Lakewood Downtown Commission Asking For Chairman's Resignation

herel hoods um Lakewood downtown commission um I'm here to read a letter that we wrote the ler downtime commission wrote to be read to the uh Township committee and I would like to present it to the members of the U and the LDC uh this is the feelings of the downtown committee and I would like you to hear it normally I don't read from a paper but I have to read you the letter uh mayor langard and Township committee members the Lakewood downtown commission was established in order to bring suggestions to the township committee regarding what needs to be done to revitalize our downtown area we have been trying to work with the U and LDC to fund projects that will help prevent further deterioration of our city center we have come to realize that there are currently some serious problems within the structure of the LDC and the U which are a major hindrance to our efforts and to the well-being of our town first and foremost there are members on the U that are also members of lakewood's VOD the VOD is a special interest group that wields influence on a large portion of lakewood's electorate that being being the case we feel that it is a highly unethical thing for any member of the VOD or any paid member associated with them to be on a commission that makes suggestions for Public Funding previous cases of favoritism for pro projects that have no merit in regards to the needs of the public for fellow VOD members are just one example of the mismanagement that can occur in such a case furthermore there are serious issues in regards to the uy funding of the Lakewood Community Services Corporation and its jobling programs many of the services that the LCSC provides are redundant and already provided by the LDC the Job Link and English langu English language courses serve few individuals if any and can be provided elsewhere in our County free of charge the downtown Commission in its effort to be able to work with the LDC and U must strongly suggest that Abraham Muller not be made chairman of the UAC we suggest that he resigned immediately due to a conflict of interest we furthermore suggest that the outgoing chairman Moses Weissberg resigned from the LDC and his paid employee ad Gonzalez resigned as well for the same reason we also strongly suggest that no further U funding be given to the LCSC or job Le programs until there could be a proven need for such programs as a separate entity of the LDC we suggest that the LDC vote to have Mr Dan sherack made chairman and that members of the downtown commission be appointed to the board as well we hope that you will listen to our suggestions for the good of your Town's people we look forward to working closely with the lvc on projects that will benefit the downtown Redevelopment we would like to be a part of bringing back a sense of Pride to our downtown and turn to our town in Toto thank you respectfully submitted firstwood chairman L downtown commission thank you Mr and I just want to uh address shortly some of the comments that made um we have just gone through a reorganization we been a change in chairmanship and U we have a fairly new executive uh group of attrition Huda that have been in the organization and Mr Ryman on the economic development uh I think that I can speak for the board that we have you know Full Faith and confidence in our people and as this board is you know a very competent board that's well re well respected and well represented of our community um Rabbi Weissberg has always uh made it very well known that he has to uh stay into certain uh votes that might come in conflict with the business of this board and he's always duly done so and I I think I speak for the rest of this board appreciate your comments but we think that this board is well run well organized and um you know hopefully will have you know tremendous impact uh on the Lake Community in the future look forward and I've had conversations with Trish Yuda Mr Ryman and with r Weisberg uh specifically about the downtown is are on our radio screen is something that we're going to address and we'll address in an appropriate manner but I do appreciate you com and we're also sending a copy of this letter to um Kathleen Kobe in prenton and um we spoke to her already we've been in touch with her and she understands what's going on here and um and we will be in touch