Mayor defends exclusion of council members from hospital expansion talk; promises transparent process

 

Responding to a parade of perturbed residents, Morristown Mayor Tim Dougherty on Tuesday defended the exclusion of two council members from early talks about an expansion of Morristown Medical Center — and vowed to keep residents apprised going forward.

“Nothing will be done in secret,” Dougherty declared, during a sometimes contentious two-and-a-half-hour hybrid council meeting that also touched on controversies at the Morristown Housing Authority, and on frustrations about a new Morris County courthouse.

Residents from Parsons Village and Convent Mews, neighborhoods near Morristown Medical Center, told the mayor and council they felt blindsided, and feared a done deal with the hospital will worsen traffic, cause years of construction disruptions, and lower their property values.

At a briefing of town officials this summer, first reported by Morristown Green, Atlantic Health, the hospital’s parent company, floated plans for an 11-story hospital tower and a six-story parking deck on the hospital campus, and extensive development along Madison Avenue, possibly including a hotel.

Construction could take as long as 20 years to complete and would be the biggest redevelopment project in Morristown history, according to a councilman who attended the briefing.

The council president and vice president were advised by the town attorney they should not participate, because they live within 200 feet of the hospital.

“The hospital is not our friend. They’re a great conglomerate. They view Morristown as a launching pad for a huge medical complex,” Charlotte Gabriele, president of the Parsons Village condo association, said on Tuesday, to applause from the audience.

Her counterpart at Convent Mews, Angelique Scholl, Zoomed into the meeting to add: “We are not in favor of this. We are very disappointed in the lack of transparency.”

The mayor hotly defended his record on development, and slammed sources for disclosing the hospital briefing to Morristown Green — “not even a paper, a blog on a computer,” he said.

It was the most vociferous portion of a meeting that included:

• An apology by Council President Sandi Mayer to her neighbors in Parsons Village for heeding the town attorney’s advice to recuse herself from hospital discussions.
• A clash between outgoing Second Ward Councilwoman Tawanna Cotten and her likely successor, Tina Lindsey, over security at Manahan Village, the public housing neighborhood where they both reside.
• Diverging appraisals of the Morristown Housing Authority by the mayor, who praised its management, and Councilman Robert Iannaccone, who repeated his calls for outside experts to scrutinize its finances, and the finances of a spinoff corporation whose former director has been charged with theft.
• Frustrations about a pending eight-story Morris County courthouse, over which the town has no design input but must pay for building inspections.

‘WE’RE NOT GOING AWAY’

Mayer, a lame duck since losing the June Democratic primary, said she was shut out of hospital discussions and now Atlantic Health is delaying its expansion application until she leaves office.

“I was discriminated against. I was left out of the process, and unnecessarily, for no reason,” Mayer said.

Atlantic Health has acquired properties along Madison Avenue and its plans will move forward, she said. “They’re basically going to put the brakes on everything until I’m not in this seat anymore.

“We can’t be quiet, because they’re hoping we’ll go away and lose interest…We’re not going away,” the councilwoman said.

Mayer apologized to her neighbors for heeding town Attorney David Minchello, saying, “I obviously fell down on the job.”

“When Mr. Minchello contacted me this summer, I understood him to say I could not participate” in hospital discussions, Mayer said.

“His words to me were, ‘You can’t participate’… At the last (council) meeting he clarified his words and said he could never tell me we couldn’t participate in the meeting. It was just advice and a suggestion. I obviously misunderstood that.”

Mayer said she reached out to Atlantic’s attorney on Friday seeking to discuss the project. She said he responded on Monday that nothing will proceed until early next year, and he was not interested in meeting with her.

She praised the hospital as a great medical facility but “not the best neighbor,” complaining of picnic table garbage dumped in her backyard and construction work on nights and weekends.

Reached for comment, an Atlantic Health spokesman referred to a prior statement. It said in part:

“We are excited about a variety of plans currently under consideration for Morristown Medical Center, and have started preliminary conversations with external partners to refine our vision.  We look forward to broadening the scope of these discussions with our community, with a hope to have more details to share in the early part of next year.”

Council Vice President Nathan Umbriac, whose backyard would be in the shadow of a new hospital parking deck, did not comment Tuesday about his recusal.

‘THERE’S NO DEAL’

In a vigorous rebuttal, Mayor Dougherty said Minchello’s recusal opinion aligned with his own philosophy of avoiding potential conflicts. He said there was only one briefing by Atlantic, it was proper, and he invited the other five council members to join him, as an act of transparency.

“There wasn’t a bunch of secret meetings,” Dougherty began, in his first public comments on the potential expansion, beyond a brief statement he issued last month in response to Morristown Green’s questions.

“The hospital, if they have purchased the properties, have the right to invite the mayor and council and say, ‘Hey, these are some of our ideas,'” Dougherty said.

“Now I’m telling you as mayor, there’s no deal..no promises made. They have a vision. That’s their vision,” he said of Atlantic Health.

Price Waterhouse came to him in 2011, he said, with a vision for a high-rise building on a vacant lumberyard. “Do you see a 9- or 11-story building there? No.”

Dougherty described development as “a process” that always has included the public during his four terms. Parsons Village and Convent Mews will be part of this process “when and if” Atlantic Health submits plans, he said.

“It will all be done in the public venue,” before residents and the council, Dougherty said.

Saying the late Mayor Jay DeLaney Jr. once advised him to avoid doing anything that might give the appearance of a conflict of interest, Dougherty said he did not disagree with Minchello’s recusal opinion regarding Mayer and Umbriac.

“I’m not just up here pontificating because certain council members were excluded. I don’t think it was bad advice. It was advice. He advised us and he advised them. Whether it was the right decision or wrong decision, it was a decision that was made,” Dougherty said.

He denied any animus towards Mayer, saying he is her constituent in the Fourth Ward.

In the primary, Dougherty supported Mayer’s Democratic rival, Chris Russo. Russo’s opponent in November, Republican Bruce Meringolo, has made the handling of the hospital expansion an election issue.

In a campaign mailing, Meringolo raps “back room discussions, without any representation from elected council members of the Fourth Ward and local community.”

Dougherty made a point Tuesday of noting the council will have three new members in January. Stefan Armington and Tawanna Cotten both are not seeking re-election.

Calling Morristown “the gem of the state of New Jersey,” Dougherty said, “I think we’ve done a darned good job.”

He asked for applause and got a smattering.

THE MORRISTOWN HOUSING AUTHORITY

Morristown’s public housing–three seniors buildings with 270 apartments, and 200  family units in Manahan Village–is undergoing privatization that promises long overdue renovations and nicer apartments.

It’s a massive undertaking. Some residents have said the new private owners so far are less responsive than the Morristown Housing Authority (MHA) had been, for repairs and maintenance issues.

Questions also have arisen recently about the MHA’s bookkeeping, and about its creation last year of a spinoff corporation, the Morristown Community Development Corp.

The former head of that spinoff, Maureen Denman, who pushed to establish it when she chaired the MHA, has been charged with theft and credit card fraud during her stint as the corporation’s only paid employee.

(Until this week Denman also was listed on the town website as unpaid chair of the town Environmental Commission. The commission has not posted minutes of any meetings since August 2022.)

On Tuesday, the council liaison to the MHA, Councilman Robert Iannaccone, reiterated his request for outside experts to scrutinize the MHA’s finances — including its financing of the spinoff corporation.

Basic financial statements have not been available for MHA commissioners to review, Iannaccone said.

The MHA anticipates reaping nearly $30 million from sales of its properties to Orbach Affordable Housing Solutions LLC of Bergen County. Officials say $13 million has been paid to date.

“At the end of the day, these are all public funds that the board does have a fiduciary, stewardship responsibility for,” he said.

The MHA just hired a new chief financial officer. But straightening out the books may be overwhelming, Iannaccone said.

“There really is nothing there for that board to work with, from a financial standpoint. The reports just are not there,” he said.

The mayor did not address MHA budget specifics, or the Morristown Community Development Corp.

Instead, he praised MHA Executive Director Keith Kinard for taking over an agency “in bad shape” in 2018 and orchestrating a privatization that is enabling $80 million of “transformative” renovations, which would have taken the cash-strapped authority decades to achieve on its own.

“Keith Kinard has done a yeoman’s job in that housing authority,” Dougherty said. “We’re there to do whatever we can to support the MHA.”

MANAHAN VILLAGE SECURITY

Cotten told MHA commissioners last month that some of her fellow residents in Manahan Village are afraid for their safety. She asked for a greater police presence to counter public drinking, noise and intimidating behavior from young men who come from elsewhere and loiter.

Tina Lindsey challenged those statements on Tuesday. Lindsay is an MHA commissioner who is running unopposed for the Second Ward council seat that Cotten is vacating.

“I just wanted to clarify that the residents do not have to be afraid…maybe you’re afraid, but these residents are telling me they are not afraid,” Lindsey said. She claimed residents there had never heard of Cotten, and said their biggest problem is people who don’t clean up after their dogs.

Cotten stood by her statement. “It would be irresponsible not to speak up for what I know to be true,” she said.

Manahan Village neighbors have reached out to her with their fears, she said, and she has seen things over the last five years that trouble her, such as altercations erupting when residents find others in their reserved parking spaces.

Residents would have an easier time conveying their concerns if the MHA reverted to meeting at housing sites, instead of at town hall, Cotten suggested

Iannaccone noted that housing officials have been meeting with police to clarify what needs enforcing.

THE NEW COURTHOUSE

Iannaccone and the mayor shared frustrations about a new, eight-story Morris County courthouse coming to Schuyler Place.

A review is scheduled before the town planning board via Zoom on Nov. 2, but that’s merely a courtesy. The town has no say over the final design. However, it must provide building inspections and permits without reimbursements from the county, Iannaccone said.

While acknowledging the need for a new courthouse, and the local commerce generated by the legal industry, Dougherty said he has spent years asking state and county officials for a municipal stipend, to cover town services provided to tax-exempt county facilities.

“The answer is pretty much no,” the mayor said.

Morris County officials expect to solicit bids on the project next year, with construction taking about two years once a contract is awarded.

IN OTHER BUSINESS

By a 6-0 vote, the council approved a nearly $100,000 contract to convert a Lidgerwood Park tennis court into three pickleball courts. Weather will determine whether the construction occurs this fall or next spring, said town Administrator Jillian Barrick.

The council heard Jennifer Wehring, executive director of the Morristown Partnership, give an overview of the business organization.

Amanda Bowser, co-owner of The Learning Express toy shop, asked on behalf of 20 fellow business owners for a November-December test of sidewalk sales, in hopes of changing town regulations to make them permanent.

But town Attorney David Minchello was doubtful the test run could be approved in time.

Cyclist Steve Kent repeated his request for more bike lanes. Councilman Stefan Armington, a cycling advocate, sympathized but said an environmental commission study several years ago determined Speedwell Avenue was the only roadway in town wide enough to safely accommodate them.

“It’s something I’ve been working on for 15 years, and I guess that’s as good as I can do,” Armington said.

Town Clerk Margot Kaye kicked off the meeting by swearing in Police Officers Hector Huertas, Victor Salazar and Joseph Winter. 

Huertas, who is bilingual, is a 2015 Morristown High School grad and volunteer fireman.

Salazar is a first-generation American raised in Manahan Village, “where he witnessed the effect of crime in the community” and desired to make a difference, said Police Chief Darnell Richardson.

Salazar holds a criminal justice degree from Rutgers, and previously worked in the town public works department.

Winter is a former Somerset County corrections officer. He has a degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University, where he studied art and film, the chief said. He is an avid snowboarder and mountain biker.