Is this a turf war as reported in several papers?
Rudolph had the audacity and hutzpah to build a relationship with the Bergen Democrats, Loretta Weinberg's nemesis. For the last two years Rudolph has been badgered and harassed by many of Weinberg's "friends". Coincidence? Is there any "truth" to the comments that Weinberg hasn't delivered money to Teaneck. There are some that say that Weinberg has no power outside of Teaneck and that is why she is so desperate to keep control of this Council.
For many years our Council has been beholden to Weinberg:
Kates, Katz, Parker, Honis
Rudolph refuses to kiss the ring, so he seems to face the wrath of Weinberg and her supporters. I think I saw a movie about this, called "The Truman Show". The producer would send any obstacle (storms, road closures etc) to Truman so he wouldn't get to see that there is a big world outside the bubble. It seems that Rudolph found hundreds of thousands of dollars in the "outside world" that Weinberg didn't deliver or couldn't deliver and now there will be hell to pay.
So what about the comment that Teaneck is non partisan and we don't want to be under the influence of a party boss? Last I checked Weinberg is a Democrat and some of her big supporters are in significant power positions in Teaneck:
1) Veach, prosecutor
2) Turitz, attorney
3) Ginova, attorney
4) Cramer, former attorney
5) DeCotis (Huttle), attorney
And the list goes on.
So is it hypocrisy, or welcome to Teaneck politics??
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23 comments:
What has Loretta delivered for Teaneck over the years?
Loretta ran off a list at the last council meeting that ran to several million dollars.
The attempt to put State Senator Loretta Weinberg and Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero in the same mold is clever politics. It is also a distortion of reality. To start Loretta Weinberg is an elected official. She was a member of the Teaneck Council from 1990 to 1994 and has been elected to the state legislature since 1992. Joe Ferriero is not an elected official. He is a party boss. To get an idea of what this means see “Bergen County’s boss still rules” by Mike Kelly from the January 20th Bergen Record.
Wikipedia has a page devoted to Ms. Weinberg. Read it, if you want to learn more about her career. It includes links to her own website, articles related to her and even her financial disclosure statements. It also contains the only mention of Joe Ferriero I could find on the Wikipedia site. He is not even mentioned on the Wikipedia Bergen County page.
In terms of Teaneck Politics, Loretta Weinberg is a long time resident of Teaneck. Joe Ferriero is not. Her involvement with Teaneck politics has connected her in some way with virtually every elected official in Teaneck. To claim that those she has supported are beholden to her is a bit of an exaggeration. A comparison may however be in order.
In 2006, Joe Ferriero’s BCDO spent over $30,000 on the Teaneck Council campaign in support of three candidates including Elnatan Rudolph. Loretta Weinberg gave $450 to Lizette Parker’s campaign. Joe Ferriero kept his support of the candidates as hidden as possible. Despite legal requirements, none of the election reports showing the contributions were filed until after the election. The Parker campaign filed properly unashamed of Weinberg’s support. Ms. Weinberg also sent out a letter supporting Ms. Parker. Elnatan Rudolph now holds an appointed job with Bergen County that is generally considered to be a patronage position under the control of Ferriero’s BCDO.
As I suspect you well know, there is little truth “to the comments that Weinberg hasn't delivered money to Teaneck.” It’s just another piece of political twisting by Mr. Rudolph. At last weeks council meeting, Ms. Weinberg read some items from a list of Grants Teaneck has received from the state. The full list includes over $4,000,000 in grants. The largest items include $1,200,000 for the Teaneck School System from the NJDOE in 2008. $1,000,000 from the NJDOT for “Pedestrian Improvements Route 4” in 2007 and a $500,000 grant to Teaneck School System for Programs for Autistic Children from NJDOE in 2007.
In a fine example of the anonymous speaking for the anonymous you state, “There are some that say that Weinberg has no power outside of Teaneck and that is why she is so desperate to keep control of this Council.” Whoever says it (if they exist) is as foolish as you for quoting it. The notion that she as a State Senator has no power outside of Teaneck is ludicrous. The notion that she controls the Council is equally ludicrous.
Loretta is almost as useless as Monica Honis- oh yeah- she is on Loretta's team too!!!
Tom- Rt 4 money has yet to be seen, and the 1 mil is so stripped down and limited that it gets you a new sidewalk- on one side of the highway.
Re letter supporting Parker- we all remember the letter- lets be real- it said vote for for Lizette because she is a women- oh- and the are a few other good people running.
Regarding the campaign reporting- clearly you haven't studied the reports- specifically inter campaign loans/ transfers/ payments between new beginnings and Lizette, and the cleverly unsigned accounting forms submitted by new beginnings- you can be prosecuted for something if you didn't sign to it- i guess.
Let's see- yes- the rest of the money you listed that Loretta brought in is for the schools- good for her- doesn't directly effect the rest of the citizens (directly).
So what we basically have is me shooting out some thoughts, ideas, rumors for discussion, and you cleverly (or snidely) as usual refuting the information in language that appears well researched and factual, when in reality its a load of- crap.
Be glad that Tom responded at all...usually he just says blah blah blah....don't listen to anonymous poster....
How curious that Loretta is now claiming sole credit for some of the public schools' most recent grants, when those applications were submitted by the superintendent and his administrative staff to gain needed monies for innovative instructional programs. (To be fair, most state and federal grant applications are accompanied by endorsement letters from ALL our local legislators, not just Ms. Weinberg, so if she does want to claim these efforts as her own, she has to be fair and include Johnson, Huttle, Rothman and our U.S. Senators as well.)
As a longtime Weinberg watcher who has seen her endorse many losing candidates for the Board of Ed through the 1990's as well as express a consistent and distinct lack of support for our public schools, I am delighted she is involved in more positive efforts on behalf of our town's schools. (And for the record, the grants gained by our schools do have tax relief impact for all our residents, as well as help fund programs that our children sorely need.) Maybe she would come out and endorse the annual budget? Now that would be something!
It seems pretty clear that Rudolph is very beholden to Boss Joe. If the justification is that other people do it too, lets get rid of all of the crooks. Why shouldn't we demand independence from every one on the council, and we shouldn't accept it from anyone, from Rudolph, Katz or Honis. Get rid of them all if they don't like it.
mskj said:
How curious that Loretta is now claiming sole credit for some of the public schools' most recent grants,...
There is nothing I've seen that has Loretta claiming "sole credit". She certainly didn't at the council meeting. Where did you get your information?
I don't think we have to worry about Katz being beholden to anyone. He is doing just foine wo anyones help.
Honis must be beholden to a deaf mute that does nothing. Please anyone what has she done on the Council in 4 years? We attack Rudolph and he brings in one million dollars in two years to Teaneck. Honis hasn't contributed a paper clip. It is no surprise that she goes around town cliaming Loretta as her other mother. Loretta must have taught her how to do nothing but attack good people people.
Teaneck Truth said:
Regarding the campaign reporting- clearly you haven't studied the reports- specifically inter campaign loans/ transfers/ payments between new beginnings and Lizette, and the cleverly unsigned accounting forms submitted by new beginnings- you can be prosecuted for something if you didn't sign to it- i guess.
I have studied the reports and there is nothing to justify your lies. There is a single transfer from the from the Committee to Elect Lizette Parker to Teaneck New Beginnings for $3,000 on 5/16/06. It is properly listed on both reports. The remaining "inter campaign loans/ transfers/ payments" do not exist. You invented them.
It is true that the last report from TNB was only signed and certified by the treasurer, but your implication that there is anything illegal in the reports is just another of your lies.
What you call "shooting out some thoughts, ideas, rumors for discussion" is what most call spreading lies and misinformation.
You really should rename this site Teaneck Lies. It would be far more accurate.
So Tom, are you saying that Loretta is claiming money that she didn't bring to town as hers. Why have we not gotten extra aid in the last ten years. She uses her influence on towns she doesn't control. She is too comfortable in Teaneck and Rudolph changed her comfort zone.Maybe if Kates, Katz and Honis knew how she really felt about them, they wouldn't be such big fans.
Who said Kates is a fan. Loretta tossed her husband out when she took control. Jackie doesn't forget anything.
Whatcha mean Honis did nothing? She worked to get us a 6.8% increase for the coming year which thankfully Rudolph led the charge against so that the increase is ZERO.
So ya coulda had a Honis-Bonus on top of your current tax rate for the next year.
She never saw a taxpayer dollar she couldn't fritter away.
Congratulations to Margot Fischer on her overwhelming positive reviews from poll participants! Exactly 100 people participated and the positive rankings beat negative by a more than 2-1 margin. In the pro vote a clear majority of 60% called her a "Decent Member" and 8% went for "Board of Ed Massiah". Among the antis there was 8% who voted "Adds No Value" while an extremely bitter 24% selected "Utterly Incompetent". It looks like the community has spoken out in strong support of Margot and her policies.
But this whole thing is meaningless anyways.
"But this whole thing is meaningless anyways."
Especially since there wasn't any impediment whatsoever to multiple voting. You didn't even need to delete your cookies.
Check out Teaneck Progress's most recent post. It appears that the blogger has joined Teaneck Divided or prehaps is just displaying yet another perverse attempt at humor. In my humble opinion, this post would be in poor taste even if it premiered this coming Tuesday.
Are you referring to the Tom Lehrer video or the colorful chart?
I think both are in poor taste.
So was your post last week containing the "F" word (which that you later removed and called a purim prank)
I'd like to see better, especially from someone who had made a point to improve the types of things people say in the comments section.
I see nothing in poor taste about the colorful chart. I took it for what it was -- an interesting look at our town goings-on. I'd like to see more.
I'm not quite sure why, but that retro illustration of the GI holding up "a nice cup of STFU" had me ROTFLMFAO. It was worth not having Teaneck Progress for all of 2 days.
I think we don't have quality governance in Teaneck, where is our energy audit. Look at Westwood they are driving toward zero/low energy costs.
http://www.northjersey.com/environment/One_big_green_party.html
Where are our best practices, our use of integrated services across departments. We should be investing in our capacity to push information / services to teaneck residents (the website is a long overdue makeover).
Our students in local schools are the next generation of teaneck residents they should be involved in the promotion of new green low/zero energy, low carbon townwide plan.
Where is a partnership with FDU (we should be getting 100 full tuition positions) for our high school seniors. And in return lets work with FDU to expand the campus and services to all of teaneck. Our rec plan & services/ DPW our so poorly managed, we maintain 20+ playgrounds /fields that are not well used or overused (votee). Look at towns like Mahwah and the changes they have made to their town rec plans & services.
Overall I find a lack of basic leadership when it comes to performance management in teaneck.
NYC with Bloomberg has implemented a Citywide Performance Reporting (CPR) application that tracks almost every measurement of city government performance. This is what we need to benchmark ourselves vs. other towns/cities.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/ops/cpr/html/cpr_home/cpr_home.shtml
In teaneck we should start setting standards of best in class performance.
Aaron
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