Franklin Lakes June 22, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 9 Court permits surgical center hearing to continue by Frank J. McMahon Superior Court Judge Menelaos Toskos has declined to enjoin and restrain a commercial building contractor from continuing his application before the Franklin Lakes Planning Board. Tice Road Properties is seeking approval to build a 16,000 square foot medical office and ambulatory surgical center on two lots at the end of Tice Road. The order to show cause request was made by Harold Cook, the attorney for Sabra Realty Associates, an objector to the application and an adjacent property owner. Cook had previously filed a lawsuit against the board, Chairman Frank Conte, Planning Board Attorney John Spizziri, Recording Secretary Caitlin Bauer, and the applicant. Toskos denied Cook’s request, stating that the issues raised in Cook’s lawsuit would be best addressed “after a record is made at the local level;” that is, the borough’s planning board. At last week’s meeting, the board appointed Christopher Martin, a Parsippany attorney, to replace Spizziri as the board’s attorney in the surgical center public hearing. Spizziri explained that, since he has been named a defendant in Cook’s lawsuit, he decided it was in his best interest, and the best interest of the planning board, if he did not handle this application. Martin is currently the planning board attorney in Emerson, the municipal prosecutor in Ramsey and Oradell, assistant prosecutor in several towns, and Special Tax Appeal Counsel in Paramus and several other towns. The planning board began the public hearing of the surgical center application in March. However, Cook claimed at the time that the planning board did not have jurisdiction to hear the application. Cook said the case should be before the board of adjustment. Spizziri advised the board that, in his opinion, the surgical center use was permitted in the zone where it was being proposed, and that the planning board had the jurisdiction to hear the application. The dispute between Cook and the board became more vocal when Chairman Conte announced at the board’s April 6 meeting that the board was going into executive session. Cook was told that it was to discuss litigation. When the board reconvened from its executive session and Conte announced that two members of the board, Joseph Medici and Joseph Palmieri, were recusing themselves from the hearing due to a conflict of interests caused by their personal knowledge of Cook. Cook verbally denounced Conte and Spizziri, claimed he was lied to about the reason the board went into executive session, and said the board violated the state’s open public meeting act by doing so. At the board’s May 4 public meeting, Spizziri went on the record with a lengthy statement exonerating the board for its decision and action to go into executive session. But Medici and Palmieri, who is Medici’s son-in-law, challenged Spizziri’s opinion that they should recuse themselves, and they attempted to undo the recusal although Spizziri told them they could not do so. Spizziri advised the board, however, that the public hearing would have to be repeated on the record from its very beginning because Medici and Palmieri had participated in the public hearing before they recused themselves the record was therefore tainted. The planning board was set to begin rehearing testimony on the application on May 18 when Cook advised the board he was filing a lawsuit against it. The board also learned that two of its members, Medici and Palmieri, were being represented by counsel in their dispute with Spizziri over whether they have to recuse themselves from the public hearing to avoid a conflict of interests. They did not, however, file lawsuits against the board or anyone else. Cook’s lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice by Judge Toskos at the same time he denied Cook’s request to enjoin and restrain the commercial building contractor from proceeding with his application before the planning board. The public hearing is scheduled to continue at the July 6 meeting of the board.