JACKSON – The problem of pedestrian and vehicle traffic on Pitney Lane led to an argument about code enforcement during a recent Township Council meeting in relation to whether violations were being addressed.
Pitney Lane connects two busy roads – East Veterans Highway and South Cooks Bridge Road.
One resident, who is an EMT, said he appreciated the council’s focus on adding traffic calming measures to Pitney Lane noting it was a dangerous area for children and adults to cross and that there was an incident last year of pedestrians struck by a car. “It is important that these traffic calming implementations are being done.”
Another resident, Janice Solero of Deer Creek Court, also spoke about Pitney Lane. “There is a lot of noise in the township of Jackson which many people have pointed out due to one particular home, 45 Pitney. I don’t know if they run a business out of there or a religious thing going on. That is a lot of the traffic with the addition that was added on to the house.”
She added, “I’ve done things to my house. I’ve gone through the township and everything is legit. Why aren’t these laws applying to every resident in Jackson? Most people put an addition to their house because their families are extended, not to have 50 people at your house consistently.”
Solero also questioned the addition of several warehouses in the township. “Most of them are empty. What are they going to be used for?”
Council President Jennifer Kuhn referred her to the Zoning Board to get an answer on that, specifically “Jeff Purpuro, the zoning officer. “If you e-mail him, I’m sure he’ll be able to answer you.”
Kuhn said that residents have the ability to check on property uses, landlords and inquiries like that.
“You don’t need to send an OPRA (Open Public Records Act) request you can just go on this (SDL) app. You can have it on your phone. I have it on mine and you can put in any address and look. I know there are residents that call me and they are in an uproar. There was one on Oakley Hill when two houses got put together. Our township approved it,” Kuhn added.
“That is insane. I went through 12 closings on a deck,” Solero responded.
“We get a lot of the heat but it has nothing to do with us. We’re ordinances and resolutions,” the council president stressed.
Resident Chris Pollak remarked that he was “a father, a business owner and a resident who is deeply invested in this town and like so many residents I am frustrated by the direction we are heading in by politicians who serve special interests instead of the people.”
“We’re watching our town change and it’s not for the better. This is not the future that any of our families want and this council sits up here pretending that your hands are tied,” he added.
Pollak told the council, “You ignore the problems until residents make enough noise to embarrass you into action like the LLCs and the illegal rentals. LLCs and corporate investors are buying up single family homes and turning many of them into illegal rentals, packing unrelated families under one roof. That hurts our infrastructure.”
“What do you guys do? You enable it. You cut the fines. You defunded code enforcement and you attacked the very department meant to protect us. You guys are liars. You didn’t want to upset the special interest group that put you here,” Pollak added.
Pollack took issue with two council members in particular. “We have a council president who runs a real estate business and openly works for institutional investors and hedge funds. She profits off the same system that’s buying up homes in bulk turning our neighborhoods into rental zones.”
Referencing Vice Council President Mordechai Burnstein, Pollack added, “we have a council vice president whose wife runs a political action committee with the wife of a major developer, a PAC that has raised a quarter million dollars from developers, real estate investors, contractors and people seeking township approvals and favors.”
“This council isn’t just ignoring problems. They are financially entangled in them,” the resident said, offering up several options for action that he accused the council of deliberately ignoring.
Kuhn responded to his statements saying, “I’ve been working on landlord registration for over a year and a half. It’s documented. We’ve all been working. It’s not that easy. In relation to your accusations about LLCs, we are trying.”
She said that she and Councilman Giuseppe Palmeri sent 41 properties to code enforcement to check on more than a week ago. “I pulled their tracking; they have not done one property. I’m not here for a show and pony. I’m here to answer you.”
Kuhn repeated, “your information is not accurate. You just come up and you talk about accusations. You are not giving facts. This is legislation. I respect you but you are just not accurate.”
“I have a real estate license. Do you know how many previous mayors had real estate licenses? Council members? Zoning Board members? Your zoning department, your building department? All your department heads all have a broker’s license,” the council president responded further. “When the Code Enforcement has 41 properties – doesn’t go to one property in a week – why are we the problem?” Kuhn asked.
“We’re not, we’re looking into it,” she said in response to her own question. “You want to talk about all the other information? It’s inaccurate.”
David Visconi of Whitesville Road clarified that he was speaking as a resident “and not an employee of code enforcement. Miss Kuhn at just about every council meeting you go on your tirade about the deficiencies of code enforcement. That list that you are waving in the air has been looked into for two weeks now.”
“You are either misinformed or lying that nothing is being done about it,” Visconi added. “The other thing about that list, it was on Spanish TikTok – which Code Enforcement does not have access to – or any other social media – to use as a form of monitoring. You are waving this list that is now being looked into but we did not have access to the information prior to two weeks ago.”
Visconi asked about the second changing of the landlord registration and rental certificate of occupancies “that you are implementing.”
“Sir that hasn’t been introduced yet so I would wait until the next meeting,” Kuhn interjected.
“I understand that but your proposed change, the second one in two years. I believe you said two code enforcement officers would be assigned full time to do these yearly rental inspections.”
Visconi said, “as of April we had nine officers assigned to the office, not including the supervisor or two clerks. In May one of the officers quit. That leaves eight. Currently we have seven working because one is out on a medical issue. A few weeks ago, you indicated you wanted to decimate the ranks of code enforcement by four officers. That would leave seven officers.”
“You want three more gone,” Visconi added. “Your plan is to have two officers assigned to these rental inspections. That would leave two officers to do everything else.”
“How inaccurate you are is mindboggling,” Kuhn responded. “You are part-time, correct?”
“Correct,” Visconi answered.
The council president asked Visconi if he was a department head and he responded no.
“It is between me and the department head,” she said. “The Department Head gave me two officers that were looking into it. Residents supplied them the information pertaining to the quality of life in their neighborhood and asked them to look into it and you are telling me for a 40-hour work week or an 80-hour work week there is not one property that is logged into our system that they looked into and that’s not a problem for you?”
She added that landlord registration measure had just been received by the council as a draft. “They absolutely would not be part of your department because you don’t work so I would not take people from your department and put them into a task team for people that need to go and check on a list of 41 properties that can’t check on them in almost two weeks.”
“Your problem with code enforcement is personal because of all the enforcement issues that have taken place regarding you,” Visconi responded.
Kuhn replied, “sir you sent me to court and you lost. I would expose that you brought me to court for no reason. You were found that you were just antagonizing – literally intimidating – me.”
Palmeri noted that while Visconi said he was speaking as a resident, “he did allude to knowledge of code enforcement which is kind of a gray area. I guess we are all looking at updates. I know code enforcement is looking at these 41 addresses. It would be courteous if we could receive updates. Our Assistant Business Administrator Mrs. Novak did e-mail saying if (Code Enforcement) request access to specific websites for investigations it would be granted to you through IT. You can research it through a website.”
Resident Carlos Martin sported a T-shirt that read “If you are going through hell, keep going.” He attempted to lower the emotional temperature in the room. “It’s hot enough outside; we don’t need it in here.” He said that during prior council meetings, residents came up to complain about the township’s animal control. “I’m here to say something actually nice about them.”
Martin said one of his dogs gets out of the yard all the time. “That’s his nature. In the morning he feels he has to patrol the neighborhood and make sure everybody is okay and then he comes back in so obviously not all neighbors know my dog.”
“Animal Control is being called all the time and I know it is annoying to them but they’ve been wonderful. I understand there is one person a little rough around the edges but he is doing his job. If there is a dog loose and he is called he has to come and take care of it and that’s what he does,” Martin added.
He also asked the council about the status of a traffic light in his neighborhood that had been approved years ago and why a recreation department position was being considered as part of a proposal that is still being studied by members of council. In his last 40 seconds left to speak he noted that the Open Space Trust Fund was not the Open Space Trust Fund and Other Municipal Uses Trust Fund – meaning it needed to only be used for the preservation of open space within the township. “Please look into that.”
