WOODCLIFF LAKE —Coffee, conversation, and community will be served up monthly at Mayor Carlos Rendo’s “Coffee With the Mayor” sessions, starting in mid-January at at Whole Foods Market, 500 Chestnut Ridge Road.
Rendo told Pascack Press that Saturday, Jan. 14 from 9 to 10 a.m. at the market will be his first such informal coffee time with public, and that he looks forward to it.
At the Dec. 22, 2022 meeting of the governing body, Rendo said he hoped residents would come out to the gatherings to say hello and discuss local concerns. He said when he first became a councilman in 2013 he began a “Council to the Community” outreach where members met with residents at Borough Hall, Tice Senior/Community Center, and the VFW hall.
Rendo said on Dec. 29, “I will be offering coffee and danishes. The purpose is to just speak to the residents and get their feedback, ideas, and overall impression of the town. This is part of my transparency initiative to connect with our residents.”
Rendo announced the coffee klatches will offer an opportunity to “just to be a little more open and transparent with our public. I pride myself on open and transparent government.”
He said he and the Borough Council had increased transparency with the public since he joined about a decade ago.
“Anything you want to speak about, any concerns, I’ll be there whether you come or not, having a coffee,” said the mayor.
Several area police departments hold “coffee with a cop” events. Rendo also is expected to participate in the annual Greater Pascack Valley Chamber of Commerce Breakfast With the Mayors at The Iron Horse restaurant in Westwood the morning of Jan. 18. (Tickets are on sale.)
Rendo’s second term expires Dec. 31 and he has not yet announced if he’ll seek reelection. He won reelection in November 2019, besting Democratic councilwoman Jacqueline Gadaleta, 1,150 votes to 914.
Rendo also was part of a Republican state campaign for governor in November 2017, running as the lieutenant governor candidate alongside gubernatorial candidate Kim Guadagno. The pair lost that contest to Democratic Gov. Philip Murphy and Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver. Murphy and Oliver won reelection in 2021.
Rendo recently praised the upcoming opening of a 1.5-mile-long Woodcliff Lake Reservoir Nature Trail sometime this spring, after nearly a decade of fits and starts, and a project that he long advocated for. The trail runs along the reservoir and into parts of Park Ridge and Hillsdale.
Moreover, he said a long-planned passive park on Weirmus Road has faced stumbling blocks with potential donors backing out due to project delays. Rendo has pressed for the park to open over the last two to three years, although toxic contamination cleanup and Covid-related delays have slowed its progress.
On Dec. 6, the council signed an agreement that settles pending lawsuits against the borough by allowing a developer to construct 45 housing units at 188 Broadway, formalizes a multi-year agreement with Bergen County United Way to build 24 units of affordable/supportive housing, and resolves its outstanding court-approved affordable housing obligations.
Rendo said the borough will be making out “pretty well” due to a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreement on the 188 Broadway apartments, and said the agreements gave the borough “an opportunity to control our destiny and we believe we did so.”
In dueling letters to the editor we ran in December 2022 former councilman Craig Marson and councilwoman Josephine Higgins, a former mayor, had accused Rendo and councilman Richard Schnoll of not being transparent about the 188 Broadway settlement, along with other charges.
Rendo and Schnoll responded that Marson and Higgins were “quick to criticize but mind you, neither have ever provided a solution to settling both matters or provided a recommendation to improve (Broadway) corridor.