The Oakland Housing Corporation 4

A strawman is defined as a person who is set up as a cover or front for a questionable enterprise. In the case of Oakland’s new housing corporation, the questionable enterprise is the Oakland town council.

Details are still emerging from the emergency meeting held only hours before the state imposed deadline to commit the Oakland COAH trust funds to a plan – or risk having them seized by the state.

As discussed at the last council meeting on July 11th, the purpose of the emergency meeting on July 16th was to appoint trustees to the new nonprofit corporation which would be responsible for approximately $800,000 in Oakland housing trust funds.

The issue of affordable housing has haunted NJ municipalities since the 1970s when a court ruling established that towns must provide opportunity for affordable housing.

In order to assist in these efforts, individual municipal trust funds were established and filled with fees charged to developer’s. Governor Corzine, in 2008, established a deadline that gave towns 4 years to commit this money to a plan for affordable housing – in 2012, Governor Christie is looking to cash in and seize the money from town’s without a legitimate plan for spending it.

On July 16th, 2012, the majority of the Oakland town council, created a strawman in the form of the new housing corporation.

To safeguard the money from seizure by the state, Oakland will transfer the trust money to the new housing authority which will be responsible for it. The new housing corporation is comprised of 7 members – 3 sitting council members and 4 residents. The three council people are Betsy Stagg, Tim Jensen, and Karen Marcalus, and they are joined by former mayor John Szabo and former council member Frank DiPentima – plus two additional Oakland residents.

The super majority of the new housing authority is made up of the exact same people who did nothing for the 4 years the deadline loomed. This is the plan: Turn over the money to an organization comprised of the same people who failed to meet the 4 year deadline.

The fate of the COAH monies for Oakland, and other municipalities at risk, was the focus of a recent court case that affirmed Chris Christie’s right to have the state seize this money. The court did add a wrinkle, which may lead to an appeal by the Christie administration, that allows municipalities to appeal any effort to seize their trust funds.

“The municipality shall have the right to contest before COAH the proposed transfer by demonstrating that the funds targeted for transfer have been “committed” to fund an affordable housing project by way of a legally enforceable agreement with a third party, or by such other means that show a firm and binding obligation to spend such funds in a manner consistent with the municipality’s affordable housing obligations.”

It is now a waiting game to see if the state of NJ will consider Oakland’s new housing corporation to be part of a legitimate plan, or just a strawman.

Also on the horizon, should the state accept the Oakland plan, is how the three remaining council people vote on transferring the money. All but council member Tim Jensen voted for themselves, so there seems to be a belief that no conflict of interest exists in voting yourself on to the board, voting to transfer the money, and voting any additional tax dollars the Oakland council wishes to award the new housing corporation.

The only contentious vote was for John Szabo which was passed 3 votes to 2 votes with Tim Jensen and Pat Pignatelli voting against and Sandra Coira abstaining from all votes. Since there were no ties the Mayor did not vote.

Submitted by Charles McCormick