The West Windsor Township Attorney has determined that Council President Charles Morgan did not violate the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) — as suggested by Councilwoman Linda Geevers, who walked out of a budget workshop meeting last month in protest for what she says was a lack of a quorum to a noticed meeting.##M:[more]##
The issue raised by Geevers, who is running for re-election to council on Tuesday, May 12, was that Morgan, who is running for mayor, called the workshop meeting to order at 5 p.m. on April 16 when only she and Morgan were at the dais, and did not immediately adjourn it until there was a quorum.
However, during the council’s April 20 meeting, Township Attorney Michael Herbert said that so long as no decisions were made during the workshop meeting, Morgan, who continued having discussions with township staff regarding the budget for about another 25 minutes until other council members arrived, was free to hold a discussion. Said Herbert: “Where there are less than three members, then a meeting is not taking place.”
However, he suggested that in the future, once a quorum is actually reached during the same meeting, the clerk should read the standard certification for the record, which states that the meeting was properly noticed for council action.
He also recommended that in the future, the meeting be adjourned until three council members are available, to ensure accordance with Robert’s Rules of Order — a widely published book of rules for presiding over a meeting — which do not fall under state law. However, the council has continually referred to the rules in deciding its own procedures for carrying out meetings.
