August 26, 2020

Dear Residents of Englewood Cliffs,

At the most recent Mayor and Council Special Meeting on Monday, August 24th, the Democratic Council Majority (Deborah Tsabari, Edward Aversa, Gloria Oh and Jimmy Song) passed a resolution to censure both of us and to support the actions of the Borough’s Affordable Housing Litigation team. A censure has no legal significance. This political stunt was manufactured by Councilman Aversa with the legal participation of the Borough Attorney, Joe Mariniello, in retaliation against us for making public the fact that neither of us have been receiving the same documents and information as our Democrat Council members regarding the potential affordable housing settlement with 800 Sylvan. It is also in retaliation to Councilman Woo’s request from the June 2020 Mayor and Council meeting calling for the authorization of the investigation of Gloria Oh, Edward Aversa, Deborah Tsabari, Jimmy Song and Ellen Park relating to the Borough’s Affordable Housing Litigations and other related matters. In a clear conflict of interest, Councilpersons Gloria Oh, Edward Aversa, Deborah Tsabari, and Jimmy Song all voted against their own investigations. This censure is a ploy to deflect the attention from the Democrat Council Majority’s own wrongdoings and to force this settlement which they sought from their first day of control in January 2019.

Councilwoman Tsabari’s lead role in misrepresenting the facts about what documents both of us are receiving is no surprise given the revelation and her own admission in Monday evening’s Mayor and Council meeting that she plead guilty and was convicted of a felony crime in U.S. Federal Court (Docket #: 1:94-cr-01025-KTD-1), a conviction which was never disclosed to the public but should have been made known before she ran for election and let people make an informed choice of their elected officials. She has betrayed the trust of the people. If she has not come out about the felony conviction, how can we on Council or the residents of Englewood Cliffs believe anything which she has stated on the record? Unlike a censure, a conviction has legal weight and taints the Borough with her disrepute. Shame on her and the people who helped her hide the conviction from all of us.

At Monday night’s meeting Councilwoman Tsabari also confirmed that she fully supports a settlement to allow 800 Sylvan to build high density residential housing. This is surprising considering that both of us have not seen any documentation on settlement in months. We have asked for the correspondences between our attorneys and both 800 Sylvan or Fair Share Housing but continue to be denied access. It is for this reason that Councilman Woo has communicated with his own letters to the Court to be put on the record.

To date, there is still no shovel in the ground and we will continue to listen to you the residents. We were censured because we are doing what our residents elected us to do. We were censured because in the Democrat majority’s eyes, we must follow their plans to surrender your town to profit-driven developers instead of being allowed to fulfill our affordable housing obligations on our own terms.