Fmr Mayor Jim Dunleavy: Dear Teaneck Council…

Countup
On January 29, 2023, I wrote to the Teaneck Council regarding the survey related to re-zoning for Cannabis licensing.

To date I have received back a single response:

Thank you for your email.
Hillary Goldberg <hgoldberg@teanecknj.gov>

I would have hoped for a  more informative, transparent response indicating the sub-committee would review my email and respond as I know a number of people expressed similar concerns.

I hope that is forthcoming.  If so, I will update the post here.

Fmr Mayor, Jim Dunleavy

Email to  Council:

Thank you for following through on holding the Cannabis Forum that the last Council scheduled. I’m sure many got good information from it.
I appreciate the effort to solicit comments from the residents. I have though a few concerns and a few comments.
1. I was able to go in and register my comments 3 different times, twice under my private email, once under my work email. This alone puts into question making inferences from such data. I assume there was no ability to block persons from other towns nor the blocking of cannabis industry representatives from inputting responses.
2. It forced me to fill in the request for additional comments, whether I wanted to or not, otherwise it would not register my responses.
3. Even if you used this data,, what is the universe you will use to compare the # of respondents to to make the data usable… “representative” of the town?
4. Did you consider collecting street names or some other way to at least see if the responses cover the town geographically?
5. Did you consider surveying the business owners of the various districts mentioned in the survey? Some are not residents but their voices here are important.
6. Was the Teaneck Chamber, Cedar Lane Mgt. or Teaneck Rd Business Alliance consulted?
7. Underlying the survey is each person’s fears, real or imagined, about cannabis shops being close to them. This survey does not address this.
8. Have you gotten reports from other towns with cannabis shops that don’t put themselves thru all this for what their experience has been?
9. As the town is already on record, voting emphatically for cannabis, with the council already being told by members of the cannabis business community that an expansion of available zones for cannabis is good for business, that myself and the current mayor and others supported in open session the expansion of the zones available and having at least one cedar lane business owner come before council in the past supporting cannabis shops there, ample good information is already known.
The data from this “survey” as constructed,  has little value and should not be considered in your deliberations. I think this survey has not contributed to transparency, but actually the opposite as people are now focused on “it” and not the correct topic, or worse, assume that its results are a valid representation of a majority of residents that will be heavily weighted in your discussions.
I hope we move forward soon.
Jim Dunleavy

 

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