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BREAKING NEWS: UPDATE ON TEANECK'S 2022

ELECTION CANDIDATES

PUBLISHED BY TEANECK VOICES

Contents View this issue in your browser

Breaking News: Update on Teanecks 2022 Election Candidates

News from the Board of Education

Council Agrees: New Statement on CCA is Needed

Cannabis: Consistent Perplexity

Voter Registration Information

Upcoming Municipal Meetings

Events at the Library

One Town One Vote Resident Survey


COVID Update


  • Free Rapid Home COVID tests from the Post Office were just discontinued 


Announcements


  • Rise Up for Ethics - ECS - 9/11
  • Welcome Back to School
  • Teaneck Day - 9/18
  • Prayers and Support for Ukrainian People
  • Contacting Teaneck Voices

BREAKING NEWS: UPDATE ON TEANECK'S 2022

ELECTION CANDIDATES

A review of both the County and Town Clerk's offices and the Election Law Enforcement Commission(ELEC) websites on September 2 indicates significant new information UPDATING Voices last report as to who will be to be candidates in the 2022 Teaneck elections (Council and school board) on November 8.


 Town Council


Voices is aware that 6 aspiring Council candidates have now submitted signed petitions to the Township Clerk’s office where they are being reviewed to determine whether each potential candidate has submitted at least 308 valid Teaneck voter signatures.


In alphabetical order, the following 5 candidates for Council have been certified by the Township Clerk to be placed on the 2022 ballot: Latisha Garcia, Danielle Gee, Hillary F. Goldberg, Keith Kaplan, and Chondra Young.  The Town Clerk is currently reviewing Denise Belcher’s submissions. 


Each of these six potential candidates - as well as Desiree Ramos Reiner - has also filed initial campaign committee information with the NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission for the Council race. Of the 7, only Kaplan is an incumbent. 


An unknowable number of residents may still be gathering petitions to qualify to be placed on the ballot for one of the 4 four-year Council seats to be elected in 2022. For the first time these positions are being elected in November instead of May. Aspiring candidates must make the required submissions to the Township Clerk by Tuesday September 6.  


Board of Education


New this week, there are two fewer candidates (down from 14 to 12) now competing for the 5 open school board positions. Three positions are to be elected for 3-year terms and two positions are to be elected for the 1-year term left by the resignations of 2 board members in 2022.


The 5 newly-elected BOE members will join the 9-member Board. Ballot positions for these 12 BOE candidates have changed as a result of the two fewer candidates and a diagram of these remaining candidates and their ballot positions are found below and on the Teaneck Voices website,  www.teaneckvoices.com


Readers who want these election processes spelled out in greater detail can access prior Voices election stories that are being updated weekly and found on the Voices website. Click Here and click on the relevant stories when they appear in the slide show at the left hand side of the main page of Voice’s website.

  

NEWS FROM THE BOARD OF EDUCATION

Superintendent Search At its Special Meeting on August 29, Chairman Rodriguez described the Board of Education's progress in selecting a new Superintendent of Schools. Earlier the Board had initially selected 9 from a group of 30 persons who had expressed interest in the post. In the past two weeks, the Board has interviewed the 6 of the 9 potential candidates who remained viable. The final 2 of these potential candidates were interviewed during the executive session at the 9/29 meeting after which Chair Rodriquez announced that the Board had decided which of those 6 would be asked back for a second round of interviews to begin in mid-September. 


The 12-minute video of this several hour Board meeting which consisted largely of discussion of this Superintendent search interview process can be seen if you Click Here


Buses for all Busing Routes Set Although no public announcement has been made, Voices has learned that the District now has contracts with state-approved school bus companies to service all routes for both public and non-public school students. That resolves major concern about that issue that had been expressed at the Board's 8/24 Special Meeting. 

COUNCIL AGREES: NEW STATEMENT ON CCA IS NEEDED

At Council’s August 30 meeting, the Manager invited Matt Smith, NJ State Director of the Food and Water Watch environmental group, and resident Paula Rogovin to provide additional clarification to Council and the public on the status and immediate future of the voter-approved Community Choice Aggregation program to increase renewable energy sources for the Town residents' use of electricity.


Smith explained why the recent dramatic increase in all energy costs had led to there being no bids from renewable energy aggregators whose costs matched those of the Town’s electric utility, PSE&G. 


After a Council dialogue with Smith and Rogovin about the Town’s 8/9 decision to seek new bids for the CCA program during the next 120 days (a decision with which Smith concurs), Council agreed to have the Manager work with resident Rogovin to draft and publish a new and more positive statement about the Town’s continuing commitment to implement a viable CCA program than the one previously drafted for the Town.  That new statement is not yet available.


Readers who wish to review the Council’s 27-minute dialogue on the CCA issue should Click Here and move the cursor to min3 of the Town video of this 8/30 Council meeting.

CANNABIS: PERSISTENT PERPLEXITY

For the past several months’ a significant percentage of Good & Welfare speakers – virtually all with cannabis business interests - have pressed Council to consider changing its August 2021 Ordinance that provided conditional use approval for all state-approved types of cannabis facilities, but limited them to the Alfred Avenue area. That Ordinance 29-2021 can be found by Clicking Here


These G&W speakers have claimed that there exist no actual opportunities to locate any cannabis facilities on Alfred Avenue and that Council should take action to expand where cannabis facilities can be located. Some G&W speakers have opposed cannabis facilities being located there or anywhere.


All the actual work on cannabis in Teaneck has been led, to-date, by a 3-member Council subcommittee made up of Council members Kaplan, Orgen and Pagan. That subcommittee has had two persistent hallmarks:


1) The subcommittee  has claimed that the fact that the Township voters had, in 2020, voted nearly 3 to 1 in favor of a state referendum which dramatically increased in what forms and how cannabis is legalized in the state meant that Teaneck voters had, simultaneously, signaled their agreement that these facilities should be authorized to be located in the Township. Others doubt that. (It might be noted that Council’s only prior formal action on cannabis in Teaneck was an introduced ordinance (20-2018 Click Here) that would have prohibited cannabis facilities of any kind within the Township. It was twice tabled and never made part of a public hearing or Council vote.


2)   The cannabis subcommittee beginning with its formation in March 2021 has met in closed sessions and never provided notes or minutes or explained with whom it has met nor what decisions had led to the approving 29-2021 ordinance the subcommittee had authored. Those subcommittee records have been promised since 8/2021 but never delivered.


Now more than a year later the Council has – through recent informal Council member statements - indicated that the Council subcommittee has recently met with these cannabis business interests and has now made recommendations to the Council’s zoning subcommittee that cannabis facilities (type unspecified) be allowed elsewhere, including, specifically, on Cedar Lane. (Click Here and moved the cursor to 3hrs &03 mins &50 secs. for a video of one such statement.) 


Urgency for new Council action has been included in these statements by representatives of cannabis business organizations who say that they have obtained conditional licenses from the state which will expire if those businesses have not secured cannabis locations in allowed areas in the Township. The Council zoning subcommittee (which also meets in closed sessions) is expected to introduce a draft zoning ordinance in its Council agenda as early as at its next regular meeting – on September 20.


At the August 9 Council meeting, one G&W speaker who said he represented landlord interests on Alfred Avenue claimed that the reason the cannabis businesses cannot find an Alfred Avenue location is that none have been willing to commit to leases of sufficient duration to show that they intend to stay in Teaneck once their full licenses have been obtained. (Click Here and move the cursor to 2hrs.58mins.44secs. to hear that statement.) That assertion has not subsequently been either publicly corroborated or contested.


Voices sees it as obvious that when an issue such as this has been stymied and under consideration for 4 years without ever being fully aired – an issue which clearly engages the public’s concern in diverse ways– that before Council moves forward again a public town hall is needed at which public sentiment can be expressed and heard

VOTER REGISTERATION INFORMATION

If you are not registered to vote, please make it a priority to do so. To complete a registration form or for more information regarding voting in Bergen County, please click onto the this link.


If you are not sure if you are registered to vote in Teaneck, you may search here.


To check the details of your voter record, you may sign up here.

UPCOMING MUNICIPAL EVENTS


Upcoming Municipal Meetings – September 4 -11


Parks, Playgrounds & Recreation Advisory Board (PPRAB) – Wednesday September 7, 2022 at 7:30 pm.

  • Public access and opportunity for input limited by the  Advisory Board ordinance (*See ordinance below)


Teaneck Board of Education Workshop Meeting – Wednesday September 7, 2022 at 8:00 pm Click Here for zoom webinar access.. Meeting Agenda not yet available but will be available at Click Here

 

Library Board of Trustees - Thursday September 8, 2022 at 6:30 pm Note: this meeting will be held both in person at the Library Auditorium and by zoom (Click Here for the zoom access and the passcode is 571596)


Planning Board (PB)  - Thursday September 8, 2022 at 8:00 pm – For Zoom access Click Here and add passcode 281877. No other information available.

  • Note: No agenda information about this PB meeting is available on the NJ Public Notice website as of 9/2. That fact will limit the types of agenda items the PB will be legally able to address if, in fact, this meeting does take place. Any intra-week updates on this meeting’s will be available at the Voice’s website (Click Here)

……………………………..

*Quote from Ordinance 15-2020 on Advisory Boards adopted by Council on August 11, 2020:

 

“Council’s advisory Board meetings are closed to the public. The public can submit items for discussion to the Council’s advisory board chair and council liaison for review and potential for inclusion on their meeting agenda. If the item is placed on the agenda, the chair, with approval of their Council’s advisory board, may invite the member of the public to come and speak to them about the specific issue they want to have discussed”.


This Week's Events at the Library click here

ONE TOWN ONE VOTE RESIDENT SURVEY

One Town One Vote (OTOV) is a grassroots, nonpartisan volunteer organization that worked with other community groups to make it easier and more convenient for Teaneck residents to vote for their local leadership by unifying Teaneck’s stand-alone town council elections, previously held in May, to take place on the same day as the General Elections in November. Tuesday, November 8, 2022 will be the first time Teaneck residents will have the opportunity to vote for town council members at the same time as we vote for other local, state, and national officials.


In anticipation of this historic event, OTOV is conducting a town-wide survey on resident issues and concerns. We need your input! Your responses will help us achieve our ongoing goal of helping to listen, educate, organize, and empower residents on local issues so your voice matters and your vote counts in the November elections. Your information will not be shared with any other organization.


Please click here to take the One Town One Vote resident survey! Your voices will be heard, your voices will count!"

COVID UPDATES

Rapid COVID-19 Test Kits  No Longer Available

                                             for Free from USPS


ANNOUNCEMENTS

TEANECK VOICES CONTINUES TO OFFER ITS

PRAYERS AND SUPPORT

TO THE BRAVE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE FIGHTING FOR THEIR FREEDOM

Contacting Teaneck Voices


By Email: teaneckvoices@gmail.com

By Phone: 201-214-4937

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

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