EMERSON—Jeanine Lamatina — the wife of immediate past mayor Louis Lamatina, under whose administration a downtown mixed-use redevelopment project featuring 147 apartment units was approved in late 2018 — is running for mayor on a platform to reduce what she considers the two largest local problems: lawsuits against the borough and taxes on residents.
Meanwhile, the borough has released an audio recording establishing why the borough sued its redeveloper partner, in a case still pending.
According to borough attorney John McCann, the previous administration and its redeveloper partner, Jack Klugmann/Accurate Builders, “didn’t act in good faith, and set up the new council to fail at the expense of the taxpayers.”
It was Louis Lamatina, said McCann, who “structured the contract requiring the new governing body to transfer the ambulance building to the redeveloper” in a timetable all but certain to pose a problem to the new town government.
The audio, recorded by borough administrator Robert Hermansen in what he said was a followup conversation with Klugmann after the builder spoke at the previous might’s council meeting, also attended by ambulance corps volunteers, is posted to the borough website and professionally transcribed.
Regarding critics of the deal, which continues to displace the corps, Klugmann says on the tape, “I disagree with the mentality of how they go about this stuff. I feel that keep on feeding the people in the borough who are asking questions, they feed it. They feed the negative naysayers. This is just my opinion. And from everything I read and hear and see, you know, every day gets stronger and stronger and stronger.”
Klugmann, who complains he’s seen as a villain at public meetings, tells Hermansen, “We don’t owe answers to everybody for every single detail. We don’t owe answers in every public session about certain items. It’s not — it’s not — doesn’t have to be where the public has to know every single detail about what’s going on here.”
Hoping to give voters a choice in who should steer Emerson for the next four years, Jeanine Lamatina told Pascack Press that she decided to challenge one-term Republican Mayor Danielle DiPaola, who won in 2018 on a platform opposing downtown overdevelopment.
Lamatina’s running mates, Jose Organ and Richard Dinallo, oppose Republican council incumbents Jill McGuire and Nicole Argenzia. (See page 3 for that story.)
Asked why she was running, Lamatina said, “Because I feel the residents need to have a choice, to look at both parties and to see who is the most qualified.”
Asked about her campaign platform, she said, “Too many lawsuits and our taxes have been increased too much.” She said borough officials needed “to follow through and see what needs to be done so we’re not sued.”
Pascack Press asked Lamatina for her views about Emerson Station, the Block 419 redevelopment project mired in lawsuits and delays since her husband left office in 2018, after two terms, in a loss to DiPaola, a former councilmember who voted consistently against the scale of the project and the means by which the deal was reached.
Lamatina replied in depth, from an AOL account under her husband’s name, critical of the current administration. We sent a copy to DiPaola for a reaction for this story, and we received word back from McCann as the borough’s statement, refuting all assertions.
Project a point of contention
Lamatina told us, “I fully support the project, which has its origins in an effort started by the Borough Council in the late 1990s to redevelop the downtown. Approval of this project allowed the borough to satisfy its affordable housing Third Round obligations. Once completed, the borough should be able to stabilize taxes with this new ratable and finally partially modernize our aging downtown.”
“The project should have been completed years ago but for the current mayor’s interference in the permitting process. The redeveloper filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the mayor where her efforts to derail the project are well documented. Her behavior has cost the borough hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. The borough is paying its own legal fees, as well as the fees of a retired appellate division judge who has been appointed special master. In addition, in the affordable housing litigation, the court has ordered Emerson to pay the redeveloper’s legal fees in an amount to be determined by the court,” she said.
She added, “The mayor also ignored a one-year deadline to provide the redeveloper with a plan to construct an emergency services building. As a result, the borough lost a $500,000 payment which has been negotiated for the value of the ambulance corps building land that the mayor transferred to the redeveloper in 2019.”
She said, “Most importantly, the mayor signed that deed in 2019 after Mr. Lamatina left office. Why would she transfer the property without first receiving the $500,000?”
She noted her background managing real estate and education in accounting would enable her to determine where to cut current costs that could lead to tax relief.
She said her campaign was operating via “just word of mouth” and was not sure whether the campaign would be posting signs around town or doing social media outreach. She said her candidacy was backed by the Democratic Committee of Bergen County.
Lamatina has lived in Emerson since 1990. She graduated from Manhattan College in 1981 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, and is a certified financial planner.
She said she has served as office manager in her husband’s Paramus law office for almost 30 years. She said she manages several other residential and commercial properties owned by the Lamatinas.
Louis Lamatina had served two non-consecutive four-year terms as mayor. He who broke a 3-3 council vote in December 2016 to allow four-story development in the borough’s redevelopment area.
After a single public hearing on Dec. 10, 2018, the Land Use Board voted, 6-2, to approve the project.
DiPaola spoke at the hearing as the mayor-elect, questioning the massive redevelopment project. (See “Did Emerson Land Use Board do enough? 419 Project passes,” Dec. 14, 2018, Pascack Press).
The project, controversial before and after approval, remains unfinished and the borough is suing Emerson Redevelopers Urban Renewal for reneging on a promise to provide $500,000 in construction services after the borough deeded the former ambulance corps property to the developer.
Borough attorney responds
McCann issued a statement disputing all of Lamatina’s assertions.
“After many years, Mrs. Lamatina, nor her husband attended a single mayor and council meeting to express these concerns. Nor has she come to a public meeting to express any of her views on any issue the governing body deals with. She seems focused only on her husband’s issue. These comments are nothing but a repeat of the same partisan attacks to defend the indefensible. Emerson deserves better,” he said.
He said, “This is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Because of a deal between Mrs. Lamatina’s husband and the redeveloper, Emerson had no choice but to bring a lawsuit to protect the taxpayers from a disgusting last-minute deal orchestrated by Mr. Lamatina in his last few days as mayor.”
He said, “In the litigation, the borough produced a tape of a conversation between the borough administrator and the redeveloper where the redeveloper admits that the ex-mayor [allegedly] sold the ambulance corps building to him knowing that there was no way the incoming council in the next year could meet the unreasonable deadlines the ex-mayor established for transaction days prior to leaving office.”
He said, “At that time, the redeveloper was only willing to pay $250,000 for the ambulance corps building. On the tape, the redeveloper stated, ‘…We took out—we tried to work it out, but then the mayor [Lamatina just days before he left office] came back and [allegedly] says, ‘There’s no way I’m going to get that through [the council] if I lower that fee anymore, he says, but we could put a timeline in. And frankly, I don’t think that they’re going to be able to pull this off in time.’”
“So, instead, the redeveloper and outgoing mayor concocted a number double the amount ($500,000) he was willing to pay and figured they could squeeze a settlement out of the borough down the road because they couldn’t possibly meet the deadlines. The tape can be heard on the borough’s website.”
McCann said, “This is why the borough sued the redeveloper. The governing body didn’t believe they acted in good faith and set up the new council to fail at the expense of the taxpayers. It was the ex-mayor who structured the contract requiring the new governing body to transfer the ambulance building to the redeveloper. If the ex-mayor did not bind the taxpayers, most likely, none of this litigation would have happened.”
He said “The rest of the attacks are specious. The federal litigation brought by the redeveloper is without merit and was dismissed at the outset. The borough doesn’t control when someone sues, so the redeveloper brought another political suit to continue to try and get the taxpayers to kneel before him.”
And he said, “At no time did the governing body delay the construction of the project. The delays are due to the redeveloper. For instance, when filing for their original main permit they were slow to provide the information needed to obtain them. The borough signed off on the permit on July 29, 2020, but they did not pay for the permits until April 7, 2021 when they picked them up almost a full year later.”
McCann said, “As the wife of the previous mayor who brought this monstrosity to Emerson, it is understandable she feels the need to defend the disaster her husband brought to the borough; even if it is for her own political benefit.”
Louis Lamatina responds
Asked to comment, Louis Lamatina, an attorney, told us Oct. 13, “This administration’s downfall will be documented facts, not the hyperbole of its highly paid spokesman. An architect chosen by the council in an open process was in place during 2018. Several concept plans have been prepared and discussed in … meetings. A final concert plan was agreed upon by the council. All that needed to be done was to finalize the plans which should have taken much less than one year.”
He asserted, “As the evidence presented to Judge Vinci yesterday with the redeveloper’s motion illustrates, the mayor intentionally sat on the plans, claiming that she had other priorities for the borough.”
He said, “In addition to losing the $500,000 contribution to the public safety building, the developer will now also be off the hook to serve as general contractor to the project. That would have saved the borough hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in construction costs.”
DiPaola on her reasons for seeking reelection
Asked for her platform, DiPaola wrote Pascack Press, “Four years ago, I promised to be a strong leader for Emerson. I pledged to be a voice of reason regarding development, to restore accountability and transparency to government operations, to be fiscally responsible and a good steward of tax dollars, and to be a strong advocate for our residents’ interests, not the special ones of the prior administration.”
“Through the hard work, commitment and collaboration of an outstanding team of council members, employees, volunteers, community leaders and residents, I am proud to say that we have accomplished these goals together. My administration has wisely utilized tax dollars in difficult economic times, enhanced municipal services for the benefit of all residents, and preserved the values of our family town.”
She said, “Gone are the days of senseless political fighting, cooperation has replaced chaos, and Cavo pride is at an all time high. It has been my great honor and privilege to serve my beloved Emerson, the town that I was born and raised in and to which I have dedicated the last 12 years of my life protecting.”
She said, “When re-elected, I am determined to continue to be the strong leader that Emerson deserves — moving Emerson forward responsibly while preserving its small-town charm.”
— With John Snyder