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Group says lawmakers are are doing bidding of towns their law firms represent
BY TOM HESTER SR.
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
UPDATED
The New Jersey Conference of the NAACP Monday called on Senators Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) and Christopher Bateman (R-Somerset), the lawmakers who are sponsoring legislation to allow cities and towns to have more of a role in providing affordable housing, to disclose the municipal clients they represent as attorneys.
Lesniak is a partner with Weiner Lesniak and Bateman is a partner with DiFrancesco, Bateman, Coley, Yospin, Kunzman, Davis & Lehrer. Both firms represent municipalities on affordable housing, planning, and zoning issues.
According to the NAACP, Bateman's firm provides affordable housing counsel to Berkeley Heights, Howell, Stafford and Manville.
"These senators are representing the interests of towns that have retained them as lawyers,'' said NAACP Housing Committee Chairman Mike McNeil. "They are pushing legislation demanded by shortsighted local governments that are paying the senators' private law firms to represent them. This is a clear violation of the trust placed in them by the public."
Bateman said that he will continue to push for passage of the legislation that he sees as reforming the state’s failed rules governing so-called “affordable” housing.
“I’m part of a law firm that represents clients on both sides of the current debate over affordable housing,” he said. “However, as a senator, I have to take a clear stand for policies that best represent the interests of my constituents. It’s clear to me that current housing policy has failed miserably because it has depressed the state’s economy during a recession and prevented new housing from being built. I will continue to support Senate bill S-1, a common-sense piece of legislation that represents a vast improvement over current, failed housing law and rules.”
Lesniak declined to comment on the NAACP charges.
The NAACP opposes legislation (S-1) that calls for the elimination of the state Council on Affordable Housing and giving more power to municipalities to decide how much, if nay, affordable housing they should provide.
The bill received a second hearing Monday. Lesniak said it should receive a vote by the Senate Economic Growth Committee, which he chairs, on March 8. He also said there will be amendments to the proposal.
Colandus "Kelly" Francis, a member of the NJ NAACP's executive committee and president of the Camden County NAACP, said "Last Monday, Senator Lesniak heard testimony for more than an hour from municipal officials and the League of Municipalities, and then ended the hearing as soon as people from the civil rights community tried to speak. It is obvious that a select few municipalities are controlling this legislation sponsored by the lawyers on their payroll."
The committee heard comments from affordable housing activists Monday.
The NJ NAACP identified at least 40 municipalities that Lesniak and Bateman's firms have represented through partial lists on the firms' own web sites. They called on the senators to disclose all of their past and present municipal clients and how much their law firms receive from those municipalities. The NAACP also demanded that Lesniak and Bateman recuse themselves from the issue.
"This state is facing a housing crisis,'' McNeil said. "The public deserves to have an unbiased debate that is led by legislators who don't have conflicts of interest."
In 1971, branches of the NJ NAACP, including the Camden County branch, filed litigation against Mount Laurel that led to the state Supreme Court's Mount Laurel doctrine, which requires all municipalities to provide their fair share of the region's need for affordable housing.
McNeil and Francis said the NJ NAACP believes the legislation proposed by Lesniak and Bateman would increase racial and economic segregation in New Jersey and opposes the reinstatement of regional contribution agreements and the ability of municipalities to self-certify that they have met their fair share goals without any standards for those goals.
According to the NJ NAACP, here are the municipalities represented by Lesniak's firm:
Hamburg (Zoning Board attorney)
Hardyston (Zoning Board attorney)
Howell (Planning Board attorney)
Jefferson (Planning Board attorney)
Kinnelon (Planning Board attorney)
Newton (Zoning Board attorney)
Pequannock (Planning Board attorney)
Stillwater (Zoning Board attorney)
Wantage (Land Use Board attorney)
West Milford (Planning Board attorney)
Here are the municipalities represented by Bateman's firm:
Bedminister (Township Attorney)
Berkeley Heights (Special counsel, COAH matters)
Edison (Zoning Board attorney)
Howell (Special counsel, COAH matters)
Manville (Special counsel, COAH matters)
North Brunswick (Planning Board attorney)
Old Bridge (Planning Board attorney)
Stafford Twp. (Special counsel, COAH matters)
Montgomery Twp. (Zoning Board Attorney)
Special Tax Counsel to Readington, Warren, Bedminster, Bernards, Clinton,
Lebanon, Raritan, Hillsborough and Washington, Watchung, Raritan,Manville, and Long Branch and Dover.
Dunellen (Planning Board attorney)
East Brunswick (Planning Board attorney)
Also Fanwood, Hillside, Sayreville, Scotch Plains and Warren.
NAACP and Fair Share Housing Center are trying to bury the issue. (If the attorneys have conflicts, go after them.)
McNeil says, "This state is facing a housing crisis." This assertion has been used to manipulate land use law for 15 years by the FSHC -- but the facts are ignored.
I challenge Mike McNeil (NAACP) and Kevin Walsh (FSHC) to produce legitimate data that shows "This state is facing a housing crisis.''
The 20 towns that filed suite against COAH have demonstrated that COAH misused data to prop up false claims of a housing shortage, then intentionally withheld data produced by its own consultant (in violation of OPRA) showing that COAH's "statewide need" numbers are inflated.
It's time for Walsh and FSHC to fess up that they in the business of building, and operating housing developments (through Fair Share Housing Development, Inc.) and for NJ legislators to stop being intimidated by political threats from FSHC and NAACP that call towns "racists" and "NIMBY's." The jig is up. The public sees the racket that has stimulated unnecessary property tax costs to prop up a sham system.
More: http://exmayor.com/blog/2010/02/09/will-this-executive-order-save-taxpayers-or-developers/
When you work for the public, the people have a right to know who else you are serving. Lawmakers need to be subject to strict rules about engaging in activity or sponsoring legislation that benefits a client or otherwise constitutes a conflict of interest.
New Jersey suffers from a sickness that we can cure, if only we exert the will to do it. I am prepared to help remove corrupt politicians from New Jersey government and I invite anyone who shares this goal to join me. Visit www.njdem.org for details about his you can help or call me at 732-340-1980.