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A judge determined during a two-year foreclosure process that Kelemen owed $488,508 in unpaid mortgage and property taxes, David Wildstein reported on his New Jersey Globe site.
Kelemen, a Republican was became mayor in 2015 with 62% of the vote, is being challenged for the mayoralty in next month’s election.
According to Wildstein, Kelemen -- a local deli owner who works in real estate -- moved into the home of his late father, Alex F. Kelemen, a former Bogota mayor who died in June.
Later that month, Kelemen had his real estate license placed on inactive status by the state Department of Banking and Insurance, Wildstein reported.
Kelemen and his supporters say caring for his then-ailing father forced him to close the deli and miss continuing education classes that would have kept his real estate license from lapsing.
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NOTE: New Jersey Globe Editor David Wildstein held local office, ran local, state and national political campaigns and in 2001 founded PolitickerNJ, the first site dedicated to New Jersey politics. He sold it to Observer Media Group and became the company’s executive vice-president, helping launch political news sites in 17 states. Wildstein became better known as the mastermind of the “Bridgegate” conspiracy while holding a key post with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He was sentenced to three years of federal probation in 2017 pleading guilty to his role and helping convict three co-defendants.
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