The mayor of Union City NJ held a press conference on Tuesday blasting Imam Faisal Rauf, not because he is involved in the plans to build a mosque near the Ground Zero site, but because the city alleges he is a terrible landlord. Mayor Brian Stack accused the Imam of ignoring dozens of violations reported at two apartment buildings he owns in the NJ city. The buildings have been cited for uncollected garbage, mold , fire safety violations and a lack of heat among other things.
The mayor held his press conference outside one of the buildings. On Wednesday city officials intend to go to court to attempt to have a custodial receiver appointed to take charge of the rundown properties.
Mayor Stack says that violations have been accumulated over a number of years but the failure of a fire alarm at one the apartment buildings prompted the city to act. A blaze gutted one of the buildings in 2008 displacing dozens of tenants.
Stack called the Imam “one of the worst landlords in Union City but made it clear that the suit had nothing to do with the Imam’s involvement in the controversial mosque project.
He did however question how the Imam could make public statements about wanting to help people when his own tenants were living in such shoddy conditions.
The mayor also had some advice for his counterparts in New York. “Any town where he (Imam Rauf) buys property be alert, because he is not a good landlord.”
