JACKSON – A special meeting of the governing body was held on Friday the 13th of March that helped officials catch up with township business because a prior meeting was aborted after 14 minutes due to technical difficulties.
Mayor Jennifer Kuhn, Council President Mordechai Burnstein and Councilman Kenneth Bressi were present during the meeting that started at 1:30 p.m. Council Vice President Giuseppe Palmeri and Councilman Nino Borrelli attended via phone, and Councilman Christopher Pollak was absent.
Much of the agenda was taken from the cancelled meeting. Burnstein explained “we put on bills and claims so we could pay our vendors and any employees that needed to be paid. We also did our best to leave on any resolution that pertained to township business.” He said resolutions involving state and federal issues were removed and would “hopefully be on the next agenda.”
Two resolutions that were passed were R118-2026 that approved an Affirmative Marketing Plan and R119-2026 that approved the Fourth Round Affordable Housing Spending Plan.
Borrelli asked about these plans. Burnstein responded that he had the opportunity to speak with the affordable housing team and with other council members. “These are not adding units into Jackson Township. The affordable housing spending plan is part of the fourth round in which we are adopting. The spending plan which allows for a certain percentage of those funds that the developers pay, not the taxpayers.”
Every town is required to make a certain number of affordable homes available, based on a complex formula. Every town in the state is now wrapping up their fourth round of obligations, which would last from 2025 to 2035.
Burnstein said developers pay into the affordable housing fund which is then used to rehabilitate existing affordable homes.
“There are certain new laws and regulations that do exist. These are administrative that we are obligated to adopt,” the council president added.
He said the ordinance that would codify this would be introduced at a future council meeting. “These are bedroom counts and additionally this is the spending plan which basically tells us how we can spend that money. Any time money is spent from the affordable housing plan it has to get approval from the affordable housing judge. The new rules are actually tougher in the way some of this money is going to be spent.”
He gave the example that during the previous round, if the township were permitted to spend money on a rehab “you had 10 years if you decided to sell your unit that you lived in, in the meantime you had to pay back the percentage. Now, it is going to be deed restricted. If you get town rehab funding you are not going to be allowed to sell your house for 10 years.”
Resident Deb Jones came to the podium during the public comment period asking questions about Phil Stilton and what his title was when he was working for the township. Stilton owns a media outlet that features articles concerning Jackson Township and other communities.
“I think he had a contract for PR purposes. He wasn’t an employee of the township. I don’t know if he had a title,” Burnstein replied and then asked Township Attorney Gregory McGuckin for clarification.
“It was a contracted service with the township,” McGuckin responded.
Burnstein and other members of the council voted to approve Stilton’s public relations services in 2025. His work involved writing press releases for the township website.
“Who does that now?” Jones asked in response.
“We did not replace him,” the council president answered.
Jones asked if Stilton was still being paid to which Burnstein replied, “no he was not renewed for 2026.We did not hire anyone in that position currently.”
Resolutions that were approved during the special meeting included R104-2026 assigning Special Project Engineers French & Parello Associates to perform professional services related to monitoring testing of the former Legler Landfill; R105-2026 authorizing architectural services with Tokarski & Millemann Architects, LLC for an increase of $750 that will include re-design services; and R106-2026 that would authorize T&M Associates for the preparation, advertisement and acceptance of bids for the Project ‘2024 Drainage Improvement Program.’
Also approved was R108-2026 authorizing a Municipal Alliance Strategic Plan, R109-2026 authorizing the execution of a shared services agreement with Manchester Township for chief financial officer services.
Other resolutions included R113-2026 that would appoint attorney Joseph Champagne, of the law firm Champagne Law Group, LLC as public defender; R112-2026 an agreement With Pasha Consulting, LLC for the provision of budget preparation consulting services, R116-2026 to obtain a leaf composting 2025 grant from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Bureau Of New Jersey Pollution
Discharge Elimination System Stormwater Permitting and participation in the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety Safe and Secure Grant for $21,676.
As this special meeting was designed to advance time sensitive matters, it did not include some of the prior agenda items such as a proclamation to the Jackson Youth Football-11 U Football organization and a proclamation concerning stroke awareness and being “Stroke Smart” or ordinances on second reading such as Ordinance 2026-04 entitled “Vehicles and Traffic” “Schedules”, Ordinance 2026-05 entitled “Portable Sanitary Facilities” and Ordinance 2026-06 that would repeal and replace township code entitled “Rent Control for Apartments and Manufactured Home Parks.”
Future ordinances expected to be introduced include Ordinance 2026-07 authorizing the purchase of property on Patterson Road, Ordinance 2026-08 that would amend township code with respect to dogs and kennels and Ordinance 2026-09 entitled “Land Use and Development Regulations.”
