Next Line of Attack for Rent Protection Advocates: SINGING? [Video]

The verbal sparring match between tenants rights advocates and township council members continued Monday night -- even before the official meeting began, with a staged protest in front of Town Hall.

Wearing signs like “Tenants Forced to Choose Between Food and Rent,” residents expressed their displeasure with the lack of rent control in town, saying the council has not protected poor and elderly tenants from victimization by greedy landlords.

Some signs pointedly referred to the recent reversal of the town council to pass an ordinance that would have given tenants a measure of protection by means of a 5% rent cap.  The ordinance, introduced in November and passed by a 7-0 vote, was later tabled and reintroduced without the 5% cap. 

Council reaction was divided and it did not pass in its revised form.

Tenants rights advocates were outraged.  Calling it political maneuvering for votes during the municipal elections, the Bloomfield Tenants’ Association decried the action and has continued to fight for the re-introduction of original ordinance at every council meeting since.

That continued last night, first with the protest outside Town Hall – staged rather incongruously next to the holiday caroling and tree lighting ceremony – and later into the township council itself.

“I’m a homeowner for rent control.  I know the suffering the tenants can go through at the hands of greedy landlords,” stated Bloomfield resident Jane Califf at the meeting. 

Califf’s husband Ted Glick, who also addressed the council at the  meeting, called the revision of the original ordinance “unconscionable” -- a neat play on words to describe a measure once named “The Unconscionable Rent Ordinance” because it referred to unscrupulous landlords.  Now the epithet was being attributed to the author of the bill itself, the township council.

The most dramatic moment of the public session was undoubtedly when Johns Street resident Beresford Jones stood up and began to sing.  Changing the lyrics of beloved Christmas carols to political commentary on the renters’ plight in Bloomfield, Beresford regaled the somewhat stunned council to two different songs before quietly resuming his seat.  

The audience, mostly comprised of tenants rights advocates, applauded loudly and high-fived him as he left the podium.