Based on what was said during the discussions of the ROSE fund tax referendum, it is too late to add a new referendum to this November's election.

The public referendum would be November 6th when the people on the council who are closed minded and have no idea of how to do the right thing for the town are voted out. They won't even vote to shut down a street for Halloween, even when the Recreation Committee is for it, and has the funds. But some of the council will waste $30,000 on a useless riverwalk that no one will benefit from and the next time the river floods, the riverwalk will end up in Pompton Lakes, much like Sloan Park. Last November was a start, when a big problem with the council was voted out. It needs to continue with this election.

Hi Julie, I have such fond memories of you. I'm happy to hear of your involvement in our town. If you only listen to the point of view of the council's budget, you might think its a great way to pay down our debt. Mr Yazdi never intended to use this money to pay off our debt in 10 years. We are not just a municipal budget. The 30 year loss, I believe, to the 75% of the town's expenses, is just too big a risk. My assessment recently more than doubled. Selling homes in my lake is impossible. Avalon's assessment never increases. We'll never see tax relief until we stop spending. Residential development, even with a pilot, doesn't give tax relief. We've been chasing revenue for decades. Maybe an office or medical group will buy our white elephant on Union Ave. That could begin real meaningful revenue. There are times we all have to do what we think is right. Time will tell. I'm proud of all of our residents input. Debate is a good thing. Being elected is a huge responsibility. Making tough decisions isn't at all easy. Keep involved.

Linda,
Why are you making stuff up about my intent??
As I showed you last night, we can apply 100% of the PILOT dollars to debt reduction and be completely debt free in 11 years, however that doesn’t give us any immediate relief and taxes will continue to go up.
Or (and this would be my prferred plan), would rather apply the majority portion of it to debt relief (i.e. 50% -75%) and take the rest and stabilize taxes with it. Which by the way meant that it would take us 14 years to completely pay down our debt and then have an additional 1.2MM per year to lower taxes with?
I know you’re not good with numbers and don’t understand financing or debt repayment, but please don’t tell anyone what my intents are.
I even showed you how not taking advantage of this PILOT and just getting normal taxes from Avalon Bay, would leave us in the shape we are now, continuing to be behind and continuing to borrow to pay for the things we need to run a town with.
So you were either not paying attention while I was presenting (which wouldn’t be the first time) or you really didn’t care what I was showing you….

One more thing Linda
You are not elected to tell us about your assessment and your troubles… You continue to complain about everything, yet fix nothing. You have no plans, but shot down our Mayors plans for paying off our debt. You weren’t elected to just say NO

And since you came to the meeting with a written prepared statement, it just proves that you could care less about what I presented, what the people had to say, what our attorney had to say, and just read off your note like a robot.
I never had you as a teacher, but people in this town loved you… why are you doing this??... your job, my job, the Mayors job is to leave office, leaving it in a better shape than when we found it?? If you feel in your two years (so far) you are achieving that, then continue down the same path… but from where I’m sitting, ok forget me, ask people, no one see’s it
Time for that carrying teacher to come back and possibly listen to the students now

I'm not sure I understand why a two year old report on PILOTs across the state should be deemed very important, but at the same time, the statements of the BoE Auditor can be dismissed because he didn't look at the details of our particular PILOT. If both were based on generalities, either they should both be dismissed, or both be heeded.

Gary, The only abuse last night was the Republican majority voting NO to tax relief for our residents. The only council person who explained her reasoning for her vote was Shortman, though her statements contradicted the recommendations of our Planning Board, 2 town auditors, attorney and the Dept of Consumer affairs who approved the Redevelopment Area. Referencing a 2 year old State report that is not specific to the PILOT terms on Avalon Bay is an inaccurate analysis. What is most disturbing is when the Council Majority was asked what are their plans for tax relief in our Borough, Councilman Conklin actually replied on two occasions that he has NO plan or vision for our Borough. Councilwoman Pituch gave absolutely no indication of her plan for tax relief or debt repayment. She also gave no reasoning of why she voted no. Regarding my presentaton in response to an editorial. If an editorial is written filled completely with inaccurate information, I have ever right to respond in the forum that I did. For the author of the editorial to state that all of the Boroughs Debt is because of the Mayor and the Democats and this is the reason I supported the PILOT to pay down that debt is just not factual. Therefore I showed with factual documenation from financially audited records of the boro our debt history. The facts show that both parties have bonded over the years.

As a matter of fact the documents showed that the republican over a 20 year period bonded $1,000,000 more then the democrats. The facts also showed that the author of the editorial voted YES on authorizing $12,000,000 of debt during her 6 years while serving on the council. The point of this is that we cant blame the democrats or the republican solely for our debt as both parties contributed. The issue is the Borough has lacked the revenue to pay down this debt and the PILOT is the answer and just the beginning to help our Borough out of our financial crisis. So when somone lies and states that I am the responsible party, I will address those inaccurate statements. There was NO cost to the taxpayers for my presentation. I spent 10 hours of my time at Borough Hall pulling financial documents, which then I scanned to have in the power point presentation. So you implying that I used tax payer money is just another example of making inaccurate statements. The meeting time I used is irrelevant as the important thing is that factual data was displayed to show the history of debt accumulation in our Borough. Why is this an abuse of power? It is simply because you didnt like the results? We need to stop the blame game and move the Borough foward and the PILOT was our start. I would have a much easier time accepting the defeat of the PILOT if the Republican actually had a plan to solve our financial problems but they do not.

Mayor,

You said you did not use any taxpayer money for your presentation, How come all of the information from the presentation came from emails sent by Terry Sauer.

Well, you may be the only one Gary. The majority of this town is in complete disagreement over the majority's decision. Enjoy your last 3 mnths with this majority. We are about to break up this good old boys and GIRLS network up.

Gary, I scanned the documents to Terrys computer to then email to Councilman Yazdi for the power point. Scanning and emailing from Terry's computer did not cost the taxpayers any money. Though, I would like to hear your thoughts on the debt comparisons and the majority having no plan on debt and tax relief in our Borough. You are so worried about the non existence cost of my presentation but are not speaking to the real issues that face our Borough that the Majority is NOT dealing with. Furthermore you are worried about your made up cost on my presentation but have no problem with the money wasted on our professionals by the Majority. Where you at the meeting last night when I requested a motion to NOT pay our auditor an unapproved $4500 bill for budget work. A cost that should be included in his professional service agreement. The majority voted NO and you watch they will authorize to pay this unwarranted bill, now making the auditor $10,000 more then other quotes. What about the majority authorizing the redevelopment and pilot study at $8800 just to vote NO and now making the redevelopment area on Avalon Bay useless.Did you see the council table discussion on the $30,000 that we still owe last years attorney, another bill I want to send to fee arbitration but you watch the Majority will pay this bill too.Please lets talk about this abuse and waste of taxpayers money because these are real actual taxpayer dollars. Or are you ok with these actions by the majority.

Gary, you wouldnt know what abuse of power was if it came wrapped in a bow and a label. This shows how truly ignorant you are. I am pretty sure that the mayor has every right to rebutt LIES and inconsistencies. I am also pretty sure that ZERO tax dollars were involved in his defense of said LIES.

Mrs. Fane, I always appreciate your opinion. There are a few inaccuracies in your post. Mr. Semrau was not a R appointment. The taxes don't go to the state. They go to the school. The school who spends half of your tax dollar. As a taxpayer, I want a pilot. I'd love to lock in my 2011 taxes for 30 years. Residential development does not provide tax relief. Look at the Valley Road apartments in Wayne where the school buses line up daily. I'm involved still today because of a high density residential development proposed over 30years ago. Same argument, no children. Mahwah had to build a new school to accommodate their high density residential development that was never supposed to impact the schools. We have a 360 unit development waiting in the wings. Hold on to your check book. Does anyone believe the mayor when he says we needed to do this pilot to entice this developer? I am not opposed to all pilots. Our council negotiators and attorney did a lot of hard work on this issue. I applaud this. I just didn't agree with the package.

Firstly, I think you know I was referring to Mr. Lerch, who I believe recommended making this deal. Regardless, you're pointing to Wayne and Mahwah as examples of overcrowding and yet, in the cursory research I did, their elementary and high schools are ranked higher than ours, so I don't see where that argument is going. Regardless, I missed all of the meetings because of volunteer responsibilites, I still don't see what the downside of this deal is. You haven't stated your position clearly to me. What money does Bloomingdale get from the taxes that Avalon Bay is going to pay compared to what we would get under the PILOT program?

Elaine, I completely understand your viewpoint and your post is right on. Other towns around us are laughing at us, and I am not kidding on this. A slam dunk deal and they cant even get THAT right.

You ask what will the plan of the reps who are running for seats in this upcoming election. If I were you, I would not hold my breath. They have a bsolutely no clue as to what to do. Im sorry Pituch, waiting to hear what Linda Huntley tells you to do will not a plan make. Pituch is not even fit to govern a group of 3 year olds let alone a whole town, and she has proved it over and over again. The woman cant even read an email. The other candidate is a ghost who has never even been to a meeting. In addition, she doesn't even own a home, she is a renter. I dont have anything against someone who rents, I rented for a long time myself, but I can say with 100% certainty that when I rented, I had no clue in regard to property taxes and the like. I think the rep ticket this November might be the most pathetic ticket maybe in the history of elections. I think even I would be able to beat these two heads up.

#localgovernementfail

BRAVO, Elaine!!!!!!!!!!

Yazdi voted no when it was apparent that the majority was going to lockstep vote against it. According to the rules, only a NO vote can bring the issue up again. The time it i brought up, I am not sure when or where that will be.

Hi Debbie,
That is exactly the reason & the only reason, why I voted 'No'... it's because it allows me the right to bring back the topic at each and every meeting and I encourage every resident to attend next two meetings as I plan on re-presenting the facts of the PILOT and how it benefits us, as well as show you the Debt pay down plan and how we can eliminate our Debt with these PILOT dollars, at the same time stabilize Taxes.
As I stated last night, Voting ‘No’ was the only technical way, we as Bloomingdale, get to live to see a better day and stop the ‘Sabotage’ plan of this majority. If they allow Jon Dunleavy to succeed as a Mayor, then they can’t replace him… right?? So they screwed all of us, just for party politics.
They are hoping that Bloomingdale is not paying attention and votes party line in a presidential race. Let’s make sure Bloomingdale is paying attention… if we all knock on 2-3 neighbors’ doors and explain the benefits of the program and how this can stabilize taxes and payoff our debt, tell them to attend meetings to see it firsthand, then word gets out quick.
Please contact me at ryazdi@bloomingdalenj.com and I’ll be happy to stop by your house and take you through the details if you can’t make one of these meetings.

EXACTLY!

Spot on Kevin!

Donna,
The behind the scenes republicans, the ones who really run our town now through the majority put a muzzle on Pituch a long time ago. She is not permitted to speak because every time she does, she puts her foot in her mouth and makes the rest of them look even worse than they are. Even they realize she has nothing positive to contribute, nor is she smart enough to hold a conversation without acting like a spoiled brat and a baby. It's not good for repub business for her to speak.

oh DEFINITELY. She is really good at LYING too, dont forget that. One doesn't need math or accounting to do that apparently.

I'm pretty sure Shortman was talking about the closed restaurant on Union Ave. Too bad a successful business was closed by a devastating fire. Let's just call it a "white elephant" since the council majority really doesn't have any kind of plan. Why would an office or medical group buy that building? What would be their motivation. Maybe they will. Maybe I'll win the lottery.

Isnt that Huntley?

Yeah, facts have a certain way of exposing people.

Mary, I said in my letter that in 2005 Bloomingdale had a visioning plan prepared for Main Street. If you read the report, on page II in the forward of the plan in the second paragraph it states: "In the summer of 2005, A. Nelessen Associstes Inc was hired..."

They did this visioning plan in 2005. The report was finally issued in 2006 due to the hard work of Councilwoman Sue Smith.

WRONG, LINDA! WRONG!

The final visioning workshop was in February of 2006. The visioning report could not have been completed in 2005 before the third and final visioning workshop was even held! Stop LYING!

After the FEBRUARY OF 2006 workshop, the information from the workshops was compiled to complete the report. The earliest draft of the "final" visioning report was completed in March of 2006.

Dunleavy was NOT a councilman when the visioning report was completed, nor was he a councilman when it was issued.

These are the FACTS. Unless you have hard facts to refute them, stop LYING. And you will not find any "facts" to refute mine, because the "facts" you seek to push your agenda do not exist.

Mary,

I think you should read the report. I am not trying to push any agenda. Just addressing what happened.

This is just going too far. Mr. smits, ask questions at a council meeting. Does the DPW shovel your walkway? The Kelly Law states that all residents must be treated equally. Let's tax them equally. This pilot is a clear abuse of the abatement. Read Mathew Boxer's report. He's our state comptroller. At our meeting it was proven to be a 2010 still relevant report.

So concerned you don't post your name?

Concerned Resident, Please explain your math. Under normal taxation the total annual tax on Avalon Bay would be $700,000 as determined by the Boroughs Tax Assessor and not in the range of $1,000,000 you keep mis representing.. The Borough will receive under normal taxes 26% of the $700,000. Under normal taxes which is what the republican majority voted for, the Borough will receive less $103,000 annually as the Borough will have to reimburse Avalon Bay the cost of snow plowing and santitation.. Under the pilot the Borough will receive $432,000 and will not have to supply the snow plow and sanitation services or reimbursement. Avalon Bay will also continue to pay the land tax of $91000 annually which is distribute to the Town(26%), County(19%) and Board of Education(53%). As a result the Borough will gain in excess $360,000 in revenue that can be used to stabilize taxes and reduce our debt. This increase in revenue will also grow at 2% annually for 30 years. Furthermore the PILOT will eliminate any future tax appeals on the development. So the 30 year revenue stream is a guarantee.

Above post refers to $198,000 first year tax…That’s 28.3% of total $700,000 taxes that Avalon Bay would be charged under normal Taxation… that percentage is wrong… Municipality gets 26.6% (not 28.3%) – so let’s correct it. 26.6% of $700,000 is $186,200
Now, given the expense side of having to reimburse Avalon Bay for their snow plowing, salting, garbage pick up, tipping fees (Kelly Act reimbursements, which is part of law and not an option for the Boro), and those expenses are $60,000 per year (conservatively), that will net the Boro a total of $126,200 (at best) under Normal Taxation
& comparing that to the entire PILOT $550,000, deduct all the County, school and other dedicated taxes of land tax portion, Municipality would be left with $460,212

Most people in town, after reviewing the true facts, understood that the total $460,212 in revenue is more than $126,200 in revenue, and our plan of applying 100% of that to tax relief - to pay down debt and stabilize taxes immediately, is the first time ever, any council has laid out a plan to really stabilize taxes

But of course party politics would say, if you allow a Democratic Mayor to deliver this tax stabilization and debt reduction plan during his term , then the other party will have an impossible task of trying to unseat him next go around, so they make up a bunch of excuses like schools impact and question everything to cuase confusion

The facts are, that BOE (& their Auditor) have blessed this plan – this makes sense for us as Taxpayers & will not affect them. & if it did we have agreed to hold a reserve to pay them, and not impact taxpayers…. So it’s a very low risk, very high return tax payment plan, that IS GOOD

Our tax rates per the tax department are as follows:
open space municipality .02502, municipality .98033, library, 0400 = 1.04535
School 1.94084
county open space .01101, county .6838 = .69481
total 3.681
municipality 1.04535/3.681= .2839 = 28.4% not 26.6%

Ray let's correct your that!

Also it does not take a rocket scientist to determine that 460,212 is more than 126,200 (which should really be 138k)!
However, is the school losing 368k better than the town receiving an additional 322K?

You state I am trying to trying to make up a bunch of excuses like schools impact and question everything to cause confusion. That is ridiculous. I believe you should look at what the impact of what you are trying to do will have on the borough as a whole not just your part of the budget. It is also very probable, that if the schools got what they are supposed to get from Avalon Bay for taxes, 1.94084/3.681=52.7% of 700,000 or 368,900 wouldn’t they use that to reduce the school taxes?

You should also get your head out of your political hat and look at the whole picture not just how it may affect you and your party.

Library Tax and Rose Tax are dedicated taxes that can only be used for specific purpose and not something that Mayor and council can use to pay down debt with, so to include that in the comparison, and make regular taxation seem better, is what I’m referring to, when I say you’re causing confusion with your numbers.

Also, your entire plan is based on a ‘what if’ statement… not a plan

You rather let this opportunity pass us up, in the hopes that schools would turn down the extra funding & somehow give the entire money back to the residents & reduce our taxes, rather than use the money to better education... I’m not buying your “what if” argument.

School system will absolutely take this additional funding, as it’s always nice to get extra funding. i.e. the extra funding that they received last year as result of state supreme court over turning the governors cuts to our schools, what happened to that??… they received extra findings last year after their budget was done for the year, yet as we noticed, their total budget went up over a $1MM

And I’m sure you don’t have to be a Rocket Scientist either to understand that school systems, can always use the extra funding to better things and chances of them walking from it, can't be used as a real argument here.… but the Mayors plan, our plan, is in writing and would become an ordinance and law - 100% of the extra money is used for tax relief and debt reduction.

I showed you how our debt can be gone, eliminated within 14 years, while we use a balanced approach and stabilize taxes immediately, while eliminating our debt over 14 years. Our budget includes over $1.2MM per year of Debt re-payment, with over $400,000 of that amount being interest costs alone. Our plan eliminates the debt, your plan increases it.

The compounding benefit of applying the additional money to pay down debt and Interest costs (or savings from it) alone, is again missing in any math you have ever shown, yet adding to the confusion you are cuasing

Just imagine, if in 14 years our debt is gone, we can give the school system 100% of the 368K you are calculating (which by the way they get some of that under Land tax today and will continue to get, so it’s not $368K but $320K & absolutley less than the benefit we apply to tax relief), but that total dollar can then be given to the schools after 14 years, once our debt is illuminated, and we will still have over $800,000 per year to reduce taxes with

Zero Loss to schools, nice injection to them and an extra $800,000 per year left over for absolute Tax relief?? – now That’s a real plan…. Not your roll the dice plan

One last thing, and I’m done

Gary and Linda Huntley must be one and the same, as I continue to hear Gary’s arguments used by Linda (at council meetings) and we now see Linda’s arguments posted by Gary and we all know there’s no one name Gary that attends any council meeting… I guess Linda is afraid to post with her name, as people have learned to ignore her already, given the financial disaster she left this town with, that we’re now trying to clean up… it is time for Gary to Join that same list of names for people to ignore

Leading a town, delivering on our promise to the people, doesn’t allow me to leave things to chance Gary… leading means you take the opportunities at your doorstep and turn it into success for our people, our town, our families and our children. Not leave it to ‘what if’ statements and say NO to good idea's from Democrats

like I said, this is my last post, as I don’t respond to fake names and fictional characters and see absolutely no value in your arguments.

I don't see how a rebuttal of inaccurate statements should be concidered an attack.

Ray's message was hardly an attack Gary. Just more dramatic mis truths by you.