Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 26

A28 Asbury Park PressSun. April 25, 1982 John Renna: He got where he is the hard way since he ran for the office of commissioner of West Orange in 1960 and 1954 and lost "I was trying to win as a young upstart out of the service," he said. "I had the idea, that I still have, that I could do something constructive," Renna said. Before accepting the $60,000 appoint government pays the remainder will probably be eliminated under the proposed Reagan administration budget, Renna said. "New Jersey was one of the leaders in the entire country for that type of housing," he said.

"Now if we don't have those funds it is going to be difficult to build any more housing that is for the people who have that real low income." Federal funding in the proposed budget for senior citizen housing projects has been greatly reduced, Renna said. Some funding will be earmarked for rehabilitation of dwellings. Instead of providing funds for the con struction of new housing projects, the federal goverment would provide rent vouchers which low income tenants would use to pay the rent, Renna said. "Very few areas are going to produce new housing," Renna said. "Aside from subsidized fields where do you go?" UNDER THE proposed 1983 state budget Community Affairs will be receiving $5.3 million less than was budgeted in 1982.

Renna said the hardest problem he faces is dealing with local municipalities to insure that their budgets do not exceed the 5 percent budget caps. The department won't be able to help with money, Renna said, but it will help out with staff to provide the needed expertise. Community Affairs in the past has been viewed too much as a regulatory agency, Renna said. "I don't think the agents of this department in the past have come out with anything aggressive, like what I have intended to do," Renna said. "I want to change the attitude to that of doing instead of sitting back," he said.

Renna 's philosophy has not changed ment Renna was president of a real estate development, communications and consult ing business. His term as Essex County Republican chairman expires in June. He is married to the former Grace Bal-danza and his daughter, Dru, is a student at American University in Washington, D.C. GATEWAY US THE SHORE'S WE'RE THE SHORE'S 1 LA-Z-B0Y DEALER! WITH OVER 200 LA-Z-B0YS IN STOCK AND THEY'RE ALL ON SALE NOW TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR SUPER PRICES ON THE 1 RECLINING CHAIRS JOHN RENNA By EILEEN CONRAD Pro Suf Writer TRENTON John Renna has gotten where he is today the hard way. One of eight children, the son of a West Orange baker, he worked full-time as a bookkeeper while attending Rutgers University at night, and eventually earned a degree in accounting.

His 1937 high school yearbook cited his ambition to become finance director of his hometown. Renna never achieved that goal, but went on to become a successful real estate developer and consultant, executive director of the state Housing Finance Agency and now commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs. By virtue of the appointment, the 61-year-old West Orange resident, a longtime political friend of Gov. Thomas H. Kean, is chairman of the HFA, the Mortgage Finance Agency, the Hackensack Meadow-lands Development Commission and the Office of the Ombudsman for the Institutionalized Elderly.

The department is the main pipeline of federal and state grants funds to county and local municipalities. The state Commission of Investigation last year criticized the HFA as having been rife with "influence peddling" throughout the 1970s. Renna served as executive director from 1970 to 1974. In a report issued in March of 1981 after investigation of the agency, the SCI said the influence peddling became rampant during the administration of William L. Johnston, a Democratic appointee who succeeded Renna, but extended back to Renna 's regime.

Renna has denied the allegations that influence peddling existed during his tenure. WHEN ASKED if the stigma of an investigation will hamper his effectiveness in dealing with local and state government officials, Renna said angrily, "In no way does it affect my performance. The only place I ever hear about it is from the No missive for Russia The Associated Press MADISON, Wis. The Wisconsin Senate is not going to fire its nuclear missive at the Soviet Union. But the White House and Congress are still targeted.

The state Senate approved, 32-0, a resolution against nuclear weapons and it called for sending copies to President Reagan, Congress, Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev and the Politburo. But the wording of the resolution was changed to keep the copies in the country to save postage. "It would be a waste of money," said Sen. David Opitz, the Republican who offered the amendment. should have been mentioned in those (appointment) articles," he said.

Renna said the press "overplayed" the situation. In the early 1950s he became a general contractor and builder of single-family homes, garden and high-rise apartments. One of his earliest projects was built in Long Branch in the 1960s. While executive director of the HFA he helped obtain funds for senior citizens housing in Monmouth County. "The most severe problem facing New Jersey is its housing crisis," Renna said.

The production of new housing at affordable prices would create jobs and help the economy, he said. "Somewhere along the line," Renna said, "there should be a marriage between the private and public sectors through the use of public pension funds which would hopefully produce lower mortgage interest rates." HE WILL BE meeting with Kean in the next few weeks to discuss proposed solutions to revive the sagging housing market. He declined to disclose his other plans. The commissioner is looking at the possibility of creating a housing advocate where a builder or developer could get all the information they need in one government office. Low income federally subsidized housing programs in which the tenant pays 25 percent of their income and the federal SPRING LAKE RESIDENTS Water mains will be flushed during the period from April 25th to May 8th, 1982.

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