocent bystanders and even police," Spoto wrote the following day. "The first officers to respond to the scene were set upon by combatants and needed to call in backup from several surrounding towns. Students said the fight was precipitated by rival black and Hispanic gangs, who had been sparring in recent days."

Spoto reported that police in full riot gear and using pepper spray and dogs finally restored order after 20 minutes of intense confrontation. During that time, attackers randomly chose their victims, including bystanders, students threw chairs and tables and some officers were pinned to the ground.

"Worried parents summoned to the school by cell phone calls from their children found it in a state of siege, and some were arrested when they refused to obey orders from police," Spoto reported.

The headline to Spoto's report was "Riot Erupts At Lakewood School, Nearly 150 involved in fight that students blame on feud between rival gangs."

Following the riot, Lakewood Board of Education member Ada Gonzalez advocated for a public school dress code to reduce gang induction and violence. The board approved the dress code.

A reporter for NJ News & Views contacted Gonzalez last week to ask whether she thought the dress code was successful in reducing gang violence on public school property.

Gonzalez, who is seeking election on April 20 to the final year of former board member Chet Galdo's unexpired 3-year term, did not return a call for comment.

In April 2009, Gonzalez lost her bid for re-election to another 3-year term on the board. Shortly after her defeat, Galdo resigned and the board voted to appoint Gonzalez to the remaining second year of Galdo's term on the board, even though voters had rejected her candidacy.

Gonzalez is an employee of Vaad member Moshe Z. Weisberg. Both Weisberg and Gonzalez are members of the Lakewood Development Corporation (LDC), which oversees the township Urban Enterprise Zone program. They also receive their salaries as employees of the Lakewood Community Services Corporation (LCSC) through the UEZ-funded Job Link program.

As a member of the board and the LDC, Gonzalez is in a position to provide the moral and financial leadership to assist Lakewood's youth in becoming productive citizens as well as future role models.

Neither she nor any other elected official of the township has fully embraced that role.

Four decades ago, Lakewood's grand hotel era came to a close with the diminishing popularity of the township as a resort destination, and with it, many minority jobs.

Popular discontent exploded in racial rioting during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Since those days, the township has sought state and Federal funding to bring jobs and commerce back to Lakewood by establishing the state's largest Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) program, the state's second largest industrial park, and affordable housing.

The UEZ program generates a multi-million-dollar fund for its projects through a reduced state sales tax collected by the township and interest earned on loans to qualified businesses.

The Lakewood UEZ program was approved in 1993. However, since 1994, the LDC has not approved any loans to qualified businesses that would in turn hire qualified job applicants from Lakewood. Instead, the LDC has approved grants to non-profit organizations.

Non-profit organizations do not charge a sales tax for their products or services, which generates the UEZ fund and would have enabled for-profit businesses to benefit from the program.

In December, members vowed to begin making UEZ loans again, but never kept their word.

At their March 2, 2010 meeting, LDC members disclosed that repairs urgently needed to be made to light towers at FirstEnergy Park, where the BlueClaws minor league baseball team played. Members said that even though the township, not the LDC, owned the stadium, they felt it their responsibility to fund the $1,275,000 "emergent" repairs, instead of making UEZ loans to qualified businesses.

Shortly after the meeting, a reporter for NJ News & Views visited the stadium on a sunny Saturday afternoon and inspected the light towers and antique-style street lights.

The reporter did not see any in need of immediate or necessary repair.

The reporter made an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request for all published solicitations for competitive bids to repair the structures, a purchase order or a professional service contract for the project.

Township Clerk Mary Ann Del Mastro said there were none.

During the stadium inspection, the reporter counted over 40 advertisements posted throughout the ball park.

Under the township's lease agreement with the stadium tenant, the township receives 25 cents of each $1 the tenant earns in ticket sales, up to a maximum of $100,000.

The township earns nothing from the thousands of dollars the tenant earns in advertising revenue posted around the stadium - which the township owns.

Participatory sports are just as important to the development of good citizens as spectator sports are to the development of the township's finances.

The township has or will be developing new venues where children can benefit from sports, but inner city youth will have no way to get there.

At the 100th Anniversary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) last year, Singer announced that the township would be building a new multi-million-dollar community center near the baseball stadium. The site is the location of the proposed Cedarbridge Town Center, which is part of the Lakewood Smart Growth Plan that committeemen approved last year.

The community center on 4th Street has a basketball court where inner city youth can play, but most live too far away from the proposed site of the new one to walk or bike there.

NJ News & Views recently contacted Vaad member Ben Heinemann of BP Graphics. As the township's webmaster, Heinemann is paid through local property taxes, UEZ funds and the sale of township land by the industrial commission.

Heinemann is not just a local businessman, but a member of the Ocean County Human Relations Commission.

In a voicemail message, a reporter asked Heinemann if he supported public school and non-public school sporting competitions to build community relations.

Heinemann, a member of the search committee tasked with hiring a new township manager, did not return a call for comment.

The township is instead planning to redevelop the community center's tax-exempt parking lot for a proposed privately-owned shopping center financed with UEZ grants.

The planned redevelopment of the building will eliminate a venue for youths to productively use their time.

So will the planned redevelopment of the former Little League field bordered between Clifton and Lexington Avenues at 9th and 10th Streets.

In a March 1 legal notice published in the Asbury Park Press, the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) announced a joint project by the township and NJ Transit to pave over the former Little League field to build a municipal bus stop and parking lot with passive recreational space.

NJ Transit has not announced it would be servicing the bus stop, even though it will be helping Lakewood build it.

On March 3, two days later, Philly.com reported that NJ Transit planned to hike fares by as much as 30 percent and cut service by laying off over 200 non-union employees.

Philly.com reported that the cuts would save about $30 million, but that NJ Transit still faced a deficit of about $300 million by June 2011.

In 2008, committeemen approved a plan to apply for grant funding for a fleet of 9-10 buses that would cost over $1 million to operate a required two years.

Instead of planning a bus route that would transport inner city youth to new athletic fields constructed miles away, committeemen proposed routes that would service adult students attending the township's largest institution of higher learning.

Last year, Lichtenstein told the Lakewood Transportation and Safety Board that the township didn't have sufficient funding from municipal revenues to operate the nine buses.

Five years ago, the township opened the John Patrick athletic fields off Route 9 at the southern end of town. Without bus transportation, children seeking a healthy, productive way to use their time in sports cannot get there.

Little League board members expressed their frustration at a March 23 meeting a reporter for NJ News & Views attended.

"Right now, we have a very limited way to get to the kids," one board member said. "1,800 flyers were distributed to every (Lakewood public) school and not one reached the kids."

Lakewood Board of Education President Abraham Ostreicher and Lakewood Superintendent of Schools Lydia Silva did not return an e-mail request for comment.

The board member said the Lakewood Little League had so far registered 250 children before the April 10 opening day.

"We used to have 400 (registered) at Clifton (Avenue School)," he also said.

Board members asserted that their goal was not in cultivating talent, but something more important.

"Hopefully, to give them a positive experience," one board member said.

Board members said many of the boys and girls registered with the Lakewood Little League came from single-parent homes.

"They need guidance and help, whether they're striking out or hitting a home run," one man said.

Members said each child paid an $85 registration fee, compared with a $300 registration fee in neighboring Toms River.

Unlike the BlueClaws, the Lakewood Little League no longer boasts numerous sponsors. Board members said Pine Belt Chevrolet used to sponsor the team at $250 a sign.

No longer.

"We lost $2,900 in ad revenue this year," one board member said. "It costs $30 for a dozen baseballs. We try any way to squeeze a buck, (but) there are (many) more businesses out there that could help. We should be getting more sponsors, but we're not."

The Lakewood Little League also needs volunteers, another board member said.

"In an adult community, you only have to be (55 to live there)," he said. "We could use volunteers (that age). It’s a win-win situation."

On Little League opening day one month later, one grandfather said he had come with his grandson to see him play.

"I've been in sports all my life," Len Loran told a reporter. "(These kids are) only 10, 11, (but Little League) keeps them away from the bad stuff."

Lakewood High School will soon have new neighbors.

At the periphery of the 40-acre site, a wooded buffer surrounded by a chain link fence separates public school athletic fields from single family homes and non-public schools under construction.

The Cabinfield Creek, a state-protected waterway that aids in stormwater management, is located on the fenced-off wooded parcel. It continues to flow underground from Lakewood to Jackson and into Monmouth County.

It also flows under the adjacent construction site.

Somerset Development LLC is building The Gardens at Village Park on the corner of Somerset Avenue and East County Line Road in the R-12 zone. Although the homes are described as single family, each will include a rented attic and a rented basement. The residential component of the development is located on two parcels totaling 1.5 acres. The two parcels of land are assessed at a total of $299,200.

Adjacent to the homes and facing Somerset Avenue, The Teen Center for Education is also under construction on 1.58 acres of land assessed at $438,800.

Non-public schools are eligible to apply for a property tax exemption.

Closest to the athletic fields is a 4.47-acre undeveloped parcel formerly owned by the Buckalew family of Lakewood. In 2005, J.F. Hart Inc. acquired the property, assessed that year for $51,000, and conveyed it through Ocean Realty LLC to real estate investors Michael Fabrikant and Mark Levy of Fab-Lev LLC in Freehold for $14,000.

Following the township's revaluation, the property was reassessed in 2006 for $670,500.

In 2007, Fabrikant and Levy sold the property for $10 to Congregation Yeshiva Bais Yisroel of 401 Private Way - a non-existent address, according to township records.

Yeshiva Bais Yisroel is also the name of an Orthodox Jewish college on Avenue J in Brooklyn.

The word "yeshiva" refers to the Jewish tradition of learning while sitting at the feet of a master.

By the time of the great Talmudic Academies in Sura and Pumbedita in ancient Babylonia, "yeshiva" came to refer to the educational institution itself and not just the classroom or learning session. The Talmudic Academies in Babylonia were known as shte-ha-yeshivot, which translates as "the two colleges."

The equivalent women's institution is called Beis Yaakov.

A yeshiva gedola (senior/great yeshiva) usually refers to post-high school institutions, while a yeshiva ketana (junior/small yeshiva) can refer to institutions that enroll boys of elementary as well as high school age.

The term "yeshiva" is sometimes also used as a generic name for any school that teaches Torah, Mishnah and Talmud to any age group.

By the 1800s, every town rabbi had the right to maintain a number of full-time or part-time pupils in the town's beth midrash (study hall, usually adjacent to the synagogue). Their cost of living was covered by community taxation.

Taxpayers continue to subsidize a tradition of religious scholarship that attracts many more students to town than local or state government can support. Despite the increasing financial burden on taxpayers, Lakewood has continued to promote public policy that fosters the growth of tax-exempt properties.

On September 24, 2009, the Lakewood Township Committee unanimously voted to adopt an ordinance on second reading that rezoned the town for development as a Planned Educational Campus (PEC).

The ordinance as written bases the need for the zoning change on the growing number of college level educational institutions in town.

Under the ordinance, residential housing located on a 3-acre campus is eligible for a tax exemption as faculty or dormitory housing.

The township stands to lose thousands of dollars in property tax revenue on Somerset Avenue alone following redevelopment of the block as a Planned Educational Campus.

The parcel owned by Congregation Yeshiva Bais Yisroel is already tax-exempt.

So is Lakewood High School.

The buffer and fence may not provide enough privacy for either public or private property owners on Somerset Avenue.

On March 10, the Lakewood Board of Education voted to approve a contract with Yard World, LLC in the amount of $18,189 to erect a fence at Lakewood High School for "enhanced security."

According to the resolution, the district will not be paying the cost.

American taxpayers will.

"There is no cost to the district as the cost will be paid by the Township of Lakewood through the Community Development Block Grant," the resolution stated.

The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) is funded through the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Since 1974, the CDBG program has awarded annual grants on a formula basis to municipal and state governments that address a wide range of community development needs.

HUD described the program's goal on its Web site.

"This is a program that uses an innovative approach to revitalization, bringing communities together through public and private partnerships to attract the investment necessary for sustainable economic and community development," HUD reported to visitors.

A reporter for NJ News & Views made an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request for the purchase order with Yard World. District Business Administrator/Board Secretary Robert Finger said in an e-mail response that the district did not have a purchase order for the project. He referred the reporter to the township for the document.

Lakewood Township Clerk Mary Ann Del Mastro told NJ News & Views that she did not have a purchase order either. Del Mastro said the Lakewood Township Committee has not yet awarded any CDBG grants, despite the board resolution that it was not paying for the residential fencing with district funds.

On March 18, the board introduced its tentative budget for the 2010-11 school year.

On March 26 at 8 a.m., the board held a public hearing of the budget. According to Finger, no one that attended the hearing discussed the budget, which the five board members that attended the meeting unanimously voted to approve.

On March 31, the Asbury Park Press reported the board's adoption of the proposed 2010-11 school budget.

"The $137.9 million budget, which calls for a more than 9 percent jump in the tax levy, was approved at an early morning public hearing Friday that attracted just a handful of residents," reporter Zach Patberg told readers. "The 9.7-cent tax rate increase brings the tax levy to $79.2 million, meaning someone with a home assessed at $350,000 will pay $339.15 a year in school taxes."

Patberg also reported a warning by Finger in the event voters defeated the proposed increase in the school tax levy.

"The township school board's proposed 2010-11 budget will not force layoffs for the district, as long as voters adopt it as is," Finger reportedly told Patberg. "If not, staff reductions could be discussed at subsequent Township Committee meetings when looking for budget cuts."

The Lakewood Township Committee reviews defeated school budgets as part of a system of government checks and balances, even though the Lakewood Board of Education is a separate sovereign governing body.

While the township committee can vote to reduce the size of the proposed budget, the board of education reserves the right to decide where to make any cuts.

The board can also appeal any township committee reductions of the proposed school budget to the state, but the process usually takes months - long after the start of the new school year.

Despite threats of layoffs if voters defeat the proposed increase in the school tax levy, the board is already poised to hire more staff.

It has no other choice.

Two days before the board held its budget hearing and voted to adopt the tentative budget as the proposed budget for 2010-11, the March 24 meeting agenda included the hire of seven non-public school consultants, paid for with Title I and Title I ARRA Federal entitlement funding, two substitute/supplemental nurses, and the appointment of Dr. Marbella Barrera to the position of Director, Testing and Assessment at the pro-rated salary of $75,000 for three days per week, from April 1-June 30, 2010.

The agenda included an explanation for her hire.

"For the past six years the district has been provided with test results data from an outside contractor," the agenda stated. "However, no comprehensive analyses have been performed and no viable understanding of the students’ strengths and weaknesses has permeated to the teacher or principal level. The absence of concrete analyses has negatively contributed to the quality of instruction and the interventions provided."

Last year, the Asbury Park Press reported that the district was no longer designated as a District In Need of Improvement under the No Child Left Behind Act.

According to the agenda's explanation, that is no longer the case.

"Six out of six schools in Lakewood are “failing schools” as assessed by No Child Left Behind regulations," the agenda's explanation continued. "It is critical for the district to transform these failing schools. Quantitative data is crucial to making the Lakewood Schools successful."

The agenda described a "critical need" for Barrera's services.

Despite the consequences of all six public schools being designated schools in need of improvement, Finger said the board tabled Barrera's hire.

If a district's public school students fail to meet benchmark testing under the NCLB program, sanctions include a requirement that at least 20 percent of Federal Title I funding be used to improve their academic performance.

The board has not always spent Title I funding to achieve that goal.

In October 2008, the state Auditor began a forensic audit of the Lakewood School District on the recommendation of the state Department of Education (DOE). A spokesman for the DOE told NJ News & Views last month that the audit was recommended after the Lakewood board authorized questionable Title I expenditures.

At the end of the 2006-7 school year, the Lakewood board reported a budget deficit of more than $1 million.

The board may have doubled that shortfall the following year, according to the proposed budget for 2010-11.

Under the proposed 2010-11 Budget's Advertised Recapitulation of Balance, the Lakewood board reported an Unassigned General Operating Budget audited balance on June 30, 2008 of -$2,104,715.

Last year, the board reported a positive balance of $1,274,672 instead of a deficit.

This year, the board estimates an even greater year-end audited balance of $1,899,677, but a lower year-end audited balance in 2011 of $1,225,000.

Finger denied that the district recorded an Unassigned General Operating Budget Balance deficit at year-end in 2008. Finger attributed the deficit to a state error, but could not produce any correspondence between the district and the state challenging the amount before the tentative budget was introduced on March 18.

The Fund Balance for a government is the same as owner's equity in private business. It is the excess of assets over liabilities. If all revenues of a particular year are not spent, the balance is added to the Fund Balance.

If more is spent than is received, the balance is deducted from the Fund Balance. A portion of Fund Balance is restricted because the remaining funds are for outstanding purchase orders, projects or school budget balances.

The "leftover funds" are referred to as Unrestricted Fund Balance. They are sometimes used to cover one-time expenses, such as emergency repairs and state budget shortfalls.

New Jersey will need to close an estimated $11 billion budget shortfall this year.

Maintaining adequate reserves provides the district with protection against revenue variances that may occur during the year. If a district's unreserved General Fund Balance falls below 2-3 percent of projected General Fund Revenues, the district must provide a plan to avoid a financial emergency. The financial emergency situation is the equivalent of bankruptcy in the private sector.

A spokesman for the state Auditor told NJ News & Views that a report of their findings would not be released until after the April 20 School Elections.

The spokesman also said no forensic audit had been ordered for the 2007-8 Lakewood school year budget.

One of the largest district expenses is contracted student transportation. Over a decade ago, the board sold its fleet of school buses, despite a growing demand for student transportation services.

Last year, the Lakewood board passed a proposed change in the district's transportation policy on first reading that would have eliminated non-remote busing, which is not eligible for state reimbursement.

The board did not hold a required second reading of the policy change following public opposition to it.

Under current board transportation policy, all students that request non-remote transportation, referred to as courtesy busing, will receive it unless there is no bus route service available. If no bus route is available, the student's family can apply for Aid In Lieu of (AILO) to cover the cost of transportation to class.

During the 2008-9 school year, the district received $3,982,997 in Categorical Transportation Aid.

The following year, the district received $5,936,131 in Categorical Transportation Aid.

Next school year, the district will only receive $1,050,137 in Categorical Transportation Aid.

In contrast, the district will spend far more than it receives to transport students to class that the state defines as living within walking distance.

During the 2008-9 school year, the district spent $15,350,587 to transport public and non-public school students to class.

During the 2009-10 school year, the district will spend a revised $17,091,264 to transport public and non-public school students to class.

Next year, the district has appropriated $19,492,247 - an additional $2,400,983 - to transport public and non-public school students to class - despite an overall decrease of $4,885,994 in state aid for reimbursement of remote bus transportation.

Under state policy, districts may ask voters to approve an increase in excess of last year's 4 percent budget cap to cover the loss of state aid.

NJ News & Views asked Finger if the Lakewood board had requested a waiver to the 4 percent budget cap so that it could raise needed revenue.

"The budget includes automatic waivers for health benefit increases and state aid reductions," Finger responded in a March 24 e-mail."These waivers do not require county superintendent approval."

NJ News & Views also asked Finger if the board had discussed or taken action to revise its transportation policy to eliminate non-remote busing.

Finger said it had not.

At the November 18, 2009 board meeting, members not only approved non-remote bus routes for public and non-public school students, they also approved payment for bus transportation to a summer camp, according to meeting minutes.

The board reportedly approved payment of district bus transportation to Camp Vacamas in West Milford, New Jersey as a Supplemental Educational Services provider. The board authorized payment for instructional services with Title I funds at a cost of $195 per student for a weekend program and $70 per student per day for a daily program, including meals for both programs.

Camp Vacamas is a non-profit sleepaway camp for inner city children aged 7-13.

The board also approved non-remote bus transportation to class at Lakewood High School and Lakewood Middle School.

All six Lakewood public schools are not only designated by student test scores as In Need of Improvement, but according to township violation notices issued to the board in recent years, in need of repair.

Last year, the Lakewood Board of Education considered going green in order to finance the repairs of all six public school roofs. That option won't be possible, according to an e-mail Finger provided under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA).

"We have reviewed electric bills and done extensive site visits with early indication that virtually all roofs are in need of significant repair," James Bryan of RAI Services said in an October 26, 2009 e-mail with the district. "We have determined that there is no way we can roll roof repairs into a PPA solar project cost and reach any reasonable investor returns."

Bryan said the district would need "a top notch balance sheet and great credit" to qualify for the project, which he acknowledged it did not have.

He proposed an alternative to installing solar panels on all public school roofs that would have financed their repair.

"If the BOE would like to address a single school that might have workable roofs, we can do that, but that too is a long shot because project is small," Bryan wrote in the e-mail. "My best advice, get the roofs repaired (we can certainly do that work), then approach the solar issue."

According to Finger, the board does not have any capital improvement projects planned through the 2010-11 budgeting process. Instead, he said the board planned to enter into another lease-finance agreement to repair the public school roofs, which Ocean County Superintendent of Schools Bruce Greenfield confirmed on February 19.

If the district cannot make the annual required payment on each of the six school repairs, it could risk losing them through such an agreement without state intervention - and this year the state may not be able to afford emergency financial assistance.

Unless the board finances the repair of all public school roofs as soon as possible, members continue to expose taxpayers to costly litigation resulting from illness or injuries sustained by anyone visiting, working or attending class there.

The board has budgeted $400,000 for legal services during the 2010-11 school year.

That may not be enough if board attorney Michael Inzelbuch raises his $250 per hour fee this year as he did last year.

Inzelbuch is not only board attorney, he is also a board employee. In 2002, the same year the board appointed Inzelbuch board attorney, members also voted to appoint him a special education consultant with premium family benefits and a pension.

NJ News & Views recently asked Finger to provide for inspection all ethics disclosures Inzelbuch was required to file each year he was employed as board employee.

Finger said in an e-mail response that Inzelbuch did not have to file a disclosure because he did not have the authority to spend district funding.

On November 23, 2009, Inzelbuch, who is also the board Parliamentarian, authorized district funding for his services to research an issue covered under the state's Open Public Meeting Act.

The November 23, 2009 meeting minutes, which the board approved, did not record a board vote or a request by board President Abraham Ostreicher to have Inzelbuch research whether or not Lakewood advocate Colin Lewis could videotape the meeting - which Inzelbuch, as Parliamentarian and board attorney, should have been able to advise the board was permitted by state law.

According to the meeting minutes, Inzelbuch stopped Lewis from continuing to videotape the meeting.

"Mr. Inzelbuch asked the gentleman filming the meeting to stop and stated the policy had to be reviewed," the November 23 meeting minutes stated.

In a 26-page letter Inzelbuch sent the board two days after the meeting, he advised his employer that Lewis could videotape the meeting if he provided the board with written notice beforehand.

Total cost to taxpayers: $312.50.

Lewis and other Lakewood advocates have continued to lobby the board for increased funding to public school students.

For years, district administrators told the media that public school enrollment never changed from 5,100 students each school year.

For years, public school enrollment has actually been falling.

While fewer Lakewood students attend the district's public schools, in recent years their numbers have grown.

According to the proposed 2010-11 school budget, public school enrollment increased this year and is expected to increase again next year.

On October 15, 2008, the district reported a total enrollment of 4,371 regular full-time public school students.

On October 15, 2009, the district recorded an enrollment increase of 106 public school students for a total of 4,477 regular full-time students.

On October 15, 2010, the district estimates an enrollment of 4,509 regular full-time students - a smaller increase of just 32 new students.

In contrast, non-public school enrollment is three-to-four times greater and growing faster than public school enrollment.

Over 20,000 Lakewood students attend the township's public and non-public schools.

Each year, fewer property owners are supporting their education.

In 2009, the township committee closed a multi-million dollar budget shortfall by deferring a payment of more than $10 million in July school taxes to the district.

This year, the state has taken local district surplus statewide to close a multi-billion dollar shortfall of its own.

A week before the budget hearing, heavy downpours saturated Lakewood High School grounds and the neighboring construction site on Somerset Avenue. Sheets of rain pummeled asphalt roadways and cement driveways throughout the night, pooling in large potholes in the street and the public school parking lot entrance.

Several hundred yards from the high school parking lot, the small copse of trees enclosed by a chain link fence stood in solitary shadow on the empty athletic fields where the Cabinfield Creek flows.

Providing neither adequate privacy nor drainage, the trees and the creek are a metaphor for the deepening divide between Lakewood's past and its future.

Four years ago, a reporter interviewed Chet Galdo, then president of the Lakewood Board of Education, about the possible need for privacy fencing at the high school as vacant land adjacent to it was developed.

That same year, the Jackson Board of Education entered into an agreement with residents of Westgate, Lakewood's largest Orthodox Jewish development, to install privacy slats on chain link fencing at Liberty High School's practice field in exchange for a water and sewer easement at Westgate. The Jackson board agreed to pay for the privacy slats with taxpayer funds paid as compensation to condemn a portion of Westgate where the easement was located.

Galdo insisted that the Lakewood board would not install a similar privacy fence at taxpayer expense even if the high school's Orthodox neighbors requested it.

"We have a practice field there and we will continue to use it," Galdo said in the February 23, 2006 edition of The Tri-Town News. "We will never put lights there, but we will use it."