Did Mayor Jackson’s Actions Violate The Spirit Of Montclair’s Pay-To-Play Ordinance?, Part 2

This blog was irked to discover that ARC Properties’ Robert Ambrosi and Marc Perel’s properties were included in the Redevelopment Study and voted on by both the Planning Board and Township Council. Did this blog mention that both Perel and Ambrosi had their sons contribute to Mayor Jackson in 2012? Yeah, that definitely happened.

As was previously mentioned, on 3/14/12, Mayor Jackson received a $2,500 contribution from Michael R. Ambrosi (Michael Ambrosi is Vice President of Leasing and Marketing at ARC Properties, a local developer group. Ambrosi’s father, Robert, is the Chairman and CEO of ARC Properties):

This blog laid out Montclair’s ordinance in the previous post, but just to recap, the ordinance establishes “that a business entity which makes political contributions to municipal candidates and municipal and county political parties in excess of certain thresholds shall be limited in its ability to receive public contracts from the township of Montclair in the county of Essex.” The ordinance states that no business entity, which includes an individual, the individual’s spouse, and any child/children, can be awarded a contract if they had made a contribution to a candidate (Jackson) within a twelve-month period. 

Based on Montclair’s ordinance, even negotiating future development projects would be strictly prohibited. In other words, if Ambrosi had discussed/struck a deal/negotiated redevelopment plans with the mayor from March/April 2012 (when his son first contributed to Jackson’s campaign) to March/April 2013, he would likely be in violation of the ordinance.

Around the time Mayor Jackson received a contribution from Ambrosi’s son, Jackson became the “driving force” and was the “architect of the idea” behind a plan to move the police headquarters to a privately owned building. According to a Montclair Times article from 2012:

“Montclair's aging police headquarters and municipal offices may soon be relocated together into a new building, part of an ambitious project that could also include offices and restaurants on the parking lot across the street from the Lackawanna Plaza shopping center, a project that would increase the tax stream and decrease the township's debt, municipal officials said.

The idea is in its early stages and is being explored at this point, according to officials, who said it would include leasing the land on which the police station is located - at the corner of Valley Road and Bloomfield Avenue - and/or leasing the land on which the Municipal Building sits, at 205 Claremont Ave.

Mayor Robert Jackson, the architect of the idea, envisions the fiscal value of the police and municipal property not only paying for the new project, but also adding additional income of $2 million to $3 million a year to the town's coffers as either taxes or as a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) fee - income that could help control taxes and reduce Montclair's tremendous debt.”

An interesting tidbit, Robert Ambrosi owned the property Jackson was interested in. In fact, Jackson told the Montclair Times that he discussed the plan for the property with Ambrosi. Jackson was unsure if Ambrosi’s property would be bought or leased, but did hint at current and future negotiations:

“The owner of the property, Robert Ambrosi, founder of ARC Properties, Inc. of Clifton, did not return calls for comment.

Jackson, however, said that he's spoken to Ambrosi about the project and "he likes the idea very much. He was very favorable."

Jackson does not know whether the land would be bought or leased from Ambrosi.

"It can take a number of forms," he said. "When you negotiate, you say, 'Here's what we have, here's what you have, this is what we want, how can we make this happen?'"

So Mayor Jackson already discussed the property with Ambrosi in 2012 (the Montclair Times article was from 12/24/12), a few months after Ambrosi’s son (who works for the company) had contributed to the Mayor’s campaign. In 2013, the Montclair Times article reported that Ambrosi was unsure if he would sell or lease the land to whoever develops the project.

“I think it's a good idea," said Robert Ambrosi, a Montclair resident and founder of Clifton-based ARC Properties, Inc. "The locations where the Police Department and Municipal Building are now are underutilized.

"We are very open and receptive to it," said Ambrosi.

At this stage, Ambrosi doesn't know whether he will sell or lease the land to whoever develops the project. "There are so many details," he said, "it's impossible to say."

As a Montclair resident, Ambrosi sees the projects as "good for the taxpayer.”

All the big developers in town were probably already on the mayor’s Christmas card list before he got elected, but that doesn’t excuse under the table and behind the scenes dealing like this one. There’s a lot of details around this but one fact is clear: Our dear Mayor and sometime-developer Robert Jackson was discussing and negotiating plans for the property with Ambrosi in the months shortly after he received a big check from Ambrosi’s son, who works for the family company. And as best as this blog can tell, that would violate the Montclair ethics ordinance.