During two recent Township Committee meetings, it became apparent that the Mayor and others have been engaged in some sort of secret negotiations with North End “developers.”
During the July 9 Committee meeting, Mayor Williams was presiding.
Blogfinger recorded and posted this item regarding the North End Plan:
“Joan Venezia, representing the HOA North End Committee, …..once again asked, during the public portion, if there was any progress with the North End Plan.
“Vito Gadaleta, the Township Business Manager, responded and said that although a meeting involving the Township had been held with developers, no progress was achieved, and that he and the Mayor were clashing with those developers regarding who gets to decide what will be built.”
BF: This revelation is crazy, because only the unchangeable approved plan (2008) should define what should be built.
At the August 13 Committee meeting (Carol Rizzo presiding,) During the committee reports Committeeman Brantley said, ” We are moving on redevelopment but we are not getting what we want.” He did not say which redevelopment projects they were “negotiating” about.
During the Public Portion:
Diane Harris, a Neptuner who once ran for Committee as an Independent said to Brantley: “They are not giving you what you want? What do you want?”
Brantley responded , “I can’t say because we are negotiating.”
Nancy Clarke, representing the HOA, asked Brantley “What redevelopment areas are you negotiating?”
Brantley: “The North End, Mid-town, etc (the Township is engaged with a number of redevelopment projects.)
Blogfinger commentary: Paul Goldfinger, Editor and Jack Bredin, Reporter and researcher.
Secret negotiations lack transparency and are thus suspicious. The Township Committee is the “Redevelopment Entity” for the North End Redevelopment Plan. As such, they should not be having secret meetings.
They have failed to reveal what these meetings are about and whom they are negotiating with. We know that there is supposedly a new re-developer, but no redeveloper can be named or met with unless they have been formally approved and identified by the Township. And how can there be a new redeveloper without bids being offered and reviewed publicly?
Michael Badger, President of the CMA says that there is a new plan, but no new plan has ever been formally adopted.
This business reeks from the perception of impropriety. Local governments may not engage in any actual impropriety or even a perception of such.
This process, as revealed above, must be investigated by the State Attorney General because there is a foul smell emanating from the Neptune Township Municipal Building. We challenge any of the current Committeemen to do their duty, as elected officials, and make a public statement to explain what is going on here.
In 2015 we heard from a local developer who tried to have his plan for the North End presented fairly to Neptune Township during the initial processes of 2008. This is his email to us:
We are suspicious of all this, and rightfully so.
FIORELLO: Original Broadway cast:
RRS
Ocean Grove was established “to provide a place for spiritual birth, growth, and renewal”—- a goal that is just as important today as it was in 1869.
Today in OG the trend is ‘to provide a place for real estate investment.
It will take more than one person with deep pockets to get us back to our historic values.
What is the citizen’s legal recourse in situations where a municipal government has made a practice of routinely failing to comply with and enforce zoning law? Or, as in this case, seemingly cherry picking RSIS and local zoning law to their advantage to permit high density development that is otherwise prohibited?
Is the only recourse to hope that a concerned citizen of substantial financial means is willing to absorb the expense of filing a civil suit?
Since the Township and the OGCMA are maintaining radio silence, is there even enough public information to file a lawsuit? How do Sunshine Laws figure into all of this?
Kevin Chambers, I also agree with your assessment that the NERP has been one major sham that must be investigated by the State Attorney General, or better yet the FBI.
Regarding Kevin chambers strong opinions regarding broken laws in OG, here is a link with more of Kevin’s thoughts.
https://blogfinger.net/2017/04/29/throwing-down-the-gauntlet-in-ocean-grove-a-guest-editorial-by-kevin-chambers/
And, you can go to our search box at the top right hand corner of this page and type in “Kevin Chambers) to read some more references.
A serious question must be asked and answered regarding whether the Township of Neptune has entered into a contract with an outside attorney to commit a felony as to the North End development?
In 1999, the Township applied to the State RSIS Board (Residential Site Improvement Standards) for an exception to RSIS knowing that Neptune’s zoning for OG was in direct violation of law. The application was conceived to deceive the State in order to perpetuate illegal zoning,,that was created using the dirty institution of segregation, that removed OG from the legal zoning of Neptune.
From that time to the present, the Township has been in direct violation of law and in contempt of a court order to bring the zoning for OG into conformity with law, for the clear intent to harm and endanger the residents of OG.
When the Township held its 2007 hearings on creating the North End Area in Need of Redevelopment, its planners and attorneys used zoning that they knew was clearly in violation of law; therefore the documents and testimony used by their experts was also in direct violation of law. In other words, the whole North End Redevelopment Plan has been one major sham.
The attorney who has currently been hired by the Township for the North End Development must be fully aware that all documents related to the North End Development was based on a corruption of the law, was based on false testimony, and was based on false documents. Every aspect of this North End project was created through fraud since the zoning that the Township was and is still using for OG is still in direct violation of law and therefore invalid.
There can be no question that by the Township entering into a contract with this outside attorney, it shows a clear intent of the Township and the outside attorney in committing and perpetuating a felony.
This must be investigated by the State’s Attorney.
Kevin Chambers
Editor’s disclaimer: Kevin Chambers has made these assertions many times in the past. The opinions stated above are his only.
Thanks for the link to your past article. It’s worth rereading. If CMA does not want to be involved with the town, should the town ( the secular) then not have any say in what goes on here? Landlords only have so much authority.
Here is a link to an article we wrote about the relationship between the CMA and the residents of Ocean Grove.
https://blogfinger.net/2018/02/06/culture-wars-in-ocean-grove-what-will-the-relationship-become-involving-the-residents-of-og-and-the-cma/
Note also that the CMA often refers to itself as “Ocean Grove” but clearly there is their Ocean Grove and the community of residents in Ocean Grove.
Is it not a moral imperative for Michael Badger and CMA to put an end to the manipulation and abuse by Neptune of our town?
It’s beginning to feel as if there are two Ocean Groves and one of them is of less consequence.
Retired,
There is an approval process that limits the density of private development.
There is also a total different process where a public project is limited only to the public’s need.
Regarding the North End, the Township developed a third process that mixes the
private process and the public process together in ways that were never intended by the State Legislature.
This”special Neptune Township process” resulted in an additional 140 units that would not have been permitted in OG by either the private or the public process.
Doesn’t any development/variance require that property owners within a certain distance from the subject property be notified so that they may voice any concerns to the governing body in a public forum.