Commissioners hold 2009 budget meeting without proper public notice – keep public in the dark

I was asked by Tom Cassel to create a new post with the latest info.

Our Commissioners advertised for a special public meeting on February 3, 2009. The public notice stated:Closed Executive Session to discuss personnel issues and employment contract negotiations to commence at 6:00 PM.Regular Session to convene at 7:00 PM to address Appointments of Various Municipal Officials, Employees and Professional Service Providers. I arrived at this meeting at 7PM in time for the public portion of the meeting. I saw Jim Stevenson as I was leaving the 6:00 meeting and I asked him what was discussed and he told me that they had discussed several budget items.

It turns out that the 6:00 “Closed Executive Session” meeting was NOT a “Closed Executive Session” meeting, and was, in fact, held as an open public meeting where important matters of public concern about the budget were discussed without bothering to give the public proper notice about it. Denise Adams, our township Clerk and CFO, verified this to me today and wrongly stated that they were allowed to do this because it was a published open meeting. That’s not obvious in any way from the public notice.

The minutes from the meeting stated:
” Rich Klineburger, Greg Fusco, P.E., Chief Cavallo, James Stevenson, Tom Cella, Barbara Prince, Betty Band, Mary Twisler, Jennifer DellaValle, Ed Toussaint, Kate Burns, Pat Thieringer and Denise P. Adams were also present. [These are all the department heads]

Mayor Teague discussed the 2009 Municipal Budget process and indicated that it was anticipated that it would be a very difficult year in the current state of the economy and with the expected loss of State Aid. He stressed the need to keep spending in check in an effort to produce a budget with the least tax impact on the community. At the request of the Commissioners, the Department Heads reviewed their 2009 budget proposals. The Clerk discussed pending legislation relative to funding the Police and Fire Retirement System and Public Employee Retirement System and explained that the budget calendar had been extended by the State, awaiting the outcome of the legislation and the Governor’s State Aid figures.”

http://www.haddontwp.com/pdf/minutes/020309.pdf

So why was the public not notified about this meeting? Why is there no detail about the individual department heads’ reports and suggestions? This is flagrant violation of the Open Public Meeting Act (OPMA). Why don’t they want the public to know what is going on in the budget? Are they afraid we are going to blog about it and tell everyone what is going on?

Ironically, during the second portion of the meeting, the Mayor and I had an exchange specifically where I identified meetings that occurred between the Solicitor, Mayor Teague and Commissioner Dougherty. If more then one commissioner meets, those meeting are subject to the public meeting requirements of OPMA. These meetings were specifically identified on legal bills from our township attorney Mr. Klineburger which he also attended. The exchange went as follows:

Mr. Cassel: If more than one commissioner meets with the attorney, isn’t that a public, doesn’t that come under the Sunshine Laws and rules within the State of New Jersey?

Mr. Teague: I don’t think so because…

Mr. Cassel: Because you have a quorum of the commissioners of our town?

Mr. Teague: We were not discussing something that we were going to be voting on at a meeting so no it wouldn’t.

Mr. Klineburger: [unintelligible]

Mr. Teague: Rich [Klineburger], We got it.

Mr. Cassel: If it relates to litigation it should be done in a formal closed door meeting. Now the question is, were minutes kept of these meetings?

Mr. Teague: No.

Mr. Cassel: So we had a meeting of more than one commissioner where no minutes were kept?

Mr. Teague: That’s correct.

This is totally ironic. At the meeting where the mayor stated on the public record that they had met without proper notice, they flagrantly had another meeting which was in violation of the same laws. Then after I bring up OPMA issues, there is the appearance that they tried to cover up this meeting by making the minutes public and pretending like they had properly published this.

But the facts are the facts. Do these commissioners who are lawyers think that they are above the law in order to keep the public in the dark? Shouldn’t we have open budget discussions in light of all the budget issues every public entity has? This speaks to the heart of the Open Public Meetings Act.

I encourage everyone in this town to show up and speak up. As Justice Brandies stated, “Sunshine is the best disinfectant”. —

If anyone would like additional information, please feel free to contact me at tomcassel@gmail.com