Your Turn
Letters contain distortions, untruths
John Curley
Guest Column

I was deeply disturbed by the distortions, untruths and character assassinations in letters to the editor by Mayor Edward McKenna and Councilman Pasquale Menna.

McKenna and Menna have stated that Councilwoman Kaye Ernst and I voted against affordable housing in Red Bank. This is a perpetuated untruth because no vote by this council has ever been taken on affordable housing. Ernst and I support affordable housing for all and we will abide by our COAH [Council on Affordable Housing] obligations.

Since Mr. McKenna and Mr. Menna have referred to affordable housing in their letters, the governing body is presently in contract negotiations to purchase property for affordable housing development. Ms. Ernst and I have questioned why we are negotiating with a contract purchaser and not the property owner. Why are the mayor and his cohorts negotiating with a middleman? Ms. Ernst and I have requested full disclosure as to the identity of this middleman, the corporation he represents, and the principals of this corporation.

Ms. Ernst and I want to know why McKenna, Menna, Robert J. Bifani, Arthur Murphy and Sharon Lee are so anxious to pay over-appraised value to purchase this property. Ms. Ernst and I will be persistent in deriving this information to assure full legality. McKenna and Menna state the money to be utilized for this purchase will not be taxpayer money but state grant money. Where do they think state grant money is derived? Obviously from you, the taxpayers. This proposition deserves further scrutinizing and outside investigation.

Their attack on downtown taxpayer William Meyer and reference to Mr. Meyer as a fraud is disgraceful and disgusting. Any individual has the right to appear before this governing body to express his or her opinion. Unfortunately, this administration has forgotten what democracy is about.

Their attack on Mr. Meyer is in direct retaliation to Mr. Meyer exposing a conflict of interest by Zoning Board member Lauren Nicosia, who voted in favor of the BLT development project, Monmouth Street, while her father served as legal counsel to the McKenna-DuPont law firm. The superior court ruled this relationship to be too cozy for comfort and demanded a new Zoning Board hearing. The Zoning Board of Adjustment is a quasi-judicial board and its members should act accordingly.

In an era when Zoning and Planning Board applicants sell their approvals to contract purchasers, it is mandatory to know who we are doing business with.

In an era when the mayor and council attempt to spot zone (illegal in New Jersey) to create a more palatable atmosphere for application approval, we need to know who we are doing business with. Examples are the Lofts project, Front Street and Bridge Avenue, and the Red Bank Recycling solid bulk waste transfer station on Central Avenue.

In an era when McKenna, Menna, Bifani, Murphy and Lee vote to turn public property over to private developers, we need to know who we are doing business with. A right of way was granted to an approved applicant on Mechanic Street allowing ingress and egress onto borough property. Who knows who the contract buyer will be?

Under the "good old boys club," Red Bank has and continues to be a Mecca for opportunist developers. Those developers are now scrambling for application approvals with fear of a new administration in January.

Councilwoman Ernst and I have made budget recommendations, zero-based budgeting to create accountability from the onset, and budget cuts to help maintain affordability for existing homes. McKenna, Menna, Bifani, Murphy and Lee have consistently rejected our ideas.

Affordable housing is not just what we build but what we do for our residents who are collapsing under the burden of unaffordable property taxes. The time for a change is long overdue.

John Curley is a Red Bank Councilman