Friday, April 25, 2008

Teaneck Divided Has Changed It Name

For Immediate Release
Contact: Teaneck Divided

It's official. Teaneck Divided has changed its name to Teaneck Abusive.

Ok, here is the latest email going around town. Rumor has it, A certain person, who's name we shall not mention, but let's just say he or she lives on Shepard (and may be one of the organizers of Teaneck Divided and member of the Northeast Block Association).

Ok, back to the story, she went to Teaneck Road Merchant (s) and said if you don't take down the Team Teaneck sign their store will be boycotted. It doesn't end there. She then (allgedly) called a TeamTeaneck supporter in the Northeast and used some very harsh sailor language, to the point that I understand there is a police report floating around. The rumors going around is that the Teaneck Abusive members have spoken to many merchants and residents that have dared to support TeamTeaneck.
I know that Tom Abbot and Alan Sohn will somehow draw a connection between the moon, the stars County Politics and Rudolph made her do it, and I understand. But, for the rest of us, I ask, is this the leadership we are looking for in Teaneck?
I may just be voting for Ned too.



and there is more to come...

32 comments:

Alan Sohn said...

Unfortunately, we're starting off on the wrong foot again. There is not a single attributable fact in the post, all of which is identified merely as rumor.

Could it be true? It's hard to tell without a single fact being supplied with a source. Wouldn't this "police report floating around" be appropriate documentation.

I have seen a copy of an email from an individual who appears to be named "Michael Stark" who makes this same allegation. This "Michael Stark" has sent letters to the Suburbanite, but does not appear to exist. There is no one by that name in the phone book, there is no registered voter by this name and there is no one who owns a piece of property in Teaneck with that name. Does anyone know who this particular "Michael Stark" is?

I'd respond to the claim, but there doesn't seem to be anything more here than the latest false claim manufactured fresh from the rumor mill.

Alan Sohn

Teaneck Observer said...

Mr. Sohn:
Would you be willing to repudiate such behavior were it shown to be true?

I would guess that "Michael Stark" is concerned about possible fall out from stating his real name.

Anonymous said...

Why would anyone be surprised by this accusation? This would not be the first time threatening comments have been attributable to this person.

Anonymous said...

This would not be the first time false rumors have been attributed to Team Teaneck supporters.

Anonymous said...

Anon.9:40 I don't know you and you clearly don't know me. I am not a supporter of the Team Teaneck slate. As a registered voter of this town I cannot condone this behavior. I hope the candidates connected to this individual will denounce such acts.

Teaneck Observer said...

Mr. Sohn:

I am now in possession of both the police report and one of the four victims personal certification as to what occurred. This victim was contacted by a well known member of the community who identified herself as being a spokesperson for an organization which has endorsed three candidates for Town Council. This woman told the victim that he was "a traitor" and "a sell out" for supporting Mayor Katz and that "he was going to have his a** busted" if he did not side with the three candidates endorsed by her organization.

For everyone's information: both the Suburbanite and the Record are in possession of the police report and have thus far decided not to pursue this story.

This reprehensible behavior must stop and I call on the three candidates in particular as well as their supporting organizations to repudiate these nefarious and vile tactics and expel the perpetrator from their ranks.

A straight answer is requested said...

Please post the police report online.

Anonymous said...

I hope Mildred looked the person in the eye when this occurred

Teaneck Observer said...

At the request of the victim who fears retaliation and for his physical safety I cannot at this time post the Police Report.

I can tell you that these statements were made to the victim via multiple telephone calls between approximately 10:30 pm and 12:05 am.

The caller identified herself quite proudly.

What kind of town has this become?

A straight answer is requested said...

redact the name of the victim and post it online.

Alan Sohn said...

If true, this would be a very sorry commentary on the state of affairs of our township politics. Whether it's maligning opponents based on religion or threatening individuals for supporting the "other side", these are all rather unfortunate incidents that only distract from the real issues at hand. I don't accept this kind of behavior, and no resident of Teaneck should accept or condone it.

The increasingly bitter nature of this campaign, which has become far more divisive, far earlier than even the disgraceful incidents of the race two years ago, portends poorly for our future ability to work together to solve the problems we already have. Be it our finances or the ever more precarious state of community relations, there are real issues that need to be addressed and do not deserve to be obscured by personal attacks.

Alan Sohn

Anonymous said...

Please join me in supporting the Teaneck Road & other stores with a Team Teaneck sign displayed in their window. These merchants are standing up for freedom of speech. A right granted many, many years ago to all citizens. Let no man or woman take it away.

Anonymous said...

"The rumors going around is that the Teaneck Abusive members have spoken to many merchants and residents that have dared to support TeamTeaneck."

Teaneck Truth- Please stop adding to the rumor mill. If you have factual information linking more than one member of the Teaneck "United" or NorthEast Block Association to these threatening acts, it is time to out him or her now. If not, the other members of these groups can only be accused of 'guilt by association'. That, in and of itself is not against the law, no matter how foolish they seem (to me)now.

Teaneck Observer said...

Anon 5:01

I have seen with my own eyes the police report and spoken with at least one of the victims.The perpetrator of this criminal activity identified themselves by name and as being a supporter of a certain slate and from a certain organization. Those entities know who they are and who the individual is who has committed these heinous acts. I am not "outing" them in order to give them the opportunity to "do the right thing" on their own. Should they not do so shortly, they will leave us no choice.

EMO said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Anyone can file a police report. It does not mean anything criminal has taken place. It just means this is a heated campaign.

Just as anyone who can lie and say that Ms. Tucker is someone's campaign manager.

Just stuff and nonsense. Totally appropriate for the Teaneck Moron's blog. Michael (Gussen) Stark would fit in well here.

Teaneck Observer said...

Anon 5:41

I have personally met with the victim and confirmed the events as stated in the police report. They are actually much worse then stated in the report.

This is not political campaigns going overboard. It is not Gussen or anyone else other than those involved in terrorizing and harassing others.

This time it is as it appears.

Anonymous said...

Anyone can file a police report. Filing a falsed police report is a crime.

Anonymous said...

What does any of this nonsense have to do with Weinberg, Johnson & Huttle?

Anonymous said...

Now that Teaneck (Feit) Observer assures us it must be true!

Anonymous said...

It is simple:

Honis is the top fund raiser. She achieves this through her connection to Boss Weinberg. Jackson jumps from nothing to substantial funding. She achieves this through her connection to Boss weinberger.

Machine politics is obvious in teaneck, where the machine belongs to Boss Weinberg.

Teaneck Observer said...

Anon 6:51

I am not Kevie Feit. I am non-elected non-running Teaneck resident. Btw, your denials do not confuse anyone.

Anonymous said...

Alan-
Just because I refused to sign your petition by the library, does not mean that we don't know each other. I think we already established your fuzzy math problem, now maybe we can confirm that you don't know all 40,000 teaneck residents. (I am not sure you know more than 228-or you would be on the ballot). Stop being Angry Alan and join us on the Goldman Team.

Tom Abbott said...

Michael Stark(s):

You could have signed. As there is no registered voter with your name in Teaneck it would have made no difference.

Anonymous said...

Well Tom. I wouldn't want to do that to Alan. He might not have gotten enough signatures. Oh, wait.he didn't get enough signatures.

Anonymous said...

Teaneck Observer said it best:
“This reprehensible behavior must stop and I call on the three candidates in particular as well as their supporting organizations to repudiate these nefarious and vile tactics and expel the perpetrator from their ranks”.

When this happens, perhaps the Record will see fit to write about it.

Anonymous said...

This "Michael Stark" has sent letters to the Suburbanite, but does not appear to exist. There is no one by that name in the phone book, there is no registered voter by this name and there is no one who owns a piece of property in Teaneck with that name. Does anyone know who this particular "Michael Stark" is?

I'm sure Rudy could enlighten us. Rudy?

Anonymous said...

You don't have to have a published phone number or own property to truely exist.

Anonymous said...

Does the ethicist have an opinion about this?

Anonymous said...

BERGEN RECORD
Monday, April 28, 2008

Candidate's ethics questioned
by Joseph Ax

TEANECK - Barbara Toffler, a candidate for Township Council, is facing criticism from her opponents that she acted unethically while working for the Arthur Andersen accounting firm in the 1990s.

Toffler, however, has pointed out that she pushed executives at now-defunct Arthur Andersen to change its culture and says she ultimately left the firm when she realized her pleas for better standards were falling on deaf ears.

The controversy stems largely from a 2003 interview Toffler did with PBS in which she described her experiences at the firm, where she sold ethics consulting services to Arthur Andersen clients. She also chronicled her time there in great detail in her book, "Final Accounting," which deals with the fall of Arthur Andersen following the Enron scandal.

In the book and the interview, Toffler, who has taught business ethics at several colleges, refers to instances in which she helped inflate budgets and took advantage of clients' naivete to bill as much money as possible.

"You teach business ethics, and here you are saying, 'I worked for a company where my morals were up against the fence, and I folded,'" said Councilman Elnatan Rudolph. He and his running mates, Robert Robinson and Mohammed Hameeduddin, are opposing Toffler in the May 13 non-partisan election.

"What are you going to do as a council member/" Rudolph added.

Rudolph acknowledged he has read only snippets of the interview in e-mails, which have been making the rounds among Toffler's political opponents.

But Toffler, who has also done extensive work as an ethics consultant, challenged her critics to read her book before lobbing charges.

"I defy them to debate me on the facts," she said. "I think I am one of the most ethical people I know."

She also said bloated budgets and aggressive billing occur at virtually every corporation, and she suggested that the council's proposed 2008 budget - which contains no tax increase - was a mirage of postponed costs that was "worse than anything I ever did at Arthur Andersen.'

In the PBS interview, Toffler describes a project in which her group set up a $250,000 monthly plan to do work for a client that "their employees should have been doing."

In a chapter titled "Billing Our Brains Out," Toffler explains the incident further.

"It should have been a $50,000 to $75,000 engagement," she wrote. "It wasn't. We took advantage of our neophyte and steadily built a dependency on our team. ... Before she knew what hit her, she had an action plan priced at around $250,000 a month. We had seen a key vulnerability - that the client didn't really have an official budget and that the contact was new in her position - and pounced."

In the interview, Toffler also describes bringing a $75,000 budget to her manager and being instructed to double it, which she reluctantly did. In her book, she explains that she eventually called the client's attorney and told him that the firm was overcharging; Arthur Andersen did not get the job, she said.

The book also describes her effort to create a memo with other like-minded employees that called for tougher auditing practices. The memo was ultimately ignored and helped hasten her departure.

She said she has used her own experience to illustrate how pervasive a corporate culture can become, and how easy it can be for someone to succumb. But she also defended herself as a whistle-blower who has exposed the firm's practices for what they were.

"Was it illegal?" she said. "No, it wasn't illegal. I felt sometimes that it was unethical, because I thought we were overcharging. You do feel pressure in a culture, and I'm using myself (as an example) because I consider myself enormously ethical. ... (But) every time I was asked to do this, I would fight like hell."

Toffler is informally allied with Councilwoman Monica Honis and Audra Jackson; the three have been endorsed by the Northeast Teaneck Block Presidents Association and Teaneck United, a residents' group opposed to Rudolph's slate, Team Teaneck.

Howard Rose and Ned Goldman also are running.



.

Anonymous said...

i guess all the money Monica is saving by not being a taxpayer in Teaneck (or owning property) can help her fund her campaign.

Anonymous said...

I guess all the money contributed by Birdsall to the county is coming right back into Rudolph's pocket. We pay the bills and Rudy pockets the cash.