Wednesday, April 3, 2013
If the budget is approved as introduced, average assessed homeowners will pay about $39 more in taxes than they did last year.
Fair Lawn borough council members' futile attempts to reach unanimous agreement on the budget last year ended up delaying its adoption until July and pushing back the timeline for completion on a number of capital projects. This year, Republican council members didn't let Democratic dissension prolong budget talks. When council members Lisa Swain and Kurt Peluso opposed introduction of this year's budget Tuesday night without providing any advance notice or offering a reason for their votes, Fair Lawn's three council Republicans didn't even bother asking them for an explanation. They simply moved ahead with introduction of the budget, which passed in a 3-2 party-line vote, and the meeting continued. No one spoke another word about the …
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Fair Lawn's blue- and white-collar workers have reached a new 6-year contract agreement with the borough that will afford them a 6.5 percent raise over the contract's life.
After working for more than three years under an expired contract, Fair Lawn’s blue- and white-collar workers have reached a new employment agreement with the borough. Blue and white employees, who hadn’t seen a raise since 2009 when their old contract expired, will receive a 6.5 percent pay increase over the six-year life of the new contract, which runs until the end of 2015, borough manager Tom Metzler said. He said that in exchange for the pay bumps, blue and white workers — who comprise all employees who are not police officers, department heads and supervisors — made numerous concessions that should save the borough money in the long run. “I think the contract represents reasonable increases and I believe the concessions are going to …
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Bridget Maresca, a Fair Lawn High School freshman who played Miss Hannigan in Thomas Jefferson Middle School's production of "Annie" last year, sings the National Anthem
Bridget Maresca, a Fair Lawn High School freshman who played Miss Hannigan in Thomas Jefferson Middle School's production of "Annie" last year and also served as an elf during Santa Boone's recent escapades, sings the National Anthem Thursday night during council's re-organization. -- Follow Fair Lawn-Saddle Brook Patch on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to receive our daily newsletter in your inbox each morning
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Anthony Burgos, 34, was sworn in as a Fair Lawn police officer at Tuesday's council meeting.
- POLICE & FIRE
- Zak Koeske
-
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Anthony Burgos was sworn in as an officer of the Fair Lawn Police Department Tuesday, alongside his wife, Patricia, and their 6-year-old daughter, Adrianna. Burgos, 34, was born in Peru and moved to the United States at age 10, settling in Paterson. After high school, his passion for a career in law enforcement led him to Passaic County Community College, where he studied Criminal Justice. Out of college, Burgos went on to spend two-and-a-half years as an officer in his adopted hometown of Paterson, where he said he gained valuable experience working shootings, homicides and narcotics in some of the city's roughest areas. Burgos, who is bilingual, was laid off from the Paterson Police Department in April 2011, and said that while looking …
Monday, May 14, 2012
On May 3, Fair Lawn council Democrats Lisa Swain and Kurt Peluso called on the mayor and deputy mayor to resign their seats on council due to their county positions.
Democratic council members Lisa Swain and Kurt Peluso, who recently called for the resignation of both the mayor and deputy mayor due to an alleged conflict of interest, won't be taking legal action to have the allegedly conflicted council members' votes thrown out. Following a May 2 vote to tentatively appoint a new borough auditor, Swain and Peluso released a press statement asserting that both Mayor Jeanne Baratta and Deputy Mayor Ed Trawinski's county jobs had imparted an undue influence on their votes to oppose the re-appointment of longtime borough auditor Steve Wielkotz. Wielkotz, who has served as the borough's auditor for over a decade, has been at the center of a controversy recently in which county executive Kathleen Donovan …
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
The cancelled borough council meeting of May 8 will be rescheduled for next Tuesday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Fair Lawn's borough council meeting that was cancelled Tuesday night will be rescheduled for 7:30 p.m. next Tuesday, May 15. Tuesday's meeting was cancelled for lack of a quorum of council members. Mayor Jeanne Baratta, Deputy Mayor Ed Trawinski and Deputy Mayor John Cosgrove were unable to attend for various reasons. Borough clerk Joanne Kwasniewski said it was the only time she could recall that the borough had cancelled a meeting outside of on Sept. 11, 2001 and once for a snow storm. The rescheduled meeting will be held next Tuesday immediately following the 7 p.m. work session in Room 201 of the municipal building. All items except for the introduction of the municipal and special improvement district budgets, which are postponed to …
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Tuesday night's council meeting devolved into partisan bickering after Democratic councilmembers were asked to explain their vote against settling a lawsuit with former police Sgt. Michael Messina.
Simmering partisan tensions between council members aroused by a party-line vote taken two weeks ago boiled over during the public comment portion of Tuesday's council meeting. What began when Fair Lawn Republican Club president Daniel Dunay approached the podium to ask both Democratic council members to justify their March 30 votes against honoring a previously agreed to settlement with former police Sgt. Michael Messina, gradually devolved into council members on both sides of the aisle rehashing past slights they'd incurred at the hands of their political opposition. The night's caterwauling culminated in Deputy Mayor Ed Trawinski's vote against retiring to closed session at the end of the meeting. "I’m going to vote 'No,' on this …
Thursday, March 29, 2012
The Fair Lawn Chamber held a meet and greet with the borough manager and members of the borough council Thursday at Rivara's
The Fair Lawn Chamber of Commerce held an event Thursday morning at Rivara's where its members had the opportunity meet the mayor and the Republican members of borough council. Rivara's provided a buffet style breakfast of bagels, home fries, scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage for the event, which was attended by the Republican members of council -- Mayor Jeanne Baratta, Deputy Mayor Ed Trawinski and Deputy Mayor John Cosgrove. Borough manager Tom Metzler also attended. Baratta, Cosgrove and Metzler spoke about various ongoing issues in the borough and answered questions from the Chamber members about the budget, the police department and about new business and housing developments in town.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
For at least the quarter, borough council will meet every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
For the past three months, council has experimented with a new meeting schedule in an attempt to limit the total number of monthly gatherings and increase the efficiency of each gathering. Rather than meet every Tuesday night as it had for years, council went to meeting three Tuesday nights per month with two of those three meetings starting an hour earlier and combining both a work session and a regular meeting. "It's a little challenging sometimes to get here at 6:30 p.m., I'm sure for everyone, so that's my one concern is residents coming here -- as you can see we still have people shuffling in," councilman Kurt Peluso said of the new schedule. "I do have a concern with it being a little tough for them to come to these meetings." After …
Friday, January 13, 2012
The council will now meet only three times per month, rather than four.
In an attempt to limit the total number of monthly gatherings and increase the efficiency of each gathering, Fair Lawn's borough council will now meet only three Tuesdays per month, instead of four. Borough calendars for 2012 were printed and distributed prior to this change in meeting dates and thus do not reflect the accurate council meeting dates. The accurate dates are available on the borough website. Previously, council met for a work session on the first and third Tuesday of each month and for a regular meeting on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. Now, the council will hold a work session on only the first Tuesday of each month, but will hold combined work session and regular meetings on the second and fourth Tuesday of …
Jim Jones for Mayor
11:12 am on Friday, April 5, 2013
Its not uncommon for people under 30 to make $100k without working for government. My choice for mayor did that. I did it too. At least two of the people already announced for the council race (both Rs) did as well. One big difference, we didn't have the barrel of gun pointed at the people who paid us, no threats of violence or theft. more ›