ORANGE, NJ — On Tuesday, Feb. 2, the Orange City Council approved an amended version of Resolution No. 27-2016, “authorizing actions in preparation for 395 Main Street,” also known as the old YWCA building. The resolution was approved by a 4-1 vote, with council Vice President Elroy Corbitt, North Ward Councilwoman Tency Eason, South Ward Councilwoman Jamie Summers-Johnson and East Ward Councilman Kerry Coley voting for the measure.
West Ward Councilman Harold J. Johnson cast the sole dissenting vote; Councilwoman at large Donna K. Williams abstained from voting, and council President April Gaunt-Butler was absent.
Gaunt-Butler is running for re-election in the municipal election on Tuesday, May 10, as are Corbitt and Williams. Coley is running for mayor against the incumbent Mayor Dwayne Warren, who has been pushing the YWCA lease-purchase deal. Corbitt presided over this meeting in Gaunt-Butler’s absence.
Resolution No. 27-2016, “An Omnibus Resolution Authorizing Actions in Preparation for the Acquisition of 395 Main Street,” was previously known as the “Resolution Authorizing Approval to Purchase 395 Main Street Utilizing Funds from the Department of Community Affairs for the Development and Creation of the Orange Senior and Youth Recreation Center for $1,500,000.”
“I only voted ‘yes’ on the grant application,” Johnson said on Tuesday, Feb. 9. “Every other vote on the (recreation center) has been ‘no.’ My position from the beginning has been the potential future cost of this venture. It will have an adverse affect on the taxpayers in our town. I have witnessed in the last two budget cycles how this administration cannot hold the line on salary and wages, not to mention the wasted tax dollars on lawsuits. I have very little faith that the $2.5 million grant will be enough to complete the job. We will raise taxes and bond in the future, if the project moves forward.”
The Warren administration and Coley did not respond to requests for comment about the council vote approving the resolution.
Johnson said he had been trying to get information that was supposed to be public about the YWCA deal from the Warren administration since being elected to the council last year, in order to make an informed decision about whether to support it. According to Johnson, the Warren administration refused to give him the information he and other council members requested, despite the fact the mayor and his proxies had come to multiple council meetings to discuss the deal.
Johnson said neither Warren nor any of his administrators produced the documents he requested until a special meeting was held Wednesday, Jan. 27, and the council only received documentation about the YWCA because he had filed an Open Public Records Act request.
The original version of the resolution had been on the agenda for last week’s council meeting until Sunday, Jan. 31, but the Warren administration resubmitted it with changes.
The amended version states the city had “entered into a lease agreement with the option to purchase” by passing “Resolution No. 112-2015 on April 13, 2015.”
This isn’t what the Warren administration initially said, according to Johnson. According to the documents city attorney Dan Smith gave Johnson and the other council members after their special meeting, the council voted for Resolution No. 112-2015 on April 7, not April 13.
“The administration crafted a very deceptive Resolution No. 112-2015 that only needed the council to vote once on April 7, 2015, to allow them to lease, exercise the option and to purchase without ever coming back to the council. The administration’s intent was to purchase the building in ‘as is’ condition from the start,” Johnson said Sunday, Jan. 31.
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