TEANECK, N.J. — Avi Berliner is running on a simple message: “One Team, One Teaneck.”
But at the League of Women Voters candidates forum, the mayor-backed candidate found himself supporting one of the people his political allies, Mayor Mark Schwartz and Councilwoman Karen Orgen, have been at war with: Councilwoman Hillary Goldberg.
Berliner is running with Sharon L. Kolb and Amrit Ramjattan as ONE TEAM ONE TEANECK, a slate backed by Mayor Mark Schwartz and Councilwoman Karen Orgen. The slate has made unity a central theme of its campaign.
Berliner said opponents are trying to create “two Teanecks.”
“We reject that completely,” he said.
The message got tested at the forum when TEANECK FIRST candidates attacked Goldberg over her role in the township’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Goldberg had introduced a resolution condemning Hamas and supporting Israel. The resolution passed unanimously, 7-0.
At this year’s forum, Berliner came to Goldberg’s defense.
That puts Berliner in an interesting political position. Schwartz and Orgen are backing his slate, while Goldberg has been a frequent political opponent of the Schwartz administration.
Berliner is now asking voters to believe those political lines do not have to divide Teaneck.
The longtime Teaneck resident has served on the Open Space Trust Fund, the PPRID and the Fields Advisory Board. He has coached youth baseball and soccer and has been involved with the Teaneck Junior Soccer League and Baseball Diamond Club.
Professionally, Berliner works in financial services, where he said he deals with complicated problems and looks for practical solutions.
He brought that same approach to the township budget.
Berliner said only about a third of the overall municipal and school budget is actually under direct municipal control and pointed to contractual obligations, insurance and infrastructure costs as major pressures. He said the town needs to protect basic services while looking for ways to delay or reduce nonessential spending.
He also pitched a partnership with Stevens Institute of Technology to explore business incubators and other long-term economic opportunities.
On development, Berliner argued that Teaneck has to balance its obligations under state affordable-housing rules with the need to maintain control over how the town grows.
That includes the controversial Crossroads development at the former Stop & Shop site, where Berliner said the township has to deal with the realities of state housing mandates and the threat of a builder’s-remedy lawsuit while still pushing for smart growth.
He also pointed to the township’s aging Department of Public Works operation, describing the current facility as effectively condemned and praising the search for a new site in Leonia.
Berliner said the existing DPW property could eventually become an asset for Teaneck rather than simply remaining an old municipal facility.
On transparency, he defended the use of advisory boards as a way for residents to have direct access to township officials and department heads.
He also repeatedly returned to his message of bringing people together.
That could become especially important if Berliner wins a seat on a council where his political allies and Goldberg remain on opposite sides of major issues.
For now, however, Berliner is betting that “One Team, One Teaneck” can rise above those fights.
And his defense of Goldberg at the forum offered a glimpse of what that might look like: a candidate backed by Schwartz and Orgen publicly standing up for a councilwoman who has frequently been on the other side of the political fight.
Whether that message of unity can survive the increasingly sharp political battle around Teaneck’s council seats is now part of the race.
