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: