Eatontown mulls adding alternates to Zoning Board
Mayor cites need for quorum at meetings
BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer

EATONTOWN - Four. The number of alternatives that the borough's Zoning Board of Adjustment might add to its membership.

Whether or not two is company and four, not three, is a crowd is a subject for debate by the Borough Council next month.

Faced with a proposed revision to the existing ordinance setting the board's regular membership at seven and doubling its alternates from two to four, some on the council wondered if bringing in more bodies would solve an ongoing attendance problem at the zoners' meetings.

"There have been problems with [having a] quorum at the board meetings," Mayor Gerald Tarantolo said at the council's Nov. 8 meeting. "That's why we've asked for this ordinance."

At least five board members, or their alternates, must be present to vote on building applications requiring use variances said Borough Attorney Gene Anthony.

At times, conflict schedules precluded a number of regular members from attending the monthly meetings, Tarantolo explained.

Though some council members agreed with Tarantolo that having two extra qualified designees at the ready could be advantageous, not were embracing the proposal.

"What is the problem with attendance?" asked Councilwoman Joyce Engelhart. "Why are they on the board if they don't come to meetings?"

With certain applications, individual members have been advised by the board's legal counsel to recuse themselves because they reside near the site of a pending building plan and could exhibit prejudice, Tarantolo replied.

Council President Theodore F. Lewis Jr., a member of the borough's Planning Board until January 2005, told his colleagues that he knows firsthand that those cases occur.

Lewis, who lives across Wyckoff Road from the Monmouth Mall, was advised not to hear a site plan application for a restaurant proposed for outside the shopping center during a January 2005 Planning Board meeting.

That opinion troubled Lewis, who abruptly resigned from the board that night, just after being sworn to his fifth consecutive term.

In spite of that experience, Lewis suggested that having four alternates available might result in meetings with too many board members in attendance.

"What are [the alternates] going to do when they're not up there [hearing an application]?" Lewis asked.

A copy of the introduced revisions to the ordinance indicates that the four alternates to the Zoning Board would be appointed by the mayor and designated as "Alternate One, Alternate Two, Alternate Three and Alternate Four."

Each alternate will be appointed to a two-year term, except for Alternate Three, who would be allowed a one-year term, the revisions state.

If Alternate Three is reappointed or subsequently appointed, the person holding that position would have a two-year term from that point on, the revisions state.

When it came time for a roll call to introduce the ordinance, the all-Democratic council agreed to consider it save Councilman Carl Sohl.

Sohl's objection surprised a few on the all-Democratic governing body and prompted Anthony to engage in a moment of levity given the one party political affiliation of the mayor and council.

"Who said this was a rubber stamp council?" Anthony said rhetorically.

A second and final reading on the revised ordinance is scheduled for the council's Dec. 8 meeting at 8 p.m. inside borough hall, 47 Main St.

In a related item, the council confirmed three of Tarantolo's picks to the zoning board.

All three appointments are effective as of Nov. 8 and expire on Dec. 31, 2007, according to the resolution.

Vincent Marone, who had been alternate one, was advanced to a regular member of the Zoning Board to fill the remaining 14 months on a four-year regular member term.

Anthony Talerico Jr., who had been alternate two, was moved up to complete a two-year term as Alternate One.

Richard Liszanckie, a newcomer, was appointed Alternate Two to complete the remainder of a two-year term.