JANUARY 23, 2016, 9:55 PM LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 2016, 9:58 PM
BY JEAN RIMBACH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Gurbir Grewal had an impressive position in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark when he agreed to take on what could very well be a temporary job as Bergen County’s prosecutor, the high-profile, high-stakes seat at the top of the county’s law-enforcement pyramid.
He says he was motivated in large part by the opportunity to make a difference in the community where he resides. “You actually see what you’re working on sort of manifest itself in the community,” said the 42-year-old Glen Rock resident, during an interview three weeks after his appointment as acting prosecutor. “You’re able to make a difference more immediately.”
But the married father of three — who put battling the heroin epidemic and quality-of-life crimes as top priorities — said there was also another, more personal motive: He hopes to make a difference in the lives of people, like himself, who are members of the Sikh religion.
“The other part of why I wanted to do this — and one of the reasons why I wanted to do public service in the first place — is that I come from a background where people are always taught to be good doctors and good engineers and good professionals and not ever steered toward public service,” he said last week. “And I think because of that there are misunderstandings of who Sikhs are and people who look like me, where they come from, and what they might believe because they’re never sort of seen in those front-line public service jobs.”
Grewal, who speaks Punjabi and Hindi, is the first South Asian and the first Sikh to occupy the office. But that’s just one piece of the picture emerging of the county’s first new prosecutor in 14 years, replacing John Molinelli.
I hope that since he is a neighbor (from Glen Rock), he can see (hear about) the ‘development’ push happening in Ridgewood and try to get to bottom of it.
1. Why is the push for Hudson Street lot and going to BCIA for the money when our council is willing to bond for money for other more appropriate lots. Whats the hidden agenda with Hudson St lot, which is not large enough for self parking garage of 5 stories as per their own walker report? Why is he willing to encroach on to the street for this location? If we can pay 15 million for a garage, we can pay 1M to cleanup the north walnut site. There must be some hidden reason for the push to this location so hard. Lets hope this new prosecutor sees this.
2. Why is there so much push for the multi family housing in the town. Why are two lots that are in two different corners of CDB are being zoned in the same zone? They keep attaching it to ‘COA obligation’ in their arguments, but these are luxury apartments, not affordable units. They keep attaching it to ‘senior living’, but these are not limited to 55 and over. What’s the reason for this push, along with the push for the parking garage.
3. Why is the village administration always releasing information after the fact, i.e. maser report of Oct 15th, was released on Dec 30th, schedler grant application’s open public hearing happened after the application was already submitted with the checkbox stating ‘yes’ to the meeting, healthbarn’s lease was signed and then the public hearing happened, which was supposed to happen before the change of use, friends of schedler house were told that cannnot match the money, while it was accepted from the RBSA.Open Space funding requests were submitted saying ‘no historical property on the site’, while our own village’s HPC submitted the details to the village administration that the Schedler house is historic and must be preserved.
4. OPRA requests are now not affordable in the town. They have now (since last 2-3 months) started charging hundreds of dollars for each OPERA request because they don’t want residents to questions all these things happening at the same time with unprecedented push, without satisfactory answers from the council and administration. The Mayor uses his personal email account for most emails and some of them use their cell phones (text) to communicate, even when they are sitting at the public meetings.
There cannot be smoke without fire. If so many residents are going to these council meetings and they are frequently going to 1-2AM with residents speaking for 6-7 hours, there must be something wrong going on. Hopefully this new prosecutor will look at this and get to the bottom of this, which we the normal residents can’t do without access to all the data.
Good luck, Molinelli left a mess
10:40 am, lets also hope he sees how the village administration has allowed one of the council members to negotiate the settlement terms / mediation with Valley, who ran on the Valley ticket 4 years ago, and who is listed as one of the biggest donors for Valley. Clear conflict of interest?
Maybe he can retry Tommy boy
Time to take down the brass at the Glen Rock PD who enabled illegal and disgusting behavior by rotten “cops” who should have been long stripped of their badges. Same goes for Midland Park PD who enabled the ex-cop killer of a mother of two boys, as well as Ridgewood PD which supposedly let Tommy Rica and friends steal $850,000 in quarters from right under their noses
There are state laws limiting the amount of fees that can be charged for filling OPRA requests (Open Public Records Act; not “opera”). Anyone being charge excessive amounts should check that out and file a complaint.
2:02pm can you please provide more details on this? It’s seriously time that someone from State steps in here.
11:16…That is exactly the comments one would expect from an extremely uneducated person. Good for you!!
there’s the union MO @ 6:45, try to discredit others by name calling…. sorry you disagree, maybe you could explain why?
How much were you charged?
https://www.nj.gov/grc/public/complaints/fees.html
What is a special service charge?
A special service charge is essentially a labor fee that may be charged when a request is voluminous, requiring extensive time and effort, or when the request required extensive use of technology. Special services charges must be reasonable and based on actual direct cost of fulfilling the request. Actual direct cost means the hourly rate of the lowest level employee capable of fulfilling the request (no fringe benefits).
The imposition of a special service charge is extremely subjective and the determination is made on a case-by-case basis. No special service charges can be established in advance by ordinance.
The custodian must notify the requestor in advance of the special service charge. The requestor has the right to disagree with the special service charge. If the custodian and requestor cannot reach an agreement regarding the special service charge, the request is considered denied. Complainants may challenge a custodian’s special service charge by filing a Denial of Access Complaint with the Government Records Council or filing an action in the Superior Court of New Jersey.
The following is an example of a special service charge for a voluminous request:
Request: Meeting minutes from 2005 to present. There are 1,000 pages of responsive records which will take the custodian 2 ½ hours to copy. The Custodian may charge her direct hourly rate for the 2 ½ hours required to fulfill request. Custodian must estimate cost and notify requestor before fulfilling the request.
Nice name calling from 6:45, wonder why thisd poster doesn’t want questions asked about legitimate concerns and gaps in recent Bergen County prosecutor failings under Molinelli? Blue wall of silence?
Nice name calling from 6:45, wonder why this poster doesn’t want questions asked about legitimate concerns and gaps in recent Bergen County prosecutor failings under Molinelli? Blue wall of silence?