LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Mayor calls council out over bylaws

To the editor:

THE HILLSDALE Borough

Council majority simply cannot decide if it wants to act professionally like other municipal bodies. For every positive step they claim to take to improve their image, they take another step backward.

Their latest effort to perfect this “Hillsdale Two-Step” was exposed when they violated their own rules by meeting with profes- sional architects and engineers to discuss potential flooding and location issues for a second community center at the Stonybrook Pool Club. Although the council majority had once again this year adopted bylaws that excluded the mayor from permanent “standing” committees, those same bylaws allow the mayor to be on “special” committees which he appoints.

The Stonybrook Community Center Space Committee is one of those committees. Council members Lundy, Escobar, and Trochimiuk, along with the mayor, are members. These council members never notified the mayor of meetings, nor told the mayor he could participate when councilmember Escobar did not attend either meeting. This happened at the two meetings held by the committee thus far in 2023. I discovered the existence of these meetings only because I periodically request copies of emails from the clerk under the Open Public Meetings Act to learn of committee meetings/communications.

Not content to change its own rules to keep information from reaching the mayor, it has now begun violating portions of the bylaws that it did approve!

It validates my decision not to seek the nomination of the Republican party to run for a third term as mayor. It will be fascinating to see if the council keeps these unfair and punitive bylaws now that I have announced my decision not to run and when a new mayor is chosen, especially if that person is a councilmember who voted for the restrictive rules.

Councilmembers heatedly have denied comments from Councilman Zoltán Horváthand myself that the council has acted non-transparently for several years on key issues, keeping plans for field improvements and community center sites in draft form for months so as not to share them with the public, refusing to consider placing expen- sive capital projects up for a nonbinding referendum, and mischaracterizing the true cost of financing those projects during budget discussions. The council majority needs to come out from the shadows, and let sunlight disinfect its decision-making. It must constrain its tendency to spend large amounts of the publicʼs money as if it were its own on projects that are not widely demanded or are just plain wasteful.

NOTE: Letter submission deadline is 11 a.m. Wednesday for the following Monday’s paper. Publication not guaranteed. Subject to editing. Email topascackpress@thepressgroup.net.

Mayor John J. Ruocco Hillsdale

Editorʼs note:Council leadership declined our invitation to respond.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

The scholarship committee of Knights of Columbus Mother Seton Council #5427 will award another three scholarships from the James Picarella Memorial Trust Fund and one Mother Seton Scholarship. Each scholarship is for $1,000. Applicants for the scholarships must be Township residents graduating high school this year. Nonresidents who have a father, brother, grandfather, or uncle as a member of Mother Seton Council #5427 in good standing for at least one year prior to the date of the application may also apply.

The principal criteria for selecting the winners:

• The award must be applied toward tuition for a full-time student at any accredited institution of higher education: college, business, nursing, or technical school.

• The award will be in one payment to the student upon proof of enrollment.

• Although scholastic ability is of great importance, we will also consider financial need, community involvement, and extracurricular activities.

• The application must be completed by the student in its entirety Leave no blanks. If something does not apply, say so. A high school transcript must accompany the completed application. An incomplete application will be disqualified.

Applications are available at the Westwood High School and Immaculate Heart Academy Guidance Offices, the school websites, and the Knights of Columbus Council. Completed applications must be in a sealed envelope addressed to Mr Paul Elterlein, Scholarship Chairman, Knights of Columbus, 79 Pascack Road, Twp. of Washington 07676, no later than May 15, 2023.

The scholarships will be presented at the Awards Night Meeting, Tuesday, June 13. For more information call the council at (201) 6640422.

Applications for membership in the Knights of Columbus are welcome from qualified individuals. Call (201) 664-0422 or visit kofc5427.com

Woodclifflake

The Planning Board voted, 6-0, that two ordinances to rezone the borough-owned North Broadway site for affordable housing and adopt a redevelopment plan for 188 Broadway are both consistent with the borough Master Plan.

The Borough Council will hold a public hearing on both ordinances at its March 20 meeting.

The hour-long Planning Board meeting was largely pro-forma as the two ordinances both implement aspects of a recent borough legal settlement that permits 24 units of affordable housing on the boroughowned North Broadway site and approved a new 46-unit apartment and townhome settlement (37 apartments and nine townhomes) at 188 Broadway.

(See “Itʼs Settled: 46 Housing Units At 188 Broadway,” Michael Olohan, Dec. 12, 2022, Pascack Press.)

Borough Planner Liz Leheny said the Planning Boardʼs role was to determine if the proposed ordinances were “not inconsistent” with the boroughʼs Master Plan and then make a recommendation back to the Borough Council.

She said both ordinances were based on a court settlement approved with Fair Share Housing Center and 188 Broadway LLP. She said the court-approved settlement gives the borough 60 days to adopt zoning to implement the affordable housing settlement agreement.

That agreement, part of the 188 Broadway settlement, requires the borough to build an additional eight affordable units at the North Broadway site, where 24 units will be built.

The borough also signed an agreement with Bergen County United Way to build the 24 units. This will include 20 affordable housing units and four supportive housing units.

Leheny said the borough must also approve an amended Housing Element and Fair Share Plan, which becomes the Housing Element in the Master Plan.

Attorney John Schettino said approving the zoning changes on the North Broadway site and the Redevelopment Plan were part of a “statutory agreement.” the wooded, sloped area behind the lot. There will be three separate buildings of three townhomes each, she said.

He said if the Planning Board found them Inconsistent with the Master Plan, they would be violating the affordable housing settlement agreement.

Leheny said zoning was not previously adopted for the North Broadway site. Friedberg said the site would provide the “nicest waterfront views” of any New Jersey affordable housing.

Four residents offered comments on the ordinancesʼconsistency with the Master Plan, requirements without the redevelopment plan. She said that each of the nine townhomes could have its own lot and block number. ment complex to the proposed townhomes, and the rear retaining wall. Leheny told her the property setback was 160 feet and the current retaining wall will not be touched.

Alex Couto questioned how high the existing 188 building was with and without mechanical units, noting it could rise up to 38 feet with mechanicals.

Ann Marie Borelli questioned building heights and was told that the hearing was to focus on the proposed ordinancesʼconsistency. She was told specifics of ordinances can be raised before the mayor and council meeting on March 20.

Schettino told members that the borough was meeting its affordable obligations “not having to approve significantly sized developments” as in nearby Park Ridge and Montvale.

Member Thomas Panso wondered where the townhomes would be located and Leheny said they would be built in the existing rear parking lot without encroaching on

Gwenn Levine wondered about part of the 188 redevelopment plan that mentioned part of the lot could be divided into more lots at a future date.

Leheny said that should the townhomes be “siphoned off” to individual owners, they would violate minimum property acreage

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