Speaking Frankly

By Frank Hannan

Green Open Pro-active = GOP

Locally and statewide which political party is now Green, Open Progressive? The facts show, it’s time for voters concerned about those issues to take a second look at the Republican Party

Republican President Theodore Roosevelt was one of the first conservationist and we can thank him for our National Parks’ system. His passion for the outdoors combined with his leadership qualities lead to the preservation of millions of acres of American treasures.

It was under President Richard Nixon that the Environmental Protection Agency was founded.
He obviously recognized the importance of having clean air and water.

Somewhere along the line, the Democrats became the party of clean air water and pristine vistas. The left wing of the party then high jacked the movement. They lost their sense of the balance between the preserving the environment, the needs of maintaining a vital economy and the reality that humans deserve to be part of the whole equation.

Teddy Roosevelt didn’t preserve those millions of acres to be seen only in books and movies. He wanted people to experience these wonders of the world up-front and personal.

Statewide it is Republicans that are fighting to eliminate the new low income high-density housing mandates that will threaten our communities. (Assemblyman Rumana’s Bill A-2888) It is Republicans that have introduced and enacted legislation to compensate us for being the stewards of the state’s water supply. (Watershed Moratorium Aid and some new pro-active bills)

Locally, it was Republicans who proposed rezoning the Newark Watershed property. By changing the zoning from residential to the proposed Commercial Water Conservation Zone, it would have made it harder to build on the property and would have been a pro-active step toward making Newark pay its fair share of property taxes. (With the appointment of the mayor’s new planning board, it became a dead issue)

Governor Jon Corzine has refused to turn over the e-mails he sent to former girl friend, union leader Karla Katz. Democrat State Senator Robert Smith has now proposed outlandish fees to obtain records from the state EPA (OPRA requests). Guy Baehr of the New Jersey Foundation for Open Government called the bill, “the worst in that it specifically favors a single government department over others, to the disadvantage of the public.”

Locally, we have had series of questionable meetings by the mayor, council and especially the planning board. The mayor’s recent explanation of how she chose the planning board attorney raises more questions than answers.

Planning Board Chairman and Democrat Candidate for Council Andrew Gargano admitted, that, prior to the PB reorganization meeting, he asked for a ruling by the township attorney, on whether it would be a conflict to vote for the mayor’s handpicked lawyer. The attorney represented Gargano when I sued him and the town over the sale of our redevelopment zone to the state.

This means that at least two members of the board had made up their minds about the position well in advance of the meeting. Two more and you have a quorum. You don’t need to have a meeting to violate the state’s Sunshine laws that were enacted to prevent backroom deals.

In January, the mayor and township attorney scheduled a closed to the public executive session to discuss Dan Jurkovic’s rezoning of the Newark watershed property. There are only three valid reasons a town council or board can use to conduct discussions out of public view, litigation, personnel issues and contract negotiations. Since none of those circumstances applied, (they used potential litigation in the resolution, what litigation?). The meeting may have been illegal. Jurkovic has put in for the minutes of that meeting but so far, citing township rules about release of executive session minutes, the township clerk has not released the requested information.

At the April 24th West Milford Planning Board Meeting the PB attorney was in a real hurry to have the board approve the new commercial development fee ordinance. It was fast tracked by the mayor and township attorney and approved by the township council the night before.

He said that the township attorney had called and requested it be put on the agenda. He said the town was potentially losing revenue, so; it needed to be done that night. Some board members asked what the hurry was and wanted to make changes and delay the vote but were told that it was the council’s ordinance and that it was just the board’s role to verify that it conformed to the master plan and that he was doing “what I was directed to do by the municipal attorney.” (So much for board autonomy that is required by law)

Listening to the meeting on tape, I got the sense that there is more to the story. The answers may lie in the questionable executive session.

Toward the end of the meeting, citing possible litigation, Chairman Gargano called for an executive session. The ES did not appear on the agenda listed on the web. He didn’t even mention who might be involved in the case. (Once again, what litigation?) Immediately after the session, “on advice of counsel” a motion was made to change the next meeting date from May 1 to May 8 and then the meeting was adjourned. No reason was given for the change of the date.

In a recent column, Mr. O’Shea called me an amateur when it comes to OPRA/ Sunshine laws.
He is right but I am learning fast. It is a shame that he is ignoring the actions of his West Milford Sunshine Act partner West Milford Planning Board Chairman and Democrat Council Candidate Andrew Gargano. Is it because Andy is a Democrat or still his partner?

Which party is now Green, Open and Pro-active balancing the rights of individuals and the public good? If judged by what people do and not just what they say, I think it is the Republican Party.

Reprinted With Permission (c)Aim West Milford