Hello, everyone. Happy February (yes, seriously). Just wanted to update you on a few things including Lackawanna, fire stuff, the town manager and more.

Frigid Weekend Prep

“She’ll see it later, Clark. Her eyes are frozen.” In all seriousness, overnight into Friday, temperatures are going to drop a lot. So just be mindful of things like water pipes in your home or business. Also think about the folks less fortunate in our town. The Township and our Police Dept. work with the Montclair Emergency Services for the Homeless (MESH) and various houses of worship to help make sure the unhoused aren’t outside in inclement weather. We just gave MESH a grant a few weeks ago. But they are a non profit organization that is so incredibly thoughtful and effective at what they do. So if you have anything to spare, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to MESH to support what they do. You can donate here.

Montclair’s Black History – Black History Month

Many of our institutions and organizations have some great events planned this month. But I want to ask all of you to take a moment to make sure you know about a really fantastic piece of this town’s own Black History. And that is the Howe House. In 1831, Nathanial Crane left this home on Claremont to James Howe in his Testament and Last Will. Mr. Howe previously was a slave, owned by Mr. Crane whom Mr. Crane manumitted (freed) in the years before. Mr. Crane himself, part of the legendary Crane family who are credited with building Montclair (formally known as Cranetown).

It’s an incredible story, worth reading about. Take some time to read about the history, and what a wonderful group of locals are doing to preserve it. And you guessed it — you also can make a contribution too.

Some Quick Parking & Transportation Updates

• We’re aware the elevator is broken at the Crescent Deck. Unfortunately the control panel was fatally vandalized. A new one is on order. But it’s a custom product and it’s going to take a while. I caught up with the Parking Utility this week and they’re making extra spaces available on the ground level for anyone who has trouble with stairs. These are coned off and you just have to ask someone in the office at the deck (by the entrance) to move a cone for you.
• The County has been and will continue to revisit the timing of the lights on Bloomfield Avenue. I understand some corrections have already been made. But I wanted you to be aware as several of you have reached out to me about this.
• We’re going to be fixing the intersection of N. Fullerton and Claremont to create left turning lanes in both the east and west directions onto N. Fullerton. This will alleviate the significant backup westbound drivers on Claremont are experiencing. 

Update on Lackawanna Plaza Process

You’ve had my word since day one that for me this was going to be a serious and methodical process. I want to be sure you all know, there is no imminent vote. I’m now in receipt of our phase one traffic study, Planning Board report, Historic Preservation Commission Resolution, Housing Commission Resolution, opinion letters from neighboring properties, significant public comment through every medium imaginable (though no one has used sky-writing yet). I’m aware that there is a petition race happening:

The petition for folks generally in favor is here.
The petition for folks generally opposed is here.

I’m listening to everyone, reading all of the comments and more. Last night I read through all of the above mentioned items. I’m about good government before anything else. My agenda is to make the best decision possible given all of the information, opinions and expert advice. I take the feedback from our land use bodies seriously, but measuredly. The most significant of these items is the Planning Board report. While there was a bit too much subjectivity for me throughout and especially in using words like “towers” to describe the buildings, it’s clear they worked hard on this and I appreciate their time and service. I do feel some of this will influence some changes.

Our initial traffic study of the area essentially concluded that to accommodate the draft plan as-is, significant improvements will need to be made to Grove Street from Bloomfield Ave. to Willard and Glenridge Ave. all around the site. We are working on having the firm come do a public session and take the public through their process, conclusions, and recommendations. We would stream this in the coming two weeks, make a recording available, etc. At this time, I would also say that Elm & Union as well as Walnut & Grove will be flagged for needed improvements too.

I appreciated the Housing Commission’s endorsement of our affordable housing approach with this site as well as what the Historic Preservation Commission offered, though I was disappointed to see them endorse and then retract their suggestion to de-bulk the lower levels, by adding some height. I don’t necessarily feel strongly one way or the other. But the abrupt about-face concerned me.

Again, we all need to take some time to sit with this. And there are six other members of the Council who have just as much say as I do. Our conversations will continue, we’ll follow up with the above mentioned parties and we’ll figure out our next steps as a Council. Assuming we will make changes to the plan, we’ll need to make those and then reintroduce it again at one of our upcoming meetings (not this coming Tuesday).

Our Township Manager

Right now several attorneys are cringing reading this. But, the most powerful force guiding me, is my gut, informed by 43 years of an incredible life experience. I promised myself I would not let being in office change who I was or how I operated. After the military kicked me out of basic training for admitting I was gay, I spent the next decade pursuing the reversal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. I’ve survived conversion therapy, being beaten and bullied; I’ve taken on the U.S. Military and elected officials at every level of government. As long as I trust my gut and be the man my parents raised me to be, I can sleep at night.

From the beginning of this fiasco, I’ve refused to be silent despite legal counsel telling me I should. I understand my fiduciary responsibility to minimize legal liability exposure, costs and more. But I feel I have a greater responsibility to set the tone and influence our government to reflect the values of the people, even if it isolates or costs me.

It is unacceptable to me that women in our government have been treated poorly. And I think they and all the women who live and work in Montclair need to hear that from the people who represent them. The behaviors that four women (just the ones who have gone on record) describing Mr. Stafford displaying at our Town Hall are unacceptable and do not reflect who we are as a people. I’ve seen the pain and tears in their eyes. Yet, his attorneys have disgracefully taken to the media to smear and discredit them while our government stayed silent. And our interim Township attorney (unclear on if this was with or without any guidance from the Mayor or any of my colleagues) has pursued having the cases brought by two of these women against the Township dismissed.

Put me squarely on the side of not trying to silence women.

I’m glad we’re hiring consultants to come in and evaluate the culture and climate and lead our government to a healthier place. That needing to happen is a given. But we also need to be honest about how this became the culture in the first place. Who sets the tone? Who maybe turned a blind eye? How much more good talent are we willing to lose?

We need to be led by our values and our convictions and not by fear of lawsuits.

Fire Department Budget

Many of you have written me regarding the Fire Department’s request for more headcount and capital dollars for equipment. I’m looking at this seriously. But I’m also very frustrated because this is exactly why we should never have approved the Glen Ridge fire contract. Here we are just a few months later with a request to hire 13 more firefighters, increase overtime, spend $1M on radios and plan for over $700k in the next couple of years on a fire truck; and that’s without talking about two our our stations that need upgrades. This is exactly why I voted no. We’re inexplicably subsidizing a very wealthy town and asking you all to shoulder the costs.

But that’s not our Firefighter’s fault. I will consider exchanging overtime expense for headcount. I care about their morale, safety, and quality of life. And if we can bring overtime costs down with some additional headcount, I’d consider that. But I’m not there yet. I need to understand year-by-year call data and how these decisions will impact response times and overall capabilities. I’d also like to see where the Lackawanna process takes us because I think that should be part of our consideration in terms of service capacity.

Yesterday, I joined advocates from Bike and Walk Montclair, Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill and others to talk to NJ Spotlight News about pedestrian safety in Montclair. In addition to working together to fix clearly dangerous intersections, we also need to treat the disease.

That’s why I have our law department drafting a Resolution, modeled on what Princeton, Hoboken and Jersey City have done, to establish a Vision Zero Task Force in Montclair.

We need to make it easier for seniors, people with disabilities, folks on bikes, boards and walking to cross our streets. We also need to tackle distracted mobility in all forms. Look up, people.

Looking forward to working with all parties to get this done and then to seriously, actually invest in this. We’re close to finishing a decade’s worth of fixing roads in town. The next decade now needs to see us improving them for safety.

All of us read with horror and disgust, about the firebomb in the form of a Molotov Cocktail thrown at Temple Ner Tamid this weekend. I’m grateful to learn that the FBI now has a suspect in custody. Immediately following the incident, I reached out to the rabbis at Montclair’s synagogues, putting them in touch with Montclair PD to discuss their security or other needs. Given recent activity in Israel and this, our PD are monitoring the situation carefully. Antisemitism is unacceptable and disgusting and has absolutely no place in our society. Tomorrow night I plan to show up at the Temple for an Interfaith Rally Against Hate, to show my support. All are welcome and I encourage you to attend. Let our collective light drive out this darkness.

Join me for some Doughnuts and Democracy – Feb. 23rd

Just a few tickets left to my first Democracy & Doughnuts event, which I’m hosting with Rachel Wyman at Rabble Rise on Thursday, Feb. 23rd. Tickets and info are here. 

Be well, everyone.

-Peter