Jackson, NJ – The Jackson Township council is getting tough on illegal rentals and weak code enforcement operations by calling for the restructuring of the code enforcement department and enacting a new ordinance that will hold landlords and tenants liable for violating the town’s landlord ordinances.
Jackson Township’s council meeting Tuesday night turned to decades of weak code enforcement and mismanagement within the department.
Council President Jennifer Kuhn and Vice President Mordy Burnstein took aim at what they called a broken code enforcement system, citing years of inaction on illegal rentals and vowing to restore accountability through new oversight and department restructuring.
Residents and elected officials defended recent actions to tighten enforcement, including installing GPS trackers on code officers’ vehicles, responding to claims that some township employees were not performing their duties and allowing persistent housing violations to go unchecked.
The council also explained their recent ordinance which requires all LLCs renting homes in the town to register their rentals with a human agent, removing the veil of the LLC which previously prevented the township from levying fines against delinquent landlords. In the new ordinance, tenants can also be fined for violating the township’s ordinances.
The council leaders were united in their disappointment about how the code enforcement department was operating before the new ordinance, stating that some code enforcement officers were not doing their jobs properly, and in some cases, avoiding their responsibilities to the township.
“You can turn around and do a 360 and find 10 violations. They’re not being issued. That’s not happening,” said Kuhn, visibly frustrated. “We had to put GPS trackers on their vehicles because we don’t know where they (code enforcement officers) are. There’s 40 hours in a work week, and they come up with three violations. Yes, there were problems—and yes, I do stand behind exactly what I did.”
Kuhn said years of complaints about illegal rentals—often involving multiple families living in single-family homes or properties rented out for parties and pool use—were ignored by the township’s enforcement arm.
She said residents had effectively taken over the role of inspectors, reporting violations because township staff weren’t doing the job. Even after residents reported the issues, many of the complaints were not being dealt with, she said.
“Why were residents giving code enforcement jobs to do?” she asked. “Everything came from the council and residents. Nine violations came from code enforcement, the rest were ours. That’s not how this is supposed to work. They’re supposed to be out doing their jobs and looking for violations and addressing those violations.”
Kuhn confronted a TikTok influencer that she claims has distorted the truth and has been creating viral videos to build an online brand using lies and half-truths to generate clicks.
She pushed back against his outlandish accusations that council’s actions were politically motivated or targeted, stating that she was not “scared” of backlash, videos, or campaigning critics.
“I’m not scared of you, or your videos, or your t-shirts,” Kuhn told the influencer, who just recently moved to Jackson. “I’ve lived here my whole life. You think I don’t see the changes? I do. We’re trying to do the right thing.”
Council Vice President Burnstein explained why restructuring code enforcement is a key component required to ensure that proper enforcement of Jackson’s ordinances is important.
The council’s power lies in financial oversight and structural change. He noted that problems with code enforcement date back years and that many residents—some of whom he had previously disagreed with—were right to raise alarms.
“It’s our responsibility to hold code enforcement accountable to the residents who pay their salaries,” Burnstein said.
“Residents have been coming since the day I’ve been sitting on this dais,” Burnstein said. “Some of the residents who I strongly opposed over the years came and said, ‘Morty, what are you going to do differently?’ And I told them—I’m going to do my due diligence.”
Burnstein confirmed that the township has approximately 2,000 rental properties, many of which have triggered community complaints for years. He said it was unacceptable that neighbors had to send “hundreds and thousands” of emails documenting issues that township officials should have been addressing.
“Yes, I had a problem with code enforcement officers taking cars home during lunch,” he said. “When I asked where the cars were for two hours, I couldn’t get an answer. It wasn’t transparent. That’s when I knew things had to change. I asked why some cars were idling for two hours at a time and no violations were being produced.”
The township has since passed a fully funded ordinance creating a specific role tasked solely with rental inspections and code compliance—an unprecedented step meant to streamline enforcement and relieve pressure on residents.
“We created an entire ordinance for this,” Burnstein said. “To give people the job of literally sitting there checking on inspections. That wasn’t happening before.”
He acknowledged there are good officers in the department, but reiterated the need for structural change.
“Sometimes you have to look and ask, are we getting 100 cents on the dollar? In my opinion—we weren’t.”
Both Kuhn and Burnstein stressed that enforcement would continue within the boundaries of state and federal housing law. Burnstein confirmed that the township attorney has been asked to review policies to ensure full compliance. He said that he would also have the township’s legal team look into new federal guidelines issued by President Trump at the suggestion of one resident who spoke earlier in the meeting.
“No one wants to see pool rentals,” Burnstein said. “No one wants to see multi-room rentals. No one wants to see this kind of illegal, inappropriate behavior happening next to their homes.”
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Kuhn concluded her remarks by standing by her commitment to reform what’s not working in the township, saying she’s not intimidated by criticism from employees who won’t do their jobs or from their friends with cameras in the and TikTok accounts seeking to maintain the status quo.
“I’m not scared of you, I’m not scared of your videos, and I’m not scared of your T-shirts,” she told the TikTok influencer. “I know I’m doing good for the town I grew up in.”
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Key Points
- Jackson Council members blame code enforcement for years of missed violations and rental issues
- GPS tracking implemented on vehicles after concerns of inactivity among officers
- Council passed new ordinance to fund and assign full-time rental enforcement responsibilities
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