Media Crackdown Proposed by Council

It may turn out to be coincidental timing, but last weeks elimination of TV coverage for the Bloomfield's annual Budget planning meeting, turned out to be a prelude to a laundry list of new restrictions on coverage of council meetings.

The planned changes appear to have originated from a complaint by the Mayor regarding the use of cell phones to send text messages during meetings. Some councilmen were even accused of texting each other.

The proposed new rules will make it significantly more difficult for attendees to use audio, still, and video media to document both conference and regular meetings whether they be residents or journalists. Rule number 1 has sparked the greatest concern:

The citizen must provide the Clerk of the municipality with no less than 30 minutes verbal notice prior to the Meeting of his intention to exercise his right to videotape or photograph the Meeting. Failure to provide advance notice of the intent to utilize the equipment prior to each Meeting shall preclude its use at such Meeting.

 Other restrictions include limited the use of such devices to the last 2 rows of Council Chambers, not allowing photographers to move from their initial position during the meeting to get a better angle, and not allowing audio recordings to be transcribed for any purpose. Perhaps the most sweeping and vague rule declares that:

no photographs may be taken or audio/videotape recordings made within a public facility of any person, place or event relating to the administration and/or conduct of official municipal business.

This seems to suggest that no public official could be interviewed or photographed ANYWHERE for ANY reason. At last weeks conference meeting the township attorney Brian Aloia maintained that he was adhering to the guidelines of NJ's Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) The unfortunate reality is that there are still many grey areas in the act that continue to be interpreted the courts.

Attacking Bloomfield's Crumbling Infrastructure

Spring is arriving a bit late this year, but the last deep freeze may deposit it's last pothole on Bloomfield's streets by the end of the week.


Stanziale Construction of Bloomfield, NJ was awarded a contract last year for a number of streets and will complete the following
roadways:

- Ashland Avenue
- Maolis Avenue
- Williamson Avenue

This work is scheduled to start in two to four weeks.

DLS Contractors of Nutley, NJ was recently awarded a contract for resurfacing of the following roads:

- Bellevue Avenue
- Kinder Drive and Pieretti Court
- Brighton Avenue
- Farrandale Avenue
- Spring Street (Speed Humps)
- Clair Street (Speed Humps)
- Broughton Avenue (From Elston Street to Barbara Street)*

This work is scheduled to start in the early spring.

*A striping/traffic calming program is currently under design for the entire length of Broughton Avenue for
implementation later this year.

Broad Street from James Street to Hoover Avenue will undergo a major streetscape improvement. A bid opening is
scheduled for May 2nd for all interested contractors. Once awarded this work is anticipated to start after Memorial Day.

JFK Drive (north and south), south of Bloomfield Avenue up to the Garden State Parkway Ramps will be
resurfaced this year. Authorization to advertise will be presented to the Mayor and council on March 27th.

Bid plans and specification are currently being prepared for a number of streets with the anticipation to bid and construct later this
year. These streets include:

- Gillespie Road
- Oak Tree Lane

The Township also submitted an NJDOT Local Aid application with the Borough of Glen Ridge for the resurfacing of Essex Avenue
between Benson Street and Bay Avenue. Construction is dependent upon award of these funds.

Any projects not started or completed by the end of the construction season will be carried into next year.

The township is responsible for approximately 85 miles of roadway. The engineering department has prepared a five-year roadway
resurfacing program which is re-evaluated every year. Criteria for prioritizing streets include, pavement surface condition;
condition/presence of curbing, traffic volumes and drainage conditions. All streets improvements are conditioned upon review and
approval by the Mayor and Council for the given Capital Budget Year.





 http://www.bloomfieldtwpnj.com/content/advisory

BOH Rings

Item: Bloomfield's Board of Health has hired a new grant writer and social media consultant.

"The Health Department, with the use of a telephone survey company, is conducting a random telephone survey from March 13-21. If you receive a call you will be informed that it is the Health Department that is conducting the survey. This survey is part of a comprehensive Health Assessment that is being performed so that the Health Department can tailor its services to the needs of the residents. If you have any questions, please call the Health Department at 973.680.4024."

Chicken Coop Plans Will Hatch This Saturday Morning

Although plans for Bloomfield's annual budget meeting Saturday morning have laid an egg,(rescheduled for the following Saturday) there will be still be another ordinance related meeting at to discuss a the process for having the Bloomfield Town Council approve an ordinance and start a pilot backyard hen program. This movement was inspired by successful programs in such nearby towns as Montclair and Maplewood.  Guest speaker Victor Alfieri will be talking about his experience with raising hens.

The discussion will include ideas for urban and suburban homesteading. The location is the Bloomfield College Library (Oakland & Liberty) on Saturday, at 10 a.m.

Budget Weak

Tuesday evening's Board of Education budget  meeting will be held in the BHS auditorium to allow maximum public participation. It will also be taped by WBMA-TV.

Saturday"s special Bloomfield Town Council Budget Meeting is scheduled to be held at 8AM in the Mayor's Conference Room.(Rescheduled to Sat. March 23) WBNA-TV will not be allowed to tape it,  The proposed budget is being kept under wraps until the meeting, but previous budgets can be found on the Bloomfield Township website. The pie chart above breaks down 2012 expenditures. (click on graph to enlarge)

The Bloomfield Board of Education  is holding a Special Board Meeting, in the Conference Room on the second floor of the Administration Building, located at 155 Broad Street, Bloomfield, NJ 07003.: Sunday, March 17, 2013 – 11:00 AM (Open to the public)

Below the Bone

Is this the future of education in Bloomfield?
At Tuesday night's meeting, Bloomfield's Board of Education reluctantly approved a 2013 budget that reduced the teaching staff of the school system by 20% or 86 teachers. The vote for the budget was 7-2 with Board members Catzel Bumpus and Robert DeMarino voting no. Extended online discussions of issues raised by the school budget shortfall are currently taking place on local facebook forums and the previously dormant NJO Bloomfield forum.

Two budged proposals are expected to be added to November ballot. The first asks voters if they to pay $2,730,000 to restore 42 teaching jobs. The second proposes a tax increase of $594,000 to repair and upgrade school facilities.

The complete video coverage of the BOE Budget meting can be viewed here,

When a Home Business Becomes Big Business

Zoning Board meetings tend to deal with building improvements or additions that may require variances from the township code. Other than an occasional next door neighbor, they rarely generate much attention from the public, One of the two applications to be he heard at this Thursday's ZB meeting has already provoked much discussion on neighborhood Facebook pages all over town.

But when a newly purchased single family home began attracting lines of cars loaded with laundry every morning, neighbors up and down Pitt Street began to get organized to challenge what turned out to be a well established commercial cleaning business.

15-38. Zoning regulations. 

A. R-1A, R-1B, R-2A, R2B single- and two-family residential zones. 

(1) Purpose. The intent of these zones is to preserve the integrity of existing residential areas by preventing the intrusion of nonresidential uses into residential neighborhoods and by maintaining existing development intensity and population density consistent with residential neighborhood patterns and the specified one- or two-family densities for each particular zone..

This issue is not confined to the North Center Neighborhood. I've seen it happen in the Newark area on a smaller scale, but it can happen anywhere. Home businesses are a growing trend and can be an asset to a community, but lines need to be drawn. It's up to our Zoning Board to make the call.

UPDATE on Pitt St. Zoning Board Application: Their attorney did NOT give proper notice so the ZB will NOT hear this application on Thursday, March 7. 

Meet DPW Officials at Tomorrow's Greener Bloomfield Meeting

Join us for the February 2013 Greener Bloomfield meeting Thursday at 7 PM at the Bloomfield Civic Center. There will be an open public discussion with Bloomfield's Recycling Coordinator Joe Testa and Department of Public Works and Parks director Anthony Nesto.

They will discuss the waste management and recycling programs in town, with some statistics, information on the expanded list of recyclables, and challenges they face where we might be able to help. Mr. Nesto will also discuss their green initiatives and challenges, including lawn and field maintenance, water conservation efforts, plantings, infrastructure, and even Christmas lights (can we finally go LED?). Everyone is welcome. Bring your questions and suggestions! Greener Bloomfield was able to reach some success in 2010 when it was actively involved in consulting with downtown redevelopment planners. They became Sustainable Jersey certified - one of only 34 towns in NJ at that time. Now there are many more grants to apply for under Sustainable Jersey certification

License to Bill

Bloomfield's Health Department has gained a great deal of notoriety in the past year for the way it has treated it's animal shelter, its adoptions, it's staff and its volunteers. This Friday, our new Township Administrator takes over full control from the quasi-independent Board of Health. At the same time, other incidents of malfeasance by the Health Department are coming under scrutiny. We've been getting reports from a variety of businesses in town that they're now being given the runaround on what should be routine license renewals.
One business owner writes:

I received a letter from the BOH for my (business) stating Second and Final notice to renew license. Include $30 plus $25. late fee. I mailed form and the $30 stating this was the First and ONLY notice I received.. Well they sent it back to me stating they can't accept it without the late fee. Just got off the phone with boh and they said if fee is not included, a summons will be issued...They are not responsible for the first letter not reaching me. If they waive the fee for me, they have to waive it for the other 20+ ppl calling in. I said then maybe there was an issue with your generating of 1st letters. To end this long story.. I was told told to take it up with Karen lore. Wonderful!!! Ughh.. It's just the principle of it!!!! Right??

Another reported that they had brought the bill to Town Hall and paid in person -- only to receive another bill several days later. Business owners and residents alike have been told there "may be a glitch in the system".
We also know pet owners who have spoken out on the Memphis issue who have been fined for "late payments" on licenses that were not overdue,

Conference Room

Kind of strange to sit in the mayor's seat in his conference room with no "politicians" in sight. Actually there were several past and present town "officials" at Saturday's meeting of the Bloomfield Neighborhood Association Committee.  But they were all wearing their resident "hats" from many different neighborhoods. Most numerous were past and present members of the Zoning and Planning Boards. How many can you count?  Everyone was given equal time to discuss such issues as community gardens,  downtown redevelopment,  overdevelopment,  historic preservation, taxes,  abandoned homes,  and school overcrowding. A major goal for the year is to organize another Candidates Night in October,

Facebooking Bloomfield Neighborhoods

Before Facebook, the main way for residents to find out what's going on in town was to go buy one of the weekly newspapers or go to a Council meeting. In the last few months. several new Facebook have caught fire by giving residents an interactive tool to keep up with the lastest issues facing their neighborhood on many levels.

 Citizens of Bloomfield is the largest group with several hundred followers. It covers the entire town with an emphasis on downtown redevelopment progress. htthttps://www.facebook.com/groups/29160983427892ps://www.facebook.com/groups/291609834278926

On the south end, Watsessing Heights Neighbors has been around the longest although their Facebook page has only recently caught fire. Some of their topics for discussion have yielded over 100 comments.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/watsessingheights/

North Center Neighbors just started earlier in the week
https://www.facebook.com/groups/143765632452405/

Brookdale Connections started today.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/107880222715777/2715777/

Bloomfield Neighborhood Association to Meet Saturday

The Bloomfield Neighborhood Association Committee was originally established in 1997 to provide a forum for neighborhood groups to meet with Bloomfield's Mayor and to discuss issues affecting neighborhoods as well as townwide concerns.

It is a loosely organized grassroots network of Bloomfield residents which meets to share the interests and concerns of Bloomfield residents. Anyone can attend meetings. It has usually met in the Mayor's Conference room,  but as it has grown, moved many of its bi-monthly meetings to the larger venues.

No one could remember a time when the current Mayor participated, but we've met with most other town leaders, including, the Police Chief, Fire Chief, Assessor and Town Administrator. As a non-partison forum, the BNAC was able to host Candidate's Nights at Bloomfield College's Van Fossan Hall before most local elections.

The group is meeting at 10 AM Saturday in the 2nd floor Mayor's Conference room in the Police Building.

Signed, Soiled, and Delivered

Bloomfield's Neighbor to Neighbor Network has enlisted many of their volunteers in a telephone and internet campaign to pressure our Town Council to consent to transferring control of it's animal shelter to the non-profit group. Comments from many of those asked to sign their petitions suggest that they were misled to believe that the shelter would be shut down if the transfer did not place.
Not true.

When the petitions were turned into the Township Clerk, a friend was able to get copies under the Open Public Records Act.(OPRA).

We've signed our share of petitions in recent years, but never one quite like this.

The Collins House Is Still Standing -- Barely

One of Bloomfield's oldest residences, the Collins House reflects the history of the time periods through which it has survived. Its oldest section dates from 1790. It is possible parts of the house are even older, as a cornerstone survives dated 1759.

The central portion of the house is the oldest section of the building. The basic architecture is one of the few surviving East Jersey cottages left in this area. The larger portion of the house was added to the older section between 1815 and1820, and a small addition was annexed on the other side of the oldest section of the house in the mid-19th century.

The Collins House is intertwined with the early history of Bloomfield and the growth of industry along the Third River. Its location between the main road leading through Bloomfield to “Stone House Plains,” as the northern end of town once was called, adjacent to the Third River, made it an integral part of the mill industry in the area even though the Collins family themselves did not operate a mill. From their website:

"The vision of Friends of the Collins House is to restore the pre-1900 section of the house, reusing a section of the house as an apartment for a resident caretaker and maintaining another section of the house for historic and educational tours, lectures and public events. The property surrounding the house, which already has a paved area for visitor parking, would be open to the public as part of a Morris Canal/Third River heritage tourist Greenway park with educational historical interpretive signage about the development of adjacent mill industries, the Morris Canal Inclined Plane and history of the house. We would like to involve local civic organizations that may wish to use space in the building and park area as sponsors to help with volunteer labor and financial assistance for renovation work."

If you would like to help save the Collins House by volunteering or making a contribution, Friends of Collins House can be contacted at: info@CollinsHouse.org.

Crime Watch at Civic Center

You need not have resided in the 3td Ward to have come away with some major insights from last night's meeting at the Civic Center. Organized by Councilman Carlos Bernard, the well attended meeting focussed primarily crime and security issues addressed by police officers and detectives from both Bloomfield and Newark. 2nd Ward Councilman Nick Joanow and Newark Councilman Anibal Ramos also participated. A few of the new realities that we were made aware of:

1) East Orange and Newark now have such sophisticated technologies in place as 25/7 security cameras on nearly every block and the ability to track the current addresses of every convicted felon.

2) The fact that our population as a "township" has remained under the 50,000 threshold is keeping us from much of the assistance that larger "cities" receive.

3) Bloomfield has as few as 8 police cars available to cover the whole township on some shifts. A major crime event can engage as many as four of them.

4) Police cars from both Newark and Bloomfield frequently cross the town borders -- both in pursuit if perpetrators and on routine patrol. They may serve as a deterrent, but are not allowed to respond to calls from residents.

5) Bloomfield has one officer who cruises major arteries with a device that downloads a photo of every license plate it passes and instantly locates cars linked to crimes as well as expired registrations.

6) One of the main reasons for having so many one way streets in the Ampere area was to make it harder for perpetrators to make a quick getaway.

7) Cell phones and neighborhood watches are very useful in curtailing crime, but no one should follow or approach any suspect.

Code Red

As this weekend's megastorm approaches, it's a good time to register with Code Red. Just fill in the appropriate information to be notified by your local emergency response team in the event of emergency situations or critical community alerts. Examples include: evacuation notices, bio-terrorism alerts, boil water notices, and missing child reports.

The township pays for this service, and it is used only to distribute official emergency notifications

Previewing New Rentals -- East Side vs Westside

"A signature redevelopment, a remarkable transformation"

This is an artists conception of what Bloomfield's largest new rental complex should look like soon. Built in 1897 for the General Electric Company, this iconic building is being recreated as the cornerstone of a vibrant residential village near Watsessing Station.  Pre-opening rents can still be reserved starting at $1599 for Studio apartments, ranging up to penthouse units for quite a bit more.

Meanwhile,about a mile west at Liberty and Broad, preliminary plans for a major rental project on the Annie Sez site was presented at Monday's town council conference meeting. There were few questions from the council but over on Baristanet the critics pounced.

Waiting it Out

At last night's packed conference meeting, Bloomfield's Council voted to give control of the animal shelter to Ted Ehrenberg, the new Town Manager.
After discussing the controversial plan of the Neighbor to Neighbor Network to takeover the shelter, the Town Council voted that the Mr. Ehrenberg be in charge of the administration of the animal shelter. NTNN will be allowed to negotiate with the Town Administrator.

After a 21 day waiting period, it comes back to the Town Council. If the town council so chooses they can appoint NTNN to take over the management of the shelter.

Councilman Hamilton said and RFP should be issued. Other items of the BOH and its autonomy came up but everything will be dealt in due time. No one who works for the town can be on the NTNN board.

Shelter Show Case

The handwriting was on the wall when word got out that a phone and email campaign was being made by Bloomfield Animal Shelter to it's long adoption list. It was also clear from the signup sheet for the public comment section of Tuesday's council meeting. What stood out is that nearly all the 8+ signatures were clearly written by the same hand. It was also clear from the numerous professionally printed black and blue signs held by the Shelter staffers sitting in front of the council room.

Further back in the room were shelter manager, Kathleen Gregorovich, Karen Lore, and BOH members, Joel Elkins and Kathleen DeMarino. All the comments can be seen and heard online. Their shared message was that the Shelter was being perfectly managed, but could only survive by being merged with the Neighbor to Neighbor Network.

Beth Mersten Cruz and myself were the only speakers present to offer any rebuttal. The leader of the fundraising committee felt the need to interrupt her more than once and plead with the Mayor for a re-rebuttal -- without success.
For an odd variety of reasons, there was no online press coverage of the meeting. The Board of Ed Meeting that night was considered more important for coverage by Bloomfield Life and The Patch. The Independent Press covered it, but has reduced it's online presence. The Baristanet correspondant's car broke down. More comments on the issues raised can be found on the very active Facebook pages of Citizens of Bloomfield and Save the Bloomfield/Bukowski Shelter.

Beth sent out the following note after the meeting"

Mayor and Town Council: 
Thank you for your time during the public comment section of today’s council meeting. It is abundantly clear, yet again, that people in our town and surrounding areas really care about the animals and the shelter. To avoid future controversies and to ensure quality shelter management and care for the animals, I respectfully request the RFP to clearly state the requirements expected of the agency providing shelter management.  

Some requirements should include a welcoming and well-managed volunteer program, a foster program, the transfer of animals to rescue whenever possible, investigation of acts of cruelty and other misconduct, keeping Petfinder and similar type listings up to date, treating employees fairly, providing timely veterinary care, working cooperatively with other local shelters to save lives, and continued “no-kill” status with less than 2% “euthanasia” rate. Key performance indicators (KPI) should be defined for all required services. 

I also ask the Township to clarify in advance how the outsourced service provider will be overseen by the town and how complaints will be handled. The agency should provide reports with clear metrics to the Township. There must also be a process to escalate complaints to the Township and follow up with the service provider when needed. These management tools of reporting and problem resolution are critical to ensure the requirements listed in the RFP are indeed being provided to the town, and issues can be resolved quickly without long-term controversy.  

 I have previously listed numerous issues in the past year related to the BOH’s oversight of the shelter’s management and refusals to comply with the Town Council’s requests. Please consider appointing fresh faces to the BOH and/or changing the BOH from autonomous to elected. 

 Thank you, Beth Mersten Cruz Shelter Showcase

Lore has managed NtNN for 12 years until her resignation last month. She always maintained that the NtNN's mission has been to provide volunteers "to fill in service gaps in the township's behalf." The question remains how NtNN can continue it's mission with the Shelter which has adopted a policy of firing its most experienced volunteers and turning away nearly all prospective recruits.  The shelter issue is once again on the official agenda for this Monday's council meeting.