Town Watch by Walter Elliott
NEWARK – An out-of-court federal whistleblower lawsuit settlement against the city, Mayor Ras Baraka and Amiri “Middy” Baraka, Jr. by a former city corporate counsel attorney may be before the Municipal Council as early as their 6:30 p.m. June 16 meeting.
What the council will consider approving or rejecting is a settlement reached in late May between Willie Parker’s attorney, Ty Hyderally, and lawyers Michael Critchley and Raymond M. Brown, Jr., who respectively represented Mayor and Amiri, Jr.
Parker, who had also been Newark’s Chief Municipal Judge, filed the suit in U.S. Federal Court June 23, 2017. Parker and Hyderally, in their filings, asserted that the former’s refusal to approve a new multi-million dollar DPW garage in mid-2016 “reveal an alarming picture of a mayor and governmental entity run riot with retaliatory animus.”
Parker, while City Corporate Counsel, refused to sign off on the contract, declaring that one of its provisions “would result in the city losing millions of dollars while simultaneously benefitting private commercial interests.”
Parker, in the filings, said that Amiri, Jr. first told him on Aug. 23, 2016 that he had to sign and execute the contract for “purely political reasons.” Parker then called Mayor Baraka to explain why he would not sign.
Amiri, Jr and his armed security detail arrived at Parker’s residence later that afternoon. The mayor’s then-chief of staff asked why he “had snitched to the Mayor” and “commanded him to return to City Hall” to then tell Mayor Baraka that “he didn’t hear what he thought he had heard or had misunderstood.”
Parker added that he was under intimidation and surveillance the next few weeks, leading to his October heart attack. He resigned by Dec. 31. The settlement details were being finalized as of press time.
IRVINGTON – Mayor Anthony “Tony” Vauss and Council President Renee C. Burgess may have given a Memorial Day weekend present to township property owners by promising no new municipal property tax increases for 2021 and 2022.
Vauss, in his May 27 announcement here at the Municipal Building, cited the financial hardship many Irvingtonians – including financial – during the now-16-month long global COVID-19 pandemic for his no property tax increase on the 2021 and 22 Municipal Budgets.
The mayor called the two-year halt “unprecedented,” recalling that his administration and the council also had a zero tax increase on their 2019 municipal budget. Vauss hailed working with Burgess and the council for the freeze.
Details on how the CY 21 and 22 budgets’ increased expenses would be compensated, however, were not available.
Vauss and Burgess’ two-year promise only applies to their part of the quarterly tax bills Irvington property owners will receive. They are the collecting agency for Irvington Public Schools and Essex County – who set their own tax rates.
EAST ORANGE / ORANGE – Multiple authorities, from the East Orange Police Department to the FBI, are looking for the couple who robbed the PNC Bank branch at the Brick Church Shopping Plaza in broad daylight May 19.
Personnel at 565 Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd. told arriving EOPD officers and, later, FBI Newark Office detectives that a man and a woman had entered the branch midafternoon that Wednesday and demanded money.
Although the city’s dispatch officer sent officers upon reception of the bank’s silent alarm call, the couple had fled before the six EOPD officers and detectives arrived. The bank was closed for the rest of the day, prompting customers to go to the PNC Orange Branch at 410 Main St. or other nearby branches.
The Brick Church Plaza branch robber comes while PNC has its contractors building a new branch two blocks west at 23 Main St., Orange. Brick Church Plaza is to be replaced in stages by The Crossings at Brick Church residential/commercial complex later this year.
Wanted is a 5-ft., 11-in. Caucasian man and a 5-ft., 3-in. Caucasian female. Both were wearing hooded pullover sweatshirts during the crime.
Further details – including whether they had used a weapon during the robbery and the amount of money taken – were unavailable as of June 8.
WEST ORANGE – Township and state authorities are investigating the circumstances that led to a fatality of a Newark teenager here along Interstate 280 East Sunday.
State Police Sgt. First Class Lawrence Peele said that his Totowa Barracks dispatcher received reports of ‘a crash with injuries” at 280-East Milepost 9.8 at 1:15 p.m. Sunday. West Orange’s police dispatcher received those calls simultaneously.
When WOPD officers and State Troopers arrived, they found a Hyundai Genesis partly on the concrete center divider and partly in the left lane – and pointing against oncoming traffic.
Law enforcers also found a debris field across all four lanes of traffic – and two males who were ejected from the Genesis. There was also a damaged Honda Pilot SUV nearby.
One man – identified as Hyundai passenger Jose Ward, 18, of Newark – was admitted to Newark’s University Hospital in serious condition. The Genesis’ driver – identified as Shakur Young, 17, of Newark – was declared dead at the scene.
A preliminary NJSP investigation has the Genesis striking the Honda and partially overturning onto the center divider. Investigators later learned that the Hyundai was reported as stolen from Madison.
All eastbound traffic was detoured at Exit 9 – Mt. Prospect Avenue for nearly four hours until the field investigation and cleanup were finished.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – County and township authorities are searing for the killer or killers of a Columbia High School scholar-athlete and the wounding of one of his classmates here at Maplewood’s Underhill Field June 6.
Family, classmates and friends of Moussa Fofana, 18, within and beyond the South Orange-Maplewood School District community are meanwhile mourning their loss. That mourning extends to Fofana’s family members in Pennsylvania and Liberia. Gov. Murphy mentioned the gun violence incident in his daily briefing Monday.
Maplewood Police Chief Jimmy DuVaul said some of his officers responded to residents’ 9:38 p.m. Sunday calls of gunshots coming from the Underhill Sports Complex, 58 Burr Rd. They arrived to find two people suffering from gunshot wounds at or on the property; a few residents also told MPD officers and the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Task Force detectives of seeing “several juveniles running” from the area.
One man, identified as Charles Obiagwu, 18, was rushed to Newark’s University Hospital for SOMSD “treatment of a non-life-threatening gunshot” to one of his legs. Obiagwu is a linebacker on the Columbia High School football team.
The other man – Fofana – was pronounced dead at the scene by 10:24 p.m. Fofana was a player on the CHS Cougars soccer team and was pursuing a career in a professional league.
Fofana, who was born in New York and had lived with his grandfather in Monrovia, Liberia for six years, rejoined mother Hawa here in 2014. The Clinton Elementary and Maplewood Middle school graduate was remembered as one with a ready smile and/or a joke.
Hawa Fofana said she does not know why her son was at Underhill except for perhaps soccer practice; he had been known for practicing there and playing pickup games on his neighborhood street. Underhill was closed and all outdoor Clinton activities were suspended June 7. Extra MPD patrols were stationed there – it was June 8’s polling station – and at CHS June 8.
MONTCLAIR – Those who want to celebrate Independence Day here this year may want to do so ahead of the July 4 holiday.
The Montclair Celebrates July 4 Committee announced here June 3 that there will be no parade and fireworks display for the second straight year.
Committee President Donato DiGeronimo said that Gov. Murphy’s May 19 lifting of outdoor capacity limits left the committee too little time to stage the 2021 edition. DiGeronimo said Celebrate Montclair needs six-to-eight months lead time to raise funds, secure vendors and performers and recruit volunteers.
While Celebrate Montclair resets its sights on 2022, the Essex County Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs has scheduled its Independence Day salute for 7:30 p.m. July 1 at Brookdale Park. The event is to feature The Infernos among its musical performers capped by a “Fireworks Spectacular.”
The county’s Brookdale Park straddles the Montclair-Bloomfield border.
Three Decamp Routes Restarting
Decamp Bus Lines will resume running three of its commuter bus routes June 14. They are the 33 (including Montclair, Glen Ridge, Bloomfield and Nutley), the 44 (Bloomfield, North Newark, Belleville) and the 66 (West Orange, Montclair) for weekday rush hours. Expired tickets will be honored until Aug. 31; state and CDC COVID guidelines apply.
GLEN RIDGE – Borough residents, parents and colleagues of a 22-year Glen Ridge High School librarian have one last appeal to reinstate her during the Glen Ridge Public Schools June 14 virtual Board of Education meeting.
Those objecting to the effective June 30 dismissal of MaryLynn Savio had been appealing to the board and schools superintendent Dirk Phillips since their passage of the 2021-22 school year budget April 26 and though the panel’s May meetings.
The budget the board had unanimously passed included eliminating the job title of GRHS Library Media Specialist. Phillips, back then, further prosed converting the 1968-built library into a large group meeting space and cooperative area over this summer. The former GRHS principal cited declining use of traditional books and periodicals by students for the job cut and space reuse.
“We’re looking to make it a less traditional space,” said Phillips, “where we’re having the resources still available when it comes to electronics.”
Objectors have cited that the GRHS librarian has assisted in helping teachers prepare resources for their sixth, or extra paid, classes.
Savio and borough resident/Bloomfield Public Library Director Holly Bell, have testified for the former’s job retention at the board’s May 10 and 27 sessions. Savio also happens to be the president of the Glen Ridge Education Association teachers union.
Check glenridge.org for board meeting log-in and in sending questions and comments in advance. June 14 is GRBOE’s last 2020-21 scheduled meeting.
BELLEVILLE – A resolution which would allow the township to appropriate The Great Lawn, including “by eminent domain, if necessary,” was tabled by a majority of council members here June 7.
Resolution 11.1.1 had received its public hearing that Monday night prior to its being tabled. Council members may first vote to lift it from the metaphoric table before taking that second and final vote. Leaving the resolution on the table could subject it to expiration.
The Great Lawn is an eight-acre grass hill at the northwest corner of Belleville and Franklin avenues. It is crowned by the former Essex County Isolation Hospital, a 116-year-old, 10-story landmark building being converted to luxury apartments.
There has been a concern that the lawn, currently owned by the hospital’s redeveloper, would be subject to commercial or retail development. “Local Talk” recalls a proposal to build a pair of single story strip mall buildings, flanking the hospital’s Belleville Avenue main entrance, in the early 2000s.
The resolution’s critics have said that the measure is unnecessary. They cite a 2003 planning agreement where The Great Lawn would be preserved in perpetuity.
NUTLEY – Mayor Mauro G. Tucci and a majority of Township Commissions have signed, sealed and delivered their stance on having cannabis-based businesses within Nutley’s limits to Gov. Phil Murphy’s administrators in Trenton when you read this.
Tucci and fellow commissioners John V. Kelly IV, Thomas Evans and Joseph Scarpelli voted to ban almost all classes of CBBs for the next five years. The ban does allow out-of-town cannabis and/or CBB providers to deliver to their Nutley customers.
The June 1 vote, absent Commissioner Alphonse “Al” Petracco, came after Nutley’s elders held a public hearing earlier that evening. Nutley joins Glen Ridge, who voted for a similar five-year ban April 27, among “Local Talk” towns in shutting, but not locking, their doors to CBBs.
Murphy’s administrators wanted each of New Jersey’s 565 municipalities to make a decision on CBBs on or before Aug. 20. Towns may revisit their bans or allowances in 2026.
