Thank you for your willingness to answer these questions in consideration of One Town One Vote’s endorsement for the 2022 Teaneck Town Council election. 

Some of the questions are yes/no, but many require more extensive answers. For the latter, please keep your written response to under 200 words per question. Anything entered after 200 words will not be visible to the evaluating committee. 

Survey should take about 1 hour to complete

Email: keith@kaplanforteaneck.com
 
1.  Please indicate what relevant experience you have such as: membership in community organizations, governance positions you’ve held, etc.
 
I have held positions in a variety of areas. 
Governance:
  • Township Council (elected representative 2018-present)
  • Teaneck Planning Board (2012 – 2018)
  • Liaison to Environmental Commission
  • Parks, Playgrounds, and Recreation Advisory Board
Community:
  • Teaneck Swim Club Trustee 
  • Director, Congregation Shaare Tefillah
2. How many council meetings have you attended in the past year? 
I attended all council meetings in the past 4 years. 
 
3.  Are you a member of any township boards or commissions?
As a Councilman, I’m currently the liaison to:
  • Teaneck Board of Education
  • Environmental Commission
  • Teaneck Public Library
3a. Have you attended any of the meetings
  Yes
3b. What recommendations would you have to make the meetings more effective?
Effective meetings require 2 ingredients:
1) Knowledgable members who care / volunteer and
2) Willingness to Collaborate and Listen to others. 
When those ingredients exist, the meetings become more effective. 
 
4.  How have you otherwise prepared yourself to serve on the council? 
It’s never easy to fully prepare for this type of role, so one thing I’ve done is work on HOW to respond when needed, so I can adequately address new situations that come my way. 
 
An example: if you request a parking change, I would look at the original code, see the discussion in the original minutes and understand the issues involved that the previous rule attempted to address. When you know why the previous rule exists, you are in a position to evaluate the continued need or whether to change the rule moving forward.
 
I’ve also reviewed every major zoning ordinance since the town was incorporated.  I’ve traced our changes and researched where we came from, to better understand where we are and where we are heading.  I’ve also engaged with residents, creating blogs / facebook groups and other means of speaking directly to & hearing from, the people.
 
5. What are your short, medium and long-range priorities, in order of importance, for what you would address if elected? 
 
You can now submit building permit requests electronically.  Our Town Code is up to date for the first time in decades and we have brand new bathrooms in Phelps Park with the blueprint for more parks to be done each year — you’ll get more of this if I’m re-elected.
 
All of these things build on each other.  The ability to interact digitally allows building permits and licenses to free up employees’ (and residents’) time, to effectively enable other priorities to be realized.
 
That’s why a focus on how we function, as opposed to simple areas where we need work is my primary goal.
 
All priorities (short, medium, and long-range) stem from:
1) What residents need and
2) What government can provide.
 
What I’ve done over the last 4 years is to identify many of the areas where the Township can address residents’ needs.  One example: Bathrooms in parks (see new modular units in Phelps Park).
 
Short-term: we must upgrade equipment and maintenance.
Medium-term: we need bathrooms in each area of town, for residents to be comfortable and
Long-term: we need to understand the uses people expect and work with stakeholders to ensure the highest and best use of our amenities can be realized.
 
6.  What is the most important thing you hope to accomplish by the end of your first term?
To uphold the oath of office I took in May 2018: Making life better for residents than it was when I started.
7. What are three characteristics you possess that will make you a good council member?
Working well with others, understanding rules and laws, and working well with others.  I cannot stress enough how much effective working relationships matter in this role.  You can have the best ideas in the world. If you can’t get the votes to put them forward or implement them, you cannot be effective.
8. How would you deal with the inevitable criticism that comes with this job?
Head-on. Be upfront with people and explain as best you can. They voted for you, they’ll appreciate the feedback (and so will you).  
 
Governance and Transparency
Should advisory board meetings be re-opened to public attendance and participation?
Transparency is critical when it comes to governing.  Every action the Council takes is done in a televized session, with agendas printed in advance and notice to the public — all, with the ability to have time to comment before the governing body takes action.
That’s how the process is supposed to work, and I pledge to maintain that openness and transparency as we move forward.
 
Advisory boards, as they have come to be known, were originally created to provide the decision-making body with ideas based on those that volunteer their time to give input about selected topics.
 
The advisory board members are not elected, they have no fiduciary responsibility (they neither decide to tax nor spend resident money) and they do nothing more than volunteer to help the council understand their point of view on particular issues.
We often talk about having difficult conversations, and how to go about speaking freely about topics.  But this can be difficult when people feel pressured to self-censor rather than express their true feelings about a contentious issue.
 
For that reason, advisory boards have been tasked to meet without the public pressure to conform that comes with a larger audience.  These boards provide advice to the council — and the council, who are held responsible by the voters meet, in full transparency to discuss all issues of public concern.
 
Are you in favor of restoring separate workshop sessions in addition to the council business meetings that are currently held? Please provide an explanation to your “yes” or “no” response
Workshops are a method of meeting and discussing ideas. No method in and of itself is good or bad. it’s part of how the marketplace of ideas gets developed. I’ve always sought feedback from every single colleague and would continue to do so. If workshops make us better, they serve a purpose. If they are not as good as another option, the other option will be good too. But if you didn’t mention the GOAL of a workshop and just think it’s good in and of itself, I’ll part company with you. We have all been to meetings that didn’t accomplish anything.  Workshops that accomplish things are great. Workshops that merely repeat things are not.

I believe people understand the notion that time is a precious commodity.
 
Will you pledge to vote for the following transparency initiatives: 
  • Require the council subcommittees to keep minutes and to make those minutes publicly available on the Teaneck website on a regular basis (with the exceptions covered by the OPMA law)?
    • In general, any work done on behalf of the people belongs to the people.  But I question how this works in practice. 
      To understand this issue, one must look at the operative rule: All meetings (defined as a meeting with a minimum of an effective quorum (e.g. 4 members of Council) must have minutes and comply with the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) law. 
      • What is a subcommittee and what can it do?
        • A subcommittee is a group of fewer than a quorum (e.g. 1-3 members of council) that chat about ideas.  A subcommittee cannot pass any resolutions, nor can they propose or pass ordinances.  All a subcommittee can do is review information and disseminate it to the Council at meetings (or through correspondence).
    • With that in mind, the correspondence from a subcommittee to the council should absolutely be provided to the public and anything reported at council meetings already meet that standard.

  • Require that all committee and board reports dealing with public-facing issues be made available on Teaneck’s website in a timely fashion?

    • The answer above applies here as well.
  • Commit to regular updates of the township’s web site so that it is easy for residents to find timely information there, including agendas and supporting documents for upcoming meetings?
    • The Council does not manage the Township website, so I want to make clear that our role should be to request that information can be found that residents find easy to locate and timely, including agendas and supporting documents.  During my time on the planning board, I committed to adding supporting documents (including site plans) to agendas, a practice that continues to today.
Please share with us how the council can more effectively engage with township residents who speak during “good and welfare,” so the public can reliably get answers to the questions raised at a public meeting.
 
I view the positions as NJ statutes dictate. No more and no less.
 
When people perform within their prescribed roles, we know how to handle anything that comes our way.
 
Will you pledge to vote to remove board and commission appointees who fail to comply with state financial disclosure requirements?
Financial disclosure requirements are put in place to ensure that transparency and fair dealing are not merely abstract concepts.  Sadly, some have utilized these transparency guideposts as weapons, showing up to businesses owned by those they wish to rally against.
While I have always complied with my disclosure requirements (and pledge to continue to do so), I must caution those that would subvert the system designed to help the general public in order to undermine the very system they claim to buttress through a pledge to remove people who fail to comply.
 
How will you address conflicts of interest that may arise in the course of the council conducting township business?
 
Conflicts of interest should be addressed in accordance with law. That’s why they exist.
As someone who has never had my questioned, let me say this: They should NOT be used as campaign issues.
 
Will you commit to the adoption of a formal set of training materials on municipal governance for newly elected council members? 
Yes
 
What, in your opinion, are appropriate and inappropriate uses of debt in the township budget? 
 
Let’s say you are tasked with building a new school or paving a new road.
Now, imagine your neighbor moving away during the project and someone new moves in next to you.
 
If you bond the building or road, the new neighbor will pay a fair share over the time they live here and their kids would be using the school.
 
If you tax everone directly (instead of bonding), the old neighbor would have paid the full freight of the cost of the project — while the new neighbor gets the benefit of the project without paying, sometimes for decades.
 
That is why debt (or bonding) is appropriate at times (especially when interest rates are low)  and allows us to spread payments over the time of any effective use.
 
That’s my guiding star.
 
Will you pledge to vote to develop a new Master Plan to guide future development, using planning experts suited to our township, including numerous town halls to ensure major public input and review?  Please provide an explanation to your “yes” or “no” response.
 
The council does not vote to develop a new master plan; the Planning Board develops a Master Plan.
To the extent, you meant to ask about whether I thought experts should be part, that’s the easiest answer to give – all voices should be a part of our planning.
 
How do you view the current use of AINR designations of “blight” in the township, and how do you think this designation should be used in the future?
 
As per State law, there are many options available to a municipality.  As a representative chosen by the people, I don’t think ANY option that can improve the township should be off the table.

AINR or (area in need of redevelopment) is one of many statutory options available to the municipality.
 
Will you pledge to appoint members to the currently dormant Site Plan Review Advisory Board, which would provide expert, independent review of every development plan prior to approval? Please provide an explanation to your “yes” or “no” response.
 
Currently, applications are reviewed by township engineering, zoning, code enforcement, health, fire, police, traffic, and others.
Perhaps there was a time when this board was a critical requirement, but at present, it is duplicative of the work and options currently available and would serve to delay and raise costs — all at a time when we must work to keep costs and fees down.
 
It’s easy to ask if we should appoint members — it’s harder to explain why the board’s systemic inequity should continue without review.
 
Will you vote to require that the Planning Board provide a complete and up-to-date Open Space and Recreation Plan (including a Recreation and Open Space Inventory) to the State within three months of your election so Teaneck conforms with state regulations and can qualify for all state grants to enhance parks and green spaces?
 
The Planning Board should provide a complete and up-to-date Open Space and Recreation Plan (including a Recreation and Open Space Inventory).  However, it is the role of the Planning Board to do so.  If I am chosen to be the Council representative to the Planning Board, I would vote to do so. 
 
Will you vote to authorize a prompt professional assessment of Teaneck’s infrastructure and vote to plan and fund its modernization based on experts’ recommendations? Please provide an explanation to your “yes” or “no” response.
 
This is being done on an ongoing basis.
 
What are your ideas to meet Teaneck’s need for more affordable housing? Specifically, what proposals would you like to see adopted to allow seniors to continue to live in the township? 
 
Housing (affordable or otherwise) is made by building it. Anyone telling you otherwise is playing politics with your tax dollars.
 
The real questions are: do we obey the Mount Laurel Court Decisions or fight in Court to exclude those needing affordable housing options, shifting the burden to other municipalities.
 
I won’t shove poor people away — that’s why we have made affordable developments part of Teaneck’s fabric while maintaining our quality of life here through smart development.
 
Are you committed to attaining an aggregated clean energy contract for Teaneck?
 
I’m committed to the environment.  Aggregated clean energy is one possibility.  We should focus on whatever has the best chance of success.
 
Is there anything else you would like to share with OTOV, or elaborate on your answers to any of the questions?
 
Vote for Keith Kaplan on 11/8!