The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • L3

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2006 THE RECORD L-3 North Jersey Rent ceiling likely to be reinstated Backers say Teaneck must assure affordability By the numbers The Teaneck Town Council will meet Tuesday to determine whether to reinstate restrictions on the amount a landlord can raise the rent on a vacant apartment. Restrictions were lifted last September. Number of municipalities in New Jersey with some form of rent control: 125 Bergen County: 25 Passaic County: 6 Hudson County: 8 Morris County: 2 Municipalities per county that restrict the amount landlords can raise the rent on a vacant apartment: Bergen: 11 Passaic: 1 Hudson: 8 Morris: 1 Source: New Jersey Tenants Organization. Information updated as of March 8. By BRIAN ABERBACK STAFF WRITER TEANECK One year ago landlords won a major concession when the Township Council eliminated restrictions on the rent they could charge for a vacant apartment.

The victory apparently will be shortlived. The council will likely vote Tuesday to reinstate a ceiling on how much landlords can increase the rent on empty apartments. Proponents of what is known as limited vacancy decontrol said the township has an obligation to ensure affordable rents. Deputy Mayor Lizette Parker said keeping rents reasonable would allow seniors who sell their homes to stay in town, and for young people who grew up in Teaneck to return as adults. "We have a responsibility to look out for people," Parker said.

Before last year, landlords could raise rents on vacant apartments by a maxi- mum of 10 percent, and only once every two years. The council has not settled on a new amount. According to township officials, the average rent increase on vacant apartments over the past year was just under 9 percent. Tenant advocates have said unlimited vacancy decontrol would encourage landlords to harass and evict longtime tenants, price lower-middle-class people out of Teaneck, and eventually lead to the end of all rent control. "Most people who rent cannot afford a private residence," said resident Howard Rose.

"They are the most in need for the protection you can give them." The landlords who lobbied for vacancy decontrol last year said they only wanted to charge market value for vacant apartments and were not out to harass anyone. They argued that rising fuel, insurance and maintenance costs, coupled with artificially low rent increases on vacant apartments, had led to flat or decreased profits. "The best place to get that money back is when someone moves out and you can get market value for the apartment," said Michael Tsontakis, who owns apartments on Amsterdam Avenue. Parker and council members Jacqueline Kates, Monica Honis and Michael Kevie Feit support restrictions on vacant apartment rent increases. Councilmen Adam Gussen and Elnaton Rudolph favor full vacancy decontrol.

Mayor Elie Y. Katz is a landlord and has recused himself from the issue. Only Kates and Honis were on the council during last year's debate. Landlords have also said that they have not been able to properly maintain their properties. They said easing rent restrictions would ultimately increase property values and ease the tax burden on single-family homeowners.

Parker criticized the argument as divisive, pitting homeowners against tenants. Gussen noted that no tenant had filed a harassment complaint against a landlord in the past year. He said that showed that tenants' apprehensions were not realistic. "We're penalizing people who have invested in this town, and it's not fair," Gussen said of the landlords. Tenant activists countered that no landlords have filed hardship applications requesting rent increases in many years.

"I don't know of any landlord who has declared bankruptcy," said Rose Becken-bach. The council will also likely vote Tuesday on the maximum yearly increase landlords may charge tenants. The current limits are 3.5 percent when the tenant pays for heat, 4.5 percent otherwise. E-mail: aberbacknorthjersey.com Trading leisure for a chance to serve Man pleads guilty to hitting teen with his car if More teens using their down time for volunteer work By SONI SANGHA STAFF WRITER Dena Senter didn't spend her summer at the family getaway in the Catskills, and she didn't go away to camp. Instead, the 17-year-old from Teaneck spent more than eight hours a day tending to the wounded in a Jerusalem emergency room.

And she didn't make a penny doing it. Senter wasn't the only one who chose to alternate lounging by the pool with volunteer work. According to a study by the Corporation for National and Community Service, the grant program behind Ameri-Corps, teenagers are volunteering at a higher rate than adults. The 2004 survey found that 15.5 million teenagers performed volunteer services that equated to more than 1.3 billion hours of service. This kind of service is important for smaller non-profit organizations that rely on their help.

"They can be doing a lot of things instead of coming here," Mary Arnold, executive director of the Teaneck Conservancy, said of her teen volunteers. "But instead they come here faithfully and get a lot of important work done, so we're very happy about it." Anna Handelman thought that volunteering at the conservancy would get her a head start on the community service requirement at Teaneck High School, but she wound up getting hooked. Handelman, 15, spent four hours a week of her summer helping the short-staffed center with such necessary chores as filing, and preparing memos for staff and volunteers. Other times, she would go outside and brave mosquitoes to clear away the trails, sometimes on her hands and knees weeding, other times picking up trash. "That wasn't something I ever thought I would be doing until I got here," she said.

Even Arnold was surprised. "Kids who are doing this for a requirement they don't tend to want to do this project," she said. "Especially outdoor work. It's a jungle out there. You have to By JOHN PETRICK STAFF WRITER A Paterson resident pleaded guilty Wednesday to running over a man last Christmas Eve who he believed assaulted his younger brother earlier in the night.

Raul Otero, 23, pleaded guilty of aggravated assault before state Superior Court Judge Ernest M. Caposela in Paterson and faces a term of five years in state prison. His younger brother, 21 -year-old Rafael Otero, pleaded guilty Wednesday of conspiracy to commit aggravated assault after he directed his brother to strike the victim with his vehicle. Rafael Otero faces a three-year term in exchange for his guilty plea. The two brothers, both of Paterson, will be sentenced by Caposela on Jan.

12. The Oteros were attending a party when the older brother left briefly with some friends in his car. When he returned, he came upon a street melee near the party in the vicinity of Haledon Avenue and North First Street. Raul Otero saw his injured brother and took him into his car, driving off. The younger Otero then saw a man he said had assaulted him and told his brother to hit him with the car.

The older Otero did, striking Keith Keley of Paterson, then 19. Prosecutors said the victim was admitted to St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson at 5:49 a.m. Dec. 24, where he was treated for head trauma and remained hospitalized through Dec.

30. After that, he underwent several weeks of physical therapy. Authorities were never able to ascertain whether the victim in fact had any involvement in the street fight. DON SMITHSTAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Anna Handelman, 15, spent four hours a week during summer va- to get a head start on the community service requirement at Tea-cation as a volunteer at the Teaneck Conservancy. She signed up neck High School but was soon hooked on the task.

she has sold enough to make $3,000 -about half of which went to a village through Heifer. The other half went to victims of the tsunami that devastated South Asia, and survivors of Katrina. Hou, who is also president of a community service club at Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest, started the non-profit with her older sister, Lauren. They were inspired by a July 2004 visit to Quian Huo Ling, a mountainous village in China. "The houses are little shacks," Hou observed.

"It's crazy when you compare it to life here. Eds here complain about not having a cellphone." E-mail: sanghanorthjersey.com get your back and your heart into it." According to the study, 38 percent of teenagers 10.6 million reported doing service to fulfill a school requirement. School requirements didn't spur Senter, who heads a volunteer club at her school. She said volunteerism runs in her blood. She and her father are volunteers on Tea-neck's Ambulance Corps, which gave her the training she needed to help at the hospital in Israel while the country warred with neighboring Lebanon's Hezbollah faction.

Senter said the institution, which is in the center of the city, was short-staffed. Many doctors and nurses were called back into military service or traveled north to offer health aid. She wound up helping to stitch up wounds and perform EKGs while other medical staffers rushed to the north to offer health aid as Israel fought Hezbollah in Lebanon. "It gave me an experience I can't get here," the aspiring doctor said. Demarest's Jennifer Hou may have remained local, but her efforts are going international.

She burned the midnight oil, beading bracelets and earrings as thank-you gifts for donors who contributed to a fund she sends to Heifer International, a nonprofit organization that buys livestock for the impoverished. Her days were filled performing in a musical in Leonia and attending science camp at Columbia University. She sells earrings for $10 and bracelets for $12. Since she began her efforts in 2004, Heights selection of judge invalid Outage, not film, stalls school start Court faults procedure but not nepotism I "Grade" used gener-' i ators and finished up vv cuiicauay. "Grade" is inspired by the childhood of actress Elisabeth Shue, who grew up in South SHUE ENGLEWOOD The high school will open Monday instead of today following a three-day power outage.

Last Saturday's storm cut power to the Dwight Morrow campus, including the middle school. Although power was restored Monday night, food for the high school cafeterias was spoiled and had to be discarded. Also, final installation of new lockers in the north building and general cleaning of both high school buildings were delayed. Janis E. Dismus Middle School and all other schools will open today as scheduled.

The decision had nothing to do with recent filming of a movie on the campus, said district spokesman Mike Polizzi. The producers of By MERRY FIRSCHEIN STAFF WRITER HASBROUCK HEIGHTS A state Superior Court judge has ruled that the January appointment of the borough's municipal judge is invalid because the appointment was made by the wrong government official. Chris Semenecz, a former Democratic councilman and frequent nominee for reelection to the council, filed a lawsuit in February challenging the appointment of Joseph Jones as the borough's municipal judge. Jones was appointed by a vote of 4-2, along party lines. Judge Menelaos W.

Toskos ruled that Jones can remain the municipal judge until Oct. 1 to allow Mayor Ron Jones -Joseph Jones' father enough time to make a new nomination. The ruling does not preclude the mayor from nominating his son. Semenecz alleged that Jones' appoint- ment violated state statute because the motion should have been made by the mayor, but in this case was made by a council member. He also alleged nepotism.

Though Toskos ruled the appointment procedurally incorrect, he wrote in his decision that the charge of nepotism does not apply because there are no nepotism rules for local government. Semenecz said he was happy with the ruling, and had nothing against Joseph Jones. "The mayor and council never gave a real reason for former municipal judge Janice Gatto being replaced," said Semenecz, who represented himself in court. "You can't have government that every time someone new gets elected they are changing the whole landscape. Otherwise it won't function." Borough Attorney Ralph Chandless said it was clear the only problem with Jones' appointment was through procedure and not because he is the mayor's son.

"Unfortunately for the mayor, even though he wanted to stay isolated from the issue, he cannot do so," Chandless said about Ron Jones' reluctance to nominate his son. "That's particularly difficult because Judge Jones had been considered three years prior, and the difficulty now is the intervening circumstance that his father has become mayor." Joseph Jones succeeded Gatto, who served three years in the post. She took over from Harry Chandless, the borough's Municipal Court judge for 36 years. E-mail: firscheinnorthjersey.com urange. nue was the first girl to play soccer on a South Orange boys team, in sixth grade, according to the movie's Web site, Shue will portray Grade's mother.

Her brother, Andrew Shue, will play the coach, and Der-mot Mulroney will play the father. The production donated about $7,000 in cash to the district, along with some equipment, said school board President Stephen Brown. Carolyn Feibel.