One week after “the new majority” on council was accused of making decisions behind closed doors, Charles Morgan, Will Anklowitz, and member-elect George Borek officially announced the formation of the Document Advisory committee. They say everything is above the boards, but their opponents are again crying foul.##M:[more]##
On Sunday, June 17, Morgan sent a press release announcing the committee’s members and its first meeting. The members are Chairperson Alison Miller, David Siegel, Virginia Manzari, Valerie Servis, and former mayor Bob Murray. The first meeting was June 18.
“The announcement through a press release is inconsistent and possibly unlawful with the order in which we function in this government,” said Council President Linda Geevers.”There hasn’t been any public input on such a committee as proposed. This self-anointed committee is another example of the unfortunate back room policies of the three newly elected members of council. This so-called Document advisory committee represents a phantom arm of our township government. Without the consent of council, there cannot be such a committee. The merits of any kind of a new committee must be formally discussed in public and voted upon.”
Geevers said the issue would be included on the agenda for the next council meeting, scheduled for Monday, June 25.
On the other side of the aisle, Morgan and Anklowitz say this is an attempt to make things run better and to be more open. “This is an advisory committee and they aren’t bound by the open public meetings act, but we are going to comply with it anyway,” said Morgan.
Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, who beat Alison Miller in the 2005 election, said: “Apparently the decisions were all made behind the doors. The committee is all Morgan’s supporters. They are all from same area of town.”
Morgan said he announced plans to create the committee during a campaign debate, and that he brought the matter before council at its most recent meeting on June 11. “They’re saying I’m rushing into this, if anything, I think I’ve been too slow to roll it out,” said Morgan. “We have a lot of work to do before the July 1 reorganization meeting. Do we do that behind closed doors or do we do it in public? Making this committee official is letting the public in on those discussions. This is not a private club. The committee is available to advise all the members of council.”
Morgan says he and Anklowitz have had difficulty getting their legislative issues put on council agendas in the time since Geevers has been president. Anklowitz says the creation of the committee was the subject of one such ordinance. “There was an ordinance written on the creation of the committee, and we discussed it in a meeting. No vote was taken on the ordinance. A public official doesn’t need the vote of a governing body to create this type of committee. This may be a break with tradition for how this has been done in the past. We were trying to do it with more openness. The mayor has an advisory committee, and I’ve never gotten any notice on its meetings.”
Morgan and Anklowitz said the mayor and other members of council are welcome to ask the committee to expand its membership to include their own nominees. When asked if he would do so, Hsueh said: “First we have to discuss what is the purpose of the whole thing.”
According to Morgan and Anklowitz, the purpose of the committee is to research issues and help write ordinances that may eventually be included on council agendas. “When a resolution or ordinance lands at council, the committee will help crystallize the matter and narrow it to what the real issues are.” said Anklowitz. “Any public official is better off when they get input from the citizens.”
The opposition fears that an entity created to research and present information to council would be biased if created and staffed by council members on one side of an issue. “That is what happens anyway,” said Morgan. “For any member of council, their ideas are formulated and spun the way that person wants them to be presented. Council members can make their own decisions. Of course the committee is going to develop ideas. You’re presenting as an evil something that is the reality. We’re making ours open to the public.”
The document committee’s first ordinance is a draft of an ordinance stating guiding principles for the redevelopment process. Hsueh first wrote his own guiding principles in early 2006, before the planner selection process began. His guiding principles included transparency, equity, sustainability, capacity-based planning, and fulfillment of the township’s constitutional obligation.
The principles stated in the document written by the committee include the following:
1. The redevelopment project will be tax positive consistent with the desires of the residents of West Windsor;
2. The redevelopment project will be scaled to be consistent with the desires of the residents of West Windsor, including the number of housing units;
3. The redevelopment project will remediate the traffic congestion within, around and through the redevelopment zone;
4. The redevelopment project will at least preserve, if not strengthen, the neighborhoods in and around the redevelopment zone;
5. The redevelopment project will provide more parking for West Windsor commuters and residents;
6. The redevelopment project will maximize preservation of open space and minimize impervious cover;
7. The size, scale and esthetic design of the redevelopment area will be consonant with the nature of West Windsor Township.
In response, Hsueh said: “I don’t think council should waste time on things like this. All of those issues are addressed by the Hillier plan.”
Morgan says the committee will be vetting issues such as an E-mail policy and an ordinance on the use of the public cable channel. The meeting will meet next on Thursday, June 28 at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.
