WOODCLIFF LAKE—Two new council members, Benjamin Pollack and Nicole Marsh, were sworn in Jan. 5 to create an all-Democratic Borough Council to work along with two-term Republican Mayor Carlos Rendo.
Jennifer Margolis, whose term expires in 2024, was unanimously elected as council president. Nominating her was four-term councilwoman Jacqueline Gadaleta. Richard Schnoll seconded.
Pollack and Marsh, replace two-term Democratic councilwoman Angela Hayes and one-term councilman Stephen Falanga, both of whom declined to seek reelection.
The newcomers narrowly topped their Republican challengers, Joshua Stern and Brian DiStefano, in the Nov. 8 General Election. Pollack and Marsh pulled in 1,419 votes and 1,411 votes, respectively, while Stern grabbed 1,289 votes and DiStefano totaled 1,271 votes.
Mayor takes stock, sets priorities
Rendo’s second four-year term expires Dec. 31. He has not declared whether he will run for reelection. He won reelection in November 2019.
In his State of the Municipality address on Jan. 5, Rendo talked about 2022 milestones and what’s ahead in 2023.
He said, “Woodcliff Lake is known as a small town in a bucolic and charming setting. We will continue to protect this vision through our policies. In 2022, we saw our [Centennial] Causeway improved with new sidewalks and fencing. In the springtime, we will finish our project with improved lighting and new landscaping. This improvement will connect our project to the anticipated walking trails around our reservoir.”
Recently, Veolia officials and representatives from Woodcliff Lake, Park Ridge and Hillsdale announced that they anticipate a proposed 1.5-mile-long nature trail around the Woodcliff Lake Reservoir, owned by Veolia, to be completed on April 22, celebrated as Earth Day since 1970.
Rendo said, “It is imperative that we resist overdevelopment and promote open space. Under my watch, we have tripled our investment in our Shade Tree committee, we invested in our tree planting program, we have purchased property removing an environmentally impacted area with the intent of converting it to a beautiful park [the former Galaxy Gardens site] in the center of our community.”
He noted, “Looking back to 2020 and 2021, we were faced with the pressures of Covid and our corporate sector was stressed with financial uncertainty. We took action and now we see our corporate sector with a 95% occupancy rate, and new businesses like Party City, Whole Foods, Sephora, Nike, and Mixology call Woodcliff Lake their home.”
He said 2023 presents many challenges, including what he alleged was a spike in crime related to Trenton policies such as “catch and release and bail reform… The criminal element has become more brazen knowing that they will be arrested and in less than 24 hours, will be released to commit more crime.”
Rendo said, “I want to make clear that we will not tolerate criminality in our municipality. To address this issue, I organized a community meeting together with our police department to discuss our crime fighting efforts. We increased our patrols, we solidified our supervisory structure, we applied for grants for cameras and invested in crime prevention tools for our police. In Woodcliff Lake, we support and fund our police.”
He said the recent settlement with Fair Share Housing Center and 188 Broadway LP to build 24 units of affordable housing and settle lawsuits against the borough will bring “much-needed improvements to the Broadway corridor and the potential of thousands of tax dollars to our municipality.”
He said, “Some may say that we took a victory lap, and yes we did. Just look around what the surrounding municipalities are building and compare it to our settlement of just 24 affordable housing and 46 market units. We succeeded in controlling overdevelopment.”
He said the borough passed an updated Master Plan that is a blueprint for development, and noted whoever is mayor in 2025 must continue to work with council to control overdevelopment.
He said to increase transparency with residents he will host a monthly coffee event at Whole Foods Market cafe. For those unable to attend, he said he would restart a FaceTime live Q&A session on Sundays after the meeting of the mayor and council.
Beautification in the works
“My next initiative is to continue our borough beautification program. This year I will engage our grant writers to aggressively seek funds for streetscape improvements along the Broadway corridor. I will engage New Jersey Transit and Veolia to enter a private/public partnership on improving the look of the west side of the Broadway corridor. We cannot stop what we started,” he said.
The mayor said he was eager to work with council president Jennifer Margolis and councilwoman Nicole Marsh to implement a recreation master plan to improve recreation areas and athletic fields, in concert with local baseball and softball associations.
He said, “Finally, I thank you for giving me seven years as your mayor and I am looking forward to my eighth year. It is a pleasure representing you. Thank you and God bless Woodcliff Lake.”
Other reorganization notes
The meeting featured appointments to 11 standing committees including Finance & Audits; DPW & Sanitation; Police Department; Fire Department; Parks and Recreation; Shade Tree Committee; Legal; Board of Health; Seniors; Schools (K-8); and Schools (High School).
Also, the meeting featured 17 annual professional appointments including Borough Attorney (John Schettino); Borough Engineer (Neglia Engineering); Borough Auditor (Lerch Vinci & Bliss, LLP); Labor Attorney Wiss & Bouregy, PC; Bond Attorney Rogut McCarthy LLC; and Borough Planner Phillips Preiss Grygiel Leheny Hughes.
Other professionals appointed for one-year terms included Redevelopment Attorney Cullen & Dykman, Jeff Zenn, Esq.; Grant Writer Millennium Strategies, LLC; and Landscape Architect DMR Architects.
During the meeting, Rendo made 19 appointments and designations to municipal offices, plus five Planning Board members and three Zoning Board members, according to the meeting’s agenda.
