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Teaneck Poised to Appoint Jaclyn Hashmat as Town Manager


PUBLISHED BY TEANECK VOICES

6/17/2024

Contents:

  • Teaneck Poised to Appoint Jaclyn Hashmat as Town Manager
  • Teaneck FINALLY Authorizes a ROSI that Saves our Greenbelt
  • Letter to Editor: Don’t allow a Cannabis Facility on Alfred Ave
  • This Week in Teaneck


Announcements

  • Juneteenth
  • David Drumgold Variety
  • OTOV – A Night for Democracy


Contacting Teaneck Voices:

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

Teaneck Poised to Appoint Jaclyn Hashmat as Town Manager

Jaclyn Hashmat has served four Hackensack City managers in positions beginning as executive assistant to deceased Manager Ted Ehrenberg and then as Deputy City Manager, most recently under Hackensack’s current City Manager Vincent Caruso.  In recent years, Teaneck and Hackensack have developed cooperative shared services arrangements, particularly in relation to fire and public safety. 



The Agenda for Council’s Tuesday, June 18 meeting lists Resolution 174 -2024 as the first resolution Council will address in the Consent Agenda as follows.

For most Teaneck residents Ms. Hashmat will be a new executive. Ms. Hashmat says she looks forward to “working with residents, council, and the exceptional workforce to drive forward initiatives that will benefit the entire community." We at Teaneck Voices hope that does characterize her management style.


Ms. Hashmat will surely benefit from having Dean Kazinci’s help in the transition which officially begins on July 1, 2024. Resolution 175 sets forth a consultancy for Dean that should aid Ms. Hashmat’s startup.   

Teaneck FINALLY Authorizes a ROSI that Saves our Greenbelt

In the Spring and Summer of 2017, more than 2000 residents signed petitions and and wore small sticky tabs (see below) imploring the Planning Board to remember that in 1966 the Township’s Council had submitted to the State DEP an Ordinance 1279 (accompanied by a 3’x6’ folding Township map of protected properties) which defined Block & Lot numbers primarily located along Route 4 which it described as properties to be held in perpetuity for park, playgrounds and recreational purposes.


On May 23 the Planning Board approved a resolution authorizing the Town Manager and the Planning Board chair to submit a ROSI to the State DEP that includes the referenced properties defined in Ordinance 1279. 

Letter to Editor: Don’t allow a Cannabis Facility on Alfred Ave

Teaneck should NOT allow a cannabis operation on Alfred Avenue.


by Paula Rogovin, 42 year resident of Teaneck

For me, and for many other Teaneck residents, this is NOT about cannabis. It's about environmental justice.


The former Teaneck Town Council members voted to declare the Alfred Avenue area an Area in Need of Redevelopment (AINR) and then voted to impose 2 huge six-story apartment developments in the community. This was done with no real community input and with the AINR process that allows development without usual regulations, regulations which can protect residents and the environment


The first of the apartment buildings sits directly across the street from existing one-family homes. A second huge apartment building next to the first was also approved. The proposed cannabis operation would sit just past the two 6-story apartment buildings, all within yards of Route 4 which has toxic air pollution from car and truck traffic day and night. 


Before you even think about supporting a cannabis operation on Alfred Avenue, please think about this:


The Alfred Avenue area is an environmental justice community under NJ’s Environmental Justice law.


https://dep.nj.gov/ej/law/ The environmental justice designation is for an area that is predominantly people of color and/or low-income residents.


https://dep.nj.gov/ej/communities-location/  . The area of the huge apartment buildings and the proposed cannabis operation is already designated as overburdened under NJ law.


https://dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/ej/docs/teaneck-township-bergen-county-obc.pdf It requires a special look at environmental factors that impact the health of the residents, such as the fact that there is already a tremendous impact from toxic pollution from Route 4 traffic as well as traffic entering and exiting Route 4. 


The traffic to and from Route 4 is already horrendous! Adding hundreds of apartments, each with 1.5 cars, as well as a cannabis operation will bring a huge amount of additional car and truck traffic through an environmental justice community neighborhood, a huge amount of congestion, and a huge amount of new pollution into a neighborhood already overburdened by pollution. The NJ State’s law regarding environmental justice is meant to protect areas such as Alfred Avenue from this kind of additional, excessive pollution that would come from imposing the two new apartment buildings and a cannabis operation. 


The plans for the Alfred Avenue area were implemented before the NJ EJ law. However, the Council should have taken the issue of health impacts into consideration. I believe that it was racist for the former (and some current) Council members to ignore the issue of health and environmental pollution and allow the huge apartment buildings and the cannabis operation in the Alfred Avenue area. 

 

Step 1: The Teaneck Council must put a halt to the proposed cannabis operation in order to protect the community from the health impacts of even more pollution. Step 2: Teaneck Council should explore whether it still has the option of canceling the construction of the second apartment building in order to protect the health and well-being of residents. 


In addition to these issues is the fact that along with the AINR designation, the contractors in this area have received from the Township a PILOT, or Payment in Lieu of Taxes. This means that all of the taxes will go directly to the Township and NOT to the Board of Education. It will result in higher taxes to fund the increased number of public school students. 


It's not about cannabis! It's about racial justice. 

This Week in Teaneck - June 17-23, 2024

Teaneck Council – Tuesday, June 17, 2024, at 8:00 pm in Council Chambers and by Zoom (Click Here)


Early in the meeting, there will be a public hearing during which 4 ordinances that were introduced in Council’s prior meeting (May 21) may be discussed following which Council will vote to approve or defeat each of the four ordinances. Two of these ordinances relate to specific parking provisions.


Ordinance 11-2024, by contrast, would authorize the keeping of chicken hens under extensive regulations. Voices encourages our readers to carefully review those regulations (Again, Click Here and go to pp. 17 of the agenda packet.) Ordinance 13-2024 would approve Council’s sale of an easement over the Town’s cell phone tower. Through this ordinance, Council is seeking to add revenue to reduce the large increases in the Manager’s proposed 2024 budget. Click Here and go to pp. 26 of the agenda packet.


Following Good & Welfare, there are more than 30 resolutions, 15 of which provide liquor licenses. Most of the other 15 resolutions involve the establishment of the addition of financial obligations The Township has made to hire Jaclyn Hazmat as our Township Manager as of July 1. The Township has also 1) reached an agreement with retiring Manager Kazinci for a consulting agreement so he can help with the transition, and 2) a special agreement to provide him cash payment of health benefits for a year. 


There is a strange number of arrangements being made to reimburse the firm of our former Planning Board Attorney Eyerman who left to become a judge last Spring of 2023. The firm had requested $90K in back pay but has agreed to accept $40K.  Residents may want to inquire about this arrangement. The State is finally moving ahead to make the legal arrangements for the Route 4 bridge over the CSX tracks. There is an opaque description of how our tax payments in mid-summer will be calculated  – since it is now clear that Teaneck will be extraordinarily late in introducing and passing the 2024 municipal budget.  In other words, there are a lot of unusual issues being addressed in this June Council meeting.


Board of Education Workshop Meeting – Tuesday June 18 at 8:00 pm. (meeting simultaneously with Council.) This meeting will take place in the THS Student Center- the web address for the meeting and agenda are currently TBD


Juneteenth Flag Raising and Jubilee – Wednesday, June 19 at noon – at Votee Park; Festivities will continue at the BL mural across from the Rodda Center. In the evening Daniels Quartet at 6:30 on the Green


Environmental Commission – Wednesday, June 19 by Zoom 7:30 pm (No other information currently available) 

Senior Citizens Advisory Board – Thursday, June 20, 2024, at 1:30 pm– Rodda Center. (No other information currently available) 



Planning Board – Thursday, June 20, 2024 – 7:30 pm Council Chambers, (No other information currently available

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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