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Teaneck Voices: Women and Other Matters


PUBLISHED BY TEANECK VOICES

11/11/2024

Contents:

  • Teaneck Voices: Women and Other Matters
  • Incumbents Sweep Local Elections
  • This Week in Teaneck – 11/11 to 17, 2024


Announcements

  • Fire Restrictions – NOW
  • Veteran’s Day Ceremony – 11/11
  • Teaneck International Film Festival: Final 3 days 11/11-14
  • Taxes Due – 11/12


Contacting Teaneck Voices:

  • Email: teaneckvoices@gmail.com
  • Phone: 201-214-4937
  • USPS Mail: Teaneck Voices, PO Box 873. at 1673 Palisade Ave. 07666

Teaneck Voices: Women and Other Matters

By Co-Editor Barbara Ley Toffler. Ph.D.


I’m about to turn 83. Like many women my age across this country I am devastated by the results of our presidential election. Fifty or so years ago, like many women my age, I began a career of being the first or only in so many professional arenas of my life. And again, like so many women my age, I was “nauseously optimistic” that I would see the first woman president in my lifetime.


But it was not to be. Early on election night, I experienced a prescient moment: We were at a local potluck watch party of politically progressive guests. I was in the kitchen reheating our offering when a male guest, clearly meaning to be charmingly complimentary, said, “I really enjoy your husband’s newsletter.” It seemed like it wasn’t going to be a good night for women!


So now, early November 2024, as Teaneck Voices newsletter rolls into the second quarter of its fifth publication year, let’s take a look at our history – and also think about going forward.


History of Teaneck Voices


In January 2020, shortly before the Covid pandemic lockdown and almost 2 years before Teaneck’s reform-minded residents decided to call for a referendum to move the municipal council election from May to the general election in November I invited a group of 8 Teaneck residents to meet in our living room with Senator Loretta Weinberg to discuss forms of municipal government in New Jersey. The key issue driving the meeting was: Should Teaneck seek to change its Council-Manager form of government?


Why had I, as a former Councilmember called this meeting? I had sat on the Council for four tumultuous years – 2008-2012 – during which time we experienced the firing of a Township Manager, the hiring of a new Manager who in a previous role had sued the Township, the instituting of a 4-day work week on the basis of a survey of 11 township residents, an anonymous letter campaign to discredit a councilmember and discourage them for running for another term, the cutting of $6.1 million from the school budget, and the attempt to install a civilian head of the police and fire departments doing away with trained chiefs. 


I also had concerns as a woman about various occurrences during my tenure: There was a culture of bullying by 2 of the 4 male councilmembers of the 3 female councilmembers (who made up the minority), the firing of our first female Township Manager, the hiring of a male “inside” applicant for Manager by the male majority – denying the position to the extraordinarily competent female applicant (who was immediately hired by Tenafly), the harassment of the female Township Clerk (who also was swooped up by Tenafly), denying of the mayorship to the successful Black incumbent councilmember, Lizette Parker, who swept the 2010 election with an impressive plurality of the vote, and the murder of Joan Davis. 


As a resident observer for the following 10 years, I had amassed significant concerns about both the Council elections and the resultant Council leadership. Anecdotally, I heard many similar concerns at various meetings and social events. So in January 2020, I invited 7 like-minded residents to meet with Senator Loretta Weinberg to share our concerns and discuss the various forms of New Jersey Municipal Government to see if another form might work better for Teaneck. My leading concerns were: 


  • The secrecy with which the Council made decisions,
  •  The fact that the Council was promoting urban development in Teaneck which a majority of residents seemed to oppose,
  • The perception and the fact that the Council had “favorites” among the many diverse communities in Teaneck,
  • And, basically, the question of whether or not representative democracy existed in Teaneck. At the end of that first meeting, the group decided to further investigate alternative forms of government. We held one or two more in-person meetings in February with 25 or more in attendance to refine our concerns. Just as the 2020 municipal election (then still held in May) was gearing up, days after the kick-off party of the Belcher, Gerszberg, Walser slate, the lockdown struck. 


We turned to Zoom.


At the first Zoom meeting, the group invited Professor Mark Pfeiffer from the Bloustein School of Public Policy at Rutgers, to speak to us, via Zoom, about the pros and cons of the various forms of New Jersey municipal governments under the Faulkner Act. Professor Pfeiffer gave us a bounty of information and answered our questions long into the evening.


The group briefly considered a ward plus at-large members structure of government (to seek greater representation for diverse groups) but decided after members of the group researched the topic, that our present Council-Manager form of government was the best (or least worst!) of all the forms of government under the Faulkner Act.


It became evident that the change needed was in the make-up of the elected council membership. The question was: HOW TO ACHIEVE THAT?


At that point, the group, now about 15 regularly-attending members, decided to organize, quickly and unanimously named ourselves Teaneck Voices, and decided to focus on educating and communicating with the residents of Teaneck about:


  • What a Council-Manager form of government is and how it should operate
  • What Boards and Commissions existed and how they operated and interacted 
  • The current concerns – with demonstrated evidence – about the present Council
  • Ideas for possible solutions to the problems and concerns cited


Several group members developed an Organizational Purpose Statement:


ABOUT US


Teaneck Voices is a young and growing organization. It was established in 2020 by a group of Teaneck residents who shared a common interest in rectifying the perceived shortcomings of our current Council. We are working together to ensure that the ideas and opinions of residents are heard and not ignored. We are dedicated to communicating critical, fact-based information about what is happening in Teaneck and supporting actions to improve governance.  


MAILING ADDRESS


Teaneck Voices

P.O. Box 873

Teaneck, NJ 07666-0873


MISSION STATEMENT


Achieve integrity, transparency, responsiveness, diversity, and social justice in Teaneck governance. 


OBJECTIVES 


  • Elect Council members whose values are consistent with our Mission Statement
  • Build the mission-supporting Voter Base and Get out the Vote.
  • Monitor and Report on Key Council and Board Actions
  • Weigh in on Council and Board Actions

       

A then-active group member, Hillary Goldberg (not yet a council member) suggested the group Teaneck Voices publish a weekly newsletter called Teaneck Voices and volunteered to be editor-in-chief. The original group of writers and editors working with her were, alphabetically, Laraine Chaberski, Gail Gordon, and me, Barbara Toffler. We planned to distribute it to our own mailing lists and seek ways to expand our readership.


As Teaneck Voices we explicitly took on the task of educating and informing the Teaneck public and cultivating sources of information that could bring vitality and accuracy into what we perceived as an information desert.


Our first issue in August 2020 went to less than 100 residents!

Over the past 4 years, Teaneck Voices has built a remarkable readership nourished with information not only by its newsletter, sent free as a weekly email to a subscriber base of more than 6.5K separate email addresses, but reaches perhaps a similar number of additional readers through subscribers sending the newsletter to their contacts, or through the Voices Facebook page or the Voices website. 


Since our first issue in August 2020, Teaneck Voices has run educational pieces (how the Council-Manager Form of Government works, how Statutory Boards and Commissions work), a review of Teaneck parks and playgrounds, and many other information pieces. 


Of special pride to me is my feature on The Notable Women of Teaneck with profiles of 50 extraordinary women who through their intelligence, energy, drive, and commitment to the greater Teaneck community have created, innovated, and discovered a wealth of life-enhancing services and amenities that we enjoy in Teaneck.


Midway in Teaneck Voices tenure, Hillary Goldberg left Teaneck Voices to establish her own newsletter, and my husband, Chuck Powers, and I became Co-editors, recently joined by our IT Editor, Sarah Fisher.


With Chuck as an Investigative Reporter as well as Co-editor, Teaneck Voices has expanded into a hard-hitting investigative, fact-finding, probing, and analytic piece of communication. Which brings us to our future.


Teaneck Voices in the Future


  • We will continue to attend and cover as many council, statutory boards, and commissions and provide all the information possible for residents to know and understand what our leadership is doing. We will continue to hold our leadership ACCOUNTABLE.
  • We will attempt to be the transparent window into every aspect of town governance that affects our homes, our finances, and our quality of life as residents of Teaneck.
  • We may try to hold and report on small group discussions where we bring opposing sides of issues like redevelopment and cannabis facilities together to listen to and hear each other.
  • We have been trying to cover more of the activities of the Board of Education and the school district. We will continue to expand that coverage.
  • Technologically, we are seeking the ever-elusive search capability for our website so that readers can find information on any (or most) topics we have covered in the past 4-plus years.
  • Finally – we, all of us in Teaneck – are Teaneck Voices. We welcome letters, articles, and thought pieces from you. We can’t promise to publish everything, but as our regular readers know, we publish many Voices that contact us.


I began this article by referring to my frustration and upset at the result of our presidential election and its spillover onto me as a woman. Teaneck Voices, the initial organization and the newsletter which is building a reputation as the primary source of accurate information in the Township of Teaneck were founded by women. We shouldn’t have to make that point. But we do.


If you are not already a newsletter subscriber, contact us through our email: teaneckvoices@gmail.com and we will add you to the list.

Incumbents Sweep Local Elections

Incumbents Karen Orgen and Mark Schwartz – and likely Michael Pagan as well – the incumbents in the 7-candidate race for the 3 open seats on the Teaneck Council – all appear to have been re-elected to the 7-member Township governing body. Challenger Duane Harley might conceivably catch Pagan when all votes are counted but Harley currently trails Pagan by 200 votes.


Jon Rodriguez, the only incumbent running in the 5 candidate race for 3 open seats on the 9-member Board of Education will be one of the 3 winners. Challenger Jennifer Levy came in first. Nadia Hosein appears to have won the 3rd open slot. 


In the only other local contest, the Town’s voters said yes in the referendum to continue the voluntary property tax that funds the Municipal Open Space Trust Fund(MOST). A majority who voted on the referendum was required and the referendum was 69% to 31% in favor of continuing MOST. Only about a third of Teaneck voters who voted for other races voted in the referendum.


These 3 local election races were all on non-partisan portions of the General Election ballots. The winners of the partisan races for the other six offices on the ballot were easily won here in Teaneck by the Democratic candidates. Democrat Harris (for President) Kim (US Senator), Gottheimer (5th District US House) Cureton (County Sheriff) Steve Tannelli, and Tracy Zur (County Commissioner). Only Kamala Harris was not actually elected to the position she sought. 


Since not all the votes in the local elections have been counted, Teaneck Voices will delay its own in-depth election analysis. However, for those of our readers anxious now to dig deeply into how Teaneck voters voted (by mail, early, and on election day) and where (i.e., from which of the 23 voting districts the votes were cast), Voices has been able to extract the local election results as they appeared on the Bergen County Clerk’s website as of late Thursday afternoon of November 6. To be taken to that post on the Teaneck Voices website Click Here.

This Week in Teaneck – November 11 to 17, 2024

If additional information about access and agendas for this week’s public meetings becomes available, we will update our Teaneck Voices website at this post (Click Here) in RED font. 


Veteran’s Day Ceremony – Monday, November 11, 2024, at 11:00 am at the entrance of the Municipal Building

  • Presented by the Teaneck Patriotic Advisory Board and the Teaneck Council and Manager


Municipal Offices Closed for Veteran’s Day – Monday, November 11, 2024


Teaneck Council – Tuesday, November 12, 2024, public session at 7:00 pm in Council Chambers and by hybrid if you Control Click the zoom and add passcode 459723 for the internet connection. Click Here for the agenda access 

  • This Meeting is to begin early as requested by CM Schwartz to permit a presentation by Crossroad Companies of its newly revised conceptual plan for the American Legion/Beverly Road AINRs. No redevelopment plan for these AINRs has ever been released or cited. No action in response to the Crossroads plan is currently indicated in either the agenda or citation by CM Schwartz. No copy of the presentation to be presented at this meeting has been publicly released as of 11/10 pm.  
  • Prior Crossroads plans for these two AINRs have been universally criticized and rejected by all members of the public who have spoken at meetings of a) Council, b) Planning Board Meetings c) at “Town Hall” meetings that addressed Cross Roads conceptual plans for these two Areas in Need of Redevelopment and d) meetings to consider the new Master Plan
  • The 2024 Best Practices Inventory is an agenda item – This inventory developed by and audited by the State must be presented to the public before its submission. 
  • In fact, it is found in the agenda for this Council meeting at Click Here and go to page 16. Residents interested in the overall performance of their municipality will want to review this inventory and the Township’s answers to its questions. 
  • Proposed Ordinance 30-2024 – This ordinance would create a new land use review committee which would assure the completeness and timely release of information about development issues – site plans in particular – before applications to either board are heard. The ordinance would require much greater rigor in the process leading to land use board hearings. See discussion of recent problems with land use board functioning elsewhere in this edition and in the prior Voices edition at Click Here.  


Board of Education Regular Meeting – Wednesday, November 13, 2024, at 7:00 pm, Student Center at Teaneck High School. Virtual link and agenda not yet available – check www.tesnevkschools.org 


Planning Board – Thursday, November 14, 2024, at 7:30 in-person at MP-1 of the Rodda Center - for internet but not interactive (Click Here )and add passcode 238780; for Agenda, Click HereRelevant portions apparently do not start until p.41 of the agenda (see bullet below) 

  • The agenda for this meeting on the Township website provides information on several site plan issues associated with approving a 2-function cannabis facility at 455 Alfred Avenue. At the 11/6 meeting of the PB these hearings were discontinued after 25 minutes (beginning at 10:35 pm) The hearing was then scheduled for continuation on 11/14 with no further notice to the public. , (Many members of the public who had come to the meeting for that scheduled hearing expressed their displeasure asking why the hearing was started so late).  
  • Voices has now been reliably told that this continued hearing, too, will not occur as scheduled – ie. on 11/14 (because of the unavailability of some expert witnesses). It is now being officially rescheduled to a new date - December 12 presumably with no further notice to the public? (but see below) 
  • At the 10/29 PB meeting, the Chair announced that the attorney for the developer/owner of both 329 and 359 Alfred Avenue had just informed the Board that – because that same lawyer who had scheduled the hearing was out of the country - the hearings on the two Alfred Avenue matters would have to be continued to 11/14. (Many members of the public who had come to the meeting for those scheduled hearings expressed their displeasure) 
  • There appears in the agenda for the 11/14 PB meeting (at p. 43) to be a memo from the town planners to the Board addressing issues associated with ANOTHER – completely separate - amendment to the redevelopment plan for 329 Alfred Ave. It has to do with the construction of a walkway directly to the south of the 329 Alfred facility.
  • Nothing in the agenda outline references this “walkway” matter.
  • Voices is not aware of any information (i.e. letter of denial, site plan that addresses this matter – although the planner’s memo suggests that such information was sent by Neglia Engineering to someone [?not specified?] on October 11.) Confusion?? 


Looking Forward to December


Planning Board – Thursday, December 12, 2024 – MP-1 of Rodda Center (no internet info available) 

  • Apparently, the next Planning Board meeting is scheduled for a hearing on the Master Plan. Information to be provided 10 days before the meeting. 
  • Click Here to go to NJ Public Notice as currently found in the Bergen Record. The following is copied from that notice
  • “The Planning Board of the Township of Teaneck will seek continued public discussion, comment, and input before adoption of the Master Plan of the Township of Teaneck. A copy of all documents proposed for adoption is on file in the Township Clerk's office for public inspection at the Township Municipal Building, 818 Teaneck Road, Teaneck, NJ 07666 from Monday to Friday, between 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM A copy of the Master Plan may also be found digitally on the township website: 
  • https://www.teanecknj.gov/planning-board - under “Recent Documents” and at https://www.teanecknj.gov/media/Advisory%20Boards/PB/Teaneck%20OSRP%20Update%202024%20(Amendment).pdf

Announcements

Contacting Teaneck Voices


Co-Editors: Dr. Barbara Ley Toffler and Dr. Chuck Powers

IT Editor: Sarah Fisher

By Email: teaneckvoices@gmail.com

By Phone: 201-214-4937

By USPS Mail: Teaneck Voices, PO Box 873. at 1673 Palisade Ave. 07666

Teaneck Voices' Website is www.teaneckvoices.com


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