Kranjac Leads War Against Corrupt Affordable Housing Mandate, Englewood Cliffs Files Complaint
Englewood Cliffs, NJ -- Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario M. Kranjac is leading the fight against New Jersey’s corrupt affordable housing mandate which he says is used by politicians and greedy developers to enrich their friends off the backs of taxpayers.
“It is a land grab, money grab, and vote grab by politicians and their friends,” explained Kranjac.
Kranjac led the Borough of Englewood Cliffs in filing a complaint against New Jersey’s affordable housing mandate, on account of the actions and omissions by the borough’s former attorneys and 800 Sylvan Avenue LLC, the company proposing to build high density housing at that site in Englewood Cliffs. The site is a commercial campus that has until now been used to employ thousands of hard working taxpayers, but in today’s New Jersey employing people is an afterthought.
According to the Complaint, these actions were to fulfill the affordable housing obligation at the expense of the needs of the borough and only contribute to the personal gain of the developers and individuals involved. The Complaint reads that, “The Borough and its residents should not be punished by imposing a massive mega apartment complex that will strain and potentially cause wholesale breakdown of its fire, police, sewer, water, roads and other infrastructure simply because its past leaders skirted their affordable housing obligations.”
Kranjac released a statement on the Complaint that can be read in its entirety below:
“Regarding our Borough’s affordable housing issues, I have always said that I do not agree with the unfair way New Jersey (through its Governor, Legislature and Courts) have forced affordable housing mandates on our towns to enrich their friends by shifting your homes’ values to them through the NJ affordable housing sham. Think of it as a land grab, money grab, and vote grab by politicians and their friends. Despite all this, I have always said that since it is the law, we must comply with it and that is exactly what I tried to do by invoking “home rule” and having the Borough sponsor affordable housing projects where no one is enriched by your hard earned money. The 2019 and 2020 Englewood Cliffs Council disagreed with me and through the Borough’s lawyers conducted a sham affordable housing trial leading up to the unconscionable settlement in October 2020. Suffice it to also say that none of these politicians actually care about anyone who really needs affordable housing.
In June, I requested our Council to hire a new law firm, Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, to investigate what took place so we could determine if I was right and we were all poorly served by counsel and Council. By July’s monthly Mayor and Council Meeting, the new law firm provided us with its findings after reviewing thousands of documents. At that July meeting, I obtained permission from Councilmen Mark Park, Ramon Ferro, and William Woo to file a lawsuit for breach of fiduciary duty and other claims against our four former attorneys (Wunsch, Marinello, Surenian and Trautner) and 800 Sylvan for at least $100,000,000 in damages. [Councilmen Luciano and DiGregorio objected, while Councilman Koutroubas abstained].
Suffice it to say that it is a very sad day when our Borough’s lawyers and 2019/2020 Council Majority [Ellen Park, Deborah Tsabari, Gloria Oh, Jimmy Song, and Edward Aversa] abandoned us as belied by the facts set forth in the lawsuit and chose to further their misguided politics rather than the Borough’s and your interests. I have said it before and I will say it again here: The graft, corruption and backroom deals of New Jersey politicians are robbing all New Jersey taxpayers and must be stopped. I estimate that every taxpayer in New Jersey pays 50% to 75% more taxes than they would if we ended all of the graft, corruption and backroom deals.”
The Complaint was filed at the Bergen County Superior Court on September 1, 2021.
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