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To the editor:
Would you ever purchase a property for twice its value? Last week, the Woodcliff Lake Mayor and Council approved the purchase of the Galaxy Gardens property [at 223 Woodcliff Ave.] for 1.7 million of our tax dollars, nearly twice its value.
If that was not enough, they also agreed to give the seller an additional fee of $75,000 for “relocation expenses,” which is never done in a real estate transaction.
The property is highly toxic and it could cost up to $1 million to clean up. The town has put aside only $100,000 for the cleanup when in fact it will cost many times that to rid the property of years of pesticides that have sunk into the soil and polluted the property.
This makes the purchase of the Galaxy Gardens property voidable under New Jersey Statute 40A:4-57, which states, “No officer, board or body […] shall during any fiscal year, expend any money, incur any liability, or enter into any contract which by its terms involves the expenditure of money for any purpose for which no appropriation is provided or in excess of the amount appropriated for such purpose.”
The statue further provides “Any contract made in violation hereof shall be null and void, and any no moneys shall be paid thereon.”
Despite this clear violation of the New Jersey statute, the vote was 3-3 to purchase the property, with the three Democrats voting against the purchase and Mayor Rendo breaking the tie in favor of violating the law and purchasing the property.
How could they have violated their fiduciary duty to the taxpayers of Woodcliff Lake and violated the law by approving the purchase of this property with absolutely no clue as to how much the cleanup of this property is going to cost the residents of Woodcliff Lake?
In addition, they are going to build a park on one of the worst intersections in our community and this will be a hazard for all the children who go there to play.
If this were corporate America, all four of the Republicans sitting on the Woodcliff Lake Council—including the mayor —would be out of a job.
Robert Rosenblatt
Woodcliff Lake
The writer is a former borough councilman
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