Victory for the Teaneck Coalition Against Change and Progress

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Because you have shared in their lives by your friendship and love
you are invited to share with us as we celebrate our victory at the Palisades Avenue Chemical Factory.

After months of organizing, attending the Planning Board meetings, attacking the Council, The Planning Board members and all who dared to see any merit or spoke up in favor of exploring an alternate use at the site, we WIN!!! There will be no change at the factory. As per the Record, we get to keep the chemical factory that will produce and distribute detergents and cleaning solutions. That sounds a lot better then having a housing development overlook the park. The factory will have 16 Trailer loading docks, 54,000 square feet of industrial space, 69 parking spaces, 100 employees and a RR siding.

The event will take place on the 7 acre site owned by the Holuba Realty. BYOB. RSVP.

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How well do you know the candidates for the Board of Ed?

The disgraced New Beginnings team is working very hard to try and stay under the radar. A few obvious observations. First, same people attacking and writing letters. Second, same homes have lawn signs as before. Is it just a coincidence or are the Teaneck voters going to be tricked into electing a TNB candidate. The election is not looking good for one of our dedicated incumbents. As my fellow blogger pointed out, why should we get involved in this election. Let the chips fall......
But then we remember, that the majority of our taxes are controlled by the Board of Education. What about the future of Teaneck's youth? Can we afford to just leave them in the hands of certain individuals. At a time when gang violence is rising in our schools, it is our responsibility to elect strong leaders that will not ignore or avoid problems, but will address them head on. Go with who you know.

No coffee for us!

Starbucks
In Mayor Katz's recent "tidbits" he talks about advocating for a Starbucks. He "wrote letter's to the company executives". In Teaneckprogress, Swurgle talks about a Starbucks. Her headline, "The topic I won't shut up about". What is so special about Starbucks? Last I checked, a town is not defined by their overpriced lousy coffee joint. Is this really what Teaneck residents want? What stores do we need in our business districts? In a community that has shown that they are divided about the "Blue Laws", how can a coffee house unite us? I think we should reject Starbucks and boycott. They don't want Teaneck, no, Teaneck doesn't want Starbucks. Let's focus our energy on stores that are interested in Teaneck. How many towns in NJ with a population of 40,000 people, can boast a Hospital, University , Hotel and Golf Course?
We may not have Starbucks, but we have Butterflake & Bischoffs.
Two prominent merchants in Teaneck for over 45 years.

Election Cake by Teaneck New Beginnings

Serving Suggested 40,000 people

Ingredients

1 Active Controversial New Beginnings Candidate
1 Unknown "No Baggage" Candidate
1 Credible Candidate from the Northeast

Bunch of attack letters
Several quarts of divisive inflammatory emails
Teaspoon of followers
Dash of anger
Tablespoon of mistruths
Multiple cups of forum sandbagging plants
Ounce of credibility to sell the cake
Sour concentrate


Filling
Step one--Interview all candidates
Determine who will follow TNB ideas
Assemble 3 candidates together

Crust
1 stale angry greenie

Directions: Place all ingredients in large Teaneck bowl, attack credible candidates, write inaccurate letters to the editors, sprinkle on top selfish motivations, thaw residents that were active in 1980's, use pointer finger to place blame on everyone else as a distraction,
pour over all negative statements, lay it on thick, stir the pot...repeat last 4 steps as necessary until proper consistency is achieved.

Preheat oven and bake dedicated, public servants until burnt.

Serve to the educated Teaneck public and see if they buy it!!!

This cake may be prepared in advance. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve for Board of Education and Council Elections.

Makes for great conversation around town.

All Want A Bite of The Apple..But Who Will Save Some $$$

The Board of Education election is less then four weeks away and what do we really know about the candidates that will be controlling the bulk of the taxpayers dollars. There are two incumbents and three new comers. The incumbent are Dr. Henry Pruit who is finishing his first term and Barbara Ostroth a veteran, who has been on for several years. Then there is Sabastian Rodrigez who is running for the third time (both prior times unsuccessful), Margot Fischer a name closely associated with the losing New Beginnings ticket and Dr. Kate Zatz a relatively unknown. What are their issues, what are their big plans. How do they plan to bridge the gap, fix the test scores. Will they be interested in the NJ Transit student population (that wink, wink, doesn't exist). These are some of the questions that have to be answered.
Probably the biggest question that comes to mind is Who will be the next President of the Board of Ed???????

I Need to Vent

Mayor Katz, Deputy Mayor Parker, Councilwoman Kates, TCCP, Councilwoman Honis, Board of Education members, Councilman Rudolph, Gussen and more, are all some examples of recent blogs, posts, comments and Dear Editor letters. The question that I hear is, Is this fair.
It is obvious that there is no elected officials safe from the power of the pen and keyboard.
How does a resident voice their feelings and concerns about their elected officials and organizations lobbying the town? The good and welfare portion of the Council meetings are limited and may not be the appropriate forum. If you are anonymous, your merit is questioned. If you write your name, you get attacked.
Some posts are malicious and hateful, but that doesn't mean they are inaccurate.
When you need to vent, it is good to have a place to do it.

Love Is In The Air

Last week's Planning Board meeting was different from all the rest! My friends in attendance thought it was a rather positive meeting . Everyone had the opportunity to give input as the chair allowed open dialogue from the audience. There was so much participation throughout the meeting that during the "good and welfare" portion, no speakers got up to comment. It appears that the Planning Board is headed in the right direction towards a process that will provide us with a master plan that is reflective of our collective opinions and views. Members of the Teaneck Coalition against Change and Progress were present and gave a tremendous amount of positive input as well. Former Mayor Jackie Kates, who is typically known for her sour grapes and anti-everything, also contributed constructively. The Planning Board members seemed to work in sync with each other and were not grandstanding or showboating for publicity as some have been accused of in the past. Keep up the great job.....I enjoy seeing peace,love and harmony.

There will be another Town Hall Meeting 7:00PM on Monday, March 5th at the Rhodda Center.

THEY ARE LISTENING-TIME EXTENDED

Last week's Planning Board meeting was filled with surprises. What was supposed to be a meeting to adopt the much talked about Master Plan; turned out to be a disappointing showing of less than 120 people to hear the Chair request that his board add additional time and meetings to allow for more input from the public. Members of the Teaneck Coalition against Change and Progress appeared speechless! The board actually listened to their request! The Planning Board then added extra meetings and community input hearings as well as what Mayor Katz called a "Town Hall-Community Outreach Meeting". Speaking of Mayor Katz, he has proven to be a man of action. During his opening speech asking for positive input, an attendee in the audience passed out. Mayor Katz, an ambulance member, along with Mark Schwartz(member of the Planning Board and TVAC)jumped from the dais to his aid. Rumor has it, it was one of his most vocal critics.
Now what remains to be seen is what will the TCCP do with the time? Was it their attempt to stall progress or to right the process?
We will only know the truth if the sincere, non-politically motivated members of the TCCP stand up and join the many residents that have been calling for progress. I have my suspicions. This will be the time to work with the Planning Board. The next Planning Board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 28th at the Rhodda Center. It's important for everyone to participate.

PS- Sorry for the post delay, school vacation week!

Why Can't We Be Friends- Now We Really Need Progress!!!!!!!!!

Teaneck's Seismic Tax Shift

For the last 8 month, Mayor Katz and company have been pushing their agenda of more revenue, ratables and saving taxpayer's dollars. The Record article on the impact of the revaluation town wide has given the town a dose of reality and credence to the Mayor's fears. He failed to identify that our Northeast section of town will take the hardest hit. In my opinion, the TCCP continues to promote a division and hindrance to progress. There are allegations by many that Councilwomen Kates and Honis have also been obstacles towards the Council majority's agenda. How will Honis & Kates explain their behavior and lack of action over the last few months as Teaneck residents are taxed out of our community. Our elected officials are accountable to the residents. I'd like to suggest silencing the Council majority to hear what ideas or suggestions Kates and Honis have. Maybe they haven't been given an opportunity to suggest solutions. Maybe the Teaneck Coalition against Change and Progress have alternatives as well.
As many residents face the reality of the tax impact from the revaluation, I believe that there will be more emphasis on what actions our Council and residents have taken to help relieve the tax burden and less attention on the underlying personal and political agendas that capture and dominate the blogs, the Suburbanite and the Council meetings.

Round One- TCCP vs Teaneck

Teaneck Planning Board Meeting

Last Thursday was probably one of the latest Planning Board meetings in Teaneck's history. A semi-full house of approximately 185 people were in the auditorium at the Thomas Jefferson Middle School. I had a great view from the back row, empty except 2 Teaneck Police officer's. Every speaker was allowed 5 minutes to give their input on the proposed Master Plan. I didn't stay to the end, but I was told that there was an additional comment period for the public after the Planning Board discussed the original comments and the meeting wasn't adjourned until 1:30am. Apparently, the TCCP spent the last 5 days littering the town with the "inflammatory" flyers that is described by Teaneck Progress. I personally feel that they were at the very least inflammatory, and perhaps inaccurate...I guess they were desperate for a crowd.
The comments were mostly about the Palisades Avenue Project, American Legion Drive and the process by which the master plan was being done. It was obvious that some speakers were given canned speeches to read to get an applause from the crowd. It would have been more believable if some of those speakers actually knew what they were reading before they got up.
TCCP, you claim to stand for "proper development", yet all we have heard from group members is anti everything and political agendas. While the Planning Board & Council Members are proposing areas that can and need revitalization,--what are you proposing?
Stand for nothing and Teaneck moves backwards, property values plummet and areas will be blighted. Modify or support what is on the table and we may have a chance to survive (notice I didn't mention ratables, that all depends on the project-not all projects help the taxes)-Council use caution and discretion but please DO NOT SLOW DOWN.

Teaneck Budget MVP Awards

The Council is going into their sixth budget meeting with what appears to be no end in sight for completion. In past years, the 40+ million dollar budget was pushed through in 4 meetings with virtually no cuts or changes. So far the current Council carefully scrutinized and found close to $ 1,000,000 worth of savings for the taxpayers. That's no small change!!
My Budget MVP awards go to Councilman Feit and Councilman Gussen that did not waiver towards their commitment that everything is on the table. At last weeks budget meeting, municipal employees packed the room out of fear that their jobs may be on the line. I was forced to stay in the hall with several other residents. Those residents with whom I had the chance to speak with don't really want to see services cut or have township employees lose their jobs but are VERYconcerned about our sky high taxes.
Deputy Mayor Parker was so quick to side with the unions that she tried to force the Council to vote to take layoffs off the table before the meeting even started.
Councilman Feit who has had a reputation for being impressionable showed that when push comes to shove, Councilman Feit's true strengths shine though. He stands tall!
We have to keep encouraging the Council to keep saving taxpayers dollars and bring in more revenue.
The TCCP has been scaring the Teaneck residents with inaccurate flyer's and literature. They claim to be in favor of responsible development, but I haven't heard one positive suggestion from the group or during their meetings. What I have heard is mostly NIMBY's and political agendas. I'm not impressed and as Teaneck Progress pointed out, we see through their "inflammatory language".
My fellow Teaneck residents lets not forget that the bulk of our taxes are from the Board of Education and that the same emphasis should be placed on the Board of Education budget meetings as well. It's very important that as many residents as possible attend these open meetings.

With Your Help We Can Help-Teaneck Police

This is the title of the new mailing from the Teaneck PBA. I was looking at the list of the past contributions on the letter they sent, and it didn't mention that the Teaneck PBA contributed thousands of dollars $$ in a failed attempt to take over the Council. I am not suggesting that they used the same money that they collect from their annual drive, but it would be nice to know where that money came from and why were they so interested in gaining control of The governing body that makes legislation and controls salaries and wages for the police. At a time when we question the loyalty of our elected officials that work for the County or State-ie: Parker, Kates & now Rudolph. One only has to ask, what are the payback requirements if you are beholden to the employees and Teaneck unions. Parker should have to sit out on the salaries and police portion of this years budget.
I wish the PBA well on its drive, but after their disgusting, unprecedented interference with last years Council election, for this fund drive, my check will NOT be in the mail.

Board of Education Election

With the last Council election seeing the interest of more then 15 candidates, one is to wonder just how many people will be filing petitions for the Board of Education election this Spring. There are three seats open and rumor has it that one of the incumbents will not be running. This year's hot topic will have to be (as mentioned in the previous posts and comments) taxes and who will do what and how. Suposedly the BOE is rolling out a 5% increase(this is after The Record reported several months ago that most Bergen County schools are underfunded, except our Public Schools which is overfunded by millions of dollars). Although 5% might not seem like much, just remember the Board of Education budget is approximately 80 million dollars. You do the math!
As most people are aware, the Council extended an invitation to the Board of Education to use the Teaneck residents of the Financial Advisory Board (FAB) and have a Board of Ed member sit on the FAB as well. Not so well received by some members of the Board of Education. I hear that as a result of the FAB, the President of the Board of Education stopped the monthly meetings with the Council subcommittee all together...you know, the one to work on shared services, save Teaneck tax dollars and better communications amongst our elected officials. As the parent of a public school child, I must say this is Bad for the Council, Bad for the Board of Ed and most importantly, bad for the Teaneck residents.
We should support the candidates that will think out of the box and not rubber stamp inflated budgets prepared by administrators and managers.

Taxes Taxes Taxes !!!

We are six months away from getting our tax bill and finding out just what effect the revaluation had on our taxes. While I did not go to the budget meetings in January, I hear that the Council has been combing through the budget line by line to find savings for the Teaneck residents. While I applaud the Council's & the infamous FAB serious efforts to reduce taxes, if the Board of Education that controls 60% of the taxes, doesn't do the same then we will all be in for a big surprise when we get our tax bills. We should encourage our Council members to keep scrutinizing and find cost saving measures and remind their Bd of Ed counterpart to do the same.