Morris freeholder: Bar churches from preservation money

Morris County churches -- many of them centuries old and doubling as social service sites -- would be barred for constitutional reasons from receiving historic preservation grants under a proposal being pushed by county Freeholder William “Hank” Lyon.

Lyon has prepared a resolution -- and presented it to the all-Republican freeholder board at Wednesday’s work session -- that would prohibit churches and houses of worship from receiving county-issued historic preservation grants. Last year in Morris County, nine churches were among 30 applicants that received a total of nearly $2.4 million in grant dollars from the county freeholders for historic construction and renovation projects.

Lyon said the impetus for his proposal is a section in the New Jersey Constitution that states... “Nor shall any person be obliged to pay tithes, taxes or other rates for building or repairing any church or churches, place or places of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry, contrary to what he believes to be right or has deliberately and voluntarily engaged to perform.”

Lyon said the idea has been brewing for a year and the potential constitutional violation was first brought to his attention by Whippany resident William Eames, an unsuccessful GOP candidate in 2011 for state Senate representing the 27th District, and his wife, Barbara Eames, a past unsuccessful Morris County freeholder candidate.

“We were reading the state Constitution and the clause screams at you,” William Eames told the Daily Record Wednesday night. “It’s not vague in any fashion. The reason is to avoid entanglement between the government and the church. I’m not anti-church but the Constitution is the social contract we live by.”

Morris County Counsel Daniel O’Mullan last year gave the freeholders a legal opinion that concluded the county’s historic preservation program is authorized by statute and approved by public referendum and has established neutral criteria for the grants. The program restricts grants to exterior preservation work and mechanical systems at active houses of worship.

The grants cannot be used for interior work, salaries, literature or promotion of a house of worship’s ideology.

“The underlying legislation establishing the state and county programs has not been attacked for violation of the New Jersey State Constitution,” O’Mullan found. “Given its long history as a ‘neutralist’ program, I believe that it would survive such an attack.”

Lyon asked the freeholders to vote Wednesday on his motion to discuss the resolution at the Jan. 28 public meeting. Freeholder Douglas Cabana was furious at the notion of the resolution and accused Lyon of trying to “derail” the historic preservation program. Freeholder Director Kathy DeFillippo called the issue “too important” to rush through and wanted more board discussion to occur before Jan. 28. A majority of the board, however, voted to discuss the resolution at the Jan. 28 session.

Mentioning a church in Pequannock that previously applied for a grant, Cabana said: “It’s an architectual gem of the county that needs preserving. What would we do, preserve the outhouse next to it but not the church?”

DeFillippo also noted that the grants are a critical supplementary source of funding for churches that may be hard-pressed to maintain old structures and replace historic portions such as windows.

“There’s a lot more money (involved) than going to Home Depot,” DeFillippo said. She said she tended to agree with the advice of the county counsel but Lyon wants fellow freeholders to decide for themselves if they believe the preservation trust fund as currently run violates the constitution.

Deputy Director John Cesaro said that for now, he supports Lyon’s resolution.

“I do believe there is a (constitutional) entanglement,” Cesaro said.

Church leaders who have turned to the historic preservation program in the past for aid in repairing or restoring steeples, bell towers, Tiffany stained glass windows, ventilation systems, or roof drainage problems said Thursday that barring them from receiving grants would ignore the historic and social service benefits provided by the houses of worship.

Some freeholders noted that many churches run food or clothing drives, and welcome non-congregants in for substance abuse recovery meetings. Church of the Redeemer in Morristown -- which last year received a grant of $253,680 for exterior repairs -- has for decades been the site of the Community Soup Kitchen. Many churches in Morristown opened their doors on New Year’s Eve for First Night festivities and hosted musical concerts for the public as Christmas approached.

Rev. Dr. David Smazik, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Morristown, called the abundance of houses of worship in town “the core of the history of Morristown.” His church last year received a grant of $297,512 to help it fix the sanctuary roof and correct drainage problems on another building roof.

“Many social services come from these churches,” Smazik said. “If the churches did not provide the services they do there would be a huge financial burden on the county and municipalities. The churches are the history of the area. It’s a living history. “

Rev. Kathleen Edwards-Chase, lead pastor of the First Reformed Church of Pompton Plains in Pequannock, said the church transcends religion and is part of the day-to-day life of the community. Edwards-Chase, whose church received a grant of $135,000 that covers just a portion of window restoration work, said she believes there is no violation of the separation between church and state through bestowal of the grants.

The proposed resolution, she said, “does not speak to the multitudes of people we serve who do not belong to the church.” She said the church is the site of a community Food Bank. More than 300 people, including non-congregants, use the First Reformed Church campus for 12-step recovery programs, and the church partners with Chilton Memorial Hospital and provides space to a support group for families of people with Alzheimer’s, Edwards-Chase said.

“The freeholders have been very generous to us over the years and we appreciate that. If they head in this direction, it would be very unfortunate and a misinterpretation of the separation of church and state,” Edwards-Chase said.

The freeholders in 2003 created the Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund Review Board to review and recommend preservation projects for funding. The ultimate decision on which applicants receive grants is up to the freeholders. A workshop for applicants for 2015 grants had been scheduled for Jan. 27 but has been put on hold until the proposed resolution is decided on Jan. 28.

Staff Writer Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@njpressmedia.com

The following resolution, proposed by Morris County Freeholder William “Hank” Lyon, will be debated at the freeholder public meeting on Jan. 28 at 7:30 p.m.

Whereas, in 2003 the Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders created the Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund Review Board to review and recommend historic preservation projects, and

Whereas, since 2003 approximately $22,630,070 has been expended by the county of Morris to preserve numerous historical treasures throughout Morris County, and

Whereas, to date, the program’s rules and regulations have allowed churches and places of worship to receive limited funding for historic preservation projects, and

Whereas, the New Jersey State Constitution states that “nor shall any person be obliged to pay tithes, taxes or other rates for building or repairing any church or churches, place or places of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry, contrary to what he believes to be right or has deliberately and voluntarily engaged to perform,” and

Whereas, while the Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders recognize the important historical significance of some of the county’s churches, the board is concerned that the funding of certain religious institutions violates the New Jersey Constitution, and

Whereas, the county of Somerset does not allow religious institutions to apply for funding from their Historic Preservation Trust Fund.

Now therefore be it resolved that the board of chosen freeholders of the county of Morris: Instructs the county administration to amend the Historic Preservation Trust Fund rules and regulations to prohibit the funding of preservation projects for any religious building that houses an active congregation.