JACKSON – While reorganization meetings are times to express the hopes of progress and team building in the new year, they can also generate unrest when council committee assignments and citizen board appointments are announced.
That was the case during the recently held township reorganization meeting which, like last year, led to questions about which council member is chosen to chair and serve on given committees.
Last year incoming council members Jennifer Kuhn and Scott Sargent weren’t pleased with many of their council assignments. Some audience members felt Sargent, a former Board of Education member and Board President, should have been made chair of the education committee.
This year, Kuhn, Sargent and new Councilman Mordechai Burnstein are now in the majority over councilmen Steven Chisholm and Nino Borrelli. Kuhn and Sargent serve as council president and council vice president respectfully.
All are Republicans, but there has been a rift in the party.
Chisholm questioned why he wasn’t put on the Rova Farm Advisory Committee, a panel he helped create and chaired last year. A motion to make him a second vice chair was later approved following his questioning the change.
Other changes that didn’t sit well were Clara Glory’s removal from the Municipal Utilities Authority, a position she held for years. She was in the audience during the meeting and told The Jackson Times that this was an act of political retribution.
Burnstein, who described Glory as his mentor, said she told him she would be moving out of Jackson in the next few years and that he wanted to see someone who would be able to serve in the role beyond that time period. Her seat was filled with former planning board member Richard Egan.
Resident Elenor Hannum was removed from the Rova Farm committee, a decision that she resented. Hannum has a long history with the Rova Farm property and was kicked off the panel because of criticisms she had made, including threats of lawsuits toward the town, according to Kuhn.
During the reorganization meeting, Councilman Borelli questioned why he wasn’t consulted about council appointments and asked who developed the list of committee assignments. Borelli and Councilman Steven Chisholm said they were left out of the process this year.
Borelli and Chisholm were only assigned to two of the 18 committees, the Going Green and Mobile Home Park committees. Burnstein, Kuhn and Sargent chair the rest of the committees with. Kuhn leads six of them, including the Open Space Preservation subcommittee.
The committee assignments were developed by Kuhn and Burnstein. The various appointments were included in a consent agenda of 78 resolutions, which are voted on as a group and not individually.
Council members are able to single out the resolutions they oppose or abstain on. There was no discussion about the appointments or reappointments including the township attorney, the attorney handling religious discrimination lawsuits and any of the other eight specialty attorneys or township professionals, who will receive approximately $1.2 million in legal fees.
Last year, Kuhn repeatedly brought up concerns about transparency within the council. She defined transparency during one meeting stating it “involves disclosure, details about politics, decisions and actions.”
She also complained about late additions to meeting agendas. Several regular meeting attendees including those critical toward her, agreed that transparency was an issue within the township during meetings.
Resident Randy Bergmann offered her several recommendations on how she could make good on her pledge for additional transparency in 2024. He and Kuhn met up recently to discuss several of his improvement ideas.
“She not only went over each of my suggestions, one by one, but patiently responded to a number of my other concerns, including potential conflicts of interest involving her real estate businesses in Jackson. I left our 90-minute meeting feeling much better about things than I had prior to the meeting,” Bergmann stated.
Something that came out of the meeting was the idea to start publishing phone numbers and individual emails of council members on the township website. That was quickly accomplished.
Bergmann and other residents have been critical of the governing body, stating their questions have either been unanswered or the questioner was told they would get them an answer later at some unspecified time.
That may change as Bergmann said Kuhn told him she would request that the township attorney, council representatives and business administrator either provide an answer at the meeting where it was requested or provide a response publicly at the next council meeting.
Another criticism voiced by residents has been that ordinances are frequently voted on without the public been told what they are about or what impact they may have on the township. Further explanation of the ordinances is needed to be made by council members according to residents.
While it has been noted by council that resolutions at the bottom of the published agenda are available to the public, the governing body may be exploring how more information can be included on the agenda items.
Council members sometimes speak during their council comment reports, about topics of their choosing and some residents would like to see them stick to subjects related to council business and the concerns of township residents.
Councilman Steve Chisholm often uses his council period time to criticize lawmakers in Trenton on what he feels is bad legislation and more often, to criticize Governor Phil Murphy who he refers to as “King Phillip.” He’s defended his comments on that level of government saying that what happens in the state capital all too often “trickles down to things that we have to deal with in Jackson.”
Kuhn said she would encourage council members to use their comment periods to report on any progress on their committees and anything related to how they were working to address residents’ concern according to Bermann. All township committees will be listed on the township website, along with meeting times.
The township moved its meetings from 7:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the end of December. Attendance at township council meetings varies depending on what is on the agenda but on average only a handful of people show up. Others watch the meetings on YouTube, either in real time or archived. Bergmann and other residents want to encourage public participation by allowing comments to be posted online during the meetings.
The Council may examine a method that would allow residents to forward their questions to the council prior to the meeting and those questions would be read and answered during that meeting. It was noted that receiving the questions in advance would give the council and township administration adequate time to research the questions and provide timely answers.
It has also been suggested that the governing body create a local ethics board as Jackson currently doesn’t have one although township code provides for one and sets forth its duties.
Such a board would have a membership of seven with three appointed by the mayor, three public citizens and a member of the clergy per township code. The council president will be making a request to form this board to her fellow council members and Township Attorney Gregory McGuckin.
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