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 Last Nights Meeting

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AndyB




Posts : 3
Join date : 2007-09-26

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PostSubject: Last Nights Meeting   Last Nights Meeting Icon_minitimeThu Sep 27, 2007 12:17 am

I was happy to see so many of you turn out for the meeting last night. I hope that the Mentor and DYFS representatives walked away with the understanding that we will never accept that house.

Now on to the bigger topic. During the conversation the topic of the "Red Tag" came up, and we were informed that this was never enforceable, counter to what we were told by Bernie Platt and Matt Toyer in the Mayors Office. It turns out that even though the Mayors office promised us (on our transcript at the Town Meeting) that we would be informed before Mentor would be allowed to gain entry to the house, this was a lie. They have been moving in over the last two days, and Verizon established service yesterday. I believe the time has come to push the Camden County Prosecuters Office to look into the conduct of ALL of our elected officials where it comes to this matter and others. It is only through the Camden County Prosecutors Office, that we can get the US Attorney to investigate the Local and State Government Officials. The US Attorneys Office can not take complaints/requests for investigations directly from "civilians." I would suggest that as many of you as possible contact that office to make the request as well. It is not allowable for our elected officials to feed us untruths at will - the legal term for this is malpheasance, and it is a chargeable offense. While we're at it, we should ask for any and all correspondence from Susan Bass Levin to the current administration , to be looked into, as she is (I believe) at the head end of the division which manages DYFS. We should also request that it be investigated as to whether officials within the Democratic Pary in the area hadan influence over this and other major decisions.

KEEP ON FIGHTING!!!!
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ccross




Posts : 12
Join date : 2007-08-22

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PostSubject: Re: Last Nights Meeting   Last Nights Meeting Icon_minitimeThu Sep 27, 2007 12:44 am

DFS and Mentor were going to move-in all along, and the statements made over the last several weeks by Nadia Robinson and her contemporaries and superiors that "a decision had not been made" were lies, intended to postpone neighborhood backlash. Group home arrangements are protected by the federal Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination against residents with disabilities. I believe the only way to challenge this home is legally. Does the definition of disabled under the Act extend to emotionally disburbed children? Juvenile and sex offenders are NOT considered disabled under the Fair Housing Act.
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brook126




Posts : 18
Join date : 2007-08-22

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PostSubject: Re: Last Nights Meeting   Last Nights Meeting Icon_minitimeThu Sep 27, 2007 4:10 am

This is a question I asked originally. Why is a juvinile offender automatically considered protected under the disability act? The answer that I keep hearing is that "they probably have some kind of emotional problem." Seems to me that they are using the law that was enacted to protect physcically and mentally handicapped people to their advantage, and interpreting the law as they see fit.
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maubrown40




Posts : 11
Join date : 2007-08-30

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PostSubject: So now what are you gonna do???!!!   Last Nights Meeting Icon_minitimeThu Sep 27, 2007 4:31 am

The law and process are set up to allow anyone serving "ADA" or other "protected classes to do anything. That has been established.
However, our appointed and ELECTED officials have not gone "above and beyond for our cause." OR they don't have enogh "drag" at the Govenor's level. If not then of what value are they. Questions of fact have not been anwered: Is/was this process, are these sight selection FAIR; the OPRA has been violated; public officials may have acted in violation of the public trust.

What about a lawsuit seeking and injunction? What about getting EVERY public official on the record through depostions?

We are all about to get another thing that is detrimental to the township as a whole: a Camden CountyParole Office is being moved into Cherry Hill. The Mayor initially thought that this was a good thing! Remember his initial remarks at the August meeting about the group homes?
ARE YOU REGISTERED TO VOTE?
WILL YOU VOTE AGAINST THE INCUMBENTS AT EACH NJ AND LOCAL LEVEL?

If not then you really are powerless and clueless.
You want the Govenor's attention? the State Senate's attention? the Assembly's attention? the local Democart machine's attention?
THEN VOTE AGAINST THE INCUMBENTS THIS NOVEMBER AND AT THE NEXT SCHOOL BOARD ELECTION. VOTE AGAINST THE NEXT SCHOOL BUDGET WITH ITS GUARANTEED TAX INCREASE!
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AndyB




Posts : 3
Join date : 2007-09-26

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PostSubject: Re: Last Nights Meeting   Last Nights Meeting Icon_minitimeThu Sep 27, 2007 5:27 am

O.K here's the latest. I spoke with Lisa Schiavone at the Camden County Prosecutors office. They told me that this must go through the Internal Affairs Division of the Cherry Hill PD. I then spoke with Lt. Anthony Saparito the Dir. of Internal Affairs at the Cherry Hill PD who told me that while they are responsible for investigating the conduct of our paid CH employees, they do not do the elected officials. Lt. Saparito then pointed me to the Division of Criminal Justice, Citizens Services Office, where I spoke with Christie Golden the Asst Director. The long and short of this is that they will investigate; however the request must be made in writing. Since I am not a lawyer, I would like to get some input/assistance from others in the community, so that I capture complely all of the statements and actions that are of a questionable nature that were committed by our elected officials and their lackies (ie Mattt Toyer). Please contact me if you are willing to help out.
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BrookfieldGirl81




Posts : 29
Join date : 2007-08-24

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PostSubject: Dovetail reference to Probation Office & Other CH atroci   Last Nights Meeting Icon_minitimeThu Sep 27, 2007 6:32 am

PLEASE NOTE THIS E-MAIL I RECEIVED A BIT AGO:

Please forward this message to anyone you think might be interested in joining or helping us, including the press. You may get two copies of this email and we apologize for that.

We are planning to attend the Camden County Freeholders meeting in Somerdale on 9/27, Thursday evening at 7PM. We will address each aspect of the letter below. We invite all those interested to join us at that meeting. We cannot allow this office to operate from the proposed location. Your support will be much appreciated.

The meeting address is:

VFW Hall
10 Kennedy Boulevard
Somerdale, NJ 08083

This address is just off E Somerdale Rd. accessible from Rt 30 (White Horse Pike) or Haddonfield-Berlin Road from the other end.

An Open Letter to the Camden County Board Of Chosen Freeholders

September 26, 2007

On June 21st of this year your Board approved the signing of a lease agreement that would move the Camden County Probation Office from the Parkade building in Camden City to the Executive Campus on Rt. 70 in Cherry Hill.
We do not know what discussion took place among yourselves prior to that resolution, nor do we know how the site was described to you before voting upon it. What we do know is that these buildings are intended to be used to process an average 4,000 criminal offenders per month. They are located right next to our Township Play Park and ball field, which has always been open, unprotected and unsupervised.
Our park was hard-won after long negotiations with Seltzer, the original Campus owner. It is a critical part of our children’s lives and has served us well these many years but it is now threatened by your decision to install a Probation Office right next door. What were you thinking? The chance, however small, of one of the drug addicts or sexual offenders making contact with or injuring one of our local children is a real possibility.

Ms Rodriguez, you live in Merchantville with your husband and three young sons. How would you feel if this facility were to show up just a block away from you? Would you let your children play at the park next door to it? Would you have doubts and fears about what could happen to them?

How about you Mr. Greco? Would your two sons be allowed to play anywhere near the place? What would your wife say if this were just down the street from you in Blackwood?

Mr. Ripa, you have raised two daughters. What would you and your wife have done if this facility moved in while they were small children? Even knowing that the percentage of sex offenders was in the single digits, would that make you feel any better?

Ms Cream, as an educator, what would you say if a facility like this were to be placed alongside the school in which you worked? As Principal of Camden High School you must have dealt with students who were convicted of crimes. The temptation and effect of drugs is rampant and spreads like wildfire among young people. Didn’t you try to keep them away from innocent and naïve young people back then? Won’t you do that for us now?

Mr. Nash, you were a Councilman in Cherry Hill. You know the area. If you were still serving in Cherry Hill would you think it was OK for the County to force this department into this park and residential area?

Mr. McDonnell, you wrote a book called “A Parents Guide to Saving Our Children” – The Dangers of Drugs. There are at least 1,000 drug related offenders currently reporting to probation. Why would this Board ever approve this move and put our local youth at risk. We are told that many offenders look to get high as soon as they pass their probation drug test. Will their dealers be waiting for them just off the property?


Mr. Cappelli, you have five young children. Do you really have no reservations about this facility next door to your home in Collingswood as you told us? Does your wife feel the same way?

Imagine now that all your life you have worked hard to get ahead. Your conduct and education lead you to an excellent job at a great company. You’ve got plenty of high-end clients to keep happy and your workplace is a terrific place to do business. Then one day you come to work and there are Sheriffs Officers in the building. The entrance is now busy with questionable characters. There are hundreds each day. You find out these people are offenders who have committed various crimes including drug and sex offenses. Since the bulk of these offenders are men, your female coworkers become apprehensive. People are seen being led away under arrest. You have to eat lunch in the same place with these convicted persons or travel somewhere else. Your clients and employees from other divisions become hesitant to visit your building and sales drop. The CEO makes a choice for the good of the company and decides to move out before the company goes under. Is this fair? Is this the way the public should perceive the actions of the County? Is this how businesses should be treated?

Mr. Cappelli, you have refused allow the press in on any meeting on this subject so far. You have refused to meet with us in Cherry Hill. When you discovered that we were going to protest at the Campus site you used your office resources and taxpayers money to spin a sales pitch to Cherry Hill residents who lived in radius of the site. On September 20th, the evening before our planned demonstration, you used the generally public trust in officials to write and deliver a letter intended order to siphon off participants opposed to the office. You have given us the impression that the other Freeholders are in full agreement with everything you have said and done. That is something we just do not believe.

As to the contents of your letter: You represent the current Campus situation as being an established Justice center. In fact, there are no criminal handling facilities operating from that location at all. There are simply administrative offices and the DMV. No arrests are being made there. No interrogations. No drug testing. No holding cells. No emergency vehicles. No deadbeats. No drug addicts. No sexual offenders. No burglars. No physical criminal processing of any kind.

When you sent the Sheriff to meet with us soon after we found out about the Probation office move, he said something very significant about the location. When pressed for an answer as to where this facility should be located, he answered “On an island.” That was a phrase said in jest that spoke volumes.

You have compared this Probation office with those in other counties. No other city in New Jersey, and for many years no other city in the United States, has had more violent crime than Camden. There is just no equal comparison. You also failed to provide Camden City police records to support your claim that no probationers committed other crimes in the vicinity of the current Probation office. In fact you cannot gather this information because criminals do not admit they are on probation when arrested. Once again, spin, not facts.

You failed to recognize the need for a complete study by either of the County partners, Rutgers or Camden County College, to examine the propriety of the site and make recommendations. If you are so confident that this site would pass muster then do so now.

You keep mentioning the day care center in the Parkade building as though that is solid evidence of Probation office safety. That facility is 100% staffed and protected internally by the Sheriffs department. We never have, nor do we now, doubt that on-premises safety is in question. It is also a common practice that area Police agencies harvest wanted persons directly from the probationers waiting line. Our concern begins when offenders exit the property. 80% of them commit new crimes.

You have implied in your letter that the Sheriffs men will get people right out of the area after their interrogatories. You know this is unenforceable and a violation of rights. You cannot tell people where they can go when they are free. This sounds much like a grand-opening special anyway, given the fact that the lease is for 12 years with options for 20 more.

One last spin we must comment on. In trying to put this office in a favorable light, you state “Indeed, two thirds of Camden County Probationers reside in suburban communities.” The truth be told, of the 37 municipalities in Camden County more than one-third comes from the City of Camden which is among the most violent in the US. The other two thirds you mention contains potential threats as well, and are not to be dismissed just because they are suburban dwellers.

There needs to be a reasonable solution to the dire straits in which the Probation Department workers have been allowed to fall. It is the location of the venue you have chosen that we object to. This is an ill-conceived plan foisted on an unsuspecting group of residents. You have shown little respect for the people of Cherry Hill and our suspicions are now heightened over your plans for the future.

We have not yet even touched on the residual effects of this move, from the loss of home value to Campus workers being accosted for a spare cigarette. In cases like this, industries tend to grow up that reflect the nature of the beast and that is a foreboding future for this office complex.

This location was either chosen too hastily or it was not examined properly. Perhaps you have been frustrated by the hesitancy of various municipalities to accept the Probation office and you certainly cannot blame them. After what you described as a long three year search, how is it that the place you chose gives offenders direct access to area children.

You signed leases but that in itself is not good reason to go forward with your plan to bring this office in. Leases have been broken before, as BPG did to the SunRX Company on the fourth floor of building Six as an accommodation for your needs. You certainly have good cause to do so here. We know little about the lessor but if he did not inform you fully of the nature of the surroundings then your ability as an Attorney should be sufficient to opt out of Executive Campus if necessary. Better yet, we would prefer that the County find a more appropriate use for this space, one that presents no threat to our neighborhood.

We can assure you of our determination to avoid this criminal facility from taking hold so close to our homes and park. We do not wish to wage a campaign to correct a situation that careful planning on your part would have avoided. We certainly do not want the public perception of the Freeholders to be negative in light of all the fine things you have done in the past. We want you to do the right thing now. It is our most sincere hope that with the enormous resources of County Government you can find a way to divert the Probation operation to a more appropriate location.


Sincerely,

The Officers and Members of the Woodland Civic Association
Tony Faiola, President
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