MONTVALE—Mayor Michael Ghassali joined with 12 other municipalities — from 10 additional counties statewide — to file a Superior Court lawsuit in September to compel Gov. Phil Murphy to appoint new members to the Council on Affordable Housing.
The governor’s office did not respond to two letters sent by an attorney for the 13 municipalities in June that requested the governor to appoint new members to the council by late summer. In order to force action by the governor, the municipalities filed suit.
Efforts to determine the status of the civil suit, filed Sept. 7, were not returned by press time.
After the Supreme Court deemed the Council on Affordable Housing (or COAH) “moribund” and ineffective in 2015 following 16 years of inaction due to lawsuits, squabbles over affordable housing formulas, and political stalemates, the court assigned all affordable housing jurisdiction to the state’s Superior Courts.
Oddly, when the state’s Fair Housing Act was passed in 1985, the legislation created COAH, which was set up to determine affordable housing numbers and enforcement that were previously decided by the courts.
The lawsuit by Montvale and 12 other communities calls on the court to force the governor to reconstitute the Council on Affordable Housing, or COAH, to resolve affordable housing numbers after July 2025, when the fourth round of affordable housing mandates will begin.
Pascack Press asked Ghassali why Montvale endorsed the lawsuit to reinstate COAH. He said, “The better question is, ‘Why wouldn’t it?’ Courts are ill-equipped to handle these matters, and as a result, municipalities are leveraged into submission due to risk exposure in the court system. That process was driven by special interest groups, developers, and court masters, with overburdened judges who wanted to clear these cases off the docket.”
Ghassali said, “The borough was forced into open litigation, instead of being insulated while its plan was reviewed by a specialized and balanced board — COAH.”
And he said, “The borough (like many other towns) was forced to pay significant sums to its own attorneys and planners as well as a special master and FSHC. None of that would have been required with an approval process administered by COAH.”
He said, “Another better question is, ‘Why is the governor refusing to satisfy his constitutional and statutory obligations?’ The same constitution that the Supreme Court interpreted to impose Mount Laurel responsibilities on municipalities explicitly states that the governor has the duty to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’”
Montvale’s mayor said the legislature established a bipartisan COAH board composed of professionals representing a diverse array of interests to ensure that all parties’ voices were heard, including municipalities, developers, and housing advocacy groups.
“The governor has violated his constitutional obligation by refusing to appoint members to the COAH board as he was directed to in the Fair Housing Act. All Montvale seeks is for the governor to do what the constitution and the Fair Housing Act explicitly demand,” Ghassali said.
The lawsuit criticizes Murphy for not following through on what the Supreme Court cited in its 2015 decision assigning affordable cases to Superior Courts. The lawsuit quotes the court’s decision.
“The lack of a COAH board has not only violated the express and implied policies established by the legislature and forced the courts to play the activist role that the Supreme Court sought so desperately to avoid, but it has also hurt (state) taxpayers and municipalities. Instead of having the benefit of a streamlined process…we have court proceedings that can take far longer and be far more costly to taxpayers,” the lawsuit quotes the 2015 Supreme Court decision.
Four years ago, both Ghassali, a Republican, and Park Ridge Mayor Keith Misciagna, a Democrat, rode together to Trenton to testify against the high-density housing being forced upon towns by court-mediated affordable housing settlements.
Asked about Montvale’s lawsuit to bring back COAH, Misciagna said, “I believe the state should reinstate COAH and I support that but it would have to be completely overhauled and the affordable housing need looked at as a regional issue. The new COAH should implement regional goals that come with some state funding to make it all work.”
“Presently that falls on the back of the small towns that often have less money and influence than the large powerful developers. I hope Gov. Murphy explores the idea of a newer, better COAH for those in need of good quality affordable housing and those smaller towns that would like to provide it for them without changing into a city to do so,” Misciagna said.
In 2018, Ghassali told Pascack Press then that race “has nothing to do with” affordable housing after a Fair Share Housing Center representative had referred to the low percentage of African-Americans residing in certain towns, including Montvale and Park Ridge.
Ghassali said then that Montvale was home to families from at least 44 nations of origin.