For some time Teaneck residents have been essentially shut out of the process through which our Town has spent the annual half million $ that the majority of voters have voted to ADD to their tax bill for open space acquisition and for recreation development and historical preservation. The fund is known to most residents as the Municipal Open Space Trust (MOST)
A recent effort to get data about this MOST spending produced some very hard to decipher data and then a clear rejection by the township’s CFO to clarify whether ANY of the required public hearings had occurred – hearings that Council by resolution has promised to hold before ANY expenditure of the trust funds was going to happen.
This post provides the reader with the just released data about MOST expenditures from the middle of 2016 to the present – data that the town produced when requested under the open public records act (OPRA). But first we provide the response we got when we asked to see the documents from and about the required public hearings.
Here is what we asked the Clerk to provide:
This is a new and separate OPRA for the Township documents which identify the public hearing conducted by the Township prior to undertaking and/or approving expenditures made from the Township’s Municipal Open Space, Recreation, Farmland and Historic Preservation Trust Fund (aka MOST) in accordance with the specific clause in the Resolutions (171-12 and 175-2016) authorizing electoral referenda to approve taxation for said Fund. The referenced clause is as follows:
“WHEREAS, any amounts raised by such tax levy shall be deposited into a “Municipal Open Space, Recreation, and Farmland and Historic Preservation Trust Fund, and shall be used exclusively for the designated purposes within the municipality to be determined by the governing body of the municipality only after at least one public hearing thereon…”
And here is what we got back:
Good afternoon, Dr. Powers. Please find attached.
Please also be advised all redactions are in accordance with N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1 for ACD (advisory, consultative, and deliberative) material.
This request is complete.
And here is the (UNBELIEVABLE) attachment we got – click OPRA Response – Powers – OPRA C – 2.20.2020 OPRA – Redacted (002) – click twice to see it in a readable size
But SURELY we residents must be able to get data on what projects these MOST expenditures were actually supporting – right?
Well take a look at what we got and see if you can figure out what our MOST funds were supporting, because we here at Teaneck Transparency usually cannot figure it out:
To see what the CFO has logged into the MOST account since mid-2016, click OPRA Response – Powers – OPRA A 2.20.2020 –click twice to see it in a readable size
Next, to see how the town has logged in requests for MOST fund payments and the checks it sent out and how those expenses got placed in the bill list to be approved by council, you will need to go to two other documents
-
What did Council and the public see in the bill lists: click OPRA Response – Powers – OPRA 2.20.2020 – Part 2 – Bill Lists and click twice to see it in a readable size
-
What what were the invoices and checks sent out click OPRA Response – Powers – OPRA 2.20.2020 – B Part 3and click twice to see it in a readable size
And now, Teaneck residents, you know all that the Town wants you to know about what it has been doing with the half million extra dollars for open space and recreation we agreed to pay for the past few years!
